Cianci served four and a half years in federal prison after being convicted of running City Hall as a criminal enterprise. He has since downplayed his conviction, and referred to his time at Fort Dix as “living in a gated community.”
The men whose office prosecuted him and multiple members of his administration say they are not amused. Former U.S. attorneys Robert Corrente, former Gov. Lincoln Almond and U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse held a news conference Tuesday with H. Philip West, former director of the good-government group Common Cause, to emphasize to voters — three weeks before the Nov. 4 election — what a third Cianci administration could mean to the city of Providence.
“There is every reason to believe if he returns to City Hall, he will do the same thing again,” said Corrente, who took over the U.S. Attorney’s office in 2003 after Cianci’s conviction on corruption.
In response, Cianci said Tuesday afternoon that the three former top prosecutors were part of “a club, the elitists of this city who don’t want me to be mayor.” None of them live in the city or pay taxes here, he said.
“The city has lost its way, and I’m the only one who can put the city back on track,” Cianci declared. “I did it before, and I’ll do it again.”
That’s what the former U.S. attorneys say they’re afraid of.
