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Fattah Jr. pens 305-page court motion

The son of Congressman Chaka Fattah filed a Tolstoy-length motion to quash the feds' bank-fraud and tax-evasion indictment.

FILE: Chaka Fattah Jr. speaks with reporters outside the federal courthouse at 6th and Arch streets after being indicted on fraud and tax charges Tuesday, August 5, 2014.
FILE: Chaka Fattah Jr. speaks with reporters outside the federal courthouse at 6th and Arch streets after being indicted on fraud and tax charges Tuesday, August 5, 2014.Read more

CHAKA FATTAH Jr. is his own man. And, apparently, his own lawyer.

The 32-year-old son of the Philadelphia congressman is scheduled to appear before a federal judge tomorrow to argue why he should be allowed to represent himself at his upcoming bank-fraud and tax-evasion trial.

But Fattah is going through with the whole self-taught-lawyer thing regardless.

Yesterday, he filed a Tolstoy-length assault on the government's case against him in the form of a 305-page court motion to quash the criminal indictment due to what he alleges was false grand-jury testimony and "repeated and intentional government misconduct."

"There's a lot there, I know," Fattah said.

The motion, which takes a kitchen-sink approach to dismantling the 23-count indictment that was unsealed in August, delves deep into the minutiae of Fattah's early business ventures, including a photo company called FattahGraphy.

Fattah claims his former roommate lied to the grand jury by stating that FattahGraphy didn't generate substantial revenue and by claiming that another firm, Chaka Fattah Jr. & Associates, actually had "no associates."

The mind-numbing motion includes 187 pages of exhibits, including grand-jury transcripts and bank receipts, as well as Dropbox links to the roommate's testimony in bankruptcy court and links to news stories about the FBI raid of Fattah's Ritz-Carlton apartment in 2012.

"Some people lied," Fattah said. "Maybe they're misstatements, but I'm calling them lies."

Fattah, whose firm earned $450,000 in 2010-11 through a school district subcontract for minority-owned businesses, claims that an FBI agent misled him by posing as a school district employee, and that government leaks fueled negative media coverage that cost him "hundreds of thousands of dollars of income, income which would have been available to fund [Fattah's] defense."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Gray declined to comment on Fattah's motion yesterday.

Fattah is also suing the IRS for $10 million, claiming that the tax investigation "ruined my life." His father, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, is also under investigation. Congressman Fattah's former chief of staff and a political consultant pleaded guilty to corruption charges this year and are cooperating in that probe.