LightSquared owner: Grassley twisted facts in bribe charge

LightSquared's owner fired back at Sen. Chuck Grassley’s suggestion that an associate of the broadband company tried — if ever so clumsily — to bribe the senator.

Time and again, a LightSquared attorney wrote, Sen Grassley (R-Iowa) twisted or misstated the facts to leave an impression of impropriety where none exists. Sen Grassley has been a leading Capitol Hill critic of LightSquared and its billionaire investor Philip Falcone’s plans to build a new nationwide wireless network. “We are deeply concerned about various unsupported allegations,” wrote Mark Paoletta of Dickstein Shapiro, who represents both LightSquared and Harbinger Capital, the hedge fund operated by Falcone that is the majority owner of LightSquared.