HUD E-Mails Refer to Retaliation

High-Level Officials Wrote of Punishing Philadelphia Housing Director

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 12, 2008; A03

After Philadelphia's housing director refused a demand by President Bush's housing secretary to transfer a piece of city property to a business friend, two top political appointees at the department exchanged e-mails discussing the pain they could cause the Philadelphia director.

"Would you like me to make his life less happy? If so, how?" Orlando J. Cabrera, then-assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, wrote about Philadelphia housing director Carl R. Greene.