Posted on 04/22/2005 9:47:18 PM PDT by kcvl
Kennedy Relative Tied to Fund-Raising Case By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ
Published: April 23, 2005
WASHINGTON, April 22 - A brother-in-law of Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts has been working as a confidential informant in a criminal case against Hillary Rodham Clinton's former fund-raising director, according to people involved in the case.
The brother-in-law, Raymond Reggie of Louisiana, has apparently been acting as an undercover informant in the case and secretly recorded a conversation he had with Mrs. Clinton's former fund-raising director during a steak dinner.
In that conversation, the two discussed a 2000 fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton that is at the center of the federal government's criminal investigation, those with knowledge of the case say.
The precise nature of the conversation is not clear. But those familiar with the case said that federal authorities intend to use Mr. Reggie as a witness in their case against David Rosen, the finance director of Mrs. Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign, who is accused of illegally underreporting the cost of the fund-raiser held for Mrs. Clinton.
His role as a possible witness in the case was first reported Friday in The New York Sun and The New York Post.
Mr. Reggie, who comes from a politically prominent Louisiana family, pleaded guilty to fraud charges on Thursday as part of a plea bargain in an unrelated case in New Orleans. He had been accused of taking part in a scheme to cheat banks out of money.
Mr. Reggie has been involved in Democratic politics for years, including work he has done for the campaigns of Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Mrs. Clinton, among others. He has a friendship with Mr. Clinton that dates to at least 1996, according to one person familiar with the two men, and has been an overnight guest of the Clintons at the White House.
Mr. Reggie's sister, Victoria, is married to Senator Kennedy. And his father, Edmund, was an influential municipal judge in Crowley, La., who was a friend of former President John F. Kennedy, as well as a close adviser to former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, who served four terms in office before being sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for extortion in 2001.
News that Senator Kennedy's brother-in-law has been secretly working with federal authorities in the investigation of Mrs. Clinton's former fund-raising director provides a strange new twist in a case that already stands out for its unlikely cast of characters.
At the center of the fund-raising inquiry is Peter Paul, a well-connected figure with a criminal past who says he helped organize the fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign to win former President Clinton's support for a business venture.
The fund-raiser, a Hollywood gala held in August 2000, drew some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry and raised more than $1 million for Mrs. Clinton's Senate campaign in New York. But in the months after the event, Mr. Paul - whose record includes pleading guilty to possessing cocaine and attempting to defraud Fidel Castro's government out of millions of dollars in 1979 - turned bitterly on the Clintons.
He accused the Clinton campaign of falsely reporting that the August 2000 gala cost far less than the nearly $2 million he claims to have spent to organize the event. In January of this year, federal authorities produced an indictment charging that Mr. Rosen had underreported the cost of the affair.
The indictment was largely based on the claims of Mr. Paul, who has been cooperating with prosecutors, according to people involved in the case. The indictment accuses Mr. Rosen of falsely reporting that the August 2000 gala cost $401,419.
Prosecutors are apparently working under the theory that underreporting the cost of the affair would have freed up additional dollars to spend on the campaign itself, under a complicated series of campaign-finance formulas governing such expenditures.
But people involved in Mrs. Clinton's 2000 campaign say that underreporting would not have produced any financial benefit.
Federal prosecutors have turned over to Mr. Rosen's lawyers a transcript of the taped conversation between Mr. Reggie and Mr. Rosen, because Mr. Reggie apparently will be called as a prosecution witness at Mr. Rosen's coming trial, according to people involved in the case.
In the tapes, Mr. Reggie apparently manages to steer the conversation with Mr. Rosen in the direction of a discussion about the production costs of the 2000 fund-raising event, according to one person involved in the case.
Mr. Rosen, in turn, apparently told Mr. Reggie of his frustration at having had to deal with Mr. Paul and described Mr. Paul as an unreliable character, according to people involved in the case.
Paul Sandler, Mr. Rosen's lawyer, declined to comment for this article. Neither Mr. Reggie's lawyer nor a spokesman of the Justice Department responded to phone messages seeking comment.
Mr. Reggie has apparently been cooperating with federal authorities since 2002, when he taped the conversation he had with Mr. Rosen, according to one person involved in the case.
There's one thing I don't understand about this article. The author says this case has an "unlikely cast of characters". Thieves, extortionists and Democrat politicians? Sounds like the usual susupects to me.
If so, I did'nt realize they had any room left in the obituary section to hide this thing.
Where was this story in the NY Times? It does not seem to be on the online edition.
Rush had this on his Friday show, but it was from the NY Post....
Of course, this is Bush's fault.
They buried the story in the New York Region section as well as in the link for "All Headines" in the Washington section on their homepage where it was the next to last story. That's one click on the NEW YORK/REGION link.
I went back to the NEW YORK/REGION link. Now I can't find it there. It's just buried in the Washington section. Check its URL.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/23/nyregion/23hillary.html?pagewanted=all
From time to time, I’ll ping on noteworthy articles about politics, foreign and military affairs. FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.
Heard this too, better call in the Park Police. Those bayous are tough to search.
BUMPping
Ping. I hope someone is tracking these.
I see this coming to fruition around the Spring/Summer of '08, for all the obvious reasons.
Indeed, we'll be needing Hillary information...
Thanks for the link, neverdem.
Thanks for the post; ping. Good infiltration into America's domestic enemies. Raymond Reggie deserves kudos!
AHHHH! I feel that old frustration from the nineties returning! I'd read about the Clinton's financial machinations in the American Spectator and get so frustrated that the MSM ignored most of it. Hillary will be untouched by this as well.
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