Posted on 10/06/2004 5:52:45 AM PDT by jimbo123
Washington - The Republican-run Justice Department is setting its sights on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign in pursuit of possible fund-raising violations. In targeting a rising star in the Democratic Party, prosecutors are trying to gain the cooperation of an indicted businessman who raised the allegations, interviews and documents indicate.
The FBI has told a U.S. magistrate in Los Angeles it has evidence the former first lady's campaign deliberately understated its fund-raising costs so it would have more money to spend on elections, and prosecutors allege one person raising funds for her helped because he wanted a pardon from her husband.
Noel Hillman, the Justice Department's top public corruption attorney and a career official, has met three times - most recently in May - with lawyers for Peter Paul to discuss a plea deal. Justice wants to interview Paul to see whether he can substantiate his allegations that Clinton's campaign engaged in wrongdoing, the defense lawyers said.
Paul is a three-time convicted felon who hosted a Hollywood fund-raising event for Mrs. Clinton in 2000 and is currently facing stock fraud charges in New York. He alleges he underwrote most of the costs for the event. Prosecutors contend he did so in an effort to win a pardon from President Clinton.
Lawyers for Mrs. Clinton and the former chief fund-raiser for New York Senate 2000, David Rosen, say their clients have done nothing wrong. "New York Senate 2000 properly reported all donations in 2000," said David Kendall, Clinton's attorney.
Sen. Clinton is considered a possible presidential candidate in 2008 if Sen. John Kerry loses this year. But she first faces a re- election battle in 2006 - possibly against former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani or New York Gov. George Pataki.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press show an FBI agent told the Los Angeles magistrate two years ago that the government believes Mrs. Clinton's campaign understated its costs for the Paul fund-raiser.
"The event's costs exceeded $1 million, but the required forms filed by New York Senate 2000 . . . months after the event incorrectly disclosed that the cost of the event was only $523,000," said the 2002 FBI affidavit, which was unsealed in the summer. "It appears that the true cost of the event was deliberately understated in order to increase the amount of funds available to New York Senate 2000 for federal campaign activities."
The document also said a $366,000 donation to the gala was listed as coming from the company Paul co-founded, Stan Lee Media, when it really came from Paul personally. Hillman, chief of the Public Integrity unit, has met with Paul's lawyers three times - last Oct. 30, Feb. 11 and May 25 - to discuss a possible arrangement but no deal has been reached, said Paul attorney Robert Sticht of Los Angeles.
Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said he had no comment on the investigation.
Thanks for posting this. No one dislikes the rotten stench given off by the Hildabeaste more than I do. A truly despicable person.If the "Republican-run Justice Department" can grow some cojones, even small ones, they may be able to end her sorry, corrupt political career.
And if their cojones are medium sized, they just might be able to arrange for her to spend some time with Martha Stewart :)
All I can say is that I'm shocked . . .SHOCKED to hear that PIAPS is a crooked politician.
Good old AP balance: Not about what the Justice Department is doing, but "The Republican-run Justice Department."
If charges can't be brought to bare in an appropriate timeline, then don't bring them at all. For Christ's sake, Justice let this guy rot in a jail in Brazil forever just because nobody felt it important enough to go to the trouble to go get him.
I'm all for bringing the Clintons to justice, but even I know what's what. File this one next to exhuming Ron Brown and finding his unaltered X-Rays.....
According to the articles I've read about this, there are no Republican nominees working on this case, only folks who have been 'lifetime/career' Justice Department wonks to remove ANY sort of possiblity of it looking like a political witch-hunt.
But of course as all of us know, when has the TRUTH ever stopped them from spinning it into a 'right wing conspiracy'?
Her campaign will be indicted right after Sandy Burger and the people who covered up TWA 800.
This case will be handled as soon as they find someone dumber and easier to compromise than James Kallstrom to be assigned to the case. Big ego, small brain, ethicaly challanged, greedy little civil servant pissants are in short supply these days. They are all working the Kerry campaign gig.
This case is going nowhere ... how do I know? Judicial Watch is pursuing it as well ... which means it disappears off the radar screen within a week or two.
Larry must be taking dication again from Lanny Davis or someone else. Old habits die hard.
08/24/04 – A HOLLYWOOD fundraiser who organised events featuring such celebrities as former US president Bill Clinton was today jailed for more than five years for fraud. Aaron Tonken, 38, was sentenced to 63 months behind bars after admitting fraudulently diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars destined for charity galas and using the cash to pay off his own credit card bills. <…snip…>During his time as a top fundraiser, Tonken helped arrange events for Mr Clinton and his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in August 2000. Tonken struck a secret plea deal with prosecutors that resulted in today's sentencing by US District Judge Dale Fischer in Los Angeles.Now…keep in mind the secret plea deal and read these stories:
04/19/04 - The Federal Election Commission has opened a formal probe into a star-studded Aug. 12, 2000 Hollywood fundraiser for then-first lady Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign, Fox News Channel reported on Sunday. And some say the development is at least partly responsible for Sen. Clinton's claim that she's not interested in joining John Kerry's presidential ticket.The allegations themselves are not new: Two of the event's organizers, Hollywood producer Peter Paul and charity fundraiser Aaron Tonken, have detailed a series of transactions undertaken in conjunction with Hillary's campaign that could violate FEC regulations, with Paul charging that the campaign failed to report nearly $2 million he spent producing the event.
But months before Paul was returned to the U.S. to stand trial in the stock case, Hollywood fundraiser Aaron Tonken began cooperating with federal probers. Tonken has said that he's a star witness against the Clintons in a federal grand jury probe in New York into Mr. Clinton's Marc Rich pardon - and has been cooperating with the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles who's probing his fundraising activities.
FEC Heat Hurts Hillary's VP Chances
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton surely hopes that history isn't repeating itself with the raid conducted by the FBI last month on another warehouse; this one chock full of documents from her 2000 Senatorial campaign."The documents were seized in a May 30 raid of a California storage facility containing documents of Peter Paul, the entrepreneur who funded Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign with over $2 million dollars in direct, in-kind contributions which were never reported by Hillary Clinton or her Senate campaign, as required by law," revealed the public interest law firm Judicial Watch in a press release late last week.
FBI Raids Hillary's Warehouse in Whitewater Deja Vu
The Bush administration has quietly done an about-face on allegations that New York Sen. Hillary Clinton broke campaign finance laws in 2000 - with the Justice Department preparing to extradite one-time Clinton fund-raiser Peter Paul to the U.S. as part of a plea deal for his testimony. The sudden action on Paul's case comes just weeks after reports surfaced that former Hollywood fund-raiser Aaron Tonken has supplied damaging testimony about Hillary Clinton's fund-raising practices.
"I'm a star witness against President and Mrs. Clinton," Tonken claimed in a recent report on his case in Vanity Fair magazine, explaining that prosecutors wanted his testimony about" "fundraising activities that I've done on behalf of the Clintons." The exact nature of Tonken's allegations against Sen. Clinton remains secret, the magazine said. But the celebrity moneyman is known to have been involved in the August 2000 fund raiser that is at the heart of Peter Paul's allegations.
Peter F. Paul, the flamboyant Hollywood entrepreneur who says Hillary Rodham Clinton has hidden almost $2 million of in-kind contributions he made to her campaign in 2000, is back from Brazil and promising to raise a ruckus about the New York senator as he fights bizarre securities and bank-fraud charges on which he's been indicted. Aaron Tonken, a political operative in Hollywood and a former protégé of Paul under indictment for a variety of alleged sharp deals with the rich and famous, also is promising to tell everything he knows about behind-the-scenes shenanigans of Clinton and many others.
Clintons' Fall Guy May Turn the Tables (Peter Paul)
Mr. Paul has substantial, documentary evidence detailing his close relationship with the Clintons and his funding of the Hollywood tribute, including cancelled checks, hand-written thank you notes from the Clintons, and photographs. Also named in the complaint is Clinton fundraiser David Rosen, Clinton friend James Levin, and Hollywood celebrity fundraiser Aaron Tonken, who currently is under criminal investigation for his role in other Hollywood fundraisers. As a result of Mr. Paul’s disclosures, federal authorities have launched an investigation into the Clintons and other matters. Mr. Paul, who is facing alleged (and related) stock and bank fraud charges, remains eager to cooperate with federal authorities.
They have her files from the warehouse and two witnesses who have already been prosecuted that are singing like canaries...this is not a circumstantial case she can easily slip out of.
Anything that can take money out of her bank account (Lawyers fees,penalties for any host of crimes committed) is O.K. with me. The darkest day in one's life is when one sets out to acquire money w/ out earning it and she has spent he ENTIRE LIFE doing just that.
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