Top Democrat money man pleads guilty to campaign finance violations

“This is probably why Harry Reid’s been going after the Kochs so much,” muses Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds as he delivers news of top Democrat money man Jeffrey Thompson’s guilty plea for campaign finance violations. It sure does sound like a gigantic case of projection, which has always been a major component of Democrat psychology – they love to cast their own sins at their enemies.

If you don’t spend any time in the left-wing fever swamps, you might be surprised at how large the demonic Koch Brothers loom in their mythology, and probably thought it was a bit odd for Senate Majority Leader Reid to rail against these private citizens from the Senate floor. Were you taken aback to learn that the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body would be used for purposes higher than partisan primal scream therapy, in which the controlling party shrieks insults at law-abiding Americans who have the nerve to participate in our national political discussion? One reason for Reid’s conduct is that hurling his slander from the Senate floor immunizes him against legal retaliation. Another might be that he knew the Thompson story was brewing, and wanted to ratchet up the Koch hatred to cushion its impact.

A major Democratic donor pleaded guilty on Monday to funneling millions of dollars in illegal campaign donations to federal and local politicians, including an unnamed 2008 presidential candidate believed to be Hillary Clinton.

District of Columbia businessman Jeffrey Thompson, who federal prosecutors say financed a “shadow campaign” for D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray in 2010, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws.

Thompson claimed some of the candidates, including Gray, were aware of the illegal fundraising.

According to prosecutors, Gray decided to invent a phony name for Thompson, “Uncle Earl,” to protect his identity. It evidently didn’t work.

D.C. prosecutors accuse attorney general of withholding Jeffery Thompson evidence

Jeffrey Thompson

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal prosecutors say the District of Columbia attorney general's office is withholding documents relevant to their ongoing investigation of corruption in city politics.

U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen said in a statement Wednesday that "the district's withholding of relevant documents is currently preventing federal investigators from fully understanding actions taken by district officials." Machen goes on to urge Attorney General Irvin Nathan to "reconsider his position."

Nathan tells The Washington Post that the documents involve a $7.5 million settlement with Jeffrey Thompson, a city businessman who formerly held the city's Medicaid contract. He says the records federal prosecutors are seeking are protected by attorney-client privilege and are not incriminating.

Press Here

Jeffrey Thompson Gave More Than $600,000 to Hillary Clinton Campaign

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray knew that his campaign took money donated illegally by a businessman with large city contracts, federal prosecutors said Monday. But his 2010 run wasn’t the only campaign to which Jeffrey Thompson admitted to funneling money.

Thompson allegedly used two of his companies to funnel more than $600,000 to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential primary run.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Jeffrey-Thompson-Gave-600K-to-Presidential-Campaign-Said-to-Be-Hillary-Clintons-249465751.html

Prosecutors say the money was used to hire a marketing services company owned by Thompson associate Troy White, as well as for street teams and canvassers in four states — Texas, Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina — as well as in Puerto Rico.

The illicit donations were made between February and May 2008, when Clinton was battling Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.

Federal prosecutors say Thompson used two of his companies to send $608,750 through a company owned by Jeanne Clark Harris to the presidential campaign.

Court documents do not identify any candidate by name. But after White’s plea, Lyn Utrecht, a lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign, confirmed in a statement that Clinton’s campaign was the unnamed campaign in White’s statement of offense, Washington City Paper reported.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Jeffrey-Thompson-Gave-600K-to-Presidential-Campaign-Said-to-Be-Hillary-Clintons-249465751.html

Jeffrey Earl Thompson was born in 1955 into a working-class home in Jamaica’s St. Elizabeth Parish, the youngest of 11 children. He came to Washington in 1975, earning a high-school equivalency degree and putting himself through the University of the District of Columbia by working as a bookkeeper.

Not long after graduating from college and interning at top accounting firms, in 1983 he founded his own company, which would become Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio & Associates. Over the next two decades, he would build it into a national powerhouse among minority-owned firms, in no small part because of its ability to win local and federal government contracts.

He became a frequent donor to political campaigns in the District, the Washington region and beyond, and cultivated close relationships with national figures, including civil rights icon Dorothy I. Height and former labor secretary Alexis Herman.

Thompson played a key role in the rise of Anthony A. Williams. Not long after Williams became D.C. mayor in 1999, Thompson moved to take advantage of changes in the city’s health-care system, buying out of bankruptcy a small insurance company, D.C. Chartered Health Plan. Over the next decade, Chartered became the city’s dominant Medicaid contractor. By 2012, it managed the health care of more than 100,000 low-income city residents and collected more than $300 million in government funds.

Thompson’s fortunes took a sudden turn on March 2, 2012, when federal agents raided his home and downtown offices, revealing that an investigation rooted in allegations of illicit cash payoffs by Vincent C. Gray’s mayoral campaign had expanded significantly.

The scope of the investigation became clear the following July, when a longtime associate of Thompson’s, public relations consultant Jeanne Clarke Harris, pleaded guilty to felony charges of funneling funds from businesses owned by a co-conspirator. Those funds went to family members and friends who then made donations to political candidates.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/who-is-jeffrey-thompson/2014/03/10/66abce0c-99a8-11e3-80ac-63a8ba7f7942_story.html

Hillary Clinton campaign got illicit funds from D.C. scandal figure

Terry McAuliffe, now Va. governor, was Clinton campaign chairman at time

Despite Hillary Rodham Clinton’s promise that she had scrubbed illegal cash contributions from her 2008 presidential campaign, prosecutors revealed Monday that the mastermind of Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s “shadow campaign” also funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to aid Mrs. Clinton’s bid for the White House.

news reports last fall indicated that a top Clinton adviser, Minyon Moore, facilitated a meeting between Mr. White and Thompson. Ms. Utrecht did not return a request for comment Monday, nor did Mrs. Clinton’s top spokesman, Philippe Reines

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman at the time was Terry McAuliffe, now governor of Virginia. Mr. McAuliffe’s gubernatorial campaign said last year that it would not return a $2,500 donation that Thompson made in 2009.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/10/hillary-clinton-campaign-received-funds-jeffrey-th/#ixzz2vloiM6uZ

Why Jeffrey Thompson’s guilty plea (and Minyon Moore) matter to Hillary Clinton

Update 3:07 p.m.: Breaking news — As our own Matea Gold and Rosalind S. Helderman report, court documents show Thompson “depicted Moore as playing a far more intimate role in the off-the-books campaign than was previously known — securing the money and helping guide the strategy by feeding internal campaign documents and receiving messages about the media coverage.”

If true, this would certainly bring the scandal closer to Clinton’s orbit, though prosecutors say there is no evidence that the candidate herself was aware of any of this.

The original post follows:

The Washington businessman who pleaded guilty Monday to crafting an illegal shadow campaign to help D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray get elected in 2010 isn’t just a major headache for Gray’s reelection campaign this month.

He’s also had ties to a past campaign of a much bigger potential candidate for office: Hillary Clinton.

Prosecutors say in documents released in connection with Thompson’s plea deal that Gray wasn’t the only politician to benefit from Thompson’s secret political campaigns. So, too, did Clinton, in her 2008 presidential primary campaign.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/03/11/why-jeffrey-thompsons-guilty-plea-matters-for-hillary-clinton/

LONGTIME CLINTON AIDE MINYON MOORE HAS BEEN NAMED AS A “CENTRAL PLAYER” IN A 2008 SHADOW CAMPAIGN ON CLINTON’S BEHALF

Feds: Hillary Clinton aide involved in 2008 campaign finance scheme

WASHINGTON| A campaign adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton was involved in an off-the-books operation to help the former first lady’s 2008 presidential campaign in four states and Puerto Rico, according to federal court documents.

http://www.milkeninstitute.org/presentations/photos/gc05_govt_relations.jpg

Minyan Moore - photo above

Washington businessman Jeffrey Thompson told prosecutors that Clinton adviser Minyon Moore sought his help in funding “street teams” to bolster Clinton’s get-out-the-vote effort during primary contests in Texas, Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina and Puerto Rico, according to court papers. Thompson funneled more than $600,000 to a New York marketing executive to fund the street teams and canvassers, the documents show, an expenditure that was never reported to the Federal Election Commission.

Moore served as a senior adviser to Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and is a member of the Democratic National Committee, where she once worked as chief executive officer. During President Bill Clinton’s administration Moore served as political affairs director and public liaison for the White House.

Moore’s purported role in the case emerged in September when Troy White, a New York marketing executive, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for failing to report the income received by his company, Whytehouse Marketing Inc., in the scheme.

Court documents released in White’s case said the marketing executive approached a top Clinton campaign staffer about using his “street teams” to help the campaign. The staffer was Guy Cecil, Clinton’s national political director in 2008, according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because of Cecil’s limited involvement in the case.

Moore pressed Cecil to hire White in an email but Cecil declined, according to the documents and people familiar with the investigation.

In February 2008, Moore asked Thompson to fund street teams that would help Clinton’s presidential campaign, according to court documents, and Moore put Thompson in contact with White “to discuss how the use of street teams could support” the campaign. The records do not identify Moore by name but she is the “individual A” listed in statement of offense signed by Thompson, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/feds-hillary-clinton-aide-involved-in-2008-campaign-finance-scheme/

Moore Provided White With Campaign Materials, Such As Bumper Stickers And Yard Signs, As Well As “Confidential Internal Information” About The Campaign’s Itinerary. “According to prosecutors, White maintained contact with Moore, who arranged for Clinton’s Texas campaign office to provide White’s ‘street team workers’ with campaign-prepared materials — such as bumper stickers and yard signs. Moore also gave White ‘confidential internal information’ about the campaign’s itinerary, according to the court filing.” (Ann E. Marimow and Philip Rucker, “D.C. Executive Linked To Secret 2008 Aid To Hillary Clinton,” The Washington Post, 9/11/13)

“On April 28, 2008, Court Papers Show That She Forwarded A Campaign E-Mail About Plans For North Carolina To Thompson And White With The Subject Line, ‘This Is What They Will Need In NC – Please Advise.’” (Matea Gold and Rosalin Helderman, “Hillary Clinton Adviser Minyon Moore Sought Funds For Illegal Campaign, Court Papers Allege,” The Washington Post, 3/11/14)

“The Documents Quote White Replying To Moore And Thompson, Saying: ‘These Are The Cities We Can Cover In NC: Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Fayetteville, Wilmington, Winston-Salem. Let Me Know What You Think ASAP.’” (Matea Gold and Rosalin Helderman, “Hillary Clinton Adviser Minyon Moore Sought Funds For Illegal Campaign, Court Papers Allege,” The Washington Post, 3/11/14)

When Asked In Court If There Was “Some Cooperation” Between Him And The Clinton Campaign, White Responded “Yes.” “U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly asked White during the hearing whether there was ‘some cooperation’ between the official campaign and his operation. White responded, ‘Yes.’” (Ann E. Marimow and Philip Rucker, “D.C. Executive Linked To Secret 2008 Aid To Hillary Clinton,” The Washington Post, 9/11/13)

Minyon Moore (born May 16, 1958) in Chicago, Illinois is a founder of Women Building for the Future, and heads Dewey Square Group's state and local practice. She was formerly Chief Executive Officer and before that Chief Operating Officer of the Democratic National Committee, and before that, assistant to the President of the United States, Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, and Director of White House Political Affairs under President Bill Clinton.

Before that, Moore worked as an advisor to the presidential campaigns of Rev. Jesse Jackson in 1984 and 1988. She also served as Governor Michael Dukakis' National Deputy Field Director.

Moore was a senior political consultant to the 2008 Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign, and was considered a member of her inner circle, "Hillaryland".

Moore is a native of Chicago and has been a guest lecturer at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. Together with Donna Brazile, Leah Daughtry, Tina Flournoy and Yolanda Caraway, Moore is a member of the informal group the "Colored Girls" that Matt Bai described as " core group included several African-American women who had reached the highest echelons of Democratic politics."

Minyan Moore

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