 Media Credit: Peter Halmagyi
Paul (shown with his wife, Andrea, and the Clintons) has alleged that the Clintons used corrupt fund-raising techniques.
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Posted on 02/26/2003 9:24:52 AM PST by Stand Watch Listen
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Larry Klayman is one conservative who probably should employ a food taster. He bills his organization, Judicial Watch, as the only real law-enforcement agency in the United States. His fellow conservatives cheered as Klayman filed lawsuit after lawsuit challenging the actions of the Clinton administration. The cheers turned to jeers when Klayman went after Vice President Dick Cheney and the Bush administration over their policies of secrecy. He also angered conservatives by going after the fund-raising practices of some in the House GOP leadership. Klayman says he is not running a partisan organization, and that when he sees wrongdoing on the right he fights it as vigorously as he fights wrongdoing on the left.
The liberals also hate him with a passion because some of his lawsuits have found favor with federal judges. Cases against the Clinton administration are ongoing.
Klayman now is pushing for action against Bill and Hillary Clinton over a fund-raiser that a Hollywood figure named Peter Paul put on for Hillary in her run for the U.S. Senate [see "Paul Takes the Fall?," Oct. 1-14]. I have considerable interest in this case because I know Paul. I met him through the children of Clifford Heinz, a former director of the Free Congress Foundation. Paul subsequently was in touch with me on a number of occasions. He seemed to indicate he wanted to help conservatives, but later he got close to the Clintons.
Hillary Clinton needed lots of money to run for the Senate in New York. She and the president turned to Paul to help with a major fund-raiser. He ended up putting more than $2 million into a "Hollywood Tribute to Bill Clinton'' on Aug. 12, 2000. The problem is that Hillary never reported this contribution to the Federal Election Commission.
That is a federal crime.
According to Klayman, this payment of $2 million was part of a $17 million offer to Bill Clinton to work with Paul's companies after Clinton left office. Paul has disclosed this, revealing that Hillary Clinton lied to the media when she said she had taken no contributions from Paul and would not do so. That would be significant because the only commandment left within the liberal media is, "Thou shalt not lie to the liberal media.''
Klayman also contends that then-Democratic National Committee chairman Ed Rendell (now governor of Pennsylvania) offered Paul, who is a convicted felon three times over, a presidential pardon in return for further contributions.
Klayman says Paul has proof that the Clintons "knowingly and illegally'' permitted a foreign national to attend that Hollywood tribute in exchange for a $27,000 contribution. Contributions from foreign nationals to political campaigns are illegal. Klayman says that foreign national also later attended an important state dinner. In fact, Paul insists that Clinton campaign-finance director David Rosen virtually demanded that Paul make another campaign contribution to a pro-abortion group in Illinois for $55,000. That money made it into Hillary's campaign war chest as well. The charges against Paul, according to Klayman, "inherently implicate Hillary and Bill.''
Paul also has been indicted in a stock-fraud case. There is evidence that the Clintons, instead of granting the expected pardon, got the Justice Department on his case, lest he talk about them. That almost worked, until Paul started talking about the campaign issues.
The problem is that, thus far, Attorney General John Ashcroft has not agreed to pursue the Clintons in this case. Once again the little guy gets put away while the big-time operators are let off the hook.
The Washington Post has reported that the two major political parties have signed off on a deal under which neither will pursue public-corruption cases against the other. I would be shocked if Ashcroft has signed off on such a deal, but the failure to pursue the Clintons while Paul takes the fall is troubling.
Klayman asked leaders of the conservative movement to contact Ashcroft, requesting him to move on this case. But in case he doesn't, Judicial Watch has filed lawsuits in California and Washington to force the issue. The junior senator from New York, the former president of the United States and the governor of Pennsylvania are all very powerful political figures in this country. Since Justice Department lawyers have interviewed Paul four times and have told him his allegations about the Clintons have "checked out,'' the question is whether these important figures will be treated just as anyone else would be under the law or whether they will be passed over because of who they are. I guarantee that if you or I had run a crooked campaign and were found out, we would be hounded until we were in federal prison.
If Paul's allegations are true (and I believe they are because he has so many witnesses and so much documentation, including handwritten notes from then-president Clinton) then how can this corruption be ignored?
I know President George W. Bush has instructed his Cabinet to look forward instead of looking back. There were scandals in almost every agency and Bush, who came into office under unusual circumstances that divided the nation, did not want to begin his administration with dozens of investigations. That's all well and good. But this level of corruption must be dealt with or else we will have ceased to be a nation of laws and become a nation of men.
Paul M. Weyrich is the chief executive officer and chairman of the Free Congress Foundation in Washington.
LOL! Notice the normal couple on the right, arm in arm with each other. Now, notice the couple on the left, trying as hard as they can not to even have their clothing touch each other.
LOL There's a wide load on the left in that photo!
I looked for an accessible reading of the Federal Bribery code, and here's what I found quickly:
Currently, the federal bribery statute, section 201 of the Criminal Code (Title 18), reaches the giving, receiving or acceptance of anything of value for contemplated acts by public officials or witnesses in judicial or congressional proceedings as well as for acts already performed. The essence of the offense is the giving, solicitation or receipt of the bribe. The giving, solicitation or receipt may be accomplished through an intermediary who need not be a public official. Conspiracy to commit bribery may be a separate criminal offense (18 USC 371).Source: Zeifman, Ziefman Memo to Rep. Barr on Clinton Impeachment
Rendell should be thrown out of office for soliciting bribes. Pennsylvania deserves an honest governor.
Worth repeating, loudly.
What this pic doesnt show is Bill's hand on the blondes butt.....
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