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Judge May Dismiss Charge Against Ex-Aide to Clinton LOS ANGELES, May 20 - In a blow to federal prosecutors, a judge said on Friday that he would probably toss out one of three criminal charges against Hillary Rodham Clinton's former chief fund-raiser, David F. Rosen. The comments by the judge, A. Howard Matz, came in the course of a day that also featured testimony from two men who are stars in their individual firmaments: Stan Lee, a co-creator of Spider-Man, and Harold Ickes, the longtime adviser to former President Bill Clinton and former deputy chief of staff at the White...

LOS ANGELES - A federal prosecutor told jurors in his opening statement Wednesday that Hillary Clinton's former national finance director panicked when costs for a celebrity-studded 2000 Hollywood fundraising gala mounted and lied to the government to conceal it. Peter Zeidenberg, of the Justice Department's public integrity division, told jurors that David F. Rosen deliberately caused campaign finance reports to be filed with the Federal Election Commission that claimed "in-kind" contributions of $400,000 for the Hollywood gala, when he knew that contributions exceeded $1.1 million. The event, held in August 2000 at a 112-acre Brentwood estate, drew celebrities such as...

Ex-aide's trial puts Hil at high risk GOP salivates over campaign finance case By KENNETH R. BAZINET DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton isn't on trial in Los Angeles on Tuesday - but as far as her political adversaries are concerned, she may as well be. Her ex-finance director David Rosen has been charged with concealing the real cost of a star-studded Hollywood fund-raiser for Clinton in August 2000 - and if he's convicted, her enemies plan to exploit it to the maximum. "If it was any other senator, it might not be an issue, but with her...

SACRAMENTO - The state Assembly has agreed to pay $49,000 to a former aide to Rebecca Cohn who accused the Democratic legislator from Campbell of creating an uncomfortable, sexually charged work environment. In all, the Assembly will have paid Cohn's former press secretary, Erika Weaver-Taylor, $119,000 in taxpayer funds to stay home from work for 10 months. The settlement, made public Friday, ends a yearlong investigation by a key legislative committee. But it does not end the public dispute. The legal resolution allowed Cohn and Weaver-Taylor to speak out for the first time in months about the allegations. Cohn called...

A former aide to San Jose Councilman Terry Gregory testified Wednesday that on days his boss would get wound up intimidating big-box retailers for donations or browbeating city planners to sink projects he opposed, his staff used a code word warning that Gregory was on the warpath. ``The staff code word was `purple.' He had `purple' days,'' said Craig Mann, Gregory's former chief of staff, in front of a special ethics task force investigating allegations the District 7 councilman solicited and accepted gifts and donations, and committed dozens of violations of city and state fundraising laws. In his most revealing...