Hillary Fundraiser Eludes Jail for 15 Years

[ScreamingEagle]

Part I
August 29, 2007

This is one of those stories that could only happen to a Clinton.

Norman Hsu, a prominent Democratic fundraiser who has funnelled hundreds of thousands of dollars into Hillary Clinton's Senate campaigns and pledged to raise $100,000 for her presidential bid has been a fugitive from justice for 15 years.

In 1992, he pleaded no contest to charges of grand theft and agreed to serve three years in jail. But something funny happened on the way to prison; he never showed up:

He is a fugitive," Ronald Smetana, who handled the case for the state attorney general, said in an interview. "Do you know where he is?"
Hsu, it seems, has been hiding in plain sight, at least for the last three years.

Since 2004, one Norman Hsu has been carving out a prominent place of honor among Democratic fundraisers. He has funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions into party coffers, much of it earmarked for presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

In addition to making his own contributions, Hsu has honed the practice of assembling packets of checks from contributors who bear little resemblance to the usual Democratic deep pockets: A self-described apparel executive with a variety of business interests, Hsu has focused on delivering hefty contributions from citizens who live modest lives and are neophytes in the world of campaign giving.

In typical Clinton fashion, the best defense is a good offense. When in doubt, deny, deny, deny:

"Norman Hsu is a longtime and generous supporter of the Democratic Party and its candidates, including Sen. Clinton," Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for the campaign, said Tuesday. "During Mr. Hsu's many years of active participation in the political process, there has been no question about his integrity or his commitment to playing by the rules, and we have absolutely no reason to call his contributions into question or to return them."

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/08/hillary_fundraiser_eludes_jail.html

Hillary Fundraiser Part II
Rick Moran
August 30, 2007

My piece yesterday about a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton who has been on the lamb from the cops for 15 years because of a conviction for Grand Theft tried to make the point that this was a typical Clinton scandal being handled in typical Clinton fashion.

Today, the Clintonistas made me look like a soothsayer.

After first praising the fundraiser, Norman Hsu as being a "longtime and generous supporter of the Democratic Party" whose integrity was above question, the campaign did a 180 degree about face and scrambled to address the core issue; that Hsu probably raised hundreds of thousands of dollars by skirting FEC regulations:

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton will give to charity the $23,000 in donations she has received from a fundraiser who is wanted in California for failing to appear for sentencing on a 1991 grand theft charge.

The decision came Wednesday as other Democrats began distancing themselves from Norman Hsu, whose legal encounters and links to other Democratic donors have drawn public scrutiny in the past two days.

Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, both of Massachusetts, also planned to turn over Hsu's contributions to charity. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California; Al Franken, a Senate candidate in Minnesota; Reps. Michael Honda and Doris Matsui of California; and Rep. Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania also said they would divest Hsu's contributions.

This again is typical Clinton strategy in dealing with scandal: If the denial of wrongdoing doesn't work, pretend you never said anything and try and fix the problem. The fact that Hsu has given hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last three years to Democrats all over the country - including $100,000 to Hillary's Senate campaign - is not mentioned. In fact, the statement by Clinton's campaign manager goes out of its way to downplay the entire affair:

Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer said the $23,000 included contributions from Hsu to Clinton's presidential campaign, her Senate re-election and her political action committee.

The campaign did not plan to return any money Hsu raised from other donors, Singer said. "In light of the information regarding Mr. Hsu's outstanding warrant in California, we will be giving his contribution to charity," Singer said.

Hsu is known in fundraising circles as a "bundler" - someone who collects checks from large groups of wealthy donors and presents them to the campaign. Since many of these checks and donors list one single address of a house in a San Francisco suburb, suspicion is that most of that money could be Hsus' and that he either created many donors or re-imbursed contributors for their donations.

Hillary's troubles with another big contributor, Peter Paul, and a star studded gala fundraiser for her Senate campaign that was improperly reported to the FEC resulted in large fines. One begins to wonder just how many other fundraising scandals involving Hillary Clinton are out there just waiting to be discovered.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/08/hillary_fundraiser_part_ii.html

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Fear not Jillian will be along to explain to us how the FEC is just an arm of the Bush White House and any fines or finds they made are political hack jobs with no legal basis or sound findings in law.

Of course don't actually ask her to defend her claims, she is much to busy calling Democrats lap dogs for Bush.