Posted on 08/29/2007 7:58:42 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer followed presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's lead on Wednesday and announced they would get rid of donations from a fundraiser who is wanted for sentencing on a 1991 grand theft charge.
Two California Democratic House members, Mike Honda of San Jose and Doris Matsui of Sacramento, also said they were dumping campaign cash from Norman Hsu.
The moves came after two days of scrutiny on Norman Hsu, who had donated $23,000 to Clinton. The New York senator plans to give the money to charity.
Hsu gave $1,000 to Feinstein and $2,000 to Boxer's political action committee in recent years. Boxer's Senate campaign got an additional $2,000 from Hsu through money he'd given to a joint fundraising committee.
"Given what has come to light about Mr. Hsu's legal situation, we have decided to donate his contributions to charity," said Boxer campaign strategist Rose Kapolczynski. "We have no information that suggests that these contributions were improper in any way." Feinstein also planned to give Hsu's money to charity.
In a statement Wednesday, Hsu said he believed he had resolved his legal issues, but said he would halt his work raising political money.
Matsui received $6,100 since 2004 and Honda received $1,000 for his re-election effort from Hsu.
Matsui also appeared at a fundraising luncheon thrown by Hsu in Manhattan in 2005.
Reports in The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times this week have caused other Democratic candidates to reconsider Hsu's donations. Federal Election Commission records show that Hsu has donated $260,000 to Democratic Party groups and federal candidates since 2004.
In 1991, Hsu pleaded no contest to a single felony count of grand theft but failed to appear in court for sentencing, according to Ronald Smetana, a California deputy attorney general who prosecuted the case.
Smetana said there is an outstanding warrant for Hsu's arrest, as first reported Wednesday in the Los Angeles Times. A clerk at the San Mateo County courthouse where Hsu was prosecuted said the warrant was issued in 1992.
Smetana said Hsu collected about $1 million from investors by falsely claiming he had a contract to import latex gloves. Smetana said he planned to ask a judge to sentence Hsu to prison. He said he had assumed Hsu, a Hong Kong native, had fled the country.
In a statement Wednesday, Hsu said:
"I believe I properly resolved all of the legal issues related to my bankruptcy in the early 1990s. Therefore, I was surprised to learn that there appears to be an outstanding warrant - as demonstrated by the fact that I have and do live a public life. I have not sought to evade any of my obligations and certainly not the law."
On Tuesday, Hsu's Washington attorney, E. Lawrence Barcella Jr., disputed any suggestion that Hsu had any hand in improperly directing contributions from other donors. The Journal reported that six members of the family of William Paw, a San Francisco mail carrier, donated a total of $45,000 to Clinton since 2005. The Journal reported that the donations closely track Hsu's contributions.
Honda, Matsui and Feinstein also all received money from Paw family members.
Honda and Matsui said they planned to get rid of the Paw money in addition to the money from Hsu, but Feinstein wasn't yet moving to dump the $2,000 she got last year from two Paw family members.
"If more information comes to light we'll take a look at that but not right now," said Feinstein spokesman Scott Gerber.
Honda planned to donate to charity $5,000 received from Hsu, members of the Paw family and one other donor whom his staff could not immediately identify.
Matsui received about $1,500 from Paw family members. She planned to return the money as well as the funds she got from Hsu.
why accept in the first place?
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