"Kickback Convicts for Clinton"
November 30, 1999 The Washington Times Editorial Board
"In 1996 the Teamsters Union did something a little unusual for an organization that was nearly bankrupt - it gave away more than $1 million. The money went not to the organization's dues-paying members but to liberal activist groups, the Democratic Party and, it turned out, the re-election campaign of former Teamsters President Ron Carey.
In return for the contributions, you see, the lucky recipients were supposed to return the favor by making contributions to the Carey campaign. Several did. The idea was to circumvent federal labor laws that bar unions from spending funds on individual candidates in union elections. Earlier this month a federal district court jury in New York convicted the Teamsters' former political director, William Hamilton, of embezzlement and fraud for his part in the kickback scheme. The question now is how many others were involved in it.
On Monday, this newspaper's Jerry Seper reported that law-enforcement officials are pressing U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White to seek indictments against high-ranking union and political officials, including some close to President Clinton. Possible targets include former Teamsters head Ron Carey, AFL-CIO official Richard Trumka, former White House deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes and top Clinton fund-raiser Terry McAuliffe.
Mr. McAuliffe, readers may recall, was the man who just happened to have $1.35 million on hand when President and Mrs. Clinton initially came up a little short on the down payment for their new house in Chappaqua, N.Y. In the ensuing uproar over his part in the purchase, Mr. McAuliffe had to withdraw his generous assistance. Mr. McAuliffe is also the man identified in the trial of William Hamilton who tried to get the Democratic Party in on the Teamsters kickback scheme. Former Carey fund-raiser Martin Davis, who had already pleaded guilty for his own part in the scheme, testified that he told Mr. McAuliffe the union could be very good to the Democrats if they could find someone to contribute to the Carey campaign. Mr. McAuliffe appears to have gotten the message.
Former Democratic National Committee (DNC) finance director Richard Sullivan testified that the Clinton fund-raiser urged the party to find a big donor for the Carey campaign. "Terry would generally say, `By the way, I still think we can get a large amount of contributions from the Teamsters if you can help find the donor," Mr. Sullivan testified.
The Clinton-Gore campaign subsequently sent over a list of state Democratic parties to which the Teamsters should contribute, and the union actually made as much as $236,000 in donations as requested, for which Mr. McAuliffe received credit from the DNC. The deal collapsed and the Teamsters contributions ended when Democrats were unable to find a big donor for the Carey campaign. It wasn't for lack of trying.
The DNC found a woman willing to give $100,000 to Mr. Carey, but, alas, she was foreign, and U.S. law prohibited her from making the donation. McAuliffe attorney Richard Ben-Veniste denies any wrongdoing on his client's part, saying that he never encouraged anyone to make such a deal, nor did the fund-raiser do so himself. Evidently Mr. McAuliffe's old friends at the DNC and the Teamsters don't agree.
If it takes a court case to resolve the differences here, U.S. Attorney White should be ready to pursue it."
FReegards...MUD
Isn't it amazing how the same old names keep popping up-- and how incurious the "watchdog" press is?