Clinton's bundler skips court, on the run again
by JaeHood, Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 06:03:22 AM EDT
The Hsu story is getting weirder and very interesting at the same time.
My advice to all campaigns is to make sure you run background checks on all your bundlers every 2-3 months because you never know with those guys.
Mr Hsu , one of Hillary most prolific bundler , had a court hearing scheduled yesterday and was apparently a No Show.
Norman Hsu, the fugitive fund-raiser for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Democrats who turned himself in to California authorities last week, failed to show up for a court appearance today, and his lawyer said Mr. Hsus whereabouts were unknown.This leads me to believe Mr Hsu has something to hide and the Clintons camp have got to be worried. My guess is Hsu is probably in China right now since he was suppose to hand over his passport to the court yesterday...Well , Hsu realised he needed this passport to make a run for it so i guess it's not a far fetch guess to assume Hsu is no longer in this country.
Hsu had also been expected to surrender his passport at the hearing, but Brosnahan told the court he was unable to produce the document.Brosnahan said Hsu had said the passport could be found in his New York condo, but that a 90-minute search by a law clerk from Brosnahan's firm, Morrison & Foerster, failed to locate it.
After the hearing, Sivilla said that Hsu held a U.S. passport, but that he was not sure whether Hsu was in the country. "I would imagine he has the capability" of fleeing the United States, Sivilla said. "We don't know if he has his passport."Here's what the LATIMES had to say about the Hsu-man no show yesterday and how bad this could turn for the Clinton Camp.
His failure to appear, echoing the events of 1992, was a shock not just to the court, but reverberated in the upper levels of Democratic politics, especially the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.Hsu has given directly to her and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from others whose contributions he solicited and bundled together.While Hillary's supporters will point out Hsu donated about $5,000 to Obama in 2004 during his senate run and $2,000 to his HopePac , we need to understand that there's a big difference between a donor and a bundler who raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for a campaign. Let's keep in mind that this guy supported Hillary's presidential run and was one of her most trusted bundler...HUGE DIFFERENCE. In my opinion , it's very hard to phatom that one of your closest associate's background was unknown to everyone inside the Clinton's circles. Obama has thousands of donors so it's hard to run background checks on all of them but bundlers's backgrounds have got to be checked because , unlike regular donors , they can generate millions of dollars and you need to make sure that money is clean and legit. The biggest problem with Mr Hsu is , no one seems to know how he makes his money....
Multiple sources said he has described himself as a producer of knockoffs of high-end clothing. He reportedly bought designer suits and accessories for duplication in China and resale in the United States, though concrete evidence of his business affairs has proved difficult to find.I just can't understand how can a serious presidential campaign hire a guy as a bundler and not even know in what type of business he works in. So far , i'm hearing there are dozens of reporters who are trying to break-open the Hsu mystery and no one is able to guess how this guy was able to generate all this money. This shows you that the Clintons would hire anyone , as long as they bring in lots of money to secure the democratic. nomination.
With offices in Los Angeles and New York, the crisis communications firm of Sitrick and Co. is a prominent player. Its slogan is: "If you don't tell your story, someone else will tell it for you." On Wednesday, however, Sitrick spokesmen refused to discuss Hsu.I have one huge advice for the Clinton camps...They better release the names of people Hsu bundled cash from because you can no longer trust where this money is coming from. So far , the Clintons camp has refused to do so.
The Clinton campaign has said it will give $23,000 in direct donations from Hsu to charity, but keep the money he bundled. Wolfson declined to release the names of bundled donors. He said that the campaign had not been contacted by the FBI about Hsu's fundraising.Pressure are already building up on Hillary's campaign to not only release the list of names Hsu bundled money from , but to also give away that money.
Public Citizen, a Washington watchdog group that has pushed presidential candidates to identify bundlers and the money they bring in, urged Clinton to at least disclose which donations were tied to Hsu."She should say who they are," said Taylor Lincoln, research director for the group's Congress Watch division. "If she really wanted to be a standard-bearer, she should return all the money."Hillary should do the right thing here..There's no excuse in keeping the money Hsu bundled on her behalf...Hsu has zero credebility. To make it worse for the Clintons , the FBI is now investigating Hsu's source of money and the Paw family who heavily donated large sums of money to the Clintons's campaign eventhough records shows the family was in no position to give such a large sum of money to any campaign.
By Dan Morain, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 1, 2007 REDWOOD CITY, CALIF. -- As Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu confronted an old criminal case and faced a new FBI investigation Friday, a fundamental question persisted: How did Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign fail to see the red flags in Hsu's contributions?
Another problem was the pattern of donations made by Hsu and his friends, particularly those from a family that lives in a modest home in Daly City, a working-class town south of San Francisco. Members of the family have given more than $200,000 to politicians in recent years, often on or about the same days that Hsu gave money. Federal law prohibits donors from reimbursing others who give at their behest.Do you still think she can afford to keep that money? Here's why Hsu will always be a bigger problem for the Clintons then anyone else.
Hsu has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations for Clinton's presidential campaign.Hsu earned the title of "HillRaiser" for pledging to raise more than $100,000 for Clinton's presidential campaign.My final conclusion is , if Hsu's money is coming from the Republic of China , the Clinton campaign will have a lot of questions to answer...The Clinton already had a Chinese money scandal during Bill Clinton's presidency , so this will only re-enforce the theory that the Clintons are soliciting foreign money. I'm also hearing there are a lot of GOP opertives and democratic opponents of the Clintons who are heavily working hard to break the Hsu mystery...They are all hoping the money-trail will lead them to China.
Tags: Hillary Clinton (all tags)
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