RSS

DOJ Now Investigating Campaign-Finance Violations by Hsu

Fri, Aug 31, 2007 | 9:06 pm

by Stephan Tawney

hsu1 DOJ Now Investigating Campaign-Finance Violations by Hsu If Clinton gets into office, I’m sure he’ll make the top of the pardon list. The Department of Justice is now investigating possible campaign-finance regulations for the top Democratic donor.

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating possible campaign-finance violations by top Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, according to people familiar with the probe. On Friday, Mr. Hsu surrendered to California officials on an unrelated grand-theft charge dating to the early 1990s.

Mr. Hsu has denied reimbursing any associates for their donations, which would be a felony, or other wrongdoing in his fund-raising activities. “I’ve asked friends and colleagues of mine to give money out of their own pockets, and sometimes they have agreed,” he said in an email to the Journal this past week. A member of the Paw family also has said the family’s donations were their own.

The amounts and dates of the Paws’ donations were similar to those of Mr. Hsu, who once listed the Paw’s address as his own. The Paws, Mr. Hsu and other associates collectively donated nearly $1 million to an array of candidates the past few years, including the presidential campaign of Mrs. Clinton.

I’m still having trouble wrapping my mind around how Hsu, who has a 15-year-old bench warrant, has gone unnoticed for a decade and a half. He’s hosted lavish parties, worked with major companies, had a role in the fashion industry, and the WSJ writes:

Indeed, in magazine articles in 1993 and 1994, Mr. Hsu was identified as managing director of Newton Enterprises Inc., a Hong Kong-based exporter.

He was in a magazine article. The whole time being a fugitive to be held on $2 million bail, facing 3 years in prison. How was he not found until the media got a hold of this? Wait, it gets better. Democrats very much knew he existed.

“He was involved in the fashion business,” said Bob Kerrey, a former Nebraska senator who is president of the New School in Manhattan, where Mr. Hsu resigned as a trustee yesterday. “I know that he designs and sells clothing.”

Before making him a trustee, didn’t anyone do, I don’t know, a Google search? Hsu’s own former wife works in California’s damn probation office! And nobody knew…

Don’t worry Mr. Hsu. You’re still liked by Democrats:

“I like him a lot,” Mr. Kerrey said. “He’s one of these guys in politics who gives and doesn’t ask for anything.”

Replace “Kerrey” with “Bush”. Replace “Hsu” with “Libby”. What do you have? Outrage from the Democrats.

Leave a Reply