Donor Peter Paul Nails Clintons – But Will Bush Act?
Wes Vernon
Tuesday, July 17, 2001
WASHINGTON – This time, there is documented evidence that clearly links Bill and Hillary Clinton to a crime, according to Judicial Watch. Signed correspondence. Videos. Photos. The works.
Larry Klayman, general counsel for the anti-corruption watchdog, says this case will go "all the way" – if the Bush administration does its job and doesn't get in the way.
Translated, "all the way" means indictment, a criminal trial, and if convicted, jail for 10 years for every false statement in the case.
This involves over $2 million in campaign money unreported to the Federal Election Commission by the Clintons. When the donor, Peter Paul, found out his contributions to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign were not legally reported, he went to the feds and spilled the beans. No way he was going to take the rap for an illegal act.
Alan Vinegrad, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn), responded to the complaint in a manner one would expect of a Clinton holdover. He demonized the victim by indicting Paul on securities violations.
Klayman did not hesitate to label Vinegrad a political hack. "And you can print that," he said. U.S. attorneys for New Jersey and Central California, also Clinton holdovers, failed to act in the case.
Paul appeared with Klayman and other Judicial Watch officials at a news conference Monday at the National Press Club. Klayman and Co. were live and in person. Paul appeared by phone from Brazil, where he had fled pending the outcome of Judicial Watch negotiations with Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Bush Justice Department.
"We trust John Ashcroft," declared Klayman to the gathering of reporters. And just to reinforce that trust and the Justice Department's interest in the case, Judicial Watch is sending out an alert to grassroots conservative groups all over the country to keep the heat on. After all, were it not for the pro-Ashcroft demonstrations and letter-writing campaigns in January, he "would not be attorney general today," said Klayman.
So Janet Reno is gone. What's the problem?
"I don't think President Bush wants to touch Hillary Clinton with a 10-foot pole," Klayman said.
Do Dems Have Dirt on Bushes?
Why?
"I think there is some concern about what the Democrats have on them [the Bush family]."
When NewsMax.com approached Klayman after the news conference to elaborate on that, he referred us to a lengthy article on his Web site, "Storm Clouds Over the Bush Presidency," wherein he refers to the Bush family as the Republican counterpart to the Kennedys, always able to go from one questionable deal to another with impunity, largely because of money and influence.
The videos at the news conference showed Hillary Clinton in animated friendly conversation with Peter Paul and his wife, Andrea. Photos included a scene with Paul seated next to Chelsea, Bill and Hillary Clinton, watching the star-studded entertainment last August in Los Angeles just before the Democratic National Convention. Cher was entertaining. Barbra Streisand and many other luminaries were among the partiers at the fund-raiser. Paul bankrolled the bash.
At the news conference, Judicial Watch displayed signed thank-you letters from the Clintons. These were palsy-walsy notes encouraging Paul's belief that the Clintons looked on him as "family."
"You were one smart guy," gushes Hillary at one of the fund-raisers that had soaked up a chunk of Paul's cash. "And now you're in the stratosphere!"
"You're worth it," Paul replies.
As explained to reporters by Klayman and Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, then-Democratic National Chairman Ed Rendell shepherded Paul though the DNC fund-raising process "after Peter had given the $2 million dollars, after the Clintons pretended he did not." Paul suggested that he should be given a pardon by the president on a previous charge. Rendell said he would work on it.
Later, they hit him up for another $150,000. "Chutzpah of the highest magnitude," opined Klayman. Paul's answer was "I already gave you $2 million. Go work on it."
Answering reporters' questions by long distance, Paul discussed his July 16 communication to Sen. Hillary Clinton in which he expressed "profound regret and extreme disappointment that I am forced to write this letter to you reminding you of your responsibility as a Federal elected official to comply with the laws and regulations of the United States that you have sworn to defend and protect, and as a citizen, the same laws and regulations that govern your individual conduct."
Contrary to a report on ABC’s "20/20," Paul said at the news conference that "the pardon was never a part of the rationale of why I gave the biggest political contribution of an individual to a candidate in American political history. The pardon never entered my mind because it dealt with issues that were a quarter of a century old that had no bearing on my career."
His representation by Judicial Watch, he said, was to encourage federal officials "to make an honest report regarding" the case of his contributions.
Hillary's Sudden Amnesia
Paul also noted that the former first lady, according to her spokesman, "suddenly had amnesia" and barely knew this "one smart guy" who only a few months ago was "in the stratosphere."
Even though Hillary Clinton's national finance director, David Rosen, spent two weeks with Paul, the Clintonites failed to counsel Paul on "determining how to characterize these contributions in a legal fashion." Hillary herself had negotiated "the largest payment for the event that I underwrote."
"Failing [to report the contributions] in the federal election report made me a co-conspirator with them," he added.
NewsMax.com asked Klayman to comment on three barriers in bringing about a timely resolution to this scandal.
The Federal Election Commission is notoriously snail-like in dealing with cases such as this.
Even if all those Clinton holdover attorneys leave office and Ashcroft has the best of intentions, the fact is his boss, President Bush, is being told by people around him that his new rise in the polls is due to the "new tone" of turning the other cheek and not "bickering" – though Bush has followed that same approach since his election.
The Senate Ethics Committee always has been less vigilant than its counterpart in the House, and it is likely to be utterly moribund if asked to consider whether its "star," the junior senator from New York, should be investigated. That goes double now that the Democrats have achieved a plurality in the Senate.
'Force the Attorney General to Do His Job'
"We recognize those realities," Klayman replied. "We have to force the attorney general to do his job in terms of the criminal indictment."
Judicial Watch has sent out videos to "every conservative activist out there who is responsible for getting this attorney general his job. And we have demanded that they intercede with the Justice Department and say: ‘We want you to do your job, Mr. Ashcroft. And we want you to make sure that President Bush understands that you're going to pay a price if you don't do your job.'
"Secondly, we’re going to get it out to the people at large." More than 350,000 e-mails went out Friday alone. And Judicial Watch will continue to talk to the media.
"Look at the case of Gary Condit, what [the media] can do in terms of getting people to move. The D.C. Police Department wants to sit on its heels and do nothing. … But now … it's become a national issue" because of the media attention.
Klayman said the attorney general should know the Bush administration is going to pay a price because, "frankly, conservatives are fed up by the lack of action by this administration in letting people walk scot-free."
Judicial Watch notes its lawsuit in the California court alleging unjust enrichment. "That means the Clintons" are going to "have to give [the money] back."
Finally, he said, the American people know the Federal Election Commission is a joke, but "we have the checks. We have the videotape," and if the FEC doesn't want to do its job, "Judicial Watch will certainly make that known as well."
One other factor deserves notice here.
CBS 'Quashed the Story'
Klayman says that before ABC ever got its hands on this story – resulting in its presentation Friday on "20/20" – CBS had the information for "60 Minutes."
Quoting Klayman: "Someone high up in '60 Minutes' apparently quashed the story. And Mike Wallace was literally getting on the plane when he was told he could not go down to Brazil and do it. We then gave the story to ABC."
The letter from Peter Paul to Sen. Clinton reads, in part: "The accounting provided in the attached copy of my Federal Election Commission complaint shall also serve as my notice to you and your Senate Campaign Committee, of the amount of the direct, in-kind contribution I made to you and your Senate campaign, and no other. And of the statutory requirement you have to return such monies, which statute you have been in violation of since March, 2001, thirty days after the amended filing of your FEC report which through their false reports made my contributions illegal."
So the scene is set for legal and political fireworks. And as indicated above, there are many players in this drama. That includes the media – which went full bore on Watergate, the allegations against Clarence Thomas and now the titillating case of Gary Condit and his missing mistress – but which still, for whatever reason, demonstrate an ambivalence when dealing with Clinton scandals.
Will this be the straw that breaks the camel's back where the American people are concerned?
Klayman puts it this way: "Whether you’re left, right or center, regrettably, 225 years into this country's [existence], the people no longer believe their government. They no longer trust their government. And frankly, it's worse than it was during King George III," whose arrogant rule brought about the American Revolution.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
Clinton Scandals
Media Bias
Sen. Hillary Clinton
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