Witness: Hillary Aide Ordered Cover-up
Thursday, May 19, 2005 9:41 a.m. EDT
An event planner who worked on a blockbuster Hollywood fund-raiser for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton during her 2000 campaign for Senate testified Wednesday that Clinton's finance chairman, David Rosen, ordered that the full costs of the event be covered up.
"I was instructed by David Rosen to take certain expenses off," Gretta Nock told jurors in Rosen's trial.
Nock confirmed earlier testimony by Alan Baumrucker, whose company Black Ink Productions put together the concert portion of the event, which featured mega-stars Cher, Diana Ross, Paul Anka, Michael Bolton, Patti LaBelle and Melissa Etheridge.
The Clinton event planner said she asked Baumrucker to supply a bogus invoice for $200,000 to cover up his real fee - $605,000. Baumrucker testified that he reluctantly complied with Nock's request.
While Nock said she couldn't remember whether Rosen had instructed her to make specific cuts, she said it was clearly understood that "overall figures needed to project a lower cost."
After cooking the expense records, the event planner said she forwarded the bogus numbers to Clinton's campaign headquarters for filing with the FEC.
Though prosecutors say Mrs. Clinton was unaware of Rosen's financial shenanigans, Hollywood mogul Peter Paul, who paid for the gala event, alleges that she was personally involved in an effort to trim concert expenses.
Paul contends that he hired Mrs. Clinton's friend Gary Smith to produce the gala's concert. And Smith used his "lend out" firm Black Ink Productions.
When Smith submitted a fee of $850,000, Paul said he complained directly to the then-first lady, who contacted Smith and persuaded him to cut his bill by $50,000. |
