Of course you won't find the name Obama anywhere in this story since the New York Times wouldn't ever dare to impugn their guy. All the news that fits our narrative, I think that's how it goes. Anyway, this Democrat is guilty.
Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire investor who once ran one of the world’s largest hedge funds, was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy on Wednesday by a federal jury in Manhattan. He is the most prominent figure convicted in the government’s crackdown on insider trading on Wall Street.
Mr. Rajaratnam, who was convicted on all 14 counts, could face as much as 19 and a half years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Mr. Rajaratnam is expected to appeal.
The government built its case against Mr. Rajaratnam with powerful wiretap evidence. Over a nine-month stretch in 2008, federal agents secretly recorded Mr. Rajaratnam’s telephone conversations. They listened in as Mr. Rajaratnam brazenly – and matter-of-factly – swapped inside stock tips with corporate insiders and fellow traders.
Since the media will ignore Rajaratnam's connections, we may as well fill in the gaps.
He's lavished money on Democrats for years. Rajaratnam was even more generous with Obama, as well as with Hillary Clinton. It's quite amazing how many of her fatcat fundraisers have wound up in prison or under indictment. Rajaratnam donated over $30,000 to Obama in 2008. Gupta also showered money upon former Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, who instead of facing charges for his role in the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac/Countrywide scandals has landed a cushy, high-profile lobbyist gig.
Rajaratnam was also a guest of Obama at a White House state dinner.
Here's a little test case on media bias for you: Compare how many times today you hear that Obama suddenly has a 60% approval rating (a result of a fraudulent AP poll, of course), then count the number of time you hear about a buddy of Obama being found guilty in federal court.
He'll be missed. Especially by Democrats around election time.
A wealthy Manhattan investment banker who was once a top fundraiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton and other big-name Democrats has been given 12 years in prison for bank fraud.
Hassan Nemazee was sentenced Thursday.
He reached a plea deal in March. He admitted to three counts of bank fraud and one count of wire fraud.
Nemazee was the national finance chairman of Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. He also raised money for President Barack Obama and a long list of other prominent Democrats.
We so helpfully provided some of that long list here.
A New York businessman and onetime prominent Democratic fund-raiser was sentenced to 12 years in prison Thursday after he admitted in March to bilking three banks out of $292 million in loans.
Hassan Nemazee, chairman and chief executive of Nemazee Capital Corp., also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan to pay more than $292 million in restitution and forfeiture.
"Pride, ego, arrogance, self-image, self-importance. All of these and more are the reasons why I traveled down this destructive path," Mr. Nemazee said prior to sentencing. "I assure the court, I take full responsibility for these actions."
Prosecutors had alleged Mr. Nemazee used the proceeds from the loans to make donations to the election campaigns of federal, state and local candidates; to make donations to political action committees; to make donations to charities; to purchase property in Italy; to make monthly maintenance payments on properties in Manhattan and Katonah, N.Y.; and to purchase part of a yacht.
"This crime is breathtaking in its brazenness and its scope," Judge Stein said.
I'll predict right now Nemazee's name will not be mentioned on CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC or CNN today.
Glenn Beck points out a good reason why the New York Times doesn't want to discuss the devastating dissemination of the fraud perpetrated by the global warming/climate change scammers. Because their own climate clown was the recipient of some of the emails. You just can't make this stuff up.
This may be one of the greatest hoaxes of all time, yet the true believers are desperate to change the subject.
Sorry, no can do. Even one of the true believers admits the jig may be up.
It’s no use pretending that this isn’t a major blow. The emails extracted by a hacker from the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia could scarcely be more damaging. I am now convinced that they are genuine, and I’m dismayed and deeply shaken by them.
Yes, the messages were obtained illegally. Yes, all of us say things in emails that would be excruciating if made public. Yes, some of the comments have been taken out of context. But there are some messages that require no spin to make them look bad. There appears to be evidence here of attempts to prevent scientific data from being released, and even to destroy material that was subject to a freedom of information request.
Worse still, some of the emails suggest efforts to prevent the publication of work by climate sceptics, or to keep it out of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I believe that the head of the unit, Phil Jones, should now resign. Some of the data discussed in the emails should be re-analysed.
Uh, Mr. Monbiot, we're no longer skeptics. We have the truth on our side. It is up to you scammers to prove us wrong now. Or, I suggest, face prosecution for pulling one of the great hoaxes of all time. The world has wasted trillions of dollars now altering our lifestyles over some mythical "global warming" junk science and it's all complete bullshit. It's up to the global warming fabricators to prove us wrong or face the consequences.
There should be immediate hearings on this in Washington, but it'll probably have to wait until the Democrats are booted from office next year. Good luck campaigning on that cap-and-tax scam, folks.
Oh, and for the "new deniers" on the left calling this a "nontroversy," and you know who you are: Your sudden concern over "hacked" emails is fraudulent. We should have seen this under the FOIA, so shove that one you know where.
We don't condone e-mail theft by hackers, though these e-mails were covered by Britain's Freedom of Information Act and should have been released. The content of these e-mails raises extremely serious questions that could end the academic careers of many prominent professors. Academics who have purposely hidden data, destroyed information and doctored their results have committed scientific fraud. We can only hope respected academic institutions such as Pennsylvania State University, the University of Arizona and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst conduct proper investigative inquiries.
Most important, however, these revelations of fudged science should have a cooling effect on global-warming hysteria and the panicked policies that are being pushed forward to address the unproven theory.
However, we do now have hundreds of emails that give every appearance of testifying to concerted and coordinated efforts by leading climatologists to fit the data to their conclusions while attempting to silence and discredit their critics. In the department of inconvenient truths, this one surely deserves a closer look by the media, the U.S. Congress and other investigative bodies.
This is an enormous case of organized scientific fraud, but it is not just scientific fraud. It is also a criminal act. Suborned by billions of taxpayer dollars devoted to climate research, dozens of prominent scientists have established a criminal racket in which they seek government money-Phil Jones has raked in a total of £13.7 million in grants from the British government-which they then use to falsify data and defraud the taxpayers. It's the most insidious kind of fraud: a fraud in which the culprits are lauded as public heroes. Judging from this cache of e-mails, they even manage to tell themselves that their manipulation of the data is intended to protect a bigger truth and prevent it from being "confused" by inconvenient facts and uncontrolled criticism.
The damage here goes far beyond the loss of a few billions of taxpayer dollars on bogus scientific research. The real cost of this fraud is the trillions of dollars of wealth that will be destroyed if a fraudulent theory is used to justify legislation that starves the global economy of its cheapest and most abundant sources of energy.
This is the scandal of the century. It needs to be thoroughly investigated-and the culprits need to be brought to justice.
After a second embarrassing revelation of pimping today, the U.S. Census Bureau is severing ties with the criminal enterprise known as ACORN.
I saw Bret Baier note this on FNC a few minutes ago and the story is developing. I know Glenn Beck has been hammering away at the absurdity of the outfit working on the census, so this will make it a third triumph for him over Obama in less than a week.
Keith Olbermann was unavailable for speshul komment.
The Census Director has sent a letter to the National Headquarters of ACORN notifying the group that the Census Bureau is severing all ties with the community organizing group for all work having to do with the 2010 census. ACORN had previously been tapped to help with low level data gathering. A copy of the Director's letter has been sent to Congress and relevant committees, as well as ACORN.
This latest news comes as two more ACORN officials were fired Friday after a second video surfaced showing staffers in the community organizers' Washington office offering to help a man and woman posing as a pimp and prostitute acquire illegal home loans that would help them set up a brothel.
The firings came less than 24 hours after another pair of ACORN officials from the group's Baltimore office were canned for instructing the "pimp" and "prostitute" how to falsify tax forms and seek illegal benefits for 13 "very young" girls from El Salvador that pair said they wanted to import to work as child prostitutes.
Both of the encounters were videotaped on a hidden camera wielded by 25-year-old independent filmmaker James O'Keefe, posing as the pimp — tapes that have ignited calls for investigations of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
The group's leaders said Friday they were "appalled and angry" at what their staffers had done, but insisted the videos were part of a political "smear" campaign and not representative of the institution as a whole.
Good grief, here we go again with the smear nonsense. The same lame claptrap used by the recently departed Communist Truther Van Jones.
Can't say we're surprised by this. The desperate Democrats just love injecting race into any political disagreement. You object to anything proposed by a black man and bingo, you're racist!
"Some Americans have not gotten over the fact that Obama is president of the United States. They go to sleep wondering, 'How did this happen?' " Rangel (D-Manhattan) said Tuesday.
Speaking at a health-care forum in Washington Heights, Rangel said that when critics complain that Obama is "trying to interfere" with their lives by pushing for health-care reform, "then you know there's just a misunderstanding, a bias, a prejudice, an emotional feeling."
"We're going to have to move forward notwithstanding that," said Rangel, the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and a chief health-care negotiator.
Rangel then likened the battle over health-care expansion for the uninsured to the fight for civil rights.
"Why do we have to wait for the right to vote? Why can't we get what God has given us? That is the right to live as human beings and not negotiate with white southerners and not count the votes. Just do the right thing," he said.
Quite amusing how many Democrats have found God recently. If a Republican mentions God we see the left go apoplectic. But since the Democrats have no shame, they're allowed to insert God into every political discussion.
Don't you just love double standards?
Critics of ObamaCare blasted Rangel for taking the low road.
"Charlie Rangel knows that race has nothing to do with the health-care debate. He should not be implying that race has anything to do with it," said Rep. Peter King (R-LI).
State Conservative Party leader Mike Long called Rangel's comment "outrageous and outlandish" -- and suggested the congressman might be trying to deflect attention from his ethics woes.
"Rangel is playing the race card. It's clear that the congressman is trying to galvanize the minority community that this is 'us against them.' It's going to backfire. A majority of people will see through this," Long said.
After the forum, Rangel insisted he was not smearing opponents as racists.
"What I'm saying is, if you watch the town-hall meetings, people were angry and did not care what the answer was to some of their questions. They were angry with their member of Congress, period," he said.
Meanwhile, this thug's recent tax re-filings have apparently become contagious.
Charlie Rangel's "forgetfulness" is apparently contagious.
Two of his top aides are among about a dozen highly paid staffers on the powerful tax-writing Ways and Means Committee who have filed a flurry of amendments correcting their financial-disclosure statements since 2002.
Jim Capel, chief of staff for Rangel's personal office, failed to file any such statements for six years.
On the afternoon of July 14, Capel filed five years' worth of delinquent reports.
Capel told The Post yesterday it was a simple oversight.
"I am sorry for not making these filings in the timely manner as required," he said. "My failure was not done for no other reason than I just forgot to do so."
Another serial mis-filer working for Rangel is George Dalley, who is legal counsel in Rangel's personal office. Dalley has amended his statements four times since 2002.
In his 2007 statement, he failed to disclose as much as $150,000 in rental income on two properties in DC.
Classy bunch, these NY State Senate Democrats. This is now the second one indicted on felony assault charges this year.
Sen. Kevin Parker was indicted on multiple assault, harassment and criminal mischief charges today in connection with his May 8 attack on a New York Post photographer, Kings County DA Charles Hynes announced.
From the press release:
"The charges include Assault in the Second Degree, Assault in the Third Degree, Criminal Mischief in the Third Degree, Criminal Mischief in the Fourth Degree, Menacing in the Third Degree and Harassment in the Second Degree. If convicted, Parker faces up to seven years in prison.
An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of defendant’s guilt.
The second degree assault charge is Class D felony; criminal mischief in the third degree is a Class E felony. The others are all misdemeanors
Parker is the second Senate Democrat to be indicted on felony charges since the party took the majority last November.
The first, of course, was Sen. Hiram Monserrate, who also faces up to seven years in prison if he's convicted on charges that he assaulted his girlfriend with a broken glass.
Monserrate's attorneys are trying to get his indictment quashed, arguing that one of the grand jurors was a cop in the precinct that investigated him.
In response to the news about Parker, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith's spokesman Austin Shafran offered the following comment:
"Sen. Smith has already taken the most severe action he is empowered to against Sen. Parker and now we will have to let the legal process run its due course."
It's been several months now since it was discovered Charles Rangel had some major tax problems, but to date nothing has been done. Now he's just running out the clock as Democrats will soon be in charge of everything and he'll be more powerful than ever.
If he were a Republican he'd already have been forced to resign and would likely be in prison.
In fact, by the time this "investigation" concludes, it'll probably be the whistleblowers facing jail time.
For what it's worth, now it's disclosed Rangel has been using campaign funds to pay off his high-priced lawyers to make this mess go away.
Rep. Charles Rangel has not hired the forensic accountant he said he needed in order to provide answers regarding his messy tax records, The Post has learned.
Meanwhile, the Harlem Democrat has paid more than $120,000 in campaign money to a law firm to represent him in the scandal.
Rangel, the powerful chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, paid $121,436 in fees to the Chicago office of Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe on Oct. 1. The payment came from his campaign fund, Rangel for Congress.
One of the law firm's partners, Washington-based Lanny Davis, was hired shortly after The Post revealed in August that Rangel had not disclosed rental income on a Dominican Republic beachfront villa.
Federal Election Commission rules prohibit elected officials from using campaign funds for personal legal expenses, and review such expenses on a case-by-case basis.
George Dalley, Rangel's chief of staff, said the congressman had hired an attorney with specialized knowledge of the FEC to clear the legal expenses with the agency.
"We have a prior ruling that this is a legitimate campaign expense," he said, adding that there was an exchange of letters between the FEC and Rangel's lawyer.
But a spokeswoman for the FEC said she has no record of Rangel or his legal representative applying for a determination from the agency.
"The FEC requires campaigns to get approval before using campaign funds for any legal expenses that may in fact be personal," said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, an ethics-watchdog group based in Virginia.
"Any legal issue of whether Rep. Rangel paid his taxes appears to be a personal legal issue with nothing to do with Rangel's role as a congressman or candidate."
Although Rangel has retained an attorney to aid him in the scandal, he has failed to live up to his public vow to hire a forensic accountant to pore over his tax filings and financial records to figure out if he still owes Uncle Sam money for income earned on his Dominican villa.
In a statement released on Sept. 15, Rangel announced he would "conduct a thorough, independent review of all these statements going back 20 years as well as all of my US, state and local tax returns for the same time period."
He said he would turn over the findings to the House Ethics Committee, which is probing several issues. Those include revenue from the villa, Rangel's use of rent-stabilized apartments as offices in Harlem, and his use of congressional stationery to solicit contributions for an academic center to be named after him.
Following a Post investigation, Rangel admitted he failed to pay tax on at least $75,000 in rental income from his Dominican villa over the past 20 years. Later, he revealed he also failed to disclose the sale of a house he and wife Alma owned in Washington, and their $70,000 profit on a Florida condominium they bought in 2004 and sold in 2006.
Not to mention he's in possession of four rent-controlled apartments in a Harlem building.
I think I might have to become a Democrat. Then I can do whatever I please with no repercussions.
Naturally, the smartest woman in the world has no recollection.
"Today" show host Matt Lauer asked presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton on Friday if she has a connection to indicted developer Tony Rezko after flashing an undated photo of the two posing with President Bill Clinton.
"You were attacking Senator Obama, in particular, his work connected to what was a so-called a slumlord in Chicago, a guy named Tony Rezko," Lauer said. "You can't see what I'm going put up on the screen ... but it is a picture of you and your husband Bill Clinton posing with that same man."
Lauer said he they were unable to verify when the photo was taken, but it most likely happened during Bill Clinton's presidency.
Clinton said she did not remember taking the picture and said she doesn't even remember meeting Rezko.
"I've probably taken hundreds of thousands of pictures," Clinton said. "I don't know the man, I wouldn't know him if he walked in the door, I don't have a 17-year-relationship with him."
Since her lips were moving, we can only conclude she's lying.
Do we really want to trust the presidency with someone who has selective amnesia?
He gave plenty to Barack Obama, but also to many others, both Republicans and Democrats, including George W. Bush, Barbara Boxer (former Clinton in-law), Jesse Jackson, Jr., John Kerry, Al Gore, Dick Durbin, the RNC, and the DNC.
I find it most amusing how this pathological liar would even bring up suspicious contributors considering how one of her biggest donors recently pled guilty and is in prison.
Does this man look familiar? Will anyone even ask her about it?
In an even more shocking development, he's identified as a Democrat fundraiser in the headline!
Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu was charged on Tuesday with fraud and campaign finance violations for swindling investors out of at least $20 million and making illegal donations to U.S. political campaigns.
The 15-count indictment expands upon charges filed in September, in a case that prompted Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton to return $850,000 in contributions.
Hsu's lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment.
U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia in Manhattan accused Hsu of engineering a $60 million Ponzi scheme. The indictment charges Hsu with six counts of mail fraud, six counts of wire fraud and three counts of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act, which limits individual campaign contributions.
If convicted, the 56-year-old Hsu could face 20 years in prison on each fraud charge and five years on each campaign finance charge, as well as fines, Garcia said.
In September, Hsu had been charged with one count of mail fraud and wire fraud, and one count of violating campaign finance laws.
Leave it to The Pantsuit to pull one of these lame excuses and play word games as to why she now has convicted criminal Sandy Berger as an adviser. It doesn't appear she pulled off that phony cackle like she did on the talking-head shows last Sunday.
"He has no official role in my campaign. He's been a friend for more than 30 years. But he doesn't have any official role," she insisted.
Asked if Berger had an "unofficial" role, Clinton told USA Today, "I have thousands of unofficial advisers . . . and, you know, I appreciate all of that. But he has no official role in my campaign."
Clinton, who traveled across Iowa yesterday touting her new economic plan, was on the defensive for the continuing connection to her old friend, former President Bill Clinton's national security adviser.
Among those "thousands" of unoffical advisers, how many are convicted criminals who were busted purloining National Archive document just before you husband testified before the 9/11 Commission?
Texas Senator John Cornyn had the understatement of the day.
"I think anyone who would surround themselves with advisers like that is demonstrating bad judgment, and I think Sen. Clinton should reconsider," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
NEWARK, N.J. - A town's mayor and his wife surrendered to the FBI on Friday and were charged with diverting campaign funds and taking cash in exchange for aiding a bar owner.
David Delle Donna, mayor of Guttenberg, is the latest of several New Jersey mayors to face charges in recent years in a state plagued by government corruption[ed. -- all of if it Democrats, of course]. Mayors of Asbury Park, Camden, Hoboken and Paterson have been sent to prison. The former longtime mayor of Newark, the state's largest city, is under indictment.
Delle Donna, 49, a Democrat who has been mayor since 2002, and his wife, Anna, 58, were arrested at the FBI office in Newark, federal prosecutors said. Anna Delle Donna has been a member of the town's planning board since 2002.
OK, I exaggerated a bit earlier, but this is just the latest in a long line of indicted Democrat public officials recently. Still, the people in this state keep electing these criminals.
Eleven public officials were arrested Sept. 5, including two state legislators, two mayors and three city councilmen. They were charged with taking money to influence who received public contracts, according to federal criminal complaints.
In July, former Newark Mayor Sharpe James was indicted. James, who remains a Democratic state senator, is accused of using city-issued credit cards to pay for personal trips and expenses while mayor.
Hard to believe the pristine Pantsuit would have shady connections, isn't it?
Funny how the criminal George Soros just keeps popping up. MoveOn, Media Matters, ACT ... are there any of these brownshirt Democrat groups he isn't funding?
There's a huge stench emanating from the Clinton campaign, but apparently, the Democrats just don't care.
Officials of a defunct pro-Democratic group that was hit with a near-record campaign-finance fine last month hold strong ties to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, documents show.
At least four persons who worked for the America Coming Together (ACT) fundraising group, which the Federal Election Commission recently fined $775,000, work directly for the Clinton campaign or hold top positions with consulting firms hired by it.
In addition, the group's former president, longtime Clinton aide Harold Ickes, has been identified as a volunteer adviser to the Clinton campaign. In FEC filings, the campaign listed a debt to Mr. Ickes of more than $2,000 for travel-related costs.
Funded with millions of dollars from billionaire George Soros, America Coming Together (ACT) misused about $70 million in "soft money," uncapped donations that aren't supposed to be used to urge election or defeat of a candidate, the FEC determined, saying that some of the money was spent on direct-mail and telemarketing efforts aimed against President Bush and Republicans in key battleground states in 2004.
Laurence Gold, ACT's attorney, said the FEC's fine marked "the conclusion of three years of politically motivated charges by the Republican Party and ill-conceived allegations by self-styled campaign 'reform' groups."
It's not clear how much control the former ACT officials have had in the day-to-day fundraising activities of the Clinton campaign, which found itself the focal point of controversy surrounding jailed fundraiser Norman Hsu in recent weeks.
The Clinton campaign did not return phone or e-mail messages this week.
A fundraiser for Mrs. Clinton and other Democrats, Hsu remains in jail without bond on charges he bilked investors in a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. Mrs. Clinton's campaign has said she is returning money from donors linked to Hsu.
Fugitive political fundraiser Norman Hsu, who skipped out on San Mateo County authorities this week rather than face sentencing for a 1992 fraud conviction, was apprehended Thursday night by federal and local lawmen in Grand Junction, Colo.
Authorities said Hsu was taken into custody at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction at 7 p.m. local time. He had been on the lam for almost two days after failing to appear in a Redwood City courtroom Wednesday to surrender his passport.
Hsu was taken off a passenger train at the Grand Junction train station earlier in the day by paramedics who requested a backboard to move him, said Sgt. Lonnie Chavez with the Grand Junction Police Department.
Authorities received a request for medical assistance at the train station at about 11:15 a.m., but the exact nature of Hsu's condition was unclear, Chavez said. Staff at St. Mary's Hospital declined to comment.
FBI spokesman Joseph Schadler said Hsu will be returned to California on the 1992 conviction once released from the hospital.
Hsu's attorney told state prosecutors that Hsu had been on a charter flight that arrived at Oakland International Airport at about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday and then dropped out of sight, said Gareth Lacy, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office.
Amtrak's California Zephyr train offers service from nearby Emeryville to Grand Junction before heading to Denver and Chicago. The Zephyr left Emeryville at about 7:10 a.m. Wednesday and was scheduled to arrive in Grand Junction before noon Thursday.
Hsu's disappearing act seemed to be a reprise of a move he pulled 15 years ago, when he failed to show up for sentencing in the same grand theft case. Hsu was facing up to three years in state prison, a $10,000 fine and restitution payments after pleading no contest to a single count of grand theft in what prosecutors described as a $1 million fraud scheme.
If you stay with the story long enough, they mention the word "Democrat" in the ninth paragraph.
Were he a Republican, it would have been mentioned in the first sentence.
TRENTON, N.J. - The FBI arrested 11 public officials, including a mayor and two state lawmakers, Thursday in a federal corruption probe that spread across the state, the U.S. Attorney's office said.
The arrests were related to insurance contracts for local governments, a law enforcement officials said on condition of anonymity because the formal announcement was pending.
Democratic state Assemblymen Mims Hackett Jr. and Alfred E. Steele were both arrested, along with Passaic Mayor Samuel Rivera, the law enforcement official said. Also arrested were the chief of staff to Newark's City Council president, Passaic Councilmen Jonathan Soto and Marcellus Jackson, and five Pleasantville school board members.
The U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Christopher J. Christie, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Weysan Dun scheduled an afternoon news conference to discuss the case.
Hackett, 65, is also the mayor of Orange, a city of about 33,000 residents 15 miles west of New York City.
One of the oddities of New Jersey is you can hold dual office. This way, you can cash in twice on all the perks and kickbacks.
Steele, an assemblyman since 1996 and deputy speaker since 2002, works as a Baptist minister in Paterson and is a Passaic County undersheriff. Jenna Pollard, who answered the phone at Steele's office and identified herself as his chief of staff, said she had no comment and didn't know if Steele had a lawyer.
More than 100 public officials in the state have been convicted on federal corruption charges in the last five years.
Thursday's arrests were the latest in an anti-corruption campaign waged by Christie's office. Two other Democratic state senators, Wayne Bryant of Lawnside and Sharpe James of Newark, are among others facing pending corruption charges.
Former corrupt Governor and current Gay American, James McGreevey, was unavailable for comment.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - A top Democratic fundraiser whose criminal past has roiled the campaigns of top presidential candidates turned himself in Friday in California, where he had been a fugitive for more than 15 years.
Judge H. James Ellis ordered Norman Hsu handcuffed and jailed on $2 million bail. The judge declined Hsu's request to immediately reduce the bail by half, instead scheduling a Sept. 5 hearing to consider the request.
Hsu pleaded no contest in 1991 to a felony count of grand theft, admitting he'd defrauded investors of $1 million in a bogus investment scam. He was facing up to three years in prison when he skipped town before his 1992 sentencing date, Deputy Attorney General Ronald Smetana said outside court.
Hsu also resigned from the board of trustees of The New School and from the board of governors of The New School's Eugene Lang College. The college received a federal appropriation secured by Clinton last year, but a spokesman for the school said Hsu was not involved in seeking money for the school.
Friday's 10-minute hearing in San Mateo County Superior Court was the culmination of a stunningly quick fall from grace for a disgraced California businessman who remade himself in New York apparel executive and benefactor of Democratic causes and candidates, including presidential contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose campaign designated Hsu a "HillRaiser" — a title given to top donors.
Federal Election Commission records show Hsu donated $260,000 to Democratic Party groups and federal candidates since 2004. Though a top fundraiser for Clinton, he also donated to Obama's Senate campaign in 2004 and to Obama's political action committee.
After reports surfaced this week of his fugitive status, politicians at all levels scrambled to distance themselves.
Obama's campaign said Thursday it would give to charity the $2,000 Hsu contributed to his 2004 Senate campaign and the $5,000 Hsu gave to his political action committee, Hopefund.
Hsu's $43,700 in donations to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $2,500 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also will go to charity, both groups announced.
Clinton joined the other candidates, returning $23,000 in contributions that Hsu made to her presidential and senatorial campaigns and to her political action committee, HillPac. But his close association with her campaign put Clinton on the defensive just as she prepared to ramp up for an intense post-Labor Day campaign stretch.
California officials who said they would get rid of donations from Hsu include Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and House members Mike Honda and Doris Matsui.
Earlier this week, Hsu said he thought the criminal charges had been taken care of when he completed his bankruptcy proceedings in the early 1990s.
"I have not sought to evade any of my obligations and certainly not the law," Hsu said in a prepared statement.
According to Smetana, Hsu told investors he had a contract to buy and sell latex gloves, but he never purchased the gloves and had no contract to sell them.
After he failed to show up for sentencing, investigators believed Hsu had fled to his native Hong Kong, Smetana said.
Smetana said he has agreed to let Hsu post $1 million cash bail, He also said prosecutors are likely to again argue for a prison time when Hsu finally keeps his sentencing date with the judge.
"He stole $1 million," Smetana said.
That $2 million bail could have made for a lot of dubious $2300 donations to Democrats.
Oh well.
Now instead of Democrats pretending to be magnanimous and donating Hsu's dirty money to charity, let's find out where the money came from in the first place.
The Democrats will be desperate to put this burgeoning scandal aside, and will proclaim it "old news" by next week. But they need to be held accountable and the GOP needs to remind the public of this every day between now and November 8.
The sheer gall these people have. After lining their pockets with dubious money from an assortment of criminals, thugs, fugitives and other miscreants, the Clintons should know better than to flap their gums over the commutation of Scooter Libby.
The White House yesterday ridiculed Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton for complaining about President Bush's decision to keep former vice-presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr. out of jail, saying their criticism smacks of hypocrisy.
"I don't know what Arkansan is for chutzpah, but this is a gigantic case of it," press secretary Tony Snow said.
The White House also suggested that a slew of pardons granted by Mr. Clinton on his final day in office were never properly investigated and said they ought to be.
"This provides a nice chance to go back and look at the Clinton pardons. ... What is interesting is perhaps it was just because he was on his way out, but while there was a small flurry, there was not much investigation of it," Mr. Snow said.
"If you take a look at news reports — people scurrying about, clutching pieces of paper, running around — I think those final hours were probably not times of long chin-pulling reflection," he said.
The day Mr. Bush took office, Mr. Clinton granted 141 pardons and 36 commutations. Among those given full pardons on Jan. 20, 2001, were fugitive financier Marc Rich, who evaded $48 million in taxes and was charged with having illegal oil transactions with Iran during the 1980 hostage crisis.
Mr. Rich fled to Switzerland in 1983 and his socialite wife, Denise became a large donor to the Democratic Party and the Clinton library during Mr. Clinton's time in office.
Since they're apparently not as bright as their Slick-o-phants like to pretend, then let them keep talking. Not that any of the overwhelmingly liberal media will dare to call The Pantsuit on it during any debates, but now she's ripe for a media blitz against her when the general election rolls around.
Whoever the GOP nominee is better get the commercials ready detailing the countless pardons for shady operators they doled out when they were fleeing the White House in shame back in 2001.
