The NRCC Meltdown: An Introduction
I haven’t commented on the FBI investigation of the NRCC treasurer, Christopher Ward yet because, well, because this damn FISA bill is taking all my time.
Top House Republicans were told in recent days that a former employee of their campaign committee may have forged an official audit during the contentious 2006 election cycle and that they should brace for the possibility that an unfolding investigation could uncover financial improprieties stretching back several years, according to GOP sources briefed on the members-only discussions.
But let me make some initial points and then illustrate and then I’ll do a follow-up post on just one example of what I suspect the FBI is investigating.
- Per the Politico, Christopher Ward has been doing the NRCC’s books since 1993–that is, since the "Contract with America" cycle and since the Republicans started marching in neocon lockstep
- Per RawStory, Ward also worked for a finance firm that has done the books for a bunch of other GOP entities, including the Swift Boaters
- Per Politico, a number of Congressmen for whom Ward served as treasurer have already announced their retirement
It just so happens that I just finished Allen Raymond’s How to Rig an Election in preparation of the FDL book salon for tomorrow. So I read this passage–in which Raymond described his brainstorming for a new online political consulting firm–just as this scandal was breaking.
If all it took to get venture capital for a political dot-com was a shitty idea, hell, I could easily exceed the standard.
The first one I had was to develop an online currency exchange where the Republican national campaign committees, such as the RNC, and its affiliated state parties, could log in and trade hard money for soft and vice versa. When I ran the idea by Curt Anderson, he said, "What are you, fucking crazy? This is the stuff that’s suppose to happen in the dark of night."
"Why shouldn’t it be transparent?" I reasoned. "It all gets filed in FEC reports anyway."
"Allen, no one’s going to buy it." He was right. THe currency exchange that happened almost daily between the national Republican organizations and the state parties was the equivalent of Scarface turning drug cash into Treasury bonds. No one would want to be on record doing it.
If you’ve ever touched the financial side of political campaign or even a local party, you know that soft money–from PACs (including corporate PACs)–is really easy to raise. But you can only spend hard money on the real expenditures of campaigning, things like advertisements and offices and so on. So every political entity struggles to find a way to turn soft money into hard money. And not long before Raymond was considering his little scheme, this process got a lot harder to do, because of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform.
Now, I’m not saying that Ward has been laundering soft money into hard (though I may say that soon). I’m just pointing out that the Republicans (and, certainly, a lot of Democrats), fairly openly acknowledge the practice of laundering such money.
Raymond acknowledges that all this stuff can be readily apparent in FEC records. I’ll show in a follow-up post how quickly Christoper Ward’s work begins to look sketchy.
From Kos, WhoTF is Christopher J. Ward? (UpDt – 25 PACs?) back in September 2006.
And from one of the commenters on the post, “SOFT MONEY DONATIONS RESULT IN $132,000 IN CIVIL PENALTIES” back in 2004 where Chris Ward is prominent (again) in
launderingmanaging Repug money for a smallfinefee.Speaking of Republicans and drug cash… Hopsicker has a new installment regarding the spooked-up fleet of drug planes. Because there are no American drug lords, an ongoing investigation targets the Mexican Sinaloa cartel; there are rumors of Venezualian involvement, too. In any case, one big time Republican campaign contributor owns a few banks directly involved in the airplane transactions. Cannonfire expands on the story a little bit.
Gotta love those rumours about the evil Venezuala. Those socialists are bad, bad, bad.
Lets not forget The infamous suitcase scandal!
No honor among thieves.
NOW will someone from the DOJ secure the NRC emails?
Probably not. AG Mukasey probably has a Steven Bradbury-generated OLC opinion that the RNC is a part of the Executive branch and therefore entitled to the full protection of Executive Privilege.
You have this backwards.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that Reynolds was
Mark Foley’s BFF thhroughout Pagegate.
Tom Reynolds , NY-26,
was head of the NRCC in 2006.
Jeebus. I’m going to the bookstore this afternoon to get a copy of “Rig”.
Looking through the FEC reports for the last 4-plus years, I could see they were swapping funds, but it was impossible to confirm this was happening. A monied incumbent would turn into the RNC what they called “excess funds”…and then the RNC would make a donation to a race somewhere else. But there’d be nothing concrete — without other internal documentation like emails — to connect these two points.
A lot of corporate monies were handled this way; there are PAC’s that very clearly are used in this fashion, can predict which PAC’s will have been used before one even goes digging too far. Coburn’s contributions, for example, have a lot of this kind of PAC traffic. And DeLay’s money…perfect example.
Whoa!
No clue how I’m going to get to the shop today for a copy — but this post, and the comments, sure feel like ‘convergence’ in the offing.
I’m in a caucus state tomorrow, which may conflict with the Book Salon… (grrrr). But at least I can catch up on thread comments later.
Citizen92, thank you so much. Impressive.
I’ve worked around eComm apps, and my conclusion was that there is huge (vast, enormous) potential for abuse. Rove’s interest in databases has always been a worry, and the fact that 5 million emails went ‘missing’ confirmed that their criminal behavior was extensive, and must reach into every corner of the country (as well as beyond), at many levels of government and business.
From citizen92’s comments, it appears:
Alabama + Riley + Triad + Canary + Rove + GOP fundraising... almost certainly links with ‘casinos’ + ‘Abramoff’ + offshore gambling + online gambling + KStreet Project
Your linkages suggest that the GOP/Riley/Canary/Rove/Bush obsession with putting Siegelman behind bars where he can’t talk is possibly more deeply linked deeply to GOP fundraising (and financial) crimes, than to the more ’surface layer’ view of simply wanting to control a governorship. (Makes one marvel that Siegelman is still alive; has anyone else ‘disappeared’ under mysterious circumstances…?)
JohnJ – the Mafia look like a kids soccer team compared with this crowd. And at least the Mafia don’t outfit themselves in sanctimonious hypocrisy.
There so much going on that the public can’t see readily; it’s going to take us a decade to unwind the insidious cancer that has entwined itself into the infrastructure that is our government.
Citizen92’s comments shed light on one area that has many other iterations elsewhere in the machinery. It’s bad, very bad, it’s all compromised, and it’s taking far too long to explain to people who should be stopping it what exactly has gone wrong.
There’s far too much complexity in all of this – I try to follow certain threads, but it’s spooky the way things start to echo and collide among Siegelman, Abramoff, the missing emails, the DoJ firings… sinister.
The Roves, et al blame ‘the Internets’ for revelations about the DoJ, the war, and festering unease, but I disagree. I have only anecdotal evidence and hunches, but I’ve heard remarks from the least likely, most conformist, deeply patriotic people that I’m in contact with that completely shock me. I suspect that if it weren’t for the Internet people would be meeting up in garages, coffee shops, and bars because there’s almost a layer of griminess to the worry that I observe.
I hate to give money to the author for this Book Salon, but the book looks like a valuable puzzle piece.
Yeah, me too, hate to pony the money, but sometimes buying intelligence is cheaper than investigation when there’s so much to investigate. And I’ll keep in mind as I read it the old X-Files tag line, “Trust No One – The Truth Is Out There”, too, since the author has an agenda. What drove him to cough up this information after working so long for the beast? Can a leopard really change his spots, or do they merely trade them in for something inkier and less easily detected?
“Looking through the FEC reports for the last 4-plus years, I could see they were swapping funds, but it was impossible to confirm this was happening. A monied incumbent would turn into the RNC what they called “excess funds”…and then the RNC would make a donation to a race somewhere else. But there’d be nothing concrete — without other internal documentation like emails — to connect these two points.
A lot of corporate monies were handled this way; there are PAC’s that very clearly are used in this fashion, can predict which PAC’s will have been used before one even goes digging too far. Coburn’s contributions, for example, have a lot of this kind of PAC traffic. And DeLay’s money…perfect example.”
I too spent considerable time working on trying to trace the swaps back in the summer of 2006, but I did it by Legislative Issue. For instance I identified the primary lobbyies working on not regulating the cost of student loans, the Leadership PACS that initially received the funds, and then the distribution of those funds to other legislators and non-incumbant campaigns. Found much interesting stuff. Not sure if it is illegal, but still of interest. Found a mass of charges against individual congressmen’s accounts of what appeared to be fees for donations, in other words if Congressperson X gives Congressperson Y ten thousand from a leadership PAC, a fee of 10% is charged against the donation. Paid to a firm in NVirginia founded and owned by Haley Barbour that apparently had at least 100 R congresspersons funding. Because the firm is private, does not report to FEC — thus no way to track the use of the PAC funds. Another firm in California apparently did congressional issue mailings, probably microtargeting, thus when a potentially controversial matter was in the news — up for floor or committee vote, and yes, you could track congressional payments from PAC transfers to the California firm in the same time frame as congressional action. In the case of student loans, it looked like micro targeting to those in districts concerned with this specific issue. I only did one issue, the Student Loan matter, but suspect this could be followed across multiple issues. But what amazed me was the centralization — normally Congress critters make a big thing of supporting local vendors for printing, mailing and all — not this gang, they way over paid, as well as paying all these fees, for what should, in fact, come out of a local congressional office. There apparently was a non-bank bank where they held all their funds, again in N Virginia.
Would be a good focus for closer investigation.
Yeah, the student loan stuff is right there at the surface, yet even with the increased scrutiny, no one is looking at it.
Thing is, this Christopher Ward stuff looks like it is using a back–Wachovia. But interestingly, he’s sprinkling it around different branches in the DC metro area and even Charlotte. I suspect there’s a lot of laundering going on in Wachovia.
And now we have another reason why they wanted von Spakovsky so badly at the FEC; if Wachovia had no choice but to report the fraudulent fake audit report (funny how that works when there are series penalties against CEOs who don’t follow the letter of SarbOx), the equally questionable reporting by NRCC to FEC had to be reported.
They need to keep the deck stacked with folks who could recognize the dead bodies and smoking guns on sight, and who’d drag their feet taking any action.
EW, I’m glad you decided to muse and write about this. We had a research thread going on over at TPM Muckraker. Let me suggest a few items from that thread for readers to explain anew.
The interconnected nature of GOP money and political dirty tricks here. Christopher J. Ward is listed as the #2 officer at Fairfax, VA Political Compliance Services, Inc. PCS does FEC accounting and filings for many GOP candidates. PCS is headed by Suzanne Arceneaux, who is a GOP clandestine operative of the first order:
Technology Has Radically Changed How FEC Filings Are Done, Who Files Them and What Becomes of the Information. PCS has a division called American Political Webware which is an online FEC filing tool and customer database. The database is one of several that the FEC has approved for online filing. We know that APW is a PCS product for two reasons – 1/Chris Ward has an email address on the APW domain (he sends his kid/s to a tony Bethesda private school) and 2/APW shares server rack space with PCS. Point being, PCS has a huge database of donors, donor contacts, and financial records, all online. All ready to be sliced and diced. What do they do with that data, and who do they share it with? [be sure to check out the demo – live with real voter info!]
All Scandal Players Come TogetherIs it a coincedence that Chris Ward’s Assistant Treasurer on the Senate Majority Committee Account is Cynthia Ely Hampton, wife of NV Senator ?John Ensign’s senior advisor Doug Hampton? Is it a coincedence that Cynthia and Doug live in DC but somehow manage to own a $1.6 million dollar house in Las Vegas (currently for sale). Is it a coincedence that Ensign is a huge roadblock on permitting proper campaign finance disclosure in the Senate?
That Wonderful Link Between GOP Politics and ChristiandomIs it a coincedence that PCS and APW also seem to run a Christian web design, hosting and direct mail company or at least have affiliations with one? (http://www.acaciamedia.net)
I’ve got more questions than answers. But I know that Karl Rove was database-crazed. And I think it all starts there.
Let’s not forget about Tom DeLay’s political account shennanigans. Shuffling money between federal accounts (ARMPAC) and state accounts where unlimited corporate contributions are fine (held in Mississippi and Alabama). I remember a story from time back that Alabama’s campaign disclosure rules and regulation were notably lax but I can’t find it.
But the fact that Ward has been in a key seat for so long (since the ‘93 revolution) makes me think strongly that he knows where the bodies are buried.
(Having trouble posting, forgive if this appears multiple times)
EW, I’m glad you decided to muse and write about this. We had a research thread going on over at TPM Muckraker. Let me suggest a few items from that thread for readers to explain anew.
The interconnected nature of GOP money and political dirty tricks here. Christopher J. Ward is listed as the #2 officer at Fairfax, VA Political Compliance Services, Inc. PCS does FEC accounting and filings for many GOP candidates. PCS is headed by Suzanne Arceneaux, who is a GOP clandestine operative of the first order:
(continued)
Technology Has Radically Changed How FEC Filings Are Done, Who Files Them and What Becomes of the Information. PCS has a division called American Political Webware which is an online FEC filing tool and customer database. The database is one of several that the FEC has approved for online filing. We know that APW is a PCS product for two reasons – 1/Chris Ward has an email address on the APW domain (he sends his kid/s to a tony Bethesda private school) and 2/APW shares server rack space with PCS. Point being, PCS has a huge database of donors, donor contacts, and financial records, all online. All ready to be sliced and diced. What do they do with that data, and who do they share it with? [be sure to check out the demo – live with real voter info!]
(continued)
All Scandal Players Come TogetherIs it a coincedence that Chris Ward’s Assistant Treasurer on the Senate Majority Committee Account is Cynthia Ely Hampton, wife of NV Senator ?John Ensign’s senior advisor Doug Hampton? Is it a coincedence that Cynthia and Doug live in DC but somehow manage to own a $1.6 million dollar house in Las Vegas (currently for sale). Is it a coincedence that Ensign is a < a href=http://politics.lasvegassun.com/2007/09/campaign-fundin.html>huge roadblock on permitting proper campaign finance disclosure in the Senate?
That Wonderful Link Between GOP Politics and ChristiandomIs it a coincedence that PCS and APW also seem to run a Christian web design, hosting and direct mail company or at least have affiliations with one? (http://www.acaciamedia.net
I’ve got more questions than answers. But I know that Karl Rove was database-crazed. And I think it all starts there.
Ah, this makes more sense now. I thought the initial hints that Ward had somehow scammed the NRCC seemed unlikely. The idea that he’s the scapegoat for their shady accounting practices seems much more likely.
Very nice work, Citizen 92. Done any sniffing on the servers in that same rackspace? I’m sure you’ll find a lot of other interesting content.
Very interesting stuff from Cit92 Thankyou. I wonder if Mukasey is too busy investigating his toenail length to look into this?
Somewhat OT: Is anyone else noticing that the toobz are especially slow and slothful this morning? It sure seems to be the case here in the Minneapolis area.
My speed is just fine, but then of course, I’m in Saint Paul where everything is better. *g*
Speed was sure slow out here in California too this am. Everything said “server not found”.
Dick and MukasMembrain’s Hoover machine sometimes affects the efficiency of the toobz you know…
Really slow here in Memphis also.
You cut 5 international cables to route through the US and the hoover has to work overtime, slowing everything down.
Since I’m wearing my “never forget” hat, I’ve always believed that the (officially uninvestigated) 1996 GOP campaign finance scandal was a key plank in the dirty money machine. Remember “Triad Management, Inc?” Dan Burton’s refusal to hear the evidence while going full bore after Gore’s phone calls from the White House? Tom DeLay was, of course, involved.
Here’s the teaser:
.
Here’s the Frontline background.
Here’s part of the minority report.
One nugget buried deep in the report caught my eye. Alabama Governor Bob Riley (at the time running for a House seat) was a beneficiary of the Triad group’s efforts. And his son, Rob Riley, was responsible for being the liaison. How did the Rileys know that Triad was in the shady fundraising business? How did they get connected up? Well, back in the 90’s GOP-Alabama = Rove = Canary. Just sayin’.
And now that there is no FED, because of toddler-in-chief’s insistence on walking moral turpitude charge civil rights infraction Von Spakovsky, what happens or worse what does not happen?
It is no snark to compare these guys to the Mafia:
– Strictly Organized
– Brutal
– Enforced loyalty
– Psychopathic (no hint of a conscience)
– Needs an open society in which to hide in
– Almost as smart as Spongebob’s friend Patrick
(You can make a case that the Mafia doesn’t go after innocents the way the Rethugs do).
Speaking of which, can this be turned into a RICO case? Wouldn’t it be interesting to see the Big Dick charged as head of a criminal enterprise?
They really thought they would never get caught. What more evidence do we need that these creeps bought Rovers “permanent Repug majority”.
– Needs an open society in which to hide
inDamn “C” coding again.
New scary stuff. deputized private individuals in FBI/DHS, w. shoot-to-kill capacity When martial law is declared.
Do we now know why US did not protest when Mushareff declared martial law and emptied the supreme court. This in addition to Mukasey’s everything we do is legal now and for the next DOJ.
EW does this ring true? ACLU says so. IF so, reason to be scared, reason not for this site to remain focused on rule of law and infringement thereof.
Modified from a posting at FDL.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…..979/452597
C92, Good to see you here. I posted a short Kos diary about the NRCC scandal and someone linked to empty wheel’s post in the comments section. As time permits, I intend to do my own digging.
Rep. Tom Davis (VA-11) announced suddenly last week that he was retiring, and the WaPo [sub. required] ran a flufftastic editorial praising him as a doer not a talker. His District is right across the river from D.C. in Fairfax, VA. I was shocked at his sudden decision, because he was one of the most vicious GOP partisans during his tenure, good buddy’s with Sen. George Allen, etc. [WaPo link might not work.]
Just a curious, unexpected twist? Or could it be because “Tom served as Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee from 1998 to 2002.”
Don’t want to go off topic but just checking in at lunch to see if any other parts of the Republic have been discarded today. Has Congress been disbanded yet? Do we still have a Supreme Court – worthless as they are?
Seems to me, the behavior and/or survival of our Congress and Supreme Court are never OT.
Incidentally, DHS and FBI and RNC still have not canceled the Presidential primary elections down here in the “Chesapeake” states of Virgina, Maryland and D.C. So, candidates are about, radio and teevee ads are airing, and volunteers are hitting the bricks with signs for voting precincts, flyers in the entertainment zones, all the usual fun. So that part of the Republic survives.
Interesting. I guess after yesterday they figured they had done enough work for a while.
I hear they will be making their way down here to Texas shortly. Should be interesting.
…former employee of their campaign committee may have forged an official audit…
Could this be compared to lying to Congress?
Because if it could, I’m sure that Main Justice has an opinion around somewhere declaring that it’s legal.
http://www.realclearpolitics.c….._nrcc.html
“Ward has also served as treasurer for campaign committees and leadership PACs including those of Reps. Jim Walsh, Jim Saxton, Peter Roskam, Lamar Smith and Denny Rehberg as well as Senator John Ensign’s leadership PAC.”
Because Congressman Lamar Smith spoke in favor of waterboarding when questioning Mukasey just yesterday, one might ask why he carries Bush’s message, and one might say he is fair game.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/…..rboarding/
@Rayne
You could read the Allen Raymond book in under two hours at a Borders or Barnes and Noble, etc, if you have the time. They almost always have a place to sit. $25 is the going rate right now for that item, and it’s printed on newsprint, not even heavy enough for a door stop. (Metaphors welcome).
BilliE @ 35
O/T Here’s the cable update reading of the day:
http://www.lloyds.com/CmsPhoen…..?id=380526
http://www.renesys.com/blog/20…..rt_2.shtml
http://www.flagtelecom.com/ind…..wsID=27493
http://www.flagtelecom.com/ind…..wsID=27494
http://africa.reuters.com/wire…..69921.html
I wonder if the guiltyPlea recently by the former client of Geragos, might curtail discovery of RNC funding related matters; linked 3days ago from TPMM. Then there is the ennui that sets in when one’s campaign venture must evanesce as politicians exit from office, as LathropGage’s MThorHearne has shown in the acvr matter; the concept I would expect to be implemented would be same organization, different name; though Hearne is a principal in that firm, it is a substantial size outfit and ostensibly separate from entities such as acvr; LG’s employee roster numbers in the 100s. Re-reading Friedman’s October 21 2007 tale of a Ney chaired subcommittee hearing on HAVA implementation March 21, 2005 is a different picture from the one conveyed by the LathropGageHearnePage’s barebone link to a formal presentation Hearne made without being a true transcript, though its title on the House website is misleading in the claim it is a transcript, and uses the year 2004 in the document title, which is a reference to the date of passage of HAVA, not to the date of the March 21, 2005 hearing which comprises the document’s contents; Hearne’s formal remarks appear about page 30; and evidently the PowerPoint images are not live linked, either, at least in the text version; they have posted a html rendering, as well. So, I guess this comment is a reflection on the employment status of the people. I appreciate too c92’s investigative backgrounders. Likely time to check epluribusMedia, if they are focused on the fiscal aspect of campaign finance related to the rnccMelt post. CQ has a dispassionate review of the lack of quorum problem at FEC’s hamstringing that entity’s capability to do much this election year, hinging the vigor of FEC upon the dispute over vonSpakovsky in the nominations standoffs; actually, CQ only mentions the FEC’s isolation transitorily in their article this week. CQ serves a lot of subscribers from both sides of the aisle; a few conversations with one of their salespeople clarified for me how pricey the privately distributed part of their work product is, though they provide a customizing guide to tailor your reports and configure your database tools.
JohnLopresti. Bravo. Thor Hearne is another thread and symptom of this organization that has been built over the years.
ReaderOfTeaLeavs has got my sentiment cold – linkage. This is all related. Sometimes I really think that I’m jumping into tinfoil hat/satellite territory, but the facts just keep coming back as true.
So let me just lay a few more facts on the table. Tell me where they go. Please. I smell a grand conspiracy. I just want to know how it all fits together.
E-Mail Scandal.In 2005, the Bush White House was e-mailing with a prominent Ohio Republican Tom Noe (now in jail). Noe made illegal campaign contributions and his wife headed the Toledo area election board. Result? Huge voting irregularities in 2004. This angle went unexplored because “missing e-mails” weren’t discovered until 2007. And, in the vein of another scandal, the White House was also using its secret email to forward poltical presentations to Governors offices – much like what happened at GSA with Lurita Doan and J. Scott Jennings. BOTH STILL NEED TO BE PROBED.
connects to
The GovTech and CopTix Networks.You know, the place where the gwb43.com e-mails were flowing through. It appears as though Noe and the White House were transacting business using that email account. Is it a coincedence then that Jill Holtzman-Vogel, the former General Counsel of the RNC from 2001-ish to 2003 (who would have had to approve the RNC running and paying for the GWB43.com network) runs her infrastructure on that same network. And that her firm “Holzman Law” is stacked with dirty tricksters like Jason Torchinsky?
connects to
Mark F. Thor Hearne, II. You know, the AC4VR fraudster? Is it a coincedence that Jill Holztman Vogel’s firm set up the incorporation for AC4VR and paid its corporate taxes? [unfortunately you’ve got to slog through the records to see them]
connects to
CIA Director Porter Goss. Did you know that Porter Goss is a really really rich man? And did you know that a $15 million home that he and his wife owned (or still own in trust, unclear, but now for sale) in Sanibel, Florida all of a sudden granted a share to the Pillar Foundation on 12/24/2004 (just after the election). Oh, and the Pillar Foundation is affiliated with Thor F. Hearne. Here’s Goss’s 1997 Congressional Disclosure showing he owned that address.
connects to
Swift Boat Veterans For Truth. Yup, the other holder of the property interest in Goss’ million dollar home is something called the Amethyst Revocable Trust. Amethyst is run by Katherine Andrews, who is wife of Missouri businessman and Swift Boats funder Mark Andrews. Both live at 11 Chesterfield Lakes, in Chesterfield, MO (the address of the Amethyst Trust from the Florida property record). The same Mark Andrews, who hates casinos.
connects to
Phyllis Schafly’s Eagle Forum. Thor Hearne’s wife is listed as a cooperative education contact with the Eagle Forum.
And on, and on. Any thoughts?
Citizen92 — thanks, I’ve been thinking about it, will spend the $$ anyhow since it may come in handy. We have a local progressive organization that does trainings for candidates, might help with a segment on opposition research. Will donate it to our organization’s library as well, will surely save a bunch of money if I do this.
May only be tin foil, but, since NRCC meltdown / Ward / Contract America has genesis in 1992, the Repubs needed a good diversion so all their chicanery wouldn’t be noticed. Best offense / defense would be to accuse Clinton, Gore, Condit, Dems of anything and everything so that public and legit press were continually distracted. You can make a list of the Repub fingerpointers/noisemakers/talkers involved in this facet of the “crime ring”.
Another really bad idea: Robert Parry over at Consortium News wrote a very lengthy article called the GOP’s $3 billion propaganda organ. I didn’t see any mention of Christopher Ward in that article, though there were a number of other prominent Republicans and NeoCons mentioned.
A short excerpt:
I found all this very interesting, particularly that it was money from Moon that kept Liberty University from going under and that Jerry Fallwell is the one who approached Moon. When I look at the scope of the schemes for laundering money for the Republican party, I am frightened and pissed.
TPM is now quoting Politico as saying that this blew up when Mike Conaway (R-Texas and a CPA) asked for an internal audit of the NRCC. They finally handed him one that was fake from top to bottom, including the letterhead it was on. I gather he spotted that, and then it went to the FBI.
(again, posting problems – sorry for any duplication)
JohnLopresti. Bravo. Thor Hearne is another thread and symptom of this organization that has been built over the years.
ReaderOfTeaLeavs has got my sentiment cold – linkage. This is all related. Sometimes I really think that I’m jumping into tinfoil hat/satellite territory, but the facts just keep coming back as true.
So let me just lay a few more facts on the table. Tell me where they go. Please. I smell a grand conspiracy. I just want to know how it all fits together.
E-Mail Scandal.In 2005, the Bush White House was e-mailing with a prominent Ohio Republican Tom Noe (now in jail). Noe made illegal campaign contributions and his wife headed the Toledo area election board. Result? Huge voting irregularities in 2004. This angle went unexplored because “missing e-mails” weren’t discovered until 2007. And, in the vein of another scandal, the White House was also using its secret email to forward poltical presentations to Governors offices – much like what happened at GSA with Lurita Doan and J. Scott Jennings. BOTH STILL NEED TO BE PROBED.
connects to
The GovTech and CopTix Networks.You know, the place where the gwb43.com e-mails were flowing through. It appears as though Noe and the White House were transacting business using that email account. Is it a coincedence then that Jill Holtzman-Vogel, the former General Counsel of the RNC from 2001-ish to 2003 (who would have had to approve the RNC running and paying for the GWB43.com network) runs her infrastructure on that same network. And that her firm “Holzman Law” is stacked with dirty tricksters like Jason Torchinsky?
connects to
Mark F. Thor Hearne, II. You know, the AC4VR fraudster? Is it a coincedence that Jill Holztman Vogel’s firm set up the incorporation for AC4VR and paid its corporate taxes? [unfortunately you’ve got to slog through the records to see them]
connects to
CIA Director Porter Goss. Did you know that Porter Goss is a really really rich man? And did you know that a $15 million home that he and his wife owned (or still own in trust, unclear, but now for sale) in Sanibel, Florida all of a sudden granted a share to the Pillar Foundation on 12/24/2004 (just after the election). Oh, and the Pillar Foundation is affiliated with Thor F. Hearne. Here’s Goss’s 1997 Congressional Disclosure showing he owned that address.
connects to
Swift Boat Veterans For Truth. Yup, the other holder of the property interest in Goss’ million dollar home is something called the Amethyst Revocable Trust. Amethyst is run by Katherine Andrews, who is wife of Missouri businessman and Swift Boats funder Mark Andrews. Both live at 11 Chesterfield Lakes, in Chesterfield, MO (the address of the Amethyst Trust from the Florida property record). The same Mark Andrews, who hates casinos.
connects to
Phyllis Schafly’s Eagle Forum. Thor Hearne’s wife is listed as a cooperative education contact with the Eagle Forum.
And on, and on. Any thoughts?
And what the heck, one last post.
If you had any doubts about Donna being married to Thor (or at least somehow related), property records show that they own a place together in St. Louis.
And that house is where Donna Hearne’s Constitutional Coalition does its bookkeeping, at least according to the Coalition’s 2004 IRS 990 filing.
So what exactly is the Consitutional Coalition? We’ll in Donna’s now off-line words:
Okay then.
Here’s the website (password is freedom, according to a posting on the missourifamilynetwork.net.
Anyhoo, here’s the agenda for their upcoming conference, and guess what….
The last guy… Evelio Silverra… He appears in my posts above with Mark Andrews at the anti-casino place…
Fun little group, Swittboat funder, anti-casino, voting fraudster and his pro-constitutional wife.
Just what sort of cabal have we here?
I noticed Hearne is the attorney of record for amici Sen. Mitch McConnell, Sen. Robert Bennett, Sen. Kit Bond, Rep. Roy Blunt, Rep. Lamar Smith, Rep. Vernon Ehlers in the Rokita Crawford case, a voter ID voter suppression effort in IN, argued at Scotus in recent months; likely these folks want a Scotus ruling by summer so the courts will be in turmoil during actual election season when the southern states and several other states with a record of voter suppression militancy by Republicans likely want to be deploying their various permutations of the voterID sob story. Little new in this for Republicans, who now have adapted their monolithic views to the exclusionist ploys long used in Dixie for similar ends of controlling elections by restricting ballot access. The Brennan Center at NYU school of law is following the case; Hearne’s amicus document is there.
And white we’re at it, how about some of Thor Hearne’s wife’s Constitutional Coailtion issues lectures? You can buy them on CD, or see a list:
Wowzers.
I wonder where the Hearnes stand on the ABA study of whether to recommend that a select group of law schools be denied the right to grant tenure to professors, though perhaps they are avoiding the issue, given Regent U’s involvement in resumes of some high profile DoJ attorneys who were key implementers in the US attorney purge. When I have a moment, there are ample links to the money paths, which are ew’s current sculpted work of the original post; maybe in time to have a contribution for ‘NrccMelt The Sequel’. I still have hope the EOP lost emails hearing next Friday will provide more of a glimpse into the offsiting of upwards of 200 executive branch officials’ Hatch and likely nonHatch eMissives; Waxman was fairly incredulous in his release of the list of persons involved and the nonsequenced dates including counts which showed mismatches between predictable number of emails versus actually recorded emails for some individuals; v.pp10ff of the report Waxman released January 18, 2008.
Donna Hearne is also a listed member of the ultra-right Center for National Policy.
You’ll of course recognize the other names too…
One other to point out is Timmy Teepel. Homeschooled Timmy up until recently was the director of the “Madison Project” (a political fundraising group) but recently moved to Louisiana to work for Gov. Bobby Jindal.
While Timmy was running the Madison, however, he shared office space at 119 C St, SE on Capitol Hill with Carolyn Malenick. Malenick ran the illegal GOP “Triad Management” fundraiser conduit during the 1996 election. Malenick was only recently fined by the FEC in 2004 for that work. Eight years to adjudicate, sheesh.
Anyway, more phyiscal manifestations of the shady money train.
If anybody is still here, is this actually material? In the real world?
That is, are there real, criminal jailtime penalties? Because if all that happens is that campaigns are fined after the election, this is just a cost of doing business.
Dole’s campaign was out of money between his wrapping up his primary delegate count and the convention. By law, he couldn’t campaign; he was out of funds and was accepting matching money. But he nonetheless continued to campaign. After the election, the campaign was fined.
Seemed toothless to me at the time.
Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Montana) fired Ward on December 7, 2007, according to the Great Falls Tribune yesterday.
“…Erik Iverson, Rehberg’s chief of staff, confirmed Thursday that the man reportedly under investigation is Chris Ward, a Washington, D.C.-based financial consultant, who also served as treasurer for Rehberg’s Bringing Our Opportunities Together political action committee in 2006 and 2007.
Barbara Barrett, a spokeswoman for Rehberg’s campaign, said in a written statement that Ward was terminated as the BOOT PAC’s campaign treasurer on Dec. 7. Barrett did not give specifics as to why Ward was fired, but Iverson said in an earlier interview that he heard from campaign staffers that Ward was expensive and unresponsive to campaign contributors.
Rehberg’s leadership PAC raised $47,000 during the 2006 election cycle, and $15,000 so far for the 2008 election cycle, according to Federal Elections Commission filings. Most of that money was spent on fundraising consulting fees and accounting and compliance fees. The Fairfax, Va.-based Political Compliance Services, the firm in which Ward is a partner, was paid $4,500 by Rehberg’s leadership PAC in 2006 and $5,500 in 2007 for accounting and compliance fees…”
Wachovia in the news:
NYTimes Wachovia page The linked article “Wachovia Moves In” is especially cherce, imo.
DOJ:Wachovia Sec Former SVP Pleads Guilty To Bank Larceny A random bad apple in all liklihood.
Evidence Wachovia Knew of and Profited from Theft This nakedcapitalism post echoes one of the NYT articles, but with comments.
Wachovia Net Falls 98% on Mortgage-Linked Writedowns (Update5). No doubt they have everything already covered and won’t be needing a lifeline anytime soon.
This article sets me straight on that last sentence;P Also there’s this methodological note to chew over:
Emphasis mine.
C92,
I googled Susan Arceneaux out of curiousity and I think I may have found an accounting irregularity involving Swift Boat Vets and Political Compliance Services.
Arceneaux, as you know, is or very recently was partners in Political Compliance Services with Christopher J. Ward. Ward is the former NRCC treasurer who is under investigation by the FBI.
Arceneaux and PCS handle the accounting for Swift Boat Vets which is a 527 for tax purposes. Arceneaux also handles the books for the Admiral Roy F. Hoffmann Foundation. In fact, the foundation’s address is the same as PCS’s.
Admiral Roy F. Hoffman is a co-founder of Swift Boats.
According to the Swift Boat Vets 8872 filed with the IRS for the first quarter of 2006, Swift Boat Vets contributed $100,000 to the Admiral Hoffman Foundation on 2/8/06.
But, according to the 2006 990 filed with the IRS by the foundation, the foundation either never received or never recorded the $100,000 contribution from Swift Boat Vets.
The foundation did record a $10,000 contribution from Swift Boat Vets in 2005.
Where did the $100,000 disappear to?