An update to Hillary Watch 2006

Longtime Clinton friend Harold Ickes is currently Treasurer of "Hillary Rodham Clinton for US Senate Committee Inc" (FEC data). Ickes previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff in the Clinton White from 1994 to 1997. He earned the notorious title of ?Director of Sanitation? as he took care of the majority of the scandals arising from President Clinton's abuses of power. Ickes himself also had problems when, according to The Wall Street Journal, he was suspected to have committed perjury "in a 1997 deposition given to a Senate committee investigating campaign-finance irregularities." After his White House tenure, he ran Hillary's successful Senate campaign in 1999 and 2000.

Janice Enright is Treasurer of Hill PAC (FEC data), Hillary Clinton's leadership political action committee on which she is the Honorary Chair. Enright was Special Assistant to Harold Ickes while he was serving President Clinton.

Ickes and Enright are both registered lobbyists and co-founders of the lobbying firm Ickes & Enright.

Loyalty to longtime supporters is one thing, but having two registered lobbyists acting as treasurers of political committees certainly raises some ethical questions. Ickes and Enright both have lobbied on behalf of numerous companies. This obviously can create a conflict of interest as two treasurers have the ear of Senator Clinton and both are in charge of managing and soliciting hundreds of thousands of dollars from contributors.

Prominent Donors to Hill PAC

Prominent donors to Hill PAC include Bernie L. Schwartz, the man who bought the influence of President Clinton and who was able to sell satellite technology to the Communist Chinese. Despite playing a large part in the Chinagate scandal where the Clinton Administration used the Department of Trade illegally to raise campaign funds, Schwartz is still donating to Democrats. He donated $5000 this January to Hill PAC.

Another large donor is Roger Altman. Altman was the Deputy Treasury Secretary under President Clinton and later became John Kerry's primary economic advisor during the 2004 presidential election race. He also got into a little trouble during the Clinton administration:

Notwithstanding strong support by Clinton, Altman resigned Aug. 29, 1994 following revelations he tipped the White House off to criminal referrals made by Resolution Trust Corp. investigators related to Madison Guaranty. Altman, a college friend of Clinton's, angered both Republican and Democratic senators after giving conflicting testimony about White House-Treasury contacts.

Testifying before the Senate banking committee in February 1994, then-deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman (a college friend of Clinton's) conceded he had given top White House officials, including then-White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum, a "heads-up" on nine RTC criminal referrals that in one instance targeted Clinton's 1985 gubernatorial campaign, and named the Clintons as witnesses in others. Eight days after the "heads up," Clinton met with former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker in the Oval Office. Clinton advisors George Stephanopoulos and Harold Ickes also came under fire following revelations they called Altman to protest the choice to head the RTC probe, Pillsbury partner Jay Stephens, a former Bush-appointed U.S. attorney fired by Clinton in 1993. (CNN.com)

Roger Altman currently works for Evercore Partners, an investment company.

Another link has emerged between Kofi Annan and the U.N.'s "Oil for Food" scandal. A former "special adviser" to Annan, Jean-Bernard Merimee, was arrested in Paris this week. Merimee, who also served as a French ambassador to the U.N. in the early 1990s, is accused having received "illicit and lucrative contracts to buy oil from Saddam Hussein's U.N.-sanctioned regime," according to a detailed account today by Claudia Rosett of National Review Online?

In February, 1999, Kofi Annan brought Merimee into his select U.N. team of special advisers and envoys, bestowing on Merimee the U.N.'s third-highest rank of undersecretary general, and appointing him as "Special Adviser of the Secretary-General for European Issues. According to the secretary general's office, Merimee held that position from February, 1999 until February, 2002?

?During this same period, Oil-for-Food was evolving from a limited, ad hoc U.N. relief program into the biggest heist in the history of humanitarian relief.

Rosett goes on to report that Merimee, received two million barrels of Iraqi oil from Hussein from July ? November, 2001, during the time he served Annan.

Saddam's goal throughout the "Oil for Food" scandal was to buy influence through oil allocations. Russian and France were two of his main targets. While it is unclear exactly what Hussein received for his money, the fact remains that both countries were opposed to efforts by the United States to hold Hussein accountable, as was U.N. Secretary General Annan.

Judicial Watch is still seeking documents from the Bush administration related to the "Oil for Food" fiasco. In response to Judicial Watch's open records request, the U.S. State Department shockingly deferred to the U.N. as to whether or not it can release documents. Judicial Watch sued the State Department in response.

Less than a year removed from the indictment of her National Finance Director for failing to report the cost of a celebrity campaign fundraiser, Hillary Clinton is back in the Hollywood fundraising game. This today from Variety.com?

"For someone who's not running for the White House, Hillary Clinton will certainly look like a presidential contender Thursday as she embarks on a swing through Hollywood.

"Democrats in the entertainment industry, who started the year fatigued and frustrated following their unsuccessful effort to elect John Kerry, have been emboldened by recent political setbacks for President George W. Bush and other Republicans, and they're planning no fewer than three fund-raisers during the New York senator's West Coast trip.

"Events include a $500-per-person reception at the home of Rob Reiner and a $1,000-per-person brunch hosted by film producers Bruce Cohen and Dan JinksDan Jinks. Television producer Marta Kauffman will also welcome Clinton to her home for a fund-raiser."

Hillary's reunion with her old Hollywood friends certainly raises suspicions. During her Senate 2000 campaign, Clinton defrauded the Federal Election Commission and the U.S. Senate by failing to report a $2 million contribution from former JW client Peter Paul in the form of a celebrity fundraiser. Paul noticed the omission when reviewing Senator Clinton's campaign finance reports. Hillary's National Finance Director, David Rosen, was indicted in the matter, but later acquitted after the Justice Department presented a watered down case. (Justice Department lawyers had no interest implicating Hillary in the scheme and left key evidence off the table?)

Judicial Watch recently launched a program, "Hillary Watch 2006" to track all of Hillary's campaign reports and filings to the Federal Election Commission. For more information on JW's efforts to hold Hillary accountable for her transgressions in 2000, including JW's Senate ethics complaint, click here.

The former chief of the Roslyn, New York school district has plead guilty to grand larceny charges, admitting that he took millions of taxpayer money to finance a lavish lifestyle that included European vacations on the supersonic Concorde. He also used the money for mortgage payments for homes in Florida, the Hamptons and Pennsylvania.

Frank Tassone is scheduled to be sentenced in late November and his prison time could range anywhere from 4 to 12 years. New York's state comptroller called Tassone's actions "the most extraordinary theft from a school district in American history."

The schools in Roslyn, which is about 20 miles from Manhattan, are among the best in the state. Homes in the district frequently sell for millions of dollars and SAT scores are among the best in the nation.

A few months ago the San Diego (California) County District Attorney charged six city officials with felony conflict of interest in the pension-fund scandal that prompted the resignation of Mayor Dick Murphy. Now the FBI has launched a probe that focuses on City Manager Lamont Ewell.

The feds recently subpoenaed a 2002 memo--apparently laced with falsehoods and signed by Ewell--that defends the council's decision to boost retirement benefits, amid deep criticism from then-pension board trustee Diann Shipione. Turns out that the benefit boost was full of irregularities and the feds think Ewell was involved in a conspiracy to cover them up.

The pension has a $1.37 million deficit, due in great part, to a pension board vote that tremendously boosted pension payouts of the six city officials turned defendants.

A family in the development business hosts a fundraiser for Assemblyman Joseph Cryan of Union Township, NJ. A few days later in May, an ordinance is introduced by Union Township allowing the developers to build 90 townhouses on six acres of abandoned land. The problem? Union Township doesn't own the land! The owner is private citizen Carol Segal.

Not only does this situation reek of corruption and abuse of power, it is highly reflective of the growth in eminent domain abuse. When the Supreme Court voted on a case (Kelo v. New London) that would allow the city of New London, CT to condemn land in order to take it and give it to private developers to spur development in economically stagnant locales, conservative and liberal politicians were both upset. Yet, the difference in this case is that the owner of the land already had the exact same plans as Union Township to develop the land.

Segal...signed a contract last week to sell his property to Centex Homes for about $13 million, contingent upon local approval. Centex, a nationally known developer with projects in Middlesex, Morris and Monmouth counties, would then build 100 townhouses on Segal's property...

Florio and Capodice [the mayor and deputy mayor] said they preferred AMJM because it is a local company.

"I've never heard of Centex," Capodice said. "They're not Union County people."

Throughout his interactions with Cryan and other Union County committee members, it became clear to Segal that "they were trying to steal my land the whole time."

Today we were treated to a one hour argument by defense counsel Dan Webb. He argued ad nauseam about whether or not the government should be allowed to describe to the jury nine ostentatious trips that the former governor took that were paid for by people who were at the same time signing government contracts with the State of Illinois. Webb was willing to admit that George Ryan lived a privileged life, but to go over each trip would be prejudicial to his client, especially when presented to a jury who only could dream of such trips. While it is agreed that the trips are prejudicial, it was Judge Pallmeyer's position that the government should be allowed to put on its case. While the evidence would be admitted, the Judge was going to limit the amount of information that would be given to the jury. For example, if it got to be too much, she would stop it.

Of course the trips are prejudicial to George Ryan, but at the same time it is part of the government's case.

Once the trial began, Scott Fawell, George Ryan's campaign manager and chief of staff, was again the witness. Fawell kept a record of all the favors that were handed out while working for George Ryan. Can you imagine a meticulous record of every perk, every payout over 10 years? That is what Fawell kept and it will be used to try to convict Ryan. There are probably 100 pages of records of perks/favors/payoffs.

Today we were shown how unusable square footage was added into a Secretary of State lease agreement with a friend of Ryan's to make it look like the fee was more in line with usual office lease space pricing. We were shown how relatives of Ryan were paid out of campaign funds for doing no work on his political campaign. We were shown how George Ryan used campaign funds for personal trips and gambling, which is okay, as long as you declare it on your income tax return as "income." Of course Ryan never did report this "income."

We were also shown how friends of Ryan suggested that a particular employee be given raises before their review time. Fawell described that, when on trips, he and Ryan would write a check to their host for $1,000 and then would be reimbursed with cash so it looked like they had paid for the trip themselves.

During the testimony, Webb continued to interrupt and object to the questions for "form", "relevance", "leading" and "foundation". It was observed that the jury was "put off" by the tactics exhibited by their several sighs. Webb doesn't appear to "get it" that the jury is already tired of his tactics. Why doesn't he wait for something really important? Lead prosecutor Patrick Collins is very polished. He seemed to be most at ease when holding fast to a cart containing mountains of records.

George Ryan seemed almost catatonic as he stared straight ahead for most of the day looking uncomfortable while his attorney, Dan Webb, jiggled his leg under the table spending most of the time scribbling furiously on his legal pad, only looking up to make objections.

I observed the jury at length and from what I could see, the jury is composed almost exclusively of middle class people who are definitely aware of how much money Ryan threw around. They have never been able to even approach the lifestyle of Ryan for even one of his trips in corporate jets and "sunshine" vacations.

After being fired as the police chief of Lake City, South Carolina earlier this year, Kenneth McCaster issued a public letter calling Lake City a "thug-run city" and "a society of illegal administrative practices, sexual relations at work, political favors, nepotism, voter fraud, election fraud, intimidation, bad judicial practices, ticket fixing mixed with political pressure and favoritism and defiance and arrogance concerning other law enforcement agencies."

Strong language indeed, but perhaps the fired chief was on to something. This week a former Lake City police officer plead guilty to federal drug charges as part of a plea agreement he made with the U.S. government to cooperate fully with the ongoing federal investigation into corruption and illegal drug activities in the city and other parts of Florence County.

The former officer, 40-year-old William Webb, routinely took payoffs from Lake City drug dealers in exchange for protecting their deals and sold cocaine from his Lake City Police patrol car. The FBI, State Law Enforcement Division and Florence and Williamsburg County sheriffs departments have joined forces to investigate the ongoing corruption.