Dick Morris in the NY Post, this morning:
Rosen has been indicted for deliberately reporting that the cost of an August 2000 Hollywood fund-raising gala was only $400,000 when the actual tab was $1.2 million — a step that let Mrs. Clinton spend $800,000 more in “hard money” for her campaign. (After Hillary and opponent Rick Lazio agreed to ban soft money, both camps were scrambling to maximize their hard money on hand).
The New Orleans Times-Picayune has reported on a transcript of a Sept. 4, 2002, audiotape of a dinner between Rosen and Ted Kennedy in-law Raymond Reggie, who was wearing a wire. Most news accounts have left out the fact that Rosen implicated himself with each bite of steak.
On tape, the paper reported, Rosen “acknowledges that the gala probably cost far more to produce than he reported on federal campaign forms.” Rosen says of the fund-raiser, “We woulda never done it if the guy [Peter Paul] said he spent $2 million. So now he’s [Paul] saying he spent $2 million on an event that raised $1.4.” Rosen goes on to agree that “he may have” spent the $2 million.
Reggie, whose sister is Ted Kennedy’s wife, will get no more than five years in prison on bank-fraud convictions in return for cooperation and testimony at Rosen’s trial.
Several things.
Rosen says he spoke to then-President Bill Clinton regularly — at least once a week — about the campaign fund-raising. What could the president have told him that the federal prosecutors would find interesting? We may find out.
Tags: BitsBlog
