Thread: Feds Say Nonprofit Org (LULAC) Secretly Aided Hillary Campaign

Feds Say Nonprofit Org Secretly Aided Hillary Campaign

DC businessman pleaded guilty on Monday to funneling illegal donations to candidates

Hillary Clinton campaigns in Puerto Rico on May 31, 2008 / AP

BY: Alana Goodman
March 11, 2014 4:54 pm

A nonprofit group believed to be the League of United Latino American Citizens (LULAC) used illegal corporate contributions to secretly aid Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign, according to federal court
documents.

Democratic donor and District of Columbia businessman Jeffrey Thompson pleaded guilty on Monday to funneling millions in illegal donations to local and federal candidates, including Clinton in 2008.
Thompson said in his plea agreement that he financed a $600,000 “shadow campaign” for Clinton using funds from his D.C.-based for-profit corporation D.C. Healthcare Systems Inc.

The money was routed through Troy White, a marketing director who pleaded guilty to insurance violations last September, and through a group identified in the plea agreement as “Civic Organization A.”
The unnamed group is LULAC, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

A LULAC spokesperson for would not immediately confirm whether it was “Civic Organization A” when contacted by the Washington Free Beacon. However, she said the group was cooperating with federal investigators on the case.

“We are cooperating with the investigation, but we can’t comment on any specific matters,” said LULAC spokesperson Paloma Zuleta.

She referred further questions to LULAC counsel Manuel Escobar who did not return a request for comment.

LULAC, a Hispanic advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a 501(c)(4) and subject to Internal Revenue Service limits on its political activities and expenditures.

According to Thompson’s plea agreement, a senior Clinton campaign adviser asked him in February 2008 to fund paid street teams that would assist the campaign.

The adviser is believed to be long-time Clinton aide Minyon Moore, the Washington Post reported.

Moore allegedly introduced Thompson and an unnamed Texas Clinton supporter affiliated with LULAC, with the understanding that the two would work to organize teams of paid Clinton canvassers recruited from LULAC’s membership ranks.

The canvassers would distribute materials created by the Clinton campaign in Texas, according to the documents.

Thompson transferred $233,000 through an intermediary to pay for the services.

After the Texas primary, Thompson, working in cooperation with LULAC, transferred additional funds to pay for similar operations in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and North Carolina, according to the filings.

Moore appeared to be in regular communication with Thompson and the LULAC official. In April 2008, she emailed Thompson with details about the Clinton campaign’s strategy in the North Carolina primary, writing, “This is what [the campaign] will need in NC—please advise.”

In May 2008, Thompson provided additional funds to pay for a pro-Clinton street team effort in Puerto Rico shortly before the primary.

The LULAC official emailed Thompson photos of the rallies on May 31, 2008, writing “We bought everything or made it here [in] <acronym title="Google Page Ranking">PR</acronym>. All the white shirts waving signs or flags are our people.”

The official added: “The caravan of vans together with the 18 wheeler sound system is unbelievable. … See you soon.”

During Clinton’s visit to Puerto Rico leading up to the primary, she was
photographed riding at the front of a caravan of vans on May 31, 2008.

A spokesperson for Clinton did not respond to questions about who paid for the caravan she was photographed on.

Thompson also sent funds to LULAC to help pay for a demonstration outside of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in April 2008, to protest the DNC’s decision not to seat delegates from Florida.

The DNC’s decision was opposed by the Clinton campaign.

While rally organizers told reporters at the time that the protest was not in support of any specific candidate, many of the speakers were Hillary Clinton supporters.

Thompson agreed to bankroll the lodging, transportation, meals and promotion for the rally, according to the plea agreement. He transferred $150,000 to the group’s bank account on May 24, 2008, according to records.

That same day, LULAC announced publicly that it was paying for these expenses itself, according to a 2008 Huffington Post article.

Thompson also sent $50,000 to the group to help pay for a lawsuit in Texas to challenge a voting rule known as the “Texas Two-Step” that was opposed by the Clinton camp.

LULAC won its lawsuit against the “Texas Two-Step” on Aug. 25, 2009, according to a press release on its website.

Federal prosecutors have reportedly spent years piecing together the case against Thompson. He is also accused of funding a shadow campaign for Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and members of Congress.

Thompson claims Gray was aware of his illegal fundraising. He did not say whether Clinton or additional top campaign aides knew about the shadow campaign scheme.

Under the terms of Thompson’s guilty plea, he faces up to 18 months in prison for federal campaign violations and up to six months in prison for local campaign violations.

http://freebeacon.com/feds-say-nonpr...lary-campaign/

Sort of like she wasn't aware of Bill's womanizing......
Hillary Clinton adviser Minyon Moore sought funds for illegal campaign, court papers allege

By Matea Gold and Rosalind S. Helderman, Updated: Tuesday, March 11, 1:11 PM

A longtime adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton personally sought and secured the funding for an illegal shadow operation to boost Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid, according to court papers released as part of a wide-reaching campaign finance scandal.

Washington businessman Jeffrey Thompson, who pleaded guilty Monday on federal conspiracy charges in a case that has focused largely on District Mayor Vincent Gray’s 2010 election, told federal prosecutors that Clinton aide Minyon Moore asked him to fund pro-Clinton efforts in four states and Puerto Rico totaling $608,750 during the hard-fought 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign, the documents show.

Prosecutors said they had no evidence showing Clinton was aware of the efforts.

But Thompson, in his discussions with authorities, depicted Moore as playing a far more intimate role in the off-the-books campaign than was previously known — securing the money and helping guide the strategy by feeding internal campaign documents and receiving messages about the media coverage.

Moore’s alleged participation in the scheme could have violated federal campaign finance laws, which prohibit officers or agents of a campaign from soliciting or arranging for illegal contributions. Election law attorneys said that pursuing charges against Moore could be difficult, however, because the five-year statute of limitations has expired.

Ginny Terzano, a spokeswoman for Moore’s consulting firm, Dewey Square Group, declined to make Moore available for comment.

Terzano said Moore has been “fully cooperating” with the investigation. She repeated a statement the firm provided in September, when earlier court filings revealed Moore’s connection to the Thompson case.

“The facts make clear that she was entirely unaware of any inappropriate activities and at all times conducted herself, as she always has, not only in full compliance with the law but in accordance with the highest ethical and professional standards,” she said.

But the new court filings, based on Thompson’s statements to prosecutors that resulted from their probe of unreported donations to local and federal candidates, portray Moore as a central player in the efforts. The documents do not identify Moore, but she is the “individual A” described in the filings, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Moore, who worked as a senior staffer for President Bill Clinton and went on to serve as chief executive of the Democratic National Committee, is close to both Clintons. She has been expected to play a significant role should Hillary Clinton decide to run for president in 2016.

The documents say that Moore, who was a senior adviser to Clinton’s 2008 campaign, introduced Thompson to a New York marketing consultant named Troy White, who had unsuccessfully pitched the campaign on the use of “street teams” to improve Clinton’s standing in urban communities.

White pleaded guilty in September to a misdemeanor tax charge as part of the ongoing investigation.

In February 2008, after the campaign rebuffed White, the documents say, Moore asked Thompson to fund the operation, which aimed to drive up support for Clinton in a string of key primary states as she was battling Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.

The first target was Texas. Moore introduced Thompson to a Clinton supporter in the state identified in court papers as “individual C,” who, the documents say, helped put in place the street team and canvassers.

That operation included members of the nonprofit group League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, according to people familiar with the investigation.

LULAC, which describes itself as the oldest Latino civil rights organization in the United States, does not endorse candidates, but top members of the group personally supported Clinton.

The street team workers for Clinton were recruited by “individual B,” identified by people familiar with the investigation as Luis Vera, LULAC’S general counsel.

Reached Tuesday morning, Vera said he was about to undergo a medical procedure and could not immediately comment. “I haven’t seen anything that you’re talking about,” he said. “I didn’t even know that Jeff Thompson had pled guilty.”

Paloma Zuleta, LULAC’s director of communications, said the group was cooperating with the ongoing investigation and was “not at liberty to discuss the issue.”

The paid street team members distributed official Clinton campaign posters, lawn signs and stickers, according to the court papers.

Clinton won the Texas primary, but in the end Obama got more delegates in the state through the party caucuses, held the same day.
Moore, Thompson and White then collaborated on similar operations in Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina and Puerto Rico, the court papers say.

Citing internal e-mails, the documents say that Moore fed the team information from the campaign to guide its efforts. On April 28, 2008, court papers show that she forwarded a campaign e-mail about plans for North Carolina to Thompson and White with the subject line, “This is what they will need in NC - Please advise.”

The documents quote White replying to Moore and Thompson, saying: “These are the cities we can cover in NC: Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Fayetteville, Wilmington, Winston-Salem. Let me know what you think ASAP.”

Thompson financed the operation, transferred money to White’s firm, Whytehouse Marketing, through a company run by Washington public relations consultant Jeanne Clarke Harris, the court papers say.

Prosecutors also allege that Thompson funneled money to LULAC directly to pay for what appeared at the time to be grass-roots efforts on Clinton’s behalf.

Vera met with Thompson at his Washington office in April 2008, agreeing that the businessman would fund a large protest in front of a major political party’s headquarters, paying for meals, lodging and transportation for the demonstrators, the documents say.

Thompson then arranged for $150,000 to be transferred to LULAC for the protest, recording the payment as a charitable donation, according to the court papers.

Later that month, LULAC bused demonstrators from Florida to Washington, where they protested in front of the Democratic National Committee headquarters over the party’s decision not to seat the state’s delegates.

After the event, Vera sent an e-mail to Thompson and Moore with the subject line “Media Coverage Florida Voters,” the court papers say.

“There was a great event today organized by [LULAC] . . . Hundreds came to DC and demonstrated,” he wrote.

Thompson also agreed to pay for a lawsuit filed by LULAC in Texas, challenging the state’s process for choosing Democratic presidential delegates, later paying $50,000 to LULAC to fund the suit, the court papers say.

In May 2008, LULAC joined other Latino activists in Texas in suing the Texas Democratic Party. They argued that the state’s “two step” system of using both a primary and a caucus to choose delegates diluted the power of Latino voters.

They said its formula favored state Senate districts with high voter turnout in previous election cycles and argued that lower turnout in predominately Hispanic districts resulted in those districts receiving fewer delegates than other areas of the state, particularly majority black regions.

At the time, Latino districts tended to back Clinton while black areas were more supportive of Barack Obama.

The group asked a judge to put a hold on the Texas Democratic Convention, where delegates were to be awarded — a request that was denied.

Vera sent Thompson and Moore an e-mail on May, 14, 2008, updating them on the legal strategy and telling them to contact him with any questions, the court papers say.

At a Monday news conference announcing Thompson’s plea deal, U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen stressed that there was not evidence that Clinton knew about the illegal operations run on her behalf.

“We don’t have any indication that the candidate [Hillary Clinton] was personally aware of Mr. Thompson’s illicit activities,” he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...0e6_print.html

LULAC was a favorite of George Bush's also. It was reported they even had a dedicated telephone line right at the desk of the Oval Office during George's giveaway regime ..

In The State: Bush to speak to LULAC convention


SAN ANTONIO - America's fastest-growing minority group is getting some attention this week from the nation's top politicians.
President Bush will speak by satellite to the 75th annual gathering of the League of United Latin American Citizens, while Democratic challenger John Kerry or new running mate John Edwards may show up in person.

Hector Flores, LULAC's national president, said Tuesday that Hispanics are being courted because they hold the key to which man wins the White House.

"The 8 million Latinos in this country (already registered to vote) and the 2 million more we're going to register are going to determine who that will be," he said.

LULAC is the country's oldest and largest Hispanic civil rights group. Since its formation in Corpus Christi in 1929, it has grown to more than 115,000 members and more than 700 chapters across the country.

During the six-day convention here, LULAC delegates are expected to hear from Tommy Thompson, Health and Human Services secretary; former federal housing secretary Henry Cisneros; and Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, a South Texan who until recently commanded U.S. troops in Iraq.