Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
If the card-carrying members of "The John McCain Protection Society" in the McMedia can pull their lips away from kissing his wrinkled old butt long enough to read this, here is the story you ought to be reporting.
The nonpartisan watchdog Campaign Money Watch today sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey urging the U.S. Justice Department to investigate potential criminal fundraising activities regarding bundlers for Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign. Watchdog Group Calls For Federal Investigation Into Presidential Campaign Fundraising | Public Campaign Action Fund
The letter was mailed today with more than 12,000 petition signatures and comments collected over the weekend by MoveOn.org Political Action urging the Justice Department to investigate. In addition, the letter was faxed to U.S. Attorneys in three separate jurisdictions: Southern District of New York, Southern District of Florida, and the Central District of California.
A copy of the letter can be found at http://www.campaignmoney.org/doj-letter.
The cases, which both emerged in news coverage last week, include two high-profile connections to oil executives and companies:
- The letter urges a full examination of a series of unlikely donations from California that were bundled by a foreign national on behalf of a McCain bundler from Florida, Harry Sargeant III. While $50,000 of the Sargeant fundraising haul has been returned, he raised more than $500,000 in total. Sargeant and the foreign national, Mustafa Abu Naba’a, are owners of International Oil Trading Company, which holds a controversial contract worth roughly $1 billion to deliver fuel oil to U.S. military bases in Iraq.
- The letter also encourages Justice to investigate two $28,500 donations made by a Hess Corporation office manager and her husband, an Amtrak foreman, to the McCain Victory 2008 committee. The individuals, Alice and Pasquale Rocchio, have no federal campaign contribution history before giving to McCain. Hess Corporation CEO, John Hess, is a McCain bundler, and the company would likely profit immensely if McCain’s proposal to expand offshore drilling, an idea he opposed until June, becomes law. Hess employees and family members donated more than $300,000 in June to the joint fundraising committee.
In the group’s letter to the Attorney General, Donnelly argues that only an official investigation will get to the bottom of the matters.
“Media reports over the past week have brought to public attention the possibility that supporters of Sen. McCain’s presidential campaign have used ‘straw’ donors as a means to circumvent federal campaign contribution limits,” wrote the group’s director, David Donnelly, in the six-page letter. “We urge you to investigate two distinct cases where violations may have occurred – violations like those committed by Norman Hsu, who was swiftly indicted by the Justice Department earlier this election cycle after news accounts brought similar violations to light.”
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