Hillary Clinton Praises Disgraced Donor on Voicemail
Disgraced Dem fundraiser Norman Hsu on trial for campaign finance violations.
May 13, 2009— -- Hillary Clinton's voicemail message to disgraced top Democratic Party fundraiser Norman Hsu was played for jurors yesterday as he stands trial for alleged campaign finance violations. The message has the now-Secretary of State praising and flattering Hsu, saying, "I've never seen anybody who has been more loyal and more effective and really just having greater success supporting someone than you."
Click here to listen to the full message.
Hsu is charged with making illegal campaign contributions by breaking rules limiting the amount any single individual or group can donate. The government asserts that Hsu pressured his investors to contribute to his favorite political candidates, including then Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, with the understanding that Hsu would reimburse them.
Hsu's lawyer, Alan Seidler, said the campaign contributions were made willingly by investors eager to impress Hsu "because they were greedy and frankly dumb."
"These people were blinded by greed," Seidler told the jury, according to the Associated Press.
Hus pled guilty last Thursday to charges of running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of at least $20 million, but he still faces charges of violating campaign finance laws. His criminal trial on those charges began yesterday in Manhattan.
The government asserted that Hsu intertwined his scheme with his political activity and pressured his investors to contribute to his favorite political candidates, including then Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
Hsu was slated to stand trial this week on the Ponzi scheme charges in Manhattan's federal court, but according to long time court observers, Hsu was worried that fallout from the Bernard Madoff case could have resulted in a tough climate for the trial of an accused Ponzi-schemer, and the potential for a very stiff sentence.
Hsu, 58, has been in jail since his arrest in 2007. He told a federal judge that he is pleading guilty to ten counts of mail and wire fraud.
Hsu was indicted after a suspicious pattern of bundled campaign contributions in 2007 raised alarms.
At that time it was also discovered that Hsu had been a fugitive from a 1992 warrant, a fact that had escaped notice for 15 years despite his high profile political fundraising. Hsu, an apparently wealthy apparel magnate, had pleaded no contest in 1992 for what authorities called a fraud scheme involving latex gloves that cost investors more than $1 million, but never showed for his sentencing hearing at the time.
Upon his arrest in California at the end of August 2007, Hsu met his bail and then fled the jurisdiction before a bail reduction hearing at which he was supposed to turn in his passport.
When he was rearrested in September 2007 in Colorado it was disclosed that Hsu had, before his disappearance, mailed suicide notes before boarding the train.
In the months prior to his arrest in 2007 he had become a top fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and co-hosted a fundraiser with billionaire Clinton supporter Ron Burkle.
After his 2007 arrest, Clinton's presidential campaign announced it would refund the $850,000 in donations connected to Hsu saying that "out of an abundance of caution," all money raised by Hsu for the campaign would be returned to the approximately 260 individuals from whom Hsu reportedly raised the funds.
At the time, other candidates, including then Sens. Barack Obama and Joseph Biden also agreed to donate Hsu's contributions to charity.