Court papers released in conjunction with a wide-reaching campaign finance scandal show that a longtime adviser to Hillary Clinton tried to secure funding for an illegal shadow operation to help Clinton’s presidential bid in 2008, the Washington Post reports.
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. 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.
Federal campaign finance laws prohibit agents or officers of a campaign from arranging or soliciting illegal contributions. Attorneys say pursuing charges against Moore could prove to be difficult because of a five-year statute of limitations.
Ginny Terzano, a spokeswoman for Moore’s consulting firm said Moore has been fully cooperating.
The new court filings don’t identify Moore by name, but those familiar with the investigation say she is “individual A,” and those filings protray her as a central player in the shadow operation.
In a press conference, U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen did say they lack evidence that Clinton knew about Moore’s illegal operation.
“We don’t have any indication that the candidate (Hillary Clinton) was personally aware of Mr. Thompson’s illicit activities,” he said.
Tuesday afternoon, Burns Strider, a longtime Clinton aide, told the National Journal that the Washington Post story “horse shit.”
“I think it’s horse shit. I think The Washington Post is acting like some kind of an Internet blog or something instead of doing real reporting,” he told National Journal. “I think it’s pretty clear through everything that’s come out that [Moore] didn’t do anything wrong and has been exonerated and has been fully helpful in the case, and that’s the bottom line.”
Via Washington Post
