As Mata wrote about here, Bill Richardson was jettisoned from the Obama camp because of another “pay to play” scheme. But there is another one coming down the pike and this one involves the Clintons. I know…big shocker!
Apparently in October of 2004 Hillary pushed through some bond legislation that allowed a developer named Robert Congel to use tax-exempt bonds to help construct an expansion of the Carousel Center in Syracuse called the Destiny USA entertainment and shopping complex.
So what you say? Well, the next month a hundred grand shows up as a donation to the Clinton Foundation.
A developer in New York state donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton’s foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman’s mall project.
Hillary Clinton helped enact legislation allowing the developer, Robert Congel, to use tax-exempt bonds to help finance the construction of the Destiny USA entertainment and shopping complex, an expansion of the Carousel Center in Syracuse.
~~~Congel had been a prime force behind Congress’s passage of tax-exempt “green bonds,” a program to decrease the financing costs of some $2 billion in environmentally friendly projects by exempting lenders from paying federal taxes on their income from the private bonds. By some estimates, the program could cost the Treasury about $200 million.
The way the legislation was written, Congel’s Syracuse development, which he agreed to build and run in a way that promotes renewable energy and recycling, was one of just four proposed projects that would qualify.
That’s not all either. Nine months later she helped set aside five million for the roadway construction to the new center.
She also helped secure a provision in a highway bill that set aside $5 million for Destiny USA roadway construction.
The bill with the tax-free bonds provision became law in October 2004, weeks before the donation, and the highway bill with the set-aside became law in August 2005, about nine months after the donation.
The Internation Herald-Tribune does it’s best to minimize the impact by including the fact that Congel was a donor to Republicans and Democrats. Big deal, a developer will give to whoever is in office at the time and can do the most for his projects. While there is no way to prove this deal was illegal, unless there are Blago type wiretaps, it does stink to high heaven.
It gets better. Another fundraiser for Hillary, Norman Hsu, will talk about Clinton and Obama during his upcoming trial for fraud:
In addition to the Rod Blagojevich pay-for-play probe, Obama could figure in the upcoming fraud trial of Norman Hsu, the disgraced Democratic fundraiser who was charged last year with operating a $60 million pyramid scheme. According to investigators, Hsu, a major Hillary Clinton fundraiser, pressured investors to donate money to political candidates with whom he was aligned. In a letter last week to U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero, Hsu’s lawyer, Martin Cohen, requested a 60-day delay in the start of Hsu’s trial, scheduled to open January 12 (Cohen cited the “extraordinary level of negative publicity” generated by the recent arrest of alleged Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff).
In his December 22 letter, a copy of which you’ll find below, Cohen also noted that Hsu was already “notorious for his political activities” and that it was “inevitable” that his client’s “connections” to Bill and Hillary Clinton “and other democratic notables–including perhaps the president-elect–will be introduced at trial.” Before becoming a key fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, Hsu co-hosted a 2005 California fundraiser for Obama’s political action committee and introduced the Illinois Democrat to Marc Gorenberg, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who later joined the Obama campaign’s national finance committee.
Obama hasn’t even been sworn in yet and his Adminstration is in complete disarray and turmoil. Question, will Hillary be thrown under the bus as the others have?
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But wait! Was not Hillary thoroughly vetted with intrusive financial scrutiny, including hubby Bill providing all donation data? So was this not known by the OTT (Obama Transition Team)???
Or could this be another one of those hallmark “judgment” moments?
Has it occurred to anyone that Obama’s picks of his cabinet ALL have something in their past to prevent their being confirmed? But then, it will be hard to find a clean dem. Richardson= pay for play, Clinton=pay for play and God knows what else, Holder=Mark Rich pardon and link to Blago, Arne Duncan=lowest test scores in the country, Napolitano=against the fence, Leon Podesta CIA?????, LaHood transportation????. Maybe he named these knowing they would fail to be confirmed so he can name more far left like the rest of his cabinet. Thus, getting rid of the Clintonistas per her agreement to endorse him. However, with the majority the dems have in the senate and the republicans lack of spine, all will probably be confirmed in the short term. He can then fire anyone he chooses and we all know this guy is famous for throwing people under the bus.
Can I haz some culture of corruption, pleeze?
it just keeps getting better coming from camp obama, how many more will go down. i feel like we should be singing the extended version of another one bites the dust. with all of the skeletons in clintons closet this should not have a surprise at all. this should be a great round of confirmation hearings.