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 hile
ostentatiously pursuing an "investigation" of the Marc Rich pardon
(which will lead precisely nowhere), Mary Jo
White, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York,
has stubbornly refused to indict top Democratic and union officials
directly implicated in a money-laundering scheme uncovered by her
own office some years ago.
In what is now called the Teamsters Swap Scandal, prosecutors working
for Mary Jo White won three guilty pleas from top Teamsters aides
back in 1997. Two years later, the Teamsters' former political director,
William Hamilton, was convicted for his role in the kickback scheme.
But for four years now, the Big Kahunas implicated in the money-swap
operation have been largely forgotten by White's office. One big
fish studiously ignored by White is the current chairman of the
Democratic National Committee and Clinton pal, Terry McAuliffe.
At the center of the money-laundering scheme was Ron Carey, who
had been anointed Teamsters president by "the most ethical administration
in history" as part of an ingenious plan to "clean up" the Teamsters.
When Teamsters legacy James Hoffa Jr. later challenged Carey for
the union presidency in 1996, Carey's aides — and perhaps Carey
himself — decided to give the Carey campaign a boost using
general union funds.
As was proved by the government, both in oversight and criminal
investigations, the Carey campaign repeatedly arranged for the Teamsters
to make huge contributions to
| “After
sitting on evidence for four years that implicated Carey,
the tough-talking White finally indicted him only days
after George W. Bush was sworn in as president.” |
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various liberal and Democratic groups, and then those groups would
funnel the money right back — not to the Teamsters, but to
the Carey campaign. This is on the order of the IRS commissioner
using tax revenues to buy himself a Porsche.
After sitting on evidence for four years that implicated Carey,
the tough-talking White finally indicted him only days after George
W. Bush was sworn in as president. But even a Republican in the
White House hasn't prompted Clinton-appointed White to blink in
her intractable refusal to pursue McAuliffe.
This is somewhat startling inasmuch as White's own office adduced
testimony during the Hamilton trial naming McAuliffe as a party
to the money-laundering operation. Democratic party official Richard
Sullivan testified that his former boss, Terry McAuliffe, outlined
a plan to him that would allow the Democratic National Committee
to participate in the Teamsters' evidently well-known kickback scheme.
Sullivan said that McAuliffe told him the Democratic party would
be rewarded with up to a million dollars in campaign contributions
from the Teamsters if the Democrats could find someone to donate
$100,000 to the Carey campaign.
(Though completion of the scheme is not required for a criminal
offense, the Teamsters came through with their quid. The donor located
by the Democrats for their quo backed out at the last minute.)
Though Sullivan later told Senate investigators he did not view
this arrangement as money laundering but rather as a way to "help
raise money from the union," Sen. Arlen Specter informed Sullivan
that he was using language that "is the equivalent of a quid pro
quo."
After Sullivan's shocking trial testimony, even the New York
Times was forced to admit that Sullivan's description of McAuliffe's
role was "troubling." While trying to mitigate the force of Sullivan's
testimony by incorrectly claiming that he had been given a "no-prosecution"
deal from the prosecutor (correction issued 10 days later), the
Times referred vaguely to "some judgment calls" that Mary
Jo White was going to have to make with regard to McAuliffe. An
indictment seemed imminent.
That was in 1999. We're still waiting. Indeed, according to McAuliffe's
lawyer, Richard Ben-Veniste, McAuliffe was given "assurances" three
years ago from Mary Jo White's office that he "was not a target
of the investigation."
Meanwhile, three other Democratic or union officials have given
sworn statements to Senate investigators also fingering McAuliffe
as a player in the Teamsters' money-swap scandal.
Not only that, but the three Carey campaign aides who pleaded guilty
to felonies back in 1997 still have not been sentenced. Federal
judges do not normally wait more than three years to sentence felons
— unless the U.S. attorney has requested that sentencing be
delayed.
Why is Mary Jo White blocking their sentencing?
Prosecutors will sometimes request that sentencing be deferred when
a convict is cooperating so that the full extent of the cooperation
can be known by the court prior to sentencing. But four years is
enough time to have these guys describe the history of the world
since the Earth cooled — to say nothing of a simple money-laundering
scheme. Either McAuliffe was involved or he wasn't. Does White need
four years to ask the convicted Teamsters aides that?
It took Al Gore's defeat to get an indictment of Ron Carey. It seems
it's going to take the man who defeated him to remove New York's
own Janet Reno from her office to shut down the Democrat protection
racquet being run out of the Southern District of New York.
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