Ex-Clinton aide and long-time lawyer for questionable unions and their bosses, Harold Ickes has signed a contract with the Laborers’ Union of No. Am. in N.Y. to influence, lobby, etc., the Fed. Aviation Admin. on issues related to Stewart Int’l Airport in Newburgh, N.Y. LIUNA Local 17 is paying Ickes $20,000.
Just before becoming the Clinton Admin.’s deputy chief of staff, Ickes signed a $40,000 contract to represent a LIUNA fund. He admits that he didn’t do anything for LIUNA under the contract and signed it only because he was head of his law firm’s labor division. At the time, LIUNA and its president Arthur A. Coia were facing a Dep’t of Justice probe of alleged organized crime ties which could have (and should have) led to a DOJ takeover. LIUNA and Coia were, for all practical purposes, able to weasel out of DOJ’s racketeering suit in 1995, and many believe that Ickes may have aided Coia in this pursuit. Coia identified Ickes as intermediary to Clinton during this period. After Ickes left the Clinton Admin. in 1996, he rejoined his old firm, Meyer Suozzi English & Klein, which has continually represented LIUNA. [Daily News 4/12/99 & Washington Times 6/16/96]