At the corruption trial of ex-Int’l Bhd. of Teamsters political director William W. Hamilton, Richard Sullivan, ex-DNC finance director, testified that Terence A. McAuliffe, Bill Clinton’s friend and chief fundraiser, played a major role in promoting an illegal money-laundering scheme in which Democratic donors were to contribute to ex-IBT boss Ron Carey’s 1996 reelection campaign in exchange for IBT’s large donations to Democrats. Describing a Oct. 1996 meeting with the Democrats’ fundraising staff, Sullivan testified, “[McAuliffe] said that if we could get a $50,000 contribution for the Carey campaign, he knew we could get $500,000 for Unity from the Teamsters.” Unity was a joint fund-raising effort by Clinton-Gore 96 and other Democratic campaign committees.
The U.S. Atty.’s Office in Manhattan has focused on two conspiracies, one involving this swap scheme with the DNC and one in which they say Hamilton steered over $700,000 in IBT money to liberal groups, and in exchange donors to those groups gave $200,000 to Carey’s campaign. The prosecution described the schemes as desperate attempts by Carey aides to prop up Carey’s faltering campaign by using IBT funds to get donors from outside the union to donate heavily to Carey. Hamilton is charged with fraud and conspiracy, accused of illegally diverting union funds. After three weeks in the courtroom, the jury began deliberations Nov. 17. Reportedly, McAuliffe was cooperating with prosecutors. [N.Y. Times 11/18/99]
Also, ex-Carey campaign aide Martin Davis, who had pled guilty and was cooperating with prosecutors, may have had a change of heart. Reportedly, he did not appear as a witness and the government is reviewing his plea bargain. [Wall St. J. 11/15/99] For chart and full report on the Teamsters money-laundering scandal, please visit www.nlpc.org.