Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies (53 page)

74
United States District Court Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, United States of America vs. Joseph Cari and Antoin Rezko (No. 05 CR 691); available online at:
http://www.bettergov.org/pdfs/Rezko.Levine.Indictment.pdf
[accessed March 30, 2009].

75
David McKinney, “Biden has deep ties to Rezko accomplice,”
Chicago Sun-Times
, August 25, 2008; available online at:
http://www.sun-times.com/news/metro/rezko/1124666,CST-NWS-rezko25.article
[accessed March 30, 2009].

76
Chris Fusco, Dave McKinney, Abdon Pallasch, and Steve Warmbir, “Feds charge 3 in kickback scheme,”
Chicago Sun-Times
, August 4, 2005; available online at:
http://www.ipsn.org/indictments/levine/feds_charge_3_in_kickback_scheme.htm
[accessed March 30, 2009].

77
Perry Bacon, Jr., “Joe Biden, D-Amtrak,”
Washington Post
, August 23, 2008; available online at:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2008/08/23/joe_biden_d-amtrak.html
[accessed March 30, 2009].

78
Ben Pershing, “Rail-Riding Biden Is a Strong Backer Of Amtrak in Senate,”
Washington Post
, September 2, 2008; available online at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090102391.html
[accessed March 30, 2009].

79
Mike McIntire and Serge F. Kovaleski, “Biden is an everyman on the campaign trail, with perks at home,” op cit.

80
“Biden’s Amtrak admission,” CBS News Video, January 17, 2009; available online at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4729932n
[accessed March 30, 2009].

81
Andrew Glass, “A Younger Biden Goes the Extra Miles for Amtrak,”
Politico
, February 12, 2007; available online at:
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=9E164D6F-3048-5C12-008BC7D405BE0D37
[accessed March 30, 2009].

82
“Biden: Amtrak money a boost for Del.,” Delaware Online, March 13, 2009; cached version previously available online at:
http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:UjL054vfn_AJ:www.delawareonline.com/article/20090313/NATIONAL/90313045 1 Biden: 1 Amtrak 1money 1 a 1 boost 1 for 1 Del. 1 news 1 journal &cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk& gl=us&client=firefoxa
[accessed March 30, 2009].

83
Byron York, “The RAT hiding deep inside the stimulus bill,”
Washington Examiner
, February 19, 2009; available online at:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/The-RAT-hiding-deep-inside-the-stimulus-bill-39805642.html
[accessed March 30, 2009].

84
Jimmy Orr, “‘Nobody messes with Joe’ Biden warns governors,”
Christian Science Monitor
, February 25, 2009; available online at:
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/02/25/nobody-messes-with-joe-biden-warns-governors/
[accessed March 30, 2009].

85
Michelle Malkin, “Audio comedy gold: Bozo the Vice President is looking out for you,”
michellemalkin.com
, March 19, 2009; available online at:
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/03/19/audio-comedy-gold-bozothe-vice-president-is-looking-out-for-you/
[accessed March 30, 2009].

CHAPTER 4

1
David Von Drehle, “The Year of the Youth Vote,”
Time
, January 31, 2008; available online at:
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1708570-3,00.html
[accessed April 12, 2009].

2
Ibid.

3
Sophie Gilbert, “Who Are the Wealthiest Members of the Obama Administration?”
Washingtonian
, March 19, 2009; available online at:
http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/people/capitalcomment/11857.html
[accessed April 12, 2009].

4
Brian Faughnan, “Obama’s CIA Designee Sought CIA Cuts, Threatened Director,” Red State, January 5, 2009; available online at:
http://www.redstate.com/brianfaughnan/2009/01/05/obamas-ciadesignee-sought-cia-cuts-threatened-director/
[accessed April 12, 2009].

5
Leon E. Panetta, “No torture. No exceptions,”
Washington Monthly
, January/February/March 2008; available online at:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2008/0801.panetta.html
[accessed April 12, 2009].

6
Greg Miller and Christi Parsons, “Leon Panetta is Obama’s pick for CIA director,”
Los Angeles Times
, January 6, 2009; available online at:
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/06/nation/na-obama-cia-panetta6
[accessed April 12, 2009].

7
Donald Lambro, “Panetta faces qualification questions,”
Washington Times
, January 25, 2009; available online at:
http:/washington-times.com/news/2009/jan/25/obamas-cia-pick-faces-qualification-questio ns/
[accessed April 12, 2009].

8
Glenn R. Simpson, “CIA Nominee Panetta Received $700,000 in Fees,”
Wall Street Journal
, February 5, 2009; available online at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123378062602049003.html
[accessed April 12, 2009].

9
Peter D. Hart Research Associates, “2008 Survey of America’s College Students,” April 2008; available online at:
http://www.panettainstitute.org/surveys/survey-2008.pdf
[accessed April 12, 2009].

10
Glenn R. Simpson, “CIA Nominee Panetta Received $700,000 in Fees,” op cit.

11
Chris Cillizza, “Locke called cabinet pick,”
Washington Post
, February 24, 2009; available online at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022302618.html
[accessed April 12, 2009].

12
William Yardley, “Commerce Pick Carries Lengthy China Résumé,”
New York Times
, February 24, 2009; available online at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/us/politics/25locke.html
[accessed April 12, 2009].

13
Tom Banse, “Obama’s New Commerce Pick Has Clean Reputation,” National Public Radio, February 25, 2009; available online at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101158637
[accessed April 12, 2009].

14
Rick Anderson, “Gary Locke: Another Obama Mispick?”
Seattle Weekly
, February 24, 2009; available online at:
http://blogs.seattle-weekly.com/dailyweekly/2009/02/gary_locke_another_obama_mispi.php
. [accessed April 12, 2009].

15
Rick Anderson, “The State’s Two-Timing Consultant,”
Seattle Weekly
, March 17, 2004; available online at:
http://www.seattle-weekly.com/2004-03-17/news/the-state-s-two-timing-consultant
[accessed April 12, 2009].

16
Rick Anderson, “Clean Harbor?”
Seattle Weekly
, July 10, 2002; available online at:
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2002-07-10/news/clean-harbor
[accessed April 12, 2009].

17
Rick Anderson, “In-laws and outlaws,”
Seattle Weekly
, April 3, 2002; available online at:
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2002-04-03/news/in-laws-and-outlaws.php?page=full
[accessed April 12, 2009].

18
Michelle Malkin, “The Chinagate/Buddhist temple cash skeletons in Gary Locke’s closet,”
michellemalkin.com
, February 24, 2009; available online at:
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/24/the-chinagatebuddhist-temple-cash-skeletons-in-gary-lockes-closet/
[accessed April 12, 2009].

19
Michelle Malkin, “It’s Not Racist To Question Locke’s China-Linked Funds,”
Seattle Times
, August 11, 1998; available online at:
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19980811&slug=2765830
[accessed April 12, 2009].

20
Robert Gavin, “Locke returns fund-raiser’s money campaign committee gives up $1,000 in contributions from John Huang,”
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
, June 2, 1999.

21
Michelle Malkin, “Will Gov. Locke Ever Return His Huang-Linked Funds?”
Seattle Times
, June 1, 1999; available online at:
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19990601&slug=2963943
[accessed April 12, 2009].

22
Michelle Malkin, “Locke’s cash donations eluded public disclosure,”
Seattle Times
, March 18, 1997; available online at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20000821060540/www.michellemalkin.com/malk_031897.html
[accessed April 12, 2009].

23
Michelle Malkin, “Locke’s money trail leads to Buddhist temple’s door,”
Seattle Times
, September 23, 1997; available online at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20000821060254/www.michellemalkin.com/malk_092397.html
[accessed April 12, 2009].

24
Ibid.

25
According to the state Public Disclosure Commission, which conducted a cursory investigation of this matter after I first wrote about it in the fall of 1997, the master of the temple handed Locke an envelope containing a $5,000 cashier’s check from temple member Moon Chuen Lo. Locke, however, has insisted that the one large donation he personally accepted during his temple visits came on July 11, not the 27th, and was $5,000 cash, not a cashier’s check. Then there’s Lo, who told the PDC he handed a $5,000 cashier’s check directly to Locke. Clearly, someone is not telling the truth. The story of how Lo’s alleged $5,000 cashier’s check came to be converted into five separate, sequentially-ordered cashier’s checks by the Locke campaign makes absolutely no sense.

Lo told the PDC he gathered $1,000 each in cash from himself, his wife, and three friends in order to purchase a $5,000 cashier’s check from Seafirst Bank to donate to Locke’s campaign. Yet Seafirst, responding to a PDC subpoena, stated it has no record of the check’s existence. The check somehow landed on Locke campaign consultant Dia Hujar’s desk—nobody remembers who put it there—along with a list of the five donors who supposedly pooled their money together to buy the check. Hujar neither returned nor photocopied nor deposited Lo’s mysterious check. Instead, she said she “may have cashed it,” but she has no record of the transaction and “can’t remember” where it occurred.

Using $5,000 in cash from a source that remains undocumented to this day, Hujar then purchased five $1,000 cashier’s checks in the names of Lo, his wife, and three other temple members whose names were on Lo’s donor list. Hujar admitted to the PDC that she did not talk to any of the named temple members to get their permission to purchase checks on their behalf. The PDC concluded that “there is no reason to believe” the donations allegedly bundled by Lo were laundered. However, there is no record of Lo having bought a $5,000 cashier’s check. There is no record of the Locke campaign having received the check, despite Hujar’s insistence in sworn testimony to the PDC that the campaign made “photocopies of every check that comes in.” There is no evidence that Hujar either cashed or deposited the check. Bank records showed that Ms. Hujar used cash—not a check—to buy the five $1,000 cashier’s checks. The source of the $5,000 cash remains undocumented to this day.

In my own interviews with two of the Buddhist monks (Moon Chuen Lo and Siu Wai Wong), conducted prior to initiation of the PDC investigation, they could not remember if they had contributed to the Locke campaign with cash or a check. Nor did they mention the bundling scheme for which no records exist.

In short, Hujar’s testimony related to the check simply is not credible. The evidence is clear: the Locke campaign received $5,000 in cash from a source that still has not been documented and used it to buy checks made out in the names of Buddhist monks. The Public Disclosure Commission, whose members are appointed by the Governor, absolved Locke of any wrongdoing despite overwhelming evidence of misconduct. Copies of the bank records, cashier’s checks, temple donation spreadsheets, and subpoenas are available at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20000708023109/www.michelle-malkin.com/locketemple.htm
[accessed May 18, 2009].

26
Les Blumenthal, “Locke on the road to Cabinet confirmation after hearing,”
The Olympian
, March 19, 2009; available online at:
http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/792011.html
[accessed April 12, 2009].

27
Harumi Gondo, “How Asian are Obama’s Asian-American Cabinet picks?”
United Press International
, March 2, 2009; available online at:
http://www.upi.com/Features/Culture_Society/2009/03/02/How_Asian_are_Obamas_Asian-American_Cabinet_picks/12359767253702/
[accessed April 12, 2009].