Senator Clinton’s Financing in the Spotlight

Former fundraiser producer Aaron Tonken, shown during an interview in a prison in Taft, Calif., Thursday, April 21, 2005, speaks about the involvement of David Rosen, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s former finance director, and an organizer in the “The Hollywood Gala Salute to President William Jefferson Clinton” in Los Angeles. A federal trial is scheduled to begin in Los Angeles Tuesday, May 10, 2005, in which Rosen faces charges he knowingly filed false reports that understated the costs for the event. Tonken, who is in prison on an unrelated matter, produced the 2000 star-studded tribute.

Uh Oh…. just as I thought Hillary would have an easy path to the nomination. Guess she took lessons from her greasy husband. Read the story here:

Campaign donations made more than four years ago at a celebrity-studded Hollywood gala have led to a federal criminal trial against a former finance director for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton that could hamper her future campaigns.

The trial set to open Tuesday focuses on a lavish August 2000 political party at a tony Brentwood estate that drew dozens of A-list guests and performers, including Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Cher, Diana Ross and Muhammad Ali.

Clinton hasn’t been linked to charges that the cost of the event was vastly underreported, but Republicans will be watching for any ammunition they can use against the Democrat, considered an early front-runner for the 2008 presidential nomination.

David Rosen, who was Clinton’s finance director during her 2000 U.S. Senate run, faces three counts of filing a false statement. An FBI agent speculated in an affidavit that Rosen was trying to duck federal financing rules so the campaign would have more money to spend on other expenses.

Rosen pleaded not guilty in January. He could face up to 15 years in prison and $750,000 in fines if convicted.

The party, called a “Hollywood Gala Salute to President William Jefferson Clinton,” included both a dinner and a concert. About 350 people accepted invitations to both, which cost $25,000 a couple. About 1,200 people purchased $1,000 tickets just for the concert.

Many people got complimentary tickets and campaign reports never gave a full accounting of the total money taken in. However, organizers reported raising nearly $1.1 million for a joint committee benefiting Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign and the national and state-level Democratic parties.

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