Terence “Terry” McAuliffe is in the process of raising over $100 million for various Clinton projects including the Clintons’ legal defense fund, the Presidential library to be built in Arkansas, and Hillary’s Senate campaign in New York. NLPC is helping journalists ask the question of what McAuliffe expects in return.
In 1996, McAuliffe raised $43 million for the Clinton-Gore campaign. He was one of the architects of the often illegal fund raising which rewarded big donors with with White House meals, coffees and Lincoln bedroom overnights. Clinton scribbled a hand-written note on a McAuliffe memo, "Ready to start overnights right away."
Hillary’s House
McAuliffe by and large escaped media scrutiny until September when
he agreed to provide $1.35 million in collateral to guarantee the mortgage
on a home Hillary is purchasing in New York. The loan guarantee immediately
became controversial. The Conservative Campaign Fund filed a formal Complaint
with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that it was illegal.
In late September, the Clintons abandoned the arrangement with McAuliffe,
and indicated they would seek financing elsewhere.
For the first time, some in the media began to pay attention to McAuliffe’s role in two scandals involving corrupt labor unions. A number of prominent journalists contacted NLPC and made use of our research in their articles.
As part of our Organized Labor Accountability Project, NLPC documents and exposes union corruption. NLPC publishes Union Corruption Update, which is published every two weeks, and is distributed by fax or email. Back issues are archived on the NLPC website (www.nlpc.org) and indexed by union and state.
Teamsters Money Swap
McAuliffe was a participant in the Teamsters money laundering scandal.
The scandal resulted from six separate schemes to illegally launder money
into the 1996 reelection campaign of Teamster President Ron Carey, who
ran with the support of top AFL-CIO officials and the Clinton White House.
In the wake of the scandal, Carey’s election was thrown out and a new election
was held earlier this year which was won by Jim Hoffa. [For
full report, click here.] [For summary
flow chart, click here.]
McAuliffe played a key role in what is known as scheme #2. Hatched by Carey campaign manager Martin Davis, the idea was to have the Teamsters make a soft money donation to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in exchange for McAuliffe identifying a wealthy donor who could make a donation to Carey’s campaign. A donor was located who pledged $100,000 but the gift could not be accepted when it turned out that she was an “employer” and was therefore was barred from contributing in a union election.
Ultimately, the DNC did not find another donor to the Carey campaign, but it was not for lack of interest. Davis continued to urge McAuliffe to find an eligible donor and postponed payment of the Teamsters contributions to the DNC until he did so. In August 1996, the DNC sent a memo to the Teamsters requesting $1 million. Davis forwarded the memo to William Hamilton, Teamster political director, with a handwritten note, “I’ll let you know when they [the DNC] have fulfilled their commitments.” Five other schemes yielded $538,100 for the Carey campaign.
The Clinton/Reno Justice Department did little to investigate the scandal. It took Mary Jo White, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to bring indictments against Davis, Hamilton and other scandal figures, but after two years, the investigation seems to have bogged down. McAuliffe has so far not been charged with anything.
Electrical Workers Scam
In an even more troubling set of circumstances, it appears McAuliffe
was involved in fleecing the National Electrical Benefit Fund (NEBF), an
$8.3 billion pension fund affiliated with the International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers (IBEW).
On May 5 of this year, the Labor Department filed a civil suit alleging that the fund lent $6 million to the McAuliffe-owned Columbia Land & Development Corporation, knowing that the loan would never be repaid.
The suit also cited a complicated series of transactions of which McAuliffe was the beneficiary. McAuliffe also owned something called American Capitol Management, a partner with NEBF in a separate investment. NEBF put up $38.7 million to buy five apartment complexes and a shopping center near St. Petersburg, Florida. McAuliffe put up nothing but received a 50% share in the partnership. The properties were bought from the Resolution Trust Corporation, which had taken control of them from a failed bank owned by McAuliffe’s father-in-law. NEBF later sold its share of the partnership at a loss.
The Labor Department suit is a civil action, not a criminal one, and it is not even targeted at McAuliffe.
Buying Protection?
In his book Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate 1974-99,
liberal journalist Bob Woodward writes that McAuliffe’s fund-raising is
so crucial to Clinton’s legacy that McAuliffe says of his place in the
President’s life, “I am his future.”
It is clear that the President may also be McAuliffe’s future if Clinton is shielding him from prosecution for criminal acts that have increased his political influence and personal wealth.
NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm points out, “McAuliffe has come under scrutiny for the loan guarantee for Hillary’s house, but much more needs to be done by the media. McAuliffe is at the nexus of Clinton administration and labor union corruption. There seems to be a double-standard at work here. Nancy Reagan was hounded for years, even after her husband left office, about accepting dresses as gifts from designers. So far, the liberal media has paid more attention to that than the Clintons’ relationship with McAuliffe.” .
EW