FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 17, 2000
CONTACT: Dan Rene, 703-847-3088 or drene@nlpc.org
WASHINGTON, DC -- Today NLPC President Peter Flaherty called on Democratic Presidential candidate Al Gore to sever all ties with Richard Trumka, the Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO. Flaherty said, "We ask Gore to indicate that he will make no further public appearances with Trumka and will not welcome any further political or financial support."
Trumka played a key role in two of the six separate schemes that comprise the 1996 Teamsters money-laundering scandal that brought down Teamsters President Ron Carey. On November 17, 1997, Carey was disqualified for re-election based on the findings of a U.S. District Court-appointed monitor who alleged that more then $538,000 was illegally funneled in Carey's re-election campaign. Trumka has pled the Fifth amendment to federal investigators when questioned. So far, he has escaped criminal indictment, but the investigation continues by Mary Jo White, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan.
White has secured guilty pleas from several underlings, including Michael Ansara, a Boston-based political consultant. Even while he awaited sentencing for a felony conviction, the Gore campaign and the Democratic National Committee campaign paid Ansara's phone bank hundreds of thousands of dollars in the last year. ABC-TV ran story on night two of the Democratic Convention during which an annoyed Trumka turned his back to ABC's cameras. Yesterday, the Gore campaign and the DNC severed ties with the phone bank.
Flaherty said, "Al Gore has done the right thing by ending his campaign's relationship with Michael Ansara's company, but it is not enough. He should get away from Trumka as far and as fast as possible. It is Al Gore who may appoint the next Attorney General. Gore should not accept Trumka's political support when Trumka's legal fate may soon be in his hands."
Earlier this year, NLPC made a formal
request to the 51 members of the AFL-CIO's Executive Committee to relieve
Trumka of his post with the federation. In January, NLPC
asked Al Gore to cancel a public appearance with Trumka in Iowa.
NLPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation promoting ethics and accountability
in government through research, education and legal action. NLPC publishes
the fortnightly newsletter Union Corruption
Update.