Clinton supporter gets 2 years for funneling cash

May 31, 2013 @ 10:40 am

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A northern Virginia businessman was sentenced Friday to more than two years in prison for illegally funneling nearly $200,000 to Hillary Clinton's political campaigns in 2006 and 2008.

William Danielczyk, 51, of Oakton pleaded guilty in February to violating campaign-finance laws by reimbursing employees of his company, Galen Capital, and others who were recruited to attend fundraisers and make contributions Clinton's Senate and presidential campaigns.

There are no allegations Clinton or her campaign acted improperly.

The sentence of 28 months was roughly half of the five-year maximum sought by prosecutors in U.S. District Court. Danielczyk's lawyers, meanwhile, argued that many similar violations of the campaign-finance laws had resulted only in probation.

In imposing his sentence, U.S. District Judge James Cacheris compared Danielczyk's case to defense lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti, who received 27 months for illegally funneling more than $380,000 to House members controlling the Pentagon's budget.

Arguing for a lighter sentence, defense lawyer Abbe Lowell said Danielczyk's case differed from more serious violations in part because Danielczyk did not seek any special favors in exchange for his fundraising efforts.

But prosecutor Eric Gibson disputed that, citing grand jury testimony that Danielczyk had told others he hoped to land an ambassadorship and saw fundraising as a means to achieve it.

Lowell also urged the judge to tread lightly given the fact that campaign-finance laws are in flux and courts are still sorting out the implications of the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, which lifted many restrictions on corporate spending in political elections. Indeed, for a brief time, Cacheris had tossed out some of the charges against Danielczyk, ruling that under Citizens United, the campaign finance law banning corporations like Galen from making contributions to federal candidates is unconstitutional.

An appellate court later overruled Cacheris, saying Citizens United gives corporations a free hand to contribute to campaign activities by independent groups but not directly to candidates themselves.

At Friday's hearing, Danielczyk did not apologize for his conduct but said he was angry with himself.

"I've always tried to lead by example, and I obviously didn't do that here," he said.

The scheme was first exposed more than five years ago by The Wall Street Journal. At the time, Danielczyk lied and said he had not reimbursed people for making contributions. Prosecutor Eric Gibson said the lies to the media were just a small part of Danielczyk's efforts to hide his scheme, including falsely describing reimbursements to his straw donors as bonuses and "consulting fees" and swapping out a laptop computer with incriminating evidence that he was obliged to turn over to the FBI.

A co-defendant, former Galen executive Eugene Biagi, 78, was sentenced Friday to probation. Under his plea deal, prosecutors agreed to recommend no more than probation to the judge.

Biagi's lawyer, Todd Richman, said his client actually disliked Clinton and engaged in the scheme only because Danielczyk, his friend and employer, told him to.

"The chance that he would have engaged in this on his own is zero ... certainly not for Hillary Clinton," Richman said.


(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Comments (9)


  • Add A Comment

  • maplefish wrote...
    Too little too late
    October 20, 2012 9:39 pm
    Obama is done....now he get that late night variety show he's always wanted.....
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • SeattleD wrote...
    Obama is done?
    December 6, 2012 6:17 pm
    Done with what?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • rational wrote...
    Hypocrisy of the left...
    October 21, 2012 1:40 am
    So why aren't the leftist complaining about the rich 1%'ers trying to buy the election? Seems as if they don't mind as long as the 1%'ers support their preferred candidate...that is a classic example of hypocrisy...which is a defining trait of progressives.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • longwayhome wrote...
    Too late for you republicans....
    October 25, 2012 8:16 pm
    mitt has lost, too many bad moves, too many bad decisions, the guy from Indidana pushed the abortion issue over the edge.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • C"mon Man wrote...
    Madness
    October 25, 2012 10:33 pm
    On both sides.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • longwayhome wrote...
    I like these old posts!
    December 6, 2012 6:41 pm
    Like maplestupid saying Obama is done, irrational spouting some garbage, seems like the wishful thinking republicans just couldn't get enough stupid people to vote for them.....Going to have to wait at least 16 (sixteen years) for any republican to have even a remote chance at the Presidency. Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rangerhawk wrote...
    Most costly election in history
    December 6, 2012 9:56 pm
    On so many levels already, and it's too late to flip the safety. The trigger has been pulled.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ddwhitney wrote...
    You get what you pay for!
    December 7, 2012 11:43 am
    For totals, Obama raised $632,177,423, and Romney only raised $389,088,268. While this article mentions the Super PAC's, the fact they omitted Bundlers from the research shows some bias. Obama collected $180,100,000 from 758 Bundlers (rich friends) and Romney only collected only $14,358,416 from only 100 bundlers. The Republicans got spanked! The media did it's job of denying the truth about which party is the party of wealthy elites, and which party benefits the most. In 2012 the top earners saw a 1.6% increased, low income stayed the same while the middle class suffered. Seems to be a lot of bankers in Obamas bundler list?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }