Clinton supporter faces five years for illegal donations
Another dailynews.com wire service special....
A Northridge businessman pleaded guilty today to funneling tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer.
Abdul Rehman Jinnah, 57, entered his plea to one count of making illegal campaign contributions during a 30-minute hearing before U.S. District Judge George King in downtown Los Angeles. He faces up to five years in federal prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines when he is sentenced June 2.
Jinnah, wearing a black jacket and no tie, remained seated throughout the hearing because of health issues, according to his lawyer, Douglas Fuchs. Jinnah had collapsed at a previous court hearing after standing for a prolonged period of time, Fuchs said.
Jinnah told the court he takes medication for diabetes, high blood pressure and heart-related problems.
According to his 14-page plea agreement, Jinnah admitted to reimbursing employees, family members and friends for $53,000 in campaign contributions made in their names.
In so doing, Jinnah skirted a federal law that sets a $2,000 cap on individual contributions to candidates.
The contributions went to Clinton's political action committee and Boxer's 2004 re-election campaign.
Here's the whole thing.
Whenever this kind of thing happens, it's tempting to point fingers and call whomever received the tainted cash a bum. But whether it's Obama and Rezko or McCain and Keating, or Clinton and Norman Hsu, it comes up so often that it's difficult to find an unsullied candidate. In general, it seems like it's the campaign finance system that's the bum, but don't expect that to get thrown out anytime soon, unfortunately.
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