----snip-----
A spokesman for Mr. Gates, Chris Isleib, said that the Pentagon had supplied all the documents that Mr. Waxman had requested in the case. “As a result of these documents and subsequent discussions with the committee, Congressman Waxman asked the secretary of defense to investigate allegations that I.O.T.C. has overcharged for the delivery of fuel,” Mr. Isleib said in an e-mail message. The Pentagon will respond directly to the committee on that request, Mr. Isleib said.
Jim Greer, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, said, “Since Harry Sargeant has been the finance chairman, he has always demonstrated the highest degree of ethics and integrity and has always served the party well.”
Brian Rogers, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, said: “This obviously has nothing do with the McCain campaign. John McCain has always called for full transparency in military contracting, and if there’s a nonpolitical mechanism for looking at credible allegations, then that should obviously go forward.”------snip--------
Mr. Sargeant is one of several dozen people who are listed on Senator McCain’s Web site as having raised $500,000 or more for him. He was the host of a fund-raiser for Mr. McCain at his mansion in Delray Beach, Fla., this year.
Mr. Sargeant came under scrutiny in August when media reports highlighted a cluster of more than $50,000 in unusual campaign contributions bundled together by Mr. Sargeant from a single extended family in California and a few of their friends. The donations set off questions of whether they might have been made by donors in name only who were reimbursed by someone trying to skirt contribution limits.
It turned out that the donations were not actually solicited by Mr. Sargeant but by another Jordanian business partner, Mustafa Abu Naba’a. The McCain campaign later said it would return all contributions solicited by Mr. Abu Naba’a and review all donations collected by Mr. Sargeant.
--------
Mustafa Abu Naba’a:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/no_20081024_9865.phpPublic records have exposed questionable donations to McCain's campaign. In August, the campaign announced it would return roughly $50,000 from American residents that were bundled by Mustafa Abu Naba'a, who is a dual citizen of Jordan and the Dominican Republic. McCain's donations, which can be viewed at the FEC or at his Web site, also show more than 650 donors with no identifying information.
Family’s Donations to McCain Raise Questions
By MICHAEL LUO
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/us/politics/07mccain.html?pagewanted=printRIVERSIDE, Calif. — The Jordanian business partner of a prominent Florida businessman, who has raised more than $500,000 for Senator John McCain, appears to be at the center of a cluster of questionable donations to his presidential campaign.
Campaign finance records show Mr. McCain collected a little more than $50,000 in March from members of a single extended family, the Abdullahs, in California and several of their friends.
Amid a sea of contributions to the McCain campaign, the Abdullahs stand out. The checks come not from the usual exclusive coastal addresses, but from relatively hardscrabble inland towns like Downey and Colton. The donations are also startling because of their size: several donors initially wrote checks of $9,200, exceeding the $2,300 limit for an individual gift.
Making matters murkier, some couples in the family who contributed more than $9,000 to Mr. McCain also gave the maximum in December to either Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton or Rudolph W. Giuliani, or both, totaling in the case of at least one family more than $18,000.
On Wednesday, an article in The Washington Post said the donations were collected by Harry Sargeant III, a Florida businessman who has also raised money for Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Giuliani.
It appears, however, that Mr. Sargeant, the finance chairman of the Florida Republican Party and the part-owner of a major oil trading firm, International Oil Trading Company, did not actually solicit the donations from the Abdullahs and their friends.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
