Christmas Again for Steve Cooley?
Sunday, September 26, 2010 at 6:19PM The Kamala Harris for Attorney General Campaign today released a new radio ad following news reports that Republican A.G. Nominee Steve Cooley accepted gifts and laundered campaign contributions from a man convicted of campaign finance fraud.
According to a report published last week in LA Weekly, Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley accepted at least $10,000 in laundered conduit contributions in 2003-04 from businessman Gladwin Gill, who in 2008 agreed to plead guilty to a federal felony charge of making illegal campaign contributions to several federal election campaigns through employees and family members.
In response to calls for Cooley to ask for an outside agency to undertake an independent criminal investigation of the circumstances around contributions Gill and his straw contributors made to the Cooley’s re-election committee, Cooley immediately refused to allow for such an investigation, hiding behind an entirely unproven and baseless “statute of limitations” argument.
The 60-second spot is the follow-up to a previous ad about Steve Cooley's gifts from high-profile Los Angeles political donors.
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Background Information |
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It’s still Christmastime for District Attorney Steve Cooley. First we learned that Steve Cooley received thousands of dollars in gifts from lawyers and businessmen … Lakers tickets, cigars, liquor, cologne and Italian designer suits. And what was Steve Cooley’s defense? He says the gifts are from quote “close personal friends.” |
According to the San Francisco Chronicle on 8/9/10:
“Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, a Republican who has based his campaign for state attorney general in part on his record of fighting public corruption, has taken thousands of dollars in gifts from prominent people over a period of nine years. “The gifts - including nearly $1,600 worth of tickets to Lakers games, almost $1,600 in tickets to Hollywood Bowl events, and hundreds of dollars worth of scotch, wine and cigars - are not illegal under state law, but critics say they could pose a political problem for the candidate.” Cooley’s campaign rushed to defend him from any accusations of impropriety, saying: "The bottom line is that he reports everything and that we are talking about someone whose integrity is beyond question. You don't have people who are lobbying the district attorney on (work) issues, these are personal relationships. He and his wife have a lot of friends, and that's what you're seeing, him (Cooley) taking gifts from close personal friends." |
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Turns out one of those friends was a convicted felon that gave Steve Cooley, not just a wine and cheese basket, but also thousands of dollars in laundered campaign money. The LA Weekly reported that at the same time Steve Cooley was prosecuting illegal contributions to other politicians, he collected ten thousand dollars in laundered money from a known felon. |
According to Cooley’s public Statement of Economic Interest disclosures, Cooley accepted a “wine and cheese basket” from Dr. Gladwin Gill valued at $130 on 12/23/04.
As LA Weekly reported on 8/26/10: “Gill's scheme was essentially the same as Archibald's (whom Cooley brought felony charges against): Gill reimbursed his relatives and employees for contributions to George W. Bush's re-election campaign. In 2008, he pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of campaign-finance fraud and was sentenced to a year in prison. “But Gill and many of those same phony contributors also gave to Cooley's re-election effort in 2003 and 2004. Cooley's office would be responsible for investigating phony contributions to a local campaign. But the contributions to his own campaign were never investigated or prosecuted…. “In 2004, Gill contributed the maximum $1,000 to Cooley's re-election campaign. Eleven employees of St. Ann's Hospice or its affiliate, the Shalom Foundation, also contributed the maximum.” |
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And how does he answer that one? Steve Cooley says the statute of limitations is past … so he, Steve Cooley, can no longer be investigated. He says it’s too late. Steve Cooley should not be our next Attorney General. |
According to the San Francisco Chronicle on 8/29/10:
“[Cooley’s representative] said the issue was not investigated because the district attorney's office never received a formal complaint. He said the contributions will not be investigated now - nor will they be returned, because the statute of limitations has expired and the money has long been spent.” |
Read HERE.
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