D.C. Corruption Case a Window into HillaryWorld

Team Clinton’s craving for cash and ethical myopia are again in the headlines. Yes, Clinton Inc. is a billion-dollar operation. Time reports that the Clintonites project spending $1.7 billion to elect her in 2016–but a chunk of that change may well be coming from sordid sources. Will the voters care? That’s the $1.7 billion question. 

On March 10, Jeffrey Thompson, a D.C. businessman and crony of D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, pleaded guilty to illegally funneling millions of dollars in campaign cash to an array of local and federal politicians, including Hillary Clinton’s failed 2008 presidential bid. Although only listed in court papers as “INDIVIDUAL A,” The Washington Post identified Minyon Moore as the person behind the letter. A long-time trusted Clinton aide, Moore was purportedly in cahoots with Thompson in a scheme involving off-books distribution of unreported Primary Day walking money. Thompson has admitted his crime; as part of his plea agreement, he has implicated others, including Moore, allegedly. 

Before her collaboration with Thompson, Moore was certainly no novice to the carnival that is Clinton. Back in the 1990s, she directed Bill Clinton’s White House political affairs shop. Moore also was Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s right hand when McAuliffe chaired the Democratic National Committee. After Barack Obama defeated Hillary in 2008, Moore helped ease Hillary’s departure from the race with donations to retire Clinton’s campaign debt–donations from Obama himself and Penny Pritzker, who would later be tapped by Obama as Commerce Secretary.

According to court papers, Moore was involved in organizing ”street teams” in Texas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico. In a Statement of Offense, filed by the government in federal court and signed by Thompson, he admitted, “In or about February 2008, INDIVIDUAL A [Moore] asked THOMPSON to fund street teams that would be paid to assist PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN 1 [Clinton 2008] during upcoming primary elections.” Moore then put Thompson in contact with Troy White, whose “marketing firm organized street teams” to discuss how street teams could support Clinton’s efforts.

To be clear, Democratic upstairs-downstairs coalition politics were very much part of the Clinton ground game. According to Thompson, paid street team members and canvassers in Texas included “members of CIVIC ORGANIZATION A, who were recruited by INDIVIDUAL B, and would provide support” to the Clinton Campaign. For the record, The Washington Post also identified the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) as CIVIC ORGANIZATION A, and throughout the Democratic primaries Latino voters sided with Clinton over Obama. In other words, partnering with LULAC was no coincidence.

Thompson further acknowledged that he, White, and Moore “agreed that the paid street team members and canvassers would disseminate and distribute campaign materials prepared” by the Clinton campaign. He also admitted that the Clinton campaign, White, “INDIVIDUAL B,” and himself together “communicated by phone in advance of the Texas federal primary and caucus election on March 4, 2008, including through three-way calls and the exchange of text messages.”

Thompson’s guilty plea is not Moore’s first brush with the law, but rather just her latest appearance in this saga. Last fall, Moore’s name surfaced in connection with Thompson and fellow operative White when White pleaded guilty to federal charges arising from the very Clinton campaign scheme that has now snared Thompson. According to court papers previously filed against White, Moore emailed him, saying, “I am piping up saying we need your services,” adding, “I will fight for it.”

Yes, Moore has coyly proclaimed her innocence through her D.C.-based “government relations” firm, the Dewey Square Group (DSG), which announced that Moore has been “fully cooperating” with the federal investigation and “was entirely unaware of any inappropriate activities.” Note the wiggle word, “inappropriate.” Note the self-absolving “fully cooperating.”

Right now, Moore looks like she is entrenched in HillaryWorld and the Democratic Party. Last summer, Hillary met with three of Moore’s DSG colleagues, in a meeting organized by Moore. In the face of these latest developments, the National Journal reports that Burns Strider, another Clinton aide who is with the pro-Clinton rapid-response group, Correct the Record, called the allegations “bizarre and brazenly false” and “horse****.” Despite the hullabaloo surrounding Moore, she still sits on the Democratic National Committee, with the blissful knowledge that for her, the five-year criminal statute of limitations has likely lapsed–and that 2016 is just around the corner.