FBI Arrests GOP Rep's Ex-Girlfriend On Straw Donation Charges

[okaawhatever]

Source: Huffington Post


WASHINGTON -- FBI agents arrested the reported ex-girlfriend of New York Republican Rep. Michael Grimm on Friday in Texas, charging her with making illegal campaign contributions through straw donors.

The FBI says that Diana Durand, described in an agent's deposition as a "personal friend" of Grimm, had already maxed out her personal campaign donation limit when she asked other donors to send over $10,000 in additional donations to Grimm's campaign. The FBI's deposition laying out the charges against Durand, dated August 2013, doesn't name Grimm. But after her arrest Friday, the deposition was unsealed, and Grimm's lawyer issued a statement in which he confirmed that Grimm is the "Candidate A" referred to in the document.

The lawyer, William McGinley of Patton Boggs LLP, also pointed out that the complaint doesn't allege any wrongdoing on Grimm's part.

“We are saddened that the government took the extraordinary step of arresting a single mother on these allegations, and hope the matter will be resolved quickly,” McGinley said, according to The New York Times.


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/14/michael-grimm-diana-durand_n_4595691.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

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You really should click on the article because it mentions that one of the straw donors the FBI interviewed also made another straw donation in 2010 to an unnamed candidate. And btw, there was quid pro quo although apparently Durand never followed through. Interesting....

[okaawhatever]

1. Please not the ultimate hypocrisy as the attorney representing the Republican donors has made

a disparaging comment against the government for arresting a single mother. Now we know she's lying. The Republicans have never cared about single mothers.

[hrmjustin]

2. He is my congressman and I don't think he will survive this.

[Gothmog]

3. Juanita Jean thinks that Texas is sending Missionaries to teach the rest of the country how to cheat

http://www.juanitajean.com/2014/01/14/sending-missionaries/

Texas is now sending missionaries to other states to teach them how to violate campaign laws. Sadly, sometimes the natives eat them.

Michael Grimm represents the Staten Island part of Brooklyn. And yes, he’s a Republican.

A Texas woman who was a friend of and fund-raiser for Representative Michael G. Grimm has been charged with illegally funneling more than $10,000 into his 2010 campaign, according to court papers and people with knowledge of the case. The charges suggest that a two-year-old federal investigation into his fund-raising is still active.

The woman, Diana Durand, 47, of Houston, was arrested there on Friday by the F.B.I. on a criminal complaint filed in United States District Court in Brooklyn charging she used “straw donors” to mask more than $10,000 in illegal donations to Mr. Grimm. She had already donated $4,800, the legal limit.

So, if I lived in a foreign state and a fundraiser from Texas came to town, I’d ask to see their redneck passport.

The Texas GOP has perfected the art of violating campaign finance laws.

[czarjak]

4. Benghazi?

Right Rep?

[okaawhatever]

5. He will be one of the few Republicans who join the anti-Christie side of Bridgegate. It will be his

distraction. Campaign donation? You mean the Bridgegate thing or Benghazi thing?

BTW Welcome to DU

[hrmjustin]

6. no he is a big Christie supporter.

The sad fact is the local press is not really covering this.