Obama Campaign to Return Aunt's Donations; Conyers: DOJ must investigate the leak

[Hope And Change]

The Green Zone

Obama Campaign to Return Aunt's Donations

Updated 1:01 p.m.

By Matthew Mosk

The campaign of Sen. Barack Obama will refund a small number of contributions made by Obama's aunt, who has been living in the United States illegally, according to a published report.

The woman, Zeituni Onyango, lives in public housing in Boston and is the half-sister of Obama's late father.

The Associated Press reported today that Obama's aunt had been instructed to leave the country four years ago by an immigration judge who rejected her request for asylum from her native Kenya.

Obama campaign reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show Onyango gave $265 to the campaign. Foreign nationals are not permitted to donate to American presidential campaigns.

"Given the information that has been brought to our attention, the contributions are being refunded," Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman, told The Washington Post this morning.

The campaign told the AP that Obama was not aware that questions had been raised about his aunt's legal status.

"Senator Obama has no knowledge of her status but obviously believes that any and all appropriate laws be followed," the statement said, according to the AP.

Posted at 12:16 PM ET on Nov 1, 2008


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11/01/obama_campaign_to_return_aunts.html

---------------

Conyers: DOJ must investigate the leak

by karpaty lviv

Sat Nov 01, 2008 at 10:38:26 AM PDT

The whole AP story smells bad. Obama's half-aunt was reportedly leave the country four years ago. All of a sudden, the info is leaked to AP 3 days before the election. A coincidence? Please... Surely, this is the very last salvo of disgusting Bush-Rove-McCain machine.

This is a non-story which media will try to play for the next 24 hours.

The bigger question, though, is who leaked this information to AP. ICE is obviously prohibited to release any information on anyone's immigration status:


more...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/1/13282/9648/899/648958

[mucifer]

1. oy vey

[Hope And Change]

2. Conyers demands an investigation.

[Vinca]

3. The Obama campaign should issue the following statement:

Fuck off. Common sense tells the person of average intelligence that if Obama knew the auntie wasn't here legally, he would have made some calls.

[mucifer]

4. Then the story in msm would be "Look how horribly Obama is treating his aunt getting her deported"

[Hope And Change]

5. ICE investigating leak

November 01, 2008
Categories: Barack Obama

ICE investigating leak

An update from Kelly Nantel, the press secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, on the leak of Obama's half-aunt's immigration status:

Early this morning, the matter was refered to Inspector General and ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility for action. They are looking into whether there was a violation of policy in publicly disclosing individual case information.


By Ben Smith 04:28 PM


http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1108/ICE_investigating_leak.html?showall