{"id":33855,"date":"2011-11-16T15:42:42","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T22:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=33855"},"modified":"2011-11-16T15:42:46","modified_gmt":"2011-11-16T22:42:46","slug":"feds-looking-at-richardson-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/11\/feds-looking-at-richardson-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds looking at Richardson again"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_8142\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 270px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8142 \" title=\"Richardson-4\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Richardson-41-300x252.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"270\" height=\"227\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Richardson-41-300x252.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Richardson-41.jpg 325w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A federal grand jury is investigating potential \u201cfinancial irregularities\u201d related to former Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bill_Richardson\" target=\"_blank\">Bill Richardson\u2019s<\/a> unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign, the Albuquerque Journal is reporting.<\/p>\n<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/main\/2011\/11\/16\/news\/feds-probe-richardson-campaign.html\" target=\"_blank\">today\u2019s Journal article<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe grand jury has been hearing testimony in secret since at least September, and a number of witnesses have been granted immunity, according to defense attorneys familiar with the general outlines of the investigation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026 the Journal has learned that one area under scrutiny is whether money from campaign supporters was used to settle a threatened lawsuit against Richardson in the fall of 2007 by a woman who formerly worked in state government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeveral people familiar with some aspects of the investigation have mentioned similarities to pending criminal charges <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2011\/06\/03\/john-edwards-indicted_n_867406.html\" target=\"_blank\">against former presidential candidate John Edwards<\/a> on allegations that his campaign supporters paid to shield the candidate from a public scandal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe legal issue is whether the money constituted a de facto campaign contribution made in furtherance of the candidate\u2019s bid for federal office.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>According to the Journal, the investigation \u201cinvolves several other matters tied together by potential election law violations, including possible coordination between so-called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-srv\/politics\/special\/campfin\/intro4.htm\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018soft money\u2019<\/a> from political action committees and the campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also interesting in the Journal article is this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThis makes at least the fourth grand jury that has investigated Richardson, or his administration, or his campaign, since 2008. Two were completed without returning indictments, and the third \u2013 involving state investments \u2013 has been pending for more than two years.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You can read more about the other investigations <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/08\/richardson-isnt-in-the-clear-yet-analyst-says\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal grand jury is investigating potential \u201cfinancial irregularities\u201d related to former Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign, the Albuquerque Journal is reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[162,112,142,114,107],"class_list":["post-33855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2008-election","tag-bill-richardson","tag-crime","tag-public-corruption","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}