{"id":34392,"date":"2011-12-14T05:57:35","date_gmt":"2011-12-14T12:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=34392"},"modified":"2011-12-15T06:45:10","modified_gmt":"2011-12-15T13:45:10","slug":"two-apparently-testify-in-richardson-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/12\/two-apparently-testify-in-richardson-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"Two apparently testify in Richardson probe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Former Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Amanda Cooper and Jimmy Daskalos appeared at federal courthouse Tuesday while grand jury was meeting<\/h4>\n

Two high-profile politicos with ties to Bill Richardson<\/a> apparently testified Tuesday before a federal grand jury investigating the former governor.<\/p>\n

From The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cA former deputy campaign manager with former Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s presidential campaign and an Albuquerque restaurateur and developer appeared before a federal grand jury looking into possible wrongdoing by the state\u2019s former chief executive.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut neither Amanda Cooper nor Jimmy Daskalos had anything to say as they entered and left the Pete V. Domenici federal courthouse Tuesday in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

\u201cCooper is the stepdaughter of U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and worked as Richardson\u2019s deputy campaign manager during his presidential run. Cooper also worked on Richardson\u2019s 2006 re-election campaign for governor.<\/p>\n

\u201cDaskalos, who has owned Yanni\u2019s, a prominent Albuquerque restaurant, with Richardson insider Nick Kapnison, was a fundraiser for the former governor.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Albuquerque Journal added<\/a> that neither Cooper nor Daskalos would comment on the situation. Grand jury proceedings are secret.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From the Journal:<\/p>\n

\u201cCampaign contributors with varying degrees of business with the state during the Richardson administrations (2003-2010) have been called to testify, as have campaign officials of his bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cRichardson confidant Anthony Correra, who has been at the center of separate investigation into state investment business, appeared last month.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Albuquerque Journal first reported on the federal investigation\u00a0in mid November<\/a>. The Wall Street Journal\u00a0later reported<\/a>\u00a0that Richardson\u2019s political allies allegedly \u201cgave $250,000 to placate a woman who was considering suing the governor in 2007, exposing their alleged extramarital affair\u201d while he was seeking the Democratic Party\u2019s 2008 nomination for president.<\/p>\n

And The New York Times\u00a0has reported<\/a>\u00a0that \u201ca sexual harassment claim was made against Mr. Richardson around 2007 by a woman connected to state government and that a settlement was discussed with one of the former governor\u2019s personal lawyers.\u201d The woman, The Times reported, \u201ccomplained privately in 2007 that she had felt pressured into having a sexual relationship with Mr. Richardson.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times reported that the $250,000 payoff \u201cwas believed to have been wired to the woman\u2019s lawyer from a bank in Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read today\u2019s New Mexican article here<\/a> and the Journal article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two high-profile politicos with ties to Bill Richardson apparently testified Tuesday before a federal grand jury investigating the former governor.<\/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":[112,142,107],"class_list":["post-34392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bill-richardson","tag-crime","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34392","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=34392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}