EVIDENCE REVEALED OF UNDISCLOSED BIAS BY STATE DEPT. WATCHDOG SENIOR ADVISOR
Washington, DC – Correct The Record today called for David Seide, senior advisor to the Office of the Inspector General of the State Department (State OIG), to immediately recuse himself from handling matters related to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after it was reported this morning by Politico that Seide was more heavily involved in an investigation of Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign than was previously disclosed. Specifically, it was revealed that a subpoena initialed by Seide “made sweeping demands for the campaign’s financial and fund-raising records.”
The investigation involving Seide led to the prosecution and eventual acquittal of a Clinton fundraiser.
“David Seide must recuse himself from handling matters related to Hillary Clinton as his conflict of interest is apparent and absolutely appalling. It’s terrifying that the watchdog organization that is supposed to protect the integrity of our public institutions could in fact be a perpetuator of bias,” said Brad Woodhouse, president of Correct The Record.
Following previous allegations of bias and leaks by State OIG, Correct The Record yesterday FOIA’ed communications between Seide and members of the Senate. It is clear the State IG office may have failed to operate as an independent watchdog and the public has a right to know the extent to which State’s OIG has been complicit in its staffers’ efforts to damage Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
The Politico story referenced is below.
POLITICO: Clinton email prober had deeper role in inquiry into 2000 Clinton campaign
By Josh Gerstein
January 29, 2016 11:59 a.m. EDT
An official overseeing State Department investigations stemming from Hillary Clinton’s email practices had a greater role than previously acknowledged in a probe of Clinton’s first Senate campaign, according to a subpoena reviewed by POLITICO.
State’s Office of Inspector General told POLITICO earlier this month that the No. 3 official there, David Seide, was not involved in a campaign finance prosecution stemming from Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign, but only in a stock fraud probe of a firm connected to a Clinton donor.
However, a grand jury subpoena issued to Clinton’s Senate campaign committee in January 2003 which bears Seide’s name and title as an assistant U.S. Attorney and appears to have been hand-initialed by him made sweeping demands for the campaign’s financial and fund-raising records. The materials covered by the subpoena are so wide-ranging that they do not appear consistent with a probe focused on the financial dealings of a single donor or company.
The subpoena demanded “any and all documents relating to any contributions or donations, made in any form” to Clinton’s campaign as well as the New York State Democratic Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and a joint fundraising committee, New York Senate 2000.
The subpoena sought 12 categories of records including all records related to fund-raising events, loans or debts, allocation ratios, federal/non-federal transfers, all bank statements, canceled checks, wire transfers and credit card payments, as well as all records related to the filing of FEC reports.
The document demand did seek records pertaining to donor Peter Paul and his company Stan Lee Media, but those names appear amidst a list of entities and individuals involved in the August 2000 Hollywood gala that became the focus of the federal investigation into Clinton’s campaign aides.
In December 2003, a grand jury in Los Angeles indicted Clinton’s national finance director David Rosen on four felony charges of intentionally underreporting in-kind donations by Paul for the gala by more than $700,000. After a three-week trial in 2005, a jury acquitted Rosen of all the pending counts. The joint fundraising committee subsequently paid a civil penalty to the Federal Election Commission and updated its finance reports to reflect the in-kind gifts. The law in force at the time permitted unlimited “soft money” gifts to such fundraisers.
Clinton allies have raised questions about the impartiality of the leadership of the State inspector general’s office. Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) said the probe of the 2000 campaign “amounted to nothing” and that Seide’s role raised in the prior inquiry and the current ones raised “all sorts of questions.”
A spokesman for the inspector general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday on the broad subpoena and the office’s earlier description of Seide’s role. However, spokesman Doug Welty noted previously that Seide left the U.S. Attorney’s Office in March 2003, well before Rosen’s indictment.
However, the January 22, 2003 subpoena demanded the records be turned over by February 14, 2003, before Seide left the U.S. Attorney’s office. The subpoena also bears the name of a key FBI agent involved in the campaign fundraising probe, David Smith.
Smith persuaded a cooperating witness in the case, Louisiana advertising consultant Ray Reggie, to wear a wire while meeting with Rosen at a steakhouse. Reggie, a brother-in-law of late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges soon after Rosen’s trial. He was sentenced to a year in jail on those charges and more recently to 11 more years on other fraud charges, which he is appealing.
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