excerpt: "...While she indicated that she was suspending her campaign, the
term 'suspension' has no legal meaning," Ms. Moskwa wrote..."
Clinton campaign continued after backing Obama
$6.4 million transfer focus of FEC filing
Jim McElhatton (Contact)
Monday, November 24, 2008
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's team has told the Federal Election
Commission
that she continued her campaign even after endorsing Democratic
presidential
rival Barack Obama on June 7, a claim that lets her transfer millions of
dollars from her presidential bid to her Senate campaign.
The former first lady made the $6.4 million transfer from her White House
campaign, which remains more than $7 million in debt, to Friends of
Hillary
on Aug. 28. That date would fall outside the legal deadline for making
such
a move if her campaign were to have ended June 7.
Her campaign treasurer told federal regulators that Mrs. Clinton spent
more
than a quarter-million dollars engaging in "vigorous political activity"
throughout June, according to newly released FEC filings.
"The committee continued to actively contest for delegates at the state
and
local delegate-selection events during the month of June," campaign
treasurer Shelly Moskwa wrote in a letter to the FEC dated Nov. 20.
"Nothing
in Senator Clinton's remarks indicated that she was withdrawing from the
race.
"While she indicated that she was suspending her campaign, the term
'suspension' has no legal meaning," Ms. Moskwa wrote.
Precisely when Mrs. Clinton, who is expected to be Mr. Obama's secretary
of
state nominee, dropped out of the Democratic presidential primaries is
emerging as an im****tant legal question for FEC regulators examining the
transfer of funds. Such transfers are legal if donors give their
permission,
and the Clinton campaign has said donors indeed authorized the move.
Still, such transfers also must take place within 60 days of when a
candidate withdraws from the race, according to FEC rules. The Aug. 28
transfer date fell more than 80 days after her June 7 concession to Mr.
Obama, in which she told sup****ters in Wa****ngton that "we must elect
Barack
Obama our president. I endorse him and throw my full sup****t behind him."
Given Mrs. Clinton's concession speech in early June, the FEC has raised
questions about the timing of the Aug. 28 transfer, sending a letter to
the
Clinton campaign last month asking for more details.
In response, Ms. Moskwa told the FEC in a letter that the campaign had
complied with the 60-day rule because, despite Mrs. Clinton's endorsement
of
Mr. Obama in early June, there were still efforts afoot to "actively
contest
for" delegates.
<cut picture>
GETTY IMAGES Mark Penn, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's former strategist,
seen here speaking to re****ters in Manchester, N.H., on Jan. 5, is still
owed more than $5.3 million by her presidential campaign.
"The committee engaged in vigorous activity through paid staff to make
sure
that her delegates were selected and seated at each of these events," she
wrote, adding that the delegate-selection events occurred "throughout the
month" and concluded June 29.
http://www.wa****ngtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/24/clinton-tells-fec-she-kept-campaigning-after-conce/
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