Ethics

Bachmann's Corruption Problem

By Ed Brayton

The Minnesota Independent, sister site to the Michigan Messenger, has an expose` about Rep. Michelle Bachmann and her attempts to have a campaign contributor pardoned.

Bachmann wrote a letter of recommendation in December 2007 for a presidential pardon of Vennes for federal money laundering, cocaine distribution and illegal firearms sales convictions. Vennes pleaded guilty and no contest to the charges in 1987 and was sentenced to five years in prison, which he served in Sandstone Federal Correctional Facility in Sandstone, MN.

Six months after Bachmann recommended Vennes for a pardon, Vennes and his wife, Kimberly, who are not constituents of Bachmann's, dumped $9,200 into Bachmann's re-election campaign. The Venneses already were among Bachmann's top individual campaign contributors when Bachmann solicited the pardon, having contributed $18,200 to her campaign committees between 2005-2007. Vennes' brother and his wife, Greg and Stephanie Vennes, have contributed an additional $8,400 to Bachmann since 2005. And Vennes' personal attorney, C. Craig Howse, has donated $5,000 to Bachmann's campaign funds since 2007.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on October 24, 2008 (boomark / email).