As amazing as it sounds, it appears the Clinton campaign fraudulently charged thousands of dollars to an unwitting and unwilling donor, who had to file a police report before the campaign refunded most but not all of her money (they continue to refuse to compensate her for the overdrafts that resulted.)
Kathy Callahan's story is supported by campaign finance reporting that shows the campaign charging $11,300 to her credit card. See the data here: http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:bT8 6RAoZmzwJ:www.campaignmoney.com/politica l/contributions/kathy-callahan.asp%3Fcyc le%3D08+%22kathy+callahan%22+hillary& ;hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
Another source: http://opensecrets.org/indivs/search_hp. asp?txtName=callahan%2C+Kathy&NumOfT hou=0&txt2008=Y&submit=Go%21
Callahan describes her experience (from bluejersey): I voluntarily left the Hillary Finance Committee after I discovered more than $3, 000 in unauthorized charges from HRC campaign on my own VISA card! And that set off a wave of overdrafts and $400 in bank charges that I was stuck with. And thE compliance officer Allison Wright at Hillary VA headquarters refused to reimburse me for the charges. And the senior finance reps who I notified about more than $3, 000 in Unauthorized Visa Charges: never once aplogized or empathized with my plight...Much less send me a "sorry for all the trouble" note and a check!
Unbelievably, it took me more than a month of pleading and begging VIA email to get the money back. I was told verbatim:
"Kathy Callahan, you are going to be with us all the way to the White House...So let's leave the money where it is and we'll save time on inevitable future donations and transactions!"
I went into a state of abject shock, disbelief and later anger! Heartbroken. I didn't want to report this entirely correctable problem to anyone outside the Hillary campaign! One long month later, and at the behest of a bank executive who said to me a few days before Christmas Eve,
"You are way way way over the legal donor limit, Kathy! What are they thinking? Are they thinking at all?"
So I followed his direction and filed a police report in Ridgefield. I then notified Allison Wright and Cc'ed senior finance reps (who I met many times) via email again -about the police report and said,
"Enough is Enough, already! Christmas is coming!"
It was then and only then and within a matter of seconds that I got a cell phone call and email from Allison Wright imploring me, "Kathy, please don't do anything, formally! I will send you whatever you want back, immediately!" I told her,
"You can send all of my money back!" Finally, $5, 300 large came back to me but not $400 in overdraft charges. And to think that the legal limit during the primary is $2, 300 and I had already generously and enthusiastically donated $2, 000 to Hillary legitimately!
I had no other choice but to walk away! And I am so glad that I did. Every cloud has a green, gold and silver lining. And in my case it's Barack Obama.
-Kathy Callahan, MSW, NJ LCSW, MASS LICSW
Clearly, this is something to be investigated. No conclusions can be drawn as yet. The police report should be quite interesting. What I am most interested in is this: have any Clinton donors had similar experiences of unauthorized charges or the Clinton campaign taking donations over the legal limit? Is this an aberration or the first example of a pattern of behavior?
Questions, questions, questions.
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