Subject:  Clerk testifies Fieger repaid his donation |
Author:
Chris
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Date Posted: 04/25/08 7:21pm
In reply to:
Chris
's message, "Fieger on trial" on 04/16/08 8:02pm
Friday, April 25, 2008
Clerk testifies Fieger repaid his donation
Defense in campaign finance fraud trial says lawyer was unaware that his actions were illegal.
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- A law clerk who cut a $2,000 check to the John Edwards presidential campaign had less than $11 in his bank account when he wrote the check, Geoffrey Fieger's trial on criminal campaign finance charges was told Thursday.
James Harrington, who was a law clerk at the time of his March 2003 donation but is now a lawyer in the Fieger firm, testified he told Fieger law partner Ven Johnson he didn't have $2,000 to donate to the Edwards campaign, but Johnson told him "it would be taken care of."
A few days after he wrote the check, Harrington rushed to the bank with a $2,000 reimbursement check from the Fieger law firm, hoping the Edwards check had not yet cleared his bank, Harrington told the court.
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Fieger, 56, and his law partner, Ven Johnson, 46, were indicted last year on conspiracy and illegal campaign finance charges, accused of making $127,000 in illegal donations to the Edwards campaign by reimbursing employees, employee relatives and law firm vendors.
Fieger, a former Democratic candidate for Michigan governor who rose to national prominence representing assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian, is also charged with obstruction of justice. That's a 10-year felony, and a conviction would likely end Fieger's legal career.
Harrington, the first government witness, testified that Johnson raised the subject of Harrington donating to the Edwards campaign, but did not pressure him to do so. Harrington said that before he told Johnson he was willing to give he researched Edwards on the Internet and learned he was a trial attorney who defended victims of malpractice and negligence.
"I thought this was a great guy," Harrington said of Edwards. "I was excited."
Thursday's opening statements in a courtroom packed with spectators made clear that Fieger and Johnson are not denying that the law firm reimbursed 64 employees, employee relatives and others for donations they made to the Edwards campaign. The key issue is whether they knowingly broke the law in doing so.
U.S. District Judge Paul D. Borman rebuked Fieger defense attorney Gerry Spence for telling jurors during his opening statement that federal law does not explicitly prohibit employers from reimbursing their employees for political donations. The judge had ruled Wednesday that reimbursing political donations does violate the law.
Part of what drew the crowd was Spence, the renowned Wyoming attorney who at age 79 could be addressing jurors in his last major trial. Spence has represented the Philippines' former first lady Imelda Marcos, Idaho separatist Randy Weaver in the Ruby Ridge case and the family of corporate whistle-blower Karen Silkwood.
"I'm not as good as I used to be," said Spence, who has had trouble remembering names and dates.
Spence portrayed Fieger as a fighter for the underdog who could be unfairly crushed by the Justice Department.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Helland told jurors Fieger intentionally broke federal campaign finance laws designed to inform the public about who is financing and potentially unduly influencing political candidates.
Fieger's attempts to disguise the reimbursement payments as company bonuses and the fact he received a memo warning that similar donations made in an earlier campaign violated state law show that Fieger knew what he did was wrong, Helland said.
"This case is about deception," Helland said. "They deceived the public, they deceived the Edwards campaign and they deceived federal election officials."
Steve Fishman, the Detroit attorney representing Johnson, said although Johnson was a partner, Fieger ran the firm and Johnson could not buy a pencil without Fieger's approval. It makes no sense to think Johnson knowingly broke the law, he said. Among those Johnson involved in the reimbursements was Johnson's own daughter. Fishman asked why a successful lawyer with nothing to gain from the transactions intentionally put his own daughter in legal jeopardy.
You can reach Paul Egan at (313) 222-2069 or pegan@detnews.com.
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