September 6, 2007

Where is Hsu?

Norman Hsu the man at the center of Hiallry Clinton's latest fundraising scandal has once again failed to report in court. Fox News reports:

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Disgraced Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu was a wanted man again after he failed to show up for a court date Wednesday and a judge issued a new warrant for his arrest.

Hsu, whose criminal past has roiled the campaigns of top presidential candidates, was scheduled to ask a judge to cut in half the $2 million bail he posted last week when he turned himself in after spending 15 years on the lam from a felony theft conviction.

Instead, San Mateo Superior Court Judge Robert Foiles ordered Hsu's bail forfeited to the county and issued a new arrest warrant. If Hsu is arrested again, he will be jailed without bail this time.

Hsu, a Hong Kong native, was also supposed to turn over his passport Wednesday. Hsu's prominent Silicon Valley criminal defense attorney Jim Brosnahan said Hsu failed to give the passport to the legal team on Monday.

"Mr. Hsu is not here and we do not know where Mr. Hsu is," Brosnahan said outside court. Brosnahan said that "there was some contact" with Hsu a few hours before the scheduled 9 a.m. court appearance, but he declined to say how and who talked to Hsu.
"Mr. Hsu is not here and we do not know where Mr. Hsu is." Can you imagine the up-roar if this has been a fundraiser connected to a GOP candidate? Suprisingly enough CNN, the Washington Post and the Washington Times all fail to mention Mr. Hsu on its homepage.

The New York Times writes of the affair:

The mystery of Norman Hsu, the wealthy Clinton donor who turned out to be a fugitive from justice, took a bizarre twist yesterday when Mr. Hsu, who skipped out after pleading no contest in a California fraud case 15 years ago, disappeared yet again.

Mr. Hsu, who turned himself in to the authorities last week and posted $2 million in cash as his bail, was to have appeared in Superior Court in California at 9 a.m. yesterday to hand in his passport and ask that his bail be reduced.

But with the judge, a deputy state attorney general, the news media and Mr. Hsu’s lawyer all waiting in a courtroom in Redwood City, Calif., Mr. Hsu was nowhere to be found.

“We do not know where he is,” said James Brosnahan, Mr. Hsu’s lawyer. “We hope he will be in court today.”

[...]

Since word of Mr. Hsu’s fugitive status became known, Democratic candidates have been rushing to rid themselves of Mr. Hsu’s money — among them Senator Barack Obama of Illinois; Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York; Al Franken, the comedian and political commentator who is a Minnesota senatorial candidate; and Representatives Michael M. Honda and Doris Matsui of California.

Since the 2004 election cycle, Mr. Hsu personally contributed $600,000 to Democrats around the country and raised hundreds of thousands more, frequently holding fund-raising parties and getting his picture taken with prominent politicians.


I bet they have.

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