Dump Bachmann (see last night's post), the Minnesota Independent and other "new media" have been on this story for weeks... now the MSM has begun to write about Bachmann's pardon request for Petters associate Frank Vennes Jr..
Lawrence Schumacher in the Saint Cloud Times:
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann wrote a letter last year recommending a federal pardon for a major campaign contributor who was once convicted of felony money laundering, firearm and drug charges on the basis he had reformed.
This month, she withdrew that recommendation on behalf of Frank E. Vennes Jr., eight days after the FBI searched his Shorewood home and office and confiscated documents, money, art, coins and jewels that agents think may be related to a $3 billion investment fraud scheme in which Minnesota business mogul Tom Petters has been charged.
Some of the court filings suggest Vennes may have been a participant. He has not been charged.
This week saw a fourth person involved in the investigation plead guilty.
Vennes and his wife have donated a total of $27,600 to Bachmann’s 2006 and 2008 election campaigns and related committees, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Of that, $9,200 came during the 2008 election cycle and has since been donated to charity, said Michelle Marston, Bachmann’s campaign manager. Marston is on leave from her job as Bachmann’s chief of staff in Washington, D.C.
“She’s known him several years through some connections with Twin Cities charities,” Marston said of Bachmann’s relationship with Vennes. “She knew about his attempt to turn his whole life around. It would appear that his public act of contrition wasn’t quite what it should have been.”
An FBI search warrant contends that Vennes made $28 million in commissions for recruiting five investors — including Minnesota Teen Challenge — to contribute $1.2 billion to companies Petters’ controlled through the Fidelis Foundation, a Plymouth faith-based nonprofit.
In her pardon letter, Bachmann had singled out Vennes’ backing of Fidelis among his charitable works.
Fidelis serves as an investment agent for other nonprofits, including Minnesota Teen Challenge, a faith-based nonprofit on whose board Vennes served until recently.
Fidelis now holds $27.6 million in Petters Co. investments that may be worthless, including $5.7 million owed to Teen Challenge — a Minneapolis-based drug- and alcohol-treatment program.
In a television interview on KSTP Channel 5 last week, Bachmann said she knew Vennes through her own involvement in Teen Challenge.
In the last week, Bachmann also has said numerous times that relationships and advisers of candidates for public office such as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama are “fair game” for public scrutiny, as they may affect the candidates’ views and beliefs.
“The media needs to do their job in vetting,” she said following a St. Cloud Rotary Club luncheon last week. “Those associations are certainly fair game and something the media brings up.”
... Larry Schumacher goes into the history of Frank Vennes Jr.
Vennes pleaded guilty in 1987 to money laundering and no contest to charges of illegally selling a firearm and using a telephone to facilitate cocaine distribution when he owned a pawnshop in Bismarck, N.D., according to court records. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
Currently, he is listed as the founder and CEO of Metro Gem, an Excelsior-based company.
Vennes did not return phone calls seeking comment for this story.
He served on the board of trustees for Teen Challenge for seven years, until recently resigning, said Eric Vagle, the nonprofit’s director of administration.
Vennes guided five charities, including Teen Challenge, to invest $27.6 million though Fidelis into Petters Co., said Joe Smith, Fidelis’ president. Vennes has been a donor-adviser for Fidelis since 2002, and has guided millions of dollars in charitable donations to deserving ministries during that time, Smith said.
A class-action lawsuit filed Oct. 10 in U.S. District Court against Petters and others by investment groups representing more than 100 pastors, ministers and nonprofit organizations does not list Vennes as a defendant.
But it alleges that Petters used Vennes to access the plaintiffs because of his connections and stature in the Twin Cities’ Christian community.
Investors entered into promissory notes with Metro Gem, which created a pool of money from which Petters Co. could withdraw funds to make a specific purchase, the plaintiffs allege.
The lawsuit alleges no purchases were ever made with that money, and it was instead used to fund Petters’ other businesses and enrich the defendants.
Both Vagle and Smith said that money is now likely gone, resulting in layoffs of 22 Teen Challenge employees and a damaged reputation for Fidelis.
“We fear the worst,” Vagle said.
... Schumacher then takes a look at the pardon:
In a letter to Federal Pardon Attorney Roger C. Adams dated Dec. 10, 2007, Bachmann wrote that Vennes, who had long since completed his sentence in the 1987 case, deserved a pardon from President George W. Bush because he “still encounters the barriers of his past and especially in the area of finance loan documents.”
“This hinders his ability to expand his business which places limits on his support to the neediest in society,” she wrote. “A pardon would release the weights of the past that serve no purpose, as Mr. Vennes has stated his desire to help so many more.”
But in a letter to Adams dated Oct. 2 of this year, Bachmann said she “may have too hastily accepted his claims of redemption and I must withdraw my previous letter.”
She still defended Vennes’ charitable works.
“Many less privileged people benefited from his outward demonstrations of community support,” she wrote. “And, such visible signs of hope, along with his affirmations of shame at his previous actions, led me and so many others to believe that public redemption should be brought to bear in his case.”
... Michelle Marston again stands in for her boss and answers questions (sort of):
Marston said she’s not aware of Bachmann writing another pardon recommendation on anyone’s behalf during her nearly two years in office.
She was also not certain if other political figures had written letters on behalf of Vennes.
Bachmann has spoken to groups at Teen Challenge in the past, Marston said, and is listed on the group’s Web site as an official supporter. But she has had no formal involvement with the group, Vagle said.
Smith said he had never met with Bachmann, and was not aware of her having any involvement with Fidelis.
Marston said Bachmann is only aware of the good works Fidelis has done in Minnesota.
Vennes and his wife each donated $4,600 to Bachmann in 2008, the maximum amount allowed during the election cycle.
They also donated $4,200 each in 2006, plus Vennes contributed $10,000 to the Bachmann Minnesota Victory Committee, a separate political action committee.
Vennes’ 2008 contributions have been donated to charity, but the money from 2006 has long since been spent, Marston said.
....It would be interesting to know what charities received Bachmann's tainted Vennes contributions.
Marston noted that Vennes has not been charged with anything.
“Every man is innocent until proven guilty,” she said.
... This is inconsistent. Vennes may be innocent... so why did Bachmann throw Vennes under the bus? This reminds me of her inconsistent spin about her Hardball debacle - she wants it both ways.
She also noted that Petters, who has been charged, donated $500 to the campaign of Bachmann’s DFL- and Independence Party-endorsed challenger, Elwyn Tinklenberg.
... big difference - Tinklenberg did not write a letter requesting a pardon for Petters and Petters, unlike Vennes has not been convicted of major crimes. It should also be noted that Vennes claims he was framed by the FBI - a claim that was dismissed by the U.S. 8th Circuit court of Appeals. Another difference is that Bachmann says in her pardon request that she knows Vennes and can vouch for Vennes based on that "personal experience".
The Tinklenberg campaign donated that money to charity recently, as did other elected officials who received Petters’ contributions.
Both Petters and Vennes have donated money to several other Minnesota candidates.
Vennes gave money in the 2006 election cycle to both Republican Mark Kennedy and Democrat Amy Klobuchar in their U.S. Senate campaigns. He also donated $10,000 to the Republican Party of Minnesota in 2006.
There were contributions from other member of the Vennes family. There was also the contributions of Vennes lawyer Craig Howse.
For those of you who are new to the Pardongate story, here is Bachmann's pardon request:
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