I vaguely recall about a decade ago that congressional Republicans, desperate to find something damaging about the Clinton White House, had some kind of complaint about Chinese campaign contributions. There was never much to this, but the GOP was convinced that Democratic donors should be subject to the highest scrutiny, especially those with foreign ties.
With this in mind, this is likely to be one of those stories that’s a never-ending source of entertainment.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) won’t say what it plans to do with thousands of dollars in campaign donations it received from an accused terror financier.
Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari gave $15,250 to the NRCC since 2002, according to FEC records published on the Web site opensecrets.org.
On Friday, Alishtari pled not guilty to funding terrorism and other crimes, including financial fraud.
As Justin Rood explained, Alishtari (aka Michael Mixon) faces federal charges of providing material support to terrorists by transferring $152,000 between banks to allegedly be used to purchase night-vision goggles and other equipment needed for a terrorist training camp.
Unfortunately for the NRCC, it’s the same Alishtari who claims to be a life member of the NRCC’s “Inner Circle,” was named New York State Businessman of the Year by the group in 2003 and 2004, and was appointed to the president’s “USNRCC White House Business Advisory Group.”
Oops.
To be sure, some of Alishtari’s claims about being a Republican insider are just fundraising schemes. The NRCC “Businessperson of the Year” was given to 1,900 GOP donors, which hardly makes it prestigious. For that matter, the president’s “USNRCC White House Business Advisory Group” does not appear to exist. He may be a member of the NRCC’s “Inner Circle,” but that’s just a gimmick. We can probably dismiss these Republican “honors” as nonsense.
But this is still plenty interesting. We seem to know a few things for sure:
* Alishtari has been a fairly big donor for the National Republican Congressional Committee, contributing more than $15,000 in the ’02 and ’04 cycles.
* Alishtari now stands accused of trying to send $152,000 to buy equipment for terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
* Alishtari ran a company, GlobalProtector, which was bidding on multiple government contracts — including ones with the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security — around the same time Alishtari was cutting checks to the NRCC.
Now, just to be clear, we don’t yet know of any special treatment or access Alishtari may have received in exchange for his donations. For that matter, Alishtari is facing charges, but hasn’t been convicted of anything.
But we do have a generous GOP donor accused of financing terrorism. What’s more, the NRCC “declined to discuss” the matter, and as far as I can tell, has not returned the money Alishtari contributed.
I wonder if the situation were reversed, and an accused financier of terrorism had been a generous DCCC donor, if Republicans might try and raise a fuss….