<i>Exclusive</i>: Jackson Hit With Another Charge of Illegal Activity

Exclusive: Jackson Hit With Another Charge of Illegal Activity

Wes Vernon
Tuesday, March 13, 2001

Jesse Jackson’s mounting legal problems continued to grow Tuesday, as the Federal Election Commission received another complaint against him, along with the Democratic National Committee and the Gore-Lieberman campaign.

The American Conservative Union (ACU) filed the charges with the FEC, alleging that the self-styled civil rights leader, in cooperation with the Democratic Party and the Gore-Lieberman campaign, had violated the law on several counts, all of them with a focus on the use of Jackson’s organizations, including Citizenship Education Fund, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Keep Hope Alive PAC and Illinois Rainbow/PUSH.

The charges include the following:

That Jackson illegally used his tax-exempt groups to provide in-kind campaign contributions to the Democratic National Committee and the Gore-Lieberman campaign after receiving illegal contributions from the DNC and Gore-Lieberman.

That Jackson applied corporate expenditures to fund and implement partisan "voter registration" and "get-out-the-vote" drives that specifically urged the election of the Gore-Lieberman ticket and other candidates, and coordinated those efforts with the DNC and Gore-Lieberman.

That the Gore-Lieberman campaign illegally solicited and accepted in-kind contributions from Jackson’s corporations, citing this as "a criminal offense, subject to criminal penalties."

That Jackson’s travel for partisan campaign purposes, with numerous appearances in more than 150 locations, was paid for by his tax-exempt corporations and reimbursed by the Democratic Party or Gore/Lieberman Inc. In one section of its filing, the ACU specifically alleges that Jackson’s groups were "reimbursed by the Democratic National Committee in the amount of $450,000."

The conservative group is urging the commission to refer the complaint to the Justice Department for prosecution "as may be warranted."

Additionally, the ACU has fired off a letter to Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill and Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles O. Rossoti requesting the Internal Revenue Service to "conduct an audit of the Citizenship Education fund ("CEF") and its affiliated organization, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition ("RPC") as well as other organizations or entities also affiliated with either CEF or RPC" in the complaint. Those letters were signed by David A. Keene, ACU’s chairman.

Keep in mind, this complaint is not filed just against Jackson alone, ACU spokesman Ian Walters tells NewsMax.com, but also against the DNC and the Gore-Lieberman campaign.

"It is illegal for a corporation, whether it is a for-profit or not for-profit corporation to pay for costs related to or associated with a campaign for a candidate for federal office,” he added.

The Jackson campaign trail efforts for the Gore-Lieberman ticket amounted to money spent by a tax-exempt 501©3 organization as an illegal corporate contribution to a federal campaign.

In other words, whether or not you favored Al Gore's candidacy, in a very real sense, you as a taxpayer picked up part of the tab for the Gore campaign over and above the federal money already provided under the campaign finance law.

"Those appearances [by Jackson on the road, using campaign money] were specifically for Al Gore and against George W. Bush.” They were not "good citizenship,” nonpartisan, get-out-the-vote drives. And he says ACU has the news clippings to prove it.

"We are talking about a criminal violation here,” Walters said.

He said the Gore-Lieberman campaign should be required to repay the federal treasury for any amount spent by Jackson on its behalf.

ACU also charges illegality in Jackson’s being sent by the Democrats to campaign for Gore-Lieberman in Philadelphia on Election Day.

Judging by Walters’ description of the way this jaunt was financed, one concludes there was some money-laundering going on in the exchange of money.

First, he says, the DNC officials transferred $110,000 from the federal to the non-federal account. This way they avoided the $5,000 ceiling allowed for a federal campaign contribution. But, in fact, Jackson clearly used the money to campaign for Gore-Lieberman and other federal candidates. Walters says ACU has the clippings to show the Jackson activity in Philadelphia on Election Day was "100 percent federal,” even though Jackson claimed it was non-federal.

See more articles about Jesse Jackson.

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