The New York Times is reporting that the Clinton campaign will return some $850,000 in donations from 260 donors tied to disgraced top fundraiser Norman Hsu, the convicted felon who skipped bail in California and was arrested after becoming ill aboard an Amtrak train in Colorado.
The funds here are a significant chunk of change, though they represent what is probably only a small percentage of the campaign's cash on hand.
"Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign announced last night that it would return about $850,000 to about 260 donors who had been recruited or tapped by Norman Hsu, the disgraced Clinton campaign fund-raiser who recently fled arrest and is now under investigation for his fund-raising practices.
The Clinton campaign also disclosed last night that it would begin running criminal background checks on its bundlers — the dozens of individuals who raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors on behalf of a candidate, as Mr. Hsu had done for Mrs. Clinton. A Clinton adviser said that "vigorous additional vetting" of the bundlers, including the criminal checks, would begin this week, and that the campaign was hiring people for that purpose..."
Full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/...
The Washington Post has its take on the story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
UPDATE: Thanks to Geekesque for the comment below mentioning a significant LA Times addition to the story, a recent defense of Hsu as "legit" by a Clinton staffer which may be found here: http://www.latimes.com/...