Hsu Story Continues to Escalate

The Wall Street Journal has, to its credit, been digging into the source of Norman Hsu's money. As mentioned at Captain's Quarters, the good news is that it didn't come from China -- at least some of it. Hsu has apparently embezzled $40 million.

However, I continue to be very curious about a possible China connection...if you read the article it appears Hsu must have had funds from another source.

It seems fairly certain at this point that Hsu's "bundled" political donors, who didn't appear to have incomes to support their lavish political donations to Hillary Clinton and others, were laundering the embezzled money into campaign contributions.

The Clinton campaign should thus not be returning the money to those who apparently donated it, but giving the money to the FBI to deal with.

Many, many people involved in this donation scheme are likely to end up in trouble with the law.

One angle I find curious is that yesterday's L.A. Times reported that the Clinton campaign was warned about Hsu last summer but wrote off the concerns about Hsu raised by a California businessman. The businessman directly warned the Clinton campaign, as well as the Democratic Party.

The Clinton campaign finance director, Samantha Wolf, asserted in an email to a California Democratic Party member, "I can tell you with 100 certainty that Norman Hsu is NOT involved in a ponzi scheme. He is COMPLETELY legit."

How was Wolf able to offer this "100 certainty"? Did she simply brush off the concerns and look the other way because of greediness for donations? Or does she or anyone else in the Clinton campaign possibly have unclean hands themselves?

Wolf no longer works for the Clinton campaign. Interesting.

The New York Daily News raises further questions about the Clinton campaign's refusal to act on specific information about Hsu provided by the businessman. The Daily News adds that the campaign refuses to explain Wolf's departure from the campaign.

Michelle Malkin has an interesting post raising questions about how the Clintons could not have known Hsu was a fugitive, given that the Secret Service is supposed to run background checks on those who come in contact with the Clintons.

This story isn't over by a long shot...

Update: More from Ed Morrissey: "Why Didn't Clinton Team Heed Hsu Warnings?"