Norman Hsu jumped bail in 1992 and was on the lam for fifteen years. He jumped bail again just last week. I'm amazed that the D.A. didn't ask that he be denied bail and held on remand. That seems like a no-brainer to me. Instead, the D.A. asked for $50 million and got $5 million:
GRAND JUNCTION – Fugitive investor and Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, whose flight from a 1992 grand theft conviction and subsequent campaign donations roiled the presidential race, was ordered held on a record $5 million cash-only bail by a Mesa County judge at a hearing Thursday.
Not only is Hsu an obvious flight risk — plenty of reason to deny bail — but he's purported to be a danger to himself as well:
Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger disclosed in court that Hsu had mailed a letter to a New York legal organization, the Innocence Project, indicating "he was thinking of harming himself."
A person who saw the letter told The Associated Press on Thursday that the note explicitly stated that Hsu "intended to commit suicide." …
In arguing for higher bail, Hautzinger mentioned the letter Hsu sent to the Innocence Project and others, saying it showed Hsu was "despondent and may hurt himself."
I say "purported" because — given that this case involves the Clintons and allegations of wrongdoing, and that Hsu became mysteriously ill on the train — I can't help but wonder who wrote this alleged suicide note.
The Hsu story got even more interesting the other day when it turned out that one of Hsu's bogus companies recently got $40 million from Source Financing, an investment firm run by Woodstock producer Joel Rosenman, and that Rosenman, members of his family, and others at Source Financing had also recently made significant contributions to the Clinton campaign.
A commenter, Michael, at Inoperable Terran listed some "strange facts" related to the case:
1. Hsu told Source Financial the money was to manufacture clothes for Gucci & Prada in China. Neither company manufactures any items in China, ever.
2. Source Financial never noticed that Hsu’s businesses didn’t exist before loaning him money. They also failed to check his background, or look for a factory in China connected to Hsu.
3. Source Financial was accepting checks post dated by 135 days as payment on their huge loans to Hsu.
4. Source Financial employees are also big Hillary donors.
5. Hillary set aside 1 million dollars of taxpayer money for a “Woodstock” museum. The head of Source Financial was a major Woodstock promoter and also a long time Clinton friend.
6. It took 2 weeks for the head of Source Financial to realize there might be some kind of connection between his company, Clinton, and Hsu.
7. One of the recipients of Hsu’s suicide note googled the term “Hsu Suicide” BEFORE anyone knew where he was or what he was doing – according to Michelle Malkin.
I don't have time to check all of those, but Sen. Clinton apparently did include an earmark for a Woodstock museum in the 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill (emphasis from Flopping Aces):
$1 million for the Museum at Bethel Woods, which is dedicated to recreating the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival experience and will feature “An interpretation of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Arts Fair” exhibit in 2008, according to the museum’s website. The earmark is at the request of New York Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer.
Limbaugh discussed this yesterday (link will probably stop working in a few days), and repeated something he's said many times: "Nothing that happens with the Clintons is a coincidence."
