Nigerian Clinton foundation donor gets deferred prosecution deal while Trump inauguration donor gets 12 years in prison in cases that have eerily similar facts but entirely different punishments. That’s according to a report at JustTheNews.com.
The U.S. Justice Department recently settled two major fundraising prosecutions involving illegally injecting foreign money into the American election process.
The following is an excerpt of the article:
In February, a longtime Democratic bundler named Imaad Zuberi, who also donated to Donald Trump’s inauguration, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and millions in fines in a criminal information that alleged he routed foreign money into U.S elections, sometimes through straw donors.
Last week, Nigerian-Lebanese billionaire Gilbert Chagoury, 75, a large donor to the Clinton Foundation, got a fine, no prison and deferred prosecution for allegedly routing his foreign money to straw donors to help Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign and some GOP congressional candidates. An associate also made a secret loan to Obama-era Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who failed to disclose the assistance.
The cases have remarkable similarities. Both involved foreign straw donations and tax issues. Both were prosecuted by the same office, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. And both men are reported to have provided significant assistance to the U.S. government.
In the announcement of his deferred prosecution agreement, Chagoury was credited by the Justice Department for “unique assistance to the U.S. government,” though officials did not elaborate.
Multiple current and former U.S. officials confirmed to Just the News that Zuberi was a longtime U.S. intelligence asset whose assistance to American agencies was chronicled to the judge in his case in a Classified Information Protection Act (CIPA) filing, which remains under seal.
Recently, the CIA’s former top lawyer joined Zuberi’s team to assist in his appeal, signaling that elements in the intelligence community believe he was treated unfairly and that some of the events that led to his prosecution may have involved U.S. intelligence activities.
The only thing that separates the two men’s cases is the severity of the punishment. Chagoury, two of his associates and LaHood got off easy with deferred or no prosecution deals while Zuberi received one of the stiffest penalties ever for campaign finance and lobbying violations.
Zuberi’s lawyers plan to highlight the disparities in their appeals to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Click on the link below to read the full story in JustTheNews.com:
