Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Finding a Lost Hsu

The AP reports that an anonymous tip led the FBI to Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu, who skipped a bail hearing last week, and later turned up in a Colorado hospital, after falling ill on an Amtrak train.

According to court documents, a tipster on Sept. 6 told the FBI in San Francisco that Hsu was in the emergency room at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo.

You'll recall that Mr. Hsu was taken off Amtrak's California Zephyr around 11 a.m., after passengers noted his bizarre behavior, and he asked if he was in jail. But the feds didn't arrest him until almost eight hours later, after receiving that tip.

This latest disclosure raises even more questions about Mr. Hsu, who (until recently) was a major figure in Democratic fund-raising efforts. When paramedics pick up a patient, they complete paperwork that includes the individual's name. More forms were, presumably, completed at St. Mary's. It would be very interesting to know what name Hsu gave to the ambulance crew that picked him up, and the medical personnel that provided care at the hospital. We also wonder what identification Hsu was carrying and how much cash he had at the time.

Earlier reports indicated Hsu purchased a ticket to Denver and not Chicago (the train's ultimate destination). As the mystery surrounding the former "HillRaiser" deepens, we owe a debt of gratitude to that John or Jane Doe who spotted Mr. Hsu and alerted the Feds. If not for his apparent meltdown on the train--and that subsequent tip--it's a fair bet that Mr. Hsu would still be on the lam.

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ADDENDUM: Updates on the Hsu money trail from today's WSJ and the question of the day from Michelle Malkin. How did Norman Hsu get past Secret Service background checks--some of the most extensive in law enforcement--and attain personal access to Hillary Clinton.

1 comment:

Nomenklatura said...

"How did Norman Hsu get past Secret Service background checks--some of the most extensive in law enforcement--and attain personal access to Hillary Clinton."

Somebody should ask the Secret Service whether, if their background checks showed that a contact was a fugitive felon and the campaign told them to ignore it they would do so.

My guess is that they would, on the basis that they are not there to intervene in the electoral process.