Does Michele Bachmann know more about the business dealings of her friend and campaign contributor Frank Vennes Jr. than federal investigators in the alleged multibillion-dollar Tom Petters financial swindle know?

Vennes, whose Lake Minnetonka home was raided by federal agents September 24 in connection with the Petters investigation, has not yet been charged with any crime, but a federal judge ordered his assets frozen earlier this week. However, barely a week after news of the raid on his home became public, Vennes became radioactive to Bachmann.

On October 2, she withdrew a letter of recommendation for a presidential pardon she had written for Vennes, who served time in Sandstone Federal Correctional Facility in the ‘80s for money laundering, cocaine distribution and illegal firearm sales. And, her chief of staff now has acknowledged that on the same day, Bachmann donated at least one of Vennes’ multiple campaign contributions to charity. Neither the amount of the donation nor the name of the charity were revealed.

Vennes and his family are among Bachmann’s biggest individual campaign contributors. He and his wife, Kimberly, have donated $27,400 to Bachmann’s campaign funds since 2005–$9,200 this year alone. Vennes’ brother and his wife, Greg and Stephanie Vennes, have donated an additional $8,400 to Bachmann since 2005. And Vennes’ personal lawyer, C. Craig Howse, has donated another $5,000 to Bachmann’s campaign coffers since 2007.

Several other Minnesota politicians and candidates—including Elwyn Tinklenberg, Bachmann’s 6th District Democratic opponent—have returned campaign contributions from Petters.

Bachmann has not yet explained why she was so quick to abandon Vennes—whom she described in her letter of recommendation as a “unique man” who has “demonstrated true reformation”—even though he has yet to be charged with anything.

According to a federal search warrant affidavit used to search Vennes’ home last month, Vennes reaped more than $28 million in commissions for his alleged role in luring five investors to pony up $1.2 billion in Petters’ alleged giant Ponzi scheme. In a related matter, Vennes is among the targets of a federal racketeering lawsuit filed last week by more than 100 ministers and nonprofit organizations that claims they lost more than $20 million in the alleged investment fraud.

When Vennes’ home was raided, federal agents seized “boxes and buckets of silver and gold coins, trays of jewelry, five stacks of $100 bills, boxes of gem stones, silver plates and Rolex watches. Agents also seized diamond rings and numerous paintings, including dozens with religious themes, such as the raising of Lazarus from the dead.”

Campaign cash from friend and ex-con Frank Vennes Jr. isn’t the only money Rep. Michele Bachmann is running away from. Bachmann also has returned contributions from the political action committees for the embattled federally sponsored mortgage corporations Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the American Bankers Association.

On Sept. 24, Bachmann’s campaign committee returned $7,500 to the Fannie Mae PAC and $2,500 to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. PAC (Freddie Mac). And on Sept. 30, Bachmann returned a $500 contribution from the American Bankers Association PAC.

Bachmann sits on the House Financial Services Committee and has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the banking, financial and insurance industry sectors.