ST. PAUL: Public-employees union knows what to cut: political appointees’ jobs. [Workday Minnesota]

STATE CAPITOL: Budget talks. Today is the day Gov. Pawlenty agreed to meet with DFL leaders on the state budget. [Associated Press]

STATEWIDE: Don’t run, Norm. Former Minnesota GOP Party Chair Ron Eibensteiner says Norm Coleman should butt out of the race to replace Pawlenty. [Star Tribune]

ST. CLOUD: It’s between him and his god. The man who posted anti-Muslim cartoons outside a mosque and a Somali-owned store won’t face charges. [St. Cloud Times]

MINNEAPOLIS AND DELANO: More candidates say what they got. Gubernatorial hopefuls Paul Thissen and Tom Emmer raised $370,000 and $115,000, respectively, last year. [Politics in Minnesota]

MINNEAPOLIS: House speaker raised $254,000 in 2009. Margaret Anderson Kelliher still faces a hearing Tuesday on charges she violated campaign-finance laws. [Polinaut]

Less than two months after he was elected in 2002, Norm Coleman used the power of his yet-to-be-assumed U.S. Senate office to try to leverage a presidential pardon for convicted money launderer and Tom Petters associate Frank Vennes Jr. And two years after that, Coleman wrote yet another pardon plea on Vennes’ behalf.

Vennes, whose criminal record includes 1986 pleas of guilty and no contest to a set of charges involving money-laundering, drug and firearms charges, is currently implicated — though not yet charged — in the Tom Petters financial fraud scandal. As Jon Tevlin reported in the Star Tribune, Vennes’ home was raided by federal authorities on September 24, and “[a]ccording to a federal search warrant affidavit, Vennes was a facilitator who persuaded five major investors to invest $1.2 billion in companies controlled by Petters. The document says Vennes collected more than $28 million in commissions for his work.”

As previously reported at Minnesota Independent [1] [2] [3] [4], Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann wrote a letter in December 2007 advocating a presidential pardon for Vennes’ 1980s conviction, which she subsequently withdrew following public disclosure of Vennes’ alleged ties to Petters-related financial fraud. But a Freedom of Information Act request I sent to the federal Office of Pardon Attorney has turned up two pardon requests from Sen. Norm Coleman, and no sign that either request had been withdrawn.

In a letter dated December 20, 2002 and sent to “President George W. Bush c/o Karl Rove,” then-Senator-Elect Coleman said he was “well acquainted with Frank [redacted portion] and that I want to join “my friend, (former Minnesota GOP Chairman) Ron Eibensteiner and Governor-Elect Tim Pawlenty in urging President Bush to grant Frank Vennes a Presidential Pardon.” (The roles of Pawlenty and Eibensteiner in seeking a pardon for Vennes are unclear; my FOIA request did not turn up pardon letters from either of those men.)

Coleman sent a second letter [p1] [p2] on Vennes’ behalf to the Office of Pardon Attorney in December 2004.

Coleman, Pawlenty and Eibensteiner join Congresswoman Michele Bachmann in the growing list of Minnesota political figures with campaign finance ties to Vennes who have apparently interceded to seek a presidential pardon for him.

Vennes pleaded guilty and no contest to federal charges of money laundering, cocaine and firearms trafficking in 1987. Vennes served 38 months in federal prison in Sandstone, MN before being released on parole. Vennes spent the next several years sueing the federal government for more than $10 million, claiming that he was entrapped by federal agents even though he pleaded guilty and no contest to the charges, and that his attorney rendered him “ineffective assistance” in representing him. Vennes’ claims ultimately were rejected in 1994 following a series of appeals. In 1995, he started working with Tom Petters, where he reportedly earned more than 90 percent of his income, or about $38 million, over the next 14 years.

Coleman states in his 2002 letter that “Frank is indeed an example of successful rehabilitation.” He further states in his 2004 pardon letter that “I assure you that Mr. Vennes’ moral and ethical standards more than justify your consideration of his pardon application.”

However, Vennes has been implicated as a key figure in the massive $3 billion financial fraud investigation of Minnesota businessman Tom Petters. On Sept. 24, federal agents raided Vennes’ $5 million Shorewood home on Lake Minnetonka in connection with the Petters investigation and 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,” along with diamond rings and artwork. His $6 million oceanfront home in Jupiter, Fla., which was recently sold, was raided also and among the items seized was a briefcase containing “256 $20 gold pieces dated 1904, and eight uncirculated one-half dollar pieces.”

According to the federal search warrant, Vennes was alleged to have hauled in more than $28 million in commissions for his role in luring five investors to pony up $1.2 billion in Petters’ alleged giant Ponzi scheme. On Oct. 6, the assets and records of Vennes, Petters, Petters’ companies and other Petters associates were frozen by a federal judge.

Still, the multimillionaire Vennes has not yet been charged with any crimes in connection with the Petters case. Nor has he been named as a defendant in any of the lawsuits filed against Petters and his associates by alleged victims of the fraud.

Campaign finance ties

As with Bachmann, Vennes and his immediate family have contributed heavily to Norm Coleman’s campaigns directly or indirectly, Tim Pawlenty’s campaigns, and the Republican Party of Minnesota, which Eibensteiner chaired from 1999-2005.

Frank Vennes gave Coleman’s campaign committees $2,000 prior to Coleman’s pardon letter. However, he gave $8,000 to the Rally for Leadership Fund, which is controlled by Rep. John Kline, on July 19, 2002. A month later, the Rally for Leadership Fund kicked in $168,000 to Coleman’s campaign, and four months later, Senator-elect Coleman wrote his first pardon recommendation letter for Vennes.

Vennes also gave $5,000 in 2003 to Coleman’s North Star Leadership PAC, a political action committee controlled by Jeff Larson, Coleman’s Washington, DC, landlord and political consultant.

Vennes’ brother, Gregory, gave Coleman $1,000 in 2001.

Pawlenty has done quite well with the Vennes family. Kimberly Vennes (Frank’s wife), Gregory Vennes, Stephanie Vennes (Gregory’s wife), and Colby and Denley Vennes, who have shared an address with Frank and Kimberly, each donated $2,000 to the Pawlenty for Governor Committee in 2002. Frank, Kimberly, Gregory, Stephanie, Colby and Denley Vennes each contributed $250 to Pawlenty in 2004 and $2,000 apiece in 2006.

During Eibensteiner’s tenure as state GOP chair, Frank Vennes spread the wealth to state Republican Party committees. In 2002, he gave $10,750 to the House Republican Party of Minnesota Campaign Committee, and another $10,000 in 2003. Vennes was one of the top contributors—$5,000—to the Minnesotans for a Republican Congress Committee in 2002, whose sole recipient was the Republican Party of Minnesota (RPM). He gave another $5,000 directly to the RPM in 2002. After Eibensteiner was ousted in 2005, Vennes kept the checks coming: $10,000 to the RPM and $50,000 to the House Republican Party of Minnesota Committee in 2006.

The RPM also got $3,000 from Kimberly Vennes in 2002 and $1,500 from Colby Vennes in 2003.

Personal relationship with Vennes

Like Bachmann, Coleman spoke of his personal relationship with Vennes, wrote glowingly of his character and cited Vennes’ work with faith-based groups like Teen Challenge as evidence of his rehabilitation.

“I personally know Mr. Vennes and find him to be trustworthy, extremely dedicated to his community and compassionate about serving others less fortunate than himself, and a talented, successful businessman,” Coleman wrote in his 2004 letter. “Mr. Vennes’ faith is very real. In turn, he has used his faith and gifts to transform many of the lives in our community. I firmly believe he had earned the opportunity to be granted this pardon.”

Coleman notes that “Mr. Vennes is an active participant in a local prison ministry program and with a pardon, Mr. Vennes could continue this service to federal inmates.” Although Coleman does not identify the ministry, Vennes was treasurer for Charis Prison Ministry as recently as 2005.

A third individual—John D. Raffaelli, founder of Capitol Counsel, a leading Washington lobbying group—sent a letter of recommendation for a presidential pardon for Vennes to the Clinton White House in 2000.

“There are a number of unusual and questionable governmental actions surrounding the original conviction of Mr. Vennes,” Raffaelli wrote, which was during the period when Vennes was pursuing his appeals. “But more importantly, since his release from prison, he has been a model citizen and humanitarian. His story is very compelling.”

Even though Vennes has yet to be charged, Michele Bachmann withdrew her letter recommending him for a pardon and donated a portion of his campaign contributions to Teen Challenge as soon as Vennes’ name became publicly connected to the Petters scandal. Bachmann has refused to explain why she turned on Vennes when he is still presumed innocent.

It is not known whether Coleman intends to stand by Vennes until he’s charged. After the Petters scandal broke, Coleman donated $14,600 to the Boys and Girls Club in October, which represented the amount of money Tom Petters had donated to his campaign in this election cycle.