tom petters

While Michele Bachmann has been calling on the media to investigate suspected “anti-American” members of Congress and who they associate with, she’s had little to say about her own personal and financial association with convicted felon, campaign contributor and Tom Petters associate Frank Vennes Jr.

Bachmann has refused repeated requests from Minnesota Independent for further clarification of her relationship with Vennes, which makes for a curious nexus of campaign financing, presidential pardons, evangelical ministries and multibillion-dollar Ponzi schemes.

In full-on damage control mode, Michele Bachmann sat down with WCCO’s Esme Murphy Sunday for an interview about the media firestorm occasioned by her claim on Hardball Friday that Barack Obama and unspecified members of Congress harbor views that Bachmann called “anti-American.”
Bachmann hewed to her official line that her comments were “misread,” but the most [...]

Michele Bachmann’s chief of staff now has acknowledged that on the same day Bachmann withdrew a presidential pardon letter on behalf of Frank Vennes Jr., she 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.

It’s still not clear why Michele Bachmann used her congressional status to try to leverage a presidential pardon for someone who does not even live in her district. At this point, the only apparent connection between Frank Vennes Jr. and Bachmann as a congressperson is the $27,400 Vennes and his wife, Kimberly, have donated to Bachmann’s campaign funds since 2005, making the couple among Bachmann’s largest individual contributors. Vennes’ brother and his wife, Greg and Stephanie Vennes, have donated an additional $8,400 to Bachmann since 2005.

Read the letter, inside.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Congressional candidate Elwyn Tinklenberg have already given political contributions from disgraced businessman Tom Petters to charity. Now Rep. James Oberstar intends to follow suit. But what about Sen. Norm Coleman?

Disgraced businessman Tom Petters has made $16,000 in political contributions so far this election cycle. Among the recipients: Sens. Amy Klobuchar ($5,000) and Norm Coleman ($1,600), Rep. James Oberstar ($3,300) and Sixth Congressional District challenger Elwyn Tinklenberg ($500). At least two of the politicians — Klobuchar and Tinklenberg — have given the money to charity.

Frank Vennes Jr., a major financial contributor to Minnesota 6th District Congresswoman Michele Bachmann — as well as other Minnesota Republican candidates and causes — may be innocent until proven guilty, but Bachmann has already convicted him and thrown him under the campaign bus.

Barely a week after Vennes’ home was raided on Sept. 24 by federal agents in connection with the massive, billion-dollar fraud investigation of Tom Petters, the Stillwater Republican withdrew a letter of support for a Presidential pardon she had written for Vennes about a year ago.

In 2007, Rep. Michele Bachmann sent President Bush a letter recommending he pardon a man who is a major contributor to her campaign even though he lives outside of her district. Last Thursday, Bachmann withdrew that letter, written on behalf of Frank Vennes, after FBI, IRS and U.S Postal Inspection officials seized numerous items from Vennes’ home in connection with the ongoing investigation of Vennes’ business associate Tom Petters.