CONCORD The Republican National Committee began making huge payments to accused 2002 telephone jam conspirator James Tobin’s private lawyers a week after he was indicted by a federal grand jury, records show.
According to RNC financial disclosures, it paid the high-powered Washington law firm Williams and Connolly $162,646 on Dec. 9, 2004, eight days after a grand jury charged that Tobin had aided former state GOP executive director Charles McGee in setting up an operation to jam voter-turnout telephone banks at Democratic and labor union offices throughout the state.
Five more disbursements were made on May 19, 2005, the same day a new indictment against Tobin was made public. Those five disbursements added up to $559,736, for a total of $722,382.
The Telegraph of Nashua reported yesterday that the RNC made another payment, of $164,260, to Williams and Connolly on June 15, although this could not be independently verified in a New Hampshire Union Leader review of monthly RNC financial disclosure reports.
If there was a seventh payment, the total expenditure by the RNC to Williams and Connolly since Tobin was indicted would be $886,632.
After refusing for nearly a month to comment on its arrangement with Tobin, the RNC confirmed on Wednesday that it has been paying for Tobin’s lawyers.
Williams and Connolly, which in the past represented Bill and Hillary Clinton and former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros, has had at least three attorneys working on the Tobin case. Most of the paperwork on Tobin’s behalf at U.S. District Court carries the names Dane H. Butswinkas, Dennis M. Black and Tobin J. Romero.
Tobin also has local counsel, Brian Tucker of Rath, Young and Pignatelli of Concord. Thomas Rath, a member of the RNC, has declined to comment on the arrangement, but several attorneys not involved in the Tobin case said this week that when a New Hampshire firm works as local counsel with a Washington firm, the Washington firm makes payment to the local firm.
Tobin has pleaded innocent to four conspiracy charges, including a charge that he conspired to deprive Granite Staters of their constitutionally guaranteed right to vote. His trial is scheduled for December.
Tobin allegedly committed the federal offenses while working as a regional political director for the RNC-affiliated National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, which was working to get Republicans elected to the Senate. A key 2002 Senate race on which Tobin focused was John E. Sununu’s victorious campaign against Democratic former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.
Sununu, in a brief interview yesterday, was reluctant to discuss the Tobin matter. “I don’t believe I have ever met him,” Sununu said.
He said he would have “no comment at all” on the RNC’s payment of Tobin’s legal bills.
But he then did say, “I don’t know what their policies are. Whatever they are, they should be applied equally to everyone.”
The RNC did not pay the legal bills for McGee, who is now in a federal prison after pleading guilty to similar conspiracy charges.
Yesterday, a high-ranking Republican source insisted that the leadership of the New Hampshire Republican Party was taken by surprise by the RNC’s confirmation that it has been subsidizing Tobin. The leadership was described by the source as the congressional delegation ? Sununu, Sen. Judd Gregg and Reps. Charles Bass and Jeb Bradley ? as well as local RNC members Rath and Nancy Merrill and party chairman Warren Henderson.
The source said efforts were being made yesterday by unspecified members of that leadership group to obtain more details from the RNC about the decision to foot Tobin’s legal expenses. Tobin is a former employee of the RNC and is currently employed by DCI Group, a lobbying firm also based in Washington.
The RNC, meanwhile, put a lid on information about Tobin. The Union Leader yesterday asked Danny Diaz, the RNC’s deputy communications director:
- When Tobin joined the RNC, when he left and what positions he held.
- At what point did Williams and Connolly begin representing Tobin
- Who approved paying for Tobin’s legal expenses, and when
- Who signed off on individual disbursements made to Williams and Connolly.
Diaz said that while he would “look into” those questions, he would have no comment beyond those made by another RNC spokesman earlier this week.
Tracey Schmitt, confirming the subsidy, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Tobin is a “longtime friend who has served both as an employee and an independent contractor for the RNC,” and, “This support is based on his assurance and our belief that Jim has not engaged in any wrongdoing.”
Another RNC spokesman, Aaron McLear, told the Union Leader on Wednesday that the decision to subsidize Tobin was made by “the previous administration” of former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie. The current chairman, Ken Mehlman, officially succeeded Gillespie in January, but President Bush announced that Mehlman would be the new chairman shortly after winning reelection last November, several weeks before Tobin was originally indicted.
By JOHN DiSTASO
Senior Political Reporter
New Hampshire Union Leader, August 13, 2005