OpEdNews - Page 2 of Article: Could Republican Norm Coleman be the Next Indicted U.S. Senator?

On Friday Donorgate, as it has now been dubbed, took another strange twist. One week after the Star Tribune took heat for endorsing Norm Coleman, the Star Tribune threw Norm Coleman under the bus. Earlier in the day Norm Coleman claimed that, "Sometime last week, even before this Texas lawsuit was originally filed, a copy of these false allegations was delivered in Minnesota in an unmarked envelope to two Minneapolis Star Tribune reporters." Coleman was effectively blaming the media for his corruption woes, even though the Star Tribune has been accused repeatedly in the past of being in Norm's back pocket. Later in the day the Star Tribune responded to this allegation when managing editor, Rene Sanchez, contradicted Norm Coleman's earlier statement and said they did not know what Norm was talking about and had not received any advance copy of the lawsuit. Sanchez said, "We did not get a copy of this lawsuit until after it was filed Monday." The plantiff's lawyer Casey Wallace also responded to this claim by Coleman and said, "I'm the one that drafted the lawsuit and filed the lawsuit. I didn't give it to anyone in the media in advance."

Then if things weren't convoluted enough a second lawsuit was submitted by a group of minority shareholders in Deep Marine Technology also alleging that Nasser Kazimeny had funneled money to Laurie Coleman by way of her employer Hays Companies in Saint Paul. This lawsuit was filed on Friday in Delaware Chancery Court and according to this lawsuit, a confidential source was told by Kazeminy in 2007 that "we have to get some money to Senator Coleman'' because the senator "needs the money.''

In a very close election between Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken the Democratic leadership pounced on the unexpected developments. Matt Miller, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said the new allegations come "on top of the questions that have already been raised about Senator Coleman's relationship with Nasser Kazeminy. It's now incumbent on Coleman to prove why the facts contained in this lawsuit aren't true."

Brian Melendez, chairman of the Minnesota DFL Party, issued this statement late Thursday after the first McKim v. Kaseminy lawsuit surfaced, "These allegations of criminal behavior are serious and deeply troubling. The plaintiff has verified those allegations, meaning that he will go to jail if he is lying." "Sen. Coleman has a duty to the people of Minnesota to explain why those allegations aren't true before the voters go to the polls on Tuesday, " Melendez also stated.

1 | 2