(Ohio Coin Dealer) Noe to Face Federal Grand Jury (for Bush fund raiser) [View All]

[Robbien]

TOLEDO -- A federal grand jury will start hearing the case of Toledo-area Republican donor Tom Noe on Wednesday. Jurors will decide whether Noe should go to trial on charges he violated federal campaign finance laws during the 2004 presidential election.

At issue is a $2,000 a plate fundraiser for the Bush/Cheney campaign in October of 2003 in Columbus. Several local Republicans were at the event, including Toledo City Councilwoman Betty Shultz, County Commissioner Maggie Thurber and GOP Chairwoman Sally Perz. The grand jury will investigate if Noe bypassed federal election limits by giving money to others, and having them donate it back to the Bush campaign.

The Columbus event raised about $1.5 million dollars for the Bush/Cheney campaign. By that time, Noe had already donated the maximum $2,000 individual contribution to the Bush/Cheney campaign, so any more money traced back to him would be illegal.

The grand jury will decide whether Noe will go to trial. "Well, the whole process is to determine if there's enough evidence of a crime to indict somebody," said UT Law Professor Dan Steinbock. "The standard for the grand jury is whether there is probably cause--a fair probability--that a crime was committed and people named in the indictment committed it."

Sources tell News 11 as many as forty people could testify before the grand jury. Among them: Shultz, Thurber, and Perz. Who's not on the list? Noe himself.

http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=3415031