A lawsuit filed in Texas
alleges that Norm Coleman's wife Laurie received $75,000 from a major Coleman
campaign contributor Nasser Kazeminy.
Here is a PDF of the lawsuit from the website
of the Nation magazine.
The section that talks about Laurie
Coleman starts at page 10. The lawsuit alleges that Kazeminy forced a Texas company that he has a 50 percent stake in to funnel
money to Laurie Coleman through a Minnesota
based company. The lawsuit says in return "Laurie Coleman never provided
any type of services or products."
Thursday Cullen
Sheehan, Coleman's Campaign Manager, said the lawsuit had been withdrawn. I
told him then that if the lawsuit was no longer on file we would likely not be
doing anything on it. Well Sheehan is wrong.
The lawsuit is
on file. A representative of the Harris Co. Court Clerk's office told me at two
different times today that the case has not been withdrawn and is active.
Attached is
video from the Harris County Court Clerk's Web site that says the
case is "active". One page of the court website says that citations
in the case (likely copies of the lawsuit) were mailed out to defendants
including Nasser Kazeminy Oct. 30. That is today.
Cullen
Sheehan told me late today, "It's my understanding that the case has been
withdrawn." As proof,
Sheehan sent me this document which is not dated and
shows no court stamp. (Perhaps they do things differently in Texas).
Sheehan also had
me call an attorney for one of the plaintiffs. This attorney, Jeff Harrison,
told me he had gotten verbal assurances from another plaintiff's attorney that
the suit had been withdrawn. I have a call into that attorney.
Cullen
Sheehan told me tonight, "It's an absolutely false and baseless allegation."
Sheehan,
an independent counsel, has reviewed the lawsuit and will issue a
statement that "preliminary analysis is that the charge is not true."
I have a call into this "independent counsel" and have not yet heard
from him.
The timing of this lawsuit just days before the
election is troubling, but so too are the assurances that the lawsuit no longer
existed, when in fact it is on public file for anyone to see.
