Mob Rules
York, Byron
PROSECUTORS CALLED LABORERS UNION CHIEF ARTHUR CO1A A "MOB PUPPET." BUT COIA SPENT MILLIONS OF HIS UNION'S MONEY TO BUY BILL CLINTON'S FRIENDSHIP. NEW INFORMATION SUGGESTS BILL REPAID THE FAVOR BY...
...The American Spectator • April 1997 draft of proposed racketeering charges — commonly known as a RICO complaint— against the Laborers union...
...Break legs to get things your way...
...He said he talked to Clinton and Clinton assured him that everything would be OK," Serpico recalls...
...Bill Clinton, Ickes said, has "tens of thousands" of friends all around the world...
...he was purely an adviser and a lobbyist" for the union...
...In the end, Coia did not speak to the convention...
...David Caivano describes learning about the donation from another union man...
...The evidence concerns the board meeting Coia called shortly after receiving the RICO complaint...
...The Coias faced a crisis in 1981...
...Harris: I know of absolutely no influence or attempted influence by the White House in connection with this settlement...
...Several years ago, when the Providence Journal-Bulletin obtained FBI wiretaps of Patriarca at work, he was heard dispensing advice on ways to deal with balky members...
...Caivano says it was understood by all that the agreement meant that Ickes himself, and not some other lawyer, was working for the union...
...Coia arrange for the union or any of its related organizations such as political action committees to hire Harold Ickes in 1993 or 1994...
...As it had done the year before, the Justice Department raised red flags about Coia...
...And they allowed him to co-chair a DNC fundraiser that raised $12 million...
...McCollum: Mr...
...But he did speak about the matter briefly when interviewed last July 19 by congressional investigators preparing for the Crime Subcommittee hearings...
...Those organizations were the Laborers and Employers Cooperation and Education Trust and the Laborers New York State Political Action Committee...
...JOSEPH H. SAYLOR Swannanoa, North Carolina You Have to Ask...
...And many of the principals remain averse to answering inquiries about the case...
...Clinton's health care proposal...
...In the case of the Laborers, the commission pointed out that Angelo Fosco won re-election as president of the union even while he was under indictment for racketeering...
...In October it sent $50,000...
...Don't worry...
...Both were groups that engaged in lobbying and political activity for the union...
...The RICO complaint specifically accused Coia of participating in a kickback scheme to loot union health and welfare benefit funds and split the money with the late New England Mafia boss Raymond Patriarca...
...If the answer is yes, was Mr...
...And, in the case of Coia and the Laborers, he did not seem troubled when it came from a mob-controlled union...
...the union took in a total of $18,332,451 in federal grants in fiscal year 1995...
...According to Coia, Solano told him that the job of president of the union was reserved for Chicago's John Serpico...
...Nearly as important as the president was another old friend of union bosses, Harold Ickes, who was the president's deputy chief of staff from the beginning of 1994 until late 1996...
...I know him for 45 years...
...Alarm bells went off...
...He recalled very few contacts with Arthur Coia...
...Stevie Wonder and Robin Williams entertained (Coia got to sit at their table), and the president, first lady, vice president, and Tipper Gore all spoke to the gathering...
...In addition to the testimony denying a White House connection, the subcommittee did not uncover any documents that supported the idea of presidential influence in the settlement...
...The business did well, in no small part due to the lucrative work given it by the Laborers union, as well as with the city of Providence and other businesses tied to the union...
...Then he gave the strongest clue yet as to what had really been going on...
...In October, Coia talked with DNC co-chairman Don Fowler...
...In December it sent $100,000...
...31 While the Justice Department recommendation was winding its way through the system, the White House continued to stay close to Coia...
...Coia then 32 April 1997 • The American Spectator "Our Guy" ill the White llollse Bill Clinton wasn't Arthur Coia's only buddy in the White House...
...Coia was also willing to break with others in organized labor—including many in his own union—to support Clinton on two key issues...
...But on this day, November 4, a troubling thing happened — a development that might conceivably threaten the political friendship...
...Clinton's...
...And Ickes offered little insight into the relationship of Coia and the president...
...Coia wrote to thank the president for the gift...
...The move baffled some Laborers...
...The gathering included Samuel Caivano, the New York/New Jersey vice-president who was also named in the RICO complaint as an alleged mob associate...
...On October 23, Coia and his wife attended a dinner at the White House...
...Coia had given the president a golf club a few days before —a persimmon driver custom-made by Coia's favorite club-maker and engraved with Clinton's signature and the presidential seal...
...He said because he was a senior partner in charge of all labor, his name was on a lot of things, but he never really represented anybody...
...The President and First Lady did not discuss this matter with Mr...
...The event raised a record $12 million...
...Despite such deterrents, federal prosecutors say that in the 1980's, Arthur E. Coia considered a challenge to Fosco's leadership...
...In September, as part of a routine background check for the position, the White House counsel's office sent a memo to the FBI requesting information on Coia...
...Now the story is coming to light...
...Watching back home, David Caivano was amazed...
...The hearing included testimony from the four top Justice Department officials responsible for the deal to drop the RICO complaint: Paul Coffey of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, John Keeney of the Criminal Division, James Bums, U.S...
...Serpico, Samuel Caivano, and David Caivanowho have never publicly discussed what went on at the meeting—tell TAS that Arthur Coia made it clear to them that the White House would take care of the RICO problem...
...A few days later Clinton invited Coia to attend the White House signing of the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement (Coia couldn't make it...
...I just heard you've become a grandfather," the president scrawled on White House stationery...
...Coia as there was no occasion for which he had a need to know this information...
...On November io, he attended a health care reception at the White House...
...When Fosco died in early 1993, Coia engineered an immediate meeting of the board and easily won the voting for president...
...Warren Christo84 April 19 97 The American Spectator...
...No questions were asked of the president or first lady...
...In turn, officials at Labor contacted the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Justice Department...
...The real foreign policy decisions were very close hold," says one former cabinet official, "between the president, the vice president, Tony Lake, and Sandy Berger," Lake's deputy and successor as national security adviser...
...After attending Providence College, he earned a law degree at Boston University and set up a practice in Providence...
...We now know, for example, that in the case of illegal Asian donors, some members of the National Security Council tried to warn top White House staffers to stay away from the shady characters...
...the two sides held bargaining meetings that sometimes lasted more than 12 hours...
...She made no reference to Coia's legal troubles...
...Recent revelations in the campaign finance investigation have shown that the president did not seem troubled when contributions came from foreigners barred by law from contributing to American political races...
...Today Ickes—who despite his abrasive personality became an object of some sympathy when he was abruptly dumped by Clinton late last year—has a new White House job...
...Beyond that, a simple search of almost any newspaper database will reveal articles going back years detailing the alleged mob ties of Coia and his predecessors...
...He brought in 29 Robert Luskin, a Washington criminal attorney who served a brief stint in the Department's Organized Crime Division...
...Botanical Gardens, which he believed to be a favorite of Mrs...
...That makes a total of $3,676,567 during Bill Clinton's time in the White House...
...The Coias were not accused of being actual members of the mob...
...The Department informed the White House Counsel's office that Mr...
...According to White House records, the Laborers loaned $loo,000 to the Clinton inaugural committee...
...Even though the trials of some other defendants continued, there was never any determination of the Coias' guilt or innocence...
...Did Mr...
...It turns out the government had let the statute of limitations expire before filing charges...
...Then, according to Federal Election Commission records, the union donated $25,000 to the Democratic National Committee on May 20, 1993...
...I didn't know Harold Ickes...
...One interesting result of Coia's pact with the government is that he was able to use the cover of cleaning up the union to get rid of his most potent rivals...
...More trouble came in 1986, when the President's Commission on Organized Crime identified the Laborers union as one of the "bad four," the four most corrupt unions in America (the others were the Teamsters, the Longshoremen, and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Workers...
...And another warning later that year...
...the White House sent at least fifteen letters to Coia in the six months following the Coffey warning...
...It was signed by Harold Ickes...
...Investigators were forced to theorize that Justice Department officials, while not actually pressured by the White House, nevertheless felt constrained in their dealings with Coia because they knew he was a major supporter of the president...
...Arthur goes into damage-control mode," says one person who was at the meeting...
...A short time later, Coffey's concerns about the union appeared in a memo from the head of the Department's Criminal Division to Attorney General Janet Reno and top deputy Jamie Gorelick...
...Coia, he says, turned to Samuel Caivano and said, "Sam, I talked to Bill Clinton about this...
...Keeney: I agree with Ms...
...In the financial disclosure statement that Ickes was required to file upon entering the White House, he says he left his law firm in December 1993...
...Asked about his newly imposed ban on trade with Iran, the president said that he had "tried it the other way for two years, and that didn't work...
...He settled for the number two position, secretary-treasurer of the Laborers...
...On June the Laborers sent another $25,000 to the DNC...
...Coia described that warning in some detail in testimony given in a union disciplinary proceeding...
...The government dropped the RICO action—and then dropped the demand that Coia leave office...
...Even though Coia discussed the issue with the entire board, several former officials say it was usually his practice to talk things over with confidants before the board gathered...
...His grandfather Pasquale Coia was a founding member of a Laborers local in Providence, Rhode Island...
...Harris' statements totally...
...Coia and the Laborers were handsomely repaid for their efforts...
...In addition, after all of the above mentioned factors, we doubt that answering for the eight millionth time only four astoundingly skewed questions which you posed in your letter will advance an enlightened discourse about how to strike a healthy balance between the Justice Department and labor unions...
...We must especially offer our compliments on your choice of music for the event, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing a talented saxophone player entertain the crowd...
...Coia asked reporters...
...In fact, Ickes's ties to corrupt unions were so extensive that the White House deemed it impossible to nominate him for a job that required Senate confirmation and placed him instead in the position of deputy chief of staff...
...McCollum: Mr...
...0 n November 4, 1994, Bill Clinton sat down to write a note to his good friend Arthur A. Coia, head of the Laborers International Union of North America...
...Wang and his wife contributed $4,000 to Virginia Sen...
...At first the situation did not look good for Coia...
...In response to the paper's questions, the White House conceded that the first lady had been warned about Coia before she went to Florida in February 1995...
...Wang's contributions...
...Just a week before that, the president had given Coia a golf gift of his own — a Callaway "Divine Nine" wood which Coia treasured so much that he placed it in a glass display case in the union's offices a few blocks from the White House...
...Burns...
...he says...
...Arthur Coia had won a stunning victory...
...Ickes did not return several phone calls from TAS...
...Oddly enough, on February 28, the Democratic National Committee announced that it was returning $5,000 to one Chi R. Wang—it's not clear whether he is the same Chi Wang of McLean, Virgnia, who contributed $27,000 to the DNC...
...He says Arthur donated money to the botanical society," Caivano recalls...
...Coia should back off...
...If the answer is yes, what was the nature of the conversation...
...Caivano, who was assistant regional manager of the New York/New Jersey union office as well as administrator of the New York state PAC, says that a few years earlier, the union had hired a man named Thomas Hartnett as a lobbyist...
...Life With the Wiseguys Arthur Coia grew up in the Laborers union, which today counts nearly 750,000 unskilled workers among its ranks...
...On October ii, Coia sent a handmade golf shirt to Clinton...
...Subcommittee chairman Bill McCollum put the critical question to each of them: McCollum: To the best of your knowledge, belief, and understanding, do you know of any direct or indirect influence or pressure by the White House with regard to the settlement ultimately accepted by the Department of Justice with regard to the [Laborers] case...
...But this time, things turned out quite differently...
...We went to the Asian clients of Clinton's Arkansas friends...
...Coia ever tell associates within the union or outside the union that he had discussed the case with President Clinton...
...Clinton not have any private meetings with Coia...
...Coia told the board he would hire Luskin to negotiate with the government—an announcement that brought skeptical looks from some of the more traditionalist Laborers...
...As they stood surrounded by framed photographs of Coia and Bill Clinton, the men discussed the RICO action...
...In May 1994, Coia donated $50,000 to the U.S...
...Hit them," 30 April 1997 • The American Spectator the Mafioso said...
...Luskin's...
...Coia also took a job in the union hierarchy...
...But the Justice Department sent the "mob puppet" warning in January 1994...
...He did not seem troubled when the money came from a Communist nation hostile to the United States...
...At the time, the Laborers had proposed setting up a job training program in Haiti — a program for which they would be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants...
...E . MENDOZA via the Internet Correction Last month's Kenneth Timmerman article, "All Roads Lead to China," incorrectly attributed donations from Chi Wang of McLean, Virginia, to Dr...
...But, according to the sources, Ickes said he might have had a "passing discussion" with Coia regarding the Justice Department case sometime in early 1995—which was precisely the time in which the government was negotiating its deal with Arthur Coia and the Laborers...
...He was "sorry that we did not have the chance to play golf together this season," the president wrote...
...Then—CIA director James Woolsey has testified that he had no knowledge of Lake's Iran operation...
...And, according to figures compiled by Heritage researchers, the Laborers received even greater rewards as their contributions grew...
...He proposed making a deal with the government—a deal that would be on the Laborers terms, not the Justice Department's...
...On July 13, the Laborers union sent another $ioo,000 to the DNC...
...On November 8, Coia attended an election day reception at the White House...
...Caivano says Hartnett explained that Ickes was close to President Clinton...
...Clinton's office considered the invitation, her staff contacted the Department of Labor to inform them of the offer...
...In December, Coia went to the White House for a holiday reception...
...Robert Luskin, the man hired by the Laborers to make the deal with the Justice Department, did not testify...
...The next day, the FBI sent a memo to the White House Counsel's office with an abbreviated version of Coffey's information...
...The Justice Department threatened to file the RICO charges unless the union fired Coia, removed several other allegedly corrupt officials, and instituted wide-ranging reforms...
...In the case of Accardo, the elder Coia admitted to a lifelong friendship...
...It might be prudent," Coffey wrote in an internal Justice Department memo, "to recommend that she avoid any direct contact with Coia, if possible, inasmuch as we plan to portray him as a mob puppet...
...Beyond that, Coia had written the president and White House staffers dozens of supportive letters and even contributed at least $50,000 in union funds to one of first lady Hillary Rod-ham Clinton's favorite charities...
...In a move that received little press coverage, the Clinton administration also dramatically increased the amount of federal grant money going to the Laborers...
...One reason is that the usual fingers were kept out of the pie...
...Coia ever discuss the RICO case with President Clinton, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton or Harold Ickes...
...After that, it appears his next invitation was to a state dinner for the president of Italy in April 1996...
...Congressional investigators found that Jamie Gorelick discussed the issue with then–White House counsel Abner Mikva...
...The two traded letters the next day...
...Please accept my small 'Book of Psalms' as a manner of wishing you peace and good health...
...Luskin—working alongside Coia's personal lawyer, the aggressive Washington attorney Brendan Sullivan —began talks with the government...
...And not all of Coia's contributions went to the party...
...The next day, Coia's wife Joanne sent a handwritten thank-you note and a small gift...
...You're gonna tell me that in 1996 they didn't know Arthur was hot...
...In January 1996 it contributed $15,000, and another $15,000 in April...
...We jump at it....We got a guy in the White House on our payroll...
...And John Serpico, a long-time Coia rival who headed the powerful Chicago local and would later be named by the Justice Department as an alleged mob associate, was also there...
...I appreciate [his] willingness to take on this important task for our country...
...RAMBO via the Internet Free at Last This is a happy day...
...But that didn't stop Clinton from courting Coia...
...Then, in a move that baffled veteran prosecutors and even some officials inside the union, the Depai tment enlisted Coia — a man one top prosecutor referred to as "a mob puppet"— in the task of ridding the union of Mafia influence...
...Clinton traveled to the opulent ballroom of the Fountainbleu Hotel in Miami Beach to address the Laborers...
...Dear Hillary," the letter began...
...it had been known for years that the Justice Department was going after the Laborers, thought to be one of the most crooked unions in America...
...The agreement stipulated that the union would pay the firm $io,000 every three months...
...He used to tell us that Clinton was indebted to us because of our union's stand," John Serpico recalls...
...In January the president made him director of the annual summit of the world's major industrialized nations to be held in June in Denver...
...in fact, no one from the White House testified...
...That same day, he sent deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes a long analysis of the Democrats' loss of Congress...
...A few months later, Coia contributed $1,000 — the maximum allowed—to Clinton's legal defense fund...
...May I ask why you are doing this...
...Fosco personally threatened long-time international vice-president Robert Powell with death, confronting Powell in public at a [union] dinner...
...Thomas Hartnett did not return repeated phone calls from TAS...
...A study by Kenneth Weinstein of the Heritage Foundation found that in fiscal year 1994, the union pocketed $11,376,000 in grants from the Depaitments of Labor, Housing and Urban Development, and Health and Human Services, among others...
...Where do you go for so much soft money...
...As Mrs...
...But the subcommittee's investigation was far from definitive...
...For example, you ran this headline on your Feburary cover: "Why Republicans Won't Keep Uncle Sam From Taxing, Regulating, Fining, Harassing, and Threatening You...
...But to get the cash, Clinton had to ignore warnings about the propriety of the contributions...
...He never recalled any meetings," the source says, "even at the White House...
...See "'Our Guy' in the White House," previous page...
...It is constantly under review by numerous career Justice Department officials, and utilizes more than 5o former FBI agents to conduct investigations...
...In light of the intense professional review this Agreement has already received, we see no reason to participate in the premature autopsy of the Laborers' laid out to us in your letter of [February 20, 1997...
...It was a profitable relationship...
...According to the indictment, Arthur A. Coia and his father, along with others in the union, set up an insurance scheme through which they charged Laborers union members for "the most expensive form of insurance and [looted] the insurance premiums by using them for kickbacks, payoffs, unearned salaries and fees and improper personal expenses...
...He says, 'Look, we're gonna fight this, right guys?' But at the same time that he pledged to resist the complaint, Coia also presented a bold plan of action...
...You might have helped me break 80...
...More letters followed...
...On the 20th, Clinton met Coia at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser and presented him with the Divine Nine...
...What specifically was discussed...
...On June 28, he was invited to a breakfast at the White House...
...The White House should know, Coffey wrote, that the Justice Department was preparing a RICO complaint against Coia and other union leaders...
...He said he never represented [the Laborers] directly," the source says...
...The American Spectator lacks virtue, honesty, integrity, and "family values...
...It had taken the government three years to compile the case—and three months to drop it...
...It is most unfortunate that you find the need to assail a union of laboring Americans in your ongoing vendetta against the current White House Administration...
...Money wasn't the only thing Coia was giving Bill Clinton...
...Finally, Dr...
...On May 12, he was invited to a private reception with the president...
...Is he heavy...
...Did Bill Clinton really not know...
...Thank you for a wonderful evening of dinner and entertainment at the White House," they wrote the Clintons the next day...
...they were characterized as close associates of organized crime figures...
...Is he a big guy...
...After three months of back-and-forth talks, in February 1995 the Justice Department backed down...
...On that day, TAS has learned, Coia convened a small pre-meeting meeting in his seventh-floor office...
...Whatever the case, Arthur Coia is now in a position to keep contributing for the duration of the Clinton administration...
...What else could explain such lenient treatment for a man the government had branded a corrupt union boss...
...Dear Harold," Coia wrote, "Our situation requires blunt and realistic appraisals...
...In addition to the access and status Coia received after his contributions, the union received lucrative grants from the federal government...
...Arthur & Bill, Part One Coia moved into the Laborers president's office on 16th Street in downtown Washington in March 1993—six weeks after Bill Clinton moved into the Oval Office just two blocks away...
...It appears he did not go to the White House again until September, when he attended a DNC Business Leadership event...
...According to Caivano, the naming of Ickes to a top White House job in December 1993 did nothing to change the agreement...
...wearing an earring," says the meeting participant, "and these old-timers are not digging the earring...
...Neither the President nor the First Lady discussed this matter with the Justice Department...
...In February, the union held its annual conference in Miami...
...And the complaint said any union members who objected to Coia's schemes had been "intimidated into silence by violence, threats of violence, economic coercion, and by the known ties of corrupt...officials of the union with organized crime...
...But top officials in both the Justice Department and the White House denied any special treatment...
...On February 13, the union and the Justice Department made the deal that kept Coia in his job...
...Did Mr...
...It has been scrutinized by the House Judiciary's Subcommittee on Crime, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Wall Street journal, and ABC News...
...Nor did John Serpico, Samuel Caivano, or David Caivano...
...Years later his son, Arthur A. Coia, would hold the same job...
...Still, the action set off alarm bells at union headquarters...
...Many observers thought it a disheartening sign that just 15 percent of the union members eligible to vote cast their ballots, but in some ways Coia appears to have more power today than before...
...This is Coia's written response, in its entirety: The Laborers' Oversight Agreement with the Department of Justice is now over two years old...
...To say thank you seems trite for the genuine, warm hospitality you and President Clinton extended to my husband, Arthur, and myself at dinner on June 17...
...The memo added that in the next few weeks the Justice Department would deliver the RICO complaint, and it would "accuse Coia and his two immediate predecessors...of being puppets of La Cosa Nostra...
...That," says David Caivano, "is what Arthur Coia told us...
...According to the government, Coia's co-racketeers included Carmine "The Snake" Persico, boss of the Colombo crime family in New York, Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa, head of the Chicago mob, and Joseph Todaro, chief of the Buffalo crime syndicate...
...On March 9, 1994, Coia was invited to a presidential announcement ceremony...
...The Criminal Division has long had information, including public testimony and information from cooperating witnesses," the memo said, "that Coia was associated with and controlled by the New England family of La Cosa Nostra...
...Each man certainly had reason to be grateful to the other...
...Coffey: Didn't happen...
...York (Continued fror n page 35) early 1995 and perhaps far beyond that date...
...The first lady declined the invitation...
...On December 16, Coia wrote two letters to Clinton...
...Also charged were union president Angelo Fosco, Florida mob chief Santo Trafficante, and Chicago mobster Anthony "Big Tuna" Accardo...
...Late last year, in a union election that was supervised by the Justice Department and which for the first time allowed members to vote directly for president, Coia was easily re-elected over a little-known opponent...
...I plan to display this club prominently," Coia said...
...He has been a very good supporter of the Pres...
...Arthur Coia ...would like a speaking role at the '96 convention," Fowler wrote...
...and the Demo Party...
...It is responsible for more than 300 open investigations at this time with over 5o charges filed, and has led to more than 15o individuals leaving the union...
...Of course I know him," Coia told the Providence Journal-Bulletin...
...And he says that the Laborers never intended for Ickes to do any legal work for the PAC...
...On April 19, he was invited to dinner at the White House...
...Coia at any time...
...Fosco's victory, the commission wrote, "is also attributable to the use of force and threats of violence against potential competitors...
...Coia had a request to make: he wanted to give a speech at the 1996 Democratic Convention in Chicago...
...money from the Laborers no doubt played a role in winning Clinton a second term...
...Where his father had failed, Arthur A. Coia made it...
...It did not...
...Wang of Alexandria, Virginia...
...NEW INFORMATION SUGGESTS BILL REPAID THE FAVOR BY CALLING OFF THE FEDS...
...It appears the White House position is that Bill Clinton did not know about Coia's alleged mob associations until at least (Continued on page 84) 35 that "It sometimes happens that men who preach most vehemently about evil and the punishment of evil, so that they seem to have practically nothing else on their minds except sin, are really unconscious haters of other men...
...All told, the Laborers received nearly $3o million in two years—for just $3.6 million in political contributions...
...Young Arthur A. Coia joined the union in 1957, at the age of 14...
...According to Federal Election Commission records, in June 1995 the Laborers Political League gave $35,000 to the DNC...
...The complaint said that Arthur Coia had "associated with, and been controlled and influenced by, organized crime figures...
...Keeney...
...On May 4, he was invited to attend the signing of the School-to-Work bill...
...Taken as a whole, the information sheds new light on Bill Clinton's willingness to cozy up to and do favors for those who contributed large sums of money to the Democratic Party—regardless of the legal or ethical issues involved...
...When Angelo Fosco became ill in the early 1990's, Arthur A. Coia skillfully gathered support among the other members of the board and positioned himself to get the top job that seemed guaranteed to Serpico...
...And, like his father, the younger Coia decided to make his own run for the top position...
...And congressional hearings held by Republicans last summer failed to produce any evidence that Clinton had fixed the Coia case...
...It will join displays of the Laborers proud history...
...Excluded from that loop were the CIA directors (Woolsey, Deutch), the secretary of state (Christopher), and the secretaries of defense (Les Aspin, William Perry...
...In late February, TAS submitted the following written questions to Arthur Coia: • Did Mr...
...Still, Ickes insisted that no help or intervention came from the White House...
...Byron York The American Spectator • April 19 9 7 33 suggested that Clinton act more presidential in November, Fowler sent a hand-written face of Republican successes...
...Now, however, there is new evidence about Coia, Clinton, and the Laborers case...
...Chuck Robb's campaign, not $so,000 as we reported...
...He would say, 'I have a few chips with Clinton.'" Arthur & Bill, Part Two By the fall of 1994, the White House was planning another reward for Coia's generosity: Clinton planned to name him to the President's Council on Competitiveness...
...Now we're going to try it this way, and hope we will have greater success...
...One day in late 1993, according to David Caivano, Hartnett paid him a visit...
...In September of that year, both father and son, along with Raymond Patriarca, were indicted on racketeering and bribery charges...
...Then Clinton added: "Thanks for the gorgeous driver—it's a work of art...
...And, of course, on November + the RICO complaint was delivered to Laborers union headquarters...
...We will remain supportive of the president, and I do not intend to air criticisms in public...
...According to this source—whose recollections were confirmed by another person present at the meeting—Ickes said he "had knowledge" that the Laborers union was involved in organized crime...
...Coia ever tell associates within the union or outside the union that he had discussed the case with Mrs...
...Clinton or with Harold Ickes...
...He comes down to the office one day and he approaches us about a guy named Harold Ickes," Caivano says...
...But Coia said he had never come across anybody named Big Tuna...
...Coia—who was unable to get to Florida in time to rendezvous with the president—wrote Harold Ickes on April 3 to thank him for his "quick and personal involvement in my invitation to join President Clinton in Haiti...
...It also accused Coia of stealing from union locals in upstate New York to share the cash with Todaro...
...And some grants were for work that appears unrelated to the Laborers' purpose: the union accepted a $748,536 grant from HUD to help poor families find housing in Columbus, Ohio, and received $446,945 to do the same thing in Jacksonville, Illinois...
...As the talks progressed, Coia kept in touch with the president...
...Coia made a big splash in May 1996, when he was co-chairman of a giant Democratic National Committee fundraiser at the Washington Convention Center...
...The Spreading Scandal In mid-February, the New York Post's Jack Newfield wrote a column in which he quoted a "conscience-stricken Clinton adviser...
...The RICO negotiations went on, stretching through December and then through January 1995...
...On May n, he was invited to the "First Ladies' Gala...
...Congratulations...
...Caivano says he never had any personal contact with Ickes...
...On June 13, he was invited to the White House to greet Emperor Akihito of Japan...
...A decent man...
...But along the way he acquired a bit more polish than earlier generations...
...We went to dirty unions like the Laborers International...
...Clinton wrote to thank Coia for the golf shirt...
...The accounts of Serpico and the Caivanos — all of whom lost their jobs as part of Coia's "clean-up" of the union—raise new and serious questions about whether the president exercised his influence on behalf of Coia...
...As December began, negotiations between the Justice Department and the Laborers gathered momentum...
...That's what caused people to start cutting corners," the adviser said...
...The case against the Coias took a surprising turn when a judge threw out the charges against them...
...Neither the President nor the First Lady was informed about the Department's negotiations in the investigation, including any decisions regarding Mr...
...According to those prosecutors, shortly before the union's 1986 convention Buffalo mob boss Joseph Todaro met with the elder Coia and "advised [him] that he should abandon his effort to challenge Fosco because the Chicago La Cosa Nostra family would not yield its control of the position of General PresiThe American Spectator • April 1997 dency of the union...
...On the 24th, he sent $10,000...
...And by the way, Coia said, that training proposal was working its way through the bureaucracy at the Agency for International Development, and he hoped to discuss it with the White House very soon...
...But this time, a Coia outwitted the Chicagoans...
...Indeed, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that in their election-year haste to score political points at the expense of the Clinton administration, Republicans failed to fully explore the serious issues in the case...
...the union had its own lawyers for that...
...For example, the Laborers training center in Connecticut received $2,284,901 from HHS to train Superfund clean-up workers in 1994...
...Ickes's role in the Coia case raises even more questions about the White House/Coia connection...
...In addition, TAS has uncovered new details about the intimate ties between Coia's union and then—White House deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes...
...Even before he took office, Coia started helping Clinton in any way he could...
...Coia's status as president of the Union...
...But Luskin's résumé and connections were impressive, and Coia prevailed...
...Clinton...
...McCollum: Mr...
...In May it sent $200,000...
...Ickes, a New York lawyer and political activist, has represented many labor unions over the years...
...Also in June, Coia served as a co-chair—along with Robert Strauss, Dwayne Andreas, and Ronald Perelman—of a DNC fundraiser that raised $3.5 million...
...Ickes hired to gain influence within the Clinton administration...
...However, I have noticed that you have been aimlessly attacking Republicans of late...
...We'll be the only political action committee anywhere to have a guy in the White House.'" Caivano says the prospect was irresistible...
...He's our guy...
...He knows we're not doing anything wrong...
...The American Spectator • April 19 9 7 • Did Mr...
...On January 11,1994, Paul Coffey, head of that department, wrote a memo to his boss...
...The RICO complaint was not entirely unexpected...
...Perhaps as investigators in Congress push for more information about the source of questionable donations—and how the Clinton administration might have changed its policies as a reward for the money—they'll add the case of Arthur Coia and the Laborers union to the list of suspicious transactions...
...He says, 'Look, we got to put this guy on the payroll,'" Caivano continues...
...All the while, Coia's contributions to the Democrats were growing steadily...
...No other union official testified...
...And much more was given by the union's individual state PACs around the country...
...On October z8, Coia sent a letter to the White House inviting the first lady to address a Laborers convention to be held in Miami in February 1994...
...The White House also declined to answer written questions from TAS...
...on December zo, he wrote two more...
...When other contributions to the party are added in, the League gave a total of $2,260,700 during the 1995-1996 election cycle—which was on top of the $1,415,867 the Laborers gave during the 1993-1994 election term...
...I share mine with you, and I hope you will convey them to the president...
...Hartnett was a former New York state labor commissioner and was well connected in Albany...
...Ickes listed two Laborers union organizations among the 199 clients he handled between 1989 and 1993...
...Arthur E. Coia was also, according to law enforcement investigators, a close friend of Raymond Patriarca, who for decades was the top mobster in New England...
...Bums: I agree, I do not...
...Caivano says the union continued to send checks to Ickes's firm, Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, at least through early 1995, when Caivano left his job...
...In August it sent Sio,000...
...Some of those unions—the Laborers, Local loo of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union in New York, Teamsters Local 239 in New York, and the District Council of Carpenters in New York—have extensive ties to organized crime, according to federal prosecutors...
...He was the only major union leader to support NAFTA, and he also gave unusually strong support to Mrs...
...The interview was not under oath, nor was a transcript made...
...But according to a source who attended the meeting and took notes, Ickes seemed to forget much of his work for the union...
...We consider the matter closed...
...Remove my name from your mailing list...
...Certainly one would think that that would give the White House pause in dealing with Arthur Coia...
...In a separate interview, David Caivano remembers the conversation in more detail...
...The next year, the center was given $9,344,5oo for the project...
...On October 14, Coia attended a DNC fundraiser with the president...
...But again the White House ignored the advice...
...J.J...
...The story of Arthur Coia's deal with the government is yet another chapter—and one of the most damaging—in the unfolding campaign finance scandal that is engulfing the Clinton White House...
...Coia did not get the position on the Council on Competitiveness...
...In turn, the president repaid Coia's generosity—and not just with the Divine Nine, invitations to the White House, and access to the Oval Office...
...On December 8, Coia went to the White House for a holiday reception and dinner...
...On a trip to Chicago, Coia said, he was introduced to mob capo Vincent Solano...
...Arthur Coia did not testify...
...On February 6 —at a time when RICO negotiations were reaching a critical stage — Mrs...
...The Justice Department has prevailed in RICO cases against two other corrupt unions, the Teamsters and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Workers...
...Despite that warning, the bottom line was that the Republicans were looking for a fix and couldn't find one...
...For his part, Samuel Caivano confirms his son's account of the meeting...
...The congressional probe came to a close...
...Coia had again invited the first lady to speak, and this time—even though Coia had been named as an alleged mob associate and the negotiations were underway—she accepted...
...Denials All 'Round Last July, the crime subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee held hearings on the government's handling of the Laborers...
...On June zo, Coia sent $35,000 to the DNC...
...On March 23, he sent $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee...
...That morning the Justice Department sent Coia a BYRON YORK is an investigative writer for TAS...
...Even after Coffey's memo, the White House and Coia continued to court each other...
...In June, Coia received his first invitation to visit the White House...
...Each of those unions' presidents, a top FBI official told Congress, was "handpicked by La Cosa Nostra...
...At times, Coia used union funds in an apparent attempt to curry favor with the first lady...
...And I say `Flowers?' He says, 'Yeah,' and I say, 'Why?' and he says, 'Because Hillary Clinton is involved and he desperately wants to get next to Hillary Clinton.'") Also during that period, Coia joined the board of advisers of the "Back to Business" committee established by a group of Democratic lobbyists to defend the president against allegations of wrongdoing in the Whitewater and Trayelgate scandals...
...His father Arthur E. Coia was a longtime local official who ultimately rose to the second-highest position in the national union...
...On November 4, Clinton sent his handwritten thank-you note...
...But the White House stood firm on the question of what the president knew and when he knew it: The President was not advised of the Justice Department's investigation of Mr...
...In May, Coia attended a Labor Council reception with Clinton...
...On September 3o, Coia attended a DNC Labor Council Breakfast...
...They think the world does not appreciate them, and this is their way of getting even...
...Why you are doing this is beyond me...
...Arthur E. Coia backed off...
...The word got to the first lady—from Mikva through Harold Ickes —along with the suggestion that Mrs...
...Clinton was gonna help him out and take care of this thing...
...And John Serpico, Samuel Caivano, and David Caivano all say Arthur Coia told them he had discussed the RICO issue with the president in the first week of November 1994...
...The indictments were part of a widespread crackdown on the Laborers...
...On September 1, Coia attended a Labor Day reception with the president...
...Their advice was ignored...
...We apologize to both men...
...The strategy worked...
...Like the inquiry in January, the request ended up on the desk of Paul Coffey...
...Patriarca controlled almost every part of life in the union...
...Still, the subcommittee's report concluded that "while the facts gathered to date do not reveal a direct connection, serious concerns exist about the propriety of the White House's extensive dealings with someone who was simultaneously battling federal prosecutors...
...On November 2, Coia accompanied Clinton on a visit to Rhode Island, where Coia gave the president that handmade driver engraved with the presidential seal...
...034 Timmerman (Continued from page our two countries become friends again...
...Coia called an emergency meeting of the Laborers board of directors, and union officials around the country dropped what they were doing and flew to Washington...
...Caivano's son David, who administered the union's New York state political action committee, was there...
...Didn't even know what the name meant...
...Or were Coia's contributions to the Democrats simply too valuable to let a Justice Department investigation come between the president and the generous union boss...
...This confirms that the Laborers and Employers Cooperation and Education Trust has retained our firm for a one year period, effective 1 January 1994 to and including 31 December 1994, as Advisor," the letter began...
...Best, Bill...
...In the case of the Laborers, the Justice Department played a similar role: it twice warned the White House that Coia and the Laborers were trouble...
...Given such enormous gaps in the record, it was impossible for the subcommittee to reach any reliable verdict on what went on in the Laborers affair...
...David Caivano remembers how Harold Ickes came to work for the Laborers in 1993...
...According to Federal Election Commission records, Coia's political action committee, the Laborers Political League, gave $1,415,867 to the Democratic Party or to Democratic candidates in the 1993-1994 election cycle (and that figure does not include millions more given by the union's state PACs controlled by Coia...
...The formerly all-powerful Chicago Laborers have fallen, and Coia remains standing...
...Arthur A. Coia was a bit more defensive...
...In note to Ickes...
...Coffey...
...He and his wife attended dinner there on the 17th and watched an NBA playoff game with the president afterwards...
...As proof of the arrangement, Caivano produces a copy of a letter dated December 1, 1993, from Ickes to Caivano's father Samuel, who at that time was the union's top official in the New York/New Jersey region...
...Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, where the case was brought, and Jo Ann Harris, who headed the Criminal Division during the negotiations with the union...
...Instead, Ickes, according to Caivano, "would be our man if we needed him...
...John Serpico and Samuel Caivano, who at one time were two of the most powerful officials of the union, are out—ousted by Coia as part of the deal with the Justice Department...
...I realize that you are a conservative magazine, and that is why I buy it...
...Gorelick told Mikva that Justice had serious concerns about Coia...
...My last issue of TAS has just arrived...
...I think I met him in a restaurant once," he told the paper...
...The error did not affect what we reported as the total amount of Dr...
...On December 1, Coia attended a reception for DNC "managing trustees" with the president and Mrs...
...How did Lake keep his secret initiative toward Tehran quiet...
...Coia was under investigation...
...Arthur & Bill, Part Three At the end of March 1995, the White House called Coia with a last-minute offer: the president was going to Haiti, and would Coia like to catch up with him in Florida and go along on the visit...
...For that reason alone, 34 April 199 7 • The American Spectator Arthur Coia's courting of Bill Clinton would have been well worth the effort, even if he had never received a single White House invitation...
...And he too got a warning from Chicago to stay away...
...The source described a meeting in May 1995 in which the president was "incredibly intense" about the need to raise millions of dollars for his re-election campaign...
...The speed of the settlement led many observers to conclude that there must have been a deal between Coia and his good friend and political beneficiary Bill Clinton...
...However, the White House made a more substantive statement two years ago, when the Providence Journal-Bulletin inquired about Hillary Rodham Clinton's decision to address the Laborers convention in Miami...
...Everything would go through Hartnett," he says...
...In refusing, an administration official said, "This issue was thoroughly investigated by Congress...
...He met with the executive board in little groups or one-on-ones," says a former officer...
...Harold is a superb organizer," the president said in a statement...
Vol. 30 • April 1997 • No. 4
