Dan Rostenkowski

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The FBI's investigative files on Rostenkowski are available through the FBI public records vault.

  • Donald Trump gave $10,000 to Dan Rostenkowski, the powerful Chairman of the house Ways and Means Committee, to finance a lavish anniversary party that Rostenkowski held on the tax-writing committee’s behalf. “With a little help from some friends, the House Ways and Means Committee has been throwing itself a heck of 200th birthday party. There have been dinners and luncheons, commemorative presents, a documentary film and a 500-page, slick-paper history complete with lovely color photos of the committee's chairmen, especially of the current chairman, Dan Rostenkowski of Chicago. The money for the celebration - more than three-quarters of a million dollars so far - was donated by an array of large corporations, unions and, of course, Donald Trump. American Express gave $25,000, as did American Telephone and Telegraph, Anheuser-Busch, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, General Motors, International Business Machines, Kraft General Foods and Sara Lee, among others. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union came up with $20,000, the Chicago Board of Trade with $15,000 and Trump with $10,000. […] Could the corporate moguls and union leaders want the Ways and Means Committee to have the money for plenty of party hats because the committee has the power to write tax and trade laws and a party hat now could mean a favor later? No. It couldn't be. It must be like the man said: They just love to be patriotic.” (Chicago Tribune, August 20, 1989)
  • 1989: Donald Trump was one of several figures seeking national influence who would give generously to Rostenkowski’s lavish party expenses. “Last week, when Rostenkowski returned to his 8th Congressional District and met with leaders of senior citizens groups, he was a very different man from the one who had pressed the flesh and swapped small talk with the gasoline station owners a decade and a half before. […] Rostenkowski, now 61 years old, is one of the nation's most powerful men. As chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, he shapes the country's tax law. He rubs elbows with presidents and is regularly wooed by the heads of the world's largest corporations. When Rostenkowski decided to celebrate his committee's 200th anniversary last month, he had no problem raising more than three-quarters of a million dollars to pay for a lavish dinner, as well as a new 4-pound book and an hourlong television documentary about the committee's history. Guests at the dinner were given commemorative gold cuff links and stickpins. Twenty-two business organizations, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, gave $25,000 each. The Teamsters Union gave $10,000, as did real estate magnate Donald Trump. Even some companies that were not asked for donations were careful to send in checks.” (Chicago Tribune, August 20, 1989)
  • 1993: Rostenkowski became a chief architect of President Clinton’s deficit-reduction plan until evidence emerged that he had been using his Congressional position to embezzle taxpayer funds. “His legal woes mounting and his career possibly in jeopardy, the man who for 12 years has exerted more influence over the public's personal finances than anyone in Congress calmly lunched with the president Tuesday. That's the way it has always been for Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, the career politician from Chicago. Viewed by many as arrogant, gruff, tyrannical - but not one who'd be caught with a hand in the cookie jar - Rostenkowski usually walks on water in Washington. But in the wake of Justice Department suggestions that his reach into taxpayers' pockets may have gone beyond the law, the 65-year-old chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee could be skating on thin ice. If he falls through - an indictment might come within weeks - President Clinton would be without one of his staunchest and most strategically placed allies on Capitol Hill on the budget, health care, trade and welfare reform.” (USA Today, July 21, 1993)
  • Rostenkowski was accused of embezzling money from his Congressional office’s postal account in a “cash-for-stamps” scheme. “After a career that has spanned parts of five decades, Rostenkowski was reduced in legal papers Monday to ‘Congressman A’ - the unnamed lawmaker who former House Postmaster Robert Rota says received $21,300 in embezzled funds from the post office. Court documents released by the U.S. Attorney's office didn't name Rostenkowski, but the financial transactions described match those listed by his office in public records. […] The link leaves Rostenkowski - a leader in the battle to enact a five-year, $500 billion deficit reduction package - dangling somewhere between the legal and legislative worlds. It also angers his friends. […] Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, the former Senate Finance Committee chairman who negotiated many a tax bill with Rostenkowski, says his alleged participation in a cash-for-stamps scheme ‘doesn't make any sense.’ ‘Here's a guy who could have taken a million dollars,’ Bentsen says, referring to more than $1 million left in Rostenkowski's campaign coffers after the 1990 election - money he could have pocketed legally for the last time in 1992. ‘I just don't believe it. It's not the Danny I know.’” (USA Today, July 21, 1993)
  • 1994: Donald Trump gave $5,000 to the legal defense efforts of Dan Rostenkowski, who raised nearly a million dollars for his legal defense on corruption charges. “The legal defense fund of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) raised $758,350 in five months last year, with more than 100 groups or individuals, including current and former House colleagues, former aides, and lobbyists and companies who appear before the Ways and Means Committee, giving the maximum $5,000 permitted by House rules. The 1993 donors to Rostenkowski's fund, which Chicago news reports say is now close to $1 million, were identified for the first time yesterday when the House released annual financial disclosure statements that all members must file. Rostenkowski pleaded not guilty yesterday to a 17-count federal indictment. […] Solicitors for the fund reached beyond Washington and Chicago. New York financiers Donald Trump and Ronald O. Perelman are listed as giving $5,000.” (Washington Post, June 11, 1994)
  • Trump was one of 308 donors who contributed money to Rostenkowski’s defense fund. “Representative Dan Rostenkowski raised more than $750,000 last year for his legal defense from a wide array of powerful interests that had stakes in the legislation handled by the committee he headed until his recent 17-count indictment on corruption charges. As Mr. Rostenkowski pleaded not guilty today in Federal District Court here, the House released his financial disclosure statement, including an 11-page list of donors who gave to his defense fund last year. The defense fund not only pays the considerable legal fees charged by Mr. Rostenkowksi's lawyers but also covers the costs of many of the witnesses in the case, including current and former employees of Mr. Rostenkowski's. The fund is also covering the legal expenses of the Chicago Democrat's top aides and those of an important witness in the case, Harold J. Wills, an engraver who, according to the indictment, was pressured by the lawmaker not to tell the grand jury about his work for the Congressman. […] Interestingly, the 308 donors, many of whom gave the $5,000 limit and a few of whom gave less than $500, include lobbyists, corporations, trade associations, former members of Congress and members of their staffs, unions, law firms, restaurants and the campaign committees of some of Mr. Rostenkowski's colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee. Prominent Republican lobbyists also contributed. […] Other contributors with notable business interests include real estate developers like Donald Trump; alcohol, tobacco and beverage companies like Pepsi Cola General Bottlers, and even the Chicago Bears Football Club Inc.” (New York Times, June 11, 1994)
  • Rostenkowski initially pled “not-guilty” to various charges alleging that he had misappropriated official funds for a variety of purposes, in a trial that was prosecuted by then-US Attorney Eric Holder. “Rep. Dan Rostenkowski pleaded not guilty Friday to 17 felony corruption charges and left U.S. District Court here vowing to ‘wash away the mud that has been splattered on my reputation.’ […] In an indictment returned by a federal grand jury on May 31, Rostenkowski is accused of charges ranging from accepting kickbacks of government funds from a son-in-law to buying cars for his family with public and campaign money. He also is accused of using government wages to pay 14 employees who did little or no official work and performed such personal chores as mowing the lawn at his summer home and photographing the wedding of one of his daughters. In addition, the grand jury charged that the congressman used postage vouchers to steal cash from Congress, purchased gifts for friends and supporters with government funds and, in what appeared to be the most insidious of the accusations, tampered with a federal witness. […] If Webb decides to mount constitutional challenges to the indictment, the trial could be delayed until next year -- well beyond congressional consideration of President Clinton's health care plan. As chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Rostenkowski would have played a major role in that process. But because of the indictment he was forced to step down from the chairmanship. While saying that he agrees with U.S. Atty. Eric H. Holder Jr. that the case should go to trial ‘as rapidly as possible,’ Webb added that he had ‘absolutely no intention of relinquishing any of the congressman's constitutional rights.’ […] Rostenkowski filed a financial disclosure statement Friday on Capitol Hill showing that he has collected more than $750,000 for his legal defense fund from lobbyists and friends. […] New York real estate magnate Donald Trump gave $5,000, as did Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago Bulls basketball team and the White Sox baseball club. Jack Valenti, Washington representative for the motion picture industry, gave $3,000.” (Los Angeles Times, June 11, 1994)