Source:
The Minnesota IndependentLast fall, the Minnesota Independent reported that Rep. Michele Bachmann’s campaign made a $9,200 charitable contribution to the faith-based drug treatment program Minnesota Teen Challenge on Oct. 3, 2008, in an effort to wash its hands of tainted contributions from Tom Petters associate Frank Vennes, Jr.
The Minnesota Independent has recently learned that Minnesota Teen Challenge returned the donation to Bachmann two weeks later.
“We didn’t want to be involved if it was dirty money,” Rich Scherber, executive director of Minnesota Teen Challenge, told MnIndy.
Bachmann’s close ties to Vennes became public before the election, when it was revealed that she had written a letter requesting a presidential pardon for the convicted money-launderer and drug-smuggler. She withdrew the letter when Vennes’ name became connected to the Petters multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme scandal. But she gave back only a portion of the tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions she has received from Vennes and his family since 2005.
Read more:
http://minnesotaindependent.com/32798/dirty-money-mn-teen-challenge-returned-bachmanns-contribution
More at the Dump Bachmann blog:
http://dumpbachmann.blogspot.com/2009/04/pardongate-mn-teen-challenge-returned.html