WASHINGTON

FEDERAL PROSECUTORS CONFIRM SENATOR CLINTON PROBE TAPES

Federal prosecutors have confirmed for the first time that an informant in a criminal investigation of fund-raising by Senator Clinton’s 2000 campaign made tape recordings as part of his cooperation with the government’s probe.

The disclosure came in papers filed Monday with a federal court at Los Angeles in the case of Mrs. Clinton’s national finance chief, David Rosen. He is facing four felony charges in connection with allegedly false reports the campaign filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The government said a 13-month delay in unsealing Mr. Rosen’s indictment was necessary to prevent the disclosure of the informant’s identity. The informant taped his conversations with Mr. Rosen, and copies of the tapes would have had to be turned over to Mr. Rosen if his indictment had been handed up in open court, prosecutors said. The court filing did not name the informant. However, The New York Sun reported last week that FBI agents asked a fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton, Aaron Tonken, to tape-record Mrs. Clinton and others targeted in the probe.

Tonken said he was given recording equipment by the FBI, but never spoke with Mrs. Clinton after he received the gear.

Mr. Rosen’s attorneys have asked that the case against their client be dismissed because, they argue, there was no legitimate prosecutorial reason for the indictment to have been kept under seal.

The government’s filing said the unnamed informant was also involved in other investigations that have now concluded. Tonken told the Sun he was a witness in several government inquiries, including the investigation of whether President Clinton granted pardons in exchange for donations to help build his presidential library.

Mr. Clinton denied any quid pro quo, and no charges were ever brought.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

ICKES NAMED NEW PRESIDENT OF AMERICA COMING TOGETHER

The left-leaning political activist group America Coming Together, formed through a mostly Web-based grassroots movement of opponents to President Bush in late 2003, announced yesterday that Harold Ickes is the new president of the fund-raising group.

Ellen Malcolm, the outgoing ACT president, announced the appointment of Mr. Ickes as her successor in an e-mail to more than 400,000 ACT contributors. She said she will return to running Emily’s List, a partner organization to ACT that she founded in 1985. ACT focused much of its efforts in the last presidential election in the “battleground” states, campaigning heavily against Mr. Bush.

“The goal of empowering you is embodied in Harold, as proven throughout his long and distinguished career in progressive politics starting in 1964,” Ms. Malcolm wrote. “Under Harold’s steady leadership, ACT will be much more than a voice of dissent,” she added. “We want ACT to continue being your vehicle for changing America.”

Mr. Ickes, a well-known Democratic strategist and former White House chief of staff for President Clinton, is also the chairman of the political action committee of Senator Clinton, the Democrat of New York. His support of Howard Dean’s recent campaign to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee gave Dr. Dean a powerful boost toward his eventual election to chairman of the DNC.

Mr. Ickes was also a principal in The Media Fund, an organization that raised and spent millions of dollars on anti-Bush advertisements in 2004.

Ms. Malcolm said that ACT’s organizing efforts will continue to be lead by Steven Rosenthal, the group’s chief executive officer.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun