Fundraiser wants to submit new plea

TOLEDO (AP) -- A coin dealer and major GOP fundraiser asked Wednesday to change his innocent pleas to federal charges that he illegally funneled donations to President Bush's re-election campaign.
Tom Noe had denied illegally funneling $45,400 in contributions to Bush's re-election bid. He was accused of giving money directly or indirectly to 24 friends and associates, who then made the campaign contributions in their own names.
Federal prosecutors said he did that to skirt the $2,000 limit on individual contributions.
Noe's attorney and the U.S. attorney's office jointly filed a request Wednesday asking a federal judge to set a change-of-plea hearing as soon as possible. The filing did not indicate what the new plea will be.
Noe also is under investigation over an ill-fated $50 million investment in rare coins that he managed for the state workers' compensation fund. He has been charged with stealing at least $1 million of the coin investment and has pleaded innocent.
How scheme worked
According to federal prosecutors, Noe arranged a contribution scheme to fulfill his pledge to raise $50,000 for a Bush fundraiser at a downtown Columbus hotel Oct. 30, 2003. A year later, Bush's victory in Ohio gave him the White House.
Noe wrote several checks just under the maximum allowable amount of $2,000 to avoid suspicion, the federal indictment said. All the checks were written in the eight days leading up to the fundraiser.
Messages seeking comment were left with Noe's attorney, Jon Richardson, and the U.S. attorney's office in Toledo.
Federal investigators allege Noe made his friends and associates fill out contribution cards and forms falsely certifying they were making the contributions themselves. The result was that Bush's campaign committee unknowingly submitted a false campaign report to the Federal Election Commission, the indictment said.
Prosecutors say the Bush campaign cooperated with their investigation.
Noe has been free on bond since he was indicted in October and is living in Florida.
If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison on each of three counts and a combined maximum of $950,000 in fines. Those penalties could increase if it's found that Noe used money from the state coin fund to make the campaign donations.
His trial had been scheduled to begin July 24.
Federal prosecutors said in October that the case was the largest of its kind prosecuted under the 2002 campaign finance reform law.
Noe personally contributed more than $105,000 to Republicans including Bush and Gov. Bob Taft during the last campaign. The Bush-Cheney campaign donated $6,000 it received from Noe and his wife, Bernadette, to charity.
Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett said the plea change would have little effect on either Bush or the midterm congressional and statewide elections.
"What you have here is one very bad apple who did not comply with federal election laws," Bennett said. "He should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and let the penalties fall where they may."
Noe's work for the GOP allowed him to meet with the president during several of his re-election campaign visits to Ohio. Noe and his wife also attended the inaugural ball in 2005.
Noe also is well-known among state politicians and has won political appointments to state boards that oversee the Ohio Turnpike and Ohio's public universities.
Investigations into Noe's coin investment led to Gov. Bob Taft's no contest plea in August to charges he accepted golf outings and other gifts that he didn't report.