Now comes the revelation that Mrs. Clinton and several other Democrats, including presidential candidates John Edwards and Joe Biden, accepted contributions from trial lawyers implicated in a sleazy kickback scheme.

The facts, as reported in The New York Times, make it difficult to believe that taking money from these characters was an innocent oversight. The scandal was already in full bloom, and well publicized, when the candidates banked the donations.

At the center of the case is the New York law firm of Milberg Weiss, which made billions in legal fees by initiating class-action suits against large, publicly traded corporations.

The firm's approach was aggressive and effective. When a company's stock dropped significantly, Milberg Weiss would quickly sue, having recruited a shareholder as a plaintiff.

Typically, the lawsuit accused executives of misleading or defrauding investors. More often than not, the company would settle the case for big bucks in order to avoid a trial.

Milberg Weiss soon became the leading class-action firm in the country, though its activities drew the scrutiny of federal investigators. In May 2006, the firm was indicted for fraud and bribery.

Prosecutors called it a "racketeering enterprise," and alleged that Milberg Weiss paid people kickbacks to act as plaintiffs in 250 cases. The law firm has denied all charges, but at least three former partners have pleaded guilty to conspiracy.

One of the lavishly bribed was Howard J. Vogel, 61, of Aventura. Prosecutors say he got $2.5 million under the table for acting as lead plaintiff in several Milberg Weiss class-action suits. Vogel and former Milberg partner Steven G. Schulman have pleaded guilty.

So has ex-Milberg partner William S. Lerach, a former fundraiser for Edwards, who is himself a trial lawyer. Lerach is also a buddy of Bill Clinton dating back to his White House days, and donated more than $100,000 to the Clinton presidential library.

The odor of the criminal probe has been hovering around Milberg Weiss for some time, but apparently many top Democrats don't mind the stink. Twenty-six candidates, including Rep. Tim Mahoney of Florida, have accepted campaign checks from donors connected to Milberg Weiss since the 2006 indictments.

Edwards took $4,600 from Lerach this year. Biden collected $2,700. Hillary Clinton grabbed $3,000 from Lerach, and a total of $4,600 from two other former Milberg Weiss lawyers.

She has also accepted $4,600 from the firm's co-founder, Melvyn I. Weiss, who stands charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Surprisingly, a Clinton spokesman told The Times last week that Clinton doesn't intend to return Weiss' money.

In 1998, in the midst of the Lewinsky affair, Nemazee collected $60,000 for Bill Clinton's legal defense fund in $10,000 increments from relatives and friends. Clinton subsequently nominated Nemazee as ambassador to Argentina but withdrew the nomination after an article in Forbes raised questions about Nemazee's business dealings in the 1980s and '90s--which noted that the American-born Nemazee magically became "Hispanic" by acquiring Venezuelan citizenship because of a requirement that certain California public pension funds be run by minorities.

While Quasha & Co. keep an eye on hedge fund regulation, they also appear to be helping the repressive Chinese government keep an eye on its own people. Brean Murray, Carret recently acted as the sole placement agent in an $8 million deal with the Shenzhen-based China Security and Surveillance Technology. China Security won a contract last year from the quasi-governmental Shenzhen Cyber Café Association to install video monitoring systems for more than 1,000 local Internet cafes, popular outlets for criticism of the regime. A Brean Murray, Carret press release celebrates its cooperation with the clampdown: "the estimated 2.19 million registered entertainment halls in China must purchase video-monitoring systems covering entrances, exits and main corridors. The Company is actively pursuing similar opportunities within the other provinces of China."

Something remarkable happened at 44 Henry St., a grimy Chinatown tenement with peeling walls. It also happened nearby at a dimly lighted apartment building with trash bins clustered by the front door.

And again not too far away, at 88 E. Broadway beneath the Manhattan bridge, where vendors chatter in Mandarin and Fujianese as they hawk rubber sandals and bargain-basement clothes.

All three locations, along with scores of others scattered throughout some of the poorest Chinese neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, have been swept by an extraordinary impulse to shower money on one particular presidential candidate -- Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Dishwashers, waiters and others whose jobs and dilapidated home addresses seem to make them unpromising targets for political fundraisers are pouring $1,000 and $2,000 contributions into Clinton's campaign treasury. In April, a single fundraiser in an area long known for its gritty urban poverty yielded a whopping $380,000. When Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) ran for president in 2004, he received $24,000 from Chinatown.

[...]

The Times examined the cases of more than 150 donors who provided checks to Clinton after fundraising events geared to the Chinese community. One-third of those donors could not be found using property, telephone or business records. Most have not registered to vote, according to public records.

And several dozen were described in financial reports as holding jobs -- including dishwasher, server or chef -- that would normally make it difficult to donate amounts ranging from $500 to the legal maximum of $2,300 per election.

Of 74 residents of New York's Chinatown, Flushing, the Bronx or Brooklyn that The Times called or visited, only 24 could be reached for comment.

Many said they gave to Clinton because they were instructed to do so by local association leaders. Some said they wanted help on immigration concerns. And several spoke of the pride they felt by being associated with a powerful figure such as Clinton.

Nearly three years after the Clinton Library opened—and more than 21 months after its trove of records became subject to the Freedom of Information Act—barely one half of 1 percent of the 78 million pages of documents and 20 million e-mail messages at the federally funded facility are public, according to the National Archives. The lack of access is emerging as an issue in Hillary's presidential campaign: she cites her years of experience as First Lady as one of her prime qualifications to be president. Like other Democratic candidates, she has decried the "stunning record of secrecy" of the Bush administration; her campaign Web site vows to bring a "return to transparency" to government. But Clinton's appointment calendar as First Lady, her notes at strategy meetings, what advice she gave her husband and his advisers, what policy memos she wrote, even some key papers from her health-care task force—all of this, and much more documenting her years as First Lady, remains locked away, most likely through the entire campaign season. With nearly 300 FOIA requests pending for Clinton documents, and only six archivists at the library to process them, Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper says it is "really hard to predict" if any of this material will be released before the election.

A purported pyramid-scheme operator who was run out of Arkansas when Bill Clinton was governor has reinvented himself as the head of an upstate group accused of being a "cult" - and his devotees have pumped thousands into Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential run.

Executives and top associates of the Albany-based NXIVM group - along with their family members - donated $29,900 to Clinton's presidential campaign, according to federal records.

On March 14 and April 13, records show, more than a dozen contributions poured into Clinton's coffers from NXIVM, an executive and group-awareness training organization led by Brooklyn-born Keith Raniere, 47.

Most were from first-time political donors, each giving the $2,300 maximum.

The revelation comes on the heels of the arrest of Norman Hsu, who raised $1.5 million in campaign contributions for the Clintons and other Democrats, even though he was technically a fugitive from fraud charges in California.

Hsu jumped bail in early September but was nabbed and is currently locked up in California.

In his previous incarnation, the Svengali-like Raniere ran a $30 million multilevel marketing business that imploded after federal agencies and regulators in 23 states alleged it was an illegal pyramid scheme.

He has managed to attract famous names to NXIVM.

Three of the March and April Clinton pledges came from Raniere's most high-profile followers: Seagram heiresses Clare and Sara Bronfman, and Pamela Cafritz, daughter of D.C. A-listers Buffy and Bill Cafritz.

Cafritz shares a condo with Raniere.

The Bronfman sisters are also deeply involved with NXIVM and, according to a 2003 article in Forbes magazine, have loaned millions to the group and provided use of their jet.

Their father, Edgar Bronfman Sr., once took NXIVM classes but soon severed ties, telling Forbes, "It's a cult."