Ohio GOP Fundraiser to Change Not Guilty Plea

Tom Noe, a former Ohio rare-coin dealer facing three federal counts of illegally channeling funds into President Bush’s reelection campaign, plans to change his not-guilty plea, according to a court filing Wednesday.

Noe, a well-connected figure in the Ohio Republican Party, is at the center of a political and financial scandal revolving around an unorthodox $55.4-million fund for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation that involved buying and selling rare coins.

A federal grand jury indicted Noe in October on charges he used at least two dozen people -- including several current and former local politicians -- to illegally give $45,000 or more to the Bush-Cheney campaign in fall 2003.

The funds were donated to the campaign at one of the last big fundraising efforts in Ohio -- one of the key battleground states -- before the 2004 presidential race kicked into high gear. Bush campaign officials have been cooperating with the federal investigation, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors and Noe’s defense team requested a change of plea hearing earlier in the day, according to a report in the Blade newspaper of Toledo, Ohio. The attorneys could not be reached for comment late Wednesday, and the court filing reportedly did not indicate what the new plea would be.

If convicted of the three counts, Noe could be sentenced to as many as 15 years in prison and be fined nearly $1 million.

As midterm election campaigns heat up, the case is part of a growing political brouhaha in Ohio, where Republican candidates -- eager to keep control of Congress -- are struggling to shed connections to this and other scandals.

Ohio Gov. Robert A. Taft, a Republican who is not up for reelection, has pleaded no contest to accepting unreported gifts, including some from Noe. And Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who is seeking reelection, is being investigated for allegedly trading political favors for gifts.

Noe also faces a 53-count indictment by state prosecutors, including 22 counts of forgery. Noe allegedly wrote checks against the state fund, forged his friends’ signatures and deposited the checks into his accounts.

Noe has pleaded not guilty to all charges in both cases, and is currently out on bond.