Ex-Aide to Senator Implicated in Trial

A key prosecution witness testified Wednesday that she was instructed by the national finance director for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign to falsify costs for a star-studded fundraiser held on the eve of the 2000 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles.

Gretta Nock, a professional event planner, said she did not think it was her place to question Clinton Finance Director David Rosen and went along with the alleged scheme.

Rosen is charged with causing the Clinton Senate campaign to underreport more than $800,000 in expenses to the Federal Election Commission.

As a result, the campaign was able to spend more “hard” money on direct advocacy in the closing days of the New York Senate race, according to Justice Department lawyers.

They say the Democratic senator was unaware of any wrongdoing.

Nock was the government’s eighth witness in the week-old trial, and the first to directly implicate Rosen in the alleged rigging of final cost figures .

“I was instructed by David Rosen to take certain expenses off,” Nock told U.S. District Court jurors.

Nock said she could not recall whether Rosen had instructed her which numbers to trim, but that “overall figures needed to project a lower cost.” Afterward, she said, she forwarded the numbers to Clinton’s campaign headquarters for filing with the FEC.

Nock was in charge of overseeing efforts ranging from the selection of floral arrangements to the payment of vendors for the Aug. 12, 2000, event, held on a sprawling Westside estate.

Billed as a tribute to President Bill Clinton, the affair featured a $25,000-a-couple dinner and a $1,000-per-ticket concert featuring Cher, Diana Ross, Paul Anka, Michael Bolton, Patti LaBelle and Melissa Etheridge.

One element of Nock’s testimony Wednesday dealt with the fabrication of a $200,000 invoice for concert production work by Alan Baumrucker and his company, Black Ink Productions.

Although he received $605,000 for his work at the event, Baumrucker testified earlier this week that Nock had asked him to submit an invoice for $200,000. He said he reluctantly went along with the request.

On the witness stand Wednesday, Nock confirmed Baumrucker’s account. She said she needed the invoice to support a $200,000 figure in the final cost accounting. It was not clear from her testimony, however, who, if anyone, had ordered her to come up with the $200,000 number.

Nock also admitted having told an FBI agent in 2002 that she couldn’t remember whether it was Rosen who directed her to get the $200,000 invoice.

Rosen’s defense lawyer, Paul Sandler, tried to suggest that Nock owed loyalty to Aaron Tonken, who had hired Nock to help organize the Clinton gala. Tonken was in the business of recruiting stars to appear at charity events. He is now serving a 63-month prison sentence for defrauding some of those charities.

The defense contends that Tonken and businessman Peter Paul, who agreed to underwrite the event, concealed the actual $1.1-million cost from Rosen.

Paul, who co-founded a publicly traded Internet company with Spider-Man creator Stan Lee, is a three-time convicted felon now awaiting sentencing for defrauding investors.