Fiedler Aide Reportedly Brushed Aside Warning : Legality Discussion Was Secretly Taped

During a meeting secretly recorded by state Sen. Ed Davis’ campaign manager, Rep. Bobbi Fiedler’s top adviser brushed aside a warning that it might be illegal for the Fiedler campaign to raise money to pay off Davis’ campaign debts, four sources familiar with details of the incident have told The Times.

The conversation is important, the sources said, because it could be used to show that the Fiedler adviser, Paul Clarke, knew he might be committing a crime.

One of the sources said Davis’ campaign manager Martha Zilm told of sounding the warning when she and Clarke met early this month in a San Fernando Valley restaurant to discuss how to pay off Davis’ campaign debt.

‘Might Be Illegal’

The source quoted Zilm as saying she told Clarke, “I’m afraid this might be illegal.” The source said it was clear that the two political aides were talking about getting financial assistance for Davis in return for his withdrawal from the U.S. Senate race.

Clarke is said to have replied, “I called (a lawyer) and he said it was not illegal if it is not in writing.”

Three other sources familiar with evidence in the case independently confirmed the essence of that exchange.

The sources said Los Angeles County prosecutors, for whom Zilm was secretly gathering evidence, had instructed her to warn Clark about the possible illegality.

Fiedler, 48, and Clarke, 39, were each indicted last week on a felony charge that they offered Davis a $100,000 contribution in an attempt to lure him out of the Republican U.S. Senate primary. Under California law, it is a felony, punishable by up to three years in state prison, to pay, advance or solicit money to induce a candidate to withdraw from a political contest.

Fiedler supporters in recent days have insisted that the Northridge congresswoman and Clarke did nothing wrong because they believed Davis had already decided to drop out of the race before representatives of the two campaigns began discussing financial assistance to erase Davis’ campaign debts.

However, Davis, the front-runner in early polls, has dismissed the suggestion that he was preparing to withdraw from the race as “preposterous.”

Silent on Evidence

Prosecutors have refused to discuss the evidence they have gathered against Fiedler and Clarke.

One source told The Times that prosecutors believe the case against Clarke is substantially stronger than the case against Fiedler, although they believe the case against Fiedler is strong enough to take to trial.

KNBC-TV, Channel 4, reported Monday that Dist. Atty. Reiner recommended against indicting Fiedler because “the proof against her was simply not strong enough.” Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Gilbert I. Garcetti declined to confirm or deny the report, saying prosecutors are prohibited from discussing their recommendations to the grand jury until a transcript of the proceeding is released to defense attorneys.

Brad Field, a Fiedler campaign worker, said Monday night that Clarke and Fiedler could not be reached because they were en route to Washington.

A source close to Fiedler said last weekend that Clarke called Fiedler’s chief fund-raiser, Brad O’Leary of Washington, after initial contact between the two campaign organizations was made early last November.

O’Leary, interviewed by telephone Monday, said, “Paul called me in November to see what could be done to help Davis extinguish his debt. . . . I told Paul that in a federal race, unlike in a city or state race, damn little could be done.”

Under federal law, the Fiedler campaign committee could donate no more than $1,000 to Davis’ primary campaign, the same limit placed on individual donations.

For Fiedler to help Davis retire his debt, O’Leary said in the interview, “You would have to go to individual contributors who have already given the maximum to Fiedler and ask them if they would give to Davis.

“You would have to run a separate fund-raising campaign to pay off the Davis debt. Paul asked me if that could be done. I said it would have a negative effect on the Fiedler campaign’s own fund-raising.”

Another Possible Source

O’Leary said he also told Clarke that the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, which dispenses funds to GOP Senate candidates all over the country, could give a maximum of $17,500 to help pay off Davis’ debts.

A word-for-word account of the tape-recorded exchange between Zilm and Clarke is included in a lengthy transcript of the Los Angeles County Grand Jury proceedings that led to the indictment of Fiedler and Clarke last Thursday.

The transcript, which remains sealed, is said also to contain verbatim accounts of other conversations that Zilm recorded, including one with Fiedler and Clarke that took place at Fiedler’s Northridge home Jan. 12.

By law, the grand jury transcript is to remain sealed for 10 days after attorneys for Clarke and Fiedler receive their copies. The attorneys are not expected to get their copies for a few days.

A complete account of the recorded conversations, which Fiedler supporters say will exonerate the congresswoman, will become public on the 11th day, unless defense attorneys seek to keep the grand jury transcript sealed.

Garcetti confirmed Monday that the office does have tapes of several conversations between Zilm and Fiedler aides. Garcetti said that, at the request of prosecutors, Davis has listened to two of the tapes.

Earlier Contact Told

The investigation of Fiedler and Clarke began Nov. 15, after Zilm, the Davis campaign manager, contacted Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury, another Davis supporter. Zilm told Bradbury that a San Fernando Valley businessman who supports Fiedler had suggested to a Davis supporter that Fiedler would help Davis retire his campaign debt if Davis would withdraw from the race.

Because of the conflict of interest and because the alleged contact occurred outside his jurisdiction, Bradbury referred the complaint to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Working with prosecutors, Zilm arranged a series of meetings in December and January with Fiedler’s aides, during which the possibility of a Fiedler fund-raising effort for Davis was discussed.

Fiedler’s supporters insist that it was Zilm who first mentioned the figure of a $100,000 contribution, while sources in the Davis camp said the money was initially mentioned by a Fiedler backer.

At a press conference in Sacramento Monday, Davis, in response to a reporter’s question, insisted that authorities had not entrapped Fiedler and Clarke.

“The law of entrapment is that you have to plant in the mind of the defendant the idea to commit a crime and we did no such thing,” responded Davis, a former Los Angeles police chief. “There’s been no entrapment whatsoever.”

Rejects Alternate Notion

Davis rejected the notion--which he said some have suggested--that he should have looked the other way because quid pro quos involving campaign contributions are commonplace in politics.

“Some people had the arrogance to test my ethics and reputation to see whether I would succumb to the level of greed that perhaps some politicians are willing to fall into,” he said in a prepared statement he read. “I am not a politician.”

He continued: “I do not accept the rationalization that ‘everyone does it.’ I would sell everything I own, including selling my home, rather than take a bribe.”

Later while answering questions, Davis said that since the indictments were handed down last Thursday there have been suggestions that he should have warned those who approached him that they were violating the law. But he insisted that if he had done that, he would have been guilty of a felony himself.

Referring back to his days as police chief, Davis said:

“If my policemen were not instructed that they can’t look the other way on the commission of felonies, that they have the option of saying, ‘Hey, shouldn’t have done that. You know, shouldn’t do that embezzlement, shouldn’t have done that robbery, we’re not going to pay any attention to that,’ the state of law enforcement in California would be a disaster.”

Davis described himself as “an innocent victim of their (the Fiedler campaign’s) machinations.”

The lawmaker cited numerous polls showing that he was ahead of any of the other Republican candidates competing for the right to challenge Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston of California. “I’m in the race all the way through November, I think,” he said.

Davis also said he no longer has a campaign deficit.