Teamsters-DNC Money Link Probed

NEW YORK: Is the goodwill among the Teamsters, the Democratic National Committee and the AFL-CIO a union of corruption? This week's TIME magazine reports that Teamsters president Ron Carey's top aides offered to donate Teamsters funds to the Democratic National Committee in exchange for contributions to the Carey campaign — in effect laundering Teamsters money and diverting it to their candidate's re-election effort — according to court documents and other sources. The DNC says no such scheme was ever carried out.

TIME reports that a federal grand jury probing Carey's campaign financing is also investigating an episode in which AFL-CIO president John Sweeney and at least two other AFL-CIO leaders are said to have secretly funneled illegal contributions to the Carey campaign through two Carey aides. Sources tell TIME the contributions were a payback for Carey's pivotal role in helping Sweeney wrest control of the AFL-CIO from former president Lane Kirkland. Carey aides Ed Burke and Richard Blaylock also deny that ever happened.