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Guinta Digs In, Denies Money is Parents' Home Proceeds

by: Dean Barker

Wed Oct 13, 2010 at 18:38:54 PM EDT
Reeling from Jon Greenberg's  investigation into his $355,000 mystery money, Frank Guinta retreats to a friendly right-wing platform.  Oddly, he has decided to dig the hole deeper:
"To answer that directly," he said of the questions about using his parents' money, "the answer is, 'No.'"

He said that NHPR "implied that my parents gave me money from the proceeds from the sale of a home. The answer is no, that is not true.

"It's no different than what I've been telling people for the last several months. My wife and I have been in the workforce for nearly 20 years. I have been in the private sector. I've been fortunate to make money also in the markets. Over years of time, we have been able to put this money together."

Actually, NHPR implied no such thing - the question from Greenberg was direct, and not contingent on the home sale:
Did your parents gift you a great deal of money?
Guinta repeatedly refused to answer.

So, the questions are: why is he using DiStaso to answer now after refusing before, and is he again dodging by tossing in the parents' home sale as a part of the question?

Adding: My apologies - Kathy already touched on this as well - please read it! She brings up another great point as well.  In the DiStaso piece he shifts ground again to saying "I've been fortunate to make money also in the markets." That is at odds with an earlier explanation implying it was from real estate.  This story gets worse and worse.

UPDATE: The WMUR interview is here, with a fuller version coming later on Pindell's site.  And Team CSP was also quick to notice the many inconsistencies in Guinta's shifting explanations. Campaign manager Robert Moller, in part:

First, his campaign manager said he earned the money through stocks and bonds.  Guinta then later claimed that he earned the money in real estate.  After that story didn't add up, Guinta said he saved the money by living frugally.  Now, Guinta's back to reciting his stocks and bonds fairy-tale. Which one is it?  Sorry Mr. Guinta, you can't blame this one on the Democrats when even people in your own party don't believe you.  Republicans and Democrats alike want to know where this money came from.  Two months ago today, Guinta's old boss, former Congressman Jeb Bradley, said he should drop out of the race if he couldn't offer a "satisfactory" explanation.  
Dean Barker :: Guinta Digs In, Denies Money is Parents' Home Proceeds
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Guinta Digs In, Denies Money is Parents' Home Proceeds | 12 comments
Finally Channel 9 (4.00 / 1)
Now that it's being covered everywhere else, WGOP had no choice but to do something.

Pindell did a story on the 6 o'clock with Guinta. Of course he answered nothing, merely parroted the old "Carol's tactics" bull. He came across as pretty even, not flustered and was able to get his face on air for a long time.

Channel 9 was soft on him, big surprise.
But given that he answered nothing, the pressure will continue.  

No'm Sayn?

Playing it straight (0.00 / 0)
Nothing over the top about WMURs write up, but it is there to see.
(bold mine)
During the campaign, Guinta loaned and gave his campaign a combined $355,000, but according to his financial disclosure forms, he didn't have that kind of money.

Guinta amended the form in July to include an account that had assets between $250,000 and $500,000. But questions of where the money came from have remained because accepting such a large gift would be a violation of election laws.

Guinta spoke to News 9 about the issue but didn't offer any new explanations. Yet, he said he earned every cent he gave his campaign and didn't receive the money from family or friends or anyone who wanted to buy influence.



www.KusterforCongress.com - www.paulhodesforsenate.com

www.nikitsongas.com - www.devalpatrick.com
[ Parent ]
Here's a tell: (0.00 / 0)
Just took a look at the three larger righty NH blogs.

Guinta is absent on all front pages.

Well, except for NowHampshire, which has this headline which links to DiStaso:

!!! GUINTA'S STORY EVOLVES - I PLAYED THE MARKETS, THAT'S HOW I GOT THE $$$

I wonder if the jig is up, and folks are walking away so as not to be near the huge ethical/legal problem.

birch, finch, beech

Frank Guinta is quickly filling a different role for (4.00 / 2)
the Republicans: the latest "special case" reason that Carol won even though we know the voters don't like her.
[ Parent ]
Brokerage accounts (4.00 / 1)
produce statements.  If you sell stocks and bonds you get paper describing the transaction.  You have to have it for tax purposes.  
If it was real estate, was it an asset he declared on his mayoral disclosures?  
The money was somewhere else before it got into his campaign account.  Under the mattress?  Otherwise there is a paper trail, and he should be able to produce the paper.  Unless it would tell a story he would rather not us know.
[ Parent ]
"This was not from my parent's sale of a home! (4.00 / 1)
(I'm a real estate tycoon, and that was a sale of an investment property!)"

Other bets on the walkback plan?

It's a miracle! (4.00 / 2)
Frank's money is like the loaves and fishes, it miraculously multiplies.



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    
[ Parent ]
It's just the principle of (0.00 / 0)
confounding interest.
[ Parent ]
There is no walkback, elwood... (4.00 / 1)
he has said unequivocally that he earned the money - that he has been in the workforce for 20 years.  There may be some legal wiggle room in the parsing of statements, but I don't see how he escapes the wrath of the press and the voters for lying.  Greenberg's piece highlights the big holes in Guinta's story.

My take - he goes down with the ship - put a fork in him.



"Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world." A. Einstein

[ Parent ]
"I earned it! (4.00 / 2)
Mom was a little late on paying me for mowing the lawn, but it was MY SWEAT!"

[ Parent ]
Dean posted the rest of the interview (0.00 / 0)
and Guinta seems to be implying that he had stock holdings that Greenberg wasn't taking into account.

Isn't this exactly opposite of what he claimed earlier?  That his campaign manager erred in stating that Guinta sold off stock investments?

Oh, what a tangled web we weave...

BTW, Laura is on this over at Kos
http://www.dailykos.com/story/...

"Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world." A. Einstein

[ Parent ]
A History of Mystery Money (4.00 / 1)
It all started in 2005 when an infusion of more than $65,000 of "personal" money helped Guinta unseat Bob Baines in the Manchester mayoral election.  That means we're up to $420,000 in mystery money in the past five years to build his political career, further complicating his pathetic efforts to explain it away.

These interviews don't pass the laugh test.

Guinta Digs In, Denies Money is Parents' Home Proceeds | 12 comments

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