Catastrophe - Dick Morris [75]
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RELEASE OF DODDS AND BOMSTEINS RE ORIGINAL SALE
Grantor
GREEN, WALTER
HOLCOMB, GERARD F
Grantee
BOMSTEIN, DORIS
BOMSTEIN, SANFORD
DODD, SUSAN
DODD, CHRISTOPHER J
Legal Description(s)
Land Record:
Square Lot
0845 0017
Related Document Information
N/A
Property Address
WASHINGTON
0508 E ST SE
DC
1985 DEED OF SALE BY DODDS AND BOMSTEINS TO ROACH:
Grantor
BOMSTEIN, DORIS
BOMSTEIN, STANFORD
DODD, SUSAN M
DODD, CHRISTOPHER J
Grantee
ROACH, SEAN
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What was Chris Dodd thinking? Only a few years after his father had been mortified by the censure by his Senate colleagues—effectively destroyed both personally and politically—his son involved himself in a financial deal with a man who had shown just how far he would go to suck up to a politician who might help him. Bomstein had been a key player in the evidence in the Dodd case. There were published reports about Bomstein’s loans, fund-raising, and interest in federal legislation before Tom Dodd’s subcommittee.
With all that baggage in tow, wouldn’t anyone in Chris Dodd’s position run away screaming from Bomstein? Even without it, any reasonable member of Congress would turn down a handout from the likes of Bomstein—out of ethics, caution, or common sense. Yet somehow Chris Dodd ended up in partnership with Mr. and Mrs. Bomstein.
Dodd has disclosed no particulars about this unconventional arrangement with his father’s former chum, who had a keen interest in congressional actions about the drinking age in D.C. He recently told the Hartford Courant that he had “received help in the down payment from a family friend who had been tangled in a campaign-finance scandal with Dodd’s father.”286 That appears to be the first time that Dodd admitted that he was given financial help on his first D.C. house.
In fact, Dodd was not legally required to disclose any information about his personal residences in the annual financial disclosures filed in the House and Senate. That’s one of the serious loopholes in the disclosure requirements for members of Congress: they can keep their personal residence real estate transactions to themselves and don’t have to account for them. That’s a big mistake. The logic behind it seems to be that a home is not a business investment and need not be disclosed. But the people of Connecticut had a right to know that Chris Dodd was accepting the largesse of a character like Sanford Bomstein. Dodd’s conduct regarding this and another property in D.C. show just how badly reform is needed in that area. All members of Congress should be required to disclose information about their ownership and partners in any property, regardless of whether they live in it.
Still Dodd went ahead with the dubious partnership, confident that he could keep it quiet—and for more than thirty years no one reported on it. We don’t know exactly how the Bomstein deal was structured, but from what we know about Dodd’s subsequent property partnerships, it’s fair to assume that Bomstein didn’t make any money for the “help” he gave Dodd.
NO DOWN(E) PAYMENT
By 1986, it was time for Dodd to move on. Maybe he wanted a nicer place. Maybe Bomstein wanted to get out of the town house deal. We may never find out what happened. In any event, several months after the release on the E Street property was filed, Dodd moved into yet another unconventional financial partnership. On May 2, 1986, Senator Chris Dodd and his friend and benefactor, the businessman Edward R. Downe, Jr., jointly purchased a $180,000, two-bedroom, two-bath condominium apartment in an elegant prewar building at 2153 California Avenue in the tony Kalorama Park area of Washington, D.C. According to information recently disclosed by Senator Dodd, he approached Ed Downe about