One thing I have always loved about the left is how they grasp at anything to attempt to discredit anyone on the right, but totally ignore all the Democratic memos coming out of Congress showing Democrats violating and stretching Congressional ethics to their breaking limit in their attempt to regain power.
As for this latest bit of smear;
I Have Not Laundered Any Money; ABC Report Creates False Picture
November 19, 2003
RUSH: There is something I can respond to that happened on ABC News last night. Now, I know where this is coming from. I can't tell you that. But I can tell you that I understand exactly what's going on, and if you put your thinking caps on, you might, too. The story on ABC News, World News Tonight last night was that there is a money laundering investigation of me that is underway. Let me say here at the top of the program, ladies and gentlemen, that I have never, I have not laundered any money. I want to give you the truth of the story that was sketchily passed on last night, and as I say I know where it came from, I know who's behind it, and I know what its intent is, and you must understand, and I've been saying this since the Friday before I left, a lot of things that people think they know that are not true, think they know that they don't know, and the time will come soon where all this can be explained but for now I have to hold it in check. But I can address this money laundering business that ABC ran last night and a couple of New York newspapers have picked up.
A few years ago, when I moved to New York, I went to CitiBank, the first place I went, and they had a so-called private banking area, and we were on 54th and 6th, the old ABC building, and this thing was right around the corner. The private banking area had a line every time I went to it, and so I did that, I went for a while, that's how my banking experience everywhere else was, there was a line, and the super-secret special whatever section of the bank only had three tellers and everybody else had nine or ten, so the place that was supposedly special had three tellers, the other place that wasn't special had ten. I went in line and as I lived in New York I met some people and I said, you start talking life and things and they said, well, you need to go to U.S. Trust and they set me up a meeting at U.S. Trust. I was referred to that bank, and when I met with them, they made a pitch to me about their services. They pitched all their services that they provide in the wealth management in the private banking division. In the course of their meeting with me they explained that I would never have to stand in line again, if I needed cash, they'd bring it to me. They had somebody bonded that would bring it to the office and I did that two or three times, two or three times when I couldn't get to the bank myself, I had somebody bring it over, signed the paper when they came and they left. It didn't happen every time I got cash.
It happened, I don't know, two or three, four or five, whatever, it wasn't very many, it's being reported in the paper it was every time I got cash somebody from the bank snuck over under the cover of darkness to my building, and made the transaction. It was nothing at all like that. It was a convenience that they offered to all of their customers. It's not a traditional bank in that sense. And at this time when they were pitching their services to me, they told me that when I was going to withdraw cash, keep it under $10,000 so they wouldn't have to report anything to the government. There was a $10,000 reporting requirement and they said if you keep it under that, then nobody has to file any paperwork and so forth and so on, meaning them at the bank, and so that's what I did. Any time I got cash from the bank, I made sure it was less than $10,000. I opened up some accounts, and the account that I have is the account that I receive the money that I am owed for the work I do here in the EIB Network. It's the account that I paid bills out of. It's just like yours or anybody else's.
The cash in question here, most of it had to do with the two-and-a-half-year remodel we did for the home in Palm Beach. In fact, most of the money was not even withdrawn here in New York. I don't live in New York. And throughout most of this period that's in question, I have not lived in New York. So just one of the many areas, the money was for travel, it was for food, it was for gratuities, as I was out and about and playing a lot of golf tournaments as you know building the house. I think the total amount of money they're talking about here comes to about $300,000 over five or six years. It's a lot of money, but given the amount of money I earn and so forth, it's pretty much in proportion with, you know, what anybody else earns in terms of the percentage of walking-around money and cash that they use for things.
Sometime in the spring of 2001, I was down in Florida at work, and I got an e-mail or something that some officer of the Federal Reserve had been knocking on the front door of my apartment building in New York. And I didn't know what that was about, because they showed up when I was on the air, and somebody showed up down at Florida at the same time, and what ended up happening was they wanted to interview me as a witness in an investigation they were doing relating to the bank, U.S. Trust. So I contacted them, I sat down, and I answered every question that they had. The government and New York state was investigating U.S. Trust because the bank had apparently told many other of their clients that their cash withdrawals should be in amounts of less than $10,000. I was one of the last people they talked to, and they met I guess a couple people after me. I'm not really sure. But shortly after I met with them, U.S. Trust admitted to this and paid a $10 million fine, and that's it. I don't know how many other customers they had advised to do this, but there were enough that they incurred a $10 million fine, agreed to it, and that's what was going on here, folks. I mean, the bank advised all of their customers to just keep the cash withdrawals under $10,000. When I was told what this was and how it was being interpreted, from that moment on, every cash withdrawal I've made has been for over $10,000. I complied with every request that was made of me, and I cooperated fully with their investigation. The clients complied with what they were asked to do by the bank without knowing there was anything wrong with it. The bank agreed to create the training in compliance program so not to have this problem. As I say, once I met with the officials from the Treasury, Federal Reserve or whatever it was, they told me the bank was in the wrong and others said the same thing, I stopped taking withdrawals in amounts of less than $10,000.
Now I know, and that's the story. And I know where this is all coming from, and I know why it's being done, and I know why it's being reported the way it is, it's being reported to create a picture that is false. This is not a leak, by the way, this is the purposeful release of false information. I'm having to restrain myself here at the same time because I would love to explain all of this, and that day will come sooner rather than later. Again, the things that everybody thinks they know are partial, there is a lot that the people who think they know it all don't know, mostly people in the media and even others. And the day will come where I will be able to sit down and take everybody through it from the beginning to the present. And it'll put things in perspective and change a lot of perceptions.
I checked the e-mail during the break. "Rush, don't let these people get to you." Folks, let me tell you something. This is not getting to me. I've been telling you this since I got back. There are other people who are alarmed by this and that's one of the reasons I have to set the record straight. I'm not bothered by it because I know what the truth is, I and my team know what the truth is. I'm feeling very good about this. It's just a matter of time before it can be shared. I'm mentioning all this to you so that, really, the e-mails are coming in, "Rush, I can't believe what they're doing to you." It's the territory, folks, and it's just the way it is, but please, you know, understand that everything is cool and it will all be revealed as soon as it can, sooner that later. Trust me.
I've been told that I was confusing when I explained something about this money laundering story. Let's straighten this out. I was not laundering money. I was withdrawing money, for crying out loud. But the point that I need to clarify is the stories say that there are 30 to 40 withdrawals under $10,000, that they were delivered to me at my New York office. What I thought I said was that maybe four times, if that many, the bank brought cash to me in my office in New York. I live in Florida. When I went to get cash, I took a check to the bank, I went to the bank officer, I said here's my check, and they gave me the cash. There were witnesses to this! There may be, you know, $300,000 in question.
The stories in the paper today and on ABC last night were what are confusing. They led you to believe, if you believe the story, and you shouldn't, that the bank was delivering three or four hundred thousand dollars to me in, you know, $9,000 increments at a time to my office. That happened once or twice because it was a hassle. I mean they said they would do it, but it was more trouble than it was worth. Besides, I moved to Florida shortly after that, went to the bank down there and withdrew the money by virtue of writing a check. Like everybody else does. Pure and simple.
So if there's any confusion, I'm happy to clarify it one more time. And, again, there wasn't any money laundering going on, and I know where the story comes from, I know who's behind it, and I know what the purpose of the story is, and I'll be able to tell you at some point.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_111903/content/rush_responds.guest.html
