Hsu Roundup: Out of Hospital; $4 Million Bail; A Suicide Note; Other Campaigns React (UPDATE)

Bump and Update: Bond was set at $5 million after the DA asked for $50 million! Citing Hsu's mysterious illness (which I think may be related to a suicide attempt), Hsu's local lawyer got the judge down to $5 million.

Hsu will waive extradition as soon as transportation to California is arranged.

Original Post:

Plenty of Norman Hsu news this morning.

First, he's been transfered from St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction to the Mesa County Jail. At his arraignment tomorrow, the DA will ask for at least a $4 million bond. I assume that the judge will also be collecting his passport.

Next, the Wall Street Journal reports that Hsu sent a suicide note by FedEx to several people and organizations, including the Innocence Project which immediately contacted the California Attorney General. Apparently, the note was sent the same morning that Hsu decided to go to the train station instead of the courthouse.

Perhaps this explains Hsu's condition on the train.

Third, the other campaigns are reacting to Clinton's (alleged) return of bundled donations. As I predicted on Sunday, the other campaigns are following Clinton's lead on this. Each is inspecting its contributions to weed out bundled donations with a Hsu connection.

And finally, we know that the Clinton campaign wasn't too competent when it came to checking Hsu before he gave them money. It looks like they're taking extra special care before they have to give money back:

Clinton's staff spent Tuesday rechecking records to ensure that all of those on the initial list of Hsu's 260 contributors were in fact questionable donations that needed to be returned. "It's possible that the number will shrink," Wolfson said.

More: I hadn't heard this before, but apparently Hsu tried to blame the Obama campaign for the WSJ stories which started this whole thing:

Hsu contended that those articles were planted "by a politician who pledged 'hope and change' " -- an apparent reference to Sen. Barack Obama, Clinton's main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.

An Obama spokesman called Hsu's claim "sad and baseless."

posted by Gabriel Malor at 07:40 PM

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