Judge clears way for trial of former state treasurer Hafer

A federal judge on Friday rejected bids by former Pennsylvania Treasurer Barbara Hafer and a millionaire businessman charged with pay-to-play crimes  to dismiss the charges against them.

In a pair of rulings, U.S. District  Judge John E. Jones in Harrisburg gave the green light for Richard Ireland to go on trial March 9 and for Hafer to face a separate trial June 12.

Hafer, 73, treasurer from 1997 until 2004, is charged with lying to the FBI in denying that she received $675,000 from Ireland after leaving office. Before stepping down, she awarded millions of dollars in financial-management contracts to Ireland's clients.

The judge rejected Hafer's argument that her denial was not a lie because the money went to her firm and not her personally. In his ruling, Jones wrote that she was free to try to win a jury over with that pitch, but said it was not strong enough on its face to warrant dismissal of the charges.

"A jury could still reasonably find," he wrote in the eight-page opinion, "that she was intentionally deceptive and that it was literally false to state that 'she' was not paid money ... because she received a portion through her interest in the company."

Jones rejected Ireland's argument that prosecutors failed to spell out the precise quid pro quo  allegedly reached between Ireland and another former state treasurer, Rob McCord.  Ireland is facing charges of dangling $500,000 in campaign contributions and a job offer before McCord in exchange for jobs.

The judge said prosecutors had no obligation to show that McCord took any action in exchange for the gifts, and that it was not enough to prove that Ireland was trying to illegally influence him. (McCord is awaiting sentencing on unrelated federal-corruption charges.)

Moreover, Jones noted, precedent has established that a prosecutor need not tie campaign donations and the like to specific decisions by a politician, but rather must merely demonstrate that the official had given a "stream of benefits" to a defendant.

Ireland was not charged in connection with his dealings with Hafer.

Ireland, 79, who lives on a 160-acre horse farm outside West Chester,  has long been a major political donor.  Along with owning hotels, he has worked as a "finder," recommending financial firms to government officials to manage public money and getting paid a share of the contract in return.

Records show that his clients included five firms that paid $65 million to invest Treasury funds over a dozen years. Ireland's deal called for fees to be split evenly with him, typically year after year, Treasury Department records show.  For many years, one of his key clients,  Valley Forge Asset Management of King of Prussia, was the No. 1 recipient in Treasury Department fees.