Hillary Clinton aide reportedly taped
Kennedy in-law said to aid the FBI
WASHINGTON -- Senator Edward M. Kennedy's brother-in-law secretly taped at least one telephone conversation as part of an FBI investigation into a former aide to Senator Hillary Clinton, according to published reports.
Raymond Reggie, a brother of Kennedy's wife, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, pleaded guilty Thursday on federal bank fraud charges in New Orleans.
Reggie's role in taping the former Clinton aide for the FBI surfaced as a result of that plea, the reports said. The reports quoted unnamed sources as saying Reggie worked with the FBI in its investigation of former Clinton aide David Rosen.
Reggie cooperated with the FBI in an effort to reduce his sentence, according to reports Friday in The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, the New York Post, and The New York Sun.
Rosen has been under investigation on accusations of filing false campaign finance reports, stemming from a 2000 fund-raiser for Clinton in Hollywood. He was indicted last January on charges that he falsely reported that the fund-raiser cost $400,000, instead of the actual cost of the event, $1.2 million, according to an Associated Press report.
Clinton herself is not a target of the investigation, according to The Times-Picayune.
Reggie has been friendly with a number of prominent Democrats, including President Clinton. He has also contributed to the campaigns of former vice president Al Gore and Senator Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, as well as Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign.
Reggie's family has long been close to the Kennedy family. Edmund Reggie, the father of Ray and Victoria, was a key political supporter of President Kennedy.
It was through that connection that Senator Edward M. Kennedy got to know Victoria, whom he married in 1992. Last year, Edmund Reggie, a retired Louisiana judge, came to Boston to help broker a deal related to the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, an effort lauded by Kennedy.
The bank fraud case against Ray Reggie alleges that he defrauded one bank of $3.5 million, according to The Times-Picayune.
The account of the unnamed sources quoted in the published reports could not be verified yesterday by the Globe.
Spokesmen for Senators Kennedy and Clinton, and the lawyer representing Reggie, could not be reached for comment.
