Crooked Claims About Clinton

Somebody else solicited Cher to appear at the fundraiser. Clinton may have thanked her for agreeing to perform, but she did not ask her to do so.

And Cher's performance was not an illegal contribution anyway – nor were those by Diana Ross and the other stars who studded the gala. Under federal law, anyone can volunteer his or her services to a campaign, and the value of those services is not counted against federal contribution limits. Lawyers, graphic artists, entertainers, accountants, chefs and others do it all the time.

Armor further charges that the video proves "the connection of the candidate to this allegedly independent program." But the fundraiser was never meant to be "independent," a term which has a very specific meaning in campaign law. It was to benefit the DSCC, the Democratic Party in New York and Hillary Clinton's campaign committee, and it was perfectly legal for representatives of all three groups, including Clinton, to be involved in planning it.

Later in the video, Armor declares that this was "the largest fraud in election funding history." That's absurd. The only finding of anything illegal in connection with the fundraiser was the underreporting of the cost of the event by about $722,000, which resulted in a fine of $35,000. To put this in context, last year alone the FEC collected 10 fines of $100,000 or more. People sometimes go to prison for campaign fraud.

The Civil (Ahem?) Suit

Paul's lawsuit against the Clintons and others – a version of the same one that was filed and dismissed in 2001 when Paul was a fugitive – hasn't been faring particularly well in California state court. Earlier this month, the state Supreme Court refused to review lower court decisions dismissing Hillary Clinton and her Senate campaign committee as defendants in the case, driving what appears to be the final stake in his effort to keep her roped in. As to the remaining defendants, including Bill Clinton, what's left of the suit largely has to do with the alleged wooing of Paul's Japanese business investor into a separate partnership. It's possible, though, that Hillary Clinton could be called as a witness.