A New York City rabbi said the ongoing investigation against him for allegedly making illegal campaign contributions to a U.S. politician is part of a continual attempt to blackmail.
The FBI is considering whether to open an investigation into allegations that followers of Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto made contributions to U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm, according to a law enforcement official.
Followers of Pinto, an influential figure in Israel with a headquarters in Manhattan, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Grimm when he first ran for office in 2010, according to campaign records. Some donors have since said that they broke rules to donate more cash to the Republican's campaign than allowed by law.
Pinto hasn't commented publicly, but former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat who had been close to the rabbi, said in interviews with several media outlets Friday and Saturday that Pinto approached him in the fall of 2010 to complain that Grimm had extorted him for the money.
Weiner, who resigned last year amid a scandal over sexually explicit texts and Twitter messages, told the political newspaper Roll Call that he didn't know if the allegations were true, but reported them to the FBI anyway. He declined to discuss in detail why the rabbi felt he had been threatened.
"I can confirm the Rabbi did bring allegations to me and I can confirm that I turned them over to the FBI immediately," Weiner told Roll Call. Weiner didn't immediately respond to an interview request from the AP.
A law enforcement official confirmed Saturday that Weiner had contacted the bureau about Pinto's allegations in 2010.
The official also confirmed that the FBI is gathering information and considering whether or not to open a formal investigation into fundraising for Grimm by Pinto's followers and associates.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is incomplete.
Grimm has declined interview requests from The Associated Press, but he released statements calling the allegations "laughable."
"These allegations are so profoundly absurd that they serve as proof of the coordinated, Democratic smear campaign designed to recruit a stronger opponent to challenge me," Grimm said.
He also accused Weiner of making up the story about going to the FBI.
Grimm said that if Weiner really did hear such an explosive charge in the fall of 2010, he surely would have gone public to keep the congressional seat in the borough, then held by a Democrat, from falling into Republican hands.
"No rational person would believe these politically motivated fantasies," he said in a statement.
It isn't clear whether Weiner's report to the FBI in 2010 resulted in any action. Grimm is a former FBI agent who spent a decade working for the bureau before leaving to pursue private business interests.
Grimm's lawyer, William McGinley, said the congressman had not received any notification from the FBI concerning a criminal investigation.
McGinley said the campaign did "proactively" reach out to the Justice Department and FBI after The New York Times first reported in January on allegations by Rabbi Pinto's followers that they evaded campaign finance rules to funnel money to his campaign.
The FBI is already pursuing a related investigation involving Pinto's congregation. Last year, Pinto and his supporters accused one of his former aides, Ofer Biton, of stealing funds from the congregation and then conspiring with a public relations executive, Ronn Torossian, to blackmail him by planting unfavorable stories in the Jewish and Israeli press.
Both Biton and Torossian have denied any wrongdoing. Torossian has maintained he is a victim in the case. Their lawyers say the allegations were fabricated, but the FBI has spent several months interviewing witnesses and records.
Pinto was the subject of several news articles over the past year that questioned the financial operations of his congregation, and suggested that large sums of money donated to his organization were being spent on jewelry, clothing, and luxury travel and accommodations.
Pinto's father-in-law, a chief rabbi in Argentina, also accused him of money laundering, although he later retracted that claim.
During the period when Pinto claims that Biton and Torossian were demanding money, Biton was also prolifically raising funds for Grimm's campaign.
The congressman has acknowledged that Biton was instrumental in helping him make connections with Pinto's followers. In an earlier interview with the Advance, a newspaper on Staten Island, he said that Biton arranged meetings with Pinto's followers, many of whom are Israelis, and kept lists of potential donors.
Torossian also donated $5,750 to Grimm, who campaigned, in part, on a pledge to be a strong supporter of Israel. A former member of Pinto's congregation, Torossian has said that Pinto was the one who first introduced him to Grimm.
Grimm has repeatedly denied any knowledge that Pinto's supporters were breaking the law to assemble his donations.
Pinto's followers had also raised large sums of money for Weiner, a liberal Democrat.