Jean Schmidt knew about Tom “Coingate” Noe
This morning Republican congressional hopeful Jean Schmidt told the CBS 12 “Newsmakers” program that she had never met Tom Noe, the Republican activist who stole millions from the state of Ohio in the “Coingate” scandal.
Bob Brigham of the Swing State Project explains:
In an effort to cover up Jean Schmidt’s involvement in the scandalous culture of corruption, Schmidt said she didn’t know Tom Noe. Schmidt said she’d never met Tom Noe. Schmidt said she had never even heard of Tom Noe. [Emphasis added.]
As an Ohio state legislator, Schmidt chaired the Higher Education Subcommittee of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee . During the same period Tom Noe was a member of the Ohio Board of Regents.
Official state documents dated March 21, 2002 show that Jean Schmidt had met with the Ohio Board of Regents the day before. Noe attended the March 21 meeting of the Ohio Board of Regents when the following report was delivered on the Jean Schmidt’s involvement with the Board:
Yesterday, the Inter-University Council Presidents and the Ohio Board of Regents had a retreat and the focus was on how we communicate the higher education message to legislators, business entities and influencers. We invited Rep. Jean Schmidt to our committee meeting for the purpose of gaining her perspective on how the Legislature sees higher education and the initiatives in which we are interested. […] There are a number of areas where we are totally lined up with her thinking. In any event, the conclusion is that we need more contact, more often.
Additional official state documents establish that Tom Noe testified before Jean Schmidt’s committee on March 18, 2003.
Never heard of the guy, eh? How stupid does Jean Schmidt think we are? Typical Republican hubris.
