William Haskins
04-26-2008, 04:56 AM
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Lawyers for the Barack Obama campaign have asked the Justice Department to investigate two unofficial web sites that, until late this week, invited people to "Donate to Barack Obama for President 2008."
The Web sites — named donatetoobama.org and donatetobarackobama.com — were operated by a group calling itself "Concerned Citizens for Obama." The first was advertised as a sponsored link on Google searches for "Barack Obama," appearing alongside Obama's official campaign web site.
As of Friday afternoon, the sites displayed nothing but a 'for sale' notice. But screengrabs taken by CNN earlier this week show what appears to be an official Obama campaign logo, a photo of the candidate, and an invitation to donate up to $2300 — the maximum contribution allowed by a single donor to a political committee during a primary campaign.
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/04/25/art.obamasite.cnn.jpg
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/04/25/obama-campaign-seeks-investigation-of-unofficial-web-sites/
UPDATE:as of this evening, investigators have a suspect and are urging the public to report any sightings of the person pictured below, who is thought to have been collecting the donations for some unspecified nefarious purpose.
http://www.zombietime.com/really_truly_hillary_gallery/Hillary21.jpg
The Web sites — named donatetoobama.org and donatetobarackobama.com — were operated by a group calling itself "Concerned Citizens for Obama." The first was advertised as a sponsored link on Google searches for "Barack Obama," appearing alongside Obama's official campaign web site.
As of Friday afternoon, the sites displayed nothing but a 'for sale' notice. But screengrabs taken by CNN earlier this week show what appears to be an official Obama campaign logo, a photo of the candidate, and an invitation to donate up to $2300 — the maximum contribution allowed by a single donor to a political committee during a primary campaign.
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/04/25/art.obamasite.cnn.jpg
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/04/25/obama-campaign-seeks-investigation-of-unofficial-web-sites/
UPDATE:as of this evening, investigators have a suspect and are urging the public to report any sightings of the person pictured below, who is thought to have been collecting the donations for some unspecified nefarious purpose.
http://www.zombietime.com/really_truly_hillary_gallery/Hillary21.jpg