President Barack Obama's campaign for reelection is being dogged by a new controversy concerning a top donor. This time, the questions surround a New York donor named Abake Assongba who is the target of a lawsuit claiming she impersonated a bank official and defrauded a businessman of $650,000. She and her husband run a charity that distributes school and food aid in the west African country of Benin. Obama, unlike the Republicans running for the nomination to oppose him in November, has released a list of the names of his campaign bundliers, but the disclosures have occasionally backfired, as they did last month when his campaign had to return $200,000 from the brothers of a Mexican fugitive wanted on drug charges. Still, his campaign is vastly outstripping his would-be GOP rivals in fundraising.
