DCCC Presents “The Grimm Files” [UPDATED]

Congressman Michael Grimm is the target of a new web site launched by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee this morning, which recaps reports of possible campaign fundraising violations, a questionable business history and a 1999 nightclub altercation.

The web site, www.TheGrimmFiles.com, is designed “to help his constituents keep track of all of Congressman Michael Grimm’s ongoing scandals,” the DCCC said in a press release.

“It’s getting hard to keep track of all the ongoing scandals for Congressman Michael Grimm, but one thing that’s clear is that the more voters learn, the less there is to like,” Josh Schwerin, a DCCC spokesman, said in a statement.

Grimm’s office has forcefully denied the allegations in the past.

[UPDATE] Grimm’s office replied: “This isn’t the first time the Democrat party and the New York Times have collaborated on smearing a Republican with innuendo and misleading information,” said Grimm spokesman Chad Kolton. “It demonstrates that these allegations are politically motivated.”

The slick web site includes clippings of the news stories, photos of guns and unmarked envelopes full of cash, and a chart of the key figures with business ties to the Congressman.

The site is largely based on two recent stories from the New York Times, one that digs into his past real estate, restaurant and energy businesses, and his longstanding business ties with a convicted felon, and another in which he is accused of taking illegal campaign donations.

“According to a bombshell report from the New York Times, Congressman Michael Grimm, together with a man under FBI investigation for embezzlement, raised more than $500,000 dollars in tainted campaign cash by taking contributions in excess of federal limits, taking contributions from foreign nationals, setting up ‘straw donors,’ and personally receiving envelopes filled with cash,” the web site reads.

The site also summarizes a New Yorker article that describes a nightclub confrontation in which Grimm, then an FBI agent, allegedly wielded a gun and was “carrying on like a madman.”

Staten Island Republicans rallied around Rep. Michael Grimm this past weekend and ripped into the New York Times for its articles raising questions about the Congressman’s fundraising and past business history.