WASHINGTON -- Just weeks before he was elected to the Senate in 1996, Robert Torricelli was recorded on an FBI wiretap discussing fund-raising over the telephone with supporters at a Florida pizza restaurant under surveillance for ties with organized crime.
The intercepted conversation between Torricelli and two relatives of a convicted Chicago crime figure surprised FBI agents and they alerted the Justice Department. Prosecutors and agents reviewed the tape in the fall of 1996 and concluded there was no reason for further investigation, law enforcement officials said.
But the call received new scrutiny two years later when allegations surfaced about thousands of dollars in illegal donations to Torricelli's campaign, the officials told The Associated Press, speaking only on condition of anonymity.
The New Jersey Democrat has steadfastly denied wrongdoing. On Wednesday, Torricelli said that when he hears about allegations against him, "I have to smile to myself, knowing in the end the truth is going to come out."
The operators of the Sarasota, Fla., bakery and pizza shop where the call was intercepted in early September 1996 eventually pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the government of taxes.
In the intercept, three supporters from Chicago, who were visiting the bakery, called and left a message for Torricelli in New Jersey, and the lawmaker returned the call. They discussed the need for donations to fuel his Senate bid down the stretch, according to law enforcement officials, who have listened to the tape or seen its transcript.
At one point, Torricelli makes a comment suggesting he needs individual donations, which by law are limited to $1,000. "Each individual check," the soon-to-be senator is captured as saying, according to officials.
Federal Election Commission records show Torricelli's campaign received more than $30,000 in donations in September and October 1996 from Chicago area donors.
