limit. The Independent Review Board opened its own inquiry into the financial scandal on August 27. The scandal widened throughout September and October. Although Carey had not been disqualified from being a candidate in the re-run election, new evidence and witnesses had caused federal officials to reconsider that opinion by mid-September. As Carey kicked off his second re-election bid, a federal grand jury began investigating whether the Teamsters' donations to the Democratic Party violated federal law. Four days later, Carey accused the Hoffa campaign of also engaging in improper fund-raising in 1996, and federal investigators agreed to look into those charges. Carey repeated the charge several times over the next few months. Hoffa said all his donations had come in sums of less than $100, which did not have to be reported. On August 17, federal prosecutors said that they had evidence that the AFL-CIO may have contributed $150,000 to Citizen Action for spurious get-out-the-vote efforts in an attempt to get Citizen Action to give $100,000 to the Carey campaign, and that AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Richard Trumka was implicated in the scheme. On September 19, Martin Davis pleaded guilty to mail fraud and embezzlement, and conspiracy to commit fraud, to make false statements, and to embezzling funds. Jere Nash, Carey's 1996 re-election campaign manager, also pleaded guilty to making false statements and conspiracy. During their plea hearing, Davis, Ansara, and Nash revealed in court that leaders of several other unions had given $20,000 to the Carey campaign in violation of federal laws barring union leaders from contributing to the election campaigns of candidates in other unions, and that Carey campaign officials had lied about these donations. Three staff members at the Teamsters testified in mid-October that they were pressured to give more than $1,000 to the Carey campaign or lose their jobs. On October 22, the IRB accused William Hamilton, the union's former political director, of conspiring with Nash, Davis, Ansara, and others in the donation kickback scheme. Carey contended he knew nothing of the donation kickback scheme. He said that he had approved the large political donations to Citizen Action, the AFL-CIO, and other groups, but that he had relied too heavily on the advice of his aides and did not notice that the donations were much larger than in the past or were being made to some groups the Teamsters did not have long-standing relationships with. He testified before