SAN FRANCISCO — Disgraced political donor Norman Hsu wasn’t hiding from anyone over the past few years, his lawyers say. If California authorities really wanted to find him, they could have asked Hillary Rodham Clinton or one of the other prominent Democrats he showered with cash donations.
Hsu is asking a judge to toss his 15-year-old felony fraud conviction, arguing that his right to a speedy trial was violated because authorities weren’t actively pursuing him. They could easily have arrested Hsu, his lawyers argue, at one of the swank fundraisers he hosted in California for prominent local politicians.
“Mr. Hsu lived an open and public life and the government made no apparent efforts to arrest him,” attorney James Brosnahan wrote in court papers filed last week. “He did not act like a fugitive. He did not evade the authorities, but rather openly associated with highly public officials.”
State prosecutors filed their own documents Tuesday arguing that Hsu shouldn’t benefit from his flight from justice, even if he was hiding in plain sight.
Hsu’s troubles began dogging Clinton and other big-name Democrats this past summer when news reports revealed he was a fugitive who fled the state before he was sentenced for a 1992 fraud conviction. He turned himself in Aug. 31 – then fled again.
He was recaptured last month after he tried to kill himself by overdosing on drugs aboard an eastbound Amtrak train in Colorado.
Hsu is being held without bail in a Redwood City jail.
Hsu became a top political fundraiser, donating generously to Democratic candidates and causes and raising much more from other contributors. Since his fall from grace, many of those donations were given to charity or returned. The Clinton campaign pledged to divest $850,000 raised by Hsu.
![Newspaper advertisement offering reward for the return of an escaped man to his oppressors, Princess Anne, Maryland, April 1, 1861. Text reads: “0 Reward. Ranaway from the subscriber on Tuesday Morning, 26th Ultimo [last month], My negro boy calling himself Severn Black. The said negro is about 5 feet six inches in height, chesnut color, has a scar on his upperlip, downcast countenance when spoken to, blink-eyed, showing a great deal of white, long bushy hair, is about twenty years old, had on when he lefta [sic] blue fustian Jacket, pantaloons of a greyish color, blue striped shirt, a Black slouch hat and shoes nearly worn out. The above reward will be paid by me for the apprehension and delivery of the said negro in the county jail at Princess Anne, Somerset County, Maryland. April 1, 1861. Richard E. Snelling. Somerset Herald Print, Princess Anne, Md.’ The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 obliged citizens and lawmen of free zones to return escaped men to those whom they fled. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)](/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/GettyImages-53262583-16x9-1.jpg?w=620 "GettyImages-53262583-16x9-1")
