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Clinton Campaign Moved Fundraiser from House of Steinle Family Lawyer

Lawyer suing San Francisco over sanctuary city policy

The Steinle family announcing its lawsuit against San Francisco over the death of Kate Steinle / AP
January 27, 2016

The venue for a Bill Clinton fundraiser in California was moved after the Hillary Clinton campaign learned that the host venue was the house of a lawyer suing San Francisco over the murder of Kathryn Steinle, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The Secret Service had already screened the house of lawyer Frank Pitre in preparation for the former president's $1,000-a-head event in support of his wife, but after the campaign learned of Pitre's involvement in the Steinle case it moved the event to the home of a California congresswoman.

Rep. Jackie Speier's home in Hillsborough wasn't the first choice for Bill Clinton's $1,000-a-head "Hillary for America" fundraiser the other night.

Organizers had originally picked the home of another Hillsborough resident, Frank Pitre, the law partner of high-powered Democratic fundraiser Joe Cotchett.

The Pitre home even got a once-over from the Secret Service.

But then somebody in Hillary Clinton's campaign found out that Pitre is the attorney in legal action against the city being pursued by the family of Kathryn Steinle, the 32-year-old woman who was shot and killed last year on Pier 14, allegedly by Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez. He's the Mexican national who had been deported five times and was being sought again by federal immigration officials before San Francisco sheriff's officials let him go from County Jail.

Pitre's lawsuit aims to put blame on San Francisco for allowing the illegal immigrant charged with shooting Steinle to walk the streets after he was put in jail. The sanctuary city policy in San Francisco stops it from handing illegal immigrants to federal officials.