Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy:

Contributions from associates and friends of now-indicted garbage executive James Galante to the 2004 presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman have sparked the interest of federal investigators.

Lieberman’s bid for the White House took in at least $14,000 from Galante, his associates and their relatives in the fall of 2003, according to a Courant review of campaign records.

The contributions to Lieberman, a longtime Democrat who became an independent in 2006, are similar to allegedly bundled contributions to three Republican officeholders that earlier this month led to state charges against Galante, who is also facing a 2006 federal racketeering indictment.

What’s more, people familiar with the campaign matters say, the names of Lieberman, the three Republicans and about a dozen other Connecticut and New York politicians have turned up on what the FBI loosely refers to as a “ledger” that agents seized from Galante’s office while investigating mob influence in the trash industry.

Wouldn’t it be poetic justice to see Lieberman end up in legal hot water over this? His transformation to GOP would then be complete.