Tag: pay to play

Payday lenders discussed raising money for Trump’s campaign to fend off regulation, audio reveals

Washington Post logoTo ensure Democrats don’t block weaker industry rules, payday lenders said they needed access to Trump.

Billing himself as one of President Trump’s top fundraisers, Michael Hodges told fellow payday lenders recently that industry contributions to the president’s reelection campaign could be leveraged to gain access to the Trump administration.

“Every dollar amount, no matter how small or large it is” is important, Hodges, founder of Advance Financial, one of the country’s largest payday lenders, said during a 48-minute webcast, obtained by The Washington Post.

“For example, I’ve gone to Ronna McDaniel and said, ‘Ronna, I need help on something,’ ” Hodges said, referring to the chair of the Republican National Committee. “She’s been able to call over to the White House and say, ‘Hey, we have one of our large givers. They need an audience. … They need to be heard and you need to listen to them.’ So that’s why it’s important.”

View the complete October 29 article by Renae Merle on The Washington Post website here.

Not just Cindy Yang: Royals, felon, pop stars, others got access to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

The uproar over Yang’s Mar-a-Lago access again raises potential conflicts arising from a president spending time at a private residence that is also a for-profit enterprise.

Amid the mushrooming speculation surrounding Cindy Yang’s ability to get into and sell access to President Donald Trump’s closely guarded private clubs, Yang’s attorney — who is not a club member — walked through the majestic wrought iron doors of Mar-a-Lago on the evening of March 16.

Attorney Evan Turk, who described Yang as “another casualty, as a supporter of our president,” gained entrance to the club like so many other non-members. He got a ticket to one of dozens of swank fundraisers hosted every year at Mar-a-Lago during Palm Beach’s social season.

Although the walled club is seemingly impenetrable and membership dues and fees top $200,000, a quick perusal of social media reveals Mar-a-Lago as a porous party destination accessible to anyone with the right contacts or a few hundred dollars.

View the complete March 20 article by Christine Stapleton on The Palm Beach Post website here.

Confidential Memo: Company of Trump Inaugural Chair Sought to Profit From Connections to Administration, Foreigners

The memo outlines how Colony, the company founded by Tom Barrack, an investor who chaired the inaugural, aimed to exploit its connections to Donald Trump. Federal prosecutors are conducting a wide-ranging probe into the nonprofit that ran the inaugural.

The investment firm founded by the chairman of Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, Tom Barrack, developed a plan to profit off its connections to the incoming administration and foreign dignitaries, according to a confidential memo obtained by WNYC and ProPublica.

“The key is to strategically cultivate domestic and international relations while avoiding any appearance of lobbying,” the memo says. Colony, which primarily invests in real estate, sought to capitalize on its access to the White House to get an early lead on infrastructure investments and to attract assets from potential investors.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Monday subpoenaeddocuments from the nonprofit 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee, including anything related to foreign donations. Such donations to presidential inaugural committees are barred by law. Investigators are probing whether foreigners gave money in exchange for influence with the incoming Trump administration, NBC News reported.

View the complete February 5 article by Justin Elliott on the ProPublica website here.

Federal prosecutors issue sweeping subpoena for documents from Trump inaugural committee, a sign of a deepening criminal probe

Federal prosecutors in New York on Monday delivered a sweeping request for documents related to donations and spending by President Trump’s inaugural committee, a sign of a deepening criminal investigation into activities related to the nonprofit organization.

A wide-ranging subpoena served on the inaugural committee Monday seeks an array of documents, including all information related to inaugural donors, vendors, contractors, bank accounts of the inaugural committee and any information related to foreign contributors to the committee, according to a copy reviewed by The Washington Post.

Only U.S. citizens and legal residents can legally donate to a committee established to finance presidential inaugural festivities.

View the complete February 4 article by Rosalind S. Helderman and Michael Kranish on The Washington Post website here.

Invitations offer wealthy Chinese access to President Trump at fundraiser

The following article by Michelle Ye Hee Lee, ANu Narayanswamy, Emily Rauhala and Simon Denyer was posted on the Washington Post website May 25, 2018:

President Trump Credit: Czarek Sokolowski/AP

The letter, circulated to dozens of wealthy entrepreneurs in China last week, looked official. Topped with the insignia of a real Republican committee raising money for the party and President Trump’s reelection campaign, it purported to offer a handshake and a one-on-one photo with the president for $100,000 — a “VVIP” trip “to be remembered for a lifetime.”

The invitation, which Republican Party officials say they had nothing to do with, was not the only such offer. At least two other China-based companies circulated similar solicitations in the past week, offering access to Trump at an official fundraiser in Dallas on May 31, and charging two or three times the price of a ticket. Continue reading “Invitations offer wealthy Chinese access to President Trump at fundraiser”

Democratic senator: Trump Jr. meeting with Gulf emissary ‘absolutely crazy’

The following article by Max Greenwood was posted on the Hill website May 19, 2018:

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) dubbed the Trump campaign “absolutely crazy” after The New York Times reported on Saturday that President Trump‘s eldest son met with a Gulf emissary in 2016 who offered to help the real estate mogul win the presidency.

“To be fair this is pretty standard for a Presidential campaign,” Schatz tweeted, referencing a Vox article about the Times’s reporting. “I’m kidding. It’s absolutely crazy.”The tweet came hours after the Times reported that Donald Trump Jr. met in August 2016 with Joel Zamel, an Israeli political strategist specializing in social media manipulation, and George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman and a self-styled emissary to the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.  Continue reading “Democratic senator: Trump Jr. meeting with Gulf emissary ‘absolutely crazy’”

Commentary: Elections suffer from a pay-to-play system

Tiffany Muller, President of End Citizens United, a campaign finance reform organization based in Washington, DC.

Since 1999, over 200,000 people in the U.S. have died from prescription opioid overdoses. Thousands have been from Minnesota. For context, over 116,000 Americans lost their lives in World War I. It’s an epidemic that crosses all demographics, socioeconomic statuses, and communities.

This crisis is exacerbated by a broken political system that’s been flooded with unchecked special interest money. It’s corrupting Washington and directly hurting Minnesotans.

Politicians pander to special interests like Big Pharma that are ready to shell out tens of millions of dollars to elect politicians who will protect their profits.

One of the worst offenders of this pay-to-play system is right here in the 3rd Congressional District, Congressman Erik Paulsen.

Since joining Congress in 2009, Paulsen has abandoned his job as a representative of the people to do the bidding of the special interests. The numbers are telling. Continue reading “Commentary: Elections suffer from a pay-to-play system”

Pence says selling access to the president is a ‘private matter’

The following article by Kaili Joy Gray was posted on the ShareBlue.com website May 10, 2018:

Mike Pence has a lot of nerve — and he’s also completely wrong.

Mike Pence is all-knowing about the White House when he needs to be — and also completely out of the loop when it suits him.

In an interview with NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell, for example, he tried to play it both ways in the span of 60 seconds. Continue reading “Pence says selling access to the president is a ‘private matter’”

Cohen’s $600,000 deal with AT&T specified he would advise on Time Warner merger, internal company records show

The following article by Rosalind S. Helderman, Brian Fung and Tom Hamburger was posted on the Washington Post website May 10, 2018:

Michael Cohen Credit: Mary Altaffer, AP

Three days after President Trump was sworn into office, the telecom giant AT&T turned to his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for help on a wide portfolio of issues pending before the federal government — including the company’s proposed merger with Time Warner, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The documents detail the full scope of Cohen’s $600,000 deal with AT&T and how his contract specified that he would provide advice on the $85 billion merger, which required the approval of federal antitrust regulators. Continue reading “Cohen’s $600,000 deal with AT&T specified he would advise on Time Warner merger, internal company records show”

Trump’s past comments about pleading the Fifth look pretty ominous now

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website April 25, 2018:

President Trump has been very critical of those who plead the Fifth Amendment. His lawyer just invoked the Fifth. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump the presidential candidate said lots of things that have turned out to be rather inconvenient for Donald Trump the president. Ranking high on that list are the things Trump said pertaining to legal proceedings. And as Trump and those around him get into deeper legal crises, few have offered more damning commentary about what that means than Trump himself.

Trump’s longtime personal lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen has now indicated that he intends to plead the Fifth Amendment in the civil case involving his hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, citing the fast-materializing criminal case stemming from that same payment. Continue reading “Trump’s past comments about pleading the Fifth look pretty ominous now”