Peter Flaherty
NLPC Seeks NIAID Documents Regarding Wuhan Lab and Pandemic
Today, the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a nonprofit public interest organization, filed a Freedom of Information Request (FOIA) with the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectiousness Diseases (NIAID) at NIH seeking all documents in its possession and that of Director, Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., regarding grants of $3.7 million first given in 2015 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China or through grants given to EcoHealth Alliance to experiment with bats and coronaviruses.
The FOIA request noted the Trump Administration recently terminated all funding to EcoHealth which was initiated during the Obama Administration.
“It is outrageous that U.S. taxpayers have been funding millions of dollars to the Wuhan, China laboratory, which had a history of safety problems since January 2018 that may have led to the release of the novel coronavirus causing a worldwide pandemic.” said Peter Flaherty, Chair of NLPC. The request also seeks documents … Read More ➡
Rep. Omar Sends Another $300K to New Husband’s Firm
This article by Joe Schoffstall appears on the Washington Free Beacon website:
Democratic representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) continues to push cash from her campaign committee to her now-husband’s consulting firm.
Omar’s new committee filings, posted Wednesday afternoon, show that during the first three months of the year, the campaign paid $292,905 to the E Street Group. E Street is a political consulting firm owned by Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett. The cash, which reportedly went toward an array of services that included fundraising and advertisements, accounted for over 40 percent of the campaign’s $674,892 in disbursements. Omar raised $456,374 during the quarter.
Omar’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Omar campaign also doled out $525,000 last year to Mynett’s firm, its top vendor. At the time, Omar and Mynett were married to different people, but Mynett’s wife alleged they were having an … Read More ➡
NLPC’s Anderson Warns of Corruption in Coronavirus Response
Alana Goodman reports in the Washington Free Beacon that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is “seeking contractors who can deliver portable toilets, showers, and hand-washing stations throughout the United States within 24 hours notice…” FEMA is presumably preparing to respond to a Coronavirus outbreak. From the article:
The National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group, warned the federal government to be aware that emergency situations can often provide an opening for corruption in the procurement process.
… Read More ➡“Oftentimes the government must take forceful and extensive measures in a crisis,” said Tom Anderson, director of the National Legal and Policy Center’s Government Integrity Project. “While this is necessary it also invites possible corruption and corner-cutting. I hope the proper safeguards are in place for this and future endeavors our government is taking on in order to battle the Covid-19 outbreak.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Boyfriend Still Gets Bulk of Campaign Funds
From the Daily Caller by Andrew Kerr:
Over half of Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s campaign expenditures in the last quarter of 2019 went to her alleged boyfriend’s consulting firm, according to Federal Election Commission filings released Friday.
Omar’s campaign paid $217,000 to E Street Group LLC between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 for research services, digital advertising, fundraising consulting, travel and more, filings show. The firm is run by Democratic consultant Tim Mynett, who was accused by his ex-wife in August of having an affair with Omar.
The fourth-quarter spending figures represent yet another significant uptick in the level of campaign funds Omar has dedicated to Mynett’s firm.
In the third quarter of 2019, Omar disbursed about $146,713 to E Street Group, and in the 10-month period prior, from August 2018 to June 2019, her total spending with the firm was $223,000.
In total, Mynett’s … Read More ➡
Time for NBA to Embrace Hong Kong Protesters
Don’t mistake the lull with the issue going away. With the standoff in Hong Kong ongoing, the National Basketball Association still has a China problem.
The NBA should now endorse the demands of the Hong Kong protesters. After all, Hong Kongers ask only for what the league already has endorsed for this country. The NBA promotes voter rights; Hong Kongers demand universal suffrage. The NBA embraces Black Lives Matter; Hong Kongers want an independent inquiry into police brutality. League officials endorse criminal justice reform; Hong Kongers seek due process and amnesty for arrested protesters.
The fact that the NBA is unlikely to embrace the protests is no reason for the demand not to be made. Instead, it is a reason for it to be made time and time again. The virtue of some causes is so obvious that the chances of prevailing are beside the point.
There is no folly … Read More ➡
Group Headed by Biden’s Daughter Got Grant While He Was Veep
According to a story by Alana Goodman in the Washington Examiner today:
A Delaware nonprofit organization received a $166,000 federal grant about the same time it appointed then-Vice President Joe Biden’s daughter as executive director, according to government and tax records.
In September 2014, the Delaware Center for Justice was selected for a competitive two-year grant by the U.S. Department of Justice through the federal Edward Byrne Memorial grant program — which Joe Biden helped steer significant funding to as vice president and senator.
Also from the article:
… Read More ➡The National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group, said the timing raised questions about whether Joe Biden’s position as vice president and as an advocate for the program had any influence on the selection process.
“The timing of the grant approval and his daughter’s ascent to leadership in the organization that received it makes it necessary for the agencies involved
Democrats Risk Being ‘Burnt’ by Lev Parnas
Fred Lucas of the Daily Signal has a piece titled “4 Things to Know About Lev Parnas, the Left’s New Hero.” Parnas is the Ukrainian under indictment for campaign finance law violations who was arrested while trying to leave the United States in October. From the article:
The National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative watchdog group based in Falls Church, Virginia, looked into some of the information Parnas promoted and determined that he was “disreputable,” said Tom Anderson, director of the center’s Government Integrity Project.
Well before his airport arrest, Anderson said, he warned other reporters to ignore information from Parnas.
“If the Democrats take anything from him, they will end up getting burnt,” Anderson told The Daily Signal. “We’ve never used any information from him. I’m surprised Democrats are going anywhere near him.”
Washington Post Looks at Maya Rockeymoore Cummings’s Charity
This article by Steve Thompson today appeared in the Washington Post:
For years, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings ran a charity so closely intertwined with her for-profit consulting firm that they shared the same employees, the same office space and the same director — her.
The private firm carried out the charity’s mission of promoting public health and addressing racial and economic inequity under a cost-sharing agreement that gave the firm a 5 percent management fee. Rockeymoore Cummings signed a contract on behalf of both parties to set up the unusual relationship.
She disclosed the arrangement to the Internal Revenue Service initially, but in subsequent years she checked “no” on 990 tax forms asking whether the charity did business with any entities owned by its director. A “yes” answer would have required her to provide more financial details. Lawyers who specialize in nonprofits say that’s to allow scrutiny by both the … Read More ➡
Adam Schiff Setting ‘Terrible Precedents’ on Release of Private Phone Records
From the Daily Signal by Fred Lucas:
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., faces ethics and legal hurdles for obtaining and exposing phone records of political enemies, knowledgeable observers say.
Schiff may have violated the same rule he used to threaten House Republicans, said Tom Anderson, director of the Government Integrity Project at the National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group.
Schiff warned Republicans on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence not to reveal the name of the whistleblower who first filed a complaint about President Donald Trump’s now-famous July 25 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Schiff warned Republicans members if they did anything to publicize the whistleblower, it would be a violation of House ethics rules,” Anderson told The Daily Signal.
“He didn’t want other members to expose private information of the whistleblower,” Anderson said of Schiff, “but he is doing the same thing to … Read More ➡