1/18/21- Paul Kamenar, Counsel to the National Legal and Policy Center, is interviewed on America’s Voice on Biden’s appointment of former FDA Commissioner David Kessler to head up Operation Warp Speed.… Read More ➡
Government Integrity Project
NLPC “blows the whistle” on government officials and interest groups engaged in questionable activities. NLPC has filed formal Complaints with a variety of authorities and regulators, including the Federal Election Commission, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Congressional Ethics Committees.
NLPC supports government integrity in two additional ways: by promoting the First Amendment as the basis for campaign finance reform, and by promoting use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Antony Blinken Must Explain Anonymous China Donations to Penn Biden Center
The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) is calling upon the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to demand Tony Blinken, Joe Biden’s pick to be Secretary of State, explain anonymous Chinese funding of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement that Joe Biden established in 2018 with the University of Pennsylvania, where Blinken was Managing Director and other Biden aides from the Obama Administration operated as the government-in-waiting.
The confirmation hearing is scheduled for January 19, 2021 at 2:00 PM.
NLPC filed a major complaint with the Department of Education earlier last year demanding that the University of Pennsylvania and its Penn Biden Center disclose the identity of $22 million in anonymous Chinese donations since 2017, including a single eye-popping donation of $14.5 million given on May 29, 2018, shortly after the opening of the Biden Center in Washington, DC. Altogether, China gave … Read More ➡
Biden Warp Speed Pick David Kessler Has History of Overcharging Taxpayers for Travel Expenses
Dr. David Kessler, co-chair of President-elect Biden’s COVID task force, has been chosen to replace Dr. Moncef Slaoui as Chief Scientific Advisor to Operation Warp Speed, who has agreed to stay on a month to help Kessler with the transition. Dr. Kessler had resigned as President Clinton’s Food and Drug Administration Commissioner in late November 1996 after Clinton’s re-election following the controversy of his overbilling travel expenses during his tenure.
The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), an ethics watchdog group, which led the investigation into Kessler’s travel expenses when Kessler was FDA Commissioner, had called upon Biden in a November 18, 2020 press statement not to appoint Kessler as HHS Secretary, who was at that time a leading contender for the post. Instead, Biden chose Xavier Becerra as his HHS Secretary and this appointment appears to be a consolation prize. Notably, the critical position of the Commissioner … Read More ➡
Issue of Big Tech Censorship ‘Will Not Go Away’
NLPC Chairman Peter Flaherty is interviewed by Steve Gruber on America’s Voice about Big Tech censorship in the wake of Twitter’s permanent suspension of President Trump and the deplatforming of Twitter alternative Parler.… Read More ➡
Is Secretary of State Nominee Antony Blinken Compromised by Chinese Money to Biden Center?
Real America’s Voice 1/5/21- Paul Kamenar, Counsel to the National Legal and Policy Center, is interviewed by Amanda Head about the group’s Foreign Agent Registration Act Complaint against the Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Hunter Biden and the Truman National Security Project. Antony Blinken, managing director of the Biden Center, will be nominated to be Secretary of State.… Read More ➡
No Clemency for Dr. Salomon Melgen; Senator Menendez’ ‘Best Friend’ Looted Tens of Millions From Medicare
According to at least one published report, President Trump is being urged to pardon, or commute the prison sentence of, Dr. Salomon Melgen, currently serving 17 years for Medicare fraud and related crimes.
Letting Melgen off the hook would be a horrible abuse of the pardon and commutation powers invested in the president by the Constitution, arguably worse than Bill Clinton’s pardon of fugitive Marc Rich.
From a Daily Caller op-ed I wrote in 2018:
… Read More ➡According to testimony at his trial and allegations in civil lawsuits, Melgen performed unnecessary surgeries and injections on unsuspecting elderly people, including some with fake eyes or who were already blind. Others claimed they suffered eye infections after receiving injections of bacteria-laden medicine. Some lost sight in one or both eyes. The contamination stemmed from Melgen dividing up single-use vials of ocular drugs so he could bill Medicare multiple times.
Fox Business News: Biden Nominees Scrub Websites, Social Media
12/16/20- Tom Anderson of the National Legal and Policy Center is interviewed by Liz McDonald on Fox Business News’ Evening Edit about Biden nominees scrubbing of their websites and social media accounts.… Read More ➡
Biden’s NSA, Veterans Affairs Nominees Scrubbed Website of Foreign Connections
From the Washington Free Beacon by Yuichiro Kakutani:
A consulting firm linked to incoming Biden officials removed references to its foreign dealings in the closing weeks of the election.
Both Jake Sullivan, President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming national security adviser, and Denis McDonough, Biden’s pick to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, have served as partners at Macro Advisory Partners, a consulting firm that says it helps clients manage geopolitical risk.
Until early November, the firm advertised its work helping a financial services company expand into the Middle East, according to archived versions of the website. The firm said it helped its clients manage the “geopolitical and economic volatility” in Middle Eastern markets by drawing on the extensive policy expertise of Macro Advisory Partners employees.
“The intersection of geopolitics, policy and politics is defining the long-term prospects for financial services in the Middle East,” the website said … Read More ➡
On Tax Return, Group Did Not Disclose Payments to Husband of VA Official
As we noted recently, it looks like “critics” of for-profit colleges are up to their old tricks. A career Veterans Affairs (VA) bureaucrat, Charmain Bogue, failed to disclose payments to her husband by an special interest group that was pushing her to block veterans from using their G.I. Bill benefits at the school that they believe works best for them.
Now, newly disclosed tax filings raise questions about why the group—Veterans Education Success (VES)—failed to disclose its contract payments to Barrett Bogue or his consulting firm while VES was urging his wife to limit veterans’ educational choices.
Ultimately, the VA “backed down” in July, but in March, the VA had initially announced it would do exactly what VES had asked Charmain Bogue to do—suspend enrollment of GI bill students in certain schools. And, VES was somehow among the first to get the news, praising the … Read More ➡
Biden Secretary of State Pick Under Fire for Chinese Biden Center Funds
From FoxNews.com by Fred Lucas:
Antony Blinken has had a long history with Joe Biden before the president-elect tapped him to be his secretary of state nominee—as a Biden Senate aide, an advisor to the then-vice president and deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration.
But it could be a non-federal role — one also closely tied to Biden — that will raise a question in his Senate confirmation hearings regarding how America’s next chief diplomat will handle China.
Blinken served as the managing director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, also known as the Penn Biden Center, established in 2017. He left that position in 2019 to join the Biden campaign.
In May, the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a government watchdog group, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education seeking to force the university and the Penn Biden … Read More ➡