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).

Maya Rockeymoore Cummings Loses Election to Fill Late Husband’s Congressional Seat

Posted on by NLPC Staff

Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, widow of Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), lost the Democratic special election primary yesterday to serve the rest of his term. Former Rep. Kweisi Mfume easily won with more than 40% of the vote in a 24-candidate field.

Mfume will face Kimberly Klacik, who won the Republican primary, in an April special general election. Mfume is heavily favored in the Democratic district, although Klacik has achieved an unusually high profile by defending President Trump’s criticisms of the late Cummings.

Mrs. Cummings’ loss has no effect on an IRS Complaint filed by the National Legal and Policy Center on May 20, 2019 against her and a nonprofit she heads called the Center for Global Policy Solutions (CGPS).

The Complaint, and an amendment on June 7, 2019, alleges a score of Internal Revenue Code violations, including prohibited private benefit and inurement of Cummings and her late husband.

CGPS received millions … Read More ➡

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Boyfriend Still Gets Bulk of Campaign Funds

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

From the Daily Caller by Andrew Kerr:

Mynett and Omar

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 ➡

Group Headed by Biden’s Daughter Got Grant While He Was Veep

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

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:

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

… Read More ➡

‘The View’ Ignores Rockeymoore Cummings Scandal; Lobs Softballs Instead

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Maya Rockeymoore Cummings/IMAGE: ABC News via YouTube

Democrat Congressional candidate Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, who is running for her late husband Elijah’s seat representing part of Baltimore, appeared on “The View” Monday and was not questioned about the scandal surrounding her nonprofit organization that has dogged her for the last 9 months.

It was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so the hosts understandably wanted to discuss her late husband’s civil rights accomplishments. Elijah Cummings died on October 17th.

But the restraint showed by failing to address a touchy political and ethical subject for Rockeymoore Cummings – who is the subject of an IRS complaint filed by National Legal and Policy Center over the handling of her nonprofit charity – did not prevent the discussion from drifting into criticisms and aspersions about President Donald Trump.

“When you look to the future, do you feel optimistic about the next … Read More ➡

Democrats Risk Being ‘Burnt’ by Lev Parnas

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

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.”

 … Read More ➡

Washington Post Looks at Maya Rockeymoore Cummings’s Charity

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

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

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

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 ➡

Hunter Biden’s Company Got $130 Million in Bailout Funds

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

Alana Goodman in today’s Washington Examiner reports that Joe Biden’s son Hunter was associated with a firm that received more than $130 million in financial bailout funds. The firm called Rosemont Capital then set up a fund that was incorporated in the Cayman Islands, presumably for the purpose of avoiding U.S. taxes. From the article:

“This is a great example of the suspicion of many Americans that these bailouts were used to benefit connected insiders while ordinary Americans went broke,” said Tom Anderson, director of the Government Integrity Project at the National Legal and Policy Center, an organization that was critical of TALF at the time.

The bailout program was known as the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF. It was separate from the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) but was part of the same package of actions initiated in 2008 in response to the financial meltdown. TALF was … Read More ➡

Cummings Announces Congressional Bid; Denies Improprieties With Nonprofit

Posted on by NLPC Staff

In response to questions by reporters, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings again denied improprieties in the operation of a nonprofit she heads called the Center for Global Policy Solutions (CGPS). The improprieties were alleged in a May 20 IRS Complaint and June 7 Amendment filed by the National Legal and Policy Center. The denials took place at an event today at which she announced that she is a candidate for her late husband’s Congressional seat.

Cummings claimed, “There’s no merit to the IRS complaint… I’ll be willing to stand before anyone and refute those claims.” So far, Mrs. Cummings has not addressed any of our specific charges. She has only offered sweeping denials, and called NLPC names.

Also, Cummings falsely claimed to NLPC Chairman Peter Flaherty, who was present at the event, that she has provided the group’s annual tax return IRS Form 990 to “everyone who has asked.”

Flaherty has been … Read More ➡

Rep. Ilhan Omar Continues to Break Law on Boyfriend’s Travel

Posted on by Peter Flaherty
Mynett and Omar

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) continues to violate Federal Election Commission (FEC) regulations governing travel by her campaign staff. As detailed in an amendment to our August 28, 2019 FEC Complaint, Omar failed to itemize travel expenses to E Street Group, a firm owned by her boyfriend Tim Mynett in her FEC disclosure reports for the third quarter of 2019.

The amendment charges, “Respondents either continue to willfully disregard the law, or misunderstand it.” From the amendment:

On October 12, 2019, Ilhan Omar for Congress filed FEC Form 3, Report of Receipts and Disbursements for the period covering July 1, 2019 through September 30, 2019. The filing reports Total Operating Expenditures of $441,638.95. Of that amount, disbursements totaling $146,712.64 were reported on Schedule B to E Street Group, LLC, owned by Tim Mynett.

Disbursements to E Street Group, LLC totaled more than a third of total disbursements and

… Read More ➡