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).

Disbarment Sought of FBI’s Kevin Clinesmith Who Altered Email to Trigger Campaign Spying

Posted on by Peter Flaherty
Ex-FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith

National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), an ethics watchdog group, filed a disbarment action today with the D.C. Bar against fired FBI attorney, Kevin E. Clinesmith, who pled guilty to a felony last month for doctoring a CIA email used to support a surveillance warrant against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign foreign policy advisor.

In an August 14, 2020, plea agreement with U.S. Attorney John H. Durham, who was tasked by Attorney General William Barr with investigating the origins of the 2016 Russia collusion probe known as “Crossfire Hurricane,” Kevin Clinesmith admitted that he doctored a June 15, 2017, CIA email by adding that Carter Page, “was not a source” for the CIA in his contacts with Russian sources, when in fact he was a contact with the CIA. 

That false representation was used during the Special Counsel Mueller probe to justify a surveillance warrant … Read More ➡

Chinese Companies Get Scrutiny— But Not From BlackRock

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Steve Mnuchin/IMAGE: YouTube

Pressure continues to increase on Chinese corporations that are listed on American stock exchanges, to provide greater transparency about their ownership and operations.

Following the U.S. Senate’s passage (by unanimous consent) in May of the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, a special panel of top government financial regulators issued a report last week that also called for tougher rules in order for “non-cooperative” foreign companies to be allowed to be listed in the United States. The goal is to provide greater protection for investors in those companies, to meet minimal audit and transparency standards so that potential risks are better understood.

The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets specifically scrutinized the risks to investors posed by the Chinese government’s failure to allow access to the books of companies listed in the U.S.  The group urged the Securities and Exchange Commission take steps to strengthen the listing standards.… Read More ➡

Ethics Group Urges Dismissal of Charges Against General Flynn

Posted on by NLPC Staff
General Michael Flynn (Shutterstock)

Tomorrow morning, the full panel of 10 judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will rehear the appeal of General Michael Flynn seeking to have District Court Judge Emmett Sullivan grant the Department of Justice’s motion to drop the charges against Gen. Flynn because of misconduct by FBI agents and government prosecutors for withholding evidence as well as for setting up Gen. Flynn in an FBI interview in January 2017 about his talks with Russian Ambassador Kislyak when there was no underlying criminal investigation to warrant the interview.  

Contrary to the district court rules, Judge Sullivan had appointed a biased former prosecutor and judge as a “friend of the court” to advise him on whether he should grant the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the charges.  Flynn’s attorneys appealed Sullivan’s decision to the D.C. Circuit which ruled last month that Judge … Read More ➡

New York Sweeps Schumer Bar Complaint Under the Rug; Appeal Filed

Posted on by NLPC Staff

Today, the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) appealed the dismissal of its ethics complaint filed with New York’s Attorney Grievance Committee (AGC) against U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer for his threatening comments made in March on the Supreme Court steps before a cheering activist crowd against Justices Neal Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh during the hearing on a controversial abortion case:

I want to tell you, Gorsuch… I want to tell you, Kavanaugh… you have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.

Senator Schumer’s remarks drew a public rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts, the legal community, including the American Bar Association, and many Members of Congress, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, noting that such threats are “dangerous.”

In its one-paragraph dismissal letter dated July 27, 2020, the AGC did not dispute that … Read More ➡

Rep. Ilhan Omar Milks Her Own Campaign Fund

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

A firm headed by Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband continued to be the largest recipient of her campaign spending in the second quarter of 2020. Payments to the E Street Group now top one million dollars, creating the appearance that Omar is milking her campaign fund for her own financial benefit.

In forms filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Monday, Omar reported that another $228,111 was paid to the E Street group, owned by Tim Mynett who she married in March after denying for months that the two were having an affair.

Omar’s second quarter spending was $686,271, meaning Mynett’s firm raked in a third of the total. Although it is not illegal for members of Congress to employ relatives on their campaign, the scale of Mynett’s compensation from the Omar campaign is unprecedented.

The report contains hundreds of pages of small-dollar donations. Mynett’s main role appears to be … Read More ➡

Misplaced Criticism of Stone Commutation

Posted on by NLPC Staff

President Trump issued a commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence Friday shortly after the D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an emergency motion to delay Stone’s prison report date scheduled for July 14 to September 3.  

Stone, age 67, cited in his motion his medical condition and the 20 positive cases of Covid-19 among prisoners and staff at the prison facility in Jesup, Georgia, where only 45 were tested.  Stone also cited numerous cases where prisoners were either released early from prison or whose entry were delayed because of the pandemic, including attorney Michael Avenatti, Paul Manafort, and Michael Cohen. Two sex offenders and child pornographers were also released from prison.

“President Trump waited until the court proceedings were exhausted to issue the commutation after seeing that Stone was being treated differently from others and citing the corrupt Mueller investigation,” said Paul Kamenar, attorney for the National Legal and Policy … Read More ➡

Federal Election Commission Must Act on Ilhan Omar Campaign Cash to Husband

Posted on by Peter Flaherty
Mynett and Omar

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s new husband Tim Mynett continues to be the largest recipient of her campaign spending. During the first quarter of 2020, Mynett’s consulting firm, the E Street Group, received $292,814. The couple was married in March.

Omar’s second quarter report is due July 15.

In the third quarter of 2019, Mynett’s firm received $146,713. In the fourth quarter it received $217,000. Since 2018, when Mynett started working for Omar, his firm has received a total of $878,930.65.

In a Complaint to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on August 28, 2019, NLPC alleged that Omar made personal use of campaign funds by reimbursing Mynett’s expenses while he traveled around the country with her.

According to the Complaint, “It appears that Respondent Mynett’s travel as reported by Ilhan for Congress may have been unrelated, or only partially related, to Omar’s campaign. If Ilhan for Congress reimbursed Mynett’s … Read More ➡

Mueller Prosecutor Zelinsky Abused Grand Jury Process

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

6/29/20- One America News Network covers allegations of professional misconduct against Aaron Zelinsky by the National Legal and Policy Center and Andrew Miller, a witness in the Robert Mueller investigation. OANN Washington bureau chief John Hines interviews Paul Kamenar, Counsel for NLPC and Miller. The allegations were made in a Complaint to the Office of Professional Responsibility of the Justice Department.… Read More ➡

Complaint Filed Against Former Mueller prosecutor Zelinsky

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

From Just the News by Sophie Mann:

The National Legal and Policy Center, in conjunction with Andrew Miller, a former aide to Roger Stone, filed a complaint against one of Stone’s prosecutors who worked with Special Counsel Robert Mueller on the case against Stone. 

Miller and the NLPC are alleging that prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky engaged in ethical misconduct pertaining to the use of a grand jury in the case against Stone.

The 17-page complaint accuses Zelinsky of misleading the court in 2019, in addition to switching grand juries without informing Miller, who was testifying, his attorney or the court. 

“Mr. Zelinsky abused the grand jury by seeking Mr. Miller’s testimony long after Mr. Stone was indicted, which violates Department of Justice policy prohibiting gathering evidence on a defendant after indictment, unless the government was seeking evidence for new crimes against Mr. Stone or other targets. Neither exception appeared to be the … Read More ➡