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).

Mueller Report: Trump Says Special Counsel Had Conflicts of Interest

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Special Counsel Robert Mueller

The legacy media (of course) has focused on all the evidence Robert Mueller considered in his report about whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice during the Russian (non)collusion investigation, questioning whether the special counsel made the right decision not to prosecute the Commander-in-Chief.

Perhaps most significant among that evidence is the claim that Trump wanted former White House counsel Don McGahn to have Mueller removed as special counsel, because of conflicts of interest, then asked McGahn to deny to the media that the president asked him to fire Mueller.

There are disputes in the testimony between witnesses, which is why Mueller didn’t move forward with a “prosecutorial decision” on that point (or on any other). But setting aside the analysis about what happened, and interpreting it under the law, there is one question that is not being addressed:

What about Mueller’s conflict(s) of interest?

There was… Read More ➡ “Mueller Report: Trump Says Special Counsel Had Conflicts of Interest”

NLPC Sues Justice Department on Mueller Conflict

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

National Legal and Policy Center filed suit today against the Department of Justice to force release of a document specifying a conflict of interest for which Special Counsel Robert Mueller received a retroactive waiver.

In the wake of demands for “transparency” through the release of the Mueller report, we are also asking for transparency.

Justice Department foot-dragging on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by NLPC in September 2018 necessitated the suit. We asked for all records pertaining to the appointment of Mueller to be Special Counsel by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on May 17, 2017. The Justice Department regulations governing appointment of Special Counsels require a “detailed review of ethics and conflicts of interest issues” of any individual who is under consideration.

NLPC has already received a Justice Department document confirming that Mueller had a conflict, but it is withholding another saying what the conflict was … Read More ➡ “NLPC Sues Justice Department on Mueller Conflict”

Did Rep. Ilhan Omar Use Campaign Funds for Personal Expenses?

Posted on by Carl Horowitz

Representative Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., doesn’t hesitate to express her scorn for America, Jews and capitalism – not necessarily in that order. Indeed, her most enduring legislative achievement to date has been to send a February 10 tweet referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as being “all about the Benjamins” (i.e., $100 bills). Yet it appears the Somalia-born Muslim freshman congresswoman, now 37, has ethics issues that are coming back to haunt her. They might not jeopardize her political career, but they just might dim the halo over her head in the eyes of her admirers.

At the start of this month, news reports surfaced that the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board has been zeroing in on Omar for possibly diverting nearly $6,000 from her campaign war chest to personal uses while serving as a member of that state’s legislature. Among the cited unauthorized purposes were travel to Boston and … Read More ➡ “Did Rep. Ilhan Omar Use Campaign Funds for Personal Expenses?”

Special Counsel Needed Because Huber’s ‘Mystery’ Probe Is Going Nowhere

Posted on by Peter Flaherty
U.S. Attorney John Huber

Fred Lucas in The Daily Signal today reports on the investigation supposedly being conducted by John Huber, the United States Attorney for Utah. Instead of appointing another Special Counsel, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions a year ago appointed Huber to investigate the FISA warrant issued on Trump campaign aide Carter Page, as well as the Uranium One deal. From the story:

Since his appointment, Huber’s investigation has been a complete mystery, said Peter Flaherty, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative government watchdog group.

“There is no evidence a real investigation is taking place,” Flaherty told The Daily Signal. “We don’t have a grand jury. It doesn’t seem key witnesses were interviewed. There is certainly no evidence he has staffed up. What he is up to is a mystery.”

Flaherty said he agrees with Graham and others who support appointment of a new

… Read More ➡ “Special Counsel Needed Because Huber’s ‘Mystery’ Probe Is Going Nowhere”

The Kremlin Wanted Hillary

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

“I will tell you this about Russia, if they had anything on me, it would have come out a long time ago, probably a long time before I ran, because they would have been much better off,” President Trump said on Fox News on Wednesday evening.

Until Sunday, it was an article of faith among American liberals that Donald Trump somehow benefitted from the Russian interference in his election campaign. It is time to re-examine that theory.

There are many issues between the United States and Russia but the most fundamental is how much each spends to defend itself against the other. Trump would always favor more military spending than Hillary. This is much more consequential for Russia. America is such a prosperous country that it is not a choice between guns and butter. We buy both. The Russian economy, not well-diversified and reliant on commodity prices, is far more … Read More ➡ “The Kremlin Wanted Hillary”

The Successful Mueller Misdirection

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

Those who hoped the Special Counsel would find criminal acts by President Trump are disappointed this week, but for Robert Mueller and his team it can only be “mission accomplished.”

Of course, Mueller’s team would have loved to have taken down Trump, but the more achievable goal was to misdirect attention from their own actions. The probe was initiated and staffed by the same people who prior to the election sought to use the mechanisms of the law enforcement bureaucracy to deny Trump the presidency.

Sigmund Freud called it “psychological projection,” whereby the human ego defends itself by attributing one’s own negative traits to others. That is how a group of high-level bureaucrats and prosecutors convinced themselves that Donald Trump had no regard for democratic norms and that he was a traitor in the embrace of a foreign power, allowing them to answer “a higher calling” by illegally intervening in … Read More ➡ “The Successful Mueller Misdirection”

Michael Avenatti Charged with Extortion and Fraud in Separate Cases

Posted on by Carl Horowitz
Mary Altaffer/AP/REX/Shutterstock

Could the fall of Michael Avenatti be at hand? For those who have been in the crosshairs of this manic, headline-addicted lawyer, it would be a welcome moment. Early yesterday afternoon, Avenatti, best-known for having represented Stormy Daniels in her civil lawsuits against President Donald Trump and Trump’s ex-personal attorney, Michael Cohen, was charged in Manhattan and Los Angeles federal courts with crimes that could land him up to 97 years in prison. In Manhattan, where he was arrested, Avenatti allegedly had tried to extort over $20 million from Nike Inc. in return for a promise not to savage the company’s reputation. In Los Angeles, he faces separate fraud charges of diverting funds from a client settlement to his personal use and of grossly overstating his income to obtain a bank loan. He is now free on $300,000 bond with travel restrictions.

National Legal and Policy Center several … Read More ➡ “Michael Avenatti Charged with Extortion and Fraud in Separate Cases”

Boeing Tanker Scandals Never Go Away

Posted on by Peter Flaherty
A KC-46 Pegasus refuels an A-10 Thunderbolt II. (Boeing photo/John D. Parker)

It has now been more than fifteen years since the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) first exposed the “cozy dealings” between Boeing and an Air Force procurement officer named Darleen Druyun. The dealings were connected to the replacement of the nation’s fleet of mid-air refueling tankers. The aircraft, now known as the KC-46 Pegasus, refuels bombers and fighter jets on long-range missions.

The scandal that followed saw Druyun go to prison along with then-Boeing CFO Michael Sears, and the resignation of then-CEO Phil Condit.

In the intervening years, the original plan for the Air Force to lease the tankers from Boeing was scrapped. Boeing then lost the contract to an Airbus/Northrop consortium, only to pry it back through the exercise of raw political influence by the Obama administration.

A summary of the scandal that I put together … Read More ➡ “Boeing Tanker Scandals Never Go Away”

Ocasio-Cortez’s Fundraising Tangle Included 527 Soft Money Operation

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

From the Washington Examiner, by Alana Goodman:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., sat on the board of a political action committee that operated the type of “soft money” group she wants to abolish through a constitutional amendment, according to federal records reviewed by the Washington Examiner.

“Soft money” is cash that goes to an interest group or PAC. This means it is largely unregulated and avoids the firm limits placed on “hard money” that usually goes directly to candidates or parties.

Ocasio-Cortez was a board member of Justice Democrats, a group that sought to get progressive candidates elected, from November 2017 to 2018. The group was founded by Saikat Chakrabarti, a Harvard graduate and technology entrepreneur who became an organizer for Bernie Sanders during the socialist’s 2016 presidential campaign, and progressive media personality Cenk Uyger. Chakrabarti is now Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff

Click here to read the rest in the … Read More ➡ “Ocasio-Cortez’s Fundraising Tangle Included 527 Soft Money Operation”

Ocasio-Cortez Attacks NLPC; Gets it Wrong— Twice

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

The following by Alex Griswold appeared in the Washington Free-Beacon:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) sent a false tweet Monday when attempting to correct a tweet that was also false.

A conservative nonprofit recently filed an FEC complaint against Ocasio-Cortez, arguing that the candidate violated campaign laws in her relationship with a PAC and business operated by her chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti. Luke Thompson, vice president of the Republican analytics firm Applecart, was the first to call attention to Chakrabarti’s role as architect of the opaque fundraising scheme.

Left-wing Intercept reporter Jon Schwarz noted in response that Thompson had once worked at Right to Rise, a 2016 pro-Jeb Bush super PAC that was recently fined by the FEC for accepting foreign donations. Ocasio-Cortez quote-tweeted his tweet and crowed that “the creepy org filing bogus ethics complaints against me just *actually* got hit with one of the biggest fines … Read More ➡ “Ocasio-Cortez Attacks NLPC; Gets it Wrong— Twice”