RealClearInvestigations'
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February 23 to March 1, 2025 In RealClearInvestigations, Ana Kasparian shines a light on a gaping loophole in California campaign finance law: behested payments, which allow elected officials to solicit unlimited sums from donors who make tax-deductible contributions at the politician's behest. -
Questions over behested payments arose this month during a fierce backlash against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ appointment of a former LA Police Commissioner as her chief surrogate overseeing wildfire recovery – at a reported salary of $500,000 for 90 days of work. -
The payday would not come from the city but reportedly from three foundations with which Bass is closely associated. -
Elected officials often cite specific policy goals to justify their solicitation of such behested payments. But vague yearly financial disclosures filed by the charities serve as the only oversight to ensure the money is used for the purpose stated. -
This may not be bribery in the classic or even legal sense, but it’s easy to see how, at best, the “quo” in a “quid pro quo” would be enabling a politician’s better performance on the job in the public interest. -
The practice has become a prime way for major corporations and foundations to channel unlimited funds to the state’s leaders. -
Governor Gavin Newsom – who directed more than $226.5 million in behested payments in 2020 when COVID emerged – reportedly raised $13.85 million from the practice in 2024. -
Bass has reportedly solicited about $20.6 million in behested payments since 2022, when she was elected Mayor. -
Elected leaders in the state are not allowed to raise more than $1,800 per donor for their personal campaign accounts.
In RealClearInvestigations, Paul Sperry reports that former President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter has muddled – and delayed – the process of deciding Hunter’s professional fate, according to the D.C. attorney who is leading the investigation into his fitness to practice law in the nation’s capital. Legal critics view this as favoritism leading to a resolution short of disbarment – maybe even a wrist slap. Sperry reports: -
Although Hunter Biden got away with multiple crimes thanks to his father’s unprecedented pardon, even presidential clemency cannot shield him from possible suspension of his law license. -
Hamilton Fox, disciplinary counsel for the D.C. Bar, says that with Biden’s firearms and tax-evasion convictions wiped clean, he and his investigators have to “prove” all over again that he violated the law. -
“That’s a lame excuse,” said ethics watchdog and critic Paul Kamenar. “While Hunter Biden’s pardon for committing felonies was bad enough, the D.C. Bar’s slow-walking disciplinary action against him based on the pardon is outrageous and inexcusable.” -
Fox negotiated a light sentence for Kevin Clinesmith, a registered Democrat who doctored evidence against Trump aide Carter Page, as RCI first reported. -
The DC disciplinary counsel has also thrown the book at embattled Republican members of the bar such as Rudy Giuliani and Paul Manafort.
Waste of the Day
by Jeremy Portnoy, Open the Books Billions for Controversial Immigration Aid, RCI
Inflation Reduction Act Over Budget, Failing, RCI
Some Untrained FEMA Staff Are a Disaster, RCI
Highways Got 'Beautification,' Not Repairs, RCI
Congo Splurged at Davos on USAID Dime, RCI Trump 2.0 and the Beltway The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) kept millions of dollars “in secret slush funds being used to funnel millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars into Ukraine for questionable purposes unrelated to our own national interests,” according to Senate DOGE Caucus Chairman Sen. Joni Ernst. This article reports that after repeatedly giving Ernst’s staff the runaround, USAID finally provided limited access to documents, which showed: “[Funding allegedly] intended to alleviate economic distress in the war-torn nation was spent on such frivolous activities as sending Ukrainian models and designers on junkets to New York City, London Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week, and South by Southwest in Austin, Texas,” [Ernst’s staffers] said. Among the secret slush funds was one providing $114,000 to fund purchases of “a premium, limited-edition furniture line,” and another $91,000 used to finance “a trade mission for a Scandinavian-style furniture line.” Other USAID funding uncovered by the investigators included $148,000 for “a pickle maker,” $255,000 to “a producer of organic tea and coffee,” $104,000 for “an artisanal fruit tea company,” and $89,000 to support “a Ukrainian vineyard.” USAID funding also provided $300,000 each to a dog collar manufacturer and a company selling a pet-tracking application, $161,000 for “a purveyor of contemporary knitwear,” $126,000 for a “photographer for fashion design publications,” and $84,000 to support “a luxury bridal brand.” In a separate article, the Washington Free Beacon reports that Max Primorac, former acting chief operating officer for USAID, told Congress the Biden administration ditched the first Trump administration's vetting reforms – and went on to send "vast sums of U.S. money" to Middle Eastern countries that ended up in the hands of terrorists. This article reports that “when angry voters confronted Rep. Rich McCormick over DOGE at a town hall held in the Georgia Republican's deep-red district, the New York Times, Washington Post and CBS News cited the scene as proof of emerging bipartisan 'backlash' over Elon Musk's efforts to slash government spending.” While the rage was genuine, the protesters and hecklers were not simply citizens riled up by DOGE. Many of the outbursts were organized by left-wing groups, which often provided transportation to the red state town halls: The George Soros-funded groups Indivisble and MoveOn were at the center of the demonstrations. Both groups launched national "mobilization" efforts targeting the "Trump-Musk agenda" and "Trump-Musk coup" during the recess period. MoveOn said its "members and allies will show up at congressional-led town halls and congressional offices around the country, targeting House Republicans whose votes will be crucial in opposing Trump and Musk's harmful policies." Indivisible issued a "Musk or Us Recess Toolkit" that showed members how to find their local town halls and urged them to "take the fight to Elon." The groups' local organizers heeded the call, launching protests against House Republicans at town halls and district offices that garnered widespread media coverage. MoveOn targeted the likes of Arizona's David Schweikert, California's Ken Calvert, and Virginia's Jen Kiggans, while Indivisible organized protests against Michigan's Tom Barrett and Wisconsin's Bryan Steil and Scott Fitzgerald, among others. From the Annals of Freudian Slips: Although he cast himself as a moral man of unwavering principle in his memoir, “A Higher Loyalty,” former FBI Director James Comey lied as part of his job, unfolding disclosures suggest. This article reports that the bureau’s new leadership is starting an investigation into a whistleblower’s claim that Comey launched an off-the-books effort in 2015 to infiltrate Donald Trump’s campaign using two female undercover “honeypot” agents. In the intelligence community, a honeypot commonly refers to an undercover operative, usually a woman, who feigns sexual or romantic interest to obtain information from a target: The whistleblower said two female FBI undercover employees infiltrated Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign at high levels and were directed to act as “honeypots” while traveling with Mr. Trump and his campaign staff. … According to the whistleblower disclosure, which The Times reviewed, the investigation differed from Crossfire Hurricane, a later FBI counterintelligence operation that looked into never-proved allegations that the campaign was colluding with Russia. … The whistleblower agent “personally knew” that Mr. Comey ordered an FBI investigation into Mr. Trump and that Mr. Comey “personally directed it,” according to the disclosure. The investigation did not appear to target a specific crime but was more of what agents would describe as a fishing expedition to find anything incriminating against Mr. Trump. “The case had no predicated foundation, so Comey personally directed the investigation without creating an official case file in Sentinel or any other FBI system,” according to the whistleblower’s disclosure. This article reports that the investigation was closed after “a major newspaper obtained a photograph of one of the undercovers and was about to publish it, but the FBI press office told the outlet that the photograph was an FBI informant who would be killed if the photograph was publicly released.” Other Trump 2.0 and the Beltway Key Federal Agencies Refuse to Comply With Musk's Demands, AP
AG Bondi Gives FBI Ultimatum on Trove of Epstein Files, New York Post
Sen. Whitehouse Allegedly Helped Wife's Firm Rake In Millions, Fox News
The Trump Staffers Who Are Paid by Private Clients, Wall Street Journal
Trump Administration Creates Illegal Immigrant Registry, Associated Press
Sen. Cruz: $2B Science Funding for Wokism, Marxism, Campus Reform
Trump Paralyzes the U.S. Wind Power Industry, Wall Street Journal Other Noteworthy Articles and Series The sickest patients are supposed to get priority for lifesaving transplants. But more and more, this article reports, they are being skipped over: Last year, officials skipped patients on the waiting lists for nearly 20 percent of transplants from deceased donors, six times as often as a few years earlier. It is a profound shift in the transplant system, whose promise of equality has become increasingly warped by expediency and favoritism. Under government pressure to place more organs, the nonprofit organizations that manage donations are routinely prioritizing ease over fairness. They use shortcuts to steer organs to selected hospitals, which jockey to get better access than their competitors. … Over the past five years, more than 1,200 people died after they got close to the top of a waiting list but were skipped, The Times found. It is possible that their doctors would have decided the organ wasn’t a good fit for them, but they were denied a chance to find out. This article reports that more than 100,000 people are waiting for an organ in the United States, and their fates rest largely on nonprofits called organ procurement organizations. In response to President Donald Trump’s campaign to stamp out DEI and other race-based policies and programs, some companies are trying to find new ways to promote “inclusion” without running afoul of the law. Although this article reports that “companies are scrambling to strike a balance that keeps them out of the crosshairs of an administration that is openly antagonistic toward DEI, without negating its benefits,” it never says what those benefits are, or how they enhance business outcomes: But the lack of clarity over what constitutes “illegal DEI” in the eyes of the Trump administration has rattled executives amid growing recognition that methods used for decades to attract and retain diverse talent are no longer viable, according to Tracey Diamond, an employment attorney at Troutman Pepper Locke in Princeton. As they reorient, businesses are discarding workforce representation goals and identity-based employee resource groups, rebranding and toning down DEI references in public-facing documents. They’re reframing their policies around “leveling” the playing field for all employees – “whether they’re in the majority or minority,” Diamond said – rather than “lifting” people on the basis of race, gender or other considerations. From the Annals of Liberalism, this article reports that it is hard to tell who’s more panicked in the Hamptons: the illegal immigrants who cook the meals and scrub the toilets or the wealthy homeowners who depend on their labor to enjoy carefree summers on Long Island. The party dresses must be double-pressed, the hedges shaved into sharp rectangles. The hand soap and lotion dispensers must be formed into neat lines along bathroom sinks. Caterers need to slip out of view as soon as the oysters and cocktails are served. Wealthy residents of the Hamptons demand perfection. Now, many of the people who make it so – Latino immigrants, some of them undocumented – are panicking about President Trump’s deportation orders. … To most of the world, the Hamptons are best known for celebrity-studded parties and mega-mansions that dot the seashore, such as one house in Sagaponack that has been valued at $425 million and has 29 bedrooms and 39 bathrooms. It’s a community where diner patrons wear Balenciaga booties and Aston Martin sports cars cruise past strip malls. On sale at one popular grocery store: an 18-ounce tin of caviar for $1,300. … In the Hamptons, with its miles of privet hedges and luxury homes, Latino immigrants make up the bulk of the work force, logging 12-hour days flipping mattresses, scrubbing toilets and hanging drywall, and in the summer tending vineyards and assembling patio furniture under the hot sun. Some of the workers arrived illegally, crossing the U.S. border after grueling desert or jungle treks. |
