>>6000891 (pb)
Agreed, but in some respects it could take longer than that…depends on the willingness to participate in that manner.
Shining a light on presidential libraries — the unrenowned pay-to-play scandal
Since the groundbreaking of the humble Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library in 1941, presidential libraries seem to become larger and more glamorous with each edition. As they’ve grown in size — and cost — oversight measures haven’t kept up, making presidential libraries one of the best avenues for wealthy donors to stealthily gain influence with a sitting president.
“A sitting president can raise unlimited sums of money from donors of any kind for their library,” said Daniel Schuman, policy director at Demand Progress, who has long pushed for increased transparency of presidential library funding. “We’ve seen foreign governments and individuals give large sums — and there’s no mandatory disclosure on any of this money.” Most presidential libraries disclose their donors in wide ranges and do not give specific details about the donors. Despite several presidential library controversies occurring over the last three decades, no laws have been passed to mandate disclosure of donor information.
Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.) introduced the first presidential library reform toward the end of Bill Clinton’s presidency when the congressman was informed that foreign governments were making contributions to Clinton’s planned library. The library’s funding came under the spotlight again when, on his last day in office, Clinton gave indicted hedge-fund manager and fugitive Marc Rich a pardon after receiving a $450,000 contribution to the Clinton library from Rich’s ex-wife. Pay-to-play controversies didn’t start, or end, with Clinton. In 1993, President George H.W. Bush pardoned Edwin Cox, Jr., convicted of bank fraud, then received between $100,000 and $250,000 toward his presidential library from the senior Edwin Cox, a wealthy Texas businessman and GOP donor.
During George W. Bush’s final year in office, a lobbyist close to Bush was caught on tape telling a dignitary from central Asia he should make a $250,000 contribution to the Bush library in exchange for access to the White House. “This creates the same conflicts we’ve seen with everything else,” Schuman said. “People who want something out of a sitting president give massive sums to their library to get it.”
The newest Presidential Library Donation Reform Act (H.R. 1063), introduced by Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), would provide mandatory transparency by requiring presidential library fundraising organizations to disclose all contributions of more than $200 and provide information about the donors. “More transparency in politics is a goal we should strive for on a bipartisan basis, and that’s exactly what this bill achieves,” Meadows said in a statement. “Given Presidents can lawfully solicit unlimited donations for their libraries while still in office, the public should be able to know basic information about these donations — just as they can with their representatives.”
The bill was referred the to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Feb. 12 and has not moved since. Despite always having bipartisan support, presidential library reform legislation has passed the House several times, but never the Senate. “This is not a campaign finance bill, this is about transparency when politicians are on their way out,” Schuman said. “I think everyone can agree that’s important.”
President Barack Obama’s presidential library has created controversy for several reasons, from the fact that it won’t be run by the National Archives and Records Administration to a lawsuit from a Chicago group. But the library shares a similar problem with its predecessors. Though the Obama Foundation lists its donors — sixty-eight donors have given more than $1 million according to its website — numbers are given in ranges, actual amounts are unknown and no information is given about each donor. Additionally, the foundation has accepted several large contributions from donor advised funds such as Fidelity Charitable, obscuring the true source of the contribution. The Center for Responsive Politics has joined with a dozen transparency organizations to advocate for the Presidential Library Donation Reform Act to pass through the Senate.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/03/shining-a-light-on-presidential-libraries-the-unrenowned-pay-to-play-scandal/
Obama Library Contibutors
https://www.obama.org/contributors/
Foreign influence operations’ beneficiary revealed to be Ukrainian politician targeted by Paul Manafort
A Ukrainian politician who made headlines for being targeted by disinformation campaigns linked to former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort is revealed as the beneficiary of a foreign influence operation financed through a network of shell companies and offshore accounts, according to new Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) disclosures identified in the Center for Responsive Politics’ Foreign Lobby Watch database. That politician is former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is currently one of the frontrunners in Ukraine’s presidential election scheduled for March 31 with a second-round runoff between the top two candidates on April 2 if no candidate receives a majority.
Tymoshenko gained international attention after her imprisonment in Ukraine that was the subject of a controversial report and suspected disinformation campaigns uncovered in an investigation stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling surrounding the 2016 election of Donald Trump. The report, along with a broader influence campaign by Manafort, former Trump campaign aide Richard Gates and Skadden Arps, attempted to legitimize Tymoshenko’s imprisonment. The campaign resulted in Skadden’s retroactive FARA registration in February 2019, a $4.6 million settlement for failure to register with DOJ and an ongoing probe into one of the foreign agents implicated in the scheme, former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig. Court records and other reports indicate that Tymoshenko was the target of an extensive clandestine media strategy involving planted articles in major newspapers, social media targeting and other “black ops” orchestrated by Paul Manafort.
Revelations about the surreptitious influence operations against Tymoshenko have not deterred the emergence of other foreign influence and lobbying campaigns claiming to advocate for her interests, nor have they deterred agents allegedly acting on Tymoshenko’s behalf from their own clandestine methods. Leveraging a complex network of limited liability companies, offshore accounts, shell corporations and other secretive entities, foreign agents claiming to act on Tymoshenko’s behalf have churned over $2.3 million into influence operations in the United States without ever disclosing who is bankrolling them.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/03/foreign-influence-operations-beneficiary-revealed-to-be-ukrainian-politician-targeted-by-paul-manafort/
Looked at it previously, it's doesn't seem to be her imho, her head was to upright!
Fugitive Malaysian financier in multibillion-dollar scandal building army of foreign agents in the U.S.
A fugitive Malaysian financier at the heart of the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal is quietly building up an army of foreign agents and firms amid mounting investigations into his financial dealings. Low Taek Jho, who often goes by Jho Low, gained notoriety as a suspect of investigations into billions of dollars that disappeared from a Malaysian state-owned investment fund called 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). As investigations continue to mount across the globe, Low and his co-conspirators face criminal charges in the U.S. for conspiring to launder billions of dollars embezzled from the wealth fund Low had helped create to launder money for personal enrichment and bribery. The fund was intended to drive economic development in the country and create “opportunities for Malaysians from diverse backgrounds to move up the value chain.”
But Low, along with his co-conspirators, allegedly siphoned the cash and burned through millions of dollars on the New York City club scene partying with celebrities and lavishing them with opulent gifts. From six-figure bar tabs and losing $2 million in 10 minutes gambling during Paris Hilton’s Las Vegas birthday party, to spending millions more on now-confiscated diamond jewelry trying to woo Australian model Miranda Kerr after her split from actor Orlando Bloom and fronting extravagant sums for parties, such as one where Britney Spears burst out of a cake to sing ‘Happy Birthday,’ Low hardly kept his riches under wraps. Money investigators eventually traced back to 1MDB flowed freely, even implicating some A-list Hollywood celebrities. Notably, Low financed “The Wolf of Wall Street”, a movie about corrupt broker Jordan Belfort’s multimillion-dollar Wall Street fraud which was uncovered by the FBI. But financial dealings beyond the silver screen grew even more entangled, forcing Leonardo DiCaprio to turn over millions of dollars worth of gifts from Low, including a $3.28 million Picasso and Marlon Brando’s first Oscar for “On the Waterfront.” As most of those spoils were seized by authorities and Low was left on the run from the agents of multiple countries, the elusive financier enlisted a team of lawyers and communications specialists to deal with the multibillion-dollar scandal’s fallout.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/03/jho-low-building-army-of-foreign-agents/