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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDark-Money Group Paid Former Trump AG to Ask for Pardons--and He Never Registered as a Lobbyist
Former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker left the Trump administration and almost immediately started asking for presidential pardonswithout registering as a lobbyist.In Donald Trumps final months in office, lobbyists swarmed the White House in hopes of securing pardons for their clients. It was a cash bonanza for Beltway insiders aspiring to bend the aggrieved presidents ear, as disclosures required by federal law later revealed.
But one person stands out among that crowd, both for his former role in the Trump administration and for the fact that he never registered as a lobbyisteven though he was being paid $400,000 by a conservative dark money group that had tapped him to lead its efforts to secure pardons and commutations.
Matthew Whitaker held senior roles in Trumps Justice Department from September 2017 to February 2019, finishing off his DOJ tenure with a three-month stint as the acting attorney general. And when he finally departed the administration, he found quite the cushy gig: chairing a new project for the right-wing nonprofit FreedomWorks.
The group brought Whitaker on in March 2020 to head up its new American Freedom Initiative, which FreedomWorks claimed aims to recommend deserving individuals to the Trump administration for pardons and commutations. A previously unreported federal filing from FreedomWorks, which does not have to disclose its donors, shows that the organization paid Whitaker $400,000 last year in unspecified consulting fees.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dark-money-group-paid-former-trump-ag-matthew-whitaker-to-ask-for-pardonsand-never-registered-as-a-lobbyist
Guess it's just too much to ask a Republican former acting Attorney General to follow the law.
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Dark-Money Group Paid Former Trump AG to Ask for Pardons--and He Never Registered as a Lobbyist (Original Post)
Zorro
Dec 2021
OP
NCjack
(10,279 posts)1. TFG must have been paid cash for pardons and commutations.
Irish_Dem
(47,105 posts)2. I think there is little doubt about this.
I wonder how much money he made on this particular grifting activity.
Sanity Claws
(21,849 posts)3. This was the guy with the toilet for men with big balls.
bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)4. Kick and recommend for visibility
Eugene
(61,899 posts)5. Whitaker's dubious lawfulness is not a surprise, but the institutionalized graft is breathtaking
if only for the sheer brazenness.