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What Will It Take to Stymie Right-Wing Supervillain Leonard Leo?
My latest in
@thenation
magazine is on Leonard Leo, the most effective villain in America most people still don't know about.
He was gifted $1.6 billion. And he just weighed in with a brief supporting the right of red-state legislatures to steal elections.
@thenation
magazine is on Leonard Leo, the most effective villain in America most people still don't know about.
He was gifted $1.6 billion. And he just weighed in with a brief supporting the right of red-state legislatures to steal elections.
thenation.com
What Will It Take to Stymie Right-Wing Supervillain Leonard Leo?
With the help of $1.6 billion, the man who helped engineer the conservative takeover of the courts is about to wreak serious havoc.
What Will It Take to Stymie Right-Wing Supervillain Leonard Leo?
With the help of $1.6 billion, the man who helped engineer the conservative takeover of the courts is about to wreak serious havoc.
Link to tweet
8 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
A Lobbyist Helped Scott Pruitt Plan a Morocco Trip. Then Morocco Hired the Lobbyist.
Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. administrator, in Italy last summer, a trip now under scrutiny in part because Mr. Pruitt flew first class. Environmental Protection Agency
By Eric Lipton, Lisa Friedman and Kenneth P. Vogel
May 1, 2018
WASHINGTON — Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, allowed a lobbyist friend to play an unusually influential role in setting his agenda during a visit in December to Morocco, according to internal communications related to the scheduling of meetings reviewed by The New York Times. ... Just months after helping to organize the trip, the lobbyist, Richard Smotkin, was hired by the government of Morocco as a $40,000-a-month foreign agent, according to filings with the Department of Justice. Mr. Smotkin participated in several meetings with Mr. Pruitt in Morocco, including with representatives from some industries, according to participants on the trip.
{snip}
Leonard Leo helped facilitate Mr. Pruitt’s Rome trip and joined him there for a private Mass at the Vatican and at an expensive restaurant for dinner. Lexey Swall for The New York Times
{snip}
On Mr. Pruitt’s other foreign trip as E.P.A. administrator — to Italy in June — he also granted unusual access to a friend, Leonard A. Leo, who heads a conservative judicial group, the Federalist Society, according to three people involved in that trip. Mr. Leo was involved in some aspects of planning the trip and also joined Mr. Pruitt during a visit to the Vatican for a private Mass. ... Two people involved in the travel arrangements said Mr. Leo’s involvement was unusual because outside personnel do not typically help plan international trips for E.P.A. administrators and because his name was not listed on any publicly released documents.
Like Mr. Smotkin, Mr. Leo has enjoyed privileged status at the E.P.A., according to a former agency official, who said that requests made by them were treated as a priority. If either called Mr. Pruitt’s office “and asked for something, we did it, it doesn’t matter what it was,” said the former official, who requested anonymity for fear of running afoul of Mr. Leo, who is powerful among conservatives in Washington. ... The relationship between Mr. Leo and Mr. Pruitt stems from their involvement in conservative legal fights at the state level.
{snip}
Mr. Leo was a director of a nonprofit group called the Rule of Law Project that donated $145,000 to the Rule of Law Defense Fund in 2014. ... Mr. Leo, at the time Mr. Pruitt served as attorney general, also helped introduce Mr. Pruitt to other key conservatives in Washington, including inviting Mr. Pruitt to a private dinner that included the Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, Mr. Pruitt said in a speech he gave in 2016. ... Mr. Leo — an observant Catholic who has played a major role in recommending anti-abortion, anti-regulation judicial nominees for President Trump — accompanied Mr. Pruitt to a private Mass at the Vatican that Mr. Leo helped arrange, according to agency officials who traveled to Rome with Mr. Pruitt. “He was driving most of the schedule,” one former E.P.A. official said of Mr. Leo. ... Mr. Leo also joined Mr. Pruitt and his top aides at a top restaurant in Rome, where the bill for the meal totaled several hundred dollars per participant, according to one of the officials. The official said that Mr. Leo traveled with Mr. Pruitt in his motorcade to the Vatican and to the restaurant over the objections of Mr. Pruitt’s aides, according to the official.
{snip}
Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. administrator, in Italy last summer, a trip now under scrutiny in part because Mr. Pruitt flew first class. Environmental Protection Agency
By Eric Lipton, Lisa Friedman and Kenneth P. Vogel
May 1, 2018
WASHINGTON — Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, allowed a lobbyist friend to play an unusually influential role in setting his agenda during a visit in December to Morocco, according to internal communications related to the scheduling of meetings reviewed by The New York Times. ... Just months after helping to organize the trip, the lobbyist, Richard Smotkin, was hired by the government of Morocco as a $40,000-a-month foreign agent, according to filings with the Department of Justice. Mr. Smotkin participated in several meetings with Mr. Pruitt in Morocco, including with representatives from some industries, according to participants on the trip.
{snip}
Leonard Leo helped facilitate Mr. Pruitt’s Rome trip and joined him there for a private Mass at the Vatican and at an expensive restaurant for dinner. Lexey Swall for The New York Times
{snip}
On Mr. Pruitt’s other foreign trip as E.P.A. administrator — to Italy in June — he also granted unusual access to a friend, Leonard A. Leo, who heads a conservative judicial group, the Federalist Society, according to three people involved in that trip. Mr. Leo was involved in some aspects of planning the trip and also joined Mr. Pruitt during a visit to the Vatican for a private Mass. ... Two people involved in the travel arrangements said Mr. Leo’s involvement was unusual because outside personnel do not typically help plan international trips for E.P.A. administrators and because his name was not listed on any publicly released documents.
Like Mr. Smotkin, Mr. Leo has enjoyed privileged status at the E.P.A., according to a former agency official, who said that requests made by them were treated as a priority. If either called Mr. Pruitt’s office “and asked for something, we did it, it doesn’t matter what it was,” said the former official, who requested anonymity for fear of running afoul of Mr. Leo, who is powerful among conservatives in Washington. ... The relationship between Mr. Leo and Mr. Pruitt stems from their involvement in conservative legal fights at the state level.
{snip}
Mr. Leo was a director of a nonprofit group called the Rule of Law Project that donated $145,000 to the Rule of Law Defense Fund in 2014. ... Mr. Leo, at the time Mr. Pruitt served as attorney general, also helped introduce Mr. Pruitt to other key conservatives in Washington, including inviting Mr. Pruitt to a private dinner that included the Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, Mr. Pruitt said in a speech he gave in 2016. ... Mr. Leo — an observant Catholic who has played a major role in recommending anti-abortion, anti-regulation judicial nominees for President Trump — accompanied Mr. Pruitt to a private Mass at the Vatican that Mr. Leo helped arrange, according to agency officials who traveled to Rome with Mr. Pruitt. “He was driving most of the schedule,” one former E.P.A. official said of Mr. Leo. ... Mr. Leo also joined Mr. Pruitt and his top aides at a top restaurant in Rome, where the bill for the meal totaled several hundred dollars per participant, according to one of the officials. The official said that Mr. Leo traveled with Mr. Pruitt in his motorcade to the Vatican and to the restaurant over the objections of Mr. Pruitt’s aides, according to the official.
{snip}
Tue May 1, 2018: Lobbyist helped broker Scott Pruitt's $100,000 trip to Morocco
Source: The Washington Post
By Kevin Sullivan, Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis May 1 at 5:22 PM
MARRAKESH, Morocco — A controversial trip to Morocco by Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt last December was partly arranged by a longtime friend and lobbyist, who accompanied Pruitt and his entourage at multiple stops and served as an informal liaison at both official and social events during the visit.
Richard Smotkin, a former Comcast lobbyist who has known the EPA administrator for years, worked for months with Pruitt’s aides to hammer out logistics, according to four individuals familiar with those preparations. In April, Smotkin won a $40,000-a-month contract, retroactive to Jan. 1, with the Moroccan government to promote the kingdom’s cultural and economic interests. He recently registered as a foreign agent representing that government.
The four-day journey has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and the EPA inspector general, who is investigating its high costs and whether it adhered to the agency’s mission to “protect human health and the environment.”
Information obtained by The Washington Post shows the visit’s cost exceeded $100,000, more than twice what has been previously reported — including $16,217 for Pruitt’s Delta airfare and $494 for him to spend one night at a luxury hotel in Paris. He was accompanied by eight staffers and his round-the-clock security detail.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/lobbyist-helped-broker-pruitts-100000-trip-to-morocco/2018/05/01/b2e20ee0-4d76-11e8-b725-92c89fe3ca4c_story.html
By Kevin Sullivan, Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis May 1 at 5:22 PM
MARRAKESH, Morocco — A controversial trip to Morocco by Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt last December was partly arranged by a longtime friend and lobbyist, who accompanied Pruitt and his entourage at multiple stops and served as an informal liaison at both official and social events during the visit.
Richard Smotkin, a former Comcast lobbyist who has known the EPA administrator for years, worked for months with Pruitt’s aides to hammer out logistics, according to four individuals familiar with those preparations. In April, Smotkin won a $40,000-a-month contract, retroactive to Jan. 1, with the Moroccan government to promote the kingdom’s cultural and economic interests. He recently registered as a foreign agent representing that government.
The four-day journey has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and the EPA inspector general, who is investigating its high costs and whether it adhered to the agency’s mission to “protect human health and the environment.”
Information obtained by The Washington Post shows the visit’s cost exceeded $100,000, more than twice what has been previously reported — including $16,217 for Pruitt’s Delta airfare and $494 for him to spend one night at a luxury hotel in Paris. He was accompanied by eight staffers and his round-the-clock security detail.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/lobbyist-helped-broker-pruitts-100000-trip-to-morocco/2018/05/01/b2e20ee0-4d76-11e8-b725-92c89fe3ca4c_story.html
