Sheldon Whitehouse: "Wait til we start digging out WHO the $18 million donor was...Follow the money"

[kpete]

@SenWhitehouse
Double-layered deception? Who tries that hard to hide? Not anyone up to any good.

We need to keep digging — “follow the money.” And look how touchy #Republicans were about this!!


They forced a vote on whether the subject of FACT secret funding was in order, as soon as it was first mentioned.

Double-layer identity hiding and frantic #Republican efforts to stop the questioning—looks like we’re on to something.


Wait til we start digging out who the $18 Million donor was to the @judicialnetwork to stop Garland and get Gorsuch on the Court.

Follow the money...This ain’t over.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/02/democrat-promises-investigation-18-million-donor-helped-steal-garland-seat-gorsuch-aint/

[ScratchCat]

1. So,

who was the donor? Sounds like he knows.

[Achilleaze]

2. Double-dealing republican fascist wankers, and their darkside russian cronies, are

a curse upon honest, decent Americans, and upon American democracy.

Deplorable republican scumbaggery.

[fleabiscuit]

52. +1

[manor321]

3. Whitehouse points out some REAL notable content from the committee hearing, but the press...

...doesn't cover it that way. There was tons of "both sides" coverage that treated it like a circus spectacle.

Once again the press falls down badly. The American people have no hope of being educated.

We even get threads created here at DU just because some asshole at Slate or Salon or Politico or wherever writes a "both sides" article.

[Kurt V.]

13. +1

[FoxNewsSucks]

16. That's not actually "falling down badly",

that's exactly what the corporate media is supposed to do. Shape the coverage to make sure the public remains ignorant of republicon crime, by repeatedly warning of every outrageous and scandalous Democratic sneeze.

Because both sides. And emails.

Look!! Tan suit!!!!!!!!!!!

[dlk]

29. In 1988, Herman and Chomsky Wrote a Book About it, "Manufacturing Consent"

This has been the case for decades.

[2naSalit]

37. +1

[triron]

25. This gets very wearisome doesn't i?

[Chickensoup]

34. Other than a few individuals in the media

and the press who speak for lower and middle class issues and interests, while the Fox News is supporting right and extreme right Ideology with lies and fake news non stop.
We need a medium of information to join the competition that can articulate and stands for our values 24/7 instead
Of dividing us over fake issues.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

43. Why doesn't he run for prez? I think he has an excellent mind and heart and demeanor. nt

[CrispyQ]

47. And he has name recognition built in!

I thought he should have run in 2016. I hope he runs in 2020.

[malaise]

4. Get thee to the grreatest page

NOW!!

[Iliyah]

5. I want it exposed . . .

Stolen elections in 2016 from President on down!

[watoos]

6. ...but but George Soros.

Soros was a paper tiger the right used for deflection while they took in dark money from Adelson, the Kochs, and foreign oligarchs.

I want to see why the NRA gave a ton of money to Repugs in 2016 but cut back 90% in 2018 when they came under investigation.

Give Butina immunity, asylum, and put her in the witness protection program. I have a feeling that a lot of Repugs got a lot of rubles.

[PatSeg]

8. Yes, a whole lot of republicans

There needs to be a thorough housecleaning, unlike anything we've seen before. If we don't hold these people accountable, they'll come back again and again. We've seen it before, some people just never learn.

[LiberalBrooke]

12. It's not so much that they don't learn.

What they have learned is that they can get away with it. So far that is. Let’s start prosecuting all criminal behavior. Young ones coming up will then in fact learn that they will be indicted for any crimes they commit.

[PatSeg]

14. Oh, I agree

I remember Watergate and Iran Contra. There was great satisfaction watching the system work and seeing the wrongdoers held accountable, but then years passed and damn, if those same jerks didn't show up again and again still wreaking havoc on the world. Even those who served prison time! It was like their biggest regret wasn't committing a crime, but getting caught.

There are those who ended up writing books and hosting TV and radio talk shows. They committed crimes against their country and they were rewarded as if they were heroes.

You are right, it is important to start young. My son had behavior problems in grade school and the behavior disorder program taught him the consequences of his actions at an early age.

[dlk]

30. The Fact that No One Went to Prison for the Iran Contra Scandal Has Come Back to Haunt Us

When there is no accountability or blanket pardons, as recommended by William Barr to George H. W. Bush, the criminals are emboldened to continue with more schemes and crimes.

[PatSeg]

33. I know

It was insane. People who came up with something as convoluted and corrupt as Iran Contra cannot be trusted to be anywhere near government. Its the mindset that invaded Iraq and turned the Middle East upside-down and inside-out. They treat the world like their own personal game board with no thought to the real life consequences of their bizarre schemes. Human beings are just pawns to them.

[mgardener]

46. Or Nixon.

No wonder the republicans feel so entitled.

[CrispyQ]

49. This.

How many of the same old faces have have shown up again in this new century?

[calimary]

19. THAT'S the problem right there. They've learned they can get away with this shit.

Whole infrastructures have been built to hide donors and details. Blow it open, Dems!

Blow it ALL open!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

44. Yes, every day technology and search engines improve - the more likely

we can. Who knows what they got away with before tech boom.

So much is falling through the cracks today - all Trump's balls up in the air.

[JHB]

22. Soros was the foreign bogeyman they needed because...

..."getting their marching orders straight from the Kremlin" is a Republican gig these days.

[PatSeg]

7. Wow

You can't take a break from the news for a second. There is so much going on at one time and this story is getting more complex and convoluted every day.

[DirtEdonE]

9. An oldie but goodie

The traitors were being outed but no one was listening. But we Democrats had better focus on immediately purging our party of anyone who has any allegation of any sort of impropriety. That should be a winner for us when competing with totally immoral traitorous pubicans, right?

How Putin's oligarchs funneled millions into GOP campaigns
Filed under Commentary at May 8

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/12/15/putins-proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns

"Editor's note May 8, 2018: This column originally published December 15, 2017. New allegations about $500k in payments from a Russian oligarch made to Trump attorney Michael Cohen have placed it back in the news."

Trump campaign solicits illegal foreign donations despite warnings
By Jonathan Swan and Harper Neidig - 07/16/16 02:27 PM EDT

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/288031-trump-campaign-solicits-illegal-foreign-donations-despite-warnings

[watoos]

15. The trouble with the one foreign donation,

was that the guy had dual or maybe even 3 separate citizenships. This needs to be cleaned up and a law passed that bans foreign donations from people with dual citizenships.

[GetRidOfThem]

20. Not a good idea...

I may end up having dual, German and U.S. I still want to be able to donate to liberal causes.

Working on getting my German back... (already have a U.N. passport for work, which makes me a citizen of the world...)

[Ferryboat]

23. Followed the link.

To Dallas news story.

It speaks volumes that a story of this magnitude gets buried by the continuous firehouse of other daily outrages.

[DirtEdonE]

42. The wife and I were just saying that this morning

We were recounting some of the atrocities trump has gotten away with so far and we just couldn't remember it all. aIt's difficult to keep up. Or we'd begin to mix up facts. This is part of the filthy traitor's strategy.

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security."

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it—please try to believe me—unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head."

"And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying ‘Jewish swine,’ collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in—your nation, your people—is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed."

https://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html

[dalton99a]

27. +1

[Vinnie From Indy]

10. Awesome!

Keep digging!

[Firestorm49]

11. Good! Now get to work, since most investigations go on forever.

[Botany]

17. Random speculation on my part but did Mitch McConnell's palms get greased too?

[bdamomma]

18. My opinion

Mitch is over his eyeballs in this crap. He really needs his ass out.
I hope that greed chokes him.

[Botany]

26. I think Mitch's smugness comes from the fact that he knows that the elections in KY are rigged.

The 2015 KY's governor's race doesn't pass my smell test.

[They_Live]

21. 3.5 million, at least

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/08/03/tangled-web-connects-russian-oligarch-money-gop-campaigns

[PeeJ52]

38. Why won't our press ask them about this? They write the article then that's it.

What are we supposed to do? I know I've written and called Rubio about it. He just ignored me even though I requested a response every time. They don't even care.

[TxVietVet]

24. When I heard Whitaker try to explain his emplyment at his

PAC, I knew it was going to be interesting. A single donor from a PAC front financed him. Very shady. I hope the Dems follow this and continue to expose the conservanazis' undermining our government.

[greymattermom]

32. So who is that donor?

And where did the money really come from?

[PeeJ52]

36. You can't tell.

It came from another 501(c)3, which came from another 501(c)3, which came from another 501(c)3 and on and on. You can never tell.

[UpInArms]

41. See my post #40

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211797746#post40

[dlk]

28. This is Not How a Democracy is Sustained and Survives-Whitehouse is Right-Follow the Money

We have become too much like a Russian oligarchy, where a few cranky billionaires control the political process. GOP's fact-free propaganda has taken us far in this direction. Now that Democrats control the House, more evidence and truth regarding the GOP 's treachery to hand over our democracy to the billionaires will see the light of day. Yesterday's hearing clearly demonstrated how critical it is for democracy-supporting American's to vote.

[UniteFightBack]

31. I believe some rooting around needs to be done concerning Kennedy's "retirement". nt

[BigmanPigman]

48. Hell YES!

"Mr. Trump was apparently referring to Justice Kennedy’s son, Justin. The younger Mr. Kennedy spent more than a decade at Deutsche Bank, eventually rising to become the bank’s global head of real estate capital markets, and he worked closely with Mr. Trump when he was a real estate developer, according to two people with knowledge of his role."

"During Mr. Kennedy’s tenure, Deutsche Bank became Mr. Trump’s most important lender, dispensing well over $1 billion in loans to him for the renovation and construction of skyscrapers in New York and Chicago at a time other mainstream banks were wary of doing business with him because of his troubled business history."

"About a week before the presidential address, Ivanka Trump had paid a visit to the Supreme Court as a guest of Justice Kennedy. The two had met at a lunch after the inauguration, and Ms. Trump brought along her daughter, Arabella Kushner. Occupying seats reserved for special guests, they saw the justices announce several decisions and hear an oral argument."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/us/politics/trump-anthony-kennedy-retirement.html

[Silver Gaia]

51. YES!

My daughter and I were just discussing that earlier today.

[PeeJ52]

35. I started last night trying to find who gives to FACT, but you're going to find and endless chain...

of 501 (c)3s... One anonymous group gives to another and gives to each other. There is no way to tell where the money comes from. I can't under stand how the Supreme Court can say free speech can be anonymous yet can be sure it isn't coming from a foreign power. Roberts really missed the boat on that one. No one can say the demand to have anonymous free speech. That is being allowed to yell fire in a crowded theater.

[Totally Tunsie]

39. I'm so proud of the representation that RI provides to the nation.

Democrats all, Senators Whitehouse and Reed and Representatives Langevin and Cicillini are top knotch.

[UpInArms]

40. Background on Judicial Crisis Network

Gorsuch’s Dark-Money Benefactor Attended His White House Swearing-In Ceremony

Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation to the Supreme Court was made possible in part by the Judicial Crisis Network, which spent $17 million lobbying to keep Merrick Garland off the bench—and to get Gorsuch on it. Where did all that money come from? We don’t know, because it was almost entirely dark money, funneled through a Koch-allied conduit that keeps its donors secret. But the JCN isn’t entirely anonymous: It has a public face in Carrie Severino, the group’s chief counsel and policy director. Severino essentially served as Gorsuch’s lobbyist, throwing money around to ensure his confirmation. Like many lobbyists, she enjoys the access to power that her job affords her. Indeed, Severino attended Gorsuch’s swearing-in ceremony at the White House Rose Garden on Monday morning.

Severino’s presence at Monday’s ceremony serves as a startling reminder that Gorsuch’s path to the Supreme Court was facilitated by dark money. The JCN is kept afloat by one donor, the Wellspring Committee, which is in turn funded primarily by one single anonymous donor. Wellspring is little more than a dark-money conduit—but as a “social welfare” 501(c)(4) group, it is not required to disclose its donors. Ann Corkery, a Koch-affiliated conservative fundraiser, runs Wellspring; her husband, Neil Corkery, serves as JCN’s treasurer. For years, Wellspring has poured money into JCN, which spends the cash promoting conservatives in both state Supreme Court elections and federal confirmation battles.

The JCN became quite adept at buying state Supreme Court seats, mastering the art of the eleventh-hour smear campaign. But blocking President Barack Obama nominee Merrick Garland—and helping Gorsuch seize the seat instead—was its boldest gambit yet. The JCN began peddling offensive falsehoods about Obama’s shortlisters before the president even settled on Garland. Severino herself then contributed to the mendacious assault on Garland’s reputation, aided by National Review, which happily published her paid opinions. Meanwhile, the JCN ran ads attacking senators who were willing to hold hearings for Garland. It ran up a tab of around $7 million. Most of that money came from Wellspring.

As soon as President Donald Trump nominated Gorsuch, however, the message flipped. Suddenly, the JCN began airing cheerful ads describing Gorsuch as an independent, impartial judge who deserved hasty confirmation. One ad featured former Gorsuch clerk Jane Nitze praising her old boss. In it, she assured “folks on the left” that Gorsuch would be impartial. The ad strongly implied that Nitze is a Democrat; she is, in fact, a Republican who happened to work as a career attorney at the Justice Department during Obama’s tenure. (Naturally National Review partook in the ruse.) But why should Nitze care about this misrepresentation? Thanks partly to her help, Gorsuch is now a Supreme Court justice—and she will serve as one of his first clerks.

[no_hypocrisy]

45. Please Sweet Jesus, let it be Sheldon Adelson . . . . .

$18 mill is nothing to him.

[Nitram]

50. Why was an $18 million donation needed to keep McConnell from allowing a floor vote on Garland?

Republicans had a majority in the Senate and the House.

[Aussie105]

53. Let me get this straight . . .

the US political system allows massive donations without the donor being known?

I guess a suitcase full of money and a note 'You now owe me some favours, I will contact you at the right time and let you know what they are' isn't beyond reality?

Pass some laws please. Every political donation over $5 needs to be documented with the PERSON doing the donation named, and published on a public forum/website.

Sheesh, if I 'donated' $18 million, I'd sure want some 'favours' done!
Nobody is that generous to part with that sort of money with zero strings attached!