Free Republic

Most Americans cannot fathom how fundamentally earth-shattering the Donald Trump administrative architecture is to the professional political class. “It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones” ~ Niccolò Machiavelli

People serving in President-elect Donald Trump's administration will be banned from working as lobbyists for five years, Trump's transition team said Wednesday. "It goes back to Mr. Trump's goal of making sure people aren't using government to enrich themselves," said Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee's chief strategist and a member of Trump's transition team. Spicer made the announcement on a media call, according to The Hill. The website reported everyone appointed to Trump's administration will sign a contract that said they are not currently working as a lobbyist and will not do so within five years of leaving the...

President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to “drain the swamp” of Washington might make it difficult for him to fill all the jobs in his administration. Trump’s ethics plan would ban all executive-branch officials from lobbying for five years after leaving their government jobs — one of several policies aimed at curbing the influence of lobbyists. His campaign released his plan about three weeks before Election Day, and “drain the swamp” quickly became a favorite rallying cry and social media hashtag. The ban also applies to the transition team members charged with helping to find, vet and hire for the incoming...

Operation Drain the Swamp has begun. Vice President-elect Mike Pence reportedly ordered the removal of all lobbyists from president-elect Donald Trump's transition team.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence reportedly ordered the removal of all lobbyists from president-elect Donald Trump’s transition team, The Wall Street Journal wrote on Tuesday night.The decision was one of Pence’s first since formally taking over the team’s lead role. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was abruptly dismissed from the post last week.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence reportedly ordered the removal of all lobbyists from president-elect Donald Trump's transition team, The Wall Street Journal wrote on Tuesday night. The decision was one of Pence's first since formally taking over the team's lead role. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was abruptly dismissed from the post last week. Critics have excoriated Trump for including lobbyists, Washington insiders, and Republican Party veterans among his team, suggesting it contradicts the anti-establishment message that defined his campaign. "[Americans] do not want corporate executives to be the ones who are calling the shots in Washington," Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren...

WASHINGTON—Another round of staff changes buffeted President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team Tuesday amid resistance from within the Republican Party over a top choice for secretary of state. Vice President-elect Mike Pence formally signed documents that put him in charge of the transition team, and officials insisted the 10-week effort to build an administration is on schedule. In one of his first moves, Mr. Pence ordered the removal of all lobbyists from the transition team, said one transition team member with knowledge of the decisions. Earlier Tuesday, former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, once considered a candidate to lead the Central Intelligence...

Re: Foreign registered agents From:jpalmieri@hillaryclinton.com To: re47@hillaryclinton.com Date: 2015-04-17 01:38 Subject: Re: Foreign registered agents Take the money!! Sent from my iPhone On Apr 16, 2015, at 9:44 PM, Robby Mook wrote: Marc made a convincing case to me this am that these sorts of restrictions don't really get you anything...that Obama actually got judged MORE harshly as a result. He convinced me. So...in a complete U-turn, I'm ok just taking the money and dealing with any attacks. Are you guys ok with that? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dennis Cheng Date: Thu, Apr 16, 2015 at 6:13 PM Subject:...

This contains a analysis of John Podesta https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/87 It was obviously important enough to send it to him I will just number some highlights, but this is a good article worth reading in full. Secondary verification by google.com DKIM key Fwd: CLIP | Yahoo: Hillary moneyman highlights new Saudi connection From:slatham@hillaryclinton.com To: john.podesta@gmail.com Date: 2015-10-16 20:49 Subject: Fwd: CLIP | Yahoo: Hillary moneyman highlights new Saudi connection Hillary Clinton and Saudi Arabian Defense Minister Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud prior to a State Department meeting in 2012. 2.The Saudi contract with the Podesta Group, owned by veteran Washington lobbyist...

Tony Podesta's firm failed to file legally required disclosures after emails with his WH adviser brother A high-dollar lobbyist and fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign failed to file legally required disclosures for his advocacy on behalf of a foreign government in discussions with Clinton’s future campaign chairman, according to a political law expert. High-powered Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta emailed his brother John, a top White House adviser who would later chair the Clinton campaign, in January 2015. Tony wondered if John would attend a meeting with the Indian ambassador to the United States. “I’m at Camp David Friday,” John...

The top fundraisers for Clinton include lobbyists who serve the parent companies of CNN and MSNBC. The National Association of Broadcasters, a trade group that represents the television station industry, has lobbyists who are fundraising for both Clinton and Republican candidate Marco Rubio. Presidential campaigns are obligated by law to send the Federal Election Commission a list of lobbyists who serve as “bundlers,” collecting hundreds of individual checks on behalf of a candidate’s campaign. CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, is represented on Capitol Hill by Steve Elmendorf, an adviser to Clinton during her 2008 campaign, who is also known as...

AGENCY LOBBYING HARD FOR MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE South Carolina’s corrupt transportation “leaders” still desperately want to foist Interstate 73 on dirt poor Palmetto State taxpayers … even as government’s embarrassing inability to do basic maintenance continues to be on display all over the state.How desperate are our powerful “roads czars” to get this Interstate built? Let’s recap …First, they’ve spent more than $100 million on an interchange for the highway (even though it’s not clear if it will ever be built).Next they’ve proposed spending millions more on wetlands mitigation related to the road (again, even though it’s not clear if...

Nearly one in 10 superdelegates who voted in the Democratic presidential primaries were registered lobbyists, according to a new report, adding some support to Bernie Sanders's claim that "the system is rigged." At least 63 of 712 superdelegates were registered at some point as lobbyists on the state or federal level, according to an analysis conducted this year by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Sunlight Foundation.

The AP review of Clinton's calendar — her after-the-fact, official chronology of the events of her four-year term — identified at least 75 meetings with longtime political donors and loyalists, Clinton Foundation contributors and corporate and other outside interests that were either not recorded or listed with identifying details scrubbed. The AP found the omissions by comparing the 1,500-page document with separate planning schedules supplied to Clinton by aides in advance of each day's events. The names of at least 114 outsiders who met with Clinton were missing from her calendar, the records show...

Republican lobbyists in Washington are struggling to come to grips with the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency. “A lot of people woke up [on Wednesday] and went, 'Oh gosh. This is not a dream,’ ” said Jeff MacKinnon, a principal at Farragut Partners. “I don't think downtown was really prepared for it happening so quickly. It did catch people off guard.”

Tea Party Patriots President Jenny Beth Martin blasted Donald Trump on Thursday, following reports that the Republican presidential front-runner is being advised by several Washington lobbyists. According to Politico, Trump's recently hired top campaign strategist, Paul Manafort, has introduced several of his lobbyist friends to the campaign to help guide Trump to the general election with a better organization and delegate operation. "Among the influence industry veterans who have been helping the campaign in recent weeks, according to sources close to the Trump campaign, are Laurance Gay, who had worked with Manafort on an effort to obtain a federal grant...

Joe Green, the president of Facebook co-founder’s Mark Zuckerberg’s pro-amnesty FWD.us lobbying group who suggested that foreign workers were better than Americans, was reportedly “forced” out for failing to pass amnesty legislation despite the millions of dollars the group has spent on both sides of the aisle. On Friday, Zuckerberg announced in a “confidential” email Re/Code obtained that Green, who was also his college roommate, had “resigned as President of FWD.us, effective immediately.” Todd Schulte, the former official for the pro-President Barack Obama Priorities USA Super PAC, will become the new president.

There is new evidence senior Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials routinely use private email accounts to conduct government business, this time to pass along information from an energy lobbyist. Michael J. Bradley, president and founder of an energy consulting firm that represents numerous green advocacy groups, described his preference for using a private email to communicate with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy regarding an agency regulation, according to documents obtained by the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) through a Freedom of Information Act request. “Joe, Would you please send this email to Gina for me? I would have sent...

Donald Trump would make "a terrible nominee and a terrible president" — and The Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol said Wednesday that he would rather have Hillary Clinton in the White House than the Republican front-runner.

Florida's Republican legislators wasted no time getting into fundraising mode Monday after the session adjourned on time last week. At 9:23 a.m. they sent out a blast email to lobbyists and donors inviting them to join them on a two-day "Mardi Gras Celebration" at Universal Orlando. . . Checks must be made out to the Republican Party of Florida (aka House majority) and the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. This is no charity. The invite notes contributions are not tax deductible.