Posted on 05/19/2018 6:17:34 AM PDT by Liz
When Eric Schneiderman resigned as New York’s attorney general on May 7 amid revelations he engaged in a pattern of alleged physical abuse of women he dated over the years, one of the Democrat’s first defenders was his ex-wife, a New York-based lobbyist named Jennifer Cunningham.
Schneiderman is “someone of the highest character,” said ex-wife Cunningham, who asserted it was “impossible to believe” the allegations in a New Yorker report that Schneiderman abused multiple girlfriends over a period of several years.
Cunningham’s defense of her ex-husband drew some attention because of her position as a partner at SKDKnickerbocker, a Democrat-aligned public relations and lobbying firm that touts its feminist bona fides. Two of its most high-profile partners are Clinton White House aide Hilary Rosen and Obama White House aide Anita Dunn.
(RELATED: Manhattan’s DA Is Investigating Allegations Eric Schneiderman Beat Women)
Though they divorced in 1996, Cunningham remained one of Schneiderman’s closest political advisers — so close that Cunningham worked as an unpaid adviser for Schneiderman before his fall from grace.
That pro bono relationship has been met with skepticism from some New York political observers and government watchdog groups — largely because of Cunningham’s position as a top partner at SKDKnickerbocker.
Numerous examples of potential conflicts of interest mark the Schneiderman-Cunningham relationship. Crain’s New York documented in 2014 Cunningham set up meetings for clients with Schneiderman, who took office in 2011. After a prolonged battled with Schneiderman’s office for his emails with Cunningham, Crain’s reported records showing Cunningham pitched Schneiderman on behalf of several clients.
Cunningham set up a meeting for a client, a health care company, Castlight, and Schneiderman, emails from 2011 showed. She arranged an urgent phone call in February 2014 between a top Schneiderman deputy and executives at a hospital operator, Health Quest. Schneiderman’s office was set to play an advisory role in a potential partnership with a hospital gone bankrupt, according to Crain’s.
Schneiderman’s office defended the contacts at the time, saying they were legal under New York law. But that’s just the problem, says Tom Anderson, the executive director of the National Legal & Policy Center — a good government watchdog that has uncovered corruption in New York.
“If you wanted something from the Attorney General’s office, you had to go through her, and you had to bring your checkbook. The real scandal in New York is that all of this is legal,” Anderson told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Schneiderman’s ex-wife was one of the biggest power brokers in the state, a modern-day Boss Tweed,” he added. The cozy connection between Schneiderman and Cunningham continued even after exposure by outlets like Crain’s, New York Post and New York Daily News.
One recent example of a conflict of interest is NRG Energy. On Aug. 30, 2017, a subsidiary of the energy distribution company struck a deal with Schneiderman’s office to reimburse $800,000 to customers who were overcharged millions on their energy bills.
NRG Energy hired SKDKnickerbocker on April 19, 2017, to lobby the executive and legislative branches in New York state, according to lobbying records TheDCNF reviewed. Cunningham is listed as one of the lobbyists on the contract.
Cunningham and SKDK also represented Genting Americas Inc. — a subsidiary of Genting Malaysia Berhad — which operates casinos in New York. Genting Americas Inc. lobbied hard against expanding video-slot machine operations at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens. In 2015, Schneiderman ultimately sided against online gamblers, providing a boon to casinos and race tracks in the state.
(RELATED: Schneiderman Called ‘#MeToo’ Movement ‘Extraordinary’ Just A Week Before His Fall From Grace)
Genting Americas Inc. has contributed $40,000 to Schneiderman’s campaigns from 2011 to 2014, according to lobbying disclosure reports. Schneiderman has also come under fire for his handling — or lack thereof — of an investigation into Herbalife, a nutrition company accused of operating as a pyramid scheme.
On April 14, 2014, The New York Post broke the story Schneiderman had opened an investigation into Herbalife’s business practices. A week before the investigation opened, Herbalife hired SKDK to help with its defense and public relations campaign, The Post also noted. Cunningham would not work on the account, SKDK said at the time.
The Herbalife investigation appears to have withered on the vine. There have been no major developments or announcements in the case. Uber is another company that was frequently in Schneiderman’s crosshairs. In November 2017, Schneiderman opened the most recent investigation into the ride-sharing company over a 2016 data breach that affected 57 million users. On March 1, Uber hired SKDK as a lobbyist. Cunningham is listed as one of the lobbyists on that contract.
Now that Schneiderman is out of office, it remains to be seen what will happen to Cunningham’s client roster or her position as an unpaid adviser to the attorney general’s office.
Neither Cunningham nor the AG’s office responded to requests for comment.
“and Obama White House aide Anita Dunn.”
Ah yes, the one who licked her own face incessantly.
L
In Chicago most of the alderman are attorneys.
If you ever need legal services, you know who to call first.
Yes, all legal and aboveboard.
Great point......and if he’s such a good guy, why are they divorced?
She is creepily reptilian. And an admirer of one of history’s top mass murderers, Mao Tse Tung.
"Personal differences" is all I could find.
When I was a kid, the polling place for our ward was the alderman’s basement. I kid you not.
My old man blew a gasket one year, when our alderman (Fanta) told my dad “I’m going to help you vote”.
My old man was in his 40’s, not like he was senile, and told Fanta to go pound sand. This was right before I enlisted so 64 or 65?
For the next year, we had NO garbage pick up. NONE. Back then, we had concrete incinerators in the Chicago alleys, and so my dad burned what he could and stuffed the rest in our neighbors garbage (our neighbor on Grace and Leavitt let him). The next winter my mom wrote me and said that the snow plow wouldn’t do our whole street, but lift its plow blade in front of our house, leaving a 5’ drift. Now then later we got hit with the blizzard of 67-68, and they pushed all the snow in front of our home.
18’ tall easily my mom said. You couldn’t get down Leavitt street, it was blocked in front of our two flat, to signal everyone who the “bad guy” was... my Dad. The snow plow would actually push to our house, then back up, and come around the other way and push it in front of our 2 flat.
THAT was the Chicago Machine.
Dunn is married to Robert Bauer, former partner at Perkins Coie and former personal counsel to President Obama and the White House Counsel.[13] Bauer has also been the general counsel of Obama for America since January 2007.[14][15] In 2008, Newsweek named Dunn and Bauer the new "power couple" in Washington, D.C.[16]
Anita Dunn Anita Dunn-- White House Director of Communications Acting In office April 21, 2009 – November 30, 2009 Spouse(s) Bob Bauer ~~~ Education University of Maryland, College Park (BA)
Anita B. Dunn (born January 8, 1958) is an American political strategist who served as Acting White House Communications Director from April through November 2009. She is a senior partner at SKDKnickerbocker, a strategic communications firm in Washington, D.C.
Post #9 - swamp connections
bump
“She is creepily reptilian.“
She always reminded me of one of those aliens in the Rowdy Roddy Piper classic “They Live”.
L
I would like to think that only the democrats are guilty of these types of scandals, but sadly I should know better: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1319851/posts
Portage Park, until my parents, escaped to Glenview.
I moved to DuPage after I returned to the world.
And not all that different, back then. But in a better way.
Jessie Jackass ran in the primary, for fun I requested a dem ballot. Everyone at the table looks up to see the interloper.
For a few years, some services disappeared.
Sadly, DuPage once a bastion of conservatives, I now have neighbors across the street that are rabid libs.
I live in Kane County now. For the 25 years I have lived here, we were solid R. For 8 of those years I was the precinct captain.
The last 8 years have been rough. People flee Chicago to escape the crime and Cook County taxes, then come to the outlying ‘burbs and vote for he same damned shit!
It makes no sense.
So, we are a D county now.
It breaks my heart. You can’t even put a R sign on your lawn now without fear of having your windows smashed or car damaged, or retribution against your kids in the school district.
I got a grand-daughter in HS now, one more year, then we are moving. Out of this damned state. Either Flagstaff, UP Michigan, or Northern Wisconsin. I was thinking Texas years ago, but I see so many posts from Texans telling us “we don’t want your type here...” .... soooo, pretty sure I don’t want to retire where people are going to try and harm me because I am from the north.
I care about what people want, and Texans don’t want conservatives, and we conservatives understand that.... so we’ll just let all the libs from California take over Texas.
I say that tongue in cheek, but I must hear weekly from some Texas big mouth “if your from da north, then keep your U-Haul away!” Ok, we gotcha.... We will... Us conservatives fleeing states like Illinois will stay away... you shoot em up pardner with your six shooter and cowboy hat.... We know where we are not wanted...
Texas never learns... it used to be “circle the Alamo”... now it is “only Californian’s need apply!”
So do I. Kane County Utah that is....
You'll love it here. These's no such thing as a Demorat party here.
bump
Great point.
p
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