DNC Leak Reveals Party Insiders Promised Obama Access in Exchange for Cash
Published on
Monday, July 25, 2016
by
Common Dreams
DNC Leak Reveals Party Insiders Promised Obama Access in Exchange for Cash
Emails appear to violate White House policy
by
Nika Knight, staff writer
Dinner with President Barack Obama was offered to donors who could afford
$10,000 seats. (Photo: The White House/flickr/cc)
Wealthy potential donors to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) were
courted with promises of access to the president, a Washington Post analysis
of internal DNC emails released by WikiLeaks has found. The party insiders'
pitches appear to be in violation of White House policy, the newspaper
notes.
On Monday, the Post reported:
The DNC emails show how the party has tried to leverage its greatest
weaponthe presidentas it entices wealthy backers to bankroll the
convention and other needs. At times, DNC staffers used language in their
pitches to donors that went beyond what lawyers said was permissible under a
White House policy designed to prevent any perception that special interests
have access to the president.
Top aides also get involved in wooing contributors, according to the emails.
White House political director David Simas, for instance, met in May with a
half-dozen top party financiers in Chicago, including Fred Eychaner, one of
the top Democratic donors in the country, the documents show.
On at least one occasion, a White House lawyer asked DNC employees to alter
the language of an invitation to a high-dollar event so it would not appear
to be soliciting donations in exchange for access to President Barack
Obamademonstrating that employees were made aware of the policy.
"Let's remove the word round table on page 2 at the top ('$33,400 - Round
table discussion guest'). As you know, WH policy restricts the use of
language that gives the appearance that contributors can pay for policy
access to the President," Ruthzee Louijeune, an associate at Perkins Coie
LLC, wrote to a DNC staffer in reference to a May event featuring Obama.
The Post noted, however, that "the emails show several instances in which
DNC fundraisers pitched donors with promises of a 'roundtable' chat with
Obama. On May 6, the southern finance director emailed ¬Cockrum, [a]
Tennessee donor, about packages available for the Philadelphia convention."
The newspaper continues:
"If [you] were willing to contribute $33,400 we can bump you up a level to
the Fairmont," [the southern finance director] wrote, referring to a luxury
hotel. "Additionally, your generous contribution would allow you to attend a
small roundtable we are having with President Obama in DC on May 18th or a
dinner in NYC on June 8th.
On the afternoon of the event, the place of honor, at Obama's side, went to
New York philanthropist Phil Munger. Kaplan noted to Shapiro in an email
that Munger was one of the largest donors to Organizing for Action, a
nonprofit group that advocates for Obama's legislative agenda.
"It would be nice to take care of him from the DNC side," Kaplan wrote,
adding: "He is looking to give his money in new places and I would like that
to be to us."
The Democratic Party collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single
dinner with the president. On May 24, an email with the subject line "Daily
Number" gave the donation tally at that point for a June 8 dinner in New
York, hosted by venture capitalist and Huffington Post co-founder Kenneth
Lerer, with the president in attendance:
Guests
48
Committed
$143,400
In Hand
$576,113
Total
$719,513
Not only does the DNC appear to be pitching access to the president in
exchange for donations, a McClatchy investigation on Thursday also revealed
that large-ticket donors often demand such special favors. It also found
that DNC insiders attempted to find ways to appease such donorsoccasionally
arguing about which donor deserved a reward more.
McClatchy reports:
In one exchange, National Finance Director Jordan Kaplan and Mid-Atlantic
Finance Director Alexandra Shapiro argue which contributor should be allowed
to sit next to Obama at a DNC event.
Kaplan told Shapiro to move Maryland ophthalmologist Sreedhar Potarazu and
give the seat to New York philanthropist Philip Munger because he is the
largest donor to Organizing for America, a group that pushes Obamas
policies. "It would be nice to take care of him from the DNC side," Kaplan
wrote.
But Shapiro explained that the Potarazu family had contributed $332,250
while Munger had only donated $100,600.
Both the DNC and the Republican National Convention (RNC) have "stepped up
their hunt for huge checks since a series of legal changes in 2014 gave them
leeway to collect expansive contributions for new accounts to pay for
building, legal and convention expenses," the Post observes.
The Post reports that in addition, in 2015 "the DNC, in consultation with
Clinton's campaign, also decided to reverse a ban on donations from the PACs
of corporations, unions and other groups."
Former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who announced her
resignation on Sunday after the leak revealed the DNC favoring Hillary
Clinton's presidential campaign over Bernie Sanders', actively solicited
large donations from super PACs and lobbyists after the new rules were
established.
"After those limits were lifted," the newspaper continues, Schultz "and
other top party officials showered corporate lobbyists with calls, emails
and personal meetings seeking convention support and PAC contributions to
the party, according to a spreadsheet logging the contacts."
And the resulting donations have been quite significantparticularly when it
came to funds solicited to pay for the party convention in Philadelphia. The
Post writes:
The top-tier donor package for this week's Democratic National Convention
required a donor to raise $1.25 million or give $467,600 since January 2015,
according to a document in the emails. In return, a contributor got booking
in Philadelphia at a premier hotel, VIP credentials and six slots at "an
exclusive roundtable and campaign briefing with high-level Democratic
officials," according to the terms.
Those perks were aggressively pushed to donors this spring as DNC staffers
worked to try to pay for the partys share of the convention, a tab that had
been covered by public funds in previous years.
The DNC also appeared to look for ways around the remaining rules that
limited donations, in search of more contributions: "When Pietrzak, who had
already given his annual maximum to the party, expressed interest in
attending the May 18 event with Obama," the Post notes, "a party staffer
responded to her colleague: 'No chance of getting more $ out of them, is
there? Push the convention packages as an incentive?'"
Such revelations appear to confirm the argument that relying on large
donations from wealthy individuals and large corporations inevitably leads
to corruption of the political process. Indeed, both Bernie Sanders and
Green Party presumptive presidential nominee Jill Stein have condemned the
DNC's fundraising practices and called for campaign finance reform:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
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DNC Leak Reveals Party Insiders Promised Obama Access in Exchange for Cash
Published on
Monday, July 25, 2016
by
Common Dreams
DNC Leak Reveals Party Insiders Promised Obama Access in Exchange for Cash
Emails appear to violate White House policy
by
Nika Knight, staff writer
23 Comments
Dinner with President Barack Obama was offered to donors who could
afford $10,000 seats. (Photo: The White House/flickr/cc)
Wealthy potential donors to the Democratic National Committee (DNC)
were courted with promises of access to the president, a Washington Post
analysis of internal DNC emails released by WikiLeaks has found. The party
insiders' pitches appear to be in violation of White House policy, the
newspaper notes.
On Monday, the Post reported:
The DNC emails show how the party has tried to leverage its greatest
weaponthe presidentas it entices wealthy backers to bankroll the
convention and other needs. At times, DNC staffers used language in their
pitches to donors that went beyond what lawyers said was permissible under a
White House policy designed to prevent any perception that special interests
have access to the president.
Top aides also get involved in wooing contributors, according to the
emails. White House political director David Simas, for instance, met in May
with a half-dozen top party financiers in Chicago, including Fred Eychaner,
one of the top Democratic donors in the country, the documents show.
On at least one occasion, a White House lawyer asked DNC employees to alter
the language of an invitation to a high-dollar event so it would not appear
to be soliciting donations in exchange for access to President Barack
Obamademonstrating that employees were made aware of the policy.
"Let's remove the word round table on page 2 at the top ('$33,400 - Round
table discussion guest'). As you know, WH policy restricts the use of
language that gives the appearance that contributors can pay for policy
access to the President," Ruthzee Louijeune, an associate at Perkins Coie
LLC, wrote to a DNC staffer in reference to a May event featuring Obama.
The Post noted, however, that "the emails show several instances in which
DNC fundraisers pitched donors with promises of a 'roundtable' chat with
Obama. On May 6, the southern finance director emailed Cockrum, [a]
Tennessee donor, about packages available for the Philadelphia convention."
The newspaper continues:
"If [you] were willing to contribute $33,400 we can bump you up a level to
the Fairmont," [the southern finance director] wrote, referring to a luxury
hotel. "Additionally, your generous contribution would allow you to attend a
small roundtable we are having with President Obama in DC on May 18th or a
dinner in NYC on June 8th.
On the afternoon of the event, the place of honor, at Obama's side, went to
New York philanthropist Phil Munger. Kaplan noted to Shapiro in an email
that Munger was one of the largest donors to Organizing for Action, a
nonprofit group that advocates for Obama's legislative agenda.
"It would be nice to take care of him from the DNC side," Kaplan wrote,
adding: "He is looking to give his money in new places and I would like that
to be to us."
The Democratic Party collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single
dinner with the president. On May 24, an email with the subject line "Daily
Number" gave the donation tally at that point for a June 8 dinner in New
York, hosted by venture capitalist and Huffington Post co-founder Kenneth
Lerer, with the president in attendance:
Guests
48
Committed
$143,400
In Hand
$576,113
Total
$719,513
Not only does the DNC appear to be pitching access to the president in
exchange for donations, a McClatchy investigation on Thursday also revealed
that large-ticket donors often demand such special favors. It also found
that DNC insiders attempted to find ways to appease such donorsoccasionally
arguing about which donor deserved a reward more.
McClatchy reports:
In one exchange, National Finance Director Jordan Kaplan and Mid-Atlantic
Finance Director Alexandra Shapiro argue which contributor should be allowed
to sit next to Obama at a DNC event.
Kaplan told Shapiro to move Maryland ophthalmologist Sreedhar Potarazu and
give the seat to New York philanthropist Philip Munger because he is the
largest donor to Organizing for America, a group that pushes Obamas
policies. "It would be nice to take care of him from the DNC side," Kaplan
wrote.
But Shapiro explained that the Potarazu family had contributed $332,250
while Munger had only donated $100,600.
Both the DNC and the Republican National Convention (RNC) have "stepped up
their hunt for huge checks since a series of legal changes in 2014 gave them
leeway to collect expansive contributions for new accounts to pay for
building, legal and convention expenses," the Post observes.
The Post reports that in addition, in 2015 "the DNC, in consultation with
Clinton's campaign, also decided to reverse a ban on donations from the PACs
of corporations, unions and other groups."
Former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who announced her
resignation on Sunday after the leak revealed the DNC favoring Hillary
Clinton's presidential campaign over Bernie Sanders', actively solicited
large donations from super PACs and lobbyists after the new rules were
established.
"After those limits were lifted," the newspaper continues, Schultz "and
other top party officials showered corporate lobbyists with calls, emails
and personal meetings seeking convention support and PAC contributions to
the party, according to a spreadsheet logging the contacts."
And the resulting donations have been quite significantparticularly when it
came to funds solicited to pay for the party convention in Philadelphia. The
Post writes:
The top-tier donor package for this week's Democratic National Convention
required a donor to raise $1.25 million or give $467,600 since January 2015,
according to a document in the emails. In return, a contributor got booking
in Philadelphia at a premier hotel, VIP credentials and six slots at "an
exclusive roundtable and campaign briefing with high-level Democratic
officials," according to the terms.
Those perks were aggressively pushed to donors this spring as DNC staffers
worked to try to pay for the partys share of the convention, a tab that had
been covered by public funds in previous years.
The DNC also appeared to look for ways around the remaining rules that
limited donations, in search of more contributions: "When Pietrzak, who had
already given his annual maximum to the party, expressed interest in
attending the May 18 event with Obama," the Post notes, "a party staffer
responded to her colleague: 'No chance of getting more $ out of them, is
there? Push the convention packages as an incentive?'"
Such revelations appear to confirm the argument that relying on large
donations from wealthy individuals and large corporations inevitably leads
to corruption of the political process. Indeed, both Bernie Sanders and
Green Party presumptive presidential nominee Jill Stein have condemned the
DNC's fundraising practices and called for campaign finance reform:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
