will coggin

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/17/bogus-allegation-that-putin-is-funding-california-environmental-charity/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/17/bogus-allegation-that-putin-is-funding-california-environmental-charity/</a></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Analysis</b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The bogus ‘allegation’ that Putin is funding a California environmental charity</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">By Glenn Kessler</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Staff writer</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">March 17, 2022 </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“It has been alleged that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is using a San Francisco-based e-NGO, the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Sea Change Foundation </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">(Sea Change), to funnel money into U.S.-based environmental advocacy efforts designed to undermine American energy production. … Notably, reports suggest that your organization is one of the top e-NGO recipients of Sea Change grants since 2006.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">— Letter signed by every GOP member of the House Energy Committee, written to several environmental groups, March 10</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Note the passive voice in this letter — “it has been alleged.</b>” There’s just enough smoke in the four-page missive to suggest there’s a raging fire. At Fox News, the resulting story was headlined: “House Republicans demand answers from environmental groups over allegation of collusion with Russia</span>.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The letter demanded answers by March 25 from three environmental groups — the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Sierra Club —</b> on whether they have received funding from Russia or China and whether any funding from Sea Change, an environmental philanthropy, was used for anti-fracking advocacy. Sea Change contributes about $40 million to $50 million a year to a variety of environmental organizations.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Provided the public reporting of Putin’s dark money influence in Europe and the concerns surrounding similar efforts in the United States, we write today to explore your connections with Sea Change,” the letter said. “Any action by President Putin, the Russian government, or Putin’s allies to undermine American energy security must be addressed.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>But upon inspection, the allegations crumble into dust</b>. The flimsiest of dots are connected to make a case. What is even more astonishing is that, regular as clockwork, Republicans have been making these bogus claims every few years, even after credible explanations have been given. Small wonder — they keep getting the same favorable headlines from right-leaning media.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Facts</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This all started in 2014, when the Republican staff of the Senate Environment Committee published a report alleging that a group of “left wing millionaires and billionaires … directs and controls the far-left environmental movement, which in turn controls major policy decisions and lobbies on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).” The report focused on Sea Change Foundation, based in California, which it said “relies on funding from a foreign company with undisclosed donors.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The president of Sea Change is Nat Simons, a son of billionaire hedge fund investor James Simons, who is one of the world’s richest people, with a net worth of almost $29 billion. </b>The committee report conceded that Nat and his wife, Laura Baxter-Simons, “predominantly fund Sea Change through their own personal wealth, mostly attributed to their ties to Renaissance Technologies, a wildly profitably hedge fund.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But the report also noted that “in addition to funding by the Simons, the only other source of its contributions derives from a Bermuda-based company called Klein Ltd.” In 2010, <b>Klein </b>contributed $13 million to Sea Change, about half of Sea Change’s contributions that year, and in 2011 Klein contributed $10 million to Sea Change, about one-third of the contributions. The report decried the “lack of transparency” about Klein’s funding and said the company appeared to have been set up “for the sole purpose of funneling anonymous donations to Sea Change.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There was not a word in the report about Russian money. But then, in December 2015, a group called the Environmental Policy Alliance issued a six-page paper titled “From Russia With Love<b>?</b>”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Note the question mark. </b>It intended to raise allegations but provide plausible deniability. The paper — it’s too thin to be called a report — claimed it was building on the Senate report by examining the law firm that set up Klein.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>That firm, Wakefield Quin, is one of Bermuda’s top law firms. The hyped discovery in the paper was that some of the lawyers at the firm held directorship positions in companies of some of their clients, including some linked to the Russian energy sector. </b>One 2008 court case in the British Virgin Islands, for instance, resulted in a money laundering conviction against a client associated with an adviser to Putin. “While it is unclear who is funding Klein, the law firm controlling this shady offshore funder of the U.S. environmental movement has ties to Russian money laundering, a friend and advisor of Vladimir Putin, Russian oil production, and more,” the paper said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Law firms, of course, often have many clients, sometimes with shared interests. But that does not mean the law firm is coordinating among its clients or funneling money between them. The dots are so poorly connected as to be almost nonexistent.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Moreover, there is a certain irony in the<b> Environmental Policy Alliance</b> issuing the paper. It’s one of the many “AstroTurf” organizations — faux think tanks — run out of the offices of Berman and Company, headed by GOP lobbyist Richard “Rick” Berman. The group’s webpage says it is devoted to “uncovering the funding and hidden agenda behind environmental activist groups.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2014, the New York Times obtained a recording of a closed-door speech in which Berman bragged to a group of oil industry executives about how he kept corporate donations secret behind a wall of nonprofit groups that sponsor major advertising campaigns supporting industry objectives. “There is total anonymity,” he said. “People don’t know who supports us.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Despite the dubious provenance and the flimsy reasoning, the claims made by Berman’s group keep circulating.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 2017, when Russian interference in the 2016 election was in the news, two Republican lawmakers from Texas, Lamar Smith (since retired) and Rep. Randy Weber, issued an open letter asking the Treasury Department to investigate possible money flows from Putin to Sea Change.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The letter began by citing concerns raised about Russia’s opposition to fracking by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rasmussen in 2014 was quoted as saying that Russia “engaged actively with so-called nongovernmental organizations — environmental organizations working against shale gas — to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas.”<b> He provided no proof and declined to say more, saying, “That is my interpretatio</b></span><b>n.”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Clinton, in a private speech in Edmonton, Alberta, in 2014, alluded to Russian disinformation efforts. “We were up against Russia pushing oligarchs and others to buy media,” she said. “We were even up against phony environmental groups, and I’m a big environmentalist, but these were funded by the Russians to stand against any effort, ‘Oh that pipeline, that fracking, that whatever will be a problem for you,’ and a lot of the money supporting that message was coming from Russia.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The speech was revealed when Russia hacked the account of Clinton campaign manager John Podesta and turned over his emails to WikiLeaks</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> But Nick Merrill, a Clinton spokesman, said she was not talking about Russia funding groups in the United States. “I remember this speech,” he said in an email. “She was talking about proposed pipelines in Europe that would have threatened Russian supply.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One repeatedly cited statistic is that Russia invested $95 million in nongovernmental organizations to persuade European governments to stop shale gas exploration. The number appeared in a 2018 Senate committee report, sourced to the Wilfried Martens Center for European Studies. But the Wilfried Martens Center report does not explain how that figure was calculated and attributes it only to a 2015 “interview with anonymous contributor.” The report also is unclear about how much of this funding came from what are known as GONGOs (government-organized nongovernment organizations) or Russian oil companies themselves, as opposed to secret conduits of Russian money.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Finally, the letter referred to a national intelligence report issued on Jan. 6, 2017, about Russia’s efforts to influence the political debate in the United States. That report noted that RT, the Russian news channel, “runs anti-fracking programming, highlighting environmental issues and the impacts on public health.</b>”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In other words, concerns about apparent Russian efforts to use nongovernmental groups in Europe to undermine fracking were leveraged to suggest that the same problem existed in the United States. But the only direct intervention in the United States that has been identified was a Russian news network.[that is well known propaganda organ vs u.s. NGO?]</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When Smith and Weber issued their letter, the Bermuda law firm issued a blistering statement denying any suggestion that it acted as a conduit for Russian funds. “The allegations are completely false and irresponsible,” the firm said. “Our firm has represented Klein since its inception, and we can state categorically that at no point did this philanthropic organization receive or expend funds from Russian sources or Russian-connected sources and Klein has no Russian connection whatsoever.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Politico quoted a Sea Change spokesperson as saying that no money from Russia had been received and that none of its donations to environmental groups were earmarked for opposition to fracking — which was supposedly the point of the subterfuge. From our study of Sea Change’s tax filings, its contributions have been focused broadly on climate change mitigation, energy efficiency and clean-energy policies.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Finally, a year later, the Sea Change Foundation revealed the source of Klein’s funding — the Simons family wealth. It turns out it was just another trust for the family’s billions</b>.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I wish to clarify that press reports speculating that Klein has received funding from outside sources are factually incorrect and have no basis,” Nat Simons said in a 2018 statement to Inside Philanthropy. “Neither Klein nor Sea Change Foundation has ever solicited or accepted contributions from non-family related sources.” Simons said that the name of the Bermuda funding vehicle had been changed from Klein Ltd. to Sea Change Foundation International.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Yet, here we are, with a new letter. </b>This new missive repeats, at the start, the same items as the earlier letter — such as quotes from Rasmussen, Clinton and the national intelligence report. It adds a 2019 quote from former Trump aide Fiona Hill, made during the first impeachment inquiry, that Putin “saw American fracking as a great threat to Russian interests.” <b>(Hill told the Fact Checker that “this was only a general statement” as “Putin went on a rant about fracking that I personally witnessed in November 2011.”)</b></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Then the l<b>etter claims that “it has been alleged that </b>Putin” is using Sea Change to advance his interests. No mention is made of Sea Change’s 2018 statement explaining the family wealth as the source of the money.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The letter is so stuck in a time warp that it’s out of date. Rod Forrest, a director and senior counsel at Wakefield Quin, told The Fact Checker that the law firm no longer represents Sea Change (or Klein) and has not done so for some time. </b>“Wakefield Quin does not have any directorship positions with any investment or other group connected in any way to any Russian minister,” he added.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Nat Simons and Laura Baxter-Simons, in a statement to The Fact Checker, said: “<b>We are disappointed to see false allegations of foreign influence through Sea Change Foundation resurface after this untrue assertion was fully refuted in a statement released in 2018</b>. To state clearly, neither Klein nor Sea Change Foundation has or had any connection to Russia or Russian funds</span>.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The environmental groups also issued statements denying any links to Russian funds.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“We receive no funding from the government of Russia,” said Bob Deans, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s director of strategic engagement.</b> “We answer to our independent leadership, and we don’t do the bidding of any government — foreign or otherwise — in our work to advocate for common sense environmental protections in the public interest. These allegations are rooted in a smear campaign orchestrated nearly a decade ago by fossil fuel interests and a right-wing think tank. They only serve now, as then, as a distraction.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“This false conspiracy theory, invented by the same deceitful front groups paid to do polluters’ and Big Tobacco’s dirty work, has been repeatedly debunked over its nearly 10-year existence,” said Sierra Club Legislative Director Melinda Pierce</span>. “The Sierra Club has no connections to Russia or China, and proudly fights for clean energy and climate action because this is what our planet requires, our families deserve, and what the overwhelming majority of Americans across the country demand.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“This story is completely false and has been put to rest for years,” said David Willett, a League of Conservation Voters spokesman</b>. “We have no connections to Russia, or China, and have been an effective advocate for environmental protection for over 50 years. These false and poorly-researched allegations are rooted in a nearly 10-year-old right-wing think tank and fossil fuel industry-funded smear campaign that gets revived every few years to serve as a distraction.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Jack Heretik</b>, a spokesman for the House Energy Committee’s GOP members, said: “If the League of Conservation Voters, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club have nothing to hide, then we look forward to seeing the evidence by March 25.</span>”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Will Coggin, a Berman and Company research analyst associated with entities such as the Center for Consumer Freedom and the Environmental Policy Alliance, issued a statement defending the 2015 paper:</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> “The NATO Secretary General said Russians were working with environmentalists to oppose fracking in other countries as a scheme to help Russian energy. Our report highlighted how a shadowy Caribbean-based organization gave $23 million to Sea Change and how the firm where that group was based had connections to Russian clients.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> The questions we raised are still unanswered, and this situation deserves a full, independent investigation.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Pinocchio Test</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">For years, it’s been clear that Sea Change Foundation has no connection to secret Russian money. After all, the foundation is associated with one of the world’s richest families. On top of that, we can find no evidence that money donated by Sea Change resulted in anti-fracking campaigns. The foundation might have been quicker to reveal that Klein’s funds were just more of the Simonses’ money, but in any case that has been known now for four years.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">The lawmakers may pretend that they are just asking questions, but in reality they are recycling claims that have already been adequately debunked. It’s a smarmy way to earn some publicity during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They earn<b> Four Pinocchios.</b></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Four Pinocchios</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(About our rating scale)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Send us facts to check by filling out this form</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sign up for The Fact Checker weekly newsletter</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Fact Checker is a verified signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network code of principles</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">229 Comments</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">----</div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">---</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">april 2015</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.citizensforethics.org/authors/crew-staff/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: 0px;">CREW Staff</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">April 13, 2015</span></font><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0rem 0rem 2.2rem; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0rem 0rem 2.2rem; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Last week, Claire Moser of the Public Lands Project at the Center for American Progress <a title="How The Oil Industry’s ‘Dr. Evil’ Is Running A Campaign To Sell Off America’s Public Lands" href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/06/3643232/berman-front-group-op-eds-on-public-lands/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">highlighted the role</a>that Richard Berman’s public relations firm, <a title="Berman Exposed" href="http://bermanexposed.com/" target="blank" class="broken_link" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">Berman and Co.</a>, is playing in a campaign to sell off America’s national forests and public lands</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Berman and Co. is </span><a title="Facts on Berman" href="http://bermanexposed.com/facts/" target="blank" class="broken_link" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">notorious</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> for using nonprofit front groups to wage deceptive campaigns on behalf of corporate clients. One of Berman’s employees,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <a title="Will Coggin" href="http://bermanexposed.com/associate/will-coggin/" target="blank" class="broken_link" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">Will Coggin</a>, has been <a title="Nevadans should have say on land management policy" href="http://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/nevadans-should-have-say-land-management-policy" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">spamming</a> <a title=" Will Coggin: Public lands debate marred by camouflaged activists" href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865625394/Public-lands-debate-marred-by-camouflaged-activists.html?pg=all" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">newspapers</a> <a title="Public Lands Debate Marred by Camouflaged Activists" href="http://www.fairfieldsuntimes.com/opinion/article_7be24be4-d7e0-11e4-ba7a-b7b1e730bc9a.html" target="blank" class="broken_link" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">with</a> <a title="Look at funding for groups opposed to federal lands transfer" href="http://helenair.com/news/opinion/look-at-funding-for-groups-opposed-to-federal-lands-transfer/article_5e1d4364-9aa7-5e5a-b470-530bb43701aa.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">op-eds</a> arguing that public<b>land management should be moved from the federal government to the states,</b> who are more likely to sell the land for energy development.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0rem 0rem 2.2rem; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Each of Coggin’s nearly identical columns — published under the guise of Berman’s <a title="Scribd: Center for Consumer Freedom" href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/178797357/Center-for-Consumer-Freedom" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">Environmental Policy Alliance</a> project — accuses several sportsmen’s groups who oppose shifting control of public lands of being “green decoys” because they have received some funding from environmentally engaged foundations.  “A quick look at their ‘dark money’ financial backers makes their true motive clear: To lock away land from being utilized for economic growth and jobs,” <a title="Nevadans should have say on land management policy" href="http://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/nevadans-should-have-say-land-management-policy" target="self" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">writes</a> Coggin.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0rem 0rem 2.2rem; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It takes a lot of gall for a Berman operative to attack other organizations over “dark money,” especially as part of an attack campaign that appears to have gotten its seed money from a foundation described as “</span><a title="Exposed: The Dark-Money ATM of the Conservative Movement" href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/donors-trust-donor-capital-fund-dark-money-koch-bradley-devos" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” by </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;">Mother Jones</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. In 2013, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a title="Donors Trust: History" href="http://www.donorstrust.org/AboutUs/History.aspx" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">Donors Trust</a>, a donor-advised fund “dedicated to promoting a free society,” gave $57,250 to Berman’s Center for Consumer Freedom “for <a title="Donors Trust 2013 990" href="http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/522/522166327/522166327_201312_990.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">hunting organization opposition research</a>.” That same year, the Center for Consumer Freedom reported <a title="Center for Organizational Research and Education 2013 990" href="http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/260/260006579/260006579_201312_990.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">spending $71,132 on research</a> into “various environmental activist groups and their activities.” The “<a title="Green Decoys" href="http://greendecoys.com/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">Green Decoys</a>” project <a title="Quacks like a duck: corporate shill Richard Berman launches " green="Green" decoys="Decoys" attack="attack" report="report" see="See" more="more" at="at" http="http" www.bluestemprairie.com="www.bluestemprairie.com" bluestemprairie="bluestemprairie" quacks-like-a-duck-corporate-shill-richard-bermon-launches-green-decoys-attack-report.html="quacks-like-a-duck-corporate-shill-richard-bermon-launches-green-decoys-attack-report.html" sthash.5uj9bv2v.dpuf="sthash.5uj9bv2v.dpuf" href="http://www.bluestemprairie.com/bluestemprairie/2014/01/quacks-like-a-duck-corporate-shill-richard-bermon-launches-green-decoys-attack-report.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">debuted</a> in January 2014.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0rem 0rem 2.2rem; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since launching, Coggin has published at least 29 op-eds and letters-to-the editor attacking groups such as Trout Unlimited, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, <a title="Activists camouflage backers’ agendas" href="http://www.chieftain.com/opinion/3493447-120/groups-management-state-states" target="blank" class="broken_link" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">including</a> <a title=" Home/News/Opinion/Letters to the Editor Environmentalists oppose state control of public lands" href="http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/mailbag/environmentalists-oppose-state-control-of-public-lands/article_0ffe85b7-3251-5c51-8b0f-ff35c56d6e49.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">three</a> <a title="Reader View: Activists mar public lands debate" href="http://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/reader-view-activists-mar-public-lands-debate/article_5f492e30-8f99-51ac-aaec-6d7ac72a4dd9.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">more</a> since Moser’s story. None of them mention that Coggin works for Berman and Co., instead listing him as an analyst at either the Center for Consumer Freedom or the Environmental Policy Alliance. <a title="Environmental Policy Alliance analyst: On 'Waters of the U.S., beware of camouflaged advocacy" href="http://newsok.com/environmental-policy-alliance-analyst-on-waters-of-the-u.s.-beware-of-camouflaged-advocacy/article/5234399#commentLink" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">Only</a> <a title="Oklahoman should run green decoys out of town" href="http://newsok.com/oklahoman-should-run-green-decoys-out-of-town/article/5347112" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">three</a> <a title="EPA water rule pits liberal billionaires against rural farmers" href="http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/220355-epa-water-rule-pits-liberal-billionaires-against-rural" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">mention</a> that the Environmental Policy Alliance’s parent organization, the Center for Organizational Research and Education, “is supported by a variety of businesses and foundations, including those in the hospitality, agriculture and energy industries.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0rem 0rem 2.2rem; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One publication, the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Sierra Sun</em>, posted <a title="Letter to the Editor: Trout Unlimited on national scale has shady agenda " href="http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/northshore/12692173-113/national-trout-unlimited-office" target="blank" class="broken_link" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">an editor’s note</a> after running a letter last August, writing that Coggin had “misidentified himself as a senior research analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Environmental Policy Alliance” and is “is actually employed by Berman and Co.” The note closed with an apology to readers: “the Sierra Sun regrets publishing this misinformation.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0rem 0rem 2.2rem; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Coggin’s refusal to admit his own agenda while casting aspersions on others is not the only deceptive aspect of his and Berman’s public lands campaign. In a </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;">Washington Examiner</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a title="Letter to the Editor: Trout Unlimited on national scale has shady agenda " href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/how-camouflaged-activists-want-to-de-industrialize-the-west/article/2554201" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">op-ed</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> last October about Trout Unlimited’s opposition to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management issuing oil and gas leases in Nevada,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Coggin cited <a title="" the="the" economic="Economic" value="Value" of="of" energy="Energy" resources="Resources" on="on" federal="Federal" lands="Lands" in="in" rocky="Rocky" mountain="Mountain" region="Region" href="http://www.westernenergyalliance.org/sites/default/files/2013%20Energy%20Dev%20Impact.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">research</a> by University of Wyoming professor Timothy Considine claiming that up to 208,000 jobs would be created if all of the oil and gas projects on federal lands in seven Western states were approved.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0rem 0rem 2.2rem; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Unmentioned by Coggin? Professor Considine’s report was <a title="" the="the" economic="Economic" value="Value" of="of" energy="Energy" resources="Resources" on="on" federal="Federal" lands="Lands" in="in" rocky="Rocky" mountain="Mountain" region="Region" href="http://www.westernenergyalliance.org/sites/default/files/2013%20Energy%20Dev%20Impact.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">funded</a> by another one of Berman’s front groups, the Employment Policies Institute, </b>and “prepared under a consulting agreement with the Interstate Policy Alliance.” On his curriculum vitae, Professor Considine also lists himself as a consultant for the Interstate Policy Alliance on “<a title="Timothy J. Considine CV" href="http://www.uwyo.edu/econfin/files/docs/facultycv/considine%20cv%20january%202015.pdf" target="blank" class="broken_link" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">energy development on federal lands</a>.” The Interstate Policy Alliance is <a title="Employment Policies Institute Foundation 2013 990" href="http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/521/521902264/521902264_201312_990.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">a project</a> of the Employment Policies Institute that <a title="SPN Western States CEO Meeting on Federal Lands" href="http://www.sutherlandinstitute.org/uploaded_files/WesternStates.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">works</a> <a title="SPN 20th Annual Meeting" href="http://spnannualmeeting2012.sched.org/event/6b4d49a414df9df927981082f5cf6f2f" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">with</a> the <a title="Interstate Policy Alliance" href="http://policyalliance.org/contact-us/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">think tanks</a> in the conservative <a title="The Right-Wing Network Behind the War on Unions" href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/state-policy-network-union-bargaining" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">State Policy Network</a> to “<a title="Interstate Policy Alliance: About Us" href="http://policyalliance.org/about-us/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">support and promote state-based research</a>” from a free market perspective. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Guardian</em> <a title="Lobbyist dubbed Dr Evil behind front groups attacking Obama power rules" href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/23/lobbyist-dubbed-dr-evil-behind-front-groups-attacking-obama-power-rules" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">recently documented</a> how the Interstate Policy Alliance is funding research critical of the Environmental Protection Agency’s power plant rules.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0rem 0rem 2.2rem; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Coggin isn’t the only Berman employee to cite Professor Considine’s research while arguing for opening up public lands to development without acknowledging their ties. In June 2014, <a title="Berman Exposed: Anastasia Swearingen" href="http://bermanexposed.com/node/482/" target="blank" class="broken_link" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">Anastasia Swearingen</a>, a Berman employee, published op-eds in the <a title="Nevada being denied right to join energy boom" href="http://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/nevada-being-denied-right-join-energy-boom" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Las Vegas Review-Journal</em></a> and the <a title=" Op-ed: 'Bean-counting bureaucrats' at BLM are locking up Utah's future " href="http://archive.sltrib.com/printfriendly.php?id=58061863&itype=cmsid" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Salt Lake Tribune</em></a> that cited Professor Considine’s research as proof that “radical environmentalists have prevented Western states from reaping enormous economic benefits.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">”<b> Like the </b></span><b><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;">Sierra Sun</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, the </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;">Salt Lake Tribune</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> came to regret describing the op-ed as having been written by a representative of the Environmental Policy Alliance.</span></b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0rem 0rem 2.2rem; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The column now carries an <a title=" Op-ed: 'Bean-counting bureaucrats' at BLM are locking up Utah's future " href="http://archive.sltrib.com/printfriendly.php?id=58061863&itype=cmsid" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; outline: 0px;">editor’s note</a> as well: “This commentary originally described the author as a senior research analyst for the Environmental Policy Alliance. In fact, Anastasia Swearingen works for the public relations firm Berman and Co., which manages the Environmental Policy Alliance and represents clients in the energy industry.”</font></p><div class="related-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Related Tags: <a href="https://www.citizensforethics.org/tag/corporate/" rel="tag" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Corporate</a>, <a href="https://www.citizensforethics.org/tag/disclosure/" rel="tag" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Disclosure</a>, <a href="https://www.citizensforethics.org/tag/financial/" rel="tag" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Financial</a>, <a href="https://www.citizensforethics.org/tag/governance-legislation/" rel="tag" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Governance & Legislation</a>, <a href="https://www.citizensforethics.org/tag/lobbying/" rel="tag" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Lobbying</a>, <a href="https://www.citizensforethics.org/tag/organizations/" rel="tag" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Organizations</a>, <a href="https://www.citizensforethics.org/tag/transparency/" rel="tag" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Transparency</a></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">---</font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font>

Short Bio: Will Coggin is a researcher at Berman and Company, and also serves as a senior research analyst at the Center for Consumer Freedom.</p>

<p>

Since May 2013, Coggin has served as the public point man for Berman's attacks against animal welfare groups. Before joining Berman and Company, Coggin interned at the American Enterprise Institute, where he provided research for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's book, Real Change. He graduated from the College of William & Mary, where earned a BBA in finance and Chinese.</p>

<p>

 In college, Coggin was the editor of The Remnant, a libertarian campus magazine, and a campus activist. As part of his activism, Coggin co-founded the group Sons of Liberty, which held a bake sale on campus that charged different prices to students of different racial backgrounds. During the bake sale, Coggin reportedly played the Monopoly-style game "Ghettopoly,"" which featured crackhouses instead of Boardwalk and Park Place. He is on the board of the Society for the College.</p>

<p>

organization</p>

<p>

Berman and Company</p>

<p>

Researcher

Center for Consumer Freedom</p>

<p>

Research Analyst

<div>

<div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CCF Senior Research Analyst Will Coggin, who has been working for Berman since 2013, defending the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) and its many shadow organizations.</font></div>

<div>

</div>

<div>Media outlets reported that as a freshman at the College of William & Mary, Coggin cofounded a libertarian group called the Sons of Liberty, which quickly became embroiled in a dispute over a bake sale at the University Center on campus. The group held the sale in protest of affirmative action programs. Coggin explained, "We had different prices based on your race, and it went progressively down for Asians, Blacks, Hispanics." During the sale, Coggin also played the game "Ghettopoly," a Monopoly spoof that, instead of the traditional top hat, dog, and shoe icons, featured a pimp, marijuana leaf, crack cocaine pebble, and machine gun. When the vice president of student affairs called the stunt a blatant violation of the student handbook policies, Coggin conceded, "I guess by the technical, legal definition we did discriminate."</div>

<div>

</div>

<div>While in college, Coggin was also the editor of a student libertarian newspaper, The Remnant. A woman who reported that she had been raped sued Coggin and the paper for "embarrassment, humiliation and mental suffering" following information that the paper had published about her implying that she was lying. After the rape charges were dropped, Coggin and other newspaper staff members posted fliers on campus and material on The Remnant's website that revealed the woman's name and address. The Nation admonished the paper, writing, " [The College of William and Mary Vice President of Student Affairs Sam] Sadler… responded to concerns that the controversy would deter future victims of sexual assault from coming forward and obtaining the help they need. But the actions of The Remnant had already successfully diverted attention from eliminating sexual assault and toward a debate about free speech and the campus judicial system… In addition to dealing with the trauma of sexual assault, William and Mary survivors have the extra burden of fearing public retaliation.</div>

</font></div>

<div>

<p style=" line-height: 15px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rick Berman doesn't always speak for himself. Sometimes newspapers publish articles and opinion pieces penned by <b>CCF <a href="https://www.consumerfreedom.com/about/will-coggin/" style=" text-decoration: none;">Senior Research Analyst Will Coggin</a>,</b> who has been working for Berman <a href="http://bermanexposed.com/associate/will-coggin/" style=" text-decoration: none;">since 2013</a>, defending the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) and its many shadow organizations.</font></p>

<p>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Media outlets reported that as a freshman at the College of William & Mary, <a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1021855/posts" style=" text-decoration: none;">Coggin cofounded a libertarian group called the Sons of Liberty</a>, which quickly became embroiled in a dispute over a bake sale at the University Center on campus. The group held the sale in protest of affirmative action programs. Coggin explained, "<a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1021855/posts" style=" text-decoration: none;">We had different prices based on your race, and it went progressively down for Asians, Blacks, Hispanics</a>." During the sale, Coggin also played the game "Ghettopoly," a Monopoly spoof that<a href="http://www.sptimes.com/2003/10/04/Tampabay/Game_s_street_theme_u.shtml" style=" text-decoration: none;">, instead of the traditional top hat, dog, and shoe icons, featured a pimp, marijuana leaf, crack cocaine pebble, and machine gun</a>. When the vice president of student affairs called the stunt a blatant violation of the student handbook policies, Coggin conceded, "<a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1021855/posts" style=" text-decoration: none;">I guess by the technical, legal definition we did discriminate</a>."</font></p>

<p>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>While in college, Coggin was also the <a href="http://articles.dailypress.com/2006-04-22/news/0604220033_1_raped-coggin-student-publication" style=" text-decoration: none;">editor of a student libertarian newspaper, <em>The Remnant</em></a>.</b> A woman who reported that she had been raped sued Coggin and the paper for <a href="http://articles.dailypress.com/2006-04-22/news/0604220033_1_raped-coggin-student-publication" style=" text-decoration: none;">"embarrassment, humiliation and mental suffering" following information that the paper had published about her implying that she was lying</a>. After the rape charges were dropped, <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/assault-gets-even-ugliercontroversy-escalates-over-sexual-violence-campus" style=" text-decoration: none;">Coggin and other newspaper staff members posted fliers on campus and material on <em>The Remnant</em>'s website that revealed the woman's name and address</a>. <em>The Nation</em> admonished the paper, writing, <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/assault-gets-even-ugliercontroversy-escalates-over-sexual-violence-campus" style=" text-decoration: none;">"</a> </font></p>

<p>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[The College of William and Mary Vice President of Student Affairs Sam] Sadler… responded to concerns that the controversy would deter future victims of sexual assault from coming forward and obtaining the help they need. But the actions of <em style=" text-decoration: none;">The Remnant</em> had already successfully diverted attention from eliminating sexual assault and toward a debate about free speech and the campus judicial system… In addition to dealing with the trauma of sexual assault, William and Mary survivors have the extra burden of fearing public retaliation."</font>

</font> 

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" line-height: 15px;">http://www.consumerdeception.com/minion.asp</span></font></p>

</div>

</div>