moolenaar Rep 8%
===
life 8
Michigan, District 2
Phone: 202-225-3561
2023 Score
Lifetime Score
6%
8%
2 25
john Robert Moolenaar (/ˈmoʊlənɑːr/ *MOHL-ən-ar*; born May 8, 1961)[citation needed] is an American chemist and politician serving as a U.S. representative from Michigan since 2015, representing the state's 2nd congressional district since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2003 to 2008 and the Michigan Senate from 2011 to 2014.[1]
Early life and education
Moolenaar was born on May 8, 1961, in Midland, Michigan.[2] His family is of Dutch ancestry. He graduated from Hope College in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry.[3] He later earned a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard University in 1989.[3]
Career
Moolenaar worked at Dow Chemical Company as a chemist for eight months before entering politics.[4] He was a member of the Midland City Council from 1997 to 2000. He was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 2002, where he served three terms. In 2010, he was elected to the Michigan Senate, where he served one term.[5][6]
In 2014, Moolenaar ran for the United States House of Representatives seat representing Michigan's 4th congressional district. He won the Republican primary election in August, defeating Paul Mitchell,[7] and the general election in November.
In December 2020, Moolenaar signed an amicus brief before the United States Supreme Court in Texas v. Pennsylvania, et al., which sought to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election results.[8]
Elections
Moolenaar was elected to represent the 36th district in the Michigan State Senate in 2010. He defeated Democrat Andy Neumann in the November 2 general election, 56,634 votes to 32,154.
Moolenaar ran in the 2014 election for the U.S. House to represent Michigan's 4th District. He won the Republican nomination in the August 5 primary against Paul Mitchell and Peter Konetchy. He defeated Jeff Holmes (D), Will Tyler White (Libertarian) and George Zimmer (U.S. Taxpayers) in the November 4 general election.
U.S. House of Representatives
Committee assignments
For the 118th Congress:[9]
- Committee on Appropriations
- Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (Chair)
Caucus memberships
- Republican Study Committee[10]
- Republican Main Street Partnership[11]
- U.S.-Japan Caucus[12]
- Congressional Coalition on Adoption[13]
Political positions
In December 2020, Moolenaar was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated[14] incumbent Donald Trump. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of an election held by another state.[15][16][17]
In 2022, Moolenaar voted against the Respect for Marriage Act.[18]
Moolenaar is known for supporting and advocating for China and on several occasions has advocated for the US government to adopt a more relaxed stance towards the country, including providing funds for Chinese veterinary clinics.[19][20]
References...
---
opb
A yearslong U.S. Justice Department investigation of a global hacking campaign that targeted prominent American climate activists took a turn in a London court this week amid an allegation that the hacking was ordered by a lobbying firm working for ExxonMobil. Both the lobbying firm and ExxonMobil have denied any awareness of or involvement with alleged hacking.
The hacking was allegedly commissioned by a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm, according to a lawyer representing the U.S. government. The firm, in turn, was allegedly working on behalf of one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, based in Texas, that wanted to discredit groups and individuals involved in climate litigation, according to the lawyer for the U.S. government. In court documents, the Justice Department does not name either company.
As part of its probe, the U.S. is trying to extradite an Israeli private investigator named Amit Forlit from the United Kingdom for allegedly orchestrating the hacking campaign. A lawyer for Forlit claimed in a court filing that the hacking operation her client is accused of leading “is alleged to have been commissioned by DCI Group, a lobbying firm representing ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies.”
Forlit has previously denied ordering or paying for hacking.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to a source familiar with the U.S. probe who was not authorized to speak publicly, the U.S. has investigated DCI’s possible role in the hacking. Reuters and *The Wall Street Journal* previously reported that the U.S. government has investigated DCI.
DCI lobbied for ExxonMobil for about a decade, according to federal lobbying records. NPR has not been able to confirm what, if any, links the Justice Department may have thought DCI had with the hacking campaign. NPR has not found any indications that the Justice Department has investigated ExxonMobil in relation to this case.
DCI and ExxonMobil declined to comment on the allegations made in the London hearing. Both companies referred NPR back to statements they had provided earlier in our investigation.
Craig Stevens, a partner at DCI, said in an email that no one at the firm has been questioned by the U.S. government as part of the hacking investigation. “Allegations of DCI’s involvement with hacking supposedly occurring nearly a decade ago are false and unsubstantiated. We direct all our employees and consultants to comply with the law,” Stevens said. “Meanwhile, radical anti-oil activists and their donors are peddling conspiracy theories to distract from their own anti-U.S. energy activities.”
ExxonMobil spokesperson Elise Otten said in an emailed statement that the company “has not been involved in, nor are we aware of, any hacking activities. If there was any hacking involved, we condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
In a court document arguing for Forlit’s extradition, the lawyer for the U.S. government described a sophisticated hacking operation that spanned continents. Forlit ran security companies that gathered information using various methods, including hiring “co-conspirators to hack into email accounts and devices,” according to the court filing.
A lawyer representing the U.S. government revealed in the court filing that Forlit has been indicted in the U.S. on charges of conspiracy to commit computer hacking, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and wire fraud, according to the court filing in London.
Climate activists who were targeted by hackers say the plot that U.S. officials have been trying to unravel was aimed at disrupting their efforts to fight climate change by pushing governments and society to slash the use of fossil fuels like oil and coal.
“It was undoubtedly designed to intimidate and scare advocates from continuing their work to hold these major oil companies accountable for the decades of deception that they’re responsible for,” says Lee Wasserman, director of the Rockefeller Family Fund and one of the hacking victims.
The fossil fuel industry faces dozens of lawsuits filed by states and localities accusing companies of misleading the public about the risks of climate change. The industry says that those lawsuits are meritless and politicized and that climate change is an issue that should be dealt with by Congress, not the courts.
The potential impact on civil society of hacking-for-hire operations is grave, according to cybersecurity and legal experts.
“Nothing is more powerful at chilling speech and encouraging self-censorship than the feeling that your entire digital world, which probably touches your whole world, could be invaded by people who mean you harm simply because of what you’re doing at work,” says John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab, a cyber watchdog at the University of Toronto that analyzed the attacks. “Simply because you’re concerned about rising sea levels.”
The U.S. has said previously that ExxonMobil took advantage of leaked information
The U.S. hacking investigation became public in 2019 with the arrest in New York of a business associate of Forlit’s named Aviram Azari. A former Israeli police officer and private investigator, Azari eventually pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit computer hacking, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The hackers Azari hired didn’t target just American climate activists, according to federal prosecutors. They also attacked government officials in Africa, members of a Mexican political party and critics of a German company called Wirecard.
U.S. District Judge John Koeltl sentenced Azari in November 2023 to more than six years in prison and ordered him to forfeit more than $4.8 million that prosecutors allege he was paid for managing the hacking campaigns.
At Azari’s sentencing, federal prosecutors did not say who they believed had hired Azari to target the climate activists. The Justice Department stated in a sentencing memo that ExxonMobil was the beneficiary of the information that the attacks revealed.
Federal prosecutors asserted in the Azari sentencing memo that information stolen from climate activists was leaked to the media, resulting in news stories that “appeared designed to undermine” state climate investigations of ExxonMobil. The company’s lawyers used the news stories in court as part of their defense against the state investigations, prosecutors said.
ExxonMobil said in a statement at the time that it had done nothing wrong. “ExxonMobil has no knowledge of Azari nor have we been involved in any hacking activities,” the company said.
The sentencing memo in Azari’s case noted a private email among climate activists that surfaced in the media in 2016. The email described plans for a closed-door meeting in New York among leading climate activists, including writer and organizer Bill McKibben and Peter Frumhoff, then the chief climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a watchdog and research group. The meeting’s goal, according to the email, was to sharpen attacks on ExxonMobil and convince the public that the company is a “corrupt institution” that pushed the world toward “climate chaos and grave harm.” It also raised the prospect of legal action through state attorneys general and the Justice Department.
ExxonMobil and some Republican lawmakers cited the document as they tried to fight off state climate investigations, saying activists and prosecutors colluded to advance a political agenda.
lamar nyag ltr: 05.18.16SSTLettertoNYAG
===
may 18 2016
abuse of prosecutorial discretion
ask for docs
Sensenbrenner Neugebauer posey frank lucas dana Rohrabacher
mo brooks
bridenstine randy weber john moolenaar
brian babin loudermilk ralph lee abraham