Junkets

a neglected category: promoted to primary after RAGA

got attn in abramoff, scotland golf trip, sweat shop (forced abortions) on Marianis Island nominally Made in USA

ALEC trips to New Orleans, Vegas etc) SPN

it's a major form of bribery for state officials

also ASPEN koch

see koch law & econ gmu dude orientations legal

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in recent years, Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas has been in hot water over his failure to disclose luxury junkets paid for by far-right billionaire donors. But a new report shows that federal judges across the country are effectively doing the same thing, with little to no accountability.

A Wednesday report by National Public Radio (NPR) found that dozens of federal district and circuit court judges — appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents — are routinely failing to file timely financial disclosure reports as required by law. Ethics experts say that the timely filing of financial disclosure reports is important for plaintiffs and civil defendants, who may want to request a judge recuse themselves if they see that judge attended an event paid for by a special interest group with a case before the court. Those disclosure forms are then posted to every federal court's website.

"It also matters to the public, even if someone never shows up in a courtroom, to believe in the integrity of our judiciary and to trust in the decisions that are issued by judges," University of Houston Law Center professor Renee Knake Jefferson told NPR. "Having disclosures of judicial financial interests goes directly to the public having confidence in the outcomes of the decisions — that they are free of any bias or influence."

"The public has a right to know whether or not its top legal officials have any potential conflicts going into hearing cases," said Gabe Roth of the nonprofit group Fix the Court. "Sometimes they're small bore, but a lot of the times they have major national impact."

NPR's Tom Dreisbach and Carrie Johnson reported that despite judges being expected to file a public report disclosing any events they attended in which their costs of participation were covered by an outside entity, many jurists have failed to do so for months or even years.

"That information loses most of its value if it's a year and a half later," said Kedric Payne, who is the senior director of ethics at the anti-corruption watchdog group Campaign Legal Center. "It's just too distant from the potential conflict of interest."

One of the more notable members of the federal judiciary who failed to file timely disclosure reports is U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon of the Southern District of Florida, whom former President Donald Trump appointed to the bench in 2020. Cannon — who is overseeing Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith's prosecution of Trump in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case — attended several seminars at a luxury resort in Montana, but didn't post her disclosure forms online until NPR's inquiry. Clerk Angela Noble attributed the late disclosure to "technical issues."

"Any omissions to the website are completely inadvertent," Noble said.

Many of the seminars judges attend are funded by well-heeled far-right groups with extreme ideological agendas. NPR reported that "dozens" of federal judges attended a 2022 event at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School — named for the Ronald Reagan-appointed Supreme Court justice — featuring a speech by European Parliament member Gunnar Beck. Beck is with the anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, or AfD) party, which has called for the mass deportation of migrants and refugees.

Millions of Germans have been protesting AfD for months, criticizing the party as a rebirth of the Nazi movement. NPR noted that Beck posted photos of Black families in a social media post he has since deleted, condemning the "Afrikanisierung" ("Africanization") of Germany. He also lamented that Germany's welcoming of immigrants means the country "has no future as an industrial and cultural nation, but it does have a future as a welfare office."

Click here to read NPR's full report.

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"Any omissions to the website are completely inadvertent," Noble said.

Click here to read NPR's full report.

Many judges fail to fully disclose free luxury trips, NPR finds : NPR

Dozens of federal judges failed to fully disclose free luxury travel to judicial conferences around the world, as required byinternal judiciary rules and federal ethics law, an NPR investigation has found. As a result, the public remained in the dark about potential conflicts of interest for some of the United States' top legal officials.

Federal judges — occasionally with family members or even their dog in tow — traveled to luxury resorts in locations as far-flung as London; Palm Beach, Fla.; Bar Harbor, Maine; and the outskirts of Yellowstone National Park for weeklong seminars. The judges received free rooms, free meals and free money toward travel expenses, together worth a few thousand dollars.

LAW

Victims of harassment by federal judges often find the judiciary is above the law

At one event, a far-right German politician with a history of racially inflammatory and anti-immigrant statements made a presentation to dozens of judges. At others, judges heard from an advocacy group that uses lawsuits in federal court to change environmental policy, as well as from corporate CEOs in the oil and pharmaceutical industries.

For almost two decades, the federal judiciary has recognized that the combination of apparent luxury and ideological content can present the appearance of undue influence on the courts. In response, the judiciary has required more transparency in the form of public disclosure.

An NPR investigation found that the disclosure systems often fail to give the public timely information about the outside benefits that judges receive and from whom.

As a result, judicial ethics experts say, people with cases before these judges lack important information about a judge's potential biases. That information, if received in time, could be used to request that a judge recuse from a particular case.

"It also matters to the public, even if someone never shows up in a courtroom, to believe in the integrity of our judiciary and to trust in the decisions that are issued by judges," said Renee Knake Jefferson, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center. "Having disclosures of judicial financial interests goes directly to the public having confidence in the outcomes of the decisions — that they are free of any bias or influence."

Many judges defend these events as helpful forums to discuss important issues, and they reject criticism that a stay at a fancy hotel could influence their decisions. Critics call them "junkets" and glorified vacations that reward ideological allies.

Both sides agree that disclosure is needed.

There are two primary ways the public can view information about judicial education events and see which judges attended: One disclosure is filed soon after the event, and the other is submitted much later.

First, within 30 days of an event, judges are required to file a form that details the host of the event and the entities that provided funding, as well as the speakers and topics of discussion. This form, called a "Privately Funded Seminar Disclosure Report," is posted on every federal court's website.

Second, federal law requires that judges report the reimbursements they received for the events on an annual financial disclosure report. That report also includes information like alternate sources of income (such as a book deal or teaching job) and what stocks a judge might own. Those reports are eventually posted on a centralized online database maintained by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

By closely examining the portion of these events subject to public records laws, NPR identified problems with both systems.

In nearly 40 instances, judges attended events at luxury resorts but failed to properly file a report within 30 days. In fact, the forms were uploaded months or even years late and only after NPR began asking questions.

In 13 cases, NPR found that judges failed to declare the benefits they received on their annual financial disclosure forms.

NPR contacted all those judges for comment.

And in another dozen cases, judges' financial disclosures for 2021 or 2022 were simply unavailable to the public. By all accounts, judges are filing those annual disclosure reports on time. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts bears responsibility for posting those reports online and has acknowledged delays in getting the system up to date.

There is no indication that the judges intentionally withheld information in order to deceive the public. And the office that administers the annual financial disclosure website told NPR that it struggles to work through a backlog of reports, as well as requests for redactions to protect judges' safety, but is making progress.

Ethics experts said delays and omissions in these reports undermine the entire purpose of the transparency rules.

"That information loses most of its value if it's a year and a half later," said Kedric Payne, the senior director of ethics at the nonprofit watchdog Campaign Legal Center. "It's just too distant from the potential conflict of interest."

Regardless of intention, the result is that the public is kept in the dark. And NPR's findings likely represent an undercount of the larger problem.

Events with ideological presentations and a side of luxury

Nonprofits, legal organizations and private universities all host judicial education events around the world. But those groups are generally not subject to public records laws. As a result, their full attendee lists are shielded from public scrutiny.

When it comes to the hosts of these events, George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., is exceptional in two ways.

George Mason University's campus in Fairfax, Va., in 2018.

Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

For one, GMU — particularly the university's conservative-leaning Law & Economics Center — has long stood out as one of the most prolific hosts of judicial education events. Collectively, hundreds of judges have attended the university's events at luxury resorts over the years. GMU is quick to point out that the events are paid for by private donors. The Law & Economics Center's website lists donors that include major corporations like Amazon, Pfizer, Google and Facebook, as well as the business lobby group the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. According to the New York Times, conservative activist Leonard Leo helped gather $30 million in donations to rename the law school after late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

GMU is a public university in Virginia, which means it is subject to the state's Freedom of Information Act. NPR requested attendee lists for eight of its judicial education events from 2021 to 2023. By comparing attendee lists with the publicly available records, NPR was able to identify dozens of missing disclosures.

IFrame Content

That missing information may be relevant to both the public at large and people with cases in front of these judges.

For example, dozens of judges took part in a 2022 event that featured a speaker from the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany) political party. Germany has been rocked by massive protests in recent months over revelations about AfD's ties to right-wing extremism. A regional AfD leader is facing charges in Germany for allegedly using Nazi slogans, which he denies.

Gunnar Beck, a member of the European Parliament and an AfD member, spoke to the group of American federal judges about "European Jurisprudence." Beck has a history of anti-immigrant and racially inflammatory statements.

In 2021 — the year before his presentation to the judges — Beck took multiple photos of Black families, including young children in strollers, and posted them on social media. In one of the posts, he used the photo to criticize what he called the Afrikanisierung(Africanization) of Germany. (This post was deleted after NPR contacted Beck.) In another, Beck wrote that due to immigration, "Germany has no future as an industrial and cultural nation, but it does have a future as a welfare office."

Beck told NPR in an email that "each country and its people have a right to control their border with a view to safeguarding their maintenance of their national culture and identity" and that "I do not think these views are either fascist or racist."

The GMU events have also featured presentations from a nonprofit that says it uses lawsuits to promote a pro-market, as opposed to pro-regulation, approach to environmental policy; the CEO of a U.K.-based pharmaceutical company; and the CEO of an energy company that is currently suing the federal government over financial regulations.

One recent event included a reading assignment on the "worst decisions ever handed down by the Supreme Court" as defined by conservative and libertarian legal scholars.Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion, was No. 2. Landmark cases establishing rights to same-sex marriage and the use of birth control also appeared among the top 10 "worst" decisions.

Given the power of judges to affect Americans' lives on issues from guns to abortion, the environment and crime, transparency about these events is critical, said Gabe Roth of the nonprofit watchdog group Fix the Court.

"The public has a right to know whether or not its top legal officials have any potential conflicts going into hearing cases," said Roth. "Sometimes they're small bore, but a lot of the times they have major national impact."

The agendas for the GMU events showed that the event programming often ended around noon, followed by a five- or six-hour "study break." In some instances, the agendas leave days completely free.

It's unclear exactly how judges spent that time. But attendees had the opportunity to enjoy the Ritz-Carlton's clay tennis courts, the Alyeska Resort's Nordic Spa or the short walk to Buckingham Palace from the May Fair Hotel in London. The agenda for GMU's 2022 Bar Harbor Colloquium in Maine reserved 90 minutes for a wine tasting.

The Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, Alaska, in 2009.

John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images

A spokesperson for GMU did not respond to NPR's specific questions for this story.

"Topics are selected based on foundational concepts in the economic analysis of law relevant to judges and other areas of interest to the judiciary," wrote Ken Turchi, associate dean of GMU's Antonin Scalia Law School, in an email. "Every judge who attends has the option to complete and submit a disclosure form detailing expenses incurred and reimbursed."

Which judges have disclosure problems?

Problems plagued the paperwork for judges appointed by presidents of both major parties going back decades, including Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

And the judges who failed to fully comply with the disclosure requirements include some notable names.

In this screenshot, Aileen Cannon speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee nomination hearing to be a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Florida on July 29, 2020. She was appointed to the position later that year.

U.S. Senate via AP

Judge Aileen Cannon of the Southern District of Florida is presiding over former President Donald Trump's criminal trial for allegedly mishandling classified documents. Cannon, herself a Trump appointee, attended two seminars at a luxury resort in Montana, but the privately funded seminar disclosures for both events were not posted online until NPR began making inquiries. Clerk of court Angela Noble told NPR in an email that the absence of the disclosures was due to technical issues and that "Any omissions to the website are completely inadvertent."

Judge Robert Conrad is the director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

U.S. Courts

Judge Robert Conrad is the current director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which implements the policies of the federal judiciary. Conrad, who was appointed by George W. Bush to the Western District of North Carolina, attended three privately funded seminars from 2021 to 2023. He later included the events on his annual financial disclosure but did not file a publicly available disclosure for any of those events within the required 30-day time limit. "He inadvertently did not make the additional disclosure in the separate system for private seminar attendance," said Peter Kaplan, a spokesperson for the Administrative Office. "Judge Conrad appreciates your bringing this oversight to his attention."

Judge Leslie Gardner of the Middle District of Georgia, who is the sister of prominent Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams, also failed to file a privately funded seminar disclosure on time. Additionally, NPR found that Gardner omitted the reimbursements she received for lodging, meals and travel on her annual financial disclosure. In a phone call to NPR, clerk of court David Bunt said that Gardner, an Obama appointee, was updating her annual financial disclosure and privately funded seminar disclosure, which were incomplete due to an "oversight."

"I don't have really an excuse for it, and I'm going to correct it"

Judges contacted by NPR largely described the issues with their disclosures as the result of an "inadvertent oversight" or an "accident." In a handful of cases, court clerks blamed technical issues with the online system for uploading paperwork. One judge appeared to be unaware of the requirement to file a disclosure report within 30 days. Several judges thanked NPR for contacting them and prompting them to update their disclosure reports.

"It looks like we blew it," said Judge Philip Gutierrez of the Central District of California in a phone call to NPR. Gutierrez failed to file a disclosure within 30 days of attending a judicial seminar at The Breakers, a resort in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2021. "I apologize. It's important. I'm embarrassed."

Gutierrez immediately uploaded the missing disclosure.

Judge Gary Fenner of the Western District of Missouri attended the same GMU 2021 seminar in Palm Beach but failed to file a privately funded seminar disclosure and omitted the event from his annual financial disclosure that year.

"I am really surprised that I did not report that," said Fenner, an appointee of Bill Clinton, in a phone message to NPR. "I'm going to rectify it. I'm embarrassed about the fact that somehow that was overlooked by me. But I don't have really an excuse for it, and I'm going to correct it."

Judge Keith Starrett of the Southern District of Mississippi, a George W. Bush appointee, said he had thought he marked his attendance at GMU's seminar at the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort and Spa in Colorado in 2021 on his annual financial disclosure. He acknowledged that it was missing from the forms due to an "oversight."

"I'm going to do whatever I need to do to get it right," he said by phone.

In the District Court for the Southern District of Texas, NPR found three judges — Jeffrey Brown, Andrew Edison and Charles Eskridge — who had not filed the required privately funded seminar disclosure forms. After NPR contacted the court, the judges uploaded the forms, and clerk of court Nathan Ochsner said in an email, "At the direction of Chief Judge Randy Crane, my office will routinely remind all [Southern District of Texas] judges of this reporting requirement."

Meanwhile, the delays in getting access to annual financial disclosure reports appear to be the result of the time limits built into the transparency laws, as well as a combination of long processing times for redactions requested by judges and, in some cases, security concerns.

The law requires that judges file their annual financial disclosure reports for the previous year on May 15. Many judges request and receive a 90-day extension, pushing that deadline to mid-August. Judges can then request that the judiciary redact "personal or sensitive information that could directly or indirectly endanger" the judge or the judge's family, but then a committee has to review the request.

"So if you're a judge that asked for a 90-day extension and then, on top of that, you're asking for redactions," said Roth, of Fix the Court, the public release of the annual disclosure is "already well into the following year."

Former federal Judge Jeremy Fogel, who is now the executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, evaluated some of these redaction requests when he served on the judiciary's Committee on Financial Disclosure.

"I don't think that the problem you described is one where the judiciary doesn't want to share the information," said Fogel. "I think the problem is that they have not been able to put the resources in place to get the information online and available to the public in a timely manner."

The Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building in Washington, D.C., houses the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

Andrew Harnik/AP

NPR sent a list of judges to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and asked why their annual financial disclosures for 2021 or 2022 were still unavailable. Kaplan, the Administrative Office spokesperson, said he "could not comment on specific judges' filings." In general, Kaplan blamed missing disclosures on backlogs in the system and reviews of filings for possible security issues.

"Currently, nearly all filings from 2021 and more than 80% of the filings from 2022 are available on the database," said Kaplan. "We are continuing to cut into the backlog of reports."

An ongoing debate over judges and luxury trips

Even if judges universally filed their disclosure reports on time and if the federal judiciary sped up the release of information, it would likely not end the ongoing debate over judges getting thousands of dollars in free perks, especially at ideologically slanted conferences.

Fogel said that in his time as a judge, he tended to avoid events that might be perceived as ideological.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's unethical," said Fogel. "But I think it's better — it's a best practice — for judges to avoid programs that have a particular philosophical or ideological viewpoint."

Judge Starrett, of the Southern District of Mississippi, has attended five GMU legal events in the last three years and even brought his German shepherd to one of them.

He rejected the idea that his views could be swayed by a certain speaker's agenda or free perks.

"I've been called a liberal judge. I've been called a conservative judge. I've been called a son of a bitch. That comes with the territory," said Starrett. "I pay close attention to speakers that are politically biased one way or another. I listen to them, and I challenge some of them. I ask pointed questions."

Judge Gutierrez, of the Central District of California, has attended three GMU events in the last three years.

"Certainly, I think people have a slant. But for the most part, I found them to be interesting and educational," he said. He added that a group of federal judges will always tend to ask tough questions and get into spirited debates — whether in court or in a legal seminar.

"We want our judges out in the world learning and teaching. And we want our judges to have friendships. We want our judges to be able to travel," said Jefferson, the legal ethics expert at the University of Houston Law Center. "It's the disclosure that matters."

Nick McMillan and Hilary Fung contributed reporting and visuals, with graphic editing by Alyson Hurt.* *This story was edited by Barrie Hardymon with research by Barbara Van Woerkom.

READ MORE:[Expert: Clarence Thomas could face 'criminal prosecution' by not paying taxes on gifts

perennial accusation that dem leaders/elite live large on taxpayer dime (eg BO trip to India cost kazillions, half the US navy?

not a peep on maralago g7, vp scotland trump resort?

1219

}:hastag:{:{NancyPelosi:(style="text-decoration-line:underline"):}::(style="direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:isolate"):}: has spent millions in taxpayer dollars to travel the world for years. And she has been using American military aircraft to do it.}:

She treats the U.S. Air Force like it’s her own personal airline, making trips to Italy, the Ukraine and to her home in San Francisco. Many of these trips included personal friends and family members.

On top of that, Speaker Pelosi spent over $100,000 on lavish inflight expenses that include gourmet food and alcohol. All on the taxpaye...

See More[

[debunked prev by fact check, media bias site?

pruitt drew up vacation wish list then asked staff to find excuses to go?

lobbyist who helped arrange EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's trip to Morocco has another foreign client with natural gas interests, East Timor.

The global law firm DLA Piper hired Richard Smotkin last November as a subcontractor to work on representing the government of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, otherwise known as East Timor, according to Justice Department records.

Smotkin's registration form, filed in March, says he'll help "advise and assist" the South Pacific nation's government in the United States "with respect to strengthening U.S.-Timorese bilateral relations." That could include contact with executive branch officials, members of Congress and their staff, as well as people and groups "involved in governmental or public policy matters."

East Timor became a sovereign state in 2002 after Indonesia relinquished control of the territory. The country already draws in revenue from fossil fuels, but it has been locked in negotiations with its southern neighbor, Australia, over an estimated $50 billion offshore oil and gas field.

Smotkin has ties to other foreign governments that have been linked to the EPA administrator as well.

Smotkin, a former Comcast lobbyist, is considered close to Pruitt and played a part in theEPA chief's visit to Morocco last December, which has drawn scrutiny partly because of the agency's promotion of liquefied natural gas imports on the trip. Smotkin later won a contract to represent the North African country (*Greenwire*, May 2).

A Comcast spokeswoman said Smotkin left the telecommunications giant in July 2017. He was based in Philadelphia as a senior vice president for government affairs. For Comcast, Smotkin worked with state and local intergovernmental associations, which is where he ran into Pruitt as Oklahoma attorney general.

It doesn't appear, however, that Smotkin has lobbied Pruitt or EPA on behalf of East Timor.

From the end of August 2017 to the end of February this year, which covers Smotkin's work with DLA Piper, the firm reported emails, phone calls and meetings with city and state representatives, lawmakers and congressional staff on Capitol Hill, as well as State Department officials. The subject of many of those contacts is described as "U.S. - Timorese bilateral relations." Not listed in the DLA Piper report is any contact with EPA officials by the firm on behalf of East Timor.

Asked if Smotkin contacted top agency officials, including Pruitt, as part of his lobbying work for East Timor, EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox told E&E News, "No."

A DLA Piper spokesman declined to comment when contacted for this story.

E&E News could not reach Smotkin. The East Timor Embassy in Washington, D.C., didn't answer questions.

Records show that Smotkin was paid $20,000 this past February by the firm for his work on behalf of East Timor. He is still listed as an "active" foreign agent for the country in the Justice Department's database.

East Timor has been a lucrative client for DLA Piper. The country has paid the firm more than $3.2 million in fees and expenses for work from March 2017 to the end of this past February.

The bulk of that work, however, has been for "non-[Foreign Agents Registration Act] registerable activities," according to the firm. DLA Piper's latest report filed with Justice says that included $411,000 the firm spent for supporting East Timor's delegation at the U.N. General Assembly's opening session as well as helping with the country's maritime conciliation proceedings with Australia.

Down Under

Like Pruitt's visit to Morocco, the administrator's canceled trip to Australia was to have included a stop at a LNG facility.

According to EPA emails won under Freedom of Information Act litigation by the Sierra Club, Smotkin was involved in planning for Pruitt's trip to Australia this past August, which was canceled as EPA grappled with last year's hurricane season.

According to a draft itinerary included in those documents, Pruitt was preparing to visit a zoo in Sydney before touring the Gladstone LNG facility in Queensland on Sept. 3, 2017, at the invitation of a ConocoPhillips executive. The Gladstone LNG facility taps into natural trapped in coal beds — gas that can be accessed by drilling or hydraulic fracturing — and liquefies it for export.

"Wendy King, Australian President for ConocoPhillips would like to bring Administrator Pruitt and members of his delegation to visit the LNG Plant in Gladstone," the email says.

"Visit would showcase the US-Australia relationship in developing gas as an export to the region/world."

Smotkin, according to the emails, worked with Matthew Freedman, CEO of the firm Global Impact Inc., and Pruitt's top aides to set up meetings in Australia. Freedman is also treasurer of the American Australian Council, a group whose members include ConocoPhillips, Chevron Corp., BHP and Lockheed Martin.

"Rick and I will attend and will be present but will not be listed as members of the delegation," Freedman said in one of the emails.

Wilcox with EPA said, "EPA's Office of International and Tribal Affairs organized and led the effort around Administrator Pruitt's trip to Australia.

"This trip was cancelled due to Hurricane Harvey, and it has not been rescheduled."

LNG connections

Australia and East Timor are currently eyeing production of offshore oil and gas, discussions that are directly tied to a historic maritime treaty that was signed in March at U.N. headquarters in New York.

While it remains unclear what role, if any, Smotkin played in those negotiations, DLA Piper's legal team advised East Timor leading up to the agreement being forged.

Notably, the contract lays out Australia and East Timor's entitlement and ownership of the untapped Greater Sunrise Basin, an offshore tract in the Timor Sea reportedly holding more than $50 billion in gas.

But while the two countries agreed under the treaty to share upstream revenue from the offshore field, they failed to agree on exactly how to develop the site, and negotiations continue.

Partially driving the debate is that a coalition of companies hoping to tap the gas wants to use a floating liquefaction facility, technology the treaty didn't contemplate, said Nikos Tsafos, who researches energy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.

While the East Timor government has asked for the gas to be brought ashore so its country can enjoy economic and financial knock-on effects, developers under the Sunrise Joint Venture — including Australia's largest independent oil and gas company, Woodside Energy Ltd., as well as ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Osaka Gas Co. Ltd. — have proposed a floating facility given the site's distance from shore.

Whatever the outcome, Tsafos said it would take time to build the facility and hammer out the details.

"Realistically, it's a gas that even in the best of circumstances wouldn't show up for another five years in the Asian-Pacific market," he said.

raga naag?

The schedule of attorney general conferences for the coming year is laid out — after a pause for the elections — with events set for theFontainebleau resort in Miami Beach, the Four Seasons Hotel at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and the Grand Wailea resort on Maui, among many others. The invitations for corporate sponsorships are already being sent.

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/02/13030/koch-fueled-groups-launch-offensive-against-wv-working-families

West Virginia Senate President Bill Cole's spokesman said Monday that Cole "will travel throughout West Virginia and beyond...." to talk about his legislative agenda that limits workers' rights.

And, boy, did he go beyond, according to David Gutman of the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

Cole flew to a world far away from West Virginia when he traveled this weekend to the luxurious Esmeralda resort, which describes itself as creating "an atmosphere of luxury and relaxation unmatched" in Palm Springs, California, the winter playground of the rich and powerful like billionaire Charles Koch, who has an estate there.

The entire Esmeralda resort was reserved for the weekend by the billionaire Koch brothers for an exclusive gathering with other billionaires who paid at least $100K to be members of their little club of the super-rich and plot behind closed doors about how to spend nearly half a billion dollarsmore this year, to get what they want in federal, state, and local elections and the changes to our laws that come with victory.

David and Charles Koch's billionaires' club--dubbed the "Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce"-- has already spent nearly $400 million over the past few months to influence 2016, but where most of it has been spent and which of the 500 elite gave how much is being kept secret from the public--at least for now.

(Meanwhile, at the billionaires' event, the Koch PR operation got free press about its new "poverty" initiative, which was trying "to raise" $15 million from attendees. That may sound like a lot, but Koch Industries makes almost that much every single hour of every single day, with more than $115,000,000,000 in estimated annual revenue; the Koch brothers' combined wealth is estimated to be nearly $100 billion. With millions of Americans in poverty, some might call the initiative "greedwashing.")

Anyway, Cole's office says his meeting with the Kochs and other out-of-state billionaires at the luxury spa was not a "political event" because he did no fundraising or campaigning, at that event.

Will the people of West Virginia be told who paid for his travel to sunny Palm Springs in the heart of winter or for his hotel and meals at the posh resort? Did he get a speaker's fee to talk "in his official capacity" to the Kochs and their billionaire buddies? Did club Koch pay him and cover his meals and drinks, under exceptions from gift rules the West Virginia legislature has created for itself?

One thing that is known is Cole "specifically addressed his legislation to make West Virginia the 26th right-to-work state" in his remarks to the "500 high-spending donors," as Gutman noted. Those big spenders are part of what is increasingly known as the "Kochs' secret cabal," despite the efforts of Charles Koch's PR machine to woo select press.

The Right to Work "Fix"--Is the Fix in?

Cole has claimed that "Right to Work" would "fix" West Virginia's economy.

That's one way of putting it.

But as expert economists at the Economic Policy Institute have demonstrated repeatedly:

"Misleadingly named right-to-work (RTW) laws do not, as some unfamiliar with the term may assume, entail any guarantee of employment for people ready and willing to go to work.Rather, by making it harder for workers' organizations to sustain themselves financially, state RTW laws aim to undermine unions' bargaining strength. Because RTW laws lower wages and benefits, weaken workplace protections, and decrease the likelihood that employers will be required to negotiate with their employees, they are advanced as a strategy for attracting new businesses to a state. But EPI research shows that RTW laws do not have any positive impact on job growth."

random eg

Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based nonprofit watchdog organization, gave North Dakota a failing grade in 2006 when rating disclosure requirements that might be used to determine potential conflicts of interest. The rating was based mostly on disclosure of lawmakers' personal finances, and did not include disclosure of trips financed by interest groups.

Brett Narloch, director of the North Dakota Policy Council, a nonprofit group that promotes limited government and reductions in government spending, said it would be appropriate for the Legislature to require disclosure of lawmaker trips financed by outside groups, if the trip is related to the lawmaker's policymaking role.

"If the place they're going to is going to focus on public policy, then it makes more sense to require them to disclose who might be influencing them," Narloch said.

The trip issue flared previously when GOP lawmakers have missed, and been paid for, legislative work days to attend outside conferences sponsored by interest groups.

In 2003, 16 GOP lawmakers skipped a day of the Legislature to attend a Las Vegas conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-supported organization of conservative state lawmakers.

The current House majority leader, Fargo Rep. Al Carlson, and Rep. Blair Thoreson, R-Fargo, the chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee that reviews the budgets of most state agencies, are members of the council's board of directors.

Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo, found himself in demand as a speaker about the Internet gambling industry after he unsuccessfully pushed a bill during the 2005 Legislature to license and regulate Internet poker in North Dakota.

Kasper attended conferences in Montreal, Las Vegas and Costa Rica in the months after the 2005 session adjourned. Kasper's speaking appearances were advertised in conference materials obtained by The Associated Press, and he confirmed the trips.

Kasper also was part of a group of five North Dakota Republican House members who visited the Caribbean island of Antigua in October 2005 on what they described as an unofficial trade mission. Antigua licenses and regulates Internet gambling companies through its Directorate of Offshore Gaming.

Stenehjem's foreign trips have mostly been arranged by the State Legislative Leaders Foundation, based in Centerville, Mass., a nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation that puts on educational programs for legislative leaders. The programs are usually affiliated with universities.

Besides Stenehjem sitting as the foundation's vice chairman, Carlson, the House GOP majority leader, is on its board of directors, according to the foundation's website.

It is supported mostly by private business donors that are part of its "advisory council," including pharmaceutical, financial and consumer goods companies. Among its supporters are Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Walgreen Co., Procter & Gamble Co. and Archer Daniels Midland Co.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Walgreen Co. have been heavily involved in efforts to repeal North Dakota's restrictions on pharmacy ownership, which prevent large retailers from owning pharmacies within their own stores. The North Dakota House has defeated the last two repeal measures; the Senate never considered them.

Of the 57 companies or trade associations that the State Legislative Leaders Foundation lists as supporters, 11 hired lobbyists to represent their interests during the 2009 or 2011 sessions of the North Dakota Legislature. One of them was Stenehjem's brother, Allan Stenehjem, who is a lobbyist for Reynolds American Inc., a tobacco company.

Stenehjem said the foundation's programs are intended to give legislative leaders "a broader perspective of what's happening, as we have to compete in the world market."

"Yeah, I can sit at home under a mushroom here in North Dakota and not get involved in anything, or you can get involved in these things and maybe have a bigger grasp of how big things really are," Stenehjem said.

Of course, not all the fundraising occurs in dreary call center cubicles and trade-association-owned townhouses in D.C. As the New York Times investigative reporter Eric Lipton chronicled in 2014, “destination events” have become all the rage. Republicans join lobbyists and business executives for spa weekends in Las Vegas and ski trips at the Four Seasons resort in Vail. Democrats join lobbyists and business executives on the Ritz-Carlton’s private beach in Puerto Rico and on quail hunts in Georgia.

Such trips are often sponsored by political campaigns or political action committees, which are funded, in part, by . . . you guessed it: the lobbyists and corporate executives who are attending the festivities, and who have business interests they think the members of Congress might be able to help them with.

As Lipton reported, among those attending a Vail event in January of 2014 were:

Representative Edward Whitfield, Republican of Kentucky, and Katie Ott, a lobbyist for PPL Corporation, the single biggest contributor to Mr. Whitfield.

Mr. Whitfield is chairman of the Energy and Commerce subcommittee that regulates energy utilities, making him one of the most important players in Congress for the industry. Only days after the Vail trip, he introduced legislation that would allow utilities like PPL to build new coal-burning power plants, overriding environmental restrictions recently imposed by the Obama administration.

formerly in part positive as it put congressmen together in tight qtrs for extended periods (tho presumably bonding hardships hard to come by? this becomes more important when Newt destroys commity of congr.

but became another way to bribe w/o $ like expensive meals (signatures abramoff) and skybox tkts

Mother of all junkets was scottish golf trip paid by Ridenour via abramoff

see also judge dude ranch as well as tamer:

---

judicial junket update:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/03/28/12368/corporations-pro-business-nonprofits-foot-bill-judicial-seminars

Between July 2008 and 2012, about 185 federal judges attended more than 100 judicial education seminars, sponsored by conservative foundations and multinational corporations like ExxonMobil, Pfizer and BP.
The Center identified instances where judges who attended seminars underwritten by certain firms and trade groups later issued rulings in the funders’ favor.
George Mason University’s Law & Economics Center and Northwestern University’s Judicial Education Program hosted more judicial conferences than any other organization or university.
The Koch Foundation and The Searle Freedom Trust, both major supporters of conservative causes, were sponsors for most of the conferences organized by the two schools.
The person who spoke at more judicial conferences than any other was Henry Butler, a professor and prominent conservative formerly of Northwestern and now executive director of George Mason’s Law & Economics Center.

The following is a list of trips for politicians, lobbyists, and staffers funded by Jack Abramoff.

The picture at right (taken at Carnoustie) for the much publicized trip to St. Andrews, the famed Scottish golf course. This trip was paid for by Abramoff at a cost of $160,000. Congressman Bob Ney's then chief of staff, William Heaton, admitted "falsifying his and Ney's financial disclosure forms in 2002 and 2003 to keep gifts secret. For example, Ney's forms said the Scotland trip was paid for by the National Center for Public Policy Research so he could meet with Scottish parliamentarians, though the Scottish Parliament was not in session...." ^[1]

Trips:{:(style="margin-right:0px;color:#555555;;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:

Date	Location	Participants	Details
December 4–12, 1996	Saipan	Ed Buckham, Tony Rudy, Jeff Shockey	Abramoff paid at least $3000; he was reimbursed by Preston Gates & Ellis, reimbursed in turn by the Marianas government
New Year's, 1997	Saipan	Tom DeLay (R-TX) with his wife and daughter	Stayed for free at beachside resort
January 1997	Saipan	James Clyburn (D-SC) and Bennie Thompson (D-MS)	Clyburn and Thompson invited by National Security Caucus Foundation, who was paid by Preston Gates & Ellis and told that the government had paid for it
Six days, 1997	Russia	Tom DeLay, Ed Buckham, Jack Abramoff, lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan, Amy Ridenour of NCPPR and her husband, journalist Bart Adams, Jesse Helms aide James P. Lucier, David Lowe(National Endowment for Democracy)	About $60,000 funneled by Naftasib executives Marina Nevskaya and Alexander Koulakovsky through Bahamas company Chelsea Enterprises, which paid the National Center for Public Policy Research.^[2]
late May-early June 2000	London/Scotland	Tom DeLay, Tony Rudy, Ed Buckham, Susan Hirschmann	Airfare charged to Abramoff's credit card, expenses charged to Ed Buckham's credit card; supposedly organized by National Center for Public Policy Research ^[3]
February 21, 1999	Marshall Islands	Official congressional delegation led by Don Young (R-AK)	Also in delegation: John Doolittle (R-CA), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), delegates of Guam, American Samoa, Virgin Islands and 8 staffers. Preston Gates sued the Marshall Islands to get reimbursed for the trip.^[4]
January 2001	Super Bowl XXXV, Tampa	Conrad Burns chief of staff Will Brooke, Bob Ney chief of staff Neil Volz, Burns appropriations staffer Ryan Thomas, Tom DeLaystaffers	Funded by SunCruz Casinos; Brooke and Volz later joined Team Abramoff^[5]
2001	Korea	Tom DeLay, DeLay's wife, Ed Buckham
July 2001	Puerto Rico	John Lopez (John Doolittle chief of staff)	Paid for by Greenberg Traurig in violation of House ethics rules
August 3–11, 2002	Scotland &London	Bob Ney, Ralph Reed, David Safavian, Jack Abramoff, Ney's chief of staff, William Heaton, House Administration Committee lawyerPaul D. Vinovich, lobbyist Michael Williams	golfing trip paid for by Capital Athletic Foundation at a cost of over $130,000—this trip was named in Safavian's indictment because he had falsely claimed Abramoff had no business before the GSA at the time of the trip^[6]
January 2003	Fiesta Bowl,Tempe, Arizona	Bob Ney and staffers	named in Neil Volz's plea
May 9–12, 2003	New Orleans	Bob Ney, William Heaton, Neil Volz, and another lobbyist	named in Neil Volz's and Bob Ney's plea; $7200 paid for by Greenberg Traurig
August 9–14, 2003	Scotland	Tom Feeney (R-FL), Ralph Reed, Mark Zachares, Bob R. Brooks Jr., chief of staff to Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.)	paid for by Abramoff though supposedly by National Center for Public Policy Research^[7]
August 24–27, 2003	Lake George, New York	Bob Ney, William Heaton, another Ney staffer, Neil Volz, and another lobbyist	named in Neil Volz's plea^[8] and Bob Ney's plea;^[9] $3500 paid for by Volz and reimbursed by Greenberg Traurig

References:{:(style="margin-right:0px;color:#555555;;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:

:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ James V. Grimaldi; Carol D. Leonnig (February 27, 2007). "Former Aide to Ex-Congressman Ney Pleads Guilty in Abramoff Case". Washington Post. p. A06.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Smith, R. Jeffrey; Grimaldi, James V. (April 6, 2005). "A 3rd DeLay Trip Under Scrutiny". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 11, 2010.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ DeLay Airfare Was Charged To Lobbyist's Credit Card
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ * http://talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/RMItravel.html
- http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007653.php
- http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007725.php

Sources:{:(style="margin-right:0px;color:#555555;;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:

http://www.thinkprogress.org/abramoff
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=647725&page=1
R. Jeffrey Smith (May 4, 2005). "Democrats' Travel Costs Linked to Lobbyist". Washington Post. p. A01.

[show]

Jack Abramoff scandal

Categories:

Jack Abramoff scandals

Thursday, May. 11, 2006

The Golf Junket that Haunts Abramoff and Friends

By MASSIMO CALABRESI/WASHINGTON

Back in July 2003, now disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his old College Republicans buddy, Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition, were exchanging e-mails about Jeff Ballabon, another lobbyist they were trying to use for an entr�e to the Bush White House, where Ballabon had friends. Reed forwarded Abramoff an unctuous message Ballabon had sent him and Reed added the comment, "It's now becoming physically painful," an apparent reference to Reed's distaste at the prospect of sidling up to Ballabon. Abramoff responded with an allusion to the Scottish golf trip he and Reed were to make the following month: "Hey, let's bring Jeff to Scotland and hit balls into him!" Reed, who had traveled to Scotland with Abramoff the year before, wrote back, "Let's hang him upside down from a crane over the 18th at the Old Course and use him to line up our drives!"

When it comes to the world of Washington lobbying, golf seems to bring out the worst in people. At least that's the impression you get from the Abramoff e-mails, hundreds of thousands of which have been obtained by federal investigators. A wide-ranging inquiry has spread across Washington and led Wednesday to the release by the Secret Service of the dates and times of two Abramoff visits to the White House. The Administration has previously acknowledged three other visits Abramoff made to the complex. The Administration also released e-mails Wednesday showing that a former official, David Safavian, offered to help Abramoff when the scandal broke in 2004.

But while the free meals, luxury sky box tickets and other gifts Abramoff spread around Washington have gotten a lot of powerful people in trouble over the last year, one junket that he arranged is proving particularly damaging. In August 2002, Abramoff flew Reed, Safavian, Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio, and Ney's former chief of staff, Neil Volz, on a rented Gulfstream II jet to St. Andrews, Scotland, for five days of golf, food and merriment.In the last few weeks, court action and new e-mails have tainted all four guests on the trip.

This week Ney came under renewed scrutiny when Volz pleaded guilty to conspiracy for helping Abramoff provide "things of value" to Ney in exchange for help with Abramoff's lobbying interests, most notably Indian casinos. Federal investigators already have plea agreements with Abramoff and two other colleagues alleging Ney participated in a bribery scheme whereby the Congressman performed official acts in exchange for gifts. First on the list of "things of value," the Justice Department said in the criminal information document it released as part of the Volz plea agreement this week, was the Scotland trip.

And for good reason. The itinerary for the trip, provided by Abramoff to Safavian a month before departure, was lavish. The private jet to Europe was followed by a stay at the Old Course Hotel (current rates begin at $450 per night), afternoon teeing off at the Kingsbarns links golf course and a late dinner. Golf the following day at a different course was to be followed by dinner in Edinburgh and the famous "Military Tattoo" parade at Edinburgh Castle. Three more days of golf at five different courses were to be followed by a stopover in London at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park hotel (current rates begin at $445 per night).

Ney's lawyers said this week that Ney doesn't even like playing golf and said that he went on the trip to meet with Scottish and British parliamentarians. One stop on the itinerary is listed as "Dinner in Edinburgh (possibly with Conservative Party)." Otherwise no political events are mentioned. Representatives of the Scottish parliament have said Ney did not address them. Ney's travel disclosure forms filed with Congress listed the non-profit National Center for Public Policy Research, an organization funded by Abramoff clients, as the sponsor of the trip, but NCPPR later denied having paid or been involved. One of Ney's lawyers, Mark Tuohey said this week that Abramoff and his former colleagues, facing possible jail time, are "singing for their supper." Tuohey said many of the allegations regarding Ney are incorrect and that "the government has been sold a bill of goods by Mr. Abramoff."

In March 2002, Ney had agreed to insert language in an election bill that was being negotiated that would have lifted a gambling ban on an Indian tribal client, the Tiguas of Texas, according to the Volz plea deal. That effort failed when Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut did not back it in the Senate, leaving Abramoff vulnerable to the Tiguas' wrath. Three days after they returned from the Scottish golfing trip, according to Volz's plea agreement, Volz "told Ney what Abramoff wanted him to say" in a meeting with the Tiguas. The Tiguas' lawyer, Mark Schwartz told the Senate Indian Affairs committee that at the August meeting, "Congressman Ney was very animated about Mr. Abramoff's skill and repute as a leader in the lobbying circles." Schwartz testified that "We were told about the impending success of Mr. Abramoff's legislative plan and how much Congressman Ney wanted to help to restore the Tribe's ability to conduct gaming on their reservation." Brian Walsh, a spokesman for Ney says the Congressman never brought the Tigua matter up in committee, and says, "The [Volz] plea, as it relates to Ney is rich with inaccuracies and flat-out falsehoods."

Ney and Volz weren't the only trip members who were doing favors for Abramoff around the time of the Scotland trip. Two days before Abramoff sent Safavian the schedule for the junket, he asked him for some help in finding a location for a Jewish orthodox school he was looking to build in Maryland for his children to attend. Abramoff wanted to get land from the government, and Safavian, as chief of staff for the General Services Administration, the agency that controls government property, advised him that he should get Congress to order GSA to sell or lease the land to the school, according to e-mails released last month by the Justice department. Safavian later helped Abramoff on the drafting of a letter seeking the land from the government.

Abramoff turned to Volz. "[Safavian] said the quickest way to get this done is to slip it into a moving bill which directs GSA to transfer the property to the school," Abramoff wrote on July 21, 2002 to Volz. "Any chance of slipping into the election reform bill?" Volz replied, "The election reform negotiators have been meeting all weekend and may be close to agreement. This means we would have to move asap." "You are wonderful," Abramoff responded.

As with the attempt to lift the Tigua casino ban, the effort to get explicit Congressional action on Abramoff's behalf failed. But as far as Safavian is concerned the damage was done. Four days later he wrote a letter to an ethics officer at GSA asking permission to go on the Scotland trip and said airfare would be paid for by a "lobbyist" who "has no business before GSA." The Justice department cited this as evidence of obstruction and making false statements on Safavian's part when it indicted him last year. Safavian goes on trial May 22. Safavian's lawyer has said the Justice department, in releasing the e-mails, is inappropriately publishing hearsay documents ahead of the trial.

As for Reed, most of the damage done by his Abramoff golf outings has been to his reputation. He's in a close race for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia, but his involvement with Abramoff has hurt his chances. He alienated his former Christian Coalition allies when it was revealed that in 2001 he had secretly taken gambling money to mobilize Christian activists to help shut down a tribal casino in Texas that competed with one run by Abramoff's Indian clients. The embarrassment only got worse when e-mails showed that the casino Reed secretly helped Abramoff close was run by the Tiguas, whom Abramoff turned around and signed up as clients months later with promises that he could help them reopen their gambling operation with Ney's help. Reed spokesperson Lisa Baron says he only learned of the attempt to sign the Tiguas up as clients "after the fact."

Baron says the Reed-Abramoff exchange about Ballabon was all in fun. "Jeff Ballabon and Ralph are very good friends. This was just friendly kidding," Baron says. If Reed could have seen some of the e-mails Abramoff was sending other colleagues — like those he and Reed were exchanging surreptitiously about Ballabon — he might have known the trouble he was getting himself into. Even as Abramoff was embracing Reed for his help in 2002, he was writing a colleague, "He is a bad version of us!"