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Tag Archive: Investigations

Whistleblower Complaints to DoD

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Two letters members of Congress wrote to the Defense Contract Audit Agency reveal two cases of employees of government contractors who alleged wrongdoing by their companies.

We learned about the letters from our Freedom of Information request to the agency for congressional correspondence logs. We have received DCAA's responses to both members of Congress, but not the original letters to which DCAA was responding. When we receive those, we'll post them, highlighting any relevant information from them.

Here's what we do know:

On Jan. 5, 2007, Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., wrote to DCAA, which does all contract ...

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Looking into Arch Leadership PAC

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Just for fun, I thought I'd take ten minutes and see if I can track down another mystery PAC for our friends at the Center for Responsive Politics--this time the Arch Leadership PAC. FEC filings list the PAC's address as 906 Olive St., Suite 1212, St. Louis, MO 63101. Googling it, I got a lot of links--the one that caught my eye was this campaign finance report from the Missouri Ethics Commission showing that Tom Carnahan, treasurer of a state-registered campaign committee for Robin Carnahan, lists that address. Googling Tom and Robin Carnahan, one comes across this bio ...

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OMB to continue tracking earmarks

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They've got a release on it here. I can't tell for sure from the memo, but it looks like Office of Management and Budget intends to track them in both House and Senate bills as they're reported out of committee, as they're voted on, and in conference reports as soon as they come out:

Agencies should report to OMB the number and dollar value of earmarks in each account within seven days after an appropriations bill is reported by the House or Senate Appropriations committee or passes the House or Senate Floor. In addition, agencies should ...

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National Endowment Letters Unsolicited

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While I wait for word from Fraiola & Associates on the Penguin PAC (see below), I thought I'd go through a five-inch tall stack of papers Anu got in response to a FOIA request for congressional correspondence logs from the National Endowment of for the Humanities. So far, what I've seen aren't letters from members of Congress, but rather, a March 16, 2007, letter NEH sent to the entire congressional delegations of states lucky enough to be blessed with NEH funding. The letters include "a complete list of grants recently made in your state by the National Endowment ...

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Thompson’s FARA Filings Are Not Online

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Two of the shortcomings I mentioned about the new database that the Justice Department's Foreign Agent Registration Unit recently put online are that not every form is available (especially the Short Forms that individual foreign agents must file), and that you can't link to search results.

Both would be useful in providing the information that Nicole Belle asks for at the Crooks and Liars site -- what exactly did former Tennessee senator and possible presidential candidate Fred Thompson do when he was a lobbyist for Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin & Kahn in the early 1990s (from Oct. 10, 1991 to ...

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Findings in the FARA Database

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Two quick items I came across while browsing through the FARA database: the first is the articles of incorporation of the Alexander Strategy Group, the lobbying firm run by former Tom DeLay staffer Edward Buckham, which was implicated in the Jack Abramoff scandals. In January 2006, Buckham told the Washington Post that the firm was closing up shop in because "reports in the press have made it difficult to continue as a lobbying/political entity."

The second: An agreement between Levick Strategic Communications and Sheikhs Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum and Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum of Dubai relating to ...

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FARA Puts Some Disclosures Online

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A while back, we reported that the disclosures filed under the Foreign Agent Registration Act were about to go online. Until now, these detailed disclosures--which require those paid to attempt to influence U.S. policies for foreign governments and some government-controlled entities to list their meetings with government officials, including members of Congress and their staff--were publicly available, but just barely. Only those who visited FARA's New York Ave. office here in Washington, D.C., between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday (closed Federal holidays), and looked up the records on balky, user-unfriendly interface, could ...

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