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Showing posts with label Rebecca Ballhaus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rebecca Ballhaus. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

The Deepening Mystery of who will pay Mike Pence's Lawyer

 
Mike Pence fretting over how to pay his attorney fees

Over the weekend we had reported on the rumors that Vice President Pence was going to use funds from his Great America Committee to pay for legal representation. Now word on the street is Pence's PAC may not be used to pay Pence's lawyer Richard Cullen.

Peter Nicholas and Rebecca Ballhaus wrote an article today for the Wall Street Journal "Pence Won't Pay Legal Fees with PAC funds".

Nicholas and Ballhaus's piece as their self explanatory title claims that the rumors of PAC funds being used to pay Pence's legal fees are greatly exaggerated.
Nicholas and Ballhaus write:

Vice President Mike Pence has chosen not to use an allied political committee to pay for the private attorney he retained last week to represent him in the special counsel probe of Trump associates’ ties to Russia, two people close to Mr. Pence said Wednesday.

Last week, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that the vice president would most likely use funds raisedthrough a leadership PAC created earlier this year to pay for his legal bills.

At that point, Mr. Pence had not been presented with the options for paying his legal bills, another person said. When he reviewed them, he decided he would not use the leadership PAC, called the Great America Committee.

It is not clear how Mr. Pence will pay his legal fees, which can be a daunting expense, especially for public officials of relatively limited means.

A financial disclosure Mr. Pence released last year appeared to show a negative net worth, not counting his state pension or his residence. He reported no significant savings accounts, mutual funds or 401(k) accounts from before he entered elected office. As Indiana’s governor, he was paid $173,860 over the previous year, the disclosure showed.

According to Nicholas and Ballhaus Pence's staff hasn't helped to clear up the question of how Pence will pay his legal fees:

The vice president’s office declined to comment on whether Mr. Pence will pay for his attorney out of his own pocket. Mr. Pence won’t use taxpayer funds to cover the fees incurred by his lawyer, Richard Cullen of McGuireWoods, a spokesman for his office said.

Indy Republican is wondering if taxpayers aren't going to pay Cullen, and PAC donations won't. Then how in the hell is Cullen going to be paid?

Using PAC donations to pay Cullen is legal. But perhaps there is another reason why Pence would be wary of using PAC money.

Nicholas and Ballhaus state:

It would be legal to pay for a personal attorney with funds raised by a leadership PAC. Yet such an action would potentially expose the vice president to criticism that he is tapping well-heeled donors to pay for his legal team.

This would not be the first time that "Pampered" Pence would have faced criticism of his use of donors money. Back in 1990 during a failed congressional campaign against democratic congressman Phil Sharp. It was revealed that Pence had used campaign money to pay many of his personal expenses.

The New York Daily News reported on this back in July. Rosalind Helderman, Tom Hamburger, and Alice Crites writing for the New York Daily News on July 15, 2016 reported:

Mike Pence was a young lawyer on the rise, challenging a longtime Democratic congressman in a Republican-leaning Indiana district.

And then, scandal.

Campaign finance records from the 1990 effort showed that Pence, then 31, had been using political donations to pay the mortgage on his house, his personal credit card bill, groceries, golf tournament fees and car payments for his wife.

The spending had not been illegal at the time. But it stunned voters — and undermined Pence’s strategy to portray the incumbent, Rep. Philip R. Sharp, as tainted by donations from special-interest political action committees.

“It was a brazen act of hypocrisy,” said Billy Linville, who was Sharp’s campaign manager. “It was a bombshell, for sure. . . . Without question, he may well have won the election if it had not been for that.”

Pence’s early stumble proved to be a defining moment, prompting a period of public remorse that helped create the wholesome image many Republicans now say makes him an ideal running mate to counterbalance the bombastic Donald Trump.

In the months after that 1990 defeat, Pence waged a statewide apology tour and disavowed negative campaigning. He told a local reporter that using campaign funds for personal expenses had been “an exercise in naivete.”

Pence’s 1990 race also led to key changes in campaign finance policies. Experts say that subsequent rules passed by the Federal Election Commission barring the use of campaign funds for personal needs were the direct result of ethics concerns raised by Pence’s actions.

Well it appears Mike Pence has at least one accomplishment to his name. His missteps in his 1990 campaign helped change federal election law!

It appears that Mike Pence is scared about being put under intense scrutiny. Pence has also been in the news lately because of the delays in finishing the extension of I-69. Click here and here for more information on the I-69 debacle. Pence may also start to face questions about whether he accurately reported the address of his residence when he ran for Governor of Indiana in 2012. See below his 2011 1040 tax return where he states that he and his wife lived in Arlington, Virginia:

 


Which if true means that he should have been deemed ineligible to run for Governor in 2012. Since Indiana law states that you must be a resident of Indiana for the five years preceding the election for governor. Which obviously would not be true if he was living in Arlington, Virginia in 2011! 

So all this has us all wondering how in the world can Mike Pence have served a decade in congress and four years as governor and have so little in the way of assets to show for it? It just seems as if he should have more to his name by now. Also if the Vice President is doing everything above board. Why not simply say how he is going to pay his lawyer? It's a fair question. We thought we would leave you all with a little mailer that Pence did for his unsuccessful run for congress in 1988. It appears that Pence's wholesome image is as phony as he is judging by this mailer:

 

Update: We have resized the picture of Pence's 1988 mailer. Hat tip to Chas Navarra for pointing out.

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Did Mike Pence create a PAC simply to pay his lawyer?

If you live long enough you see just about anything happen. But even IR never thought we would see the day that Mike Pence would hire a lawyer from the firm that employs former Indiana Governor and Senator Evan Bayh. Apparently the shock of being dumped by Congressman Jim Banks and being replaced by Bobby Knight has shattered Pence's already fragile mind! The Washington Post revealed that Mike Pence has hired Richard Cullen of McGuireWoods to represent him in regards to possible investigation by congress and special prosecutor Robert Mueller into possible collusion between the Trump White House and the Russian Government involving the 2016 presidential election. Several Indy Republican readers alerted us to this story. There are a few interesting questions that pop up during an examination of the circumstances surrounding Pence's hiring of Mr. Cullen. We will ask our questions. First let's layout what facts we have so far.

Ashley Parker writing for the Washington Post on June 15, 2017 reported here on Pence's hiring of Cullen by citing his office making the following statement: 

“I can confirm that the Vice President has retained Richard Cullen of McGuireWoods to assist him in responding to inquiries by the special counsel,” said Jarrod Agen, a Pence spokesman, in an emailed statement. “The Vice President is focused entirely on his duties and promoting the President’s agenda and looks forward to a swift conclusion of this matter.” 
Cullen will not be paid with taxpayer money, an aide said. Cullen referred questions to the vice president’s office.
The process of hiring a lawyer took several weeks and included interviews with several candidates, a Pence aide said. The vice president made his final decision earlier this week. 

Several INDY REPUBLICAN readers have contacted us and said they found it interesting that Pence's aide would emphasize that taxpayer money would not be paying Cullen's legal fees. In light of the fact according to Vice President Pence's financial disclosure here he filed last year it showed him as not having any money!

Mike Pence when he looked at his bank account: 

 


So if the taxpayers are not going to pay for Cullen, then how is Mike Pence planning on paying his attorney? Another question we have been asking ourselves is just when did Mike Pence decide to go around shopping for an attorney. The aide quoted said that several candidates were interviewed over a period of around two weeks with the decision to hire Cullen was made earlier this week. Now Vice President Pence was originally scheduled to give an interview on June 7, 2017 on PBS's "News Hour" program but canceled the interview shortly before it was to start.

Now the cancelled interview was to take place on June 7th. The news of Pence's decision to hire Richard Cullen was reported on June 15th, this past Thursday, or 8 days after the cancelled interview. That would fall within the "several weeks" timeline mentioned by Pence's office. So if Pence had to interview potential lawyers during that timeframe that could very well account for his abrupt cancellation with PBS. Since even if he did not interview potential lawyers in person. Pence at the very least would have had to speak to them via phone or some other means. 

The Post reports that Cullen is no stranger to representing high profile clients. Ashley Parker gives the following background information on Cullen:

Cullen, a former Virginia attorney general, served as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia under President George H. W. Bush and worked on President George W. Bush’s legal team during the Florida recount in the 2000 presidential election.
His other high-profile clients have included Tom DeLay, the former Republican majority leader who was investigated by the Department of Justice for his relationship with Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff; Elin Nordegren, the ex-wife of Tiger Woods, in her divorce from the golf star; and former senator Paul Trible (R-Va.), during the Iran-contra investigation.
Ms. Parker elaborates further on how Mike Pence has potentially been drawn into the Russian-Trump collusion investigation:

As Trump’s No. 2 and as head of the transition team, Pence has increasingly found himself drawn into the widening Russia investigation.  Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, misled Pence about his contacts with Russian officials — Pence then repeated the incorrect claims publicly. The vice president was kept in the dark for nearly two weeks about Flynn’s false statements before learning the truth in a Post report. 

Trump fired Flynn for misleading the vice president. 
There were also news reports that Flynn’s lawyers had alerted Trump’s transition team that Flynn was under federal investigation for his secret ties to the Turkish government as a paid lobbyist — a claim the White House disputes. And aides to Pence, who was running the transition team, said the vice president was not informed of Flynn’s overseas work with Turkey, either.
James Comey and Cullen once worked together at McGuireWoods and Cullen is godfather to one of Comey’s daughters.
Forgive us if we are finding it impossible to believe that Mike Pence was in charge of the Trump transition team, but somehow was unaware of Michael Flynn's lawyers having informed the transition team that Flynn was under federal investigation! It is also bizarre that the lawyer that Pence finally settled on was an the godfather of one of fired former FBI Director James Comey's daughters! That's is to much for King Kong to swallow! 
The Vice President's increasingly being so repeatedly near the scandals of the Trump administration. Has caught the notice of several who are finding it harder and harder to buy the nonsense being shoveled that Mike Pence is just a nice, squeaky clean guy.
Pence's former congressional colleague and host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe". Former Congressman Joe Scarborough (R-FL) said last month:

“There’s no middle ground,” he added.

Allan Lichtman a history professor at American University in Washington, D.C. and the man most famous for correctly predicting the winner of every presidential election since 1984. Including being one of the only experts to correctly forecast that Donald Trump would win the 2016 election. Professor Lichtman has trained his sharp mind to trying to ascertain the Vice Presidents role in the Trump administration. The good professor is skeptical to say the least about old Mikey being a victim of those around him.

Lichtman writing in an op-ed piece on CNBC.COM on May 19th, 2017 had this to say:

According to a now standard account, Pence is the innocent victim of deceptions by others – former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and the president himself.

But this is supposition only, with no hard evidence behind it. It is equally plausible that Pence is complicit in the lies propagated by the Trump administration and perhaps even involved in a cover-up of potentially impeachable transgressions. That's why he must be investigated thoroughly by the Congress and the FBI along with the president and other members of the Trump campaign team and administration.

For a seasoned politician who served for 12 years in Congress and three years as governor of Indiana, Pence has seemed remarkably easy to fool. Supposedly, Mike Flynn fooled Pence into affirming that Flynn's conversations with Soviet Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were "strictly coincidental" and had nothing "to do with United States' decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia."

Pence was allegedly fooled again when he said that Trump fired FBI Director Comey because he accepted "the recommendation of the deputy attorney general and the attorney general." Trump later admitted that he had intended to sack Comey before he received any Justice Department recommendations and that "this Russia thing with Trump" was on his mind when he made the firing decision.

The theory of Pence as innocent victim lacks credibility.

As vice president on March 9, 2017, Pence said that regarding stories about Flynn's lobbying for Turkey, "Hearing that story today was the first I'd heard of it." Yet Pence was the head of the transition team that recommended Flynn for National Security Adviser and news reports in November 2016 had disclosed Flynn's lobbying for Turkey.

Beyond press reports, on November 18, 2016, Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings, the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Pence warning: "Recent news reports have revealed that Lt. Gen. Flynn was receiving classified briefings during the presidential campaign while his consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, Inc., was being paid to lobby the U.S. Government on behalf of a foreign government's interests. … Lt. Gen. Flynn's General Counsel and Principal, Robert Kelley, confirmed that they were hired by a foreign company to lobby for Turkish interests"

Lies spoken softly by Mike Pence are no less insidious than lies bellowed and blustered by Donald Trump. Pence must be part of all investigations of the Trump administration. Under Article 2, Section 4 of the constitution, a vice president no less than a president is subject to impeachment.

Such damning statements made about a sitting Vice President of the United States by one of America's finest political experts and by a former fellow congressman are not to be dismissed lightly. If Michael Flynn's lawyers did indeed tell the Pence-led Trump transition team  about Flynn's work being the subject of a federal investigation. In all likelihood Mike Pence was aware of this as well! Which would mean that even a dimwit like "Pampered" Mike Pence would know he was going to probably need a lawyer. And he would have known this before assuming office. Which would make the matter of him being able to pay what would undoubtedly be exorbitant legal fees an urgent one.

But how to pay a high powered lawyer if he reported having no money on his disclosure form?

Well the Wall Street Journal's Rebecca Ballhaus may have an answer in her article "Here's How Pence Could Pay for a Personal Lawyer".

Ms. Ballhaus writes:

How does the former governor, whose financial disclosure last year appeared to show a negative net worth, plan to pay him?

The likely solution: an independent political group launched by Pence allies last month that can raise up to $5,000 per donor and has no restrictions on the personal use of funds.

Mr. Pence on Friday is set to attend a fundraiser for the group, Great America Committee, in Indianapolis, a day after his office said the vice president had retained Richard Cullen, chairman of the prominent law firm McGuireWoods, to represent him in the special counsel probe of Trump associates’ ties to Russia. Premier tickets to the event cost $5,000, while donors who pay $2,500 gain access to a reception at the hotel where the event is hosted.

Mr. Pence will most likely use funds raised through that group to pay for his legal bills, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Mr. Cullen said Mr. Pence’s office had directed him to “make certain that whatever method [of payment] is used is compliant with all federal law and regulation.”

There are no rules barring Mr. Pence from using the group’s funds to pay for his private attorney, said Kenneth Gross, former head of enforcement at the Federal Election Commission.

“There is no personal use restriction on a leadership PAC,” he said.

Using leadership PAC funds to pay for a private attorney would allow top donors to Mr. Pence to bankroll his legal defense as the special counsel’s probe heats up.

Ms. Ballhaus mentions that the creation of this PAC was most curious because:

The creation of one (a PAC) on Mr. Pence’s behalf earlier this year raised eyebrows, as vice presidents—particularly those in their first terms—rarely have their own political committees separate from the president.

Another weird twist is that Mike Pence is the honorary chairman of the PAC. And his aide Marty Obst is on the staff of the Great America Committee. Readers of this blog and Gary Welsh's Advance Indiana blog may remember that Obst was associated with the shady real estate agent John Bales and also unsuccessfully tried to save Senator Richard Lugar from losing the 2012 Republican Senatorial Primary. The inclusion of Obst on the Great America Committee and the fact that Pence came down to Indianapolis to fundraise for his pack one day after hiring Richard Cullen as his attorney does not pass the smell test.

So what are we to make of the increasingly boneheaded and paranoid actions of Mike Pence? 

Bill Kristol the founder of conservative magazine The Weekly Standard had this to say about an unusual tweet the VP made:

 Bill Kristol @BillKristol

Why this tweet now? Speculation: Trump's angry at Pence over news Pence hired a lawyer. Pence desperately trying to show Trump he's loyal. 1:58 PM · Jun 16, 2017
In the INDY REPUBLICAN mailbag a reader made this observation about VP Pence groveling like a submissive worm to his D.C. masters:
Typical Pence...the soft, weak link of any team....probably wears "depends" undergarments for as much as he pisses his pants. Wonder what is worrying the little pissant so much?
We love our readers insights into Mike Pence. We think they are mistaken about one thing though. They forgot that since Pence is Number 2 in Washington he most likely would have to wear depends because he just craps so much!