Monday, July 21, 2008

What Did Rahm Emanuel Know About Freddie Mac's Fundraising Scandals?

Media Matters in an old post on Apr 21, 2006 points out that Freddie Mac invested in Democratic and Republican politicians:
An April 19 New York Times article by reporter Kate Phillips and an April 19 Associated Press article that appeared in the Los Angeles Times, among other newspapers, noted that the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. -- the federally chartered home mortgage company known as Freddie Mac -- had agreed to pay a record $3.8 million to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to settle allegations that it violated federal election law by using company resources to host fundraisers for members of Congress, illegally funneling employee contributions to federal candidates, and making an illegal $150,000 contribution to the Republican Governors Association (RGA). But the articles did not disclose that the vast majority of the illegal fundraisers hosted by Freddie Mac benefited Republican lawmakers. In contrast, an April 19 Washington Post article by staff writers Kathleen Day and Annys Shin noted that Freddie Mac had used its "corporate resources to raise $1.7 million at political fundraisers, most of them for Republican members of Congress and many involving House Financial Services Committee chairman Michael G. Oxley (R-Ohio)."

As the Post noted, in its civil case against Freddie Mac, the FEC alleged that the company attempted to influence "more than 50 politicians who had direct oversight of the ... company or were considered supportive of it" by hosting "lavish dinners and other events" for them using company money, in contravention of federal election law. An April 18 FEC press release stated that then-Freddie Mac senior vice president for government relations Robert Mitchell Delk and then-Freddie Mac vice president for government relations Clark Camper organized 85 such events between 2000 and 2003.

The FEC conciliation agreements for the case place the number of Freddie Mac fundraisers for Republican candidates at 70 or more, and the number of fundraisers for Democratic candidates at no more than 15.
What did Rahm Emanuel know about all this since he was on board of directors during some of this era?