National Legal and Policy Center
Encyclopedia
The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) is a right-leaning 501(c)(3) non-profit
group that monitors and reports on the ethics
of public officials, supporters of liberal causes, and labor unions
in the United States
. Among the NLPC's more high-profile targets have been Reverend Al Sharpton
, Reverend Jesse Jackson
, U.S. Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY), U.S. Representative John Murtha
(D-PA), U.S. Representative Alan Mollohan
(D-WV), Senator
Hillary Rodham Clinton
(D-NY) (while she was First Lady
), Senator Ted Stevens
(R-AK) and Senator Lisa Murkowski
(R-AK). The Center files complaints with government agencies, legally challenges what they view as abuse and corruption, and publishes reports. The NLPC has been praised by right-wing media personalities such as radio broadcaster Rush Limbaugh
. The NLPC is described as conservative in nature. The NLPC's current president is Peter Flaherty.
According to the Center's mission statement, it:
The NLPC was founded in 1991 "to promote ethics, and to give the Code [of Ethics for Government] the visibility it deserves." It currently operates four projects: the Government Integrity Project, the Legal Services Accountability Project, the Organized Labor Accountability Project, and the Corporate Integrity Project.
NLPC has criticized Wal-Mart
for its environmental initiatives.http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-02-2007/0004519190&EDATE
Additionally, NLPC utilizes the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the First Amendment
as the basis for campaign finance reform
.
NLPC is probably best known for exposing Boeing's tanker lease scandal. In 2003, NLPC upended the $30 billion plan for the Air Force to lease, rather than buy, 100 mid-air refueling aircraft. The lease-plan was killed, saving taxpayers at least $4 billion. NLPC unearthed evidence of cozy dealings between Darleen Druyun
and Boeing
. Druyun was the Air Force official who negotiated the deal and who went to work for Boeing shortly thereafter. In a Complaint to the Pentagon Inspector General
, which resulted in a front-page Wall Street Journal story, NLPC detailed how the official sold her home to a Boeing executive and that Boeing had hired her daughter. In the wake of NLPC's revelations, Boeing CFO Michael Sears
was fired and Boeing CEO Phil Condit resigned. Sears and Druyun served prison terms in 2005.
NLPC is highly critical of billionaire George Soros
. It has criticized Soros for donating money to the Lynne Stewart
Legal Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union
, and "groups that promote illegal immigration
". In 2004, the NLPC filed a complaint against Soros with the Federal Election Commission
(FEC) alleging "extensive apparent violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act
".
The Project filed similar complaints against Nancy Pelosi
(D-CA), Maria Cantwell
(D-WA), Reverend Al Sharpton
, and Jim Moran
(D-VA).
In early February 2004, NLPC filed complaints with the FEC for election law violations during his 2004 presidential campaign. A conciliation agreement made public by NLPC on April 19, 2009, described $509,188 in campaign-related expenses on Sharpton's American Express
card. His campaign committee paid $121,996, leaving $385,192 in illegal payments from other sources, including $65,000 from unknown sources. NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm had accused Sharpton of running an "off the books" presidential campaign. Sharpton and his National Action Network
(NAN) agreed to pay a $285,000 "civil penalty" for his campaign election law violations.
In 1998, the NLPC asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate Representative Jon D. Fox
(R-PA) for "the appearance of impropriety
in the granting of legislative favors in connection with an illegal loan".
The NLPC alleged, based on documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, that former Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) Commissioner David Aaron Kessler
"routinely ... overcharged the taxpayer" for taxi rides. The NPLC further alleged "that the expense reimbursements are symptomatic of a larger pattern of FDA corruption under Kessler." Kessler ran the FDA under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
The charges against Sean "Puffy" Combs
stem from his youth voter education and mobilization project Citizen Change
, whose slogan, "Vote or die" is alleged to be a "veiled marketing effort for his clothing brand". The NLPC further alleges that Citizen Change "may also have violated rules of nonpartisanship."
NLPC criticism of Representative Alan Mollohan
(D-WV) focused on "250 misrepresentations and omissions" in his 2000 financial disclosure reports. However, the NLPC refused to release its full report and Congressman Mollohan has since released chronological documentation of his investments and sources of the money invested.
The NLPC asked the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee to investigate a land deal involving Senator Lisa Murkowski
(R-AK) in 2007.
(LSC)."
The NLPC accused the New York Legal Aid Society of using a $171,000 grant from the September 11th Fund
to represent persons in detention accused of terrorism, a claim disputed by the Legal Aid Society.
The Corporate Integrity Project has led campaigns against Boeing
, CBS
/Viacom
, Fannie Mae, MCI
/Worldcom, and Subway
for practices ranging from large corporate scandals to anti-American campaigns. The scandals they have unearthed have led to the firing of Boeing CFO Michael M. Sears
, the resignation of Boeing CEO Phil Condit
, and prison terms in 2005 for both Darleen Druyun
and Michael Sears.
's health care task force. Although the lawsuit was about the secrecy of the task force, it resulted in controversy for the task force itself and helped undermine support for task force’s eventual proposals.
The effort to open the task force received positive editorial support not only from the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times, but also from the New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today.
In her 2004 book, Living History
, Hillary Rodham Clinton called the lawsuit “a deft political move, designed to disrupt our work on health care and foster an impression with the public and the news media that we were conducting ‘secret’ meetings.” In his 2003 book, The Clinton Wars, Former White House aide Sidney Blumenthal
wrote that NLPC had drawn “first blood” in the health care fight.
On February 24, 1993, Hillary Rodham Clinton and the six Cabinet members serving on the task force were sued under the Federal Advisory Committee Act
(FACA) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by NLPC, along with two other groups, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
and the American Council for Health Care Reform. FACA requires government task forces to conduct its affairs in public if non-government employees, or “outsiders,” take part.
Robert Pear of the New York Times reported the next day that, "Mrs. Clinton, a longtime supporter of liberal causes and ‘public interest law,’ might be hoist with her own petard," and quoted NLPC Peter Flaherty, "The regime of openness in government has been built by a lot of people sympathetic to Hillary Clinton. Now she would just sweep away those statutes because they are inconvenient to her." In a March 3, 1993 deposition, task force director Ira Magaziner
claimed that all participants in the health care task force were government employees, which turned out to be false. Even if the courts ruled that Hillary Rodham Clinton’s participation would not trigger FACA, the presence of other "outsiders" would. Magaziner took no action to correct the record.
On March 10, 1993, Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the task force had to open its meetings to the plaintiffs and the media. The New York Times called the ruling a "rebuff to the President." USA Today reported it was "embarrassing." In reality, it was a split decision. Lamberth ruled that the "official" members of the task force, meaning the First Lady and the Cabinet Secretaries who comprised its membership, could not meet in secret because Clinton was not a government employee. But Lamberth also ruled that all the other people working on the plan, who were organized into "sub-groups," could continue to work in secret, because FACA was never meant to apply to staff.
That evening, ABC's Nightline hosted a debate between NLPC President Peter Flaherty and White House aide George Stephanopoulos
. The ruling had exploded the larger issue, namely Hillary's role in the White House. Flaherty said that members of Congress "were walking on eggshells" when Hillary was around. He also said to host Ted Koppel
, "What a lot of Americans are worried about, Ted, is that we now have an American version of Imelda Marcos
, wielding vast influence behind the scenes, with little accountability to the American people."
Lamberth's ruling was appealed by the White House, and was overturned on June 22, 1993 after the task force had supposedly already disbanded on May 30. Justice Department lawyers argued that since Hillary Rodham Clinton "functions in both a legal and practical sense as part of the government," her participation in the task force should not trigger FACA. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed. But The Appeals Court also opened the door for the discovery of Ira Magaziner's false representations. The judges asked Judge Lamberth to go back and determine the composition of the working groups, a move that gave the plaintiffs access to task force documents.
Eventually, 250 boxes containing 500,000 documents would be released. When they were reviewed, not only did they show that the task force had twice as many participants as the 511 people claimed by the Administration, but that many of them were not government employees at all, but lobbyists and private individuals representing a host of special interests.
On December 21, 1994, Judge Lamberth accused Magaziner of lying and asked Attorney General Janet Reno
and U.S. Attorney Eric Holder
for a criminal investigation. Reno announced on March 3, 1995 that she would not appoint an independent prosecutor
. On August 3, 1995, Eric Holder announced that he too would not prosecute Magaziner.
/Airbus
consortium are currently vying for the contract.
On October 6, 2003, NLPC filed a formal Complaint with the Pentagon Inspector General and the Defense Department Criminal Investigative Service, which was the basis for a front-page Wall Street Journal article the next day.
Based on NLPC’s original investigation, the Complaint detailed how Defense Department procurement officer Darleen Druyun, while still at the Pentagon, sold her house to a Boeing executive who was also working on the tanker deal. The Complaint also described how her daughter has worked for Boeing since 2001.
The Complaint specifically raised the possibility that Druyun had negotiated employment with Boeing while still at the Pentagon. Federal law prohibits defense acquisition officials from discussing jobs with companies unless they recuse themselves from contract decisions involving those companies.
On November 24, 2003, Druyun and Boeing Chief Financial Officer Michael Sears were fired. One week later, Boeing Chief Executive Office Phil Condit resigned.
On October 1, 2004, Druyun was sentenced to nine months in prison by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. On February 18, 2005, Sears was sentenced to four months in prison and fined $250,000 by U.S. District Court Judge Gerald Lee.
According to court documents, Sears and Druyun secretly met in a private conference room at Orlando International Airport
On October 17, 2002, to discuss her future plans. Druyun told Sears she had already agreed to take a job with another company, but said she would consider an offer from Boeing.
Druyun and Sears would later agree via e-mail to tell investigators they had not discussed her potential employment until early November 2002, after Druyun had signed a letter recusing herself from all Boeing matters before the Air Force. In subsequent e-mails and phone conversations, Sears implored Druyun to "hang tough" as investigators began questioning her about how she got her Boeing job.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
group that monitors and reports on the ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
of public officials, supporters of liberal causes, and labor unions
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Among the NLPC's more high-profile targets have been Reverend Al Sharpton
Al Sharpton
Alfred Charles "Al" Sharpton, Jr. is an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and television/radio talk show host. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election...
, Reverend Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
, U.S. Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY), U.S. Representative John Murtha
John Murtha
John Patrick "Jack" Murtha, Jr. was an American politician from the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Murtha, a Democrat, represented Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1974 until his death in 2010....
(D-PA), U.S. Representative Alan Mollohan
Alan Mollohan
Alan Bowlby Mollohan is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1983 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
(D-WV), Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
(D-NY) (while she was First Lady
First Lady
First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...
), Senator Ted Stevens
Ted Stevens
Theodore Fulton "Ted" Stevens, Sr. was a United States Senator from Alaska, serving from December 24, 1968, until January 3, 2009, and thus the longest-serving Republican senator in history...
(R-AK) and Senator Lisa Murkowski
Lisa Murkowski
Lisa Ann Murkowski is the senior U.S. Senator from the State of Alaska and a member of the Republican Party. She was appointed to the Senate in 2002 by her father, Governor Frank Murkowski. After losing a Republican primary in 2010, she became the second person ever to win a U.S...
(R-AK). The Center files complaints with government agencies, legally challenges what they view as abuse and corruption, and publishes reports. The NLPC has been praised by right-wing media personalities such as radio broadcaster Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host, conservative political commentator, and an opinion leader in American conservatism. He hosts The Rush Limbaugh Show which is aired throughout the U.S. on Premiere Radio Networks and is the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United...
. The NLPC is described as conservative in nature. The NLPC's current president is Peter Flaherty.
According to the Center's mission statement, it:
"promotes a single standard of ethics in public life through research, education and legal action.
We do not believe that ethics are advanced through more laws or 'better guidelines,' even as existing ones are ignored. We don't believe the problem is with too few laws, or with too much freedom, but with men and women. We believe the missing ingredients are character, morality and common sense.
We recognize that the bigger the government, the more opportunities for corruption; and the more intervention in the economy, the more reason for special interests to seek influence. We believe that the best way to promote ethics is to reduce the size of government."
The NLPC was founded in 1991 "to promote ethics, and to give the Code [of Ethics for Government] the visibility it deserves." It currently operates four projects: the Government Integrity Project, the Legal Services Accountability Project, the Organized Labor Accountability Project, and the Corporate Integrity Project.
NLPC has criticized Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
for its environmental initiatives.http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-02-2007/0004519190&EDATE
Government Integrity Project
The Government Integrity Project exists to "'blow the whistle' on government officials and interest groups engaged in questionable activities". The project has raised questions about many individuals and organizations, often filing complaints against them with various government agencies and Congressional Ethics Committees.Additionally, NLPC utilizes the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
as the basis for campaign finance reform
Campaign finance reform
Campaign finance reform is the common term for the political effort in the United States to change the involvement of money in politics, primarily in political campaigns....
.
NLPC is probably best known for exposing Boeing's tanker lease scandal. In 2003, NLPC upended the $30 billion plan for the Air Force to lease, rather than buy, 100 mid-air refueling aircraft. The lease-plan was killed, saving taxpayers at least $4 billion. NLPC unearthed evidence of cozy dealings between Darleen Druyun
Darleen Druyun
Darleen A. Druyun is a former United States Air Force civilian official and Boeing executive.-Education:...
and Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
. Druyun was the Air Force official who negotiated the deal and who went to work for Boeing shortly thereafter. In a Complaint to the Pentagon Inspector General
Inspector General
An Inspector General is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is Inspectors General.-Bangladesh:...
, which resulted in a front-page Wall Street Journal story, NLPC detailed how the official sold her home to a Boeing executive and that Boeing had hired her daughter. In the wake of NLPC's revelations, Boeing CFO Michael Sears
Michael M. Sears
Michael M. Sears is a former Boeing executive.In 1992 Mr. Sears led the successful development of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, cited as the best managed aircraft program in U.S. Department of Defense history. In 1997, Mr. Sears was President of the Douglas Aircraft Company division of McDonnell...
was fired and Boeing CEO Phil Condit resigned. Sears and Druyun served prison terms in 2005.
NLPC is highly critical of billionaire George Soros
George Soros
George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...
. It has criticized Soros for donating money to the Lynne Stewart
Lynne Stewart
Lynne Irene Stewart is a former attorney who represented controversial, poor, and often unpopular defendants who was convicted on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists in 2005, and sentenced to 28 months in prison. Her felony conviction led to her being automatically...
Legal Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
, and "groups that promote illegal immigration
Illegal immigration to the United States
An illegal immigrant in the United States is an alien who has entered the United States without government permission or stayed beyond the termination date of a visa....
". In 2004, the NLPC filed a complaint against Soros with the Federal Election Commission
Federal Election Commission
The Federal Election Commission is an independent regulatory agency that was founded in 1975 by the United States Congress to regulate the campaign finance legislation in the United States. It was created in a provision of the 1975 amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act...
(FEC) alleging "extensive apparent violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act
Federal Election Campaign Act
The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 is a United States federal law which increased disclosure of contributions for federal campaigns. It was amended in 1974 to place legal limits on the campaign contributions...
".
The Project filed similar complaints against Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...
(D-CA), Maria Cantwell
Maria Cantwell
Maria E. Cantwell is the junior United States Senator from the state of Washington and a member of the Democratic Party....
(D-WA), Reverend Al Sharpton
Al Sharpton
Alfred Charles "Al" Sharpton, Jr. is an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and television/radio talk show host. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election...
, and Jim Moran
Jim Moran
James Patrick "Jim" Moran, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1991. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is located in Northern Virginia and includes the cities of Falls Church and Alexandria, all of Arlington County, and a portion of Fairfax County.Jim Moran was...
(D-VA).
In early February 2004, NLPC filed complaints with the FEC for election law violations during his 2004 presidential campaign. A conciliation agreement made public by NLPC on April 19, 2009, described $509,188 in campaign-related expenses on Sharpton's American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
card. His campaign committee paid $121,996, leaving $385,192 in illegal payments from other sources, including $65,000 from unknown sources. NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm had accused Sharpton of running an "off the books" presidential campaign. Sharpton and his National Action Network
National Action Network
The National Action Network is a not-for-profit, civil rights organization founded by the Reverend Al Sharpton in New York City, New York, in early 1991....
(NAN) agreed to pay a $285,000 "civil penalty" for his campaign election law violations.
In 1998, the NLPC asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate Representative Jon D. Fox
Jon D. Fox
Jon D. Fox was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.Jon Fox was born in Abington, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA in 1969, and earned a J.D. from the Delaware School of Law , in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1975...
(R-PA) for "the appearance of impropriety
Appearance of impropriety
The appearance of impropriety is a phrase referring to a situation whose ethics are deemed questionable. To a layperson, without knowledge of the specific facts, the comment or action in question appears inappropriate or a violation of a rule or regulation....
in the granting of legislative favors in connection with an illegal loan".
The NLPC alleged, based on documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, that former Food and Drug Administration
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
(FDA) Commissioner David Aaron Kessler
David Aaron Kessler
David Aaron Kessler is an American pediatrician, lawyer, author, and administrator...
"routinely ... overcharged the taxpayer" for taxi rides. The NPLC further alleged "that the expense reimbursements are symptomatic of a larger pattern of FDA corruption under Kessler." Kessler ran the FDA under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
The charges against Sean "Puffy" Combs
Sean Combs
Sean John Combs , also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He was originally...
stem from his youth voter education and mobilization project Citizen Change
Citizen Change
Citizen Change is a political service group, founded by music mogul P. Diddy, and backed by Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey and 50 Cent. The stated aim was to get young people to vote....
, whose slogan, "Vote or die" is alleged to be a "veiled marketing effort for his clothing brand". The NLPC further alleges that Citizen Change "may also have violated rules of nonpartisanship."
NLPC criticism of Representative Alan Mollohan
Alan Mollohan
Alan Bowlby Mollohan is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1983 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
(D-WV) focused on "250 misrepresentations and omissions" in his 2000 financial disclosure reports. However, the NLPC refused to release its full report and Congressman Mollohan has since released chronological documentation of his investments and sources of the money invested.
The NLPC asked the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee to investigate a land deal involving Senator Lisa Murkowski
Lisa Murkowski
Lisa Ann Murkowski is the senior U.S. Senator from the State of Alaska and a member of the Republican Party. She was appointed to the Senate in 2002 by her father, Governor Frank Murkowski. After losing a Republican primary in 2010, she became the second person ever to win a U.S...
(R-AK) in 2007.
Legal Services Accountability Project
The purpose of the Legal Services Accountability Project is to "end taxpayer funding for the Legal Services CorporationLegal Services Corporation
The Legal Services Corporation is a private, non-profit corporation established by the United States Congress. It seeks to ensure equal access to justice under the law for all Americans by providing civil legal assistance to those who otherwise would be unable to afford it...
(LSC)."
The NLPC accused the New York Legal Aid Society of using a $171,000 grant from the September 11th Fund
September 11th Fund
The September 11th Fund was created by the New York Community Trust and the United Way of New York City in response to the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001....
to represent persons in detention accused of terrorism, a claim disputed by the Legal Aid Society.
Corporate Integrity Project
The Corporate Integrity Project as stated on the NLPC website "seeks to promote integrity in corporate governance, including honesty and fair play in relationships with shareholders, employees, business partners and customers." It does so by:
- Asserting that the social responsibility of the corporation is to defend and advance the interests of the people who own the company, the shareholders.
- True responsibility is fidelity to one's own mission, not someone else's, or someone else's political agenda.
- Exposing influence peddling on public officials by corporations, which inevitably is the result of high levels of government spending and intervention in the marketplace.
- Combating practices that undermine the free enterprise system, including philanthropic giving to groups hostile to a free economy.
The Corporate Integrity Project has led campaigns against Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
/Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
, Fannie Mae, MCI
MCI Inc.
MCI, Inc. is an American telecommunications subsidiary of Verizon Communications that is headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia...
/Worldcom, and Subway
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
for practices ranging from large corporate scandals to anti-American campaigns. The scandals they have unearthed have led to the firing of Boeing CFO Michael M. Sears
Michael M. Sears
Michael M. Sears is a former Boeing executive.In 1992 Mr. Sears led the successful development of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, cited as the best managed aircraft program in U.S. Department of Defense history. In 1997, Mr. Sears was President of the Douglas Aircraft Company division of McDonnell...
, the resignation of Boeing CEO Phil Condit
Philip M. Condit
Philip Murray Condit is an American businessman who was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Boeing company from 1996 to 2003.-Education :...
, and prison terms in 2005 for both Darleen Druyun
Darleen Druyun
Darleen A. Druyun is a former United States Air Force civilian official and Boeing executive.-Education:...
and Michael Sears.
Lawsuit v. Hillary Healthcare Task Force
NLPC was a plaintiff in the successful 1993 lawsuit to open the meetings and records of Hillary Rodham ClintonHillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
's health care task force. Although the lawsuit was about the secrecy of the task force, it resulted in controversy for the task force itself and helped undermine support for task force’s eventual proposals.
The effort to open the task force received positive editorial support not only from the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times, but also from the New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today.
In her 2004 book, Living History
Living History
Living History is the autobiography of Secretary of State, former United States Senator from New York, and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, published in 2003....
, Hillary Rodham Clinton called the lawsuit “a deft political move, designed to disrupt our work on health care and foster an impression with the public and the news media that we were conducting ‘secret’ meetings.” In his 2003 book, The Clinton Wars, Former White House aide Sidney Blumenthal
Sidney Blumenthal
Sidney Blumenthal is a former aide to President of the United States Bill Clinton and a widely published American journalist, especially on American politics and foreign policy....
wrote that NLPC had drawn “first blood” in the health care fight.
On February 24, 1993, Hillary Rodham Clinton and the six Cabinet members serving on the task force were sued under the Federal Advisory Committee Act
Federal Advisory Committee Act
The Federal Advisory Committee Act is a United States federal law , which governs the behavior of federal advisory committees. There are now approximately 1,000 such committees...
(FACA) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by NLPC, along with two other groups, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons is a politically conservative American non-profit organization founded in 1943 to "fight socialized medicine and to fight the government takeover of medicine." The group was reported to have approximately 4,000 members in 2005, and 3,000 in...
and the American Council for Health Care Reform. FACA requires government task forces to conduct its affairs in public if non-government employees, or “outsiders,” take part.
Robert Pear of the New York Times reported the next day that, "Mrs. Clinton, a longtime supporter of liberal causes and ‘public interest law,’ might be hoist with her own petard," and quoted NLPC Peter Flaherty, "The regime of openness in government has been built by a lot of people sympathetic to Hillary Clinton. Now she would just sweep away those statutes because they are inconvenient to her." In a March 3, 1993 deposition, task force director Ira Magaziner
Ira Magaziner
Ira Magaziner was born in New York City, New York, USA. After being a student activist and business consultant, Magaziner became the senior advisor for policy development for President Clinton, especially as chief healthcare policy advisor. He now serves as chairman of the William J...
claimed that all participants in the health care task force were government employees, which turned out to be false. Even if the courts ruled that Hillary Rodham Clinton’s participation would not trigger FACA, the presence of other "outsiders" would. Magaziner took no action to correct the record.
On March 10, 1993, Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the task force had to open its meetings to the plaintiffs and the media. The New York Times called the ruling a "rebuff to the President." USA Today reported it was "embarrassing." In reality, it was a split decision. Lamberth ruled that the "official" members of the task force, meaning the First Lady and the Cabinet Secretaries who comprised its membership, could not meet in secret because Clinton was not a government employee. But Lamberth also ruled that all the other people working on the plan, who were organized into "sub-groups," could continue to work in secret, because FACA was never meant to apply to staff.
That evening, ABC's Nightline hosted a debate between NLPC President Peter Flaherty and White House aide George Stephanopoulos
George Stephanopoulos
George Robert Stephanopoulos is an American television journalist and a former political advisor.Stephanopoulos is most well known as the chief political correspondent for ABC News – the news division of the broadcast television network ABC – and a co-anchor of ABC News's morning news...
. The ruling had exploded the larger issue, namely Hillary's role in the White House. Flaherty said that members of Congress "were walking on eggshells" when Hillary was around. He also said to host Ted Koppel
Ted Koppel
Edward James "Ted" Koppel is an English-born American broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor for Nightline from the program's inception in 1980 until his retirement in late 2005. After leaving Nightline, Koppel worked as managing editor for the Discovery Channel before resigning in 2008...
, "What a lot of Americans are worried about, Ted, is that we now have an American version of Imelda Marcos
Imelda Marcos
Imelda R. Marcos is a Filipino politician and widow of 10th Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. Upon the ascension of her husband to political power, she held various positions to the government until 1986...
, wielding vast influence behind the scenes, with little accountability to the American people."
Lamberth's ruling was appealed by the White House, and was overturned on June 22, 1993 after the task force had supposedly already disbanded on May 30. Justice Department lawyers argued that since Hillary Rodham Clinton "functions in both a legal and practical sense as part of the government," her participation in the task force should not trigger FACA. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed. But The Appeals Court also opened the door for the discovery of Ira Magaziner's false representations. The judges asked Judge Lamberth to go back and determine the composition of the working groups, a move that gave the plaintiffs access to task force documents.
Eventually, 250 boxes containing 500,000 documents would be released. When they were reviewed, not only did they show that the task force had twice as many participants as the 511 people claimed by the Administration, but that many of them were not government employees at all, but lobbyists and private individuals representing a host of special interests.
On December 21, 1994, Judge Lamberth accused Magaziner of lying and asked Attorney General Janet Reno
Janet Reno
Janet Wood Reno is a former Attorney General of the United States . She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1993, and confirmed on March 11...
and U.S. Attorney Eric Holder
Eric Holder
Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. is the 82nd and current Attorney General of the United States and the first African American to hold the position, serving under President Barack Obama....
for a criminal investigation. Reno announced on March 3, 1995 that she would not appoint an independent prosecutor
Special prosecutor
A special prosecutor generally is a lawyer from outside the government appointed by an attorney general or, in the United States, by Congress to investigate a government official for misconduct while in office. A reasoning for such an appointment is that the governmental branch or agency may have...
. On August 3, 1995, Eric Holder announced that he too would not prosecute Magaziner.
Boeing Tanker Deal Scandal
NLPC exposed the Boeing tanker deal scandal, sending two Boeing executives to prison, and saving taxpayers at least $4–5 billion. The repercussions of the scandal are still being felt as the contract was put back out to bid. Boeing and a NorthropNorthrop Corporation
Northrop Corporation was a leading United States aircraft manufacturer from its formation in 1939 until its merger with Grumman to form Northrop Grumman in 1994. The company is known for its development of the flying wing design, although only a few of these have entered service.-History:Jack...
/Airbus
Airbus
Airbus SAS is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Blagnac, France, surburb of Toulouse, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners....
consortium are currently vying for the contract.
On October 6, 2003, NLPC filed a formal Complaint with the Pentagon Inspector General and the Defense Department Criminal Investigative Service, which was the basis for a front-page Wall Street Journal article the next day.
Based on NLPC’s original investigation, the Complaint detailed how Defense Department procurement officer Darleen Druyun, while still at the Pentagon, sold her house to a Boeing executive who was also working on the tanker deal. The Complaint also described how her daughter has worked for Boeing since 2001.
The Complaint specifically raised the possibility that Druyun had negotiated employment with Boeing while still at the Pentagon. Federal law prohibits defense acquisition officials from discussing jobs with companies unless they recuse themselves from contract decisions involving those companies.
On November 24, 2003, Druyun and Boeing Chief Financial Officer Michael Sears were fired. One week later, Boeing Chief Executive Office Phil Condit resigned.
On October 1, 2004, Druyun was sentenced to nine months in prison by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. On February 18, 2005, Sears was sentenced to four months in prison and fined $250,000 by U.S. District Court Judge Gerald Lee.
According to court documents, Sears and Druyun secretly met in a private conference room at Orlando International Airport
Orlando International Airport
Orlando International Airport is a major international airport located southeast of the central business district of Orlando. It is the second busiest airport in Florida, after Miami International Airport...
On October 17, 2002, to discuss her future plans. Druyun told Sears she had already agreed to take a job with another company, but said she would consider an offer from Boeing.
Druyun and Sears would later agree via e-mail to tell investigators they had not discussed her potential employment until early November 2002, after Druyun had signed a letter recusing herself from all Boeing matters before the Air Force. In subsequent e-mails and phone conversations, Sears implored Druyun to "hang tough" as investigators began questioning her about how she got her Boeing job.
External links
- Financial supporters predominately from foundations associated with the Scaife family