• Re: New details on Visa's attempt to influence [Crook...] Pelosi

    From -=DirtBag@21:1/5 to Leroy N. Soetoro on Wed Dec 22 09:29:44 2021
    On Sunday, December 19, 2021 at 12:09:15 PM UTC-8, Leroy N. Soetoro wrote:
    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-details-on-visas-attempt-to-influence- pelosi/

    Following a report on CBS' "60 Minutes" regarding the way members of
    Congress profit off of insider information, new details are emerging about the way Visa tried to wield influence over former Speaker of the House
    Nancy Pelosi.

    As CBS reported, current insider trading laws do not apply to nonpublic information about current or upcoming congressional activity. In other
    words, lawmakers can go into confidential meetings with corporate leaders, understanding new legislation is going to come out next week, and are free
    to trade on that information. This form of "insider trading" is one of the reasons why there are so many wealthy members of Congress, CBSNews.com reported earlier this year.

    As Steve Kroft reported on "60 Minutes," Pelosi is one of many lawmakers whose stock market trades could have been seen as a conflict of interest.
    The former speaker and her husband have participated in at least eight
    IPOs, one of which was from Visa in 2008 - just as a troublesome piece of legislation that would have hurt credit card companies began making its
    way through the House. The Pelosis purchased 5,000 shares of Visa at the initial price of $44 dollars. Two days later it was trading at $64.

    Now Newsweek and The Daily Beast report that this stock purchase was made
    as Visa was engaged in a full-court press to lobby Pelosi to stop
    legislation to curb credit-card swipe fees to vendors.

    In 2007, Visa used an army of lobbyists to try to influence Pelosi,
    including one of her former advisers, Dean Aguillen, Newsweek reports. Aguillen left Pelosi's office to work for the lobbying firm Ogilvy. By
    law, he could not lobby Pelosi's office directly, but he did lobby
    Congress on the credit card issue and offered advice to other lobbyists on that particular mission.

    In addition to exploiting the revolving door between Congress and lobbying firms, Visa's political action committee made a $1,000 donation to
    Pelosi's re-election campaign, Newsweek reports (Visa headquarters is in Pelosi's home district). Two days after that donation was made, Pelosi met with Visa executives in her office. Aguillen also contributed $1,000 to Pelosi and another $1,000 to the campaign arm of the House Democratic caucusin the first half of 2008.

    The former speaker maintains she wasn't influenced by Visa's lobbying
    efforts or her husband's stock purchases. "I will hold my record in terms
    of fighting the credit card companies as speaker of the House or as a
    member of Congress up against anyone," she told "60 Minutes."

    Indeed, the swipe fee legislation opposed by credit card companies
    eventually passed. Additionally, in 2008 -- before the Pelosis' stock transaction -- the House passed the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights
    over the objections of the industry.

    Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi, said her husband Paul Pelosi's
    finances are kept distinctly separate from the congresswoman's legislative work, Newsweek reports.

    Pelosi is far from the only example of a legislator about whom questions
    have been raised.

    "We know that during the health care debate people were trading health
    care stocks," Peter Schweizer, a fellow at the conservative Stanford think tank the Hoover Institution, told "60 Minutes." "We know that during the financial crisis of 2008 they were getting out of the market before the
    rest of America really knew what was going on."

    With the new focus on congressional "insider trading," legislation to stop
    it is gaining momentum. Democratic Reps. Louise Slaughter of New York and
    Tim Walz of Minnesota have introduced legislation to stop insider trading
    in Congress. But the bill, which has been introduced before, has never had more than 14 congressional sponsors.

    Today, however, Sens. Scott Brown, R-Mass., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-
    N.Y., and said they will introduce the legislation in the Senate. Several other lawmakers are now saying they could support the measure, Roll Call reports, including Pelosi.

    Watch the "60 Minutes" report below:



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    No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019. Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

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    Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
    fiasco, President Trump.

    Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
    The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
    queer liberal democrat donors.

    President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.

    Oh go sit on it. Fk Trump. He is going to prison and he knows it.

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