DNC Donations Scandal May Go Beyond Boston Law Firm:

The Democratic National Committee, already engulfed by the WikiLeaks Donna Brazile scandal, is again on the defense Wednesday as some Democratic Senate candidates in tight races scramble to return thousands of dollars in campaign donations following allegations of a massive straw-donor scandal, which Republicans say may be wider than initial reports.

Despite the fanfare, one high profile Democrat, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), says she won't return the donations until it is proven that they were given illegally.

The Campaign Legal Center, which represents the public interest, confirmed to FOXBusiness.com, it has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission over straw-donor practices at a boutique Boston firm, Thornton Law.

A straw donor is a person who illegally uses someone else’s money to make contributions under his own name. In this case, according to Novak, the partners at Massachusetts-based Thornton Law Firm were using the company’s money to make donations under their own individual names. Campaign finance rules prohibit entities like Thornton from giving more than $2,700 to any singular candidate, but the use of straw donors allows the firms to illegally circumvent this rule.

After some digging, the Globe reporters, along with the Center for Responsive Politics, realized that something was in fact off. Between 2010 and 2014, three of the firm’s partners gave $1.6M to mostly Democratic candidates. During that same period of time, those same three partners received $1.4M in bonuses from the law firm, in what appears to be reimbursement for their hefty donations.

The Massachusetts GOP has been one of the first to issue a call for an investigation by the FEC into the reports of illegal, hidden donations.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has reportedly received an estimated $130,000 from the Thornton Law Firm over the past decade. Critics are surprised by her decision to keep the donations.

"Democrat politicians like Sen. Elizabeth Warren have spent their careers decrying hidden money in politics, yet Warren refuses to return the contributions she received in connection with this Democrat fundraising scheme that appeared to funnel hidden money to candidates,” Kirsten Hughes, Chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, said in a statement.

Senator Warren’s office did not immediately return FOX Business’ request for comment.

At press time,, Warren issued this statement;

"It's only wrong, when someone else does it."

Fauxcahontas at it again?

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/417551/bankers-lobbyists-love-elizabeth-warren-kevin-d-williamson

Ryan Lizza, writing in The New Yorker, has an interesting piece about Senator Elizabeth Warren getting into bed with bank lobbyists. In bed with bank lobbyists? Please don’t pretend to be surprised by that. Every regulatory effort creates winners and losers, and in the case of Warren’s campaign for the Dodd-Frank bill and the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, there were financial-services firms on both sides of the line.
Because the most cumbrous and invasive of the Dodd-Frank provisions apply only to the largest firms, the smaller firms saw an opportunity to use regulation to create for themselves new competitive advantages and profit opportunities. These aren’t mom-and-pop businesses, but banks that often have hundreds of millions of dollars in assets — not Goldman Sachs, to be sure, but not Mayberry Main Street, either.
Warren developed a working relationship with Camden Fine, “the head of the Independent Community Bankers of America, who is considered by some to be one of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington,” as Lizza puts it. Fine held the academic-activist in contempt — “this loopy woman,” he called her — but saw that she could be useful to his clients’ financial interests.

Oddly, Lizza concludes: “Warren effectively co-opted Fine and his members as allies against Wall Street.” In reality, that is almost the opposite of what actually happened, as Lizza’s own very interesting piece makes obvious. Warren did not coopt the bankers’ lobby; the bankers’ lobby coopted her. ICBA members together hold more than $1.2 trillion in assets, the poor dears.
Walk around lower Manhattan and you’ll see plenty of its member banks. Giving First American International or Provident a leg up on JPMorgan Chase isn’t banking reform — it’s political favoritism. You expect that from the lobbyists — that’s what they’re there to do.
And, if you are paying attention, you should expect that from Senator Warren, too. She is not what she pretends to be.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/417551/bankers-lobbyists-love-elizabeth-warren-kevin-d-williamson

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