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babylonsister

(171,066 posts)
Sat Jun 17, 2017, 10:42 AM Jun 2017

Lawsuit Accuses Private Prison Company of Illegally Funding a Trump Super-PAC


Lawsuit Accuses Private Prison Company of Illegally Funding a Trump Super-PAC
Did it influence Trump’s pro-private prison policy?

Samantha Michaels
Jun. 15, 2017 1:32 PM



It’s no secret that President Donald Trump has been very good for private prison executives. After the Justice Department announced earlier this year that it would continue using private lockups—a reversal of an Obama policy announced in 2016—prison companies’ stock prices soared. Now, a campaign finance watchdog is suing to figure out whether one of these prison companies influenced the Trump administration’s policy reversal by donating large sums to a pro-Trump super-PAC during the 2016 presidential campaign.

In August and November, GEO Group, the country’s biggest private prison company, donated a total of $225,000 through a subsidiary to a pro-Trump super-PAC, according to campaign disclosures. The super-PAC, Rebuilding America Now, had been heartily endorsed by the Trump team; Mike Pence said contributions to the group would be “one of the best ways to stop Hillary Clinton and help elect Donald Trump our next president.” But according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the Campaign Legal Center, the prison company’s decision to fund the super-PAC allegedly violated federal law, which prohibits government contractors from making political contributions.

GEO Corrections Holdings made a donation of $100,000 on August 19, just one day after the Obama administration announced that it would phase out its use of private prisons because of their high rates of violence. In November, before Election Day, the GEO subsidiary made another donation to Rebuilding America Now.

After Trump’s inauguration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Justice Department would continue its relationship with private prisons. The following month, GEO won a $110 million contract to build a federal immigrant detention center in Texas.

In its lawsuit, the Campaign Legal Center is asking the Justice Department to turn over documents related to the administration’s decision to keep working with private prisons. In particular, the nonprofit watchdog is seeking records that might shed light on whether the administration’s decision was influenced by GEO contributions to the pro-Trump super-PAC. The Campaign Legal Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request for these records more than three months ago. But the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has delayed the fulfillment of the request, according to the lawsuit, which seeks to speed up the disclosure process.


“GEO made illegal contributions to influence the election, and now DOJ is refusing to release the documents that might show whether the Administration rewarded GEO for its illegal spending,” Adav Noti, a senior director at the Campaign Legal Center and a former associate general counsel for policy at the Federal Election Commission, said in a statement.

more...

http://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2017/06/lawsuit-accuses-private-prison-company-of-illegally-funding-a-trump-super-pac/
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Lawsuit Accuses Private Prison Company of Illegally Funding a Trump Super-PAC (Original Post) babylonsister Jun 2017 OP
Absolutely nothing to see here... Joanie Baloney Jun 2017 #1
Keep digging...follow the money...nt Wounded Bear Jun 2017 #2
IIRC, private prison stock soared immediately after election results. Kittycow Jun 2017 #3
Kick. dalton99a Jun 2017 #4

Joanie Baloney

(1,357 posts)
1. Absolutely nothing to see here...
Sat Jun 17, 2017, 10:45 AM
Jun 2017

Move along. It is perfectly normal for the government to sponsor a private company to funnel people of color into incarceration. Everybody does it. At least, all the best authoritarian governments do it.

Fuckers.

-JB

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