Joe Biden’s White House chief of staff will be a revolving-door lobbyist for bailout barons, fraudster drug companies, and major health insurers, all while Biden claims to be taking Washington back from the special interests.
Ron Klain served in the Clinton and Obama administrations, and in between, he was a lobbyist for K Street firm O’Melveny & Myers. His clients included Fannie Mae, the government-backed housing-bubble inflator that failed and required a taxpayer bailout. Klain lobbied for Fannie Mae from 2002 through 2005, the period when Fannie Mae successfully fought off stricter oversight from lawmakers concerned about taxpayer exposure.
In the Bush years, half the purpose of Fannie Mae seemed to be enriching politically connected Democrats, and Klain didn’t miss out. Using an implicit taxpayer bailout, the company bought up a trillion dollars worth of subprime mortgages and fought off regulation through a well-funded, well-connected network of revolving-door consultants and lobbyists like Klain. But Fannie Mae wasn’t Klain’s only lobbying client.
Klain was also a lobbyist for ImClone, a pharmaceutical company that would be investigated by Congress for fraud. ImClone’s founder and CEO, Sam Waksal, would be convicted for fraud.
AOL Time Warner paid Klain as a lobbyist from 2001 through 2005. He lobbied the federal government to allow U.S. Airways’s merger with United and Airborne Express’s merger with DHL.
Ron Klain’s deep, varied experience and capacity to work with people all across the political spectrum is precisely what I need in a White House chief of staff as we confront this moment of crisis and bring our country together again. https://t.co/s4XlAgMrxf
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 12, 2020
Klain also lobbied for ethanol producer Imperial Bioresources. Cigna appears as a lobbying client in the congressional database, but records do not indicate lobbying activity. Klain also lobbied on behalf of the Coalition for Asbestos Resolution, described by liberal critics as a “front group” for the GAF corporation, a roofing-materials manufacturer. Meade Instruments and the Free Trade Lumber Counsel were also lobbying clients of Klain’s, according to federal filings.
Klain hasn’t been a registered lobbyist since 2005, and so he is not affected by any proposed Biden ethics rules.
