Beltway Big Tech: Former Silicon Valley Execs In The Biden Administration

Zach Everson

Staff Writer

MARCH 7, 2022

Welcome to the latest issue of Checks & Imbalances. Today we look at the many friend requests the Biden administration has accepted from Big Tech

Checks & Imbalances publishes on Mondays and Thursdays. Please support this work, if you can, by subscribing to Forbes. Any tips or suggestions? Email me at zeverson@forbes.com.  And you can follow me on Twitter at @z_everson. Thanks!

Beltway Big Tech: Former Silicon Valley Execs In The Biden Administration

"Senior Biden administration officials were more likely to have worked with Google, Facebook or Microsoft than any other private-sector employers," reports Eric Fan and Michela Tindera in a collaboration between Forbes and the Brown Institute for Media Innovation:

In total, at least 41 senior officials had received compensation from these three Big Tech firms, at some point during the two years prior to joining the Biden administration. To be fair, in absolute terms Big Tech alumni make up a small percentage of all first-year Biden appointees, but it is more than the 12 who worked with those companies from the first year of Donald Trump’s administration. Throw in Apple and Amazon and that number expands to at least 51 officials, compared to 19 during Trump’s administration.

Read more: "Beltway Big Tech: Former Silicon Valley Execs In The Biden Administration"

Forbes

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Campaign Targets 111 Trump-Linked Election Lawyers. Here’s Some Already Facing A Backlash.

"The 65 Project launched Monday, a Democratic-linked dark money group that seeks to 'shame' and hold accountable more than 100 attorneys who tried to overthrow the 2020 election, adding to an ongoing slew of consequences that post-election lawyers have faced for their efforts" reports Alison Durkee for Forbes:

Many of the post-election attorneys have stood by their efforts and denied wrongdoing. [Pro-Trump lawyer Sidney] Powell and her co-counsel in the Michigan case said in a February court brief they made “non-frivolous legal claims” and that “millions of Americans believe the central [voter fraud] contentions of the complaint to be true, and perhaps they are.”

Read more: Campaign Targets 111 Trump-Linked Election Lawyers. Here’s Some Already Facing A Backlash.

Attorneys Sidney Powell (center) and Rudy Giuliani conduct a news conference at the Republican National Committee on November 19, 2020. CQ-ROLL CALL, INC VIA GETTY IMAGES

Continuing Irresolutions

Updates on Checks & Imbalances’ previous reporting

Iran is plotting to assassinate former National Security Advisor John Bolton, reported the Washington Examiner on Monday. “As Forbes reported on Jan. 28, the deployment of a Secret Service presence in Bolton's D.C. suburban neighborhood sparked attention from his neighbors. Bolton still has a Secret Service detail. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, four active and former government officials with knowledge of the most recent intelligence backdrop confirmed that Iranian threats against Bolton and Pompeo are continuing, specific, and highly credible.”

*****

A major GOP donor who’s seeking bankruptcy protection for his home walked his daughter down the aisle at Mar-a-Lago last month, Checks & Imbalances reported on Thursday. A court filing made the following day makes it sound like getting hitched at Mar-a-Lago may have been a last-minute backup plan for the couple’s posh celebration. Four days before the nuptials, the donor, Richard Kofoed testified that his daughter’s wedding was slated for the California home that’s at the center of the bankruptcy petition.

Intriguing Investments

The leadership PAC of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) paid the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office $5,000 for trademarks in 2021, according to records with the Federal Election Commission. The applications appear to be related to her 2020 presidential campaign, based on a search of the USPTO database. Gabbard did not respond to an inquiry.

Tracking Trump

"Mar A Lago is the most powerful political platform in Republican politics," tweeted Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

Twitter/Rep. Matt Gaetz

Jim Worthington reportedly spent a week at Mar-a-Lago and saw former President Trump every day. Worthington, the owner of an athletic club in Pennsylvania, bussed nearly 200 people to D.C. for the January 6 rally to overturn the election results, reported the Lower Bucks Times.