Palantir, Meta, Paramount Skydance, and more than two dozen other corporations might have broken the law when they funneled millions to the Trump administration through undisclosed donations to the revamped White House ballroom, Donald Trump’s future presidential library, and other Trumpworld legacy projects, according to a new legal complaint.
“The scale of these potential violations is unprecedented,” warned the nonpartisan watchdog Campaign Legal Center in its complaint to the US Attorney for DC, alleging that at least thirty-five firms helped bankroll President Trump’s pet projects without properly disclosing such lobbying.
Those legacy projects are Trump’s $400 million White House State Ballroom project, the Freedom 250 group leading the president’s 250th United States birthday celebrations, the renamed Trump Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the future Trump Presidential Library.
The Lobbying Disclosure Act — passed under President Bill Clinton and amended under President George W. Bush — requires individual lobbyists and their employers to disclose donations to entities “established, financed, maintained, or controlled” by covered executive branch officials, which includes the president. The law specifically outlines presidential library foundations as entities to which lobbyists and their employers must report donations.
The Lobbying Disclosure Act is enforced by the US Attorney for DC, an office currently held by former Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro. Those who “knowingly fail to comply” with the law are subject to civil fines maxing out at $200,000, while those who “knowingly and corruptly [fail] to comply” face up to five years in prison.
In the case of the revamped East Wing and ballroom, only one corporation reported its donation to the fund on lobbying disclosure files. Yet twenty-six other firms have been identified as donors by media reports or the White House itself. Those include corporations with…
Auteur: Veronica Riccobene
