Nuke Developer Greases Trump’s Palm

Source: Daily Beast | April 21, 2017 | Lachlan Markay

He didn’t financially support Trump in the election, but once Trump won, he forked over $1 million to his inauguration committee.

For a politically astute businessman looking to get into the nuclear power industry, a series of contributions to influential legislators could cut some of the inevitable red tape, but a million-dollar gift to Donald Trump’s inauguration might help seal the deal.

As he awaits regulatory approval for a new nuclear power project, Chattanooga, Tennessee, developer Franklin Haney is flexing some serious political muscle by donating $1 million to Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration committee in December through a company he owns.

With nearly $107 million in contributions, the committee almost doubled the previous fundraising record, set by Barack Obama’s inaugural committee in 2009. Trump’s inauguration, like many before it, was financed by a host of corporations with business before the federal government.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer rejected suggestions that inaugural donors might receive favorable treatment from the administration.

“I think funding the Inaugural Committee has pretty much been a nonpartisan activity that is going back every administration,” Spicer told reporters on Wednesday.

Haney’s donation came by way of HFNWA LLC, an Arkansas company that he has used to make just one other federal political contribution: a $1 million donation in 2014 to Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic super PAC.

Haney personally made two other million-dollar contributions during the previous cycle, to Democratic super PACs Priorities USA Action and Majority PAC. He has given more than $2.3 million to Democratic candidates and party organs, according to Federal Election Commission records.

In light of that record, his contribution to the inauguration stuck out. He did not donate to Trump during the presidential campaign, setting him apart from other major inaugural donors such as casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and Chicago Cubs co-owner Marlene Ricketts.

His ongoing private financial activities could be a clue. Haney chipped in for the inauguration only after embarking on a business venture that would require favorable treatment from Trump administration regulators.

Haney’s company did not respond to multiple messages left with its Washington and Chattanooga offices.

……

Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)
Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.