It’s all coincidental. Obama receives hundreds of thousands in campaign donations and then Obama rewards these donors with millions. Here’s another story the mainstream media will not report.
From NLPC:
An international law firm, which gave substantial political donations to President Obama and fellow Democrats over the last three campaign cycles, received its own significant stimulus award to advise on a controversial Department of Energyloan transaction with a struggling electric vehicle manufacturer.
The firm, Debevoise & Plimpton LLC, received $1,842,180 in Recovery Act funds to provide legal advice, conduct due diligence, and review documents for two loans from DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. One $529 million loan award was to Fisker Automotive to develop and produce two lines of electric vehicles, with plans to create 2,000 new jobs at a renovated General Motors plant inDelaware. After receiving $193 million under that loan, DOE halted payments to Fisker in May 2011 after it failed to reach milestones set out in the agreement. Work on renovations to the Delaware plant was suspended, and the company let go about 65 employees – “green jobs” – earlier this month.
Debevoise provided the same services to DOE for its $5.9 billion loan toFord Motor Company, to convert five of its factories in the Midwest so they can produce more fuel-efficient vehicles. DOE’s Web site boasts that thanks to the Ford loan, nearly 33,000 employees at the plants will be “converted” to “green” jobs.
Information posted on the Recovery.gov Web site about Debevoise’s services for DOE says its lawyers provided “specialized legal advice and services (a) on programmatic aspects of the ATVM Program and (b) on transactions proposed or consummated under the ATVM Program.” The firm was paid based upon “Direct Productive Labor Hours” under the contract’s terms, commenced work on the loans in April 2009, and was finished by April 2010. The law firm reviewed the Fisker and Ford applications, met with DOE and the auto companies’ personnel, prepared draft term sheets and conditional commitment documents and “negotiation of same,” and conducted due diligence and prepared “due diligence” memoranda.
At the height of its legal services activity for DOE, 1.25 jobs were created that were attributable to Debevoise’s work on the two loans. The firm declined to explain how it billed for its work, citing client confidentiality.
According to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, employees of the law firm gave $199,944 to Sen. Barack Obama for his 2008 presidential campaign, compared to $9,650 for Republican nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Over the last three congressional election cycles (two cycles for the presidency, including this year), Debevoise staff members have donated $746,535 to Democrat candidates and political committees, including $284,420 to the Obama campaign. In contrast, Republican candidates and their support groups received $57,451 from employees of the law firm. Debevoise’s media relations manager, Suzanne Elio, is a former Democratic National Committee fundraiser, and top lawyer David Rivkin reportedly served on President Obama’s National Finance Committee, even hosting a fundraiser for presidential candidate Obama in his home in 2007.
