Thread: Former Obama labor secretary did not report union-funded private jet trips to the FEC

Former Obama labor secretary did not report union-funded private jet trips to the FEC

9:09 AM 02/12/2014

Former Obama administration Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis took thousands of dollars of free trips on a union’s jet to “avoid freeway traffic” and did not report the trips as required by federal law, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court against union leaders.

Solis traveled on a private jet owned by the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 12 in a series of pricey trips that she did not report to the Federal Election Commission, according to a report on the lawsuit by Hews Media Group. The trips occurred in 2009, and some were intended to fly her to Washington, D.C. when she was being considered for the Obama cabinet post.

IUOE leader William Waggoner flew Solis between nearby commuter airports in El Monte, Calif. and Ontario, Calif., as well as Washington, D.C., so Solis “could avoid freeway traffic,” a source told Hews Media Group. Solis and Pasadena-based IUOE Local 12 had political ties dating back to Solis’ career in Congress, according to the report. Solis was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Here’s the Cessna Citation XL jet that Solis enjoyed, courtesy of Los Cerritos Community News:



Solis used the jet to get back and forth to the nation’s capital during her active consideration and confirmation process. “Waggoner bragged openly that he was flying Solis back to Washington D.C. for this purpose,” according to the lawsuit.

While Solis, who left the Department of Labor in 2013 and is now running for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, had a cozy relationship with the union that had the jet, she had a much frostier relationship with her own employees union within the department.

The Daily Caller reported late last week that the Department of Labor under both Solis and her successor, Thomas Perez, engaged in racial discrmination and discrimination against workers with disabilities and longtime non-college educated employees, according to an internal assessment prepared by American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 12, which represents low-ranking Department of Labor staffers. Solis hated AFGE Local 12 during her time at the Labor Department, insiders said.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/12/fo...ps-to-the-fec/

Politics

Former Labor Secretary stonewalls about possible Obama talks regarding FBI inquiry

10:55 PM 02/23/2014
Patrick Howley
Political Reporter

Former Obama administration Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is stonewalling about possible communications with President Barack Obama regarding an FBI inquiry into her involvement in an Obama re-election fundraiser.

Solis’ 2014 campaign for L.A. County Supervisor did not respond to Daily Caller inquiries into whether or not she discussed the FBI investigation with the president prior to her resignation from the administration.

Solis came under the FBI’s radar after she was the star guest at an Obama re-election fundraiser at the La Fonda Supper Club on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles intended to raise money from the Latino community. Solis has said she was aware that the Hatch Act prohibits Cabinet members from directly fundraising for political campaigns. But the FBI contacted California state senator Kevin de Leon in 2013 regarding Solis’ participation in the event.

A Solis campaign adviser previously acknowledged that Solis met with the FBI in November 2012, two months before she stepped down as Labor Secretary in January 2013, but maintained that “it is inappropriate for a Cabinet official to [discuss] private communications with the President.”

By the time Solis left the Obama administration, she owed the Washington office of the Chicago-based law firm Sidley Austin between $50,001 and $100,000 for “legal advice” pertaining to the FBI inquiry, according to a Feb. 2013 financial disclosure.

Sidley Austin lawyer Michelle Obama met Sidley summer associate Barack Obama at the Chicago firm in 1988. By May 2012, seven then-current or past Sidley attorneys had received Obama appointments. Sidley gained nearly $12 million in federal contracts between 2009 and May 2012, up from $1.4 million in the second term of the Bush administration.

Solis took thousands of dollars of free trips on a union’s jet to “avoid freeway traffic” and did not report the trips as required by federal law, according to a recent lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court against union leaders.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/23/fo...g-fbi-inquiry/

It looks like there is not an honest person in the entire bunch at the White House.... Crooks and Thieves.

Did former Labor Secretary Solis hide in-kind union contributions?

POSTED AT 3:21 PM ON FEBRUARY 11, 2014
BY ED MORRISSEY

Hilda Solis left the Obama administration in January 2013 after serving the entire term as Secretary of Labor, and is now running for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. However, the new race has brought some unwanted attention to her recent past.

According to allegations in a new RICO lawsuit filed against the leader of the International Union of Operating Engineers and several family members and friends, the union provided Solis free travel on their private jet — and Solis never disclosed the in-kind contributions (via Drudge):

Hews Media Group-Community News has obtained a lawsuit filed in the California Central US District Court claiming that former US Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, a current candidate for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, was provided thousands of dollars worth of free private jet travel without declaring the trips on the federal government required forms, paid for by the powerful International Union of Operating Engineers based in Pasadena during the same period she was undergoing confirmation hearings to become part of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet. …

Sources close to the case tell HMG-CN that Solis was given transportation on IUOE Local 12′s Cessna Citation XL Jet and that Solis failed to report the in-kind gift to the Federal Election Commission as required under law.

Los Cerritos News reporter Randy Economy digs into the records of the House, where Solis served until her confirmation at Labor as Representative for CA-32 in East Los Angeles. Lo and behold, there are no disclosures there either of the alleged free rides from IUOE, despite statutory requirements to provide that information:

According to the Office of the Clerk U.S. House of Representatives website, no Financial Disclosure Reports have been filed by Solis.

A further examination of Gift and Travel findings on the same website revealed 11 trips taken by Solis, none provided by the IUOE.

The aircraft in question is a Cessna Citation XL, a medium-sized commuter jet, which has a range of over 1800 nautical miles. Most of the flights, though, took place locally — between the airport in El Monte and Ontario in Riverside County. The flights would have cost thousands of dollars, and the lawsuit alleges that the union provided the flights so “she could avoid freeway traffic.” The plaintiffs further claim as part of the RICO lawsuit (which does not name Solis as a respondent) that the IUOE illegally influenced the 2008 Congressional campaign in which Solis won re-election. (The district has a Cook rating of D+12.)

Recently, Barack Obama claimed that there hasn’t been “a smidgen” of corruption in his administration, a claim which this lawsuit will test — and perhaps an investigation of Solis’ disclosure habits, too, if one begins. Michael Ramirez offers his response to Obama in today’s editorial cartoon at Investors Business Daily:

Be sure to check out Ramirez’ terrific collection of his works:
Everyone Has the Right to My Opinion, which covers the entire breadth of Ramirez’ career, and it gives fascinating look at political history. Read my review here, and watch my interviews with Ramirez here and here. And don’t forget to check out the entire Investors.com site, which has now incorporated all of the former IBD Editorials, while individual investors still exist.

Addendum: For full disclosure, let me note that Randy Economy and I were friends back when we both attended Cerritos High School. Randy is still in the area serving the local community with his reporting, while I’m waking up to -17 temperatures in Minnesota.

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/02/1...contributions/