The week
Obama’s 1st Secretary of Transportation admits hiding the payment from the Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire
The Justice Department said Wednesday that when Ray LaHood was US Secretary of Transportation he was accepting a check for US $ 50,000 that he “understood at the time” issued by Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury Forms of Ethics, then “misleading statements to FBI agents investigating Chagoury over the check and its source “. LaHood, a Republican former Congressman from Illinois, served in President Barack Obama’s cabinet from 2009 to 2013. He initially refused to receive the loan in an interview with the FBI in 2017, Politico reports, but confirmed the payment when agents showed him a copy of the cabinet check. Under a December 2019 non-law enforcement agreement, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday that LaHood had agreed to repay the $ 50,000 received in June 2012, pay a $ 40,000 fine and proceed with the investigation into Chagoury the government to work together. The Justice Department said Thursday that Chagoury agreed to pay $ 1.8 million to avoid prosecution for more than $ 180,000 in illegal campaign contributions he received through a Virginia employee Toufic Baaklini , forwarded to US politicians. Chagoury was best known for his donation to the Clinton Foundation, but all payments, though Baaklini apparently went to Republicans, including $ 100,000 for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, Politico reports. Baaklini also wrote the personal check to LaHood, but that was a “separate and unrelated matter” from the campaign funding violations, the Justice Department said. In 2015, Baaklini raised $ 2,700 for the campaign run by LaHood’s son Darin, who now holds his father’s old seat in Congress, notes Axios. The Matt Gaetz allegations show QAnon corrupting his followers. Biden slams the door to the Reaganism. The feminine price for masculine pleasure