Profiles in Corruption

by Peter Schweizer

  96. U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards, “Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, As Amended,” accessed May 21, 2019, https://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/statutes/lmrda-act.htm.

  97. U.S. Chamber of Commerce, “Bearing Down on Employers: The New Labor and Immigration Landscape,” September 1, 2010, https://www.uschamber.com/report/bearing-down-employers-new-labor-and-immigration-landscape.

  98. Hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Nomination of Gregory Jacob, of New Jersey, to be Solicitor of Labor, U.S. Department of Labor; and Howard Radzely, of Maryland, to be Deputy Secretary of Labor, U.S. Department of Labor, 110th Cong. (2007), https://www.congress.gov/110/chrg/shrg38876/CHRG-110shrg38876.htm.

  99. “United Food & Commercial Workers, Local 75,” Unionfacts.com, accessed July 30, 2019, https://www.unionfacts.com/local/employees/544266/UFCW/75/.

  100. “UFCW Endorses Brunner,” Business Wire, March 27, 2009, https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090327005529/en/UFCW-Endorses-Brunner (note: For reference to above salaries, Locals 911 and 1099 mentioned here merged to form Local 75).

  101. Brown Named Co-Chair of Bipartisan House-Senate Committee to Solve Pension Crisis,” Sherrod Brown’s Senate page, press release, February 26, 2018, https://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/brown-named-co-chair-of-bipartisan-house-senate-committee-to-solve-pension-crisis.

  102. Tahman Bradley, “Is Detroit Dig Latest Search for Jimmy Hoffa’s Body?,” ABC News, September 15, 2009, https://abcnews.go.com/US/fbi-confirm-dig-search-jimmy-hoffa-body/story?id=8583134.

  103. Carl F. Horowitz, “James Hoffa (Both of Them) and the ‘Central States’ Crackup,” Capital Research Center, February 2016, https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/LW1602-final-draft-160202.pdf; “About Us,” Central States Pension Fund, accessed August 5, 2019, https://mycentralstatespension.org/about-us; Elizabeth Bauer, “Understanding the Central States Pension Plans Tale of Woe,” Forbes, December 3, 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/ebauer/2018/12/03/understanding-the-central-states-pension-plans-tale-of-woe/#1882f5f76c10.

  104. Lesley Clark, “Coal Miners Appeal to McConnell to Back a Rescue of Their Pensions,” McClatchy DC Bureau, May 8, 2019, https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article230129654.html; “Brown Named Co-Chair of Bipartisan House-Senate Committee to Solve Pension Crisis.”

  105. Rachel Greszler, “Not Your Grandfather’s Pension: Why Defined Benefit Pensions Are Failing,” The Heritage Foundation, May 4, 2017, https://www.heritage.org/node/249512/.

  106. Rachel Greszler, “ ‘Protecting’ Private Union Pensions with Bottomless Bailouts Is a Recipe for Disaster,” The Heritage Foundation, December 4, 2017, https://www.heritage.org/budget-and-spending/report/protecting-private-union-pensions-bottomless-bailouts-recipe-disaster.

  107. “Brown Named Co-Chair of Bipartisan House-Senate Committee to Solve Pension Crisis”; “Brown Stands with Ohio Retirees to Call for Action on Plan to Protect Ohio Pensions, Keep Promises to Ohio Workers,” Sherrod Brown’s Senate page, December 18, 2017, https://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/brown-stands-with-ohio-retirees-to-call-for-action-on-plan-to-protect-ohio-pensions-keep-promises-to-ohio-workers.

  108. Ibid.

  109. Greszler, “ ‘Protecting’ Private Union Pensions with Bottomless Bailouts Is a Recipe for Disaster.”

  110. Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives, 109th Cong. (2005), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-109hhrg24255/html/CHRG-109hhrg24255.htm.

  111. Mallory Factor, “Union-Label President,” in Shadowbosses, Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind (New York: Center Street, 2012), pp. 93–94; James Shark, “Workers Reject Card Checks, Favor Private Ballots in Union Organizing,” The Heritage Foundation, February 16, 2007, https://www.heritage.org/jobs-and-labor/report/workers-reject-card-checks-favor-private-ballots-unionorganizing.

  112. “Dorm Flight,” Cleveland Scene, April 20, 2005, https://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/dorm-fight/Content?oid=1490378.

  113. Sabrina Eaton, “Lobbyists, clergy, among the diverse groups that give their top campaign dollars to Sherrod Brown,” Cleveland.com, September 14, 2018, https://expo.cleveland.com/news/erry-2018/09/ee7e208a3a5392/lobbyists-clergy-among-the-div.html.

  Chapter 7: Bernie Sanders

  1. Dan Bolles, “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling,” Seven Days, March 12, 2008, https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/when-irish-eyes-are-smiling/Content?oid=2132999; VenomousNewfie, “The Unicorn song—The Irish Rovers—Lyrics,” YouTube video, posted on April 23, 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4bc9UwZsYs.

  2. Peter Freyne, “Senatorial Matters,” Seven Days, September 29, 1999, https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/senatorial-matters/Content?oid=2431504.

  3. Terri Hallenbeck, “Fifty years, 13,450 students and 5,000 interviews: UVM’s Garrison Nelson Calls It a Career,” Seven Days, October 18, 2017, https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/fifty-years-13450-students-and-5000-interviews-uvms-garrison-nelson-calls-it-a-career/Content?oid=9191443.

  4. Kim Phillips-Fein, Charles Postel, Robert Greene II, and Michael Kazin, “Who Is the Real Progressive: Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders?,” Nation, February 24, 2016, https://www.thenation.com/article/who-is-the-real-progressive-hillary-clinton-or-bernie-sanders/; Stephanie McCrummen, “His Most Radical Move,” Washington Post, February 5, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2016/02/05/his-most-radical-move/.

  5. Darcy G. Richardson, Bernie: A Lifelong Crusade Against Wall Street & Wealth (Sevierville Publishing, 2015), pp. 35, 37.

  6. Pat Bradley, “Spider Species Named After Sanders,” WAMC Northeast Public Radio, September 26, 2017, https://www.wamc.org/post/spider-species-named-after-sanders.

  7. Jannay Valdez, Bernie Sanders, He Would Have Been Elected President 2016: Brilliant Study on Bernie, The Clintons and the Kennedy Assassination (North Carolina: Lulu Publishing Services, 2019).

  8. Richardson, Bernie, pp. 21–22; Sam Frizell, “The Radical Education of Bernie Sanders,” Time, May 26, 2015, https://time.com/3896500/bernie-sanders-vermont-campaign-radical/.

  9. Ofer Aderet, “Mystery Solved: Haaretz Archive Reveals Which Kibbutz Bernie Sanders Volunteered On,” Haaretz, February 4, 2016, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-haaretz-reveals-which-kibbutz-bernie-sanders-volunteered-on-1.5400356; Ben Sales, “50 years on, Bernie Sanders still champions values of his Israeli kibbutz,” Times of Israel, February 9, 2016, https://www.timesofisrael.com/50-years-on-bernie-sanders-still-champions-values-of-his-israeli-kibbutz/; “Found! Bernie’s Kibbutz During His Lost Months as Volunteer; But at Sha’ar HaAmakim, no one recalls the young socialist; Sanders stays mum,” Forward, February 19, 2016.

  10. Ben Sales, “50 Years.”

  11. Tamara Keith, “Leaving Brooklyn, Bernie Sanders Found Home in Vermont,” NPR, June 20, 2015, https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/06/20/415747576/leaving-brooklyn-bernie-sanders-found-home-in-vermont.

  12. Richardson, Bernie, p. 29.

  13. Nina Burleigh, “Socialism, Syrup and Fighter Jets: Bernie Sanders on the Campaign Trail,” Newsweek, October 2, 2015, https://www.newsweek.com/2015/10/02/bernie-sanders-campaigns-2016-presidential-campaign-democratic-party-374897.html.

  14. Tim Murphy, “How Bernie Sanders Learned to Be a Real Politician,” Mother Jones, May 26, 2015, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/young-bernie-sanders-liberty-union-vermont/; Richardson, Bernie, p. 30; Michael Kruse, “Bernie Sanders Has a Secret,” Politico, July 9, 2015, https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/bernie-sanders-vermont-119927_Page3.html.

  15. Judy Kutulas, After Aquarius Dawned: How the Revolutions of the Sixties Became the Popular Culture of the Seventies (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017), p. 81; Murphy, “How Bernie Sanders Learned to Be a Real Politician.”

  16. Murphy, “How Bernie Sanders
Learned to Be a Real Politician.”

  17. Ibid.; Richardson, Bernie, pp. 186, 189; Greg Guma, The People’s Republic: Vermont and the Sanders Revolution (South Burlington, VT: New England Press, 1989), pp. 31, 42.

  18. John Nichols, “Go Knock on Some Doors; Bernie Sanders Sounds Off,” Progressive, May 1, 1996.

  19. Dudley Clendinen, “It’s New Politics vs. Old in Vermont as Mayor Strives to Oust Alderman,” New York Times, February 28, 1982, https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/28/us/it-s-new-politics-vs-old-in-vermont-as-mayor-strives-to-oust-alderman.html.

  20. Lisa Belkin, “Being married to Bernie,” Yahoo, November 3, 2015, https://www.yahoo.com/news/being-married-to-bernie-1291469214744630.html.

  21. Catherine Lucey and Ken Thomas, “Jane Sanders Is Central in Her Husband’s Surging Campaign,” Associated Press, February 18, 2016, https://apnews.com/d604bf0a489e4363a8869c7b8d558441.

  22. Lisa Belkin, “Being married to Bernie,” November 3, 2015, https://www.yahoo.com/news/being-married-to-bernie-1291469214744630.html.

  23. Steven Soifer, The Socialist Mayor: Bernard Sanders in Burlington, Vermont (New York: Bergin & Garvey, 1991), pp. 180–81, 186–87; “Role of Youth Office Aide Merited Closer Examination,” Burlington Free Press, June 28, 1983, https://www.newspapers.com/image/203386739/; Mark Johnson, “Sparks Fly at City Hall,” Seven Days, June 16, 1988, https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/-at-city-hall/Content?oid=2434429.

  24. Johnson, “Sparks Fly at City Hall.”

  25. Soifer, The Socialist Mayor, p. 68.

  26. Guma, The People’s Republic, p. 107.

  27. Ibid., p. 135.

  28. John Walters, “Walters: Advocate for the Homeless to Challenge Sanders for Senate Seat,” Seven Days, July 7, 2017, https://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2017/07/07/walters-advocate-for-the-homeless-to-challenge-sanders-for-senate-seat.

  29. Peter Freyne and Amy Schegel, “City vs. MCHV: Charity on the Line,” Seven Days, August 6, 1987, https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/city-vs-mchv-charity-on-the-line/Content?oid=2434371; Mark Johnson, “Medical Center Beats Bernie,” Seven Days, September 24, 1987, https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/medical-center-beats-bernie/Content?oid=2434374.

  30. Peter Freyne, “El Cheapo!,” Seven Days, October 16, 1996, https://m.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/el-cheapo/Content?oid=2433883.

  31. Guma, The People’s Republic, p. 59.

  32. Ibid., pp. 41, 109; “Antonio ‘Tony’ Pomerleau,” Burlington Free Press, accessed July 15, 2019, https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/burlingtonfreepress/obituary.aspx?n=antonio-pomerleau-tony&pid=188141527.

  33. Soifer, The Socialist Mayor, pp. 84, 181, 187; Candace Page, “Tony Pomerleau, Vermont Developer and Philanthropist, Dies at 100,” Burlington Free Press, https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2018/02/09/antonio-pomerleau-vermont-developer-and-philanthropist-dies-100/322621002/; Mitch Wertlieb, “Antonio Pomerleau, Vermont Philanthropist, Dies at 100,” VPR, February 9, 2018, https://www.vpr.org/post/antonio-pomerleau-vermont-philanthropist-dies-100#stream/0.

  34. Guma, The People’s Republic, p. 93.

  35. Ibid., pp. 109–10.

  36. Ibid., pp. 110, 113, 121.

  37. Soifer, The Socialist Mayor, p. 78.

  38. Guma, The People’s Republic, p. 113.

  39. Richardson, Bernie, pp. 227, 231, 232; Guma, The People’s Republic, p. 90.

  40. Mike Davis, Steven Hiatt, et al., Fire in the Hearth: The Radical Politics of Place in America (Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 1990), p. 143.

  41. Richardson, Bernie, p. 227.

  42. Guma, The People’s Republic, p. 90.

  43. Richardson, Bernie, p. 227.

  44. Ibid., pp. 34–35.

  45. Tim Mak, “Bernie Sanders Loves This $1 Trillion War Machine,” Daily Beast, February 9, 2016, https://www.thedailybeast.com/bernie-sanders-loves-this-dollar1-trillion-war-machine?ref=scroll.

  46. Richardson, Bernie, pp. 201, 303.

  47. Nataly Pak and Sruthi Palaniappan, “Who Is Bernie Sanders? Everything You Need to Know About the Senator from Vermont,” ABC News, July 30, 2019, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bernie-sanders-senator-vermont/story?id=61058675; Guma, 158; FEC data; Columbia University Irving Medical Center, “Newly Established Phyllis Mailman Professorship Will Advance the Research and Development of Lifesaving Vaccines,”Newswise, June 24, 2019, https://www.newswise.com/articles/newly-established-phyllis-mailman-professorship-will-advance-the-research-and-development-of-lifesaving-vaccines; Glenna Whitley, “Vision Quest: Jim and Christine’s Quasi-Mystical Adventure,” D Magazine, June 1995, https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1995/june/vision-quest-jim-and-christines-quasi-mystical-adventure/; “James Gollin,” Influence Watch, accessed June 25, 2019, https://www.influencewatch.org/person/james-gollin/; “Reed Rubin,” Wellsfargoadvisors.com, accessed June 25, 2019, https://home.wellsfargoadvisors.com/reed.rubin.

  48. Gloria L. Cronin and Lee Trepanier, A Political Companion to Saul Bellow (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2013) pp. 211, 215.

  49. Richardson, Bernie, pp. 300–302.

  50. Belkin, “Being Married to Bernie.”

  51. Vermont Secretary of State Corporations Division, “Sanders & Driscoll, L.L.C.,” accessed June 19, 2019, https://www.vtsosonline.com/online/BusinessInquire/TradeNameInformation?businessID=11218; Belkin, “Being Married to Bernie.”

  52. Richardson, Bernie, p. 38; Jasper Craven, “Special Report: Sanders Campaign Millions Go to Mystery Firm,” VTDigger, July 15, 2016, https://vtdigger.org/2016/07/15/sanders-campaign-millions-go-to-mystery-firm/.

  53. Bernard Sanders, Personal Financial Disclosure, 2013, http://pfds.opensecrets.org/N00000528_2013.pdf; Vermont Secretary of State Corporations Division, “Business Search Result,” n.d., https://www.vtsosonline.com/online/BusinessInquire/BusinessSearch.

  54. David Gram, “Sanders Admits Campaign Paid Family Members,” Rutland Herald, April 14, 2005, https://www.rutlandherald.com/news/sanders-admits-campaign-paid-family-members/article_287658f4–732a-57a5–8ab1-be235bf5c33f.html.

  55. “Recording Disbursements,” Federal Election Commission, n.d., https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/keeping-records/records-disbursements/.

  56. Eli Clifton and Joshua Holland, “Bernie’s Fundraising Was Revolutionary. How He Spent His Money Was Not,” Slate, July 13, 2016, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2016/07/how-bernie-spent-his-millions-was-anything-but-revolutionary.html.

  57. Gram, “Sanders Admits Campaign Paid Family Members.”

  58. Ryan Grim, “The Reluctance of Bernie Sanders to Release His Damn Tax Returns Is Part of a Bigger Issue,” Intercept, April 5, 2019, https://theintercept.com/2019/04/05/bernie-sanders-tax-returns/; Ken Thomas and Richard Rubin, “Bernie Sanders Releases Tax Returns,” Wall Street Journal, April 15, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/bernie-sanders-releases-tax-returns-11555365600.

  59. Alice B. Lloyd, “Jane Sanders’s Little College That Couldn’t,” Washington Examiner, July 31, 2017, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/jane-sanderss-little-college-that-couldnt.

  60. Charlotte Hallé, “Burlington Boss ‘Clueless’ About Fake Degrees,” Haaretz, January 18, 2002, https://www.haaretz.com/1.5276580.

  61. Paul Heintz, “Jane Says: Sanders’ Secret Weapon or a Political Liability?,” Seven Days, June 17, 2015, https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/jane-says-sanders-secret-weapon-or-a-political-liability/Content?oid=2670992.

  62. Associated Press, “Burlington College to send students to Cuba,” Brattleboro Reformer, July 26, 2007, https://www.reformer.com/stories/burlington-college-to-send-students-to-cuba,272017.

  63. “Burlington College sets program in Cuba,” Rutland Herald Online, July 21, 2007, https://www.rutlandherald.com/news/burlington-college-sets-program-in-cuba/article_c3c600d1-d5a1–51e4–9294–7c706ea9d4c6.html.

  64. Ken Picard, “Havana Dreams Deferred,” Seven Days, March 5, 2008, https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/havana-dreams-deferred/Content?oid=2132940.


  65. Alex Seitz-Wald, “The 25 best things we learned from Bernie Sanders’ book,” MSNBC, May 28, 2015, http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/the-25-best-things-we-learned-bernie-sanders-book; Marc Frank, Cuba Looks to the Year 2000 (New York: International Publishers, 1993), p. 84.

  66. Bruce Edwards, “School solidifies ties to Cuba,” Rutland Herald, March 10, 2013, https://www.rutlandherald.com/news/business_vermont/school-solidifies-ties-to-cuba/article_fedce925–6b08–59c7-bab6–8d0c8d4b63a9.html.

  67. “Study Abroad: Cuba Cuban Studies,” StudyAbroad.com, https://www.studyabroad.com/institutions/burlington-college/study-abroad-cuba-cuban-studies-276267.

  68. Associated Press, “Burlington College to send students to Cuba.”

  69. Tim Johnson, “Financial questions dog Burlington College,” Burlington Free Press, August 16, 2014, https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/education/2014/08/15/financial-questions-dog-burlington-college/14117505/.

  70. “Spending by Prime Award,” USASpending.gov, accessed November 28, 2018, https://www.usaspending.gov/#/search/92ff650c19a891f13badd42f080847fe.

  71. Leon J. Thompson, “She’s Nailed It,” Business People-Vermont, November 2015, http://www.vermontguides.com/2015/vtwoodwork1115.html; Jasper Craven, “One family, two schools: Questions raised about another Sanders deal,” VTDigger, June 13, 2017, https://vtdigger.org/2017/06/13/one-family-two-schools-questions-swirl-around-another-sanders-deal/

  72. Brady C. Toensing, letter to Eric S. Miller (U.S. attorney for the District of Vermont) and Fred W. Gibson, Jr. (Acting Inspector General, FDIC), January 10, 2016; M. Ferrer, “Nepotism at Burlington College,” Medium, February 13, 2017, https://medium.com/@m.ferrer/nepotism-at-burlington-college-1a9af167ae9b.

  73. Craven, “One family, two schools.”

  74. Ibid.

  75. “Vermont Woodworking School Expansion Project Receives USDA Grant for Bio-Mass Furnace,” Vermontbiz.com, September 10, 2008, https://vermontbiz.com/news/september/vermont-woodworking-school-expansion-project-receives-usda-grant-bio-mass-furnace; “Woodworking school meets in old barn,” Sun Community News & Printing, February 10, 2009; https://www.suncommunitynews.com/articles/the-sun/woodworking-school-meets-in-old-barn/.