Progressives Push Biden to Tap Foreign Policy Experts With Deep Koch, Soros Ties
List of 100 personnel recommendations including prominent anti-Semites and a former registered foreign agent
A host of progressive foreign policy groups has delivered 100 résumés to the Biden transition team in a move intended to pressure the incoming administration to include voices outside the mainstream of American foreign policy.
The list, obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, includes a dozen scholars from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, the think tank bankrolled by Charles Koch and George Soros.
It also includes a onetime Human Rights Watch and Quincy Institute official, Sarah Leah Whitson, who solicited donations from Saudi Arabia by promising to attack pro-Israel groups. Whitson left the Quincy Institute shortly after amplifying an anti-Semitic tweet celebrating Israeli suffering from the coronavirus and lamenting that it was "missing a tablespoon of blood." (Whitson later deleted the tweet, arguing that her point "didn’t come out right.")
The existence of the list was first reported by Politico, which opted not to publish the document. It can be found below. An organizer of the list, Alexander McCoy, political director at Common Defense, said the list reflected "old research materials" and did not match the names submitted to the Biden team, but declined to elaborate on any alleged discrepancies between the two documents.
The list serves as a counter to the predominantly center-left foreign policy officials Biden has tapped thus far—including Antony Blinken for secretary of state and Jake Sullivan for national security adviser—and as a suggested roadmap from the Bernie Sanders-wing of the Democratic party to rectify their exclusion from the nascent administration.
Experts who have offered praise for Biden's early picks were critical of the progressive list.
"Although it is difficult to generalize about a list of 100 people this, with a few notable exceptions, reads like a directory of folks who are part of the Koch-Soros funded isolationist network on the left and right," said Eric Edelman, who served as undersecretary of defense for policy in the George W. Bush administration.
Mark Dubowitz, the president and CEO of the hawkish Foundation for Defense of Democracies, has lauded Biden's nominees but slammed the progressive list. "To the credit of Joe Biden, he has chosen sensible, moderate national security professionals who believe in American leadership," Dubowitz said. "Choosing anyone on this list of neo-isolationists would be a radical departure for the president-elect."
Each administration sets its own rules about the parameters for nominees, including whether it will include former lobbyists and registered foreign agents, and progressives have worried aloud that the incoming administration may be too cozy with corporate interests.
Though list organizers are touting the group’s lack of corporate ties, their recommendations include four officials from the Soros-funded Open Society Foundation, and the predominance of Soros-funded organizations on the list underscores the billionaire's sweeping influence on the left-wing of the Democratic Party. The heavy reliance on experts from the Koch-funded Quincy Institute also marks an about-face from progressives who spent the Obama administration demonizing the privately held conglomerates’ political influence.
The Quincy Institute has come under fire for providing safe harbor to some of Washington’s most strident anti-Semites, including Whitson and fellow list member Paul Pillar, who has argued that Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson’s principal loyalty is to Israel rather than the United States. "The Republican party isn’t even his first love among political parties. That would be the Likud party," Pillar wrote in 2014. "Nor is the United States Adelson’s first love among countries."
In addition to the Quincy Institute and the Open Society Foundation, the list includes several officials from the National Iranian American Council, which has long pushed for the United States to normalize relations with Iran. The group has been accused of acting as a foreign agent, a charge they deny, though a judge concluded that the organization’s work was "not inconsistent with the idea" that it was "first and foremost an advocate for the regime."
The group’s founder, Trita Parsi, is included on the list, though experts said that Parsi, who as of 2013 was a dual Iranian-Swedish citizen would face an uphill battle to obtain a security clearance. As a rule, the U.S. government does not grant security clearances to non-citizens; it uses a workaround authorization in "rare circumstances."
"With limited exceptions, non-U.S. citizens cannot be granted a U.S. Government security clearance," said Bradley Moss, a Washington, D.C., attorney specializing in national security. "There are situations where a Limited Access Authorization can be granted to a non-U.S. citizen for access to specific information, but that would be the exception, not the rule, when it comes to access. Of course, as the Trump presidency reminded everyone, there is nothing that stops the president himself, exercising his constitutional authority, from granting a security clearance to anyone and everyone he wants. There is no indication that Joe Biden would take that type of action."
The list’s inclusion of several people who have minimized the atrocities of the Iranian regime is sparking blowback from human rights activists.
"This list is an insult to those of us who fight for freedom and democracy in Iran, and is an insult to the people of Iran who are killed by the thousands in their quest for democracy and human rights," said Kaveh Shahrooz, a senior fellow at the Canadian Macdonald-Laurier Institute and an Iranian dissident. "Iran activists rightfully call these people the Iran Lobby. For Biden to appoint any of these shady individuals would be to give Iran's regime direct access to American policymaking."
Those on the list who have come to the defense of the Iranian regime include NIAC senior researcher Sina Toosi, who accused Iranian protesters throwing rocks at regime officials last year of "escalating the situation." Toosi has shared a byline with a former Iranian diplomat, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who has been linked to the regime’s assassination of four dissidents. Quincy’s Eli Clifton, also on the list, left the Center for American Progress amidst allegations of anti-Semitism and has worked to undermine the Iranian women’s rights activist and Voice of America journalist Masih Alinejad.
The list also includes Quincy fellow Amir Handjani, who was as recently as last year registered as a foreign agent for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, a vehicle controlled by the Saudi monarchy whose human-rights abuses Democrats have roundly condemned.
Handjani’s family owns PG Commodities Trading International, which conducts sanctions-exempt business in Iran on behalf of Cargill. He has consistently pushed for greater engagement with Iran and slammed the Trump administration’s decision to slap sanctions on the regime.
It is unclear whether these equities would preclude Handjani from scoring a senior role in the administration. "The details are what will matter: what were the circumstances of the work, how was the person paid, does the person have ongoing and consistent communications with the foreign nationals with whom they interacted, and do they have any financial ties to the foreign business that would place them at risk of exploitation?" Moss said. "These are all things that could likely be mitigated from a risk standpoint."
Handjani is currently embroiled in a London-based lawsuit involving his alleged work for Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi of Ras al-Khamiah, one of the United Arab Emirates.
UPDATE, Dec. 18, 9:31 p.m.: This report has been updated fo reflect comment from list organizer Alexander McCoy.
Soros Nonprofit President Departs, Fueling Speculation About a Biden Appointment
The president of George Soros's vast nonprofit network is leaving his position to potentially join President-elect Joe Biden's administration, according to reports.
Patrick Gaspard is stepping down as president of Soros's Open Society Foundation, Axios reported Friday. The move has fueled speculation that Gaspard may be Biden's pick for Labor secretary.
"I write to share with you that I will leave Open Society at the end of the year," Gaspard wrote to people within the organization. "After four profound years of service to this extraordinary institution, and at a critical juncture for the democracy that is my home, I am compelled to charge once more unto the breech in a new political moment."
Soros, who poured a personal record of $70 million into the 2020 elections, has loomed large over the transition. The Washington Free Beacon reported that a number of individuals in Soros's network received seats on Biden's transition team.
Sarah Cross, an advocacy director at Soros's Open Society Foundations, is on Biden's State Department team. Michael Penn, a special adviser in the executive office of the Open Society Foundations, is on the United Nations team. Diane Thompson, a Leadership in Government Fellow at the Open Society Foundations, was tapped for Biden's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau transition team.
George Soros Looms Large Over Biden Transition
Soros employees help Biden transition team
Joe Biden's transition team includes several people affiliated with organizations bankrolled by the left-wing billionaire George Soros.
Biden's "Agency Review Teams," which include lists of individuals "responsible for understanding the operations" of each government agency, will prepare "President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris … to hit the ground running on Day One." Soros is well represented on those lists.
Sarah Cross, an advocacy director at Soros's Open Society Foundations, received a seat on Biden's State Department transition team. Michael Pan, a special adviser in the executive office of the Open Society Foundations, will join the United States Mission to the United Nations team. Diane Thompson, who is listed as "self-employed" and a member of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau team, is a current Leadership in Government Fellow at the Open Society Foundations.
Soros poured more than $70 million into election activity backing Biden's candidacy this past cycle, more than three times his previous high of $22 million in the 2016 election cycle. Soros and the Democracy Alliance donor club previously enjoyed close access to the Obama administration; under a Biden administration, that access will likely return.
Other members of Biden's transition team work for groups that receive heavy funding from the billionaire. Sharon Burke and Viv Graubard, both at the New America think tank, will join Biden's Department of Defense and Department of Labor teams. Soros's Open Society Foundations gave New America more than $1 million last year, according to the group's disclosures. Soros's son, Jonathan, sits on New America's board emeriti.
Biden's team also includes six employees from John Podesta's Center for American Progress who are sprinkled across the Treasury, Federal Reserve, Department of Labor, Department of the Interior, National Security Council, and Office of the United States Trade Representative. Soros's most recent tax forms show that nonprofits in his sprawling network gave more than $1 million to Podesta's group in 2018.
Finally, three people from the Center for Strategic and International Studies and two from the Roosevelt Institute received seats on Biden's team. Both groups recently received hundreds of thousands from Soros's nonprofits.
The Democracy Alliance, a network of millionaire and billionaire donors of which Soros is a cofounder, mapped out a $275 million spending blitz against President Donald Trump for the 2020 elections, according to confidential documents previously obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Vox described the Democracy Alliance as the "closest thing that exists to a ‘left-wing conspiracy'" in the United States.
The network is led by Gara LaMarche, the former director of U.S. programs for Soros's Open Society Foundations, and helps steer the billionaire's agenda.
Biden's campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the Soros-tied individuals on the transition team.
Sixteen Thirty Fund Steers $55 Million in Hidden Cash to Pro-Biden PACs
A liberal dark money group has steered $55 million from deep-pocketed donors into super PACs backing Joe Biden this election cycle, filings show.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit incubator, pushed the tens of millions of dollars into Democratic super PACs while masking the original sources of the contributions. Wealthy individuals have used the network to conceal hundreds of millions in nonprofit spending in recent years. During the 2020 cycle, they've used it to pump large sums into the election as well.
The secret cash comes despite Biden's calls for "increased transparency of election spending" and an "end [to] dark money groups." Nearly two dozen left-wing groups supporting Biden's candidacy have received contributions that first passed through the dark money network.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund's largest donation this cycle was $7.7 million to Victory 2020, a joint fundraising venture between David Brock's American Bridge PAC and the Unite the Country PAC. The two groups merged earlier this year to build a $175 million anti-Trump network to hit the president in battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund, an environmental group that has also spent large sums on the elections, took in $6.8 million from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, and the Change Now PAC, which is backed by labor groups and receives administrative support from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, has hauled in $5 million.
Other prominent liberal super PACs, such as Priorities USA Action, Future Forward USA, America's Progressive Promise, PACRONYM, the Black PAC, and Senate Majority PAC, have received between $1 million and $4.5 million from the Sixteen Thirty Fund.
"The Sixteen Thirty Fund is confronting the biggest social challenges in our country through fiscal sponsorship, advocacy, and electoral action," group executive director Amy Kurtz previously told the Washington Free Beacon. "We support investing in the health and strength of our democracy and have lobbied in favor of reform to the current campaign finance system (through H.R. 1), but we are equally committed to following the current laws to level the playing field for progressives in this election."
The 2020 cycle marks the first time the Sixteen Thirty Fund has been used as a pass-through avenue to fund secret election activity. The $55 million had gone to the liberal super PACs through September 30, meaning the total could be even higher.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund is managed by Arabella Advisors, a D.C.-based consulting group. More than $1 billion in anonymous cash has passed to left-wing nonprofits through the four funds that Arabella manages since Trump was elected. Some of the biggest liberal-donor groups, including the Democracy Alliance, also use it.
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