The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) is a conservative 501(c)(3) non-profit group that monitors and reports on the ethics of public officials, supporters of liberal causes, and labor unions in the United States.
[6] Lamberth ruled that the "official" members of the task force, meaning the First Lady and the Cabinet Secretaries who comprised its membership, could not meet in secret because Clinton was not a government employee.
[7] Justice Department lawyers argued that since Hillary Rodham Clinton "functions in both a legal and practical sense as part of the government," her participation in the task force should not trigger FACA.
According to Hillary Clinton, “It was a deft political move, designed to disrupt our work on health care and to foster the impression with the public and the news media that we were conducting ‘secret’ meetings.”[8] In 1996, NLPC exposed over-billing by then-FDA Commissioner David Kessler on his government expense reimbursements.
[11] The NLPC's complaint detailed how Defense Department procurement officer Darleen Druyun, while still at the Pentagon, sold her house to a Boeing executive who was also working on the tanker deal.
[14] In 2006, NLPC filed a 500-page Complaint with the Justice Department alleging that Alan Mollohan’s financial disclosure forms contained omissions and misrepresentations that obscured a significant increase in his personal wealth at the time he earmarked more than $250 million to nonprofit groups in his district founded and controlled by business partners and campaign contributors.
The Complaint triggered a four-year federal investigation and was the basis for a front-page Wall Street Journal story on April 6, 2006 by the late John R. Wilke that touched off a firestorm.
[17] The Complaint was also the basis for a May 17, 2006 New York Times article by Jodi Rudoren and Aron Pilhofer describing Mollohan’s undisclosed ownership of a Washington, D.C. condominium building known as The Remington.
CREW’s executive director Melanie Sloan stated, “ It was clear the Justice Department should have indicted Mollohan.”[22] In 2012, NLPC provided the New York Times with information about James Robert Williams, who made almost $900,000 in political contributions to mostly Republican candidates.
[24][25][26] Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) was indicted in April 2015, along with Dr. Salomon Melgen, his largest campaign contributor, partly on the basis of information made public by NLPC through a front-page New York Times story on February 1, 2013.
The complaints alleged campaign finance violations for using a slate mailer, a mass mailing supporting or opposing "a total of four or more candidates or ballot measures.
"[32] One complaint cited a payment to her campaign fund from the Democratic State Central Committee of California (DSCCC) for the inclusion of Senate candidate Kamala Harris on Waters’ slate mailer.
[33] The Federal Election Commission dismissed the allegation, stating that "the payment on behalf of the Harris committee was a coordinated party expenditure within the [Political Reform] Acts’ limit.
[35] The Federal Election Commission used prosecutorial discretion to dismiss the allegation, stating that, although the Waters Committee had received an excessive contribution and returned the group’s payment exceeding the attributable costs of the mailer "beyond the 60-day regulatory timeframe," the amount in question had been modest.
[36] NLPC provided financial and logistical support to a constitutional challenge to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment and authority by Andrew Miller, a former aide to indicted GOP operative Roger Stone, who has subpoenaed in the case.
[37][38] NLPC Chairman Peter Flaherty told the New York Times on June 28, 2018, “The founders feared exactly what we see in Mueller: a runaway federal official.
We hope to see Mueller’s operation disbanded, once and for all.” The challenge had its genesis in a May 13, 2018 Wall Street Journal op-ed by Northwestern Law Professor Steven Calabresi.
In the Motion to Quash, Kamenar made three principal arguments:[41] President Trump tweeted on several occasions about one of the central issues of the case, that Mueller was never confirmed by the Senate.