The New York Times reports on Victor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian oligarch with extensive ties to the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton’s State Department, as he tries to curry favor to win an anti-dumping dispute with American steel companies. Pinchuk’s Clinton ties won’t look good to steelworkers in critical states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, where Clinton did well with during the 2008 Democratic primaries:

Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton have built a sprawling network of powerful friends around the globe, one that could aid Mrs. Clinton’s chances were she to seek the presidency. But those relationships often come with intersecting interests and political complications; few people illustrate that more vividly than the Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk. 

A steel magnate and major contributor to the former president’s foundation, Mr. Pinchuk was in frequent contact with Mrs. Clinton’s State Department, at meetings arranged by a Clinton political operative turned lobbyist, Douglas E. Schoen.

And now Mr. Pinchuk is at the center of a trade dispute that places him at odds with steelworkers in Pennsylvania and Ohio, precisely the kind of union workers Mrs. Clinton would need to appeal to in a presidential campaign.

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New details from a report about U.S. Senate candidate Lt. Gov. John Walsh’s (D-MT) reveal that the U.S. Army formally reprimanded Walsh for improperly using government resources for personal gain.

Montana’s lieutenant governor John Walsh, the former commander of the Montana National Guard, was formally reprimanded by the U.S. Army in 2010 over his advocacy of an organization that promoted National Guard interests.

The report on Walsh was turned over to the Army JAG, which resulted in a “memorandum of reprimand.” The memo concluded that Walsh violated federal codes of ethics by using official resources to advance his own interests.

The Inspector General report referred the matter to the Army JAG, or Judge Advocate General. That in turn resulted in a “memorandum of reprimand” obtained Friday by MTN News under the Freedom of Information Act.

That memo says Walsh, now a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, violated federal codes of ethics when he used government resources in the effort.

Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the vice chief of staff of the Army, signed the memo and noted that Walsh’s actions created doubt about Walsh’s “ability to lead.”

The memo, signed by Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the Army, notes that it does not constitute “punishment” under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but it also says that Walsh’s “failure to adhere to Army Values causes me to question your ability to lead.”

A new report by Maryland Watchdog group Change Maryland documents how Gov. Martin O’Malley used his seat on the Maryland Board of Public Works to help steer a lucrative contract to a company linked to several six-figure donations to the Democratic Governors Association, while he served as its Chairman. The report notes that O’Malley issued “significant criticism” when other board members raised questions about the procurement process and the company’s legal woes:

Change Maryland has released new information that seems to reveal the appearance of a “pay-to-play” system within the O’Malley-Brown Administration where contractors received significant benefits from the state either before or after their donations to the Democratic Governors Association during Governor O’Malley’s tenure as its chairman. …

From March 2011 to February 2012, the Maryland Board of Public Works was deciding whether to approve the lucrative contract to Express Scripts to provide prescription drug services to state employees. In March 2011, two of the three members voted to postpone a decision out of concerns about the company’s legal issues and several flaws in the procurement process. Governor O’Malley was the lone vote to move forward with the contract.

During this same time, Medco – a company looking to merge with Express Scripts – donated a combined $225,000 to the DGA. In fact, their first contribution came just six days after Governor O’Malley cast the lone vote to move forward with the drug contract.

In late January 2012, the Board of Public Works again voted to delay the contract award, drawing significant criticism from Governor O’Malley at the time who complained about the endless delays. One month later, the BPW reversed course, awarding the contract to Express Scripts in a two to one vote. On March 27, 2012, Medco made their second and final donation to the DGA: $125,000. Medco and Express Scripts received final Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approval for their merger on April 2, 2012.

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Despite Hillary Clinton’s claim that “the cure for corruption is openness,” for months, the State Department has been stonewalling congressional and press inquiries into the peculiar arrangement naming top Clinton aide Huma Abedin a “special government employee,” allowing her to work for other entities while remaining at the State Department. Abedin went on to work for Teneo, a consulting firm with deep ties to the Clintons and the family’s foundation, while still working at the State Department, and having access to sensitive information.

Now it turns out, the problem is 100 times bigger. According to ProPublica, Huma Abedin is one of “about 100” special government employees. What’s worse is the tactics the Department is using to try to avoid revealing these individuals’ identities and their private sector clients. After denying a media inquiry and Freedom of Information Act request from ProPublica, which other Departments granted, the State Department only “reopened” the request after it learned ProPublica was going to write about the denial. Yet the Department has continued to stall, delaying its response three separate times.

Earlier this year, Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin drew scrutiny for a special arrangement that allowed her to work part time at the State Department while simultaneously maintaining a side gig working for a corporate consulting firm. …

So who else is a special government employee at the State Department? The department won’t say – even as eight other federal agencies readily sent us lists of their own special government employees.

A State Department spokeswoman did confirm that there are “about 100” such employees. But asked for a list, she added that, “As general policy, [the department] does not disclose employee information of this nature.”

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A report from today's New York Times highlights the cozy and personal relationship that McAuliffe and Hillary Clinton have with their donors, including “sending handwritten notes”:

In 2012, the Obama campaign largely relied on automated thank you e-mails with requests for additional donations, while the Clintons - and Mr. McAuliffe - are known for sending handwritten notes. Even while serving as secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton called some longtime supporters on their birthdays (“It’s your secretary of state calling to wish you a happy birthday…”), and sent personal notes when a new grandchild arrived. An aide emphasized that those donors are personal friends with whom Mrs. Clinton has stayed in touch.

And as Marjorie Williams’ book Reputations, McAuliffe’s ability to “stroke the First Lady’s donors” made his valuable to “his party and his president”:

Watching him stroke the First Lady’s donors, one gets a sharp sense of McAuliffe’s value to his party and his president; of why the president and the vice president both attended his fortieth birthday party; of why House minority leader Richard Gephardt, another beneficiary of McAuliffe’s skills, once bought the McAuliffe family a golden retriever puppy, house-trained it for two months, and bathed it himself, in his bathtub, before delivering it Christmas morning.

All of this sheds significant doubt in Terry McAuliffe’s claim to not have a relationship with Joseph Caramadre, the man who ran an investment scheme profiting off the terminally ill, whose company Terry McAuliffe invested in and who donated $26,599 to McAuliffe’s 2009 campaign. Everything in McAuliffe’s background indicates that he knew exactly what was going on and is trying to play Virginians for fools.

With more and more stories coming out about Terry McAuliffe’s questionable business and campaign ties, it is time for a rundown his controversial associates. 

McAuliffe’s campaign received $120,000 from a company run by Yoram Cohen that was making illicit payments to African war criminal and arms dealer Charles Taylor. Both McAuliffe and Cohem refuse to discuss the nature of their relationship.

McAuliffe invested with Joseph Caramadre, a man who pled guilty to “an investment scheme that used the identities of terminally ill people.”

McAuliffe’s campaign won’t return donations from supporter Jeffrey Thompson, who allegedly financed illegal shadow campaigns to benefit Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and Washington DC Mayor Vincent Gray’s campaign. 

Both McAuliffe’s company GreenTech and it’s sister company responsible for funding GreenTech, which is run by Anthony Rodham, are the target of federal investigations.

Through his ties to Democrat money man Gary Winnick, McAuliffe made millions from on an investment in Global Crossing just before the company went bankrupt and ten thousand people lost their jobs.

McAuliffe was implicated in an illegal fundraising scheme involving former Teamsters consultant Martin Davis, who pled guilty to money laundering.

McAuliffe worked for and continued to raise money from controversial businessman David Chang who pled guilty to making illegal donations in a campaign finance scheme.

In both of his campaigns as governor, Terry McAuliffe has heralded his own work as a bank chairman. In 2009, he ran an ad claiming he “saved” Federal City National Bank, even though the bank was at the time cited by federal regulators for “unsafe and unsound banking practices." 

However, as is the case with every McAuliffe run business, this bank was dependent on McAuliffe political connections: 

The reasons for Federal City’s success lie partly in its connections. While the bank targets small business near Capitol Hill, it has also attracted labor unions, political action accounts, and "a lot of Democratic-party-type accounts,” Mr. McAuliffe said.

(Bill Atkinson, “From Politics To Banking, Terrence McAuliffe," American Banker, 10/6/1991)

The Daily News reports that after a so-called independent commission he set up began investigating contributions to developers that benefited from a tax break he signed into law, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has now “moved to grab greater control” of the commission and vetoed a subpoena seeking information from the Como-friendly real estate board:

Gov. Cuomo has moved to grab greater control of the anti-corruption commission he vowed would be independent, the Daily News has learned.

Multiple sources complain that Cuomo and his top aides, unhappy with the panel’s direction, have interfered in recent weeks, even at times overruling the co-chairmen.

The changes began after the commission subpoenaed five developers who received lucrative tax breaks in a housing bill, the sources said. The News reported that two of the developers had donated heavily to Cuomo.

Since then, Team Cuomo is said to have had final say over some subpoenas and other actions by the panel.

One subpoena seeking lobbying and campaign donation information from the Cuomo-friendly Real Estate Board of New York had been drafted by the commission and approved by its three co-chairmen. But at the insistence of Cuomo aides, it was never sent, several sources said.

A new report by liberal website Talking Points Memo finds that Terry McAuliffe’s campaign took $120K from a “friend” who has ties to Liberian war criminal Charles Taylor. 

The company, LISCR, is Virginia based and won a contract to oversee Liberia’s shipping registry. The company was used as a pass thru to get money and arms to rebels in Africa that slaughtered thousands. 

McAuliffe’s campaign would not respond to the charge and is refusing to return the substantial donation. McAuliffe is the only American political benefactor of the Liberian shipping company in the past decade.

This has become a pattern as the campaign previously kept a donation from a Clinton ally that had run “an assembly line for illegal campaign contributions.” Many other Democrats did return those donations.