This week, I introduced my Presidential Library Anti-Corruption Act. This plan would ban companies and governments from donating unrestricted funds to the presidential libraries of sitting presidents.
There’s something else that happened this week that highlighted the implications of these types of donations, and I want to talk about it.
It was just announced that CBS has canceled “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” starting next year. This announcement comes just three days after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for an over $16 million settlement with Trump — a deal that looks like bribery.
This $16 million settlement funneled to a future presidential library is what my anti-corruption bill would prevent if it becomes the law.
You see, this all started when the Trump administration sued CBS, which is owned by Paramount, over a “60 Minutes” interview Trump claimed was deceptively edited.
This was a suit that many experts called “baseless.” CBS even said it was “meritless.”
It just so happens that, at the same time, Paramount is waiting on approval from the Trump administration for a multi-billion-dollar merger with Skydance. Maybe they'll get the approval, and maybe they won't, and there are a lot of factors that go into that.
Ultimately, Paramount decided to opt for a bogus settlement worth $16 million, with the money funneling straight into Trump’s future library.
That looks like bribery right out in the open to a lot of people — including Stephen Colbert.
America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons. And we need to pass my Presidential Library Anti-Corruption Act to put an end to these types of donations.
This settlement sends a terrible signal. It tells everyone who has business pending in front of the federal government that if they've got enough money and can funnel it to Donald Trump through his future presidential library, they might receive better treatment from the U.S. government.
That's wrong, and we need to put a stop to it now. I won’t stop fighting to put these common-sense safeguards in place and get corruption out of our government.
Thanks for being a part of this,
Elizabeth  |
