 |
| Gary Gensler |
Donald Trump wants SEC chairman Gary Gensler to join him in the Impeachment Hall of Shame because of “the endless investigation” of the merger between Digital World Acquisition Corp. and Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of the Truth Social platform.
The nine-month probe “constitutes an unprecedented attempt to kill the deal without any finding of wrongdoing,” according to a letter that TMTG general counsel Scott Glabe wrote to Republican leaders in the House.
In stalling the deal, the SEC has “destroyed approximately $17B in enterprise value” and “billions of these losses have been borne by DWAC investors, who are overwhelmingly retail investors, not institutional investors.”
Glabe wrote that the “obvious bias of SEC leadership irrevocably taints the agency’s ability to conduct an impartial inquiry.”
He noted that Gensler’s animus and bias toward TMTG chairman Donald Trump is well established by publicly available facts.
"During the 2016 presidential campaign, Gensler served as chief financial officer for the campaign of Trump’s general election opponent, Hillary Clinton.
"In that position, Gensler and the Democratic National Committee commissioned and paid for the salacious and debunked Steele Dossier via law firm Perkins Coie and political intelligence firm Fusion GPS.
"According to the sworn testimony of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, Gensler was ultimately responsible for funding the Dossier and approving the payments to Perkins Coie.”
Thus Gensler has strong motivation to target a company whose board is chaired by his former chief political opponent, Donald Trump, according to the letter.
Glabe seeks immediate congressional action to investigate these alleged abuses, ensure documents are preserved, and uphold the rule of law.
He calls for contempt proceedings, fines, salary cuts and impeachment hearings against Gensler and other SEC officials, along with a budget cut for the commission.
The letter went to key Trump allies Jim Jordan, chair of the Judiciary Committee; Patrick McHenry, financial services chair; and James Comer, oversight chair.
It also was sent to Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and Florida’s Rick Scott and Marco Rubio plus the Congressional delegations of both states.
We can call off the contest of the best PR maneuver of the year because Darius Maikstenas, CEO of Ignitis Group, has won the award.
The chief of Lithuania’s largest utility has issued a public appeal to the world’s biggest energy companies to donate a part of their profits to help reconstruct Ukraine.
He plans to submit a proposal at his company’s annual meeting to earmark ten percent of 2022 profits (e.g., $13M) to Ukraine.
Mainkstenas notes that hundreds of billions of additional profits flowed to the world’s top energy companies, not because of their operational genius, but because of higher prices due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
"We believe sharing profits with the country that is suffering the consequences of the war that has led to those profits is morally the right thing to do.”
The letters were sent to more than 50 companies including ExxonMobil, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Occidental Petroleum, Chevron, National Grid, Total, Chesapeake Energy Group, Equinor, Orsted, Devon Energy and Valero Energy.
Lots of luck, Darius. That's a tough crowd you are dealing with.
What a shameful way to end a career. Rupert Murdoch turned a blind eye to the election denying nonsense that went on at Fox News, though he knew it was all baloney.
According to his deposition in Dominion Voting Systems’ suit against Fox, Murdoch was asked if he could have muzzled the commentators who were spreading the bogus allegations. “I could have. But I didn’t.”
The 91-year-old Murdoch said: “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it, in hindsight.”
Dominion lawyers also asked Murdoch why his network gave some much time to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a top election denier and major Fox advertiser.
“The man is on every night. Pays us a lot of money,” said Murdoch. “It is not red or blue. It is green.”
That would be a fitting inscription on Murdoch’s tombstone.
A tip of the mitre goes to Cardinal Blasé Cupich for his strong statement condemning the Trump administration’s bid to turn the Iran war into entertainment... Donald Trump sets off on a wild little excursion... The president will never be mistaken for one of his predecessors, 'Unconditional Surrender' Grant... The Ig Nobels abandon Boston for Zurich because it's not exactly fun and games time in the USA.
Trump promotes Kristi Noem because he can't fire her. That would be an admission that he made a bad move in hiring her in the first place... The White House website maintains that the US "obliterated" Iran's nuclear capacity. So why are we currently turning it into rubble?... Americans overwhelmingly hate Trump's ballroom gambit.
Will mentalist Oz Pearlman read Donald Trump's mind at the White House Correspondents Assn. dinner next month? The nation would like to know what's going on between the president's ears... Defense Department quarterback Pete Hegseth compares Iranian war to a football game... Travel Nevada issues a gem of an RFP that describes "Nevadaness."
Omnicom and Interpublic have shed thousands of jobs since the announcement of the big merger, which may hinder future growth by turning off prospective talent... The Epstein Files are a gold mine to crisis PR pros looking for high-profile clients. 
The No. 1 fan of Big Macs dished out plenty of Whoppers during the State of the Union address... US embassy in the UK squeezes out CEO of Hanover Communications... Baltimore's biggest business improvement district looks for director of community engagement & safety... China takes Olympic gold in the sports-washing category.
