Peter Schweizer Is Back with a New Progressive Exposé Book, "Secret Empires"

THE REAL NEWS TODAY IS NOT EVEN BEING TALKED ABOUT. Except on Fox News. • • • SECRET EMPIRES BY PETER SCHWEIZER. Everybody on Fox News istalking about the new book by Peter Schweizer, the four-time New York Times bestselling investigative journalist. Schweizer has garnered a reputation for unearthing never-before-revealed facts about how political elites enrich themselves. His last book, Clinton Cash, sparked an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation. Now, in Secret Empires, he exposes how top Democrats and Republicans have engineered what he calls “the new corruption” -- a system Washington elites use to grease highly lucrative deals by routing them through their children and family members. • Last Friday, the Mark Levin Show posted this comment on Secret Empires : "Peter Schweizer has been fighting corruption -- and winning -- for years. In Throw Them All Out, he exposed insider trading by members of Congress, leading to the passage of the STOCK Act. In Extortion, he uncovered how politicians use mafia-like tactics to enrich themselves. And in Clinton Cash, he revealed the Clintons’ massive money machine and sparked an FBI investigation. Now he explains how a new corruption has taken hold, involving larger sums of money than ever before. Stuffing tens of thousands of dollars into a freezer has morphed into multibillion-dollar equity deals done in the dark corners of the world. An American bank opening in China would be prohibited by US law from hiring a slew of family members of top Chinese politicians. However, a Chinese bank opening in America can hire anyone it wants. It can even invite the friends and families of American politicians to invest in can’t-lose deals. President Donald Trump’s children have made front pages across the world for their dicey transactions. However, the media has barely looked into questionable deals made by those close to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Mitch McConnell, and lesser-known politicians who have been in the game longer." • Mark Levin rarely minces his words. Neither does another outlet, Investor's Business Daily, which wrote an Editorial last Wednesday titled "Think Obama Administration Wasn't Corrupt? Think Again?" Here's what IBD had to say about Peter Schweizer's new book : "Obama Scandal : Former President Obama and his political supporters have repeatedly stated that his administration was scandal-free, unlike administrations before and after. 'We're probably the first administration in modern history that hasn't had a major scandal in the White House,' Obama himself said. A new book puts the lie to that statement. Never mind that the left-leaning big media basically ignored major scandals during the Obama years, ranging from the IRS targeting scandal and the VA's deadly waiting lists for veterans to Hillary Clinton's illegal use of an unsecured, hackable home-brew server for her official duties as Secretary of State and the Fast and Furious gunwalking program. These and others were epic scandals that the media simply ignored or downplayed. The media have contrasted Obama's supposed honesty and forthrightness with President Trump's supposed venality and political unscrupulousness, as embodied in the year-and-a-half long Russia-Trump scandal investigation that shows few signs of letting up. But now comes Peter Schweizer's new book, 'Secret Empires : How Our Politicians Hide Corruption and Enrich Their Families and Friends,' which shows that the Obama administration and its cronies were up to their necks in questionable business deals and may even have intentionally distorted public policy to accommodate their own profit-making." The IBD says quotes Katelyn Caralle of the Washington Examiner, who wrote : "The book claims 'Obama and his administration would deem industries either destructive to the environment or exploitative for the financial and professional gain of his friends, including industries such as coal mining, offshore drilling, cash advance companies, and for-profit colleges. Schweizer's book, based on extensive research, says that Obama acted to regulate certain industries in such a way that the regulations lowered the value of some of the companies. These actions let two family friends to profit handsomely on deals through their own investment firm." • • • SCHWEIZER EXPOSES OBAMA ERA CORRUPTION AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS. Here's how it worked in one example in Secret Empires outlined by IBD : "Obama buddies Marty Nesbitt and Harreld Kirkpatrick III formed a private equity investment firm called Vistria, right around the time Obama was re-elected in 2012. Nothing wrong with that, except, as Schweizer notes in his book, 'A curious pattern began to emerge. Obama and his administration would attack industries with government power, which led to substantially lower valuations for these companies. Nesbitt and Vistria, or others close to Obama, could then acquire those assets for pennies on the dollar.' As an example, Schweizer cites the case of for-profit higher education schools like University of Phoenix, ITT Technical Institute, and DeVry University. In 2013, Obama blamed the schools for taking advantage of students by saddling them with massive amounts of student debt, ruining their credit and making a profit on it. He ordered the Federal Trade Commission to go after them. In the case of the University of Phoenix, its parent Apollo Education Group was suspended after a Federal Trade Commission investigation in 2015. The following year, three companies, including Vistria, swooped in to buy what remained of Apollo at a price 90% below its share price before the investigation. As Vistria's education investment portfolio bulged, a number of Obama Education Department officials, including Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, ended up taking high-level jobs with Vistria." • IBD states that : "Schweizer noted in his book that both Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry were deeply involved in trade and security talks with China even as that country began its aggressive campaign to expand its military and physical presence in the South China Sea. Contrary to standard diplomatic practice, however, both played 'good cop,' not seriously confronting China on its misbehavior. Remember, Biden and Kerry were close friends from their years spent together in the Senate. So there was little surprise when Biden's son, Hunter, and Kerry's stepson, Christopher Heinz, one of the heirs to the Heinz ketchup fortune, went into business together in 2009. They created a number of equity and real estate investment firms allied to Rosemont Capital, 'the alternative investment fund of the Heinz Family Office.' So far so good. Except, 'Over the next seven years, as both Joe Biden and John Kerry negotiated sensitive and high-stakes deals with foreign governments, Rosemont entities secured a series of exclusive deals with those same foreign governments.' In December of 2013, for instance, Biden traveled to China for talks. He brought Hunter Biden along. While there, the senior Biden soft-pedaled China's clear aggression, and played up the bilateral trade partnership. Ten days after the trip concluded, China's central bank, the Bank of China, set up a $1 billion investment joint venture called Bohai Harvest RST. For the record, the "RS" referred to Biden's son's firm, Rosemont Seneca. That's questionable enough. But months later, in July 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to China, also for talks. Kerry talked little of China's clear aggression, but did conspicuously note that 'China and the United States represent the greatest economic alliance trading partnership in the history of humankind.' He should know. In the ensuing months, Chinese government-linked firms took major stakes in several of the firms owned or controlled by Hunter Biden and Chris Heinz, and provided them with massive funding totaling billions of dollars. Nor is this the only scandal involving John Kerry." • IBD calls the new Schweizer book "a catalog, a virtual roadmap, to the way corrupt business gets done in Washington -- and why Americans are smart to question why their representative go to Washington as paupers, and return as millionaires." • IBD had already gone after Clinton Kerry "corrupt"' practices at the state Department. IBD wrote on September 13, 2016 : "Corruption: What is it about Democrats and the State Department? Despite their repeated claims of transparency, it turns out that both Hillary Clinton and current Secretary of State John Kerry used their positions to enrich members of their own families -- at taxpayer expense. As the murky ties between the Clinton Foundation and Hillary's State Department become clearer, a new report from the Daily Caller notes that current Secretary of State Kerry's daughter received money for her nonprofit group from State. Indeed, the Daily Caller investigation shows that more than $9 million of State Department money made its way through the Peace Corps to the nonprofit started by Dr. Vanessa Kerry, John Kerry's daughter. And the money was handed out without competition. Vanessa Kerry's nonprofit, Seed Global Health, got its first contract in 2012. Yes, that was when Hillary was still in office. But John Kerry then was a senator who headed the Committee on Foreign Relations, which is charged with overseeing both the State Department and the Peace Corps. There is a clear conflict of interest there. That's bad enough. But last year, in September, the Seed group got a four-year extension on its deal while John Kerry was Secretary of State. Another conflict of interest. Crony capitalism, anyone? Whether you think that what Seed does in Africa -- it helps train doctors and nurses -- is valuable or not, this no-competition grant to a nonprofit founded by a top official's daughter reeks of rank favoritism at best, corruption at worst. 'Kerry and government officials colluded to launch the program and ensure that Seed would get the contract,' the Daily Caller concluded, after reviewing the relevant memos and papers related to the deal. • But it doesn't end there, says IBD : "Because, even as the Kerry deal was being revealed, further strands of the heretofore hidden ties between then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and a mysterious Russian billionaire with close ties to Vladimir Putin are coming to light. The Washington Examiner got its hands on emails showing that the Clinton Foundation sought ties with Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg at a time when he was in charge of an important element of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 'Russian reset.' Hillary helped create 'a major technology transfer initiative' that 'may have substantially undermined US national security,' according to Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and the author of Clinton Cash.' Part of the 'reset' was the creation of 'Skolkovo,' an industrial enclave near Moscow that was to become a kind of Russian Silicon Valley. The idea was to encourage US firms to help out with both technology and investment, in exchange for market access. Despite warnings from both the FBI and her own State Department about the possibility of Russia getting access to militarily sensitive technologies, Hillary went ahead with the program. Why? At the time, Vekselberg -- head of the Skolkovo Foundation and a pal of Vladimir Putin -- was also a contributor to the Clinton Foundation. These ties later proved quite lucrative, with 17 of the 28 American companies that participated in the Skolkovo project also being donors to the Clinton Foundation. All the way back in 2010, as Skolkovo was getting underway, former President Bill Clinton traveled to Russia to deliver a speech for which he was paid $500,000 by a mysterious Russian investment bank named 'Renaissance Capital.' [Note : this was part of the corrupt Uranium One deal to sell 20% of US unraniul resources to Russian firms.] While there he met with a variety of movers and shakers, including Vekselberg. With the Clintons, one hand always washes the other." • IBd revelas corrupt Hillary and Kerry acts as far back as 2010. IBD summarized in 2106 : "Now that it has been revealed that thousands of emails on Hillary's unsecured home-brew server have been intentionally destroyed, it is certainly fitting to wonder whether damning or incriminating evidence about the Clinton Foundation and its ties to Hillary's office at the State Department was destroyed. The US State Department used to be known for its high-toned and principled stands in defense of U.S. foreign-policy goals and interests. But today, after two Democratic leaders, it appears to be more of a revolving door for crony capitalists. We would hope Congress would continue to investigate the email scandal and what appears to be rampant abuse of office that has taken place at the State Department over the past eight years. Such clear conflicts of interest used to raise political hackles. Congress should, at minimum, make sure that future secretaries of state no longer abuse their office to personally enrich their families and friends. Anything less is to condone criminality." • We know now that htere are multiple ongoing investigations of both the Clinton Foundation and Hillary's email scandal. But, so far, the Swamp seems determined to drag out hte investigations at the -pre-charge level for as long as possible. Only the few non-Swamp Republicans in Congress -- led by Senator Chuck Grassley and Representative Devin Nunes -- are actively pushing Attorney General Jeff Sessions for a faster, more inclusive criminal probe. • • • WHAT IS REVEALED IN SECRET EMPIRES? Breitbart's Rbecca Mansour wrote on March 20, that "Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends" by Government Accountability Institute President and Breitbart Senior Editor-at-Large Peter Schweizer debuted at #3 on the Amazon bestseller list. MAnxour says : "The deeply researched book (it contains 859 endnotes) includes revelations involving George Soros, Barack Obama, Tom Steyer, Penny Pritzker, Jared Kushner, John Kerry, and myriad others. Four of the book’s central characters are Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, Mitch McConnell, and Elaine Chao. In particular, Schweizer traces the intersection between these four individuals and deals involving China." Mansour lists five China-related revelations Schweizer exposes in his new book. §§1. Biden’s Son’s Firm Scored a $1.5 Billion Deal with the Bank of China 10 Days After Joe Biden and His Son Flew to China Aboard Air Force Two...in 2013, Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s firm signed a billion-dollar deal with a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China ten days after Joe and Hunter Biden flew to China aboard Air Force Two. The newly formed investment fund is called Bohai Harvest RST. In a SiriusXM Breitbart News Tonight radio interview, Schweizer explained how the Biden-China deal unfolded : "In December of 2013, Vice President Joe Biden flies to Asia for a trip, and the centerpiece for that trip is a visit to Beijing, China...To put this into context, in 2013, the Chinese have just exerted air rights over the South Pacific, the South China Sea. They basically have said, ‘If you want to fly in this area, you have to get Chinese approval. We are claiming sovereignty over this territory.’ Highly controversial in Japan, in the Philippines, and in other countries. Joe Biden is supposed to be going there to confront the Chinese. Well, he gets widely criticized on that trip for going soft on China. So basically, no challenging them, and Japan and other countries are quite upset about this.' Schweizer said, “Well, I think the reason he goes soft on China is because with him on that trip, flying on Air Force Two, is his son Hunter Biden, and ten days after they return from China, Hunter Biden -- who has this small firm, he has no background in private equity, he has no background in Chinese finance -- gets a whopping $1.5 billion deal from the Chinese government. This is the Chinese government giving Joe Biden and a [John] Kerry confidante the management over this money, and they made huge fees off of this money, and it’s an example of this kind of corruption. That’s the first of three major deals that the Chinese government does with people who are either the children -- that is the sons -- or close aides to Vice President Biden or Secretary of State John Kerry.” §§2. The China-Backed Investment Fund Invested in Dual-Use Military Technology. As Schweizer explains: “So [Hunter Biden’s firm] get this $1.5 billion to invest, and what they are supposed to do is basically invest in companies that benefit the Chinese government,” stated Schweizer. “So just think about this for a second. This is the vice president of the United States whose father is supposed to be commanding American presence and power in the Pacific to deal with the rising challenge from China, and his son is investing $1.5 billion of Chinese government money. So what do they do? They invest in an American high-precision tools company called Henniges, which used to be owned by Rocket Company, but they produce anti-vibration technologies which have a dual-use application, so this transaction actually requires the approval of the federal government, as it has national security implications. So again, the vice president’s son is helping the Chinese government take over a dual-use military technology-related company called Henniges.” §§3. The Obama Justice Department Charged One of the Companies with Stealing US Nuclear Secrets. “But it gets even worse because another investment that they make is in something called CGN -- China General Nuclear -- which is an atomic power company,” says Schweizer. “They invest in this company in 2014. A year later, what happens? The FBI arrests and charges senior officials in this company with stealing nuclear secrets in the United States. Specifically, they’re trying to get access to something called the AP-1000 nuclear reactor that is very similar to the ones that we put on US submarines. So again, you have the son of the vice president, a close aide to the secretary of state who are investing in a company that is trying to steal nuclear secrets in the United States. It’s a stunning story, and here’s the thing : none of this is required to be disclosed because they’ve figured out a way to get around these disclosure laws.” §§4. Mitch McConnell and His Wife Elaine Chao Received a $5 Million to $25 Million Gift from a Family Member Who Sat on the Board of a Top Chinese Government Military Contractor. According to Secret Empires, in 1993, just months after Mitch McConnell married Elaine Chao (the current Secretary of Transportation), the Senator and his father-in-law, James Chao, flew to China. Chao is the owner of Foremost Group, a shipping company that has done substantial business with the state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC). The two men went to Beijing at CSSC’s invitation and had a meeting with a classmate of Chao’s, Chinese President Jiang Zemin. Schweizer says McConnell was only the second Republican Senator to visit China since the Tiananmen Square massacre. “McConnell’s rhetoric and policy toward mainland China softened in the decades that followed,” writes Schweizer, before citing several policy examples. “As McConnell gained political weight on Capitol Hill and his position toward China softened, the Chao family saw its business ties with the Chinese government increase dramatically -- to their financial benefit.” Starting in 2007, “just as the US Senate was taking up sensitive legislation concerning China,” Schweizer writes that the Chinese government’s CSSC Holdings, Ltd. -- the financial arm of the Chinese government’s military contractor CSSC -- appointed Mitch McConnell’s father-in-law to its board. CSSC Holdings also added Mitch McConnell’s sister-in-law Angela Chao to the board as well. “The fact that both the father-in-law and sister-in-law of Senator McConnell sat on the board of CSSC Holdings is highly unusual, to say the least,” writes Schweizer. “One could say it is unprecedented in American political history. In general, CSSC is a sensitive, critical asset of the Chinese government and operates under a veil of privacy and secrecy.” Then in 2008, following the death of his wife, James Chao gave a gift to Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao of between $5 million to $25 million, according to Senator McConnell’s Senate financial disclosure forms. Last week, the New York Post reported on the Secret Empire's McConnell revelation and showed its impact on the McConnell family’s net worth : “In 2004, current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his wife, current US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, had an average net worth of $3.1 million. Ten years later, that number had increased to somewhere between $9.2 million and $36.5 million.” §§5. Mitch McConnell’s Sister-in-Law Sits on the Board of the Chinese Government’s Bank of China. Last week, the Wall Street Journal highlighted the book’s revelation that the Communist Chinese government’s Bank of China appointed Mitch McConnell’s sister-in-law, Angela Chao, to its small board of directors. “Mr. Schweizer also points to the appointment of Ms. Chao’s sister, Angela Chao, to the board of state-owned Bank of China, 10 days after the 2016 election,” reported the Journal. Indeed, the Bank of China’s website lists Angela Chao in its online listing of board members and includes a photo and professional bio. • • • FOX NEWS GIVES PETER SCHWEIZER AIR TIME. You can watch the Fox News interview of Peter Schweizer by Sean Hannity on You Tube video is at . In the video, you will hear just one example of the brazen audacity of Obama-era corruption. It runs deep and it was done with little regard to keeping secrets. The administration was so confident that media outlets would fail to investigate that they never bothered to hide their tracks. Watch it for yourself. The You Tube video is at . • Lou Dobbs also interviewed Peter Schweizer. That interview is on You Tube at < https://youtu.be/cIEYR0qFxOw >. In the Dobbs interview, Schweizer says : "It's not until President Trump takes office that suddenly...we're doing overflights to stop the further construction of those [Chinese] islands." • Peter Schweizer was also on Fox News "The Story" with Martha MacCallum and that video is at < https://youtu.be/uDinjrpGs7w >. Schweizer said in the transcript : "...so the Clintons just to, you know tally up, they made two hundred and forty million dollars much of it from foreign countries since 2001....it is fascinating so first of all Hillary Clinton claiming that the Trump folks have enriched themselves at the behest of government yeah it's pretty amazing to have Hillary Clinton lecture somebody on ethical standards...but look I mean, it's hard to know but I think if you look at Donald Trump's family you can probably make a case that they've lost money from going into public service...I don't see any clear-cut evidence yet at this point that that's happened." • • • OBAMA KEEPS ON POSING AS THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD. And the media lapdog -in-chief CNN wrote on Monday that : "Obama hopes to create 'a million young Barack Obamas or Michelle Obamas.' " If that doesn't terrify you into action, nothing ever will. Clare Foran of CNN wrote : "Former President Barack Obama says he aspires to create 'a million young Barack Obamas or Michelle Obamas' who will pick up the baton in what he describes as the 'relay race that is human progress.' At a conference in Japan on Sunday, the former President spoke about how he hopes the Obama Foundation, a nonprofit formed in January 2014, will help achieve his post-presidential aims. 'After I left office, what I realized is that the Obama Foundation could potentially create a platform for young, up-and-coming leaders, both in the United States and all around the world to come together, meet together, create a digital platform where they could exchange information,' Obama said. 'If I could do that effectively, then I would create a hundred, or a thousand, or a million young Barack Obamas or Michelle Obamas,' he added. Obama's remarks were previously reported by other media outlets, including The Guardian and The Washington Examiner. The former President has been on an Asia-Pacific trip that also included stops in Singapore, New Zealand and Australia. 'The single most important thing I can do is to help develop the next generation,' he said Sunday." • The Daily Wire had a different take on Barack Obama, writing last Friday : "A man who claimed he had a two-day love affair with a married Barack Obama back in 1999 is heated over the mainstream media's 'sickening' double standard concerning Stormy Daniels, a porn star who claims she had sex with a married Donald Trump back in 2006. Larry Sinclair claims he had a drug-induced sex romp with then-Senator Obama in Chicago after the duo were introduced by a limousine driver. Sinclair claims he performed oral sex on Mr. Obama on two occasions....Sinclair, who reportedly has political aspirations, is convinced the media are giving instant credibility without skepticism to women accusing Trump of sexual misconduct. The Washington Examiner cited a lack of photo of Obama and Sinclair together...Also, the site notes, Obama is reportedly straight....'To journalists I would say take your time, compare statements and call out contradictions in statements and previous interviews,' Sinclair said. 'When it comes to polygraphs be very sure you vet the examiners conducting them and always ask for the computer scoring results as well as the examiners findings.' In 2009, Sinclair released a book about the alleged affair called 'Barack Obama & Larry Sinclair: Cocaine, Sex, Lies & Murder?' He says he lost money on it." • • • DEAR READERS, the farther away we get from the Obama era, the more we see revealed facts and allegations of corruption, misuse of federal offices, lying on financial dsiclosure forms or simply finding ways to self-enrighment by acting through children and friends, and selling out America for that same self-enrichment. This is all hidden or ignored by the ProgDem mainstream media. Our children have been taught that Obama was and is a saint who will lead America to "human progress." Is there any hope of revealing Obama-era corruption for what it really was? Only if we continue to seek the facts and believe that we can make a difference. That is why our Constitution is so important and why we should protect it from the corrupt tampering of Progressives who see it as an historical document that is no longer relevant. "We the People" are the most relevant and living political words ever written. We must not forget that Americans are the only people left in the world who can make a difference in government. It is a responsibility to be taken very seriously.