US Politics

At a splashy event in Philadelphia last weekend, the AFL-CIO, America’s largest union coalition, announced its endorsement of Joe Biden for president in 2024. You may notice that the election is still 17 months away. This was the earliest endorsement in the AFL-CIO’s history, amounting to an all-in bet by organized labor that the interests of the Democratic president are identical to its own. The problem with this is not so much that labor might have decided to endorse a Republican – whoever that party’s candidate is, they are sure to despise the concept of working-class empowerment – but rather the fact that the endorsement is an implicit acceptance of the status quo.These union leaders believe that the Biden White House as currently constituted is the best they can hope to get. Indeed, they are overjoyed by what they have gotten already. It is this lack of ambition that is the labor movement’s biggest flaw. They have been beaten down for so long that they have lost their ability to believe that the world they deserve will ever be real. This is a sort of trauma, induced by a decades-long decline in union power. By settling for what they have, unfortunately, they have forsaken their leverage to ask for more.At his speech accepting the endorsement, Biden declared himself “the most pro-union president in American history”. That may be a bit much – a few generations ago, even Republican presidents supported unions, so the standards were much higher – but it is certainly true that Biden is the most pro-union president of the past half century.He signed a $36bn bill to save union pensions; his Covid relief and infrastructure bills were boons to union workers; his nominee for NLRB general counsel has been tirelessly pushing invaluable labor law reforms; and he has, to a degree not seen before in my lifetime, used his bully pulpit to speak out in favor of union drives, in ways that Clinton or Obama never would have. The AFL-CIO feels that its voice is being listened to in the White House more than they can ever recall.On the other hand, the single biggest labor issue of Biden’s first term was the potential national rail strike, which he dealt with by crushing the workers’ right to strike and imposing a contract on them that they didn’t want. But hey, what’s the occasional knife in the back between friends?Seventy-one percent of Americans say they approve of labor unions. Only 40% of Americans say they approve of Joe Biden. Unions are more popular than the president, by a long mile. In fact, the popularity of organized labor is at a 60-year high. This is due not to the AFL-CIO, nor to the White House, but to a realization that swept working people across the nation as the Covid pandemic paralyzed society: your job does not care if you live or die. Your boss will not save you from disaster. There is no safety net, except for unions. That’s it.The wave of interest in labor organizing that has swept through coffee shops, warehouses and college campuses is fueled by a widening, bone-deep understanding that solidarity is the only shield against capitalism’s scorching rays. I can attest, from years spent traveling America as a labor reporter, that this grassroots enthusiasm is real. It is the job of the labor movement’s institutions to turn that enthusiasm into the maximum possible gain. That’s where the malfunction is. We have an army ready to fight the class war led by generals who have been trained to assume that it is unwinnable.Unions do not have to endorse the Biden agenda. Unions can set the agenda. Now is not the time to settle. Now is the time to demand. The labor market is strong, the appetite for unions is high and the discontent with inequality is everywhere. This is a time to push the president, not bow and scrape and thank him for what he has done. Working people are begging to become a part of a strong labor movement.If the AFL-CIO and its unions could find within themselves the ambition to take advantage of current conditions to organize 10 or 20 million new union members, they could quite literally reverse the post-Reagan inequality crisis. Labor’s early endorsement of Biden is meant to enable unions to start mobilizing their political operation now – but that mobilization is also their leverage. They could demand that Biden commit to federal funding for union organizing and to abolishing the filibuster so that the labor law reforms of the PRO Act might actually have a chance to pass, rather than just serving as a campaign slogan. In short, they could make the building of the labor movement itself their central political demand.Biden will be out of power in a few years, but a labor movement with 10 million new union members would transform the entire American political landscape for decades to come.Instead of taking this tack, the AFL-CIO has committed to organize only a paltry 100,000 new union members a year (which would ensure the continuing decline of union density) and handed its support to Biden in exchange for the gifts he has already given. It is not a strategy that will ever be mistaken for a master class in boldly seizing the initiative.History’s greatest labor leaders have not been conservative pragmatists in search of marginal gain. They have been people whose outrage over the injustices of the present fueled them to accomplish things that others dismissed as unrealistic. Too much time spent inside of existing institutions seems to extinguish this spirit. The next generation of working-class heroes is out in the world right now – working. It will be up to them to force the labor movement to thrive in spite of itself, long after the “most pro-union president in history” is gone.
Hamilton Nolan is a labor journalist based in New York More

Many Americans are dreading the return of interest accrual and the restarting of their monthly student loan payments as a huge political fight over Joe Biden’s debt forgiveness plan rages on.Americans have $1.635tn in federal student loan debt, held by 43.8 million borrowers. Some 26 million people applied or were automatically accepted for student debt relief under Biden’s plan before applications were suspended because of lawsuits launched by Republicans.That plan would provide student debt relief of up to $20,000 for eligible borrowers and up to $10,000 for borrowers with less than $125,000 in annual individual income.But Republicans pushed to prevent any further extensions of student loan payments and want to overturn Biden’s plan that has now been tied up in the US courts since last year, with a US supreme court ruling on the issue expected very soon.Michael Chaney, a 56-year-old truck driver in Ohio, has student debt from a retraining program through the Ohio Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation that he went into after getting injured on the job while working in a foundry in the late 1990s.“I had to take out student loans to help pay for the schooling, or else they wouldn’t help me,” said Chaney.He said his student debt increased due to having to repeat some math classes. Even after Chaney filed for bankruptcy in 2009 after getting divorced, his student debt wasn’t able to be discharged. He worked in IT after finishing schooling but switched to truck driving to be able to work more hours.“There’s no way I can pay it. They’ve got it set up so you can never pay it off,” said Chaney, who still owes around $60,000 in student loans. “I keep making $400 or $500 a month payments and none of the principal goes down. I worked all my life and I don’t have nothing. I’ve worked six days a week, 12-hour days in the steel mill before I got hurt. We’re barely staying alive. I can’t keep up. I can’t pay it.”The debt ceiling package negotiated between Biden and the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and signed into law in June 2023 ends the pause on federal student loan payments and interest.A spokesperson for the US Department of Education told the Guardian the department will be in contact with borrowers before repayments begin. Interest accrual on student debt is set to begin occurring again in September 2023 and the first payments are due in early October.For millions of Americans, restarting payments or even being able to keep up with payments, won’t be financially possible.“Adding another expense to my budget would put me beyond a financial hardship,” said Anne Marie Mosley, a teacher in Massachusetts who is still waiting to see if her public loan service forgiveness application is approved.“When payments restart, I will not pay. I’m an underpaid teacher and I just won’t have the funds,” said Jacque Abron of Texas.Janelle Gallardo, a mother of three in California, started paying her student loans in 2016 when she completed her master’s degree, with payments ranging from $200 to $500 a month. Under the student loan payment pause, she has struggled to keep up with the rising cost of living and currently works two jobs to make ends meet.“I went from paying about $1,000 a month to now over $2,000 in groceries, I cannot even imagine paying another large bill like this,” said Gallardo. “I don’t even know how we would make it work with resuming payments based on how much everything has gone up in my state. I have not been paying during the pause because all our money either goes to bills or taxes, we haven’t even been able to afford health insurance right now.”But Republicans have also pushed to add retroactive interest to student loans that did not accrue during the pause and revoke forgiven debt for over 250,000 borrowers who applied and were approved for public service loan forgiveness.Christina Winton of Phoenix, Arizona, has struggled with paying her student loans since graduating with her bachelor’s degree and completing her master’s degree program.She has filed for public service loan forgiveness, after having to obtain years of her bank statements because her loan service provider did not have records to prove she made the required 10 years of payments to be eligible.She explained student debt has affected her considerably over the years and despite keeping up with payments, through loan service providers changing rules and ballooning interest, she still owes more than she originally borrowed.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“I’ve been paying student loans for over 30 years. I’m a first generation graduate, first in my family and maybe the last one. I have a 17-year-old and an 11-year-old. Neither of them will be able to attend school, I can’t afford to pay for it, I’m too busy trying to work, pay the bills, and pay these loans,” said Winton.She added: “Once loans restart with interest starting again, the artificially high balance bill will have interest added again, causing a huge crisis.”Debt relief advocates have pushed for broader student loan forgiveness and to expand borrower rights, such as making it easier to discharge student debt through bankruptcies. The NAACP has pushed for a minimum of $50,000 in student loan forgiveness and has warned about the negative impacts starting student loan repayments will have without any forgiveness plan enacted.A recent report by the Jain Family Institute found the student debt pause benefitted borrowers who were already going to pay their student loans back, while structural problems with student debt have created a system where the majority of borrowers have not and cannot pay back their student debt.Jim Mazey, 54, who lives in Ohio, said he had paid over $27,000 on an original student debt of $44,00, but over $18,000 of that went toward interest and he currently had 140 more monthly payments left. He obtained a bachelor’s degree and certification to work as a purchasing manager, where he has worked for 29 years.When the pause ends, he fears being stuck with payments into retirement or the debt delaying his ability to retire.“I will be 65 years of age before the loan is paid,” said Mazey. “Like most people we have, and always will be, living paycheck to paycheck.”Even before the pause on federal student loan payments, the majority of borrowers were not making any payments, with just over 50% of borrowers not making any payments toward direct and FFEL loans in late 2019, according to Department of Education data. More than 4 million borrowers were paying zero payments while enrolled in income driven repayment plans.Audrey Fiscus of Arizona has struggled with student debt since graduating nursing school in 2006 as a single mother, who divorced her ex-husband at the time and went back to school while he struggled with a drug addiction.“I’ve been paying my student loans monthly for over 10 years, ranging from $450 to $510 a month,” she said.Despite making regular payments for ten years, her $35,000 in student debt has ballooned to $82,000 since 2006.“I feel like I’ll die with this debt,” she added. More

China’s foreign ministry has accused the US president of “political provocation” after Joe Biden called Xi Jinping a “dictator”.The comments “seriously violated China’s political dignity”, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday.Biden made the remarks a day after the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met Xi on a trip to China that was aimed at easing tensions between the two countries. He also said Xi was embarrassed when a Chinese balloon was blown off course over the US earlier this year. “The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment in it was he didn’t know it was there,” Biden said at a fundraiser in California on Tuesday.“That’s a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn’t know what happened. That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course,” Biden added.A suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over US airspace in February. That incident and exchanges of visits by US and Taiwanese officials have recently magnified US-China tensions.In March, Xi secured a precedent-breaking third term as president, making him China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.Biden also said that China “has real economic difficulties”.China’s economy stumbled in May with industrial output and retail sales growth missing forecasts, adding to expectations that Beijing will need to do more to shore up a shaky post-pandemic recovery.The World Bank earlier this month forecast US growth for 2023 at 1.1%, more than double the 0.5% forecast in January, while China’s growth is expected to climb to 5.6%, compared with a 4.3% forecast in January.Blinken and Xi agreed in their Monday meeting to stabilise the intense rivalry between Washington and Beijing so it did not veer into conflict, but failed to produce any breakthrough during a rare visit to China by the secretary of state.They did agree to continue diplomatic engagement with further visits by US officials in the coming weeks and months. Biden said later on Tuesday that the US climate envoy, John Kerry, may go to China soon.Biden said on Monday he thought relations between the two countries were on the right path, and he indicated that progress was made during Blinken’s trip.Biden said on Tuesday that Xi had been concerned by the so-called Quad strategic security group, which includes Japan, Australia, India and the US. The US president said he previously told Xi the US was not trying to encircle China with the Quad.“He called me and told me not to do that because it was putting him in a bind,” Biden said.Later this week, Biden will meet the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, and China is expected to be a topic of discussion between the two leaders.Reuters contributed to this report More

Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, will plead guilty to two counts of misdemeanor tax crimes and accept a deal with prosecutors related to a separate illegal firearm possession charge. The charges and plea deal, which authorities announced in a court filing on Tuesday, will end a five-year criminal investigation into Biden.The case has already resulted in a political uproar as Republicans, fresh off Donald Trump’s second criminal indictment, express outrage over the plea deal and appear eager to redirect public attention to Hunter Biden. The agreement between 53-year-old Biden and authorities will likely mean he avoids any jail time, as well as set up a frequent talking point for the 2024 presidential election.Here is a breakdown of the charges against Hunter Biden:What is the Hunter Biden investigation?The justice department has been looking into Hunter Biden’s personal and business dealings for years, launching an investigation into him as far back as 2018. Hunter Biden issued a statement in 2020 acknowledging that the US attorney’s office in Delaware informed his legal counsel that investigators were looking into his tax affairs, while stating he was confident he handled his affairs “legally and appropriately”.The investigation, which was led by Trump-appointed US attorney for Delaware David Weiss, looked into a range of Biden’s activities that included his role in foreign businesses – such as his seat on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, a frequent source of rightwing criticism. Investigators interviewed witnesses and looked through financial documents, with the probe looming in the background for years.Ultimately the investigation narrowed down to two main issues: Biden’s failure to pay income taxes on time and a charge related to lying on a firearm application form. Prosecutors charged Biden on 20 June, while simultaneously announcing that he would enter a plea deal that will likely not result in jail time.What are the tax charges against Hunter Biden?Biden pleaded guilty to two counts of wilful failure to pay federal income tax. The two misdemeanor charges relate to Biden failing to pay taxes for the years 2017 and 2018, according to a statement from Weiss’s office, despite owing more than $100,000 each year. (He paid these back taxes in 2021, following the opening of the investigation.)What is the gun charge against Hunter Biden?Investigators also charged Biden with one count of illegally possessing a firearm, stating that he violated a law that prohibits people who use or are addicted to controlled substances from owning a gun. Biden has publicly detailed his struggles with substance abuse, including alcohol and crack cocaine, while explicit photos of him on drugs have circulated for years. He stated on a handgun application in 2018 that he was not using drugs, according to the New York Times, which prosecutors allege was a lie.Biden will not plead guilty to the firearm charge, but instead will enter into a Pretrial Diversion Agreement that typically means an individual avoids prosecution if they meet certain conditions.What are the political implications of the Hunter Biden charges?The charges against Hunter Biden, and the plea deal will mean he likely avoids any jail time, have immediately riled up Republicans who have long made unsubstantiated accusations that the president’s son is part of an international criminal conspiracy. Almost immediately after the charges were announced, numerous Republican lawmakers and rightwing commentators criticized the justice department for not seeking harsher punishment for Biden.Former president Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social network that the plea deal was the work of the “corrupt Biden DOJ” and was a “traffic ticket”. The House Oversight Committee chairman, James Comer, who is leading Republican lawmakers’ separate inquiry into Hunter Biden, alleged: “Biden is getting away with a slap on the wrist” and vowed to continue his committee’s investigation. Ohio Republican congressman Jim Jordan simply tweeted: “DOUBLE STANDARD OF JUSTICE.”Republicans have long attempted to use Hunter Biden as a counterpoint to the various criminal investigations facing Trump, claiming that the Biden administration is somehow covering up the president’s son’s crimes or engaging in corruption. The charges against Hunter Biden also notably come one week after Trump was arraigned in a Florida courthouse after facing a 37-count indictment related to his handling of classified documents. Unlike Biden, who has never held public office and faced misdemeanor charges, the more serious felony counts against Trump could carry significant jail time and complicate his 2024 presidential election campaign.How has the president responded to his son’s plea deal?Meanwhile, the White House on Tuesday issued a brief statement through a spokesperson on the charges against Biden. “The President and First Lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment,” the statement said. The Biden administration has been preparing for possible charges against the president’s son for months, as Republicans appear intent to once again make Hunter Biden a focal point during the election. More

Bernie Sanders has launched an investigation into Amazon that will focus on working conditions inside the warehouses of the online marketplace, which is also the nation’s second-largest employer.In a letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, the 81-year-old US senator from Vermont and chair of the influential Senate committee on health, education, labor and pension (Help) demanded information about “systematically underreported” injury rates, turnover, productivity targets, and adherence to federal and state safety guidelines at the e-commerce giant.Sanders’s letter, which was obtained by the Washington Post, described conditions at Amazon’s warehouses as “uniquely dangerous” and pointed to a report that found the company’s serious injury rate in 2021 was double the warehouse industry average in 2021.“Amazon is one of the most valuable companies in the world, worth $1.3tn and its founder, Jeff Bezos, is one of the richest men in the world worth nearly $150bn,” Sanders wrote in the letter. “Amazon should be one of the safest places in America to work, not one of the most dangerous.”Amazon spokesperson Steve Kelly acknowledged that the company had “received chairman Sanders’s letter this evening and are in the early stages of reviewing it”, adding that the senator had an open invitation to tour one of the company’s warehouses.Sanders has previously hit out at working conditions and pay at Amazon. In 2018, the company said it would raise its base hourly pay rate to $15, or roughly double the national minimum wage. Then CEO Jeff Bezos said the company had “listened to our critics”.The initiation of an investigation into workplace health and safety practices at Amazon comes amid a vigorous opposition against unionization efforts by company employees and data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that Amazon warehouse jobs can be more dangerous than at comparable companies.Over the past year, Amazon has opposed union organizing campaigns, resisted charges of unfair labor practices filed by workers and spent over $14.2m on anti-union consultants in 2022.“It’s one of the companies that really talks about a big game about how good they treat their workers, and yet, when you actually talk to workers, it’s the total opposite,” Aliss Lugo, an organizer in Georgia with United for Respect at Amazon, told the Guardian in April.Sanders has previously written a letter to Starbucks founder and former CEO Howard Schultz in which he accused the coffee company of refusing to bargain a contract with workers who voted to unionize.“Over the past 18 months, Starbucks has waged the most aggressive and illegal union-busting campaign in the modern history of our country,” Sanders stormed at a Help committee hearing in March.In an interview with the Post, Sanders said it was “an absolute possibility” that Jassy or founder Jeff Bezos could be called to testify at a similar hearing, as Schultz had done.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“Amazon sets an example for the rest of the country,” Sanders said. “What Amazon does, their attitude, their lack of respect for workers permeates the American corporate world.”Sanders told the Post he was “appreciative” of Amazon’s decision to raise its starting wage but maintained he was “extremely upset by their vehement anti-union behavior” and workplace safety record.Steve Kelly, the Amazon spokesperson, said the company has recorded a 23% reduction in injuries since 2019 and had invested more than $1bn into safety initiatives, projects and programs in the last four years.“We’ll continue investing and inventing in this area because nothing is more important than our employees’ safety,” Kelly added, and he said that critics of the company had spliced the data “to suit their narrative”. More

US district judge Aileen Cannon has set an initial trial date of 14 August in Florida on former US president Donald Trump’s federal charges of willful retention of classified government records and obstruction of justice, according to a court order on Tuesday.The justice department’s special counsel in the case, Jack Smith, promised a speedy trial after a 37-count indictment charging Trump with willfully retaining classified government records and obstructing justice.But the complexities of handling highly classified evidence, the degree to which Trump’s legal team challenges the government’s pre-trial motions, and the way the judge manages the schedule could all lead to a trial that is anything but swift, legal experts say, and a lengthy delay is widely expected.Trump’s lawyers and a US justice department spokesperson did not immediately return requests for comment.The latest order came after a US judge on Monday ordered Trump’s defense lawyers not to release evidence in the classified documents case to the media or the public, according to a court filing.The order from US magistrate judge Bruce Reinhart also put strict conditions on Trump’s access to the materials.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump was arraigned in Miami federal court last Tuesday, during which he pleaded not guilty to charges he unlawfully kept national-security documents when he left office and lied to officials who sought to recover them. More

Texas state lawmaker Angela Paxton said Monday she will “carry out my duties” ahead of the historic impeachment trial of her husband, Republican state attorney general Ken Paxton, but did not outright say whether or not she would recuse herself on a vote to remove him from office.Breaking weeks of public silence since her husband was impeached in May, Angela Paxton did not address the accusations in a statement released by her office.Whether Paxton will cast a vote with her husband’s job on the line has raised ethical questions ahead of the looming trial in the state Senate, which is set to begin no later than August. State law compels all senators to attend but is silent on whether she must participate.“As a member of the Senate, I hold these obligations sacred and I will carry out my duties, not because it is easy, but because the constitution demands it and because my constituents deserve it,” Paxton said.A spokesperson did not immediately respond Monday night when asked whether she intends to vote.The statement was released on the eve of when rules surrounding the trial are expected to be finalized Tuesday by the Texas senate. There are 31 senators in the chamber, which is led by the Republican lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, who has declined to comment on Paxton’s potential participation in the trial.Ken Paxton is temporarily suspended from office pending the outcome of the trial. More

The legal non-profit the Center for American Liberty, helmed by Harmeet Dhillon, paid more than $132,000 to a public relations firm that simultaneously represents the California Republican national committeewoman in her capacity as head of her own for-profit law firm and Republican activist.According to a client list published by Praetorian Public Relations, whose proprietor is Matt Shupe, the Contra Costa county Republican chair, the firm also represents other partners and associates of Dhillon Law, other state Republican officeholders, and individuals at the center of the Center for American Liberty’s culture-war driven lawsuits.The revelations further blur the lines between Dhillon’s non-profit work, her legal career and the political ambitions that saw her challenge the incumbent national RNC chair, Ronna McDaniel, in an election held last January.Dhillon is also a rising media star on the Republican right.Asked about the ties between CAL and Praetorian PR, Joan Harrington, a fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at the Santa Clara University and an expert on non-profit law and ethics, said: “Every way in which [Dhillon] is benefiting from the non-profit should be considered compensation,” adding: “it should be disclosed.”The Guardian previously reported that the CAL’s IRS filings showed that CAL had paid Dhillon Law $1.32m in fees, and that according to the 2021 filing, Dhillon additionally drew a $120,000 salary for a two-hour weekly commitment.In that reporting, the executive director of CAL, Mark Trammell, wrote: “The 2021 Form 990 should show Ms Dhillon working 40 hours per week. That correction will be made shortly through an Amended Form 990.”At the time of reporting, CAL had removed the 2021 IRS filing from its website. But a copy of the filing lists Praetorian alongside Dhillon Law, Blitz Digital and Eimer Stahl LLP as one of the four biggest contractors to the organization.Praetorian’s client list includes Trammell, who is billed as “executive director and general counsel to the Center for American Liberty”. The list bills Dhillon, however, as “Managing Partner, Dhillon Law Group”, “Chairwoman, Republican National Lawyers Association”, “California’s RNC National Committeewoman”, and only lastly as “Founder and CEO of the Center for American Liberty”.The client list also includes Dhillon Law attorneys who have worked on CAL cases, including Krista Lee Baughman and Ron Coleman.It also includes CAL clients: the rightwing Internet personality Andy Ngo (billed as an “investigative reporter”); 18-year-old “detransitioner” Chloe Cole; and “Social Media and Cultural Influencer” Rogan O’Handley, who posts on various social media sites under the handle “dc_draino”.CAL is assisting Ngo in a suit against Rose City Antifa which has been running since 2020, and whose delays led an Oregon judge to award a limited judgment last February, and forced Ngo’s team to move that the judgment be vacated. The Guardian contacted Ngo’s attorney, James Buchal, to ask about the delays but received no response.CAL is sponsoring O’Hanlon’s suit against the California attorney general over O’Hanlon’s Twitter ban in 2020, and Chloe Cole’s suit against Kaiser Permanente over gender-affirming care she received in her early teens.Neither CAL’s filings nor the Praetorian PR client list specify whose efforts CAL is paying for.In response to questions about the relationship between CAL and Praetorian PR, and on whether CAL was paying for promoting Dhillon’s non-CAL work, Trammell, CAL’s executive director, wrote in an email: “The Center for American Liberty compensates Praetorian Public Relations only for services rendered to the Center for American Liberty.”Trammell continued: “Any services that Praetorian Public Relations renders to its many other clients are not paid for by the Center for American Liberty. Any assertion to the contrary is categorically false.”He added: “GuideStar awarded the Center for American Liberty with a Gold rating for its commitment to transparency.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe Guardian pressed Trammell to clarify whether CAL paid for none, some, or all of Dhillon’s PR services with Praetorian, but received no response.The Guardian also emailed Praetorian and the CAL clients Ngo, Cole and O’Hanlon, asking each whether they were paying for Praetorian’s themselves, or being subsidized by CAL.Although Ngo frequently screenshots and pastes reporters’ questions to his 1.3 million-follower Twitter account, neither he nor the other CAL clients responded.Social media posts suggest Shupe, the Praetorian boss, and Harmeet Dhillon have a warm personal friendship.In a January 2022 Instagram post, Shupe described Dhillon as “my favorite client”. The same month, Dhillon described Shupe on Twitter as the “best PR pro in CA”. In another Shupe Instagram post the previous October, the pair posed, smiling with the far-right congressman and former Ohio State assistant wrestling coach, Jim Jordan.Apart from managing PR for CAL, Dhillon, attorneys from her law firm and CAL and Dhillon Law clients, Praetorian lists various west coast Republican officeholders as clients, including Dhillon’s California RNC colleague Shawn Steel.According to his LinkedIn page, Shupe has been a Republican party office holder since 2011, serving variously as vice-chair of the California College Republicans, executive director of the San Francisco Republican party, and as chair of the Contra Costa county Republican party since 2018. He was communications director for the failed California gubernatorial campaign of John Cox in 2018, and a consultant in the former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer’s failed attempt to displace Gavin Newsom in a 2021 recall election.Shupe did not respond to an emailed request for comment.Harrington, the non-profit ethics expert, explained that financial transparency was not just important for donors, and that “the public has an interest” in knowing how the finances of tax-exempt organizations are run.“Non-profits have the luxury of being tax exempt,” Harrington said, adding that “the rest of us pay more tax to support non-profits” as a result.“Transparency is important so that the world knows that this money is being spent properly.” More