Top Democrats launch inquiry into Trump’s brazen
$1bn pitch to oil execs

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse calls the audacious request the
‘definition of corruption’
amid investigation into Mar-a-Lago meeting in April

Donald Trump’s brazen pitch to 20 fossil-fuel heads for
$1bn to aid his presidential campaign
in return for promises of lucrative tax and regulatory favors
is the “definition of corruption”, a top Democrat investigating the issue has said.

“It certainly meets the definition of #corruption as the founding fathers would have used the term,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said in an interview

Whitehouse added: “The quid pro quo – so called – is so very evident … I can’t think of anything that matches this either in terms of the
size of the bribe requested, or the
brazenness of the linkages.”

#Whitehouse and his fellow Democrat Ron #Wyden, as chairs of the Senate budget and finance panels respectively,
have launched a joint inquiry
into Trump’s quid-pro-quo-style fundraising... which already seems to have helped spur tens of millions in checks for a Trump Super Pac from oil and gas leaders at a 22 May Houston event.

The two senators have written to eight big-oil chief executives and the head of the industry’s lobbying group seeking details about the Mar-a- Lago meeting,
as has representative Jamie #Raskin, the top Democrat on the oversight and accountability committee, who has begun a parallel investigation into the
pay-to-play schemes that Trump touted to big oil leaders.

Amplifying those concerns,
former Federal Election Commission general counsel Larry #Noble said that Trump’s unusually aggressive money pitch
“violates the letter and spirit” of campaign-finance laws,
and a veteran Republican consultant called it “blatant pay to play”.

In a separate fossil-fuel inquiry, Raskin and Whitehouse released a joint report in April into long-running
big-oil disinformation campaigns to undercut the enormous threats posed by global warming,
which Trump has falsely labelled a “hoax”,
and last week urged the justice department to investigate big-oil tactics to deceive the public.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/03/trump-big-oil-campaign-pitch-corruption?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

#US is vastly expanding surveillance laws

A little-known amendment to the reauthorized version of #Fisa would enlarge govt's #surveillance powers to a drastic, draconian degree

A move Senator Ron #Wyden condemned as “terrifying”, the House also doubled down on a #surveillance authority that has been used against American protesters, journalists & political donors in chilling assault on free speech

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/16/house-fisa-government-surveillance-senate

#1984 #PoliceState #authoritarian #HumanRights #FreeSpeech #terrorism

#Wyden’s Office Gets #FTC To Protect The Data Of 1.6 Billion People Tracked By Now-Bankrupt Data Broker - https://www.techdirt.com/2024/03/04/wydens-office-gets-ftc-to-protect-the-data-of-1-6-billion-people-tracked-by-now-bankrupt-data-broker/ bit late, but hey...

Sen. #Wyden Exposes #DataBrokers Selling Location Data to Anti-Abortion Groups That Target #Abortion Seekers
#privacy #geolocation

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/sen-wyden-exposes-data-brokers-selling-location-data-anti-abortion-groups-target

#Wyden Reveals Phone #Data Used to Target #Abortion Misinformation at Visitors to Hundreds of Reproductive Health Clinics - https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-reveals-phone-data-used-to-target-abortion-misinformation-at-visitors-to-hundreds-of-reproductive-health-clinics "Congress Must Act to Ensure Private Location Data Is Not Used By Extremist Prosecutors To Prosecute Women" #privacy

Apple updated its law enforcement guidelines, stipulating that push notification records won't be shared with law enforcement unless backed by a valid judge's order—replacing the earlier allowance with a subpoena, devoid of judicial oversight. This change follows disclosures by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, revealing that Apple and Google might be compelled by governments to disclose push notification contents without public disclosure. While Google mandates a court-issued order for sharing such data, Apple's previous practice lacked transparency regarding law enforcement requests. Push notifications, routed through Apple and Google servers, have been a target for potential government surveillance. However, apps like Signal maintain encrypted push notifications, preserving user privacy by processing them solely on the device without revealing sender identities.