Former Google CEO Funneled Money to WH Science Office: Report
- March 29, 2022
Jason Clemons, Newsmax
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt reportedly funneled money into the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy over the past year, broaching ethical concerns about his influence in the Biden administration, according to Politico.
The Politico report tracks the paths of former and current OSTP employees with extensive ties to Schmidt, a billionaire who ran Google from 2001 to 2011, and then served as executive chairman of its parent company, Alphabet, until 2020.
Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the People’s Trust, a government ethics group, said the following about Schmidt’s OSTP ties, when interviewed by the Daily Mail.
“It’s telling that the downfall of the head of OSTP came not from the apparent ethics violations but from allegedly mistreating those who attempted to blow the whistle. The revolving door between government service and powerful private interests is one reason the American public’s trust in its government is at an all-time low.
“But it looks as though, rather than reform, OSTP may have made it worse by creating a situation in which they replaced the revolving door with a breezeway, eliminating structural barriers between the two.”