Instead of loving people and using money, people often love money and use people. —Wayne Gerard Trotman
O, what a tangled web we weave; When first we practice to deceive! —Sir Walter Scott
Confusion Over Valid Trump PACS
The Fox News’ Bret Baier show on Sunday, May 22nd, 2016 was about Donald Trump. In the first ten minutes of the show, Baier played a clip of Ed Rollinssaying, “Donald Trump is not going to be a viable candidate.”
Rollins statement is at 8.35 in the video.
Now, however, Ed Rollins is alleging, on Fox News and other media, that he is the co-chairman of Donald Trump’s Great America PAC. In my previous article, Be Wary of Bogus Trump Super PACS, I stated that the Great America PAC with co-chairman, Ed Rollins, was an unauthorized PAC. Rollins has openly admitted that it is not the official anointed PAC at this time. [Link]
Ed Rollins is a Republican campaign consultant and advisor. He lives in New York, where he has served as political commentator for CNN and (currently) Fox News and Fox Business. He has been a television commentator and a senior adviser to the Clinton-aligned firm, Teneo. Therein lies the rub.
The only authorized Trump Super PAC is Committee for American Sovereignty. You can safely donate to the Committee PAC or to DonaldJTrump.com.
As I stated in my previous article, the Great America PAC is NOT an authorized Trump PAC and is not collecting funds that go strictly to the Trump campaign. Open Secrets has the summary data on this PAC, which shows they are collecting some monies, but again, unauthorized by the Trump Campaign. [Link]
Pickens Postpones Trump Fundraiser
Note that T. Boone Pickens is postponing a fundraiser for Donald Trump that had been scheduled to take place at Pickens’ ranch next month. [Link] Apparently he found out that the Great America PAC is not a sanctioned Trump PAC.
In a statement provided to the Dallas Morning News on Saturday, Pickens spokesman, Jay Rosser, blamed the cancellation on scheduling. In recent weeks, major news outlets have reported there is confusion among wealthy donors over where to give.
Teneo and the Clintons
Teneo Holdings is a global consulting firm with deep Clinton connections. Teneo serves in an odd relationship to Clinton Inc. Doug Band, Mr. Clinton’s right-hand man for many years, is a Teneo founder. Huma Abedin, Mrs. Clinton’s right-hand woman for many years, was a senior advisor to Teneo at the same time she held a top position as part of Mrs. Clinton’s inner circle at the State Department. Bill Clinton was both a paid advisor to Teneo and a client. Secretary of State Clinton’s former Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland, Declan Kelly, is a Teneo co-founder and its CEO. Teneo isn’t really well known other than in the upper echelon of the elite, with only a few known corporate clients. It is best known for its relationship with the Clintons and the Clinton Foundation.
“The idea for Teneo was to have Fortune 400 companies pay large monthly stipends in exchange for access to Doug Band, Clinton, and their massive international network. Daniel Halper, in his book, “Clinton, Inc.,” wrote, “The group would ‘consult’ with the companies, offer strategic advice and help them overcome issues in various countries across the globe.” But a former Teneo employee told Halper that what the clients really got was nothing, other than an “implicit promise of access to Clinton.”
Doug Band (left) holds the door to the Oval Office open for Bill Clinton (right) and his chief of staff John Podesta in 2001.
In addition to Clinton, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former US Sen. George Mitchell, and Ed Rollins, Ronald Reagan’s campaign manager, all came on board at Teneo. [Link]
Clinton was the key to Teneo’s success. “The two needed the president,” a source told Halper. “It was he who they were selling to their corporate clients.” Or, more precisely, it was their proximity to the power elite — former President Clinton, and his wife, who was then secretary of state.
Teneo wasn’t much talked about until Mrs. Clinton’s formal entry into the presidential race. It was then that the media started looking at the Clinton Foundation, Teneo, and the disappearing State Dept. emails and realized this signaled some sort of gigantic sleazy game is afoot. Still, it’s under the radar of the electorate.
Clinton Foundation and Teneo
The Clinton Foundation is partly a philanthropy, partly a platform for post-presidential private enterprise (Bill’s speeches and consulting), and at one time, a presidential campaign-in-waiting (Hillary at the State Department and after). It includes the Clinton Global Initiative, a glitzy stage for big money pledges to various Clinton endeavors presided over by Bill himself, the Clinton Global Initiative University, and the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock. Under the auspices of the foundation, there is the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Clinton Climate Initiative, the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative, the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, the Clinton Development Initiative, the Clinton 
Economic Opportunity Initiative, and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. The Clinton Foundation has long been thought a “charity fraud.” [Link]
Doug Band was actually the founder of the Clinton Global initiative, which he had suggested to Bill Clinton. He is on their board, and fundraises for them, while he also is a partner and founder of Teneo.
Teneo was founded in June of 2011 by three partners: Declan Kelly (former U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland for Hillary’s State Dept. U.S. CEO of Financial Dynamics, and Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of FTI Consulting,); Doug Band (Counselor to U.S. President Bill Clinton, and he assisted in creating the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) [Link]); and Paul Keary (former Senior Managing Director of FTI Consulting). [Link]
Declan Kelly
Kelly was a bargain for the State Dept., as he asked for no salary and paid for his own staffers. He pushed for US companies to invest in the once troubled Northern Ireland region, which was a priority for Hillary. Here’s the key however, while reaching out to global corporations for those investments, Kelly was also working for two of them as a private consultant and earning $2.4 million from Dow Chemical. Dow was one of Kelly’s long time clients and one of the investors in Hillary Clinton’s initiative.
While Kelly was working for the State Dept., he and Doug Band, a close aide to former President Bill Clinton, were preparing to launch a global consulting business that would soon become a well-known and controversial success story. Teneo Holdings was the new venture and this company has close ties to both Clintons. Teneo employed numerous Hillary Clinton associates, including her closest confidante, Huma Abedin, and, for a time, Bill Clinton as “honorary chairman,” giving clients rare access to the couple and their network of world leaders.
So there you have it. Bill Clinton was serving in the paid position of honorary chairman of Teneo, and Hillary as Secretary of State employed the founder of Teneo. The corporate executive clients of Teneo paid $250,000 a month, or more, for consulting and assistance, but with that came a chance to rub shoulders with the former first family. Teneo also formed a very beneficial relationship with the Clinton Global Initiative, (CGI) the fancy annual Clinton Foundation event starring the former president and other world leaders. The New York Times and The New Republic first reported three years ago how the philanthropic gathering provided an ideal nexus for Teneo to both recruit new clients and enhance the visibility of existing clients by getting them speaking roles.
Former employees of Teneo said a key element of Kelly and Band’s pitch to new clients was donating to the foundation or joining CGI to “raise your leadership profile.”
“They used the Clinton connection to launch it,” said a former employee who was there before the public unveiling.
Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair were paid advisors to Teneo. The New Republic described “the extent to which Teneo’s business model depend(ed) on Doug Band’s relationship with Clinton” as “striking.” New Republic article. Clinton ended his relationship with Teneo on February 2012. [Link] He is now a friend and an unpaid advisor. Doug Band’s longtime advisor relationship with Clinton ended in 2013 after concerns that Band had used his ties with Clinton to increase Teneo’s holdings.
Huma Abedin and Teneo
During the latter half of 2012, Huma Abedin was working as a paid consultant for Teneo, while also working as special government employee for U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. [Link] In July 2013, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) initiated an investigation into Abedin’s activities and pay during that period. [Link] In November 2015, the New York Times reported that in a letter to Senator Grassley, Teneo stated that prior to Ms. Abedin’s hiring, it had required her to sign an independent contract agreement that she would avoid any work that could potentially pose a conflict with her role at the State Department. “We have no reason to believe any of her activities as an independent contractor were inconsistent with the commitments she made in this regard,” wrote Mr. Kelly according to the media report. [Link]
Abedin notes that from June 2012 to February 2013, her paying jobs included: work at the State Department as “a part-time consultant;” assisting Secretary Clinton “in her personal capacity…prepare for transition from public service;” work for the Clinton Foundation assessing programs and helping plan for Mrs. Clinton’s “post-State philanthropic activities;” and work for Teneo Holdings providing “strategic advice and consulting services.”
Abedin serves as vice chairwoman of Clinton’s 2016 campaign for President.
Conclusion
Rollins actually criticized Trump for going after Republican Gov. Susana Martinez (N.M.) at a rally Tuesday in Albuquerque. Trump blasted the governor for the increasing number of new Mexicans on food stamps, as well as the growing population of Syrian refugees living in the state. The presumptive Republican nominee said Martinez is “not doing her job,” joking that maybe he should run for governor in New Mexico.
Trump’s decision to knock Martinez, though, should not come as a surprise. The governor, a rising star in the GOPe, and the chair of the Republican Governors Association, has slammed the real estate developer for his stance on immigration. [Link]
Rollins criticism makes it even more suspect as to who he is working for…himself or the Clintons…it is certainly not for Donald Trump.
With his head bowing down to lick Trump’s feet, and his rump firmly planted in Clinton’s Teneo organization, Ed Rollins is the ultimate Mugwump. Everyone should be extremely cautious of sending donations to Rollins’ unauthorized Great America PAC. We can’t be sure of where any collected monies would go, or if they would somehow end up in the Clinton coffers…so send any donations to the Committee for American Sovereignty, or DonaldJTrump.com.
