Washington Has Been Profitable for Some on Biden’s Staff

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Washington Has Been Profitable for Some on Biden’s Staff

The most important share of Ms. Haines’s earnings got here from Columbia College, which paid her greater than $440,000 to assist run a world analys


The most important share of Ms. Haines’s earnings got here from Columbia College, which paid her greater than $440,000 to assist run a world analysis challenge and to lecture on the college’s legislation college. She additionally was paid $150,000 to seek the advice of for the utilized physics lab at Johns Hopkins College, and almost $55,000 to seek the advice of and make introductions for WestExec Advisors, the agency Mr. Blinken helped discovered.

Mr. Blinken, who served as deputy secretary of state within the Obama administration, shaped WestExec Advisors about eight months after he left workplace with three different Obama administration officers.

The agency, which takes its identify from the small road that runs between the West Wing of the White Home and the Eisenhower Government Workplace Constructing, was employed by shoppers in search of recommendation in navigating the federal authorities. The agency additionally paired with enterprise capital funds that helped corporations it suggested increase to tackle federal contracts or different new work.

Mr. Blinken’s disclosure varieties present that he labored with 17 WestExec shoppers, together with Microsoft, Uber, AT&T, FedEx, LinkedIn, the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, the pharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences and McKinsey & Firm, the worldwide consulting agency.

WestExec mentioned in a press release after Mr. Blinken emerged because the doubtless secretary of state choose that he helped enterprise leaders “make one of the best selections in a fancy and risky worldwide panorama.”

In some instances, Mr. Blinken additionally publicly defended shoppers. When Fb got here underneath hearth for failing to adequately struggle disinformation in the course of the 2016 election — together with posts that had been a part of a Russian effort to spice up Mr. Trump’s presidential marketing campaign — Mr. Blinken mentioned the blame must be directed primarily at Russia.

Social media platforms “need to do higher to defend in opposition to malicious actors, however let’s not lose sight of the forest for the timber: The issue is Russia and different actors who use our openness in opposition to us, not the platforms,” Mr. Blinken mentioned in an interview with Quick Firm. “The most important mistake we will make is to get right into a round firing squad with authorities and the tech corporations,” Mr. Blinken advised the publication, which recognized him as an adviser to each Fb and Alphabet, the mum or dad firm of Google.



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