The item of interest is dated July 1, 2019, and is thus months from being current. However, as a snapshot in time it is relevant. In quoting, links are omitted, hence readers wanting more can link here. Excerpting:
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which keeps meticulous tabs on political campaign flows, as of this morning, the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison – which has represented Citigroup through more than two decades of serial fraud charges – is the number one campaign donor to the Democratic Presidential hopeful Senator Kamala Harris. As the Center notes, the money isn’t coming from the law firm itself, but from its “PACs; their individual members, employees or owners; and those individuals’ immediate families.”
The campaign ad for Harris reads like this: “Kamala Harris has spent her entire life defending our American values. From fighting to fix our broken criminal justice system to taking on the Wall Street banks for middle class homeowners, Kamala has always worked For The People.”
But here we are in the early days of the Democratic primary campaign, when the big money has not even yet entered the fray, and Harris has already collected $140,475 from the folks at Paul Weiss.
If only about a lawfirm's focus on a single candidate, the value of the item might be limited. Yet the post continues:
Paul Weiss has offices in New York, Wilmington, Washington D.C., London, Hong Kong, Beijing, Toronto, and Tokyo. Harris hails from California. Why are Paul Weiss lawyers so interested in financing her campaign?
As it turns out, they’re not all that interested. Numerous law partners at Paul Weiss are hedging their bets and contributing simultaneously to other Democratic Presidential candidates.
Donations from Paul Weiss also rank number one in the Presidential campaign of Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey; number three in the Presidential campaign of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York; number six in the Presidential campaign of Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana; and number 9 in the Presidential campaign of Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
The name Paul Weiss has become synonymous with getting serial miscreant mega banks on Wall Street off the hook or bargaining down the charges. [... Citigroup mentioned]
Citigroup’s stock ended up collapsing to 99 cents during the financial crisis and despite the mandate that the Federal Reserve cannot lend to insolvent banks, the Fed secretly funneled more than $2.5 trillion in revolving, below-market-rate loans to the bank from late 2007 through the middle of 2010, according to an audit by the Government Accountability Office. [...] Citigroup’s Citicorp unit became a felon bank in 2015, pleading guilty to one count lodged by the Department of Justice for its role in rigging the foreign exchange market. It got a deferred prosecution agreement and a three-year probation.
[...] But the really big heavy hitter at Paul Weiss is Mark Bergman, described on the firm’s website as “the head of the Global Capital Markets and Securities Practice Group” and working out of the London office. The website also notes that he speaks regularly on “subjects related to legislative and regulatory efforts to reform the financial system and address systemic risks.”
In March, Bergman donated $35,500 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Since January of 2015, he has written out the following checks to the DNC: $32,400 in January 2015; $33,400 in April 2016; $33,900 in March 2017; $33,900 in January 2018. In August 2016, he wrote out two checks totaling $50,000 to the Hillary [Clinton] Victory Fund, according to FEC records. So far this year, the only Presidential candidate Bergman has donated to is the Kamala Harris campaign, FEC records show.
What could Paul Weiss be expecting to get as a return on its investment in these Presidential campaigns? If it gets as lucky as rival law firm Jones Day did in the Trump administration, it might be able to send 12 of its partners to key posts in the next president’s administration right on inauguration day. [...]
Or, if it gets as lucky as Covington & Burling did under President Obama, it might get the two top spots in the Department of Justice.
Again, links in the item are omitted in excerpting. Claims the item makes can be verified or disproven in whole or in part by reader websearch. It was not done here, so the post is entirely to inform readers that the site and post exists with content beyond that reproduced here.
Repeated money to the DNC [Tom Perez version, Ellison no longer involved] and to multiple candidates low on my "desireables" list is a pattern not strongly ringing my bell. Biden was fence-straddling at the time, hence the firm might have since invested that direction also.
Bernie and Warren are more attractive to some people based on policy and on who they do not take money from, in running.
UPDATE: The site has more-current content of an interesting nature, so start at its homepage, if curious:
http://wallstreetonparade.com/
FURTHER UPDATE: If unfamiliar with the Paul, Weiss firm, it has a history page, and a Wikipedia entry, with the Wiki page noting early that the firm has a history of supporting political causes and candidacies. The firm's website allows exploration. It posts a spectrum of "Featured News" on its main web page.