President-elect Joe Biden
Joe BidenBidens pays tribute to front-line workers in New York: “We owe them, we owe them, we owe them” DC’s Trump Hotel raises room prices for Biden’s inauguration The video shows long lines on the last day of early voting in Georgia MOREThe decision to head the Treasury Department earned more than $ 1 million in speeches and working with corporate clients, according to financial disclosures released Thursday.
Janet Yellen
Janet Louise Yellen: 2121: The year the debt hens could return home to go through the Biden transition, she says more than half of WH’s helpers are people of color. Note: Left looking for leverage to move Biden MORE, Biden’s candidate for Secretary of the Treasury, has made more than $ 7.2 million talking to Wall Street companies and corporations over the past two years, according to her financial disclosure form.
The election of the president-elect as secretary of state, Anthony Blink
Antony Blinken: Biden’s choice to lead the American intelligence community Mnuchin says he has spoken with Yellen, Biden’s Treasury candidate. Next steps for foreign policy MORE, has earned nearly $ 1.2 million over the past two years through consulting clients at WestExec Advisors, according to its financial disclosure.
The large amounts of money raised by Biden Council of Ministers selections could complicate the progressive support of candidates during Senate confirmation hearings.
Yellen, whom progressives praised when Biden nominated her as a Treasury nominee, earned millions in fees from Citi, Goldman Sachs, Google, City National Bank, UBS, Citadel LLC, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Salesforce and others. For Citi alone, he received $ 1 million for nine speeches and for Citadel, a hedge fund founded by a Republican donor, he received more than $ 800,000.
The potential Treasury Secretary also pledged to speak with the department’s ethics attorneys to “request written permission to participate personally and substantially in any particular matter” involving companies that paid him the year. past.
Meanwhile, the nominated Secretary of State revealed the clients he worked with at WestExec Advisors, which included Blackstone, Bank of America, Facebook, Uber, McKinsey & Company, the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, the pharmaceutical company Gilead, the bank investments Lazard, Boeing, AT&T, the Royal Bank of Canada and LinkedIn.
In addition to the nearly $ 1.2 million raised in the past two years, Blinken is expected to earn between $ 250,000 and $ 500,000 this year.
Its financial disclosure indicates that it plans to sell its stake in WestExec, for an amount of between 500,000 and 1 million dollars, and also divests its stake in the sister company WestExec Ventures, which amounts to between 1 and 5 million of dollars.
A Biden said a transition officer at Politico the team submitted the “mid-week” outreach forms and the Government Ethics Office published them on New Year’s Eve.
The transition official stood by Yellen’s financial past, saying, “Look at his enforcement history: he’s not someone who can punch when it comes to bad actors or bad behavior.”
“You can expect it to bring the same high ethical standards and a tough philosophy of application to the Treasury,” the official added.
A spokeswoman for the transition said Yellen has delivered speeches “after several decades in the public service” to discuss “her experiences and views on what we can do as a country to build a stronger economy and increase our competitiveness.” .
“Her experience and expertise are the reasons why President-elect Biden wanted her team to work for him and on behalf of the American people to help us better recover from this economic crisis,” he said. spokesman in a statement to The Hill.
“It is clear that leaders in academia, business and economics were looking for informed and thoughtful information about the economy during a chaotic period for the country, when there were few voices of confidence in the government,” they added.
Another candidate whose disclosure form may present a problem is potential National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, who was WestExec’s director and consultant. He reported $ 180,000 in “consulting fees” from data mining company Palantir.
The transition spokesman said in a statement that Haines “acted as a consultant who had a limited scope of work primarily focused on diversity and the company’s inclusion efforts, especially in increasing gender diversity.”
Update: 12:53 pm