McConnell Calls Out Senate Democrats’ Blind Spot On Liberal Dark Money
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding judicial nominations:
“I haven’t spared any breath calling attention to the parade of unfit nominees that the Biden Administration would like to see confirmed to lifetime seats on the federal bench.
“I’ve urged my colleagues to consider Adeel Mangi’s alarming connections to terrorist sympathizers, and Nancy Maldonado’s record of staggering unproductivity in lower court.
“So it’s only fitting that I call attention to another nominee whose affiliations bear all the hallmarks of the dark-money influence that so animates some of our senior-most colleagues on the Judiciary Committee.
“The Senate hears a great deal from our colleague, the junior Senator for Rhode Island, on the subject of dark money.
“But so far, I haven’t heard him express any concern that Sparkle Sooknanan, nominated to the DC district court, has secured the support of Robert Raben.
“Mr. Raben, of course, is a notorious shepherd of liberal nominees whose client list reads like a who’s-who of liberal dark money, with groups backed by everyone from George Soros to Arabella Advisors.
“Apparently, this nominee engaged in a discussion with Mr. Raben and his associates after her nomination was announced.
“But this sort of contact – between liberal nominees and liberal handlers – doesn’t fit with Senate Democrats’ idea of dark-money influence as simply a conservative pastime.
“So it’s hardly surprising that senior members of the Judiciary Committee majority haven’t found time to scrutinize Ms. Sooknanan with the sort of vigor they devote to tarring organizers for conservative causes.
“Of course, maybe Senate Democrats actually support Ms. Sooknanan’s legal defense of so-called ‘vulture funds’ as they cut to the front of the line of Puerto Rico’s creditors.
“One Democratic House Member from New York said this success makes her nomination ‘an insult to the people of Puerto Rico,’ but what does she know?
“Or maybe they agree with Ms. Sooknanan’s supposedly conservative former law firm that she didn’t disparage the former president’s election-litigation efforts on a conference call and that the New York Times is lying when they say that she did.
“It just doesn’t add up. Unless the real ledger being used is the one with liberal dark money from Robert Raben and Arabella Advisors.”
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Related Issues: Judicial Nominations
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