Far be it for us to pretend we have any idea what’s going on with the charity arm of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Biden’s White House but gosh, golly, and gee, this thread sure sounds shady AF. Especially when it’s paying salaries (even indirectly) of White House science office employees.
You know what? We’ll just get out of the way and let you read the thread.
Take a gander at this:
NEW: the charity arm of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt indirectly paid the salaries of two WH science office employees including the now-chief of staff, sparking “significant” internal ethical concerns & battles
My investigation into Schmidt & Biden adminhttps://t.co/EyLTMEv9lq
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) March 28, 2022
Google … huh, kinda sorta sounds like Big Tech is super friendly with the Biden White House.
We know you know we know you already knew that but still.
Other ethical fights broke out last fall because Tom Kalil, an OSTP alum, was serving as an unpaid consultant at the science office while still working as chief innovation officer at Schmidt Futures
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) March 28, 2022
Hrm.
Internal red flags went up in August when Elaine Ho, the deputy chief of staff for workforce, wrote an email in saying DOE “has secured Schmidt Futures as a funding source for Marc [Aidinoff]… and Kei [Koizumi] has already reached out to Tom [Kalil].”
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) March 28, 2022
Keep following along.
Then-general counsel Rachel Wallace replied that Kalil’s involvement was “a significant conflict of interest, given his dual roles. My strong and urgent advice to you is to redirect this process and determine if there is another mechanism available to bring Marc on.”
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) March 28, 2022
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An OSTP spokesperson said: “Ho was one week into her new assignment at OSTP as a workforce development advisor to help build out the team when she sent the August 30 email…Because Ho explained it to Aidinoff as ‘Schmidt Futures’ funding, Aidinoff also expressed ethics concerns”
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) March 28, 2022
Wallace, deputy counsel at OSTP, told me: “I and others on the legal team had been noticing a large number of staff with financial connections to Schmidt Futures & were increasingly concerned about the influence this organization was able to have through these individuals”
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) March 28, 2022
The use of outside fellows is common at OSTP given it’s budget constraints
What alarmed ethics officials was that Schmidt’s charity arm was popping up everywhere in these normal channels to supplement OSTP’s work— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) March 28, 2022
What alarmed ethics officials is that Big Tech has its hands in everything.
OSTP spokesperson told us: “OSTP senior staff, including Eric Lander, pushed to find ways to quickly bring on subject matter experts. As part of the onboarding process, OSTP’s legal counsel reviews potential ethical conflicts and directs remedial actions or recusals.” pic.twitter.com/Ty0KGumdmf
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) March 28, 2022
Schmidt also had very close ties to Eric Lander
On the board of Broad Institute since 2012.
Weeks after Biden nominated Lander, Broad announced a $150 million gift from Schmidt (the Institute said it was in the works since early 2020).
Schmidt became chair of the Broad board.— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) March 28, 2022
And there’s the tie to Biden. ‘Weeks after Biden nominated Lander, Broad announced a $150 million gift from the former CEO of Google’, who then became the chair of the board.
The Delta CEO changed the quarantine guidelines and he didn't even have to pay them off lol
— Matt (@matthewaford) March 28, 2022
Right?
Something strange is afoot at the Circle Biden.
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