Will Senator Heidi Heitkamp Return Campaign Money From Clinton Ally Who Lobbied for the Russians?
U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp talks about the prospect of temporarily housing refugee children at the Grand Forks Air Force Base during a recent visit to the Grand Forks Herald Editorial Board. photo by Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald
Senator Heidi Heitkamp was an early supporter of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 run for the White House, so it’s not surprising that the Senator has received a lot of money from the Clinton political network.
But some of that money now has a taint to it.
Tony Podesta, a powerful lobbyist and brother to Clinton campaign manager John Podesta, has come under scrutiny from special prosecutor Robert Mueller. Podesta’s firm, which is now closing at the end of the year, “stands accused of purposefully concealing its lobbying work on behalf of the Brussels-based European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a think tank with connections to pro-Russia forces in the Ukrainian government,” the Washington Examiner reports.
Podesta has given thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates, according to an analysis by the Daily Caller, among them Heitkamp.
Per the FEC, Podesta made a big donation to Heitkamp’s campaign earlier this year:
Heitkamp should return this tainted money as one of her Democratic colleagues already has.
Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana – a Democrat who, like Heitkamp, likes to portray himself as a moderate – has said that he’d be returning the money he received from Podesta.
Will Heitkamp follow suit?
She should.
