Group Asks Congress To Investigate If Betsy DeVos Is Tied To Her Brother's Work
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Group Asks Congress To Investigate If Betsy DeVos Is Tied To Her Brother's Work
A progressive government watchdog nonprofit group is asking Congress to investigate whether Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had any involvement in her brother’s efforts to spy on a Michigan teachers union, HuffPost has learned.
Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that in 2017, DeVos’s brother, Erik Prince, recruited an ex-spy to infiltrate a Michigan office of the American Federation of Teachers. He did this work through Project Veritas, a right-wing group that is known to infiltrate media organizations and liberal groups in an attempt to collect potentially damaging information. A spokesperson for DeVos told Politico that “Secretary DeVos has absolutely nothing to do with this.”
But on Tuesday, the group Accountable.US wrote to top officials on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform asking them to take a closer look.
“The involvement of DeVos’ brother in this scheme to spy on a labor organization in their shared home state of Michigan raises serious questions about what role the Education Secretary played in it, particularly in light of DeVos’ history of hostility with the same union,” the group wrote in the letter, a copy of which was shared with HuffPost.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks at a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies in Washington. (Photo: Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
DeVos has long had a hostile relationship with teachers unions. In 2018 , she said unions are “not really focused on what is right for individual students” and have a “stranglehold on many of the politicians in this country.” Her family has donated to a number of anti-union groups, and she frequently spars with Randi Weingarten, the national leader of the American Federation of Teachers.
“It stretches the imagination to the breaking point to believe her brother never at least mentioned his intel operation to her,” the group continued in its letter. “At the end of the day, who would benefit more from this ill-gotten information than the Education Secretary at war with the union?”
Prince is famous for founding a mercenary firm called Blackwater whose employees were caught killing Iraqi civilians. Since that time, he has worked closely with the Trump administration, enmeshing himself in some of the administration’s biggest controversies .
Before becoming education secretary, DeVos reportedly paid to “suppress Google search hits connecting her to her brother,” the Wall Street Journal reported in December.
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'Prince is famous for founding a mercenary firm called Blackwater whose employees were caught killing Iraqi civilians. Since that time, he has worked closely with the Trump administration, enmeshing himself in some of the administration’s biggest controversies .
Before becoming education secretary, DeVos reportedly paid to “suppress Google search hits connecting her to her brother,” the Wall Street Journal reported in December.'
This whole family are scum with money.
Blood and money are thicker than water, so in Devo's case it is probably true. Have always detested her and her egomaniacal bro as well.
Makes me wonder what they are up to.
With all the money they have why she would want the position to begin with.
I have seen her stance where she was against public schools and would rather go private.
Betsy DeVos Wants to Use America’s Schools to Build “God’s Kingdom”
Trump’s education secretary pick has spent a lifetime working to end public education as we know it.
KRISTINA RIZGA MAR/APR 2017 ISSUE
Wow, we agree! A rare occasion.
I get her brother but why her?
Because she is for school choice?
A left wing rag opinion piece ......
It can probably be condensed into one word. Power!
It does happen once in a great while. Just have to be careful of the lightning strikes. Just kidding...
A truthful source is not a 'left wing rag opinion piece'
Mother Jones ...... a truthful source?
Maybe for a left wing fundamentalist but not for the rest of the thinking world.
This whole damned administration including the 'president' are corrupt scum.
A security contractor with ties to the Trump administration recruited ex-spies to infiltrate left-wing campaigns and labor unions
Susan Walsh/AP
Erik Prince, a sometimes unofficial advisor to President Trump, worked to recruit former spies to infiltrate left-wing organizations, The New York Times reported.
Undercover operatives recorded leaders in liberal campaigns and organizations in an attempt to release information that could damage them.
The operations were spearheaded by Project Veritas, a right-wing group known for secretly recording and releasing tapes of members of the news media.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .
Project Veritas, the right-wing group known for secretly recording and releasing clips attempting to expose the news media, used former British and American intelligence officials to infiltrate at least two left-wing groups in an attempt to release damaging information about them, according to a report from The New York Times on Saturday.
The operations were orchestrated by Erik Prince, a security contractor and founder of Blackwater , a private military company he sold in 2010 following years of controversy, criminal complaints, and lawsuits. Prince, who has ties to the Trump administration, reached out to former intelligence community members so they could assist Project Vertias' efforts, the report said.
Prince — also the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — has at times served as an informal advisor to the President Donald Trump, advising on projects like the president's transition into office in 2017, according to the report. Project Veritas also has known ties to Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr., is listed as an invited guest on the website for the wedding of the group's founder, according to the report.
Prince, in one instance, helped recruit a former member of M16, UK's Secret Service organization, to infiltrate the American Federation of Teachers, the New York Times reported. The man, identified in documents as Richard Seddon, directed an undercover woman to secretly film leaders of the union in order to obtain information potentially damaging to their organization.
Emails and other documents that revealed the Project Vertias operation were revealed as part of the discovery process in a lawsuit leveled against Project Vertias by the American Federation of Teachers, the NYT reported.
The same undercover individual later joined the Congressional campaign of Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA operation officer. When Spanberger's campaign discovered the woman was an undercover operative, it fired her, according to the report Saturday.
As The New York Times reported, it is unclear whether anyone with ties to the Trump administration was aware of the Prince/Project Veritas operation.
"No one tells Project Veritas who or what to investigate," James O'Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas told The New York Times. Prince declined to comment on the report, the New York newspaper added.
As The Wall Street Journal reported in February, the US Justice Department is deciding whether to charge Prince with lying to Congress as part of its probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and determining whether he violated laws in his business dealings with foreign countries.
Do Michigan teacher unions have something to hide?
Concerned Michigan citizens would now like to know.
It will be interesting to we what dirt was uncovered on that slimy teachers union. What is it they are trying to hide?
DeVos and Prince are the slime. Not the teachers unions.
Yes because as everyone knows, Unions are always pure as the fresh driven snow ........ /S
Just ask Jimmy Hoffa if you can find him ......
yea, unlike the politicians you defend. Neither of these two should have been appointed to anything Political , as they've both proven.
'Neither of these two should have been appointed to anything Political , as they've both proven.'
Yup, corrupt scum.
What two?
Two of the union construction workers?
Were they appointed union stewards or something when i wasn't looking?
Devos and Prince are scum.