"'The landscape of advocacy groups in Washington is complicated, and large technology companies benefit from this confusion,' Daniel Stevens, executive director for the Campaign for Accountability, said."
On November 18, 2019, CfA published court documents revealing that Americans United for Life (AUL), a 48-year old national anti-abortion organization, advised the controversial anti-choice front group Center for Medical Progress (CMP) in its release of deceptively edited videos designed to harm Planned Parenthood. According to documents filed in a lawsuit against CMP, AUL provided extensive support to CMP during its deceitful scheme including 300 communications with CMP’s head, David Daleiden.
"'Title X was created to help low-income women control their reproductive futures by providing them access to birth control,' said Alice Huling, counsel for the Campaign for Accountability. 'Yet HHS gave these funds to a group that is fundamentally opposed to birth control. It just doesn’t make sense.'"
On November 12, 2019, CfA and Western Values Project, a Montana-based nonprofit conservation group, submitted additional evidence to ethics officials at the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Office of Government Ethics showing U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt continued to work with his former lobbying client, Westlands Water District, through at least July 2017, which is longer than was previously known.
"Mr. Lee has been accused of letting money influence his views on the subject. The Google Transparency Project, a nonprofit that tracks the tech giant’s connections to government, recently raised questions about whether he was influenced by donations from Google and its allies."
On November 5, 2019, CfA sent letters to Estée Lauder informing the company of an employee’s inappropriate use of the company’s name in her role as the board chair of Obria Medical Clinics of Southern California, an anti-choice religious ministry masquerading as a healthcare group, and requesting that the company discipline the employee accordingly.
"The complaint was filed by Dan Stevens, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability, with the Florida Commission on Ethics. It cited property records, court filings and other documents to show Plakon bought and sold several properties in Seminole, Lake and Volusia counties that never showed up on his annual financial disclosure forms."
On November 4, 2019, CfA called on the Florida Commission on Ethics to investigate whether Florida State Representative David Scott Plakon violated the Florida Constitution and state ethics laws by failing to properly disclose information about his myriad business interests on his personal financial disclosure forms.
"A recent report from the Google Transparency Project highlighted how an opaque patronage system can capture a wide range of journalism resources at a relatively low cost."
"The Google Transparency Project collected all the available information on 16 different Google programs and related organizations to fund journalism. The report reveals that Google and related entities have committed between $567 million and $569 million to support at least 1,157 projects around the globe."