Senior partners at the Paul Hastings law firm, which is investigating the “operations and culture” of the Lincoln Project, gave thousands of dollars to the PAC in 2020, according to FEC documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The Lincoln Project is currently mired in several scandals, including the accusation that top executives at the PAC covered up allegations of sexual harassment and abuse. There have also been charges of a toxic workplace with sexism run rampant.
The only female board member, Jennifer Horn, has instructed the group to retain documents in anticipation of a lawsuit. She has made allegations of abusive and demeaning treatment from Lincoln Project executives.
The Lincoln Project announced on Monday that it has retained Paul Hastings for the purpose of conducting an internal investigation. “We are committed to creating a positive, diverse, and inclusive workplace environment at The Lincoln Project, and inappropriate behavior by anyone associated with the organization will not be tolerated under any circumstances,” the group said in a statement.
The move was seen by many as a last-ditch effort to placate nervous donors and media outlets, whose fawning coverage of the Lincoln Project fueled its rise to become one of the most well-funded super PACs of the 2020 cycle. The group has been racked by scandal since mid-January, when dozens of young men accused cofounder John Weaver of engaging in inappropriate sexual behavior.
The idea that the Paul Hastings law firm could carry out an impartial investigation is a joke.
Greg Nitzkowski, the firm’s managing partner of more than two decades, donated $3,000 to the Lincoln Project in 2020, according to federal election records. Elena Baca, who chairs the firm’s employment law department, has donated almost $2,000 to the Lincoln Project.
Baca is apparently a barracuda when it comes to defending clients against sexual harassment claims. The Lincoln Project may need her services before too long.
Three other Paul Hastings partners have donated money to the Lincoln Project: Sam Alavi, whose clients include the Qatar Investment Authority; Joseph Profaizer, who has defended Chinese firms against allegations of intellectual property theft from U.S. competitors; and Steven Marenberg, who previously represented Donald Trump and NBC Universal in a copyright case involving The Apprentice.
Six former Lincoln Project employees are demanding to be released from their non-disclosure agreements in order to go public with even more dirt. The attorneys issued a cleverly-worded statement that suggested they would allow transparency but that, in effect, kept the gag orders in place.
It didn’t fool the former employees.
“As an organization with dozens of contractors, subcontractors, informal advisers, and other associates, this statement is unclear, and seems intentionally narrowed to only include talking about a ‘workplace environment,'” the former employees said. “This statement is designed to appear to be honest and forthright, while still keeping staff silent about the John Weaver situation on a technicality. This is the exact sort of behavior many of us joined The Lincoln Project to fight back against.”
It’s amazing to see the media and the Left tiptoe away from the Lincoln Project, seemingly denying their former enthusiasm for the group.
That enthusiasm has already gone down the media memory hole, never to emerge so that the truth can be known.
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