Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) disclosed on Sunday that she made nearly $2 million from past legal work – including work for corporate clients.
Warren revealed that she made $1.9 million from past legal work as part of her ongoing beef over transparency with Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D).
The Massachusetts senator’s campaign originally released a comprehensive list of Warren’s legal work in May but updated the list over the weekend to “include compensation for that work wherever possible.”
Her campaign stated:
These disclosures include all of the cases Elizabeth Warren worked on that we have been able to identify and all of the income from each case we have been able to determine from public records, Elizabeth Warren’s personal records, and other sources.
The list provides a brief overview of each case and the corresponding compensation. Overall, it shows Warren made just short of $2 million. This includes her legal work for corporations, which on the campaign trail she has largely pinned as an enemy.
Warren campaign spokeswoman Kristen Orthman claimed the information came from Warren’s personal records, public records, and “other sources,” but Politico noted that it was “not able to independently verify the compensation.”
Buttigieg has been calling on Warren to increase transparency by releasing her tax returns from the early 2000s and shedding more of a light on her past legal work. Warren, in turn, has called for Buttigieg to open access to his closed-door fundraisers and expose his wealthy bundlers.
“This is about what’s going on right now. He should open up his fundraisers,” she told a reporter over the weekend while dismissing calls to release additional tax returns:
“This is about conflicts that he is creating every single day right now,” she continued. “This is not about what happened 15 years ago or 20 years ago. It’s about the conflicts he’s creating right now.”
“The mayor is going to be in New York City, in Manhattan, starting next week, doing at least three big fundraisers that we know about,” she added. “Those should be open to the press, and whoever is bundling for him at these fundraisers should be exposed.”
Warren argued that the 11 years of tax returns she already put forth should be sufficient.
“And I have already put out a list of all of the legal work I did in all the years that I was in teaching – at least everything that I could find. So anyone can see about conflicts that date back from 15, 20 years ago,” she continued.
This is far from the first time Warren’s past legal work for corporations has been called into question. Her work with Dow Corning, which faced a slew of lawsuits from women who claimed that the company’s silicone breast implants made them ill, has been of particular interest.
As Breitbart News reported:
In 2002, Warren admitted that she “served in an advisory capacity to Dow Chemical, the parent company of Dow Corning, in the early days of the Dow Corning bankruptcy,” but she has failed to elaborate in depth on her role in the public sphere, particularly since launching her presidential bid.
Her campaign has tried to put a light, positive spin on her work in that specific corporate legal matter, reiterating that she served as “a consultant to ensure adequate compensation for women who claimed injury” and adding that “a $2.3 billion fund for the women was started ‘thanks in part to Elizabeth’s efforts,’” the Washington Post reports.
It appears though, as the Post notes, that the Warren campaign’s statement is misleading at best, as the facts suggest that she stood on the side of Dow Corning, assisting the company in paying out as little as possible.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who has largely avoided taking aim at Warren, told CNBC’s John Harwood in October that he will allow the American people to make a judgment on Warren’s past work for corporations.
“I’ll let the American people make that judgment,” he said while distinguishing himself from Warren. “I have never worked for a corporation myself. I’ve never carried their baggage in the United States Senate.”
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