Former Google boss Eric Schmidt’s fingerprints are “all over” the Biden White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), a closeness that even a former Obama White House ethics official has criticized, according to a report in Politico.
The Politico story also reveals that Schmidt Futures, a charity arm of the former Google executive, sought to pay the salaries of OSTP officials, a move that sparked ethics complaints.
Breitbart News has reported at length on the closeness of Eric Schmidt to Democrat administrations, as well as his role as a Hillary Clinton lackey in 2016. Breitbart News has also covered Schmidt’s elaborate efforts to involve himself in U.S. defense policy.
US President Joe Biden delivers a speech about the Russian war in Ukraine at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland on March 26, 2022. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP)
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, speaks with Google CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
According to Politico, Schmidt’s scheming extends to U.S. science policy as well.
A foundation controlled by Eric Schmidt, the multi-billionaire former CEO of Google, has played an extraordinary, albeit private, role in shaping the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy over the past year.
More than a dozen officials in the 140-person White House office have been associates of Schmidt’s, including some current and former Schmidt employees, according to interviews with current and former staff members and internal emails obtained by POLITICO.
Schmidt maintained a close relationship with the president’s former science adviser, Eric Lander, and other Biden appointees. And his charity arm, Schmidt Futures, indirectly paid the salaries of two science-office employees, including, for six weeks, that of the current chief of staff, Marc Aidinoff, who is now one of the most senior officials in the office following Lander’s resignation in February. The chief innovation officer at Schmidt Futures, OSTP alum Tom Kalil, also remained on Schmidt’s payroll while working as an unpaid consultant at the science office for four months last year until he left the post following ethics complaints.
The ethics outcry over Schmidt’s involvement with the Office of Science and Technology Policy has focused on OSTP officials remaining on Schmidt Futures salaries while working there.
Even an ethics official from the Obama Administration, which had unprecedented ties to Google while Schmidt led the company, is quoted by Politico noting the problems with Schmidt’s involvement.
“You might say that the desire of a philanthropy to support government is noble, but at least the appearance question that is raised is whether government should be making its own determinations about that. There should not be the appearance that perhaps outside actors are unduly shaping that policy,” said the official.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.