Copyright The Boston Globe
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut is asking a handful of business interests about their donations to President Donald Trump’s ballroom project, and why they were not disclosed by the White House. “Many questions remain about the fundraising for this project, including the amount of each contribution, the agreement reached with each contributor, what promises may have been or may yet be made in exchange for what presumably will be substantial contributions, and why the White House chose to allow donors to remain anonymous,” Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, wrote in letters to several donors who were revealed in a report by The New York Times over the weekend. The Trump administration has promised transparency about the funding of the ballroom that is replacing the East Wing of the White House. But donors were given the option of remaining anonymous, and the Times found several whose identities were not disclosed by Trump’s team last month when a list of more than three dozen donors was released. Among them were health care companies Vantive and Extremity Care, which are seeking to shape Medicare reimbursement rates for their products, and Wall Street powerhouse BlackRock, whose bid to acquire a stake in Panama Canal ports has been supported by Trump amid opposition from China. An individual donor who was not disclosed by the White House is Jeff Yass, a major investor in TikTok’s parent company who could benefit from a Trump-backed deal to keep the social media app running in the United States. Advertisement Nearly identical letters were prepared for each of the donors. Blumenthal asked each why they chose to remain anonymous. In the letter to BlackRock’s chair and CEO Larry Fink, Blumenthal wrote, “At what point did the White House offer you a choice for whether your name would appear on the list of donors released by the White House?” The corporations and a spokesperson for Yass did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Blumenthal’s inquiry. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
