Politics

Law firms representing Solyndra executives are major Democratic donors

Matthew Boyle Investigative Reporter
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The law firms representing two prominent Solyndra executives are major Democratic Party donors, The Daily Caller has learned.

Reuters first reported that the bankrupt company’s CEO, Brian Harrison, and CFO, W.G. Stover, plan to refuse to talk openly to congressional investigators about how their company squandered $535 million in taxpayer money. They will invoke their Fifth Amendment right not to self-incriminate themselves at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Friday.

The law firms representing the executives are Orrick, Harrington and Sutcliffe, and Keker and Van Nest. Both are major contributors to Democrats and both have handsomely helped President Barack Obama’s political efforts, according to information retrieved from Center for Responsive Politics databanks.

Employees at Orrick, Harrington and Sutcliffe, which is representing Harrison, have donated more than $1.3 million to federal campaigns, political parties and Political Action Committees since 1990. More than 95 percent of those donations went to Democrats, including $184,000 to Obama.

Steven Newmark, a litigation managing associate for the firm, has bundled between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama’s ongoing bid for re-election.

Keker and Van Nest employees, on the other hand, have donated $527,301 in national-level political donations since 1990, 99 percent of which have gone to Democrats. Keker and Van Nest is representing Stover. (RELATED: Solyndra execs to plead Fifth in hearing)

Over the last three election cycles, Keker and Van Nest employees have donated more than $315,000 to Democrats and, since 2007, they’ve given $64,900 specifically to Obama.

In 2008, Keker and Van Nest attorney Jon B. Streeter bundled between $50,000 and $100,00 for Obama. Since 2009, Streeter has given $46,000 personally to the Democratic National Committee and, in 2010, personally donated more than $30,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Before going bankrupt, Solyndra was a solar panel manufacturer that the Obama administration granted a $535 million loan guarantee to. Since then, the company announced its bankruptcy, leaving taxpayers on the hook for more than half a billion dollars. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is conducting an major investigation into the loan.

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Matthew Boyle