Communications between an executive affiliated with LightSquared and Sen. Chuck Grassley’s staff...
Communications between an executive affiliated with LightSquared and Sen. Chuck Grassley’s staff included an “unseemly invitation to discuss a quid pro quo,” the office of the Iowa Republican said Monday. Todd Ruelle of Fine Point Technologies raised the possibility of…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
including a “call center in the Midwest, possibly in Iowa, if this deal goes through,” according to the senator’s account of the interaction in a Monday letter to Harbinger CEO Phil Falcone. Grassley’s staff then contacted the Senate ethics committee, who advised them to sever contact, said a spokeswoman. Ruelle, who told Grassley’s staff he hasn’t been paid by Harbinger and won’t be until the LightSquared “deal goes through,” told Grassley’s staff he was supportive of the investigation into LightSquared. “Conduct the investigation,” said an email between Ruelle and Grassley’s staff that was distributed Monday by the senator. “That is an issue you need to run separately to be blunt run it hard.” Ruelle then said he would ask that LightSquared ask the FCC to release some information. Ruelle’s role was also questioned in a recent batch of emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. In one email, Ruelle was asked by Deputy Chief Technology Officer Tom Power of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to stop contacting him about LightSquared. Ruelle and Harbinger didn’t comment. “Clearly this guy acted inappropriately,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “It’s amazing to me that someone would make such a suggestion, particularly to anyone on Grassley’s staff, because Grassley is known as such a straight arrow.” It’s also surprising because of LightSquared’s huge lobbying expenses that give the company access to a huge number of Washington lobbyists and lawyers, who would never had made such an offer, she said. It’s still important to know and remains to be seen the exact relationship Ruelle has with LightSquared, something Grassley is clearly curious about, she said.