Opinion| Ted Lieu is always accusing Republicans of corruption with zero evidence, but now it’s his turn to be questioned on his ethics or lack thereof. He gave his campaign cash, $50,000 of it to Stanford University just before his son applied at the college.
Did he just buy his son’s way into college? Remember when Hollywood figures were caught doing the very same thing, but in Lieu’s case, it’s worse. He didn’t use his own money.
I wonder if his donors had any idea that he would use their donations to enrich Stanford and to help Lieu’s son get into the university?
Lieu’s son begins his college career this year. More than two years ago, Jennifer Van Laar at the blog Red State wrote that it was unusual for a political campaign to contribute $50k to a university.
Do you think it still seems odd? Of course not, but don’t expect Lieu to pay the price for this, after all, he is a Democrat.
As explained by the FE:
“Campaign committees can give gifts to charity. The amount donated to a charitable organization cannot be used for purposes that personally benefit the candidate.”
Stanford has a history of admitting the children of celebrities who contributed large sums of cash with a couple of the parents serving short prison sentences. That was the university in the middle of the pay-to-play scandal and it appears they may not have learned their lesson.
The scheme involved bribing coaches and college administrators — with about $25 million in payments over seven years — and paying off college entrance exam administrators to allow students to cheat on their tests, according to charging documents.
Among those charged are “Desperate Housewives” star Huffman and Loughlin of “Full House” fame. Loughlin’s husband, clothing designer Mossimo Giannulli, was also charged. They and several others are accused of scheming to get their children into schools, including Georgetown; Yale; Stanford; the University of Texas; the University of Southern California; the University of California, Los Angeles; and others.
Twitter has suspended the account that first suggested that this was improper. Censorship is alive and well at Twitter.
