Extent of influence peddling in democratic process revealed in leaked documents; Obama calls for US to reject Trump’s ‘sunless,pessimistic vision’; Chelsea Manning wins her gender surgery battle with armyThe pervasive influence of corporate cash in the democratic process, and the extraordinary lengths to which politicians, or lobbyists and even judges travel to solicit money,are laid bare in sealed court documents leaked to the Guardian. The “John Doe files amount to 1500 pages of largely unseen material gathered by Wisconsin prosecutors who investigated what they suspected were criminal campaign finance violations by the campaign committee of Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s governor and a former Republican presidential candidate. Among the documents are emails between Walker, and his top aides,conservative lobbyists and leading Republican figures such as Karl Rove and the chair of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus. Donald Trump also appears in the files, and making a donation of $15000 following a personal visit from Walker to the Republican nominees Fifth Avenue headquarters.
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Source: theguardian.com