The Washington, D.C., Democrat attorney general's reported decision to drop an investigation into a $1 billion left-wing dark money network is being condemned by conservatives.
AG Brian Schwalb, whose office was probing Arabella Advisors, decided to end the investigation "after finding no evidence of a violation of law," according to a lawyer for the for-profit consulting company's funds, the Washington Examiner reported Tuesday.
The news came after conservatives already had raised conflict of interest concerns over the Arabella probe.
That's because Schwalb and Chief Deputy Attorney General Seth Rosenthal once worked for Venable, a law firm that represented Arabella-managed New Venture Fund (NVF) and Sixteen Thirty Fund.
The attorney general also received campaign donations from people linked to Arabella, conservatives have said.
"What's concerning is when you have an elected, partisan law enforcement officer charged with investigating a partisan organization that supports all these candidates and, of course, will exonerate the organization that is aligned," attorney Timothy C. Parlatore told the Examiner.
"When you have a central party jurisdiction, then your chief law enforcement officers are primarily focused on winning the next primary to keep their jobs — as opposed to seeking justice and making things safer for citizens."
Parlatore added that such a situation is "particularly bad news in single-party jurisdictions."
"It's certainly something we've seen in New York, something we've seen in Fulton County, Georgia, and it's something we're seeing in D.C.," he told the Washington Examiner.
While dropping the probe into Arabella, Schwalb's office appears to be continuing its investigation into groups linked to Leonard Leo, co-chair of the Federalist Society legal group and an influential conservative activist, the Examiner reported.
Schwalb last year issued subpoenas to Arabella Advisors and its offshoot nonprofit organizations, which conservatives have accused of violating federal law to boost Democrats.
News that the AG's probe of Arabella had stopped also followed a Washington, D.C., district judge's March ruling that authorized discovery in a lawsuit against NVF.
A former employee, represented by Parlatore, is accusing NVF of racial and gender discrimination, as well as retaliating against her for warning about the public charity engaging in alleged tax fraud.
Scott Walter's new book, "Arabella: The Dark Money Network of Leftist Billionaires Secretly Transforming America," revealed that Arabella Advisors is the kingmaker of leftist policy, Capital Research Center (CRC) reported.
"Far from grassroots, these [Arabella] groups are managed by some of the most powerful and connected operatives on the left, moving billions of dollars around to help support their activism," CRC's Sarah Lee wrote.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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