The head of a left-wing “watchdog” behind the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling disqualifying former President Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 primary election ballot hobnobbed at the Biden White House last year, records show.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last week to hear the major case, which will be argued on Feb. 8. That case stemmed from a September lawsuit in Colorado filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a Washington, D.C.-based charity that alleged Trump incited the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Meanwhile, CREW President and CEO Noah Bookbinder has been afforded the opportunity to frequent the White House since President Joe Biden took office, according to White House visitor logs.
The visits are a window into how liberal activists share close ties to the highest levels of government while bolstering the Democratic Party’s agenda with a flurry of lawsuits aimed at Republicans. CREW asserts it is “compelling the government to be more open and transparent, and driving secret money and influence into the light,” though a recent Washington Examiner investigation detailed how the organization pockets millions of dollars each year from groups with opaque funding structures. This includes the $5.9 million CREW received between 2020 and 2022 from the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, a donor-advised fund shielding original contributors from the public eye.
Bookbinder visited the White House in March 2023, with his point person being Maya James, a policy analyst for the Department of Commerce, the Daily Caller reported. He was there for a presentation by the Department of Homeland Security’s advisory council, of which Bookbinder has been a member, in its “openness and transparency” subcommittee, according to government documents.
The advisory council “leverages the experience, expertise, and national and global connections of the HSAC membership to provide the Secretary real-time, real-world, and independent advice to support decision-making across the spectrum of homeland security operations,” according to the DHS.
Separately, Bookbinder visited the White House on Jan. 6, 2023, on the two-year anniversary of the Capitol riot, visitor logs show. Biden awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal on that day to police officers whom the president applauded for having “performed exemplary deeds in the service to this great nation” while responding to the unrest in 2021.
“As I’ve said before, we face an inflection point in our nation’s history,” Biden said at the 2023 ceremony. “On January 6th, it’s a reminder that there’s nothing guaranteed about our democracy. Remember learning in undergraduate school, high school that every generation is required to earn it, defend it, protect it?”
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While at the White House, Bookbinder did not discuss the Trump ballot case with federal officials, the Daily Caller reported.
The 2024 general election is increasingly shaping up to be a rematch between Trump and Biden. Trump has a 60.4% lead in the GOP primary over Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and ex-United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, according to a FiveThirtyEight polling average.