Thread by @PekingMike

THREAD: About a pillow. Actually two pillows. And Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader. Follow along....

2/x: If you walk into the office of the Foremost Group, the family shipping company founded by Elaine Chao's father, who is Senator Mitch McConnell's father-in-law, you can't miss these pillows. Open the door and they they are, on the black leather couch in the reception area.

3/x: Of course, they may no longer be there, but they were on Dec. 8 2017, when I dropped in, uninvited. I was there to drop off some written questions for a story @spencerwoodman was working on for @ICIJorg - the NYT is a proud @ICIJorg partner.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg 4/x: The office is right across the street from Grand Central Station. Like almost all office buildings, there's security in the lobby. You can't go up without a pass. Their office is on the 11th floor.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg 5/x: The security guard asked me, "do you have an appointment?" I replied in the negative. He gave me a pass. I save these things.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg 6/x: I guess he gave me one because I'm a middle-aged white guy with a fashion-forward sartorial sense that can charitably be described as "1986 CPAC Conference Attendee" - so up the elevator I went...

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg 7/x: The door was ajar, I went in, and called out to get someone's attention. An assistant came out and I gave them the envelope with the questions. We had to do this because we couldn't find contact info for the company, so I offered to drop the questions off at their office.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg 8/x: While waiting, I took a photo of the pillows. Anyone going into that office could not miss the fact that this family had a connection with the UNITED STATES SENATE.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg 9/x: Shortly afterwards, a tall gentleman emerged, I've since learned who he is, and I'll refer to him by his initials, HS. Anyway, HS hands me the envelope back. Angela Chao, Elaine's youngest sister who runs Foremost, cannot accept this envelope.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg 10/x: In my two decades as a journalist, this is the only time that's happened to me. Even in China, when I dropped by unannounced to deliver questions at companies, they took the envelope. PRO TIP FOR PR PROFESSIONALS: Don't hand back the envelope.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg 11/x: Anyway, not only would HS not take the envelope, but someone had also called security. I was escorted out of the office. So down the elevator I went, out the building and on to 42nd Street.... PRO TIP: This really isn't a good idea. We will leave voluntarily if asked to.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg 12/x: So @spencerwoodman and @lhfang publish their story last Feb, about how the Chao family building at Harvard Business School looks to be funded by Foremost funds from Marshall Islands entities.
theintercept.com/2018/02/05/mit…

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 13/x: Meanwhile I move on to other things for a while, as we wait to get some documents from the Department of Transportation and State Department via a Freedom of Information Act Request...

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 14/x: We published our story on the Chao family this week:
nytimes.com/2019/06/02/us/…

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 15/x: But this thread is not done. I said this was about Senator McConnell. The pillows are quite a symbol of the relationship between the Chao family and Sen. McConnell, who has been married to Elaine Chao since Feb. 1993.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 16/x: In Dec. 1993 the couple, accompanied by James Chao, Elaine's father, travel to Beijing and to Shanghai. Sen. McConnell at this point is in his second term as a Kentucky senator.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 17/x: They were in Beijing at the invitation of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, which builds Foremost's ships and also builds ships for the Chinese Navy. Here is a Xinhua News Agency account from the time (Xinhua is very reliable for material like this)

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 18/x: There are some accounts that say they also met with Jiang Zemin, the country's top leader. This makes sense given James Chao's relationship with Jiang (which is documented in our story) but the sources are not authoritative enough for NYT. Not fit to print.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 19/x: So we asked Elaine Chao's office if she met with Jiang on the trip. It was long ago, but meetings with the top leader in China with your new husband, a US Senator.. perhaps that is something one remembers. Her office's response:

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 20/x: So the focus of our article was on Elaine Chao and her relationship to her family shipping company, as well as her tenure as DOT secretary. Where we discussed McConnell was mainly in how the family supported McConnell through campaign donations.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 21/x: The first donations from the Chao family came on June 12, 1989, almost 30 years ago exactly. We tracked donations of 13 members of the extended Chao family since 1989 using FEC data, and built a spreadsheet.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 22/x: Sen. McConnell is obviously one of the most prolific fundraisers, but the Chao family still really stands out. They often give in unison, in big amounts, and consistently. So since then more than $1 million has gone to McConnell-related committees.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 23/x: The family's total donations over the period amount to over $1.6 million, so the majority of their giving is McConnell related. Of that amount, we didn't see one dime go to Democrats. They are loyal GOP donors. Even the five men who married the five Chao daughters.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 24/x: The biggest donation was by Christine Chao, $400,000 to the McConnell super PAC "Kentuckians for Strong Leadership" in 2014. Christine Chao is the general counsel of Foremost Group.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 25/x: One thing we didn't do in the article is write about McConnell's legislative record with regards to China. Some people have pointed this out and wondered why.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 26/x: I would say that it isn't easy to do. It is one thing to point out legislation that Sen. McConnell voted for that may be seen as beneficial to China, it is quite another to say it is because of his marriage to Elaine Chao.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 27/x: Some reports, for example, have made much of Sen. McConnell's vote for permanent normal trade relations with China two decades ago. But that was bipartisan. And by then the GOP, pushed by US business, had moved away from the Jesse Helms "Red China" school.

@spencerwoodman @ICIJorg @lhfang 28/28: So any fair look at McConnell's China voting record of course must take that into account. Our focus was Elaine Chao and her family shipping company, and how the family benefited McConnell financially and w/ political donations. We just didn't get into voting records. END.