Senate Majority leader Harry Reid personally pressured DHS on behalf of sons casino project.
It’s not the first time Harry Reid used his position to help out his son’s financial interests. In 2012 Reid helped out a Chinese firm that was represented by his son.
It was also discovered in December 2010 that top democrats, including Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), helped a Chinese firm get stimulus cash for a wind farm. Top Democratic fundraisers with links to the White House were behind a proposed wind farm in Texas that stood to get $450 million in stimulus money, even though a Chinese company would operate the farm and its turbines would be built in China. The farm’s backers also had close ties with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his campaign received thousands of dollars in donations from the wind farm’s backers.
Three weeks before Election Day, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., center, arrives for the dedication of a wind farm in Henderson, Nev., on Oct. 12, 2010. With him are, second from left, Kai Huang, deputy mayor of Shenyang, China; Jinxiang Lu, second from right, chairman and CEO of A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a Chinese company, and Tom Conway, right, international vice president of the United Steelworkers union. Reid’s support, and the plan to create jobs in Nevada, helped blunt congressional criticism that stimulus money was going to the Chinese company, which also plans a large wind farm in West Texas. The company is hoping to receive money through the U.S. Energy Department. (MSNBC)
The Daily Caller reported:
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid took an intense interest in pushing through visas for dozens of shady Asian investors for a Las Vegas casino represented by his son, Rory Reid, documents and reports show.
The investors, who were flagged for “suspicious financial activity,” had initially been denied visas by the Department of Homeland Security in a process that usually does not allow for appeals.
In a Dec. 5, 2012 email to officials at the Department of Homeland Security obtained by The Washington Times, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Legislative Affairs official Miguel Rodriguez wrote, “This one is going to be a major headache for us all because Sen. Reid’s office/staff is pushing hard and I just had a long yelling match on the phone.”
The investors were interested in renovating the SLS Hotel — which was once the Sahara. SLS is represented by Sen. Reid’s son, Rory Reid, who works at the law firm Lionel, Sawyer & Collins. In their 2012 “Year in Review,” the Nevada firm hyped “the benefit of working with Rory Reid of Lionel Sawyer & Collins.”
“Mr. Reid’s previous experience as chairman of the Clark County Commission is put to good use assisting with general legal advice for the project and helping navigate through the maze of regulations required to access economic incentives offered on the state and local levels,” the article, called “Redeveloping a Classic Strip Property,” continued.
