Journalist Zaid Jilani said on Monday that Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen’s income from speaking fees can be seen as a return to “influence peddling.”
Appearing on Hill.TV’s “Rising,” Jilani discussed the implications of Yellen’s substantial income from speaking at corporations and banks in recent years after Politico published a report last week outlining the estimated $7.2 million the former Federal Reserve chairwoman made in speaking fees.
“This would be seen as maybe a return to the kind of influence peddling and soft … It’s not corruption because it’s not illegal right?” Jilani said. “I guess what I’m trying to say is this has become a routine habit in Washington, D.C. for people who are in senior roles in government to go and either consult or do speaking fees or in some ways offer their access and their influence to private firms who can pay a lot of money.”
Jilani pointed out that Yellen is not the only Biden nominee to have made a substantial income from speaking engagements. Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken also consulted with large corporations such as Facebook and Uber.
“This sort of thing has just become routine and so normal and in the U.S. government that really the last president we had — who didn’t engage in this after leaving office is probably Jimmy Carter,” Jilani added.
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