Haley Barbour established the non-profit National Policy Forum as a sham think tank — really designed to raise funds, organize and mobilize political donors and feed them programs and activities that pushed the agenda of the Republican National Committee.
Michael Baroody quit the organization because he knew Barbour’s scheme was wrong. John Bolton bought into Barbour’s vision and became President of the National Policy Forum. He knew it was an RNC front — which later lost its non-profit status for highly partisan activities — and he solicited and received foreign government money into the National Policy Forum — which many Members of Congress argued represented foreign government donations to the Republican Party.
Here is a document from the investigation file and report that puts Bolton in the middle of the foreign government funding scandal. The report is the “Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,” 105th Congress, 2nd Session, House Report 105-829, Part 4.
In the list of evidence, with an explanation of its importance:
16 Ex. 12, Letter from John R. Bolton to Michael Hsu (Aug. 7, 1996) (NPF 003200, 003204).
The PCF contribution is significant because it is the only example of a foreign government contributing to an American political party. Indeed, documents produced to this Committee indicate that NPF officials understood the contribution to be from the Taiwanese government. For example, NPF President John Bolton acknowledged receipt of the contribution in two letters to Michael Hsu, a special assistant at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO), which functions as Taiwan’s unofficial embassy in the U.S. (17) Similarly, RNC Chairman Haley Barbour wrote to Jason Hu, Taiwan’s representative to the U.S., and thanked him for the contribution. (18) In his letter to “Ambassador Hu,” Mr. Barbour wrote that PCFs “willingness to underwrite our Member Trade Briefing is greatly appreciated and enables NPF to continue to develop and advocate good international policy.” (19)
Senator Lugar — John Bolton’s role in the Haley Barbour National Policy Forum fiasco ought to disqualify him as someone who can help resolve the ethics problems within the current United Nations.
Offer him an Ambassadorship elsewhere — just to see if his behavior and views about the rest of the world really have changed. The U.N. role is just too important for Americans to have this inappropriate appointment forced on them.
— Steve Clemons
