“Is Michael Pack fit to serve? Should he be confirmed while he is under investigation and after having been dishonest with the Senate and IRS? Given his alleged use of a small nonprofit for self-enrichment, can we trust that he will not use the massive resources of the U.S. government to line his own pockets?” Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked on the Senate floor.
The committee’s chairman, James E. Risch (R-Idaho), defended the nominee.
“This man is uniquely qualified to hold this position. He has done an outstanding job,” Risch said.
Democratic senators have vigorously protested the nomination of Pack to the normally obscure post, one the president has taken a particular interest in as his administration steps up its criticism of Voice of America. The news agency is federally funded but operates independently, yet the White House has accused the outlet of promoting Chinese government propaganda in its coronavirus coverage and threatened to bar its White House bureau chief from traveling on Air Force Two.
In a private lunch with Senate Republicans in the past month, Trump derisively called Voice of America the “voice of the Soviet Union” and “communists,” according to two people familiar with his remarks. Trump, who has praised Pack publicly and prodded senators privately to install him quickly at the media agency, again told senators he wanted to see him confirmed, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose details about a closed-door meeting.
Menendez pleaded with his colleagues to reject the nominee.
“Please put aside whatever pressure … whatever threats the president has made, and consider the dangerous precedent we are setting here today: If Mr. Pack is confirmed, the new bar for ‘advise and consent’ is now set below that of a nominee who is under an open investigation by law enforcement, and who blatantly provided Congress and the executive branch false information.” he said.
Voice of America has defended its journalistic independence and denied any favoritism. The threat to ban Steve Herman from traveling with Vice President Pence appeared to be short-lived, as Herman accompanied Pence on his trip to Orlando this week. Pence’s aides had threatened to retaliate against Herman after he revealed that the vice president’s office had told journalists they would need masks for Pence’s visit to the Mayo Clinic last month — a requirement Pence himself did not follow.
The tax issues faced by Pack, a conservative filmmaker with ties to former Trump strategist Stephen K. Bannon, stem from his nonprofit group, Public Media Lab. CNBC reported in September that at least $1.6 million in donations from his nonprofit were sent to his independent production company, Manifold Productions.
The D.C. attorney general is investigating whether use of the funds from Pack’s nonprofit was unlawful and improper, according to committee Democrats and the attorney general’s office.
The office, led by D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D), has requested documents related to Pack from the committee. Risch said that it would be given access to documents that are already public and that the committee would confer with Senate counsel when it comes to nonpublic documents.
Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
