Edward Weidenfeld
Edward L. Weidenfeld, is the former counsel to the United States House Committee on Insular Affairs from 1971-1973 and counsel to the 1980 Reagan-Bush campaign. As the founder of the Weidenfeld Law Firm[1], P.C. in Washington, D.C., he is an attorney specializing in estate and asset protection law.[2] He also serves as co-chair of the Board of Visitors of the National Defense University and is a board member and chairman of the Executive Committee of the Center for the Study of the Presidency.
Biography
Three Presidents appointed Weidenfeld to advisory positions, including the President’s Commission on White House Fellows in 1977 and the Council on Administrative Conference of the United States in 1981, 1985 and 1988. He was named a senior fellow to the Council on Administrative Conference in 1991.
In 1982, Weidenfeld was appointed Chairman of the Advisory Panel for Foreign Disaster Relief by then Administrator of the Agency for International Development, Peter McPherson. In 1983, he was appointed co-counsel to the Democracy Project, whose charge was structuring the National Endowment for Democracy. Among other international projects in his law practice during this time, Mr. Weidenfeld negotiated the first free exchange between the U.S. media and Novisti, the Soviet News Agency. He also represented the Government of South Africa following Nelson Mandela’s election in 1984.[3]
Relationship with Department of Housing and Urban Development
In the late 1980's Mr. Weidenfeld, as one of three partners, purchased a HUD housing project in Brunswick, Georgia for a capital investment of $100, and received federal monetary assistance from R. Hunter Cushing - a deputy assistant secretary who has since resigned - in the amount of approximately $750,000. Mr. Weidenfeld and his partners were required by HUD auditors to forfeit $757,700 when it was determined that the money was used for what the agency termed "inappropriate" or "unsupported" expenditures. The decision was overruled inexplicably by Mr. Cushing, but later reinstated by HUD official C. Austin Fitts, the succeeding Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Mr. Cushing later invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and refused to cooperate with a Congressional inquiry into allegations of widespread political favoritism at H.U.D. during the Reagan Administration. [4] HUD later barred Edward Weidenfeld and his partners from doing bussiness with them in eight southern states for the period of one year.[5]
Election Monitoring
Weidenfeld has been an official election observer in the Philippines, Korea, Pakistan, Chile and Albania for the National Democratic Institute, International Republican Institute, Global Rights: Partners for Justice (formerly the International Human Rights Law Group), and the International Foundation for Election Studies.[6][7]
Education
Weidenfeld received his law degree from Columbia Law School and his bachelor of science with honors from the University of Wisconsin.
Personal
He is married to Sheila Rabb Weidenfeld, daughter of the late Maxwell Rabb, who served as Ambassador to Italy and secretary of President Dwight Eisenhower’s cabinet. The couple has two boys.
References
- ^ [1]
- ^ "LOVE & MONEY; Cherished, but for What?". The New York Times. 2002-06-02.
- ^ "Lawmaker Indicted on Corruption Charges". The Washington Post. 2007-06-07.
- ^ Housing Group Must Forfeit $700,000 - New York Times
- ^ H.U.D. Suspending Business Ties With Ex-Election Aide to Reagan - New York Times
- ^ "Nigerian Official Denies Congressman Bribed Him". The New York Times. 2006-07-20.
- ^ "Nigeria official denies taking bribes from congressman". nm.OnlineNigeria.com. 2006-07-21.