CHRISTIAN LOBBYIST RESIGNS
NEWS: VIDEO REPORTS
Illegal campaign financing
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TRANSCRIPT
A Christian lobbying group, led by a Maronite Catholic, is embroiled in scandal. The D.C.-based organization In Defense of Christians (IDC) advocates for persecuted Christians in the Middle East. Church Militant's Trey Blanton shows how noble goals often drown when you play in the political swamp.
On Sunday, Toufic Baaklini resigned as president of IDC after he struck a deal with prosecutors to avoid charges of illegally funding political campaigns. IDC says the organization does not make campaign contributions and Baaklini acted in his personal capacity, not as a representative of the group. However, IDC has yet to explain a complicated web of entanglement.
Through his supposed employer, 4Impact LLC, Baaklini accepted tens of thousands of dollars he later used to help fund the campaigns of congressmen, notably Nebraska's Republican representative Jeff Fortenberry, a Catholic deeply connected with IDC.
4Impact LLC also funded Tonia Khouri's campaign for state representative of Illinois. Khouri has now replaced Baaklini as president of IDC. Baaklini received money for these campaigns from Gilbert Chagoury, a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire, who has his hands in a lot of pots.
In 2008, the Clinton Foundation disclosed it had received over a million dollars from Chagoury who, as a foreign national, is prohibited from donating to American politicians. Chagoury has ties to the terrorist group Hezbollah and was an ambassador to the Vatican for the Caribbean nation St. Lucia.
Chagoury has been honored by the past three popes through the Order of St. Gregory for his philanthropic work, which includes instigating and funding the first convention for In Defense of Christians.
Washington is a den of devils. Christians must carefully guard their souls if they wish to lobby in the swamp. In Defense of Christians has not yet clarified the status of one of Baaklini's relatives who still serves as the chair of its Houston chapter.
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