NRCC’s Sessions had ties to Stanford

National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Pete Sessions (Texas) has closer ties to Allen Stanford and his financial empire than his office previously has acknowledged.

Sessions through a spokeswoman on Wednesday said he didn’t know Stanford “personally,” according to a Feb. 18 Bloomberg article. He also declined to comment on whether he would keep the $41,900 in political donations he received from the fugitive and his employees.

{mosads}A spokeswoman has since said he would donate a $2,000 personal contribution from Stanford.

In 2005, Stanford asked Sessions to join him on a trip to Antigua, according to a January 2006 Bloomberg story at the time that quoted Sessions Chief of Staff Guy Harrison.

“Mr. Stanford is very focused on making sure the Caribbean is noticed within the U.S. foreign policy structure,” Harrison said in the story.

The trip to Antigua took place a year before party leaders on both sides of the aisle proposed to ban privately funded congressional travel in response to the lavish Scotland golf vacations and Super Bowl trips Jack Abramoff illegally orchestrated and sometimes attended.  

In addition, a photo from the Inter-American Economic Council’s website clearly shows Stanford talking with Sessions as well as Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.) on the Antigua trip in 2005. The Council is a nonprofit with close ties to Stanford.

Sessions previously attended a different Inter-American Economic Council trip to Antigua in 2003, according to ww.cqmoneyline.com.

Sessions’s office declined to comment on the matter Thursday evening and Friday.

Stanford is accused of orchestrating a $9.2 billion fraud after a lengthy Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. The charges focus on the selling of certificates of deposit through Antigua-based Stanford International Bank. The probe found that Stanford operated a vast network of firms in Houston and the Caribbean and lied to customers about how their money was invested and how their portfolios had performed.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) participated in two trips to Antigua with the Inter-American Economic Council, one in 2003 and one in 2005. Incorrect information appeared when this story was first posted on Feb 20.