The past week cant have been very pleasant for Peter Schweizer. On Sunday, the New York Times revealed that his forthcoming book, Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, was roiling the political worldthe most anticipated and feared book of a presidential cycle still in its infancy, as the Times put it. That landed Schweizer squarely in the crosshairs of the Clinton team and allied liberal groups, which have launched a campaign to discredit Schweizer as disreputable and blinded by partisan animosity. Anyone familiar with Schweizers work knows better: he wrote a well-regarded book about the Bush dynasty and another, detailing insider trading in Congress, that led to a new law, the bipartisan STOCK Act of 2012, which aims to curb these abuses.
That hasnt quieted the left-wing clamor that Schweizer is simply out to get Hillary Clinton. But maybe this will: Schweizer is working on a similar investigation of Jeb Bushs finances that he expects to publish this summer.
What were doing is a drill-down investigation of Jebs finances similar to what we did with the Clintons in terms of looking at financial dealings, cronyism, who hes been involved with, Schweizer told me on Wednesday. Weve found some interesting things.
Schweizer says he and a team of researchers have been poring over Bushs financial life for about four months. Among other things, theyre scrutinizing various Florida land deals, an airport deal while Bush was governor that involved state funds, and Chinese investors in Bushs private equity funds (something I wrote about for Bloomberg last year).
As he did with the Clinton book, Schweizer is hoping to partner with media organizations interested in reporting on and advancing his examination of Bushs financesan arrangement Schweizer feels has been mischaracterized in the media. With the Clinton book, we didnt just give it to reporters with the expectation that they would report on the book, he says. We shared it early on with investigative reporters at ABC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post because we wanted that additional scrutiny [of the books subjects]. And we want similar scrutiny for this project.
Schweizer also wanted to rebut the implication that he may have been paid by news organizations for an early look at the book. There was absolutely no money that changed hands, he says. Its ridiculous to suggest so.
On May 5, Clinton Cash will finally hit bookstore shelves and people will be able to form their own judgments. By then, Schweizer will no doubt be very busy, fending off attacks not just from Clintonites, but from Bushies, too.