Storm Tips: Sen. Judd Gregg's amended financial disclosures highlight ties to brother's business
When Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) bowed out as President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Commerce Department, he cited political differences as his reasons for the move, insisting "nothing about the vetting process played any role in this decision." Two weeks later, though, the Associated Press broke a story that might have become an integral part of the vetting process: that Gregg had secured earmarks to fund the redevelopment of a defunct Air Force base in his home state even as he and his brother, Cyrus Gregg, were investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate in the area. "I am absolutely sure that in every way I've complied with the ethics rules of the Senate both literally and in their spirit relative to any investment that I've made anywhere," Gregg told the AP.
Not mentioned in that story is something that we stumbled across in reviewing the handful of Senate personal financial disclosures released so far this year: a day before the AP's story saw print, Sen. Gregg filed an amendment to his financial disclosure pertaining to 2001, revealing further unpublicized ties linking the senator and his brother in business affairs that have received indirect assistance from federal money.
The amendment corrects Sen. Gregg's earlier filing which made no mention of his ownership stake in Photran LLC, a crystal manufacturing company co-founded by his brother, Cyrus Gregg. The amendment indicated that Sen. Gregg's stake was more than $100,000. Gregg's failure to mention Photran in the filing covering 2001 appears to have been an oversight, since he did disclose the tie the following year.
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