Labor Boss Attacks Free Beacon After Story on Mysterious Puerto Rican Charity

PR firm linked to White House circulates ‘research memo’

A New York labor boss is circulating a “research memo” blasting the Washington Free Beacon as a “conservative smear machine” and a “tool of right wing extremists” just one day after the Free Beacon published a story on a mysterious charity he has been operating in Puerto Rico.

The “Washington Free Beacon research” memo was obtained by the Free Beacon after former SEIU chief Dennis Rivera emailed it to various associates on Friday. According to the document’s metadata, it was drafted by a staffer at the White House-linked public relations firm SKD Knickerbocker.

The memo, which appeared to have been compiled in haste, was circulated in response to a Free Beacon story that was published on Thursday. The story revealed that companies with business interests in Puerto Rico were pouring money into Rivera’s charity, which lists the brother of the scandal-plagued governor of Puerto Rico as its only paid employee.

The charity, which had been founded in 1996 as a Hispanic legal rights group, quietly changed its name to the “Sociedad Económica De Amigos Del Pais Inc.” and moved to Puerto Rico in 2014 with the revised mission of helping support the island’s economic recovery.

The group is funded by prominent Puerto Rican companies that are also lobbying for debt restructuring and federal financial assistance for the island. Rivera has recently been a vocal advocate for increased Medicare and Medicaid funding to Puerto Rico.

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