White House Emails Reflect LightSquared’s Dimming Prospects
Emails among White House officials released late Friday (CD Nov 21 p1) reflect the gradual dimming of LightSquared’s prospects following the FCC’s conditional waiver grant to the company and accompanying political scrutiny. While initially discussed with optimism at the White House a year ago, as recently as September an Office of Science and Technology Policy official asked a Harbinger Capital Partners representative to stop communicating on the matter, the emails show. The emails were obtained by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington through the Freedom of Information Act (http://xrl.us/bmi7o2). The emails also show the GPS industry working hard to convince the White House of interference issues. The White House didn’t comment.
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A Sept. 18 email from Tom Power, deputy chief technology officer-telecommunications for the OSTP to a Harbinger representative clearly showed increased sensitivity from the White House on the LightSquared issue. The Harbinger representative wrote to Power to describe a Fox News interview with Harbinger head Phil Falcone in which Falcone would “hit back HARD!” In response, Power wrote: “Per my recent email and voice mail to you, I must ask that you stop communicating with me regarding the LightSquared matter. As you know, the FCC and NTIA are the government agencies that are responsible for this matter. You should direct all relevant communications to those agencies.” The exchange marks a serious change in tone from an email about a year before in which the White House was clearly excited by the prospects of LightSquared, with Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra saying he kept “hearing good things” about LightSquared. Harbinger is the hedge fund, headed by Falcone, that’s the largest investor in LightSquared.
The emails also show LightSquared’s outside lawyer, Henry Goldberg of Goldberg Godles, seemingly working closely with the administration. He wrote then-White House officials Phil Weiser and Jim Kohlenberger on Jan. 20 to complain of an FCC-proposed waiver condition that would require resolution of the GPS interference issues. Goldberg wrote that the condition, which the FCC said would be necessary to gain NTIA approval, “is an investment & customer killer.” The FCC would go on to grant the LightSquared waiver on Jan. 26, including the condition. The January waiver was issued from various FCC bureaus, and not by the full commission.
The GPS industry was also active in discussing the LightSquared issues with White House officials. Jim Kirkland, general counsel of Trimble and a leader in the Save Our GPS Coalition, voices obvious cynicism in a emails to the OSTP Senior Adviser to the Director Jeff Smith. “The FCC staff has clearly spent a lot of time with LightSquared, which has an effective DC team providing lots of technical and other assurances that are self serving as one would expect,” Kirkland said on March 30.