Word: gore
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...because much of the horse trading is done far from the Senate floor or the Oval Office, politicians get deniability. But the Gore-Knight link is hardly arm's length. Knight, 46, went to work for Gore 20 years ago as a top aide in the House and later the Senate; today he is the man who many say is Gore's political alter ego, the smooth operator within Gore's tight-knit inner circle. His name turns up everywhere; he was even on Gore's 1989 trip to Taiwan that was led by overzealous fund raiser John Huang...
...rise of Peter Knight is an arc defined by Gore. Shortly after directing Gore's failed 1988 presidential bid, Knight decided to try his luck at the influence game. Thanks to an old friend and fellow Cornell alumnus, Ken Levine, he landed in 1991 at the Washington firm Wunder, Diefenderfer, Cannon & Thelen. Several partners in the firm, recognizing that Knight's tie to Gore had potential, kicked in about $7,000 each of their own money, in addition to what the firm was offering, to help bring Knight in. Until mid-1992, though, Knight was "negative" at the firm...
Then his fortunes changed. In July 1992 Clinton tapped Gore to be his running mate, and Knight's career promptly took off. He took a leave from the firm to manage the vice- presidential campaign for Gore. After the election, he became deputy director of personnel for the transition, helping salt Gore loyalists throughout the federal bureaucracy and playing a role in the appointments of top officials like Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt, EPA Administrator Carol Browner and Assistant Energy Secretary Tom Grumbly...
When Knight returned to his firm, the Gore connection paid off. His portfolio of clients bulged with companies wanting a leg up with Gore or his allies. Telecommunication firms lined up to see Hundt; environmental companies came with pleadings for Browner and Grumbly. In short order, Knight was the top-billing partner at the firm, routinely grossing a seven-figure sum. At a firm in which, as a former partner put it, "you eat what you kill"--that is, you pocket everything after deducting your expenses and a share of the firm's overhead--Knight had hit pay dirt...
...work for Molten Metal Technology, a Massachusetts environmental-technology company, hit the trifecta, bringing cash to the firm, funds to the Clinton-Gore campaign and special financial rewards to Knight. It was a dicey political mixture that landed him in the sights of not only the Justice Department but also Representative Tom Bliley's Commerce Committee and Senator Fred Thompson's Governmental Affairs Committee, which will take his deposition this week...