The Morans are back.

Jim Moran’s son Patrick has announced a bid for one of the Democrat nominations for Alexandria City Council this year.

Patrick has kept a low profile since he caused a number of headaches for his father in 2012. In October of that year, Patrick was recorded explaining in great detail how to vote on other people’s behalf to a person he thought was an activist but was actually an undercover reporter. Patrick was a salaried staffer of his father’s campaign at the time. The scandal made national news and led Democrats and Republicans alike to call on Jim Moran to resign. Patrick resigned from his father’s campaign.

Then, in December 2012, news broke that Patrick had pleaded guilty to an assault charge for slamming his girlfriend’s head against an outdoor metal trash can cage in downtown DC. The girlfriend suffered a fractured skull and a broken nose. Jim Moran refused to condemn his son’s conduct, instead saying it was “an embarrassing situation” and that Patrick and his girlfriend were “good kids”. Jim Moran was accused of blaming the victim. Patrick was given a suspended sentence and put on probation.

The younger Moran disappeared from public view after that, working as an environmental consultant, landscape design consultant, and as executive director of a personal fitness consulting firm, according to ALXnow. He is reportedly now married with a child.

Jim Moran got his start in political office on the Alexandria City Council, to which he was first elected in 1979. He was forced to resign in 1984 as part of a no-contest plea deal for a conflict of interest charge. That didn’t stop the elder Moran, as he ran for Mayor as an independent in 1985 and was re-elected as a Democrat in 1988 before being elected to Congress in 1990.

We believe that people can change, and that they should not be defined forever for past mistakes. But Patrick Moran will most certainly have to answer to the voters of Alexandria about those two scandals and how he has changed.

It’s 2019 and Jim Moran has been out of Congress for over four years, working as a well-paid lobbyist. So why is his campaign finance account still paying his bills?

The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) has discovered that Moran’s federal campaign committee is still active and paying some of Moran’s personal expenses. According to a letter sent by the FEC to Moran’s campaign treasurer, in September 2018 the campaign paid $1,926.84 for Moran to stay in at the posh Jared Coffin House hotel on tony Nantucket Island in Massachusetts.

Moran’s federal campaign account has a cash-on-hand balance of more than $180,000. Candidates are allowed to donate leftover funds to active candidates or to charity but cannot use the money for personal expenses. The FEC said in the letter, “Your most recent report discloses a significant amount of residual cash on hand. While a committee of a former candidate or officeholder may remain open for winding-down purposes, your reports do not appear to indicate that the committee is winding down.”

Asked by CNN about the letter, Moran said that it was a campaign expense because he was staying at the luxury hotel to attend a weekend fundraiser for incumbent Congressman Bill Keating of Massachusetts. Moran said he would write a personal check to reimburse the expense if required, but said he was just following the “standard practice for decades” of keeping old accounts open and claimed he knows “hundreds of former members who have much larger … campaign accounts.”

Former FEC associate general counsel Adav Noti told CNN, “If you are not a member of Congress and you are not a candidate, there’s nothing else it could be, except a personal expense.”

The FEC demanded Moran’s treasurer respond within 35 days with an explanation of why so much cash is still left in the account and what they plan to do to close it out.

A reader tipped us off to a story in PressTV, an Iranian state-owned network, that reported our own former Congressman Jim Moran attended a party celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which violently overthrew a U.S.-backed government and installed the theocratic regime we know today.

According to the story, the party was held at Iran’s de facto consul in Washington, which appears to refer to Iran’s “Interests Section” housed within the Embassy of Pakistan.

The story claims “around 100 people including diplomats, analysts and journalists attended the annual gathering,” but Moran is the only American named in the story as attending.

In the video, Moran is seen talking to an unidentified person who appears to be asking him about how to lobby Congress on an issue, then speaks to the camera. As the story reads:

Regarding Washington’s approach towards Iran, former Virginia liberal Democratic lawmaker Jim Moran who was in attendance at the annual event shared the same attitude as Atefat.

Moran who was in Congress for over 23 years said, “The Trump administration has pushed us in the wrong direction because the Iranians are not transactional people but they could be transformational in terms of the Middle East.”

“If there’s any real hope for sustainable peace in the Middle East, Iran is going to play a key role,” he said.

The headline of the article reads, “Iran marks 40th anniversary in US much to Bolton’s dismay”. It also refers to Iranian opposition groups pushing for regime change as “corrupt” and “traitors”.

Moran has long downplayed the threat posed by Iran, which has been listed as a state sponsor of terrorism since 1984. He has also been a fierce critic of Israel, which Iran has pledged to “wipe off the map,” and trafficked in the same anti-Semitic canards as the Iranian regime.

Supporting the Iran nuclear deal is a mainstream position, at least within the Democratic Party. But we cannot find any Democrats who are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the revolution that introduced another tyrannical, anti-American, terrorist government to the Middle East, except our own Jim Moran.

RetireJimMoran.com has been dormant for awhile after a malware from an unknown source wiped everything out from the website in 2016.  Since Jim Moran was living a quiet, comfortable, and posh life as a registered lobbyist for a D.C. powerhouse firm on behalf of ten wealthy clients, we decided not to restore the site. But Jim Moran has returned to the public spotlight in recent days, including an appearance on ABC’s This Week and other national media outlets.

Moran resurfaced this week to defend Governor Ralph Northam, the famed infanticide-defender, against a damning yearbook photo that he said does — or does not, depending on the day — depict him as either a guy in blackface or a guy in a KKK hood.

An avalanche of demands for Northam to resign has commenced, and even Northam’s most loyal Democrat allies, including his former running mate, Terry McAuliffe, have joined in that call to resign. One of the only Democrats to defend Northam? Jim Moran.

Jim Moran is quite familiar with accusations of racism leading to calls for a politician to resign. Some of Moran’s Democratic colleagues and constituents demanded his resignation in 2003 after he effectively blamed the Iraq War on Jews: “If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this. The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going, and I think they should.” Moran did not resign, but he apologized and was forced to step down from a leadership post in the House Democratic Caucus.

That wasn’t the first that Moran was accused of anti-Semitism. In 2001, he said Israel’s prime minister wanted to “kill at will”. In 2002, he received campaign contributions from an anti-Israel terrorism supporter.

Perhaps Moran sympathizes with Northam, and that’s why he rushed to his defense.

As long as Moran is in the public eye, this site should be around. We’ll be restoring our extensive archives to this site in the coming days.

Jim Moran made a career out of pay-to-play schemes, raking in campaign cash in exchange for political favors. Now he’s making a second career as a lobbyist playing the same corrupt game – lobbying for the companies that donated to him while he was in office.

Congressional ethics rules bar former members from registering as lobbyists for one year after they leave Congress. Like clockwork, Moran has officially registered as a lobbyist just over a year after he left office in January 2015.

Moran has filed to lobby on behalf of Boeing and General Dynamics, defense contractors with whom Moran worked closely during his time on the powerful House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Boeing and General Dynamics are both on the list of the top 20 donors to Moran over his congressional career.

Boeing and its employees gave $156,000 to Moran over his career, making them his 3rd highest all-time donor. General Dynamics and its employees gave $75,600 to Moran, making them his 12th highest all-time donor.

Is anyone the least bit surprised that Moran is cashing in this way? Moran scratches defense contractors’ backs, they scratch his. That’s been the game for years. Moran built his career on corruption, going all the way back to his time on the Alexandria City Council and running through his entire tenure in Congress. Now his legacy of corruption continues into his new career as a lobbyist.

Shameful.

The Hill reported on a bipartisan proposal by members of Congress to remove former members’ taxpayer-funded pension. Jim Moran’s taxpayer-funded pension earns him over $100,000 a year. This is just a bonus compared to the untold hundreds of thousands he’s already raking in from a lobbying firm, two oil companies, and the government of Azerbaijan. From The Hill:

“Recently retired Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), who went to work for McDermott Will & Emery as a senior legislative adviser last month, told The Hill he would ‘probably’ become a lobbyist after the one-year ban expires.

He plans to work on causes he fought for as a legislator, including the environment, clean energy policy and ‘fairer treatment for Native American tribes,’ among other issues.

He was among those denouncing the pension bills as unfairly targeting a worthwhile profession.

‘It’s the self-righteous stuff that is disappointing because many members have gone on to a legislative career to advocate for things they really care about.’”

“Fight for things they really care about” – like, in Moran’s case, their own bank accounts.

The broke Jim Moran has taken a job as a lobbyist with the D.C. law firm McDermott Will & Emery. He will start as a legislative advisor because ethics rules bar him from registering as a lobbyist for the first year that he is out of Congress. After a year has passed, he’ll register as a lobbyist. He plans to lobby on behalf of defense contractors, who gave him tons of money while he was in Congress.

No word on how much he’ll be paid, but it will surely be a hefty sum. We’ll see if he blows it all on stock gambling.

Jim Moran is no longer a member of Congress. Now he’s seeking big bucks.

The Sunlight Foundation reports that he’s gotten gigs with lobbyist group McDermott, Will and Emery; Massachusetts energy company Homeland Fuels; and the Assembly of Friends of Azerbaijan (AFAZ), a group that seeks to foster “friendship, understanding and cooperation between the United States and Azerbaijan”. A spokesman for AFAZ said Moran will “provide consulting and advising services to AFAZ in its activities in the United States.”

AFAZ is a U.S. based public relations arm of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, which is owned by the Azerbaijani government, according to the Houston Chronicle.

So Moran is basically working for a foreign state, one which has been flagged for human rights violations.

Human Rights Watch reports that the Azerbaijani government has been cracking down on free speech, arresting political opponents and journalists on bogus charges and breaking up peaceful protests. It has also been accused of torture and mistreatment of prisoners.

Straight from the halls of the United States Congress to the payroll of an anti-freedom foreign government? Certainly an interesting career path for Jim Moran.

It’s also interesting that he’s working for a domestic energy company that wants to reduce dependence on foreign oil and simultaneously working for a foreign oil company.

Apparently Moran will auction himself off to the highest bidder(s), no matter what they stand for.

IVN.us reports:

“The $560 billion 2015 National Defense Authorization Act passed Congress recently, and the details of the bill have military families worried. In addition to the usual appropriations for aircraft, tanks, and buildings, the bill includes funding for fighting military sexual trauma and conducting various research studies, but it cuts service members pay and benefits.

One would hope that members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees carefully read the half-trillion-dollar bill to be sure that nothing was amiss. However, members of Congress admit that they did not read the bill before passing it. …

With so much riding on this 1,600-page bill, the smallest detail could cost millions of dollars. But when asked if members of Congress had read the bill before passing it, Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) said, ‘Of course not. Are you kidding?’

Moran drew public scorn earlier this year for saying that members of Congress were underpaid and couldn’t live decently in Washington.

He went on to say that he would not read the bill because he trusted ‘the leadership.’ When asked if leadership had read the bill, Moran replied, ‘I know their staff has.’”

And this guy’s career in Congress is being hailed and commemorated…

Jim Moran has a long history with the infamous earmark – something President Obama has called “a bad Washington habit that wastes billions of taxpayer dollars”. He’s used them in exchange for campaign cash, including nearly $200,000 from a company that was shut down by the FBI. He [in]famously declared in 2006 that he would “earmark the sh*t out of” the House Appropriations Committee, and after House Republicans (in agreement with President Obama) banned earmarks in 2011, Moran boasted that he knew how to get around the ban. (All this despite an aspiration to “get the money out of politics”.)

Now Moran is waxing nostalgic about about the good ol’ days when he and his friends in Congress could blow billions of taxpayer dollars in earmarks.

From InsideNOVA:

U.S. Rep. Jim Moran departs Congress unrepentant on the need for those much-maligned targeted budget items known as earmarks.

Moran – who once famously, if jokingly, promised to “earmark the shit out of” the federal budget if Democrats regained control in Congress – told the annual meeting of the Inter-Service Club Council of Arlington that the spending measures that used to be inserted at the behest of individual members of Congress should be brought back.

Horse-trading among members of Congress, or between the executive and legislative branches, is hardly new. Moran noted that Abraham Lincoln had to trade things in order to win congressional support for emancipation of slaves.

“It may be messy, it may not pass muster with the good-government groups,” Moran said of the earmarks process, but “it’s a system that has worked for 200 years.”

You would think Moran would be spending this time trying to shape his shameful legacy into something positive for people to remember about his time in Congress. But he doesn’t see it as shameful, so he keeps pushing forward with the same old garbage.