Trump-Connected Company Suspiciously Wins $300 Million Puerto Rico Restoration Contract

The two-year-old company is mainly financed by a private-equity firm founded by a guy who gave tens of thousands of dollars to the Trump campaign.

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Image via Getty/Sean Gallup
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A presumably brain-dead man who contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the Trump campaign stands to benefit from Puerto Rico's power grid restoration efforts. Puerto Rico has agreed to pay an estimated $300 million to a small Montana-based utility company that's "ill-equipped" to handle the task, the Daily Beastreported Tuesday. According to the Washington Post, the two-year-old company had a whopping two full-time employees the day Hurricane Maria made landfall.

The company, Whitefish Energy Holdings, is mostly financed by private-equity firm HBC Investments. HBC was founded by Joe Colonnetta, who gave thousands to the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee in 2016. The Beastcited FEC data showing Colonnetta contributions to the Trump Victory PAC totaling $20,000. Colonnetta also gave the maximum allowed amount ($2,700) to the neo-Nazi-sympathizer-in-chief's primary election campaign and the maximum ($2,700) to the general election campaign. Last year, Colonnetta also gave $30,700 to the RNC. Kimberly Colonnetta, Joe's wife, gave an additional $33,400 to the RNC.

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The company's headquarters are located in the small town of Whitefish, Montana. As the Washington Post noted Monday night, the Trump administration's interior secretary—Ryan Zinke—calls Whitefish his hometown. Zinke is also said to be pals with Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski. Social media posts from the Colonnettas during inauguration week also show Trump affiliates Ben Carson and Rex Tillerson shmoozing with the couple.

Trump, whose most notable contributions to Puerto Rico's hurricane relief include berating the mayor of San Juan on Twitter and contemplating hurling canned chicken into a crowd of victims, has not publicly commented on the Whitefish contract. Instead, he spent hours Tuesday morning rage-tweeting Sen. Bob Corker. "The president has great difficulty with the truth," Corker said in response. "On many issues. Everything he said today was absolutely untrue."

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