Ричард Ренци: От конгрессмена до помилования Трампом.

American politician (born 1958)

Richard George Renzi (born June 11, 1958) is an American politician who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives representing from 2003 until 2009. In 2013, he was convicted on federal criminal charges against him for his involvement in a land swap deal. The charges for personal gain of over $700,000 were filed in 2008. On April 19, 2007, the FBI raided his family business, and he temporarily resigned from the House Intelligence Committee. On April 27, Renzi denied printed claims he was considering resigning office; however, on August 23, Renzi announced he would not be a candidate for re election in 2008. On February 22, 2008, Renzi was indicted on 35 counts connected to land deals. He pleaded not guilty. On June 12, 2013, Renzi was convicted on 17 of 32 counts in his corruption case. After numerous examples of Prosecutorial Misconduct came to light in a 119 page Inspector General complaint, Renzi was pardoned by President Donald Trump on January 20, 2021.

Renzi is one of five siblings born into an Italian American family in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. He attended high school in Annandale, Virginia, before moving to Sierra Vista, Arizona, in 1975, where his father, U. S. Army Major General Eugene Carmen Renzi (d. 2008), served at Fort Huachuca. Renzi graduated from Buena High School and attended Northern Arizona University (NAU), earning a B. S. in criminal justice in 1980. He played football for NAU and was a starting offensive lineman.

Renzi and his wife, Roberta S. Renzi, are the parents of 12 children. Like Renzi's siblings, his children all have forenames that begin with the letter "R".

Where Renzi lived and what he did throughout the 1986–1997 period is unclear. In a letter to the Arizona Daily Sun in July 2002, Renzi said "The only time I have not lived in Arizona is when I served our nation overseas on a Defense Department program, or when I entered law school at age 39" [which would be 1997 or 1998]. However, according to an August 2002 Associated Press article, Renzi said that between college, starting in the late 1970s, and his return some 20 years later, he had lived in Flagstaff for only a total of seven years. The AP article also said "Renzi made much of his money while living in Burke, Virginia, about 20 minutes from downtown Washington. He has owned a $765,000 two story, six bedroom home on five acres there since 1991, according to Fairfax County, Virginia, property records." In 1989, Renzi started Renzi & Company (now called the Patriot Insurance Agency), a company that offers insurance to nonprofit organizations such as crisis pregnancy centers, pregnancy care clinics, maternity homes, PTAs, PTOs, and local service organizations. In 2006, Renzi said that he decided to enter politics because of his experiences as a member of National Association of Professional Insurance Agents. Renzi was a property/casualty agent and a member of PIA of Virginia & D. C. He said his first taste of the political process was attending a PIA Federal Legislative Summit. "I had a chance to interact with a lot of the congressmen and Senators, and I fell in love with it", Renzi said. In 1997 or 1998, Renzi began to take law courses at The Catholic University of America in Washington D. C. He finished his coursework in December 2001

Renzi won a hotly contested Republican primary election against five other candidates; his closest opponents were Lewis Noble Tenney, a former Navajo County supervisor, and conservative radio personality Sydney Ann Hay of Munds Park. Renzi outspent his primary opponents by a substantial sum of money. He invested $585,000 of his own money and raised another $100,000 to run radio and TV ads throughout the district. Renzi received 24.4 percent of the 46,585 votes cast in the Republican primary, with half of his votes coming from Yavapai County. The 2002 Democratic primary, also hotly contested, was narrowly won by George Cordova, a party outsider who ran against several better known candidates, including Stephen Udall, Diane Prescott and Fred Duval. (There was no incumbent for the seat, in a new district created after the 2000 census gave the state two more Representatives.)

Renzi received significant support from the national Republican party in the race: President Bush visited twice, including a fundraiser; Vice President Cheney appeared at a fund raising luncheon; Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton visited the district to support Renzi; and so did Mel Martinez, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The campaign included the heavy use of negative advertising attacking Cordova, including accusing him of cheating investors out of $1 million in a failed business venture, failing to pay income and business taxes, and living in California. Cordova denied the charges but had no funds to buy many television ads to refute them. The Renzi campaign also made heavy use of automated telephone calls throughout the district with various claims and innuendos about Cordova. Renzi said of the $2 million spent on negative ads, that he "took no joy in any of that." Renzi said he had tried to tell the National Republican Congressional Committee that the negative ads were the wrong way to go. During the 2002 election campaign, Renzi proposed that Walnut Canyon National Monument in Northern Arizona be renamed the "National Park of the American Flag" with the addition an American flag theme to the park, including displays of U. S. flags throughout history. This was in response to proposals by local citizens that Walnut Canyon National Monument be expanded and given National Park status. Renzi's proposal was widely ridiculed, and he has not promoted it since. On election day, Renzi defeated Cordova by 49 percent to 46 percent, a difference of about 6,000 votes.

Renzi spent $436,590 of his own money on the election. In addition to large donations from his father's defense company, Mantech International, Mantech executives were the largest single source of outside money for the campaign. In 2004, the Federal Election Commission completed an audit of Renzi's campaign committee, "Rick Renzi for Congress." The audit found that Renzi's campaign overstated its cash on hand by about $64,000, and that employers or occupations for 200 contributors were not listed, though required by law. The FEC also concluded that the committee had illegally financed much of the campaign with $369,090 of loans that came from "impermissible" corporate funds. Most of those loans were part of the $436,000 that Renzi put into his own campaign. Renzi was fined $1,000 in November 2005 by the FEC for underreported receipts stemming from what his campaign called a software glitch. During the summer before the 2006 election, the FEC dropped all charges related to the 2002 alleged use of impermissible corporate funds for his campaign.

In preparation for the 2004 campaign, the Democratic Party in Arizona tapped Paul Babbitt, Coconino County commissioner and the brother of Bruce Babbitt, to run for the seat and pressured all other candidates with the exception of political unknown Bob Donahue to bow out of the primary in order to clear the way for Babbitt to run against Renzi without a costly primary contest. Paul Babbitt's campaign was named a top national priority by most major Democratic fundraisers and liberal weblogs, because a plurality of Arizona 1st Congressional District voters are registered Democrats and because Renzi won so narrowly in 2002. Unlike the Cordova campaign in 2002, which received only token support from the national Democratic Party organizations, the Babbitt campaign received major support; nonetheless, it was unable to match Renzi's fundraising.

Renzi faced no opposition from his own party in the Republican primary. Five Democratic Party candidates, including Bob Donahue, Mike Caccioppoli, Susan Friedman, Ellen Simon, and Vic McKerlie, ran in the 2006 primary in September, which was won by Ellen Simon, an attorney and community activist. David Schlosser was also in the November general election on the Libertarian Party ticket. Renzi won his re election against Simon, 52% to 43%. On August 23, 2007, Renzi announced he would not seek another term.

In 2002, in response to a question about spiraling health care costs, Renzi said "In order to keep health insurance costs competitive, we must allow the self employed to take annual tax deductions for their health care costs. We must change the health insurance industry by allowing employees to purchase their own health care policy. This would allow for personal ownership of health care policies, which would provide portability, more choice and thus more competition, which leads to lower health care premiums." Renzi was named one of the American Legion's "Unsung Heroes" of the 108th Congress. American Legion National Commander John Brieden noted that "The 108th Congress passed a record increase in Department of Veterans Affairs health care funding for the current fiscal year, and it reduced the number of service disabled military retirees subject to a 'disability tax' on their retired pay." Brieden said "I commend Representative Renzi for taking a leadership role in making that happen." In 2004, Renzi and Representative Jon Porter introduced legislation to split the Ninth Circuit court, currently the largest circuit in the U. S., which includes Arizona, into three smaller circuits. John Ensign of Nevada introduced similar legislation in the Senate. Renzi was generally a supporter of expanded legal immigration into the United States and supported expansion of guest worker programs and the H1B visa. He did strongly support using technology to enforce border security. In June 2006, the House accepted an amendment proposed by Renzi to increase tribal law enforcement funding by $5 million and decrease spending for international organizations such as the United Nations by the same amount. On December 14, 2005, he voted for the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. On June 29, 2005, he voted for the increase of funds by $25 million for anti marijuana print and TV ads.

In September 2006, Renzi was named one of the "20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress" in a report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non partisan watchdog group founded in 2005 by former Democratic congressional staffers. Renzi was also listed in the first report by the organization in January 2006, when he was one of 13 named members. The organization said "His ethics issues stem from the outside income earned by his administrative assistant and from legislation he sponsored that benefitted his father." He was subsequently listed in CREW's 2007 and 2008 reports as well.

In December 2005, Renzi hired Patty Roe, the wife of Jason Roe, the chief of staff of Representative Tom Feeney (R FL), as his full time administrative assistant. In that position, she was paid $95,000 per year. Renzi also pays her $5,000 per month ($60,000 per year) as a fundraising consultant (she ran her own consulting business before being hired by Renzi). To be in compliance with the rules, Roe had to do all her fundraising work clocking in to work as Renzi's administrative assistant, or after work. Renzi's spokesman Vartan Djihanian said that this is the case: "Whatever fundraising she does is on her time." Roe also received about $30,000 in fundraising fees in 2006 from four other House members: Tom Feeney; Lincoln Díaz Balart and Mario Díaz Balart, both of Florida; and Patrick McHenry of North Carolina. Renzi's office said those payments were for services rendered in 2005. There is no evidence that Roe's activities are not in compliance with House ethics standards.

Renzi was an opponent of embryonic stem cell research. In May 2005, he engaged in an argument on the House floor with Congressman Mark Kirk (R IL). The argument ensued after Renzi had learned that Kirk and the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership commissioned secret polling in the districts of Renzi and other members of Congress who oppose stem cell research. Renzi said, "I was yelling at him. I told him it's absolutely unprecedented that Republicans would pay for a push poll to attack another Republican on such a core belief of mine You're not going to change my view on the issue, as a father of 12."

Renzi also received $30,000 in campaign contributions from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's ARMPAC.