WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren over the years earned nearly $2 million as a lawyer, mostly from corporate bankruptcy cases, according to new financial records her campaign released Sunday.
The Warren campaign described much of the work as championing underdog clients, but the big money she made from corporate clients belies her image as a crusader against the wealthy and Big Business.
Her campaign added a list of her legal work dating to the 1980s, accompanied by the compensation for each case, to the campaign website describing her legal work.
“These disclosures include all of the cases Elizabeth Warren worked on that we have been able to identify and all of the income from each case we have been able to determine from public records, Elizabeth Warren’s personal records, and other sources,” said the Warren campaign.
The disclosure comes as Ms. Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, has been sparing with a rival, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, over their past corporate lawyering.
Ms. Warren and Mr. Buttigieg are vying for the lead in early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
The far-left Ms. Warren has been losing momentum in recent weeks as the more moderate Mr. Buttigieg gained steam.
Ms. Warren first released in May a list of 56 cases she worked on as an attorney going back to the 1980s. Fifteen pages of the newly released data show that she was paid a total of more than $1.9 million from roughly 40 of those lawsuits.
Warren campaign spokeswoman Kristen Orthman said the disclosure put all of the candidates’ legal work in front of Americans.
“If Democrats are going to defeat Donald Trump, or whoever the Republican Party might replace him with, we must nominate a candidate who can create the most robust possible contrast against Republicans on conflicts of interest and corruption issues,” Ms. Orthman said in a statement. “Elizabeth does not sell access to her time – no closed-door big-dollar fundraisers, no bundling program, no perks or promises to any wealthy donor.”
Before the financial disclosure, Ms. Warren had hit Mr. Buttigieg for his closed-door fundraisers, suggesting Buttigieg could be making secret promises to top donors.
The Buttigieg campaign responded that she should release past tax returns that detail her work for corporate clients.
Ms. Warren had previously released 11 years of tax returns. But her campaign said Sunday’s information provides more information on her business income that her returns do not because they don’t fully itemize earnings.
Among the clients for whom Warren consulted were the attorneys for Rabobank, a Dutch financial institution that became a creditor in the Enron bankruptcy; former directors of Getty Oil, who were involved in Texaco’s bankruptcy; and women whose allegations of harm from silicone breast implants produced by Dow Corning were imperiled when the company filed for bankruptcy.
• This article includes reports from The Associated Press.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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