Welcome to Pay Dirt—exclusive reporting and research from The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay on corruption, campaign finance, and influence-peddling in the nation’s capital. For Beast Inside members only.
Aerospace and defense giant Boeing broke out its checkbook in a big way last month, as it faced global regulatory scrutiny over a catastrophic airline crash —quickly followed by another this month— that raised concerns about software problems in one of its newest models.
The company doled out $827,000 in political contributions in February, according to a newly filed report with the Federal Election Commission. That’s more than Boeing’s political action committee has ever reported donating in a single month, according to a PAY DIRT review of FEC records.