Toyota Asked to Sever Jesse Jackson Ties

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 -- In a letter to Toyota CEO Yoshimi Inaba, National Legal and Policy Center President Peter Flaherty today demanded that Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc., cease financial support for Rev. Jesse Jackson's organizations and cease participation in Jackson-organized events, such as his annual Wall Street Conference.

Toyota vice-president Irving Miller spoke along with Jackson at the keynote session of this year's Wall Street Conference on January 16. Last summer, Toyota launched a $7.8 billion diversity plan after a threatened boycott by Jackson.

Flaherty also demanded that Toyota stop making misleading public statements about its relationship with Jackson and that the company designate an executive to serve as a liaison for minority leaders who would like to participate in the diversity plan but who are not allied with Jesse Jackson.

The demands are the latest escalation in a war of words between NLPC and Toyota. It began in August 2001 with a nationally syndicated op-ed by Flaherty. He criticized Toyota for submitting to Jackson's demands and predicted that individuals close to Jackson would benefit financially from the deal. In letters to newspapers that carried the op-ed, Irving Miller insisted that Jackson's associates would not benefit.

On January 16, Flaherty appeared on The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel and cited two instances where Jesse Jackson associates had received business from Toyota after the deal was announced. In response, Irving Miller wrote Flaherty on February 4 and purported that the diversity plan was not a response to Jackson's threats, even though the plan was jointly announced by Toyota and Jackson on August 9, 2001.

The letter reads, ``Toyota is being dishonest with the public about its relationship with Rev. Jesse Jackson. I ask that you stop.''

Later it continues, ``Since the Diversity Plan was announced, Jackson's behavior has become more extreme. He recently made a series of statements, anti-American in tone, critical of the fight against terrorism. He even sought to undermine President Bush by offering to conduct 'clergy to clergy' negotiations with the Taliban.''

It was NLPC that filed a formal IRS Complaint against Jackson's largest nonprofit organization early last year, touching off a media firestorm that led to far-reaching discussion of Jackson's organizational and personal finances. Jackson responded by holding a press conference to heap vitriol on NLPC but was forced to amend his tax returns.

The full texts of the 2/21/02 letter and the 2/28/01 IRS Complaint are available at http://www.nlpc.org .

NLPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation promoting ethics and accountability in government through research, education and legal action. NLPC sponsors the Government Integrity Project, through which it monitors elected officials, as well as interest groups that impact the governmental process.