Aegis Defence overlap includes US Departments of Defense and Education; this might be why

It was recently reported that the Lockport school district in New York will be adopting facial recognition technology produced by Aegis in an attempt to increase security in light of recent school shootings. Expect other school districts to follow suit as companies like Aegis employ lobbyists not only connected to the Defense Department, but also the Education Department.

Case in point is Aegis' former lobbyist Peter Oppenheim, Trump's Assistant Secretary of Education for Legislation and Congressional Affairs. While working as an aide for Senator Lamar Alexander (Bush 41's Education Secretary), Oppenheim also co-authored the Every Student Succeeds Act, the law that replaced No Child Left Behind. This fact underscores how revolving-door lobbyists are often the very people who write federal legislation.

In the Aegis Shadow Ties venn, note that former President and CEO Kristi Clemens Rogers, though she holds no covered government positions herself, was married to US Representative Mike Rogers. This was an especially scandalous tie that involved a delay in the 2012 investigation of the Benghazi, Libya attacks.

Aegis had garnered a security contract with the State Department worth $10 billion, and Representative Rogers was chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee which oversaw the contract's Benghazi Mission. According to Judicial Watch, “A spokesperson for the House Intelligence Committee noted that 'strictly observed and enforced' policies required 'that there should be no interaction with Mrs. Rogers on any matter relating to the official business of the House' and 'no interaction between the Committee and any representative of Aegis.' There is no evidence of wrong-doing by Rep. Rogers or Aegis. Indeed, the outlines of the story are more suggestive of 'right-doing,' Washington-style: an insider’s game of covert operations and corporate profits played out in the gray areas of law and policy.”

The mission was subcontracted out but Aegis was on the line when a special committee was formed to investigate what happened in Benghazi. Representative Rogers was able to delay that investigation presumably to the benefit of his wife, who has since left Aegis. Rogers resigned from Congress shortly thereafter.

RFPB = Reserve Forces Policy Board