EXCLUSIVE — On the morning of July 8, 2021, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo arrived in Washington state for a roundtable that evening with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) on the need to grow minority-owned small businesses. Earlier that day, before the panel discussion with the powerful Senate Commerce Committee chairwoman, Raimondo had a phone call with Madrona Ventures, a Seattle-based firm that invests in artificial intelligence, according to a copy of Raimondo’s calendar.
“Big impact,” Cantwell texted Raimondo on July 9, thanking the secretary of commerce for making the trek out west. The top Biden administration official asked Cantwell to remind her of a trail where the senator planned to go hiking in Arizona. Raimondo also told Cantwell she would “love to have dinner with you and my husband,” according to internal agency documents reviewed by the Washington Examiner, adding, “He works at a very cool artificial intelligence start up.”
