Obama Aide Double Dips

National Security Adviser Tom Donilon collected more than $148,000 in pension payments from bailed out mortgage giant Fannie Mae in 2011, on top of his White House salary of $172,200, according to a Free Beacon analysis of White House personal financial disclosure forms.

Donilon netted more than $320,000 in income in 2011 between the two taxpayer-funded sources, including monthly payments totaling $12,391 as part of Fannie Mae's "Executive Pension" and "Qualified Benefit" plans, the documents show.

"Most taxpayers are struggling to make ends meet. Yet, Mr. Donilon is still profiting from his work during the Fannie Mae buildup of the housing bubble that led to a recession and massive taxpayer bailouts," said Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon.

"We find it fairly unsurprising an Obama adviser is double-dipping the public coffers," said Mattie Duppler, government affairs manager at American for Tax Reform. "After all, after trillion-dollar deficits for four years running, what's a few hundred thousand?"

The optics of the arrangement were especially troubling, Duppler added, given that Donilon's taxpayer-funded income is "three times what the average middle class taxpayer in making."

A spokesperson for the National Security Council did not respond to questions about whether Donilon is still receiving Fannie Mae pension payments as of this year, and whether Donilon has participated in any discussions about the transfer of federal funds to Fannie Mae.

Donilon, who some suspect to be the primary source of controversial leaks of classified information to reporters, worked as a registered lobbyist for Fannie Mae from 1999 to 2005.

The firm played a significant role in the housing crisis of 2007, and the government-backed lender has since been bailed out with more than $120 billion in taxpayer funds. The total long-term costs of bailing out Fannie Mae and its affiliate entity Freddie Mac could range from about $400 billion to $1 trillion, according to independent estimates.

In November of 2011, as Donilon was continuing to collect pension payments from Fannie Mae, the lender requested another $8 billion in bailout funds to sustain ongoing losses.

The Obama administration recently proposed a controversial mortgage write-down plan that could require more than $100 billion in additional taxpayer funding for the mortgage giants.

Donilon is one of the wealthiest members of the Obama administration, with assets worth between $5.2 million and $32.5 million, according to personal financial disclosure forms.

The White House paid him a maximum salary of $172,200 in 2011-small potatoes compared with the $3.9 million he made in his previous position as a partner at O'Melveny & Myers LLP, where his clients included financial giants such as Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

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