Trump Administration: Group of Thugs and Criminals
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https://www.npr.org/2021/03/10/9757...ng-at-justice-department-during-trumps-last-d
Whistleblowers Allege Improper Hiring At Justice Department During Trump's Last Days
Two whistleblowers assert that a Justice Department official improperly injected politics into the hiring process during his waning days in the Trump administration, according to a new filing obtained by NPR.
The whistleblowers accuse Jeffrey Bossert Clark of conducting a "sham" process and elevating a person who volunteered to defend a controversial Trump policy on abortion access, even though the person had far less experience than other finalists for the job in the Civil Division, they said in a Wednesday letter to House and Senate lawmakers and the Justice Department's inspector general. Clark was then the acting assistant attorney general in charge of the department's Civil Division.
Clark drew nationwide attention this year after The New York Times reported he had discussed a way to unseat the acting attorney general, take the job for himself and advance then-President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn Georgia's election results before the congressional certification of electoral votes in January.
The scandal figured in Trump's second impeachment trial — and it renewed concerns about partisan political influence on Justice Department operations.
The whistleblowers said that Clark's participation in the hiring process for an assistant director of the Civil Division was unusual and that he engaged in "perfunctory" 15-minute interviews with two more highly qualified finalists for the post. Their letter said Clark had "used a timer" in the meetings and was not "particularly engaged."
Clark announced his decision two days before he left the Justice Department in January. Two other officials in the Civil Division said they did not believe the hiring decision was motivated by politics, the letter said. But the whistleblowers disagreed.
"What set the successful appointee apart from the other candidates was that the appointee — unlike the others — had volunteered and was part of the DOJ litigation team defending a controversial Trump administration policy," according to their letter. That policy barred pregnant, unaccompanied minors in federal immigration custody from obtaining abortions. A court later determined the policy was unconstitutional.
David Seide, a senior counsel at the Government Accountability Project, represents the whistleblowers.
"Like other instances of misconduct by departing Trump administration officials, these abuses of authority are disturbing," Seide said. "Mr. Clark's last-minute politicization of the DOJ hiring process and issuance of policy memoranda — capped by his willingness to participate in what was close to an attempted coup d'état — demands immediate, close and transparent oversight and investigations."
Clark could not be reached for immediate comment on the new whistleblower letter. He told The New York Times this year that, on the issue of attempts to overturn the election results, "there was a candid discussion of options and pros and cons with the president. It is unfortunate that those who were part of a privileged legal conversation would comment in public about such internal deliberations, while also distorting any discussions."
Whistleblowers Allege Improper Hiring At Justice Department During Trump's Last Days
Two whistleblowers assert that a Justice Department official improperly injected politics into the hiring process during his waning days in the Trump administration, according to a new filing obtained by NPR.
The whistleblowers accuse Jeffrey Bossert Clark of conducting a "sham" process and elevating a person who volunteered to defend a controversial Trump policy on abortion access, even though the person had far less experience than other finalists for the job in the Civil Division, they said in a Wednesday letter to House and Senate lawmakers and the Justice Department's inspector general. Clark was then the acting assistant attorney general in charge of the department's Civil Division.
Clark drew nationwide attention this year after The New York Times reported he had discussed a way to unseat the acting attorney general, take the job for himself and advance then-President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn Georgia's election results before the congressional certification of electoral votes in January.
The scandal figured in Trump's second impeachment trial — and it renewed concerns about partisan political influence on Justice Department operations.
The whistleblowers said that Clark's participation in the hiring process for an assistant director of the Civil Division was unusual and that he engaged in "perfunctory" 15-minute interviews with two more highly qualified finalists for the post. Their letter said Clark had "used a timer" in the meetings and was not "particularly engaged."
Clark announced his decision two days before he left the Justice Department in January. Two other officials in the Civil Division said they did not believe the hiring decision was motivated by politics, the letter said. But the whistleblowers disagreed.
"What set the successful appointee apart from the other candidates was that the appointee — unlike the others — had volunteered and was part of the DOJ litigation team defending a controversial Trump administration policy," according to their letter. That policy barred pregnant, unaccompanied minors in federal immigration custody from obtaining abortions. A court later determined the policy was unconstitutional.
David Seide, a senior counsel at the Government Accountability Project, represents the whistleblowers.
"Like other instances of misconduct by departing Trump administration officials, these abuses of authority are disturbing," Seide said. "Mr. Clark's last-minute politicization of the DOJ hiring process and issuance of policy memoranda — capped by his willingness to participate in what was close to an attempted coup d'état — demands immediate, close and transparent oversight and investigations."
Clark could not be reached for immediate comment on the new whistleblower letter. He told The New York Times this year that, on the issue of attempts to overturn the election results, "there was a candid discussion of options and pros and cons with the president. It is unfortunate that those who were part of a privileged legal conversation would comment in public about such internal deliberations, while also distorting any discussions."
https://www.citizensforethics.org/r...-least-225-million-while-education-secretary/
Betsy DeVos made at least $225 million while education secretary
Betsy DeVos reported at least $225 million — and potentially well over $414 million — in outside income while working as Donald Trump’s education secretary, according to an analysis of DeVos’s financial disclosures by CREW. It is impossible to know the exact amount because DeVos’s income is reported in broad ranges, but we do know for a fact that she made nine figures during her four years in office.
The totals are derived from three different yearly financial disclosures that she filed during her tenure in the Trump administration, along with her final termination report. Many assets she reported are simply listed as “over $5 million” or “over $1 million.”
At least $75 million of that massive sum came from Alticor, the parent company of Amway, her late father-in-law’s multilevel marketing behemoth. Amway has enjoyed decades of political power and connections, boosted by the family’s $100 million in political donations during the last 20 years to conservative candidates and groups like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.
As Donald Trump’s wealthiest cabinet member, DeVos’s financial entanglements and her family’s political giving raised ethical questions. She maintained a stake in Neurocore, a brain performance company targeting children, and failed to recuse from matters related to the company despite the potential for conflicts of interest. She pledged that her husband would stop making political donations for the duration of her tenure, but he continued to donate throughout the 2018 and 2020 election cycles.
DeVos gestured at resolving those ethical questions by pledging to donate her taxpayer funded salary while she served in government, which amounted to around $800,000. Of course, that was merely a fraction of a percent of her total income over the past four years, and did nothing to substantively resolve concerns about her appointment as education secretary.
In the Trump administration, Devos wasn’t alone in making meaningless gestures to paper over the conflicts of interest that come with raking in hundreds of millions of dollars as a public servant. Former President Trump himself reported making more than $1.6 billion while in office, while Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner netted up to $640 million.
For Betsy DeVos, decades of political giving paid off in the form of a four-year term as the head of the agency in charge of public education. Meanwhile, her outside income continued to accumulate at a staggering rate. In the end, DeVos likely made more money as education secretary than cities like Ann Arbor or Grand Rapids in her home state of Michigan spend on public education in a year.
Betsy DeVos made at least $225 million while education secretary
Betsy DeVos reported at least $225 million — and potentially well over $414 million — in outside income while working as Donald Trump’s education secretary, according to an analysis of DeVos’s financial disclosures by CREW. It is impossible to know the exact amount because DeVos’s income is reported in broad ranges, but we do know for a fact that she made nine figures during her four years in office.
The totals are derived from three different yearly financial disclosures that she filed during her tenure in the Trump administration, along with her final termination report. Many assets she reported are simply listed as “over $5 million” or “over $1 million.”
At least $75 million of that massive sum came from Alticor, the parent company of Amway, her late father-in-law’s multilevel marketing behemoth. Amway has enjoyed decades of political power and connections, boosted by the family’s $100 million in political donations during the last 20 years to conservative candidates and groups like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.
As Donald Trump’s wealthiest cabinet member, DeVos’s financial entanglements and her family’s political giving raised ethical questions. She maintained a stake in Neurocore, a brain performance company targeting children, and failed to recuse from matters related to the company despite the potential for conflicts of interest. She pledged that her husband would stop making political donations for the duration of her tenure, but he continued to donate throughout the 2018 and 2020 election cycles.
DeVos gestured at resolving those ethical questions by pledging to donate her taxpayer funded salary while she served in government, which amounted to around $800,000. Of course, that was merely a fraction of a percent of her total income over the past four years, and did nothing to substantively resolve concerns about her appointment as education secretary.
In the Trump administration, Devos wasn’t alone in making meaningless gestures to paper over the conflicts of interest that come with raking in hundreds of millions of dollars as a public servant. Former President Trump himself reported making more than $1.6 billion while in office, while Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner netted up to $640 million.
For Betsy DeVos, decades of political giving paid off in the form of a four-year term as the head of the agency in charge of public education. Meanwhile, her outside income continued to accumulate at a staggering rate. In the end, DeVos likely made more money as education secretary than cities like Ann Arbor or Grand Rapids in her home state of Michigan spend on public education in a year.
Such fine integrity...
BUSTED: Trump adviser 'appears to have misled a Florida court' to get out of paying child support
https://www.rawstory.com/busted-tru...ida-court-to-get-out-of-paying-child-support/
Former Trump 2020 campaign adviser Jason Miller has persistently claimed that he lacks the money to make his court-mandated child support payments -- but new documents unearthed by The Guardian tell a different story and show he "appears to have misled" courts about his financial situation.
According to the newspaper, Miller last year was "secretly re-engaged" by Washington-based political strategy firm Teneo, which paid him $500,000 to work as a consultant via a "hastily formed LLC."
Teneo had publicly fired Miller in 2019 after he went on an obscene social media tirade against Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), but the firm wanted to covertly keep him on the payroll because he provided access to former president Donald Trump's White House.
Just days after signing the secret agreement with Teneo, Miller asked a Florida state court to "abate and modify" his child support payments because he was unemployed.
"The Florida court records show that Miller made other misleading or false statements under oath in the case of his faux firing in multiple instances," reports The Guardian. "He not only falsely portrayed himself as unemployed, but asserted under oath that he could no longer afford to travel to Florida to attend court hearings related to the case, and asked a trial in the matter be postponed until he could find work. As evidence of his supposed 'major financial setback' Miller cited newspaper articles reporting his resignation from the firm."
BUSTED: Trump adviser 'appears to have misled a Florida court' to get out of paying child support
https://www.rawstory.com/busted-tru...ida-court-to-get-out-of-paying-child-support/
Former Trump 2020 campaign adviser Jason Miller has persistently claimed that he lacks the money to make his court-mandated child support payments -- but new documents unearthed by The Guardian tell a different story and show he "appears to have misled" courts about his financial situation.
According to the newspaper, Miller last year was "secretly re-engaged" by Washington-based political strategy firm Teneo, which paid him $500,000 to work as a consultant via a "hastily formed LLC."
Teneo had publicly fired Miller in 2019 after he went on an obscene social media tirade against Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), but the firm wanted to covertly keep him on the payroll because he provided access to former president Donald Trump's White House.
Just days after signing the secret agreement with Teneo, Miller asked a Florida state court to "abate and modify" his child support payments because he was unemployed.
"The Florida court records show that Miller made other misleading or false statements under oath in the case of his faux firing in multiple instances," reports The Guardian. "He not only falsely portrayed himself as unemployed, but asserted under oath that he could no longer afford to travel to Florida to attend court hearings related to the case, and asked a trial in the matter be postponed until he could find work. As evidence of his supposed 'major financial setback' Miller cited newspaper articles reporting his resignation from the firm."
https://news.yahoo.com/trump-admin-awarded-firm-1-083136627.html
The Trump admin awarded a firm $1.3 billion to make Covid vaccine syringes. Where are the syringes?
WASHINGTON — A year after a Connecticut company was awarded almost $1.3 billion in federal loans and contracts to supply an essential syringe for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, no syringes have been made. The syringe hasn't received even the first of a series of approvals it needs from the federal government before it can be manufactured, and a factory promising 650 jobs remains unbuilt.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/clim...iting-car-pollution-rules-epa-watchdog-finds/
Trump administration sidelined experts in writing car pollution rules, EPA watchdog finds
Inspector general’s report may give Biden more reason to tighten fuel-economy standards in fight against global warming
The Trump administration sidelined career staffers at the Environmental Protection Agency when weakening pollution rules for new passenger vehicles, according to a federal watchdog report.
The EPA’s inspector general found top political leaders at the agency failed to properly document and consider the concerns of staff experts while unwinding standards for tailpipe emissions set under President Barack Obama.
The Trump admin awarded a firm $1.3 billion to make Covid vaccine syringes. Where are the syringes?
WASHINGTON — A year after a Connecticut company was awarded almost $1.3 billion in federal loans and contracts to supply an essential syringe for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, no syringes have been made. The syringe hasn't received even the first of a series of approvals it needs from the federal government before it can be manufactured, and a factory promising 650 jobs remains unbuilt.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/clim...iting-car-pollution-rules-epa-watchdog-finds/
Trump administration sidelined experts in writing car pollution rules, EPA watchdog finds
Inspector general’s report may give Biden more reason to tighten fuel-economy standards in fight against global warming
The Trump administration sidelined career staffers at the Environmental Protection Agency when weakening pollution rules for new passenger vehicles, according to a federal watchdog report.
The EPA’s inspector general found top political leaders at the agency failed to properly document and consider the concerns of staff experts while unwinding standards for tailpipe emissions set under President Barack Obama.
After the years of fake news wrt Russia, why would anyone believe anything that the press states about Trump? It was literally years of nonstop fake news.