Tag: Mike Pompeo

The Trump administration is considering banning TikTok

TikTok is arguably the most popular app in the world right now, with hundreds of millions of (mostly) young people using the platform for everything from dance moves to political activism. Despite its popularity (or perhaps because of it), the app is facing increased scrutiny because of its alleged ties to the Chinese government. India banned the app last week, and the United States may soon follow suit. In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the current administration is considering banning TikTok and other Chinese apps.

“With respect to Chinese apps on people’s cell phones, I can assure you the United States will get this one right too,” he said in an interview with Laura Ingrahm. “I don’t want to get out in front of the President, but it’s something we’re looking at.” Pompeo also warned the American people that they should only download TikTok “if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”

TikTok, for its part, says that it is “led by an American CEO, with hundreds of employees and key leaders across safety, security, product, and public policy here in the US” A spokesperson for the company tells Mic, “We have no higher priority than promoting a safe and secure app experience for our users. We have never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked.” Continue reading.

Ousted State Department watchdog says top officials lobbied him not to probe Saudi arms deal

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo renewed his defense of the firing of the inspector general, saying he wished he had asked the president to act earlier.

WASHINGTON — The former State Department inspector general fired by President Donald Trump told lawmakers that two top officials tried to discourage his investigation into a U.S. arms sale to Saudi Arabia, according to congressional testimony released Wednesday.

The ousted inspector general, Steve Linick, said Under Secretary of State for Management Brian Bulatao told him “that we shouldn’t be doing the work because it was a policy matter not within the IG’s jurisdiction,” according to a transcript of his June 3 testimony.

The State Department’s acting legal advisor, Marik String, also questioned the probe, arguing it was outside the scope of the inspector general and purely a policy matter, Linick said.

A GOP senator’s cowardice shows how Republicans let Trump become a monster

AlterNet logoThe Senate Foreign Relations Committee has been trying to get Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to testify about his department’s annual budget for nearly a handful of months. But securing Pompeo’s testimony took on even greater significance after allegations recently surfaced that the department’s longtime inspector general had been axed by Donald Trump amid a probe he was conducting into potential Pompeo malfeasance. In fact, Trump himself made it crystal clear that he had fired department watchdog Steve Linick at Pompeo’s urging.

In short, Pompeo’s testimony would have provided a target-rich environment for probing allegations against the secretary of state, which included everything from misusing taxpayer funds to improperly pushing through an $8 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia. Perfect timing then for the GOP chair of the Senate Foreign Relations panel, Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, to give Pompeo a pass on testifying.

According to Politico, Risch’s staff director, Chris Socha, held a phone call last Friday with top aides to Republican members of the committee to tell them Risch was simply dropping his quest for Pompeo’s testimony. The decision was framed as an effort of preserve “political capital,” which effectively means Risch didn’t want to work too hard to actually investigate wrongdoing by Pompeo. Continue reading.

Ex-Pompeo staffers asked to sign letter against ‘smear campaign’

The Hill logoFormer House staffers to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are being asked to sign a letter offering him support after a “smear campaign” that he and his wife asked staffers to carry out trivial tasks such as bringing him lunch or getting his dry cleaning.

The letter obtained by The Hill says Pompeo, while serving as a House member from Kansas, picked up his own dry cleaning and that if there was a deviation, it was to maximize his time with constituents.

The effort comes after Pompeo asked for the firing of Steve Linick, the inspector general (IG) to the State Department. President Trump then ordered that Linick be removed. Continue reading.

State Department scrutiny threatens Pompeo’s political ambitions

The Hill logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo is facing a critical test with brewing scandals at the State Department that threaten to derail any future political ambitions.

Pompeo has proved to be one of President Trump’s most loyal lieutenants, surviving Democratic probes into the impeachment investigation, military confrontation with Iran and the coronavirus pandemic.

He was once considered a shoo-in to fill the seat of retiring Sen. Pat Roberts(R-Kans.), an offer he officially passed on, and has been floated as a potential presidential candidate for 2024. Continue reading.

PompeoGate: The First Scandal Of Campaign 2024

Do you remember Mike Pompeo?

Not the Pompeo who now serves as secretary of state, and who liked to boast that he had restored the “swagger” of the diplomatic corps (even as he served up his own Ukraine ambassador to a White House smear campaign). And no, not the sleazy character who induced the firing of the State Department’s inspector general in order to bury an investigation of his own misconduct. This Secretary Pompeo is a flunky of President Donald Trump who lives happily inside the president’s ethical vacuum.

But just a few years ago, there was a representative from Kansas by the same name. He was a West Point graduate who oozed religious righteousness — and a congressional scourge who felt obliged to express his white-hot anger in a separate and furious postscript to the House Select Committee on Benghazi report in 2015. Continue reading.

Pompeo is the latest Cabinet official accused of misusing taxpayer funds

Multiple Trump administration officials have resigned in disgrace for abusing taxpayer dollars.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is the latest Trump administration official caught up in an ethics scandal, following a report from NBC News that he used taxpayer dollars to host lavish dinners at the State Department for guests who had nothing to do with the department’s mission.

Since taking the helm of the department in 2018, Pompeo has invited 500 guests to the dinners, with the vast majority being wealthy business leaders, Republican political figures, and conservative media personalities, according to NBC’s report.

The news comes after Trump fired the State Department’s internal watchdog at the behest of Pompeo. The department’s inspector general was investigating Pompeo’s use of government employees to run personal errands, and according to NBC’s report, may have been looking into the elaborate dinner parties Pompeo was holding. Continue reading.

‘It’s all crazy stuff!’: Mike Pompeo tried to defend his shady ouster of a watchdog — and it didn’t go well

AlterNet logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo found himself under fire Wednesday morning as the outrage and questions surrounding the ouster of his department’s inspector general continues to grow. And when Pompeo took questions at a press conference about the firing of Steve Linick, he failed to give even a plausible explanation for the termination and even contradicted himself.

Pompeo flat-out admitted that he was behind the firing, saying he recommended the move to President Donald Trump. Trump himself said that he knew nothing of Linick and made the move on Pompeo’s say-so.

“I recommended to the president that Steve Linick be terminated,” Pompeo said. “Frankly, should have done it some time ago.” Continue reading.

Pompeo on IG firing: ‘Frankly should have done it some time ago’

The Hill logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday doubled down on his request to fire the State Department’s internal watchdog, while also refusing to detail his reason for recommending the move.

“Frankly should have done it some time ago,” Pompeo said during a combative briefing with reporters at the State Department, referring to his request.

President Trump notified Congress late Friday evening of his intention to dismiss State Department Inspector General (IG) Steve Linick, who was appointed in 2013 under President Obama, because he had lost confidence in the watchdog. Continue reading.

Pompeo’s elite taxpayer-funded dinners raise new concerns

The secretary of state’s exclusive “Madison Dinners” have featured guest lists heavy on influencers but light on diplomatic invitees.

WASHINGTON — As federal workers file out of the State Department at the end of a Washington workday, an elite group is often just arriving in the marbled, flag-lined lobby: Billionaire CEOs, Supreme Court justices, political heavyweights and ambassadors arrive in evening attire as they’re escorted by private elevator to dinner with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Until the coronavirus shut them down in March, the gatherings were known as “Madison Dinners” — elaborate, unpublicized affairs that Pompeo and his wife, Susan Pompeo, began in 2018 and held regularly in the historic Diplomatic Reception Rooms on the government’s dime.

State Department officials involved in the dinners said they had raised concerns internally that the events were essentially using federal resources to cultivate a donor and supporter base for Pompeo’s political ambitions — complete with extensive contact information that gets sent back to Susan Pompeo’s personal email address. The officials and others who attended discussed the dinners on condition of anonymity. Continue reading.