Tag: “only the best people”

Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller Praises Russia, Says He ‘Can’t Wait To Leave’ His Job

Reporters stunned by Miller’s odd, rambling comments.

Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller stunned reporters with a bizarre, meandering interview in which he praised Russia and said he can’t wait to quit his post, according to a transcript released Friday.

Miller, appointed just two months ago by President Donald Trump, told reporters Thursday on a flight back to Washington that he had “professional respect for how they do things” in Russia. He said the nation had been dealt a “bad hand,” and played it “very, very well.” 

Miller added: “I kind of, you know, like, professionally, I’m like, wow, they’re doing pretty well, and they’re using a lot of irregular warfare concepts, information, all this stuff, in a way that, you know, like … good on them.” Continue reading.

Louis DeJoy’s rise as GOP fundraiser was powered by contributions from company workers who were later reimbursed, former employees say

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Louis DeJoy’s prolific campaign fundraising, which helped position him as a top Republican power broker in North Carolina and ultimately as head of the U.S. Postal Service, was bolstered for more than a decade by a practice that left many employees feeling pressured to make political contributions to GOP candidates — money DeJoy later reimbursed through bonuses, former employees say.

Five people who worked for DeJoy’s former business, New Breed Logistics, say they were urged by DeJoy’s aides or by the chief executive himself to write checks and attend fundraisers at his 15,000-square-foot gated mansion beside a Greensboro, N.C., country club. There, events for Republicans running for the White House and Congress routinely fetched $100,000 or more apiece.

Two other employees familiar with New Breed’s financial and payroll systems said DeJoy would instruct that bonus payments to staffers be boosted to help defray the cost of their contributions, an arrangement that would be unlawful. Continue reading.

Watch: Trump trade adviser loses it when CNN corners him on complaints about his professional conduct

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On CNN Thursday, anchor Alisyn Camerota confronted White House trade adviser Peter Navarro about his reported misconduct allegations — and he lost his temper and accused it of being a fabrication by Amazon and Jeff Bezos to railroad him.

“There’s a few investigations that have come to light about your style and your handling of the procurement, so let’s go through them,” said Camerota. “The House Oversight Committee is looking at your procurement of ventilators, and they say that you were working with Phillips which is a technology company, and that you — they believe, wasted half a billion dollars — $500 million by agreeing to pay Phillips to make ventilators at price five times the amount that the Obama administration paid. So is that true and why?”

“No, it’s not true,” said Navarro. “All that stuff you’re seeing in the fake news — look, Alisyn, let’s be honest here. When somebody from the Democratic-controlled House does an investigation of this administration, that is a partisan witch hunt.” Continue reading.

Tactics of fiery White House trade adviser draw new scrutiny as some of his pandemic moves unravel

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Peter Navarro has faced an internal investigation into his treatment of colleagues, and now two of his coronavirus-related actions are under internal scrutiny

Amid the Trump administration’s troubled response to the coronavirus pandemic, senior White House aide Peter Navarro has refashioned himself as a powerful government purchasing chief, operating far beyond his original role as an adviser on trade policy.

But U.S. officials say the abrasive figure’s shortcomings as a manager could influence how well prepared the United States is for a second wave of coronavirus infections expected this fall.

Navarro’s harsh manner and disregard for protocol have alienated numerous colleagues, corporate executives and prominent Republicans. In a previously undisclosed incident, the White House Counsel’s Office in 2018 investigated Navarro’s behavior in response to repeated complaints and found he routinely had been verbally abusive toward others. Navarro narrowly avoided losing his job, but the abuse has continued as the White House has grappled with the pandemic, multiple administration officials said. Continue reading.

Appeals court rejects Flynn’s effort to dismiss charges

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A federal appeals court rejected Michael Flynn‘s effort to force a judge to immediately dismiss the charges against him, overturning an earlier decision that would have allowed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to drop its case against the former national security adviser.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 8-2 against Flynn’s petition for it to step in and force a district judge to grant the Justice Department’s motion to drop charges without holding a hearing on the issue.

The appeals court had agreed to rehear the case after a three-judge panel ordered the district court in June to dismiss the charges. Continue reading.

Trump aides interviewing replacement for embattled FTC chair

Joe Simons has come under White House pressure for resisting the president’s fight against alleged political bias in social media.

The White House is searching for a replacement for Federal Trade Commission Chair Joe Simons, a Republican who has publicly resisted President Donald Trump’s efforts to crack down on social media companies, four people with knowledge of the discussions said.

Simons, a veteran antitrust lawyer, hasn’t announced he’s leaving the agency. He is serving a term that doesn’t end until September 2024, and he cannot legally be removed by the president except in cases of gross negligence. But the White House has already interviewed at least one candidate for the post, the people said — a sign that the administration is preparing for an opening that could give Trump a chair more in line with his agenda.

John McEntee, who heads the White House personnel office, informally interviewed at least one candidate for the job, according to one individual. Two others confirmed that FTC veteran and Fox Corp. executive Gail Slater was among those interviewed. The people spoke anonymously to discuss internal White House deliberations. Continue reading.

Criminality in Trump’s circle is unprecedented. Steve Bannon is just the latest charged.

Bannon’s arrest is the latest in a long line of criminal charges involving Trump confidants. This level of criminality surrounding a president is unparalleled.

In many ways it sounds like the plot of a cheap crime novel. The evil mastermind devises a scheme to fleece the unsuspecting public of millions of dollars. He lies to the public repeatedly about how the money they send him is going to be used. He hides the payments that he makes to himself and his co-conspirators behind a series of false invoices and fictitious nonprofit companies. In the end, he’s arrested while sitting on a boat owned by a mysterious exiled Chinese businessman.

But this isn’t the stuff of fiction. It’s the outline of the allegations against Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chief, and his alleged co-conspirators. Together, the defendants are said to have created a GoFundMe site, “We Build The Wall,” that promised to collect money from Americans and use it to help build President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall on the southern border with Mexico. 

To reassure their donors, Bannon and Brian Kolfage, one of the indicted co-conspirators, repeatedly told the public that all of the money would go “directly to the wall!!! Not anyone’s pocket,” and that they would “take $0” from the funds for themselves. Bannon, Kolfage and their two co-defendants allegedly approved these statements (as the indictment puts it) “precisely because they understood and expected that donors would rely upon these representations, which were intended to maximize the fundraising potential of We Build The Wall.”  Continue reading.

Five takeaways on Bannon’s indictment

TheHill.com

Stephen Bannon, President Trump’s former top White House adviser and 2016 campaign chief, was arrested and charged on Thursday for his role in an alleged fundraising fraud.

Bannon is accused of helping to funnel money from a charity that was soliciting donations for a privately-built border wall. According to court filings, he allegedly used hundreds of thousands of dollars for personal expenses and to secretly pay the co-founder of the organization We Built The Wall.

The charges mark a stunning reversal of fortune for the man who once orchestrated Trump’s improbable election, making him the latest in a series of the president’s allies who have faced criminal charges over the past three years.

Here are five takeaways from today’s indictment:  Continue reading.

Steve Bannon pleads not guilty on fraud charges

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Former Trump administration chief strategist Steve Bannon pleaded not guilty on Thursday after being indicted and taken into custody in New York on federal fraud charges.

The latest: A federal judge agreed to release Bannon on a $5 million bond. His travel will be restricted to the New York and Washington, D.C. areas, and he will not be allowed to use private jets or boats without permission.

The state of play: Bannon, along with three others, allegedly defrauded donors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for their own profit with a crowdfunding campaign called “We Build the Wall” that raked in over $25 million. Continue reading.

Trump pulls nomination of ‘pro-polluter’ to oversee nation’s public lands

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Environmental campaigners on Saturday welcomed news that President Donald Trump withdrew his nomination of “pro-polluter” and “unapologetic racist” William Perry Pendley for director of the Bureau of Land Management, with groups saying he should no longer be allowed to continue in his role as unofficial head of the agency.

We are hearing the Trump administration is pulling down their nomination of William Perry Pendley for BLM director. It’s about damn time.

— Martin Heinrich (@MartinHeinrich) August 15, 2020

Pendley, who’s called fracking an “environmental miracle,” was panned by civil rights, environmental, tribal, and immigrant advocacy groups as “the worst possible person you could conjure to be a leading steward of our shared public lands” given his public record that includes a history of racist and sexist comments, “overt racism” toward native people, dismissal of the climate crisis, suggestion that “the Founding Fathers intended all lands owned by the federal government to be sold,” and a 17-page list of 57 potential conflicts of interest. Continue reading.