Tag: Trump corruption

Letter sent in ‘utmost confidentiality’ to Bill Barr set in motion intervention for Michael Flynn: report

AlterNet logoAccording to a report from the New York Times, a letter sent in secret to Attorney General Bill Barr asking him to intercede in the case of former Donald Trump aide Michael Flynn, set in motion a move by the Justice Department to force a judge to set aside Flynn’s guilty pleas.

The report notes that Flynn attorney Sidney Powell, who used her appearances on Fox News to get Donald Trump’s attention, sent off a letter over a year ago asking for Barr to appoint an outsider to look at the case that was already in the sentencing stage.

The Times reports, “Asking for ‘utmost confidentiality,’ Ms. Powell told Mr. Barr that the case against Mr. Flynn, the president’s former national security adviser who had pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I., smacked of ‘corruption of our beloved government institutions for what appears to be political purposes.’” Continue reading.

Watchdogs question if firm was rewarded for supporting Trump’s wall: ‘Shocking level of corruption’

AlterNet logoMultiple government watchdog groups have called for an investigation after a Mexican company received rapid approval on a multi-million-dollar mining contract in Colorado shortly after it expressed support for President Donald Trump’s border wall.

Days after Trump’s election in 2016, Enrique Escalante, the chief executive of Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC), told Reuters that the company was “ready to lend its services” to build the border wall which the president promised during his campaigned.

“For the business we’re in, Trump is a candidate that does favor the industry quite a bit,” he told the outlet.” Continue reading.

Betsy DeVos changes rule to funnel more than $1 billion of COVID-19 relief to private schools

AlterNet logoCartoon dubious rich person Betsy DeVos issued a new rule on Thursday that will require public schools to share more of the CARES Act relief funds—meant for public schools—with private schools. Specifically, DeVos’ rule will cut into the already low $13.5 billion allotted for the country’s public K-12 schools. According to NPR, the education secretary’s new rule would re-imagine the intention of the CARES Act funds to mean that public schools must pay for tutoring and transportation for private school students. This new “reading of the law” would take the $127 million already being received by private schools and add another $1.23 billion. That’s a 10-fold increase.

As Daily Kos’ Laura Clawson reported back in May, DeVos’ Department of Education has attempted to cajole the public into believing that private schools—particularly religious private schools—are in the same boat as public schools. A claim that is not exactly true, regardless of decontextualized reporting by The New York Times. More importantly, the new rules set out by DeVos restrict public school districts’ ability to use the funds for broader pandemic needs, like paying all staff and cleaning all facilities.

DeVos, like all Trump administration officials, is a Clue-caricature villain. She has already made sure that people in need of the coronavirus relief, like DACA students, will get none. The pandemic is exposing the very tough reality that there are things and institutions in our society where if we want them to survive, we will need to give them money and help them weather our country’s leadership’s incompetence in handling the pandemic. The problem that private schools—or “non-public” schools, as DeVos and others like to rebrand them—have is that they only work if American taxpayers fund them. This is identical issue to the issue that public schools have. The difference is that public schools must follow considerably better vetted policies of equality than private institutions. Continue reading.

‘Saying the quiet part out loud’: Trump suggests $5 billion weapons contract awarded to boost 2020 chances in Wisconsin

AlterNet logoSeveral shipbuilding companies may have grounds to file formal complaints with the U.S. Navy and the Government Accountability Office after President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested a multi-billion dollar weapons contract was awarded to a Wisconsin company because of its status location in a key 2020 battleground state.

Speaking to workers at Fincantieri Marinette Marine on Thursday, Trump said the company was selected for the $5.5 billion contract to build 10 guided-missile frigates because of the speed and maneuverability of its existing ships—and because of the company’s location in a swing state.

“I hear the maneuverability is one of the big factors that you were chosen for the contract,” the president said. “The other is your location in Wisconsin, if you want to know the truth.” Continue reading.

White House ‘Volunteer’ Got $2.4M Medical Supply Contract For Federal Prisons

A company created by a former Pentagon official who describes himself as a White House volunteer for Vice President Mike Pence won a $2.4 million contract in May — its first federal award — to supply the Bureau of Prisons with surgical gowns.

Mathew J. Konkler, who worked in the Department of Defense during the George W. Bush administration, formed BlackPoint Distribution Company LLC in August 2019 in Indiana, state records show, but had won no federal work until May 26. The Bureau of Prisons chose the company with limited competition for a contract to supply surgical gowns to its facilities.

It is at least the second contract awarded to a company formed by an individual who had worked in or volunteered for the Trump administration; a company formed by Zach Fuentes, a former White House deputy chief of staff, won a $3 million contract just days after forming to supply face masks to the Indian Health Service. The masks did not meet FDA standards for use in health care settings, and an IHS spokesman said this week that the agency is trying to return the masks to Fuentes. Members of Congress called for investigations into the contract, and the Government Accountability Office now plans to review the deal “in the coming few months, as staff become available,” spokesman Charles Young said last week. Continue reading.

HHS whistleblower’s controversial claim: Azar is punishing him

Rick Bright claims the HHS secretary instructed staffers not to cooperate with him in his new role.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar is illegally retaliating against a whistleblower who spoke out about the failures of the government’s coronavirus response, the whistleblower claimed on Thursday.

Rick Bright, who was ousted in April as chief of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, filed an amended complaint with a federal watchdog alleging that Azar recently has tried to disrupt his new work at the National Institutes of Health.

The federal scientist, who cites a secondhand claim that Azar directed staff not to collaborate with him, details examples of HHS staff who failed to respond to requests in his new role at NIH, where he is focused on ramping up diagnostics for the coronavirus. The complaint centers on Bright’s relationship with Gary Disbrow, his former deputy, who replaced Bright as acting BARDA chief, and comments that Disbrow allegedly made. Continue reading.

Social Security commissioner invested in company that makes COVID test touted by Trump

AlterNet logoIn early 2020, Social Security Administration Commissioner Andrew Saul engaged in several stock transactions that appear to have anticipated market reactions to the coronavirus crisis, according to financial disclosure forms.

Specifically, Saul made seemingly prescient investments in Abbott Laboratories, UnitedHealth, thecloud workflow company ServiceNow and Eurofins, a foreign company that manufactures personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers, among other things.

Though Saul — a wealthy New York businessman with prior government service and decades of financial expertise — has a substantial and diverse portfolio, the timing of the transactions, together with his activity in the administration and investment experience, is intriguing. Continue reading.

Ethics expert warns ‘America is on the brink of total destruction’ over DOJ ‘corruption’ bombshell

AlterNet logoWalter Shaub, the former head of the Office of Government Ethics, issued a dire warning Tuesday on the allegation that officials at the “highest levels” of the Dept. of Justice pressured prosecutors to ask for an extremely light sentence for Roger Stone, a good friend and former associate of President Donald Trump.

“America is on the brink of total destruction,” Shaub warned on Twitter.

And he put his warning in context.

“Short of assassinating opponents or using the military to quell public protests, I can’t think of a form of corruption worse than a nation’s leader influencing the administration of justice to protect friends and prosecute enemies.” Continue reading.

Trump family seeks to block book by president’s niece that calls him ‘World’s Most Dangerous Man’

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s brother on Tuesday petitioned a New York court to block the publication of a book by Mary L. Trump that describes the president, her uncle, as the “world’s most dangerous man.”

Presales of the book, slated for publication on July 28, have soared to the top of bestseller lists on the basis of a description from publisher Simon & Schuster that it will reveal decades of family secrets, including a “nightmare of traumas” that explain the psychology of the man who is now president.

President Trump told the Axios news service earlier this week that Mary Trump is “not allowed” to write the book, because she signed a nondisclosure agreement in 2001 that settled her suit against him and his siblings over her inheritance from her grandfather Fred Trump Sr., the president’s father. President Trump said the agreement was a “very powerful one” that “covers everything.” Continue reading.