Tag: Trump corrupts all around him

At least 6 Trump cabinet secretaries are accused or under investigation for violating federal law

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An Additional Eight or More Administration Officials Also Accused or Under Investigation

At least six Trump Cabinet secretaries are under investigation for violating federal law or are accused of violating federal law, as are an additional eight or more administration officials.

The Cabinet secretaries include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General Bill Barr, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, and Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.

In recent days White House officials have been assisting President Donald Trump’s re-election efforts so intensely that at least one has been officially named a campaign advisor – in addition to being paid by the taxpayers for their day job inside the executive branch. Continue reading.

Pompeo facing investigation after alluding to the possible release of Clinton emails ‘before election day’

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is at the helm of an investigation and the Office of Special Counsel will determine if he illegally used his position to bolster politics on behalf of President Donald Trump. 

The investigation into Pompeo was sparked from a Fox News interview conducted in early October where he teased about the release of emails connected to former secretary and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton “before the election,” per Politico.

“We’ve got the emails, we’re getting them out. We’re going to get all this information out so the American people can see it,” Pompeo told Fox News’s Dana Perino during the interview. “We’re doing it as fast as we can. I certainly think there’ll be more to see before the election.”  Continue reading.

Sen. David Perdue Intentionally Butchers Sen. Kamala Harris’ Name at Trump Bash

Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) mispronounced Sen. Kamala Harris’ name while speaking before President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Macon, Georgia on Friday night. Emphasizing different syllables, Perdue said, “Kamala, Kamala, kamala-mala-mala—I don’t know—whatever.” The two have worked together in the Senate for nearly four years, presumably allowing him ample time to learn her name. The attack echoes Trump’s continued refusal to pronounce Harris’ name correctly. A spokesman for Perdue tweeted, “Senator Perdue simply mispronounced Senator Harris’ name, and he didn’t mean anything by it.” The Georgia Republican faces a tight re-election race in November, and his Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff pounced on the gaffe: “My opponent, GOP Sen. David Perdue of anti-Semitic attack ad infamy, just mocked Sen. Harris’ name as ‘Kamala-mala-mala-whatever’ at a Trump rally.” In July, Perdue’s campaign published a Facebook ad attacking Ossoff using an image of him with an enlarged nose. Ossoff is Jewish. The Republican’s campaign pulled the ad. View the post and tweet here.

Bill Barr’s Vote Suppression Follows An Old Script

With one national poll after another showing President Donald Trump losing to former Vice President Joe Biden in November, the president and Attorney General William Barr continue to obsess over “voter fraud.” They baselessly claim the crime is promoted by mail-in voting, despite its history as a reliable practice. Journalist Pema Levy pointed out that Barr’s actions are part of a long a seedy history in an article published in Mother Jones, describing them as thinly veiled attempts at voter suppression.

“A pattern has emerged in recent years that’s easy to spot,” Levy explains. “Right before an election, Republican officials in battleground states announce voter fraud investigations. The goal is obvious: suppressing turnout. But what’s new this year is that this underhanded tactic is being employed by the president and the Justice Department.”

Levy cites Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp as an example of a Republican who has used bogus voter fraud claims to suppress turnout, recalling that only two days before the 2018 midterms, Kemp — who was Georgia’s secretary of state before becoming governor — “came out with an explosive announcement: he was investigating the state Democratic Party for attempting to hack into the state’s voter registration system.” Continue reading.

Mike Pence’s Trumpian Makeover

In April, as the country’s coronavirus outbreak surged, President Trump mocked Mike Pence’s filibustering skills, presenting himself as a teller of tough truths compared with his slippery Vice-President. “That’s one of the greatest answers I’ve ever heard, because Mike was able to speak for five minutes and not even touch your question,” Trump said in a press briefingafter Pence avoided answering a reporter. “I said, that’s what you call a great professional.” Throughout Wednesday night’s debate, Trump’s version of Pence was fully on display, as the Vice-President ducked questions and outright refused to answer them for much of the ninety minutes.

Perhaps most significant, given that Trump is currently stricken with the coronavirus that he denied was an ongoing threat to the American people, Pence refused to say whether he had discussed the issue of “Presidential disability” with Trump. But this particular dodge hardly stood out on a night when Pence avoided more of moderator Susan Page’s questions than he answered. The Vice-President began the debate by refusing to say why the United States has had so many more deaths from the coronavirus than other leading nations. He ended it by refusing to say whether he would accept the peaceful transfer of power after the election. In between, Pence managed to avoid numerous other questions, from whether he believes climate change is an “existential threat” to what the Administration’s plan is for providing health care to Americans with preëxisting conditions. For much of the debate, in fact, Pence seemed more eager to deliver pre-planned attack lines against his Democratic opponent, Senator Kamala Harris, than he was to defend the Trump-Pence Administration’s record. Continue reading.

Justice Dept. Eases Election Fraud Inquiry Constraints as Trump Promotes False Narrative

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The move comes as President Trump promotes a false narrative of widespread voter fraud ahead of the election.

For decades, federal prosecutors have been told not to mount election fraud investigations in the final months before an election for fear they could depress voter turnout or erode confidence in the results. Now, the Justice Department has lifted that prohibition weeks before the presidential election.

The move comes as President Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr have promoted a false narrative that voter fraud is rampant, potentially undermining Americans’ faith in the election.

A Justice Department lawyer in Washington said in a memo to prosecutors on Friday that they could investigate suspicions of election fraud before votes are tabulated. That reversed a decades-long policy that largely forbade aggressively conducting such inquiries during campaigns to keep their existence from becoming public and possibly “chilling legitimate voting and campaign activities” or “interjecting the investigation itself as an issue” for voters. Continue reading.

Pompeo accused of mixing politics and diplomacy as election nears

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s pre-election speeches in battleground states are drawing increased scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers, who say his remarks cross a line that has traditionally separated foreign policy from domestic politics.

Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.), chairman of the Foreign Affairs subcommittee on oversight and investigations, on Monday asked the State Department for documents relating to Pompeo’s “domestic political speeches” to groups in Texas, Wisconsin and Florida.

“It is concerning that the Secretary is suddenly crisscrossing the country at taxpayers’ expense to speak with state legislators and private groups and that these events appear to be increasing in frequency as the November 3rd election approaches,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter. Continue reading.

Judge rules federal law enforcement commission violates law, orders work stopped as attorney general prepares to issue report

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Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement is not diverse, doesn’t hold public meetings as law requires

A national commission on policing launched earlier this year by President Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr has violated federal law by seating only people in law enforcement and failing to include members with different perspectives such as civil rights activists, defense attorneys or mental health professionals, a federal judge ruled Thursday as he halted the group’s work. The commission also did not file a charter, post public notice of its meetings or open them to the public, so even though it has already sent its draft report and recommendations to Barr for release later this month, the judge prohibited Barr from publishing a final report.

The ruling by Senior U.S. District Judge John D. Bates in Washington came in response to a lawsuit from the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, which sought an injunction against the Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice for violating laws on how federal advisory committees must work. Bates did not issue an injunction yet, but asked both sides to file briefs on what should be included in an injunction, said he would order the commission to change its membership and comply with other aspects of the law, and that it could not issue a report until it had done so.

“Especially in 2020,” Bates wrote, “when racial justice and civil rights issues involving law enforcement have erupted across the nation, one may legitimately question whether it is sound policy to have a group with little diversity of experience examine, behind closed doors, the sensitive issues facing law enforcement and the criminal justice system in America today.” Continue reading.

Barr’s Approach Closes Gap Between Justice Dept. and White House

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The attorney general has brought the department closer to the White House than it has been in a half-century, historians said.

WASHINGTON — When the top federal prosecutor in Washington recently accused the local police of arresting protesters without probable cause, Attorney General William P. Barr stepped in.

Mr. Barr, who has frequently voiced his support for police officers, brought in the U.S. attorney, Michael Sherwin, to meet with the chief of the Washington police and other top law enforcement officials, escalating the local dispute to the top of the Justice Department.

The meeting grew heated, but ultimately, Mr. Sherwin backed down, according to three people familiar with the encounter. Mr. Barr told Mr. Sherwin to write a letter that said he had not meant to imply that the police had acted unlawfully. In a nod to Mr. Sherwin’s original objection, the Washington police are working with prosecutors to identify video and other evidence to back up the arrests. Continue reading.

Democrats say the GOP’s attempt to smear Biden accidentally exposed a Trump official’s ‘corrupt scheme’

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The Republican report aimed at raising questions about the dealings of Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in Ukraine appears to have accidentally implicated former Energy Secretary Rick Perry in an energy scheme in the foreign nation, according to the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee.

Republicans led by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., released their much-hyped report on Hunter Biden’s role at the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma on Wednesday. However, it found no evidence of actual wrongdoing and relied largely on debunked claims, old statements and narratives pushed as part of a Russian disinformation campaign.


But the report did find new evidence related to Perry’s actions in Ukraine while he served in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Continue reading.