Tag: Trump cronyism

Trump to give ally Nunes the Presidential Medal of Freedom

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Congressman from California has accused FBI and Justice Department of bias against Trump during Russia probe

President Trump on Monday is expected to give Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, according to someone familiar with the plans.

Nunes is a close ally of the president, and one of Trump’s most vocal supporters in his quest to undermine the Justice Department’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

During an interview with “Fox & Friends” in October 2018, Trump criticized the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and praised Nunes, then the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who had repeatedly accused FBI and Justice Department investigators of being biased against Trump. In the Fox News interview, Trump initially — and incorrectly — called for Nunes to receive the Medal of Honor, which is awarded for acts of military valor, before correcting himself and suggesting that Nunes receive the Medal of Freedom. Continue reading.

As Americans die by the thousands, Trump cronies cut in line for coronavirus treatments and vaccines

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Rudy Giuliani is a horrible human being.

I’m not talking about his hair-dye malfunction, his cruelty about Hunter Biden’s drug problems or his outing to the landscaping business hard by the porn shop.

I’m talking about this: Somebody may very well be dying right now because of his recklessness.

He roamed the country, often mask-free, spouting lies about election fraud. Then when he (inevitably) got covid-19, the White House secured for him rare treatments, including a lifesaving antibody cocktail available to few on the planet outside of President Trump and his cronies, such as Chris Christie and Ben Carson. Doctors ration the scarce drug, so Giuliani’s good fortune is the misfortune of somebody else who desperately needed it. Continue reading the commentary here.

Suspicious Timeline Shows DeJoy’s Massive Donations Just Before Trump Made Him Postmaster

How did Louis DeJoy, the first Postmaster General to have never worked in the Postal Service to ever serve in the job, get that plum position? Could it have been, oh, I don’t know, buying his way in? DeJoy donated more than $600,000 to the Trump campaign and to the Republican National Committee from the time the job opened up and getting the nod. Lisa Graves, executive director of True North Research, which investigates the influence of money on public policy, testified to Congress Monday detailing the depth of DeJoy’s spending with the GOP.

In just this 2020 cycle, he’s given more than $1.5 million to Republicans, most to Trump’s reelection and to Republican Senate races. He invested almost $80,000 in Republican Senate races since December, when the Postmaster job opened up. “This level of partisanship,” Graves said in written testimony, “undermines public trust in the Postal Service as an institution.” Why yes, yes it does. It also resurfaces all the questions that emerged about just why Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin took a detour from his day job to get DeJoy this job. Whatever motivated him, it clearly wasn’t DeJoy’s qualifications.

Ahead of Monday’s hearing, Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly, chairman of the oversight subcommittee, stated the obvious. “We have a crony at the helm of our nation’s Postal Service, a man rife with conflicts of interest and potential violations of law.” The potential violations of the law are the alleged campaign finance violations in which he used a straw donor scheme to raise over $1 million for Republicans from 2000 to 2014 from his former employees. Allegedly. He faces potential criminal liability for that in the state of North Carolina, which does not have a statute of limitations on felonies and where his company was headquartered. Continue reading.

Leahy to Barr: Is Roger Stone sentence commutation ‘a crime’?

Vermont senator had asked attorney general about similar hypothetical during 2019 confirmation hearing

Attorney General William Barr said at his confirmation hearing that “it would be a crime” for a president to trade a pardon for a commitment not to incriminate that president.

The senator who asked that question wants to know why that logic does not apply to President Donald Trump’s announcement on Friday that he was commuting the sentence of former Trump campaign associate Roger Stone.

“Do you believe a president can lawfully issue a pardon in exchange for the recipient’s promise to not incriminate him?” Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont asked during Barr’s January 2019 confirmation hearing.

“No, that would be a crime,” Barr said in response. Continue reading.

Inside the White House, a Gun Industry Lobbyist Delivers for His Former Patrons

New York Times logoThe Trump administration lifted a ban on sales of silencers to private overseas buyers that was intended to protect U.S. troops from ambushes. The change was championed by a lawyer for the president who had worked for a firearms trade group.

Michael B. Williams spent nearly two years helping to run a trade group focused on expanding sales of firearm silencers by American manufacturers.

But try as he might, he could not achieve one of the industry’s main goals: overturning a ban on sales to private foreign buyers enacted by the State Department to protect American troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Then Mr. Williams joined the Trump administration.

As a White House lawyer, he pushed to overturn the prohibition, raising the issue with influential administration officials and creating pressure within the State Department, according to current and former government officials. Continue reading.

Judge Orders More Details Behind President Trump’s Clemency for Roger Stone

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday demanded more information about President Donald Trump’s decision to commute the prison sentence of longtime ally Roger Stone.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered that the parties provide her by Tuesday with a copy of the executive order that commuted Stone’s sentence. She also asked for clarity about the scope of the clemency, including whether it covers just his prison sentence or also the two-year period of supervised release that was part of his sentence.

There was no immediate public response on the court docket to the judge’s directive, but the Justice Department’s pardon attorney office did post on its website a two-page order making clear that the clemency extended to both Stone’s prison sentence and his supervised release. Continue reading.

Stone Posts Meme That Depicts Him Wielding Sword Against Judge

As Trump confidant Roger Stone serves home confinement while waiting to report to prison on July 14, he is using Instagram to attack Judge Amy Berman Jackson, the federal judge who oversees his case. Stone previously ran afoul of Jackson after he used his Instagram account to post a picture that showed Jackson next to apparent gun crosshairs.

The image Stone posted on Instagram on July 4 references the film 300, a fictionalized account of the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae, which pitted a small number of Spartan warriors against Persian King Xerxes I.

Jackson is depicted as Xerxes, the film’s main antagonist, and Stone is shown as a sword-wielding Leonidas, the leader of the Spartans. (At the climax of the film, Leonidas attempts to kill Xerxes by throwing a spear at him, but succeeds only in wounding him, before he and the rest of his men are overwhelmed by the Persian army.) The image references a line often used by Stone while discussing his criminal proceedings — his claim that he will not “bear false witness” against President Donald Trump. Continue reading.

Trump-connected lobbyists reap windfall in federal virus aid

WASHINGTON — Forty lobbyists with ties to President Donald Trump helped clients secure more than $10 billion in federal coronavirus aid, among them five former administration officials whose work potentially violates Trump’s own ethics policy, according to a report.

The lobbyists identified Monday by the watchdog group Public Citizen either worked in the Trump executive branch, served on his campaign, were part of the committee that raised money for inaugural festivities or were part of his presidential transition. Many are donors to Trump’s campaigns, and some are prolific fundraisers for his reelection.

They include Brian Ballard, who served on the transition, is the finance chair for the Republican National Committee and has bundled more than $1 million for Trump’s fundraising committees. He was hired in March by Laundrylux, a supplier of commercial laundry machines, after the Department of Homeland Security issued guidance that didn’t include laundromats as essential businesses that could stay open during the lockdown. A week later, the administration issued new guidance adding laundromats to the list. Continue reading.

Treasury, SBA data show small-business loans went to private-equity backed chains, members of Congress

Washington Post logoAlmost 90,000 employers also appear to have received money despite not saying how many jobs they would save

As part of its $660 billion small-business relief program, the SBA also handed out loans to private schools catering to elite clientele, firms owned by foreign companies and large chains backed by well-heeled Wall Street firms. Nearly 90,000 companies in the program took the aid without promising on their applications they would rehire workers or create jobs.

The data, which was released after weeks of pressure from media outlets and lawmakers, paints a picture of a haphazard first-come, first-served program that was not designed to evaluate the relative need of the recipients. While it buttressed a swath of industries and entities, including restaurants, medical offices, car dealerships, law firms and nonprofits, the agency did not filter out companies that have potential conflicts of interest among influential Washington figures. Continue reading.

Interior watchdog: Senior official misused post to aid family

IG’s report comes after Trump’s firing or demotion of five other agencies’ watchdogs in recent weeks

A senior Interior Department official used his position to get a family member a job at the EPA, a violation of federal ethics rules and an abuse of office, the department’s inspector general said in a report released Friday.

The investigation found Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs Douglas Domenech contacted an EPA official in person and via email in 2017 on behalf of a family member pursuing a job at the agency. Domenech also promoted a different family member’s wedding business to the same EPA official, according to investigators.

Interior spokesman Nicholas Goodwin said in an email the contacts occurred before the department stepped up its ethical compliance training. He did not dispute the IG’s findings. Continue reading.