Tag: Trump White House stonewalling

Sen. Murphy requests GAO to check Trump administration’s classification of documents

You are not allowed … to keep information from the public simply because it’s going to hurt you politically,” he says.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is requesting the Government Accountability Office review whether the Trump administration is improperly classifying documents that it provided to Congress.

In an interview, Murphy, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that the Trump administration’s classification of a letter from Vice President Mike Pence’s aide Jennifer Williams centered on the vice president’s call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was the “last straw.”

“There was absolutely nothing in that document that should have been classified,” Murphy said. “It was only classified because it was politically hurtful to the president in the middle of an impeachment proceeding and you are not allowed as president of the United States to keep information from the public simply because it’s going to hurt you politically.” Continue reading.

Schiff: Pence aide provided new impeachment evidence — but VP’s office classified it

A national security aide to Vice President Mike Pence submitted additional classified evidence to House impeachment investigators about a phone call between Pence and Ukraine’s president, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff revealed Friday.

In a letter to Pence, Schiff (D-Calif.) asked the vice president to declassify supplemental testimony from the aide, Jennifer Williams, about Pence’s Sept. 18 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, arguing that there is no “legitimate basis” to keep it secret.

“The Office of the Vice President’s decision to classify ‘certain portions’ of the Sept. 18 call … cannot be justified on national security or any other legitimate grounds we can discern,” Schiff wrote to Pence, requesting a response by Dec. 11.

Continue reading

CNN attorney accuses DOJ of ‘slow-rolling’ FOIA’d Mueller documents: ‘News delayed is news denied’

AlterNet logoWith President Donald Trump facing an impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House of Representatives because of the Ukraine scandal, the media aren’t focusing on “Russiagate” nearly as much as they were earlier this year. Nonetheless, CNN has continued to pursue sealed records from former special xounsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, and this week, an attorney representing CNN complained that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has yet to hand over all of the records the cable news outlet has requested.

Attorney Charles Tobin, according to Courthouse News, told U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, “News delayed is news denied.” Tobin noted that the first Mueller-related documents the DOJ gave CNN in response to its Freedom of Information Act request were delivered to CNN’s Washington, D.C. office on November 2. But CNN has yet to receive other Mueller-related documents it requested, Tobin complained.

“We are convinced that the government is slow-rolling these documents,” the attorney told Walton.

View the complete November 26 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

Mulvaney allies to try to stonewall Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, officials say

Washington Post logoBudget chief and other top aides will attempt to create firewall after other senior officials gave testimony that questioned Trump’s motivations

One of acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s top allies is preparing to deliver what President Trump wants but has failed to achieve so far in the impeachment inquiry: unquestioning loyalty from administration staff.

Russell Vought, a Mulvaney protege who leads the White House Office of Management and Budget, intends a concerted defiance of congressional subpoenas in coming days, and two of his subordinates will follow suit — simultaneously proving their loyalty to the president and creating a potentially critical firewall regarding the alleged use of foreign aid to elicit political favors from a U.S. ally.

The OMB is at the nexus of the impeachment inquiry because Democrats are pressing for details about why the White House budget office effectively froze the Ukraine funds that Congress had already appropriated.

View the complete November 3 article by Rachael Bade, Josh Dawsey and Erica Werner on The Washington Post website here.

Transparency and Honesty?

The following article was posted on the TrumpAccountable.org website May 22, 2017:

Swamp

In January, President Trump issued an executive order to prevent lobbyists from holding positions in agencies where they have actively lobbied for the interests of an industry. The executive order mirrored the Obama White House policy intent on keeping advocates for a particular industry out of the agencies responsible for enforcing budgets and writing policies. Both the Obama and Trump policies, however, allow the president to grant waivers to hire staff for positions that are particularly difficult to fill.

President Obama immediately publicized the few waivers he granted in the interest of transparency. Continue reading “Transparency and Honesty?”