The list of former Trump staffers indicted just keeps getting longer!



Thinskin

 

Fact check: Kamala Harris quote about 'vengeance' is fake, created by satire website

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...amala-harris-quote-vengeance-fake/3352931001/

 

If I say it long enough, it's soon to be true...aint that how you roll hack fuck.

 

Trump's Justice Dept failed to prosecute cabinet members (4 times)
In a normal term, having a cabinet secretary referred to the Justice Department for prosecution would be extraordinary. With Trump, it happened four times.

s.Ramin Talaie / Getty Images


March 4, 2021, 1:17 PM MST
By Steve Benen
First, there was Ryan Zinke. Corruption allegations involving Donald Trump's scandal-plagued Interior secretary were referred to Justice Department prosecutors, but Trump's DOJ declined to charge the Montana Republican.

Then there was Alex Acosta, Donald Trump's scandal-plagued Labor secretary, who was also referred to Justice Department prosecutors, only to have Trump's DOJ decline to charge the Florida Republican, too.

And who can forget Robert Wilkie, Donald Trump's controversial VA secretary, who was -- you guessed it -- referred to Justice Department prosecutors, only to have Trump's DOJ choose not to charge him, either.

The Trump administration is obviously over, but it turns out this club has a fourth member.

The Transportation Department's watchdog asked the Justice Department to criminally investigate Elaine Chao late last year over concerns that she misused her office when she was transportation secretary under President Donald Trump but was rebuffed, according to a report released Wednesday.

I hope you saw Rachel's coverage of this last night, but the allegations against Chao are pretty remarkable. Indeed, the list of possible transgressions isn't short.

For example, Chao was accused of retaining shares in a company that supplies road-paving materials, despite the fact that she was the secretary of Transportation. She was similarly accused of, among other things, using her position to arrange official travel and official government meetings intended to benefit her family's business.

Investigators determined that the corruption allegations against Chao were serious enough to be referred to the Justice Department, but as was the case with her scandal-plagued colleagues on the Trump cabinet, federal prosecutors -- politicized to a ridiculous extent in the Trump era -- decided not to pursue the matter.



But it's the larger context that also amazes. In a normal administration, having a cabinet secretary referred by federal investigators to the Justice Department for possible prosecution would've been extraordinary. But in the Trump era, it happened four times.

What's more, each of these controversies were largely overlooked by the public because they were eclipsed by even more dramatic scandals involving the sitting president.

As regular readers may recall, Trump declared with pride in 2019, "There are those that say we have one of the finest cabinets." In reality, no one ever made such an assessment -- and no one ever will.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow...ed-prosecute-cabinet-members-4-times-n1259656

And now let's make it FIVE.

Agency watchdog: Trump cabinet chief provided false testimony
Five times a member of Trump's cabinet was referred to the Justice Department for possible prosecution. Five times nothing happened.
July 19, 2021, 9:21 AM MDT
By Steve Benen
The Trump administration made every effort to include a citizenship question in the 2020 census, though the gambit ultimately failed. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts explained in 2019 that the White House came up short, not because a citizenship question was legally impermissible, but because the administration didn't have a coherent, justifiable reason for their plan.

Making matters worse was the fact that then-Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross obviously lied about the scheme, as other Trump administration officials struggled to keep their stories straight.

As Government Executive reported, the matter was so significant that the Commerce Department's inspector general's office opened an investigation and concluded that officials, including Ross, "provided false testimony regarding the origins of the proposed citizenship question on the 2020 census."

The Commerce IG launched its probe in 2019, following a request from lawmakers. The investigators did not make their report public, citing Privacy Act concerns, but said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., that Ross and other officials played a "substantive role" in proposing the addition of the citizenship question to the census.... Ross twice told Congress the addition of the citizenship question was based solely on a request from the Justice Department, but the IG found Ross "misrepresented the full rationale" behind the decision.

And while it's of interest that the former cabinet secretary lied to Congress, more than once, about the Republican scheme, it's of even greater significance that the inspector general's office presented its findings to the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

In other words, the agency's independent watchdog department thought the Trump appointees' deceptions might have risen to the level of criminal wrongdoing.

As it turns out, the Justice Department decided not to prosecute, which has proven to be a familiar consequence.

As regular readers may recall, the first example was Ryan Zinke. Corruption allegations involving Donald Trump's scandal-plagued Interior secretary were referred to Justice Department prosecutors, but Trump's DOJ declined to charge the Montana Republican.

Then there was Alex Acosta, Trump's scandal-plagued Labor secretary, who was also referred to Justice Department prosecutors, only to have Trump's DOJ decline to charge the Florida Republican, too.


Robert Wilkie, Trump's controversial VA secretary, was also referred to Justice Department prosecutors, only to have Trump's DOJ choose not to charge him, either.

It was earlier this year when we learned that the Transportation Department's watchdog also asked the Justice Department to criminally investigate former Secretary Elaine Chao late last year over allegations that she misused her office. In keeping with the pattern, Trump's DOJ didn't pursue the matter.

And now Wilbur Ross has joined the quintet.

The bottom line in striking: Five times a member of Trump's cabinet was referred to the Justice Department for possible prosecution. Five times nothing happened.

Update: Both the Associated Press and Government Executive ran corrections yesterday, noting that it was Trump's Justice Department that decided to disregard the allegations against Wilbur Ross, predating the Biden administration. (This post previously said there was ambiguity about the timeline. That sentence has been removed.)

The larger point of this piece, however, remains the same: five Trump cabinet secretaries were caught up in scandals so significant that they were brought to the attention of the Justice Department for possible prosecution. There's no modern precedent for a presidential cabinet facing controversies this severe.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow...binet-chief-provided-false-testimony-n1274364

 

It occurs to me that while all these Trump staffers were acting on behalf of foreign governments, who exactly was acting on behalf of the US?



Thinskin

 

Looking for an honest man in the Trump administration is like looking for a needle in a haystack!

So much for supercop wanting to clean up Washington.



Thinskin

 

More on Kavanugh........were his sexual and physical assaults ignored?



Thinskin

 

Are the hack fuck leftists attempting to get Kavanaugh impeached?..is this what all this is about today?

They can't stack the court, they cant get Beyer to retire, so now they're going after Kavanaugh?

 

If they had done the background checks in the first place you would not be in the uncomfortable position of defending a sexual predator.........or perhaps you are completely comfortable with having sexual predators in positions of power?



Thinskin

 

Bring the ''evidence'' to light and draw up some articles of impeachment...we know the hack fuck leftists know how to do that.

Until you are capable of doing such horseshit....suck on it, Kavanaugh is a sitting Justice.

 

The man is not fit to drive a school bus!

Thinskin

 

Hmp....tourist express's another opinion....not to be taken into advisement.

 

Well we already know that you have no problem with sexual predators using and abusing positions of power.

I wonder why the FBI did not fully investigate Kavanaugh and why their findings were sent to the WH and not the DOJ?

It will all come out in the wash.

Thinskin

 

Mere allegations tourist, which does not constitute anything, other than allegations.

See, here in the U.S...we are innocent until proven guilty... that is a god given right and protected under the Bill of Rights that was adopted back in 1791, under the 5th and the 6th.

You're welcome.

 

And also, if thinskin was as educated about such things in America, he'd know that
a) The FBI did exactly what it was supposed to do with tips from it's hotline (ordered by the whitehouse, we have to note)
b) The tips were forwarded to the senate committee by the whitehouse, timely.
raising again the question; were despicables too busy to note them, you know, getting Dr. Ford ready for her testimony and fawning over Avenatti?

 

FBI Admits It Got 4,500 Tips on Brett Kavanaugh—Then Punted Them to Trump Team
‘A SHAM’
“This long-delayed answer confirms how badly we were spun by Director Wray and the FBI in the Kavanaugh background investigation and hearing,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said.

Breaking News Reporter

Updated Jul. 23, 2021 3:09AM ET / Published Jul. 22, 2021 3:13PM ET

Win McNamee/Getty
The FBI has revealed that it received 4,500 tips during its investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh but only passed some of them along to White House lawyers, ignoring countless others.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fbi-a...tt-kavanaugh-palmed-them-off-to-trump-counsel

 

These 3 GOP lawmakers face ethics complaints for failing to disclose $22 million in stock trades

Brett Bachman, Salon
July 31, 2021



Image via Tommy Tuberville for Senate.
Three Republican lawmakers were accused of violating a federal ethics law through their prolific stock trading, according to complaints filed by a watchdog group Friday.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville and Reps. Pat Fallon and Blake Moore all reportedly failed to disclose dozens of trades worth up to $22 million within the 45 days mandated by a 2012 law called the STOCK Act, which was intended to fight conflicts of interest by lawmakers.

"When members of Congress trade individual stocks and fail to disclose those trades, they break the law and diminish the public's trust in government," the complaints, filed by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, say. The organization also wrote that a recent spate of stock-related misconduct shows that the STOCK Act is not working as intended — indeed, fines for missing required filing deadlines are as low as $200 and more serious lapses are rarely forwarded to the Department of Justice or the Securities and Exchange Commission for criminal investigation.

As Salon reported earlier this month, Fallon also dumped $250,000 worth of Microsoft stock just weeks before the company's high-profile cloud computing deal with the Pentagon, valued at up to $10 billion, was abruptly cancelled. He sits on the House Armed Services Committee's brand new Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems, which has oversight over the deal in question, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract.

"The recent prevalence of STOCK Act violations in the House shows that merely the threat of a fine is not deterring members of Congress from breaking the law; real accountability is necessary," the CLC wrote in its complaint.

All three lawmakers told Insider that the trades were executed by financial advisors who buy and sell stocks on their behalf — though the STOCK Act states that each Congressperson is personally responsible for following the law.

The number of ethics complaints related to Congressional stock trading has grown over the last few years — and is one of the rare areas of Washington, D.C. where bipartisanship still reigns. Two Democrats, Rep. Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, and Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, from New York, also had similar complaints filed against them earlier this year by the CLC and Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, respectively.

https://www.rawstory.com/gop-stock-trades/

 

Trump-linked PACs are still funneling donor money into his properties: report

Tom Boggioni
August 01, 2021



President Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump, official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian.


According to a report from Washington Post, properties owned by Donald Trump are continuing to rake in money from political action committees affiliated with the one-term president as well as the federal government.

With Politico reporting that Trump's PACs 'brought in $82 million during the first half of 2021 and have $102 million in the bank," the Post adds that the money that should be going to either promote Trump's next political run or to back fellow GOP candidates also seeking office, is ending up in Trump's pocket.

According to the Post, "Save America, the leadership PAC where former president Donald Trump is asking loyalists to direct their political contributions, paid for lodging about two dozen times in the first six months of 2021. Nine of those times, the payments went to properties owned by the former president, according to a filing made public on Saturday. All told, the PAC sent at least $68,000 to the Trump Hotel Collection, showing how the real estate mogul — long after ending his presidential campaign and leaving office — continues to use donor money at his own properties."

Additionally, "Make America Great Again PAC, a repurposed campaign account, spent about $200,000 on office and restaurant space in Trump Tower," the Post's David Fahrenholt and Isaac Stanley-Becker are reporting.

Trump has long been accused of enriching himself, such as by overcharging the government for housing Secret Service agents at his golf resorts, and as the Post reports, little has changed.

"Since Trump entered the presidential race in June 2015, he has used his political campaigns and associated committees to pump more than $19 million into his own businesses, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal campaign-finance records," the report states. "The practice began during his 2016 run, when Trump's campaign paid his businesses about $12.5 million — transforming donors' political contributions into private revenue for his businesses. Trump billed his own campaign to fly himself on his Boeing 757 jet, to rent office space in Trump Tower and to hold events at Trump golf clubs. His name-branded 'Trump Ice' water even showed up on the campaign's tab."

After noting that the government paid out over $2.5 million to Trump during his four years in office and that he is still not done enriching himself at taxpayer expense.

"Trump has continued to bill the U.S. government even during his post-presidency, by charging the Secret Service for rooms they've used while protecting him at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., and at his golf club in Bedminster. The government has paid Trump at least $72,000 this way since he left office, according to receipts obtained by The Post." the report states before adding teh caveat, "There is no rule against Trump charging the government for these rooms, allowing him to continue the practice indefinitely."

You can read more here.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-grift-2654335565/