Tag: “only the best people”

Trump expected to tap Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell as acting intel chief

The Hill logoPresident Trump announced Wednesday that he is tapping U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell as his acting director of national intelligence.

The New York Times first reported and a source confirmed to The Hill earlier Wednesday that Trump was expected to choose Grenell, a close ally, to replace current acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, who has served in the role since August. The president then announced his plans in a tweet, shortly before a campaign stop in Phoenix.

Maguire is required by law to leave his position by March 12. Continue reading.

Why Would Any Competent Person Work For Trump?

Donald Trump has a terrible time getting good people to work for him. Just look at who is, and is not, giving testimony in his impeachment hearings, which increasingly suggests a contest between Super Bowl champions and backyard flag football players, most of whom ran away when they saw who was across the scrimmage line.

The impeachment inquiry, and Trump’s entire presidency, is a complete contradiction to his frequent campaign promise that as president he would “surround myself with only the best and most serious people.”

For starters consider Gordon Sondland, the goofy Oregon hotel magnate who bought himself an ambassadorship with a $1 million gift to the Trump inaugural. Sondland is so naive that sitting in a Kyiv restaurant he rings up Trump on his cell phone, not giving a moment’s thought to Ukrainian and Russian intelligence services recording that call.

View the complete November 26 article by David Cay Johnston of DC Report on the National Memo website here.

Top Trump health official spent $3 million on contractors who helped boost her visibility

Washington Post logoEarlier this year, a top Republican communications operative delivered a plan to boost the profile of Seema Verma, President Trump’s appointee overseeing health insurance for the elderly and poor. The “Executive Visibility Proposal” was a month-by-month blueprint to have her grant interviews to Women’s Day and other magazines, speak at prominent conferences and appear at Washington’s most prestigious social events.

Marked “privileged, pre-decisional, deliberative,” the eight-page proposal, emailed to Verma’s deputy chief of staff, was part of an unusual campaign carried out by high-paid contractors Verma brought on at a cost to taxpayers of more than $3 million.

This work over 19 months that provided “strategic communication” services by a network of politically connected contractors and subcontractors, first reported by Politico, came as Verma spoke about the importance of fostering individual responsibility and self-reliance among the nation’s needy.

Senior Trump Official Mina Chang Resigns After Reports She Inflated Her Resume

A senior Trump administration has resigned from her position after reports emerged that she inflated her resume with several misleading claims about her education, professional background, and nonprofit work, Politico reported on Monday.

Mina Chang, the 35-year-old deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stability Operations, was accused last week of falsely claiming she was a Harvard Business School graduate, exaggerating the extent of her nonprofit’s work, and even creating a fake Time magazine cover with her face on it. Chang rebutted the allegations made public in a NBC story, claiming she did not overstate her academic credentials and did not commission the doctored Time cover. However, “resigning is the only acceptable moral and ethical option for me at this time,” Chang wrote in her resignation letter effective immediately.

Chang, who started her position in April, slammed the State Department for not defending her against reports she made up a role on a United Nations panel. “A character assassination based solely on innuendo was launched against me attacking my credentials and character,” she said. “My superiors at the Department refused to defend me, stand up for the truth or allow me to answer the false charges against me.”

View the November 18 article by Pilar Melendez on the Daily Beast website here.

Top Interior official who pushed to expand drilling in Alaska to join oil company there

Washington Post logoJoe Balash, a Trump appointee, had served as assistant secretary for land and minerals management until Aug. 30.

Last summer, Scott Pruitt left his job heading the Environmental Protection Agency and within a few months had started consulting for coal magnate Joseph W. Craft III. Three weeks after leaving the Interior Department, energy counselor Vincent DeVito joined Cox Oil Offshore, which operates in the Gulf of Mexico, as its executive vice president and general counsel. Now, Joe Balash — who oversaw oil and gas drilling on federal lands before resigning from Interior on Friday — is joining a foreign oil company that is expanding operations on Alaska’s North Slope.

Balash, who served as the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for land and minerals management for nearly two years, confirmed in a phone interview Tuesday night that he will begin working for the Papua New Guinea-based Oil Search, which is developing one of Alaska’s largest oil prospects in years. On Wednesday, Oil Search officials said he would become senior vice president for external affairs in the company’s Alaska operations. Continue reading “Top Interior official who pushed to expand drilling in Alaska to join oil company there”

House Judiciary Committee subpoenas ex-White House aide Rob Porter

The House Judiciary Committee on Monday issued a subpoena to former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, a key witness in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s obstruction of justice investigation into President Donald Trump, as the panel weighs whether to recommend articles of impeachment.

Porter, who resigned his post last year amid allegations that he abused his two ex-wives, was at the president’s side during several episodes of potential obstruction chronicled in Mueller’s 448-page report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and Trump’s attempts to thwart the probe.

“The committee intends to hold hearings and obtain testimony over the coming months as part of its efforts to hold the president accountable as we move forward with our investigation into obstruction, corruption and abuse of power by Trump and his associates,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said in a statement announcing the subpoena, which was first reported by POLITICO.

View the complete August 26 article by Andrew Desiderio and Eliana Johnson on the Politico website here.

GOP members confirm Bernhardt met with group tied to ex-client

Democrats might be focusing on meetings and calls kept off Interior secretary’s official calendar

Republicans on two House committees probing Interior Secretary David Bernhardt acknowledged in a report Thursday that the attorney and former energy lobbyist appeared to have met with the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, a trade group affiliated with a former Bernhardt client.

The joint report from Republican staff on the House Oversight and Reform, and Natural Resources committees also said ethics officials at the Interior Department approved the meeting with the trade group. The report, by acknowledging the meeting, may also indicate where the majority Democrats are focusing their examination into whether Bernhardt kept phone calls and meetings with industry representatives and groups off his public calendar.

Bernhardt, who became secretary in December 2018 after serving as deputy secretary, signed an ethics pledge when he joined the department to recuse himself from meetings with former clients. He listed the U.S. Oil and Gas Association as a client. The group’s website lists the Louisiana association as one of its four divisions.

View the complete August 23 article by Jacob Holzman on The Roll Call website here.

GOP members confirm Bernhardt met with group tied to ex-client

Democrats might be focusing on meetings and calls kept off Interior secretary’s official calendar

Republicans on two House committees probing Interior Secretary David Bernhardt acknowledged in a report Thursday that the attorney and former energy lobbyist appeared to have met with the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, a trade group affiliated with a former Bernhardt client.

The joint report from Republican staff on the House Oversight and Reform, and Natural Resources committees also said ethics officials at the Interior Department approved the meeting with the trade group. The report, by acknowledging the meeting, may also indicate where the majority Democrats are focusing their examination into whether Bernhardt kept phone calls and meetings with industry representatives and groups off his public calendar.

Bernhardt, who became secretary in December 2018 after serving as deputy secretary, signed an ethics pledge when he joined the department to recuse himself from meetings with former clients. He listed the U.S. Oil and Gas Association as a client. The group’s website lists the Louisiana association as one of its four divisions.

View the complete August 23 article by Jacob Holzman on The Roll Call website here.

Trump campaign official bizarrely compares president to Mother Teresa: ‘Who has done more for women?’

AlterNet logoA former “Apprentice” contestant-turned-Iowa campaign official compared President Donald Trump to Mother Teresa.

Tana Goertz, the key primary state’s Trump Team coordinator, claimed the president had done more for women than possibly anyone else in history than the sainted Calcutta nun, reported CBS News.

“There’s not a person alive that literally has done so much for a female, for the female population,” Goertz said. “I can’t think of one person that I could go, except for Mother Teresa. I mean, literally, who has done more for women in office than Donald Trump?”

View the complete August 23 article by Travis Gettys from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

White House press secretary’s scandal-plagued career includes DUIs, cheating and a horrifying comment about a botched execution

AlterNet logoStephanie Grisham, who replaced Sarah Huckabee Sanders as President Donald Trump’s press secretary, has led a scandal-plagued career that has been dogged by accusations of plagiarism and cheating on expense reports, as well as two arrests for driving while under the influence.

The New York Times reports that Grisham’s resume is one that “contains red flags that most administrations might deem troubling,” and the paper then goes on to document Grisham’s multiple alleged ethical missteps that have so far cost her two different jobs.

For example, Grisham was an employee at the AAA auto club in Arizona for only one year before she left the job under a cloud of scandal after being accused of filing false claims for “travel and other expenses,” the Times reports.

View the complete August 22 article by Brad Reed from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.