Tag: Trump cronyism

Report: Ronny Jackson Nominated for Second Star by White House

Credit: Carlos Barria, Reuters

Former doctor to President Donald Trump, Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, is reportedly up for a “second star” while he under investigation by the Defense Department Inspector General’s Office. An official told Task and Purpose Jackson was nominated by the White House for “rear admiral upper half (2-star)” and submitted the nomination in Jan. 2019. The nomination was reportedly sent over to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Jan. 15, but is not close to a vote. The Inspector General’s Office confirmed to The Washington Postlast year that it was looking into allegations against Jackson’s conduct—which reportedly include accusations of overprescribing drugs and the creation of a “hostile working environment.” Inspector general’s office spokesman Bruce Anderson told the website on Friday the investigation is “still ongoing.” Jackson was nominated to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, but withdrew his nomination in April 2018 after the allegations were made public.

View the complete February 1 post on the Daily Beast website here.

Miriam Adelson was awarded Medal of Freedom after donating $500k to Trump aides’ legal expenses

President Trump presents Miriam Adelson, wife of Sheldon Adelson, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Credit: Cheriss May, NurPhoto

The Adelsons were the biggest donors to Trump’s campaign other than Trump.

In the last three months of 2018, GOP megadonors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson donated $500,000 to a fund set up to pay legal expenses incurred by aides to President Donald Trump, The Washington Post reported Thursday night.

Contributions to the fund are specifically allocated to pay expenses for aides wrapped up in the investigation into whether Russia colluded with the Trump campaign. The Adelsons donated $250,000 each on October 1. Just a little over one month later, Trump awarded Miriam Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Before receiving the medal, the Adelsons donated $30 million to Trump’s presidential campaign in the final months of the 2016 race, and last year, donated $100 million to various Republican candidates and GOP-aligned PACs in the midterm elections. In fact, as Open Secrets noted last fall, other than Trump himself, the Adelsons were the largest donors to the Trump campaign. They also donated $5 million to Trump’s inaugural committee.

View the complete February 1 article by Addy Baird on the ThinkProgress website here.

Democrats Vow Investigation of VA’s Shadow Rulers After ProPublica Story

The following article by Isaac Arnsdorf was posted on the ProPublica website August 8, 2018:

“This situation reeks of corruption and cronyism,” said the top Democrat on the House veterans committee.

Rep. Tim Walz sent a letter demanding that the VA hand over all records of contacts between agency officials and three men who have had vast influence over Trump administration policy on veterans. Credit: Bill Clark, Roll Call

Update, Aug. 10, 2018: Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, formally requested investigations by the VA Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., called on the VA secretary to cut ties with the Mar-a-Lago Crowd and remove their allies in the agency.

Democratic lawmakers said they will investigate how three outsiders have been shaping policy and personnel at the Department of Veterans Affairs. A ProPublica investigationTuesday revealed the vast influence of the trio, who often meet at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

Tim Walz, the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, sent a letter to the agency’s new secretary demanding that the VA hand over all records of contacts between agency officials and the three men, who are sometimes referred to as the “Mar-a-Lago Crowd.” Continue reading “Democrats Vow Investigation of VA’s Shadow Rulers After ProPublica Story”

The Shadow Rulers of the VA

The following article by Isaac Arnsdorf was posted on the ProPublica website August 7, 2018:

How Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter and two other Mar-a-Lago cronies are secretly shaping the Trump administration’s veterans policies.

Donald Trump with Ike Perlmutter and Reince Priebus. Credit: Ricky Carioti, The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Last February, shortly after Peter O’Rourke became chief of staff for the Department of Veterans Affairs, he received an email from Bruce Moskowitz with his input on a new mental health initiative for the VA. “Received,” O’Rourke replied. “I will begin a project plan and develop a timeline for action.”

O’Rourke treated the email as an order, but Moskowitz is not his boss. In fact, he is not even a government official. Moskowitz is a Palm Beach doctor who helps wealthy people obtain high-service “concierge” medical care.

More to the point, he is one-third of an informal council that is exerting sweeping influence on the VA from Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida. The troika is led by Ike Perlmutter, the reclusive chairman of Marvel Entertainment, who is a longtime acquaintance of President Trump’s. The third member is a lawyer named Marc Sherman. None of them has ever served in the U.S. military or government.

View the complete article here.

Trump Taps McConnell Brother-in-Law, Big GOP Donor, for Labor Post

The following article by Griffin Connolly was posted on the Roll Call website May 15, 2018:

Tech entrepreneur nominated to lead Labor Department pension agency

Credit: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo

Family connections can help when you’re applying for a new job — especially in Washington.

Just ask one of President Donald Trump’s latest executive branch nominees, who is married to the sister of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who’s married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Trump announced this week that tech entrepreneur Gordon Hartogensis is his pick to lead the Department of Labor’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which insures private-sector pension plans for retired Americans. Continue reading “Trump Taps McConnell Brother-in-Law, Big GOP Donor, for Labor Post”

How the Spoils Were Doled Out to Trump Campaign Workers and Allies

The following article by Eric Lipton and Danielle Ivory was posted on the New York Times website March 7, 2018:

President Trump last year addressing the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. He has filled jobs with former Heritage employees, as well as former lobbyists and campaign workers. Credit Tom Brenner/The New York Times

One appointee went from “battleground states” director for the Trump presidential campaign to a role at the State Department that sent him to South Africa to meet with health officials.

Another traded in her campaign experience as a field director in Virginia for a federal job promoting nuclear energy sales abroad.

And another, who spent four months on the campaign in New York after graduating from college, landed a job as an aide to the commerce secretary with a résumé that included work as a receptionist at an animal hospital and a summer job at a country club’s golf shop. Continue reading “How the Spoils Were Doled Out to Trump Campaign Workers and Allies”