trump admin bak

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bad code recover</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">maybe belated/redumbdent</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see trump Town (early)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see epa4 djt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/magazine/trump-government-heritage-foundation-think-tank.html">
</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/magazine/trump-government-heritage-foundation-think-tank.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/magazine/trump-government-heritage-foundation-think-tank.html</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">nyt</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">heritage, demint dunlop:</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Today it is clear that for all the chaos and churn of the current administration, Heritage has achieved a huge strategic victory. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Those who worked on the project estimate that hundreds of the people the think tank put forward landed jobs, in just about every government agency.</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Heritage’s recommendations included some of the most prominent members of Trump’s cabinet:</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Scott Pruitt, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Betsy DeVos (</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">whose in-laws endowed Heritage’s Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society), </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Mick Mulvaney</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rick Perry, Jeff Sessions </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">and many more. Dozens of Heritage employees and alumni also joined the Trump administration — at last count 66 of them, according to Heritage, with two more still awaiting Senate confirmation. It is a kind of critical mass that Heritage had been working toward for nearly a half-century.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“Feulner’s first law is people are policy,” </b>Ed Feulner, Heritage’s founder and former president, told me recently. Feulner was the head of domestic policy for the Trump transition, charting the direction of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture and several other agencies. We met late on a Friday afternoon, in a sitting room at the Metropolitan Club in Washington, a private social club founded by a group of Treasury Department officials during the Civil War. At his feet as we spoke sat a small box of table cards for a <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">dinner he was hosting at the club that evening for the newly appointed director of Trump’s National Economic Council, the television personality<b> Larry Kudlow </b>— another name on Heritage’s Project to Restore America list</span>. Now 76, ruddy, white-haired and content, almost jovial, Feulner founded Heritage decades ago as an ambitious young legislative aide with a radical dream built on a simple concept. As he put it, sinking deeper into his club chair: “First, you have to have the right people.”</div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">// RR mandate for leadership?!</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref 2 martens</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://kochdocs.org/2019/06/06/freedom-partners-roadmap-repeal/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://kochdocs.org/2019/06/06/freedom-partners-roadmap-repeal/</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2<span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.6px;">017 Koch Freedom Partners: A “Roadmap” for the Trump Administration to Repeal Environmental Rules</span></font></b></p><div class="entry-content clr" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>This 2017 document titled “A Roadmap to Repeal: Removing Regulatory Barriers to Opportunity” was created by Freedom Partners, </b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">a donor group </span><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/behind-the-curtain-exclusive-the-koch-brothers-secret-bank-096669#ixzz2hj4y5I8o" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit; background-color: transparent; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">Politico</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> has called the “secret bank” of the Koch Brothers.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This memo from Charles Koch’s network to its funders details changes in the law sought by what was then called the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, which was controlled by Koch and his operatives.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That group is now operating under the name “Stand Together.” Whatever the name, the concept is the same: this is the political agenda of the Koch empire in coordination with the CEOs and corporations that help fund Charles Koch’s agenda through a non-profit trade group–organized under 501(c)(5) of the IRS Code–which has operated under different brand names.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This kind of memo is one of the organizing tools deployed by Koch to get his billionaire and millionaire funder allies, who are part of what is also sometimes called the “Koch Network,” on the same page about the agenda for the year ahead. Koch’s political hq circulates these kinds of memos to attendees of the semi-annual retreats Charles Koch has been hosting for years to advance his personal and corporate agenda.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">This particular memo is focused on Koch’s agenda to have the Trump Administration changes the laws to suit his goals. This “Roadmap” includes a list of “what can be repealed in the first 100 days” of the Trump administration such as:</b></font></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 15px 0px 15px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">“Executive order putting a moratorium on new federal </span><b>coal leases;”</b></font></li><li style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Paris climate agreement requiring greenhouse gas emission reductions;”</span></font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">“Proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) programs incidental to the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b>Clean Power Plan;</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">”</span></span></font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Final Stream Protection Rule regarding coal mine permitting;”</b></font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">“Bureau of Land Management (BLM) federal lands </span><b>Methane Rule;”</b></font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">: 2017 and 2018 obligations;”</span></font></li><li style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“EPA Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards: Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles.”</font></li></ul><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It also lists “longer-term opportunities” such as the:</font></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 15px 0px 15px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">EPA Rule defining </span><b>The Waters of the United States;</b></font></li><li style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reversing the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.</font></li><li style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[doc]</font></li></ul></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="white-space: pre;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></span><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="white-space: pre;">https://kochdocs.org/2019/06/06/freedom-partners-roadmap-repeal/</span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A ROADMAP TO REPEAL:</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">REMOVING REGULATORY</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">BARRIERS TO OPPORTUNITY</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">President Obama has imposed an unprecedented onslaught of regulatory costs on the U.S. economy. Since 2009, federal</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">agencies have issued more than 600 major regulations with a total cost exceeding $700 billion. These regulations have erected</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">barriers to opportunity for millions of American families, resulting in the weakest workforce in nearly 40 years.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Freedom Partners strongly supports efforts by President-elect Trump and the new Congress to repeal as many of President</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Obama’s executive actions and regulations as possible. Removing these barriers to opportunity is among the surest ways to</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">jumpstart the U.S. economy and create more opportunity for all.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Unfortunately, repealing federal regulations is not as simple as it sounds. A successful strategy must be considered in three steps</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">and will require action from the administration, Congress, and the courts. Additionally, Freedom Partners urges Congress</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">to put lawmakers on record on as many of these regulations as possible so that voters can see where they stand and hold them</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">accountable in 2018.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">STEP 1. WHAT CAN BE REPEALED IN THE FIRST 100 DAYS</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Executive actions, proposed regulations, and recently finalized regulations.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Executive Actions and Proposed Regulations: President-elect Trump can unilaterally rescind any executive</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">action signed by President Obama or proposed regulations that have yet to be finalized, including, but not limited to:</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Executive order establishing a task force on <b>commercial advocacy [?]</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Executive order putting a moratorium on new federal coal leases</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Presidential memorandum requiring new federal overtime rule promulgation</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Paris Climate Agreement requiring greenhouse gas emissions reductions</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) programs incidental to the Clean Power Plan</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Proposed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) payday and vehicle title loan rules</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Proposed CFPB arbitration rules</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Regulations Finalized On or After June 13, 2016: Under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), Congress can</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>avoid a Senate filibuster to repeal all regulations finalized during the last 60 legislative days, with June 13, 2016, being the</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>cutoff dat<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">e.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Congress should prioritize the following:</span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Final Stream Protection Rule regarding coal mine permitting</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Bureau of Land Management (BLM) federal lands Methane Rule</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS): 2017 and 2018 obligations</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">EPA Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards: Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">STEP 2. LONGER-TERM OPPORTUNITIES</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">All other regulations passed before June 13, 2016 can be repealed in at least one of three ways.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Executive Rulemaking, Legislation to Rescind or Defund, and Judicial Challenges. These are time-consuming</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">processes that should begin immediately. President-elect Trump and Congress should prioritize the following:</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">EPA Rule defining The Waters of the United States</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">EPA Clean Power Plan</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>HHS Electronic Health Record Incentive Program</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">HHS Establishment of Exchanges and Qualified Health</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">DOL Overtime Rule</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">DOL Fiduciary Rule</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>FCC “Net Neutrality” Rule</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">USDA Calorie Labeling for Vending Machines</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">STEP 3. POLITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Freedom Partners will hold lawmakers who oppose regulatory relief accountable for their positions.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Floor Time: Congressional leaders should devote sufficient floor time to voting on finalized regulations and putting</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">lawmakers on record on President Obama’s most harmful regulations.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Voter Education: Network organizations will educate voters about their elected representatives’ positions on regulations</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">that impose barriers to opportunity for hardworking families.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This document was created by Freedom Partners, an organization which Politico called the “secret bank” of the Koch Brothers. https://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/behind-the-curtain-exclusive-the-koch-brothers-secret-bank-096669#ixzz2hj4y5I8o</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Original Document (PDF) »</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Contributed by Casey (Climate Investigations Center)</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Plain Text</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">just recap, not nec corrupt, nice cats</font></div><div><h2 class="header-with-anchor-widget" sf="SF" compact="Compact" display="Display" apple-system="apple-system" blinkmacsystemfont="BlinkMacSystemFont" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" apple="Apple" color="color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" font-weight="font-weight" var="var" font_weight_headings_preset="font_weight_headings_preset" bold="bold" webkit-font-smoothing="webkit-font-smoothing" antialiased="antialiased" line-height="line-height" em="em" margin="margin" px="px" font-size="font-size" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); --tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CHAPTER FOUR - A BIZARRE CHEX MIX</font><div id="§chapter-four-a-bizarre-chex-mix" class="header-anchor-widget" style="--tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; height: 35.8125px; width: 56px; position: absolute; left: -56px; top: -72px;"><div class="header-anchor-widget-button-container" style="--tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; height: 1.2em; width: 40px; display: flex; align-items: center; position: absolute; top: 72px; left: 0px;" /></div></h2><p segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); --tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="--tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;">If you can push your way through several previous harrowing memories, you'll remember that the first iteration of the Trump White House had a bizarre Chex Mix of staffers. There were a lot of lifelong <b>Republican operators who thought this was going to be normal </b>(Sean Spicer, Reince Priebus, Mike Pence, Kellyanne Conway), <b>white supremacists </b>who were getting their feet in the door (Steve Miller, Steve Bannon, Kris Kobach),<b> generals about to humiliate themselves</b> (John Kelly, H.R. McMaster, Jim Mattis)<b>, incompetent grifters looking for a payday (</b>Scott Pruitt, Betsy DeVos, Tom Price, Ryan Zinke, Ben Carson, Jared Kushner),<b> Trump loyalists and early adopters</b> (Jeff Sessions, Mike Flynn), and executive producers of the </span><em style="--tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;">Lego Batman</em><span style="--tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;"> movie (Steve Mnuchin). Part of the reason for this unusual setup was that so many of the usual suspects that you'd expect to return from the Bush White House or the legislative branch didn't want to be publicly associated with Trump, and that's only the political appointees, not the career executive branch bureaucrats who took the opportunity to retire or go into the private sector when the Trump presidency arrived.</span></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://umaine.edu/soe/wp-content/uploads/sites/199/2020/03/Climate-Chronology-January-2020.pdf">https://umaine.edu/soe/wp-content/uploads/sites/199/2020/03/Climate-Chronology-January-2020.pdf</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">end of tisch:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2019 (December)</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><b>Exxon Mobil cleared of claims of investor fraud regarding climate risk</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>A New York judge rejects, after a trial including testimony by former CEO Rex Tillerson, the</div><div>suit by the New York Attorney General for allegedly misleading investors about climate risk [see</div><div>2015 (November), 2016 (October) and 2018 (October)].</div><div>
</div><div>As summarized by InsideClimate News,</div><div>the decision “hand[s] the oil giant a major victory in the first trial of a fossil fuel company</div><div>involving climate change. … While [Justice Barry Ostrager] praised Exxon's executives for</div><div>"rigorously discharging their duties in the most comprehensive and meticulous manner possible,"</div><div>the judge excoriated the attorney general's case, saying it failed to establish that any investor was</div><div>misled. Ostrager also made clear, however, that ‘nothing in this opinion is intended to absolve</div><div>ExxonMobil from responsibility for contributing to climate change,’ adding that the company's</div><div>emission of greenhouse gases was not on trial. ‘ExxonMobil is in the business of producing</div><div>energy, and this is a securities fraud case, not a climate change case,’ he wrote.”* The Wall Street</div><div>Journal Editorial Board chimes in: “Well, that was embarrassing. After spending nearly four</div><div>years trying to nail Exxon Mobil for myriad climate-change deceptions, New York’s attorney</div><div>general was excoriated Tuesday by a state judge for making “hyperbolic” claims and essentially</div><div>trying to deceive the court.”</div><div>
</div><div>Nicholas Kusnetz and David Hasemyer, “Judge Clears Exxon in Investor Fraud Case Over Climate Risk Disclosure,” InsideClimate</div><div>News, December 10, 2019, https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10122019/exxon-ruling-climate-investor-fraud-new-york-case-impact</div><div>Editorial Board, “New York’s Stranded Exxon Case,” Wall Street Journal, December 10, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/newyorks-stranded-exxon-case-11576022767</div><div>
</div><div><b>2019 (December)</b></div><div><b>Nuclear Regulatory Commission gives unprecedented operating extension to Florida</b></div><div><b>nuclear plant</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>The Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal praises a NRC decision that for the first time</div><div>extended a nuclear plant’s license so it can operate for 80 years: “You probably haven’t heard</div><div>about a recent regulatory decision that will reduce carbon emissions because it doesn’t follow the</div><div>green template of controlling private industry and suppressing economic growth.” The editorial</div><div>invites climate activists to celebrate the milestone: “Because of the steep regulatory obstacles to</div><div>building new nuclear plants, continued operation of existing plants is the best bet for keeping</div><div>nuclear from declining below its current 19% share of U.S. electric power. Environmentalists</div><div>who say the climate is an existential crisis should be the most pleased at this indication that</div><div>nuclear energy will stay on the grid.”</div><div>Editorial Board, “A Nuclear Milestone for Climate,” Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/anuclear-milestone-for-climate-11576196316</div><div>
</div><div><b>2019 (December)</b></div><div><b>NOAA annual Arctic report card: the Arctic may already substantially contribute to</b></div><div><b>climate change</b></div><div>Scientists have long considered the possibility of a tipping point where warming permafrost</div><div>accelerates climate change through carbon emissions. For the first time, the National Oceanic</div><div>and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides a measured estimate of this. </div><div>
</div><div>Through a three-year study using aircraft measurements of atmospheric gases over the Arctic, the report </div><div>concludes: “Thawing permafrost throughout the Arctic could be releasing an estimated 300-600</div><div>million tons of net carbon per year to the atmosphere.” The report explains, “Northern permafrost</div><div>region soils contain 1,460-1,600 billion metric tons of organic carbon, about twice as much as</div><div>currently contained in the atmosphere. This pool of organic carbon is climate-sensitive. Warming</div><div>conditions promote microbial conversion of permafrost carbon into the greenhouse gases carbon</div><div>dioxide and methane that are released to the atmosphere in an accelerating feedback to climate</div><div>warming… These observations signify that the feedback to accelerating climate change may</div><div>already be underway.” As an article in Vox notes, the new estimate of emissions from permafrost</div><div>thawing is roughly equivalent to the annual fossil-fuel emissions of Japan. Ted Schuur, the author</div><div>of the report’s section on permafrost, tells Vox: “We think that should be two to three times bigger</div><div>by the end of the century based on the kind of forecasting we’ve done.”</div><div>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Arctic Program, 2019 Arctic Report Card, December, 2019,</div><div>https://www.arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card/Report-Card-2019</div><div>Brian Resnick, “Scientists feared unstoppable emissions from melting permafrost. They may have already started,” Vox, December</div><div>12, 2019, https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/12/12/21011445/permafrost-melting-arctic-report-card-noaa</div><div>
</div><div><b>2019 (October - December)</b></div><div><b>Fueled by unprecedented drought and record high temperatures, Australia burns</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>Bush fires destroy 84,000 square kilometers by year-end, an area bigger than Ireland. As</div><div>Elizabeth Kolbert reports in The New Yorker, “On December 17th, maximum temperatures</div><div>across the entire country, which is roughly the size of the continental United States, averaged</div><div>105.6 degrees. Then, on December 18th, they climbed to 107.4 degrees. The ‘feeling when you</div><div>open the oven door’ is how one Australian described the heat to the BBC. ‘It’s like that, but just</div><div>the whole time.’” Writes Stephen Wright in the Wall Street Journal: “Scientists say at least</div><div>six species are in jeopardy [of extinction]… The fires may have killed more than a billion</div><div>animals, according to a rough estimate by Chris Dickman, an ecology professor at the</div><div>University of Sydney, who based his calculation on animal-density data from 2007 that</div><div>involved more than 100 species of mammals, birds and reptiles. That data didn’t include bats,</div><div>frogs, insects and other invertebrates.”* Paul Krugman, on the intransigence of the Australian</div><div>“anti-environmentalist government” and the Murdoch empire’s “disinformation” campaign:</div><div>“But if a nation in flames isn’t enough to produce a consensus for action — if it isn’t even</div><div>enough to produce some moderation in the anti-environmentalist position — what will? The</div><div>Australia experience suggests that climate denial will persist come hell or high water — that is,</div><div>through devastating heat waves and catastrophic storm surges alike.”</div><div>
</div><div>Jeffrey Brainard, “News in Brief,” Science 367, no. 6474 (January 10, 2020): 127,</div><div>https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6474/126; see also John Pickrell, “Massive Australian blazes will ‘reframe our</div><div>understanding of bushfire’”, Science, November 20, 2019, https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/11/massive-australian-blazeswill-reframe-our-understanding-bushfire</div><div> Elizabeth Kolbert, “Don’t Wait,” The New Yorker, January 13, 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/01/13/what-willanother-decade-of-climate-crisis-bring</div><div>Stephen Wright, “Fires Raise Extinction Threat in Australia,” Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2020,</div><div>https://www.wsj.com/articles/australia-fires-imperil-populations-of-green-bees-honeyeaters-and-potoroos-11578997803</div><div>Paul Krugman, “Australia Shows Us the Road to Hell,” New York Times, January 9, 2020,</div><div>https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/opinion/australia-fires.html</div><div>
</div><div><b>2019 (December)</b></div><div><b>Impending U.S. exit from Paris accord exacerbates challenges to COP25</b></div><div>
</div><div>At the 25th UNFCCC Conference of the Parties in Madrid, delegates from 200 nations fail to</div><div>strengthen targets to cut emissions or to create a global carbon-trading system, two main goals of</div><div>the 2015 Paris accord. As the Wall Street Journal reports, “China, the top emitter globally, is</div><div>adding more coal-fired plants than the rest of the world combined, while also building them</div><div>internationally. The U.S., the world’s second-largest emitter, is rolling back emissions-reducing</div><div>rules on energy and transport enacted by the Obama administration.” A focus of debate is the</div><div>need for developed countries, as the top historical producers of greenhouse gases, to provide funds</div><div>to developing nations under the Paris accord. “Wealthy countries promised to make available</div><div>$100 billion annually starting in 2020 to help poorer nations meet climate goals Development…</div><div>[C]oncerns that developed countries may not deliver on their funding pledge … are fueling</div><div>backlash against Paris accord commitments. Some African countries said they will resist the</div><div>climate agenda altogether, citing their reliance on fossil fuel resources for future economic</div><div>growth.</div><div>
</div><div>‘Anybody out of the continent saying we should not develop [oil and gas] fields, that is</div><div>criminal. It is very unfair,’ Equatorial Guinea’s Mines, Industry and Energy Minister Gabriel</div><div>Obiang Lima said recently.” * These concerns are aggravated by President Trump’s 2017</div><div>reneging on $2 billion due to the Green Climate Fund from the U.S. [see 2017 (June)] The</div><div>Washington Post reports: “The painstaking pace of … COP25 stood in contrast to the mass</div><div>demonstrations and vehement pleas from young activists, some of whom staged protests inside</div><div>the conference hall and accused world leaders of neglecting the most significant challenge facing</div><div>humanity. ‘This is the biggest disconnect between this process and what’s going on in the real</div><div>world that I’ve seen,’ said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of</div><div>Concerned Scientists, who has been attending climate talks since the early 1990s.”* Elizabeth</div><div>Kolbert comments in The New Yorker: “in Madrid, the creaky machinery of climate diplomacy</div><div>came very close to breaking down altogether. The Trump Administration….and the [Australian</div><div>Prime Minister Scott] Morrison government, which wanted to use an accounting trick to fulfill</div><div>its Paris commitments, were explicitly blamed for the stalemate. Many commentators noted the</div><div>irony of the situation. A headline in the Guardian put it this way: ‘AUSTRALIA TOOK A</div><div>MATCH TO UN CLIMATE TALKS WHILE BACK HOME THE COUNTRY</div><div>BURNED.’”</div><div>
</div><div>Emre Peker, “U.N. Climate Talks End Without Meeting Goals,” Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2019,</div><div>https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-n-climate-talks-end-without-accord-on-carbon-markets-11576424025</div><div>Nurith Azenman,” A Little-Known Climate Fund Is Suddenly In The Spotlight,” NPR, June 9, 2017,</div><div>https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/06/09/532106567/a-little-known-climate-fund-is-suddenly-in-the-spotlight</div><div>Brady Dennis and Chico Harlan, “U.N. climate talks end with hard feelings, few results and new doubts about global unity,”</div><div>Washington Post, December 15, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/un-climate-talks-end-with-hardfeelings-few-results-and-new-doubts-about-global-unity/2019/12/15/38918278-1ec7-11ea-b4c1-fd0d91b60d9e_story.html</div><div>Elizabeth Kolbert, “Don’t Wait,” The New Yorker, January 13, 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/01/13/whatwill-another-decade-of-climate-crisis-brin</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>2019 (December)</b></div><div><b>Dutch Supreme Court rules that government has a legal duty to protect citizens from</b></div><div><b>climate change</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>The highest court in the Netherlands holds that, under the European Commission on Human</div><div>Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), the Dutch government has a legal duty to</div><div>implement policies to reduce the threats of climate change. The court also cites the Netherlands’</div><div>obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to which the</div><div>U.S. has also committed. Under the ruling, the government will have to cut emissions by 25%</div><div>of 1990 levels by the end of 2020. The lawsuit was brought six years ago by the Dutch</div><div>organization Urgenda, which has brought similar suits in other countries around the world. The</div><div>Dutch government, in defending the lawsuit, had agreed that climate change posed a risk to</div><div>human life and welfare under the ECHR, but argued for a slower ratcheting down of national</div><div>emissions. The court finds that it had failed to meet its burden of proof: “There is a broad</div><div>consensus in climate science and within the international community that as reduction measures</div><div>are taken later, they must become more drastic and costly to achieve the intended end</div><div>goal. </div><div>
</div><div>There is also a greater risk of abrupt climate change because a tipping point is reached. In</div><div>the light of that generally endorsed insight, it was up to the State to explain that the intended</div><div>acceleration of the reduction after 2020 will be practically feasible and sufficiently effective to</div><div>achieve the 2030 and 2050 targets, and thus the 2 oC- and keeping the 1.5 oC goal within</div><div>reach. However, the State did not do that. The Court of Appeal has therefore been able to judge</div><div>that the State must in any case adhere to the internationally deemed objective of a minimum</div><div>25% reduction by 2020.” In response to the government’s argument that it is not the proper role</div><div>of the courts to direct climate policy, the court rules: </div><div>
</div><div>“In the Dutch state system, decision-making on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions belongs to the government and</div><div>parliament. They have a great deal of freedom to make the necessary political decisions. It is up</div><div>to the judge to judge whether the government and parliament have kept their decisions within</div><div>the limits of the law to which they are bound. These limits stem, among other things, from the</div><div>ECHR. The Constitution requires the Dutch court to apply the provisions of this treaty. The</div><div>court must do this in accordance with the interpretation thereof by the ECtHR. This task for the</div><div>judge to offer legal protection, also against the government, is an essential part of the</div><div>democratic constitutional state.”* The Independent quotes Dr. David Boyd, the UN’s special</div><div>rapporteur on human rights and the environment: “This is the most important climate change</div><div>court decision in the world so far, confirming that human rights are jeopardised by the climate</div><div>emergency and that wealthy nations are legally obligated to achieve rapid and substantial</div><div>emission reductions.” The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet states:</div><div>“This landmark ruling provides a clear path forward for concerned individuals in Europe — and</div><div>around the world — to undertake climate litigation in order to protect human rights, and I pay</div><div>tribute to the civil society groups which initiated this action.” The New York Times cites</div><div>Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia</div><div>University: “There have been 1,442 climate lawsuits around the world…This is the</div><div>strongest decision ever. The Dutch Supreme Court upheld the first court order anywhere</div><div>directing a country to slash its greenhouse gas emissions.”</div><div>
</div><div>The State of the Netherlands v. Stichting Urgenda, ECLI: NL: PHR: 2019: 887, December 20, 2019,</div><div>https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/inziendocument?id=ECLI:NL:HR:2019:2006</div><div>Andy Gregory, “Landmark ruling that Holland must cut emissions to protect citizens from climate change upheld by supreme</div><div>court,” Independent, December 21, 2019, https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/holland-emissions-climate-change-supremecourt-urgenda-dutch-co2-a9256346.html</div><div>John Schwartz, “In ‘Strongest’ Climate Ruling Yet, Dutch Court Orders Leaders to Take Action,” New York Times, December 20,</div><div>2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/climate/netherlands-climate-lawsuit.html</div><div>
</div><div><b>2019 (December)</b></div><div><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Year-end count: 95 major environmental rules being rolled back by Trump</b></div><div><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">administration</b></div><div>Based on research from Harvard and Columbia law schools, the New York Times counts 16</div><div>rollbacks completed and 9 in process on air pollution and emissions; 10 rollbacks completed and</div><div>9 in process on drilling and extraction. Many of those “completed” rollbacks are subject to court</div><div>challenges, which are tracked in the Harvard Law School Regulatory Rollback Tracker.</div><div>
</div><div>* Nadja Popovich, Livia Albeck-Ripka and Kendra Pierre-Louis, “95 Environmental Rules Being Rolled Back Under Trump,” New</div><div>York Times, December 21, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html</div><div>Harvard Law School, Environmental & Energy Law Program, https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/regulatory-rollback-tracker/</div><div>
</div><div><b>2019 (December)</b></div><div><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">EPA’s Scientific Advisory Board criticizes regulatory rollback justifications,</span> including</b></div><div><b>proposed fuel efficiency rule</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>The Washington Post reveals that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Scientific</div><div>Advisory Board, now purged of some distinguished scientists and composed of two-thirds Trump</div><div>administration appointees [see 2017 (October)], still delivers sharp criticism of major EPA</div><div>proposed regulations, in draft reviews posted by the EPA online.* One of these draft reviews</div><div>relates to the justifications for the 2018 “Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule”,</div><div>rolling back Obama era vehicle fuel efficiency standards. [see 2018 (August) and 2019 (June –</div><div>November)] The draft cover letter from the Scientific Advisory Board to EPA chief Andrew</div><div>Wheeler states: “there appear to be significant weaknesses in the analysis supporting the 2018</div><div>notice of proposed rulemaking.” These weaknesses particularly relate to estimates of size of</div><div>vehicle fleets. “Together with other smaller problems and inconsistencies, the issues are of</div><div>sufficient magnitude that the estimated net benefits of the proposed revision may be substantially</div><div>overstated. In fact, the weaknesses are sufficiently important that they could reverse the rankings</div><div>of the policies being considered. In other words, the augural [original, Obama] standards might</div><div>provide a better outcome for society than the proposed revision.”</div><div>
</div><div>*Juliet Eilperin, “EPA’s scientific advisers warn its regulatory rollbacks clash with established science,” The Washington Post,</div><div>December 31, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/epas-scientific-advisers-warn-its-regulatory-rollbacks-clashwith-established-science/2019/12/31/a1994f5a-227b-11ea-a153-dce4b94e4249_story.html; see also H. Holden Thorp, “Stick to</div><div>science,” Science 367, no. 6474 (January 10, 2020): 125, https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6474/125</div><div>Environmental Protection Agency, Science Advisory Board, Draft Report (10/16/19),</div><div>https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/ea5d9a9b55cc319285256cbd005a472e/3bd8a1aea4943223852584e1005463de/$FILE/SA</div><div>FE%20SAB%20Draft%20Review_10_16_19.pdf</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">At least 6 Trump cabinet secretaries are accused or under investigation for violating federal law"</span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/pompeo-under-investigation/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/pompeo-under-investigation/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An Additional Eight or More Administration Officials Also Accused or Under Investigation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At least six Trump Cabinet secretaries are under investigation for violating federal law or are accused of violating federal law, as are an additional eight or more administration officials.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Cabinet secretaries include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General Bill Barr, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, and Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In recent days White House officials have been assisting President Donald Trump's re-election efforts so intensely that at least one has been officially named a campaign advisor – in addition to being paid by the taxpayers for their day job inside the executive branch.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It's causing a great deal of outrage in some quarters.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An NCRM investigation finds more than a dozen White House officials are either under investigation or according to a government ethics watchdog or others, should be under investigation for appearing to be in violation of the federal law known as the Hatch Act.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Take White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who is now traveling with the president and appearing on Fox News as a Trump 2020 campaign "senior advisor."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins pointed out the startling "title" addition on Tuesday:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This morning Kayleigh McEnany appeared on Fox News from what looked like the studio the campaign uses. She was introduced as a Trump 2020 senior adviser and White House press secretary. @betsy_klein is told she “was appearing in her personal capacity as a private citizen." pic.twitter.com/J9SlhXHCXs</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 27, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">McEnany appears to have done it again today:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">McEnany has taken this odd shift in her media appearances lately. Note she is still employed as a government spokesperson, her salary for White house Press Secretary paid for by American taxpayers. Now she has been referred to as a Trump 2020 campaign adviser. pic.twitter.com/QG6cSTWX12</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Benjy Renton (@bhrenton) October 29, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York Times's Maggie Haberman on Thursday described this as "further blurring the lines between government and political activity."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In one appearance earlier this week, in which she was announced as both a campaign senior adviser and the White House press secretary, Ms. McEnany talked up the president's political rallies.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“At each of our rallies yesterday, I was with the president, we made three stops on Lancaster and all across the state," she said in the interview. “And in each of those stops we played a video for the public. Joe Biden said roll the tape, President Trump. When did I say ban fracking? Well, we rolled it."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">McEnany is far from the only one "blurring" the lines.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior advisor to the president Stephen Miller, the Trump White House white nationalist who is the architect of its child separation policy, held a Trump campaign call with reporters on Wednesday. It was a disaster, with Miller spewing lies about Joe Biden, leading one reporter to describe his attacks this way: "Stephen Miller basically describing to reporters the plot of the Purge if Joe Biden wins the election."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Today, top Trump White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow will hold another Trump campaign call with reporters.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A day after WH Senior Advisor Stephen Miller led a press call with reporters, and on the same day Kayleigh McEnany appears on Fox as a "Trump 2020 campaign adviser," the Trump campaign is holding a call with Director of the United States National Economic Council Larry Kudlow. pic.twitter.com/Nqa8hLrA1v</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— DJ Judd (@DJJudd) October 29, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And then there's White House senior advisor and First Daughter, Ivanka Trump:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You'll never guess what happened after we called out Ivanka Trump for violating federal law 8 times in 48 hours....</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She broke the same law another 30 times. Seriously.https://t.co/X7btvrQClE — Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) October 29, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some other Trump Cabinet Secretaries, including Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, are raising eyebrows for travel that appears to be campaign-adjacent.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So is any or all of this illegal?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here's what CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, has to say:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Hatch Act is a federal law!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It's a scandal that in the final week of an election, the White House has only ramped up its legal violations, from Kayleigh McEnany, to Ivanka Trump, to Peter Navarro. https://t.co/O9lQzyurQJ — Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) October 29, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(CREW previously called for McEnany to be investigated for apparent Hatch Act violations. They also called for investigations into Pence chief of staff Marc Short and Trump National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There's of course also White House trade advisor Peter Navarro:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Peter Navarro should be removed from federal service for repeatedly breaking the law. https://t.co/shA9JVvCUV</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) October 29, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It's not just McEnany, Miller, Navarro, Ivanka, and Kudlow.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is under investigation for several "potential" Hatch Act violations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Office of Special Counsel opens 2 investigations into @SecPompeo for Hatch Act violations — critics say he is campaigning for Trump using taxpayer resources. We reported OSC also has 2 investigations into State Dept. handling of illnesses in China & Cuba: https://t.co/xbFBfEfxvS pic.twitter.com/pcZcZ1NIND</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Edward Wong (@ewong) October 26, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The nation's top law enforcement officer, Attorney General Bill Barr, is accused by CREW of violating the Hatch Act:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There is no place in the government for Attorney General Bill Barr and his law-breaking behavior.https://t.co/kHJcWxPK3O</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) October 24, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt caused some to accuse him of a Hartch Act violastion over this video:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The @realDonaldTrump Administration has accomplished historic feats for conservation, securing the largest investment in our national parks and public lands, opening 4 million acres to new hunting and fishing opportunities, and recovering a record number of endangered species. pic.twitter.com/LoOuCPqJXm</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Secretary David Bernhardt (@SecBernhardt) October 27, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is under investigation:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I know this is getting repetitive but Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is ALSO under investigation for violating the Hatch Act after she went on FoxNews and used her official position to attack Trump's political opponents. 17/ https://t.co/yrKWtn7PW2</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) October 22, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue is accused of a Hatch Act violation by a sitting U.S. Congressman:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Agriculture Department and Secretary Perdue have quietly been among the most corrupt in the Trump Administration. Recipients of food aid boxes are mailed a "letter from Trump."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perdue recently violated the Hatch Act by campaigning for Trump using official resources. 10/ pic.twitter.com/0Rx9AP4T6T — Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) October 22, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf is also under investigation:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf staged a citizenship ceremony for the Republican National Convention, which is under investigation for violating the Hatch Act. https://t.co/5NcVntithj He's using DHS operations to influence the campaign. 9/https://t.co/dnMc6hjTlM</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) October 22, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And then there's the Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Mark Morgan, in another apparent Hatch Act violation:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CBP's Mark Morgan just said there will be "an illegal invasion" if Biden is elected and rolls back Trump immigration policies</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Nick Miroff (@NickMiroff) October 29, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These are all recent potential violations or investigations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CREW back in July also said White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows should be investigated for Hatch Act violstions:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kellyanne Conway Marc Short Kayleigh McEnany Peter Navarro Robert O'Brien Add Mark Meadows to the list of recent Trump officials who've likely violated the Hatch Act and endangered the integrity of our elections. https://t.co/RdIUVfa8AN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) July 18, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From Your Site Articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">'It's all crazy stuff!': Mike Pompeo tried to defend his shady ouster of a ... ›</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">House Demcorats launch investigation into Mike Pompeo's RNC ... ›</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Parnas says Trump, Pence, Pompeo, Bolton and Giuliani all knew ... ›</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pompeo facing investigation after alluding to the possible release of ... ›</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Related Articles Around the Web</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pompeo's RNC speech under investigation for possible Hatch Act ... ›</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pompeo being investigated for potentially breaking the law with ... ›</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At least 6 Trump cabinet secretaries are accused or under investigation for violating federal law" ...An Additional Eight or More Administration Officials Also Accused or Under Investigation</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At least six Trump Cabinet secretaries are under investigation for violating federal law or are accused of violating federal law, as are an additional eight or more administration officials.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Cabinet secretaries include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General Bill Barr, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, and Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In recent days White House officials have been assisting President Donald Trump's re-election efforts so intensely that at least one has been officially named a campaign advisor – in addition to being paid by the taxpayers for their day job inside the executive branch.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It's causing a great deal of outrage in some quarters.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An NCRM investigation finds more than a dozen White House officials are either under investigation or according to a government ethics watchdog or others, should be under investigation for appearing to be in violation of the federal law known as the Hatch Act.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Take White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who is now traveling with the president and appearing on Fox News as a Trump 2020 campaign "senior advisor."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins pointed out the startling "title" addition on Tuesday:...Maggie Haberman on Thursday described this as "further blurring the lines between government and political activity."</font></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">In one appearance earlier this week, in which she was announced as both a campaign senior adviser and the White House press secretary, Ms. McEnany talked up the president's political rallies.</font></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">“At each of our rallies yesterday, I was with the president, we made three stops on Lancaster and all across the state," she said in the interview. “And in each of those stops we played a video for the public. Joe Biden said roll the tape, President Trump. When did I say ban fracking? Well, we rolled it."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">McEnany is far from the only one "blurring" the lines.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior advisor to the president Stephen Miller, the Trump White House white nationalist who is the architect of its child separation policy, held a Trump campaign call with reporters on Wednesday....</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2020/10/basically-describing-the-plot-of-the-purge-stephen-miller-spins-stunning-lies-about-biden-on-trump-campaign-call/">https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2020/10/basically-describing-the-plot-of-the-purge-stephen-miller-spins-stunning-lies-about-biden-on-trump-campaign-call/</a> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...It was a disaster, with Miller spewing lies about Joe Biden, leading one reporter to describe his attacks this way: "Stephen Miller basically describing to reporters the plot of the Purge if Joe Biden wins the election."</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Today, top Trump White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow will hold another Trump campaign call with reporters....</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And then there's White House senior advisor and First Daughter, Ivanka Trump:</font><div class="" style=" ; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some other Trump Cabinet Secretaries, including Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, are raising eyebrows for travel that appears to be campaign-adjacent.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So is any or all of this illegal?</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here's what CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, has to say:...called for McEnany to be investigated for apparent Hatch Act violations. They also called for investigations into Pence chief of staff Marc Short and Trump National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien.)</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There's of course also White House trade advisor Peter Navarro:</font></p><div class="" style=" ; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It's not just McEnany, Miller, Navarro, Ivanka, and Kudlow.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is under investigation for several "potential" Hatch Act violations.</font></p><div class="" style=" ; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The nation's top law enforcement officer, Attorney General Bill Barr, is accused by CREW of violating the Hatch Act...Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt caused some to accuse him of a Hartch Act violastion over this video:</font></p><div class="" style=" ; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is under investigation:...Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue is accused of a Hatch Act violation by a sitting U.S. Congressman:</font></p><div class="" style=" ; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf is also under investigation:</font></p><div class="" style=" ; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And then there's the Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Mark Morgan, in another apparent Hatch Act violation:</font></p><div class="" style=" ; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These are all recent potential violations or investigations.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CREW back in July also said White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows should be investigated for Hatch Act violstions:</font></p><div class="" style=" ; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><div class="around-the-web"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="text-transform: uppercase;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> i got that this was transactional before, but now i see also extraction/extortion; capitalism, he is ultimate / apotheosis of me vs we.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">grifter libtards decry gubmint but 1st to line up to suck off taxpyer resouces/ buffer/commons</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">truscott 4</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Remember this number: $3.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That's how much Trump charged the federal government for a glass of water in April of 2018 when he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ballrooms-candles-and-luxury-cottages-during-trumps-term-millions-of-government-and-gop-dollars-have-flowed-to-his-propertiesmar-a-lago-charged-the-government-3-apiece-for-glasses-of-water-for-trump-and-the-japanese-leader/2020/10/27/186f20a2-1469-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><u>According to the Washington Pos</u></a>t, Trump's company also charged the government "$13,700 for guest rooms, $16,500 for food and wine and $6,000 for the roses and other floral arrangements," over the two days he held meetings with Abe at the resort. But one day, Trump was scheduled to meet with Abe without aides and advisers, with no meal service or cocktails or any other celebratory nonsense. Just the two leaders, alone in a room, talking. According to the Post, the bill for that day contained a line item reading, "Bilateral meeting. Water. $3.00 each."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Donald Trump has been paid "at least $2.5 million by the U.S. government," since taking office, according to official documents obtained by the Post</b>. Trump has made more than 280 visits to his own hotels and golf clubs over the last four years, and the payments covered costs for "hotel rooms, ballrooms, cottages, rental houses, golf carts, votive candles, floating candles, candelabras, furniture moving, resort fees, decorative palm trees, strip steak, chocolate cake, breakfast buffets, $88 bottles of wine and $1,000 worth of liquor for White House aides." according to the Post.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And water. A total of six bucks for water, no charge being too small to make it onto a bill to the government for a payment going straight into the pocket of the man who owns the Trump Organization and everything it comprises, including his resort in Palm Beach.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It's apparently a good part of what the Trump base likes about him — his appetites, his pure, unadulterated, money-grubbing-right-down-to-$3-for-water greed. Trump has wanted more his entire life. He wants more money, of course. He has spent a lifetime in pursuit of more money, and then some more, and more and more. He borrowed so much money in pursuit of even more money that it drove him into bankruptcy, several bankruptcies in fact. Today, as president, he is said to be in debt for nearly $1 billion to banks and other lenders, a debt that will come due within the next few years, according to the New York Times and other reports.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump wants more fame, a drive that started off with mentions in gossip columns like the New York Post's "Page Six," during the years he was coming into his own as a builder in New York City. He used to call gossip columnists and plant items about himself, posing as a PR person, and then he would call the columnists the next day and comment on their mention of him in order to gain yet another column inch or two in the tabloids. Some said he ran for president back in 2016 to "burnish his brand," to achieve even more fame and use it to make even more money. Since he became president, he has been relentless in his pursuit of attention, tweeting at all hours, criticizing cable networks who don't give him enough coverage, calling in to shows like "Fox & Friends" and "Hannity" both to reward them for the coverage they've already given him, and to get more coverage.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He wants more women, from wife No. 1, Ivana, when he was just starting out, to wife No. 2, Marla Maples, after he jettisoned Ivana, and now wife No. 3, Melania, who replaced No. 2 when he determined she had a few too many miles on her. And then there were all the women in between, in and among his marriages, the women he groped on airplanes and at bars and during parties, the women he (allegedly) raped in places like a Bergdorf's dressing room or a hotel room or a bathroom during a party, the women whose mouths he forced his tongue down, the women he pushed up against walls and pressed himself against, the women whose bodies he commented on in offices or across rooms, the women whose skirts he put his hand up at restaurant tables, the women whose breasts he grabbed at tennis tournaments and beauty pageants, the women whose rear ends he grabbed in green rooms before television show tapings, the women he dragged behind curtains at New Year's Eve parties and forcibly kissed and groped. All of those women. Trump wanted their bodies and their mouths and he took them without asking permission because he was Donald Trump, and he took what he wanted.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He wanted more golf, so he played more golf more frequently than any president before him. He wanted so much golf that he went around the world buying and building his own golf courses, and then he played them, because he owned them, and because he owned the golf carts, as president he could charge the government for his own Secret Service agents. He could even charge the government for the hotel rooms the agents stayed in while they protected him. He charged the government $17,000 a month for a cottage at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf course, which the Secret Service had to rent month after month just in case he had a mind to play a round of golf.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump wants more adulation, more love from the "base," and when he feels he isn't getting enough, he tweets. There aren't enough hours in the day for Donald Trump. He was up at 3 a.m. this week, tweeting about the Supreme Court, the court to which he has appointed three arch-conservative justices, yelling at them for their recent decisions allowing mail-in votes to be counted after Election Day, because of course, he wants more votes. He's been up at 3 a.m. tweeting before, taunting a Miss Universe contestant for a "sex tape," taunting CNN as "low rated," bragging about his debate performance, yelling at polls that show him losing.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And now Trump is making his final campaign swing through the "battleground states," feeding the insatiable need of his base for more of himself. "Four more years" has become "12 more years." Somehow Trump is owed more years of the presidency because "they" took two or three years away from him during the Russia investigation, because "they" spied on his 2016 campaign, because "they" don't deserve to win. The red-hat-wearing mobs of un-masked fans at his rallies want more of the America they think Trump is bringing back to them. It's an America that is more white, has more guns, has more churches, more of "us," less of "them."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That's what they like about him. They want it all, the same way he does. That's what opposition to affirmative action has always been. They don't want some of the college admissions, they want them all. That's what Shelby County v. Holder was about, that's what voter IDs and all the restrictive rules about voting by mail are about. They want <em>all</em> the votes.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
For the Trump base, making America great again means making America <em>ours</em> again, but he's going to make sure he puts it on their tab, right there with $3 for water and $546 for rooms and $50 for decorative palm trees for table decorations and $1,005.60 for 26 servings of Patron and Don Julio tequila, 22 Chopin vodkas, and six glasses of Woodford Reserve bourbon consumed by White House staffers at the Mar-a-Lago bar. It's going to cost us more than votes to get our country back. We're going to be paying for Trump's insatiable greed long after he's gone. More than 228,000 of us have already paid with our lives. If the Friday totals keep up — 98,500 new cases and more than 900 dead — a half million of us may perish by the time Trump walks out of the White House for the last time.</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/trump-corruption-2648564184/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/trump-corruption-2648564184/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">it'<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">s been a long, difficult week in Trumpworld with all of the incriminating reports of corruption surrounding President Donald Trump and his administration. With Election Day less than five days away, Trump is likely feeling the pressure as the opposing forces work over time to state their case and prove that he is unfit for the office of the presidency.</span></font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many of the stories raise more questions about Trump's leadership and the hidden agendas of his White House officials and other members of his administration.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here's a breakdown of the stories circulating this week:</font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><strong style="">1. Trump, Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the Turkish Bank</strong> A new report by the New York Times has uncovered <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/us/politics/trump-erdogan-halkbank.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">details about Trump and U.S. Attorney Bill Barr questionable handling of possible violations of U.S. sanctions</a> involving billions of dollars worth of gold and cash that was funneled to Iran.</font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When Geoffrey S. Berman, a top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, traveled to the White House to speak with Barr and some of his top administrative officials about the criminal investigation into the state-owned Turkish bank, Halkbank, Barr suggested that the bank be allowed to avoid indictment by paying only a fine and admitting that some wrong was done. Barr's sentiments also echoed Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's words as he had reportedly asked Trump repeatedly to stop the investigation. Trump's presumed eagerness to please Erdogan has also raised questions about where the president truly stands. For Berman, Barr's request raised red flags and questions about whether or not Barr was colluding with foreign operatives.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This is completely wrong," Berman later told lawyers in the U.S. Department of Justice, according to people who received intel about the proposal and Barr's reaction. "You don't grant immunity to individuals unless you are getting something from them — and we wouldn't be here."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This report is yet another cloud over Trump and his administration regarding where their loyalty lies.</font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><strong style="">2. Pompeo Family Email Scandal </strong>U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was caught in the middle of an email scandal when it was revealed that he and his wife, Susan Pompeo had conducted official White House business using personal email addresses. Now, the couple is being investigated by both Congress and the State Department's inspector generals for "potential misuse of government resources." On multiple occasions, Susan Pompeo is said to have <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/emails-show-how-pompeos-mixed-personal-official-business-n1245182?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_lw" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">regularly utilized her personal email address for business matters</a>, according to email correspondence.</font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"The emails show that Susan Pompeo routinely gives instructions to State Department officials from her personal email address about everything from travel plans and restaurant reservations to the elite Madison Dinners," according to NBC News.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Below is an example of the types of messages Susan Pompeo sent to a State Department official. The message captures a conversation between her and a State Department official whose name was redacted from the record.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-left: 20px;"><span style="background-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">"The dryer isn't hooked up... I think you told me someone was coming to fix that?" Susan Pompeo said via text message to a State Department official. "Ma'am – On it, I was told it was fixed. Let me get you an answer," the official responded by email hours later.</font></span></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><strong style="">3. Rick Perry's Dirty Dealing </strong>A new report centers on former United States Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and his involvement in an attempted scheme to help some of his friends profit off a massive gas deal. Although Perry has denied the allegations, there are multiple details that highlight Perry's ties to Ukraine, according to <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/rick-perrys-ukrainian-dream" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Pro Republica</a>.
</font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">During a six-month investigation, reporters from Time magazine, WNYC and ProPublica discovered that "Perry and his staff at the Energy Department worked to advance energy deals that were potentially worth billions of dollars to Perry's friends and political donors."</font></p><p style="margin-left: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Two of these deals seemed set to benefit <b>Energy Transfer</b>, the Texas company on whose board Perry served immediately before and after his stint in Washington. The biggest was worth an estimated $20 billion, according to U.S. and Ukrainian energy executives involved in negotiating them.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>4. Wilbur Ross' Chinese Conflict of Interest </strong>Like Perry, Ross found himself at the center of controversy when he failed to separate from his business ties while serving as the U.S. Commerce Secretary. According to ForeignPolicy.com, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/10/29/ross-china-board-trade/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">documents appear to suggest that Ross' potential conflicts of interest</a> surrounding Chinese business are much more evident than previously thought.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here is a breakdown of the conflicts surrounding Perry, his business ties, and government affiliation.</font></p><p style="margin-left: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">In Chinese corporate documents obtained by Foreign Policy, Ross is listed as serving on the board of a Chinese joint venture until January 2019—nearly two years into his term as commerce secretary. That joint venture, now called Huaneng Invesco WLR (Beijing) Investment Fund Management Co., is an investment partnership <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/invesco-wlross/invesco-wl-ross-in-jv-with-chinas-huaneng-capital-idUSBNG35702220080916" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">formed</a> in September 2008 between Huaneng Capital Services, the U.S. management company Invesco, and a firm Ross founded, WL Ross & Co. Huaneng Capital Services is an arm of China Huaneng Group, a major state-owned power producer.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Election Day approaches, more incriminating reports are circulating and raising more questions about the integrity of the Trump administration.</font></p><div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="from-your-siteitem"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/republican-corruption-and-carelessness-led-to-devastation-in-michigan-does-trump-even-care/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Republican corruption and carelessness led to devastation in ... ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/did-donald-trump-help-an-anti-corruption-probe-in-guatemala-to-aid-his-re-election-bid/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Did Donald Trump help kill an anti-corruption probe in Guatemala to ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/gop-senator-caught-on-tape-in-angry-tirade-against-trumps-corruption-and-f/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">GOP senator caught on tape in angry tirade against Trump's ...</a></li></ul></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/ivanka-trump-could-be-targeted-for-multiple-corruption-investigations-after-her-dad-leaves-office/"...Ivanka Trump could be targeted for multiple corruption investigations ... ....</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/07/trumps-corrupt-schemes-save-himself-keep-blowing-up-his-face/...Opinion | Trump's corrupt schemes to save himself keep blowing up ... ›</font><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/10/12/trumpworld-corruption-elliott-broidy-ultra-rich/" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump-Linked Corruption Is as Global as the Ultra-Rich He Parties ... ›</font></a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/29/how-trumps-epic-corruption-reveals-hidden-weaknesses-system/" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Opinion | How Trump's epic corruption reveals hidden weaknesses ... ›</font></a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2018/06/04/451570/confronting-cost-trumps-corruption-american-families/" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Confronting the Cost of Trump's Corruption to American Families ... ›</font></a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2020/10/31/donald-trumps-record-on-corruption-and-conflicts-of-interest" class="around-the-web__link" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">The art of the self-deal - Donald Trump's record on corruption and ... ›</font></a></li></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://prospect.org/mapping-corruption-interactive">https://prospect.org/mapping-corruption-interactive </a> (no lnx in cabinet)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Agriculture Department</font></div><article id="agriculture-dept-info" style="border-bottom: 5px solid rgb(35, 31, 32); margin-bottom: 4em; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QUICK AND DIRTY</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue was the subject of multiple ethics complaints and investigations during two terms as governor of Georgia. In one headline-making case, he approved a tax bill with a little-noticed provision that retroactively saved him $100,000 on a land sale.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perdue has filled the department’s top ranks with former agribusiness executives and lobbyists, along with an unusual number of Trump campaign workers without other obvious qualifications.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Agriculture Department has OK’d sharply higher line speeds for hog and poultry slaughterhouses and cut back on USDA meat-safety inspections, letting some big employers hand that responsibility off to low-wage workers.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While in Wisconsin for a conference of dairy farmers at a time of widespread distress and a surge in farmer suicides, Perdue implied that they should just get used to it, telling reporters, “In America, the big get bigger and the small go out.”</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The department has proposed taking three million people off food stamps.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The department has loosened many environmental and health and safety regulations and dismissed concerns over climate change.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WHAT AM I DOING HERE?</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As governor of Georgia, after issuing an order prohibiting gifts worth more than $25 to state employees, Perdue accepted sports tickets, airplane flights, and other gratuities valued at over $25,000.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He signed a tax bill with a last-minute tweak that saved him $100,000 on an already-completed land sale. One of the legislators backing that bill had worked part time for Perdue on his personal legal business.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a founder or part-owner of more than a dozen agribusiness companies, Perdue collected $278,000 in federal farm subsidies between 1996 and 2004.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In his campaigns for political office, Perdue received large contributions from the likes of Monsanto and Coca-Cola.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a 2014 article, Perdue dismissed efforts by “some on the left or in the mainstream media” to connect extreme weather events to climate change. “Liberals,” he wrote, “have lost all credibility when it comes to climate science because their arguments have become so ridiculous and so obviously disconnected from reality.”</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HANDOUTS TO THE UNDESERVING</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The department has authorized much higher line speeds for giant poultry and hog slaughtering companies, and in some cases let them turn the job of safety inspection over to low-paid slaughterhouse workers, typically earning a couple of dollars over minimum wage.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In his confirmation hearings, Sonny Perdue emphasized his commitment to “customer service.” The customers who have received the best service from his department are giant multinational food and pesticide companies. “They have his ear, he’s hired their lobbyists as top staffers, and pretty much down the line he’s been fulfilling their requests,” says Ben Lilliston of the Minnesota-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With relatively little public notice, oversight, or hard data, Perdue’s department has distributed more than $28 billion in emergency relief to farmers injured by the administration’s trade war with China. This program has been massively tilted toward multinational agribusiness companies. More than $62 million, for example, has gone to the world’s largest meat processor, JBS, owned by a pair of billionaire brothers who have served prison time for bribing hundreds of government officials in their native country of Brazil.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Midwestern dairy and corn farmers and Maine blueberry growers, among others, have complained bitterly about the way the subsidies have been distributed. Perdue has belittled their protests. “In America, the big get bigger and the small go out,” he said in a speech delivered at the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perdue undid a set of newly adopted rules meant to keep agribusiness giants from engaging in price-fixing and other forms of collusion at the expense of farmers or consumers. He effectively eliminated the unit (known as GIPSA) responsible for enforcing the anti-fraud regulations that remained, making it part of an office dedicated to marketing and public relations.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Working with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Perdue’s department pressured Mexico to weaken new nutrition disclosure rules for processed food, intended to combat obesity.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Agriculture Department went to bat for Dow Chemical in pressing China to accept its genetically modified, herbicide-resistant corn seeds. With that victory secured, Dow spun off its agriculture business into a new subsidiary, Corteva, which is now the top corn seed producer in the Asia-Pacific region.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The department reinterpreted the Clean Water Act to let farmers use previously forbidden chemical pesticides and fertilizers at the risk of contaminating local waterways.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UNDUE INFLUENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The number of former industry lobbyists and executives tapped for key jobs at the Department of Agriculture has been extraordinary, even by Trump administration standards, and ethical concerns do not seem to worry very many of them.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A former pesticide industry executive, Rebeckah Adcock, was put in charge of a deregulation team and took part in the effort to get China to accept Dow’s genetically modified corn seeds. Before one high-level meeting on the issue, Dow lobbyist Hunt Shipman emailed Adcock: “Do you know who will staff the secretary?” Adcock treated the question as a joke: “Yes and u do too.” “Roger,” Shipman replied. Then, alluding to the potential conflict of a public servant helping former colleagues, he added: “Maybe you can have a chair on both sides of the table … Maybe you can staff them both?”</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Throughout Perdue’s tenure, chemical companies have enjoyed unprecedented physical and email access to top department officials. “A Wide-Open Door for Pesticide Lobbyists at the Agriculture Department,” is how ProPublica summed it up.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Deputy Secretary Steve Censky came to the department after 21 years as CEO of the American Soybean Association, which has lobbied against disclosure rules for products containing genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Censky had helped win passage of a 2016 law that repealed GMO labeling requirements.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brooke Appleton, Censky’s chief of staff, had been a lobbyist for the National Corn Growers Association and National Association of Wheat Growers. In February 2019, after two years at USDA, Appleton left to become vice president of public policy for the corn growers’ group.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kailee Tkacz, tapped to serve on a nutritional policy advisory panel, had been a lobbyist for the Corn Refiners Association, the National Grocers Association, and the Snack Food Association, battling against federal efforts to discourage excessive sugar and salt consumption.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Maggie Lyons, chief of staff to the acting deputy undersecretary of Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, was a former lobbyist for the National Grocers Association.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kristi Boswell, hired to advise Secretary Perdue on policies related to visas for seasonal farmworkers, had spent five years as a lobbyist for the American Farm Bureau Federation.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The department has a trade policy advisory panel loaded with representatives of such agribusiness groups as the Livestock Export Association of the USA, the International Dairy Foods Association, the U.S. Meat Export Federation, Archer Daniels Midland, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Cargill, the National Pork Producers Council, Sunkist Growers, and Corteva Agriscience.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">APPARATCHIKS</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Politico reviewed 42 resumes of the department’s political appointees. Twenty-two had worked on the Trump presidential campaign.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The list of appointees included a long-haul truck driver, a clerk at AT&T, a meter reader for a gas company, a country club cabana attendant, the owner of a scented-candle company, a Republican National Committee intern, and a former Washington state senator who mentioned on his résumé that he was the first elected official in his state to back Trump’s candidacy.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The truck driver, Nick Brusky, received a GS-12 job, paying nearly $80,000 a year, at the department’s Foreign Agricultural Service. Although he had never been involved in developing international markets for farm products, Brusky pointed out that he had experience “hauling and shipping agricultural commodities.”</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WE DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The department’s economic research office concluded that the 2017 Republican tax cuts had given “<a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/2018/preliminary/1910?q=eNo1jF0KgCAQhO8yzwb14Ivn6AKSGyxkiiuFhHfPDXqaH-abB0JcIpzOtWWCe_4IhwXdwIukbQQYVCpxuN0PMbiYbt0Hqp4PCh9gUHIezs7KBt-0nazCHElv-gsSKiHs" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">the biggest benefits to the wealthiest farmers.</a>” After that finding, Perdue decided to move the research office from Washington to Kansas City, even though some staff members had been working and living in Washington for years. Given 33 days to say yes or no to relocating, most of the affected employees decided they couldn’t move and lost their jobs.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perdue has done the same with the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which supports research at land grant colleges across the country. Here, too, a majority of the employees left rather than make the move. Addressing a Republican Party gala in South Carolina, OMB Director Mick Mulvaney described relocation as a “wonderful way” to shrink the size of government, bemoaning that it’s usually difficult to fire federal workers.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perdue’s disdain for broadly accepted climate science has helped spur an exodus of USDA professionals. “You get the sense that … this is not a place for you to be exploring things that don’t agree with someone’s political views,” says Lewis Ziska, a plant physiologist who worked at USDA for more than two decades. “That’s so sad. I can’t even begin to tell you how sad that is.” Ziska was appalled by the department’s lack of interest in a study of the future of rice-growing and the 600 million people who depend on it. “It feels like something out of a bad sci-fi movie,” he says.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FURTHER REFERENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/a-wide-open-door-for-pesticide-lobbyists-at-agriculture-department" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">A Wide-Open Door for Pesticide Lobbyists at the Agriculture Department</a> (ProPublica)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.iatp.org/blog/201902/state-usda-quiet-dismantling" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">The state of the USDA: A quiet dismantling</a> (Ben Lilliston, IATP)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/03/trump-agriculture-department-cut-programs-109205" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">‘They literally take food off their table’: Trump’s Department of Agriculture seeks to cut programs without knowing how many people will be hurt</a> (Politico)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/21/trump-agriculture-department-usda-campaign-workers-242951" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump hires campaign workers instead of farm experts at USDA</a> (Politico)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.citizensforethics.org/leveraging-the-revolving-door-lobbying-forms-show-how-agriculture-group-targets-officials-with-industry-ties-for-advocacy/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Leveraging the revolving door: lobbying forms show how agriculture group targets officials with industry ties for advocacy</a> (CREW)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.pogo.org/investigation/2018/08/the-snack-food-and-corn-syrup-lobbyist-shaping-trumps-dietary-guidelines-for-americans/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">The Snack Food and Corn Syrup Lobbyist Shaping Trump’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans</a> (POGO)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/agenda/2019/12/17/government-morale-agriculture-department-084863" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">A Lesson From the USDA: Want to Make Workers Unhappy? Move Their Office to Another State</a> (Politico)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/10/02/usda-relocation-has-delayed-key-studies-millions-funding-employees-say/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">USDA relocation has delayed key studies and millions in funding, employees say</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.federaltimes.com/management/2019/08/05/official-calls-usda-departures-wonderful-to-drain-the-swamp/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Official says USDA departures ‘wonderful’ way to drain the swamp</a> (Federal Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/10/19/house-democrats-are-failing-to-protect-farmers-from-trump/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">House Democrats Are Failing to Protect Farmers from Trump</a> (Washington Monthly)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.drovers.com/article/whats-trump-bailout-money-and-jbs" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">What’s Up With Trump Bailout Money And JBS?</a> (Drovers)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2019-07-02/jbs-brazilian-butchers-took-over-the-world" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">JBS: The Brazilian butchers who took over the world</a> (Bureau of Investigative Journalism)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://apnews.com/5045af6cf4a24626aad0e406a965f86e" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump farm secretary: No guarantee small farms will survive</a> (Associated Press)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/soybean-ceo-named-no-2-at-usda" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Soybean CEO named No. 2 at USDA</a> (Successful Farming)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/we-found-a-staggering-281-lobbyists-whove-worked-in-the-trump-administration" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">We Found a “Staggering” 281 Lobbyists Who’ve Worked in the Trump Administration</a> (ProPublica)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/staffers/kailee-marie-tkacz" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Kailee Tkacz profile</a> (ProPublica)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://readsludge.com/2018/09/27/revolving-door-lobbyists-turned-usda-officials-work-with-junk-food-industry-to-keep-soda-candy-in-snap-program/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Revolving Door: Lobbyists-Turned-USDA-Officials Work With Junk Food Industry to Keep Soda, Candy in SNAP Program</a> (Sludge)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/05/ziska-usda-climate-agriculture-trump-1445271" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">‘It feels like something out of a bad sci-fi movie’</a> (Politico)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/23/agriculture-department-climate-change-1376413" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Agriculture Department buries studies showing dangers of climate change</a> (Politico)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/karen-perry-stillerman/sonny-perdues-school-lunch-bait-and-switch" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Sonny Perdue’s School Lunch Bait-and-Switch</a> (Union of Concerned Scientists)</font></li></ul><div class="back-to-top" style="text-align: center; margin: 4em 0px;"><a href="https://prospect.org/mapping-corruption-interactive#map" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; background: rgb(241, 90, 34); padding: 0.5em 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Back to Map</font></a></div></article><article id="commerce-dept-info" style="border-bottom: 5px solid rgb(35, 31, 32); margin-bottom: 4em; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="seal" style="width: 120px; margin: 0px auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><h1 style="padding: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Commerce Department</font></h1><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QUICK AND DIRTY</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em>Forbes</em> magazine described Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross as “one of the biggest grifters in American history,” finding a career total of more than $120 million siphoned from business associates.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Ross with pocketing $10.4 million that rightly belonged to investment partners.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ross held official meetings with the CEOs of Chevron and Boeing while his wife owned shares in those companies valued at $400,000 and $2 million.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He failed to divest holdings in the world’s third-largest auto parts maker until October 2017, after official dealings with top people at BMW, Toyota, GM, and Ford, among other major customers of the parts company.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For nearly a year after his confirmation, Ross held onto his stake in Navigator Holdings, a natural-gas shipping company tied to Russian oligarchs and members of Vladimir Putin’s family. Before divesting, Ross personally negotiated a deal to facilitate the export of American-produced liquefied natural gas to China. The ethics officer who OK’d Ross’s actions got a promotion.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ross came up with a phony legal pretext for the White House’s plan to discourage Latino voting by putting a citizenship question into the 2020 census. Citizenship information would be critical to enforcing the Voting Rights Act’s protections against racial discrimination, the Commerce Department claimed. The Supreme Court found Ross’s justification beyond belief. The decision had actually been made at the behest of a Republican strategist after analyzing its likely impact on racial voting patterns; the anti-immigration zealot and onetime Trump strategist Steve Bannon was one of the people using backdoor connections to get Ross to act.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WHAT AM I DOING HERE?</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secretary Wilbur Ross is a banker and investor known as the “King of Bankruptcy” for his history of gaining control of financially shaky companies, clearing their debts for pennies on the dollar, and squeezing the remaining assets for a quick profit, sometimes after walking away from worker health and pension obligations.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to the many episodes that caused <em>Forbes</em> to call him a grifter on an epic scale, Ross is the former part-owner and vice chairman of a Cyprus bank known as a top money laundry for Russian oligarchs.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SELF-AND-CRONY-ENRICHMENT</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ross played a leading role in U.S.-China trade matters despite his joint investment in a shipping company with a Chinese state fund.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ross conferred with leaders of state-controlled funds in Qatar, Japan, and Singapore which had previously placed money with his private equity firm.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He sold his interest in a railcar company after lunch with the CEO, who told Ross that Trump tariffs would hurt the business.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ross made short sales of Navigator stock a few days after learning that the company would be the subject of a damaging story in <em>The New York Times</em>. The share price promptly fell 3.9 percent.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WE DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Commerce Department <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/08/20/the-trump-administration-just-disbanded-a-federal-advisory-committee-on-climate-change/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">eliminated</a> a committee of 15 scientists helping local officials understand the implications of climate change.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It shut down the <a href="http://www.osec.doc.gov/opog/dmp/revocations/doo35_7.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">chief economist’s office</a>, which had done studies of natural disasters and their economic consequences.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FURTHER REFERENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2018/08/06/new-details-about-wilbur-rosss-businesses-point-to-pattern-of-grifting/#2c25bf271c33" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">New Details About Wilbur Ross’ Business Point To Pattern Of Grifting</a> (Forbes)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/25/sec-fines-wilbur-ross-firm-23-million-over-fees.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">SEC fines Wilbur Ross’ firm $2.3 million over fees</a> (CNBC)</font></li><li><a href="https://swamptourdc.com/opg/PCI_Ross_OnePager.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Wilbur Ross (Revolving Door Project Swamp Tour)</font></a></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/11/08/wilbur-ross-paradise-papers-trump-russia/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">The Wilbur Ross Scandal Isn’t About Russia, It’s About Corruption</a> (Intercept)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2017/11/07/the-case-of-wilbur-ross-phantom-2-billion/#3b556a647515" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">The Case Of Wilbur Ross’ Phantom $2 Billion</a> (Forbes)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2018/10/25/wilbur-ross-scheduled-meetings-with-chevron-boeing-despite-conflicts-of-interest/#16fde4c4d0e4" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Wilbur Ross Scheduled Meetings With Chevron, Boeing Despite Conflicts Of Interest</a> (Forbes)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/ross-shorted-russian-linked-shipping-company-ahead-paradise-papers/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Ross shorted Russian-linked shipping company ahead of Paradise Papers</a> (ICIJ)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/world/wilbur-ross-russia.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Commerce Secretary’s Offshore Ties to Putin ‘Cronies’</a> (New York Times)</font></li><li><a href="https://qz.com/1308376/wilbur-ross-made-money-from-a-paradise-papers-story-exposing-his-ties-to-the-kremlin/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">How Wilbur Ross made money from a story exposing his business ties to the Kremlin (Quartz)</font></a></li><li><a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/census-memo-supreme-court-conservatives-white-voters-alito.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">New Memo Reveals the Census Question Was Added to Boost White Voting Power (Slate)</font></a></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://qz.com/1120762/wilbur-rosss-putin-connections-navigator-holdings-nvgs-plays-a-key-role-in-trumps-energy-plan/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">The company linking Wilbur Ross to Putin cronies has a key role in Trump’s energy plan</a> (Quartz)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/19/trump-just-gave-china-a-sledgehammer-to-smash-the-lng-monopoly.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump just gave China a ‘sledgehammer’ to smash the LNG monopoly</a> (CNBC)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/voting-rights/trump-administrations-census-cover" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">The Trump Administration’s Census Cover Up</a> (ACLU)</font></li></ul><div class="back-to-top" style="text-align: center; margin: 4em 0px;"><a href="https://prospect.org/mapping-corruption-interactive#map" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; background: rgb(241, 90, 34); padding: 0.5em 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Back to Map</font></a></div></article><article id="consumer-financial-protection-info" style="border-bottom: 5px solid rgb(35, 31, 32); margin-bottom: 4em; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="seal" style="width: 120px; margin: 0px auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><h1 style="padding: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Consumer Financial Protection Bureau</font></h1><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QUICK AND DIRTY</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former Acting Director Mick Mulvaney opposed the agency’s creation and called it “a sick, sad joke.”</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The payday lending industry’s main lobbying arm, the Community Financial Services Association of America, spent roughly $1 million holding its 2018 and 2019 annual conferences at the Trump-owned Doral golf resort. Collectively, payday groups and companies gave $2.2 million to the Trump campaign and inaugural committees during the 2016 election cycle.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In May 2018, Mulvaney’s agency took the remarkable step of siding with the payday industry in its legal efforts to delay implementation of a CFPB rule intended to block lenders from manipulating customers into unmanageable long-term debt.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Three weeks later, payday moguls Mike and Tina Hodges contributed $250,000 to the main super PAC working for Trump’s re-election. <em>The Washington Post</em> caught Mike Hodges, CEO of the mega-chain lender Advance Financial, telling his peers that money invested in the Trump cause would mean access to top administration officials. “I’ve gone to [Republican National Committee Chair] Ronna McDaniel and said, ‘Ronna, I need help on something,’” Hodges explained during an industry webinar. “She’s been able to call over to the White House and say, ‘Hey, we have one of our large givers. They need an audience … They need to be heard and you need to listen to them.’”</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After lenders poured money into the Trump campaign and inauguration, Mulvaney terminated multiple investigations of payday companies over “rent-a-tribe” arrangements and other circumventions of law.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The bureau has cut back sharply on enforcement and financial relief for defrauded consumers.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The bureau wants to make it easier for debt collectors to barrage people with text and email messages.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WHAT AM I DOING HERE?</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mick Mulvaney, the CFPB’s acting director from late 2017 until late 2019, had been a congressman representing the city of Spartanburg, South Carolina, where the nation’s biggest payday lending company, Advance America, is based. Al Simpson, now a top lobbyist for Advance Financial, was Mulvaney’s chief of staff during his time in Congress.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mulvaney is a longtime defender of the payday industry and an ideological opponent of efforts to regulate financial companies and their products.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mulvaney’s appointment appeared to violate the succession provisions of the legislation creating the bureau. The White House took care of that problem by having its Office of Legal Counsel provide a supportive memo. The memo’s author, Steven Engel, had been the lead attorney for a payday lender in a dispute over charges that the CFPB would eventually drop—after Mulvaney took charge.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Current director Kathy Kraninger was an aide to Mulvaney at OMB with no consumer-protection experience.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HANDOUTS TO THE UNDESERVING</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Upon assuming the director’s job in November 2017, Mulvaney suspended hiring, rule-making, and fine collection.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In January 2018, Mulvaney canceled an investigation of a South Carolina payday lender that had donated $4,500 to his congressional campaigns. Those contributions were irrelevant, he said, “because I am not in elected office anymore.”</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He dropped a CFPB lawsuit against an online lender that had charged up to 950 percent interest while falsely claiming to be run by a Native American tribe in order to dodge state usury laws.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mulvaney called off efforts to regulate auto lenders accused of cheating vulnerable consumers.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In May 2019, the bureau proposed a rule that would let debt collectors barrage consumers with phone calls, text messages, and voice mails, immunizing them against liability for causing someone’s confidential financial information to be disclosed to a third party.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FURTHER REFERENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/magazine/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-trump.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Mick Mulvaney’s Master Class in Destroying a Bureaucracy From Within</a> (New York Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/25/politics/mick-mulvaney-lobbyists/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Mick Mulvaney just said the swampiest thing ever</a> (The Point)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://ourfinancialsecurity.org/2019/10/news-release-top-questions-cfpb-director-kathy-kraninger-must-answer/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Top Questions CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger Must Answer</a> (AFR)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/panaak/this-is-what-trump-quietly-screwing-the-poor-looks-like?utm_source=vicefbus&fbclid=IwAR1kxC-8NtgKlOiYc7nqihDQbu6l6RnLdU0LJfHExaYakoBlqz9UTkHpFZ8" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">This Is What Trump Quietly Screwing the Poor Looks Like</a> (Vice)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/05/15/trump-appointee-whose-past-blogs-race-sparked-backlash-resigns/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump appointee, whose past blogs on race sparked backlash, resigns</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/07/maxine-waters-cfpb-chief-lending-1249247" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Waters, CFPB chief clash over fair lending enforcement in first showdown</a> (Politico)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://alliedprogress.org/news/swamp-thing-cfpb-official-leading-the-effort-to-gut-debt-collection-rules-to-be-toasted-at-debt-industry-conference/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Profile of Tom Pahl</a> (Allied Progress)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-payday-lenders-spent-1-million-at-a-trump-resort-and-cashed-in" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">How Payday Lenders Spent $1 Million at a Trump Resort—and Cashed In</a> (ProPublica)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/us/politics/payday-lenders-lobbying-regulations.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Payday Rules Relax on Trump’s Watch After Lobbying by Lenders</a> (New York Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/4/20/17225564/mick-mulvaney-cfpb-payday-loan-cases" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">A payday lender is accused of stealing millions from customers. Trump’s CFPB is now letting them off the hook.</a> (Vox)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/10/29/payday-lenders-discussed-raising-money-trumps-campaign-fend-off-regulation-audio-reveals/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Payday lenders discussed raising money for Trump’s campaign to fend off regulation, audio reveals</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/12/04/mick-mulvaney-payday-lending-campaign-contributions-pose-no-conflicts-interest/920056001/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Mick Mulvaney: Payday lending campaign contributions pose no conflicts of interest</a> (USA Today)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90412618/debt-collector-text-message-rule-is-chilling-for-privacy-read-this-chilling-explanation-of-why-debt-collectors-shouldnt-be-able-to-blast-you-with-text-messages" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Read this blistering takedown of a rule that would let debt collectors blast you with text messages</a> (Fast Company)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/11/27/white-house-memo-justifying-cfpb-takeover-was-written-by-payday-lender-attorney/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">White House Memo Justifying CFPB Takeover Was Written By Payday Lender Attorney</a> (Intercept)</font></li></ul><div class="back-to-top" style="text-align: center; margin: 4em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; background: rgb(241, 90, 34); padding: 0.5em 1em;"><a href="https://prospect.org/mapping-corruption-interactive#map" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; background: rgb(241, 90, 34); padding: 0.5em 1em;">Back to Map</a></font></div></article><article id="education-dept-info" style="border-bottom: 5px solid rgb(35, 31, 32); margin-bottom: 4em; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 style="padding: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Education Department</font></h1><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QUICK AND DIRTY</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secretary Betsy DeVos is a multimillionaire and top Republican Party fundraiser who has poured money into private Christian schools and campaigns for “school choice” while referring to public education as “a monopoly” and “a dead end.”</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Under her leadership, the Department of Education has continued to collect loan payments from former students of Corinthian, ITT, and other fraud-ridden for-profit college chains.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She has filled key jobs with ex-lobbyists and execs of for-profit colleges.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Her department has failed to deliver financial relief to tens of thousands of teachers, nurses, and police officers, etc., who qualified for public-service loan forgiveness.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The department has rolled back an Obama administration plan to withhold federal funds from for-profit schools whose students consistently fail to gain valuable skills or land decent jobs, leaving them unable to repay their debts.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the time of her confirmation, DeVos held stakes in a debt collection company and the country’s biggest chain of for-profit charter schools. After she announced the sale of her interest in the debt collection company, it received a Department of Education contract potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DeVos has all but ignored a presidential directive calling for measures to ease the impact of $1.5 trillion in ballooning student debt on millions of recent college attendees and the state of the economy. Trump, whose re-election could hang on DeVos’s financial support and Michigan campaign ties, has failed to force the issue.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WHAT AM I DOING HERE?</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secretary Betsy DeVos inherited money and married money. She has had almost no personal experience with the public schools.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Her brother, Erik Prince, founded the private military company originally known as Blackwater but renamed Xe Services after its involvement in a notorious 2007 mass killing of Iraqi civilians in Baghdad.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Her father-in-law, Richard M. DeVos, founded the multilevel marketing giant Amway and used Republican Party connections to throttle a federal investigation depicting his company as a pyramid scheme.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DeVos has been a leading bundler of campaign money for Republican candidates in her native Michigan and across the country.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Her family has poured millions of dollars into private Christian schools and campaigns for “school choice.” The goal of her educational activism, she has said, is to “advance God’s kingdom.”</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She refers to education as an “industry” and has called public education “a closed market,” “a monopoly,” and “a dead end.”</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UNDUE INFLUENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Diane Auer Jones, principal deputy under secretary, is one many former lobbyists or execs of for-profit college companies tapped for positions of authority by DeVos. Jones was an executive at Career Education Company, one of the country’s biggest for-profit college chains and the target of multiple lawsuits and investigations, including a case brought by New York state in which the company paid $10 million over inflated job placement statistics. (In her new job, Auer Jones has been tasked with developing a less confrontational approach to such offenses.)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Robert Eitel, deputy general counsel, was the chief compliance officer at Bridgepoint, which got into legal trouble for deceiving students about loan costs and using taxpayer dollars to shower money on its executives and shareholders while most students wound up as dropouts. At the Education Department, Eitel has played a part in efforts to block a rule that would help defrauded borrowers gain relief.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chief Enforcement Officer Julian Schmoke is a former dean at DeVry (aka Adtalem Global Education), which paid $100 million to settle charges of deceptive marketing. In his current role, Schmoke has helped shrink the special Department of Ed team that investigates such abuses, while canceling investigations of Bridgepoint and CEC.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">James Manning, former acting under secretary, was a longtime consultant to loan servicers (such as Performant) accused of overcharging borrowers and using bullying collection tactics. At the Education Department, Manning ran the office of federal student aid and oversaw compliance issues involving taxpayer-funded grants and loans. He left in June 2019 to resume his lobbying career.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FURTHER REFERENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.cepr.net/corruption-needs-to-be-a-kitchen-table-issue-in-2020-start-with-betsy-devos/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Corruption Needs To Be A Kitchen Table Issue In 2020. Start With Betsy DeVos.</a> (CEPR)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/10/22/trump-administration-let-nearly-million-student-aid-go-unaccredited-for-profit-colleges/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump administration let nearly $11 million in student aid go to unaccredited for-profit colleges</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/education-dept-admits-much-criticized-loan-forgiveness-program-has-obstacles-for-borrowers-2019-09-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Education Department explains why only 1% of people who applied for public-loan forgiveness were accepted</a> (MarketWatch)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-student-loan-debt-collection-betsy-devos-20180111-story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Education Department awards debt collection contract to company once tied to DeVos</a> (Chicago Tribune)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2019-10-23/devos-sued-amid-new-evidence-about-whether-her-agency-aided-for-profit-operator" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">DeVos Sued Amid New Evidence About Whether Her Agency Aided For-Profit Operator</a> (U.S. News)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/can-the-education-system-survive-betsy-devoss-extreme-school-choice-agenda/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Education for Sale?</a> (The Nation)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/for-profit-colleges-gain-beachhead-in-trump-administration" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">For-Profit Colleges Gain Beachhead in Trump Administration</a> (ProPublica)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/10/24/federal-judge-holds-devos-contempt-loan-case-slaps-education-dept-with-fine/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Federal judge holds DeVos in contempt in loan case, slaps Education Department with $100,000 fine</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/05/betsy-devos-lost-more-on-theranos-than-the-average-american-will-make-in-100-lifetimes" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Betsy DeVos Lost More on Theranos than the Average American Will Make in 100 Lifetimes</a> (Vanity Fair)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/betsy-devos-throws-favors" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Betsy DeVos Throws Favors to For-Profit Schools</a> (NEPC)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/10/22/trump-administration-let-nearly-million-student-aid-go-unaccredited-for-profit-colleges/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump administration let nearly $11 million in student aid go to unaccredited for-profit colleges</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/eyeing-populist-challenge-from-the-left-trump-seeks-plan-to-tackle-student-debt/2019/12/05/bbb002f8-16aa-11ea-a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Eyeing populist challenge from the left, Trump seeks plan to tackle student debt</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/01/11/education-dept-awards-debt-collection-contract-to-company-with-ties-to-devos/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Education Dept. awards debt-collection contract to company with ties to DeVos</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/09/us/politics/diane-auer-jones-betsy-devos.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">She Left the Education Dept. for Groups It Curbed. Now She’s Back, With Plans.</a> (New York Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.republicreport.org/2017/devos-department-stacks-negotiations-deck-profit-college-lawyers/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">DeVos Department Stacks Negotiations Deck With For-Profit College Lawyers</a> (Republic Report)</font></li></ul><div class="back-to-top" style="text-align: center; margin: 4em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; background: rgb(241, 90, 34); padding: 0.5em 1em;"><a href="https://prospect.org/mapping-corruption-interactive#map" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; background: rgb(241, 90, 34); padding: 0.5em 1em;">Back to Map</a></font></div></article><article id="energy-dept-info" style="border-bottom: 5px solid rgb(35, 31, 32); margin-bottom: 4em; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 style="padding: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Energy Department</font></h1><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QUICK AND DIRTY</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former Secretary Rick Perry received $14 million in oil and gas industry campaign contributions over the years.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He filled the top ranks of the department with former fossil fuel industry lobbyists and executives, and fought to keep dirty coal plants in business.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perry was one of the “Three Amigos” assigned by the White House to work with Rudy Giuliani on the task of pressuring the Ukraine government to help whip up a scandal involving former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While in Ukraine for the inauguration of President Volodymyr Zelensky, Perry recommended several Americans as energy advisers to the new government. One of them was a Texas backer of Perry’s political career; he and another Texan later struck a 50-year oil and gas exploration deal with Ukraine’s government, winning out over a competing company that offered millions of dollars more.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WHAT AM I DOING HERE?</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Campaigning for president in 2011, Perry promised to eliminate three cabinet departments. During a debate, he was unable to remember one of them—the Energy Department. That “oops” moment helped sink his candidacy.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Before becoming energy secretary, Perry served on the board of a company, Energy Transfer Partners, whose major client was the Dakota Access Pipeline. He was also on the board of a Sunoco oil subsidiary.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perry’s successor, Dan Brouillette, had held an assistant secretary position at the Department of Energy under President George W. Bush, and went on to become an auto industry lobbyist before being tapped to join the Trump administration.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SELF-AND-CRONY-ENRICHMENT</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In April 2017, Perry arranged an invitation for his wife, Anita, to a reception and a “cultural program” for G7 ministers in Rome, with her travel expenses to be paid for by the Department of Energy, according to a spokesperson.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In September 2019, Perry announced the creation of a new Office for Artificial Intelligence and Technology. His wife Anita held stock in three potentially affected companies—Verizon, AT&T, and Splunk. Under Perry’s leadership, the Energy Department’s overall budget shrank, with especially sharp declines in spending on renewable energy, to the dismay of some in Congress. Meanwhile, Perry called for $119 million to be spent on the AI initiative in 2020.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UNDUE INFLUENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary Angelos Kokkinos previously served as a top executive at Babcock Power, a supplier of steam generation and environmental-control equipment.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chief of Staff Brian McCormack lobbied against rooftop solar power on behalf of the Edison Electric Institute.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Under Secretary Mark Menezes was a lobbyist for electrical utility companies and trade groups, including American Electric Power, Duke Energy, Edison Electric Institute, Southern Company, and Koch Mineral Services.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Maddox had been at the Energy Department during the George W. Bush administration; more recently, he was a lobbyist for petroleum, coal, and utility companies.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar came to his job after overseeing mergers and acquisitions for J.P. Morgan & Co. He had also worked as an adviser to TransCanada, Allete, AES, and Dynegy, among other fossil fuel companies and utilities.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sean Cunningham, head of the Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis, previously worked for the corporate law firms of Balch & Bingham and Hunton & Williams, representing energy and mineral interests.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cathy Tripodi, director of the Laboratory Operations Board, came to the department from a job with the consulting firm of Faegre Baker Daniels, where she represented energy clients.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior adviser Theodore Garrish previously worked for the Nuclear Energy Institute and Bechtel.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FURTHER REFERENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.citizensforethics.org/rick-perry-artificial-intelligence-investments/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Rick Perry created AI office within Energy Dept. despite wife’s investments</a> (CREW)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/climate/coal-murray-trump-memo.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">How a Coal Baron’s Wish List Became President Trump’s To-Do List</a> (New York Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/07/department-of-energy-risks-michael-lewis" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Why the Scariest Nuclear Threat May Be Coming From Inside the White House</a> (Vanity Fair)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/impact/energy-dept-nominee-rick-perry-fossil-fuels-14-million-man" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Energy Dept. Nominee Rick Perry: Fossil Fuel’s $14 Million Man</a> (Food & Water Watch)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/after-push-rick-perry-his-backers-got-huge-gas-deal-n1079896" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">After push from Rick Perry, his backers got huge gas deal in Ukraine</a> (NBC)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.axios.com/rick-perry-coal-ceraweek-dedff67d-7305-4ab7-a0fc-5af957de7d79.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Rick Perry says he’s not giving up on struggling coal plants</a> (Axios)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://psmag.com/environment/oil-and-gas-ties-run-deep-in-trump-administration" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Oil and Gas Ties Run Deep in Trump Administration</a> (Pacific Standard)</font></li></ul><div class="back-to-top" style="text-align: center; margin: 4em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; background: rgb(241, 90, 34); padding: 0.5em 1em;"><a href="https://prospect.org/mapping-corruption-interactive#map" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; background: rgb(241, 90, 34); padding: 0.5em 1em;">Back to Map</a></font></div></article><article id="epa-dept-info" style="border-bottom: 5px solid rgb(35, 31, 32); margin-bottom: 4em; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 style="padding: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental Protection Agency</font></h1><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QUICK AND DIRTY</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secretary Andrew Wheeler is a former coal lobbyist whose top client was Murray Energy. That company’s CEO, Robert Murray, is a climate change denier and a major backer of Donald Trump.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While under consideration for his current post, Wheeler hosted campaign fundraising events for Senators John Barrasso (R-WY) and Jim Inhofe (R-OK), two members of the committee that would do the first review of his fitness. Both senators received campaign donations from a PAC associated with Wheeler’s law firm.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Murray prepared a policy wish list and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/18/578791199/photographer-says-he-lost-his-job-after-leaking-pictures-of-rick-perry-and-coal" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">hand-delivered</a> it to Energy Secretary Rick Perry. The EPA has so far acted on at least several of Murray’s recommendations. They include abandoning an Obama administration rule barring coal companies from dumping waste into streams and waterways; making it easier to open new coal plants; and allowing higher levels of mercury pollution.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nancy Beck, named deputy assistant administrator for Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (and recently nominated to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission), is a former industry lobbyist who, before coming to the EPA, battled against an agency proposal to halt the sale of three chemicals linked to birth defects, nerve damage, and deaths. Within weeks of her arrival, Beck was leading the charge against that proposal, using the same arguments she had developed as a lobbyist, to the dismay of agency professionals who had long been working on the issue. Seeking to dispel any ethical concerns, the EPA had its legal counsel compose a pair of “impartiality determination” memos citing Beck’s “unique expertise, knowledge and past experience” and the need to consider “all perspectives.”</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wheeler has absolved his agency of any duty to address global warming, the biggest and clearest environmental threat facing our country and the world.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UNDUE INFLUENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Dunlap, deputy assistant administrator for research and development, is a former policy director for Koch Industries. At EPA, Dunlap has had a role in regulating formaldehyde despite the fact that one of the country’s largest producers of formaldehyde, Georgia-Pacific Chemicals, is a Koch subsidiary.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Fischer, deputy assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention, is a former industry lawyer and senior director of the American Chemistry Council, which represents chemical companies.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alexandra Dunn, assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention, was also employed by the American Chemistry Council.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As an industry lawyer, Susan Bodine, now assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance, had defended polluting companies against Superfund cleanup responsibilities.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Peter Wright, assistant administrator for land and emergency management, oversees toxic waste site cleanup. He used to work for DowDuPont, which has been implicated in problems affecting roughly one-seventh of all toxic waste cleanup sites.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior Deputy Counsel Erik Baptist, the EPA’s top lawyer for chemical safety, came from the American Petroleum Institute.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Steven Cook, chair of the Superfund toxic cleanup task force, spent more than two decades as a lawyer for LyondellBasell Industries, self-described as “one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world.”</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Ross, assistant administrator for water, is a former lobbyist with Crowell and Moring, representing Peabody Energy, among other clients.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dennis Forsgren, deputy assistant administrator for water, was a lobbyist for GE and Exxon, among others.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Troy Lyons, associate administrator for congressional and intergovernmental relations, previously worked for Hess and British Petroleum.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior Adviser George Sugiyama came over from the lobbying firm of Troutman Sanders, with the National Mining Association as one of his clients.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IGNOMINIOUS DEPARTURES</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scott Pruitt, Wheeler’s predecessor. In addition to spending more than $124,000 on unjustified first-class air travel and $43,000 on a soundproof phone booth, Pruitt used EPA staff to help land a job for his wife, rented a condominium apartment on Capitol Hill at a bargain rate from a lobbyist’s wife, asked aides to purchase an old mattress from the Trump Hotel, and had his security detail drive him around on drugstore errands.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bill Wehrum, former assistant administrator for air and radiation, had been a lawyer/lobbyist representing clients in more than 30 pollution-related lawsuits against the EPA. He resigned in June 2019, while under investigation by a House committee for conflicts of interest, after the announcement of a weak EPA replacement rule for the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WE DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The agency has moved to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/climate/epa-scientific-transparency-honest-act.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">limit the use of scientific research to cases in which all</a> raw data is publicly accessible. This would exclude numerous studies that rely on confidential personal-health data.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EPA has left many vacancies unfilled in the office responsible for air pollution and toxics research. Remaining staff feel pressured to keep quiet on sensitive topics like climate change, according to one veteran of the unit who left in 2017.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After a scientific advisory board questioned the basis for a proposed rewrite of Obama administration rules on waterways and vehicle tailpipe emissions, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/climate/epa-advisory-panels-gao-report.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">more than a quarter of the panel members were dismissed</a> or resigned, many of them to be replaced by scientists with industry ties.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2019, the EPA terminated its funding of 13 health centers around the country that studied the effects of pollution on the growth and development of children, among other things.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2017, aides to Administrator Scott Pruitt told EPA economists to re-evaluate the effects of the Obama administration’s clean-water rule. Their initial study had found more than half a billion dollars in economic benefits; now they were ordered to say the benefits could not be quantified, according to a 30-year veteran of the agency who left around this time—part of an exodus of professional staff.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FURTHER REFERENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://swamptourdc.com/opg/PCI_Wheeler_OnePager.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Andrew Wheeler</a> (Revolving Door Project Swamp Tour)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/02/07/coal-lobbyist-andrew-wheeler-epa-deputy-confirmation/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Coal Lobbyist Hosted Fundraisers for Senators Evaluating His Nomination for Top EPA Post</a> (Intercept)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-25/epa-chief-racked-up-3-1-million-bill-for-security-in-first-year" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">EPA’s Pruitt Racked Up $3.1 Million Bill for Security in First Year</a> (Bloomberg)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/08/28/carl-icahns-failed-raid-on-washington" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Carl Icahn’s Failed Raid on Washington</a> (New Yorker)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biofuels-epa-icahn/exclusive-u-s-epa-grants-biofuels-waiver-to-billionaire-icahns-oil-refinery-sources-idUSKBN1I10YB" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">US EPA grants biofuels waiver to billionaire Carl Icahn’s oil refinery</a> (Reuters)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.citizen.org/article/trumps-chemical-romance/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump’s Chemical Romance</a> (Public Citizen)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-senate-is-about-to-confirm-a-coal-lobbyist-as-top-epa-deputy/2018/04/12/b1bb6844-3dbe-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Senate confirms a former coal lobbyist as Scott Pruitt’s second-in-command at EPA</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/10/white-house-considering-former-chemical-industry-executive-lead-consumer-product-safety-commission/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump may appoint former chemical industry executive to lead Consumer Product Safety Commission</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/21/us/trump-epa-chemicals-regulations.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Why Has the E.P.A. Shifted on Toxic Chemicals? An Industry Insider Helps Call the Shots.</a> (New York Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-trump-administration-has-pulled-back-on-regulating-toxic-chemicals" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">How the Trump Administration Pulled Back on Regulating Toxic Chemicals</a> (Yale Environment)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/climate/trump-nepa-environment.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump’s Move Against Landmark Environmental Law Caps a Relentless Agenda</a> (New York Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.citizensforethics.org/leveraging-the-revolving-door-lobbying-forms-show-how-agriculture-group-targets-officials-with-industry-ties-for-advocacy/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Leveraging the revolving door: lobbying forms show how agriculture group targets officials with industry ties for advocacy</a> (CREW)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/leahrosenbaum/2019/07/19/epa-rejects-ban-on-common-pesticide-linked-to-brain-damage-in-children/#6448b5111026" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">EPA Rejects Ban On Common Pesticide Linked to Brain Damage in Children</a> (Forbes)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/staffers/category/lobbyists" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Directory of Lobbyists in Trump Administration</a> (ProPublica)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/03/climate/consumer-product-safety-commission-nancy-beck.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Chemical Industry Executive Nominated to Lead Consumer Watchdog Agency</a> (New York Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/former-chemical-industry-attorney-new-chair-epa-superfund-task-force-9d8550eb28ac/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Former chemical industry attorney takes over EPA’s Superfund task force</a> (ThinkProgress)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/05/epa-plan-end-funding-children-s-health-research-leaves-scientists-scrambling" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">EPA plan to end funding for children’s health research leaves scientists scrambling</a> (Science)</font></li></ul><div class="back-to-top" style="text-align: center; margin: 4em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; background: rgb(241, 90, 34); padding: 0.5em 1em;"><a href="https://prospect.org/mapping-corruption-interactive#map" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; background: rgb(241, 90, 34); padding: 0.5em 1em;">Back to Map</a></font></div></article><article id="health-and-human-services-info" style="border-bottom: 5px solid rgb(35, 31, 32); margin-bottom: 4em; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 style="padding: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Health and Human Services Department</font></h1><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QUICK AND DIRTY</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was a pharma lobbyist and later a top executive and president of the multinational drug company Eli Lilly.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Prices for the company’s drugs shot up during Azar’s tenure at Lilly; the cost of insulin tripled.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HHS has so far failed to follow through on Trump promises to reduce drug prices.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As alarm over the COVID-19 virus spread, Azar refused to promise that a vaccine would be broadly affordable.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His department has systematically worked to undermine the Affordable Care Act, sometimes diverting funds designated for promoting that law into the campaign against it.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HHS policies have helped push millions of low-income families off Medicaid.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, spent over $2 million on a personal public-relations campaign while boasting of her efforts to “end waste, fraud and abuse” in the Medicaid program. The goals of her PR campaign including getting Verma listed as one of the country’s top “Power Women,” gaining coverage in places like <em>Glamour</em> magazine, and securing invitations to high-profile events such as the Kennedy Center Honors. Some of the consultants on the receiving end of these payments had worked on the Trump presidential campaign.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IGNOMINIOUS DEPARTURES</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former Secretary Tom Price had to resign after spending close to a million dollars on chartered jets and government aircraft rather than using commercial flights.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a Georgia congressman, Price bought and sold hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of shares in health care companies while sitting on the House Ways and Means Committee and working on legislation and regulations affecting that industry.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During an official trip to Australia, Price pressured officials to let drug companies keep clinical-trial data confidential for 12 years instead of five years. Price held shares in an Australian pharmaceutical firm; afterward, he bought an additional $84,000 stake in the company, which gave him a discount price.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DERELICTION OF DUTY</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Under Price and Azar, the department has systematically discouraged Affordable Care Act sign-ups by deleting enrollment links and references to the law from government web pages; ordering a nearly 90 percent cut in spending on ACA promotion; slashing grants to nongovernment groups helping people enroll; canceling billions in payments meant to reduce deductibles and co-pays; and encouraging insurance companies to market junk health plans as an ACA alternative.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HHS has failed to follow through on Donald Trump’s promises to reduce drug prices by, for example, using Medicare’s clout to negotiate discounts with pharmaceutical companies.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Through spending cuts and the approval of state-level work requirements, HHS has helped push millions of low-income families off Medicaid.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From the time Donald Trump became president until March 2020, nearly three million Americans have been added to the ranks of the uninsured.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UNDUE INFLUENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In March 2019, Laura Kemper left a senior position at HHS to become vice president for government affairs at Fresenius, a giant lobbying firm with multiple health care clients. Since that time, she has held meetings with congressional, White House, and HHS staff over reimbursement practices for dialysis services, among other issues. Fresenius reported more than $2.2 million in lobbying expenditures during the first half of 2019.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In January 2019, Colin Roskey became HHS’s deputy secretary for legislation for mandatory health, after a 20-year lobbying career in which he represented private companies on many of the issues he would oversee for the government.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Erin Estey Hertzog, an attorney at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was previously a top lobbyist for the Biotechnology Industry Organization.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chief of Staff Lance Leggitt was a lobbyist for Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz, working for health care clients.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Timothy Clark, former senior Adviser to the secretary was president and founder of Clark Strategy Group, which represented pharmaceutical companies. Clark resigned in July 2018 after he was revealed to have sent out pro-Trump tweets under a hashtag linked to the theory that Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta was involved in satanic practices.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FURTHER REFERENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://sunlightfoundation.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Erasing-the-ACA-Using-Web-Censorship.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Erasing the Affordable Care Act</a> (Sunlight Foundation)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/09/trump-takes-his-sabotage-of-obamacare-to-a-new-level.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump Takes His Sabotage of Obamacare to a New Level </a>(New York)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/04/us/hhs-anti-obamacare-campaign.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">The Same Agency That Runs Obamacare Is Using Taxpayer Money to Undermine It</a> (New York Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-trump-administration-cracked-down-on-medicaid-kids-lost-insurance" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">The Trump Administration Cracked Down on Medicaid. Kids Lost Insurance.</a> (ProPublica)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/three-million-more-people-are-uninsured-thanks-president-trump/2018/01/16/820a8bb4-fae5-11e7-a46b-a3614530bd87_story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Three million more people are uninsured. Thanks, President Trump. </a>(Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://khn.org/morning-breakout/hhs-chief-of-staff-last-year-lobbied-very-agency-he-now-helps-run-ethics-waivers-reveal/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">HHS Chief Of Staff Last Year Lobbied Very Agency He Now Helps Run, Ethics Waivers Reveal.</a> (Kaiser Health News)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/a-staggering-number-of-lobbyists-have-worked-in-the-trump-administration/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">A Staggering Number of Lobbyists Have Worked in the Trump Administration.</a> (Truthdig)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/452654-for-big-pharma-the-revolving-door-keeps-spinning" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">For Big Pharma, the revolving door keeps spinning</a> (The Hill)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-hhs-nominee-alex-azar-history-with-drug-pricing-at-lilly-2017-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Eli Lilly tripled the price of insulin under Trump’s pick for HHS</a> and Democrats are pouncing on that (Business Insider)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-administration-paid-agency-2-million-for-seema-verma-publicity-2019-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">The Trump administration reportedly paid a PR firm more than $2 million to get a top healthcare official on ‘Power Women’ lists and magazine covers</a> (Business Insider)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/29/seema-verma-contracts-1306652" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Key Trump health official spends millions on GOP-connected consultants</a> (Politico)</font></li><li><a href="https://ourfuture.org/20171117/alex-azars-the-worst-pharma-bro-of-all-and-hes-trump-health-pick" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump’s HHS Pick Alex Azar Is the Worst Pharma Bro of All (OurFuture)</font></a></li><li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/26/us/politics/alex-azar-senate-confirmation-hearing-hhs.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">He Raised Drug Prices at Eli Lilly. Can He Lower Them for the U.S.? (New York Times)</font></a></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/migration/pharma-swamps-trump-may-2018-report.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump Admin’s Pharma Connections</a> (Public Citizen)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/tom-price-bought-drug-stocks-then-he-pushed-pharma-agenda-in-australia" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Tom Price Bought Drug Stocks. Then He Pushed Pharma’s Agenda in Australia.</a> (ProPublica)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/27/21155879/alex-azar-coronavirus-vaccine-affordable-insurance" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Health secretary Alex Azar won’t promise that a coronavirus vaccine would be affordable</a> (The Verge)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2019/07/17/stories/1060749583" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Comedian triggered rain of profane texts on senior official</a> (Energy Wire)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/396930-hhs-staffers-depart-after-controversial-social-media-posts-report" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">HHS staffers depart after controversial social media posts</a> (The Hill)</font></li></ul></article><article id="homeland-security-info" style="border-bottom: 5px solid rgb(35, 31, 32); margin-bottom: 4em; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="seal" style="width: 120px; margin: 0px auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><h1 style="padding: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Homeland Security Department</font></h1><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QUICK AND DIRTY</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With the shift from fighting terrorists to fighting immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security has become a major funder of the private prison industry, which has reciprocated by sending a torrent of money to the Trump re-election effort and the Republican Party.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The two giants in the field, GEO Group and CoreCivic, run a combined 41 facilities housing more than half of the detainees held in custody by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit, known as ICE. As of mid-2019, the two companies had received an estimated $2.9 billion in federal contract revenues, $1.7 billion for GEO and $1.2 billion for CoreCivic. Executives and PACs associated with those companies have so far made roughly $1 million in reported contributions to the Trump 2016 and 2020 campaigns.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GEO Group has found other ways to send money to the president and his family. In 2017, the company moved the site of its annual conference to the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort. GEO Group Vice President Dave Venturella has been a regular guest at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, staying there at least ten times by his count.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During the 2016 election cycle, the industry as a whole made an unprecedented $1.7 million in contributions to federal candidates, mostly Republicans. It set another record with $1.9 million in reported contributions during the 2018 cycle. In all, Donald Trump has received nearly $1 million in private-prison money—more than 25 times the contributions the industry made to President Barack Obama over two terms in office.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The latest secretary of homeland security, Chad Wolf, was a lobbyist working for Indian and U.S. companies that found jobs for H-1B foreign workers, often displacing American workers in the process.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GOVERNMENT FOR SALE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">State and local corrections departments, which make up much of the private-prison industry’s client base, generally pay between $35 and $65 a day per inmate. By contrast, ICE reimbursement rates run as high as $300 a day. “These people are profitable,” says Alex Friedmann of the nonprofit Human Rights Defense Center.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But that profit stream was at risk before Donald Trump’s election. In August 2016, after a series of investigations and scandals involving substandard medical care, deaths, suicides, sexual abuse, and exploitative labor practices, the Obama administration announced plans to phase out the use of private companies in immigrant detention.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One day after that announcement, a GEO subsidiary gave $100,000 to Rebuilding America Now, a pro-Trump Super PAC led by a pair of former Trump staffers. About a month later, GEO boosted its contribution to $225,000. GEO Group’s PAC and its CEO gave the same amount to another committee, Trump Victory, for distribution to the Trump campaign and other Republican efforts.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GEO and CoreCivic (formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America) each went on to donate $250,000 to the Trump inaugural committee.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When Jeff Sessions got tapped for attorney general, GEO Group hired two former Sessions Senate aides, David Stewart and Ryan Robichaux, to lobby on its behalf. A month after Inauguration Day, Sessions revoked the Obama-era guidance.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By that time, GEO’s stock market value had doubled, while CoreCivic’s was up 140 percent. “Thanks to President Donald Trump,” CNN observed, “America’s private prisons appear to be entering a golden age.”</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And thank President Trump they did, in the form of roughly $1 million in contributions to his election and re-election campaigns at last count.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The war on immigration has produced windfall profits for companies hired to handle a set of ancillary tasks. Major awardees include Comprehensive Health Services, which collected more than $400 million for work performed between January 2018 and June 2019. Large sums also flowed to tech companies like Unisys ($619,409,627 for the same period) and consulting firms like Deloitte ($400,500,000). McKinsey & Co., as part of an overall ICE contract from which it received $20 million, gave advice on how to fund the hiring of 10,000 new immigration officers; among other proposed means, McKinsey proposed cutting DHS expenditures on food and medical care for detainees.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The construction of President Trump’s border wall has been a corporate windfall in its own right. The overall price tag has passed the $11 billion mark, close to the cost of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the companies in line to profit is Fisher Sand & Gravel. Its CEO, Tommy Fisher, has been a major financial backer of North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer, who has taken up the company’s cause. President Trump also became a fan after Fisher went on Fox News to claim he could do a faster and cheaper job. Fisher Sand & Gravel subsequently won a $400 million wall contract through the Army Corps of Engineers.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">THE BOSS’S BIDDING</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secretary Wolf has been a cheerleader for the border wall project, participating in promotional events that effectively double as commercials for Donald Trump’s re-election.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump family has realized huge financial benefits from the operations of the Secret Service, a unit of DHS. Candidate Trump promised to “rarely leave the White House because there’s so much work to be done,” making his administration a bargain for the taxpayers. President Trump has spent nearly a third of his days at one of his resort properties, causing the Secret Service to spend vast, unprecedented sums providing security at those sites, with much of the money winding up in Trump pockets. Since 2017, golf cart rentals (through third-party vendors, not the Trump organization) have cost the government at least $588,000, according to federal spending data posted online.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a one-month period in early 2017, U.S. taxpayers spent roughly $13.6 million on just four Trump trips to his Mar-a-Lago property in South Florida, according to the Government Accountability Office. That works out to an average of $3.4 million per trip, $1.3 million of that amount attributable to the Secret Service.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump has made 22 more trips to Mar-a-Lago since then, according to a <em>Washington Post</em> If the Secret Service’s costs remained constant, that would mean more than $28 million in further spending by that agency alone, and $75 million by the government as a whole—on a small fraction of Trump’s total travel. Recent data is unavailable, however: The White House has refused multiple requests, and the Secret Service has fallen far behind in its reporting.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another snapshot came in March 2017. With the Secret Service still adjusting to Trump’s large family and frequent golfing trips, the agency asked Congress to add $60 million to its budget just to handle Trump’s travel, according to internal agency documents reviewed by <em>The Washington Post</em>.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Trump has visited family-owned properties outside the Washington area more than 50 times, by the <em>Post</em>’s count. His sons Eric and Donald Jr. have traveled to Dubai, Ireland, and India. A single visit in 2017 by Eric Trump to a Trump property under construction in Uruguay cost taxpayers nearly $100,000 just in hotel bills for Secret Service agents and embassy staff members.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It took President Barack Obama two terms to run up a total travel bill of $97 million. Based on the Government Accountability Office’s estimates, Trump spending exceeded that amount long ago.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UNDUE INFLUENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf came to the job after 12 years as a lobbyist for the firm of Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates, working for Indian and U.S. companies that placed H-1B foreign workers, often displacing American workers.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Stewart, a former aide to Senator Jeff Sessions, left in October 2016 to become a lobbyist for GEO Group, the private-prison giant.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ryan Robichaux, another member of Jeff Sessions’s Senate staff, went on to the lobbying firm of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, working on federal government contracts. Sessions, as was widely anticipated, was then tapped for a top administration job (attorney general); since that time, Robichaux’s firm has been paid upwards of $390,000 by GEO Group.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scott Sutterfield, now an executive at LaSalle Corrections, previously ran ICE’s field office in New Orleans, focused on overseeing the immigration deportation process and detention facilities across the South. During his time in the job, ICE began using eight new for-profit detention centers in Louisiana and Mississippi. Sutterfield then went to work for LaSalle, the company operating six of the new jails. While he claimed to have recused himself from the contracting process, LaSalle’s Director of Operations, Kevin Sumrall, didn’t seem so sure. “Not extremely a lot,” he said when asked if Sutterfield had been involved in decisions affecting LaSalle.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mary Loiselle, now a GEO Group executive, is another former ICE official.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Daniel Ragsdale, another GEO Group executive, had been ICE’s second-in-command and briefly its acting director.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dave Venturella. GEO’s senior vice president of business development, previously ran the ICE unit responsible for arresting and detaining undocumented immigrants.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">John Kelly, former secretary of homeland security and White House chief of staff, currently serves on the board of Caliburn International, whose subsidiary Comprehensive Health Services operates four shelters for unaccompanied migrant children.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FURTHER REFERENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2019/12/19/ice-detention-private-prisons-expands-under-trump-administration/4393366002/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">‘These people are profitable’: Under Trump, private prisons are cashing in on ICE detainees</a> (USA Today)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2019/08/30/473966/private-prisons-profiting-trump-administration/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">How Private Prisons Are Profiting Under the Trump Administration</a> (Center for American Progress)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/23/private-prisons-back-trump-and-could-see-big-payoffs-new-policies/98300394/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Private prisons back Trump and could see big payoffs with new policies</a> (USA Today)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/follow-money-former-sessions-aides-lobbyists-private-prisons-group/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Follow the Money: Former Sessions Aides are Lobbyists for Private Prisons Group</a> (Nonprofit Quarterly)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://prospect.org/civil-rights/ice-contracts-booming.-see-vendors-state./" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">ICE Contracts Are Booming. See Which Vendors Are in Your State.</a> (American Prospect)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.citizen.org/news/private-contractors-made-billions-from-immigration-and-corrections-contracts-under-trump-obama/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Private Contractors Made Billions From Immigration and Corrections Contracts Under Trump, Obama</a> (Public Citizen)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://thegolfnewsnet.com/golfnewsnetteam/2019/08/09/the-secret-service-has-spent-almost-550000-on-golf-carts-to-protect-donald-trump-111647/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">The Secret Service has spent almost $590,000 on golf carts to protect Donald Trump</a> (GolfNewsNet)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://inthesetimes.com/features/ice-abolish-immigration-child-detention-private-prison-profiting.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Below the Surface of ICE: The Corporations Profiting From Immigrant Detention</a> (In These Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-mckinsey-helped-the-trump-administration-implement-its-immigration-policies" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">How McKinsey Helped the Trump Administration Detain and Deport Immigrants</a> (ProPublica)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/memo-restoring-use-of-private-prisons-is-good-news-for-one-company/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Memo Restoring Use of Private Prisons Is Good News for One Company</a> (The Nation)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-has-paid-rates-as-high-as-650-a-night-for-rooms-at-trumps-properties/2020/02/06/7f27a7c6-3ec5-11ea-8872-5df698785a4e_story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Secret Service has paid rates as high as $650 a night for rooms at Trump’s properties</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/30/nearly-third-days-hes-been-president-trumps-visited-trump-branded-property/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Nearly a third of the days he’s been president, Trump has visited a Trump-branded property</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/31/politics/trump-golfing-vacation/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump spent 1 of every 5 days in 2019 at a golf club</a> (CNN)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/19/us/us-to-phase-out-use-of-private-prisons-for-federal-inmates.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">S. to Phase Out Use of Private Prisons for Federal Inmates</a> (New York Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/lawsuit-trump-super-pac-took-illegal-donation-private-prison-company-2640069" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Lawsuit: Trump Super PAC Took Illegal Donation From Private Prison Company</a> (International Business Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/478932-trump-administration-installs-plaque-marking-finish-of-100-miles-of" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump administration installs plaque marking finish of 100 miles of border wall</a> (The Hill)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/9/1660427/-ICE-s-second-in-command-reportedly-hired-by-private-prison-group-facing-lawsuit-over-force-labor" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">ICE’s second-in-command reportedly hired by private prison group facing lawsuit over forced labor</a> (Daily Kos)</font></li></ul></article><article id="hud-info" style="border-bottom: 5px solid rgb(35, 31, 32); margin-bottom: 4em; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="seal" style="width: 120px; margin: 0px auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><h1 style="padding: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Housing and Urban Development Department</font></h1><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QUICK AND DIRTY</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HUD Secretary Ben Carson had no experience in government and questioned his own fitness for a Cabinet appointment.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After his confirmation, he gave top jobs and rapid pay raises to a roster of friends and associates.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ignoring a $5,000 limit on office expenditures, Carson ordered a $31,000 dining set. When word got out, he canceled the order and seemed to blame his wife for the idea. In a whistleblower complaint, a career HUD official, Helen Foster, said she was told to “find money” for the purchase and then demoted for raising objections.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carson has called for drastic cuts to his own department, outside of the decorating budget. An anti-government ideologue, he says he puts his faith in private-sector remedies such as the administration’s Opportunity Zone program, which relies on tax incentives to spur development in low-income communities.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Under Carson’s oversight, that program has been tweaked again and again to produce greater benefits for billionaires and Trump friends and supporters.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carson’s son and daughter-in-law have HUD-related business activities. Carson has created opportunities for them to participate in official events and use their family ties to try to make deals for themselves.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ben Carson Jr. runs a Maryland-based construction firm and a private equity fund. His wife Merlynn is a management consultant. In 2017, Carson Jr. organized a “listening tour” in Baltimore for his father. One of the people invited to participate was Seema Verma, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Although she did not attend, Merlynn Carson subsequently obtained a half-million-dollar consulting contract from Verma’s agency.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SELF-AND-CRONY-ENRICHMENT</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Deputy Chief of Staff Alfonso Costa Jr. is the son of a man described by the secretary as “my very best friend.” Carson and Al Costa Sr., a dentist turned commercial real-estate investor, were partners in a lucrative deal involving an office building in Pittsburgh—a property that has netted Carson as much as $2 million a year. Carson has been a frequent guest at Costa’s villa in Tuscany, which rents for upwards of $20,000 a month. In 2017, Costa Sr. was convicted of health care fraud after billing insurance companies for $44,000 in fictitious dental work. He escaped a prison sentence thanks partly to a supportive letter from Carson.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Opportunity Zone program, entrusted to Carson’s leadership, has become a boondoggle for billionaires and Trump associates. In Baltimore, Under Armour founder Kevin Plank (another recipient of an invitation to the secretary’s listening tour) won an Opportunity Zone designation for a project located in an area initially rejected as too wealthy. In Florida, the beneficiaries include a Republican donor developing a luxury housing project and superyacht marina near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. In Detroit, Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert has several Opportunity Zone projects in the works after extensive lobbying.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DUTIES BETRAYED</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the behest of the White House and anti-immigration zealot Stephen Miller, Carson has pushed ahead with plans to oust “mixed-status” immigrant families from public-housing projects. Children and U.S. citizens could be evicted if HUD and the administration get their way.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carson has been a mouthpiece for the White House’s repeated threats to withhold funds as a way of punishing cities, such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, Texas, that resist the administration’s immigration policies.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With public-housing projects across the country in acute disrepair, Carson’s department has proposed a series of budgets that would slash spending on maintenance. He has urged local housing agencies to find private sources of funding, or, failing that, to sell or demolish properties and leave tenants to fend for themselves.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Echoing the rhetoric of Wall Streeters and right-wing ideologues, Carson likes to blame the problems of the housing market on excessive regulation, and especially on fair-lending policies. On that theory, HUD has abandoned its Obama-era policy of prodding local jurisdictions to address long-standing patterns of racial discrimination in housing.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FURTHER REFERENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://swamptourdc.com/opg/PCI_Carson_OnePager.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">What you should know about Ben Carson</a> (Revolving Door Project)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.americanoversight.org/investigation/ben-carsons-family-involvement-department-housing-urban-development" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Ben Carson’s Family Involvement at the Department of Housing and Urban Development</a> (American Oversight)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/02/politics/ben-carson-family-hud/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Emails show Carson family fingerprints at HUD despite warnings</a> (CNN)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/billionaires-keep-benefiting-from-a-tax-break-to-help-the-poor-now-congress-wants-to-investigate" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Billionaires Keep Benefiting From a Tax Break to Help the Poor. Now, Congress Wants to Investigate.</a> (ProPublica)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/superyacht-marina-west-palm-beach-opportunity-zone-trump-tax-break-to-help-the-poor-went-to-a-rich-gop-donor" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">A Trump Tax Break To Help The Poor Went To a Rich GOP Donor’s Superyacht Marina</a> (ProPublica)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.dcreport.org/2019/05/20/ben-carson-wants-to-put-thousands-of-children-on-the-streets/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Ben Carson Wants To Put Thousands Of Children On The Streets</a> (DCReport)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/hud-secretary-ben-carson-to-be-sued-for-suspending-obama-era-fair-housing-rule/2018/05/07/ef72db8a-523c-11e8-a551-5b648abe29ef_story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">HUD Secretary Ben Carson to be sued for suspending Obama-era fair-housing rule</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/using-his-position-for-private-gain-hud-lawyers-warned-ben-carson-risked-running-afoul-of-ethics-rules-by-enlisting-son/2018/01/31/bb20c48e-0532-11e8-8777-2a059f168dd2_story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">‘Using his position for private gain’: Ben Carson was warned he might run afoul of ethics rules by enlisting his son.</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/3/16967628/ben-carson-ethics-hud-son-baltimore" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Ben Carson’s family ethics drama, explained</a> (Vox)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/03/01/did-hud-really-need-spend-31-000-taxpayer-money-dining-furniture-ben-carson/384204002/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Did HUD really need to spend $31,000 of taxpayer money on that dining furniture for Ben Carson?</a> (USA Today)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/13/ben-carson-alfonso-costa-healthcare-fraud" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Ben Carson stands by ‘best friend’ who pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud</a> (Guardian)</font></li></ul><div class="back-to-top" style="text-align: center; margin: 4em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; background: rgb(241, 90, 34); padding: 0.5em 1em;"><a href="https://prospect.org/mapping-corruption-interactive#map" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; background: rgb(241, 90, 34); padding: 0.5em 1em;">Back to Map</a></font></div></article><article id="interior-dept-info" style="border-bottom: 5px solid rgb(35, 31, 32); margin-bottom: 4em; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 style="padding: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Interior Department</font></h1><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QUICK AND DIRTY</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secretary David Bernhardt spent years representing mining and oil and gas interests, including Rosemont Copper, the National Mining Association, Cadiz, Inc. (a water project developer), Cobalt International Energy, Halliburton Energy, the Independent Petroleum Association, and the U.S. Oil and Gas Association.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a lobbyist, Bernhardt earned $1.2 million from mining clients, $2.1 million from oil and gas clients, and $1.5 million from other energy companies, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He entered office with more declared conflicts of interest than any other Trump Cabinet member.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His former firm, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, has quadrupled its revenues since Bernhardt came to Interior, while past Bernhardt clients have won a series of moneymaking policy breaks.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bernhardt has filled the top ranks of his department with former extractive-industry employees and lobbyists—some 60 in all.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Permits for drilling on public land and under the seas have been approved at a record rate. In March 2020, as the COVID-19 epidemic spread, Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management sold more than 14,000 oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico over the little-heard objections of environmental groups.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Interior has moved to grant a long-term water supply contract to the Fresno-based Westlands Water District, one of Bernhardt’s former clients, which attends to the water needs of large almond growers and other agribusiness companies in Northern California, potentially at the expense of Bay Area residents who depend on the same source of supply. Bernhardt has acknowledged that, as deputy secretary in 2017, he pushed to weaken protections for fish in order to justify giving more water to Westlands—an issue on which he had previously lobbied.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Documents released by Friends of the Earth show Bernhardt taking part in numerous meetings on the issue, even when ethics rules barred his involvement. “Everything I do, I go to our ethics officers first,” he told <em>The New York Times</em>.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SELF-AND-CRONY-ENRICHMENT</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During the Trump presidency, Interior Department officials have held more than 250 meeting with oil, gas, electricity, coal, and mining executives—12 times the number of meetings with conservation or renewal-energy advocates.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This total includes at least ten conversations with offshore drilling interests; nine with oil industry groups; six with executives of Shell, BP, ExxonMobil or ConocoPhillips; and five with the National Mining Association.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The list of meetings also includes at least 70 with former Bernhardt clients or employers, including the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, the National Ocean Industries Association, and Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In all, the Interior Department has taken favorable action on 25 measures sought or supported by at least 16 of Bernhardt’s former clients, according to the Center for Western Priorities.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UNDUE INFLUENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Under Bernhardt’s leadership, Interior has hired at least 25 former industry lobbyists and 35 former employees of mining and fossil fuel companies. Eleven officials of the Trump Interior Department have already gone out the revolving door to jobs with industry groups or lobbying firms, including BP and the American Petroleum Institute.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">William Perry Pendley, deputy director in charge of the Bureau of Land Management, headed the Mountain States Legal Foundation, which sued federal agencies over conservation policies and rejected the whole idea of federally owned land. Pendley’s group took up the cause of anti-government ranchers such as Cliven Bundy, whose son led a group of armed militants in seizing control of a national wildlife refuge facility in Oregon in early 2016.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scott Angelle, tapped to oversee safety and environmental enforcement, earned roughly $1.5 million serving on the board of an oil and gas pipeline company. Previously, as Louisiana’s secretary of natural resources, he fought to end the moratorium on Gulf Coast drilling established in the wake of the BP spill. He resigned his state job in 2012, after a brine company he was in charge of regulating created a giant sinkhole. Addressing an oil-industry audience in 2017, Angelle gave out his cellphone number and advised listeners to communicate with him by phone, avoiding the creation of a paper trail.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Assistant Secretary Doug Domenech is a former oil and gas lobbyist who ran an industry-financed foundation dedicated to making the “forgotten moral case for fossil fuels.” At Interior, Domenech met with officials of his former foundation in violation of conflict-of-interest rules, according to the department’s inspector general.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Deputy Secretary Katharine MacGregor, Bernhardt’s second-in-command, is a former lobbyist who, in a previous role at Interior, held multiple meetings with industry players while leading the charge to terminate a study of the health effects of mountaintop removal coal mining. As a Republican staffer on the House Natural Resources Committee, MacGregor was seen as an important ally by the Independent Petroleum Institute. After she joined the Interior Department, one top official of that group joked that “We’ll call Kate” would become its standard response to unwanted regulation.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">James Cason, associate deputy secretary, is a former oil and gas lobbyist who held a high-ranking Interior Department post in the Reagan administration. In 1989, Cason had to withdraw from consideration for a top Agriculture Department job over charges that he had broken rules and suppressed research data in order to permit oil shale land to be sold for $2.50 an acre.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Solicitor Daniel Jorjani started out as an energy industry lawyer before serving in the George W. Bush administration. He went on to work for a series of Koch family–funded advocacy groups, becoming one of the highest-paid employees in the Koch network.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scott Cameron, deputy assistant secretary, was a lobbyist for the firm of Dawson and Associates, representing a list of clients that included Marcellus Shale Coalition and Shell Oil. He also worked for a government contractor, the Tuknik Corporation, which has received at least $3.7 million in Interior Department business during Cameron’s time in office. There is no record of Tuknik winning any such contracts before then.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Susan Combs, assistant secretary, was a figure in Texas politics and a member of Governor Rick Perry’s administration, regularly siding with oil and gas interests against enforcement of the Endangered Species Act. Combs, now overseeing an agency-wide reorganization plan, has been the beneficiary of an estimated $2.1 million in campaign contributions from oil companies that support that plan.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Karen Budd-Falen, deputy solicitor for parks and wildlife, previously worked with William Perry Pendley at the Mountain States League Foundation, where she supported the Bundy family and other anti-government ranchers.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kathleen Benedetto, special assistant, spent two decades working for mining companies, helping build a coalition that aimed to “completely throw out” the Endangered Species Act. After 13 years in a staff job at the House Natural Resources Committee, Benedetto returned to lobbying, this time for Bioxy Research, which provides “services for the oil and gas, refining and chemicals, mining, agriculture and construction industries.”</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HANDOUTS TO THE UNDESERVING</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The department has relaxed offshore-drilling safety rules imposed after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Interior has moved to allow oil drilling in the formerly off-limits Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, after Congress authorized that action in the 2017 tax bill.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The department has weakened the Endangered Species Act by making it harder to consider the impact of climate change and giving new weight to the law’s effects on corporate interests.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A rule intended to increase fracking safety and transparency has been rescinded.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Interior has overturned a ban on African trophy imports.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The department has relaxed oil and gas industry safeguards meant to reduce leaks of methane, a devastating greenhouse gas.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WE DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Interior Department <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/28/climate/bernhardt-shasta-dam.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">sidelined its own legal and environmental analyses</a> in order to advance a proposal to raise the height of the Shasta Dam in California.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It shut down its Invasive Species Advisory Committee.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The department has withdrawn funding for a network of regional research centers that studied habitat loss and wildfire management, among other problems.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2019, the National Park Service’s top climate change scientist, Patrick Gonzalez, received a “cease and desist” letter from supervisors after testifying before Congress (in his separate capacity as a University of California faculty member) about the risks of global warming.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IGNOMINIOUS DEPARTURES</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ryan Zinke, the first Trump-named interior secretary, was the target of at least eight inspector-general inquiries before his dismissal. He spent large sums of money on charter flights (one of them to deliver a speech to a hockey team owned by a former campaign contributor), censored a National Park Service report on climate change, blocked a casino project after visits from a potential competitor’s lobbyists, and awarded a Puerto Rico electricity restoration contract to a tiny, family-connected firm in his Montana hometown that turned out to lack basic staff, equipment, and experience for such a job. Zinke finally became too much of an embarrassment by trying to spend $139,000 on six new office doors.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FURTHER REFERENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.citizen.org/article/bernhardt-buddies/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Bernhardt Buddies: Conflicts of Interest Abound at Trump’s Interior Department</a> (Public Citizen)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/the-man-behind-the-curtain-interiors-no-2-helps-drive-trumps-agenda/2018/11/18/6403eb4c-e9ff-11e8-b8dc-66cca409c180_story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Zinke’s #2 has so many potential conflicts of interest he has to carry a list of them all</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/02/oil-mining-lobbyist-david-bernhardt-nomed-to-be-secretary-of-interior/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Oil and mining lobbyist David Bernhardt nominated to be Secretary of Interior</a> (OpenSecrets)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/21/david-bernhardt-water-law-interior-department-1370107" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Interior’s Bernhardt worked closely on matters he promised to avoid</a> (Politico)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-11-15/interior-secretary-westlands-water-deal" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Interior Secretary Bernhardt’s previous job raises questions about a deal for his ex-client</a> (L.A. Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/09/climate/interior-secretary-ethics.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Interior Chief’s Lobbying Past Has Challenged the Agency’s Ethics Referees</a> (New York Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://departmentofinfluence.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Department of Influence</a> (Western Values Project)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/sinkhole-spurs-evacuations-lawsuits-and-an-official-resignation/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Sinkhole spurs evacuations, lawsuits and an official resignation</a> (Louisiana Weekly)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://slate.com/culture/2018/11/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-drain-the-swamp-scott-angelle.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;"><em>Last Week Tonight</em> Called Trump’s Head of Oil Rig Safety, Who Gives His Cellphone Number to Industry Executives</a> (Slate)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/28/climate/bernhardt-shasta-dam.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">The Interior Secretary Wants to Enlarge a Dam. An Old Lobbying Client Would Benefit.</a> (New York Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://documented.net/2019/03/david-bernhardts-ex-lobbying-clients-met-70-times-with-interior-department-appointees/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">David Bernhardt’s Ex-Lobbying Clients Met 70 Times with Interior Department Appointees</a> (Documented)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-interior-department-revolving-door_n_5ddbf08ee4b00149f720e179" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">How The Interior Department Got Swamped</a> (HuffPost)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/04/03/firm-that-once-employed-trumps-pick-run-interior-is-making-millions-lobbying-it/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">The firm that once employed Trump’s pick to run Interior is making millions lobbying it</a> (Washington Post)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/15/interior-secretary-bernhardt-investigation-1357527" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Interior’s watchdog opens investigations into Bernhardt</a> (Politico)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/11/21/Cason-withdraws-name-from-nomination/5262627627600/?spt=su" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Cason withdraws name from nomination</a> (UPI)</font></li><li><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/10/18/ryan-zinke-is-the-new-scott-pruitt/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Ryan Zinke is the new Scott Pruitt (Washington Post)</font></a></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.statesman.com/news/20191210/domenech-broke-ethics-rules-government-watchdog-concludes" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Domenech broke ethics rules, government watchdog concludes</a> (Idaho Statesman)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/09/doors-interior-secretary-ryan-zinkes-office-getting-nearly-139-000-upgrade/409814002/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Doors to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s office are getting a nearly $139,000 upgrade</a> (USA Today)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://departmentofinfluence.org/person/scott-angelle/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Scott Angelle profile</a> (Department of Influence)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://departmentofinfluence.org/person/daniel-jorjani/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Daniel Jorjani profile</a> (Department of Influence)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.citizen.org/article/corporate-calendars/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Corporate Calendars: Dirty Energy Dominates Bernhardt, MacGregor Meetings at Interior Dept.</a> (Public Citizen)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.revealnews.org/article/trump-interior-nominee-fast-tracked-a-deficient-drilling-permit/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump Interior nominee fast-tracked a ‘deficient’ drilling permit</a> (Reveal)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2020/03/24/with-the-public-distracted-interior-department-moves-full-speed-ahead-on-oil-gas-leases/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">With The Public Distracted, Interior Department Moves Full Speed Ahead On Oil & Gas Leases</a> (CleanTechnica)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/climate/trump-administration-war-on-science.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Science Under Attack: How Trump is Sidelining Researchers and Their Work</a> (New York Times)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/12/1898991/-Watchdog-Releases-Documents-Relevant-to-Ethics-Investigation-into-Interior-Secretary-Bernhardt" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Watchdog Releases Documents Relevant to Ethics Investigation into Interior Secretary Bernhardt</a> (Daily Kos)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.pogo.org/investigation/2019/05/interior-rollback-includes-surprise-gift-to-oil-industry/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Interior’s Rollback Includes Surprise Gift to Oil Industry</a> (POGO)</font></li></ul><div class="back-to-top" style="text-align: center; margin: 4em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; background: rgb(241, 90, 34); padding: 0.5em 1em;"><a href="https://prospect.org/mapping-corruption-interactive#map" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; background: rgb(241, 90, 34); padding: 0.5em 1em;">Back to Map</a></font></div></article><article id="justice-dept-info" style="border-bottom: 5px solid rgb(35, 31, 32); margin-bottom: 4em; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 style="padding: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Justice Department</font></h1><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QUICK AND DIRTY</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a job traditionally defined as “the nation’s chief law enforcement officer,” William Barr has often seemed to act as the president’s defense lawyer and legal errand-runner. He has shown his loyalty to the chief executive by, among other things, writing and releasing a deceptive “summary” of the Mueller report before the actual contents were made public.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Barr also bypassed Senate confirmation to install acting U.S. attorneys in New York and New Jersey—offices crucial to the fate of corruption charges against the Trump administration or family.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He has repeatedly kept evidence of Trump misdeeds from reaching agencies or officials who might pursue them.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Barr has advanced a series of extreme legal arguments for noncooperation with congressional requests and inquiries.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He has gone out of his way to denigrate the president’s critics and lend credibility to his conspiracy theories.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After Trump complained about the DOJ’s sentencing recommendations for Roger Stone (convicted of lying to Congress and obstructing justice), Barr overruled prosecutors and softened their recommendation. Trump tweeted his “congratulations to Attorney General Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought.”</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Barr was also a key figure in granting additional pardons to white-collar criminals with influence at the White House or in the inner circles of the Republican Party.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although best known for his fervent defense of President Trump, Barr has a history of lucrative legal work for telecoms and other giant companies, along with a recent record of action and inaction that has given corporate America cause to be extremely grateful for his service at the Justice Department.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since Trump became president, the number of federal prosecutions of white-collar criminals (over price-fixing, tax fraud, and environmental offenses, for example) has fallen to its lowest level in decades. When it comes to the resolution of such cases, Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski (see below) has told prosecutors to weigh the “financial burden” of ordering a company to be supervised by an independent monitor. Benczkowski’s directive appears to be intended to help corporate criminals avoid even that comparatively modest sanction.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WHAT AM I DOING HERE?</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In July 2018, Barr composed an unsolicited memo to the Department of Justice and President Trump’s defense team. His memo condemned the Mueller investigation as a legal travesty and effectively asserted the president’s right to terminate any inquiry into his activities or fire any executive-branch official who displeased him. Although Barr said the memo was not intended as a job application, it served that purpose nicely. “Mueller’s core premise—that the President acts ‘corruptly’ if he attempts to influence a proceeding in which his own conduct is being scrutinized—is untenable,” Barr wrote. Five months later, he was tapped to succeed Jeff Sessions as attorney general.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Barr’s views on presidential power appear to shift with the political winds. When Bill Clinton asserted lawyer-client privilege to avoid turning documents over to the Senate committee investigating Whitewater, Barr dismissed that claim as “preposterous.” When George W. Bush declared “war on terrorism” and ordered the invasion of Iraq, Barr once again became a champion of the president’s “maximum power.”</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From 1994 to 2008, Barr served as general counsel first to GTE and later to Verizon, the product of its merger with Bell Atlantic. That merger wound up making Barr a millionaire many times over; after taking early retirement from Verizon in 2008, he received a $28 million payout—cited as an example of overcompensation and sloppy corporate governance in a watchdog group’s complaint.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Barr is also a former director of the Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, a hedge fund involved in the purchase of 14 ski resort properties across the country. Not long after he resigned from that board in 2018, the company paid a $412 million fine to settle charges of offering bribes in several African nations; some of the bribe money reportedly went to the son of former Libyan dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HANDOUTS TO THE UNDESERVING</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During Barr’s time as attorney general, DOJ has given the green light to mergers, such as the one between T-Mobile and Sprint, that promised to be politically helpful to Donald Trump and the Republican Party. The attorneys general of 13 states and the District of Columbia sued to block that deal, warning that it would lead to less competition and higher prices. In most such cases, the states and the federal government craft a united response; this time the Justice Department took the extraordinary step of filing a legal brief in favor of the merger (and against the position of the states), while the head of its antitrust division became actively involved in negotiations to bring the deal to fruition.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While the government was considering the deal, T-Mobile and Sprint executives spent approximately $195,000 staying at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. That hotel has become a favorite roosting place for many other corporate leaders as well as foreign government officials seeking policy concessions from the Trump administration. Barr could have asked his department to investigate this practice as a potential violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause. Instead, he has not only failed to launch such an inquiry; he has personally adopted the practice of holding an annual holiday party at the Trump Hotel, paying $30,000 for the privilege.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Antitrust, like presidential power, is an area of policy where Barr’s views have tended to follow his partisan and financial interests. Recently, his department has been criticized for selective enforcement as a result of its much-publicized announcement of plans to launch an antitrust investigation of Google, a company whose power is seen as a threat to the telecoms and traditional media interests.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UNDUE INFLUENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brian Benczkowski, assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division, previously represented a series of large and morally tainted corporations including BP, HSBC, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and Volkswagen.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Before becoming assistant attorney general for antitrust, Makan Delrahim helped Google win FTC and DOJ approval for its 2007 acquisition of the online advertising giant DoubleClick.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Solicitor General Noel Francisco, now charged with representing the executive branch in cases before the Supreme Court, spent ten years working for the corporate law firm of Jones Day. Handling the appeal of former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s corruption conviction, Francisco persuaded the court to narrow the scope of a federal bribery law in a way that, according to Bloomberg News, could mean the reversal of many “high-profile public corruption cases.”</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rachel Brand, who preceded Francisco as solicitor general, was a lawyer or lobbyist for Google, T-Mobile, and the United States Chamber of Commerce, among other corporate clients. During her time in private practice, she filed a friend-of-the-court brief that helped Citigroup dodge an admission of wrongdoing for its role in the sale and promotion of mortgage bonds of the kind that had driven the U.S. financial system to the edge of collapse. In February 2018, Brand left government to become a top executive at Walmart.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FURTHER REFERENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/8/28/20836544/william-barr-trump-hotel-party-emoluments-corruption" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">William Barr’s $30k Trump hotel party illustrates how corruption is becoming more brazen and blatant</a> (Vox)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/government-lawyers-dont-work-trump/600346/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump’s Government Lawyers Don’t Know Who Their Real Client Is</a> (Atlantic)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a35jja/trumps-ukraine-scandal-is-also-attorney-general-bill-barrs-scandal" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump’s Ukraine Scandal Is Also Attorney General Bill Barr’s Scandal</a> (Vice)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/06/googles-onetime-hired-gun-could-now-be-its-antitrust-nightmare-1559740" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Google’s onetime hired gun could now be its antitrust nightmare</a> (Politico)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://restorepublictrust.org/tbt-barrs-past-disqualifies-him-from-serving-as-attorney-general/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Barr’s Past Disqualifies Him From Serving As Attorney General</a> (Restore Public Trust)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/barr-confirms-doj-has-established-an-intake-process-to-review-giulianis-biden-ukraine-info/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Barr Confirms DOJ has ‘Established an Intake Process’ to Review Giuliani’s Biden-Ukraine Info</a> (National Review)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/01/20/william-barr-trumps-sword-and-shield" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">William Barr, Trump’s Sword And Shield</a> (New Yorker)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-11/trump-s-justice-department-has-an-antitrust-problem-too" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Trump’s Justice Department Has an Antitrust Problem Too</a> (Bloomberg)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.newamerica.org/weekly/edition-248/preventing-politicization-antitrust-enforcement/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Preventing the Politicization of Antitrust Enforcement</a> (New America)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-11/with-a-regulator-like-this-who-needs-an-investment-banker" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">With a Regulator Like This, Who Needs an Investment Banker?</a> (Bloomberg)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/migration/corporate-enforcement-public-citizen-report-july-2018.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Corporate Impunity: “Tough on Crime” Trump Is Weak on Corporate Crime and Wrongdoing</a> (Public Citizen)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/4/21122041/google-inquiry-department-of-justice-makan-delrahim-conflict-of-interest-lobbying" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Justice Department’s Google inquiry loses top antitrust official</a> (The Verge)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-09/u-s-scrutiny-of-banks-could-fall-to-business-lobby-lawyer" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">S. Scrutiny of Banks Could Fall to Business Lobby Lawyer</a> (Bloomberg)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/02/12/805159485/trump-praises-attorney-general-barr-for-taking-charge-of-roger-stone-case" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Attorney General Barr to Testify In House Amid Criticism Over Roger Stone Case</a> (NPR)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://prospect.org/politics/william-barr-corruption-of-the-justice-department/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">William Barr and the Corruption of the Justice Department</a> (American Prospect)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.gq.com/story/bill-barr-cover-up-justice-department" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">How Bill Barr Turned the Justice Department Into a Cover-up Operation for Trump</a> (GQ.com)</font></li></ul></article><article id="labor-dept-info" style="border-bottom: 5px solid rgb(35, 31, 32); margin-bottom: 4em; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 style="padding: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Labor Department</font></h1><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QUICK AND DIRTY</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Under Trump, the Labor Department killed the so-called “fiduciary” rule requiring retirement investment advisers to put clients’ financial interests ahead of their own interests. Thanks to that reversal, brokers and insurance company salespeople remain free to recommend needlessly expensive financial products, chiseling workers and retirees out of as much as $17 billion a year in excessive fees.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bowing to pressure from big restaurant chains like Olive Garden, IHOP, Applebee’s, and Denny’s—and parroting their talking points—the Labor Department decided that they don’t always have to let workers keep the tips customers leave for them.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a move sought by restaurant and hotel franchisers, the Trump Labor Department issued a regulation to make it easier for such companies to avoid paying for certain kinds of overtime.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Under Alexander Acosta and Eugene Scalia, there has been a sharp decline in OSHA enforcement actions, and half of the agency’s top jobs have been left vacant.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WHAT AM I DOING HERE?</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia built a reputation as a “go-to” lawyer for big corporations challenging worker rights and safety rules. Clients included Boeing, Chevron, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, United States Chamber of Commerce, American Petroleum Institute, United Parcel Service, Anheuser-Busch, and Facebook.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scalia helped Walmart do away with a Maryland law requiring large employers to either contribute to worker health plans or help the state cover Medicaid costs.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He represented UPS and Anheuser-Busch in opposing a requirement that employers track repetitive-stress injuries and musculoskeletal disorders and look for ways to prevent them.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He unsuccessfully sought to have SeaWorld declared exempt from the Occupational Safety and Health Act because that legislation had failed to specifically mention the marine-animal entertainment business.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scalia argued that a law requiring employers to “provide” items of safety equipment such as gloves and mesh aprons in a meat-packing plant did not prevent companies from making workers pay for such gear.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He was a lynchpin of Wall Street’s campaign to undo post-crisis financial regulations, filing six major lawsuits on behalf of banks.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IGNOMINIOUS DEPARTURES</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scalia’s predecessor, Alexander Acosta, was forced to resign over his role in the sweetheart plea agreement with serial sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FURTHER REFERENCE</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/30/trump-labor-nominee-scalia-earned-millions-while-working-for-big-business.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Eugene Scalia, Trump’s Labor nominee, earned millions while working for big business, disclosure shows</a> (CNBC)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/9/27/20886921/who-is-labor-secretary-eugene-scalia" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">5 things to know about Eugene Scalia, Trump’s new labor secretary with a famous dad</a> (Vox)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/new-york-california-sue-labor-dept-over-joint-employer-rule" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">New York, 16 Other States Sue Over DOL Joint-Employer Rule</a> (Bloomberg)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=ef3907f1-7254-47d6-a3ae-86776d528eea" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">The DOL’s New Fiduciary Rule: What Are Some Likely Outcomes?</a> (Lexology)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://qz.com/work/1715952/who-is-eugene-scalia-us-secretary-of-labor-nominee/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">The new US labor secretary has a history of opposing workers’ rights</a> (Quartz)</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/us/politics/acosta-resigns-trump.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Acosta to Resign as Labor Secretary Over Jeffrey Epstein Plea Deal</a> (New York Times)</font></li></ul></article><article id="state-dept-info" style="border-bottom: 5px solid rgb(35, 31, 32); margin-bottom: 4em; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual;"><h1 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">State Department</font></h1><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QUICK AND DIRTY</font></h2><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The U.S. has a long tradition of bestowing ambassadorships on wealthy friends of the president and his party. Donald Trump has taken it to new extremes, making more crony appointments than any past president and giving them to people with weaker qualifications in return for bigger sums of money.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His picks have included, as ambassador to Iceland, a dermatologist who had never even visited the country; as ambassador to the Bahamas, a real-estate developer who in his Senate confirmation testimony incorrectly described his assignment as a former U.S. rather than British protectorate; and as ambassador to Slovenia, the founder of an evangelical charity known for sharing bizarre right-wing social media posts such as “The Clinton ‘Body Count’ EXPANDS—5 Mysterious DEATHS in the last 6 weeks.”</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was actively involved in the Trump-directed campaign to discredit former Vice President Biden. In addition, Pompeo refused to defend the career ambassador to the Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, against baseless accusations promoted by Rudy Giuliani in order to facilitate deals for himself and his cronies and carry out the plan to have Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky announce an investigation into the business activities of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yovanovitch is just one of many high-ranking State Department professionals who have been unfairly demoted, reassigned, or disparaged by the White House and pro-Trump forces. Pompeo is not known to have stood up for any of them.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After participating in a key phone call between President Trump and Zelensky, Pompeo failed to acknowledge being on the line until evidence of his involvement surfaced.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During the House impeachment hearings, Pompeo tried to keep State Department officials from testifying and refused to supply investigators with requested documents.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One former White House official has described Pompeo as “among the most sycophantic and obsequious people around Trump.” An ex-ambassador has likened him to “a heat-seeking missile for Trump’s ass.”</font></li></ul><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WHAT AM I DOING HERE?</font></h2><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pompeo was a Kansas congressman known for his strong relationship with the Koch brothers. Koch Industries and Koch employees donated more than $200,000 to Pompeo’s first two election campaigns.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He gained national attention as one of the Republican firebrands driving the Benghazi investigation—an obsessively partisan effort to blame Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the death of a U.S. ambassador.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Questions have been raised about the tasks assigned to Pompeo’s security detail, which, according to a whistleblower’s complaint, have included picking up Chinese food and bringing the family dog back from a grooming appointment. One agent is said to have described the job as “Uber Eats with guns.”</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pompeo’s wife Susan has sat in on planning meetings, accompanied the secretary on trips, and is said to regard herself as a de facto State Department employee. Susan Pompeo has her own security detail, reportedly ordered for her without any threat assessment and for reasons not apparent to some of the officials who normally decide such things.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pompeo’s predecessor, Rex Tillerson, had been the CEO and a longtime executive at Exxon, raising huge conflict-of-interest questions involving America’s energy policies and relations with oil-and-gas-buying or -selling countries around the world.</font></li></ul><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GOVERNMENT FOR SALE</font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" face="Times New Roman">The long list of big-money ambassadors includes:</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><table style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); width: 756px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual;"><tbody><tr style=""><th id="name" scope="col" style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; width: 121.219px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Name</font></th><th id="assignment" scope="col" style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; width: 121.219px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Assignment</font></th><th id="backstory" scope="col" style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; width: 419.219px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Backstory</font></th></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gordon Sondland</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">European Union</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Hotel magnate and one of the Trump campaign’s biggest donors, giving more than $1 million</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Tapia</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jamaica</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Major GOP donor who got rich running a construction supply company</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Fischer</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Morocco</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Owner of multiple Michigan car dealerships and contributor of $250,000 to the Trump inauguration committee</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jeffrey Ross Gunter</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Iceland</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dermatologist and longtime GOP donor</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">John Rakolta Jr.</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">United Arab Emirates</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Construction company heir and major Republican donor</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lynda Blanchard</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Slovenia</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Founder of evangelical charity and wife of Alabama real-estate magnate</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lana Marks</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">South Africa</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fashion designer and member of the Mar-a-Lago Club</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Joe Cella</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fiji</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Founder of National Catholic Prayer Breakfast</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David B. Cornstein</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hungary</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jewelry magnate, Republican donor, and longtime member of Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kelly Craft</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">United Nations</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republican donor, wife of billionaire coal executive, and frequent guest at Trump properties</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Friedman</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Israel</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bankruptcy lawyer, longtime Trump associate, and key 2016 fundraiser</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ronald Gidwitz</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Belgium</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Private equity manager and cosmetics executive</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Robert “Woody” Johnson</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">United Kingdom</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Johnson & Johnson heir and New York Jets owner</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trevor Traina</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Austria</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dow Chemical heir and tech entrepreneur</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Adrian Zuckerman</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Romania</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Real-estate lawyer and member of Bedminster golf club</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carla Sands</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Denmark</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former chiropractor turned <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em> actress</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jamie McCourt</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">France</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former Los Angeles Dodgers owner</font></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">William Kohorst</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Croatia</font></td><td style="padding: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Real-estate developer</font></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">f<span style="text-transform: uppercase;">URTHER REFERENCE</span></font></p><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/donors-trump-inaugural-committee-got-ambassador-nominations-are-they-qualified-n990116" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Donors to the Trump inaugural committee got ambassador nominations. But are they qualified?</a> (NBC)</font></li></ul><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/10/2/20895103/ukraine-pompeo-trump-call-zelensky" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">The Ukraine scandal exposes the Trump crony Pompeo really is</a> (Vox)</font></li><li style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/us/politics/pompeo-ukraine-impeachment.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Echoes of Benghazi Criticism and Anger Confront Pompeo in Ukraine Inquiry</a> (New York Times)</font></li><li style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/26/mike-pompeo-the-secretary-of-trump" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Mike Pompeo, The Secretary of Trump</a> (New Yorker)</font></li><li style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/01/politics/pompeo-democrats-whistleblower-claims/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">Democrats investigating whistleblower claims Pompeo’s security picked up Chinese food and his dog</a> (CNN)</font></li><li style=""><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/05/us-embassies-abroad-trump-envoys-pushing-out-career-diplomats-deputy-chiefs-mission-south-africa-diplomacy-pompeo-lana-marks/" style="text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s;">At Embassies Abroad, Trump Envoys Are Quietly Pushing Out Career Diplomats</a> (Foreign Policy)</font></li></ul></article></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>