Trump Fills The Swamp

stumbler · Jun 18, 2018

Wilbur Ross Never Sold Stakes in Companies Co-Owned by China, Report Says

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross failed to keep his promise to divest from his company holdings upon entering government, a Forbes investigation has found. Ross reportedly kept his stakes in companies co-owned by the Chinese government, a firm linked to Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, and a Cyprus bank caught up in the Robert Mueller investigation. Forbes reports that Ross’s family continued to have an interest in these holdings while he dealt with China and Russia in his official role, even while knowing that his family’s fortunes were linked to the countries. Although the arrangements appear to be legal, Forbes says Ross may have broken the law by submitting a sworn statement to officials in November saying he divested of everything he promised he would. His spokesperson insisted: “The secretary did not lie,” adding that Ross has filed amended paperwork that is under review by the Office of Government Ethics.
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stumbler · Jun 22, 2018

Ethics questions surround Zinke’s ties to a Halliburton real estate deal in Montana
The oil company would benefit from any moves made by the interior secretary to open up public lands to drilling.

The former chief executive and current chair of oil giant Halliburton, David Lesar, is working on a commercial development project involving Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Halliburton stands to benefit from any decisions made by Zinke to open up public lands for oil and gas drilling.

First revealed by Politico, Zinke and his wife Lola are tied to a multimillion-dollar real estate project involving Halliburton that is being developed in the secretary’s hometown of Whitefish, Montana. A foundation established by Zinke and now headed by his wife is “providing crucial assistance” to the project Politico reports.

Halliburton’s Lesar is providing financial backing to the project’s hotel and retail development. The project would also include a microbrewery, first proposed by Zinke in 2012 and which, according to a Whitefish city planner, may potentially be set aside for the Zinkes to own and operate. A plot of land next door, owned by Zinke, could see an increase in value once the real estate project is finished.

The relationship between the Zinkes and Halliburton’s Lesar raises serious ethics questions as the secretary clearly stands to benefit financially should his land become more valuable as a result of the project. In addition, Halliburton has permission to develop land donated to Zinke’s foundation, entering a space where the oil giant and the Zinkes could potentially be viewed as business partners.

“That Halliburton’s chairman would almost be a business partner of Zinke or his wife, he would have to recuse himself from anything involving Halliburton,” Marilyn Glynn told Politico. Glynn, who was acting director of the Office of Government Ethics under former President George W. Bush, called the relationship inappropriate.

Under ethics rules, executive branch officials like Zinke must recuse themselves from decision making that involves people or companies they have a close financial relationship with in order to avoid conflicts of interest.

Zinke, as head of the Interior Department, is ultimately responsible for overseeing more than 500 million acres of public lands, as well as setting technical and safety standards for pipelines and drilling that oil companies must abide by.

Halliburton is one of the world’s biggest fracking companies. It is also the country’s largest oil-services company. It helps drill wells and build rigs — infrastructure critical to the extraction of fossil fuels and regulated by the Interior Department. As Politico reports, the company has met repeatedly with agency officials to discuss fracking policies. And last year, under Zinke’s leadership, the agency repealed Obama-era rules that restricted fracking on federal lands.

Lesar, who stepped down as Halliburton’s chief executive last year, has a longtime relationship with the Zinkes. In 2014, he and his wife donated $10,400 — the maximum amount allowed by law — to Zinke’s first congressional campaign.

The Interior Department did not respond to a request for comment by ThinkProgress.

The Halliburton connection isn’t the first time the Zinkes have found themselves at the center of accusations of ethical misconduct.

Last year, Lola Zinke sparked questions about whether she was using her husband’s new government position to gain access to powerful Republicans. Working as a Republican Party activist and consultant, Lola reportedly asked department staff to invite certain guests to an event hosted by the right-wing Young America’s Foundation where Zinke was slated to speak.

When Zinke was nominated to his position he failed to disclose that he holds shares in a private Montana manufacturer and seller of firearms and advanced weapons material. A leadership PAC previously affiliated with Zinke is also under investigation by the Federal Election Commission for financial discrepancies.

Last September, following Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico awarded a $300 million contract to a tiny Montana company, Whitefish Energy Holdings, to reconstruct a large portion of the island’s electrical infrastructure. The company’s chief executive has a personal relationship Zinke. The deal eventually fell through two months later after coming under intense scrutiny.

In March, it was revealed that the Interior Department spent $139,000 on a secure door for the secretary. Zinke and four other department staffers also spent $12,000 to fly a private plane from Las Vegas to Montana last June — a decision an internal watchdog said was approved by ethics officials without sufficient information. Zinke’s trip to Vegas was to give a speech to the Golden Knights hockey team, owned by one of his wealthiest campaign donors.

Zinke also billed taxpayers more than $6,000 for a helicopter trip he took last year to horseback ride with Vice President Mike Pence. Zinke called criticisms that his expensive flights were a misuse of taxpayer money “a wild departure from reality.”
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slutwolf · Jun 22, 2018

Filling it with ilegal's children is a bit low ,
even for trumpet

stumbler · Jun 22, 2018

BUT HILARY'S EMAILS HILARY'S EMAILS HILARY'S EMAILS HILARY'S EMAILS HILARY'S EMAILS HILARY'S EMAILS !!!!!!!!!!!

Probe Finds—Come On—Only One Email to Outside EPA in Pruitt Outbox?

A probe of under-fire Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s government email accounts has uncovered just one single message sent from him to anyone outside the EPA in his first 10 months in office, leading watchdogs to question if he’s communicating government business privately. The official Pruitt account record was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Sierra Club. The EPA attempted to explain the curious Sent folder by saying Pruitt tends to hold discussions in person or over the phone. However, given the secrecy surrounding a range of Pruitt’s other actions at the agency—such as refusing to release his meeting calendars and installing a $43,000 soundproof booth in his office—critics say the meager number is completely implausible and he must be communicating in another way. “The emails, if they exist, could show what these people want and then those emails could be compared to what the EPA does,” said Melanie Sloan, a senior adviser at watchdog American Oversight. “Americans should know what the EPA is doing, why it’s doing it, and who’s influencing those decisions.”
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shootersa · Jun 23, 2018

Oh. Pruitt regularly handles TOP SECRET stuff, so we gotta look into this!
But, as long as the General brought up Hillary's e Mails...............

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ton-emails-fbi-comey-0621-20180620-story.html
But her emails? You’re dang right her emails.

In fact, the overlooked bombshell of the report is the inspector general’s confirmation that classified information contained in Clinton’s emails was in fact compromised by foreign intelligence services, and that Clinton had recklessly emailed President Barack Obama using her unsecured personal email from the territory of a hostile foreign adversary.

Before the report was released, we knew from Comey’s July 2016 statement that Clinton’s private emails included “seven e-mail chains (which) concern matters that were classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received.” We also knew that the FBI “also found information that was properly classified as Secret by the U.S. Intelligence Community at the time it was discussed on email.” Comey further declared, “We do assess that hostile actors gained access to the private commercial email accounts of people with whom Secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her personal account.” And he speculated that, given how “extremely careless” Clinton had been, it was “possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal email account.”

Well, it turns out, the FBI knew with certainty at the time that hostile actors had in fact gained access to classified information via Clinton’s emails. According to the inspector general, a special review of the Clinton email investigation in 2017 by the office to the FBI’s Inspection Division found that, before Comey’s 2016 statement, “the FBI ... successfully determined classified information was improperly stored and transmitted on Clinton’s email server, and classified information was compromised by unauthorized individuals, to include foreign governments or intelligence services, via cyber intrusion or other means” (emphasis added).

stumbler · Jun 23, 2018

Steve Mnuchin busted for tax favor to brothel owner who gave hefty contributions to Republicans: report

Following large campaign contributions from a brothel owner to Republicans, the Treasury Department “quietly reversed itself” to provide huge financial benefits, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Lance Gilman, the proprietor of the infamous Mustang Ranch brothel in Storey County, Nevada had worked “behind the scenes” for the county to be listed as an “opportunity zone” — a tax advantage for distressed areas.

For Storey County to qualify, Gov. Brian Sandoval (R-NV) had to withdraw the nomination for the town of Dayton, in neighboring Lyon County. This resulted in Gov. Sandoval withdrawing a nomination for a county with a median household income of $49,007 and instead nominating a county with a medium income of $65,508.

Even another brothel owner is mad about the special treatment Gilman received for Storey County.

Dennis Hof owns four brothels in Lyon County, including the Moonlight Bunny Ranch. He wrote an autobiography called The Art of the Pimp and stars on the HBO series “Cathouse.”

Hof, who is also a Republican candidate for state assembly, blasted the decision.

“Its unconscionable that in this day and age these kinds of things can happen,” Hof said.

“Anything we’ve got we should keep. If they gave Lance [Gilman] something, what did we get for it?” Hof asked. “We don’t just give things away for nothing.”

Gilman, The Post noted, is a “major GOP donor” who made a $5,000 contribution to Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) while appealing for the rule change.

The Treasury Department, run by Secretary Steve Mnuchin, denied special treatment.

“The State of Nevada raised an issue relating to data supporting opportunity zone nominations,” a Treasury Department spokesman said. “In response to Nevada’s feedback, the [Internal Revenue Service] has clarified its procedures and all future nominations.”

The state of Vermont asked if they could use similar metrics, but was denied.
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stumbler · Jun 23, 2018

‘Serious concerns’: Top government ethics official wants to investigate Trump business deals — but is blocked by Republicans

The top ethics official for the United States government says President Donald Trump’s business dealings in office “raise serious concerns” and that the Office of Government Ethics is unable to investigate.

The acting director and general counsel at the ethics office, David Apol, wrote a letter responding to more than 60 Democrats to explain the predicament, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

At issue is a billion-dollar Trump Organization development in Indonesia, that the Chinese government reportedly is backing with a $500 million investment. Days after the investment was announced, President Trump reversed course against the Chinese telecommunications company ZTE.

“At the outset, I agree that the information cited in your letter raises serious concerns,” the Office of Government Ethics wrote. “It is essential to the success of our republic that citizens can trust that the decisions made by government leaders are motivated by the public good and not by personal interests.”

The letter notes that, “Congress has left no doubt that the primary criminal conflict of interest statute is inapplicable to the President.”

The ethics watchdog argued that “under the Constitution, the primary authority to oversee the President’s ethics rests with Congress and ultimately, with the American people.”
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ace's n 8's · Jun 23, 2018

stumbler said: ↑

‘Serious concerns’: Top government ethics official wants to investigate Trump business deals — but is blocked by Republicans
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A billion-dollar resort project being developed in Indonesia by the president’s business empire, the Trump Organization, is to receive $500 million from the Chinese government. The president’s company has been involved in the project since 2015, according to the South China Morning Post.

The Trump Organization is entirely separate from Trump’s presidency.

stumbler · Jun 24, 2018

Pruitt's office discussed hiring friend of his landlord: report

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt's staff discussed hiring a friend of a lobbyist whose wife rented a Capitol Hill condo to Pruitt for $50 a night, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Pruitt’s chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, and lobbyist J. Steven Hart exchanged emails on the matter, according to documents obtained through a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club.

The emails show Hart appealing to Jackson about finding a job for Jimmy Guiliano, a family friend of Hart's and recent college graduate. Hart sent the email while Pruitt was living in a condo Hart's wife owned.

Hart told Jackson that Hart's wife “has talked to Scott about this kid who is important to us. He told Vicki to talk to you about how to handle this,” the Times reported.

Jackson responded that he was “on it.”

An agency spokesman told the Times that Guiliano did not receive a job at EPA.

Jahan Wilcox, a spokesman for the EPA, told The New York Times that the emails from Hart were “unsolicited and did not impact any agency policy outcomes.”

The emails also disclose that Hart had emailed with agency staff about matters relevant to HSBC and Coca-Cola, despite his past claims that he did not have lobbying business before the EPA.

Pruitt has maintained his role despite an assortment of ethical controversies that have been revealed in recent months.

In addition to renting the Capitol Hill condo, Pruitt also sought to help get his wife a Chick-fil-A franchise, had staffers buy him personal items and seek out a used Trump Hotel mattress and had a $43,000 soundproof booth installed in his office.

Pruitt has brushed aside many of those controversies, blaming them on staff or claiming they are politically motivated.

President Trump has continued to stand by Pruitt amid those issues, praising him for cutting regulations and implementing his agenda.

Many Republicans, however, have grown tired of Pruitt's behavior.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) called Pruitt “about as swampy as you get."

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who’s been an outspoken critic of Pruitt over his scandals, told reporters earlier this month that Pruitt is "acting like a moron."
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tenguy · Jun 24, 2018

Oh my God, a landlord, how deranged is this man. Lead him to the pillory.

BTW, some act like a moron while others are morons. Don't look in the mirror Herr Stumbles.

JimmyCrackPorn · Jun 25, 2018

No one filled the swamp quite like the Blowbamabots and the Clinturds.

Now, I'll just sit back and wait for the OP to reply with "Oh fuck", or "Oh fucking hilarious", or "Oh my fucking God" or something equally hysterical to make it look like this is nothing compared to Trump. In other words, "his usual".

stumbler · Jun 26, 2018

Scott Pruitt Asked Oil, Gas Trade Group for Hiring Recommendations

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt asked executives of a major oil and gas trade group to suggest possible candidates to fill regional director positions at the agency, according to internal EPA emails obtained by the Sierra Club. BuzzFeed News reports that Pruitt “made a plea for candidates” to American Petroleum Institute executives, and oil company ConocoPhillips then sent two resumes to the agency. One was for a ConocoPhillips employee in Alaska, and the other was for a friend of the company’s vice president for State and Federal Government Affairs. Neither candidate ended up getting the job, but former EPA head Christine Todd Whitman told BuzzFeed News that it was “highly unusual to go to a specific industry to try to recruit.”
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stumbler · Jun 27, 2018

There has been a staggering $16.1 million in political and taxpayer spending at Trump properties

Since Donald Trump declared his candidacy for president in late 2015, at least $16.1 million has poured into Trump Organization-managed and branded hotels, golf courses and restaurants from his campaign, Republican organizations, and government agencies. Because Trump’s business empire is overseen by a trust of which he is the sole beneficiary, he profits from these hotel stays, banquet hall rentals and meals.

To arrive at the total, we compiled campaign finance reports from the Federal Election Commission; state government spending gleaned from dozens of state websites and portals; and federal agency expenditure records obtained by the Washington-based transparency organization Property of the People. For this project, Property of the People filed Freedom of Information Act requests with 15 federal agencies and sued four of them to obtain records. (The organization is also attempting to procure comparable records for the Obama era.)

The vast majority of the money — at least $13.5 million, or more than 84 percent of what we tracked — was spent by Trump’s presidential campaign (including on Tag Air, the entity that operates Trump’s personal airplane). Republican Senate and House political committees and campaigns have shelled out at least another $2.1 million at Trump properties. At least $400,000 has been spent by federal, state and local agencies. (For example, the Florida Police Chiefs Association held its summer conference last year at the Trump National Doral Miami.) The state and local tally appears to be a gross undercount because of the agencies’ spotty disclosures and reporting.

The use of taxpayer dollars at Trump hotels is under scrutiny in a closely watched lawsuit in Maryland federal court. The District of Columbia and the state of Maryland sued Trump, citing a venerable anti-corruption provision of the U.S. Constitution known as the Emoluments Clause. It prohibits any financial gift, or emolument, from benefiting a sitting public official, including the president.

The judge in that case, Peter Messitte, is expected to make a final ruling by the end of July. Last month, he allowed the case to proceed, concluding in his opinion that a trip to the Trump International Hotel in Washington by Maine Gov. Paul LePage “rather clearly suggests that Maryland and the District of Columbia may very well feel themselves obliged, i.e., coerced, to patronize the Hotel in order to help them obtain federal favors.” The nonprofit group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, which is co-counsel in the Maryland/D.C. case, is also the plaintiff in a separate emoluments suit, which was dismissed; an appeal of that decision is pending.

One of Trump’s lawyers, Sheri Dillon, has argued in the past that paying a hotel bill would never have qualified as an emolument when the Constitution was written; “instead, it would have been thought of as a value-for-value exchange.” (Countered Norman Eisen, chairman of CREW and a former ethics chief under President Obama, “all of these competing interests are openly and nakedly trying to buy off a president…. Obviously, the government spending, whether it’s federal, state, or local, is a domestic emolument.”)

The Trump Organization and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

There are few ways to avoid the implication that the use of Trump properties is endorsed by the federal government, said Don Fox, the former acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, which oversees the government’s ethics rules. One way to avoid the problem, Fox suggested, would be a public statement by Trump along the following lines: “Stay where you need to stay. Basically, do what’s best for the taxpayer.”

But Trump has sent a very different signal with his actions. In his 18 months in office, he has stayed at his hotels or Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Fla., estate and club, nearly a third of the time: 161 days and counting.

“Trump appears to be commandeering federal resources in order to maximize revenues at Trump properties, and he does this by visiting properties close to the White House,” said Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis and an expert in legal ethics. “And when he travels to the golf courses in Florida, Virginia and New Jersey, other agencies that are involved in supporting the president end up spending money.”

There are no rules barring federal employees from patronizing Trump properties. Employees can be reimbursed for expenditures according to federal travel regulations, including the cost of a hotel room or the price of a meal. There are limits to these per diems — employees cover any cost beyond the reimbursable amount — but rates at many Trump properties are within that range, reimbursement records show. (The General Services Administration provides a handy calculator to figure out what the per diems are depending on where an employee is traveling and when.)

But even if a stay at a Trump property falls within federal travel regulations, it’s hard to escape the fact that the president is personally benefiting from taxpayer dollars — and that federal employees have a potential incentive to curry favor with their ultimate boss.

Consider a trip last year by Matthew Snyder, who works for the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, in Colorado. Snyder traveled to Washington, D.C., for 11 days in April 2017 to attend managerial training. He stayed first at a Marriott in Gaithersburg, Md. (where NIST is headquartered), and then at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. Both rooms cost $242 per night, and both were covered by his per diem for lodging. (According to federal guidelines, $242 is the maximum nightly amount the government will reimburse for visits to the D.C. area in the spring season.)

The Trump International Hotel appeared to cultivate at least some federal business, offering a discounted rate for government employees at the time. (A hotel staffer told us that the Trump International no longer offers a government discount.) Snyder benefitted from such a lowered price. His receipt shows a “room type” code of SK1, which refers to a suite, and a rate plan listed as “DISGOV.” The typical suite at the hotel starts at $740, according to its website.

Snyder said in an interview that he chose to stay at the Trump hotel because it was within walking distance of a conference he attended, and that its proximity allowed him to save the cost of renting a car.

But several hotels in a six-block radius provide cheaper rates, including the Hotel Harrington, which sits only a block north of the Trump hotel and charges $175 for a single room. And receipts show that Snyder rented a car and racked up $336 in valet parking charges during his stay at the Trump International.

When asked about cheaper nearby hotels and the parking costs, Snyder wrote in an email: “I could offer clarity, but I choose not to.” In the end, Snyder charged about $2,740 to a government charge card at the Trump International over five days, including room service and valet parking.

In response to questions, the Commerce Department said that records it reviewed “appear to show that a handful of career employees at the Department of Commerce who patronized Trump-owned properties complied with federal travel regulations.” Other Commerce Department employees asked about their spending at Trump properties explained that it was the most affordable option (in one instance involving a hotel in Las Vegas) or that the visit was made while off-duty (in the case of a trip to Los Angeles).

Other federal agencies offered a variety of responses. A statement from the Defense Department, whose employees spent nearly $150,000 at Trump properties between January and June 2017, said its staff are “free to choose where they stay, with the understanding that the government will reimburse no more than the lodging portion of the established per diem limit for the place of temporary duty. There are no plans to change or create guidance at this time.”

The Secret Service also patronized Trump properties while agents were protecting the president or his family. In March 2017, for example, the agency paid $27,724.32 at the Trump golf course and resort in Doonbeg, Ireland. The stay was to “support E. Trump Visit,” receipts note, which took place in April, when Eric Trump went to the resort for two days of business meetings, the Irish press reported at the time.

The State Department, which is listed as the federal agency reimbursing the costs of the Ireland trip, said the Secret Service is in charge of its own travel expenses when it relates to presidential security. For other stays at Trump properties, the State Department said it does “not afford the Trump Organization preferential treatment,” adding that its employees are “routinely counseled on federal ethics law and on the importance of avoiding even the appearance that department resources are misused for the benefit of any outside organizations or private interests.”

The State Department doesn’t receive any preferential treatment when employees stay at Mar-a-Lago, receipts show. For an April 2017 trip by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, his chief of staff and another aide for meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, each room cost $546 per night, which was described by the Trump Organization as a “rack rate,” or a non-discounted, standard room. The spending was approved by State Department officials, who noted that the trip was to “meet with POTUS for a high level meeting.”
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stumbler · Jun 28, 2018

Trump staffers — including an NRA lobbyist — caught leaving their financial disclosure forms blank

Before accepting a position at the U.S. Department of the Interior last October, Benjamin Cassidy championed gun rights for nearly seven years as a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, collecting a peak annual salary of $288,333 for his work on Capitol Hill.

The public wouldn’t know that by looking at Cassidy’s government financial disclosure report. The form, which he filed soon after taking a job as senior deputy director of the office of intergovernmental and external affairs, doesn’t list his old job at the NRA — or any past job, for that matter. Cassidy’s form was nearly blank, save for his name, title and some bank holdings and investments. In the space allotted to show his income, it incorrectly stated “None.”

Federal law requires nearly all executive branch employees to submit reports intended to reveal and resolve conflicts of interest that might arise from their personal finances. The reports are supposed to be carefully reviewed, preferably by agency ethics attorneys, before being made public.

After we asked the Interior Department about the failure of Cassidy and at least three other staffers to disclose their work histories and finances, the agency responded with a bullet-pointed assessment that acknowledged ongoing problems while also noting that they “predated the current administration.”

Among the department’s findings:

The Interior Department’s ethics office did not “have adequate resources to accomplish its legally required compliance functions, including its responsibilities relating to the financial disclosure report program.” Just one ethics specialist, who is not an attorney, is responsible for reviewing hundreds of reports and advising thousands of employees on issues relating to those reports. This contributed to the certification and release of inaccurate reports.

Government employees are responsible for the accuracy of their forms. But Interior’s ethics office “is culpable in certifying forms that appeared ‘blank’ without conducting a certain level of due diligence to ensure that the filers submitted correct forms.”

Four Interior staffers ultimately had to re-submit their disclosure reports following ProPublica’s inquiry. As part of that process, they were interviewed by a senior career ethics attorney who went over their reports with them. The interviews revealed some staffers “were confused about what information was supposed to be reported,” according to the agency’s statement.

Other employees “thought they had filled out the form correctly when, in fact, they had not.” None of them appeared to intentionally hide information they were required to disclose, the department said.

Many of the problems and omissions were easy to spot. For example, an attorney for the DOI’s Bureau of Land Management, Cally Younger, submitted her financial disclosure form in September, days after joining the agency. An ethics official, Tia Barner, reviewed and approved the form, concluding that it complied with federal law.

But Younger’s form was blank, apart from her electronic signature and some perfunctory investment details. It completely neglected basic employment information, such as her old job as an attorney in Idaho Gov. Butch Otter’s office. Ironically, it also left out Younger’s past role as a “public records ombudsman” in Idaho, whose mission included examining how the state’s public record laws could be improved.

After we asked about the batch of blank forms, a senior ethics official, Kim Hintz, determined that Younger “inadvertently omitted certain information.” A revised version of her form now includes more employment and financial information.

Younger should have been questioned by ethics officials when she filed her original form, said Don Fox, who served as acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics during the Obama administration. “It may be, honestly, she just didn’t read the instructions and she just started filling out paperwork,” Fox said, “because if you’d even done a cursory review of the instructions, she should have known that she should have listed her position with the state of Idaho.”

Younger’s original form was a veritable font of information compared to one filed in the name of Thomas Baptiste, who is now an advisor to the Bureau of Land Management. Baptiste’s form was completely blank, with no information beyond his name, and no signature or indication that it was reviewed or approved. Baptiste previously worked as a records manager for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, as a project director at a consulting firm that works for conservative political clients, and before that at Tepeyac OB/GYN, which calls itself a “pro-life obstetrics and gynecology medical practice.”

Hintz, the Interior Department ethics staffer, found that Baptiste had “inadvertently omitted certain information.”

Yet another completely blank report was submitted, this one by Rick May, who worked with veterans after leaving active military duty in 2010 and is now a senior adviser to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. May erred when he didn’t list his wife’s income in his December filing, the Interior Department said. (It was unclear whether other relevant information was not included in the original version since the DOI did not make May’s updated report available to ProPublica before this article was published.)

Cassidy, Baptiste, Hintz, May and Younger did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment.

The failure to properly check federal financial disclosures could result in substantive conflicts going unnoticed, said Virginia Canter, a former Obama administration ethics attorney who now works for the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. She acknowledged that forms sometimes fall through the cracks, particularly given the volume of ethics issues arising in the Trump administration and the heavy workload of ethics offices.

As ProPublica has reported, failing to file the report correctly, or completely, can lead to serious consequences. Federal prosecutors can bring a civil lawsuit against any employee who willfully and knowingly submits a false report, with a fine of up to $50,000 and up to a year in prison.

The Office of Government Ethics, or OGE, audited the Interior Department’s ethics office in 2016, the last full year of the Obama administration, and found multiple problems. Many Interior Department employees had been filing their financial disclosures late, and the department’s ethics office was short-staffed. The report also found that Interior’s ethics office wasn’t exercising oversight of special government employees, or SGEs, who hold jobs in the private sector while working for the government. In 2015, four SGEs at Interior did not file financial disclosure reports, the OGE found.

In a statement, the OGE said it is still scrutinizing Interior’s ethics office as part of its 2016 audit. “OGE’s policy is to continue to follow up on recommendations until we are satisfied that the agency has addressed those problems underlying the recommendations,” the statement said.

The Government Accountability Office, a congressional watchdog, is also auditing aspects of Interior’s ethics office and, according to Interior officials, “will likely highlight some of the problems” reported in this article. The acting director of strategic issues at GAO, Tranchau Nguyen, said the audit “will be completed later this year.”

“Under our policies, we can’t share with you any findings until that work is completed and issued,” Nguyen wrote in an email. She added that the audit will evaluate the ethics programs of Interior and other executive branch agencies and “the processes and controls in place to oversee ethics compliance for political appointees.”

(As part of the GAO’s review, ProPublica staffers have been interviewed about our political appointee data, including Trump Town, and our interactions with federal ethics offices. None of the questions related to information or filings about any specific individual.)
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stumbler · Jun 30, 2018

Son of Trump’s ambassador to China using presidential connections to lure overseas business: report

The son of Terry Branstad, President Donald Trump’s ambassador to China, used his connection to President Trump to lure in business for his public-relations firm, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Eric Branstad served as the U.S. Commerce Department’s liaison to the White House. During a conference in Shanghai he spoke in front of more than 100 influential people at a seminar titled “How to React To (Potential) US-China Trade War?”

Experts told the Wall Street Journal that boasting about his ties to President Trump could create the appearance of an ethical conflict. President Trump recently sparked a coming trade war when he imposed tariff increases on China that are supposed to take effect on July 6th.

Eric Branstad’s success seems to be riding on the tails of President Trump. “Mr. Trump’s challenges to China while onstage with a colleague, but his efforts to build his own business in the country appeared to hinge on his personal connection to the president,” one attendee said.

“It was this whole splash about how they met Donald Trump,” said Richard Chenel, a Shanghai-based private-equity investor said.

Mr. Branstad declined to comment for the story. Walt Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethic said he that even thought he didn’t violate any ethics rules he should still take caution.

“The culture of the federal government has always been that if you’re in a sensitive post like ambassador, particularly for a country as important to our national interest as China, you would strongly discourage your family members from going there for business purposes,” Shaub said.
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stumbler · Jul 2, 2018

Report: EPA’s Chief Ethics Officer Urges More Scott Pruitt Investigations

The Environmental Protection Agency’s top ethics officer has called on the agency’s inspector general to investigate abuse of power allegations against Scott Pruitt after he said “additional potential issues” came to light, The New York Times reports. The official, Kevin Minoli, had initially approved several controversial decisions by Pruitt, including his $50-a-night condo rental from a health-care lobbyist, a move that sparked conflict-of-interest concerns. But in a letter to the Office of Government Ethics, Minoli said he was recommending further scrutiny of the EPA head due to new information “through sources within the EPA and media reports,” according to the Times. Minoli did not spell out the additional accusations against Pruitt, but a source cited by The Washington Post said they concerned instances in which Pruitt allegedly had subordinates perform personal tasks for him during work hours.
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stumbler · Jul 3, 2018

Whistleblower: Pruitt Kept Secret Calendar to Hide Controversial Meetings

Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt kept a “secret” calendar to hide meetings or calls that he and his aides feared would “look bad” if leaked to the public, according to one of his former staffers. Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff for operations, said EPA officials routinely met in Pruitt’s office to “scrub,” alter, or remove events from his official calendar. The offending meetings are said to include one in June 2017 between Pruitt and Cardinal George Pell, who was charged weeks later in Australia with multiple charges of sexual offenses. “We would have meetings what we were going to take off the official schedule. We had at one point three different schedules. One of them was one that no one else saw except three or four of us,” Chmielewski told CNN. “It was a secret... and they would decide what to nix from the public calendar.” If the allegations are true, keeping secret calendars and altering or deleting records of meetings could violate federal law as either “falsifying records” or hiding public records.
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Sanity_is_Relative · Jul 4, 2018

stumbler · Jul 4, 2018

Report: EPA Head Scott Pruitt Put Fundraising Ally in Charge of Records Requests

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt, already facing an onslaught of allegations of ethics violations, reportedly put the former treasurer of his political action committee in charge of the agency’s records office—a move critics fear has allowed him to hide his most controversial meetings and trips. Internal emails cited by Politico on Tuesday show that Pruitt placed Elizabeth Beacham White in charge of the agency’s Office of the Executive Secretariat, which is tasked with handling Freedom of Information Act requests for the EPA. White’s name is not yet listed on the office’s website, but the EPA confirmed her role to Politico. Since she joined the office, information requests concerning Pruitt’s activities have routinely been delayed as a result of additional reviews that had not previously been required. “Someone so connected to Pruitt's past and future political ambitions would have a clear motive to slow the release of records that undermine his image,” Andrew Bergman, an adviser at the watchdog group the Project on Government Oversight, told Politico.
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Sanity_is_Relative · Jul 5, 2018

Trump claims to care about the troops but doesn’t think they deserve clean water. Cenk Uygur, the host of The Young Turks, breaks it down. Tell us what you think in the comment section below. To get even more TYT in your life, go to https://TYT.com/app and download our free app! Read more here: https://newrepublic.com/article/14928... “The Trump administration feared it would be a “public relations nightmare”: a major federal study that concluded contaminated groundwater across the country, especially near military bases, was more toxic than the government realized. Political aides to President Donald Trump and Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt pressured the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry against releasing the results. “The public, media, and Congressional reaction to these numbers is going to be huge,” an unidentified White House aide wrote, according to Politico. “The impact to EPA and [the Defense Department] is going to be extremely painful. We cannot seem to get ATSDR to realize the potential public relations nightmare this is going to be.” The study was not released. That is, until Wednesday. Amid a media firestorm about the administration’s immigration policy, the ATSDR—a division of the Department of Health and Human Services—quietly published its 852-page review of perfluoroalkyls, or PFAS, which are “used in everything from carpets and frying pan coatings to military firefighting foams,” according to ProPublica. “All told, the report offers the most comprehensive gathering of information on the effects of these chemicals today, and suggests they’re far more dangerous than previously thought.”

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