Individually you could probably find some pretty good examples of really bad cabinet members.
You could look at former Vice President Dick Cheney who used stovepiped Intelligence fed to him by Douglas Feith [“the stupidest man alive”] to justify starting the Iraq War over their Weapons of Mass Destruction when they did’t have any and they had accurately told us so. Or perhaps when Cheney ordered his Chief of Staff Scooter Libby to leak classified information including the indentity of a current covert CIA operative to the Judith Miller of the New York times just to discredit the criticism coming from her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson.
There was the time that GSA Administer Lorita Doan was caught directing federal funds to help GOP members re-election efforts, or when Alberto Gonzales decided to fire nearly a dozen U.S. Attorneys but didn’t have a reason why except the possibility that they hadn’t been prosecuting enough Democrats.
Or there was the time when Defense Secretary Rumsfeld decided that Torture such as water boarding, prolonged stress positions, hypothermia and sleep deprivation wasn’t REAL Torture which was ineffective at gathering intelligence, didn’t provide any information that alone prevented any pending attacks and resulted in the deaths of several detainees including some in Abu Ghraib [from a stress position] and at CIA Black Sites [from hypothermia.] It all seemed tortuous enough for them I would say.
And of course there was that little thing about letting ISIL fester right under their noses at Camp Bucca.
So all that was bad. And of course one could argue that some of this isn’t quite as bad as the Pentagon Papers, COINTELPRO, the Tuskegee Experiment or the Trail of Tears when it comes to major crimes against liberty and humanity by members of our government. And I’m sure Conservatives would like to throw Benghazi/Uranium One/Email Server/Pizzagate/Whitewater/MonicaLewinski/VinceFoster/SethRich/IRSgate and “Fast and Furious” onto the pile. Fine. Do that if you want to debate fiction and fantasy as well as facts.
We can compare and contrast all of it.
But even with all that I think this new crop of cabinet secretaries and appointees under Trump may just be collectively far worse because they seemed to be hell bent on doing things that are just as bad as the nearly all above — ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
This is officially the 4th and final part in my “Not the Best People” series and goes on for a while because there’s a whole lot of graft, corruption and incompetence happening here.
Steve Mnuchin (Treasury)
Steve Mnuchin is a high end wall streeter whose bank had foreclosed on thousands of homeowners, but still he says: ‘I’m proud of our results’. And he maintains that view even though foreclosure victims say he cheated them out of their homes and apparently broke the law in the process. He also has tons of his own holdings in the Cayman Islands so clearly he fully understands the daily stresses of the common man working 9 to 5.
He also has a tendency to spend tax payers money on frivolous or questionable trips just like Jane and John six pack.
For example the took a government plane to fly the Fort Knox in Kentucky to apparently get in a better position to view the Solar Eclipse, or maybe get a good look at the gold, or something.
All together after a year on the job Mnuchin has spent over $1 Million in tax payer funds on travel with private and military jets.
An ethics organization in Washington accused US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday of bilking US tax payers by needlessly traveling on military and non-commercial jets to the tune of $1 million last year.
Documents obtained after a freedom of information lawsuit against the Treasury Department showed Mnuchin “apparently abused his access to military and non-commercial aircraft” for business and personal travel, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
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“From the documents we obtained, it appears Secretary Mnuchin considers first and foremost his own comfort and ease, leaving the protection of taxpayer money at the bottom of his list of priorities,” Anne Weismann, CREW’s chief counsel, said in a statement.
According to CREW, records show that between the spring and fall of last year Mnuchin took eight separate trips by military aircraft at a total cost of $1 million.
Mnuchin also spent months delaying the implementation of financial sanctions against Russia that were passed by Congress and signed into law because — well, fuck, nobody truly knows why not.
He also claimed repeatedly that Trump’s tax bill would generate over $1 Trillion in revenue when in fact the deficit this year will likely grow as high as $1 Trillion, a level we haven’t seen since the housing crisis and great recession that was caused by naked greed and crimes of wall street bankers like Mnuchin.
Ryan Zinke (Interior)
Like Mnuchin Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke also seems to have an expensive trip problem.
Zinke tapped $40,000 wildfire preparedness fund to pay for a helicopter trip in order to get him to a horseback ride with Mike Pence on time.
He may have used his travel to violate the Hatch Act just like Lorita Doan.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s visit to a small town south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, less than three weeks before a special election, is drawing scrutiny to determine whether the official trip was really an opportunity to throw his support behind the Republican hoping to fill the open congressional seat.
Zinke opened up offshore driling for over a dozen states then quickly excluded Florida from the list when asked by Governor Rick Scott which was very likely illegal.
The Interior Department has started investigation Zinke for reportedly threatening Alaska Senator Murkowski over her Trumpcare.
Zinke has said 30% of Interior Dept. employees are ‘not loyal to the flag’.
Zinke implemented a widespread set of job re-assignments at Interior which disproportionately targeted Native Americans and women.
Also Zinke apparently spent $140,000 to replace a set of doors in his office.
Ben Carson (Housing and Urban Development)
Besides his history of claiming that Obama Care is the worst thing since Slavery, then claiming he didn’t actually say that — although he then repeated it -- and also saying that the IRS scandal is just like Nazi Germany HUD Secretary Ben Carson seems to have an expensive furniture problem.
On February 27th a HUD Official is retaliated against for blowing the Whistle on Secretary Ben Carson spending ridiculous amounts to redecorate his office. it’s reported that Ben Carson’s HUD spent $165k on ‘lounge furniture’ in addition to the $31k doled out for Ben Carson’s dining room after he cut spending for homelessness. [So I’m thinking he needs to be made to let a few homeless people live on that nice lounge furniture and dining room.]
On March 1st Ben Carson tried to cancel his order for $30,000 worth of dining room furniture, after House Oversight asks for his record about it. [But apparently not the $160,000 in lounge furniture.]
On March 20th Ben Carson threw his wife under the bus with his $31,000 dining table strapped to it. “I left it to her.”
On March 22nd Sen. Warren hammered Ben Carson for delaying an anti-discrimination rule until 2020: ‘That’s the scandal that should get you fired’. [It should, but it won’t]
Jeff Sessions (Department of Justice)
Then Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was one of Trump’s early supporters and was brought in early as one of his chief foreign policy advisors, despite the fact he has had a long history of racist statements which had blocked him from becoming a Federal Judge in the 80’s.
In 1986, a Senate committee denied Sessions, then a 39-year-old U.S. attorney in Alabama, a federal judgeship. His former colleagues testified Sessions used the n-word and joked about the Ku Klux Klan, saying he thought they were “okay, until he learned that they smoked marijuana.”
By the time the testimony was finished, Sessions's “reputation was in tatters,” wrote Isaac Stanley-Becker in The Post this July, on the eve of Sessions delivering a prime-time speech at the Republican National Convention for Trump.
Sessions was there in March of 2016 during a foreign policy when advisor George Papadopoulos reported on his efforts to reach out to the Russian government and arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin face-to-face. He reportedly vetoed the idea and told others “never to speak of it”, however when Papadopoulos later received information about the Russian’s having “thousand of Hillary’s emails” from his contact Professor Joseph Mifsud in London, Sessions told him to “Find out everything he could” about it as opposed to say, telling the FBI about at a potential major cyber crime and letting THEM find all they could about it.
In April of 2016 Trump gave his first major foreign policy speech at a Mayflower Hotel event that had been largely arranged by Jeff Sessions Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn, Russian ambassador Kislyak was invited as a special guest, both Trump and Session briefly meet with him at a backstage reception before the speech.
In June 2016 Jeff Sessions Chief of staff Rick Dearborn who was also an advisor to the Trump campaign wrote an email to Corey Lewandowski noting that he’d received an offer from someone referenced as “WV” — who has since been identified as a West Virginian named Rick Clay — to setup a meeting between Trump officials and Putin. [This appears to be a meeting that Kushner had turned, however Don Jr. accepted and eventually met with Russian government official and reported gangster Alexander Torshin.]
In July during the RNC Kislyak attended and briefly meets Sessions again at a Heritage Foundation event, as well as Carter Page and J.D. Gordon.
Also during the RNC Carter Page travelled to Moscow, which had been approved by Trump Natsec advisor JD Gordon and Corey Lewandowski via email on June 19th, to give several paid speeches. He informed Jeff Sessions of his trip before he went.
Later after the RNC Paul Manafort denied that the Trump campaign had made any changes to the RNC platform. Various Trump affiliates repeated these denials 20 more times before finally admitting the truth; Donald personally ordered the change in a meeting with Gordon during the RNC in which Sessions attended.
In September Jeff Sessions met privately with Kislyak at his Senate Offices, they allegedly discussed sanctions on Russia and argue because Sessions had also just met with the ambassador from Ukraine.
In January Jeff Sessions testified during confirmation hearings that he doesn’t know “any Trump surrogates who were in contact with the Russians” [Not Papadopoulos or Page even though he was in the room when he, Gordon and Page all met Kislyak at the RNC] ignoring the question he was asked which was “What would you do if you discover surrogates coordinating with Russians?” Apparently his honest answer is “Nothing”, because he was told exactly that by both George Papadopoulos and his own Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn months previously.
In February FBI Director Comey & freshly confirmed Attorney General Sessions met Trump in the Oval for a counter-terrorism briefing. Trump cleared the room and got Comey alone to complain about leaks asking him to prosecute some reporters over it [shades of Watergate and COINTELPRO there] and asked if he could just “Let Flynn go”. Comey interpreted the request to only be about Flynn not the Russia investigation, Comey noted this and discussed it with FBI leadership including his Deputy Andrew McCabe. The next day Comey asked Sessions not to leave him alone with Trump again as it’s inappropriate. Comey’s memory of the event is hazy, but he states later Sessions doesn’t really respond. [During later testimony Session claimed he repeated back basic DOJ protocols to Comey, which didn’t answer his concern over why Sessions failed to follow protocol in the first place the previous day.]
It isn’t noticed until March 1st that Sessions had met with Kislyak twice, in July at the RNC which he attended as a Trump surrogate along with Carter Page and JD. Gordon and in September in his Senate Offices. Nobody notices that he also met him in April at the Mayflower Hotel. The following day March 2 100 Democrats demand that Jeff Sessions resign as Attorney General. He didn’t.
Two days later on March 4th Session recused himself from the Russia investigation, as a result Trump blew his top that weekend screaming at his staff, throwing Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon off Air Force One for his weekly Mar-A-Lago trip.
On March 7th Sen. Franken said Session committed perjury. On March 20th he joined Sen. Patrick Leahy to asked then FBI Director Comey to investigate Jeff Sessions for Perjury. That investigation was apparently handled by Comey’s deputy Andrew McCabe and no results have been reported.
On May 4th Trump had yet another golfing vacation at his Bedminster NJ course, during which he discussed firing James Comey with Bannon, Kushner and Stephen Miller who all supported the idea. The next day back in Washington Stephen Miller drafted a multi-page letter detailing a long list of complaints about Comey including the Russia problem and his failure to say Trump wasn’t under investigation to justify his being fired, WH Counsel McGahn said the letter is “problematic” and it got spiked. Pence, Kushner, Priebus and Hope Hicks were all present for this meeting. On May 8th Trump met with Sessions Deputy Rob Rosenstein and asked for his recommendation on Comey, Rosenstein drafted his own document criticizing Comey for his handling of the Clinton investigation, Sessions signed off on it.
The following day Comey was fired. Everyone ignored that Sessions also signed off on this even when he was supposed to be “recused" from it. Nobody believes Trump fired Comey because he was too mean to Hillary. Nobody noticed this is just one day after Yates testimony to congress about Flynn lying to the FBI over his contacts with Kisyak.
On May 12th Leahy and Franken had been expecting a response on their request for a perjury investigation of Session by this date, they didn’t get one.
On May 24th Rep. Cummings said that documents show that Flynn falsified his security forms by saying the $45k he received from RT was paid by “U.S. Companies.” Also Jeff Sessions didn’t list his meetings with Russians on his security forms either. The next day Rep Jeff Duncan attacked CNN’s story about Session’s failure to disclose his meetings with Russians — CNN didn’t retract their story.
It isn’t until May 31st that CNN finally notices that Kislyak had a 3rd meeting with Sessions at Trump’s national security speech at the Mayflower Hotel, they also notice that from the stage, with Kislyak in the audience he promised Russia a “great Deal.” The following day June 1s the FBI began to investigate if Trump met privately with Kislyak in April as well as Sessions. Politico reported that they both did back in March. Also that day ABC reported on Leahy/Franken letters to Comey requesting a perjury investigation of Sessions, acting FBI Director McCabe had not yet responded. [This may be because at this point Special Counsel Mueller is in the driver’s seat regarding Sessions.] The day after that June 2nd ABC News reported that Sessions and Rosenstein had met and discussed their concerns about Comey’s behavior before either was confirmed, but also that they never discussed it with Comey himself before he was ultimately fired. AP reported that day that Mueller’s investigation may be assuming oversight into ongoing investigations into Manafort and also looking into the involvement of Rosenstein and Session in the firing of Comey.
By June 5th reports began to surface that Jeff Sessions may be the next one booted off the Trump Island, but he’s not. Yet. The following day Former DOJ officials said Trump’s explosive reaction to the recusal of Sessions shows a strong indication of a potential cover-up. “It shouldn’t really matter who’s leading the investigation unless you want the person in charge to somehow steer it in a way that benefits you.”
Bingo.
ABC’s Jonathon Karl reported that day that the rift between Trump & Sessions over his recusal — prompting his anti-DOJ tweets — had grown so severe than Session had considered resigning. On June 7th Trump refused to say he stands by Sessions whose supporters were infuriated.
On June 8th Comey testified before the Senate and explained the circumstances of his firing. The DOJ disputed two items in Comey’s testimony, they provide an email from Sessions chief of staff to Comey about his recusal, and they claim Session did issue a response on the issue of being left alone with Trump. [Not a satisfactory response, but a response]
On June 9th the cloud over Sessions and his Mayfair Hotel meeting with Kislyak grows darker as it was brought up during the Comey’s classified testimony but details were scarce. Sessions spokesman counterd some of Comey’s claims saying that his recusal was only because he had been a Trump surrogate, and that he did respond to the “don’t leave me alone with him” statement that “FBI and Department of Justice needed to be careful about following appropriate policies regarding contacts with the White House” — which is funny because he's the one who broke protocol by leaving Comey alone in the room with Trump in the first place, so why was he giving Comey a lecture about it?
The next day June 10th Sessions pulled out of testimony before the Senate and House appropriations committee and planned to send Rosenstein in his place. Then on June 11st Sen. Leahy told Sessions “You can’t run forever.”
Sessions did eventually testify again and basically perjured himself all over again.
And then there’s the policy issues with Sessions:
Such as his reaction to the opiod crisis: "Sometimes, you just need to take two Bufferins or something and go to bed." And his suggestion to crack down on drug prescribers because most of those prescribers are doctors and their prescriptions are perfectly legal.
He’s is also waging a war on legalized weed, and mostly losing.
Sessions has revoked 25 DOJ guidance documents that protected marginalized communities claiming he only wished to “prevents confusing the public with improper and wrong advice,” adding that “any guidance that is outdated, used to circumvent the regulatory process, or that improperly goes beyond what is provided for in statutes or regulation should not be given effect.”
Sessions has recinded workplace protections for transgender people.
Sessions has ignored issues of police reform and refused to implement recommendations from the FBI analysis of biased police departments such as Chicago and Baltimore PD.
Sessions condemned #TakeAKnee protesters after giving speech on free speech.
And Sessions, along with Pence, made ridiculous claims to try and justify and rationalize Trump’s failure to denounce White Nationalists.
General John Kelly (Homeland Security/Chief of Staff)
As Homeland Security Secretary General John Kelly implemented a set of fairly sketchy and bigoted policies:
Homeland Security began monitoring the social media accounts of immigrants and citizens.
Kelly claimed that DHS wasn't targeting DREAMers just days after they began their first deportations of DACA recipients who were still validly on the program.
“My organization has not targeted these so-called DREAMers, DACA, and we have many, many more important criminals to go after and get rid of, and not the DACAs,”
…
Kelly’s comments come less than a week after news broke that, for the first time, an active DACA status holder was deported from the United States. Last month, Juan Manuel Montes, a 23-year-old who had been approved for DACA twice, was deported to Mexico — sending shockwaves through the immigrant community.
So he’s a liar. And he made lies part of DHS policy, specifically their bogus claims about the rate of crime by immigrants.
A Department of Homeland Security memo authored by Secretary John Kelly asserts that “criminal aliens routinely victimize Americans and other legal residents.”
The memo, entitled “Enforcement of the Immigration Laws to Serve the National Interest,” creates a new federal office meant to work with those victims.
…
Last month, Richard Pérez-Peña of the New York Times alluded to some of the aforementioned research, writing, “several studies, over many years, have concluded that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States. And experts say the available evidence does not support the idea that undocumented immigrants commit a disproportionate share of crime.” Pérez-Peña’s report is entitled, “Contrary to Trump’s Claims, Immigrants Are Less Likely to Commit Crimes.”
According to the Intercept Kelly’s DHS used these bogus “criminal alien” claims to justify their mass raid programs.
Earlier this month, The Intercept published a cache of internal emails exchanged between Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Texas in February, while the first mass raids of the Trump administration were underway.
The redacted emails, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by students at Vanderbilt University Law School, show that while hundreds of undocumented immigrants were rounded up across the country, DHS officials tried — and largely failed — to engineer a narrative that would substantiate the administration’s claims that the raids were motivated by public safety concerns. In the emails, local ICE officials are ordered to come up with “three egregious cases” of apprehended criminals to highlight to the media.
…
But while dozens of undocumented immigrants were detained, the administration sought to shape the narrative that “by removing from the streets criminal aliens and other threats to the public, ICE helps improve public safety,” according to statements by the agency.
On February 10, as the raids kicked off, an ICE executive in Washington sent a directive to the agency’s chiefs of staff around the country. “Please put together a white paper covering the three most egregious cases,” for each location, the acting chief of staff of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations wrote in the email. “If a location has only one egregious case — then include an extra egregious case from another city.”
In point of fact DHS under Kelly was NOT increasing their focus on “dangerous criminal aliens” but were in fact far more aggressively targeting those who had committed no crimes other than being undocumented, even though they may have been within the country for years and decades.
As shown by DHS own chart above while the total number of border removals and detentions have decreased the rate of non-criminals removed internally between 2016 and 2017 rose from 5,017 to 13,744 which is a 173% increase. Criminal interior arrests also increased going from 60,318 to 67,587 in FY2017 which is just a 12% increase. (Although they were at 63,538 in FY2015 which is only a 6% increase over two years.)
Because of Kelly’s policies which include forcibly separating children from their parents while seeking asylum caused DHS to be sued by the ACLU.
The ACLU, which filed the class action lawsuit at the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of California on Friday, claims the practice by government agencies of separating young children from their families violates the Process Clause and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The lawsuit represents a proposed class of “hundreds of individuals whose minor children have already been taken from them.”
Also Kelly's border crackdown may not be having the effects that he had touted while at the agency. Instead of slowing the flow of undocumented migrants, he may be simply caused them to find more difficult, dangerous, deadly and costly means which puts them in greater contact with coyotes, drug smugglers and human traffickers.
Last week Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, John Kelly, boasted that the administration’s get-tough policies have pushed coyotes, as human smugglers are called, to jack up fees for getting immigrants through certain mountainous areas (he didn’t specify which, and officials didn’t respond to requests for clarification). They are now up to $8,000 from $3,500 in November, according to Kelly.
…
Kelly touted the drop in apprehensions as another sign Trump’s policies are working. “It means many fewer people are putting themselves and their families at risk of exploitation, assault and injury by human traffickers and the physical dangers of the treacherous journey north.”
In fact, the policies could be having the opposite effect to what Kelly claims. Homeland Security has stepped up deportations of undocumented immigrants, many of whom had lived in the US for years. “After they get deported, they have this strong social need to come back,” said Daniel Martínez, a professor at George Washington University.
They are the kind of immigrants bound to take the biggest risks to cross the border. A 2016 study (pdf, pp. 10-11) Martinez co-wrote with the University of Texas’s Jeremy Slack notes that after the federal government stepped up patrolling in urban border areas, the death rate of undocumented migrants along more treacherous routes in Arizona jumped.
Border deaths, researchers say, are a more revealing—and worrisome—indicator of what’s happening on the border than how much coyotes are charging.
So contributing to more immigrant deaths while separating parents from their children and deporting DACA recipients — while lying about it — and only removing about 6-12% more actual criminals and then lying about that too, is not exactly a positive trend.
And then Kelly became Trump’s Chief of Staff after he decided to oust Reince Priebus and we got see how he really stood up to Trump when he decided to give credit and praise to White Supremacists in Charlottesville even after they killed someone.
Uh, ok, yeah — that didn’t happen.
No instead Kelly decided to show his non-bigoted bona fides by completely lying about a sitting U.S. Congressperson being an “Empty Barrell.’
On October 17, 2017 Trump finally called Myeshia Johnson the widow of fallen Green Beret Sgt. La David T. Johnson in Miami and reportedly told her “I guess he knew what he signed up for.” When the call ended she told her Congressional Rep Frederica Wilson who was there and listened to the call that Trump “didn’t even know his name.”
On October 19th Gen. Kelly came out to the Press room and talked about the loss of his son, then he lashed out at the Press and “this woman” Rep. Wilson who he called an “empty barrel” for revealing details of Trump’s Gold Star call. “It stuns me that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation. Absolutely stuns me,” Kelly said. “And I thought at least that was sacred.” He admitted he himself suggested Trump mention sacrifice is part of what Sgt. Johnson signed up for, which obviously got lost in translation. Kelly says “Trump expressed his condolences as well as he could.” [OK, but that doesn’t explain why he decided to turn this into a pissing contest in the first place and then lied about what he said.]
On October 23rd Myeshia Johnson appeared on Good Morning America and told George Stefanopolous that Trump “didn’t know my husband’s name” he had to read his name off of a report he had in front of him and stumbled over it, she also said that Rep. Wilson’s account of the conversation was 100% correct. She says she was the one who asked for the call to Master Sargent Neill to be placed on speaker.
On October 31st John Kelly told Laura Ingraham that he’ll never apologize to Rep. Frederica Wilson, that “Robert E. Lee was an honorable man who chose his State over his country” and that the Civil war could have been avoided if they had been “more willing to compromise”. He also called for a Special Counsel to investigate Democrats, Uranium One and the Steele Dossier. [Yep, he’s Trump’s “Boy” alright.]
On November 8th Rep. Frederica Wilson said “John Kelly owes me an apology.” [That he does because in fact everything Kelly claimed about the Wilson’s statements at the dedication of the FBI Office in Florida was completely wrong, but he’s not about to provide her one.]
She didn’t take personal credit for the building fundings as Kelly claimed she had just suggested that the Office be named after a set of fallen officers and gave full credit to Speaker Boehner, President Obama and even Senators Nelson and Rubio for their efforts to get the building named.
So he’s not just a liar, he seems to also be a racist fucking liar.
Scott Pruitt (EPA)
Almost as soon as former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt was tapped by Trump to become his new Environmental Protection Secretary there’s was controversy simply because as AG he held the record for lawsuits against the EPA. Some have argued that criticism of Pruitt has been merely because he’s been “so efffective” a curbing in the “excesses” of the EPA — but I think his general corruption is directly linked to his efforts to hand out goodies to corporate cronies. Here are the details:
On June 4, 2016 EPA head Pruitt — following the lead of Sean Spicer — refused to answer question of whether Trump still thinks global warming is a “hoax”. Two days later Joe Scarborough shut down an interview with EPA head Scott Pruitt because he won't answer the question “Does Trump still think climate change is a hoax?”
On August 30, 2016 Pruitt said it’s “opportunistic and misplaced” to tie the size of Hurricane Harvey to Climate Change because we get Cat 4 Hurricanes that drop 50” of water and do two separate landfalls all the time, right?
September 28, 2016 CNN reported EPA head Scott Pruit had also been using private jets and military planes for travel as well has spending a another $25k for his own private soundproof booth in his office.
On October 9, 2016 Pruitt announced that the Trump admin will abandon Obama’s Clean Power Plan. Later that month CNN reported that Pruit would be hiring 12 more members to his security detail, bringing their total head count to 30 while he also proposesd cutting the EPA budget by 30%.
On January 17, 2017 the WaPo reported that Ryan Zinke at Interior and Scott Pruitt at EPA had ordered all grants be approved by political appointees which smacks of a direct violation of the Hatch Act.
On Februray 14th EPA’s internal watchdog stated they won’t expand their investigation into Director Scott Pruitt’s growing travel scandal because of limits of budget, staff and time.
On March 21st Politico reported that Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt spent over $105,000 on first-class flights during his first year as the department’s secretary. The next day it’s reported that Pruitt’s security detail went with him on his $800k worth of first class flights. Later in March ABC News reported that EPA Chief Scott Pruitt apparently lives in an expensive Washington DC condo owned by the wife of top energy analyst J. Steven Hart, then According to Bloomberg Politics, Pruitt had only been paying $50 a night for one bedroom in the townhouse owned through a limited liability corporation by Vicki Hart, a lobbyist who specializes in health care. Her husband J. Steven Hart is also a lobbyist with clients such as Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. and Cheniere Energy Inc, he’s also outside counsel for the NRA and had released the statement that they had only taken money from one Russian which, of course, was Alexander Torshin who is being investigated by the FBI to see if his NRA contributions were illegal. TalkingPointsmemo noted that Pruitt also took his expensive personal security detail with him and his family to Disneyland, the Rose Parade and a University of Kentucky Basketball game, racking up over $200,000 in travel expenses and he also still has the $25,000 “Cone of Silence” sound proof booth in his office.
On April 3rd The Wall Street Journal, CNN and Politico all reported that EPA Director Scott Pruitt and his spending were being probed by the Inspector General [Found some money did they?] and Kelly had already considered firing him, but is waiting for the results of the report. On the same day Bloomberg reported that Trump gave Pruitt a phone call pep talk :”Keep fighting. Keep your head up.” Also that day the Atlantic reported that Scott Pruitt overrode WH objections to give two of his long time cronies Sarah Greenwalt and Millian Hupp raises of up to $60k. And if that isn’t bad enough EPA is also weakening Obama era Fuel standards and looking at blocking California from setting it’s own higher standard. Former EPA Secretary Christine Todd Whitman slamed the corruption of Scott Pruitt then Pruitt held a press conference for the EPA but only invited Fox News. Dems asked the EPA Inspector General to examine Pruitt’s sweetheart Condo deal while Thinkprogress reported that Scott Pruitt signed off on a pipeline deal for a client of his condo landlords lobbying firm. [What a lucky coincidence that was for them, eh?]
The next day Pruitt said to Fox News that he just ‘Found Out About’ his Aides’ Huge Raises ‘Yesterday’ but he’d been previously part of the approval process for them over the objections of the WH according to emails by one of the aides.
The day after that Daily Beast reported that Pruitt’s condo SugarDaddy Steven Hart and his lobbying firm have several clients with business before the EPA, including MillerCoors, Rocky Mountain Bottling Co, Cheniere Energy, Black and Decker, Stanley Oil and Gas, Smithfield foods, Coca Cola, American Airlines, Chrysler, General Motors and Ford even though Pruitt had claimed they didn’t have any business before the EPA. Later that day AP reported that Pruitt’s condo lease agreement had originally had Steven Hart’s name as the landlord on it, but his name was scratched out by hand and his wife Vicky’s name was written in — while Steven is an energy lobbyist who might have conflicts being the landlord for the EPA administrator Vicky is a healthcare lobbyist who wouldn’t have that problem. [So coverup?] AP also reported that Trump has gotten tired of being told “NO” by John Kelly so he’s increasingly leaving him completely out of the loop. WSJ reported that Kelly had wanted to fire Pruitt last week, but Trump has been ignoring him. CNN reported that that’s because he’s been floating the idea of firing Jeff Sessions and replacing him with Pruitt because he used to be Attorney General of Oklahoma and has already been confirmed by the Senate — so no new hearings. [Here we go playing Musical Corrupt Crony Chairs.]
Still on April 5th CBS reported that early in the administration Pruitt had tried to get his security detail to use their emergency sirens and lights to get him out of a DC traffic jam so he could make his meetings and dinner reservations and that Eric Weese his lead agent who refused to do so, was removed. Politico and others reported Pruitt aide Samantha Dravis, the senior counsel and associate administrator of the EPA’s office of policy, submitted her resignation last week. Apparently Dravis hadn’t shown up for work for three solid months but was still getting paid. Later that day Thinkprogress reported that Pruitt has had five senior EPA officials who criticized his travel and his 20 person security detail either demoted or removed. Then Rachel Maddow reports that Scott Pruitt’s lavish trip to Morocco via Paris where he took 7 staffers and his security detail at the cost of $43,000 also had the additional nugget of having him pitch LNG energy to the Moroccan government which isn’t the EPA Administrator Job, but just so happens to benefit his lobbyist landlord Steven Hart’s client Chenier Energy which also happens to be controlled by Carl Icahn who had helped chose Pruitt for his job at EPA. [Now that is a mobius strip of corruption!] Also Samatha Dravis — the 3 month AWOL Pruitt staffer — had actually managed to show up for the Paris/Morocco trip, then stopped coming in to work again.
On April 6th the WaPo reported that Trump complains about Pruitt in private even though he praises him in public. Additional reports surface that Pruitt’s landlord had considered him an endless house guest like Kato Kaelin because the lease was only for a few weeks and Pruitt had stayed for months, Eventually they had to change the locks to get him out. Former Ethics Czar Walter Schaub pointed out that $50-a-night for one room was found to be a fair Air BNB style rate — but Pruitt’s adult daughter was also staying in the second bedroom for free which would amount to a potentially illegal gift. AP reported that Scott Pruitt’s security and travel fees have topped over $3 Million.
The next day April 7th in a letter to the EPA’s designated ethics official, the acting director of the Office of Government Ethics said several of EPA chief Scott Pruitt’s actions “raise concerns” and may have violated President Donald Trump’s ethics pledge for administration officials. [Yeah, ya think!!?]
On April 10th Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) wrote to Environment and Public Works Chairman Sen, Barraso (R-WY) about Scott Pruitt saying that “Documents provided to us by EPA official(s) suggest the agency has relied on questionable ‘threats’ to the Administrator, including reports of non-violent protests, negative feedback about the Administrator’s actions, or other First Amendment protected activity, to justify millions of dollars in additional security spending, including first-class air travel, as compared to his predecessors at the agency,” The next day Politico reported that EPA staffer Mario Caraballo who was with the Homeland Security department was ousted after he determined that Sec. Scott Pruitt had not provided “credible direct threats” to justify his $3 Million round-the-clock security detail. [Or for that matter his bullet proof desk, cone of silence or private jet travel simply because someone in an airport once told him he was “fucking up the environment.” Which as a matter of fact, he is.] Thinkprogress reported that Pruitt’s own EPA released analysis in November that shows, by itself, his effort to undo Obama’s climate plan could result in up to 100,000 premature deaths over the next few decades while causing millions of asthma attacks in kids.
On April 12th NYTimes reported that Scott Pruitt wanted to take the EPA logo off their signature souvenir coins and replace it with his own name, which is just weird but fits his pattern of egomania.
On April 13th Scott Pruitt told climate deniers that he’ll stop counting the value of regulations in saved lives because clearly it doesn’t matter how many people ultimately die as a result of him “fucking up the environment” as long as he and his cronies like Carl Icahn and Steven Hart keep getting paid.
On April 16th the GAO found that Scott Pruitt’s $43,000 [yeah they $25k figure was a low ball] sound proof booth violated the law by exceeding the $5,000 limit on refurbishing expenses for cabinet officials. [Ruh Roh!] The next day the WaPo reported that Scott Pruitt has leased a Chevy Suburban with a leather interior, GPS navigation and, added subsequently, “Kevlar-like seat covers to the vehicle at a cost of hundreds of dollars.” [Oy!] EPA’s inspector general then released documents that show that Scott Pruitt’s Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson approved raises to five employees using funds from the Safe Water Act meant for hiring scientists during an emergency.
Also after Pruitt recinded the Obama era rules restricting the dumping of Coal Ash into rivers, that exactly problems seems to be piling up.
Coal ash — the residual byproduct of burning coal — is the second-largest form of waste in the entire country, with utilities producing more than 100 million tons of it each year. For decades, companies have dealt with all that coal ash by storing it in unlined pits or landfills. Now, new reporting data shows this has lead to the contamination of groundwater at coal-fired power plants across the country.
Released on Friday, the data found elevated levels of toxic pollutants like arsenic and radium in the groundwater near more than 70 coal-fired power plants and coal ash disposal sites across the United States.
The reports, made publicly available by utilities as part of the first-ever federal regulations on coal ash, come just one day after Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt announced the agency’s intention to weaken federal regulations on coal ash disposal.
So who doesn’t like a little more arsenic and radium in their water supply?
And then yesterday April 18th 170 Congressman signed a letter asking for Scott Pruitt to resign.
Of course they do have another course of action they could persue, they could IMPEACH the bastard.
Now one could argue this isn’t as bad as say the Trail of Tears or perhaps the Tuskegee Experiment but when you have all this corruption some of which could contribute to yet another economic collapse, breaking up families, denying asylum to legitimate refugees of war, violence and poverty, failing to stop the preventable deaths of thousands attempting dangerous border crossings and hundreds of thousands from industrial chemical poisoning, as well as life threatening sickness for MILLIONS.
I think it’s pretty close to the worst.