Unlawfully appointed acting Department of Homeland Security Sec. Chad Wolf isn’t the only corrupt agency official named in a whistleblower’s explosive complaint this week alleging he was ordered to undermine U.S. intelligence findings. Former DHS official Brian Murphy also said that Ken Cuccinelli, Unlawful Chad’s acting deputy, ordered the reassignment or firing of analysts who produced reports he felt contradicted impeached president Donald Trump’s anti-asylum policies.
”Mr. Murphy defended the work in the reports,” the complaint states, “but Mr. Cuccinelli stated he wanted changes to the information outlining high levels of corruption, violence, and poor economic conditions in the three respective [Central American] countries.” You know, the kind of stuff that causes parents and their children to flee for their lives to the southern border, where Unlawful Chad and Ken are helping Trump illegally block them from asylum.
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Murphy, a former official with the department's Office of Intelligence and Analysis, said that Ken launched into some rant on Trump’s usual “deep state” bullshit when confronted with facts and figures, and then proceeded to demand he name the analysts who helped produce the reports.
“Mr. Cuccinelli expressed frustration with the intelligence reports, and he accused unknown ‘deep state intelligence analysts’ of compiling the intelligence information to undermine President Donald J. Trump’s (‘President Trump’) policy objectives with respect to asylum,” the complaint continued. When Murphy replied the reports were consistent with past findings, Ken then demanded he “identify the names of the ‘deep state’ individuals who compiled the intelligence reports and to either fire or reassign them immediately.”
The complaint said that Murphy then went to his direct superior and informed him of Ken’s “illegal” instructions, saying they “constituted an abuse of authority and improper administration of an intelligence program.” Nor would he reassign or fire the analysts. Murphy’s superior “concurred with Mr. Murphy’s assessment,” the complaint continued, “and Mr. Cuccinelli’s instructions were never implemented.”
That wasn’t this anti-immigrant goofball’s only mention in the report, of course. Daily Kos’ Hunter wrote on Wednesday “[w]hen preparing a report on national security threats,” Ken "stated that Mr. Murphy needed to specifically modify the section on White Supremacy in a manner that made the threat appear less severe.’ After Murphy refused, Chad Wolf and Cuccinelli blocked that report from publication.”
Pile all that on the existing knowledge that Ken is also unlawfully serving in not one, but two separate positions, as Unlawful Chad’s acting deputy, and as the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Busy man—maybe that’s why the Trump administration just gosh darn hasn’t had a chance to fully reopen the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, as ordered by the Supreme Court. No time to reopen DACA, but plenty of time for social media: on the same day the Government Accountability Office found he was unlawfully appointed to DHS, Ken tweeted at least 30 times from his official government account, including one promoting a Lou Dobbs appearance.
Only in the Trump administration could someone as uniquely unqualified as Ken Cuccinelli land multiple jobs, and only in the Trump administration can someone as uniquely unqualified as Ken Cuccinelli shamelessly refuse to resign from those government positions even after court and government watchdog decisions have said he shouldn’t be there.