Profile
for the Administration and entire Trump Family
(Honesty is not a word in their vocabulary)
Gone but Not Forgotten
(List Keeps Growing)
Gone With Some Surely Facing Jail Time
(e.g., Manafort & Flynn, likely more)
Hire and
have the “best ever” – yeah sure – recall that as candidate, Trump purportedly
understood a fundamental business proposition: “Hire only best, most-qualified,
and brightest” when he promised he would hire only “the best and most serious people.”
Quick Reminder:
The
promise made to the public
(Now
totally broken)
However,
Trump is acting like a business novice. Cite
from The Hill:
A recent
article in the Washington Post, “Behind the chaos: Office that vets Trump appointees plagued by
inexperience,” details an alarming state of affairs in the little
known but quite important Office of Presidential Personnel (OPP).
This office oversees
the selection process for about 1,400 presidential appointments, including some
400 positions at the highest levels of the executive branch. However, the OPP
is about a third the size of prior administrations, staffed with people who
have little experience, and some of whom made material misrepresentations about
what little experience they do have. Shockingly, the article describes an
office where its members sit “vaping on the couch, serve beer and wine with
snacks, play drinking games, and engage in nepotism.”
If accurate,
this would fit few people’s definition of hiring only “the most serious.” As
the article noted, it also is in stark contrast with prior administrations that
retained experienced, credentialed people to lead this important
function.
Trump has had fewer candidates confirmed for
critical government posts than any of the past five presidents at this point in
his presidency. As of the end of March 2017, he had only 387 approved compared
to 548 for President Obama and 615 for President Bush.
Trump, who never
shoulders blame for anything, faults Senate Democrats for their delays. But he
cannot blame Democrats for the fact that he has sent far fewer names to the Senate for
confirmation than recent prior presidents over the same period – note: The Senate
has a GOP majority NOT Democratic majority.
Also, in January
2017, Trump claimed that his cabinet had the highest IQ of any cabinet ever. Quite a claim,
given that George Washington’s cabinet included no less than Thomas Jefferson,
Alexander Hamilton, and, if one includes the vice president, John
Adams.
The impact
of Trump appointees: After hiring such a self-proclaimed intelligent group,
Trump replaced three of them in just over a year.
Left are the
likes of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos,
who avoids visiting underprivileged schools that need her
most; HUD Secretary Ben Carson, who
proposed removing the prohibition against discrimination from
the mission of the department he leads; and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who was
more bent on promoting short-term economic development than
protecting the only environment we have (and now resigned under various
investigations).
Overall,
the Trump presidency is also struggling to retain experienced heavyweights in
its most senior positions:
White House
Chief and Press Secretary slots are like revolving doors.
Latest CofS
now gone is ret. General John Kelly and ret. General SecDef James Mattis, whose
resignation letter was a harsh rebuke of Trump and his policy. Brookings,
DC think tank, tracks turnover in the Trump administration, and as of December
14, 2018, Trump’s “A-Team” of most senior positions had a 65% turnover rate.
Worse is his list of appointees who have been charged
with various crimes with others now facing indictment, charges, trials, or
plea deals for crimes due to the Mueller investigation:
Convicted: Paul Manafort: Convicted on
charges including tax and bank fraud at his trial in federal court in
Alexandria, VA. Since he was charged, Manafort has maintained his innocence and
has sued
the Justice Department, saying Mueller overstepped his authority.
The dozens
of counts of money laundering and bank fraud charges he faced were related to
his work as a lobbyist and political consultant for Viktor F. Yanukovych, the
Russia-aligned former president of Ukraine who was ousted in 2014. In early
June, Mueller charged
Manafort with obstruction of justice and
accused him of trying tamper with witnesses in his case. Prosecutors said he
had violated the terms of his release (Manafort was free on a $10 million bond awaiting
trial but a federal judge sent
him to jail to await trial). Manafort pleaded not guilty to those
charges and additional charges related to his alleged failure to register as a
foreign agent and conspiracy to launder money he will be sentenced in March
2019.
Pleaded Guilty: Michael D. Cohen: Trump’s former personal fixer and
lawyer, pleaded
guilty to multiple charges, including campaign finance violations, tax
evasion, and bank fraud. The campaign finance violations relate to two payments
Cohen said he made to two women during the 2016 campaign to prevent them from
publicly airing their allegations that they had affairs with Trump. Cohen said
Trump had requested the payments be arranged. Cohen’s plea deal did not include
a requirement that he cooperate with federal prosecutors. However, he can
provide information or evidence to them or Mueller’s investigators later.
Pleaded Guilty and Also Still Cooperating
with Mueller:
1. George Papadopoulos: Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy
adviser to the Trump campaign, pleaded
guilty on Oct. 5 to lying to the FBI about a conversation with a
professor during which he was told that Moscow had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton
and “thousands of emails,” according to court records. He was sentenced to
14 days in jail, fined $9,500 and ordered to complete 200 hours of community
service and one year of probation after he serves his sentence.
Papadopoulos
initially told investigators that he met with the professor, who has known ties
to the Kremlin, before he joined the Trump campaign. In fact, the meeting
happened days after he became a campaign adviser, and he repeatedly tried to
arrange meetings between Russian government officials and the Trump campaign. He
has been cooperating with the Mueller investigation since his arrest last July
at Dulles Airport outside Washington. Papadopoulos was the first person to
plead guilty in the inquiry. In court filings, Mueller had recommended
that Papadopoulos be sentenced for up to six months in
prison for repeatedly lying to investigators.
2. Michael T. Flynn: Flynn, President Trump’s first
national security adviser, pleaded
guilty in early December to lying to the FBI about conversations he
had in 2016 with the Russian ambassador to the United States at the time,
Sergey I. Kislyak. Prosecutors said that in separate conversations, Flynn
discussed an upcoming UN Security Council vote over whether Israel should be
condemned for building settlements and over sanctions that former President
Barack Obama had issued against Russia. Although his sentencing is delayed,
court documents indicate Flynn will face zero to six months of prison time. He
is the first senior official to deal with prosecutors. He said in a
statement at the time that the decision to cooperate and the
guilty plea “reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and
of our country.”
3. Richard Pinedo: Richard Pinedo, a Southern California
computer science major, pleaded
guilty in February to identity fraud after he created and sold fake
bank accounts from 2014 through the end of 2017. While his indictment supported
the charges Mueller brought against 13 Russian nationals for election meddling. A spokesman
for the special counsel said prosecutors had “no evidence and there is no
allegation he was a witting participant in the Russian efforts to interfere in
U.S. elections and political processes.” Pinedo has been cooperating with the Mueller
investigation.
4. Alex
van der Zwaan: Dutch
lawyer and son-in-law of a Russian billionaire who worked with the former Trump
campaign officials, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates – he pleaded
guilty to lying to prosecutors about a conversation he had with Gates
in September 2016. In April, van der Zwaan became
the first person to be sentenced in the special counsel’s investigation.
He was sentenced to 30 days in prison and fined $20,000.
5. Rick Gates: He is the former deputy chairman for
Trump’s presidential campaign (under Manafort). He pleaded
guilty in February to (1) Conspiracy against the United States and (2) lying
to Federal investigators. The plea deal came as Mueller was levying dozens of
new charges of bank fraud and money laundering against him and Manafort. Both men
were first indicted in October, and both pleaded not guilty. For nearly four
months, Gates stood by that decision but said in February that “the reality of
how long this legal process will likely take, the cost, and the circus-like atmosphere
of an anticipated trial had prompted a change of heart” and he made a deal with
Mueller to testify against Manafort.
Others Charged by Mueller:
Thirteen
Russians: Yevgeny
Prigozhin, Mikhail Bystrov, Mikhail Burchik, Aleksandra Krylova, Anna
Bogacheva, Sergey Polozov, Maria Bovda, Robert Bovda, Dzheykhun Ogly, Vadim
Podkopaev, Gleb Vasilchenko, Irina Kaverzina, and Vladimir Venkov.
Mueller charged the
13 Russians with conspiracy to defraud the United States, and connected them
with a four-year effort to undermine and influence the 2016 presidential
election.
The Russians
— and the three companies that facilitated and funded their work (those names
are: Internet Research Agency, Concord Management, and Concord Catering) — all
are accused of using social media, the identities of American citizens and
politically charged topics to manipulate an already divisive campaign. Three of
the Russians were also indicted with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank
fraud and five were also charged with aggravated identity theft. None of the
defendants were arrested, as Russia rarely extradites its citizens to the
United States to face legal proceedings. But the indictments are designed to
openly name and shame the Russians in order to make it difficult for them to
continue to work or travel abroad. They also risk capture and extradition if
they travel outside Russia.
A Russian
associate: Konstantin
V. Kilimnik in June was charged by
Mueller for obstruction of justice, when he, a
Russian Army-trained linguist helped Manafort try and persuade
other associates to lie about their work on a project related to
Manafort’s Ukrainian clients. He like the
other Russians indicted (listed above) live back in Russia and thus not likely
to tried for their crimes and Russia is not likely to extradite them back to
the U.S. for that action.
My 2 cents: This page will surely be updated after S/C
Mueller issues his report and the courts step in and take over in several
states.
Thanks for stopping by.
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