“Let us help each other, all together, to remember that the ‘other’ is not a statistic, or a number. We all need each other.” – His Holiness Pope Francis @TED.
18 minutes.
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U.S. President, hotelier, and celebrity golf cheat Donald Trump wanted the 2020 G7 meeting held at the Trump National Doral resort in Florida, but it’s not happening. For some reason people thought holding the June meeting at Trump-owned Doral (“Come for the golf, stay for the Zika“) reeked of self-dealing just because it certainly does. It would also violate the Constitution.
Mr. Trump may think the “G” in G7 stands for “golf,” but it’s the Group of Seven finance summit. Speaking of finance, the Doral could have used the money. During the Trump presidency its net operating income fell 69%, and the Doral’s debts are international, since it was financed through loans from Deutsche Bank. The president nixed consideration of the enviroment during the 2020 G7 meeting, but there’s an environmental issue at Doral. The swimming pools haven’t been inspected in the past year.
More:
“Trump Dismisses Doral Criticism: ‘You People With This Phony Emoluments Clause,’” Julia Arciga, Daily Beast
“Trump says his Doral golf resort will no longer host next year’s G-7 summit, bowing to criticism,” Philip Rucker and David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post
Related:
“Trump’s G7 and trade adviser Kelly Ann Shaw departing the White House,” Rebecca Falconer, Axios
Updates:
“Trump’s Doral resort was added as possible G-7 site at last minute, secret service email reveals,” Eileen AJ Connelly, New York Post
“RNC to hold winter meetings at Trump resort that was considered for G-7 summit,” David A. Fahrenthold and Michael Scherer, Washington Post
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“As President Trump approaches his 1,000th day in office Wednesday, he has significantly stepped up his pace of spouting exaggerated numbers, unwarranted boasts and outright falsehoods.
As of Oct. 9, his 993rd day in office, he had made 13,435 false or misleading claims ….”
— “President Trump has made 13,435 false or misleading claims over 993 days,” Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo, and Meg Kelly, Washington Post
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Presidential Advisor, sweatshop shmata merchant, and former runway model Ivanka Trump is also an hôtelièr, renting out rooms in a publicly-owned building her Dad’s company leases in Washington. Last year Ms. Trump earned $4 million from her hotel side-hustle.
More:
“Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner made as much as $135m last year,” Bernard Condon, AP, via The Guardian
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GUILTY OF SERIAL HATCH ACT VIOLATIONS.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel sent a report to the White House on Thursday recommending that White House counselor Kellyanne Conway “be removed from federal service” for repeatedly using her official position for political purposes, violations of the Hatch Act:
“Ms. Conway’s violations, if left unpunished, would send a message to all federal employees that they need not abide by the Hatch Act’s restrictions. Her actions thus erode the principal foundation of our democratic system—the rule of law.”
“Nyah, nyah, nyah,” responded Deputy Press Secretary Steven Groves. The OSC does not have legal authority to remove a presidential appointee like Ms. Conway, but would have booted a career federal official long before this point. OSC had reprimanded Ms. Kelly over ethics concerns starting in 2017, and for multiple Hatch Act violations in 2018 and 2019. The Special Counsel of OSC is Trump-nominated investigator Henry Kerner. During the first year of the Trump Administration, Hatch Act violation compliants to the OSC rose 30 percent.
Attention lawyers: How many public ethics violations does an attorney need to commit before she’s disbarred?
More:
“Special counsel: Kellyanne Conway violated Hatch Act, should be removed,” Nicholas Sakelaris, UPI
“Kellyanne Conway Should Be Fired For Violating Ethics Law, Oversight Office Says,” Brian Naylor, NPR News
“Federal agency recommends that Kellyanne Conway be removed from service,” Anita Kumar, Politico
“Federal watchdog agency recommends removal of Kellyanne Conway from federal office for violating the Hatch Act,” Felicia Sonmez, Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Josh Dawsey, Washington Post
Updates:
“Trump says he won’t fire Kellyanne Conway over Hatch Act violations,” John Wagner and Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Washington Post
“Nobody Will Need To Respect The Rule Of Law After The Trump Administration,” Elie Mystal, Above The Law
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Sweatshop shmata merchant and celebrity nanny-employer mom Ivanka Trump has decided to pull the plug on her failing imported fashion brand in order to concentrate on wielding her undefined influence in her Daddy’s White House. Pop’s tariffs spared her trademarked Chinese-made products, but women aren’t buying them, stores won’t carry them, and online purchases have tanked. This champion of working women is laying off her Ivanka brand staff of 19 women in New York.
Even though Ms. Trump isn’t paid for whatever-the-hell it is she does in the executive mansion, she won’t go broke. Last year she earned $3.9 million from the lobbyist- and diplomat-infested Trump International Hotel a few blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue.
“An analysis by the publication Science has ‘found widespread after-the-fact payments or research support’ from pharmaceutical companies to expert officials who advised the Food and Drug Administration to approve those companies’ drugs.”
— “Pharma companies pay FDA advisers after drugs are approved,” Bob Herman, Axios
More:
“Hidden conflicts? Pharma payments to FDA advisers after drug approvals spark ethical concerns,” Charles Piller and Jia You, Science
“Majority of doctors who oversee FDA drug approval receive payments from companies they monitor, report shows,” Clark Mindock, The Independent
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EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt resigned on Thursday, maybe because of the stern yet civil scolding he got from a sixth-grade teacher on Monday. More likely it was due to a mean tweet by Fox host Laura Ingraham. This is the Trump Administration, so the 13 active investigations into Mr. Pruitt’s conduct don’t count.
Lest you think the environment will now be saved and EPA will emerge from the swamp, the agency is now run by coal industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler. Fun fact: coal is the product of 300 million-year-old swamps.
More:
“Trump EPA head steps down after wave of ethics, management scandals,” Brady Dennis and Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post
“E.P.A. Chief Scott Pruitt Resigns Under a Cloud of Ethics Scandals,” Coral Davenport, New York Times
“Scott Pruitt resigns: Trump’s scandal-ridden EPA chief steps down,” Oliver Milman and Sabrina Siddiqui, The Guardian
“The scandals that led to Scott Pruitt’s resignation,” Haley Britzky, Axios
“Local Mom Who Told Scott Pruitt To Resign Reacts To His Departure,” Rachel Kurzius, DCist
“Trump Defends Pruitt Until the Very End,” Maria Mendez, Roll Call
“Pruitt Survived By Praising Trump, Who In Turn Fired Pruitt Without Speaking To Him,” Nicole LaFond, TPM Livewire
“Scott Pruitt’s parting words to Trump: you are president ‘because of God’s providence,’”Tara Isabella Burton, Vox
“How things will (and won’t) change at EPA with Scott Pruitt gone,” Amy Harder, Axios
“Scott Pruitt’s replacement Andrew Wheeler could be even more dangerous for the EPA,” Katherine Ellen Foley, Quartz
“Scott Pruitt is gone. His successor is already feeling the heat.” Dino Grandoni, Washington Post
Recent discussion of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s brilliant Washington career has concentrated on his abuses of science, taxpayer dollars, and the power of his office, but he’s not so selfish that he neglected the Republican love of Family Values. Mr. Pruitt assigned EPA aides to try to get his wife a job with a conservative group and a Chick-fil-A franchise, and his daughter a White House Internship and a place in a good law school.
More:
“Why Scott Pruitt’s effort to get his wife a job could be his most consequential scandal,” Amber Phillips, Washington Post
“For Pruitt Aides, the Boss’s Personal Life Was Part of the Job,” Eric Lipton, Steve Eder, Lisa Friedman and Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times
Background:
“Scott Pruitt’s [dirty] laundry list,” Mike Allen, Axios
Update:
“Whistleblower: EPA’s Pruitt kept secret calendar to hide meetings,” Scott Bronstein, Curt Devine and Drew Griffin, CNN
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Confused senior citizen and Donald Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani had lots of contradictory things to say about his client last Sunday. He asserted that Mr. Trump couldn’t be indicted even if he shot James Comey, then talked about presidential pardon powers.
President Trump probably has the power to pardon himself, said Mr. Giuliani, but of course he would never do such an “unthinkable” thing. On the other hand, telling Donald Trump not to do something is best way of convincing him to do it. For now, Mr. Trump claims he has the “absolute right” to pardon himself, but doesn’t have to, because he has “done nothing wrong.”
So can a president pardon himself? Legal opinions differ, but Laurence H. Tribe, Richard Painter and Norman Eisen make a good case against it, based in part on the DoJ’s Office of Legal Counsel 1974 opinion during Nixon’s Watergate crisis, citing “the fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case,” a view taken by James Madison in the Federalist Papers, No. 10.
