Trump Administration

The Washington Post reports: The chief federal watchdog for the Secret Service blocked investigations proposed by career staff last year to scrutinize the agency’s handling of the George Floyd protests in Lafayette Square and the spread of the coronavirus in its ranks, according to documents and people with knowledge of his decisions. Both matters involved decisions by then-President Donald Trump …

ProPublica reports: A top adviser to former President Donald Trump pressured agency officials to reward politically connected or otherwise untested companies with hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts as part of a chaotic response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the early findings of an inquiry led by House Democrats. Peter Navarro, who served as Trump’s deputy assistant and …

Axios reports: Two senior members of former President Trump’s White House coronavirus task force accused former Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in a CNN Special Report, broadcast Sunday, of political interference. Former CDC chief Robert Redfield told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta what he was “most offended by was the calls” from Azar’s office “that wanted me to pressure and …

The Associated Press reports: Suspected Russian hackers gained access to email accounts belonging to the Trump administration’s head of the Department of Homeland Security and members of the department’s cybersecurity staff whose jobs included hunting threats from foreign countries, The Associated Press has learned. The intelligence value of the hacking of then-acting Secretary Chad Wolf and his staff is not …

Axios reports: Former White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx told CNN that she believes that the U.S. coronavirus deaths that occurred after the first surge of cases “could have been mitigated or decreased substantially.” “I look at it this way: There were about 100,000 deaths that came from that original surge,” said Birx, who served under the Trump administration. “All …

Politico reports: Seven House committees launched a sweeping investigation Thursday into the federal government’s handling of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol — fueled by thousands of Donald Trump supporters who backed his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen — and the intelligence and security breakdowns that preceded it. In letters to 16 agencies across the Executive …

CNBC reports: Moncef Slaoui, who was chief scientist for the U.S government’s Covid vaccine development effort Operation Warp Speed during the Trump administration, was fired as Galvani Bioelectronics chairman over “substantiated” sexual harassment allegations by a woman, it was announced Wednesday. Slaoui’s dismissal by the board of Galvani majority shareholder GlaxoSmithKline came after GSK in February was sent a letter …

From the government watchdog group CREW: Betsy DeVos reported at least $225 million — and potentially well over $414 million — in outside income while working as Donald Trump’s education secretary, according to an analysis of DeVos’s financial disclosures by CREW. It is impossible to know the exact amount because DeVos’s income is reported in broad ranges, but we do …

The Washington Post reports: Federal health officials have identified several controversial pandemic recommendations released during the Donald Trump administration that they say were “not primarily authored” by staff and don’t reflect the best scientific evidence, based on a review ordered by its new director. The review identified three documents that had already been removed from the agency’s website: One, released …

Reuters reports: Dr. Deborah Birx, the former Trump White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, will join ActivePure Technology, a Texas manufacturer that says its products reduce COVID-19 on surfaces and in the air, the company told Reuters. Birx, who was criticized for not standing up to former President Donald Trump as he played down the virus and spread misinformation about …

Vice News reports: One of the most senior Cabinet officials in the Trump administration, Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, has told VICE on Showtime that he believes the speech made by former President Donald Trump on the morning of January 6 was responsible for causing the mob to violently attack the Capitol later that day. Trump installed Miller after …

NBC News reports: The Biden administration notified the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it will no longer defend a government policy seeking to impose new limits on the admission of immigrants considered likely to become overly dependent on government benefits. The Department of Homeland Security announced in 2019 that it would expand the definition of “public charge” to be applied …

NBC News reports: The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus topped 500,000 on Sunday,according to an NBC News tally — a milestone that underscores the grave threat the virus still poses nationwide even as more Americans get vaccinated. The coronavirus has claimed the lives of more than 2,462,000 people worldwide, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The death …

CNN reports: Military officials overseeing the authorization process to launch nuclear weapons were unaware on January 6 that then-Vice President Mike Pence’s military aide carrying the “nuclear football” was potentially in danger as rioters got close during the violent Capitol insurrection, according to a defense official. The vice president is always accompanied by a backup of the “football,” which contains …

From the government watchdog group CREW: Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spent more than $10,000 in taxpayer funds on engraved Madison Dinner-branded pens that he gifted to attendees of the notorious dinner parties, according to records obtained by CREW in an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The guests included high-profile Republican donors, who could be politically useful if …

“That weekend, some members of the Pence team and called us up — and I know they called other people up around town. “And this is how angry the Pence team was, that Donald Trump never called Mike Pence when he was in the bunker inside the Capitol to ask him if he was safe, to inquire about his safety. …

The Guardian reports: The US could have averted 40% of the deaths from Covid-19, had the country’s death rates corresponded with the rates in other high-income G7 countries, according to a Lancet commission tasked with assessing Donald Trump’s health policy record. Almost 470,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus so far, with the number widely expected to go above half …

The Wall Street Journal reports: A U.S. plan to force the sale of TikTok’s American operations to a group including Oracle Corp.and Walmart Inc. has been shelved indefinitely, people familiar with the situation said, as President Biden undertakes a broad review of his predecessor’s efforts to address potential security risks from Chinese tech companies. The TikTok deal—which had been driven …

NBC News reports: The Biden administration will begin removing all Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys appointed during the Trump administration, with two exceptions, a senior Justice Department official said. The process, which is not uncommon, could start as early as Tuesday. They will be asked to resign. John Durham will remain in place to investigate the origins of the Russia probe, but …

The Washington Post reports: In a wide-ranging interview with CBS News, President Biden expressed disappointment with how his predecessor handled the coronavirus pandemic, specifically the number of vaccine doses that were available to inoculate the population. “The circumstances of how the [previous] administration handled covid was even more dire than we thought,” he said in a segment that aired Sunday …