Trump Administration

Posted to the State Department’s website: We are deeply disturbed by credible reports out of Chechnya about renewed attacks against individuals perceived to be members of the LGBTI community. Civil society groups report that at least 40 individuals have been illegally detained since December, including two who reportedly died in custody after being tortured. We call on Russia to live …

The Guardian reports: Chris Christie, who was ousted as chairman of Donald Trump’s White House transition team in 2016, has written a blistering attack on Jared Kushner, whom he accuses of having carried out a political “hit job” on him as an act of revenge for prosecuting his father, Charles Kushner, a decade ago. In his soon to be published …

The Guardian reports: The Trump administration has stopped cooperating with UN investigators over potential human rights violations occurring inside America, in a move that delivers a major blow to vulnerable US communities and sends a dangerous signal to authoritarian regimes around the world. Quietly and unnoticed, the state department has ceased to respond to official complaints from UN special rapporteurs, …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration is considering a far-reaching rollback of civil rights law that would dilute federal rules against discrimination in education, housing and other aspects of American life, people familiar with the discussions said. A recent internal Justice Department memo directed senior civil rights officials to examine how decades-old “disparate impact” regulations might be changed or …

CNN reports: Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker has consulted with ethics officials at the Justice Department and they have advised him he does not need to recuse himself from overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, a source familiar with the process told CNN Thursday. The source added Whitaker has been in ongoing discussions with ethics officials since taking the …

Bloomberg reports: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has notified the White House that he intends to step down amid federal investigations into his travel, political activity and potential conflicts of interest, according to three people familiar with the matter. Zinke’s decision, expected to be announced on Wednesday, comes as Democrats, who’ve vowed to grill the him over his conduct, are about …

ProPublica reports: When it came out this year that President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee raised and spent unprecedented amounts, people wondered where all that money went. It turns out one beneficiary was Trump himself. The inauguration paid the Trump Organization for rooms, meals and event space at the company’s Washington hotel, according to interviews as well as internal emails and …

Politico reports: The Trump administration said Thursday it will cancel thousands of borrowers’ federal student loans, carrying out an Obama-era policy that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had fought to kill. The move comes as DeVos is being forced to implement a package of regulations that created more protections for student loan borrowers who were affected by a school closure or …

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared on Fox & Friends this morning where he appeared to deny that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Brian Kilmeade noted that many members of Congress are convinced of Salman’s guilt, especially after CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed lawmakers about the evidence collected by her team. To this point, Kilmeade …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration has shut down at least one government-run study that uses fetal tissue implanted into mice even before federal health officials reach a decision on whether to continue such research, which is opposed by antiabortion groups. A senior scientist at a National Institutes of Health laboratory in Montana told colleagues that the Health and …

Politico reports: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Friday accused the House Natural Resources Committee’s top Democrat of “drunken” behavior and paying “hush money” after the Democrat called for the secretary to resign for his series of ethics scandals. “It’s hard for him to think straight from the bottom of the bottle,” Zinke wrote on his official Interior Department Twitter account …

The Washington Post reports: Months after joining the advisory board of a Miami-based patent company in 2014, Matthew G. Whitaker began fielding angry complaints from customers that they were being defrauded, including from a client who showed up at his Iowa office to appeal to him personally for help, records show. Yet Whitaker, now the acting attorney general, remained an …

Via press release from the Democratic National Committee: Today, Mike Pence hosted the White House’s World HIV/AIDS Day event. During the event, Pence failed to acknowledge the LGBTQ community for the second year in a row and lied about the administration’s record combating HIV. Here are some of the lies he told, and some of the truths he forgot to …

The Des Moines Register reports: Sen. Chuck Grassley said Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture should not have pressured 4-H to rescind a policy welcoming LGBTQ members into the international youth organization. “Common sense tells me that that for 100 years … 4-H has been operating as a very competent organization and I don’t know of any federal interference …

The Hill reports: President Trump said Sunday he’s considering making a change to as many as five Cabinet positions amid speculation that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Kirstjen Nielsen and White House chief of staff John Kelly could depart imminently. “I have three or four or five positions that I’m thinking about. Of that, maybe it’s going to end up …

NBC News reports: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos began receiving around-the-clock security from the U.S. Marshals Service days after being confirmed, an armed detail provided to no other cabinet member that could cost U.S. taxpayers $19.8 million through September of 2019, according to new figures provided by the Marshals Service to NBC News. That far exceeds the $3.5 million spent on …

Via White House press release: Today, the court made clear that there is no absolute First Amendment right to access the White House. In response to the court, we will temporarily reinstate the reporter’s hard pass. We will also further develop rules and processes to ensure fair and orderly press conferences in the future. There must be decorum at the …

Courthouse News reports: A leaked memo from what conservationists say is the Justice Department advises the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to withhold or delay releasing records sought in Freedom of Information Act requests regarding implementation of the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity said the memo, dated Sept. 6, 2018, asks Fish and Wildlife to limit public …