Trump Administration

Oregon Public Radio reports: The Oregon Department of Justice is suing several federal agencies for civil rights abuses, and state prosecutors will potentially pursue criminal charges against a federal officer who seriously injured a protester. The federal lawsuit names the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshals Service, the United States Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Protective …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration is trying to block billions of dollars for states to conduct testing and contact tracing in the upcoming coronavirus relief bill, people involved in the talks said Saturday. The administration is also trying to block billions of dollars that GOP senators want to allocate for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and …

The New York Times today published a lengthy accounting of the ways that Trump and his administration botched the COVID response. A couple of lowlights: For scientific affirmation, they turned to Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the sole public health professional in the Meadows group. A highly regarded infectious diseases expert, she was a constant source of upbeat news for the …

CNN reports: The US Attorney for the Oregon District today requested an investigation into the masked, camouflaged federal authorities without identification badges who are arresting protesters in Portland. The request is aimed specifically at DHS personnel who have been captured on various videos arresting protesters and putting them in unmarked SUVs. Demonstrators in Portland have been protesting racial inequality and …

The Wisconsin State Journal reports: Vice President Mike Pence stepped up attacks on Joe Biden with an aggressive speech Friday in the birthplace of the Republican Party, casting the election in under four months as a choice “between freedom and opportunity and socialism and decline.” Pence said that if Biden wins the election, the country will spin into economic decline, …

Politico reports: The White House is blocking CDC officials from testifying next week at a hearing on reopening schools, the House Education and Labor Committee told POLITICO on Friday. Separately, the CDC confirmed that more guidance for opening schools won’t be released until later this month. Committee Chair Bobby Scott had invited CDC Director Robert Redfield, or a designee, to …

Mediaite reports: Kellyanne Conway could not give a decision about 14-year-old Barron Trump returning to school in the fall, citing that it’s President Donald Trump and Melania Trump’s “personal decision” to let him go or not. During a gaggle on the White House driveway Friday morning, Conway was asked if Trump would be sending Barron back to school amid his …

Just in from the watchdog group CREW: Ivanka Trump’s official endorsement of Goya products on social media was an apparent violation of federal ethics rules and standards of conduct, according to a complaint filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) with the Office of Government Ethics. Federal ethics regulations prohibit any employee from endorsing “any product, service …

The Hill reports: The co-director of the White House’s “Operation Warp Speed” will not be required to divest his investments in pharmaceutical companies and will not be subject to federal disclosure rules, according to a decision by a government watchdog. Advocacy groups Public Citizen and Lower Drug Prices Now filed the complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services …

The Associated Press reports: After weeks of wrangling, the Pentagon on Friday will ban displays of the Confederate flag on military installations, in a carefully worded policy that doesn’t mention the word ban or that specific flag. The policy, laid out in a memo obtained by The Associated Press, was described by officials as a creative way to bar the …

The Washington Examiner reports: The New York Times’s 1619 Project is an attack on “the American way of life” that aligns with the Chinese Communist Party, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “They want you to believe Marxist ideology that America is only the oppressors and the oppressed,” Pompeo said Thursday at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. “The …

Via press release from the Justice Department: A California man was arrested today and charged with fraudulently seeking over $8.5 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. Andrew Marnell, 40, of Los Angeles, California, was charged by criminal complaint, unsealed today upon his arrest, in the Central District of California with one count of bank fraud. The complaint alleges that …

CNN reports: White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany reiterated that President Trump supports opening schools fully, without any kind of remote learning in the fall, and she argued “science should not stand in the way” of that goal. “The science is on our side here,” she added. Many experts worry about returning to classrooms not necessarily because of the risk …

CNBC reports: Previously public data has already disappeared from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website after the Trump administration quietly shifted control of the information to the Department of Health and Human Services. Since the pandemic began, the CDC regularly published data on availability of hospital beds and intensive care units across the country. But Ryan Panchadsaram, who …

The Washington Post reports: State health leaders, public health experts and hospital officials warn that an abrupt change in how the Trump administration requires them to report coronavirus data will increase the burden on facilities already strained by the pandemic and could impede the distribution of critical medicines. The opposition came after the Department of Health and Human Services notified …

Politico reports: The White House’s presidential personnel office is conducting one-on-one interviews with health officials and hundreds of other political appointees across federal agencies, an exercise some of the subjects have called “loyalty tests” to root out threats of leaks and other potentially subversive acts just months before the presidential election, according to interviews with 15 current and former senior …

The Atlantic reports: Anthony Fauci isn’t about to quit, despite the White House’s clumsy attempts to stain his public image. More so now than at any other point in their uneasy partnership, it seems that if President Donald Trump wants to be rid of Fauci, he’ll need to fire him. In recent days especially, the White House has stepped up …

NBC News reports: President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor has decided to remain an investor for the time being in real estate tech start-up Cadre, which he co-founded. Jared Kushner made the decision as part of a private agreement he made with the company, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Kushner and the company put the …

The Washington Post reports: Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Tuesday that President Trump would be “getting involved” in the case of the St. Louis couple who pointed guns at a group of protesters passing outside their home last month, and who are under review for criminal charges. On Tuesday, both the president and Republican governor offered separate impassioned defenses of …

“I think that wearing a mask is a personal choice, and I don’t particularly want my government telling me that I have to wear a mask. “And so I think that’s a choice that I can make. I think you have to look at your personal circumstances and look at your surroundings and decide if that’s right for you. “I’m …