Trump Administration

CNN reports: The White House has ousted several members of a prestigious arts commission in the nation’s capital, the latest move in the Biden administration’s purge of Trump-era appointees from government agencies and boards. Justin Shubow [photo], who was appointed in 2018 and later elected chairman, received a letter from the White House on Monday requesting he resign from the …

The Washington Post reports: President Donald Trump’s former ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, is suing former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and the U.S. government for $1.8 million to compensate for legal fees incurred during the 2019 House impeachment probe. The suit, filed Monday in federal court in the District of Columbia, alleges that Pompeo reneged on his …

The Washington Post reports: An obscure security unit tasked with protecting the Commerce Department’s officials and facilities has evolved into something more akin to a counterintelligence operation that collected information on hundreds of people inside and outside the department, a Washington Post examination found. The Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS) covertly searched employees’ offices at night, ran broad keyword …

NBC News reports: Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos must testify in a class-action lawsuit about her handling of student loan forgiveness claims, which involved delays in the administration’s decision-making and ultimate denial of a significant number of the applications, a federal judge ruled. In a 12-page ruling, Judge William Alsup denied a motion to quash a subpoena for the Cabinet …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump Justice Department secretly obtained Washington Post journalists’ phone records and tried to obtain their email records over reporting they did in the early months of the Trump administration on Russia’s role in the 2016 election, according to government letters and officials. In three separate letters dated May 3 and addressed to Post reporters Ellen …

The Intercept reports: The U.S. Marshals Service flew unmanned drones over Washington, D.C., in response to last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, documents obtained by The Intercept via the Freedom of Information Act show. The documents — two brief, heavily redacted emails — indicate the Marshals flew the drones over Washington on June 5 and 7, when nationwide protests against …

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 …