Day 778.
That was a line we heard at least a hundred times during the 2016 campaign and it came from our dear leader. Since he took office, at least 60 top cabinet and West Wing officials have either quit, were force out or fired. That is a new record for under two years in office.
So, let’s look at his latest “very best people”. The FBI is currently investigating a company called World Patent Marketing. This company billed itself as one that would help new inventors obtain their patents and help get their product off the ground.
In 2017, the company shut down after the Federal Trade Commission brought a federal injunction against it and ordered the company to pay up to $26 million in fines. In the injunction, the FTC said that the company was little more than a “scam that has bilked thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars”.
One of the board members was none other than the current acting Attorney General, Matthew Whitaker. He said in 2014 about the FTC investigation: “As a former US Attorney, I would only align myself with a first class organization. World Patent Marketing goes beyond making statements about doing business ‘ethically’ and translates them into action.”
Apparently, the customers of World Patent Marketing disagreed and the company was forced to pay a huge fine and eventually closed down. So much for being a “first class organization”.
And just to show his total disdain for the real law of the country, the Wall Street Journal reports that Whitaker rebuffed a FTC subpoena in 2017 for his records in the World Patent Marketing case.
Now, the FBI field office in Miami is investigating the company for consumer fraud. The FBI is part of the Justice Department and is now under the control of Whitaker.
Then, we have Mr. Whitaker possibly involved in another violation of the law. Mr. Whitaker was the head of a group called the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT). That was a 401(c)3 class organization. Meaning they were not allowed to make any political comments or support or go against any political candidate.
Yet, Mr. Whitaker made several disparaging comments about the Democrats and Hillary Clinton in particular. He made them “political” and used his title as the director of FACT. Mr. Whitaker was paid $402,000 salary for his position. That is about three times as much as Directors or CEOs of similar organizations.
FACT is also funded by “dark money”. And, as usual they refuse to let anyone know who their donors are. Something else odd about a group that claims to be supporting ethics and transparency.
Last month, our dear leader said on Fox and Friends that “Whitaker is a great guy, I know him”. But, yesterday, trump said more than once in one answer to a question about Whitaker that “I don’t know the guy”.
We now have an acting Attorney General who has openly said that the Mueller investigation should not go forwarded. He talked openly about ways to shut it down by starving it of a budget.
He was a board member of a company that bilked millions of dollars from people seeking help in getting their inventions off the ground. And, he was the head of an non-profit organization prohibited from making endorsements or fighting against candidates and went ahead with his political agenda. A clear violation of the Campaign Finance Laws.
Many Constitutional Lawyers, including George Conway who is a conservative lawyer and husband of Kellyanne, say that this appointment of Whitaker is unconstitutional. According to the Constitution, the person sitting in the Attorney General’s seat must have been approved by the Senate.
That has meant in the past that if the Attorney General leaves office for any reason, one of the Deputy Attorney Generals is named to fill that seat until a new nomination is confirmed. Whitaker never held a position at the Justice Department that required Senate approval. Therefore, it could easily be interpreted that his appointment is really unconstitutional.
That could have sweeping effects on just about everything the Justice Department does. Including any “case” that Whitaker makes any decisions on. There is a real fear that accused criminals will use this “unconstitutional” argument in trial cases. That could throw a huge monkey wrench into any court case that Whitaker was involved in the decision about.
This administration has seen more than its share of corruption problems. The current Secretary of the Interior is under criminal investigation. And, he has not been alone in that either.
So, what does our dear leader do? He names someone to be the acting Attorney General who was a board member of a company fined millions of dollars by the FTC and is under investigation by the FBI. The man has very limited experience as a government attorney and absolutely no experience in running a department with over 100,000 people working there and a $30 billion budget.
We now have an acting Attorney General with more ethical questions than Jeff Sessions ever had. Ethics experts from both sides of the aisle say he should recuse himself from the Mueller probe because of the pre-judgement of the matter before taking office, and from the investigation into Global Patent Marketing. We have constitutional lawyers from both sides of the aisle claiming this appointment is unconstitutional.
Yet, here we are again with one of those “very best people” trump promised to surround himself with. If Whitaker and the rest of the corrupt members of his administration are his idea of the “very best people” I would hate to see what it would look like if he only hired “the very worst people”.
This is just another step in the destruction of our democracy and our rule of law. We are heading towards a period when the only law will be what trump decides is the law. Unless lazy, scared Republicans finally get off their asses and say enough!
That will happen right after trump appoints a Nobel Climate Science Prize winner to head up our Environmental Protection Agency.
And, the shirts keep marching along.
Lean Left World 