Trump Administration - Festering Skidmarks

[LFC]

Feb 3, 2022 18:18:23 GMT goldenvalley said:

And now we learn about another potential maneuver to enable the former President to contest the election.

TPM digs into some of the cast of characters also. They're all total nutjobs. And more and more the total nutjobs are taking control of the GOP. The Republican firewalls that existed in 2020 have been or are being studiously dismantled.

[LFC]

Here's a quick paywalled piece (in full) from Josh Marshall:

There’s a fascinating passage in these new Trump election lawyer memos from the pre-January 6th period. One particularly jumped out at me in which Trump campaign lawyer Kenneth Chesebro casually runs down the relative difficulty of stealing the election in each of the key states.

“In conclusion, it appears that voting by an alternative slate of electors is unproblematic in Arizona and Wisconsin; slightly problematic in Michigan (requiring access to the senate chamber); somewhat dicey in Georgia and Pennsylvania in the event that one or more electors don’t attend (require gubernatorial ratification of alternates); and very problematic in Nevada (given the role accorded to the Secretary of State).”

Yes, they actually performed a legal analysis of the relative difficulty of stealing a state's election.

[pnwguy]

Feb 3, 2022 22:22:57 GMT LFC said:

Here's a quick paywalled piece (in full) from Josh Marshall:

There’s a fascinating passage in these new Trump election lawyer memos from the pre-January 6th period. One particularly jumped out at me in which Trump campaign lawyer Kenneth Chesebro casually runs down the relative difficulty of stealing the election in each of the key states.

“In conclusion, it appears that voting by an alternative slate of electors is unproblematic in Arizona and Wisconsin; slightly problematic in Michigan (requiring access to the senate chamber); somewhat dicey in Georgia and Pennsylvania in the event that one or more electors don’t attend (require gubernatorial ratification of alternates); and very problematic in Nevada (given the role accorded to the Secretary of State).”

Yes, they actually performed a legal analysis of the relative difficulty of stealing a state's election.

How is that much different than a team of bank robbers casing a target bank before the heist? Where are the cameras, number of guards, exits, tellers on duty, etc.? Any successful team of criminals has to plan out their moves in advance. And like a criminal gang that fails and is sent up river for a few years, they are planning a far better heist for when their sentence is finished.

Rick Wilson is noted for saying that any coup that goes unpunished is a training exercise.  

[LFC]

Skidmark Louis DeJoy continues to work on making the U.S. Postal Service less competitive to help out his own private business interests. I wish Biden would work harder on getting rid of this criminal.

The United States Post Office's plan to replace its aging delivery vehicles has been heavily criticized by the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The letters, first published by The Washington Post on Tuesday, excoriate the decision to award a $482 million contract to Oshkosh Defense without properly examining the environmental impact, as required by law.

Specifically, the EPA says that the USPS's required environmental impact report "does not disclose essential information underlying the key analysis of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), underestimates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, fails to consider more environmentally protective feasible alternatives, and inadequately considers impacts on communities with environmental justice concerns."

Or, as the Chair of the CEQ wrote in a letter to Postmaster Louis DeJoy, his "agency committed to walk down a path before looking to see where the path was leading," in contravention of longstanding practices and laws.

As expected they barely looked for alternatives, of which there are many.

[LFC]

More information on Trump's effort to illegally destroy presidential records. Yet another little dash of fascism.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has compelled Donald Trump to finally hand over a bunch of official government documents he decided were his personal property when he left office.

According to the Washington Post, last month NARA officials retrieved boxes of stuff advisers to the ex-president insist he simply viewed as mementos, gifts, or personal correspondence, such as the letter Barack Obama left to his successor as president or correspondence with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. All of it was material that should have been handed over to NARA via the Presidential Records Act, which requires any records related to the official duties of the presidency to be tendered for preservation.

People familiar with the situation told the paper that Trump’s lawyers began debating what needed to be transferred to NARA in December and eventually agreed to give the agency the materials sometime in January.

“The only way that a president can really be held accountable long term is to preserve a record about who said what, who did what, what policies were encouraged or adopted, and that is such an important part of the long-term scope of accountability — beyond just elections and campaigns,” presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky told the Post. She added non-disclosure of certain records related to national security could “pose a real concern if the next administration is flying blind without that information.”

It’s nowhere near uncommon for departing administrations to break the Presidential Records Act—the Post noted that all recent ones have had at least a few violations—but the sheer scale of Trump and his lackeys’ non-compliance is both unprecedented and entirely unsurprising. It’s long been reported that Trump had a habit of tearing up documents shortly after reading them, including some of the records requested by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol (which had to be reassembled with tape). But a separate Post report last week emphasized how rife that behavior was in his White House, extending beyond Trump himself to many other staffers.

Eleven prior “Trump staffers, associates and others” told the Post that they had come up with systems to ensure the recovery of Trump-shredded papers, such as dispatching members of the Office of the Staff Secretary or Oval Office Operations to retrieve the scraps so they could be re-assembled by some poor suckers in the Office of Records Management. One senior Trump official said that they and other staff routinely chose what documents to put into “burn bags,” which contain classified or sensitive documents and the Pentagon incinerates to ensure total destruction. It’s not known how much material was destroyed by shredding or fire, other than that it’s a hell of a lot.

Trump also deleted tweets throughout his term in office, over the objections of lawyers who believed they needed to be preserved to comply with federal records laws. The use of encrypted chat and email apps that could allow administration staffers to hide material from preservation was also reportedly widespread in his White House.

“He didn’t want a record of anything,” a former senior administration official told the Post. “He never stopped ripping things up. Do you really think Trump is going to care about the records act? Come on.”

[Bact PhD]

Feb 7, 2022 22:58:30 GMT LFC said:

More information on Trump's effort to illegally destroy presidential records. Yet another little dash of fascism.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has compelled Donald Trump to finally hand over a bunch of official government documents he decided were his personal property when he left office.

According to the Washington Post, last month NARA officials retrieved boxes of stuff advisers to the ex-president insist he simply viewed as mementos, gifts, or personal correspondence, such as the letter Barack Obama left to his successor as president or correspondence with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. All of it was material that should have been handed over to NARA via the Presidential Records Act, which requires any records related to the official duties of the presidency to be tendered for preservation.

People familiar with the situation told the paper that Trump’s lawyers began debating what needed to be transferred to NARA in December and eventually agreed to give the agency the materials sometime in January.

“The only way that a president can really be held accountable long term is to preserve a record about who said what, who did what, what policies were encouraged or adopted, and that is such an important part of the long-term scope of accountability — beyond just elections and campaigns,” presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky told the Post. She added non-disclosure of certain records related to national security could “pose a real concern if the next administration is flying blind without that information.”

It’s nowhere near uncommon for departing administrations to break the Presidential Records Act—the Post noted that all recent ones have had at least a few violations—but the sheer scale of Trump and his lackeys’ non-compliance is both unprecedented and entirely unsurprising. It’s long been reported that Trump had a habit of tearing up documents shortly after reading them, including some of the records requested by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol (which had to be reassembled with tape). But a separate Post report last week emphasized how rife that behavior was in his White House, extending beyond Trump himself to many other staffers.

Eleven prior “Trump staffers, associates and others” told the Post that they had come up with systems to ensure the recovery of Trump-shredded papers, such as dispatching members of the Office of the Staff Secretary or Oval Office Operations to retrieve the scraps so they could be re-assembled by some poor suckers in the Office of Records Management. One senior Trump official said that they and other staff routinely chose what documents to put into “burn bags,” which contain classified or sensitive documents and the Pentagon incinerates to ensure total destruction. It’s not known how much material was destroyed by shredding or fire, other than that it’s a hell of a lot.

Trump also deleted tweets throughout his term in office, over the objections of lawyers who believed they needed to be preserved to comply with federal records laws. The use of encrypted chat and email apps that could allow administration staffers to hide material from preservation was also reportedly widespread in his White House.

“He didn’t want a record of anything,” a former senior administration official told the Post. “He never stopped ripping things up. Do you really think Trump is going to care about the records act? Come on.”

B--b--but HER EMAILS!!!

[goldenvalley]

Feb 7, 2022 22:58:30 GMT LFC said:

More information on Trump's effort to illegally destroy presidential records. Yet another little dash of fascism.

I'm betting some of the underlings that were charged with trying to figure out what should be reconstructed and turned over just dumped stuff in the burn bags and boxes to avoid having to sort through it all.

This is a fine example of how some laws surrounding politicians' conduct in office rely on the good faith and good will of those who hold the offices. The Presidential Records Act has no teeth because it was not a criminal law designed to define and punish bad behavior. It was a checklist of documents to retain.

[LFC]

Waddya know, Trump actually did what he was legally supposed to do after being pushed. Meanwhile his aides are still looking for documents that they knew they legally had to turn over.

Trump Gave Back Docs He Took From WH

The National Archives confirmed on Monday that Trump had transferred in mid-January the White House records he was supposed to hand over to the agency at the end of his presidency, but had decided to take to with him to his Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida instead.

• Trump’s aides are still looking for more documents to hand over, according to the National Archives.

• One of the documents Trump kept included — for God knows what reason — the infamous Hurricane Dorian forecast map where he drew a bubble with a Sharpie to back up his wrong claim about the hurricane hitting Alabama, according to the New York Times.
○ The Washington Post reported earlier on Monday that Trump also kept his “love letters” from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and a letter ​​President Barack Obama left him after Trump’s swearing-in.

[goldenvalley]

Feb 8, 2022 14:55:41 GMT LFC said:

Waddya know, Trump actually did what he was legally supposed to do after being pushed. Meanwhile his aides are still looking for documents that they knew they legally had to turn over.

Trump Gave Back Docs He Took From WH


• One of the documents Trump kept included — for God knows what reason — the infamous Hurricane Dorian forecast map where he drew a bubble with a Sharpie to back up his wrong claim about the hurricane hitting Alabama, according to the New York Times.
○ The Washington Post reported earlier on Monday that Trump also kept his “love letters” from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and a letter ​​President Barack Obama left him after Trump’s swearing-in.

Things for his scrapbook?  

[pnwguy]

Feb 8, 2022 16:27:10 GMT goldenvalley said:

Feb 8, 2022 14:55:41 GMT LFC said:

Waddya know, Trump actually did what he was legally supposed to do after being pushed. Meanwhile his aides are still looking for documents that they knew they legally had to turn over.

Things for his scrapbook?  

Footnote references for his future version of Mein Kampf 

[LFC]

Feb 8, 2022 17:10:45 GMT pnwguy said:

Footnote references for his future version of Mein Kampf 

"Mein Kampf is the best Kampf! It's YUUUUUGE!"

[pnwguy]

Feb 8, 2022 17:52:59 GMT LFC said:

Feb 8, 2022 17:10:45 GMT pnwguy said:

Footnote references for his future version of Mein Kampf 

"Mein Kampf is the best Kampf! It's YUUUUUGE!"

I'm just hoping he has to write it from prison, like his mentor 

[LFC]

Now DeJoy is whining he needs more money or else he's forced to buy vehicles with horrendous fuel economy. Would Biden please just ram the people through necessary to kick his ass out?

After facing fierce criticism from the Biden Administration and environmental groups over its decision to prioritize new, gas-guzzling mail trucks, the United States Postal Service wants people to know it is indeed still committed to electric vehicles… if only it had more money!

In an announcement made over the weekend, the Postal Service reiterated that its Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) program would add 5,000 electric vehicles to its fleet and claimed it hoped to achieve a 70% electric fleet by the end of the decade. Those are bold statements, considering the agency recently said it would spend $11.3 billion on up to 165,000 new vehicles over the next decade, with 90% of those powered by gas engines. In a statement, Postmaster General and USPS Chief Executive Officer Louis DeJoy said the agency remains committed to an “ambitious” electrification push but claimed they are hamstrung by a lack of government funding.

“Absent such funding, we must make fiscally responsible decisions that result in the needed introduction of safer and environmentally cleaner vehicles for the men and women who deliver America’s mail,” DeJoy said. “Our commitment to an electric fleet remains ambitious given the pressing vehicle and safety needs of our aging fleet as well as our dire financial condition.”

That tepid walk-back comes days after the Environmental Protection Agency and The White House Council on Environmental Quality wrote letters urging The Postal Service to re-evaluate its decision to buy mostly gas-powered vehicles. The agencies criticized the USPS’s methods for determining the cost of an electrification effort and warned its fiscally conservative approach could threaten to upend the Biden Administration’s goal of having all federal agencies purchase 100% zero-emission vehicles for the federal fleet by 2035. For some context, those new gas-powered vehicles being considered by the USPS would achieve a meager 0.4-mile-per-gallon fuel economy improvement over the current 30-year-old model.

[LFC]

More on major document destruction by Trump and his administration. This isn't like before where there were disagreements over what an exiting president was and wasn't allowed to keep. This is a blatantly illegal coverup.

This morning’s latest on Trump’s seemingly pervasive destruction and theft of government documents and classified material is that White House officials periodically found the toilets in the White House residence clogged with wads of flushed paper, which they believed — reasonably enough! — were government documents the President had tried to destroy. This revelation comes from Maggie Haberman’s forthcoming Trump book “Confidence Man.” Axios has the scoop. Because of course it does. Mike Allen described this as adding “a vivid new dimension to his lapses in preserving government documents,” which struck me as a generous way to describe it.

In any case, let’s leave book publishing strategy to Haberman and her agent. None of these revelations about Trump are surprising, if they are also more florid and graphic than one might have anticipated. Above I called this “flagrantly criminal.” I didn’t mean that as a throwaway phrase. Compliance with the Presidential Records Act has tended to be an administrative or organizational concern. Disagreements have focused on notes or token gifts a former President might reasonable deem his own rather than the President’s. The whole process has previously been left to good faith administrative negotiation between the former President and the National Archives. None of what we’re hearing here falls into that category.

Current reporting suggests that lots of classified material was shipped off to Mar-a-Lago when Trump left the White House. The National Archives recovered 15 boxes of material that included some of that. Do we really think there’s not more? The government tends to overclassify. But as long as this is the system we have and such misuse and misstorage is frequently the subject of investigations, this seems clearly to merit an investigation.

There’s an extra dimension to questions about Trump’s use of classified material. A President can’t really get in trouble for their management of classified material because the President is ultimately the one who decides what’s classified. If he reveals something that’s classified and gets in trouble, he can just reclassify it as unclassified. It’s really that simple. It’s good to be President. A former President cannot do that. So Trump doesn’t have that escape hatch.

But that’s not even the biggest issue. The White House has plenty of housekeepers and janitors. There are also services and procedures for destroying materials that are lawful and appropriate to destroy. There is simply no innocent explanation for literally tearing up government documents or flushing government documents down the toilet in the portion of the White House reserved as the President’s family’s private apartment.

What I’m trying to capture here is that under the Presidential Records Act there is a penumbra of actions that can be reasonably judged as subject to good faith disagreement. There is a penumbra of lax or careless preservation which is subject to criticism or even investigation but also clearly not malicious. Crumpling up government documents and flushing them down the toilet can only be malicious and criminal under the terms of the law. It is definitionally willful.

[LFC]

More from TPM (paywalled):

Lock ‘Em Up
Just moments ago the Post reported that the National Archives has asked the Justice Department to investigate ex-President Trump’s handling of White House records and possible violations of the Presidential Records Act. For clarity, the PRA is the post-Watergate statute that makes clear the the work product of the presidency belongs to the American public and not the individual president. As is so often the case, adjudicating Trump’s infractions is paradoxically complicated by their sheer brazenness. I mean, what is there to investigate? The violations have been so open that he seems to be saying with his actions that his actions are okay. Trump for years openly destroyed records covered by the PRA. (His staff reportedly attempted to piece them back together with tape.) Then he absconded with 15 boxes of records that the National Archives had to recover from Mar-a-Lago.

The Post article refers to these as records that “weren’t handed back to the government.” But that’s generous at best. These records were at the White House and he had them packed up and shipped to Mar-a-Lago at the end of his presidency. It’s not a matter of not giving them back.

Some post-presidential housekeeping and disagreements on the margins aren’t unprecedented with the Presidential Records Act. But even on the basis of the current reporting those 15 boxes contained not only clearly covered records but some of the most consequential records of Trump’s presidency. They include correspondence with foreign heads of state, including Trump’s “love letters” correspondence with Kim Jong Un.

These aren’t close calls. As I noted, some disagreements and nominal violations are not unheard of. How they are handled must turn on questions of intent. But I struggle to see how repeatedly tearing up covered documents doesn’t settle that question on its face. I’m not clear what the rationale could possibly be for the DOJ not to investigate the matter. And given what we know already, is it at all conceivable that some records weren’t permanently destroyed or secreted out of the government’s possession at the end of his tenure?

Once again, the work of the Jan. 6th committee, even in advance of any report or official findings, continues to push the events of Trump’s presidency to the fore.

[LFC]

Remember the folks who freaked out about Hillary's emails? Who compared her to a sailor who took photos of classified nuclear sub technology, destroyed them to try to hide evidence, and got a year in jail? Remember "the law's the law?" I wonder what their opinion is on Trump. Just kidding. I don't wonder at all.

Some White House documents that former President Trump took to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, instead of handing them over to the National Archives, were reportedly clearly marked as classified, according to the Washington Post.

The clearly marked classified documents reportedly included those at the “top secret” level.

According to the Post, some of the documents had markings indicating that the information was extremely sensitive and would be limited to a small group of officials with authority to view such highly classified information. It is unclear, however, how many of those classified documents were received by the Archives.

Blatant theft of top secret documents is a serious crime. Even if he was president when the transfer happened possession of those documents is also a serious crime. LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP!

[LFC]

Mark Meadows continues to be a mental midget.

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Thursday night tried to defend ex-President Donald Trump’s mishandling of White House documents by comparing it to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) ripping up Trump’s widely distributed 2020 State of the Union speech.

During an interview on Newsmax, Meadows downplayed Trump reportedly tearing up documents on the regular and taking White House records to his Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida instead of turning them over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), as required.

“When we start talking about this was ripped up, it was taped back together – obviously that was preserved – it’s supposed to show some nefarious purpose but yet they will ignore Nancy Pelosi ripping something up on national TV behind the President,” Meadows complained.

“Those documents, I can tell you, we couldn’t find those either and yet, somehow, she got a pass,” he added.

It’s unclear why it would be necessary for Pelosi to preserve her copy of a public speech that Trump had just read aloud to Congress on national television.

[LFC]

Another Republican throws away any vestige of dignity, pride, or honesty on the Altar of Trump. Hope that taste of Preparation H in your mouth is worth it.

CNN anchors took turns this week ridiculing Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) for shamelessly debasing herself in front of Trump Tower and pledging her undying loyalty to former President Donald Trump, calling her “thirsty” and noting “one only gives up one’s own dignity willingly.”

As a first-term congresswoman, Mace has run afoul of her MAGA colleagues and Trump himself over her criticism of the more extreme elements of her party. She drew the ire of the twice-impeached ex-president just days into her tenure, blaming him for the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and saying he “put all of our lives at risk” by inciting the rioters with his false election rhetoric.

Mace, however, was not one of the handful of Republican House members who voted for Trump’s impeachment after the Capitol attack. And while she has occasionally pushed back against some of the far-right members of her party, she has also tried to thread the needle and appeal to Trumpism throughout her first term.

In the end, though, Trump remained unmoved and endorsed GOP candidate Katie Arrington on Wednesday in her bid to unseat Mace, calling the congresswoman “an absolutely terrible candidate” who has been “disloyal” to the Republican Party.

The following day, Mace trekked to Trump Tower in New York City and posted a video of herself swearing an oath of allegiance to Trump.

[goldenvalley]

I heard an interview with Adam Kinzinger, the Republican who is on the Select Committee.  He said he's given up hope that many Republicans now in office will shake off the stench.  In his view they have a larger duty to the system of government the US has than they do to their re-election.  He has a poor opinion of McCarthy and an even poorer one of Senator Hawley.

[jackd]

He also isn't running for reelection. Liz Cheney on the other hand is running but into a headwind. In Kinzinger's defense, he did get redistricted.

[pnwguy]

Feb 11, 2022 21:35:13 GMT LFC said:

Another Republican throws away any vestige of dignity, pride, or honesty on the Altar of Trump. Hope that taste of Preparation H in your mouth is worth it.

You would think the RNC would try to force Pfizer to make strawberry flavored Preparation H, and send Dumpster a free supply.

[LFC]

Feb 12, 2022 16:02:35 GMT pnwguy said:

Feb 11, 2022 21:35:13 GMT LFC said:

Another Republican throws away any vestige of dignity, pride, or honesty on the Altar of Trump. Hope that taste of Preparation H in your mouth is worth it.

You would think the RNC would try to force Pfizer to make strawberry flavored Preparation H, and send Dumpster a free supply.

Force them? I'm shocked they're not already doing it and marketing it in D.C. and at CPAC.

[pnwguy]

The usual IOKIYAR logic noted.

www.thebulwark.com/remember-when-trump-world-wanted-to-prosecute-nancy-pelosi-for-destruction-of-official-documents/

[andydp]

Feb 13, 2022 20:22:11 GMT pnwguy said:

The usual IOKIYAR logic noted.

www.thebulwark.com/remember-when-trump-world-wanted-to-prosecute-nancy-pelosi-for-destruction-of-official-documents/

Remember her E mails !!

Donald Trump used a Secret Service agent's phone to call Melania Trump after the Stormy Daniels allegations broke: report

Then-President Donald Trump used a Secret Service agent's phone in an attempt to reach his wife, then-first lady Melania Trump, after the story on his affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels broke in 2018, CNN reported on Sunday.


www.businessinsider.com/trump-called-melania-secret-service-agent-phone-stormy-daniels-2022-2?fbclid=IwAR3AdXS7NczWuObznsJLi-1Fu3PeByuOoJc0gFqwjOZr1iNpl6Ehv83xJXQ

[goldenvalley]

I'm not sure what to make of this.

Donald J. Trump’s longtime accounting firm cut ties with his family business last week amid ongoing criminal and civil investigations into whether Mr. Trump illegally inflated the value of his assets, court documents filed on Monday show.

In a letter to the Trump Organization on Feb. 9, the accounting firm notified the company of its decision and disclosed that it could no longer stand behind annual financial statements it prepared for Mr. Trump. The firm, Mazars USA, compiled the financial statements based on information the former president and his company provided.

The letter instructed the Trump Organization to essentially retract the documents, known as statements of financial condition, from 2011 to 2020. In the letter, Mazars noted that the firm had not “as a whole” found material discrepancies between the information the Trump Organization provided and the actual value of Mr. Trump’s assets. But given what it called “the totality of circumstances,” the letter directed the Trump Organization to notify anyone who received the statements that they should no longer rely on them.

So those statements are not to be relied upon because now the accounting firm has reason to believe they are based on faulty information?  Isn't that true of any financial statement of any client?  The statement is only as good as its foundation.  Are they trying to state the obvious or trying to signal that there is specific information that the company knows is incorrect?