Executive Departments Part 2

[GreyhoundFan]

Because of course it has to be a former Faux employee: "State Department spokeswoman Nauert in the mix for U.N. ambassador"

Spoiler

Outgoing United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley made clear her value as an advocate for the administration on television—and the White House is looking for somebody telegenic to replace her.

Among the candidates President Donald Trump is considering, according to three people close to the president: former Fox News host Heather Nauert, who currently serves as the State Department’s spokeswoman and acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.

At Foggy Bottom, Nauert has grown close to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, with whom she was traveling in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. White House aides view her as a capable advocate for the Trump administration’s foreign policy. She is also a leading candidate to replace White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders when she leaves the White House, though that job may be less appealing given that the frequency of on-camera press briefings has vastly diminished over the last two months.

Neither Nauert nor the White House replied to a request for comment.

But White House officials stressed that the process for selecting Haley’s replacement is still in the early stages and that the pool of candidates, which includes ambassadors Kelly Knight Craft, Jamie McCourt, and Ric Grenell — Trump’s envoys to Canada, France, and Germany, respectively — will likely change before the president makes a final selection.

Nauert’s addition to the list, which has Fox News staffers buzzing, according to a former executive, underscores the extent to which TV chops are a key to success in an administration where the commander-in-chief is a 24-7 viewer.

Nauert did not have foreign policy credentials before joining the State Department early last year. But Trump officials believe she has capably explained and defended Trump policies in her State Department briefings, although they have been less frequent than those of her predecessors.

U.N. ambassadors typically work under little day-to-day scrutiny but are often called upon to give speeches or make television appearances on behalf of a president’s foreign policy.

That is not to say the job is all cosmetic: Haley helped to win tougher sanctions on North Korea last year that Trump has called essential to pressuring Kim Jong Un into dialogue over his nuclear program.

If she has tapped for the job, Nauert, who is now based in Washington, D.C., would have to relocate to New York City, where United Nations headquarters are located. “Her husband and kids are in NYC, FYI,” said a senior administration official.

 

[Howl]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke violated the department’s policy on travel, the agency’s watchdog concluded"

Spoiler

BREAKING: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke violated the department’s policy on travel, the agency’s watchdog concluded.

The Interior Department’s watchdog found that Zinke violated department policy by allowing his wife to travel in government vehicles and instructing his security detail to drive an associate to the airport.

The decision to take an unarmed security detail on his overseas vacation cost taxpayers $25,000, the report found.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

Interior Department officials said Thursday that they did not approve the hiring of a political appointee as the agency’s acting watchdog, calling the announcement of her move by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson “100 percent false information.”

The backtracking on Suzanne Israel Tufts’s move two days after it drew widespread scrutiny deepened questions about how and why she was supposedly chosen to lead Interior’s inspector general’s office, which is currently conducting at least four investigations into Secretary Ryan Zinke. Last week investigators issued two subpoenas for documents to entities tied to the probes, according to two individuals familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The furor over Interior’s inspector general came as the office sent its latest report to Capitol Hill, examining Zinke’s travel and that of his wife, Lola. The office concluded that staff in the department’s Solicitor office “approved Lolita Zinke and other individuals to ride in Government vehicles with Secretary Zinke” despite the fact that Interior policy prohibited this practice. Zinke also confirmed to investigators that “his staff had researched the implications of making her a volunteer,” and other employees raised concerns that this could be perceived as a way to cover her travel costs.

Zinke “denied that it was an effort to circumvent the requirement to reimburse the DOI for her travel,” the report states.

Critics of the administration said the report, which also found that taxpayers paid $25,000 to send an unarmed security detail with the Zinkes on their vacation to Turkey last summer, documents a breach of the public trust.

“This report shows Secretary Zinke’s dogged determination to use his office for personal gain, even going so far as to tell Interior’s top lawyer to lie to the public to justify his wife’s travel,” said Jen Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, an advocacy group. “Secretary Zinke owes the American people an apology — and a refund.”

Top White House officials said Thursday they had not been made aware of the plan to move Tufts, a lawyer from Queens who worked on President Trump’s campaign and has served as HUD’s assistant secretary for administration since December.

“Ms. Tufts is not employed by the Department and no decision was ever made to move her to Interior,” the agency’s press secretary, Heather Swift, said in a statement Thursday.

And in a striking public rebuke of another Cabinet agency led by a close friend of Zinke’s, Swift wrote that HUD “sent out an email that had 100 percent false information in it.” She affirmed that Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall, who has led the office for nine years, is still in the job.

In an email Friday with the subject line “A Fond Farewell,” Carson wrote staff, “It is with mixed emotions that I announce that Suzanne Israel Tufts, our Assistant Secretary for Administration, has decided to leave HUD to become Acting Inspector General at the Department of Interior.”

“I am extremely grateful to Suzanne for her service to HUD and am confident that she will thrive in her new role,” Carson added.

Swift said Tufts was referred to Interior officials by the White House “as a potential candidate” for a position in the inspector general’s office. Swift did not say what position. “At the end of the day, she was not offered a job at Interior.”

HUD officials did not respond to a request for comment. Tufts could not be reached.

The about-face came after mounting criticism by lawmakers on Capitol Hill and watchdog groups of what appeared to be an un­or­tho­dox arrangement between the agencies to bring in a political appointee to oversee Kendall. Former president Barack Obama nominated her for the position of inspector general, but the Senate never voted on it. Tufts, meanwhile, is a former consultant who has no experience as an investigator and would have been leading one of the government’s most active inspector general offices.

Kendall is currently conducting at least four investigations of Zinke’s conduct, including his involvement in a Montana land deal and his activities in connection with two Connecticut tribes’ application to open a new casino.

In an interview Thursday, Interior Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt said he had developed a good working relationship with Kendall, but that department leaders were scouting for someone the president could nominate to serve on a permanent basis.

“Mary would agree that it would be good for the inspector general to be a presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed individual,” Bernhardt said. “I think she would agree with us that the job has been vacant since [former Inspector General Earl] Devaney left, for almost a decade. That’s not good, because that’s not the way we run the country.”

Tufts’s appointment, announced to HUD staff by Carson last Friday, came to light this week through reports in The Washington Post and other outlets. White House officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss personnel matters, said the move came as a surprise to them.

Interior officials declined until Thursday to answer questions on Tufts’s hiring, saying instead that the post has been vacant for almost a decade and that any announcement on a Senate nomination would come from the White House.

While presidents have the right to both hire and fire inspectors general, the Inspector General Act of 1978 specifies that candidates should be chosen “without regard to political affiliation and solely on the basis of integrity and demonstrated ability in accounting, auditing, financial analysis, law, management analysis, public administration, or investigations.”

Michael Bromwich, who served as inspector general at the Justice Department from 1994 to 1999 as well as head of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management from 2010 to 2011, called Tufts’s hire “highly unusual.”

“The statute says that alone among political appointees, this is a nonpartisan position to be staffed on a permanent basis by those with appropriate backgrounds,” Bromwich said. “It’s a real breach of protocol to put someone who’s only qualification is political allegiance to the Trump administration.”

Aside from the fact that she holds a law degree, it is unclear what specific aspect of Tufts’s background qualifies her for the job of Interior inspector general. Her résumé, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the advocacy group American Oversight, shows that she volunteered for “Trump-Pence 2017” by helping to train and deploy lawyers in the field.

Tufts wrote that she worked with the Republican National Lawyers Association on behalf of the Trump-Pence campaign in both Philadelphia and New York state. In addition, according to her résumé, she was “responsible for recruiting and training 20% of the attorneys sent into the field.”

Rep. Raul Grijalva (Ariz.), the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, questioned why the administration had changed its story on Tufts’s appointment.

“What is her job there? If they’re trying to shift blame for their latest scandal and backtrack while there’s still time, they should just say so. Either way, nobody is buying this explanation and we’re not going to stop pressing for answers.”

 

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke violated the department’s policy on travel, the agency’s watchdog concluded"

  Reveal hidden contents

BREAKING: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke violated the department’s policy on travel, the agency’s watchdog concluded.

The Interior Department’s watchdog found that Zinke violated department policy by allowing his wife to travel in government vehicles and instructing his security detail to drive an associate to the airport.

The decision to take an unarmed security detail on his overseas vacation cost taxpayers $25,000, the report found.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

Interior Department officials said Thursday that they did not approve the hiring of a political appointee as the agency’s acting watchdog, calling the announcement of her move by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson “100 percent false information.”

The backtracking on Suzanne Israel Tufts’s move two days after it drew widespread scrutiny deepened questions about how and why she was supposedly chosen to lead Interior’s inspector general’s office, which is currently conducting at least four investigations into Secretary Ryan Zinke. Last week investigators issued two subpoenas for documents to entities tied to the probes, according to two individuals familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The furor over Interior’s inspector general came as the office sent its latest report to Capitol Hill, examining Zinke’s travel and that of his wife, Lola. The office concluded that staff in the department’s Solicitor office “approved Lolita Zinke and other individuals to ride in Government vehicles with Secretary Zinke” despite the fact that Interior policy prohibited this practice. Zinke also confirmed to investigators that “his staff had researched the implications of making her a volunteer,” and other employees raised concerns that this could be perceived as a way to cover her travel costs.

Zinke “denied that it was an effort to circumvent the requirement to reimburse the DOI for her travel,” the report states.

Critics of the administration said the report, which also found that taxpayers paid $25,000 to send an unarmed security detail with the Zinkes on their vacation to Turkey last summer, documents a breach of the public trust.

“This report shows Secretary Zinke’s dogged determination to use his office for personal gain, even going so far as to tell Interior’s top lawyer to lie to the public to justify his wife’s travel,” said Jen Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, an advocacy group. “Secretary Zinke owes the American people an apology — and a refund.”

Top White House officials said Thursday they had not been made aware of the plan to move Tufts, a lawyer from Queens who worked on President Trump’s campaign and has served as HUD’s assistant secretary for administration since December.

“Ms. Tufts is not employed by the Department and no decision was ever made to move her to Interior,” the agency’s press secretary, Heather Swift, said in a statement Thursday.

And in a striking public rebuke of another Cabinet agency led by a close friend of Zinke’s, Swift wrote that HUD “sent out an email that had 100 percent false information in it.” She affirmed that Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall, who has led the office for nine years, is still in the job.

In an email Friday with the subject line “A Fond Farewell,” Carson wrote staff, “It is with mixed emotions that I announce that Suzanne Israel Tufts, our Assistant Secretary for Administration, has decided to leave HUD to become Acting Inspector General at the Department of Interior.”

“I am extremely grateful to Suzanne for her service to HUD and am confident that she will thrive in her new role,” Carson added.

Swift said Tufts was referred to Interior officials by the White House “as a potential candidate” for a position in the inspector general’s office. Swift did not say what position. “At the end of the day, she was not offered a job at Interior.”

HUD officials did not respond to a request for comment. Tufts could not be reached.

The about-face came after mounting criticism by lawmakers on Capitol Hill and watchdog groups of what appeared to be an un­or­tho­dox arrangement between the agencies to bring in a political appointee to oversee Kendall. Former president Barack Obama nominated her for the position of inspector general, but the Senate never voted on it. Tufts, meanwhile, is a former consultant who has no experience as an investigator and would have been leading one of the government’s most active inspector general offices.

Kendall is currently conducting at least four investigations of Zinke’s conduct, including his involvement in a Montana land deal and his activities in connection with two Connecticut tribes’ application to open a new casino.

In an interview Thursday, Interior Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt said he had developed a good working relationship with Kendall, but that department leaders were scouting for someone the president could nominate to serve on a permanent basis.

“Mary would agree that it would be good for the inspector general to be a presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed individual,” Bernhardt said. “I think she would agree with us that the job has been vacant since [former Inspector General Earl] Devaney left, for almost a decade. That’s not good, because that’s not the way we run the country.”

Tufts’s appointment, announced to HUD staff by Carson last Friday, came to light this week through reports in The Washington Post and other outlets. White House officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss personnel matters, said the move came as a surprise to them.

Interior officials declined until Thursday to answer questions on Tufts’s hiring, saying instead that the post has been vacant for almost a decade and that any announcement on a Senate nomination would come from the White House.

While presidents have the right to both hire and fire inspectors general, the Inspector General Act of 1978 specifies that candidates should be chosen “without regard to political affiliation and solely on the basis of integrity and demonstrated ability in accounting, auditing, financial analysis, law, management analysis, public administration, or investigations.”

Michael Bromwich, who served as inspector general at the Justice Department from 1994 to 1999 as well as head of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management from 2010 to 2011, called Tufts’s hire “highly unusual.”

“The statute says that alone among political appointees, this is a nonpartisan position to be staffed on a permanent basis by those with appropriate backgrounds,” Bromwich said. “It’s a real breach of protocol to put someone who’s only qualification is political allegiance to the Trump administration.”

Aside from the fact that she holds a law degree, it is unclear what specific aspect of Tufts’s background qualifies her for the job of Interior inspector general. Her résumé, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the advocacy group American Oversight, shows that she volunteered for “Trump-Pence 2017” by helping to train and deploy lawyers in the field.

Tufts wrote that she worked with the Republican National Lawyers Association on behalf of the Trump-Pence campaign in both Philadelphia and New York state. In addition, according to her résumé, she was “responsible for recruiting and training 20% of the attorneys sent into the field.”

Rep. Raul Grijalva (Ariz.), the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, questioned why the administration had changed its story on Tufts’s appointment.

“What is her job there? If they’re trying to shift blame for their latest scandal and backtrack while there’s still time, they should just say so. Either way, nobody is buying this explanation and we’re not going to stop pressing for answers.”

 

I'd love to see Zinke hear, "You're fired" or "You're convicted", but am afraid the next moron in that office would be worse. I know I've self-identified as an avid user of the outdoors, and I loathe his policies, especially his decision to shrink National monuments.

[Howl]

 

14 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

I'd love to see Zinke hear, "You're fired" or "You're convicted", but am afraid the next moron in that office would be worse. I know I've self-identified as an avid user of the outdoors, and I loathe his policies, especially his decision to shrink National monuments.

Yes, exactly.  After Scott Prewitt, he of the soundproof booth and AKA "Bring Me Moisturizer STAT," slunk off from the EPA, some faceless administrator took over to continue his legacy of dismantling the EPA. Other than hearing bits and pieces of dismantling stringent regulation of asbestos and radiation limits,  we are getting zip coverage about the damage that's really going on.

Note: wandering points to follow

Zinke, at least early on, made some noises about not turning over Federal lands to the states.  I think the Sagebrush Rebellion types promoting that most strongly are in Utah and Nevada, but there are probably noises in that direction from AZ, CO, ID and eastern OR.   Now there's some talk of an intermediate position of not outright giving Federal lands to a state, but allowing some(!) level of local or state control.  High Country News had an article about how this has happened by fiat by placing Mormons at supervisory levels on down at Dominguez Escalante National Monument in Utah, resulting in the gutting of  a robust research program being replaced by grazing, grazing, grazing.  

When I was in SW Colorado this summer, I picked up a copy of a little alternative newspaper that covered issues for Montezuma County.  There was an article about Montezuma County's attempt to "reclaim" ownership of some major roads through Federal lands on the basis of laws from the 1800s. Pretty sure this was instigated by  Tea Party/Sagebrush Rebellion types who have gotten themselves elected as county commissioners.  There's probably some minor Sovereign Citizen influence there also. 

For many years now, Teavangelicals and hard-core Conservatives have emphasized running candidates for school boards,  local and state offices and way too many have been successful. Democrats and Progressives?  Not so much.  There are Christian law schools feeding graduates into DC, to work their way up to positions of influence.  It's been a very long term and relentless campaign. 

However, the current political climate has led many women, Democrats and Progressives to come out of the woodwork to run aggressive campaigns.  Hoping, hoping some/most/all are successful. 

Where was I?  Oh, right.  Back to wherever the fuck we are in the relentless dumpster fire and New World Ordure. 

 

 

[WiseGirl]

On 10/18/2018 at 8:16 PM, Audrey2 said:

You're convicted",

What I would love to hear for all ... 45, his 3 oldest children, in-laws, out-laws, and anyone in the oval office right now...take orange one and all his computers down..mcfface, lyin Ryan, etc.

In an extra special anti 45 mood today,  I digress...

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Wow: "‘I thought it was very nice’: VA official showcased portrait of KKK’s first grand wizard"

Spoiler

A senior official at the Department of Veterans Affairs said he removed a portrait of the Ku Klux Klan’s first grand wizard from his Washington, D.C., office after offended employees began signing a petition to present to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie.

David J. Thomas Sr. is deputy executive director of VA’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, which certifies veteran-owned businesses seeking government contracts. His senior staff is mostly African American.

Thomas said he took down the painting Monday after a Washington Post reporter explained that its subject, Nathan Bedford Forrest, was a Confederate general and slave trader who became the KKK’s first figure­head in 1868. He said he was unaware of Forrest’s affiliation with the hate group, which formed after the Civil War to maintain white control over newly freed blacks through violence and intimidation.

A basic Google search of Forrest’s name returns various biographies detailing his role in the Confederacy and the white-supremacist strains of its aftermath.

“It was just a beautiful print that I had purchased, and I thought it was very nice,” Thomas said. He said he knew of Forrest only “as a Southern general in the Civil War” and kept the portrait in his basement before decorating a new and larger office at VA’s administrative headquarters a few months ago.

Thomas, who has worked at VA since 2013, is a civil servant employed by the federal government — not a political appointee posted there by President Trump, whose supporters include members of white-nationalist groups. Trump was criticized for his tepid reaction to last year’s deadly protest of white nationalists in Charlottesville.

The painting, by artist Don Stivers, shows Forrest wearing a gray military uniform and astride a horse. It is titled “No Surrender” and depicts the general fleeing a snowy Tennessee battlefield in 1862.

“I don’t know what to do with this thing,” Thomas told The Post, “except to destroy it.”

A manager who reports to Thomas disputed part of his account, saying the Forrest portrait was displayed in Thomas’s previous office also, starting in 2015. When he moved offices in recent months, Thomas directed VA’s maintenance staff to install an electrical outlet high on the wall so he could illuminate the portrait, said the manager, Michelle Gardner-Ince.

Thomas’s staff includes 14 managers, nine of whom are black.

Racial tensions have flared between Thomas and several of his employees, at least three of whom have pending claims of racial discrimination against him. An attorney representing two of these employees said the portrait is evidence that Thomas is not comfortable around African Americans.

“You don’t hire someone who puts a picture of the Klan in his office unless you’re” racially insensitive, said the lawyer, John Rigby.

Gardner-Ince, a program manager with a case against Thomas pending before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging he retaliated against her for complaining about a poor performance review, said she spoke with Thomas several years ago about the art in his office, which also includes a portrait of George Washington praying next to his horse during the Revolutionary War at his encampment at Valley Forge.

“He said, ‘My wife told me I shouldn’t put this picture up,’ ” pointing to the Forrest portrait,” Gardner-Ince recalled, “ ‘but I said, I don’t care; I like it.’ ”

“It’s been there for a long time,” she said.

Thomas did not respond to follow-up questions about his conversation with Gardner-Ince.

The portrait’s significance apparently had not come to the attention of Gardner-Ince or the other managers Thomas supervises until last week, when a union steward attending a meeting in Thomas’s office recognized Forrest as a founding member of the KKK. The union steward was aghast, a colleague told The Post, as VA has thousands of black employees who care for an increasingly diverse population of military veterans.

The local VA chapter of American Federation of Government Employees, which represents employees at VA’s central offices, drew up the petition this week demanding the portrait’s removal.

“We employees denounce the display of this offensive picture and believe appropriate action should be taken,” the petition says, describing Forrest as not only the KKK’s first grand wizard but also the commander of an 1864 massacre of Union troops, most of them black, who surrendered after the Battle of Fort Pillow in Tennessee.

Douglas Massey, president of AFGE’s Local 17, said he gathered 75 signatures on Monday in the headquarters cafeteria and plans to continue until he has 200, even though Thomas told The Post he took down the portrait. Massey said he found Thomas’s explanation offensive and “hard to believe.”

He described the decor in Thomas’s office as “very deliberate and fastidious.”

“That office could be a museum. There seems to be so much thought that went into decorating it,” he said. “If I had a picture in my office of someone, I would want to know who it is.”

VA spokesman Curt Cashour said in an email that the agency “strives to create a workplace that is comfortable and welcoming to all employees” and noted that in his first month as secretary, Wilkie signed a policy that ensures that VA “does not tolerate behaviors that interfere with an individual’s work performance or that create an intimidating, offensive, or hostile environment.”

“Achieving the secretary’s goal relies in large part on individual judgment and common sense of employees at all levels,” Cashour said.

He said, however, that Thomas “received no complaints from his fellow employees and only learned about these concerns from The Washington Post,” adding, “Mr. Thomas immediately took down the print in question . . . and the matter is resolved.”

Thomas questioned why the union official did not tell him that some people might find the portrait offensive and said that none of his employees ever complained about the portrait. “You know how many people I’ve had in and out of my office?” he said. “They say, ‘That’s a nice print.’”

A group of former Confederate soldiers formed the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee in 1865 and later asked Forrest to be the first grand wizard. Forrest was recognized as a military strategist and in the last years of his life publicly denounced the violence and racism practiced by the Klan.During Reconstruction, he received a pardon from President Andrew Johnson, but he remains one of the most controversial figures of the Civil War era for his role in the Fort Pillow massacre.

Although public memorials were erected throughout the South to honor Forrest, many have been taken down amid the recent national furor over such statues.

 

[CTRLZero]

Quote

Racial tensions have flared between Thomas and several of his employees, at least three of whom have pending claims of racial discrimination against him. An attorney representing two of these employees said the portrait is evidence that Thomas is not comfortable around African Americans.

“You don’t hire someone who puts a picture of the Klan in his office unless you’re” racially insensitive, said the lawyer, John Rigby.

Ugh, why would you have any confederate-themed artwork in your government-affiliated office in the first place?  Another concept I can't get my brain around.  ?

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump officials aggressively bypass appeals process to get issues before conservative Supreme Court"

Spoiler

To a far greater degree than its predecessors, the Trump administration has sought to bypass adverse lower-court rulings on some of its signature issues by seeking extraordinary relief from a refortified conservative Supreme Court.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco have repeatedly gone outside the usual appellate process to get issues such as the travel ban, immigration and greater authority for top officials before the justices.

They were rewarded Monday night when the court, in an unsigned opinion, put a hold on a planned deposition of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Ross had been ordered to submit to questioning because of shifting versions he has given about why he wanted to add a question to the 2020 Census regarding a respondent’s citizenship.

Besides the controversy over Ross, Department of Justice lawyers have petitioned the court to lift a stay on President Trump’s travel ban while considering its merits, asked the justices to limit discovery in trials in lower courts involving immigrants, and succeeded at least temporarily in stopping a trial brought by young people over climate change.

The administration recently told a federal appeals court it would go directly to the Supreme Court if the judges did not rule by the end of the month on a case challenging the administration’s position on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The program protects from deportation some immigrants who came to the United States when they were children.

Lawyers who practice before the Supreme Court have noticed the administration’s aggressive legal tactics.

“DOJ has been seeking extraordinary relief in the Supreme Court much more often during the Trump administration than in the past — as the sheer number of cases and filings makes clear,” said Nicole A. Saharsky, a lawyer who frequently appears before the Supreme Court and spent more than a decade in the solicitor general’s office. “This seems to be a result of the administration’s desire to aggressively defend and appeal certain cases — such as those involving DACA recipients, the census and climate change.”

She noted, however, that any Justice Department would probably try to take to the Supreme Court an order requiring a Cabinet official to testify.

Sessions said in a recent speech that a robust response to what he considers activist judges is necessary to protect the separation of powers and to deter “encroachment” on the president’s power.

“If the judiciary can subject the executive branch to new, disruptive and invasive reviews, the power of the judiciary is enhanced, while the power of the executive has been diminished,” Sessions said in a speech prepared for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

“That is a tilt we cannot abide. Executive branch officers do not work for the judiciary. We work for the president of the United States.”

But lawyers on the other side, such as in the climate change suit, say the government’s request for premature intervention by the Supreme Court threatens to “undermine the confidence of the American people in our nation’s justice system.”

The lawyers for the coalition of children demanding that the government take action on climate change say it is wrong for the administration to ask the justices to stop their case from going to trial, when both a district judge and an appeals court — twice — have said the case should proceed.

“A stay of trial in the district court will disrupt the integrity of the judiciary’s role as a check on the political branches and will irreparably harm these children,” the lawyers told the Supreme Court in a brief. “The independence of the judiciary, free from pressure by the political branches, is instrumental in preserving our democratic institutions and the people’s respect for them.”

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Friday put the trial on hold until the full court could consider the government’s request. The trial, expected to last more than seven weeks, was scheduled to start next week.

The court’s liberals last year objected when their conservative colleagues blocked the release of a large number of documents authorized by a lower-court judge for those challenging the administration’s decision to end DACA.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer said the Supreme Court in the past said that such a motion, called a writ of mandamus, is a “drastic and extraordinary remedy reserved for really extraordinary causes.”

“In my view, the government’s arguments do not come close to carrying the heavy burden that the government bears in seeking such extraordinary relief,” Breyer wrote, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

There was no reason, he said, to stray from the court’s usual approach of letting a district judge manage the discovery necessary for trial, have the outcome reviewed by an appeals court and then have the Supreme Court weigh in, if the decision merits intervention.

All administrations buck at lower-court decisions they dislike. But Sessions has been far more aggressive about challenging them, not content to let them work through what can be a long and painstakingly time-consuming process.

He advocates quick action when he says judges exceed their powers.

“Federal district judges are not empowered to fashion immigration policy, combat climate change, solve the opioid crisis or run police departments,” he said in the Heritage speech. “The legislative and executive branches . . . are the constitutionally authorized branches to do these things, and if these branches haven’t done so to the satisfaction of an unaccountable judge, it’s not because they need judicial expertise or advice. Usually, it’s because the problems are hard.”

In some instances, the justices have said the administration’s petitions were premature.

But the case of Ross is an example of the strategy paying off and of a conservative administration finding a receptive Supreme Court.

In an unsigned opinion that did not provide reasoning, the court temporarily blocked a district court order requiring Ross to submit to questioning.

The department is being sued by 18 states, the District of Columbia and a number of advocacy groups that say asking residents about their citizenship status will suppress the response rate of immigrants and produce a census undercount.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman of New York said the challengers had made a plausible showing that Ross had acted in “bad faith.”

“The question is not a close one,” Furman wrote in an opinion on Sept. 21. “Secretary Ross must sit for a deposition because, among other things, his intent and credibility are directly at issue in these cases.”

Ross had first said the Justice Department requested the census question because it would be helpful in enforcing part of the Voting Rights Act. But he has altered his explanation in light of emails and other documents, which appear to show he initiated the change in the census form, perhaps after consultation with White House aides.

It is unclear what the rest of the court thought of that. But Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented in part from the court’s order because it did not give the Justice Department even fuller relief.

They criticized what they called the lower court’s “highly unusual” finding of bad faith but did not mention or address Furman’s reason — Ross’s shifting account.

Gorsuch and Thomas characterized the dispute as a policy disagreement.

“There’s nothing unusual about a new cabinet secretary coming to office inclined to favor a different policy direction, soliciting support from other agencies to bolster his views, disagreeing with staff, or cutting through red tape,” Gorsuch wrote, describing what he said were the reasons the lower court found for doubting Ross.

“Of course, some people may disagree with the policy and process. But until now, at least, this much has never been thought enough to justify a claim of bad faith and launch an inquisition into a cabinet secretary’s motives.”

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Howl]

Dept. of Defense: Mattis is expected to sign orders sending 800 troops to the Mexican border because scary caravan of women and children.  Nothing clarified about whether this will be National Guard or other troops.  They will be doing help-y stuff, rather than direct immigration enforcement. 

Foreign Policy magazine reports that John Bolton and his deputy have started a whisper campaign that Mattis is planning to resign.  Talk about palace intrigue.

Bolton’s Whisper Campaign to Oust Mattis

First two paragraphs: 

Quote

White House National Security Advisor John Bolton and his deputy are trying to squeeze out U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis by spreading rumors about his imminent departure, according to two well-placed sources.

Bolton and Mira Ricardel, the deputy national security advisor, who has repeatedly clashed with Mattis over Defense Department personnel appointments, believe the defense secretary is “not ideologically aligned” with President Donald Trump’s administration, according to one of the sources, a former senior defense official. The two are trying “to build the sense that he is done for,” the former official said.

Just more evidence of John Bolton's inherent douchery.

Mattis has said more than once that he has no intention of resigning and other reports says he has long-ish term plans for various Pentagon related projects that he'd like to see through.

Mattis has dragged his feet in implementing the Space Force and kicking transgender people out of the military, so maybe that is what is meant by "not ideologically aligned" with Trump.  

[Audrey2]

30 minutes ago, Howl said:

Dept. of Defense: Mattis is expected to sign orders sending 800 troops to the Mexican border because scary caravan of women and children.  Nothing clarified about whether this will be National Guard or other troops.  They will be doing help-y stuff, rather than direct immigration enforcement. 

I'm getting nightmarish flashbacks to Kent State, 1970.

[fraurosena]

Aww, the poor, Evil Keebler Elf got attacked by words straight from the bible. By a minister from his own faith, no less! 

 

[Howl]

A bit more on Zinke at Interior.  

Zinke’s own agency watchdog just referred him to the Justice Department  Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has come under scrutiny on multiple fronts

Crux points: 

• Deputy Inspector General Mary L. Kendall, who is serving as acting inspector general, is conducting at least three probes that involve Zinke.
• Zinke is looking for a political nominee who could replace Kendall, a career official who has served in an acting capacity since 2009.
• Two weeks ago, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson sent an email to his staff announcing that one of his top aides, Suzanne Israel Tufts, would be taking over as Interior’s acting inspector general.
• Zinke’s aides disavowed this idea several days later, describing Carson’s email as “100 percent false.”

More chaos, crazy, musical chairs and palace intrigue at the Cabinet level.

[Howl]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"White House concerned Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke violated federal rules"

Spoiler

The White House is growing increasingly concerned about allegations of misconduct against Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, according to two senior administration officials, and President Trump has asked aides for more information about a Montana land deal under scrutiny by the Justice Department.

Trump told his aides he is afraid Zinke has broken rules while serving as the Interior Secretary and is concerned about the Justice Department referral, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. But the president has not yet indicated whether he will fire the former Navy SEAL and congressman and has asked for more information, the officials said.

Earlier this month, Interior’s Office of Inspector General referred the inquiry — one of several probes into the secretary’s conduct — to the Justice Department to determine whether a criminal investigation is warranted. That referral concerns Zinke’s involvement in a Whitefish, Mont., land development deal backed by David J. Lesar, chairman of the oil services firm Halliburton.

The business and retail park, known as 95 Karrow, would be near multiple parcels of land owned by Zinke and his wife, Lola. The inspector general is looking at discussions Zinke had with Lesar and others about the development that could indicate he was using his office to enrich himself.

Interior has played no role in the Montana project, but congressional Democrats asked for an investigation in June because the department issues regulations on oil and gas development that has financial implications for companies such as Lesar’s.

No decision about Zinke’s tenure has been made, said the officials. But the shift within the West Wing highlights the extent to which the interior secretary’s standing has slipped in recent months.

Both the White House and Interior declined to comment Thursday. Zinke has indicated that he intends to stay in his post, according to an individual who talked to him recently and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

White House officials’ trust in 57-year-old Zinke — a vocal proponent of the president’s push to expand coal, oil and gas production in the United States — began eroding at the start of the year, after he traveled to Florida to meet with Gov. Rick Scott (R) and announced that he would exempt the state from the administration’s new plan to allow drilling off the state’s coasts. The move, which was not coordinated with the West Wing’s political shop, exposed the five-year leasing plan to legal challenges and sparked pushback from governors in other states.

But administration officials’ concerns have intensified as multiple allegations have mounted against Zinke, who has denied any wrongdoing. Earlier this month, Interior’s watchdog unit issued a report finding that Zinke’s travel practices and efforts to designate his wife as a department volunteer had raised red flags among Interior ethics officials.

Zinke is the second member of the Trump Cabinet to come under scrutiny from the Justice Department. Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general referred a case involving then-Administrator Scott Pruitt’s rental deal with lobbyist Steve Hart and his wife, Vicki, to federal prosecutors. That inquiry appears to have lost momentum after Pruitt resigned in July, according to two individuals apprised of the probe who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

A referral to the Justice Department means prosecutors will explore whether a criminal investigation is warranted. An agency’s inspector general refers cases to the Justice Department only when it has determined that there could be criminal violations, and regularly does so even before completing its own investigation.

New York University public service professor Paul C. Light, who wrote a book about inspectors general, said in an interview that they regularly notify prosecutors about potential wrongdoing within the agencies they oversee. But he said it is far less common for them to refer cases involving a Cabinet member.

“It’s unusual,” Light said. “A Cabinet officer, that’s a big-ticket issue.”

Interior’s acting inspector general, Mary L. Kendall, is conducting at least three separate probes connected to Zinke. One involves his decision not to grant a permit to two Connecticut tribes to jointly run a casino, despite the fact that career staff had recommended the move, after MGM Resorts International lobbied against it. Another focuses on whether Interior officials redrew the boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to benefit Utah Rep. Mike Noel (R), who owns property in the area.

The Montana project is another. When the referral to the Justice Department was reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday, it was not yet clear which of the probes had been turned over for possible criminal investigation.

A senior White House official said the White House understood the investigation was looking into whether the secretary “used his office to help himself.”

Last year, Zinke’s wife, Lola, signed an agreement that would allow the 95 Karrow development to use land owned by the Zinkes’ foundation, Great Northern Veterans Peace Park Foundation, as a parking lot. The proposed hotel, retail and microbrewery site is near several properties owned by the Zinkes.

Zinke stepped down as the foundation’s president after joining Trump’s Cabinet, and his wife took over in that capacity. But federal records show that the interior secretary continued to discuss the project with Lesar and his son, along with local developer Casey Malmquist.

On Aug. 3, 2017, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, Zinke met with all three men in his Washington office, took them on a private tour of the Lincoln Memorial and had dinner with them. The next month, Malmquist emailed Zinke blueprints of the development and solicited his input.

“I want you to know that whatever assistance you need to protect and promote your vision for the park, please let me know and I will make sure that it’s communicated and executed,” Malmquist wrote in an exchange that Zinke forwarded to his assistant.

The Zinkes own two companies, Continental Divide International and Double Tap, that have several parcels of land near the proposed project. According to Zinke’s most recent financial disclosure form, he received between $15,001 and $50,000 in rental or royalties from Continental Divide International last year and between $5,001 and $15,000 from Double Tap. Zinke stepped down from his leadership posts at both companies in March 2017.

The Continental Divide’s properties’ assessed 2018 tax value stood at $858,160, while Double Tap’s properties were $467,400.

In an interview Thursday, Whitefish city planner David Taylor said the secretary’s involvement in the project was limited to the parking and access agreement his foundation struck with the developers. Zinke had expressed an interest in opening a brewery in Whitefish in the past, Taylor said, but 95 Karrow’s site plan did not say who would run the microbrewery.

“They never said who was going to own the brewery,” Taylor said.

At the moment, the Peace park — whose land is valued at just over $501,000, according to the foundation’s 2017 tax returns — is mainly used for sledding during winter. There is no way to directly drive into the park because the Zinkes have put up a gate at the request of neighbors living along Murray Avenue, Taylor said, so as not to disturb them with additional traffic.

“It seemed like, ‘We’ll help you do this if you help us do that,’ ” Taylor said, noting that the additional parking would benefit visitors to the development and the foundation’s park.

The multiple inquiries surrounding Zinke’s conduct are taking place as he is searching for someone the president can nominate as the department’s inspector general. Kendall has served in an acting capacity since early 2009.

In a phone interview Wednesday, Kendall declined to discuss any pending investigations but said that she supports the idea of Trump nominating someone to serve in a permanent capacity.

“The bottom line is, I think the organization needs a properly nominated and confirmed IG,” Kendall said. “The time is right. It might have been right some time ago.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump administration weakens Obamacare birth control coverage mandate"

Spoiler

(CNN)The Trump administration issued two final rules on Wednesday providing employers more flexibility with exemptions to deny women insurance coverage for birth control.

Under the Affordable Care Act, employer-provided health insurance plans are required to cover birth control as a preventive service.

Now, the US Department of Health and Human Services has issued a final rule providing exemption from the contraceptive coverage mandate to entities that object to such coverage based on religious beliefs. The second final rule provides exemption to nonprofit organizations and small businesses that may have non-religious moral convictions to such coverage.

These rules finalize interim rules that were issued last year and take effect 60 days after their publication in the Federal Register, according to the agency.

"The religious and moral exemptions provided by these rules also apply to institutions of education, issuers, and individuals. The Departments are not extending the moral exemption to publicly traded businesses, or either exemption to government entities," the agency said in a news release Wednesday.

Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the nonprofit National Women's Law Center, issued a statement Wednesday in response to the Trump administration finalizing the birth control rules.

"The Trump Administration decided to finalize these outrageous rules, despite several pending lawsuits and two federal courts blocking them," Graves said.

"It's clear that this Administration will stop at nothing to attack women's health care. By taking away access to no-cost birth control coverage, these rules try to give a license to virtually any employer, university, or health insurance provider to discriminate," she said. "But if the Administration thinks it can move these rules forward without a fight, they're wrong. Countless women depend on this critical birth control coverage for their health and economic stability -- and we will continue to fiercely defend them."

The conservative group Alliance Defending Freedom released a statement from Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor in response to the rules on Wednesday.

"The beliefs that inspire Christian colleges and universities, as well as groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor, to serve their communities should be protected," Baylor said. "Through these regulations, President Trump kept his promise that people of faith wouldn't be bullied on his watch. At the same time, contraceptives will remain readily available to those who wish to use them."

Clare Coleman, president and CEO of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, a national organization representing publicly funded family planning providers and administrators, said in a statement Wednesday that the rules "could leave millions of women without access to birth control and reverse some of the important public health progress made under the Affordable Care Act in recent years," she said. "Family planning has been designated one of top ten public health achievements of the 21st century. It is baffling that the administration would support any policy that could diminish access to this essential preventive care."

In October 2017, the Trump administration issued two interim final rules providing an exemption for those who had religious or moral objections to such coverage, while seeking public comment on the rules.

In 2017, Health and Human Services officials said the rule would have no impact on "99.9% of women" in the United States. It based that percentage on the 165 million women in America, many of whom are not in their childbearing years.

The agency calculated that, at most, 120,000 women would be affected: mainly those who work at the roughly 200 entities that have been involved in 50 or so lawsuits over birth control coverage.

Policy experts, however, argued that this could open the door to hundreds of employers dropping coverage.

For instance, there are hundreds of Catholic hospitals, nursing homes and nonprofits that may want to stop providing contraceptives, said Tim Jost, emeritus professor at the Washington and Lee University School of Law.

Experts pointed out last year that many women use birth control for more than pregnancy prevention, including treatment of hormonal imbalances and endometriosis.

"There is no way to know how many women will be affected," said Alina Salganicoff, director of women's health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on health policy research and communications.

This horrible administration will stop at nothing to hurt women.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Zinke prepares to leave Trump’s Cabinet"

Spoiler

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has been exploring potential roles with Fox News, the energy industry or other businesses amid growing signs that he will leave President Donald Trump's Cabinet as he faces investigations into his ethics, according to people knowledgeable about the discussions.

The news comes just a day after Trump told reporters that word on Zinke's fate may come "in about a week" — and as the president is in the early stages of what could be a dramatic post-election house-cleaning of Cabinet officials and top aides, starting with Wednesday's ouster of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Two of those people said Zinke has reached out to Fox to inquire about working at the conservative news channel as a contributor.

Zinke’s outreach was a further sign that the former Navy SEAL and Montana congressman is seeking new employment opportunities. Zinke is also looking for positions on energy company boards of directors or private equity firms, sources have said — posts that one watchdog group said could pose conflict-of-interest problems for his current job running Interior.

People close to Zinke said he has made it known he plans to resign his position by the end of the year. He has yet made no such announcements, though, and he said Wednesday on Twitter that he "look forward to working" with newly elected members of Congress.

Spokespeople for the Interior Department and News Corp., Fox News' parent company, did not immediately reply to questions from POLITICO. But Interior's press office went on Twitter to dismiss the possibility of Zinke joining Fox, writing: "It's laughably false and belongs in The Onion."

A contract with Fox would be unlikely unless Trump asks Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who owns News Corp., one source told POLITICO. There is no indication the network has responded positively to Zinke’s overtures or expressed interest in bringing him on board.

The secretary, whose job includes oversight of vast stretches of the nation's energy and mineral wealth, has faced increasing questions about his future as investigations have intensified into his use of taxpayer's money, handling of a proposed Connecticut gambling casino and relations with the industries he regulates. Those include a probe of a land development project in Zinke's hometown of Whitefish, Mont., that is backed by the chairman of the giant energy company Halliburton, which POLITICO first reported in June.

Interior's inspector general's office has referred at least one of its probes to the Justice Department, which could decide whether to pursue its own investigation or weigh criminal charges, according to multiple news reports.

Expectations of his departure mark a significant change in fortunes for Zinke, who has enjoyed what one former White House official calls Trump's affection for his bluntness and charisma. Just months ago, Zinke even offered himself as a possible replacement for another embattled Cabinet member, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, the former White House official told POLITICO this week.

Trump has praised Zinke's work at Interior but said this week that he plans to look at the investigations — and hinted Wednesday that a decision could come soon.

“We’re looking at that, and I do want to study whatever is being said,” Trump said during a news conference at the White House. "I think he’s doing an excellent job, but we will take a look at that, and we’ll probably have an idea on that in about a week.”

Should Zinke be in job talks with an industry he regulates, such as oil and gas, he may run into trouble with federal ethics laws, an attorney at the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center said Thursday.

According to federal statute, Zinke must recuse himself from any decisions at Interior that could affect the business of any company he is seeking employment with, said Delaney Marsco, the group's ethics counsel. The group is considering filing a complaint on the matter, Marsco said.

“These recusal obligations apply regardless of whether the communications are indirect, and even if Zinke isn’t serious about the job and never takes it,” Marsco told POLITICO.

Zinke has also had designs on higher office. He was widely seen as a likely challenger this year for Democratic Montana Sen. Jon Tester until Trump picked him for Interior secretary — a process that the president's son Donald Trump Jr. played a role in. And Zinke may eventually decide to try his hand in the Montana governor’s race in 2020, though he would probably face stiff competition in the Republican primary, political consultants in the state have said.

Besides Zinke, Republicans believed to be interested in the 2020 race include Montana Rep. Greg Gianforte, state Attorney General Tim Fox, Secretary of State Corey Stapleton and state auditor Matt Rosendale, who narrowly lost a challenge to Tester this week.

Zinke may face a new challenge if he tries to run in his old state: As Interior secretary, he has shrunk the boundaries of several national monuments that protect swaths of western land from uses like drilling and mining. That helped advance Trump's energy policies but has been unpopular with Montanans, analysts in the state have said.

“I imagine he'll face a crowded primary if he does [run], and I don't think he'd be guaranteed the nomination by any means,” said Brandon DeMars, senior associate at Montana-based political consultancy Hilltop Public Solutions.

Zinke’s outreach to private equity would have followed a meeting he had with financiers last year in New York City. During an official trip in early September 2017, he was scheduled to meet with representatives of private equity firms Cornell Capital and Harvest Capital; hedge fund Kore Capital; Ken Pontarelli, a Goldman Sachs alumnus specializing in energy companies; and Brian O'Callaghan, head of the Wall Street headhunting firm CPI, according to documents released to the Sierra Club under the Freedom of Information Act.

Zinke’s official calendar shows he was in New York City at the time the meeting was scheduled to take place, but offers no details on his activities on those days except that he visited Fox Studios NYC.

Interior’s inspector general opened an investigation in July into the Montana land deal, which involves a proposal backed by Halliburton Chairman David Lesar to build a hotel, retail shops, a microbrewery and other amenities near the center of Whitefish, a popular resort area. The project is near land that Zinke and his wife, Lola, own through various LLCs, as well as a 14-acre plot owned by a foundation Ryan Zinke created.

Lola Zinke gave the Lesar-backed development a crucial assist by agreeing in writing to let the developer use some of the foundation’s land for a parking lot, POLITICO reported in June. The developer has suggested that Ryan and Lola Zinke would get to own and operate the microbrewery, Whitefish city planner David Taylor told POLITICO.

Before the parking lot agreement was signed, Ryan Zinke met at Interior Department headquarters with Lesar and the other developers and discussed the project with them over dinner, POLITICO reported.

Zinke has dismissed POLITICO’s reporting as “fake news,” and his attorney said last week that the “Secretary has done nothing wrong.”

 

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Zinke prepares to leave Trump’s Cabinet"

  Reveal hidden contents

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has been exploring potential roles with Fox News, the energy industry or other businesses amid growing signs that he will leave President Donald Trump's Cabinet as he faces investigations into his ethics, according to people knowledgeable about the discussions.

The news comes just a day after Trump told reporters that word on Zinke's fate may come "in about a week" — and as the president is in the early stages of what could be a dramatic post-election house-cleaning of Cabinet officials and top aides, starting with Wednesday's ouster of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Two of those people said Zinke has reached out to Fox to inquire about working at the conservative news channel as a contributor.

Zinke’s outreach was a further sign that the former Navy SEAL and Montana congressman is seeking new employment opportunities. Zinke is also looking for positions on energy company boards of directors or private equity firms, sources have said — posts that one watchdog group said could pose conflict-of-interest problems for his current job running Interior.

People close to Zinke said he has made it known he plans to resign his position by the end of the year. He has yet made no such announcements, though, and he said Wednesday on Twitter that he "look forward to working" with newly elected members of Congress.

Spokespeople for the Interior Department and News Corp., Fox News' parent company, did not immediately reply to questions from POLITICO. But Interior's press office went on Twitter to dismiss the possibility of Zinke joining Fox, writing: "It's laughably false and belongs in The Onion."

A contract with Fox would be unlikely unless Trump asks Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who owns News Corp., one source told POLITICO. There is no indication the network has responded positively to Zinke’s overtures or expressed interest in bringing him on board.

The secretary, whose job includes oversight of vast stretches of the nation's energy and mineral wealth, has faced increasing questions about his future as investigations have intensified into his use of taxpayer's money, handling of a proposed Connecticut gambling casino and relations with the industries he regulates. Those include a probe of a land development project in Zinke's hometown of Whitefish, Mont., that is backed by the chairman of the giant energy company Halliburton, which POLITICO first reported in June.

Interior's inspector general's office has referred at least one of its probes to the Justice Department, which could decide whether to pursue its own investigation or weigh criminal charges, according to multiple news reports.

Expectations of his departure mark a significant change in fortunes for Zinke, who has enjoyed what one former White House official calls Trump's affection for his bluntness and charisma. Just months ago, Zinke even offered himself as a possible replacement for another embattled Cabinet member, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, the former White House official told POLITICO this week.

Trump has praised Zinke's work at Interior but said this week that he plans to look at the investigations — and hinted Wednesday that a decision could come soon.

“We’re looking at that, and I do want to study whatever is being said,” Trump said during a news conference at the White House. "I think he’s doing an excellent job, but we will take a look at that, and we’ll probably have an idea on that in about a week.”

Should Zinke be in job talks with an industry he regulates, such as oil and gas, he may run into trouble with federal ethics laws, an attorney at the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center said Thursday.

According to federal statute, Zinke must recuse himself from any decisions at Interior that could affect the business of any company he is seeking employment with, said Delaney Marsco, the group's ethics counsel. The group is considering filing a complaint on the matter, Marsco said.

“These recusal obligations apply regardless of whether the communications are indirect, and even if Zinke isn’t serious about the job and never takes it,” Marsco told POLITICO.

Zinke has also had designs on higher office. He was widely seen as a likely challenger this year for Democratic Montana Sen. Jon Tester until Trump picked him for Interior secretary — a process that the president's son Donald Trump Jr. played a role in. And Zinke may eventually decide to try his hand in the Montana governor’s race in 2020, though he would probably face stiff competition in the Republican primary, political consultants in the state have said.

Besides Zinke, Republicans believed to be interested in the 2020 race include Montana Rep. Greg Gianforte, state Attorney General Tim Fox, Secretary of State Corey Stapleton and state auditor Matt Rosendale, who narrowly lost a challenge to Tester this week.

Zinke may face a new challenge if he tries to run in his old state: As Interior secretary, he has shrunk the boundaries of several national monuments that protect swaths of western land from uses like drilling and mining. That helped advance Trump's energy policies but has been unpopular with Montanans, analysts in the state have said.

“I imagine he'll face a crowded primary if he does [run], and I don't think he'd be guaranteed the nomination by any means,” said Brandon DeMars, senior associate at Montana-based political consultancy Hilltop Public Solutions.

Zinke’s outreach to private equity would have followed a meeting he had with financiers last year in New York City. During an official trip in early September 2017, he was scheduled to meet with representatives of private equity firms Cornell Capital and Harvest Capital; hedge fund Kore Capital; Ken Pontarelli, a Goldman Sachs alumnus specializing in energy companies; and Brian O'Callaghan, head of the Wall Street headhunting firm CPI, according to documents released to the Sierra Club under the Freedom of Information Act.

Zinke’s official calendar shows he was in New York City at the time the meeting was scheduled to take place, but offers no details on his activities on those days except that he visited Fox Studios NYC.

Interior’s inspector general opened an investigation in July into the Montana land deal, which involves a proposal backed by Halliburton Chairman David Lesar to build a hotel, retail shops, a microbrewery and other amenities near the center of Whitefish, a popular resort area. The project is near land that Zinke and his wife, Lola, own through various LLCs, as well as a 14-acre plot owned by a foundation Ryan Zinke created.

Lola Zinke gave the Lesar-backed development a crucial assist by agreeing in writing to let the developer use some of the foundation’s land for a parking lot, POLITICO reported in June. The developer has suggested that Ryan and Lola Zinke would get to own and operate the microbrewery, Whitefish city planner David Taylor told POLITICO.

Before the parking lot agreement was signed, Ryan Zinke met at Interior Department headquarters with Lesar and the other developers and discussed the project with them over dinner, POLITICO reported.

Zinke has dismissed POLITICO’s reporting as “fake news,” and his attorney said last week that the “Secretary has done nothing wrong.”

 

I'd like to cheer (all of you know how much I've railed against Zinke), but I'm afraid the next guy will be worse, in his desire to destroy National Monuments, National Forests, and other Federal lands, all in the name of mining, oil interests, grazing, or other uses that would destroy the land.

[fraurosena]

It looks like her baby-caging days are numbered. 

Trump is preparing to remove Kirstjen Nielsen as Homeland Security secretary, aides say

Quote

President Trump has told advisers he has decided to remove Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and her departure from the administration is likely to occur in the coming weeks, if not sooner, according to five current and former White House officials. 

Trump canceled a planned trip with Nielsen this week to visit U.S. troops at the border in South Texas and told aides over the weekend that he wants her out as soon as possible, these officials said. The president has grumbled for months about what he views as Nielsen’s lackluster performance on immigration enforcement and is believed to be looking for a replacement who will implement his policy ideas with more alacrity. 

The announcement could come as soon as this week, three of these officials said. 

Trump has changed his mind on key personnel decisions before, and Chief of Staff John F. Kelly is fighting Nielsen’s pending dismissal and attempting to postpone it, aides say. But Kelly’s future in the administration also is shaky, according to three White House officials. 

DHS officials who work with Nielsen declined to address her potential departure Monday. “The Secretary is honored to lead the men and women of DHS and is committed to implementing the President’s security-focused agenda to protect Americans from all threats and will continue to do so,” spokesman Tyler Q. Houlton said in a statement.

Nielsen has been reluctant to leave the administration before reaching the one-year mark as secretary on Dec. 6, but she has been unhappy in the job for several months, according to colleagues. Trump has berated her during Cabinet meetings, belittled her to other White House staff and tagged her months ago as a “Bushie,” a reference to her previous service under President George W. Bush and meant to cast suspicion on her loyalty.

When Nielsen has tried to explain the laws and regulations that prevent the government from drastically curtailing immigration or  closing the border with Mexico, as Trump has suggested, the president has grown impatient and frustrated, aides said. 

Nielsen’s departure would leave a leadership void at the government’s third-largest agency, which has 240,000 employees and a $60 billion budget. The deputy secretary job at DHS has been vacant since April, and the White House has not submitted to Congress a nomination for that post.

Unless Trump were to name another official to lead DHS in an acting capacity, the day-to-day task of running the agency would fall to Claire M. Grady, the undersecretary for management. 

Trump has told White House officials that he has begun contemplating replacements for Nielsen. He could name one of the agency’s other Senate-confirmed principals, such as Kevin Mc­Aleenan, the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or David P. Pekoske, administrator of the Transportation Security Administration and a former vice commandant of the Coast Guard.

“If I were advising the White House, I’d encourage them to nominate someone with executive branch experience,” said one senior DHS official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share candid views about his agency’s leadership. “This will be our fourth secretary in two years. The last thing we want is someone who needs hand-holding.”

Kris Kobach’s loss in the Kansas governor’s race has generated speculation that Trump could attempt to nominate him as a replacement for Nielsen, but Kobach, Kansas’s secretary of state, remains a polarizing figure whose hard-line views — especially on immigration — are considered by many observers to be too extreme to win Senate confirmation.

Colleagues who’ve worked closely with Nielsen and defend her performance at DHS say working for Trump on immigration  issues is miserable because the president has an unrealistic view of border security and little patience for the intricacies of U.S. immigration law. 

Nielsen was selected for the DHS job by Kelly, and her imminent departure is another indication that his influence over personnel decisions has waned. Kelly has defended her repeatedly, and aides have grown annoyed at their close relationship — he often praises her impromptu in senior staff meetings while not praising other Cabinet members. 

Former colleagues who worked with Nielsen were astonished when Kelly pushed to install her at DHS because she had never led a large organization, let alone one with so many responsibilities. Nielsen worked on disaster-management response in the Bush White House, then in the private sector and academia as a cybersecurity expert before returning to DHS to work as chief of staff under Kelly when he was homeland security secretary during Trump’s first six months in office.

But it was immigration enforcement that became one of Trump’s biggest frustrations, and the president has blamed her for a rebound this year in the number of people arrested along the Mexican border.

At the peak of controversy over the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” family-separation initiative, Nielsen nonetheless stood at the White House lectern and delivered a vigorous defense of the measures. The president loved her performance — especially when she said there was no administration policy on separations. Days later, under withering criticism, the president changed his mind and ordered an end to the separations. 

 

[AmazonGrace]

OMG if Nielsen isn't cruel enough what the hell are they planning.

[Howl]

6 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

OMG if Nielsen isn't cruel enough what the hell are they planning.

Well, yes, exactly. Apparently, they haven't identified a successor yet and the deputy position was never filled.  Anyway, it's interesting that the word is getting out through tactical rumors.  I wonder if they are trying to get her to resign because the optics are better than firing her.  Also, Nielson and Kelly are joined at the hip.  She was Kelly's #2 at Homeland, and she became head of Homeland when Kelly moved on to the WH.  But in the end, everything ETTD (Everything Trump Touches Dies) and she's no exception and it couldn't happen to a nicer person.   But fuck, she put babies in cages, made the request to DoD to send troops to the border and it wasn't enough.  Before Mattis approved the troop deployment to the border,  Homeland requested that the troops be used for law enfocement-y type actions, to which DoD said, Oh hells no.  She had to try to explain actual policies, regulations, laws that prohibited doing what Trump wanted done, which is, of course, kiss of death in Trumplandia. They will find some evil schlub to do Trump's Stephen Miller's evil bidding and the immigrant sadness and suffering will continue. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Trying to install Kobach will ensure a nasty confirmation fight.

[Howl]

Assuming that Nielson is getting a boot in her ass in the next few 

• minutes
• hours
• days
• weeks

it's scary to contemplate who might take her place.  I'm sure the WH staff have fitted Stephen Miller with a drool bucket as he contemplates who will be both sufficiently servile and fawning to Trump yet brutally draconian  in carrying out further abasement of immigrants. 

When I think of Kobach as a replacement, I scream Munch's "The Scream" scream. Noooooooooooohhhhhhhh. 

Aside from abasing herself to carry out Trump's evil agenda , I think Nielson is probably really really smart, wonkish, understands policy -- a competent bureaucrat. My sense of Kobach is a not very intelligent wing-nut prone to conspiracy theories who would be only too happy to whisper sweet nothings in Trump's ear. 

And yes, he would be crucified in hearings.