Swamp Watch News

[_Hawkeye]

Watch Scott Pruitt accidentally admit to violating federal law

During a Senate Appropriate Committee hearing on Wednesday, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt accidentally admitted to violating federal ethics guidelines by having an EPA subordinate help him house-hunt during her “personal time” without compensation.

Pruitt copped to the violation under questioning from Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), who pointed out that “it’s been reported that a member of your staff, one who got a 33 percent raise to over $114,000 earlier this year, house-hunted for you during work hours.”

According to The Washington Post, that staffer is 26-year-old Millan Hupp, Pruitt’s director of scheduling, who followed Pruitt to the EPA and received a large raise earlier this year that was rejected by the White House. (EPA staff used a work-around to grant Hupp a raise anyway.)

Hupp house-hunting for Pruitt during work hours “would be a violation of federal rules as well as a misuse of taxpayer dollars,” Udall said. “Did your staff contact realtors and arrange tours for you during work hours, yes or no?”

As he did repeatedly throughout the hearing, Pruitt attempted to dodge the question.

“It’s my understanding that all activity there was on personal time, and the individual that you are referring to is a longtime friend of my wife, and myself,” Pruitt said. “To link any review on a pay increase is just simply not substantiated. It’s not related at all.”

Udall pointed out that Pruitt — the former attorney general Oklahoma — should have known better.

“You were an AG, a law enforcement officer — CFR regulations prohibit directing a subordinate to do personal work for you, and if they volunteer that’s a gift,” Udall said. “Services must be paid for at fair market value, so it doesn’t cut it that ‘they’re a friend’ or that kind of thing. Did you pay them at the time for doing that work?”

Pruitt again tried to dodge, reiterating that “all activity that I’m aware of that was engaged in by the individual you are speaking about occurred in personal time.”

“And did you pay them for it?” Udall pressed.

“No, I did not,” Pruitt replied.

“Then that’s a gift that’s in violation of federal law,” Udall concluded.

Later, Udall asked Pruitt to commit to turning over all email correspondence related to his housing search. Pruitt did, but with a major caveat.

“Yes — with the clarification that obviously it would be EPA email, emails from the agencies. That’s what I trust you are asking for,” he said.

“Well, I’m asking for any emails that relate to this, but yeah, emails from the agency, that’s included,” Udall replied.

The hearing began with Udall telling Pruitt that “every day there seems to be a new scandal, and you at dead-center… your tenure at the EPA is a betrayal of the American people.”

At another point, Udall noted that there are up to 16 investigations into Pruitt’s conduct going on right now. Under questioning, Pruitt repeatedly tried to pin blame on others.

Despite the myriad scandals, President Trump has stood by Pruitt’s side. In response to a reporter’s question last Friday, Trump affirmed that he still has confidence in his EPA boss.

[_Hawkeye]

...significantly raise rates on Amazon as retaliation for critical coverage of him in the Bezos owned Washington Post.

Forgetting for a moment how dumb this revenge plan is as it wouldn't actually hurt Amazon, this is egregious corruption. It's another one of those for the "What if Obama..." files where he likely would've faced a very serious attempt at impeachment on this ground alone. And in this case, that probably would've been justified. It's quite bad. If you were ever to draw up a list of grievances against Trump ala the Declaration of Independence, this is one that ought to make the list.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... df5d39c576

[_Hawkeye]

Trump Jr. Met With Emissary For Gulf Princes Offering Help With Campaign In 2016: Report

[_EAllusion]

Trump Jr. Met With Emissary For Gulf Princes Offering Help With Campaign In 2016: Report

In the words of Brian Beutler:

At some point it starts too look like a transnational consortium of authoritarians saw value in having one of their own in control of the U.S. government, and found Trump to be a willing conspirator.

[_ajax18]

We can add a sitting president wiretapping and sending spies into the campaign of the opposition candidate without a search warrant to your swamp watch.

Imagine if DJT were to do that to whomever the Democratic nominee is in 2020.

[_Hawkeye]

We can add a sitting president wiretapping and sending spies into the campaign of the opposition candidate without a search warrant to your swamp watch.

Imagine if DJT were to do that to whomever the Democratic nominee is in 2020.

If only that were true. It isn't.

[_EAllusion]

We can add a sitting president wiretapping and sending spies into the campaign of the opposition candidate without a search warrant to your swamp watch.

Imagine if DJT were to do that to whomever the Democratic nominee is in 2020.

That didn't happen. Try to get news from websites that aren't dishonest shills.

[_Hawkeye]

We can add a sitting president wiretapping and sending spies into the campaign of the opposition candidate without a search warrant to your swamp watch.

Imagine if DJT were to do that to whomever the Democratic nominee is in 2020.

That didn't happen. Try to get news from websites that aren't dishonest shills.

MSNBC is now talking about this desperate conspiracy theory in which the President's own attorney admitted there was absolutely no evidence to support it. Which obviously means FOX will run with it as will Brietbart.

[_ajax18]

We can add a sitting president wiretapping and sending spies into the campaign of the opposition candidate without a search warrant to your swamp watch.

Imagine if DJT were to do that to whomever the Democratic nominee

Clapper: 'Good Thing' If FBI Spied on Trump Campaign

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/james ... 743a26221b

I expected you guys to follow Clapper's apologetics. The New York Times has already admitted that the Obama administration wiretapped the Trump campaign and sent spies/informants in.

[_Hawkeye]

I expected you guys to follow Clapper's apologetics. The New York Times has already admitted that the Obama administration wiretapped the Trump campaign and sent spies/informants in.

Nice flip-flop there ajax. You went from asserting, without any evidence at all, that Obama was "wiretapping and sending spies" into the Trump campaign, to now asserting that Clapper said it would have been a good thing had he done so. And no, the NYT never said Obama "wiretapped the Trump campaign." That's just another bogus lie coming from your sewer of information providers. The NYT article stated that intelligence agencies were monitoring Russian officials, and that some of the conversations they intercepted in the course of their investigations may have also involved Trump aides. Which isn't surprising because every time the Mueller investigation shakes a branch here and there, a few Russians start falling out.