[Don McGahn] is a cancer who has done much to undermine anticorruption mechanisms in this country… —Walter Shaub, former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics
 |
DON
MCGAHN
Trump's White House
counsel |
-- ELIANA JOHNSON: "Trump's Supreme Court search unleashes
fierce politicking": "Much of the jockeying has centered
on D.C. Circuit Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who is the preferred choice of White House counsel Don McGahn,
according to two Republicans close to the White House. McGahn's backing helped
Kavanaugh secure a spot on Trump's existing Supreme Court list last November,
when the president added five names. But Kavanaugh is opposed by powerful
conservatives, including Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who has argued that once on
the bench, he will disappoint the right.
"And his ascendancy to the president's list gave his
detractors plenty of time to prepare a campaign against him. Working on the
assumption that his connections in the White House and his formidable track
record on the prestigious D.C. Circuit would make him a frontrunner, his
critics have for months now been circulating negative details and assessments
of his record in an effort that more closely resembles a political campaign
than a court nomination." [POLITICO
Playbook, July 5, 2018]
 |
| MEDICINE |
 |
| FOOD SAFETY |
 |
| ENVIRONMENT |
FEC Questions Pro-Trump Group’s
Sky-High ‘Travel’ Expenditures
Rebuilding
America Now was a powerhouse super PAC during the 2016 campaign, dropping more
than $22 million to elect Donald Trump, courtesy of some big names in GOP
fundraising. But since last year, it’s done virtually nothing but pay a fortune
to its executives, including a one-time business associate of indicted former
Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. The PAC has also footed the bill for
extensive travel and meal expenses for its top exec, Laury Gay, who previously worked
with Manafort and deputy Rick Gates at various lobbying outfits before the
Trump campaign.
The
latter expenses have caught
the eye of the Federal Election Commission. From January 2017 through March
2018, the latest period for which expenditures have been publicly disclosed,
RAN paid Gay nearly $850,000, including almost $150,000 itemized simply as
“travel” expenses, with single line items as high as $48,000. But when
political committees pay for individual travel, the FEC doesn’t just take their
word for it. If an employee is reimbursed for individual expenses exceeding
$500, the committee’s FEC form needs to actually say which vendors or companies
received the money, and when. It’s a way of ensuring that the PAC isn’t just
paying its employees under the guise of expense reimbursement, and ensuring
that goods and services provided to the committee are being offered at a fair
market value,. The FEC sent a letter to RAN last week instructing it to detail
the structure of those expenditures.
Pay
Dirt asked Gay about RAN’s seemingly sky-high expenses in an interview last
year. He said that the PAC was paying him to court donors around the nation and
lay the groundwork for a burgeoning political operation that was gearing up to
get involved in some midterm election contests. That was in October. Nine
months later, RAN hasn’t made a single political expenditure or donated to any
other PAC or political group. But it has continued paying Gay astronomical sums
to do...something.
Get the data:
·
Federal Election
Commission [DAILY BEAST, Pay Dirt, July
5, 2018]
 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE |
As World Busts Heat Records, Study Warns Global Warming Could Be Twice as Bad Climate Models Project
 |
| READ |
 |
| MICHAEL COHEN |
 |
| ACTIVISTS |
 |
| WOMEN |
On the chief tax counsels of the tax committees
all being women: "For many years, not just on the
Hill but in private practice too, tax tends to be male dominated for whatever
reason. Now this is really unprecedented — all four of the top Hill tax
staffers are female, and of those four, two are women of color. That's progress
and I think that's a big deal." [POLITICO's Morning Tax, July 3, 2018]
 |
| SCREEN |
 |
| REPUBLICAN PARTY |
 |
| IMMIGRATION |
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