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Story Time: This story about the GSA appointee who refuses to hand off the transition resources is one to watch.
I was 1 of 3 investigators investigating GSA at the beginning of the Trump administration.
The agency seems corruptible. (1/14) https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-gsa-letter-biden-transition/2020/11/08/07093acc-21e9-11eb-8672-c281c7a2c96e_story.html%3foutputType=amp
I was 1 of 3 investigators investigating GSA at the beginning of the Trump administration.
The agency seems corruptible. (1/14) https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-gsa-letter-biden-transition/2020/11/08/07093acc-21e9-11eb-8672-c281c7a2c96e_story.html%3foutputType=amp
During my time on the oversight committee, after Trump was elected but before he took office, we were already investigating GSA. (2/14)
The General Services Administration does basically 2 relevant things for the purposes of this thread 1) manages government leases and 2) handles presidential transitions. (3/14)
We were investigating them bc if Trump became President, he would become both the landlord and tenant in a government building—the DC Trump Hotel, which used to be the Old Post Office Building.
GSA told us explicitly Trump needed to divest from his ownership of the hotel. (4/14)
GSA told us explicitly Trump needed to divest from his ownership of the hotel. (4/14)
I’m not even getting into how his ownership of that hotel violated the emoluments clause or how foreign powers took advantage of that frequently. All that happened too.(5/14) https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/president-trumps-hotel-in-dc-is-at-the-center-of-anti-corruption-emoluments-lawsuit/2019/12/12/a420bb08-1c29-11ea-87f7-f2e91143c60d_story.html%3foutputType=amp
But as soon as Trump took office, GSA switched its opinion. He never divested from the hotel! GSA claimed they never said he had to.
I was in that meeting. They said it. (6/14)
I was in that meeting. They said it. (6/14)
The hotel became such an issue that the Oversight Committee had a separate page just to track the corruption around the hotel. (7/14) https://oversight.house.gov/investigations/trump-hotel-in-washington-dc
But the controversy around the hotel was the first we saw that our government agencies would enable this corruption.
The next investigation involving GSA was around the presidential transition. (8/14)
The next investigation involving GSA was around the presidential transition. (8/14)
Because of this investigation, I know a little too much about presidential transitions. GSA withholding the resources for transition will have little practical impact because most of the funds are raised by the campaign. Like the majority of it. (9/14)
But during the first transition in 2017 , Trump ignored GSA and most of the ethics rules. It’s still unclear how those tax dollars were used in the Trump transition. It was a sign of things to come for sure. (10/14) https://oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/investigation-shows-trump-transition-ignored-ethics-officials-and-refused-to
An aside, it’s interesting to look at which Republican members of Congress served on the transition team and consider the untold millions of dollars that went into that “transition,” which does not have to be disclosed and they didn’t seem to track. (11/14)
I digress. GSA from the transition onward was firmly captured by the Trump team in my opinion. What makes me say that? (12/14)
-its resistance to cooperating with investigations
credible evidence they moved the planned FBI building so it value of Trump hotel wouldn’t be affected
-GSA considering lowering Trump’s rent at the hotel (13/14)
credible evidence they moved the planned FBI building so it value of Trump hotel wouldn’t be affected
-GSA considering lowering Trump’s rent at the hotel (13/14)
The issues with GSA and Trump would pop up time and time again. So if there’s an agency that threatens the transition of power, it’s this one. It’s full of sycophant appointees and career folks who have shown an unwillingness to stand up.
Watch this story. (14/14)
Watch this story. (14/14)
