Tag: CREW

CREW obtains receipts for Pompeo’s notorious “Madison Dinners”

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

CREW obtains receipts for Pompeo’s notorious “Madison Dinners”

Started by Pompeo in 2018, the Madison Dinners are a series of lavish events organized in part by his wife through her personal email account and funded by taxpayers. The dinners’ connection to the mission of the State Department is highly questionable, as only 14 percent of invitees reportedly have been diplomats or foreign officials. The vast majority have been from the private sector with no connection to the State Department’s foreign policy mission, such as Republican donors and conservative media figures.

Related:

CREW sues State Dep’t for Pompeo Madison Dinners records

How Trump’s Legal Challenges of the Election Results Turned into a Tax-Deductible ‘Coup’

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

How Trump’s Legal Challenges of the Election Results Turned into a Tax-Deductible ‘Coup’

“Petitioners do not disclose that their request is part of a coordinated effort launched this week to ‘file federal and state lawsuits challenging the presidential election results in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Georgia, and Arizona,’” the Democratic National Committee wrote in response to one such legal blitz by the Thomas More Society, a not-for-profit religious group.

Related:

Conservative nonprofit group challenging election results around the country has tie to Trump legal adviser Jenna Ellis

New records show Trump’s DOJ rushed a no-bid contract for lethal injection drugs

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

New records show Trump’s DOJ rushed a no-bid contract for lethal injection drugs

Since then, DOJ has continued full steam ahead despite public resistance and legal challenges, and conducted its business largely in the dark. So far, eight people have been executed since the Trump administration resumed the federal death penalty in July, and five more executions are scheduled before the start of the Biden administration. Rushing these executions in a pandemic has made matters worse: only two of the first seven men put to death had their attorneys present at United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute, where executions are being held, during their execution. At least 19 BOP staff and prisoners have contracted COVID-19, as well as two lawyers representing Lisa Montgomery, who is scheduled to be executed on December 8th (a judge has temporarily halted the execution in response). Documents obtained by the ACLU show that the rush of executions likely caused a COVID-19 spike. In July, the ACLU sued to delay the executions, arguing that they were superspreader events. DOJ proceeded anyway.

Archive, Historians, CREW Sue White House, Seek to Preserve Presidential Records During the Transition

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Archive, Historians, CREW Sue White House, Seek to Preserve Presidential Records During the Transition

The National Security Archive, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, the American Historical Association, and the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington today filed suit against President Donald Trump in his official capacity, seeking to enforce the Presidential Records Act and prevent any destruction of records during the presidential transition.

The lawsuit cites the inadequacy of current White House policies that only require a screenshot of instant messages to be saved, preserving only the graphic content, when the law (as amended in 2014) requires “a complete copy” to be preserved, including digital links and attachments.

CREW requests ICE records on immigrants tortured into accepting deportation

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

CREW requests ICE records on immigrants tortured into accepting deportation

These fingerprints, used in place of signatures, indicated the immigrants’ consent to initiate deportation proceedings and waive their rights to further immigration hearings. Three people provided firsthand accounts of the violent tactics ICE officers used to obtain their prints, including pepper-spraying detainees almost to the point of suffocation, breaking their fingers, and subjecting them to further physical mistreatment in unmonitored rooms. A joint complaint filed by FFI and the Southern Poverty Law Center cites eight cases of forced signatures or fingerprints on stipulated orders of removal, as well as several instances of violence.

“What exactly will this mean for us”: EPA Office Lost After IG Shake Up

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

“WHAT EXACTLY WILL THIS MEAN FOR US”: EPA OFFICE LOST AFTER IG SHAKE UP

Eighty-three pages of correspondence illustrate an agency watchdog caught off guard, with next to no warning from the White House, coming up with plans on the fly. Not only had Trump weakened oversight of both EPA and DOD, he effectively removed Fine as Chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), creating a void of leadership overseeing the government’s coronavirus response. As a pandemic grips the nation, and the massive governmentwide relief effort including EPA and  DOD faces scrutiny over policy rollbacks and misuse of taxpayer funds, none of these IG offices has a leader that can devote their full energy to oversight of its programs.