Stephan: There is a story like this almost every day. I really wonder if it is possible to be an ethical person and a Republican? But the bigger question is why do Americans put people like this into public office?
Rep. Matt Gaetz’s latest actions suggest a broader pattern by the second-term lawmaker of pushing the bounds of — if not outright defying — restrictions. Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has privately engaged in several spending practices in his nearly four years in office that appear to be in conflict with the House’s ethics rules, a POLITICO investigation has found.
Gaetz, a close ally of President Donald Trump from the Florida Panhandle, improperly sent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to a limited liability company linked to a speech-writing consultant who was ousted from the Trump administration, in direct conflict with House rules.
In another possible violation, a private company installed a television studio in his father’s home in Niceville, Fla., which Gaetz uses when he appears on television. Taxpayers foot the bill to rent the television camera, and the private company that built the studio — which Gaetz refuses to identify — takes a fee each time he appears on air, his office said. It’s unclear how much it cost the private company to construct the […]
Stephan: I am not sure that it is possible to be an honest and ethical person and a Republican official. Certainly, honorable behavior is not the hallmark of Wisconsin's Republican senator Ron Johnson. And once again we see a foreign government using the Republican Party to rig an American election.
Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson
On Monday, Politico reported that Democratic congressional leaders have sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding a briefing on foreign efforts to target members of Congress as part of an influence campaign.
“Among the Democrats’ concerns is that a Senate investigation being led by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has become a vehicle for ‘laundering’ a foreign influence campaign to damageDemocratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, according to two people familiar with the demand,” reported Natasha Bertrand. “Though the letter did not mention the Johnson investigation, it included a classified addendum that the two sources say identified the probe as one of the sources of their concern.”
The letter was signed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner (D-VA).Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.
Johnson, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, opened the investigation ostensibly to audit the origins of the Russia investigation in the previous administration. […]
BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN, NATASHA BERTRAND and DANIEL LIPPMAN, - Politico
Stephan: As I told you, and as John Alexander laid out in his essay, this is classic fascism, and Portland was just a test case designed to see how much pushback there would be if Trump created secret national storm troopers. At the local and state level there has been a lot of pushback but with the exception of Rand Paul, from the Republican senate and Moscow Mitch, it has been crickets. So Portland is going to be just the beginning.
Trumpian storm troopers in gear, on the streets of an American city, Portland Credit: Nathan Howard/Getty
Portland may just be the beginning.
Federal law enforcement agencies are gearing up to expand their footprint nationwide in the coming weeks, despite concerns about the recent scenes of violence and chaos in Oregon.
Department of Homeland Security officials have considered deploying mobile field forces to protect federal property in cities around the country that experience unrest, two people familiar with the discussions told POLITICO. And the Department of Justice is planning to expand “Operation Legend,” a law enforcement initiative launched by Attorney General Bill Barr earlier this month to fight “the sudden surge of violent crime” in Kansas City, Mo.
DOJ plans to announce this week that the operation, which involves agents from the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, will expand into more cities, a DOJ official told POLITICO. “We are seeing success in our Kansas City operation and have already arrested some wanted fugitives,” the DOJ official said.
The discussions have followed weeks of clashes between federal agents and protesters in Portland, […]
Stephan: With Donald Trump everything is a grift, and the point of being president is to use that authority to enrich yourself and your family. This must be the 100th story I have done about Trump and his grifts; there is no precedent for this level of presidential criminality in 244 years of American history.
Trump is pictured at his Trump International Golf Links course in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on July 10, 2012. That club is said to be operating at a loss as well as Turnberry and one in Ireland Credit: AFP/Getty
Trump reportedly tried to get the US ambassador to the UK to arrange for the British Open to be held at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland
New York Jets owner Woody Johnson IV reportedly asked the secretary of state for Scotland, David Mundell, in 2018, after pressure from Trump
It was after in 2017 a Scottish Open sponsor said: ‘Politics aside, Trump would be an ideal venue — but you can’t put politics aside’
Under the Constitution, a president is not allowed to benefit from gifts or profit from foreign governments
Experts on ethics say he may have profited from the government having to pay for security at the event
Johnson’s deputy Lewis A. Lukens emailed colleagues about what had happened and says he was forced out of his deputy role a few months later in 2019
The British government told the Times in a statement that Johnson ‘made […]
Dan Horn, Sharon Coolidge, and Jessie Balmert, - Cincinnati Enquirer
Stephan: Larry Householder, the Speaker of the House in the Ohio legislature, is a conservative "Christian" (I have to put that in quotes because these people have nothing to do with Jesus' teachings) and a Republican. Do you think when Republicans are looking for someone to run for public office that being a corrupt grifter is one of the secret qualifications? Or does it just work out that way because the pool of people who proclaim themselves conservative "Christians" just run to that orientation?
Ohio Speaker Larry Householder, of course a Republican, charged with racketeering Credit: Wall Street Journal
Federal agents arrested Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four others Tuesday as part of a $60 million racketeering and bribery investigation that prosecutors described as one of the largest public corruption cases in Ohio history.
All the charges are tied to what federal prosecutors said was a criminal enterprise dedicated to securing a bailout for two nuclear power plants in northern Ohio owned by FirstEnergy Solutions of Akron. The bailout is expected to cost the state’s utility ratepayers $1 billion.
A criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday described the effort as “Householder’s Enterprise” and stated that he and his associates secretly used money from an energy company to expand their political power, enrich themselves and conceal their criminal conspiracy.
“This is likely the largest bribery, money laundering scheme ever perpetrated against the people of the state of Ohio,” said U.S. Attorney David DeVillers, whose office will lead the prosecution of the case. “This was bribery, plain and simple. This was a quid pro quo. This was pay to play.”
