Why hasn’t Zinke been charged?

Breaking news: Former Trump Interior secretary, GOP front-runner in Montana House race, lied to investigators in casino case, watchdog finds https://t.co/aXgEhkbjAC
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 24, 2022

You bet we’re investigating why the DOJ didn’t press charges against Trump Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke even after an official referral from the Interior OIG.https://t.co/H9X0uPO9eE
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) March 5, 2022

Ryan Zinke broke ethics rules while leading Trump’s Interior Dept., watchdog finds https://t.co/2Nq0CJ9rZ0
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 16, 2022

Throughout his time as Interior Secretary in Trump’s cabinet, Ryan Zinke faced ethics scandal after ethics scandal, tallying a total of 18 investigations into him in a mere 17 months. Ryan Zinke, like some other Trump officials, is now running for office.https://t.co/gBEhwSeTRv
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) May 4, 2021

Good riddance to Trump appointee who politicized the Voice of America

I have posted about him before.

It did get a lot of attention, but nothing happened under TFG until Biden arrived and forced their appointee to resign.https://t.co/1jAPeZmniu
— Lavande du Sud😷 (@LLavandedusud) September 20, 2021

Controversial head of Voice of America resigns hours after President Biden takes office https://t.co/1GIOIJh7wE
— Yvonne Casey (@celticlas) September 20, 2021

Biden was right to fire the Social Security Administration Commissioner

Hypocritical Republicans have complained about Trump firing Andrew Saul. The media makes it sound unusual, too. Saul is emulating Trump by not accepting that he is gone. Biden is right to want someone who agrees with his policies. Trump and the Republicans have politicized everything.

Originally, the SSA commissioner was not such a political position. Several served for 10 years. Here’s a full list. You will see that several left around the time of the inauguration of a new president.

Here’s the recent history:

Astrue, appointed by Bush, served the fill six year term which extended into Obama’s second term.

Senate Republicans prevented Obama from appointing a commissioner who would serve a six-year term. His appointees were all temporary.

Trump appointed a GOP donor to the position.

.@MaddowBlog: Following a Supreme Court ruling, Biden fired Trump's top officials at the Social Security Administration. Andrew Saul, however, doesn't intend to leave. https://t.co/nVh9giCauW
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 12, 2021

Anyone who criticizes Biden’s move needs to remember that Senate Republicans wouldn’t even let Obama appoint someone to a 6 year term.
— Harris Levy (@HarrisL585) July 10, 2021

Commissioner Astrue, appointed by Bush, served his full 6 year term which ended under Obama. Senate Republicans then prevented Obama from appointing someone to a 6 year term. They politicized this.
— Harris Levy (@HarrisL585) July 10, 2021

https://t.co/neCWmRoxa7
— Harris Levy (@HarrisL585) July 10, 2021

Social Security waits anxiously for Trump to nominate commissioner (2017)

Former Agriculture Secretary’s sleazy deal

There are 2 parts to the Perdue story, and people are missing the second part. First, ADM sold his company a property for a fraction of its value. THEN Perdue did something that concealed his huge return on that investment, which kept folks from realizing what ADM had done. /1
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) June 29, 2021

This story about Trump’s agriculture Secretary, Sonny Perdue is complex, I’ll walk you through some of the absolutely amazing highlights. (Thread)https://t.co/aIuZjjmHKZ
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) June 29, 2021

The former president*’s corruption was so obvious and so garish that we occasionally lost sight of how enthusiastically the rest of his band of brigands took to the conventional forms of political sleaze. https://t.co/MGiBYXc1rA
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) June 29, 2021

I don’t believe that Barr, Sessions and Rosenstein didn’t know about the phone records

Barr, Sessions and now Rosenstein say they were unaware of the subpoenas sent under their tenure for Democratic lawmakers’ records.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 12, 2021

Their idol:

Pompeos violated regulations

I hope they are held accountable for this.

Yesterday, we published some new documents we got about Mike Pompeo’s taxpayer-funded Madison Dinners. Spoiler alert: they’re pretty damning. Here’s what we found:
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) October 28, 2021

The Inspector General report concluded that the Pompeos made more than 100 requests that “appeared to be personal in nature” and violated regulations. https://t.co/P7mJb8nTnd
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 17, 2021

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo violated federal ethics rules when he and his wife asked State Department employees to carry out tasks for their personal benefit more than 100 times https://t.co/TdS3mspBnc
— POLITICO (@politico) April 16, 2021

Trump administration people were bad tippers

This should be a book. https://t.co/eVAbXEX2lA
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) February 3, 2021

Biden is right to remove Trump appointees

Battle lines are forming across Washington as the Biden administration grapples with how to handle dozens of Trump loyalists the former President installed after the election https://t.co/v1RqkJ6ay3
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 6, 2021

In sharp contrast to Trump, who left many positions unfilled as he complained about the size of the government, Biden has moved swiftly to install political appointees across the administration, while quietly dismissing Trump holdovers. https://t.co/eDHbLYcYOb
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) January 27, 2021

This is very good news.

Next, Biden should remove Trump's anti-union appointees from the Social Security Administration: https://t.co/ZV3zo4bHch https://t.co/goIpNayATy
— SocialSecurityWorks (@SSWorks) February 3, 2021

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has removed all members from the Pentagon's advisory boards in a sweeping effort to oust a series of last-minute appointees by Donald Trumphttps://t.co/yGFNCXKrRI
— POLITICO (@politico) February 2, 2021

New/exclusive: McConnell used his power in Dec to ensure a GOP appointee controls an inspector general inquiry re his wife Chao & himself-1st party-line IG vote in history. Dilemma for Biden: removing IGs, as Trump did, violates a norm he wants to restore. https://t.co/TGJgkSfhVm
— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) February 1, 2021

Donald Trump's appointees are undermining Social Security.@JoeBiden should remove them immediately: https://t.co/ZV3zo4bHch
— SocialSecurityWorks (@SSWorks) January 29, 2021

Asked whether the administration will remove Michael Ellis from his post as general counsel of NSA–where he was installed in the final days of Trump's presidency–@PressSec says nothing new to share but political appointees across the government are being reviewed.
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) January 29, 2021

1/ Trump may be gone, but he left plenty of lackeys behind. Here are some of the worst. https://t.co/ilwkEhilSZ
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) February 2, 2021

From today's newsletter: The National Mediation Board, tasked with overseeing labor-management disputes in the rail and aviation industries, is still controlled by Trump appointees until Biden names new members.

Transportation labor groups want him to make that a priority. pic.twitter.com/ujX3pLvnKq
— Sam Mintz (@samjmintz) January 27, 2021

6/ Elaine Chao.

Before she jumped the sinking ship of the Trump administration in January, the transportation secretary (who’s married to Sen. Mitch McConnell) scored a cushy gig on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Board of Trustees. pic.twitter.com/54WiCLQDxF
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) February 2, 2021

The prestigious appointments are generally considered ways to pad resumes and though they generally do not come with salaries, they could come with travel money or perks, such as seats in the trustees boxes at Kennedy Center. https://t.co/x3aunWfCyS
— Anita Kumar (@anitakumar01) January 28, 2021

Trump appointed 10 new members to the Kennedy Center's Board of Trustees including Mike Huckabee and Jon Voight. Having shown zero interest in the center, never attending a single event. Revenge against against the center's mission of inclusion.
These people must be removed too.
— Murrow's Girl (@MadelineTriebw3) February 3, 2021

What’s Happening:
Soon after he entered office, Joe Biden wiped out many of Trump’s leaders. It should come as no surprise that Biden would want to get rid of whoever faithfully served a conservative president.

But Joe quickly realized that not everything Trump did would be so – https://t.co/8higkqlBeJ
— Julia Wraith (@JuliaWraith) January 30, 2021

THE NEW DEEP STATE — Trump loyalists inside DHS (and some other agencies) are set to resist @POTUS agenda. The best example? Biden’s attempts to rollback Trump’s immigration agenda is opposed by many at ICE and Border Patrol. w/@KannoYoungs https://t.co/nPRvyOzD9V
— Michael D. Shear (@shearm) February 3, 2021

Voice of America update 1/26/21

Biden is undoing the damage done by Trump and his hacks.

So if I understand this right, the Trump guy appointed to gut Voice of America illegally paid @McGuireWoodsLLP $3M in tax dollars to root through employee email archives for evidence of disloyalty. https://t.co/X5ntwCai1r
— Dan Froomkin/PressWatchers.org (@froomkin) January 26, 2021

Demoted VOA reporter Patsy Widakuswara (@pwidakuswara) is back on White House beat, as of today.

She was reassigned last week after asking pointed Qs to Pompeo and the then VOA director about Trump & US standing in the world. VOA director & deputy replaced yesterday.
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) January 22, 2021

Breaking NEWS: Acting USAGM CEO Kelu Chao has fired the presidents of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia & the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, as of 6pm.

RFE's Ted Lipien, RFA's Stephen J. Yates and MBN's Victoria Coates were appointed in late December /MORE
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) January 23, 2021

Wow. VOA Dir. Robert Reilly is FIRED by Biden admin and escorted by Guards. He reprimanded reporter @pwidakuswara last week for asking Qs to Pompeo, removed her from assignment.

He's at least #5 official to be fired in last 24hrs. AP: https://t.co/wugj8yc6Mu
— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) January 21, 2021

New: Director and deputy director of ⁦@VOANews⁩ pushed out by new Biden-appointed overseer ⁦@keluchao⁩. VOA directors had been appointed by Trump administrator Michael Pack last month. Pack was forced out yesterday. https://t.co/FAUMLYpsNG
— Paul Farhi (@farhip) January 21, 2021

UPDATE: President Biden names senior VOA news executive Keli Chao as acting CEO over its parent agency, the US Agency for Global Media.

Chao had been named whistleblower in lawsuit that successfully alleged illegal acts by Michael Pack, whom she replaces https://t.co/SAbOdv9sFM
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) January 21, 2021

US Agency for Global Media Michael Pack resigns, effective 2pm, after waging war on his executives and the international news networks they oversee. A Trumpian legacy of ideological clashes, lawsuits and scandal. More to come.
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) January 20, 2021

First on NPR: Trump’s CEO at parent agency of Voice of America paid a law firm millions in taxpayer dollars to investigate his own executives.
https://t.co/mSHii5K0o9
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) March 5, 2021

Trump administration is still damaging the Voice of America

Voice of America journalists demand resignation of top officials, protest sidelining of two staffers

"An Assault on the First Amendment" – @ZekeJMiller and #WHCA on punishment of journalist @pwidakuswara at Voice of America pic.twitter.com/NNI2rC28Mc
— WHCA (@whca) January 12, 2021

This is appalling. @pwidakuswara was just doing her job. Another shameful example of abuse of the press from this administration. https://t.co/OwHTAwd36I
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 12, 2021

NEW: Per knowledgable source, VOA's White House senior correspondent Patsy Widakuswara was removed from her post after trying to ask @SecPompeo questions today, and later confronting VOA Director Reilly about the Pompeo session and lack of real questions.

1/n
— Alex Ward (@AlexWardVox) January 12, 2021

Just now: Sec’y of State Mike Pompeo addresses @VOANews about “promoting democratic freedoms around the world.” Takes questions only from politically appointed director, ignores shouted questions from VOA journalists in room. At which point VOA cuts off live stream of his talk.
— Paul Farhi (@farhip) January 11, 2021

Audacious maneuvers by Trump appointee Michael Pack would give him great control over Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia – even after the new Biden administration gives him the boot from job running their parent agency.

My story for NPR:https://t.co/TvCYp3ystH
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) December 31, 2020