Swamp water is rising with Trump administration

by Tom Maertens

Tom Maertens served as National Security Council director for nonproliferation and homeland defense under presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and as deputy coordinator for counter-terrorism in the State Department during and after 9/11.

Donald Trump promised he was going to drain the swamp. Instead he has created one of the most corrupt administrations in history.

It started even before the election. Five of Trump’s campaign officials, including his campaign chairman and deputy chairman, have been convicted or pleaded guilty to felonies; his National Security Advisor and his lawyer have also pleaded guilty to felonies.

More than 164 former lobbyists work in the administration, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, including several who are regulating the industries where they once worked.

Nine cabinet officials have left the administration, including Tom Price, former HHS secretary who resigned under pressure after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on personal flights.

David Shulkin, former VA secretary, charged taxpayers for a European trip that included visits to Wimbledon and Westminster Abbey, and a river cruise for him and his wife.

Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spent over $1 million in taxpayer money flying around the country aboard military jets, often for personal purposes, according to a nonpartisan watchdog group.

The former EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, resigned after 13 separate investigations were instituted against him, mostly involving corruption for personal gain.

The acting EPA head, Andrew Wheeler, is a former coal lobbyist whose firm was paid millions of dollars by companies he now regulates.

Another Trump EPA appointee, Onis Glenn, was arrested for helping the coal company he had worked for dodge an EPA-mandated cleanup bill.

FEMA let a $156 million food contract to a company with a single employee which had been barred from government work. Another case against the FEMA chief, for misusing government personnel and vehicles, has been referred to federal prosecutors.

Brenda Fitzgerald, the former CDC director, owned shares in several tobacco companies and even purchased more shares after taking charge of an agency that aims to reduce smoking.

There will be more resignations. There have been 17 investigations of the Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, including a $300 million no-bid contract that went to friends at a two-person company from his home town, and a private land-deal there with the chairman of Halliburton.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has been accused of cheating former associates out of more than $120 million, and trading on insider information. Forbes reported that he met with Chevron while his wife owned more than $250,000 in company stock.

Betsy DeVos, a longtime investor in for-profit colleges, has attempted as Education Secretary to protect them by disbanding a team investigating fraudulent activities at for-profit colleges, like Trump University (which cost Trump $25 million to settle fraud claims).

The most corrupt of all is Donald Trump. He has been credibly accused of abuse of power, obstruction of justice, violating campaign finance laws, tax fraud, violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause, and conspiring with Russia to fix the 2016 elections. And like a mob boss, he is constantly railing at law enforcement for investigating him.

The former head of Russian Counterintelligence told Investigative journalist Craig Unger that Trump was one of roughly 300 assets and agents that Russia recruited in the United States.

Think about that: a former KGB General says the president of the U.S. is a Russian agent.

Unger details evidence that Trump has worked with the Russian mafia, which is controlled by the FSB/KGB, for more than 30 years. “He was profiting from them. They rescued him. They bailed him out. They took him from being $4 billion in debt to becoming a multibillionaire again….”

Besides Mueller’s investigations (see My View, Oct. 24), Trump is being investigated by the New York AG for tax fraud over 40 years. An 18 month investigation by The New York Times found that Trump’s parents transferred over $1 billion to their children, but used a series of illegal tax schemes to pay only 5 percent in taxes rather than the 55 percent due. Trump could owe $500 million plus penalties.

In June, the same AG sued to dissolve Trump’s charitable foundation on grounds it systematically violated the law for decades, including self-dealing, financing Trump’s campaign, and even paying his kids’ scouting fees.

Another lawsuit charges that the Trump Organization is a racketeering enterprise that received secret payments to promote Ponzi schemes that defrauded thousands of people for years.

Additionally, several lawsuits have been filed against Trump alleging foreign representatives and lobbyists are spending money at Trump properties to influence government decisions.

Democrats will take over the House in January, equipped with subpoena power to compel testimony, and to obtain Trump’s tax returns.

Maybe they can drain Trump’s swamp.

This op-ed was also published in the Mankato Free Press Nov 28, 2018.