Thread by @yjtorbati

There's a word officials at @USAID used when one of their colleagues was ousted because of pressure from @VP's office.

She had been "Penced."

I spoke to 40 current/former officials and experts and saw internal emails. Here's what it means to be "Penced." (THREAD)

2/ For yrs, conservative Christian groups have wanted to direct more foreign aid in the Middle East toward Christians. They found a receptive ear in this administration, particularly @VP, whose office pushed USAID/State Dept to do more for Christians and other minorities in Iraq

3/ So, in 2017, in response to that pressure from @VP, USAID launched new grants. Career officials decided the grants in 2018. They went to large, established organizations, which partnered with smaller Iraqi groups.

4/ Those who had been telling the administration to give more funds directly to Christians felt they had been overlooked. Influential allies spoke out, including in an op-ed in the WSJ directed at Pence. wsj.com/articles/iraqi…

5/ (Important to note that shoring up the conservative Christian base is essential to Trump's 2020 re-election.)

6/ Pence made USAID administrator Mark Green visit Iraq and report back. And Pence's then-chief of staff called USAID and said someone needed to be held accountable for the failure, according to several people familiar with the conversation.

7/ Green removed Maria Longi, a senior career official in the agency's Middle East bureau.

She had been "Penced."

8/ OK, so last month, USAID announced new grants worth more than $4 million. The winners this time?

Small, local Iraqi organizations, including the Shlama Foundation, which works in Christian areas of Iraq, and the Catholic University in Erbil.

Both had been rejected in 2018.

9/ This grant process was different. Political appointees influenced the results. Several current and former US officials told me that's unusual. The rules say grants are supposed to be free from political interference - or even the appearance of such interference.

10/ In fact, according to a document I saw, neither the Shlama Foundation nor the university were on a list of leading applicants that initially circulated within USAID.

11/ I DID find that Max Primorac, a USAID political appointee known for working closely with @VP's office, had praised @ShlamaF on Twitter before the grant winners were announced.

12/ Max has since blocked me :(

13/ A USAID spokeswoman said the grants are rigorous and followed all federal regulations, and that Primorac and two other political appointees at USAID - Hallam Ferguson and Samah Norquist - were not on the committees that made the grant award recommendations.

14/ Pence's office did not respond to questions for this story.

15/ But the way political appointees muscled through the normal process is only part of the story. There were two other big concerns that career officials raised

1. The strategy risked violating the US constitution
2. The strategy risked *worsening* the overall situation in Iraq

16/ Read the whole story to get into it. propublica.org/article/how-mi…

17/ Also: My colleagues and I want to keep investigating what's going on in the federal government. Have you ever been "Penced"? Can you help? propublica.org/getinvolved/do…

18/ One more thing: We have more stories like this coming all the time. Sign up to get notified: go.propublica.org/bigstory-social