Donald Trump’s presidency was defined by multiple financial conflicts of interest and unprecedented abuses of power. Here are some of the most important things we’ve uncovered about Trump’s actions in office — and what we’re still investigating.
americanoversight.org/open-questions…
Trump’s Attacks on the Legitimacy of the Election: Trump’s attacks on the legitimacy of the 2020 election began long before he lost it. Once it was clear that President-elect Biden had won, Trump made wildly unfounded allegations about the election being rigged.
We’ve been investigating state-level attacks on voting rights, including uncovering communications between state election officials and voting-restriction activists in Florida, Georgia, and Texas.
americanoversight.org/state-and-loca…
We previously represented Maine Sec. of State Matt Dunlap in his lawsuit compelling the release of records from Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, of which Dunlap was a member.
Those records revealed that the Trump-aligned members of the commission were preparing to issue broad findings of “voter fraud issues,” but had failed to come up with evidence supporting their desired conclusion.
americanoversight.org/voter-fraud-co…
We still want to know:
-What did Trump’s DOJ tell federal prosecutors about pursuing and publicizing “voter fraud” allegations in the leadup to the election?
-Did the administration stifle the release of information about foreign actors attempting to interfere in our elections?
-What happened in the firing of DHS cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs by Trump in the days following the 2020 election?
-What role did the president and the White House play in the delay of the ascertainment of presidential transition?
Abuse of Presidential Powers: From pardoning his political allies to pushing for an authoritarian response to nationwide racial justice protests, Trump’s penchant for using presidential powers for his own gain has been well documented.
americanoversight.org/investigation/…
Documents we’ve uncovered have shed light on many of these instances, including Trump’s 2018 pardon of Scooter Libby, DOJ’s intervention in criminal cases against Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, and Trump’s post-impeachment purges.
americanoversight.org/records-shed-l…
We still want to know:
-How have agencies responded to Trump’s pardons, and who was involved?
-How did DOJ, DHS, and Defense respond to Trump’s insistence on a militarized response to nationwide protests?
americanoversight.org/investigation/…
Trump’s Pandemic Failures: Covid-19 has left over 300,000 Americans dead. Many of those deaths could have been prevented had the president initially taken the virus seriously. We’re keeping a close watch on these failings with our Covid-19 Oversight Hub.
americanoversight.org/areas_of_inves…
We’ve obtained records that show:
-a cozy relationship between the White House & private-sector actors working on pandemic response
-details about the WH’s efforts to control messaging this spring— including its heavy-handed approach to HHS communications.
Trump’s campaigning led to numerous large indoor events where few wore masks. We obtained records showing that health officials in Tulsa, Okla., had warned that the president’s June 18 rally would directly lead to up to nine initial deaths.
americanoversight.org/tulsa-health-o…
We still want to know:
-How has the White House’s pandemic response left more Americans at risk?
-What were the full details and timeline of Trump’s Covid-19 illness?
-To what extent were officials warned about the dire risks of hosting large events?
americanoversight.org/investigation/…
Trump’s Solicitation of Foreign Election Interference: Trump was impeached for withholding congressionally approved aid to Ukraine in an effort to pressure that country’s leadership into investigating Joe Biden. The Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump in a near party-line vote.
We obtained DOD emails indicating that the “final decision” to withhold the Ukraininan aid rested with Trump alone, contradicting White House claims about the reason for the holdup.
americanoversight.org/final-decision…
We also obtained State Department records showing that Rudy Giuliani’s assistant leveraged White House channels to connect with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the spring of 2019, amid the smear campaign against U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
documentcloud.org/documents/6557…
And we uncovered records showing that Attorney General William Barr met with Giuliani and multiple times in 2019.
americanoversight.org/newly-unearthe…
We still want to know:
-Did Trump and the White House direct key agencies to obstruct the impeachment inquiry?
-To what extent did Trump’s key allies enable his corrupt dealings with Ukraine?
Trump Properties Spending: Trump’s businesses represent an unprecedented financial conflict of interest for a sitting president, from the Trump International Hotel to Secret Service stays at Trump-owned golf resorts.
Our investigations have shown that federal agencies lacked any guidance related to spending taxpayer money at Trump properties. We also identified large expenses by billionaire U.S. ambassador to the U.K. Woody Johnson at Trump’s Scottish golf resort.
And in 2019, we obtained records of Trump World Tower leases to foreign governments that were approved by the State Department, but raise questions about violations of the Constitution’s emoluments clause.
americanoversight.org/document/state…
We still want to know:
-How much money have the federal government and other countries spent at Trump’s properties during his presidency?
-What was Trump’s personal involvement in scrapping a plan to relocate the FBI headquarters?
americanoversight.org/investigation/…
Even though President Trump’s time left in office is dwindling, the public deserves answers to these questions. We’ll continue to investigate the Trump administration’s corruption and hold it accountable.

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More from @weareoversight

4 Jan
How can Americans properly investigate — and document — the Trump administration’s historic corruption and voluminous misdeeds? The Freedom of Information Act provides a big part of the answer, writes our executive director @AREvers in @just_security.
justsecurity.org/74014/the-prom…
We should expect important disclosures in 2021 that can illuminate:
-the tragically bungled pandemic response
-voter suppression and conspiracy peddling
-Trump’s presidential profiteering and abuses of office
-immigration detention center abuse and family separation
The next administration can make a big difference by embracing transparency. A coalition of open government advocates and organizations recently proposed several key reforms the next administration can adopt to do exactly that.
accountability2021.org Image
Read 4 tweets
31 Dec 20
We’ve had a busy year at American Oversight!

In 2020, we’ve worked to investigate the Trump administration’s botched Covid-19 response, the politicization of government agencies, threats to voting rights, and more.
Ukraine and Election Interference: We uncovered records from OMB that included an email from a career Defense Department official, stating clearly that Trump was the reason for the holdup in congressionally authorized aid for Ukraine.
americanoversight.org/final-decision…
Covid-19 Oversight Hub: We launched our hub which includes our library of public documents related to oversight of the coronavirus response, a tracker that follows Congressional and watchdog oversight efforts, and more.
americanoversight.org/areas_of_inves…
Read 6 tweets
28 Dec 20
Donald Trump’s presidency was defined by multiple financial conflicts of interest and unprecedented abuses of power. Here are some of the most important things we’ve uncovered about Trump’s actions in office — and what we’re still investigating. americanoversight.org/open-questions…
Abuse of Presidential Powers: From pardoning his political allies to pushing for an authoritarian response to nationwide racial justice protests, Trump’s penchant for using presidential powers for his own gain has been well documented.
americanoversight.org/investigation/…
Documents we’ve uncovered have shed light on many of these instances, including Trump’s 2018 pardon of Scooter Libby, DOJ’s intervention in criminal cases against Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, and Trump’s post-impeachment purges.
americanoversight.org/records-shed-l…
Read 24 tweets
24 Dec 20
We obtained another production of DOJ communications that reveal more about Stephen Miller’s work with the Justice Department promoting anti-immigrant policies, including family separation.
americanoversight.org/documents-show…
In April 2017, Miller emailed two DOJ officials: "Extremely positive reaction at [White House] to press activities from [Attorney General]. Double-up on it, & make the Long Island event a grand slam."
The “Long Island event” appears to reference a speech former AG Jeff Sessions gave April 28, 2017, in which Sessions promised to eradicate the MS-13 gang by cracking down on illegal immigration.
nytimes.com/2017/04/28/nyr…
Read 9 tweets
23 Dec 20
New: We sent letters to the inspectors general for DHS and the Army Corp of Engineers, calling for investigations into troubling practices related to contracts for the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
americanoversight.org/american-overs…
The Trump admin. awarded border wall construction contracts to build on land it doesn’t own—so the federal government is paying tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a day in delay penalties.

We asked the IGs to investigate if the contracts constitute waste of taxpayer money.
The government is also using the costs caused by its cart-before-the-horse contracting approach to justify expediting the seizure of private land. Taxpayers and private landowners are being forced to bear the brunt of the government’s flawed strategy.
propublica.org/article/texas-…
Read 4 tweets
23 Dec 20
New: Nevada Health Dept. documents we uncovered highlight the confusion over CDC’s initial vaccine instructions this summer & fall.

The records include communications about proposed vaccine distribution plans and state officials’ reactions to those plans.
americanoversight.org/nevada-health-…
The records include a handout from July 6 that listed 3 phases of vaccination, with the 1st phase beginning in October, & noted that the plan would be “constantly changing because it is not yet certain when a vaccine will become available & how it will be distributed to Nevada.”
The documents we uncovered also show that on Aug. 27, the CDC circulated vaccine planning documents, including “actions items for jurisdictions” that called for the creation of “internal planning and coordination teams” and “vaccine implementation committees.”
Read 6 tweets

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