I know things are nuts rn, but Trump has continued to govern in a way that will have consequences long after he's gone. Case in point: The SEC just weakened its marquee whistleblower program in a way that's already deterring corporate insiders from coming forward.
One change has to do with large awards, which come from cases that result in the biggest settlements. Financial firms had long complained about eye-popping payouts, and in 2018 the SEC proposed giving itself the power to knock down bounties that they deemed "unnecessarily large."
That part of the proposal got intense bipartisan blowback, and it doesn't appear in the final rule -- but only because the Commission claimed it *always had* the authority to reduce awards, adding a hefty dose of uncertainty to the already difficult choice of blowing the whistle.
Here's the problem: People who know stuff usually make a lot of money. Some genuinely want to see misconduct punished, but they face blacklisting if they tell the authorities, and they're not going to risk it all without being pretty sure they'll get paid well for their trouble.
Today, the guy who wrote the SEC's original rules--now a top whistleblower attorney--sued the agency, alleging the amendments are illegal and didn't follow due process. Like many Trump actions, this one could be tied up in the courts for a while. (The SEC declined to comment.)
Meanwhile, we're agenda-setting for 2021, and want to hear your story ideas. I'm particularly interested in America's unequal economic recovery, and the ongoing impact of Trump administration deregulation. Write me directly or fill out this handy form: propublica.org/getinvolved/he…
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Tuning into right wing podcasts for a story. In Rudy's latest rambling show from Jan. 8, in between advertisements for gold, he claims that the rioters were completely separate from the rallyers and Trump's incitement had nothing to do with the violence.
"They all seemed to be really nice people," he said, in a pod that's been downloaded more than a million times. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wha…
"There's plenty of evidence that Antifa and left-wing groups were leading this in order to damage the reputation of President Trump," he says, without any evidence as usual, while IN THE NEXT BREATH saying that the electoral college count going on at the Capitol was illegitimate.
This seems like a no-brainer, given the potential long-term consequences of this kind of trauma.
It's obviously different, but I'm reminded of some research out this week showing that kids who survived school shootings fared worse down the line: nber.org/system/files/w…
Students at Sandy Hook and Columbine saw lower test scores, increased absenteeism, and even higher mortality rates as a result of the shootings -- quantifying the broader harms beyond the loss of life.
The same batch of NBER papers also has one with a broader set of school shootings from Texas, with similarly bad long-term consequences for survivors. And it's worst for Black kids. nber.org/system/files/w…
There's a lot we still don't know about why law enforcement allowed something to happen that D.C. went through decades of security theater to prevent. But it's not because they weren't warned.
@davidmcswane WEEKS of posts on right-wing social media platforms called for escalation -- to "take the hill or die trying," as one put it. For MONTHS, the intelligence establishment had identified white supremacist movements as the nation's most immediate domestic terror threat.
As has been noted many times, nothing on the order of that kind of threat nevertheless precipitated a level of mobilization around the protests in June that left D.C. feeling like it was living under military occupation. And yet yesterday, the Capitol was essentially undefended.
"All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify, and we become President, and you all are the happiest people," Trump says, clearly setting Pence up as the fall guy for when that ... doesn't happen.
Trump seems to just be rambling aimlessly now, about how the press gets the best seats, how Democrats will change the names of the monuments .... it's unclear that he has anything to actually say here.
NEW from me: The Trump administration has requested to convert dozens of political appointees into career civil service positions this year, allowing them to stay in government after he's gone. We have the documents: propublica.org/article/how-do…
This "burrowing" process happens at the end of every presidency, and @USOPM requires that all conversion requests be submitted for its review, so as to make sure the correct hiring protocol was followed. Those lists are then submitted to Congress, but usually not shared publicly.
Here they are for the first three quarters of this year: beta.documentcloud.org/app?q=project%…
OPM denied five requests because it "could not conclude the appointment was free of political influence and complied with merit system principles.”