1/ We found some *more* potential conflicts of interest in the Trump administration we’d like to tell you about… propub.li/2mnxxst
2/ But first, here’s what we’re doing: In February, Trump ordered fed agencies to form task forces to identify regulations to roll back. So we started looking into who the admin appointed to do this. propub.li/2zCKq7n
3/ The Trump admin has been secretive about who these people are. And we received emails like this: 
4/ Through FOIAs, public records and interviews, we got the names of some appointees. Among the names we had, we found many potential conflicts of interest: propub.li/2zCKq7n
5/ Here’s a whole list of some of the big ones from that first batch:
6/ After encountering the secrecy among those on these task force teams, we continued digging on our own, but also launched a project asking the public for help. Here’s a screenshot from our progress from July to today: propub.li/2zBKtAr
7/ So, here are some of the new details we found:
8a/ What we learned about Rebecca Adcock: The former lobbyist for the pesticide industry now leads the deregulatory team at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Visitor logs show old ties remain strong: propub.li/2mnxxst
8b/ After the publication of that story yesterday, the USDA released all the task force names. We only knew Adcock’s prior to that. We’re backgrounding them now. Here’s the list: propub.li/2muvnHI
9/ Nathan Mehrens is on the Labor Dept task force. Prior to that he was at a firm that helps companies fight off employee unionization efforts.
10/ Before joining the Energy Dept, Travis Fisher was an economist at the Institute for Energy Research, a conservative think tank funded by the American Petroleum Institute and the Charles Koch Institute.
11/ Michael Brown, also at the Energy Dept, is a former director for The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a trade group representing electricity, coal and railroad interests.
12/ We’re logging our progress on that task force teams here but we still don’t know all of them. Maybe you can help us? Take a look: propub.li/2zBKtAr
13/ ...and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter: propub.li/2mrQjyL
