Former CAP VP for democracy and government reform. Former senior policy advisor in Obama WH: DPC and OMB. Opinions my own.
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Aug 5, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
How should the next president hold Trump admin accountable?
A 3-step plan: 1. AG orders top-to-bottom review of DOJ politicization 2. Then career officials make decisions on investigations w/o political influence 3. Each agency does corruption review /1 americanprogress.org/issues/democra…
There are good faith concerns that have been raised about investigating Trump officials. But here are some reasons why they don't override the need to defend the rule of law. /2
Jan 21, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
From @maxbergmann and me: Trump's team argues he did nothing wrong.
But House Judiciary and GAO make clear he broke multiple laws in the course of his Ukraine shakedown: (1) bribery; (2) honest services fraud; and (3) the Impoundment Control Act. /1 americanprogress.org/issues/democra…
criminal bribery: Trump sought something of personal value (the announcement of investigations into his political opponents) in exchange for an official act (a White House meeting and the provision of military assistance), and he did so corruptly. /2 docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/…
Dec 30, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Big takeaway is Trump WH knew the hold was illegal: (1) Pentagon warned them, they ignored it; (2) they tried to preemptively blame the military for it; and (3) they scrambled to put together an absurd legal argument to justify it.
More on each: nytimes.com/2019/12/29/us/…(1) DoD's budget person "notified the [WH] budget office that either $61 million of the money would have to be spent by Monday, Aug. 12 or it would be lost." Not spending the $ in time was illegal. But Trump told Mulvaney to continue the hold.
Nov 18, 2019 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
New emails from Sondland provide more evidence that Trump's call w/ Zelensky was intended to seal the deal on extortion efforts he had been orchestrating through Guiliani, Sondland and others. wsj.com/articles/lawma…
July 10: Sondland makes clear to Ukraine in a WH meeting that they will only get the U.S. support they need if they open investigations into Trump's political opponents. washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Oct 13, 2019 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The WP story on Sondland's testimony contains a number of bombshells. Remember, Sondland was a point person for Trump's Ukrainian quid pro quo. washingtonpost.com/world/national…
He's reportedly going to confirm the first quid pro quo, saying he worked for "the 'deliverable' sought by Trump: a public statement from Ukraine that it would investigate [Biden]. In exchange...the president would grant Ukraine’s new president a coveted WH audience."
May 10, 2019 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
.@ezraklein: "if you want to break the concentrations of power in American politics, the place to start is with the power of political institutions to frustrate the public’s demands for change."
We @amprog have some thoughts on how to do so: vox.com/policy-and-pol…
Start with HR 1, a historic piece of legislation that expands access to the ballot, reduces the influence of big money in our politics, and imposes stronger ethics requirements on public officials. americanprogress.org/press/statemen…
May 8, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Our judicial system is structured to favor the wealthy and powerful. My colleague Danielle Root and I argue that it's time for progressives to start thinking seriously about judicial structural reforms - who can bring cases and what judges hear them. americanprogress.org/issues/courts/…
That means looking at ideas to restore fair-mindedness to the judiciary and combat conservative court packing. It also means addressing barriers to accessing the courts - things like forced arbitration and limiting private rights of action. usatoday.com/story/opinion/…
Mar 8, 2019 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Why do extremist conservative voices oppose pro-democracy reforms? And does a little-noticed memo attacking Democrat's pro-democracy bill, HR 1, rip off the mask of the modern conservative movement's mixture of plutocracy and divisive rhetoric? THREAD 👇 thinkprogress.org/conservative-g…
HR 1 is a massive pro-democracy bill that passed the House w/ support from every Democrat. It would expand voting, limit the influence of wealthy donors and corporations in our political system, strengthen ethics requirements, and confront gerrymandering. /2
Feb 22, 2019 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
With the news that the House is moving to block Trump's faux emergency declaration, a short thread on the National Emergencies Act (NEA) and how to fix some its problems. /1 nytimes.com/2019/02/22/us/…
The NEA was originally passed in the aftermath of Watergate, in response to Nixon's efforts to abuse emergency authority. /2 americanprogress.org/issues/democra…
Feb 11, 2019 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
BREAKING
.@cherylbolen reports (behind paywall) about a little-known legal opinion issue by Trump's DOJ during the shutdown that shows the decision to bring back IRS personnel to process tax refunds was illegal.
THREAD 👇 news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-repo…
Here's the backstory: during the shutdown, the Federal Register (which had no funding) asked Trump's DOJ what rules they could publish, given that some agencies were funded at the time. DOJ provided them with a legal opinion, which Bloomberg published. /2 src.bna.com/Fs8
Jan 17, 2019 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
Trump's Treasury Dept will be recalling 46,000 IRS workers to send out tax refunds. Here's a longish thread about why that's illegal and why you should care.
Warning: this gets in the weeds, but hopefully will help explain the relevant law + context. /1 npr.org/2019/01/15/685…
(background: in 2013, I was a lawyer at OMB and my job was to help agencies understand how to apply the law to their programs during the shutdown.) /2
Jan 13, 2019 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
It feels like every day Trump or some other Republican floats another plan to provoke a constitutional crisis by illegally building the wall. They can be hard to track.
So here's a short thread explaining the GOP's very uncool and very illegal proposals.
First, Trump's proposal to illegally divert funding from military construction projects. He would have to declare an emergency that "requires the use of the armed forces." No such one exists, and no emergency allows Trump to turn the military into his private construction co. /2
Jan 12, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Yesterday's confirmation that the FBI was investigating if Trump was a Russian asset has significant national security and political implications. But it also may severely curtail Trump's ability to pardon his way out of trouble.
👇 thread nytimes.com/2019/01/11/us/…
As @benjaminwittes writes: the NYT report suggests "obstruction was the collusion, or at least part of it." The obstruction statute is "merely one set of statutes investigators might think about using to deal with a national security risk." /2 lawfareblog.com/what-if-obstru…
Jan 4, 2019 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Great scoop from @KFaulders, @Santucci, and @Elizabeth_McLau. As a lawyer at OMB, I worked on appropriations issues all the time. What the Trump administration is discussing here is illegal, plain and simple.
Thread 👇
Under the Anti-Deficiency Act, it's a crime for federal agencies to spend $ on something Congress hasn't authorized - it's the statutory means for enforcing Congress' constitutional power of the purse. The Trump team is trying to sidestep the law by using emergency powers. /2
Jan 2, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I helped manage the 2013 shutdown at OMB, so believe me when I say that they get exponentially harder to manage as time goes on. Agencies run out of carryover $, grant recipients able to cover a short time w/o federal funds can't any more, and unexpected issues crop up.
This type of management challenge is hard enough when you have a competent, committed group of people doing their best. But when you're relying on the most incompetent administration in modern American history...that's a recipe for disaster.
Dec 21, 2018 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
As Trump's temper tantrum continues, some are suggesting the impacts of a shutdown will be minimal.
In 2013, I was part of the team at OMB that managed the shutdown, and I can assure you the #TrumpShutdown will impact millions of people across the country. Thread 👇
For starters, it means 420,000 people will be working over the holidays without being paid, including the Secret Service agents protecting Trump and his entire family. Another 380,000 workers will be sent home without pay /2 huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-go…
Dec 17, 2018 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
The effort by a partisan judge to try to help the GOP overturn the ACA is best viewed as an attack on health care for everyone.
It would hurt people who get coverage through their employer, through Medicare, through Medicaid, and who purchase it on their own. /1
Get coverage through your employer?
You'd see a return of annual and lifetime limits; wouldn't necessarily be able to keep your adult children on your plan; and would lose free preventive services. And you'd no longer get a rebate if your premiums are too high. /2
Dec 3, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
article by @SharonLNYT has a fantastic description of Trump's #CultureOfCorruption: "Trump looks for people who share his disregard for the truth and are willing to parrot him, 'even if it’s a lie, even if they know it’s a lie....'" /1 nytimes.com/2018/12/01/us/…
Trump isn't looking for people who are competent or ethical, in fact just the opposite: "They must be 'loyal to what he is saying right now,'...or he sees them as 'a traitor.'”
The result: an administration filled with incompetent, unethical cronies. /2
Oct 23, 2018 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Conservatives in states like NV, TX, WI, and MI have brought suits seeking to undermine pay, access to care, and health. And the Trump administration is helping them. Their fellow state residents benefit from the very protections they seek to overturn. /1 americanprogress.org/issues/democra…
Led by NV AG Adam Laxalt, 25 states brought a suit attacking overtime pay for workers. The Trump administration responded by abandoning the rule. In the states that brought the suit, that means more than 5 million workers will lose more than $560 million in wages each year. /2
Trump has made clear that he views the justice system as a means of helping his friends and punishing his enemies. It's important to know whether Kavanaugh, if confirmed, plans to be a co-conspirator in these efforts. washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-lin…
More specifically, will Kavanaugh aid and abet Trump's efforts to: (1) obstruct or end the Mueller investigation; (2) evade subpoenas and other legal processes; and (3) withhold relevant information from Congress and/or the public.
