The Swampiness Gets Swampier

New York’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit today against the Trump Foundation, alleging the Foundation violated numerous laws regulating “charitable” Foundations, IRS and State tax violations, Campaign Finance Law violations and self-dealing. This is one of an accumulating number of legal problems involving corruption with the self-declared swamp drainer, including the following:

• Trump Inaugural Committee: The Committee raised over $107 million to pay for the Inauguration celebrations, and still has not provided an accounting for over $38 million. The money just disappeared.
• Trump Hotel/Emolument Clause Violations: The Trump hotel profited over $3 million in its first year while most other D.C. hotels showed no profits, and two went bankrupt. Foreign dignitaries hoping to curry favor (or at least an appointment) with Trump know to book rooms and events at the Hotel. The Emolument Clause was written precisely to avoid this type of situation.
• Payments to women to cover-up extra-marital affairs alleged to have violated Campaign Finance Laws and involving money from foreign donors.

Scott Pruitt is a walking corruption machine, with 15 formal investigations directed at him at last count. He may soon be following in the resignation perp walk with other Trump Cabinet members such as Tom Price (HHS) and Gary Cohn (NEC) for financial wrongdoing. Add to them the special White House advisers DJ Gribbin, John McEntee, Rob Porter and Keith Schiller, along with Flynn Senior and Junior, and you have more people being forced to resign/fired for corruption or scandal in the first year of Trump’s Presidency than in the 8 years of Obama. No wonder Walter Shaub, the Government Ethics Chief resigned.

During the transition Trump announced that they were asking every US Attorney to resign (except notably NY District’s Preet Bharara who was later fired for refusing to stop a Trump-related investigation).  This is a norm for every new Administration and nearly all AGs are usually retained. What was not normal was that Trump also announced that they wanted every Inspector General to resign so he could replace them with loyalists. That move was blocked by Congress. IGs are like Federal Judges in the sense that once appointed and approved they stay until they choose to retire. IGs are combination auditors and investigators who are charged with investigating the investigators. They are people nominated and approved because they have not only impeccable professional credentials, but also unquestioned ethics. And they are busier than ever right now…

Maybe after the full and formal indictment of Trump’s fixer (people who aren’t criminals don’t need a fixer) Cohen is announced we will discover all the swamp draining did was reveal the swamp monster – and how does he maintain that tan in the swamp?