A judge said a top official was unlawfully in his job. The admin just altered his title instead
Last month a judge found that unqualified Trump-appointed official William Pendley had been unlawfully serving in his position of acting Bureau of Land Management (BLM) director for well over a year, meaning a number of anti-environment policies he signed while illegitimately serving were now at risk. The judge, The New York Times reports, “ordered briefs from all parties regarding which of Mr. Pendley’s policies should be overturned, due this week.”
That sounds like some good news, right? Some justice finally prevailed. But not really. Not only is the Trump administration fighting the federal judge’s court order, it’s openly defying it: the Times reports Pendley remains at the agency, but now under an altered job title. Presto change-o, problem fixed. But Pendley isn’t the only unqualified administration official unlawfully serving in their job. Nope, not even close.
We’ve talked about Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, the mini-fascists who’ve been using the full power of their department not to protect all Americans, but to protect one person: impeached President Donald Trump. And just like Pendley, both are unlawfully serving in their positions according to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), with Unlawful Chad as acting secretary and Ken as his deputy. And just like Pendley, both are still in their positions.
But even these three deplorable musketeers only scratch at the surface of this administration’s unprecedented corruption and lawlessness: “The Constitutional Accountability Center, a liberal research group, has identified 15 high-ranking Trump administration officials who are currently holding jobs in violation of the vacancies act,” the Times continued. Georgetown University professor of environmental and administrative law Lisa Heinzerling told the Times that the administration’s defiance of the order concerning Pendley was “striking.”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/10/8/1984778/-Trump-adds-another-unlawfully-serving-official-to-his-long-list-of-unlawfully-serving-officials?detail=emaildkre
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