Trump Claims To Be For Law & Order, But Flouts The Law Himself
June 8, 2020
Trump claims to support law and order, but he has repeatedly flouted the law for his own personal and political benefit.
GSA’s watchdog found that GSA chose to “ignore” the Constitution when it allowed the Trump hotel to maintain its lease after Trump became president.
Politico: “Lawyers for the General Services Administration chose to ‘ignore’ the U.S. Constitution and other legal precedents when they allowed the Trump International Hotel to maintain its lease on the Old Post Office building even after Donald Trump became president, the GSA’s internal watchdog said on Wednesday.”
Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from states that expanded vote-by-mail.
TRUMP: “Breaking: Michigan sends absentee ballots to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election. This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!”
TRUMP: “State of Nevada ‘thinks’ that they can send out illegal vote by mail ballots, creating a great Voter Fraud scenario for the State and the U.S. They can’t! If they do, ‘I think’ I can hold up funds to the State. Sorry, but you must not cheat in elections. @RussVought45 @USTreasury”
TRUMP: “Oh, I’m not going to discuss that. There are so many forms of funding. And we’re not going to discuss that. What we want is we want good, straight, honest voting. Okay? Honest voting.”
New York Times: “The Impoundment Control Act of 1974, established after former President Richard M. Nixon refused to release congressionally appropriated funds to programs he opposed, requires the president to seek approval from Congress to withhold money. (The Government Accountability Office said in January that Mr. Trump violated this law when he froze security assistance to Ukraine.)”
Trump sought foreign assistance in elections.
New York Times: “Trump Asks Ukraine’s Leader To ‘Do Us A Favor’ And Also Urges Inquiry Of Biden”
Wall Street Journal: “Transcript Shows Trump Asked Ukrainian Counterpart To Probe Joe Biden’s Son”
The Hill: “Asked during a call-in interview on ‘Fox & Friends’ what he would do if he was given such information, Trump said ‘of course you have to look at it’ to ‘know if it’s bad.’”
Trump used a personal cell phone not altered by the NSA to limit its capabilities and vulnerabilities.
New York Times: “Officials said the president has two official iPhones that have been altered by the National Security Agency to limit their capabilities — and vulnerabilities — and a third personal phone that is no different from hundreds of millions of iPhones in use around the world. Mr. Trump keeps the personal phone, White House officials said, because unlike his other two phones, he can store his contacts in it.”
Trump overruled career security and intelligence officials who denied Jared Kushner a top-secret security clearance and ordered John Kelly to grant him one.
New York Times: “President Trump ordered his chief of staff to grant his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, a top-secret security clearance last year, overruling concerns flagged by intelligence officials and the White House’s top lawyer, four people briefed on the matter said.”
Don McGahn and John Kelly refused Trump’s order to break with career security professionals and grant Ivanka Trump a security clearance, so Trump made the move himself to bypass national security concerns.
CNN: “While Trump has the legal authority to grant clearances, most instances are left up to the White House personnel security office, which determines whether a staffer should be granted one after the FBI has conducted a background check. But after concerns were raised by the personnel office, Trump pushed Kelly and McGahn to make the decision on his daughter and son-in-law’s clearances so it did not appear as if he was tainting the process to favor his family, sources told CNN. After both refused, Trump granted them their security clearances.”