Politics - News Analysis

Trump Official Paid Private Law Firm MILLIONS in Taxpayer Dollars for ‘Dirt’ on His OWN Staff

This story is truly one of those “only in the Trump Administration,” things.

Donald Trump did not like the Voice of America. The American public probably doesn’t appreciate the importance of the VOA around the world, though – of course, everyone has heard of it. The VOA played a role similar to the BBC World News, though its mission is directed at shaping people’s views of the United States, especially people living under brutal regimes and dictators. The idea was to get real information to people all over the globe and undermine any message coming from a dictator or repressive regime. It also kept ex-pats up on what was going on at home.

It was and is an institution, perhaps not as important today as it was in the Cold War or during the Vietnam War, but it still serves a purpose.

Donald Trump didn’t like it. The Voice of America reported the news from a neutral point of view, similar to NPR or PBS. Donald Trump would not stand for such bullshit. He wants a Voice of America that sounds like Newsmax or OAN, where he does no wrong. So Trump fired the director and nominated his own MAGA-man Michael Pack, who immediately went about “MAGAfying” the Voice of America.

But Pack’s staff immediately began doing what experienced staffs do, they advised him that much of what he was doing was illegal. Pack didn’t see this to be a problem and tried to fire the staff members. That didn’t work, according to Rawstory:

“Last summer, an appointee of former President Donald Trump was irate because he could not simply fire top executives who had warned him that some of his plans might be illegal,” reported David Folkenflik. “Michael Pack, who was CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media that oversees Voice of America, in August suspended those top executives. He also immediately ordered up an investigation to determine what wrongdoing the executives might have committed.”

“Instead of turning to inspectors general or civil servants to investigate, Pack personally signed a no-bid contract to hire a high-profile law firm with strong Republican ties,” said the report. “The bill — footed by taxpayers — exceeded a million dollars in just the first few months of the contract.”

This is the Voice of America. We don’t know what its annual budget might be but it cannot be that much, and Trump’s friend, Pack, assigned to MAGAfy the place spent over a million dollars in one month investigating his own employees? In an attempt to dig up dirt to fire them?

Now that one million is going to seem like chump change compared to what the government will pay out in lawsuits filed by the people investigated. Where does Trump find these people? Who does that?

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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