Final week, President Joe Biden fired the architect of the Capitol (AOC), J. Brett Blanton, following bipartisan condemnation for his absence from the Capitol grounds in the course of the Jan. 6 rebellion, and a report exposing his mismanagement of taxpayer funds and safety lapses in the course of the pandemic.
Appointed to a 10-year time period by former President Donald Trump in 2019, Blanton’s unceremonious ouster cements his standing because the shortest-tenured architect of the Capitol within the 230-year historical past of the place. The AOC is a crucial however little-known place that's chargeable for the upkeep and maintenance of buildings all through the 450-acre land that makes up Capitol Hill. The AOC additionally serves on the Capitol Police Board.
It’s usually a big place with little fanfare, except, in fact, a corrupt president appoints somebody equally unscrupulous to carry workplace. Whereas each president is restricted in potential and attain, having solely 4 years in workplace till reelection, a few of Donald Trump’s individuals have remained in positions of energy lengthy after his tenure has ended. Sadly, the AOC isn't the one one.
In December 2019, Trump nominated Blanton to function Architect of the Capitol. He was rapidly confirmed by the Republican-led Senate regardless of missing a background in structure like a lot of his predecessors.
Blanton’s noticeable corruption in workplace rapidly drew public scrutinyafter. In October 2021, an inspector common report revealed that Blanton misused hundreds in authorities funds, impersonated regulation enforcement, and allowed his household private use of presidency automobiles. Within the fall of 2020, his spouse gave Capitol excursions to “patriots” whereas constructing entry was restricted resulting from pandemic protocols. Following a disastrous listening to the place Blanton blamed his daughter for his misconduct, he was accused of being untruthful, and admitted his absence on the Capitol grounds in the course of the Jan. 6 assault.
President Biden was actually left with no alternative however to hearth the beleaguered Trump appointee. Though Blanton’s firing is a win for accountability, now management at an company integral to the safety of Congress will stay in limbo. It is necessary that the choice means of the subsequent architect is clear; the final time round, neither political social gathering pressed for transparency, an apparent mistake given the Blanton debacle.
Throughout his one time period in workplace, Trump and his appointees, like Blanton, had been typically embroiled in ethics scandals. Trump was famously impeached twice, together with by a bipartisan majority for his function in inciting the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. Financial adviser Peter Navarro was beneficial for self-discipline following repeated violations of the Hatch Act for politicking on the federal government dime. Housing and City Growth Secretary Ben Carson confronted a number of investigations for misuse of authorities funds and conflicts of curiosity.
Though problematic officers like Navarro and Carson adopted Trump out of workplace, Blanton is simply one of a number of ethically challenged Trump appointees or loyalists who outlasted him in Washington. Some, like former Inside Secretary Ryan Zinke, had been elected to Congress, regardless of being the topic of a number of investigations by the point he left the administration. Maybe much more disturbing is that a number of now sit in key roles that impression the operate and safety of our democracy.
In 2019, Trump nominated and the Senate later confirmed Joseph Cuffari to be Division of Homeland Safety inspector common. As IG, Cuffari was appointed to function an inside watchdog of an company with each important administration challenges and a central function in immigration coverage and election safety. IGs serve no set time period and are anticipated to behave unbiased of partisanship.
Regardless of that mandate, Cuffari’s tenure has been tormented by political and moral scandals. In 2022, Democratic committee chairs criticized Cuffari for refusing to testify or share paperwork associated to his workplace’s dealing with and delayed reporting of lacking Secret Service texts on or across the Jan. 6 assault. Cuffari can also be underneath investigation for alleged retaliation towards whistleblowers, a cardinal sin for any official tasked with pursuing whistleblower claims. Quite a few DHS IG staff have referred to as on Biden to fireplace Cuffari. Though Trump got here underneath acceptable criticism for firing IGs who had been investigating his administration, Biden can and may take away Cuffari for trigger.
Whereas Trump’s DHS IG discovered controversy solely after his appointment, Ginni Thomas, Trump’s appointee to the Library of Congress Belief Fund Board, has by no means shied away from it. Thomas is the spouse of Supreme Court docket Justice Clarence Thomas and has been implicated in quite a few misconduct allegations associated to the Justice’s refusal to recuse himself from circumstances the place she had skilled or monetary pursuits. Extra just lately, Justice Thomas refused to recuse himself from a case concerning the Jan. 6 Committee’s entry to paperwork regardless of proof that Ginni Thomas repeatedly lobbied Trump aides to overturn the 2020 election.
The Belief Fund Board oversees presents to the Library and determines funding coverage for the fund valued at greater than $200 million. Ginni Thomas’s efforts to undermine democracy makes her unfit for any authorities function, particularly one with a job overseeing “the nation’s oldest federal cultural establishment” and analysis arm of Congress. And, regardless of all of the controversy surrounding the Supreme Court docket choose’s spouse, she nonetheless sits on the celebrated board, having confronted no actual penalties for her actions.
Maybe essentially the most irritating Trump holdover in authorities is Louis DeJoy, the Postmaster Common of the US. DeJoy was a Trump megadonor, technically employed by the USPS Board of Governors on account of an uncommon strain marketing campaign by Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
As soon as put in, DeJoy instantly took actions that undermined the efficacy of mail supply and Trump’s favourite goal: voting by mail. Not solely has DeJoy maintained important monetary conflicts of pursuits with a USPS contractor, however underneath his management, USPS defied a courtroom order to make sure mail-in ballots had been discovered, and a federal choose dominated that DeJoy’s adjustments harmed mail supply forward of the 2020 election. Regardless of this litany of moral lapses and repair failures, the brand new Board of Governors majority inexplicably continues to maintain DeJoy in his submit.
It’s been two years since Donald Trump misplaced the 2020 election and incited an rebellion to forestall the peaceable switch of energy. Though Trump’s harmful try to remain in workplace failed, Trump loyalists stay in positions with nice affect over the functioning of our democracy. The AOC is an workplace the general public has little cause to work together with and infrequently makes nationwide information.
However the Blanton saga is a reminder that a corrupt president can poison authorities establishments lengthy after they're gone, whether or not the general public is aware of these establishments exist or not. Blanton was fortunately fired for his misconduct and failures on and across the Jan. 6 assault, however extra of Trump’s ethically challenged rogue’s gallery needs to be eliminated to guard our democracy.
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