According to aides who were present when Trump discussed the issue, but who choose to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, Trump said he was sick of Vance and wanted to fire him. “I wanted him to be my attack dog,” said Trump, “but he appears foolish on television. He dropped the college football trophy. He met with Pope Francis and the next day the pope died. Vance is toxic, and I don’t want him to come near me. He just doesn’t look as good on television as I thought he would.”   read more

O'Reilly took a year off from his post at NRO to attend the National War College, earning his degree and returning to OSI as Deputy Executive Director. While in that post, he served for a few months in the Joint Counterintelligence Unit in Kabul, Afghanistan. In 2014, he was made the Defense Department’s Assistant Inspector General for Investigations, with responsibility for international operations, national security and cyber security. He held that post until taking over at DCIS.   read more

Among his achievements was his documentation of George W. Bush administration firings of four U.S. Attorneys for partisan reasons and its packing of the Civil Rights Division with political appointees. His office also investigated the FBI’s handling of Zacarias Moussaoui, who had enrolled in a flight school as part of the 9/11 terror plot. Fine’s office was critical of the bureau for not taking the threat posed by Moussaoui seriously.   read more

After being made deputy commanding general of the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas. Lundy was sent in 2012 to Fort Leavenworth as deputy commanding general of the Combined Arms Center-Training. He advocated for a Star Trek-like “Holodeck” training system for soldiers. Beginning in 2014, Lundy was put in charge of Army aviation at Fort Rucker. While there, he said the Army should de-emphasize drones and put more resources into manned aviation.   read more

In 2006 Bales was named deputy auditor in Forces and Financial Audits. Five years later she was made deputy director of DCAA, a post she held until being elevated to the top spot. Bales and the DCAA aided in the prosecution of high-ranking Navy officers and others in the “Fat Leonard” bribery scandal, in which a rear admiral pleaded guilty to accepting favors from Leonard Glenn Francis, who pleaded guilty in 2015 to bribing Naval officers to use U.S. ship facilities in Asia.   read more

Hyatt attended Sidwell Friends School, where many children of presidents, other government figures and those in the media have gone. In 1983 he worked for Bain & Co. in Boston, London and Munich, then in 1989 became a principal and partner in a conflict management group. He founded a similar firm, CMI New York, in 1997. Among other things, that company trained negotiators involved in constitutional talks between the old South African government and the African National Congress.   read more

Beginning in 2001, McBride was a grants specialist for Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas). In 2003, he was named Lincoln’s senior legislative assistant. McBride moved to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry in 2009 as a senior staffer, where he remained until 2015.   read more

In 1994, Bender was named managing director for entertainment, media and communications for Price Waterhouse. He returned to federal services in 2006 as director of enterprise architecture for the Internal Revenue Service. In 2010, he moved over to the U.S. Census Bureau as chief technology officer. There, he tried to recreate a Silicon Valley atmosphere for his developers in the hope of bringing more innovative ideas to the agency. He remained there until moving to the NTIS.   read more

Starmer joined the USDA in 2011, initially helping develop the “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” program. In 2015, she was made a senior adviser to Secretary Tom Vilsack. Not long after starting at the Agricultural Marketing Service, Starmer had to defuse a controversy when the American Egg Board was accused of trying to thwart the sales of an eggless mayonnaise. The head of the egg board stepped down and was replaced by Starmer’s predecessor at the AMS, Anne Alonzo.   read more

Almanza’s work impressed then-Under Secretary for Food Safety Richard Raymond, who asked Almanza to come work for him in Washington as FSIS administrator. When Almanza was named deputy under secretary, he kept his responsibilities as FSIS administrator despite no longer having the official position. In 2015, Almanza instituted a new poultry inspection system that puts much of the responsibility for ensuring food safety in the hands of the processors, rather than the USDA.   read more

Hamer was a fellow on the Senate Budget Committee and worked on the staff of the Secretary of Agriculture. By the late 1990s, he was in charge of NASS’ Missouri office. In 2000, Hamer was made associate deputy administrator for field operations, where he oversaw 24 field offices. He moved up to be chair of the Agricultural Statistics Board in 2010, leading the publishing of market-sensitive crop reports. He remained there until being named to lead the agency.   read more

With the help of VP Pence, the Senate fulfilled Donald Trump’s desire to fill the Education Secretary position with a billionaire heiress with no experience in education who advocates privatizing the public school system despite having never attended public schools nor allowing her children to do so. She advocates privatizing public schools and allowing them to be more religiously oriented. Devos has compared her work to a biblical battleground where she wants to “advance God’s Kingdom.”   read more

Moorman continued to climb the corporate ladder and in 2003 was named senior vice president of corporate services and later that year was made senior vice president for corporate planning and services. In 2004, he was named Norfolk Southern’s president, the following year its CEO and in 2006, Moorman added chairman to his title. He took the Amtrak job for $1 a year, plus incentives that could reach $500,000. He also serves on the boards of oil giant Chevron and Duke Energy.   read more

The FDA has approved Spinraza, the first drug to treat patients with spinal muscular atrophy, a disease that can kill infants before they turn 2. Biogen, which is licensing it from Ionis, said one dose will cost $125,000--equaling up to $750,000 to cover the the first year, and about $375,000 annually after that. Patients presumably take it the rest of their lives. The pricing could put it in the cross hairs of lawmakers and perhaps discourage insurers from covering it.   read more

Even as Trump says he'll end foreign business deals, he's taking on projects involving powerful political figures. They include a politician accused of trying to extort billions of dollars from a U.S. mining company, a top shareholder in that company, and a billionaire running for national office. “You could have two world leaders that are business partners,” said a Bush lawyer. “It makes it almost impossible to conduct diplomacy in an evenhanded manner." Said Trump: "It's not a big deal."   read more

It's been a 6-year U.S. effort to seize $3 billion in assets of foreign officials who use their countries’ wealth to enrich themselves. If Trump doesn't separate his business from politics, it will be tougher for the Justice Dept to criticize foreign leaders who have gained wealth based on their government ties. "It reduces U.S. leverage because of the perceived hypocrisy. The moral case is drastically undermined,” said prof. Stephenson.   read more

"Judge O'Connor's conclusion that transgender people and persons who have had abortions are somehow excepted from protection is deeply troubling, legally specious, and morally repugnant," said TLDEF's Ezra Young. Many transgender people expect Trump as president to abandon or weaken the transgender protection efforts pursued by the Obama administration. He has declined to repudiate a divisive North Carolina law that restricts transgender people's bathroom access.   read more