Hill staffers secretly worked on Trump's immigration order
Source: Politico
Senior staffers on the House Judiciary Committee helped Donald Trump's top aides draft the executive order curbing immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations, but the Republican committee chairman and party leadership were not informed, according to multiple sources involved in the process.
The news of their involvement helps unlock the mystery of whether the White House consulted Capitol Hill about the executive order, one of many questions raised in the days after it was unveiled on Friday. It confirms that the small group of staffers were among the only people on Capitol Hill who knew of the looming controversial policy.
Kathryn Rexrode, the House Judiciary Committees communications director, declined to comment about the aides work. A Judiciary Committee aide said Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) was not "consulted by the administration on the executive order."
The work of the committee aides began during the transition period after the election and before Donald Trump was sworn in. The staffers signed nondisclosure agreements, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Trump's transition operation forced its staff to sign these agreements, but it would be unusual to extend that requirement to congressional employees. Rexrode declined to comment on the nondisclosure pacts.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-immigration-congress-order-234392
C_U_L8R
(45,020 posts)No adult supervision? Unlikely.
Leadership is just hiding.
riversedge
(70,299 posts)for the President elect?? who authorized this? What the hell is going on??
jeanmarc
(1,685 posts)They let Trump borrow some people who had experience and then pretended they knew nothing about it.
WVGal1963
(145 posts)Since when do any government employees sign nondisclosure agreements?
pnwmom
(108,994 posts)WVGal1963
(145 posts)This is about as worrisome, to me, as anything I have read. This tactic was/is commonplace in the Trump organization. But among our dedicated government career employees? I truly hope this part has some legs and that it gets some media attention if true. Atrocious.
pnwmom
(108,994 posts)WVGal1963
(145 posts)Our federal employees and appointees take an OATH. An OATH. Nondisclosure agreements have no place in our governance in this country. If this is accurate, let's all hope it starts getting media attention.
JDC
(10,133 posts)Full disclosure is required I thought. Isn't that what the whole HRC email server bs was based on?
VMA131Marine
(4,149 posts)If I sign an NDA and don't get permission first from my employer I am likely to be out of a job.
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)you best believe this story of that is false and that the Members of Congress knew.
Turbineguy
(37,365 posts)Balance of Power. Three branches of government.
enough
(13,262 posts)justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(57,600 posts)We're paying their salaries; we have a right to know how they're spending their time while on the payroll.
This didn't happen overnight. They've been working on this for a while.
threethirteen
(33 posts)blue neen
(12,328 posts)Non-disclosure statements or not.
24 Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee. Inquiring minds want to know who their staffers are.
zstat
(55 posts)Not knowing about it means that they do not have to recuse themselves from the House of Representative vote when it comes time to vote yes/no on impeachment articles. They will "argue" that there is no need to recuse themselves from the vote since they were not part of the decision-making process with the White House. They did not know about it and they were not apart of the process preparing/guiding the language of the order by President Trump. The Judiciary Committee members will then be able to vote their "conscience" and vote according to their sworn responsibility to protect the constitution.
Clever, maybe not.
What a crock?
Equinox Moon
(6,344 posts)Thanks Politico!
Doitnow
(1,103 posts)KewlKat
(5,624 posts)blue neen
(12,328 posts)It would be logical to assume that their aides were the ones helping Trump on his immigration screed, right?
dgibby
(9,474 posts)of Bob Goodlatte all over it. As a Virginian who lives near his district, if I were going to investigate this, I'd start with him, denials notwithstanding.
maxrandb
(15,351 posts)A great deal of these Retrumplicans have had their districts so "effing" Gerrymandered, that there are not enough sane Retrumplicans to save them from the true "nut-sack" Retrumplicans.
Go against Trump and they lose their "effng" seats.
I hate to be "Pollyanish", but by being complacent after Obama's win in 2008, that meant that Retrumplicans had super-majorities to gerrymander the 2010 Census data. We will be paying for that for decades.
The only hope would be that the Retrumplicans would get behind a narcissistic, bloviating, serial "pussy-grabbing", authoritarian, "daily impeachable offense creating" man-child as their leader.
It is going to take a wave election.
It is going to take working and organizing like never before to overcome every voter suppression tactic they can muster.
It is going to take Democrats obstructing every policy of Donnie Short Fingers. Because, by obstructing and standing up for what's right when they have no power...we will know they will stand up for what's right when they do have power
BTW - that's why you obstruct. That's why you don't "settle". I never hear a Retrumplican saying that "both parties are the same", unless they are trying to obfuscate. They KNOW that both parties aren't the same.
It's high-time we realized that too.