Out
Gilbert Kaplan - Undersecretary for International Trade/Commerce Dept
John Mitnick - Dept Homeland Security (already reported)
@rusticgorilla spreadsheet
2 Likes
4 Likes
Wow! This is huge. Really huge. Resigning under these circumstances strongly implies a consciousness of guilt. It’s now more important than ever for both Volker and Giuliani to testify.
4 Likes
OH yes. I’ve been struggling all day to stay on top of these developments and piece them together. It’s no longer a snowball. It’s an avalanche.
4 Likes
Up next most probably for an exit US Energy Secretary - Rick Perry, the least likely appointee
4 Likes
Trump appointee guts anti-terrorism programs (including forcing out 100 scientists who helped detect WMDs) then leaves
I like to think that I follow the news pretty closely, but I had no idea this was happening. How many other programs crucial to our security and to the health of our nation have been gutted by Trump while we are distracted by his daily dumpster fires?
James F. McDonnell, a presidential appointee who over the last two years downsized the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to prevent terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction, has agreed to resign.
McDonnell’s resignation, department sources said, comes at the request of acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan and would become effective at noon on Thursday, according to an email McDonnell sent his staff … on Wednesday.
…
President Trump appointed McDonnell to posts in 2017 and 2018 at Homeland Security, where he has led the department’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office and its predecessor, the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office.McDonnell has faced scrutiny from Republicans and Democrats in Congress in response to reports this year by the Los Angeles Times that brought to light his decisions — including his promotion of a scientifically disputed system for detecting airborne anthrax and other infectious agents that could be wielded in a biological attack.
McDonnell announced in November 2018 that he was aiming to install the new detection system nationwide within two years, even though the fluorescent “trigger” technology underlying it had failed repeatedly in testing sponsored by Homeland Security’s scientific staff.
On July 18, The Times also reported that McDonnell had directed the scaling back or elimination of multiple anti-terrorism programs at Homeland Security, which has primary domestic responsibility for helping authorities detect and block WMD-related threats. The article described the gutting of training and drills, including “red team” efforts to instruct federal, state and local officials on how to detect suitcase-sized nuclear devices or radioactive “dirty bombs” hidden on cargo ships.
Among other programs affected was a unit that had helped lead up to 20 WMD-related training exercises each year with state and local authorities. The unit participated in fewer than 10 such exercises last year, and even fewer so far this year, according to internal Homeland Security documents.
The department’s International Cooperation Division also has been disbanded by McDonnell. It had worked closely with foreign counterparts and the United Nations-affiliated International Atomic Energy Agency to track and stop the smuggling of dangerous nuclear materials overseas.
…
McDonnell’s decision-making has sparked widespread upheaval among Homeland Security staff specialists. As of mid-2019, more than 100 scientists and policy experts specializing in radiological and nuclear threats had been reassigned or left to take jobs unrelated to their expertise, The Times found, undermining the department’s ability to protect the nation from devastating attacks.The rock-bottom morale within the offices that McDonnell has led may also have influenced McAleenan’s decision to seek his ouster.
The annual government-wide Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, or “FEVS,” sponsored by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, found last year that the McDonnell-led Domestic Nuclear Detection Office ranked last – No. 415 – among similar “subcomponent” offices. …
3 Likes
Trump Orders Cut to National Security Staff After Whistle-Blower
President Donald Trump has ordered a substantial reduction in the staff of the National Security Council, according to five people familiar with the plans, as the White House confronts an impeachment inquiry touched off by a whistle-blower complaint related to the agency’s work.
Some of the people described the staff cuts as part of a White House effort to make its foreign policy arm leaner under new National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.
The request to limit the size of the NSC staff was conveyed to senior agency officials by acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and O’Brien this week. The whistle-blower complaint, focused on Trump’s conduct in a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has been followed by damaging reports on the president’s private conversations with other world leaders.
The New York Times has reported that the whistle-blower was a CIA officer who was at one point detailed to the White House. The complaint has become the driving motivation behind House Democrats’ impeachment effort, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi began last week.
Two of the people familiar with the decision to shrink the NSC insisted it was largely rooted in both the transition to O’Brien’s leadership as well as Trump’s desire to increase efficiency at the agency, which grew under former President Barack Obama. About 310 people currently work at the NSC.
All of the people asked not to be identified because the plan to reduce the NSC’s size hasn’t been made public.
Late Friday, Trump re-tweeted an allegation that the whistle-blower was a CIA official who had been assigned to the NSC under President Barack Obama. Bloomberg News has not verified that assertion.
4 Likes
Resignation of Michael McKinley, tonight Senior Career Diplomat in protest of Pompeo’s actions.
4 Likes
Acting homeland security secretary resigns
Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of homeland security since April and the fourth person to serve in that post since the Trump presidency began, submitted his resignation to the White House on Friday, President Donald Trump announced Friday.
4 Likes
Can we believe him this time? Or does he still have one foot on the boat and one foot on the dock? Psst, Rick, that boat is sinking.
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry plans to leave his position at the end of the year, President Trump confirmed to reporters Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas. Trump praised Perry and said he already has a replacement in mind.
Perry, 69, is one of Trump’s original Cabinet members and recently has emerged as a central figure in the impeachment inquiry of Trump.
Perry was part of what was dubbed “the three amigos” — in addition to Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union, and Kurt Volker, former envoy to Ukraine — charged with managing the U.S.-Ukraine relationship after the White House removed the core of its Ukraine policy team last spring.
Trump reportedly blamed Perry earlier this month for that now-famous call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which Trump pressed Zelenskiy to investigate his potential political rival former Vice President Joe Biden and Biden’s son.
Perry says he wanted Trump and Zelenskiy to talk strengthening energy business ties between the two countries. Regarding the Biden issue, Perry told the Christian Broadcasting Network, “As God as my witness not once was a Biden name — not the former vice president, not his son — ever mentioned.”
4 Likes
These are the acting Cabinet positions as of October 21:
Department of Homeland Security secretary
Director of National Intelligence
Chief of staff
Small Business Administrator
Here is Trump’s current Cabinet:
Vice President Mike Pence
Commerce: Wilbur Ross
Defense: Mark Esper
White House Chief of Staff: Mick Mulvaney ( acting )
State: Mike Pompeo
Education: Betsy DeVos
Energy: Rick Perry
Central Intelligence Agency: Gina Haspel
Health and Human Services: Alex Azar
Homeland Security: Kevin McAleenan ( acting )
Housing and Urban Development: Ben Carson
Agriculture: Sonny Perdue
Interior: David Bernhardt
Labor: Eugene Scalia
Transportation: Elaine Chao
Treasury: Steven Mnuchin
Veterans Affairs: Robert Wilkie
Attorney General: William Barr
Environmental Protection Agency: Andrew Wheeler
Office of Management and Budget: Russell Vought ( acting – Mulvaney technically stills holds the director position )
United States Trade Representative: Robert Lighthizer
Director of National Intelligence: Joseph Maguire ( acting )
Administrator of the Small Business Administration: Chris Pilkerton ( acting )
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that US Ambassador to the UN is no longer a Cabinet-level position in the Trump administration.
4 Likes
This is beautiful. Thank you for posting this article!
2 Likes
Trump administration official plans to resign — with a call to cancel billions in student loan debts
One of the Trump administration’s top education officials has announced his intention to quit, and endorsed the cancellation of $925 billion in existing students loans, according to the Wall Street Journal. A. Wayne Johnson was appointed chief operating officer of the Office of Federal Student Aid in 2017, and later became chief strategy and transformation officer in the department. Johnson reportedly called the student loan system “fundamentally broken,” and added: “We run through the process of putting this debt burden on somebody… but it rides on their credit files—it rides on their back—for decades … The time has come for us to end and stop the insanity.”
3 Likes
Cross posting…
White House cybersecurity chief quits, says leadership is inviting an attack
White House computer security Chief Dimitrios Vistakis gave the White House one helluva resignation notice earlier this week when he quit over practices he dubbed “absurd” including the systemic purging of cybersecurity staff. They say that history…
This is really disturbing – we only seem to get bad news about cybersecurity. Our President is doing absolutely nothing about it – it’s almost like he wants us to get hacked.
3 Likes
Trump’s Russia Director To Leave National Security Council Amid Impeachment Inquiry
Tim Morrison, the top Russia official on President Trump’s National Security Council, who is scheduled to testify in the impeachment inquiry on Thursday, is expected to leave his White House post imminently, three sources familiar with the plan told NPR.
Morrison, a conservative hawk who has served as the senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council, will be replaced by Andrew Peek, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, according to the sources.
Morrison and Peek could not immediately be reached for comment by NPR. The National Security Council declined comment.
2 Likes
Edit: Gah. How did I post this here? I thought I put it under the Humor and I Don’t Care locations!
2 Likes
Our President doesn’t even know who is actually in charge of the Department of Homeland Security. Is it this guy or that other guy? Thanks, Mr. President, we’re all feeling very secure in the homeland.
President Trump told reporters Friday evening that Chad Wolf is the new acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, but it was unclear whether a formal appointment had occurred, extending confusion about who would step in to fill one of the country’s most crucial national security posts.
After reporters asked Trump about rumors he was planning to place Wolf in charge of DHS, Trump said, “Well he’s right now acting and we’ll see what happens.”
But no transition has taken place yet, according to two senior administration officials. Kevin McAleenan, the current acting DHS secretary, remains on the job, they said. McAleenan is scheduled to stay in the role at least through early next week, according to one of the senior administration officials, who was baffled by Trump’s statement.
…
Wolf would be the fifth person to occupy the secretary job at DHS under Trump, an unusually high degree of leadership turnover for a department whose founding goal was to project stability and safeguard the country from another 9/11-style terrorist attack.
…
In February, Trump picked Wolf to be the first undersecretary of DHS’s Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans, but the Senate has yet to confirm him, and the president’s announcement also leaves his nomination in doubt.
“… DHS … a department whose founding goal was to project stability…” Ha! It’s tough to project stability when there’s been 5 department heads in less then 3 years and, on top of that, there’s confusion as to who is actually in charge at this moment. 
2 Likes
NSC official who attended key Ukraine meetings to leave post
Earl Matthews, a senior National Security Council official who attended several of the meetings now at the center of the congressional impeachment inquiry, will depart from his job on Friday, according to two people familiar with his plans.
During his time on the NSC, Matthews, the senior director for defense policy and strategy and one of the highest ranking African-American members of the Trump White House, worked closely with former national security advisor John Bolton. He was part of a small group that sat in on meetings with Ukrainian officials that House Democrats are now scrutinizing as they investigate whether President Donald Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate a political rival.
5 Likes
Lt Col Vindman is going to be out…
MARGARET BRENNAN: Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, who has testified under oath, is serving on the National Security Council currently. Will he continue to work for you despite testifying against the president?
O’BRIEN: Well- well look, one of the things that I’ve talked about is that we’re streamlining the National Security Council. It got bloated to like two hundred and thirty six people from- up from 100 in the Bush administration under President Obama. We’re streamlining the National Security Council. There are people that are detailed from different departments and agencies. My understanding is he’s- is that Colonel Vindman is- is detailed from the Department of Defense. So everyone who’s detailed at the NSC, people are going to start going back to their own departments and we’ll bring in new folks. But we’re going to get that number down to around 100 people. That’s what it was under Condoleezza Rice. She came and met with me. I met with a number of my successors.
5 Likes
5 Likes