Discussion: Trump Administration Defends Legality Of VA Shadow Rulers

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This seems like a good target for a house investigation. It is relevant and will resonate with the public and with vets. No one likes the idea of unelected wealthy people making decisions behind closed doors. What money changed hands? Who was sold out?

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Bull phucky

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The current VA secretary, Robert Wilkie, said he’s not aware of any ongoing contacts between his team and the trio.

Maybe he’s just not aware about a lot of things going on.

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Only the best proxies!

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IANAL, but it seems to me that if the law covering advisory committees doesn’t apply to the troika because they were never properly constituted as such, then the applicable law would instead be the statutes covering public corruption and influence over a government agency. This is only a useful argument to make if you own all the possible avenues of investigation and prosecution.

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Even the most hard boiled nurse Ratchet type is more qualified to weigh in on VA operations than a bunch of dilatants sitting around in Mar a Lago.

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nobody important was sold out. just the veterans.

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If trump would put as much effort into being POTUS as he does grifting, he might… maybe… just once…
Oh, who the fuck am I kidding?

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Yeah, that will go over well. “If they were just offering advice, the law would apply and we would have to disclose what they are doing. But they’re actually running things and giving orders, so we can keep it all secret!”

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He wasn’t a very successful grifter. In the end he had to bailed out by the Russian mob.

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It is highly improbable that Trump is allowing them to do their advising for free.

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You’re right. Trump puts all his effort into grifting and he still fails.

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Yeah, that’s called a scam. There’s a lot of them in government, these guys who allege to know more about the process while not wanting to engage in it.

They’re crooks. Lock’em up.

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Praps he was told to be "unaware* for the good of his continued employment. “It would be a shame if somethin’ happened to yer job there Ol’ Bobby”.

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Your tax dollars, conservatives, going right into Donald Trump’s personal bank account.

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Of course, its all part of the GOP’s and Trump’s plan to redefine American government as a government "of the rich, by the rich and for the rich."

Honest Abe Lincoln (as Trump likes to call him) is spinning in his grave.

A representative for the trio has said they made recommendations and didn’t attempt to develop policy or influence personnel decisions. The current VA secretary, Robert Wilkie, said he’s not aware of any ongoing contacts between his team and the trio.

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In a court filing last week, the government lawyers argued in part that the trio didn’t fit the law’s definition of an advisory committee because rather than being under the agency’s control, the three men reportedly wielded influence over the agency.

…

A representative for the trio has said they made recommendations and
didn’t attempt to develop policy or influence personnel decisions.

Yeah, that discrepancy ought to be easy to explain to a federal judge. Also, I eagerly await the demonstration of the magic pixie dust that allows the administration to outsource management to a few dudes with no relevant experience and then say they shouldn’t be scrutinized because they don’t really know anything about what they’ve been put in charge of.

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Is there a lease for office space at Mar-a-Lago? Emoluments?

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