It may not seem important given everything else going on, but the administration undercutting and defunding the offices that are tasked with finding waste, fraud, and abuse in government is one more piece of their effort to eliminate any checks on their power to do whatever they want.

It is hard to overstate how dangerous for democracy the indictment of former FBI Director Comey is. The President of the United States specifically called for prosecution of perceived political opponents, including Comey, calling them guilty before trial or even indictment. 🧵

Political violence is never acceptable, period.

When Donald Trump was running for president, he promised oil executives that if they gave massively to his campaign, his policies and changes to regulations would make it worth their while. That is exactly what has happened. It is corrupt influence of moneyed interests to the extreme.

72 career officials with nearly 450 years of service have resigned in protest rather than compromise their oaths. When public servants of this caliber are driven out, it's an alarming signal that our democracy is under extraordinary strain.

The introduction of bipartisan compromise legislation is a huge step forward in the fight to ban congressional stock trading. For years, we've fought for meaningful reforms to ensure that public servants are working in the best interest of the public—not their stock portfolios. Let's get this done.

While legal, a member of Congress owning Bitcoin and promoting a bill that could raise the value of Bitcoin raises all sorts of red flags. We want members to be making decisions that are in the best interest of the country, not in their personal financial interest.

Political committees have spent $931,129 at Trump properties since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, according to a new analysis by @citizensforethics.org of FEC filings. This is one more stunning example of how Trump is profiting from his office.

NEW: Donald Trump has profited from the presidency to the tune of billions. This is unlike anything the country has seen before, and it affects all Americans because it means our president may be acting for himself, not us. We cannot let it become the new normal. I explain why in @msnbc.com.

Note that the judge who just threw out in very strong terms Donald Trump's lawsuit against all the Maryland federal judges, noting that it was unprecedented and would offend the rule of law, was appointed by Donald Trump.

We should not let Donald Trump's unprecedented business conflicts of interest and authoritarian actions distract us from the regular, everyday corruption that is also happening--in this case, administration officials already leaving to cash in on their government work as lobbyists.

Donald Trump has bought up tens of millions of dollars in debt from corporations whose value is directly affected by his policies. Just because he does it all the time does not mean we can be okay with the risk of him making key decisions in the interest of his own enrichment, not the country.

The courts have been one of the few effective checks on Donald Trump's extreme assertions of power. So Trump has effectively declared war on courts, most recently with a bogus ethics complaint against one of his top judicial targets. @greggnunziata.bsky.social and I explain why this is so dangerous.

NEW: Courts have fulfilled their constitutional responsibility by refusing to bless Trump's blatantly unconstitutional executive orders. So Trump has declared war on the courts, rather than simply filing appeals. Read @greggnunziata.bsky.social and @noahbookbinder.bsky.social:

A court recently greenlit Donald Trump's cuts of billions of dollars of USAID funding, even though Congress had approved the funding. Undermining constitutional checks is dangerous, and it's a part of the administration's full-on power grab.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is pushing for a ban on congressional stock trading while his failure to divest from his assets is raising concerns. All officials should behave ethically, including those in Congress--and the administration.

The Trump administration took down a website required by law that showed whether or not it was spending money as required by Congress. @citizensforethics.org and others sued and won in multiple courts. Now the website is back, so the American people can see what money its government is spending.

Donald Trump has said that the growing immigration crackdown should include carveouts for the hospitality industry, which conveniently allows his companies to continue hiring foreign workers without fear of raids. The hypocrisy seems pretty stark.

Let's not forget that at least 10 of the insurrectionists Donald Trump pardoned also face other criminal charges, suggesting that his concern about crime is selective at best. If he really cared about public safety, he wouldn't pardon repeat offenders.

The New Yorker estimates Trump has made $3.4 billion from the presidency. I told them, "The American people ultimately don’t like people using public office to enrich themselves. It’s like a President turning a national park into his summer home—and, in this case, maybe building a skyscraper there."

Just to be clear: Donald Trump just threatened force against people who spit on police officers in DC. Also, in January, Trump pardoned January 6 insurrectionists who had violently assaulted DC police officers. So it feels like this is a bit more about his power than about looking out for officers.

Objective data about what's happening is a key form of accountability for our leaders, showing how their policies are affecting people. Donald Trump's attack on data by stopping it from being collected and published, and even firing those in charge of it, is one more attack on accountability.

Donald Trump raising money from donors for a White House ballroom is highly unusual. There is certainly a risk that donors to this project, which Trump has made clear is important to him, could see it as one more way to curry favor with the administration.

Donald Trump is firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics right after they reported weak jobs numbers. If firing someone in charge of statistics because the objective statistics make you look bad isn't some authoritarian nonsense, I don't know what is.

Since the Jan. 6 insurrection, more than 2,000 corporate and industry group PACs have given over $174 million to members of the Sedition Caucus. These companies clearly miss the danger of choosing short-term economic interests over safeguarding democracy.

Donald Trump Jr. launched a new company called GrabAGun. The SEC approved the company to go public less than two months after the new SEC chair reportedly attended a party for one of Don Jr.'s other businesses, raising many questions.

Donald Trump traveling to Scotland to promote his golf courses there is a clear case of using the presidency for self-enrichment, in ways that could impact important international ties and policies. People should be outraged.

NEW from @citizensforethics.org: Private prison companies GEO Group and Core Civic and related entities gave millions to Donald Trump's campaign and inaugural fund and now stand to make a ton, possibly billions, from the President's immigration policy and the bill he pushed through Congress.

This is important: A federal judge pushed back on the Trump administration taking down an OMB website showing how taxpayer money is being spent. He explicitly told them to "stop violating the law!" Thankfully, courts keep standing up for the law.

NEW from @citizensforethics.org: 17 White House staffers report holding stock in Big Oil companies, up to $2.25 million in total. The White House just jammed a huge bill through Congress that Big Oil reportedly considers a "home run." Take from that what you will.

NEW: In the first six months of his second term, Donald Trump is monetizing the presidency, committing greater abuses of his office and profiting in even more corrupt ways than the first time around. @citizensforethics.org released a detailed report breaking it down:

There would have been a way to pass major crypto legislation without the president himself being able to benefit from whatever legitimacy this could confer upon stablecoins -- but that's not what Congress and the president did.

In the wake of the January 6 pardons, we have to assume, going forward, that a lot of people in this country are going to feel like they don't have to accept the results of elections if they don't like those results, particularly if those results are seen as going against Donald Trump.

Make no mistake: the fact that the Trump administration has been accused of flouting court orders in a third of the cases against the administration in which there has been a substantive ruling is a major sign that the rule of law, and our system of checks and balances, are in real danger.

In a case @citizensforethics.org brought with @publiccitizen.bsky.social and a related case from @protectdemocracy.org, the court found that the administration violated the law by taking down a website that shows what money the government is actually spending, and ordered them to put it back up.

BREAKING: In our lawsuit with @publiccitizen.bsky.social the judge just ruled that the Office of Management and Budget must restore its website that shows how it is spending taxpayer dollars. The judge had some strong words for OMB about the illegal removal of the site:

Putting aside whether it's a good idea to be even more partisan, as OMB Director Russ Vought suggested (I suspect most Americans would disagree), it is a huge problem for the administration to ignore our laws and system of checks and balances to move spending power from Congress to the president.

Donald Trump reported $57 million in token sales in 2024 from World Liberty Financial, which he partly owns. Now, he is profiting from his new crypto ventures while his administration takes steps that benefit the industry. A clear conflict of interest.

The President of the Unites States said he wants to revoke Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship. That's not just unhinged—it's illegal. Stripping perceived political enemies of citizenship is something authoritarians would do. This should concern every American.

Replacing one set of special interests who have excessive influence with another, as Robert Kennedy Jr. seems to have done at HHS, is not fighting corruption. It's just different corruption.

AG Pam Bondi's firing of the Department of Justice's top ethics attorney is one more troubling and arbitrary firing at the Department, and it raises particular concerns about DOJ leadership's commitment to acting ethically, particularly coming in the wake of specific ethics questions about Bondi.

The Trump administration's sudden, unexplained DOJ and FBI firings are instilling real fear within the workforce. This apparently politicized purge is deeply troubling and threatens the integrity of our justice system.

The Executive Office of the President has no inspector general—and that means no oversight. That needs to change. Kudos to Sen. Schiff for introducing the BEACON Act to help hold the White House accountable.

The Supreme Court just seemingly gave Donald Trump power to reorganize the federal government and fire federal workers en masse. Not only is that an unprecedented move, it's extremely dangerous for democracy.

Donald Trump has proposed a federal cryptocurrency reserve and set out specific products to be included in that reserve. A new @citizensforethics.org analysis finds that 19 White House officials own up to $2.35 million in the assets Trump proposed including in the reserve and could profit from it.

We should not forget about President Trump's blatantly corrupt memecoin dinner held in May. Many invitees have remained anonymous. Especially given concerns about potential foreign influence, the public deserves transparency. Release the guest list now.

NEW from @citizensforethics.org: Four senators or their family members bought stock in AI-related companies as the Senate was considering the future of regulation of AI. It is well past time for a comprehensive ban on congressional stock trading and ownership.

Donald Trump and his company were reportedly in some financial trouble last spring. But leaning into business opportunities aimed at profiting from the presidency has gotten the business out of trouble and netted Trump a lot of money. He seems intent on getting away with whatever he can.

ICE is on track to spend much more than Congress authorized. In fact, they are already an estimated $1 billion over budget. The American public deserves full transparency about OMB’s management of taxpayer money and ICE’s use of those funds.

One of Donald Trump's companies representing Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche in a real estate transaction is deeply problematic and raises all kinds of questions like whether Roche thinks this will help it get better treatment from the president. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...