Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington are pissed at getting the runaround from Trump.

Here's more courtesy of Bloomberg: 

A government transparency group vowed on Friday to continue a court battle to open up visitor logs at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, after the administration provided only the names of Japanese staff who attended a February visit from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. 

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, one of three government transparency groups that sued the Department of Homeland Security for the information, obtained and released the records on Friday. 

The Justice Department said in a letter to CREW that the records were responsive to the group’s request under the Freedom of Information Act. “The government seriously misrepresented their intentions to both us and the court,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement. “This was spitting in the eye of transparency. We will be fighting this in court.” 

CREW and other ethics specialists have criticized Trump for not divesting from his business holdings -- including Mar-a-Lago and other properties he visits -- saying they provide an avenue for those seeking influence to curry the president’s favor.

This kind of arrogance on the part of Trump and his businesses will ultimately only bring more heat in their direction.

And that last part is becoming a real issue now that we are learning just how much Trump himself is benefiting financially from using Mar-a-Lago as his "winter White House."

Courtesy of WaPo: 

On a weekend in early March, during one of seven trips by Trump and his White House entourage to the posh Palm Beach property since the inauguration, the government paid the Trump-owned club to reserve at least one bedroom for two nights. 

The charge, according to a newly disclosed receipt reviewed by The Washington Post, was $1,092. 

The amount was based on a per-night price of $546, which, according to the bill, was Mar-a-Lago’s “rack rate,” the hotel industry term for a standard, non-discounted price. 

The receipt, which was obtained in recent days by the transparency advocacy group Property of the People and verified by The Post, offers one of the first concrete signs that Trump’s use of Mar-a-Lago as the “Winter White House” has resulted in taxpayer funds flowing directly into the coffers of his private business.

I am very hopeful that these groups really turn the screws on Trump and bring transparency to what is now perhaps the most secretive administration since Richard Nixon's.

It looks as if we will finally get a look at the Mar a Lago visitor logs.

The Trump Administration Will Finally Release Its Mar-a-Lago Visitor Logs https://t.co/ykM8MxLvKW via @MotherJones

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) July 17, 2017

Courtesy of Mother Jones:  

The Department of Homeland Security will release the visitor logs from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, thanks to an ongoing lawsuit filed by the government watchdog organization, Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington—a group that has been fiercely critical of the Trump administration’s lack of transparency and its potential conflicts of interest. 

“The public deserves to know who is coming to meet with the president and his staff,” CREW executive director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement Monday. “We are glad that as a result of this case, this information will become public for meetings at his his personal residences—but it needs to be public for meetings at the White House as well.” 

The group said that it will receive the records by September 8—though there has been some ambiguity over what logs exist in the first place—and then make them available for public review. A federal judge ruled the administration must release certain visitor logs on Friday.

Good news, but I am fairly confident there will be numerous redactions. 

Watchdog group wants FCC to pull Rupert Murdoch's Fox News licenses in response to phone hacking charges. Is it Christmas already?

Courtesy of the Guardian:

A Washington-based ethics watchdog is calling on federal regulators to revoke News Corporation's 27 Fox broadcast licenses in the wake of the highly critical report on phone hacking from the UK parliament. 

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew) has written to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, calling on the regulator to pull the plug on Rupert Murdoch's lucrative television licenses on grounds of character. 

The letter argues that the final report of the UK Commons culture, media and sport committee, which concluded that Murdoch was not fit to run a major international company, had implications for the US regulators that they had now to act upon. 

Melanie Sloan, Crew's director, said that the Murdochs had clearly failed the character test that is embedded within US media law as it is within British. "If they are not passing the character standard under British law, it seems to me that they are not going to meet the character standard in America." 

In their report, the British parliamentarians found Rupert Murdoch was "not a fit person" to exercise stewardship of a major international company. The Commons culture, media and sport select committee also concluded that James Murdoch showed "willful ignorance" of the extent of phone hacking during 2009 and 2010. 

Under FCC regulations, broadcast frequencies can only be handed to firms run by people of good "character" who serve the "public interest" and speak with "candor". In making that judgment, the FCC is entitled to consider past conduct of media owners, including conduct that does not relate directly to their broadcasting interests, as well as any patterns of alleged misbehavior. 

The FCC has so far shown an unwillingness to be drawn into the billowing phone hacking scandal concerning the News of the World and other News Corporation outlets in the UK. Last July, Genachowski indicated that he did not expect his agency to get involved in the probe. 

But Crew insisted that as more information emerges about the failure of News Corp to deal with its hacking crisis, federal authorities would eventually be forced to act. The watchdog has also written to the US Senate and House committees on commerce calling for congressional hearings into whether the Murdochs were fit to hold the Fox TV licenses. A similar request from Crew last year went unanswered.

This is by NO means a done deal, but considering how the Obama administration, and the other news agencies, view Fox News, it would not be totally surprising if these calls for removing the Murdock taint from journalism in this country, in an attempt to bring back the high standards it once enjoyed before it was infected with the cancer of Fox New, don't find sympathetic ears here in the United States.

And how awesome would it be if we could FINALLY have a country where the poisonous lies dripping from the fangs of the Fox News "journalists" did not inject themselves into our political dialogue and negatively impact our ability to separate fact from fabrication?

Not to mention the fact that without Fox News, there would be NOBODY willing to broadcast the wilted word salad of a certain Lunatic from Lake Lucille into our living rooms. 

THAT alone should be enough reason for the FCC to act on CREWS request.

Uh oh! Something stinks in Teabag-ville!

From CREW:

"Christine O'Donnell is clearly a criminal, and like any crook she should be prosecuted," said Melanie Sloan, CREW Executive Director. "Ms. O'Donnell has spent years embezzling money from her campaign to cover her personal expenses. Republicans and Democrats don't agree on much these days, but both sides should agree on one point: thieves belong in jail not the United States Senate."

CREW's complaint is based, in part, on the affidavit of former campaign aide David Keegan. Mr. Keegan explained that in 2009, when Ms. O'Donnell was out of money, she paid her landlord, Brent Vasher, two months rent out of her campaign funds. On FEC forms, Ms. O'Donnell called the expenditures "expense reimbursements." Mr. Keegan also attested that Ms. O'Donnell routinely used campaign funds for meals and gas, and even a bowling outing. This is not surprising given that Ms. O'Donnell has not held a steady job or had a discernable source of income for many years.

"If you need money to pay the rent and eat, you get a job; you don't start a Senate campaign so unsuspecting donors can support you," said Sloan.

Well it sounds as if CREW is definitely not going to pull any punches just because O'Donnell has that whole cute thing going for her. Perhaps in the future Sarah Palin and her teabagging buddies might want to pick a candidate based on their integrity and abilities instead of their appearance and "wingnutiness". (By the way that is totally my word. But you can all borrow it if you want to.)

Update; You have got to go visit Think Progress and see the list they have put together on O'Donnell's positions on.....well on EVERYTHING.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington want Patrick Fitzgerald to re-open his investigation in light of the missing e-mails.

Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director, said today, "It looks like Karl Rove may well have destroyed evidence that implicated him in the White House's orchestrated efforts to leak Valerie Plame Wilson's covert identity to the press in retaliation against her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson." Sloan continued, "Special Counsel Fitzgerald should immediately reopen his investigation into whether Rove took part in the leak as well as whether he obstructed justice in the ensuing leak investigation."

Now as one of those who was somewhat less then satisfied at the outcome of Fitzgerald's last case, the one that resulted in the conviction of Scooter Libby, I would truly love to see him go after this administration again. As a matter of fact I would not be at all surprised if Fitzgerald got the information about these e-mails out to CREW himself with the intention of re-starting his investigation.

The man is described as "scary smart" for a reason.