This Week in Trumpland Corruption: He Gave It the Old Electoral College Try
By: Max Ufberg
Tags: Electoral College, Texas, Trump Corruption Index, Elections, Politics

This Week in Trumpland Corruption: He Gave It the Old Electoral College Try

This week we saw yet another failed attempt by the White House to discount the election results, plus a potential incentive behind the Texas AG’s absurd election lawsuit

Is there enough graft, double-dealing, and self-interested chicanery in the Trump administration to publish this column every week? Only time — and Trump — will tell. (But we feel pretty confident.) Presenting this week’s installment of the Trump Corruption Index.

He will not go gentle into that good night

Even in the wake of President-elect Biden’s Electoral College victory, the Trump administration continues its campaign to deny the results of the election. On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany refused to acknowledge Biden’s victory, claiming that Trump “is still involved in ongoing litigation related to the election,” according to the Washington Post. All of Trump’s litigation efforts have thus far failed, with both liberal and conservative judges ruling against his legal team. In fact, eight Trump-appointed judges have ruled against or refused to support Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud, according to a Post analysis. Now that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has finally acknowledged Biden’s win, Trump is left with a last-ditch challenge on the House floor to overturn the results — an effort that’s all but guaranteed to fail. When asked whether Trump plans to invite Biden to the White House, McEnany declined to answer. As for the president himself, he was busy Tuesday making a new — and, of course, false — allegation of voter fraud in Michigan.

Corrupt-o-meter: 👿👿👿🗳️🗳️

Paxton’s play for a pardon

FBI agents issued a subpoena last week to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office as part of their investigation into whether he abused his office to help a friend and wealthy donor, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Authorities are looking into claims by former Paxton aides that he used his power to help Austin investor Nate Paul, specifically by hiring an outside investigator in October to launch a probe into whether the FBI violated Paul’s constitutional rights during a raid of his offices last year. A number of pundits and GOP officials have since wondered aloud whether Paxton’s absurd lawsuit — which was rejected by the Supreme Court — seeking to invalidate the presidential election results in key states won by Biden was really his attempt to appeal to President Trump for a pardon on whatever charges he may face for his dealings with Paul.

Corrupt-o-meter: 🚨⚖️⚖️

A dirty trick for dirty energy

The Securities and Exchange Commission is scheduled to vote Wednesday on an oil industry-supported proposal to ease disclosure rules for fossil fuel and mining companies that spend money to influence government officials, according to Jacobin. Though the rules were included in financial reform legislation in 2010, they’ve never actually been implemented, as they have been held up in the courts. But now the SEC’s Republican appointees appear ready to formalize a gutted form of the proposal. “As written, the rules would benefit neither the public nor investors because it would allow oil, gas, and mining companies to hide too much information,” the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog organization, wrote in a public comment on the proposed rule.

Corrupt-o-meter: 🛢️🛢️

Mounting interest in Trump’s banking

New York state prosecutors interviewed a number of employees of President Trump’s bank and insurance broker, the New York Times reported last week. The interviews with workers at Deutsche Bank and Aon are part of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s probe into whether the Trump Organization broke state laws. Vance’s office has been battling President Trump for more than a year over his refusal to release eight years of his tax returns. Should Vance bring charges against Trump, the president would not be eligible for a White House pardon, given that this would be a state-level offense.