Some staffers on the House Judiciary Committee worked with Donald Trump’s transition team on the executive order temporarily barring immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries, and the staffers did so without telling the chair of the committee or GOP leaders, Politico reported Monday night.
The staffers were also forced to sign nondisclosure agreements, according to Politico.
“Like other congressional committees, some staff of the House Judiciary Committee were permitted to offer their policy expertise to the Trump transition team about immigration law,” an unnamed aide on the House Judiciary Committee aide told Politico in a statement. “The final policy decisions contained in the executive order and its subsequent roll-out and implementation.”
The Judiciary Committee aides started helping with the executive order during the transition, per Politico.
Though some Hill staffers were asked to help with the order, members of Congress did not find out about the immigration order ahead of time. Members read the text of the order until Friday, according to Politico.
At my workplace, I’m supervisor for four staff members. If somebody from outside contacted my staff members and contracted them to do work for somebody else (even another friendly organization we coordinate with, not necessarily a competitor) without anybody telling me, I’d be crazy upset. Trying to put myself in those shoes, I could easily imagine it being grounds for immediate dismissal.
If the staffers involved are not fired immediately, it tells you everything about Republican promises to stand up to Trump.
In fact, they ought to be forced to testify before Congress, just to make a point about NDAs.
“All government employees work for Trump now, get over it!”
This happens in state government a great deal. The new governor or his staff think they are like CEO’s, able to reach down and use any employee on the payroll. They don’t understand how government works (separation of powers, etc) and often don’t want to learn.
They also don’t trust long time employees in the various departments because the ideologues can’t imagine the employees follow policy and the law, not politics.
“The staffers were also forced to sign nondisclosure agreements, according to Politico.”
Excuse me, but don’t the taxpayers pay for these people’s salaries? What is this nondisclosure shit?
I assume the ACLU will be looking into this…
Also, wasn’t there something a short time back about the ability to drop individual government employees’ salaries to $1 – perhaps here is a group that deserves it?