The Office of the Inspector General found that Sandia had illegally used taxpayer money to hire former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson and two other consultants as part of its efforts to lobby the Obama administration and key members of Congress for an extension of its management contract. Sandia in August 2015 agreed to repay the federal government $4.79 million to settle the allegations. In May 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Wilson as secretary of the Air Force. [Public Integrity]
Many journalists can relate to the frustration of knowing there’s some monster of a story swimming around just beneath the surface of what the government has made public, so you ask for more under #FOIA. The government’s response only whets your whistle for richer details. 1/5— Patrick Malone (@pmalonedc) June 4, 2018
But your news outfit won’t pay a lawyer to extract the records, so the secrets stay buried, to the detriment of an informed society. @PublicI takes a different approach. This lawsuit reeled in hundreds of pages we couldn’t get otherwise. https://t.co/LizTRL3C5e 2/5— Patrick Malone (@pmalonedc) June 4, 2018
Disturbing details released under this #FOIA lawsuit fed into several stories. For instance, government personnel in the nuclear weapons program called shady consulting contracts with a former member of Congress a “money grab” and a “soft landing.” https://t.co/WCU3K7L7Az 3/5— Patrick Malone (@pmalonedc) June 4, 2018
Documents nabbed by the lawsuit clearly detailed exactly how this consultant guided a major defense contractor to commit fraud (later reimbursing the government millions of dollars for it) while refusing to tell the government how she spent her time. https://t.co/gbapff6Raf 4/5— Patrick Malone (@pmalonedc) June 4, 2018
Now that consultant is the #Trump administration’s Air Force secretary. DOE inspector general and Department of Justice both found the scheme she guided to be fraudulent. Just how corrupt the whole shenanigan was might still be murky if not for the @PublicI #FOIA lawsuit. 5/5— Patrick Malone (@pmalonedc) June 4, 2018
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