A Shocking Crime Occurred on January 6, 2021
If you are suffering from outrage fatigue over January 6th, you may not want to read further. If you are completely unfazed by what happened on January 6th but hate government corruption, this post is for you!
As David A Fahrenthold and Andrea Fuller report in The New York Times, the Trump administration paid Event Strategies, Inc. to plan that extraordinary Day of Love that the President has celebrated and which people suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome call an insurrection. That lucrative contract, and at least five others, according to The Times‘ reporting, was awarded without seeking bids from other vendors. And here’s a shocker: some principals of Event Strategies, according to the Times worked for the Trump campaign and in the Trump administration during his first term.
Such deviations from the standard requirements of government contracting are permitted when there is especial urgency or when only one specialized vendor can perform the necessary tasks. Otherwise, the following federal regulation applies:
Government business shall be conducted in a manner above reproach and, except as authorized by statute or regulation, with complete impartiality and with preferential treatment for none. Transactions relating to the expenditure of public funds require the highest degree of public trust and an impeccable standard of conduct. The general rule is to avoid strictly any conflict of interest or even the appearance of a conflict of interest in Government-contractor relationships. While many Federal laws and regulations place restrictions on the actions of Government personnel, their official conduct must, in addition, be such that they would have no reluctance to make a full public disclosure of their actions.
Sure enough, the government agencies that awarded no-bid contracts to Event Strategies claim that only that entity could have arranged the events in the available time frame. For example, the Navy said it faced a compressed timeline in playing its 250th birthday celebration. Is the Navy claiming that nobody anticipated its 250th birthday?
Prior to January 6th, Event Strategies had been awarded less than $200,000 in government contracts. Since then, it has won $13 million in government contracts, even though it had none during the Biden Administration. I expect Harmeet Dhillon will soon open an investigation to see whether the Biden Administration violated Event Strategies’ civil rights by not contracting with them.