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According to a document published by Yahoo News as part of an investigation by the Project on Government Oversight, a company whose medical care of immigrant detainees at one of the nation’s largest detention centers was criticized in a recent Department of Homeland Security watchdog report has been sued a staggering 1,395 times in federal courts over the last decade.
The firm, Nashville-based Correct Care Solutions, is one of the country’s biggest private providers of health care to prisons and immigration detention centers. The number of lawsuits contained in the document, not previously disclosed, is many times higher than previously reported.
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Few people backed Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign with as much cash as Robert Mercer. He donated $15.5 million to a pro-Trump PAC called Make America Number 1, making him the group’s largest donor, according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Since Trump’s election, the policies the Mercers have promoted have taken off — and paid off, according to an investigation by Yahoo News supported by the Project On Government Oversight. With Trump ratcheting up anti-immigrant rhetoric and enforcement, Renaissance Technologies — where Mercer was co-CEO until last fall and where he continues to be active — invested in corporations directly involved in the president’s immigration crackdown and the administration’s embrace of private prisons.
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It may only be a matter of time before the President decides to put the war in Afghanistan—and the resources to fund it—in the hands of private interests. Relentless war privateer Erik Prince won’t stop until he persuades President Trump to let him take charge of U.S. operations in Afghanistan.
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Register Now: Oversight Summit
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Registration is now open for the first-ever Oversight Summit on Friday, November 16, 2018 in Washington, DC. The Summit is for practitioners of government oversight, from across sectors and from every point on the political spectrum. The schedule for the Summit is now live and keynote speakers have been announced.
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POGO in the News
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Constitutional experts are questioning President Donald Trump's legal ability to limit a constitutional amendment on birthright citizenship without Congress' consent.
Sarah Turberville directs The Constitution Project at the Project on Government Oversight and says Trump is "not a king" and "can't announce what the law is."
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"The 14th Amendment is explicit on this question: Persons born in the U.S. are citizens of the U.S. and of the states in which they reside," said Sarah E. Turberville, director of The Constitution Project with the Project on Government Oversight.
"You can quibble over whether this is a good policy, but you can't quibble over what the Constitution very specifically says on the manner," she said.
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“That is exactly what we were concerned about two weeks ago,” said Elizabeth Hempowicz, director of policy at the Project on Government Oversight.
“The IG office is not only in charge of investigating the secretary but keeping the entire agency kind of in check. The movement of a political appointee with no oversight experience into that role kinda makes it look like that move was to stymie that investigation or keep an eye on what was going on internally.”
"That this referral implicates a current member of the president's Cabinet is concerning, and as an organization that pushes for accountability at all levels of government service, we are paying close attention to this story," Hempowicz said.
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You’ve heard about the recent controversy over Saudi Arabia being accused in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey. What you might not know is how an event like that sets off behind the scenes lobbying here in the U.S. -- with foreign governments paying big money to spin the press and influence our Congress. Lydia Dennett with the watchdog Project on Government Oversight has been looking into Saudi Lobbying.
Sharyl: What are you finding out about Saudi Arabia?
Lydia Dennett: So Saudi Arabia is one of the more prolific spenders when it comes to foreign lobbying and foreign influence more generally, which does include, extensive PR campaigns and attempts to influence public opinion here in the US. They currently have about 37 different firms and individuals representing their interests here in the US. That's about fifteen more than they had at this time last year. And two were just added this month, in the last couple weeks.
Sharyl: The two that were added— was that since the controversy with the journalist?
Lydia Dennett: Yes.
Sharyl: Is it accurate to say the product of their efforts, the press that they pay for in essence, or the PR, is not always disclosed, in other words, we may read something, or a member of Congress may get a report that favors them in some way but not know that they in essence funded it?
Lydia Dennett: Yeah, absolutely.
[...] Sharyl: In terms of cash, how does Saudi Arabia figure compare to other foreign countries that are putting a lot of money into influencing our opinion here?
Lydia Dennett: So Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest spenders when it comes to foreign lobbying. According to documents filed with the Department of Justice, they are in the top ten of countries that spend the most on foreign influence here. I believe they are number seven. And this year alone, they've spent at least eight million dollars trying to influence US policy makers and public opinion.
Watch online |
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Political Insider
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The Washington-based Project on Government Oversight filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel Thursday urging it to investigate comments made by the former Georgia governor at a Belleville, Ill., town hall last week.
The target of POGO’s complaint: Perdue’s reported remarks that U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., “can bring the perspective of working folks in Illinois to D.C. and we need that very much so. It’s good to have him in (the House of Representatives) fighting for your interests.”
Perdue was in Illinois in his official role as agriculture secretary, POGO said, where he discussed the administration’s trade battle with China, farm subsidies and the contours of the country’s new trade deal with Canada. His appearance also appeared to coincide with a campaign event for Bost, the group said.
“While it’s unclear to what extent the campaign event and the town hall overlapped, we believe that the Secretary’s verbal endorsement at such a campaign event while in his official capacity and while discussing agency business may violate the Hatch Act. We believe this episode is ripe for investigation by the Office of Special Counsel,” the group said in a letter to Special Counsel Henry Kerner.
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Amazon wants US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to use its controversial facial recognition and analysis technology. That's according to an investigation published by The Daily Beast. The World's Carol Hills interviews Andrea Peterson with the Project on Government Oversight, who co-reported the story.
Listen to the broadcast |
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In response to a tweet from NPR that said the constitutionality of Trump’s plan “isn’t settled,” Sarah Turberville, director of the Constitution Project at the Project on Government Oversight, tweeted: “C’mon @NPR… ‘not settled’? It was settled when the 14th Amendment was ratified. [Neither] The President – nor the Congress – can strip away citizenship from those born in the US. #POTUSisnotourking.”
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A report this week by a watchdog nonpartisan agency found Amazon pitched its facial recognition technology called 'Rekognition' to U.S. immigration and customs enforcement. Jake Laperruque, Senior Counsel at Project on Government Oversight, explains what he's found in this report.
Watch the broadcast |
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Trump’s reference to “many legal scholars” seemed true only to his longstanding tradition of baseless claims. USA Today spoke to Sarah E. Turberville, director of The Constitution Project with the Project on Government Oversight. According to Turberville, the 14th Amendment isn’t open to negotiation.
“The 14th Amendment is explicit on this question: Persons born in the U.S. are citizens of the U.S. and of the states in which they reside,” she said. “You can quibble over whether this is a good policy, but you can’t quibble over what the Constitution very specifically says on the manner.”
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Liz Hempowicz, public policy director for the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight, which tracks inspectors general, said, “This criminal referral to the Department of Justice underscores the need for independent inspectors general. Their vital work can implicate the highest political leaders in an agency and the public must have confidence in the merits of these investigations.”
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"That is exactly what we were concerned about two weeks ago," said Elizabeth Hempowicz, director of policy at the Project on Government Oversight.
"The IG office is not only in charge of investigating the secretary but keeping the entire agency kind of in check. The movement of a political appointee with no oversight experience into that role kinda makes it look like that move was to stymie that investigation or keep an eye on what was going on internally."
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More seriously, some analysts say that the creation of a new military branch would weaken some of the other branches and lead to internal squabbling within the military.
"When you create a new bureaucracy, that bureaucracy tends to focus on its own ends. That's where the problems happen," Dan Grazier, military fellow at the Center for Defense Information at the Project on Government Oversight, told SpaceNews.
Trump's own Air Force secretary, Heather Wilson, has been less than enthusiastic about the idea. Wilson signed a memo that estimated starting up a Space Force would cost $13 billion over five years, a figure dismissed by Pence and other Space Force boosters. Grazier argues that the cost could be significantly higher.
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WARNING ABOUT SPACE FORCE A contrarian view on the Space Force comes from Dan Grazier, military fellow at the Center for Defense Information at the Project on Government Oversight. He predicts that “if we create this new bureaucracy, its first goal is going to be to protect its own existence. A secondary goal will be to justify its existence. Only after that it’ll start focusing on the mission at hand. And even then, the mission at hand is going to be disconnected from the operations of the other services.”
Drawing on his research as a military historian, Grazier said the establishment of a new service is likely to fuel rivalries, which could be counterproductive, he argues. The military already struggles to deliver space capabilities to forces in the field because the organizations that worry about space are not responsible for the equipment that is needed on the ground. The Air Force buys satellites but the Army has to buy the radios that talk to the satellites. “We see this now,” says Grazier. “An independent service dedicated to space will quickly forge its own bureaucratic path separate from the existing military forces. This will provoke more inter-service rivalries and distract from rather than contribute to future military success.”
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Lydia Dennett, an investigator with the Project On Government Oversight in Washington, said that while the report gives the appearance of a quid pro quo relationship between the lobbyists and members of Congress, it does not suggest “they’re acting as a pass-through for a foreign government.”
"These people are often doing this in their personal capacities so it's very hard to tell if they're particularly politically motivated or if they have a personal relationship with the person they're donating money for," Dennett said.
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The Daily Beast reported from emails made public that Amazon met with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the summer to recommend its facial recognition system. The software, called “Rekognition,” can identify people from real-time video in a second.
The emails between ICE and Amazon representatives were originally released by the Project on Government Oversight. The emails include a follow-up to the meeting in which an Amazon Web Services federal sales principal followed up on the meeting’s action items. Those action items included: a workshop to address “a big HSI problem” and an AWS artificial intelligence/machine learning technology briefing focused on several of the company’s technologies, including Rekognition.
With Amazon’s facial recognition technology, ICE could automate surveillance of public spaces for undocumented immigrants. The Daily Beast reported that surveillance in “sensitive locations” like medical facilities, places of worship, and schools could discourage people from seeking out vital services for fear of being identified and detained.
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Center for Public Integrity
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Mandy Smithberger, director of the Center for Defense Information at the Project On Government Oversight, a nonpartisan government watchdog organization, said Hohlt’s appointment at the very least appears to create a conflict of interest.
“For the general public, you want the president to be receiving advice from people whose best interests are the interests of the United States,” Smithberger said.
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