At the approach of the anniversary of Hurricane Maria’s destruction of Puerto Rico and the start of criminally-negligent neglect that killed and otherwise harmed its people, FEMA Director and death-toll denier Brock Long is in deeper trouble for misusing government funding.
According to this morning’s Wall Street Journal, an investigation into his use of taxpayer-funded vehicles and resources for personal commuting is being referred to prosecutors. He and two of his flunkies might have broken as many as six laws. Trump & minions were considering firing Long last week, in fact, but kept him on due to Hurricane Florence, since he did such a great job with Puerto Rico it affected a lot of white people.
Now apparently, in a show of having some ethics, the White House is looking at possible successors, so look for Long to be storm-surged out of his office soon.
What exactly did Long, who lives in North Carolina and has spent a Trump-like 150 days there since being appointed FEMA Director in June 2017, do wrong?
Mr. Long often left Washington on Thursdays for the 400-mile trip in a caravan of government-owned vehicles with federal employees, who stayed in nearby hotels for the long weekend, the people [familiar with the investigation] said.
[...]
During one of those trips, a federal employee was driving a government vehicle that was involved in an accident, the people familiar with the probe said. The driver didn’t properly report the accident, and is included in the inspector general’s referral to the U.S. attorney’s office, one of the people said.
When the trips home continued, the inspector general’s office put Mr. Long under surveillance and tailed him back to North Carolina, the people said.
Long’s argument was that commuting in style on your dime was necessary for him to keep in proper communication as part of his job, but Obama’s FEMA Director called bullshit:
Former FEMA Administrator W. Craig Fugate said in an interview on Monday that he often drove home to Florida on his own and in his own vehicle. He had established multiple stops along the route that could accommodate secure communications, if needed.
Because Fugate wasn’t part of an administration where being either a grifter, a sexual predator or both seems to be a job requirement.
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