As we all take steps to mitigate the severity of the outbreak, we're continuing to investigate the troublingly inadequate response to the crisis.

President Donald Trump’s primetime address on Wednesday was supposed to reassure worried Americans about their government’s efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus. Instead, and unsurprisingly, ([link removed]) the error-laden speech only caused confusion and exacerbated fears.

During the address, Trump incorrectly said ([link removed]) that the health insurance industry had agreed to waive all copayments for coronavirus treatment — in fact, the agreement was only for testing. He also announced restrictions on travel from Europe ([link removed]) , saying it applied to all countries except the United Kingdom (actually, other countries are also excluded), all travel (the ban doesn’t apply to U.S. residents), and even cargo (it only applies to people).

And if the address was supposed to mollify the markets — something the White House seems to be preoccupied with for political reasons — that goal also failed, with U.S. stock prices dropping nearly 10 percent ([link removed]) on Thursday despite the Federal Reserve’s offering of $1.5 trillion in short-term loans to banks. Banks have been lobbying officials for deregulatory actions ([link removed]) , including lower capital requirements, which experts say could be risky for the financial system. American Oversight filed a Freedom of Information Act request ([link removed]) for communications between banks and Fed officials to see what influence the financial industry is having on the government’s response to the coronavirus.

Industry opportunism during a national crisis isn’t the only thing we’re looking into. We’re also asking for records of the government’s response to online disinformation about the outbreak. The State Department has created a report ([link removed]) about such conspiracy theories and dangerous posts, but social media companies like Facebook and Twitter have complained ([link removed]) that they haven’t received sufficient details about that disinformation. We’re asking the State Department ([link removed]) for its report as well as for any such evidence and related emails.

But the biggest issues, of course, remain the lack of testing and the coronavirus’s danger to vulnerable populations, from the sick or the elderly to those without paid leave. More information continues to emerge about the U.S.’s failure to provide enough tests — a fact Trump continues ([link removed]) to lie about ([link removed]) — and the resulting delay that has allowed the virus to spread unaddressed. (Trump allies like Reps. Mark Meadows and Matt Gaetz, however, were able to be tested ([link removed]) despite the shortage and their own lack of symptoms.)

Among the series of missteps was, as reported by Politico ([link removed]) , a Feb. 23 email system crash at the Department of Health and Human Services, which interrupted negotiations over a coronavirus funding plan and other efforts. We filed a FOIA request ([link removed]) for the HHS memo documenting the outage. We also filed requests for any directives or guidance telling health officials in Washington state, which is at the center of the U.S. outbreak, not to test or to stop testing for the coronavirus, after one doctor told the New York Times that the federal government had instructed doctors in February to “cease and desist.” ([link removed])

Despite the misdirection and inaction of the Trump administration, individuals and state and local governments across the country are increasingly heeding public health experts’ warnings and advice to take aggressive action. Schools are being canceled, as are many large gatherings ([link removed]) , and people are self-isolating. And on Thursday, tenacious questioning by Rep. Katie Porter during a congressional hearing led to CDC Director Robert Redfield committing to make coronavirus testing ([link removed]) available to all Americans regardless of whether they have insurance.

As we all take actions to “flatten the curve” ([link removed]) and mitigate the severity of the outbreak, American Oversight is continuing to investigate the Trump administration’s ([link removed]) troublingly inadequate response to the crisis. Here’s what else we’ve been working on this week:

Post-Impeachment Purges: The list of impeachment-involved officials pushed out of their jobs is long. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Gordon Sondland were fired only two days ([link removed]) after the Senate acquitted Trump. Vindman’s twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, was dismissed the same day ([link removed]) . Jennifer Williams was reassigned from her role as a special adviser to Vice President Mike Pence after testifying, and John Rood, who communicated with Congress about Ukraine aid, was forced to resign ([link removed]) from his job as undersecretary of defense for policy. We filed a FOIA request ([link removed]) to the Department of
Defense for records concerning Sondland’s dismissal and Williams’s reassignment, and asked the State Department ([link removed]) for records related to the firing of Rood and both of the Vindman brothers.

Trump’s Pardon Committee: On Thursday, American Oversight sued Trump, Jared Kushner, and the Executive Office of the President ([link removed]) under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to allow public inspection of records from the president’s clemency task force, which has reportedly been meeting since 2019 to advise him on potential pardon recipients. The group is composed of a number of non-governmental members, including former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, Democratic commentator Van Jones, and the Heritage Foundation’s Paul Larkin. Under FACA, whenever the president or agency officials establish or utilize an advisory committee that includes members who are not part of the federal government, certain transparency requirements apply.

More Ukraine Docs: On Wednesday, the Office of Management and Budget released 170 pages of records ([link removed]) in response to one of our Ukraine-related FOIA lawsuits. The document contains emails from the summer of 2019 that discuss aid to Ukraine — aid that Trump directed ([link removed]) OMB to withhold while his Rudy Giuliani-headed shadow-diplomacy operation worked to get Ukraine’s leaders to announce an investigation into Joe Biden. Many of the emails are heavily redacted, but they do include a message from OMB General Counsel Mark Paoletta about a memo “on Ukraine funds” for “Russ” — presumably, acting OMB Director Russell Vought.

Trump Tax Cuts: Following the passage of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, corporations reportedly intensified lobbying efforts at the Treasury Department to further lower taxes. The Treasury obliged ([link removed]) , with regulations that allowed many multinational companies to pay little, if any, taxes on foreign profits. We filed FOIA requests ([link removed]) to the Treasury for relevant communications ([link removed]) and calendar entries ([link removed]) of high-ranking agency officials. We’ve also filed a request ([link removed]) to the Federal Reserve for the calendars of the
members of the Board of Governors.

State Accountability Project: We’ve been filing requests ([link removed]) for information on how state governments are protecting their voting infrastructure and encouraging voter turnout. In Texas, we filed a request with the secretary of state for more information about “Ready. Check. Vote.” — an educational campaign announced last month ([link removed]) that’s supposed to prepare Texas residents to vote in the election. We want to know ([link removed]) where the campaign is allocating most of its resources. In Georgia, we filed a request ([link removed]) to the secretary of state for emails with the nonprofit Electronic Registration Information
Center as part of our ongoing investigation ([link removed]) into Georgia’s voting security. We also asked the Wisconsin Elections Commission for any ([link removed]) email ([link removed]) communications ([link removed]) with key conservative figures and groups, including the Republican Party of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.

Pompeo Storage Unit Burglary: In November 2018, the Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security dispatched agent William Embry to investigate a burglary of storage units in Wichita, Kansas — two of which belonged to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Reportedly, the storage units appeared to contain “miscellaneous Pompeo campaign items ([link removed]) .” Last week, we asked the State Department ([link removed]) for Embry’s investigative report on the burglary to provide more information about the incident.

To find out more about our work, you can follow us on Twitter at @WeAreOversight ([link removed]) or on Facebook ([link removed]) , and please consider supporting our work with a contribution here ([link removed]) .
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Thank you again for your support and for helping us hold the administration accountable.

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