Trump’s FEMA Director Could Face Criminal Charges For Breaking Up To Six Laws

Donald Trump‘s FEMA director Brock Long, who leads the agency meant to clean up after natural disasters, has created a mess for himself and the Trump administration by using his position to enrich himself.

New reporting on Monday shows that an investigation into Long’s use of government resources for personal travel has been handed over to federal prosecutors.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “An investigation targeting President Trump’s top emergency-management official has been referred to federal prosecutors to determine whether criminal charges should be pursued, according to people familiar with the probe.”

The report notes that Long and two other government employees may be on the hook for committing as many as six crimes by using taxpayer money for personal trips.

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More from the Wall Street Journal:

Brock Long, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and two other federal employees may have broken as many as six laws as they commuted frequently between Washington and Mr. Long’s home in Hickory, N.C., at taxpayers’ expense, said one of the people briefed on the investigation.

Investigators told administration officials that Mr. Long was informed by DHS attorneys last year that his trips home violated the law, the people said. 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 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. Mr. Long has spent about 150 days in North Carolina since he took over the job in June 2017, including weekends and time off, the people said.

This has become a Trump administration staple

This type of behavior – using the federal government as a piggy bank – isn’t an outlier in the Trump administration. It’s a staple.

Whether it’s Tom Price, Scott Pruitt, Ryan Zinke, David Shulkin, Ben Carson or, now, Brock Long, there is no shortage of officials in this administration that see their roles as a means to enriching themselves, not serving the American people.

In the case of Long, it’s particularly troubling to learn about the allegations as the Atlantic coast recovers from a powerful storm – all while Trump raids money from FEMA and the U.S. Coast Guard to fund ICE detention camps.

The longer this administration is in power, the more apparent it is that everybody working in it sees the U.S. government as their own personal play toy.

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