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“Trump University” ostensibly existed to educate students about the ins and outs of the real-estate business; in reality it involved “instructors” who may not have had high school degrees selling intellectually flimsy seminars that cost tens of thousands of dollars using infomercial-style high-pressure sales tactics. The for-profit institution was ultimately forced to change its name (becoming the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative) by New York officials who wrote that its “use of the word ‘university’ ” was “misleading” and violated state law. (Read the story)
“It’s disappointing there will never be a trial over Trump University and that he was able to keep all the lurid facts of this fraud from coming to light,” he added. “It’s disappointing he will never be fully held accountable."
Investor Carl Icahn dumped $31,300,000.00 in steel-related stocks just days before Trump announced plans to impose steep tariffs on steel imports.
Maddow dove deep into Pruitt’s ethically questionable behavior, zeroing in on a specific incident in which the EPA head apparently flew to Morocco at taxpayer expense in order to do the bidding of his buddy, Carl Icahn.
The Center for Media and Democracy has learned that Koch Industries bought shares in Cheniere Energy immediately prior to the time of Pruitt’s trip to Morocco.
While traveling to Morocco last year, Environmental Protection AgencyAdministrator Scott Pruitt promoted an issue that could benefit his past energy industry donors -- and also clients of the lobbying firm tied to his controversial Capitol Hill condo deal, several Democratic lawmakers told ABC News. The Morocco trip, which cost more than $17,000 from Pruitt's flight alone, was previously flagged to investigators for the EPA’s inspector general because of the costs of his first-class travel.
Details of the December 2017 trip, which included a two-day layover in Paris, have drawn scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers, especially since reports surfaced that Pruitt was renting a $50-a-night bedroom from the wife of J. Steven Hart, the chairman of Williams and Jensen, a firm that does extensive lobbying in the oil and gas arena. The condo was co-owned by Hart’s wife, who is a healthcare lobbyist. At least two of William and Jensen’s clients, Cheniere Energy and Exxon Mobil, had lobbyists working on issues tied to LNG, disclosure filings show.
Hart was registered personally to lobby for Cheniere, though he said in a statement that he made no contacts to Pruitt or the EPA on behalf of them or any other client. Last year, Cheniere Energy Inc. reported paying Hart’s firm $80,000, and the firm specifically lobbied on “issues related to the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG), approval of LNG exports and export facilities.” The firm also lists on its website that it lobbies on other EPA policies like the Clean Air Act.