Yet another key Donald Trump official resigns amid scandal
Yesterday we saw Donald Trump’s attorney Ty Cobb abruptly resign, and then hours later it hit the newswires that Trump’s White House Counsel Don McGahn is also preparing his own exist. This comes just days after Trump’s White House Doctor Ronny Jackson resigned in scandal. Trump has consistently lost people at a more swift and scandalous clip than any modern president, but this week in particular has seen the rats fleeing the sinking ship. Now yet another key Trump official is heading for the exits.
Last year Donald Trump tried nominating his former campaign co-chair Sam Clovis to lead the USDA. That nomination fell apart when it was revealed that Clovis was testifying as a cooperating witness in one of Robert Mueller’s grand juries at the same time Trump was trying to get his nomination confirmed. Clovis ended up withdrawing, but he remained at the USDA as a “liaison” to the Trump’s White House, in a poorly defined role that seemed to have been created just to keep Clovis on the payroll.
Now Sam Clovis is resigning from his USDA liaison role, according to a new report from Politico. Why? No reason is being given. Maybe Clovis finally got tired of showing up for an imaginary job that had been created for him in the wake of his failed nomination. But considering that the Trump-Russia investigation is truly hitting the fan this week, with Mueller now pulling out all the stops when it comes to Clovis’ fellow Trump campaign advisers like Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, perhaps Clovis concluded that it’s too much of a conflict of interest to remain working for Trump.
We never did get confirmation of just who all Sam Clovis was testifying against in that grand jury. Considering that he wasn’t subsequently charged or arrested, we have to assume that Clovis sold out everyone he had dirt on. Now he’s resigning from the Donald Trump administration just as the Trump-Russia scandal is reaching a fever pitch.
