New project: Forensic News and Tracking Turnover
I’m very excited to announce that I have teamed up with some very talented people to launch Forensic News!
Founded by investigative journalist Scott Stedman, the goal is to deliver original long-form investigative journalism that actually matters. Investigative reports will always include hard evidence and articles will always be free. Our hope is that readers will find value in our evidence-based style of journalism and reporting and will be willing to support our work for extra perks on Patreon.
My first piece for Forensic News is Tracking Turnover in the Trump Administration. Using my spreadsheet of all the people who have left the administration, I analyze which departments and positions have had the highest staff turnover. I also compare the results to turnover in previous administrations. As far as I’m aware, this is the most in-depth analysis at administration turnover yet. Plus, there are pretty charts and tables!
Excerpt:
At the time of writing, The Trump Gov Tracker contained 430 individuals who have left the administration since Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2017. 430 people across 850 days comes out to roughly one person leaving every two days on average.
Excerpt:
Using these numbers, Obama had a cabinet turnover rate of 19% in his first two years in office and 38.1% during his first four-year term. Trump has thus had more than double the cabinet turnover in two years as Obama had in four.
Scott Stedman also has a new article on Forensic News: Psy Group ran 2017 operation against the same anti-corruption activists in Ukraine that Giuliani and co are now attacking over the claim that the DNC colluded with Ukraine.
Excerpt:
The focus on Ukrainian anti-corruption leaders at the same time that Manafort was advising the Trump White House to spread the unsubstantiated claim that the DNC colluded with Ukraine raises new questions about Psy Group’s clientele and/or funding/ownership. Previously it was discovered that Ukrainian oligarch Vasyl Khmelnytsky used the parent company of Psy Group in his own business structure.
Legal analyst Jess Coleman examined the most important unanswered questions from the Mueller report, including issues surrounding George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, and Paul Manafort.
Excerpt:
Why did Paul Manafort share polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik?
In August 2016, Paul Manafort met with the Russian-operative Konstantin Kilimnik and shared with him detailed, internal polling data from the Trump campaign. The potential that this information was used by Russians to target their illegal social media campaign is explosive, and the Mueller Report could not rule that out:
Because of questions about Manafort’s credibility and our limited ability to gather evidence on what happened to the polling data after it was sent to Kilimnik, the Office could not assess what Kilimnik (or others he may have given it to) did with it.
Finally, Eric Levai hosts the Counter Intelligence Podcast covering national security and current events for Forensic News. The pilot podcast episode discusses Psy Group, Alfa Bank, and the new model of journalism.