{"id":1665142,"date":"2022-09-29T16:49:32","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T20:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1665142"},"modified":"2022-09-29T16:51:01","modified_gmt":"2022-09-29T20:51:01","slug":"dems-couldnt-fire-this-trump-appointed-official-now-he-might-be-prosecuted-over-an-unauthorized-trip-to-walmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dems-couldnt-fire-this-trump-appointed-official-now-he-might-be-prosecuted-over-an-unauthorized-trip-to-walmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Dems Couldn\u2019t Fire This Trump-Appointed Official. Now He Might Be Prosecuted Over \u2026 An Unauthorized Trip To Walmart."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">36<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdems-couldnt-fire-this-trump-appointed-official-now-he-might-be-prosecuted-over-an-unauthorized-trip-to-walmart%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1665142&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>After the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/this-is-about-january-6-megyn-kelly-calls-bulls-on-trump-raid\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">January 6, 2021, riot<\/a> at the Capitol, Democrat leaders <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/pelosis-pitiful-plea-for-applause-was-pathetically-perfect\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nancy Pelosi<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/pelosi-and-schumer-have-very-different-reactions-to-fbi-raid-on-mar-a-lago\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chuck Schumer<\/a> tossed out two members of the Capitol Police\u2019s four-person board of directors and replaced them with people who have overseen what critics say is the partisan mobilization of Congress\u2019 law enforcement arm.<\/p>\n<p>The final member could not be so easily ousted because he was appointed to a 10-year term by President Donald Trump. Now he could have his career ended by a highly unusual criminal investigation that appears to be targeting him for, of all things, the minor offense of personal use of a government vehicle including an unauthorized stop at Walmart.<\/p>\n<p>J. Brett Blanton serves as Architect of the Capitol, tasked with overseeing the U.S. Congress\u2019 physical campus. That position also makes him, alongside the House and Senate Sergeants-at-Arms, a member of the Capitol Police board. But soon after January 6, he became the target of an investigation that was initially spurred by the General Services Administration and was taken up by an obscure congressional oversight body.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Architect is the only thing standing in the way of turning the Capitol Police into Pelosi\u2019s army,\u201d Mike Davis, a former Republican staffer for the Senate Judiciary Committee who now leads the Article III Project, told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Daily Wire<\/a>. \u201cThey\u2019re going to weaponize the Department of Justice to go after the Trump-appointed Architect of the Capitol because his daughter borrowed his car? Biden has turned the Justice Department into a third-world hit squad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Architect of the Capitol office has a little-known inspector general office dedicated to detecting waste in the office. In the past, it has done little: The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/assets\/gao-17-25.pdf\">Government Accountability Office<\/a> found in 2016 that the IG had a budget of $1.8 million paying for 10 auditors and investigators, yet pinpointed only $7,620 in misspent money in 2015. The current IG is Christopher Failla, who was appointed in 2017 by previous Architect of the Capitol <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aoc.gov\/about-us\/history\/architects-of-the-capitol\/stephen-t-ayers-faia-leed-ap\">Stephen Ayers<\/a>, who in turn was nominated by former President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n<p>On April 27, Failla wrote to congressional overseers in an email obtained by The Daily Wire that \u201cThe Architect has been made aware he is under Federal Investigation by the DOJ investigators and he has obtained legal counsel for himself and his family,\u201d noting that \u201call interviews have been completed by DOJ investigators and AOC OIG Investigators.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe case is in the hands of the AUSA who is developing charges based on testimony and evidence obtained through surveillance, video, documentation and witnesses testimony. This evidence will be presented to the Grand Jury as well as an arrangement for Witness to testify,\u201d it continued.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/2022\/05\/26\/potential-criminal-matter-regarding-architect-of-the-capitol-referred-to-doj\/\">Roll Call<\/a>, which first reported on the letter in May, also reported on the substance of the apparent underlying investigation in <a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/2021\/06\/04\/aoc-blanton-under-investigation-for-misusing-government-vehicle\/\">June 2021<\/a> \u2014 a background that would explain the reference to Blanton\u2019s \u201cfamily.\u201d It said that in March 2021 \u2014 not long after the January 6 riots \u2014 someone called a government hotline to report that the car was being driven recklessly at the Tysons Corner mall in Virginia by a woman, and the GSA hotline sent a complaint to the IG.<\/p>\n<p>It would not be possible to criminally prosecute someone for being tied to a car that a citizen claimed was driven poorly. But the black Ford Explorer is supposed to be used only for Blanton\u2019s commute from work to home, Roll Call said, whereas the car allegedly made an \u201cunauthorized stop at Walmart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The IG\u2019s assertion that the U.S. attorney was pursuing charges is atypical for when inspectors general catch employees violating minor \u2014 and even major \u2014 rules and laws, a Daily Wire review of years of various IG reports found. For example, on September 12, the Department of Justice Inspector General said that when it told the DOJ that one of its own prosecutors had been caught sexually assaulting someone, exposing his genitals, and lying to investigators, the DOJ <a href=\"https:\/\/oig.justice.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/reports\/22-103.pdf\">rejected<\/a> the IG\u2019s referral.<\/p>\n<p>Bill Miller, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves, declined to say if the investigation found anything worse than misuse of a government vehicle or to confirm if Graves has taken or will take the case to a grand jury, telling The Daily Wire \u201cWe typically do not confirm the existence of investigations and have no comment.\u201d Public court records do not show that any charges have been brought.<\/p>\n<p>A spokeswoman for IG Failla told The Daily Wire \u201cThe Architect of the Capitol Office of Inspector General (AOC OIG) does not confirm or deny the existence of or otherwise comment about ongoing investigations.\u201d Adding to the impression that the probe is still open, no report is posted on its website. IGs often don\u2019t publish investigations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/new-watchdog-report-claiming-ex-trump-official-lied-four-years-ago-called-election-smear\">until<\/a> the DOJ has either prosecuted or declined to prosecute.<\/p>\n<p>Blanton\u2019s office did not respond to an inquiry from The Daily Wire. In a June 2021 statement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe Architect is the only thing standing in the way of turning the police into Pelosi\u2019s army,\u201d Mike Davis, a former Republican staffer for the Senate Judiciary Committee who know leads the Article III Project, told The Daily Wire. \u201cThey\u2019re going to weaponize the Department of Justice to go after the Trump-appointed Architect of the Capitol because his daughter borrowed his car? Biden has turned the Justice Department into a third-world hit squad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1665144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1665142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1665142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1665144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1665142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1665142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1665142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}