Government

The T14 GOP Lawyer Single-Handedly Holding Up The Joe Biden Transition

It really is time to drain the swamp.

By  
on

In a sense, the presidential election is over. There is no credible path for Donald Trump to secure enough votes in enough places to reach 270 electoral votes. At this point, Joe Biden can shed the term “former Vice President” in lieu of “President-Elect” and everyone in the reality-based timeline has already started this semantic transition.

But it turns out, the title of “President-Elect” is actually statutorily defined! And that’s where the mischief begins:

The head of the GSA is Emily Murphy. Murphy is a 2001 UVA Law grad who served as an associate at Wiley Rein for a bit, but has more or less just passed through “The Swamp” from one GOP post to another, including a run as senior counsel for the House Small Business Committee and some time at the Small Business Administration.

The GSA, at the risk of oversimplifying, is the organization that runs federal buildings. That would make its role seem purely functionary — which it should be! — but under Murphy’s leadership, the agency has morphed into ground zero for obfuscating real estate transactions that appear designed expressly to advance the Trump family’s business interests. Murphy has performed much of the legwork on the Trump organization’s exploitation of the Old Post Office in D.C., a Trump property that he acquired well before becoming president, but a property at the heart of many of the most compelling emoluments arguments, and a relationship that Murphy is charged with overseeing. Her oversight has been… suspect. Meanwhile, Murphy’s involvement in coordinating the FBI headquarters controversy with the Oval Office became the subject of an investigation where Murphy’s testimony did not exactly match up with the “facts” or “documentary evidence.” GSA responded to these allegations by saying that all the documents that suggested that the president said things didn’t really mean the caporegime said things directly to us, which is exactly how crime family testimony always goes.

So it comes as little surprise that when asked to perform her legal duty to authorize the presidential transition process, Murphy demurred:

“An ascertainment has not yet been made. GSA and its Administrator will continue to abide by, and fulfill, all requirements under the law,” the spokesperson added in a statement when asked if changes were forthcoming in the days ahead.

Sponsored

Of course, an ascertainment has been made. Fox News even made this ascertainment. And thus, the GSA and its current Administrator are actually continuing their three-year pattern of struggling to abide by or fulfill their requirements under the law.

Remember when no one had to worry about what partisan hack ran the General Services Administration?

Biden campaign pushes GSA chief to approve transition [The Hill]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

Sponsored

Topics

, , ,