Phil Washington, Joe Biden’s embattled nominee to head the Federal Administration Aviation, has withdrawn his nomination, sources told Reuters Saturday evening.
One of the sources, a White House official, told Reuters
that “an onslaught of unfounded Republican attacks on Mr Washington’s
service and experience irresponsibly delayed this process, threatened
unnecessary procedural hurdles on the Senate floor, and ultimately have
led him to withdraw his nomination today.”
Reuters’ piece went on to describe issues with Washington, a veteran,
not having a waiver “from rules requiring civilian leadership to head
the FAA” and questions about Washington’s competency and experience as
obstacles, as well as a threat by Republicans to “use parliamentary
tactics to object to Washington’s lack of a waiver.”
They didn’t refer to Washington’s miserable performance when questioned by Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) in which he went 0-for-7 on aviation policy, though.
Nor did they refer to the exchange between Washington and Sen. Ted
Cruz (R-TX) in which it’s quite possible that Washington committed
perjury by claiming that a contract at the center of a pay-to-play
criminal investigation in California in which Washington is “materially
involved” was already in force before Washington became head of LA
Metro.
While the LA Metro corruption investigation was known by the
committee, and the execution of a search warrant at former LA County
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl’s home was covered in the media, the fact that
Washington’s name was prominently featured in the search warrant and
that the whistleblower had given investigators information that
Washington himself okayed the payments even after ethical questions were
raised was brought to the national attention by RedState prior to the beginning of Washington’s hearing.
During Wednesday’s proceedings, Cruz detailed his issues with
Washington’s nomination. After mentioning the issues with experience and
competence, Cruz went into specifics about Washington’s criminal
investigation problem:
“Unfortunately, the problems with Mr. Washington’s
nomination don’t end with his lack of aviation experience. There are
also serious concerns regarding outstanding allegations that Mr.
Washington engaged in misconduct during his time as the head of the Los
Angeles Metro. He has been named in multiple search warrants in an
ongoing criminal public corruption investigation, and he’s been the
subject of multiple whistleblower complaints.
One search warrant was executed just last September, not very long
ago. It contained allegations that Mr. Washington pushed forward
lucrative no-bid contracts to a politically-connected nonprofit to run a
sexual harassment hotline that was hardly ever used, and that he did so
in order to stay in the good graces of a powerful politician on LA
Metro’s board. The allegations are the kind of local corruption sadly we
see far too often across this country, in both parties.
“But a whistleblower who exposed the details of this alleged
pay-to-play contracting scheme claims to have been retaliated against by
Mr. Washington. After Mr. Washington left the LA Metro the agency
settled these claims with the whistleblower for $625,000. I practiced
law for a long time. you did as well. A $625,000 check is not a nuisance
check. It’s not a “go away” check. It’s indicative that there’s a real
there, there. Whistleblowers don’t get settlements for more than a half a
million dollars if their claim is baseless.”
And, Cruz revealed that the criminal investigation in California is not expected to be complete for months,
that Washington is alleged to have pushed through the contract to keep
in the “good graces” of a powerful county supervisor, and that the White
House hadn’t even asked the California Attorney General’s office for
any details or timeline information on the investigation.
“Even more amazing, when my staff spoke with the
California Attorney General’s office, the AG’s office told us that at
the time they spoke they were not aware of anybody from the White House,
from the FBI, or from the Senate who had even contacted them to ask
about Mr. Washington’s ongoing involvement in the investigation. That’s
truly stunning. That is, frankly, just not caring.
“It’s inexplicable to me that a president, that a White House would
choose to nominate someone who is materially involved in a current
ongoing public corruption investigation. Just imagine how damaging it
would be to the FAA if Mr. Washington were confirmed and then months
later he were to find himself indicted for public corruption. That would
do real damage to an agency that needs serious trust in leadership.”
Something tells me that Mr. Washington did not want to see the whistleblower called to testify
before the Senate, and that now-Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti didn’t
want to see that either, since his office was also “materially
involved” in the award of the corrupt contract. |
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