The only way i can operate the canoe is if susan wants to paddle me around, in which case i catch gigantic fish like that. I cant even drive e canoe. Grain of salt here, i dont get boats. Im reading through this part of the indictment and it describes that we, the american taxpayers, are about to get a catamaran, to me, no boat concepts, that seems like no big deal. But then, you look the thing up by the hull number that is in the dirmenindictment, and it tu out, its not just some little training sailboat. Its a 40footlong catamaran. And its basically a big speedboat thingy. And it is really do we have the picture . Thank you very much. This is it. This, apparently, is a 40foot catamaran. Its this gigantic plush speedboat thing. This is what we are getting. Which is very nice, right . Congratulations are in order. Were getting one of these. Its a 2018. Brandnew. Nice brand. Were also getting a brand new 2018 ford f150, also a trailer that goes with it. And i think were also going to get these two items from caterpillar. This is the first one. I dont think of these things as the sort of thing that people bring home for personal use, but how fun would this be, right . This one, a model just like this, is described in the indictment as a tractor, but when you look it up based on the model number, in the indictment, i think its what caterpillar calls a small dozer. Which would be fun. Imagine tooling around on that in your back lawn. Also were getting one of these. Its a model 320 mediumsized caterpillar Hydraulic Excavator. Not the blue thing, the yellow thing. We, the american taxpayers, are getting one of these to play with. Plus about 5 million in cash. Because, if it turns out you were only able to obtain all that cash and all of those things, that surprisingly large boat and the small dozer and all the rest of it, if you were only able to get all of those great things because of your crimes, specifically in this case because of your bribery of the main official charged by the Trump Administration with overseeing the rebuilding of puerto ricos infrastructure and power grid after Hurricane Maria, well, then if you are, in fact, convicted of those crimes for which you are now accused, you will have to give up the fruits of those crimes. You will have to give up the loot, the cash, the amazing mediumsized Hydraulic Excavator and the very fast 40foot long catamaran and the boat and the trailer and the truck and all the rest of it. In any other president ial administration, after 3,000 americans were killed in a catastrophic hurricane and a botched federal Disaster Response there after, it would be the scandal of the year. It would be a presidency defining, if not presidency ending scandal, if the top person who the federal government put in charge of infrastructure rebuilding after that hurricane got arrested and charged with ten felonies for allegedly taking bribes from the contractor who got huge contracts to do that work. Oh, and by the way, the work still isnt done and its an ongoing disaster. The contractor himself was charged with eight felony counts. Hes the one thats going to have to hand over his surprisingly fast boat, the bulldozer, the truck and all the rest. In addition to him, a fema deputy chief of staff charged three felony counts for allegedly setting herself up with a private sector job while working on fema contracts for the company she was getting to hire her at something roughly approaching triple her fema salary. And, of course, theres the deputy regional administrator in fema for fema in puerto rico, who was designated the sector lead there for power and inf infrastructure following the Hurricane Maria disaster. You remember why all those people died after the hurricane had blown through . Right, with no power, including no power to the hospitals and all the rest of it . That Trump Administration official is now facing ten felony charges, bribery, conspiracy, honest services, wire fraud. In terms of this ongoing disaster, you may remember how some of this shook out. You might remember the first contractor who got a gigantic, inexplicable contract from the Trump Administration to rebuild the power grid in puerto rico, this thing in which thousands of peoples lives were hinging, the first contractor who got that huge contract from fema to rebuild puerto ricos grid was a mysterious previously unheard of contractor from montana who seemed to have linked to the Trump Administration, maybe. It was a firm that appeared to have, basically, no employees. They had two fulltime employees. They were based in a suburban track house. And after lots of controversy over who they were and how they got this very, very, very important gig, they ultimately lost the gig when they couldnt explain, among other things, why they were planning to charge the u. S. Taxpayers an hourly rate for all the linemen who would be looking on electrical lines in puerto rico, theyd been charging and hourly rate of 300 per hour. Per lineman. And so, that contract fell apart in scandal. That was the first contract they gave out after Hurricane Maria to set up the grid. That one then they brought this other contractor onboard. Through fema, this other contractor called cobra was going to get paid 1. 8 billion as the plan b second choice contractor to rebuild puerto ricos electrical grid. They ended up getting paid 1. 1 billion before their contract, too, was canceled because of mysterious irregularities that were discovered only after 1. 1 billion had already been dispersed to them. Those irregularities are less mysterious now that we can see this litany of bribery charges laid out in black and white in this federal indictment. This has just been a disastrously managed, manmade catastrophe from beginning to end, and it continues. The people of puerto rico have paid and are paying the human price for it. Now we have these three arrests and depending on how the prosecutions turn out, we, the American People, may not only see some people in jail for these alleged crimes, we may get ourselves a new boat and some other new stuff, too, by virtue of the forfeiture section of this bomb shell indictment. It turns out this is a story that keeps getting more astonishing by the day. You probably heard about this indictment already, right . Well, get this. So, the highranking fema official who just got arrested for bribery, the ten charges, right . Turns out she had a deputy at her position for fema in puerto rico. She was the Trump Administrations sector lead for power and infrastructure in puerto rico. Her number two was the deputy sector lead for power and infrastructure in puerto rico. Whats his background . As first reported by cbs news, it turns out that he, too, the deputy, has recently been arrested in a totally different giant u. S. Government bribery scandal. He was a navy officer who was suspended from his navy command over his alleged involvement in the fat leonard scandal, which weve covered quite a bit on the show. The biggest Navy Bribery Scandal involving lots of money and lots of classified information and lots of hookers and lots of really expensive meals at terrible sounding restaurants. This guy was suspended from his navy command because of his alleged involvement in the fat leonard bribery scandal in the navy. Nevertheless, when the Trump Administration took office in 2017, they decided that thats the guy they would hire to this senior role at fema. Now, did they ask the military why this guy had been suspended from his navy command by any chance before they hired him . I dont know. Any mystery around that part of the guys past would have been cleared up this past year in august when he was indicted by a federal grand jury for his alleged involvement in that navy bribery scheme. He was arrested thereafter. So, think about this for a second. The number one person who the Trump Administration assigned to oversee restoration of power in puerto rico, the restoration of the power grid in puerto rico, that person has now been arrested on ten felony counts for bribery. Her deputy on the job has also been arrested and indicted on multiple federal accounts. But in his case, its a whole different bribery scheme. I mean, they must have gotten along so well at the office, right . Secret santa in their corner of fema headquarters must have been, like, oh, look, you got me a ski mask. Is that a fingerprint removal kit . Oh, my god who wants the fake i. D. For opening Swiss Bank Accounts . Ill trade you that for the lock picks. I mean, like, what was going on . How do you end up with i mean, that would be, if you were aiming at hiring multiple felony bribery indicted officials i mean, the and the but dont worry. The Trump Administration has decided to shake things up and get control over there. Earlier this year, the Trump Administration announced President Trumps new nominee to be the new head of fema. Now they announced him in february. They formally announced him a couple months later. Its been six months. Six months. Whatever happened to that nomination . Well, in recent days, there have been these vague slippery reports that there may be something going wrong with this nomination. Politico reporting recently that there was something personal, there was a personal issue in the nominees background that was tripping up his nomination process. Nobody was willing to say what the personal issue was or why it didnt surface when he went through his confirmation hearing and was cleared by committee why it might only be surfacing as his nomination should have been heading to the floor for a final senate vote. It was later reported the personal issue might have had something to do with an altercation. Okay. But still no specifics on that. Given the republican controlled senates willingness to confirm basically anybody from the Trump Administration for any purpose, the holdup with this guy started to seem a little worrying. Think about all the people theyve let through, right . We dont know whats holding this guy up, but it is holding him up. Now it emerges from reporting done by nbc news investigative producers that this guy, who trump has nominated to be the new head of fema, whatever his personal issues may be, whatever the altercation was, i dont know, whatever else is going on with him, turns out he was the person at fema headquarters who was personally, individually, the point of contact at fema headquarters in d. C. For the official who just got arrested on ten felony counts for bribery. She is charged with alleged crimes that started right after Hurricane Maria in october 2017. According to the indictment, her alleged crimes started in october 2017 and continued through april of this year, april 2019. We have obtained an april 2019 fema org chart. And as you can see, here, right in the center, here is the deputy regional administrator for the caribbean area, as it says at the top of the chart there, thats the person who just got charged with ten felony counts for bribery. And as you can see, there is one line that shows where she connects to fema headquarters. So, the line that goes to the right out of her little box. And theres one guys name in that box that she connects to, and that is the guy trump nominated to be the new head of fema. According to a statement fema gave us tonight, quote, the dotted line on this organization at chart represents a coordinating relationship. Okay. I mean, separate and apart from whatever the personal issue is with this nominee to run fema, and whatever the altercation may have been with this guy, if there was one i mean, they have to give the guy a redo confirmation hearing at this point . So, mr. Byron, tell us more about the billion dollar federal bribery scheme in region two. Did they coordinate that with you . How were your other regions . Did you know the person just arrested in the bribery scheme had a deputy who was also recently arrested in a another gigantic bribery scheme involving the u. S. Government . Was that a problem in the office . Was that a red flag at all . And youre going to run the whole agency now. Well, apparently, we can now report mr. Byard does not want a redo confirmation hearing. There has just been reporting in the last hour from several outlets that the white house is pulling this new nomination to run fema, including from the new york times, which reports that the issue was a barroom altercation. We can report exclusively here tonight that jeff byard sent a letter to the acting director of Homeland Security last thursday, foramly requesting his nomination be withdrawn, or, at least, we can tell you about the existence of a letter written to the acting director of Homeland Security that is dated last thursday. I dont know when it was actually written, but it is dated september 12th. Heres the letter. I think this is exclusive. The first anybody has seen this letter, as far as we are aware. Quote, secretary, sir, please accept this as my formal request to withdraw my nomination to serve as the administrator in the federal emergency agency. I feel like it would be best for me to focus entirely on pressing issues related to my current role as the associate administrator for response and recovery. So that is that apparently. We have been communicating about the byard nomination and have had a lot of back and forth with them about the official who was arrested, her deputy, who was also arrested on different bribery charges, on byards role as the person at fema headquarters who had a coordinating relationship with her, the only person on the org chart who was connected from fema headquarters directly to her office. Weve been talking to them about that for a couple of days now. And a lot today. And i just want to tell you in the interest of full transparency, they called us literally five minutes before showtime tonight to tell us that actually, jeff byard had withdrawn his nomination last thursday. They didnt mention his were asking about byard for days. They didnt say anything about his nomination being withdrawn. Five minutes before showtime today, they say, oh, yeah, hes been gone for a week. Make of that what you will. The letter they gave us tonight is dated last week. It is dated september 12th. Tonight, axios reports that although jeff byards nomination was not formally withdrawn, President Trump had a new guy in mind already. Im sure hell be great, if that is, in fact, the new pick, and im sure hes been very carefully vetted, otherwise they wouldnt put his name out there. And at one level, this is just another on the pile of trumprelated criminal indictments, right, since he has been president. At another level, it is the sequel in the ongoing careerdestroying soulsucking horror movie that is the Trump Administrations refusal or complete inability to vet people for senior jobs or not so senior jobs in the u. S. Government. On another level, this is a fairly keen insight into just how well the Trump Administration has taken care of the people of puerto rico. Especially in the aftermath of that natural disaster, which would not have claimed 3,000 american lives had it not been so drastically botched as a Disaster Relief effort. Most particularly when it comes to the infrastructure and pow e grid of puerto rico. But if you look at it from the Trump Administrations own perspective, in terms of what they care about and what they want to be seen doing, i mean, theres President Trump today at the border in california, signing a piece of the border, literally writing his name on a piece of the border. And heres the Trump Administration happily defying the pentagon and congress and a million different lawsuits and reasonable concerns including National Security concerns to, instead, take money from wherever the president can, including the u. S. Military, because it has to go instead to the border, because the border must be secured, because Homeland Security is everything. Well, this is the stuff they most care about. This is the stuff they most want to be judged on. This is the stuff, where theyre putting all of their effort, to the detriment of other stuff that has real political cost when they low ball it. Well, the department of Homeland Security is led by an acting secretary who is supported by an acting deputy secretary. You might have seen the news today they just inexplicably fired the general counsel of the Homeland Security, as well, the top lawyer of the department. Quote, we thank john for his service and we wish him well. This is the top lawyer in Homeland Security. They pushed him out so suddenly yesterday that the Trump Administration still doesnt know who is going to replace him. The white house says its one guy, the department of Homeland Security says its some other guy. Who knows. We dont have or stories straight. And whoever is going to come in to be the new general counsel, hell be acting, too. The sort of chief operating officer of the department of Homeland Security is the undersecretary of management. Thats an acting person right now as well. Customs and Border Patrol is an acting commissioner. I. C. E. , thats an acting director. U. S. Citizen and immigration services, thats an acting director. And, of course, fema where do i begin . Like i said, im sure the new guy, the new, new, new guy will be great. I mean, i wonder who theyll find to replace the folks against whom all the felony bribery charges are pending. I mean, i dont think from our back and forth with fema today, it seemed like they were trying to assure us that those people would not be staying on while thei