Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) sent messages to all members of Congress terminating their positions, stating “Your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment.” All Democratic and independent members of Congress, as well as two Republicans, found themselves locked out of their offices after everything inside had been confiscated.   read more

As asst attorney general (AG) working under then-Deputy AG James Comey, Wray briefed AG John Ashcroft about the investigation into the G.W. Bush administration’s leaking of Valerie Plame’s status as a CIA agent. Wray, along with Comey and FBI Director Robert Mueller, threatened to resign when the Bush administration attempted to revive an NSA domestic surveillance program that DOJ had found to be illegal. Wray also recently represented New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during the Bridgegate trial.   read more

Lindborg, in 2010, became assistant administrator of the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance at USAID. She led efforts to mitigate suffering during the Syria crisis, the droughts in Sahel and Horn of Africa, the Arab Spring, the Ebola response and other crises. She remained there until joining the Institute of Peace. In March 2017, Lindborg testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee decrying cuts in the foreign aid budget proposed by President Trump.   read more

Morenés entered government in 1996 as Spain's secretary of state for defense, and in 2000 was named secretary of state for security. In 2010 he was named general director of the MBDA missile company. He also served on the board of defense contractor Instalaza which made, among other things, cluster bombs. When Spain banned cluster bombs in 2008, Morenés and Instalza sought compensation from the Spanish government because the company could no longer manufacture the banned devices.   read more

Yasseen’s field of study was theoretical plasma physics, but by the 1990s he began to focus on human rights issues in Iraq as well. With a grant from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, he co-founded the Center for the Disappeared, a group dedicated to remembering victims of Hussein’s rule who were taken away by security forces and never seen again. In 2002, thanks to a $150,000 grant from the U.S. State Dept, they added a website and listed names of more than 10,000 missing Iraqis.   read more

At his confirmation hearing, Gutiérrez told the Mexican Senate: “During the recent [U.S.] election campaign our country was the subject of positions and actions that cannot be described but as contrary to the kind of relationship we want to build, a relationship of respect, and sometimes they were downright hostile and unacceptable. These positions and actions reflect…a clear ignorance of what Mexico is... But mostly they are contrary to the values that this nation has pushed for decades..."   read more

The FCC has quietly proposed reshaping a key way rural Americans stay informed – their local TV news – by stripping away most of the remaining regulations protecting local influence over local news broadcasting. Companies like Sinclair can get even bigger, and can centralize the production of what should be local news broadcasts in faraway places, leaving rural residents served by Sinclair to have a harder time finding their own communities represented in broadcast news.   read more

As the executive director of the African Affairs Bureau, Raynor wrote to the State Department inspector general regarding the tragic attack on the State Department compound in Benghazi, Libya. Raynor wrote that a federal law requiring the Department to hire foreign security based on the lowest cost bidder “often results in poorly paid and motivated guards,” which not only raises security risks but also “undercuts our Missions’ broader engagement in championing human rights.”   read more

Njabuliso Busisiwe Sikhulile Gwebu is a sister-in-law of King Mswati, as she is a sister of Queen Inkhosikati LaNgangaza, who is the King’s fourth wife. Gwebu was serving as ambassador and permanent delegate to the U.N. Offices in Geneva, Switzerland, when she was picked for the U.S. post. In addition to the U.S., Gwebu is the accredited, non-resident ambassador to four other Western Hemisphere countries: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, and Venezuela.   read more

Lalla Joumala served for a time as an executive at Bank Al Maghrib, but turned her focus to diplomacy in the late 1990s. She served briefly as an attaché at Morocco’s mission to the UN in New York, and led her country’s delegation to the UN session on HIV/AIDS. Lalla Joumala founded the Moroccan-British Society, promoting improved relations between the two countries, in 2003. She later took over as ambassador to the United Kingdom, where she served until being tapped for the U.S. post.   read more

Presenting his credentials to President Trump in April 2017, Hegbe expressed his country’s desire to work with the U.S. in the context of the African Growth Opportunity Act and the Millennium Challenge Corp, perhaps not knowing that Trump intends to cut foreign aid substantially. Hegbe has served as chargé d’affaires at Togo’s embassy in Washington since 1993, including a stint as interim chief of mission. He also worked for the State Dept’s Foreign Service Institute, where he taught French.   read more

No sooner did Glawe take over as DHS acting undersecretary in January than he found himself forced to defend President Trump’s proposed travel ban on Muslims from seven nations. Then came the leak of a report, created under his direction, from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis that disagreed with the premise of Trump’s travel ban that citizens of the seven countries posed a special threat. Trump officials emphasized that the report was a draft and not final.   read more

In June, shortly after Al-Thani’s arrival in Washington as Qatar's ambassador, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain moved to sever relations with Qatar, supposedly for financing terrorism. President Trump tweeted his support for the action, leaving Al-Thani, whose country hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, puzzled. “It’s unfortunate to see these tweets,” Al-Thani said. “We have close coordination with the U.S. They know our efforts to combat...terrorism.”   read more

After 10 years as a male model and seven years of law practice, Brown entered politics when he was elected to several city positions in Wrentham, Mass. He later served multiple terms as a Republican in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. In 2010, Brown shocked the political world by winning a special election to fill the remainder of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s unfinished term, after Kennedy died. Brown lasted only two years in the Senate before losing his seat to Elizabeth Warren in 2012.   read more

In 1995, Gingrich became a clerk for the House Agriculture Committee. Two years earlier she had begun an affair with the man who would become her husband. Newt Gingrich remained married to his second wife, Marianne, until 1999. Callista and Newt were married in 2000. Callista continued to work for the Agriculture Committee until 2007, when she became president of Gingrich Productions, the couple’s multimedia production company that has produced films that feature them.   read more

President Trump says the next U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas will be a rich, ultraconservative real estate developer and hotel owner who became a media figure, fathered a large family, and opposes same-sex marriage as an affront to “traditional” marriage but divorced his wife to marry a much younger woman from the former Soviet bloc…just like Trump. This Trump doppelganger is Doug Manchester, who contributed heavily to Trump’s presidential campaign and is now being rewarded with the nomination.   read more

McFarland worked as a Fox News commentator on national security issues for seven years, and claimed on the air that waterboarding is not torture and is worth doing. She advocated U.S. war with Iran and argued that Putin deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Days after Trump was elected president, she declared she would be a “foot soldier for the Trump revolution.” Though she hadn't worked in government for more than 30 years, Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, chose her as his deputy.   read more