Not only will there be no punitive action taken by this admin, but I fully expect Trump to extend the current flurry of lame-duck pardons to most if not all members of his administration, for any and all actions they may have taken, before his term is out.
I hope I’m wrong, but in his 5 years as President he has yet to display any hint of restraint or ethical compass, so I would be very surprised if this doesn’t happen.
> I fully expect Trump to extend the current flurry of lame-duck pardons to most if not all members of his administration
I expect he will. At that point, Biden will have pardoned his son for felony gun and tax crimes, as well as pioneered the preëmptive pardon, while Trump will have pardoned violent insurrections, drug lords, fraudsters and his corrupt inner circle. If that isn’t enough to build consensus on striking pardon power from the Constitution entirely, I don’t know what will be.
According to the OSC:
https://osc.gov/Documents/Public%20Files/Press%20Release/OSC...
Violations are sent to the President for disciplinary action.
So, no.
Which in practice means he has (more) lackeys loyal to him on pain of criminal prosecution.
> Will there be any accountability?
FTA: "SSA referred both DOGE employees for potential violations of the Hatch Act."
Probably nothing under this administration. But there is a paper trail–now cited in public–for folks in the future to pursue.
In the meantime, I'm curious what civil damages they may be liable for.
Not only will there be no punitive action taken by this admin, but I fully expect Trump to extend the current flurry of lame-duck pardons to most if not all members of his administration, for any and all actions they may have taken, before his term is out.
I hope I’m wrong, but in his 5 years as President he has yet to display any hint of restraint or ethical compass, so I would be very surprised if this doesn’t happen.
EDIT: “to punitive action” => “no punitive action”
Surely they must have committed some state crimes, which are not pardonable by the president.
> I fully expect Trump to extend the current flurry of lame-duck pardons to most if not all members of his administration
I expect he will. At that point, Biden will have pardoned his son for felony gun and tax crimes, as well as pioneered the preëmptive pardon, while Trump will have pardoned violent insurrections, drug lords, fraudsters and his corrupt inner circle. If that isn’t enough to build consensus on striking pardon power from the Constitution entirely, I don’t know what will be.
Pam Bondi's already tasked with assembling a crack team of WWW legal interns to gaslight and ignore the issue as we type.