It's only illegal if you get caught. If this administration ever ends, the next one will be focused on the fallout of this one. (as is usually the case)
That has only been the case since 2008. Obama had no choice but manage the fallout of the Bush admin's record-setting-for-the-time fuck-ups.
Reagan followed a fairly positively stated agenda. Clinton pursued a fairly positive agenda. George the 2nd followed a fairly positive, if misguided, agenda. And then it became a reactive shitshow.
Illegal? This is like the number one purpose of the US military, it's always to help the elite interests in resource extraction and forcing weaker countries into US trade policy.
"Asked about the potential for conflicts of interest to arise due to his simultaneous role as attorney for Cerberus, Feinberg, and the DOD, he said “you’ve got to be kidding me” and insisted that the interests of the three clients have been kept separate."
Oof. This guy is a top lawyer, and this is how he responds to a journalist asking about conflict of interests?
Obviously a very smart man and very trustworthy. /s
Immediately and coarsely calling into question the intelligence of any-one who questions the corruption, seems to be par-for-the-course for these anti-socialites.
If there are consequences they will be naturally arising, as there is no violation (that I'm aware of) here. It's _stupid_, and it _looks bad_, and it's _not a good idea_, and it _ended badly for Nixon_, but it's not illegal.
The thing that bothers me most is the tens of millions of Americans who are doing everything they can to ignore the most blatant and corrosive corruption our country has seen in at least a century.
After spending the past 20 years screaming as loud as they can about how corrupt everything supposedly was. Seems their only actual complaint was which rich person was getting richer.
The truth of matter is that there’s very little screaming.
Americans were conditioned decades ago to be a quite docile. they work in their cubicles and have their families and their little house in the suburbs… America has been a beige, thoughtless landscape for the majority of people for decades.
The only thing needed was to consolidate the media to create enough fear and control to drive enough people to give away their rights, which I’m sure the rich and powerful will point out that the people aren’t even using!
Obama himself has repeatedly come out and said that if people want change then they need to go out and vote. Vote? It’s crickets instead.
If you actually go out and meet enough people, you begin to realize that the real reality of America is far different than this Internet supposition. People have wanted a strong man authoritarian for a very long time. They are exhausted. They don’t care about their country , their community, their culture… capitalism has worn them down so much that all they really care about is getting to each weekend and having enough to pay for housing and some food.
Subtle propaganda helps take care of the rest.
America hasn’t been able to think for itself in decades. The people at the top know this, and they have a lot of disdain for the fact that the majority of people just go home and watch sportsball on Sundays. So they finally decided to see how much they could get away with, and it looks like it’s going to be the entire pie!
There is nothing illegal about using a contractor lawyer for both commercial work and your own business provided you get it reviewed by Ethics & Govt General Counsel. As this was done then I see no issue in it.
There is a potential COI mentioned below, for which Feinberg agreed to donate the profits to charity, if such a settlement happens. The guy is from a Whiteshoe law firm anyways, the allocated funds are tiny, and this seems pretty above board.
Much ado about nothing!
> In a statement to the Prospect, the Department of Defense wrote that the arrangement was aboveboard. “OSC [DOD’s Office of Strategic Capital, which leads the Pentagon’s rare earths investments] maintains a rigorous, multi-layered ethics framework that includes a detailed screening process and operates in full compliance with all federal ethics laws and regulations,” the statement said. The DOD did not comment on whether Waldenberg is involved in other Pentagon activities, or specify its ethics protocols. Waldenberg’s firm, according to the federal government’s public contracting database, has a contract with the DOD worth $1.5 million that runs through August 31, 2026.
> The DOD has said that “any profit [Feinberg] may receive from a potential Ligado settlement will go to a charity to support America’s veterans,” though a spokesperson declined to say which charity would receive the prospective donation. The Capitol Forum recently reported that Ligado is hoping to receive $5 billion from the feds, citing sources familiar with the case. That would surpass the federal government’s 2010 $3.4 billion settlement with Native American tribes, compensating them for the centuries-old confiscation of tribal lands.
I agree that from the perspective of a business owner this would seem very normal. "I need legal services for X, and I happen to know and trust a very good outside counsel for this" is very normal. Additionally, law firms have super robust conflict of interest policies so you can expect this would have been reviewed in details.
However, I think this story brings up two important topics:
1. It is important that high level government officials avoid not just actual conflicts of interest but also the APPEARANCE of a conflict of interest.
2. The Trump administration has taken a much more liberal approach to conflicts of interest than most admins, and this has undermined trust in government. The fact that this story got people so riled up is a great illustration of it. This is not good for the country!
This is just third world level of open corruption. If nothing is done against it, things will just get worse and not better.
First it will signal to all the lower level officials that corruption is ok. The next step isn't just corruption is ok, but it is expected. No corruption means you won't get far in your career.
There are a couple of ways of seeing this. One is that there is a conflict of interest. The other is that there has been a conflict of interest in the military for years, and this guy has proven himself to be useful in fighting it such that he has been given an unusual amount of power. Obviously, number 1 would be bad. Number 2, though, would be laudable. I'd be careful about jumping to a conclusion until more evidence comes to light in either direction.
They are all in this with one and only one purpose - to enrich themselves and weaken America.
That's two purposes.
I think the first one is the whole story anyway.
I think there’s a similar deal going on with Venezuelan oil now
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/29/whats-behind-the-us...
This is a strange and probably illegal use of the military.
It's only illegal if you get caught. If this administration ever ends, the next one will be focused on the fallout of this one. (as is usually the case)
That has only been the case since 2008. Obama had no choice but manage the fallout of the Bush admin's record-setting-for-the-time fuck-ups.
Reagan followed a fairly positively stated agenda. Clinton pursued a fairly positive agenda. George the 2nd followed a fairly positive, if misguided, agenda. And then it became a reactive shitshow.
6 replies →
It needs to be far more focused than the last one.
We can come back from this, but some people need to spend a significant amount of their lives in prison.
57 replies →
Supreme court is the ultimate layer of protection and these criminals know it.
Illegal? This is like the number one purpose of the US military, it's always to help the elite interests in resource extraction and forcing weaker countries into US trade policy.
Why are people surprised? Trump promoted his personal lawyer to Attorney General. This is how the administration works.
"Asked about the potential for conflicts of interest to arise due to his simultaneous role as attorney for Cerberus, Feinberg, and the DOD, he said “you’ve got to be kidding me” and insisted that the interests of the three clients have been kept separate."
Oof. This guy is a top lawyer, and this is how he responds to a journalist asking about conflict of interests?
Obviously a very smart man and very trustworthy. /s
We are truly living in a kleptocracy.
Edited: Two seconds of google: https://www.cerberus.com/media/cerberus-acquires-controlling... Yep, no possibility of conflicts of interest here.
I don't know what bothers me more, the corruption, or the fact that they're both so stupid and open about it.
Immediately and coarsely calling into question the intelligence of any-one who questions the corruption, seems to be par-for-the-course for these anti-socialites.
The fact that there will be no consequences for any of this.
If there are consequences they will be naturally arising, as there is no violation (that I'm aware of) here. It's _stupid_, and it _looks bad_, and it's _not a good idea_, and it _ended badly for Nixon_, but it's not illegal.
The thing that bothers me most is the tens of millions of Americans who are doing everything they can to ignore the most blatant and corrosive corruption our country has seen in at least a century.
After spending the past 20 years screaming as loud as they can about how corrupt everything supposedly was. Seems their only actual complaint was which rich person was getting richer.
The truth of matter is that there’s very little screaming.
Americans were conditioned decades ago to be a quite docile. they work in their cubicles and have their families and their little house in the suburbs… America has been a beige, thoughtless landscape for the majority of people for decades.
The only thing needed was to consolidate the media to create enough fear and control to drive enough people to give away their rights, which I’m sure the rich and powerful will point out that the people aren’t even using!
Obama himself has repeatedly come out and said that if people want change then they need to go out and vote. Vote? It’s crickets instead.
If you actually go out and meet enough people, you begin to realize that the real reality of America is far different than this Internet supposition. People have wanted a strong man authoritarian for a very long time. They are exhausted. They don’t care about their country , their community, their culture… capitalism has worn them down so much that all they really care about is getting to each weekend and having enough to pay for housing and some food. Subtle propaganda helps take care of the rest.
America hasn’t been able to think for itself in decades. The people at the top know this, and they have a lot of disdain for the fact that the majority of people just go home and watch sportsball on Sundays. So they finally decided to see how much they could get away with, and it looks like it’s going to be the entire pie!
There is nothing illegal about using a contractor lawyer for both commercial work and your own business provided you get it reviewed by Ethics & Govt General Counsel. As this was done then I see no issue in it.
There is a potential COI mentioned below, for which Feinberg agreed to donate the profits to charity, if such a settlement happens. The guy is from a Whiteshoe law firm anyways, the allocated funds are tiny, and this seems pretty above board.
Much ado about nothing!
> In a statement to the Prospect, the Department of Defense wrote that the arrangement was aboveboard. “OSC [DOD’s Office of Strategic Capital, which leads the Pentagon’s rare earths investments] maintains a rigorous, multi-layered ethics framework that includes a detailed screening process and operates in full compliance with all federal ethics laws and regulations,” the statement said. The DOD did not comment on whether Waldenberg is involved in other Pentagon activities, or specify its ethics protocols. Waldenberg’s firm, according to the federal government’s public contracting database, has a contract with the DOD worth $1.5 million that runs through August 31, 2026.
> The DOD has said that “any profit [Feinberg] may receive from a potential Ligado settlement will go to a charity to support America’s veterans,” though a spokesperson declined to say which charity would receive the prospective donation. The Capitol Forum recently reported that Ligado is hoping to receive $5 billion from the feds, citing sources familiar with the case. That would surpass the federal government’s 2010 $3.4 billion settlement with Native American tribes, compensating them for the centuries-old confiscation of tribal lands.
I agree that from the perspective of a business owner this would seem very normal. "I need legal services for X, and I happen to know and trust a very good outside counsel for this" is very normal. Additionally, law firms have super robust conflict of interest policies so you can expect this would have been reviewed in details.
However, I think this story brings up two important topics:
1. It is important that high level government officials avoid not just actual conflicts of interest but also the APPEARANCE of a conflict of interest.
2. The Trump administration has taken a much more liberal approach to conflicts of interest than most admins, and this has undermined trust in government. The fact that this story got people so riled up is a great illustration of it. This is not good for the country!
This is just third world level of open corruption. If nothing is done against it, things will just get worse and not better.
First it will signal to all the lower level officials that corruption is ok. The next step isn't just corruption is ok, but it is expected. No corruption means you won't get far in your career.
There are a couple of ways of seeing this. One is that there is a conflict of interest. The other is that there has been a conflict of interest in the military for years, and this guy has proven himself to be useful in fighting it such that he has been given an unusual amount of power. Obviously, number 1 would be bad. Number 2, though, would be laudable. I'd be careful about jumping to a conclusion until more evidence comes to light in either direction.
Are you saying that senior military leadership has earned the right to a little light graft?
>Are you saying that senior military leadership has earned the right to a little light graft?
I'm saying graft isn't the only explanation at this point.