DL Open Thread: Monday, August 3, 2026

Meyer Sets Ethics Standard For Unclaimed Property Board:

An executive order recently issued by Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer has been raising eyebrows, with some questioning the purpose and others cheering the move.

Executive Order 25 establishes a conflict of interest policy for members of Meyer’s administration who would serve on the newly created legislative unclaimed property taskforce. It applies just to that task force.

It asks that state legislators, who created the task force and will appoint the majority of the members, also follow the policy when staffing the panel, particularly when selecting members of the public.

Charles Elson, the founding director of the University of Delaware’s Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance, called the move “unusual.”

“It would be expected that any of his appointees would be free of conflicts of interest and meet ethical standards,” Elson said. “The necessity of issuing an executive order on this particular board, I find a little surprising.”

Meyer issued an executive order on ethics and transparency shortly after taking office last year that requires all state employees to “demonstrate exemplary conduct and be honest and ethical in the performance of their duties.”

Elson said he questioned whether the newly issued policy was directed at Senate and House leaders.

“Setting up a separate order for a commission that was a joint executive-legislative commission seems to me like almost you’re picking a fight with the legislature,” he said. “It doesn’t cast the best light on the legislature by doing so, suggesting that maybe they aren’t, and it also doesn’t suggest a very good light on the rest of his administration, suggesting that he has to issue an executive order to compel ethics from his appointees.”

A spokesperson for Meyer responded to a request for comment by highlighting the governor’s desire for lawmakers to agree to the executive order.

“The governor is confident in his cabinet’s ability to meet those [conflict of interest] standards,” Deputy Press Secretary Jonah Anderson said in a statement. “We also look forward to the General Assembly applying the same conflict free standards to their selections.”

Is this mic on?  Meyer has feuded with some members of the Senate Democratic Caucus since his campaign.  Bryan Townsend, in particular, has made his conflict with Meyer central to how the Senate conducts business.  Or have you forgotten Townsend’s attempt to force through Bethany Hall Long’s nominees for the Port Board?  Of all the things to fight the new Governor on.  No wonder Meyer doesn’t have the greatest degree of trust with Senate leadership.

Townsend has also carried a longstanding grudge against the Governor for Meyer’s success in acquiring and spending COVID relief $$’s when he was NCC Executive.  To which I can only say, Carney had no vision as to how to use that money.  Meyer did. I think he used it wisely.   We’re talking jealousy here.

Back to the subject at hand.  Yes, Meyer should extend the same standards to other boards and commissions.  But I think there’s no question that such ethical standards need to apply to those who serve on these boards and commissions.

Who’s Telling The Truth–Trump Or Blanche?  Rhetorical question, the answer of course is neither:

Blanche:

Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, confirmed in writing on Sunday night that the Justice Department would abandon elements of the deal it struck with President Trump to resolve his lawsuit against the I.R.S., conceding to demands from Republican senators who had threatened to block his nomination as attorney general.

The Republican holdouts, Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, had vowed that they would not confirm Mr. Blanche for the role unless he provided written assurances that the Justice Department had formally killed a planned $1.8 billion fund to pay those who claim they were unfairly persecuted by the government.

The senators also insisted that Mr. Blanche narrow the scope of the sweeping immunity from I.R.S. scrutiny that was granted to Mr. Trump, his family and their businesses under the same agreement.

Mr. Blanche posted two documents on social media on Sunday night: a signed memo in which he said that the Justice Department was formally rescinding an order that created the so-called “anti-weaponization fund” and an unsigned statement in which the agency clarified the terms of the I.R.S. protections.

Trump:

President Trump won’t let go of his corrupt IRS settlement.

At a Cabinet meeting hosted Friday at Camp David in Maryland, Trump was asked by a reporter whether the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” created by his settlement with the IRS, which set aside $1.776 billion for anyone who felt politically prosecuted by the government, was actually dead and, if it was, why the Department of Justice wouldn’t put that in writing.

So just to recap: Trump doesn’t want the slush fund dead, despite past claims from the Department of Justice that the fund isn’t moving forward.

Trump was also asked about whether he was willing to waive the settlement’s provision that he, his family, and his businesses would be protected from all IRS audits in the future in order to have acting Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed. He dodged the question, only saying Blanche “should be confirmed forthwith.”

Here’s the point–By any objective measure, Trump’s personal attorney (granted, one among 100 or so of his personal attorneys) is completely unfit to serve as AG.  He is the lead person for Trump’s Revenge Tour.  D’s absolutely must publicly pressure R senators to oppose this nomination.  Trump and Blanche are anchors around their reelection chances.

Pirro On Chopping Block?  For once, she told the truth about the phony reflecting pool vandalism.  Trump is PO’d:

Jeanine Pirro faced the cameras on July 2 with characteristic self-assurance to announce the indictment of the 67-year-old ex-Olympian David Hearn for trashing “sacred” government property, President Trump’s highly prized but shoddily renovated Reflecting Pool.

“This is not only a priority for the president, but for myself,” said Ms. Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, disclosing felony vandalism charges against Mr. Hearn for touching the lining of the pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. She added: “We will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hearn willfully destroyed property.”

This was not the case.

Ms. Pirro’s office dramatically reversed course on Friday, not only withdrawing the charge against Mr. Hearn but blasting the Interior Department for the rushed and “botched” renovation, along with U.S. Park Police officials who fed bad information that led her to publicly cite “tremendous evidence” against Mr. Hearn. In the process, intentionally or not, she skated perilously close to contradicting Mr. Trump — and he noticed.

That Ms. Pirro, a former Westchester, N.Y., district attorney and Fox News personality was aiming much of her criticism not at Mr. Trump, but his interior secretary, Doug Burgum, who oversaw the issuance of a no-bid contract to renovate the pool, did not appear to matter much.

On Saturday morning, Mr. Trump dashed off a post on Truth Social that made clear he was unhappy with Ms. Pirro, a friend and ally since the 1980s.

“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro,” Mr. Trump wrote.

“I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM,” he wrote, adding, “There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!”

I was undecided, but Trump wouldn’t use capital letters were he not telling the truth.  Amirite?

Spokane’s On Fire, Dems Instructed To Only Discuss ‘Affordability’.  OK, not cause-and-effect, but Democrats’ failure to campaign on climate change is yet another ill-considered nod to focus groups:

In what authorities have described as the largest natural disaster in the history of Spokane County, Wash., wildfires have destroyed hundreds of structures and forced the evacuation of some 60,000 people as firefighters continued their efforts to knock back and control several blazes in the area.

On Sunday, nearly 1,000 firefighters were combating at least three wildfires that ballooned over the weekend in Spokane, which is home to about 600,000 residents. More than 5,390 acres of land have been scorched and officials said there was no containment of the fires on Sunday afternoon.

Officials said at a news conference on Sunday that there were no reported deaths, injuries or missing people as a result of the fires, but cautioned that those figures could change. Authorities also said that they were still investigating the cause.

Mayor Lisa Brown of the city of Spokane called the wildfires “the worst natural disaster our region has faced.”

What do you want to talk about?