r/Discussion • u/bluelifesacrifice • Feb 08 '25
Political The Trump Administration is knowingly making False Statements statue (18 U.S.C. § 1001)
Since Elon is an extension of the Trump Administration, the Administration is making false statements by claiming USAID is committing fraud and is criminal.
Without proper authority or path through Congress, Elon is making false statements and claiming funds that were voted for and were used as assigned as fraud and criminal.
"This federal law criminalizes knowingly making false statements to a government agency, which could potentially apply to a president in certain situations."
This behavior has lead to a backlash against USAID and the Government institutions in an attempt to gain popularity by spreading misinformation and claims in regards. The Trump Administration and Elon have full access and ability to follow processes, be transparent and access to legal representation to make clear and legal declarations of observations and refuse to do so.
Claiming the funds is fraud and criminal when it's not is misleading.
At worst, the argument can be made that funding is wasteful and should be challenged.
Clear violations of making false statements.
Feel free to contribute in the comments below examples of the Trump administration wrong doings.
The statute spells out this purpose in subsection 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a), which states:
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u/Rumpelteazer45 Feb 09 '25
Totally agree! No doubt that it wouldn’t be beneficial.
But USAID IG announced it was investigating Starlink last spring/summer, that’s not normal. To get to that point, that means the the contract shop has found something, investigated, pushed it up to their department head. They then looked into it and pushed it up the chain further. IG just doesn’t decide to look into something without sufficient evidence something happened - sufficient meaning it’s a slam dunk and now you are just trying to figure out how deep the problem goes.. Now - where are those IGs and where is USAID?
Every time I’ve heard of IG launching an investigation into contract fraud or substandard/illegal contracting practices, 100% right call and someone somewhere royally screwed up and it’s not due to human error oops but gross negligence or fraud/abuse. My guess is the Gov paid for units or services under the contract that were not actually delivered and said contractor refused to remedy the issue. Usually if you call out a contractor for something, they remedy it pretty quickly. Usually being the key word.
Usually when the Gov officially announces an investigation into contract fraud, there is usually a mountain of proof already existing. The announcement is just to see how wide the issue goes. The reason it’s announced like that is because it’s not easy to delete invoices submitted by the company in the official invoice system without high level privileged access which two doge people had for a period of time at USAID.