When President Trump took office, he hired Mari Stull as a senior adviser at the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs. Later, she and her boss, Amb. Kevin Moley went to Geneva for a conference.
A career employee of the State Department, Erin Barclay, invited a group of employees to a lunch conference, where another career employee, Molly Phee, went around the table and asked the employees for criticism of Stull. Within a couple of weeks, the media began reporting that there was dissension in the State Dept over Stull. Obviously, the luncheon was set up in order to oppose Trump’s pick. This is why the swamp must be drained.
The piece also alleged Stull had a “highly secretive management style,” had emerged as the most “dominant force” in the bureau, had required that she review new directives from the office before they went out, and that she was stripping references to “international law” and “international order” from action items and memos.
Not one source was named in the piece, which cited the allegations from “nearly a dozen” anonymous “current and former U.S. officials.” The piece did, however, mention three deputy assistant secretaries of state in the bureau: Phee, Barclay, and Cook, who were said to be leaving to other positions at State.
After the article published, three top Democrats — Sen. Bob Menendez (NJ), Rep. Eliot Engel (NY), and Elijah Cummings (MD) — then sent a letter dated June 19 to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo citing the article and demanding documents related to Stull and her alleged vetting of employees’ loyalty.
Why shouldn’t a manager know if their employees will follow the big boss’s instructions? He is in charge of the entire department and was elected with well over 60 million votes. This would get you fired in the private sector and should do the same public sector. If Trump is going to hang, he should at least get to pick his own rope.