Scandals of photo-op sheriffs who cheered Trump’s attack on the media this week

Alessandra Kelley · Sep 8, 2018

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/08/sheriffs-donald-trump-media-scrutiny

Earlier this week, rankled by the release of Bob Woodward’s book about his shambolic reign and infuriated by an anonymous editorial in the New York Times written by an aide who described how dangerous and easily led he was, Trump took the opportunity of a photo-op with friendly sheriffs in the East Room of the White House to attack the news media.

The sheriffs cheered raucously, which was seen by many as unseemly.

The Guardian looked into the sheriffs’ histories and found that many of them had had crimes and scandals exposed by the media, and thus might have reason to cheer the idea of a police state with a gagged media.

Just a few of them:

Sheriff Ana Franklin, Morgan county, Alabama

Franklin is under investigation by the FBI and state authorities after a local news blogger, Glenda Lockhart, disclosed last year that the sheriff used $150,000 in public money to invest in a now-bankrupt used car dealership that was part-owned by a convicted fraudster. The money was taken from a fund meant for feeding inmates in the county jail.

Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, Bristol county, Massachusetts

Hodgson recently claimed he was the victim of a “witch-hunt”, after the Massachusetts attorney general called for an investigation of suicides and mistreatment in his jails, in response to findings by the New England Center For Investigative Reporting.

Sheriff Todd Richardson, Davis county, Utah

Richardson was sharply criticised in January this year by the editorial board of the Ogden Standard-Examiner, which accused him of abdicating “his financial responsibility to Davis county taxpayers” and openly defying the rules on running his department.

The newspaper earlier reported that the sheriff was found by county auditors to have approved a deputy’s bogus time cards, paid out questionable travel expenses for deputies and mishandled money that relatives sent for prisoners at his jail.

In May this year, Richardson apologised for a harassment scandal in his department, which was closely followed by reporters at KUTV.

ElaineA · Sep 8, 2018

Nothing but the best in Trumpistan. :rolleyes

MaeZe · Sep 8, 2018

Yikes! A budding kleptocracy it would seem.

Roxxsmom · Sep 8, 2018

It's not just unseemly but scandalous that we have so many peace officers in this country who cheer this authoritarian bully when he advocates more police brutality and when he attacks the free press.

It's really hard to recruit and retain professional, decent people to the profession of policing, evidently.

Scandals of photo-op sheriffs who cheered Trump’s attack on the media this week

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

ElaineA

All about that action, boss.

MaeZe

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido