National Park Service personnel did not exploit the size of the crowd at President Donald Trump's inauguration, nor did agency staff discuss with the media a call from the president to acting Park Service Director Mike Reynolds that day, an Interior Department investigation has concluded.
President Trump and his staff maintained that the crowd at his inauguration was one of the largest ever -- " I looked out the field was, it looked like a million, a million and half people," the president said the day after his inauguration. -- but photos released by the Park Service showed that the crowds for both of President Obama's elections were larger.
Interior's Office of Inspector General looked into the matter after an unidentified individual complained that National Park Service "officials and employees took questionable actions during and after the 58th presidential inauguration ceremony." Specifically, the complaint alleged:
- That an NPS National Mall and Memorial Parks (NAMA) official instructed NPS employees to alter records related to crowd size estimates for the inauguration ceremony.
- That two NPS public affairs employees released information to the press, without authorization, about a January 21, 2017, phone call from President Donald Trump to Acting NPS Director Michael Reynolds.
- That one of the public affairs employees circumvented the NPS chain of command for the inauguration when responding to a request from Reynolds. (although the complainant did not know what Reynolds requested, we determined that Reynolds asked the public affairs employee to help obtain inauguration photographs after the President requested them during the January 21 phone call).
- That a NAMA employee assigned to the inauguration engaged in personal activities at work that interfered with the performance of his duties.
"We did not find evidence to substantiate any of these allegations," the OIG report released Monday concluded. "All of the witnesses we interviewed denied that the (National Mall) official instructed staff to alter reports on the inauguration or to remove crowd size information. We also found no evidence that the public affairs employees released any information to the media about the president’s phone call, or that the employee who responded to Reynolds’ request was required to go through the chain of command."
President Obama's 2009 inauguration/NPS
President Obama's 2013 inauguration/NPS
President Trump's 2017 inauguration/NPS
The complainant, whose identify was not disclosed under guidelines of the Privacy Act, had charged that a National Mall official had ordered staff to "scrub" attendance numbers from President Trump's inauguration. However, it long has been Park Service policy not to provide crowd estimates.
"The official told us that she instructed the staff not to include crowd size estimates in the reports because she wanted to make sure that the reports did not contain nonfactual references to crowd size," the OIG report noted. "She explained that the NPS did not have the necessary methodology in place to do an accurate crowd count and, since the Million Man March in 1995, had made it a practice not to collect or provide any crowd size information for events held at the National Mall."
Had the complainant been aware of this practice, they would not have raised the issue, the report added.
The OIG investigation also could not substantiate the charge that Park Service public affairs personnel had released word that the president had called Mr. Reynolds about the inauguration crowd.
"Reynolds and NPS National Capital Region Director Bob Vogel told us that knowledge of the phone call was widespread throughout the NPS, since the initial call from the White House came in to the U.S. Park Police operations center," the OIG report pointed out, adding that, "Reynolds stated that he did not consider his conversation with the president protected information."
The OIG report was provided to acting Director Reynolds.
Comments
Well, ec, pass that on to Ryan. And Beach, show us the polls that support your contention about Trump's popularity, and while you're at it, those showing support for McConnell's health care bill.
Well, ec, pass that on to Ryan. And Beach, show us the polls that support your contention about Trump's popularity, and while you're at it, those showing support for McConnell's health care bill.
You guys have created a disaster with Obamacare and now the adults have to fix it. It's not easy thing and I'm glad to see congress working the way it should with healthy debate in trying to get something that will work.
Dummy - you are beyond discussion. If i want to hear identical comments all I have to do is to drop my IQ down to two digits and start listen9ing to right wing talk radio. Go away.
Why do the left always attack? Your inability to debate tells me your IQ is a lot lower than two digits. Have you ever wondered why there is no left wing radio? Because they have nothing intelligent to say...
Right here in these comments is a great example of what ails America today. Take a moment to read all the comments. Is there any dialogue? Is there really any constructive argument? Or is most of it simply trying to outshout someone on the other side?
At Craters of the Moon two weeks ago, I met a retired newspaper editor from New Zealand. He told of the shocking differences he has noticed in the US over time. His last visits were just after 9/11 and again in 2009. He said that what struck him most was the degree of what he called "hatefulness" in so much of our public discussion. He said that everywhere he looked, in all the TV he watched, in signs on lawns, and conversations with Americans along the way, he was hearing something that to his way of thinking is a pending disaster for all of us -- and perhaps even the rest of the world. "It is completely different than anything I've seen before as I've visited here. The sense of optimism and cooperation we used to see is gone. It's frightening."
As he and his wife had driven to Craters from Idaho Falls that morning, they had turned the radio on and had heard a man he described as one of the "most awfully hateful, boastful, egotistical and bizarre" people he had ever heard. At first, they mistook him for Trump and were "completely sickened to think the leader of any country would say such things." Then they learned the man's name was Rush.
They simply couldn't understand how Americans allow such things. I mentioned our freedom of speech and he responded by saying that there is freedom of speech in New Zealand. "But we really value truth and reasonableness. Those were completely lacking in this man's presentations." He said that people in New Zealand take pride in being reasonable and honest in all their dealings. "Certainly we disagree frequently. Often heatedly. But when we finish arguing, we retreat to the pub and end the day with friendly regard for one another." That's why, he said, people like Rush Limbaugh would find no audience in New Zealand.
His wife expressed what she said is a fear they've encountered everywhere they've traveled in the past year. (They are on a two-year round the world retirement trip.) She told me that everywhere they've gone from Indonesia through India, Europe, UK and some of Canada, they've found people in those places alarmed and appalled by what they are hearing and witnessing from us and our leaders. "Americans don't seem to understand why we are alarmed, and don't seem to understand how much what happens in America affects everyone around the world. You are losing a lot of friends."
I've heard similar things from visitors from China, Germany, Israel, and Canada.
We are destroying our own country from the inside.
Lee, what happened since 2009? Obama was elected and his legacy is a weakened and divided country. He rekindled a racial divide that had been steadily disappearing in American society, demonized the police, governed with his "pen and phone", 8 years of economic stagnation, gave billions to Iran which supports terrorists, his refusal to enforce immigration laws and destroyed our healthcare system. I could go on and on...
I say your Rush story is not true, just made up delusions. Yeah, I listen to him when I get a chance and never heard anything like you want to "believe".
Trump has a tough road ahead to heal America from Obama's disastrous legacy.
Ok, beach. Just how did Obama create such a racial divide? Simply by being black? The pictures of Tea Party rallies I've seen feature their effigies hung in mock lynchings. It might piss his opponents off but he always responded in calm words. Which side incited the racial dividew?