in july in canton, mississippi, there was a traffic arrest that ended up being an embarrassment. the guy got pulled over for a seat belt violation. they pulled him over, no seat belt, police officers said they detected a strong odor of marijuana, it started off as a seat belt ticket and ended up as a dui and drug arrest. the guy who got pulled over wasn t your alleged commuter, he was a police dispatch officer and that is close to home for local law enforcement who made this arrest. so they called in some professional public relations help. took them about a week and a half after the arrest to release information about it. by the time they did, they made sure the guy quit his police job.
they made a public statement about the charges, released the booking photo to the press and otherwise professionally handled it. well, that arrest ends up not just being embarrassing for those in mississippi, it ends up being a national embarrassment because the pr person they called on to manage that arrest, that guy was also running a $1.7 billi $1.7 billion federal agency in charge of rail safety 23r our country. heath hall was hired to be the number 2 job. he s the same heath hall who during his time in washington has been fielding press inquiries for mississippi about embarrassing dui arrests and stuff. federal rail safety obviously an issue right now, there have been four fatal amtrak crashes since
september, including one carrying all republican members of congress when it crashed into a dump truck. there hasn t been a confirmed director for the agency for more than a year. that left the deputy running the agency instead, the deputy is this guy heath hall. he once worked as an intern at the rail agency, when he was a kid, other than that he had no expertise in rail safety whatsoever. he s a political consultant and pr guy. that s why he was the public relations guy for canton, mississippi. there s a question how he got the number two job in safety, especially because it meant him being the director of that agency all yearlong when he has no experience in the field whatsoever. even if it did make sense to hire him, once he was in place at the agency he was not suppose today keep his job back home.
intelligence officials could not recall so many heads coming to washington at once. what were they doing here? we know that the svr and fsb, we know while they were here, they met with dan coats, guy on the left there and the head of the cia, mike pompey owmo mom po the military intelligence guy, still a total mystery as to what he was doing in washington. we have no idea who he met with or even where he traveled once he was in the united states. remember, it was his agency that led the attack on our election. no u.s. official admitted to meeting with him while here. who met with him? who brought him over? was he doing here? how long did he stay?
to be briefing the guy who gets your job. the new guy whose coming in for your job. you re supposed to be making sure there is a seamless transition and the new guy is totally up to speed. well, given what susan rice knew about michael flynn during the transition, what is she supposed to do? how is she supposed to make a decision? hypothetical hypothetically. let s say u.s. intelligence got spies working for us inside the embassies in washington, would you give mike flynn the names of those spies? they are working at the embassy who is working for the one he engages in secret conversations about undermining the u.s. government. give him the name of our spies? if there is a spy in his office? will you tell flynn? this all happened christmastime