Masters of Corruption: How the Federal Bureaucracy Sabotaged the Trump Presidency

As a senior Trump appointee at the US Agency for International Development, Dr. Mark Moyar sought to implement conservative policies and drain the swamp. After he reported several career bureaucrats for criminal corruption, their bureaucratic allies fraudulently accused him of divulging classified information. Then agency officials violated the Constitution and the agency's own rules to terminate the person who reported waste, fraud, and abuse, while punishing none of the perpetrators. The bureau that Moyar had been on track to lead, with an annual budget exceeding $300 million, ended up in the hands of one of the bureaucrats involved in the retaliation.

Moyar sought help from three Offices of the Inspector General, the government's main bulwarks against whistleblower retaliation, but they conducted flimsy investigations that absolved the career bureaucrats. When the Defense Department restored Moyar's security clearance one year later, officials from his former agency intervened to reverse the decision. Although an executive order required the government to hand over the evidence supporting the security clearance revocation, the agencies and the Department of Justice spent the next four years obstructing efforts by Moyar and Senator Charles Grassley to obtain the supposed evidence.

This eye-popping book provides an insider's view into the federal bureaucracy's corruption, its weaponization of bureaucratic procedures, and its failures to protect employees from retaliation. It explains what future administrations must do to make real progress in swamp draining. And it shows how a rejuvenation of patriotism and faith is needed to restore integrity to the government.