Masters of Corruption

How the Federal Bureaucracy Sabotaged the Trump Presidency

Mark Moyar

• Publisher: Encounter Books
• Year: 2024
• ISBN:
  9781641773867
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Corruption & Misconduct
• Index: Politics & International Relations

An inside perspective of the federal bureaucracy, with personal intrigue and prescriptions for future administrations.

"In the United States you can elect any president you want, but a small group of people you've never heard of still run everything — year after year, administration after administration. That's not democracy. It's oligarchy, and Mark Moyar explains exactly how it works."

— Tucker Carlson

This book tells a remarkable true story of bureaucratic assassination during the Trump presidency, revealing in vivid detail how career federal employees thwarted President Trump's efforts to drain the swamp.

Mark Moyar, a senior political appointee at the US Agency for International Development, discovered evidence of corruption involving five career bureaucrats and reported it to agency officials in 2018. Senior bureaucrats orchestrated a sophisticated retaliatory plot, which began when a Special Operations general fraudulently accused Moyar of divulging classified information, and ended with the termination of Moyar's employment.

The bureau that Moyar had been on track to lead, with an annual budget exceeding $300 million, fell into the hands of one of his bureaucratic assassins. The leading perpetrator of the corruption exposed by Moyar subsequently escaped punishment by transferring to another federal agency.

A multi-agency cover-up followed. Moyar sought help from three Offices of the Inspector General—the government's main bulwarks against whistleblower retaliation—but all three conducted flimsy investigations that absolved the bureaucracy. When Senator Charles Grassley demanded that agency officials fill the gaps in the government's story, he was met with lies and evasions.

This suspense-filled drama provides an insider's view of the federal bureaucracy's corruption, its weaponization of bureaucratic procedures, and its failures to protect employees from retaliation. In telling his story, Moyar reveals how future administrations can drain the swamp and draws a roadmap for the restoration of integrity to the United States government.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Author’s Introduction
• Prologue
• Chapter 1 | Foundations
• Chapter 2 | Crumbling Towers of Ivory
• Chapter 3 | The Military
• Chapter 4 | Subversion of the First Amendment by Unelected Bureaucrats
• Chapter 5 | The Election of Donald Trump
• Chapter 6 | The Trump Administration Is Formed
• Chapter 7 | Wading into the Swamp
• Chapter 8 | Career Bureaucrats
• Chapter 9 | Trump Appointees in the Administrative State
• Chapter 10 | Fixing a Broken Organization
• Chapter 11 | Beyond the Washington Bubble
• Chapter 12 | Tribal Warfare
• Chapter 13 | The Bureaucracy Strikes Back
• Chapter 14 | Administrative Leave
• Chapter 15 | Justice in the Administrative State
• Chapter 16 | Aftershocks
• Chapter 17 | Out on the Streets
• Chapter 18 | Dereliction of Duty in the Office of Inspector General
• Chapter 19 | Going Outside
• Chapter 20 | The Inspector General Reports Again
• Chapter 21 | The Department of Defense Inspector General
• Chapter 22 | Twilight of the Trump Administration
• Chapter 23 | The Worst Day
• Chapter 24 | False Dawn
• Chapter 25 | Lying to Congress
• Chapter 26 | To the Pentagon
• Chapter 27 | Star Power
• Chapter 28 | Ignoring Orders and Breaking Rules
• Chapter 29 | Wheels of Justice
• Chapter 30 | The Future
• Acknowledgments
• Index