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Trump’s minions are spreading falsehoods about a boilerplate FBI document, and it could inspire the same kind of chaos as the Big Lie about the 2020 election.
opinion
A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on. And that was before Twitter (X) came along—which explains why the canard that there was an “assassination attempt” on Donald Trump—spread like wildfire.
It all started when self-described conspiracy theorist Julie Kelly flagged a newly unsealed FBI document authorizing officers to use “deadly force” when searching Mar-a-Lago. And then, a lie that started in the fever swamps quickly made its way into mainstream conservative media, as well as the social media platforms of prominent Republicans.
Attorney General “Merrick Garland basically issued a kill order for President Trump,” tweeted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. For his part, Trump claimed that “Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger.”
Never mind that the wording was boilerplate. Never mind that the same verbiage reportedly appeared in similar FBI documents when they searched Biden’s house.
Never mind that the FBI executed the warrant when Trump was in New York (not at Mar-a-Lago). And never mind that Trump’s team has previously argued that a president could be immune from prosecution for killing a political rival.
Even if you put all of that aside, the “assassination” allegation was patently absurd. That’s because people who push these ideas are basically asking you to believe two mutually exclusive things.
They assert that a nearly omnipotent Deep State is being controlled by Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland. This evil cabal set about using the Mar-a-Lago raid as a pretext to assassinate Trump.
The problem? Why would a super powerful conspiracy need to use the Mar-a-Lago raid as an excuse to murder Trump?
Imagine the fallout if Trump had been killed during the raid. If the FBI really wanted to assassinate Trump, wouldn’t they have simply made it look like he died of a heart attack?
If the goal was to kill Trump, would the FBI be so inept and clumsy as to execute the search warrant when Trump was out of the state of Florida and in New York? Wouldn’t an organization with unlimited resources be competent enough to know that Trump was 1,200 miles away?
Additionally, why would they put their plans in writing? And if they did, wouldn’t a Deep State this powerful and this determined be smart enough to prevent the unsealing of a document that would incriminate them?
In short, the right-wing conspiracy theorists want you to believe a) that a nearly omnipotent confederacy of powerful intel organizations is plotting something evil, yet b) is too incompetent to execute the plan—or cover it up. Foiled again!
Imagine a political party that includes “leaders” who are evil enough to invent such an idea, and lemmings who are gullible enough to believe it.
Of course, when it comes to conspiracy theories, such logical fallacies are par for the course. Years ago, I read an essay written by conservative movement leader Morton Blackwell that warned that such conspiracy theories tend to deliver an unintended consequence for the side that spreads them.
Regarding the old right’s penchant for falling for crazy ideas, Blackwell recalled that “Many conservatives became so convinced of the overwhelming power and cleverness of one or more of these conspiracies that they sank into despair and virtually ceased political activity.”
“After all,” Blackwell continued, “if one is faced with opposition so powerful and so clever that defeat is inevitable, why bother to do anything about it except to complain?”
There’s nothing new under the sun… except this: Once upon a time, such conspiracies were the work of fringe actors, such as the John Birch Society. Today, they are promulgated by popular Fox News hosts, Republican members of Congress, and even the former president of the United States of America.
And while these machinations inevitably harm the perpetrators (who could forget Trump stupidly telling Republicans not to vote by mail), they also pose a real danger to the rest of us.
Stop for a moment and consider the logical response that a misguided (ostensibly patriotic) American would have if they truly believed that the so-called “Deep State” was trying to assassinate a past (and future?) president.
If Trump cult members were incited to riot on Jan. 6 (when they were told an election had been stolen), what might an assassination attempt on Dear Leader inspire?
It goes without saying that it is utterly irresponsible and dangerous to falsely assert that a current president attempted to assassinate his political rival. One might even equate it to yelling “fire” in a theater.
What is more, this lie, like the Big Lie (the false claim the 2020 election was stolen), will live on forever.
And while bad actors are pushing it, not enough good actors are pushing back. Indeed, too many of the referees focused on pedantic criticisms of Biden have remained largely silent on this much bigger lie.
The bottom line is that no decent or sane person should, in my estimation, support a politician who advances such a dangerous lie.
The real scandal is that so many of them are poised to do just that.
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After a four-week internal investigation at $14 billion electronics manufacturer Jabil Inc., CEO Kenneth “Kenny” Wilson has abruptly resigned just after passing his one-year anniversary at the helm of one of the chief suppliers to Apple, Cisco, and General Motors.
In exiting the CEO role last week, Wilson agreed to a set of restrictive covenants with one strikingly unusual provision: He’s banned from speaking to the media other than to say, “no comment,” according to his separation agreement. Wilson was also required to give the company a sworn written statement before his formal departure on May 18, but Jabil redacted the contents of the affidavit from investors. In exchange, Jabil paid him $2 million and allowed some of his unvested equity awards to continue to vest. (The company redacted its disclosures about his unvested equity.)
The company previously benched Wilson on April 15 and put him on leave while it conducted an investigation “related to corporate policies,” allowing him to collect his $1 million salary during that time. Jabil didn’t disclose details about the investigation, only stating that it was unrelated to the company’s financial reporting. It also remained mum on the substance and outcome of the investigation. Instead, Jabil simply announced that Wilson “ceased to serve as chief executive officer” on May 18 after the investigation was completed.
Meanwhile, Wilson’s two adult sons work for Jabil: Jordan Wilson is a business unit manager in Austin, Texas, and Adam Wilson holds the same title and works in St. Petersburg, Fla., according to LinkedIn and Jabil’s disclosures.
Under the terms of his exit as CEO, Kenny Wilson is subject to a two-year non-compete and non-disparagement agreement, which are typical terms when an executive and a company agree that the executive will resign.
But then it gets unusual.
Wilson’s agreement binds him to a “no comment” or non response if he is contacted by a member of the press, and Wilson is required to alert Jabil’s general counsel Kristine Melachrino by email about any media inquiry within 72 hours.
“You will not, nor permit, assist, or encourage others to, publish or otherwise communicate with any representative of the media about any aspect of your employment or this agreement,” the deal says. In turn, Jabil agreed not to respond, or to respond with “no comment,” about Wilson’s employment, or to provide the joint announcement. The agreement extends to any other form of on- or off-the-record communication with the media, including “deep background,” the deal specifies.
For that, Wilson gets paid $2 million, and he’ll keep his long-term incentive awards as well as the cash value of unvested long-term equity awards scheduled to vest in 2024. (He had to forfeit equity that was scheduled to vest in 2025 and 2026.) According to Jabil’s 2023 shareholder report, Wilson made $1 million in salary, and got a long-term equity award valued at $6.2 million in conjunction with his promotion to CEO in April 2023. His total pay in 2023 was valued at $10.2 million, and he held unvested equity valued at around $7 million, according to Jabil’s reports.
Brittany McCants, a partner in labor and employment at law firm Barnes & Thornburg, explained that the $2 million payment was not characterized as severance; it was a single payment made in exchange for continued compliance with restrictive covenants and providing an affidavit. “This payment structure coupled with previous disclosures referencing an investigation suggest a less than amicable separation between the executive and the company, and so the company has an interest in paying to get this done quickly while protecting themselves,” she told Fortune.
Public companies typically don’t formally terminate CEOs or other executives “for cause” because it will likely have a negative impact on the company’s stock price since this can signal discord, or worse, incompetent leadership in the C-suite. And while it’s standard for companies to avoid disclosing the results of an investigation and the specific nature or reasoning why a CEO departs after an investigation, the extensive media communication provision in the separation agreement explicitly outlining what Wilson is and is not permitted to say to the media is not typical, in her experience.
“This seems to me like they’re worried about some kind of specific discussion about the investigation or his departure,” said McCants. “They’re giving very explicit instructions on what he can and can’t discuss around his employment, departure, and the investigation, which takes the decision of what to share and what not to share outside his judgment and discretion.”
Normally, companies only rely on a non-disparagement clause in separation agreements to adequately protect themselves from a departing executive’s representations. Wilson’s contract includes a non-disparagement clause on top of his press prohibition.
“It seems like there was some kind of disagreement or continued discord here, and the company is focused on trying to make sure its brand and reputation are fully protected,” said McCants.
In other words, it doesn’t seem like Wilson and his former employer are on good terms.
In contrast, when departures are more amicable, companies typically ensure that the characterization of the outgoing executive’s separation is focused on a new opportunity or retirement so there’s no risk of negative assumptions in the absence of communications about a “job well done” and positive wishes in future endeavors, noted McCants.
Jabil did not comment in response to a request. Wilson did not respond to Fortune’s attempts to reach him.
Wilson’s exit earned him a 10 on “The Push-Out Score” from independent research firm Exechange, which tracks executive departures and ranks on a scale of 0 to 10 whether a CEO or CFO was forced out or pressured to resign rather than left voluntarily. Wilson’s age, 58, plus his short tenure in the CEO role, and the form and language of the notice all contributed to the score, Exechange researcher Daniel Schauber wrote in the firm’s April report. “The constellation of all the aforementioned warning signals leaves little room for interpretation and indicates that Wilson was under pressure to leave his post as CEO,” he explained.
Wilson’s departure comes as public ratings of Jabil on employee review platform Indeed have trended downward from 3.04 in 2022 to 2.92 in 2024, out of 3,900 reviews and with 5.0 as the highest. Jabil ranked below average in Indeed’s work wellbeing survey, scoring a 68. Overall, the company scored a 3.8 out of 5.0 on both Indeed and employee platform Glassdoor. Among the categories that employees can review, including work-life balance, pay, culture and job security, management scored the second-lowest, at 3.5.
An April review from a former Jabil recruiting coordinator in St. Petersburg, Fla., said it was mostly “a boys club with terrible communication.” An inspector currently at the company in Elmira, New York, said they loved the job but felt they were treated poorly. “All about who you know, who you are friends with, related to, or who you are dating,” the employee wrote. “HR is biased, good luck receiving any help when you are having any issue with a coworker or supervisor.”
However, other reviewers awarded the company five stars and said it was a great place to work with “outstanding” management, good pay and benefits, and a professional workplace culture. Wilson had an 86% approval rating on Glassdoor.
His departure led to a full-scale shakeup at Jabil, which was another refrain among the constructive criticism employees had for the company. “Form some actual strategy around our vision statement. Stop randomly reorganizing in hopes of finding a savior,” wrote an employee on Comparably in a review directed at company leadership.
Jabil appointed CFO Michael Dastoor as interim CEO during the investigation, and on May 18, the board named Dastoor CEO to replace Wilson. To replace Dastoor, the new CFO is Gregory Hebard, the company’s former treasurer.
And Steven Borges, an executive who had taken leave as part of a planned retirement and had entered a mutual separation agreement, returned to his role on May 18 under the title of executive vice president of the company’s global business units. Jabil extended Borges’ employment with an amendment to his initial deal to retire. That separation agreement did not include the media provision included in Wilson’s deal.
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The investigation is based on a petition raised by the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee in April. The group comprises a number of solar manufacturers with US bases, including cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film module producer First Solar and major silicon-based manufacturers Qcells and Meyer Burger.
The petition claims that the US industry is affected by “potentially illegal trade practices by Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam”. This builds on previous AD/CVD petitions which claimed – ultimately successfully – that certain Chinese-owned solar manufacturers were relocating parts of their supply chains to Southeast Asia for what the DOC called “minor processing”, in order to avoid US antidumping duties on China.
The US has yet to collect tariffs on Southeast Asian solar products. Joe Biden introduced a two-year waiver in 2022 to act as a “bridge,” allowing time for the US solar industry to build up. The waiver is due to expire this summer.
The next stage of the tariff process will see the International Trade Commission (ITC) reach a preliminary determination by 10th June on whether the imports in question cause “injury” to the US industry. If the determination is positive, the process will continue until final determinations are issued in early 2025.
Following the most recent petition, US renewables analyst Clean Energy Associates said that the tariffs could cause a solar cell supply “bottleneck” for the US because of the concentration of solar manufacturing in Southeast Asia. It said that the tariffs may “greatly reduce” solar cell supply to the US.
The ITA said that the US imported billions of dollars worth of solar products from the four countries in 2023 alone. Its figures show that imports from Cambodia totalled over US$2.3 billion, Malaysia over US$1.8 billion, Thailand over US$3.7 billion and Vietnam over US$3.9 billion.
Moreover, the ITA published data stating that the alleged dumping rate for solar cells from Vietnam is 271.38%—meaning that the normal US market price is more than twice that of the cells exported from Vietnam. The alleged rate for Cambodia is 124.37%, Malaysia 81.22% and Thailand 70.36%.
Earlier this week, Biden announced a doubling of the Section 301 import tariffs on Chinese solar cells. This may have significant ramifications, though the majority of the US’ solar supply already comes from Southeast Asia.
Our full coverage and analysis of AD/CVD can be found here.
PV Tech publisher Solar Media will be organising the second edition of PV ModuleTech US in Napa, California, during 6-7 June. The conference will address the module landscape that is expected to unfold for U.S. buyers in the coming years; in particular new domestic manufacturing. More information, including how to attend, can be read here.
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