Brian O’Dwyer
By Ray O’Hanlon
A former Trump campaign worker, appointed at age 23 to a top position in the White House's drug policy office, had been let go from a job at a law firm because he repeatedly missed work.
And that Law firm?
O'Dwyer & Bernstien.
According to a report in the Washington Post, while in college, late in 2014 or early in 2015, Taylor Weyeneth began working as a legal assistant at the New York firm.
But, reported the Post, Weyeneth was "discharged" in August 2015, this according to attorney Brian O'Dwyer.
"We were very disappointed in what happened," O'Dwyer, a senior partner at the firm, told the Post.
The veteran attorney, and son of New York Democratic political legend Paul O’Dwyer, said that he had hired Weyeneth in part because both men were involved in the same (college) fraternity, and that the firm invested time training him for what was expected to be a longer relationship.
Instead, O’Dwyer said, Weyeneth "just didn't show."
Weyeneth, nevertheless, end up working – and presumably showing up – at the Office of National Drug Control Policy where he rose to the level of deputy chief of staff.
But he won’t be there for much longer.
He will be stepping down at the end of this month, according to reports.
He will then return to the position he initially held at the agency, as a White House liaison.
An official said that Weyeneth has been primarily performing administrative work, rather than making policy decisions, and that he had assumed “additional duties and an additional title” following staff openings.
“Taylor Weyeneth, who was promoted last summer to serve as White House liaison to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, will depart following controversy over his limited work experience,” The Hill reported.
It’s unclear as to the role political preference might have played in Weyeneth giving the O'Dwyer & Bernstien office a wide steer.
Brian O’Dwyer has been a campaigner for, and close friend of both Hillary and Bill Clinton going back many years.
With O'Dwyer & Bernstien in his rear view mirror, Weyenth, said reports, graduated from college in May, 2016 and then worked as a paid member of the Trump campaign, then as a volunteer for the Trump transition.
He then rose to the top of the drug policy office after a series of higher-level departures, this according to the Post.
The drug office coordinates anti-drug initiatives at various federal agencies, including President Trump’s initiative to combat the opioid epidemic.
While avoiding duties at O'Dwyer & Bernstien might not have done Weyeneth much harm in a political sense, the matter of the truth did.
According to the Post report, in a résumé initially submitted to the government, Weyeneth said he had worked at O'Dwyer & Bernstien until April, 2016.
When an FBI official called as part of a background check in January, 2017, the firm said that Weyeneth had left eight months earlier than the résumé indicated.
Weyeneth’s rapid elevation in the Trump administration is not entirely surprising in one critical context.
Large numbers of positions in the administration and various government departments remain unfilled more than a year into Mr. Trump’s presidency.
