An informed public,
a strengthened democracy.
The records include calendar entries from the Department of Defense for then-Deputy Secretary Patrick Shanahan for the period of July 2017 to January 2019. Shanahan joined the administration in July 2017 after working at Boeing for more than three decades, most recently as senior vice president. Shanahan was appointed acting secretary of defense following the resignation of Jim Mattis on Jan. 1, 2019. American Oversight sought these records to see whether Shanahan had complied with his ethics obligations.
The calendars cover the period of time when the Department of Defense was soliciting contract bids for the controversial Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) project and show dozens of meetings with technology companies, including meetings with Alphabet’s then-CEO Eric Schmidt (now the chair of the Defense Innovation Board), Amazon’s Worldwide Consumer CEO Jeff Wilke, and Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella and president Brad Smith.
Shanahan also had multiple meetings regarding the transgender military ban, many with Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, who was then undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. Most of these meetings were held between December 2017 and January 2018. Detailed annotations are below.
Aug. 10, 2017: Phone call with Secretary Ross
Aug. 30, 2017: Phone call with Ross and Navarro.
Sept. 6, 2017: Meeting with Amazon’s Jeff Wilke.
Sept. 7, 2017: Call with Chris Lynch, then-director of the Defense Digital Service, to discuss cloud computing.
Sept. 28, 2017: Phone call with Raj Shah, then-White House deputy press secretary. Shah joined for the White House at the time after leading opposition research efforts for the Republican National Committee, and left the administration in January 2019 to join Ballard Partners. Shah is now a senior vice president at Fox Corporation. Shanahan had additional calls with Shah on Oct. 31, 2017, and Jan. 18 and Sept. 21, 2018.
Oct. 5, 2017: Phone call with Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt.
Oct. 12, 2017: Conference call with Greg Clark, former CEO of Symantec, and Scott Charney, Microsoft’s vice president of security policy.
Oct. 17, 2017: Meeting with Nadia Schadlow, Trump’s former deputy national security adviser for Trump, now a senior fellow at Hudson Institute.
Oct. 27, 2017: Phone call with Microsoft’s Brad Smith.
Nov. 1, 2017: Lunch meeting with Newt Gingrich.
Nov. 2, 2017: Phone call with Chad Wolf, then chief of staff for the Transportation Security Administration, now acting secretary of homeland security.
Nov. 28, 2017: Lunch with Secretary Mattis and former Vice President Dick Cheney followed by a phone call with Secretary Ross regarding “Aluminum Issue.”
Dec. 6, 2017: Meeting with Brad Smith.
Dec. 8, 2017: “Transgender Panel” with the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Personnel and Readiness.
Dec. 11, 2017: Call with Justin Johnson, a defense analyst for the Heritage Foundation, and Rep. Devin Nunes.
Jan. 8, 2018: Meeting with Microsoft’s Satya Nadella.
Feb. 2, 2018: Lunch meeting with Navarro.
Feb. 7, 2018: Meeting with Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy.
Feb. 12, 2018: Dinner with Schadlow.
Feb. 23, 2018: Meeting with Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle Corporation, and Undersecretary Ellen Lord.
March 12, 2018: Meeting with Trump adviser Peter Navarro and Lord.
April 13, 2018: Call with Navarro.
April 18, 2018: Call with Jassy.
April 16, 2018: Meeting with Eric Schmidt.
May 3, 2018: Call with Pompeo ally Brian Bulatao, who at the time was at the CIA and now is undersecretary of state for management.
May 21, 2018: Call with Bulatao and meeting with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
June 4, 2018: Call with White House Senior Adviser Stephen Miller.
June 5, 2018: Call with Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google; call with ethics official Ruth Vetter, who had signed Shanahan’s financial disclosure form in June 2017 and joined Boeing in 2018 as director of ethics and business conduct.
June 6, 2018: Meeting with Robert Karem, then-assistant defense secretary for international security affairs.
June 20, 2018: Call with Gingrich.
June 25, 2018: Call with White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner followed by a call with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
June 27, 2018: Call with Bulatao.
July 2, 2018: Call with Deputy Secretary of Education Mick Zais.
July 25, 2018: Working lunch with Gingrich.
July 31, 2018: Call with then-White House official Robert Blair, who is now at the Commerce Department.
Aug. 8, 2018: Meeting with Ruth Vetter.
Aug. 15, 2018: “FY19 Refugee Admission Ceiling” meeting in the White House Situation Room.
Aug. 16, 2018: Border wall discussion with President Trump in Oval Office.
Aug. 17, 2018: Inaugural Space Governance Committee Meeting.
Aug. 29, 2018: “Defense Industrial Base Study” with Navarro.
Sept. 7, 2018: Meeting with Nick Ayers, former chief of staff to Pence.
Sept. 11, 2018: Call with Ayers.
Sept. 14, 2018: Call with Ayers followed by a meeting with Elaine McCusker, then Defense Department comptroller.
Sept. 20, 2018: Call with Sue Gordon, then a top official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Gordon now works at Microsoft.
Oct. 4, 2018: Impromptu phone call with Mick Mulvaney.
Oct. 9, 2018: Call with Navarro.
Nov. 8, 2018: Call with Roger Krone, Leidos CEO. Krone was formerly a president at Boeing.
Nov. 9, 2018: Call with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
Sept. 18, 2017: “Transgender*” meeting.
Dec. 8, 2017: “Transgender Panel” with the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Personnel and Readiness.
Dec. 15, 2017: “Transgender Outbrief.”
Jan. 8, 2018: “Transgender Update” meeting with Robert Wilkie.
Jan. 16, 2018: Meeting with Wilkie “re: TG.”
Jan. 19, 2018: ”Transgender Update” meeting with Secretary Mattis.
Jan. 22, 2018: “Transgender Touchpoint” meeting with Wilkie.
Jan. 23, 2018: “Transgender Touchpoint” meeting.
Jan. 24, 2018: “TG Touchpoint” meeting with Wilkie.
Jan. 31, 2018: “USD P&R — Readiness 45-Day Sprint.”
April 30, 2018: Transgender discussion with service secretaries.
Part of Investigation: