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WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday officially selected Rex W. Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, to be his secretary of state. In saying he will nominate Mr. Tillerson, the president-elect is dismissing bipartisan concerns that the globe-trotting leader of an energy giant has a too-cozy relationship with Vladimir V. Putin, the president of Russia.

A statement from Mr. Trump’s transition office early Tuesday brought to an end his public and chaotic deliberations over the nation’s top diplomat — a process that at times veered from rewarding Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of his most loyal supporters, to musing about whether Mitt Romney, one of his most outspoken critics, might be forgiven.

Instead, Mr. Trump has decided to risk what looks to be a bruising confirmation fight in the Senate.

In the past several days, Republican and Democratic lawmakers had warned that Mr. Tillerson would face intense scrutiny over his two-decade relationship with Russia, which awarded him its Order of Friendship in 2013, and with Mr. Putin.

The hearings will also put a focus on Exxon Mobil’s business dealings with Moscow. The company has billions of dollars in oil contracts that can go forward only if the United States lifts sanctions against Russia, and Mr. Tillerson’s stake in Russia’s energy industry could create a very blurry line between his interests as an oilman and his role as America’s leading diplomat.

Meet Exxon’s Rex Tillerson, Trump’s Choice for Secretary of State DEC. 12, 2016

Mr. Tillerson has been publicly skeptical about the sanctions, which have halted some of Exxon Mobil’s biggest projects in Russia, including an agreement with the state oil company to explore and pump in Siberia that could be worth tens of billions of dollars.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department on Thursday fined Exxon Mobil $2 million for violating sanctions that the United States imposed on Russia in 2014 while Rex W. Tillerson, now the secretary of state, was the oil company’s chief executive.

The penalty was relatively small for the Treasury and a blip on Exxon’s mammoth balance sheet, but it came as controversy over Russia policy has engulfed Washington. The Trump administration is facing questions about Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election, and Congress has considered stiffening sanctions out of concern that President Trump will try to ease those already in place.

The move also underscores concerns over Mr. Tillerson’s deep business connections in Russia.

“Exxon Mobil demonstrated reckless disregard for U.S. sanctions requirements,” the Treasury said in a report announcing the penalty. “Exxon Mobil caused significant harm to the Ukraine-related sanctions program.”

Hal Eren, a former official in Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, said the fine showed that the department’s staff members would not be cowed.

“It gives the message that they’re going to do what they have to even though Rex Tillerson is secretary of state,” he said. “Perhaps it was a bit of assertion of independence by the staff of O.F.A.C.”

Exxon violated sanctions imposed after Russia’s armed actions against Ukraine when presidents of the company’s American subsidiaries did business with individuals whose assets were blocked, according to the foreign assets control unit. The violations involved the signing of legal documents related to oil and gas projects in Russia with Igor Sechin, the head of Rosneft, the Russian state oil company, and another person.

Mr. Tillerson had personal business dealings with Mr. Sechin. In 2013, Mr. Tillerson was awarded the Russian government’s Order of Friendship after he signed deals with Rosneft that opened the Kara Sea in the Arctic to oil drilling.

Mr. Tillerson was the only American official to join Mr. Trump at a meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia at the Group of 20 summit meeting in Germany this month.

For a president often caricatured in the media as someone who surrounds himself with sycophants and yes-men, Trump has not shied away from tapping former critics.

For all the talk after the election that Trump would reward his most loyal campaign surrogates with high-profile gigs, not everyone got big jobs. Neither former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani nor New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ended up with major administration posts.

And things haven’t gone swimmingly for some of the Trump campaign loyalists who ended up inside the administration.

Back in 2015, one Anthony Scaramucci called Trump a “hack politician.” On Friday, he was hired to lead the White House communications team

Nikki Haley, who endorsed Marco Rubio for president and warned Republicans during the campaign not to “follow the siren call of the angriest voices." She’s ambassador to the United Nations, and in that role has been an unflinching advocate for the administration's positions.

After Haley’s “angriest voices” comment, Trump fired back at the South Carolina governor in January 2016, calling her “weak on illegal immigration.”

Nine months ago, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman called on Donald Trump to drop out of the presidential race over the bombshell “Access Hollywood” video. He called for then-vice presidential nominee Mike Pence to replace Trump on the ticket after lamenting how the contest had become a “race to the bottom.”

Now Trump, Huntsman to serve as U.S. ambassador to Russia.Huntsman, who called for then-vice presidential nominee Mike Pence to replace Trump on the ticket after lamenting how the contest had become a “race to the bottom.” Now Trump has chosen Huntsman to serve as U.S. ambassador to Russia. the president’s representative in Russia.

There’s also Rick Perry, who famously referred to Trump during the campaign as a “cancer on conservatism.” Perry is now Trump’s secretary of Energy.

During the Republican primary in 2015, Trump tweeted that Perry “should be forced to take an IQ test before being allowed to enter the GOP debate."

There was nearly another name added to this list: 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who delivered a major speech calling Trump a “phony, a fraud” and vowed not to vote for him in the general election.

Romney later said he would have accepted the job if it had been offered. It went to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson instead.

The Treasury Department on Thursday fined Exxon Mobil $2 million for violating sanctions that the United States imposed on Russia in 2014 while Rex W. Tillerson, now the secretary of state, was the oil company’s chief executive.

The penalty was relatively small for the Treasury and a blip on Exxon’s mammoth balance sheet, but it came as controversy over Russia policy has engulfed Washington.

Matt McDermott‏Verified account @mattmfm 7h7 hours ago
This morning, Kellyanne Conway on Fox said Mueller team donations to Hillary Clinton are a conflict.

Scaramucci donated to Hillary Clinton.

Maybe John Goodman will play Sara Huckabee when the show resumes??? I did love Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer, but Goodman did a great Linda Tripp, he'd be perfect for Huckabee.

With any luck at all, god is gathering together the worst humans in America so he can kill them with minimal collateral damage.

“I was always the best athlete. Something that nobody knew about me. …I was the best baseball player in New York when I was young. … But I also knew that it was very limited, because in those days you couldn’t even make a lot of money playing baseball. … Everybody wanted me to be a baseball player. But I was good in other sports too. I was good in wresting, I was very good at football. I was always the best at sports.”

glitterbag wrote:

Maybe John Goodman will play Sara Huckabee when the show resumes??? I did love Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer, but Goodman did a great Linda Tripp, he'd be perfect for Huckabee.

And who would make a perfect glitterbag?

And who would make a perfect glitterbag?

it brought home to me again was that we replaced this centered, erudite, even-tempered gentleman with the disgraceful stoat of a man in the white house now.

Today his misshapen body is anything but athletic. I seriously doubt he was ever rugged.

Col. Ted Dobias, Trump's former instructor and baseball coach,is a barrel-chested man who's now nearing 90 but whose memory is diamond-drill sharp.

"I had a lot of one-on-ones" with the 14-year-old Trump, adds Dobias, some of which got physical, both men say. Whatever it took to seize the eighth-grader's attention, Dobias says. Dobias says Trump was the star first baseman for Dobias' varsity squad. "He was good-hit and good-field: We had scouts from the Phillies to watch him, but he wanted to go to college and make real money."

The Republican presidential front runner was 'quite the athlete' at New York Military Academy where he was on the Varsity baseball, soccer and football teams, his former coach told Daily Mail Online. Known as 'D.T.' to his schoolmates, Trump won three varsity letters and a clutch of honors in what seemed to be the perfect foundation for a career in the military.

A catcher, Trump’s uniform was often the dirtiest on the field, and he shrugged off foul balls clanging off his mask.

A fierce competitor, Trump could erupt in anger, pummeling another boy or smashing a baseball bat if he made an out, two childhood neighbors said. In school, he misbehaved so often that his initials became his friends’ shorthand for detention.

By sixth grade, Donald’s power as a right-handed hitter was enough that fielders shifted to left field when he batted. “If he had hit the ball to right, he could’ve had a home run because no one was there,” said Nicholas Kass, a schoolmate. “But he always wanted to hit the ball through people. He wanted to overpower them.”

"He was just the best, a good athlete, a great athlete," Levine told Business Insider. "He could have probably played pro ball as a pitcher. I think he threw 80 miles an hour. I was the catcher. He made my hand black and blue every day . . . Could he play football? Could he play soccer? He could do anything he wanted. He was physically and mentally gifted."