Tag Archives: corruption

Georgia Public Radio reports: Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., privately pushed Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to give wealthy sports owners a lucrative tax break last year, according to a previously unreported letter obtained by ProPublica. After the 2017 tax bill championed by President Donald Trump passed, Mnuchin and the Treasury had to write rules on how the legislation would work in …

The Texas Tribune reports: At 9 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 2, David Maxwell and Mark Penley, then two top aides to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, reported separately to the agency’s offices, where, they claim, they were subjected to hours of “irregularities, harassment and retaliation.” Then, they say, when pressured to resign, they refused. Eight hours later, they were fired. …

The Texas Tribune reports: Lacey Mase, one of the top aides who accused Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of crimes including bribery and abuse of office, has been fired, she told The Texas Tribune on Tuesday evening. “It was not voluntary,” she said, but declined to comment further. Mase was hired in 2011 and worked most recently as the deputy …

The Guardian reports: Jair Bolsonaro’s efforts to portray himself as an anti-corruption crusader have suffered another blow after police reportedly seized a wad of bank notes from between the clenched buttocks of one of his allies. Chico Rodrigues, the Brazilian president’s deputy leader in the senate, was reportedly caught with the concealed bundle on Wednesday during a police search of …

USA Today reports: The NRA’s former second-in-command has a message for the New York attorney general who has launched an investigation into the powerful gun lobby. It’s worse than she thinks. “She’s only at the tip of the iceberg,” said Joshua Powell, former chief of staff to Wayne LaPierre [photo], the longtime head of the National Rifle Association. “When she …

Politico reports: Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has privately engaged in several spending practices in his nearly four years in office that appear to be in conflict with the House’s ethics rules, a POLITICO investigation has found. Gaetz, a close ally of President Donald Trump from the Florida Panhandle, improperly sent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to a limited liability …

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports: Federal officials arrested Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four others on Tuesday morning in connection with a $60 million bribery case. U.S. Attorney David DeVillers’ office would not discuss details of the case, but a source involved in the investigation confirmed Householder’s arrest to The Enquirer. Also arrested, according to the source: Neil Clark, founder …

The Indiana Lawyer reports: A Terre Haute law firm is owed no additional money from one of its former clients, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Monday in an attorney fees lawsuit involving former Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock and his campaign committee. The Bopp Law Firm, P.C. appealed a Vigo Superior Court order ruling in favor of former Illinois Congressman …

From the government watchdog group CREW: New evidence has emerged that suggests Vice President Pence’s Chief of Staff Marc Short appears to have participated in three additional meetings with companies whose stock he held, which could violate criminal conflict of interest law, according to a letter sent today to the FBI by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). …

The Associated Press reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday launched a tirade against the nation’s justice system as his long-awaited corruption trial got underway, accusing police and prosecutors of conspiring to “depose” him. Netanyahu’s comments opened what is sure to be a tumultuous period for Israel as he becomes the country’s first sitting prime minister ever to go …

The Sarasota Herald reports: Facing an explosive charge that his administration is manipulating coronavirus data to help make the case for reopening Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis played down the controversy today as a “nonissue.” Rebekah Jones, a data expert at the Florida Department of Health, told FLORIDA TODAY that she was fired on Monday. And she said in an email …

CNN reports: The Supreme Court threw out fraud convictions on Thursday against two New Jersey officials involved in the “Bridgegate” political scandal, the George Washington Bridge traffic jam that rocked the administration of then-Gov. Chris Christie. Writing for a unanimous court, Justice Elena Kagan said that “for no reason” other than “political payback” the aides “used deception” to cut access …

The Washington Post reports: Brazil’s supreme court has authorized an investigation of alleged corruption and obstruction of justice by President Jair Bolsonaro after the country’s outgoing justice minister accused him of attempting to interfere with federal police probes. The 60-day investigation, approved Monday by Supreme Federal Court Justice José Celso de Mello Filho, plunges Brazil into a new political crisis …

The Daily Beast reports: The Georgia Republican is taking every chance she gets to plug her presidential appointment to a White House task force on “reopening America.” She’s using the appointment to attempt to court campaign supporters, taking out paid ads promoting it, and has even set up a stand-alone campaign website offering coronavirus information to constituents—a site that also …

The Daily Beast reports: Embattled Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) waved off the firestorm of controversy over stock trades she made following Senate coronavirus briefings, telling Fox News on Friday that the criticism she’s received is nothing more than a “socialist attack.” Noting that Loeffler had appeared on their program last month to deny any wrongdoing, America’s Newsroom co-anchor Sandra Smith …

The Daily Beast reports: The Senate’s newest member sold off seven figures’ worth of stock holdings in the days and weeks after a private, all-senators meeting on the novel coronavirus that subsequently hammered U.S. equities. Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) reported the first sale of stock jointly owned by her and her husband on Jan. 24, the very day that her …

ProPublica reports: Soon after he offered public assurances that the government was ready to battle the coronavirus, the powerful chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, sold off a significant percentage of his stocks, unloading between $582,029 and $1.56 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 29 separate transactions. As the head of the intelligence committee, Burr, a …

The New York Times reports: President Trump has commuted the 14-year prison sentence of former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, the Democrat who was convicted of trying to essentially sell President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat for personal gain, according to a person briefed on the decision. Mr. Trump commuted the former governor’s sentence on Tuesday and is planning …

The Associated Press reports: The corruption trial for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will begin March 17, just two weeks after national elections are held, a court said Tuesday. The surprise announcement immediately shook up the final stretch of the contentious election campaign, upending Netanyahu’s attempts to divert attention away from his legal woes. It also could weaken his ability …

The Times of Israel reports: Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Tuesday filed the indictment against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust with the Jerusalem District Court. “The indictment was filed a short time ago… as is required by law,” Mandelblit’s office said. The move marks the first time in Israel’s history that a …