Trump Administration

Radio host Dean Obeidallah writes for CNN: In keeping with their “tin foil hat” defense to impeachment, Republicans want to call as a witness, Hunter Biden. Nunes explained in his letter that the purported reason they are calling Biden is so that he “can assist the American public in understanding the nature and extent of Ukraine’s pervasive corruption.” If the …

The Associated Press reports: Two political supporters of U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry secured a potentially lucrative oil and gas exploration deal from the Ukrainian government soon after Perry proposed one of the men as an adviser to the country’s new president. Perry’s efforts to influence Ukraine’s energy policy came earlier this year, just as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s new government …

The Washington Post reports: Two of President Trump’s senior advisers undermined and ignored him in what they claimed was an effort to “save the country,” former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley claims in a new memoir. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly sought to recruit her to work around and …

Politico reports: Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney is asking to join a pending lawsuit aimed at clarifying whether the House of Representatives can require senior advisers to President Donald Trump to testify in the ongoing impeachment probe related to Ukraine. Mulvaney’s move in a court filing late Friday night could breathe new life into the suit filed …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration on Friday proposed hiking a range of fees assessed on those pursuing legal immigration and citizenship, as well as for the first time charging those fleeing persecution for seeking protection in the United States. The rule, which will be published on Thursday and will have a monthlong comment period, would increase citizenship …

The Hill reports: Former National Security Council (NSC) official Fiona Hill described a meeting with Ukrainian officials on July 10 during which U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland said he had an agreement with Mulvaney that a White House meeting with Ukraine’s president would be contingent on Kiev launching investigations. “Sondland, in front of the Ukrainians, as I …

The Associated Press reports: The Interior Department is proposing to award one of the first contracts for federal water in perpetuity to a powerful rural California water district that had long employed Secretary David Bernhardt as a lobbyist. Conservation groups are demanding fuller disclosure of financial terms and an environmental review of the proposed deal for the California’s Westlands Water …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration on Wednesday sued Gilead Sciences, a pharmaceutical company that sells H.I.V.-prevention drugs that can cost patients up to $20,000 a year, accusing the company of earning billions from research funded by taxpayers without paying taxpayers back. The government said the company infringed upon patents owned by the Department of Health and Human …

The Washington Post reports: A federal judge on Wednesday voided the Trump administration’s “conscience rule” that would have allowed health-care providers to refuse to participate in abortions, sterilizations or other types of care they disagree with on religious or moral grounds. U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan declared the so-called “conscience rule” unconstitutional in a 147-page decision stemming from …

The Hill reports: Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is expected to announce plans to run for his former Senate seat before Friday, two sources told The Hill. A source who is in regular contact with Sessions said Wednesday there is “99 percent certainty he will announce today or tomorrow.” A separate source familiar with Sessions’s plans told The Hill that …

“Lord, we ask you to deliver our president from any snare, any set up of the enemy according to Ephesians 6:12, any persons [or] entities that are aligned against the president will be exposed and dealt with and overturned by the superior blood of Jesus. “Whether it’s the spirit of Leviathan, a spirit of Jezebel, Abaddon, whether it’s the spirit …

USA Today reports: House Democrats have requested that acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney give a deposition in the impeachment probe, according to a letter released Tuesday. In the letter, the three chairmen of the House committees conducting the probe wrote, “Based on evidence gathered in the impeachment inquiry and public reporting, we believe that you possess substantial …

The Daily Beast reports: Facing a concerted campaign from Rudy Giuliani and his allies to oust her, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovich struggled in vain to get cover from U.S. diplomats, including her boss: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. At one point, according to a transcript of her Oct. 11 deposition in front of congressional impeachment investigators, she …

New York’s 1010 WINS reports: Gov. Cuomo said today that New York State would go to court to block a Trump administration proposal that would allow adoption and foster care agencies to turn away members of the LGBTQ community who want to give kids a home. “This proposal isn’t just discriminatory and repugnant to our values—it’s also heartless and dumb …

CBS News reports: The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has concluded that high-level presidential advisers have “absolute immunity” from congressional subpoenas for their testimony, according to a letter sent Sunday. In the letter to White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel said John Eisenberg, a White House attorney who was scheduled to be deposed Monday morning, …

The Los Angeles Times reports: At the urging of a controversial team of advisors, the Trump administration is mulling proposals to privatize national park campgrounds and further commercialize the parks with expanded Wi-Fi service, food trucks and even Amazon deliveries at tourist camp sites. Leaders of the Interior Department’s “Made in America” Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee say these changes could …

USA Today reports: The impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump moves forward Monday even as the full House of Representatives is on a week-long break. Four White House officials scheduled to appear before the House Oversight, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, are not expected to show up. Two of the officials — John Eisenberg, the National Security Council’s lawyer, and …

The New York Times reports: A federal judge on Saturday blocked the Trump administration from implementing a policy that would require immigrants to prove they have insurance or the financial resources for medical costs in order to obtain a visa. The ruling, by Judge Michael Simon of the Federal District Court in Portland, Ore., was the latest in a string …

The Associated Press reports: Energy Secretary Rick Perry is being called to testify in the House impeachment inquiry. Perry, the first member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet who has asked to appear before House investigators, is scheduled for Wednesday, according an official working on the impeachment inquiry but unauthorized to discuss it publicly. The person was granted anonymity. It’s unclear …

Now breaking on Twitter…. “Today, the Trump Administration issued a proposed rule that would strip existing protections for sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, religion, and for individuals in same-sex marriages in all programs and grants administered by Health and Human Services.” Updates to follow shortly…. Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: The Department of Health & Human Services went …