Trump Administration

The Washington Post reports: Attorney General William P. Barr ordered law enforcement officials on the ground to extend the perimeter around Lafayette Square, which is adjacent to the White House, just before President Trump spoke Monday, a Justice Department official said. According to two federal law enforcement officials, the decision had been made late Sunday night or early Monday morning …

Politico reports: Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host, expressed dismay at President Donald Trump’s leadership on Monday, criticizing the president’s handling of mass protests that have engulfed cities across the country and singling out an influential member of his family. Jared Kushner was just one of some unnamed “key advisers” who Carlson said “don’t seem to understand the gravity of …

USA Today reports: Attorney General William Barr has deployed federal riot teams to Washington, D.C., and Miami in an attempt to quell violent clashes between protesters and police. Riot teams are being sent from the federal Bureau of Prisons, while the FBI also has directed its elite Hostage Rescue Unit to help in D.C., a senior Justice Department official said …

Mother Jones reports: The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general wants you to know he has the credentials to hold accountable a 240,000-person department responsible for keeping the country safe. Until Thursday, Joseph Cuffari’s official government bio stated, “Dr. Cuffari earned a Ph.D. in philosophy.” That isn’t true. Cuffari’s PhD from California Coast University is in management, and it was …

Vice reports: Far-right extremists are showing up, with guns, to the protests against police brutality that have exploded across the country. Others are egging on the violence from behind their computers, urging followers to carry out acts of violence against black protesters with the goal of sparking a “race war.” For example, the so-called Boogaloo Bois — a group of …

The Hill reports: Michael Flynn urged a top Russian diplomat in late 2016 to make a “reciprocal” response to the Obama administration’s sanctions on the Kremlin for its interference in the recently completed presidential race, arguing against escalating matters. Flynn, who was then President-elect Trump’s incoming national security adviser, warned then-Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak against one country …

“We have no tolerance for racism in America. We have no tolerance for violence inspired by racism. And as President Trump said, justice will be served. We also believe in law and order in this country. We condemn violence against property or persons. We will also always stand for the right of Americans to peacefully protest and let their voices …

CBS News reports: President Trump on Friday called protesters in Minneapolis “thugs” and vowed that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” He tweeted after protesters outraged by the death of a black man in police custody torched a police station. The tweet was quickly flagged by Twitter as “glorifying violence.” Twitter quickly tagged the post, saying, “This Tweet violated …

Talking Points Memo reports: White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was put on the spot by CNN’s Jim Acosta, who asked her if she could say that President Donald Trump has “never lied to the public,” and McEnany would not say that. “Shouldn’t the president be fact-checked, especially this president, who has made so many false and misleading statements that …

USA Today reports: A postcard mailed to every American household that included coronavirus social distancing guidelines and also prominently featured President Donald Trump’s name cost the U.S. Postal Service $28 million, USA TODAY has learned. The coronavirus card, which began appearing in U.S. mailboxes in March, drew fire from good-government groups that said it applied a political veneer to the …

The Huffington Post reports: White House aide Kellyanne Conway — who, like her boss, the president, is falsely attacking voting by mail as prone to fraud — cast her own ballot by mail to vote in Bergen County, New Jersey, in the 2018 midterm election. Conway, who with her husband continues to own a home in northern New Jersey, tried …

Courthouse News reports: Three White House cabinet members received pitches last week to dramatically increase trade with Turkey. Capitalizing on the coronavirus pandemic, the letters came from Mehmet Ali Yalçındağ, the chairman of Turkey’s oldest state-sponsored trade group who partnered with Ivanka Trump and the president on the Trump Towers Istanbul deal. “Well before Covid-19 and the new set of …

NPR reports: Marc Short, the chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, owns between $506,043 and $1.64 million worth of individual stocks in companies doing work related to the Trump administration’s pandemic response — holdings that could run afoul of conflict of interest laws. Many of the medical, pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies – including 3M, Abbott Laboratories, Gilead Sciences, …

Via press release from the Justice Department: The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the FBI’s Minneapolis Field Office are conducting a robust criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd. The Department of Justice has made the investigation a top priority and has …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: For a week, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has defended President Donald Trump’s assault on vote-by-mail, insisting, like her boss, that it invites election fraud. But, also like her boss, McEnany has taken advantage of its convenience time and time again. In fact, the Tampa native has voted by mail in every Florida election …

“People very proudly show up and go to the polls. They really are, I mean they wait in line for, at Georgetown Cupcake for an hour to get a cupcake. So I think they can probably wait in line to do something as consequential and critical and constitutionally significant as cast their ballot.” “The Democrats don’t like their candidate, they …

The Daily Beast reports: The Justice Department will not file insider trading charges against Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. DOJ informed lawyers for Loeffler and two other senators scrutinized for their coronavirus-era stock trades that they are closing their investigations into the matters. A DOJ investigation into Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) remains ongoing, the …

The New York Post reports: Katie Miller, the spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence and the White House coronavirus task force, announced on Twitter Tuesday that she returned to work after a bout of COVID-19 and that she is pregnant. “Back at work today after three NEGATIVE COVID tests. Thank you to all my amazing doctors and everyone who reached …

Via press release from the Justice Department: The Department of Justice filed a Statement of Interest Monday in an Alabama federal court to promote the proper and uniform interpretation of the Voting Rights Act. The Statement of Interest is part of the Department of Justice’s continuing efforts around the country to enforce our nation’s federal voting rights laws. The lawsuit …

Mediaite reports: White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended President Donald Trump Tuesday amid multiple questions from reporters about POTUS’ continued tweets about a Joe Scarborough murder conspiracy theory. Jon Karl asked, “Why is the president making these unfounded allegations? I mean, this is pretty nuts, isn’t it? The president’s accusing somebody of possible murder. The family is pleading with …