Trump Administration

Bloomberg News reports: Elliott Broidy, once a top Republican fundraiser, pleaded guilty to illegally lobbying President Donald Trump’s administration to help a Malaysian businessman end a federal investigation into the 1MDB scandal and to seek the extradition of a Chinese dissident from the U.S. Broidy’s plea Tuesday in federal court in Washington comes ahead of an expected criminal settlement with …

CNN reports: Melania Trump is canceling her first campaign appearance in months because she is not feeling well as she continues to recover from Covid-19. She had been set to join President Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night, but she has decided not to go. “Mrs. Trump continues to feel better every day following her recovery from Covid-19, …

The Washington Post reports: The coronavirus pandemic has left about 285,000 more people dead in the United States than would be expected in a typical year, two-thirds of them from covid-19 itself and the rest from other causes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. The CDC said the novel coronavirus, which causes covid-19, has taken a disproportionate …

The Washington Post reports: The Department of Justice is expected Tuesday to charge Google with violating federal antitrust law, according to two people familiar with the matter, finding after a year-long investigation that the tech giant wrongfully wielded its digital dominance to the detriment of corporate rivals and consumers. The federal government’s imminent lawsuit will touch off a landmark and …

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department said on Monday that President Trump should not be sued personally for having denied a rape allegation because he made the statement while acting in his official capacity as president. Lawyers for the government made the argument as they defended Attorney General William P. Barr’s decision to intervene in a defamation lawsuit …

The Washington Post reports: Restrictions on all nonessential travel at the United States’ land borders with Canada and Mexico will enter their eighth month, U.S. acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf said Monday. “To continue to limit the spread of covid-19, the U.S., Mexico, & Canada will extend the restrictions on non-essential travel until Nov. 21,” he said in a …

The Washington Post reports: As summer faded into autumn and the novel coronavirus continued to ravage the nation unabated, Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist whose commentary on Fox News led President Trump to recruit him to the White House, consolidated his power over the government’s pandemic response. Atlas shot down attempts to expand testing. He openly feuded with other doctors on …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide the legality of one of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies that has forced tens of thousands of migrants along the southern border to wait in Mexico, rather than entering the United States, while their asylum claims are processed. The justices will hear a Trump administration appeal of a …

The Washington Post reports: A federal judge on Sunday formally struck down a Trump administration attempt to end food stamp benefits for nearly 700,000 unemployed people, blocking as “arbitrary and capricious” the first of three such planned measures to restrict the federal food safety net. In a scathing 67-page opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of D.C. condemned …

The Huffington Post reports: President Donald Trump won’t leave the White House quietly if he loses in November — and it will depend on the faint-of-heart Republicans to force him out, warned former national security adviser John Bolton in a CNN interview that aired Sunday. “I think it’s very troubling [Trump] has said, ‘I can’t lose unless there’s fraud,’” Bolton …

CNN reports: White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Scott Atlas sought to undermine the importance of face masks on Saturday as coronavirus cases spike across the US. Atlas wrote in a tweet, “Masks work? NO” followed by a series of misrepresentations about the science behind the effectiveness of masks in combating the pandemic. The tweet links to an article …

The Hill reports: More than 150 business and nonprofit groups are calling on President Trump to withdraw his executive order that prohibits the federal government, as well as its contractors, subcontractors and grantees, from offering diversity training programs on racial and gender biases, according to the Wall Street Journal. The group, which includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and dozens …

CNN reports: Former White House chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, has told friends that President Donald Trump “is the most flawed person” he’s ever known. “The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it’s more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I …

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump recently accepted $1 million in campaign contributions from a couple whose vocal support for the QAnon conspiracy theory led to the cancellation of a fundraiser they were supposed to host for Vice President Mike Pence last month. The couple, Caryn and Michael Borland, have shared QAnon memes and retweeted posts from QAnon accounts, …

From an official White House statement: When I thought about where I wanted to put my time and efforts, there was no hesitation. BE BEST has one simple purpose—to help children. It serves to provide the tools children need to prepare them for their futures. We all know that more often than not, information that could be helpful to children …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration has rejected California’s request for disaster relief aid for six major wildfires that scorched more than 1.8 million acres in land, destroyed thousands of structures and caused at least three deaths last month. The rejection of aid late Thursday, a rare move in cases of disasters on the scale of California’s fires, …

The New York Times reports: The consultant’s assessment quickly spread through parts of the investment world. U.S. stocks were already spiraling because of a warning from a federal public health official that the virus was likely to spread, but traders spotted the immediate significance: The president’s aides appeared to be giving wealthy party donors an early warning of a potentially …

The New York Times reports: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday that he did not expect an economic relief package to be enacted before the Nov. 3 election as he and Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California have continued to struggle to reach an agreement on a broad package to support the economy. Negotiators on Wednesday resumed discussions over a …

The New York Times reports: The White House has embraced a declaration by a group of scientists arguing that authorities should allow the coronavirus to spread among young healthy people while protecting the elderly and the vulnerable — an approach that would rely on arriving at “herd immunity” through infections rather than a vaccine. Many experts say “herd immunity” — …

The Wall Street Journal reports: President Trump’s plan to send 33 million Medicare beneficiaries a card that can be used to help pay for as much as $200 in prescription drug costs won’t be completed until after the election, according to a person familiar with the plan. The cards will be mailed in phases, with some likely going out later …