Trump Corruption

The Washington Post reports: Sen. Mitt Romney delivered perhaps the most thorough Republican rebuke of President Trump’s Syria withdrawal Thursday, calling Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds there “a bloodstain on the annals of American history.” But while that line will get a lot of play, there’s something else Romney said that shouldn’t escape notice. He also floated a theory about …

The Hill reports: White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Thursday that the flow of security assistance to Ukraine was not conditioned on Kiev investigating a conspiracy related to 2016 election interference, walking back statements he made earlier in the day. Mulvaney issued a statement Thursday afternoon accusing the media of “misconstruing” his earlier remarks to the press at …

Talking Points Memo reports: Two out of four defendants in the Rudy Giuliani-linked alleged campaign finance scheme were arraigned in Manhattan federal court on Thursday. David Correia and Andrey Kukushkin pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy before District Judge J. Paul Oetken for the Southern District of New York. Kukushkin was arrested last week. Correia surrendered to U.S. authorities …

Bloomberg reports: Energy Secretary Rick Perry notified President Donald Trump Thursday that he will soon be leaving the post, according to two people familiar with the matter. Perry, one of the administration’s original cabinet secretaries, enjoyed good rapport with Trump. The former Texas governor has recently come under scrutiny in the House impeachment inquiry over his discussions with Ukraine. Perry’s …

Axios reports: Jared Kushner will travel to Israel during the last week of October, Israeli officials tell me. He is expected to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Benny Gantz, the man seeking to replace Netanyahu as prime minister. Why it matters: Kushner knows Netanyahu well after their many meetings, but this will be his first meeting with …

The New York Times reports: Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, told reporters that the release of military aid to Ukraine this summer was linked in part to White House demands that Ukraine’s government investigate what he called corruption by Democrats in the 2016 American presidential campaign. It was the first time a White House official has …

NPR reports: Next year’s G-7 gathering of the leaders of the world’s biggest economies will take place at a President Trump’s Doral golf resort outside of Miami, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney announced on Thursday. “We used a lot of the same criteria used by past administrations,” Mulvaney said. He later said it was almost as though …

ABC News reports: The U.S. ambassador to the European Union will tell Congress that President Donald Trump directed him and others to work with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to push Ukraine to announce investigations, but that he was in the dark on the extent of Giuliani’s efforts and the political motive behind it, according to his opening statement obtained …

Fox News reports: Energy Secretary Rick Perry, whose name has been mentioned in connection with President Trump’s Ukraine dealings, said in an interview published late Wednesday that the president told him to seek out Rudy Giuliani earlier this year to look into possible Ukrainian corruption. The Wall Street Journal sat down with Perry for an extensive interview and reported that …

The Hill reports: Senate Republicans are cautioning Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) against the prospect of bringing former Vice President Joe Biden before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about Ukrainian corruption, saying such a move could backfire. Graham initially ruled out the possibility of having Biden or his son Hunter testify before the Judiciary panel about their actions related to …

ABC News reports: When two Rudy Giuliani associates were arrested last week and charged with funneling foreign money into political campaigns, two big questions lingered: Which foreigners were they working for, and what was their ultimate goal? There are growing indications that a Ukrainian-backed oligarch who is fighting extradition to the United States figures in the answers. The evidence is …

Politico reports: A former top adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told House impeachment investigators on Wednesday that he abruptly resigned last week because of President Donald Trump’s attacks on the ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and the State Department’s unwillingness to protect career diplomats from political pressure, according to two people familiar with the testimony. Michael McKinley, a …

The Washington Post reports: In late May, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney organized a meeting that stripped control of the country’s relationship with Ukraine from those who had the most expertise at the National Security Council and the State Department. Instead, Mulvaney put an unlikely trio in charge of managing the U.S.-Ukraine account amid worrisome signs of …

Pro Publica reports: Documents obtained by ProPublica show stark differences in how Donald Trump’s businesses reported some expenses, profits and occupancy figures for two Manhattan buildings, giving a lender different figures than they provided to New York City tax authorities. The discrepancies made the buildings appear more profitable to the lender — and less profitable to the officials who set …

The New York Times reports: A former top White House foreign policy adviser told House impeachment investigators this week that she viewed Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, as a potential national security risk because he was so unprepared for his job, according to two people familiar with her private testimony. The adviser, Fiona Hill, …

NBC News reports: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a measure Wednesday that would allow the state to pursue charges against people who have received a presidential pardon — a law seen as a direct shot at President Donald Trump. Multiple ex-Trump aides or associates are imprisoned or facing legal scrutiny in New York. The president, whose business and campaign …

The Associated Press reports: A Florida man wanted in a campaign finance case involving associates of Rudy Giuliani is in federal custody after flying Wednesday to Kennedy Airport in New York City to turn himself in, federal authorities said. David Correia, 44, was named in an indictment with two Giuliani associates and another man arrested last week on charges they …

Mediaite reports: The hosts of Fox & Friends applauded first-son Eric Trump for lying about the Trump Organization supposedly ceasing all business overseas after his father, President Donald Trump, entered the White House. During a Wednesday morning segment, Fox News aired a clip of the Trump Organization executive vice president comparing his experience as the son of the president to …

The Washington Post reports: Rudolph W. Giuliani privately urged President Trump in 2017 to extradite a Turkish cleric living in exile in the United States, a top priority of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to multiple former administration officials familiar with the discussions. Giuliani, a Trump ally who later became the president’s personal attorney, repeatedly argued to Trump that …

NBC News reports: Vice President Mike Pence’s office Tuesday said it will not comply with a request from the House to turn over documents related to President Donald Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In a letter to the chairman of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees, Pence counsel Matthew Morgan called the request …