Trump Corruption

The Daily Beast reports: A new book claims that former President Donald Trump’s aides specifically designated a White House official to play his favorite show tunes to soothe his temper. The startling assertion has been made by Stephanie Grisham, the first press secretary in American history to hold no press briefings, who plans to release a tell-all book next week. …

Mediaite reports: Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham has revealed that former President Donald Trump acted inappropriately with her, even going so far as to call her from Air Force One to tell her that his “penis was not small or toadstool-shaped” according to a report from The Washington Post. During the early days of the Trump administration, adult …

The New York Times reports: Former President Donald J. Trump has lost an effort to enforce a nondisclosure agreement against Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former White House aide and a star on “The Apprentice” who wrote a tell-all book about serving in his administration. The decision in the case, which Mr. Trump’s campaign filed in August 2018 with the American …

The Washington Post reports: A major theme of the book is the culture of lies that pervaded Trump’s administration. “Casual dishonesty filtered through the White House as if it were in the air conditioning system,” Grisham writes. For example, in 2019, Trump went to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center without disclosing to the media that he was going, or …

“Well you know, David, he was there for like 40 years or something, right? He was a part of the furniture. But if you think about it, I really did pretty much the opposite of whatever he said. You know? I actually got along with him, you know? I actually found him – he was a character. He’d say, ‘Just …

Newsweek reports: Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has said former President Donald Trump “knows in his heart that he lost” the 2020 presidential election ahead of his visit to the state on Saturday. Raffensperger was interviewed by The Washington Examiner on Friday and reaffirmed that Trump “lost the election fair and square” but acknowledged it was difficult to counteract …

Reuters reports: President Biden has determined that he does not plan to assert executive privilege to shield Trump-era documents sought by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday. “We take this matter incredibly seriously. The president has already concluded that it would not be appropriate to assert executive privilege and so …

The Hill reports: In a statement issued through his leadership PAC Save America, the former president cast the audit report, which is slated for release on Friday afternoon, as a political bombshell that “has uncovered significant and undeniable evidence of FRAUD.” “Huge findings in Arizona! However, the Fake News Media is already trying to ‘call it’ again for Biden before …

The New York Times reports: Eight and a half hours after former President Donald J. Trump made a public demand for Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas to back legislation to create a “forensic audit of the 2020 election,” the Texas secretary of state’s office announced a “comprehensive forensic audit” of the results from four of the state’s largest counties. The …

The New York Times reports: The select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol subpoenaed four of President Donald J. Trump’s closest advisers on Thursday, ramping up its scrutiny of what the former president was doing before and during the deadly riot. The subpoenas, the first the panel has issued, seek information from Mark Meadows, the former White …

The Hill reports: Former President Trump is pressuring Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to back a bill to launch an election audit in the Lone Star State, signaling an expanded effort to throw his broader 2020 election defeat into question. While Trump won Texas handily in November, he issued an open letter to Abbott on Thursday repeating his unfounded claims …

The Hill reports: Appearing on this week’s episode of the “UnPresidented” podcast, Mary Trump, a psychologist who has written a highly-critical book about former President Donald Trump, referred to her cousin Donald Trump Jr. as “weak” and “the stupidest one” in her family. “Donnie is a deeply unintelligent person. I’ve been asked this, who’s the stupidest one, and it’s him,” …

Mediaite reports: Donald Trump, by seeking $100 million in damages from Mary Trump and the New York Times, is admitting that the paper’s reporting on his taxes, which he previously called “fake news,” was actually real. On Tuesday, Trump filed a lawsuit against his niece, as well as several New York Times journalists, for the disclosure of his tax information …

Reuters reports: One leading candidate seeking to become Georgia’s chief elections official, Republican Jody Hice, is a Congressman who voted to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential win in the hours after the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Hice had posted on social media earlier that day: “This is our 1776 moment,” referencing the American Revolution. Reuters interviewed …

The Guardian reports: The House select committee investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol is considering issuing a blitz of subpoenas for top Trump White House aides including the former chief and deputy chief of staff, according to a source familiar with the matter. House select committee investigators are considering subpoenas for call detail records or testimony of …

The Washington Post reports: Former president Donald Trump has sued his niece, Mary L. Trump, and the New York Times over the publication of a 2018 article detailing allegations that he “participated in dubious tax schemes … including instances of outright fraud” that allowed him to receive over $413 million from his father, Fred Trump Sr., while significantly reducing taxes. …

The New York Times reports: Two weeks after the 2020 election, a team of lawyers closely allied with Donald J. Trump held a widely watched news conference at the Republican Party’s headquarters in Washington. At the event, they laid out a bizarre conspiracy theory claiming that a voting machine company had worked with an election software firm, the financier George …

CNN reports: A conservative lawyer working with then-President Donald Trump’s legal team tried to convince then-Vice President Mike Pence that he could overturn the election results on January 6 when Congress counted the Electoral College votes by throwing out electors from seven states, according to the new book “Peril” from Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The scheme …

Via press release from the Justice Department: An indictment was unsealed today in the District of Columbia charging a Kentucky man and a Florida man both with conspiracy to solicit and cause an illegal campaign contribution by a foreign national, effect a conduit contribution and cause false records to be filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and related substantive …

Bloomberg News reports: A $100 million loan on Donald Trump’s Fifth Avenue tower was moved to a watch list Monday because of “lower average occupancy,” according to information compiled by Wells Fargo & Co. The debt, sponsored by the former president himself, is secured by the 244,482 square feet (22,700 square meters) of office and retail space in Trump Tower. …