Trump Corruption

The Washington Post reports: Former president Donald Trump threw himself back into politics this weekend by publicly endorsing a devoted and divisive acolyte in Arizona who has embraced his false election conspiracy theories and entertained the creation of a new “MAGA Party.” In a recorded phone call, Trump offered his “complete and total endorsement” for another term for Arizona state …

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports: Former President Donald Trump won’t see his name on the airport in his home turf of Palm Beach County — and it also might be difficult to engrave it anywhere else in South Florida. A majority of Palm Beach County commissioners told the South Florida Sun Sentinel this week that they won’t support renaming …

The Hill reports: Democrats are mulling whether they can use the 14th Amendment to prevent former President Trump from ever holding office again. The discussions are in the early stages — and top members of the Senate caucus aren’t yet convinced it’s a viable remedy — but senators are exploring their options as they plot a strategy after Trump’s supporters …

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department’s top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department’s power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results. The unassuming lawyer …

Axios reports: The Senate will begin former President Trump’s impeachment trial the week of Feb. 8, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Friday on the Senate floor. Trump is the only president in U.S. history to be impeached twice for “incitement of insurrection” after a violent pro-Trump mob breached the U.S. Capitol, resulting in five deaths. The day of the insurrection …

The Washington Examiner reports: Former President Donald Trump gave nothing away about his plans for life after the White House as he dined with friends at his golf club on Friday. “We’ll do something, but not just yet,” he told the Washington Examiner as he sat at his regular table in the dining room of the Trump International Golf Club. …

Bloomberg News reports: Former President Donald Trump’s campaign paid more than $2.7 million to individuals and firms that organized the Jan. 6 rally that led to violent rioters storming the U.S. Capitol, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The payments, which span Trump’s re-election campaign, show an ongoing financial relationship between the rally’s organizers and Trump’s political operation. They …

Axios reports: The lobbying firm run by Trump ally Matt Schlapp brought in $750,000 in the final two weeks of 2020 from a former top Trump fundraiser and convicted fraudster who retained Schlapp to lobby — unsuccessfully — for a presidential pardon. The substantial sum that the former fundraiser, Georgia’s Parker “Pete” Petit, paid to Schlapp’s Cove Strategies shows how …

Fox News reports: Former President Trump has reportedly chosen Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff, and the defense lawyers from his first impeachment case to handle requests for his White House records, according to reports. The documents are now the property of the National Archives and Records Administration. While all outgoing presidents select representatives to handle administration records, the …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The law firm that handled the tax affairs of Donald Trump and his company during his presidency said it would stop representing him and his business. The firm, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, is currently wrangling with the New York attorney general’s office over documents related to its work for the former president’s business, the Trump …

Mediaite reports: Former President Donald Trump has reportedly hired South Carolina attorney Butch Bowers to represent him during the Senate’s impeachment trial this month. Bowers previously served as a lawyer for the South Carolina Republican Party. He has also represented an array of South Carolina Republicans, including Gov. Henry McMaster along with former Govs. Nikki Haley and Pat McRory. Punchbowl …

The Washington Post reports: Another one of former president Donald Trump’s banks said Thursday that it is closing his accounts, as Trump returns to a business hammered by covid-19 and the backlash to Trump’s role in the deadly attack on the Capitol. “We no longer have any depository relationship with him,” Bank United said Thursday. The bank declined to give …

CNN reports: Fox News host Judge Jeanine successfully lobbied former President Donald Trump in an eleventh-hour effort to pardon her ex-husband in the final hours of Trump’s presidency, CNN has learned. Pirro was upset that her ex-husband Albert J. Pirro Jr. wasn’t on Trump’s final pardon list that came out early Wednesday morning, and that message was conveyed to the …

The Washington Post reports: Negotiations are expected to continue Thursday over the timing and scope of a Senate trial for Trump, who was impeached last week by the House on a charge of “incitement of insurrection” for his role in the Jan. 6 takeover of the U.S. Capitol by a violent mob. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and …

The Hill reports: President Trump in his final hour as commander in chief on Wednesday pardoned the ex-husband of Fox News host Jeanine Pirro. Trump granted a full pardon to Albert J. Pirro, Jr., a White House spokesperson said after the president landed in Florida. Albert Pirro, an attorney and lobbyist, was convicted in 2000 of conspiracy and tax evasion …

The Palm Beach Post reports: Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle are planning to spend millions of dollars on two luxurious waterfront homes in Admirals Cove, an exclusive gated community in Jupiter. But like Trump’s father is seeing in Palm Beach, some would-be neighbors in Admirals Cove also don’t want a Trump in their neighborhood. When word spread …

USA Today reports: For his last presidential ceremony, Trump reportedly wants an ostentatious military parade and an official armed forces farewell as the commander-in-chief, as well as a large crowd of supporters, selected backers and current and former officials in his administration and their guests at a huge red-carpet affair. But latest reports indicate that Trump, who is facing an …

Axios reports: The male voice in the TV ad boomed through the White House residence during “Fox & Friends” commercial breaks. Over and over and over. “The end is coming, Donald. … On Jan. 6, Mike Pence will put the nail in your political coffin.” The Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump PAC dedicated to pissing off the president with viral commercials, …

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump, in one of his final acts of office, released current and former members of his administration from the terms of their ethics pledge, which included a five-year ban on lobbying their former agencies. The ethics pledge was outlined in one of Trump’s first executive orders, signed on Jan. 28, 2017, as part of …

The Guardian reports: In his last few hours as president, Trump will fly to his private Mar-a-Lago resort and residence in Palm Beach, Florida, aboard the Air Force One jumbo jet for the last time in a presidential capacity, ensuring he and his wife Melania are almost 1,000 miles away from the White House and Capitol when Biden takes over. …