Trump Corruption

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump criticized FBI Director Christopher Wray in a tweet on Tuesday, a day after the U.S. Justice Department’s internal watchdog said it found no evidence of political bias when the FBI began investigating contacts between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia in 2016. Wray, in an interview on ABC News on Monday, acknowledged the numerous errors the …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump’s former deputy campaign chairman and top witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe Rick Gates has asked for a sentence of just probation after extensive cooperation with prosecutors following a guilty plea to two federal crimes. The court filing highlights just how significant Gates had been in the Mueller investigation and to prosecutors as they …

ABC News reports: FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday dismissed conspiracy theories pushed by allies of President Trump — including some Republican members of Congress — that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election. Wray said in an interview with ABC News that Russian agents represented the clearest threat both in 2016 and in the upcoming presidential election next year. “We …

Axios reports: Steve Castor, the counsel representing Republicans from the House Intelligence Committee, argued during Monday’s impeachment hearing that House Democrats failed to properly obtain and enforce subpoenas for Trump administration staffers to garner additional testimony in their impeachment inquiry. Yes, but: For the last two months, the White House has blasted the impeachment inquiry as “constitutionally illegitimate” and refused …

Politico reports: Roger Stone’s supporters are making a pardon pitch everywhere President Donald Trump looks: Fox News, InfoWars, Twitter, even the White House driveway. Michael Flynn abruptly hired a bombastic lawyer who spouts Trump-friendly theories about FBI duplicity that are widely seen as a pardon play. Paul Manafort has kept himself on Trump’s radar from behind bars in a federal …

Fox News reports: Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is preparing for a likely impeachment trial in the Senate, and he lambasted House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for his actions in leading the inquiry into President Trump. “Adam Schiff is doing a lot of damage to the country,” Graham said. “And he needs to stop.” Schiff is …

Newsweek reports: Republican Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz offered several defenses of Rudy Giuliani visiting Ukraine this past week, saying that while it is “weird,” Americans should give him “the benefit of the doubt” because of his role after 9/11. Gaetz appeared on ABC News’ This Week on Sunday to produce a litany of defenses for President Donald Trump and Giuliani’s …

Fox News reports: House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said Saturday that he would be pursuing legal action after his phone records were exposed in the release of the Committee’s impeachment inquiry report. Appearing on “Fox & Friends: Weekend” with hosts Pete Hegseth, Lisa Boothe, and Ed Henry, Nunes said he’s been under fire for three years because …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump on Friday asked the Supreme Court to temporarily halt subpoenas for his financial records sent to two banks by congressional Democrats, the latest in a string of court battles over the president’s personal financial dealings to make its way to the justices. A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Deutsche Bank and Capital One …

The New York Times reports: Trump administration officials, seeking to weaken Democrats’ case for impeachment, disputed on Thursday some of the details in the House Intelligence Committee’s report about calls between President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani and White House aides. As part of its portrait of Mr. Trump’s campaign of pressure on Ukraine, the committee’s report released this …

The Daily Beast reports: Rudy Giuliani has found a new ally in his globe-trotting attempts to fight President Trump’s impeachment, teaming up with a cable-news reporter and conspiracy-theory political cartoonist who has suggested that Hillary Clinton killed Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich and that Democrats eat people. In his quest to defend Trump and dig up dirt on his …

CNBC reports: Attorneys for President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to hear arguments in a case over whether his longtime accounting firm will be required to turn over his financial records to Congress, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said. The request, which was made in a filing known as a petition, comes after the top court late last month halted …

Politico reports: A federal judge has turned down the Justice Department’s bid to keep secret several financial disclosure forms ex-acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker submitted before his filings were formally accepted by ethics officials. Acting on a Freedom of Information Act suit brought by BuzzFeed, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden ruled Wednesday that the draft financial disclosures are not …

The New York Times reports: Even as Democrats intensified their scrutiny this week of Rudolph W. Giuliani’s role in the pressure campaign against the Ukrainian government that is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry, Mr. Giuliani has been in Europe continuing his efforts to shift the focus to purported wrongdoing by President Trump’s political rivals. Mr. Giuliani, the president’s …

NBC News reports: Who in the White House budget office called Rudy Giuliani on an August afternoon, and what did they have to talk about for 13 minutes? It’s unclear what legitimate purpose the president’s personal lawyer would have to speak at length with the White House Office of Management and Budget. But the revelation is likely to fuel arguments …

From the editorial board of the New York Daily News: That President Trump’s press secretary claims the House Intelligence Committee’s report “reads like the ramblings of a basement blogger straining to prove something when there is evidence of nothing” is the surest sign that Adam Schiff just delivered a compelling, coherent presentation of what happened when Trump leaned on the …

Axios reports: Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) broke with some of his Republican colleagues on Tuesday, telling reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday he has seen “no evidence” Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election. “I saw no evidence from our intelligence community, nor from the representatives today from the Department of State, that there is any evidence of any kind that suggests …

The Washington Post reports: A federal appeals court has sided with House Democrats seeking to obtain President Trump’s private financial records from Deutsche Bank and Capital One, stating that “the public interest favors denial of a preliminary injunction.” The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit came in the ongoing legal battle Trump has waged over …

The Washington Post reports: Written and designed by The Washington Post and illustrated by artist Jan Feindt, “The Mueller Report Illustrated: The Obstruction Investigation” brings to life the findings of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in an engaging and illuminating presentation. When it was released on April 18, Mueller’s report laid out two major conclusions: that Russia’s interference in …

The Washington Post reports: Attorney General William P. Barr has told associates he disagrees with the Justice Department’s inspector general on one of the key findings in an upcoming report — that the FBI had enough information in July 2016 to justify launching an investigation into members of the Trump campaign, according to people familiar with the matter. The Justice …