Trump Corruption

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump says he does not expect to be impeached, claiming Democrats have “absolutely nothing” incriminating, despite days of public testimony by witnesses who said Trump withheld aid from Ukraine to press the country to investigate his political rivals. Trump said Friday, “I think it’s very hard to impeach you when they have absolutely nothing.” …

Axios reports: President Trump spent 53 minutes of his Friday morning on the phone with the hosts of “Fox & Friends” — his latest call-in to one of his favorite TV shows. President Trump spent a chunk of the interview repeating a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election. “That’s what the word is,” he claimed …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Friday dismissed U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland’s testimony that there was a quid pro quo in his efforts to press Ukraine for investigations, calling it “total nonsense.” “I hardly know him,” Trump said of Sondland, a hotelier and GOP donor. “I have spoken to him a few times.” “I want nothing …

The Washington Post reports: The first daughter weighed in on her father’s impeachment Thursday evening with a quote from 19th century French historian Alexis de Tocqueville warning that impeachment could be used politically. On Twitter, Ivanka Trump shared without comment this quote: “A decline of public morals in the United States will probably be marked by the abuse of the …

CNN reports: House Democrats say they are undeterred by the White House preventing first-hand witnesses from testifying before the House Intelligence Committee — and now are actively preparing for the next step in their eight-week-old investigation and the likely impeachment of President Donald Trump. Privately, Democrats are anticipating a busy December that will be filed with proceedings before the House …

The New York Times reports: Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Thursday requesting documents related to former vice president Joe Biden and his communications with Ukrainian officials, a step seen as a GOP effort to counter the House impeachment investigation of President Trump. Graham’s inquiry is focused on any calls …

From a statement issued this afternoon by Mick Mulvaney: Fiona Hill’s testimony is riddled with speculation and guesses about any role that Mr. Mulvaney played with anything related to Ukraine. She bases much of her testimony about him on things allegedly heard from unnamed staffers, guards in the West Wing, and “many people.” The fact is that Ms. Hill has …

The Washington Post reports: A group of Republican senators and senior White House officials met privately Thursday to map out a strategy for a potential impeachment trial of President Trump, including proceedings in the Senate that could be limited to about two weeks, according to multiple officials familiar with the talks. Republican Sens. Mike Lee (Utah), Ron Johnson (Wis.), John …

Raw Story reports: A new Federal Elections Commission filing unearthed by New York Times reporter Nick Confessore shows that the Republican National Committee blew nearly $100,000 to help promote Donald Trump Jr.’s book “Triggered.” According to the filing, the RNC made a $94,800 payment to bookseller Books-a-Million on October 29th this year, which was just days before Trump Jr.’s “Triggered” …

Politico reports: David Holmes, a State Department official detailed as a political counselor at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, testified that former national security adviser John Bolton said during a meeting in August that the hold on military aid to Ukraine wouldn’t be lifted unless Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was able to “favorably impress” President Trump. The revelation suggests that …

The Sacramento Bee reports: President Donald Trump won’t have to release his tax returns to get on California’s 2020 primary ballot following a unanimous ruling from the state Supreme Court on Thursday that invalidated a new state law. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 27 into law in July to compel presidential and gubernatorial candidates to release five years of …

“One would expect the president, in September, after the whistleblower’s allegations came out, after the president was accused of a quid pro quo, to say ‘no quid pro quo.’ But it is clear from what Ambassador Sondland testified yesterday that there was an understanding that the president wanted some things from the Ukrainians. “So the ambassador is not a never …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Thursday blasted investigators seeking his financial records and said he would release them voluntarily ahead of the 2020 election, although he made a similar pledge in 2016. Former special counsel Robert Mueller has not said he reviewed Trump’s financial records in his investigation into Russian election interference. Trump previously pledged in September to release …

Axios reports: Former White House official Fiona Hill will tell Thursday’s impeachment hearing that a “fictional narrative” about Ukraine, driven by partisan politics, distracted President Trump from the real threat that Russia poses to America’s democracy. Why she matters: Hill, who left last summer as Trump’s top adviser on Russia and Europe, gives House investigators a window into former national …

The House is obviously running behind schedule. PBS NewsHour reports: Laura Cooper is the Defense Department’s deputy assistant secretary for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia and thus the top Pentagon official working on Ukraine. In closed-door testimony last month, she told investigators that the White House had directed the freeze on aid to Ukraine and that Kyiv was concerned by the …

Fox News reports: During day four of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, European Union ambassador Gordon Sondland “took out the bus” and “ran over” President Trump and other top officials, host of “Fox News Sunday” Chris Wallace said Wednesday. Appearing on “America’s Newsroom” with host Bill Hemmer and Sandra Smith, Wallace said he thinks what Gordon Sondland was “trying to do” …

Yahoo News reports: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday he did not watch a testimony from European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump and that he was proud of American policy in Ukraine. “I didn’t see a single thing … I was working, I was in meetings all day,” Pompeo told …

Vox reports: On Wednesday, Trump — who nominated Sondland for an ambassadorship after Sondland gave $1 million to his inaugural fund — said to reporters outside the White House, “I don’t know him very well. I have not spoken to him much. This is not a man I know well. Seems like a nice guy though,” Trump said of Sondland. …

“It’s dry, boring and as invested as I am in this whole thing, it certainly doesn’t keep your attention very well. And I’ve been trying to watch it for the last couple of days and it’s, I don’t know, it’s pretty painful. If this is a Democratic Hail Mary, they’re not going to be successful with this. “I mean, look …

USA Today reports: President Donald Trump “should not” provide testimony to the House impeachment inquiry because Democrats are conducting unfair hearings, a White House aide said Wednesday. “No one would advise him to testify because this is a sham court,” said Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general brought in as a White House communications adviser. On Monday, Trump tweeted …