Trump Corruption

Betsy Woodruff reports at the Daily Beast: Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been in talks to join the President Donald Trump’s personal legal team, according to a person familiar with the matter. No decision is currently final. A slew of foreign policy matters which Trump has had to deal with has slowed the process of expanding the …

Bloomberg reports: Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s interest in former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort stemmed in part from his suspected role as a “back channel” between the campaign and Russians intent on meddling in the election, a Justice Department lawyer told a judge. The disclosure by U.S. prosecutors came Thursday during a hearing on whether Mueller exceeded his authority in …

“I will say he left the Republican Party, we did not leave him. He has left. We’re glad to see him go at this point with what done with this self-serving book tour — monetizing his relationship with the president. We know now how unfit he was to be FBI director with the mistruths that he’s put forward. And I …

Politico reports: Embattled attorney Michael Cohen has dropped a pair of much-touted libel suits against BuzzFeed and the private investigation firm Fusion GPS over publication of the so-called dossier detailing alleged ties between President Donald Trump and Russia. Cohen abandoned the suits late Wednesday as he continues to fight to recover documents and electronic files seized from his home, office …

Reuters reports: New York’s attorney general on Wednesday asked Governor Andrew Cuomo and state legislators to give him and other local prosecutors power to bring criminal charges against people pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump. In a letter, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman urged Cuomo and legislative leaders to close a loophole in New York’s double jeopardy law shielding recipients of …

The Wall Street Journal reports: One of President Donald Trump’s longtime legal advisers said he warned the president in a phone call Friday that Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and close friend, would turn against the president and cooperate with federal prosecutors if faced with criminal charges. Mr. Goldberg said he cautioned the president not to trust Mr. Cohen. …

The New York Times reports: The tabloid news company American Media Inc. agreed to let a former Playboy model out of a contract that had kept her from talking freely about an alleged affair with Donald J. Trump, her lawyer said. The settlement agreement, reached Wednesday, ends a lawsuit brought by the model, Karen McDougal, and protects the president from …

The Hill reports: A group of 131 representatives and 39 senators signed a resolution introduced Wednesday that calls for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt to resign. The resolution states that the co-signers have “no confidence in the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and [are] calling for the immediate resignation of the Administrator.” Highlighted within the resolution are …

Talking Points Memo reports: The law firm representing Michael Cohen — which this week fought in court to shield communications between Cohen and President Trump from government investigators — has received payments from President Trump’s re-election campaign. The payments to the law firm by Trump’s campaign could ultimately complicate any efforts by Robert Mueller’s team to win Cohen’s cooperation in …

The Chicago Sun-Times reports: The ties between President Donald Trump’s embattled personal lawyer Michael D. Cohen and Chicago’s taxicab industry go deeper than previously known. Over the past eight months, Cohen’s father-in-law has given at least $20 million in loans to Yasya Shtayner, records examined by the Chicago Sun-Times show. Her family owns Chicago Medallion Management Corp., which manages 368 …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump said Wednesday that former FBI Director James Comey was not fired because of the Russia investigation — a statement directly at odds with the President’s own comments on Comey’s dismissal. Trump had told NBC News last year that he was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he decided to fire Comey. After Comey’s ouster, Trump …

The Washington Post reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday thwarted a bipartisan effort to protect special counsel Robert Mueller’s job, saying he will not hold a floor vote on the legislation even if it is approved next week in the Senate Judiciary Committee. McConnell said the bill is unnecessary because President Donald Trump will not fire Mueller. “We’ll …

“Many of the world’s great leaders request to come to Mar-a-Lago and Palm Beach. They like it. I like it. We’re comfortable. We have great relationships as you remember. It was originally built as the southern White House. It was called the southern White House. It was given to the United States and the Jimmy Carter decided it was too …

Moments ago Stormy Daniels and her lawyer Michael Avenatti appeared on The View where they displayed a “composite sketch” of the man who allegedly threatened to murder Daniels if she didn’t stop talking about her affair with Glorious Leader. After showing the sketch, Avenatti announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the man’s identification. Avenatti also provided an email …

Politico reports: Former FBI Director James Comey denounced Donald Trump’s presidency as a threat to bedrock American values, warning that the president’s calls for Comey to be jailed could erode the rule of law. The former FBI director, whom Trump fired last spring, has been a frequent target of Trump’s criticism, especially in recent days amid the start of a …

ABC News reports: A federal judge rejected a request from President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Michael Cohen for a temporary restraining order that would have kept federal prosecutors from reading files seized in raids last week. Judge Kimba Wood said a government taint team can weed out privileged documents, but she left open the possibility an independent third …

Swampity swamp swamp swamp: The Interior Department took estimates for setting up four flag poles outside its main building in Washington, D.C., to fly personal flags for Secretary Ryan Zinke at a cost as high as $200,000, according to internal emails released Monday by the agency. The department ultimately decided against installing the new poles, the documents show, choosing instead …

The Associated Press reports: Porn actress Stormy Daniels has arrived at a New York City courthouse for a hearing about an FBI raid targeting President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer. Daniels, wearing a pink skirt and black heels, stumbled and almost fell on the wet sidewalk outside the courthouse among a throng of reporters and camera crews. The raid sought information …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump seemed distracted in March as his aides briefed him at his Mar-a-Lago resort on the administration’s plan to expel 60 Russian diplomats and suspected spies. The United States, they explained, would be ousting roughly the same number of Russians as its European allies — part of a coordinated move to punish Moscow for the …

Politico reports: Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, disclosed Monday that he’s had 10 clients in his solo practice since 2017, including the president and GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy, but the attorney declined to name eight other clients in response to a judge’s order. Cohen’s attorneys said he had three legal clients in the past year, including Trump, former Republican …