Trump Corruption

CNN reports: The National Rifle Association is setting aside years of documents related to its interactions with a Kremlin-linked banker, as the gun-rights group appears to be bracing for a possible investigation, according to sources familiar with the situation. The NRA has faced fresh scrutiny from congressional investigators about its finances and ties to Alexander Torshin, one of the 17 …

The New York Times reports: The Russian lawyer who met with Trump campaign officials in Trump Tower in June 2016 on the premise that she would deliver damaging information about Hillary Clinton has long insisted she is a private attorney, not a Kremlin operative trying to meddle in the presidential election. But newly released emails show that in at least …

Business Insider reports: Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s embattled personal lawyer, once bragged that he was part of the Russian mob, The Wall Street Journal reported. Cohen is currently in the midst of a legal firestorm as the FBI investigates him for possible wire fraud, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations in connection to his work for Trump. Cohen is …

Courthouse News reports: A federal judge appointed an independent special master Thursday to make sure that no files seized by the FBI from embattled attorney Michael Cohen qualify for attorney-client privilege. The appointment of former federal judge Barbara Jones caps off weeks of wrangling between attorneys for President Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, Cohen and federal prosecutors over how to …

Politico digs into this morning’s scream-a-thon: President Donald Trump on Thursday sought to distance himself from longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen, claiming the New York attorney currently under federal criminal investigation is “really a businessman” who handles only “a tiny, tiny little fraction” of his legal work. “Let me just tell you, Michael is in business — he is really …

Vox reports: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt will face a double whammy of hearings on Capitol Hill Thursday that could make or break his career at the EPA. The hearings are intended to give Pruitt the chance to pitch his agency’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year. But members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House …

Multiple outlets are reporting that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen will plead the Fifth Amendment “in connection with all proceedings” in the Stormy Daniels case. Cohen asserted his protection against self-incrimination in a filing with the California district court hearing the porn star’s defamation lawsuit. The Hill reports: “Based on the advice of counsel, I will assert my 5th amendment rights …

This will likely be on the menu today: President Trump, in a Cabinet meeting including French President Emmanuel Macron during his White House visit Tuesday, said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been “very honorable” so far, as the U.S. looks to meet with North Korea soon about its nuclear program. “Kim Jong Un, he really has been very …

The New York Times reports: Mick Mulvaney, the interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told banking industry executives on Tuesday that they should press lawmakers hard to pursue their agenda, and revealed that, as a congressman, he would meet only with lobbyists if they had contributed to his campaign. “We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress,” …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule on Tuesday that would limit the kinds of scientific research it can use in crafting regulations, an apparent concession to big business that has long requested such restrictions. Under the new proposals, the EPA will no longer be able to rely on scientific research that is underpinned by confidential medical …

Bloomberg reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions has decided against recusing himself from the investigation into President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, but will consider stepping back from specific questions tied to the probe, according to a person familiar with the matter. By contrast, Sessions recused himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election that’s now led …

Talking Points Memo reports: President Donald Trump on Tuesday said it was a “stupid question” for a reporter to ask if he’d consider a pardon for his personal attorney, Michael Cohen. “Are you considering a pardon for Michael Cohen,” a reporter was heard asking during a pool spray in the Oval Office, as Trump sat next to French President Emmanuel …

Bloomberg reports: President Donald Trump twice gave James Comey an alibi for why a salacious report about the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow couldn’t be true: He never even spent the night in Russia during that trip, Trump told the former FBI director, according to Comey’s memos about the conversations. Yet the broad timeline of Trump’s stay, stretching from …

Last night the Guardian reported that Sean Hannity created multiple shell companies to invest millions in low income housing via an Obama-era loan program now overseen by HUD Secretary Ben Carson. Hannity never disclosed the deals when Carson appeared on his show. This afternoon Hannity has issued a furious reaction. It is ironic that I am being attacked for investing …

Raw Story reports: White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Monday declined to say President Donald Trump will not pardon his attorney, Michael Cohen, who is reportedly being investigated by federal prosecutors in New York. During a Monday morning press gaggle, Sanders was asked about a potential pardon for Cohen, who has been called president’s “fixer” for authoring non-disclosure agreements …

The Hill reports: Stormy Daniels’s attorney said on Sunday that Fox News host Sean Hannity’s work with Michael Cohen is likely to be “far more extensive” than the conservative media personality has let on. “I think that the relationship is going to be far more extensive than Mr. Hannity has led people to believe,” the attorney, Michael Avenatti, said on …

The Hill reports: White House legislative director Marc Short said on Sunday that President Trump has full confidence in embattled Environmental Protection Administrator (EPA) Scott Pruitt. “Scott Pruitt is doing a phenomenal job and the president is happy with him,” Short told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press.” Short refused to say what it would take for Trump to …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Saturday attacked The New York Times for its reporting on his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and expressed confidence Cohen will remain loyal to him while under federal investigation. Trump, who has spoken with Haberman on the record for multiple stories in the past, appeared to be referencing a New York Times report on Friday …

The Huffington Post reports: The Twitterverse was transfixed Friday night by the sound of millions of Americans scratching their heads as they tried to decipher Donald Trump’s latest tweet Friday night from Mar-a-Lago. He again attacked his former FBI director, accusing him of a kind of convoluted conspiracy theory. Tweets pointed out — repeatedly — that it’s special “counsel” — …

The New York Times reports: For years, a joke among Trump Tower employees was that the boss was like Manhattan’s First Avenue, where the traffic goes only one way. That one-sidedness has always been at the heart of President Trump’s relationship with his longtime lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, who has said he would “take a bullet” for Mr. …