Trump Corruption

NBC News reports: Federal investigators working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller are keenly focused on President Donald Trump’s role in crafting a response to a published article about a meeting between Russians and his son Donald Jr., three sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. The sources told NBC News that prosecutors want to know what Trump knew about …

ABC News reports: Four months into his campaign for president of the United States, Donald Trump signed a “letter of intent” to pursue a Trump Tower-style building development in Moscow, according to a statement from the then-Trump Organization Chief Counsel Michael Cohen. The involvement of then-candidate Trump in a proposed Russian development deal contradicts repeated statements Trump made during the …

The Washington Post reports: A top executive from Donald Trump’s real estate company emailed Vladi­mir Putin’s personal spokesman during the U.S. presidential campaign last year to ask for help advancing a stalled Trump Tower development project in Moscow, according to documents submitted to Congress Monday. Michael Cohen, a Trump attorney and executive vice president for the Trump Organization, sent the …

A reminder from Law Newz: As tropical storm Harvey batters its way through Texas, flooding the Gulf Coast at unprecedented levels, it might be interesting to look at President Donald Trump‘s own relationship with hurricanes, or the lack thereof. In October, The Associated Press reported that the then-candidate claimed to have taken $17 million in insurance money for storm damage …

The Washington Post reports: While Donald Trump was running for president in late 2015 and early 2016, his company was pursuing a plan to develop a massive Trump Tower in Moscow, according to several people familiar with the proposal and new records reviewed by Trump Organization lawyers. As part of the discussions, a Russian-born real estate developer urged Trump to …

CNN reports: Congressional investigators have unearthed an email from a top Trump aide that referenced a previously unreported effort to arrange a meeting last year between Trump campaign officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter. The aide, Rick Dearborn, who is now President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff, sent a brief …

Raw Story reports: MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough suggested President Donald Trump is being blackmailed by Russian president Vladimir Putin. “Donald Trump, at some point in his life, has insulted everybody around him in the harshest of terms, including his own children,” Scarborough said. There is only one exception to Trump’s bullying and belligerence, he said. “The only person that I certainly …

Bloomberg reports: Manafort had alerted authorities to a controversial meeting on June 9, 2016, involving Trump’s son Donald Jr., other campaign representatives and a Russian lawyer promising damaging information on Hillary Clinton, according to people familiar with the matter. The president and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were dragged into the matter in July as details repeatedly emerged that contradicted the …

The Washington Post reports: Addressing for the first time Putin’s decision late last month that the U.S. Embassy and consulates in Russia would have to cut 775 diplomatic and technical staff, Trump told reporters that he sees no reason for them to continue working in Russia. “I want to thank him because we’re trying to cut down our payroll and …

The New York Times reports: Investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, recently searched the Northern Virginia home of President Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, for tax documents and foreign banking records, a sign that the inquiry into Mr. Manafort has broadened, according to a person briefed on the matter. Until now, it was only known that …

Bloomberg reports: Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, his son Donald Trump Jr. and former campaign manager Paul Manafort have started turning over documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of the panel’s expanded investigation of Russian election-meddling. The Trump campaign turned over about 20,000 pages of documents on Aug. 2, committee spokesman George Hartmann said Tuesday. Manafort provided about 400 …

USA Today reports: President Trump has publicly called the widening federal investigation into Russia’s election meddling a “witch hunt.” But through his lawyer, Trump has sent private messages of “appreciation” to special counsel Robert Mueller. “He appreciates what Bob Mueller is doing,” Trump’s chief counsel John Dowd told USA TODAY in an interview Tuesday. “He asked me to share that …

The Associated Press reports: As President Donald Trump spends much of August at his New Jersey golf club, Democratic lawmakers are making a new push for information about how much money the federal government is spending at his for-profit properties. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday asked departments to hand over information about their Trump-related spending by Aug. …

Late this afternoon CNN’s Jake Tapper reported on Trump’s early morning tweetstorm, which included a three-tweet rant against Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal. And since today’s soggy weather has kept Trump off the golf course, he was obviously watching television and therefore just HAD to fire out another attack on Blumenthal after one of Tapper’s panelists said, “By any objective standard, …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump began his 200th day in office on Monday in the same way that he has started so many others since moving into the White House: by attacking the media on Twitter. “Hard to believe that with 24/7 #Fake News on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, NYTIMES & WAPO, the Trump base is getting stronger!” he tweeted. …

Posted last night to Fox News Politics: The stock market is up, unemployment is down and the economy seems to be picking up some steam. The streets are mostly safe, the nation is mostly secure and the world is mostly at peace. So does it matter to you whether or not the president is a crook? The answer for a …

Reuters reports: Grand jury subpoenas have been issued in connection with a June 2016 meeting that included President Donald Trump’s son, his son-in-law and a Russian lawyer, two sources told Reuters on Thursday, in a sign that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is gathering pace. The sources added that Mueller had convened a grand jury in Washington to help investigate …

CNN reports: Federal investigators exploring whether Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russian spies have seized on Trump and his associates’ financial ties to Russia as one of the most fertile avenues for moving their probe forward, according to people familiar with the investigation. The web of financial ties could offer a more concrete path toward potential prosecution than the broader …

Tick tock tick tock: Special Counsel Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in Washington to investigate Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. That’s a sign that his inquiry is growing in intensity and entering a new phase, the report said. Legal experts quoted by the newspaper say …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump made building a wall along the southern U.S. border and forcing Mexico to pay for it core pledges of his campaign. But in his first White House call with Mexico’s president, Trump described his vow to charge Mexico as a growing political problem, pressuring the Mexican leader to stop saying publicly that his government …