Trump Corruption

Forbes reports: All pretense of Donald Trump getting along with Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has advised six presidents in his nearly four decade tenure as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is gone after the president hinted that he may fire the long-serving official after the November 3 election at a rally Sunday. At a packed …

“What the president’s real concern is and the Supreme Court has made some rulings on this, is trying to get as many votes in by Election Day as possible. We know that people can vote, we know how to count quickly, so let’s get it done. I think this election is going to be won on election night with Donald …

Axios reports: President Trump has told confidants he’ll declare victory on Tuesday night if it looks like he’s “ahead,” according to three sources familiar with his private comments. That’s even if the Electoral College outcome still hinges on large numbers of uncounted votes in key states like Pennsylvania. Behind the scenes: Trump has privately talked through this scenario in some …

The Associated Press reports: When the Trump administration gave a well-connected Republican donor seed money to test a possible COVID-19-fighting blood plasma technology, it noted the company’s “manufacturing facilities” in Charleston, South Carolina. Plasma Technologies LLC is indeed based in the stately waterfront city. But there are no manufacturing facilities. Instead, the company exists within the luxury condo of its …

The New York Times reports: Mr. Trump sprinkles his rally speeches with unfounded attacks on the election process. Last week, he claimed with no real evidence that “everyday, there’s cheating with the ballots.” It’s part of his consistent questioning of the integrity of the election. Trump advisers said their best hope was if the president wins Ohio and Florida is …

CBS News reports: The Lincoln Project, a prominent anti-Trump Republican group, has moved its billboards featuring Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner to Trump’s Mar-a-lago property in Palm Beach, Fla., by boat ahead of Election Day. The digital billboards are the latest development in the back-and-forth between the two White House advisers and the anti-Trump PAC. Lawyers for the couple …

The Washington Post reports: The documents show that Trump political appointees and the contractors they hired also vetted celebrities for the public health campaign based on whether they had ever criticized the president, or supported former president Barack Obama, gay rights or same-sex marriage. Of at least 274 celebrities under consideration, only 10 appear to have been approved, according to …

“There will be no heating in the winter, no air conditioning in the summer, and no electricity. Whatever the hell you wanted. Right now you have it made. You are so lucky. You are so lucky that I’m your president. And your team is doing a good job, right? They’re doing a good job. Right? They’re doing a good job.” …

Axios reports: Republican Party officials say they’re already looking to Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Nevada as likely battlegrounds for post-election lawsuits if the results are close. The big picture: As pre-election lawsuits draw to a close, and with President Trump running behind Joe Biden in national and many battleground state polls, Republicans are turning their attention to preparations for Election Day …

CREW reports: CREW estimates that special interests seeking to gain favor with the administration have likely spent more than $13 million at President Trump’s businesses since he took office. These groups — many of which spend heavily to lobby the federal government for favorable policies — have learned that holding lavish events at Trump properties is part of the cost …

Mediaite reports: What the commander in chief is flatly saying is that the only way that Joe Biden is “actually elected President,” is if five Supreme Court justice were to help allow that to happen. This statement is the clearest indication that President Trump expects to take the results of next Tuesday’s general election to the courts, regardless of the …

The Associated Press reports: The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is using her Facebook page to amplify unsubstantiated claims of corruption by Joe Biden. Ginni Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, asked her more than 10,000 followers Monday to consider sharing a link focused on alleged corruption by the Democratic nominee for president and his son, Hunter, as well …

Politico reports: The Trump appointee who steered a $300 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign to “defeat despair” about the coronavirus privately pitched a different theme last month: “Helping the President will Help the Country.” That proposal, which came in a meeting between Trump administration officials and campaign contractors, is among documents obtained by the House Oversight Committee that further illustrate how …

“So with testing now, what he’s been saying to us is, don’t fall into the same trap that we fell into the first time. The states have to own the testing, the federal testing. And the federal government should not own the testing, the federal government should not own, kind of, the rules. “It’s got to be up to the …

Foreign Policy reports: A prominent Chinese dissident pulls his children from school and flees his Texas home. A California-based democracy activist faces days of threats and harassment from protesters gathered in his driveway. Both were targets on a hit list of dissidents released last month by the exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui, who has claimed without evidence they are spies …

Rolling Stone reports: The disinformation operation was christened “Project Clintonson.” It brought together two notorious figures in Republican political circles, Blackwater founder Erik Prince and Trump adviser Roger Stone. Their objective couldn’t have been more explicit. “We do not need to make major gains among African American voters,” said a 13-page proposal for Project Clintonson that Prince sent to unnamed …

CNN reports: An aircraft entered restricted air space over President Donald Trump’s rally in Bullhead City, Arizona on Wednesday, leading to a fighter jet being scrambled to intercept it. The smaller aircraft was not visible to CNN reporters on the ground in Arizona but the fighter jet could be heard overhead, leading to a reaction from the rally crowd and …

The Hill reports: Vermont’s Secretary of State on Wednesday called for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to correct a claim made in a Monday opinion that Vermont had not made any election rule changes this year, which the justice used as a justification to deny Democrats’ request to extend the deadline for mail-in voting in Wisconsin. In a letter sent …

CNN reports: The anonymous senior Trump administration official who wrote a 2018 New York Times op-ed and a subsequent book critical of President Donald Trump is Miles Taylor, he revealed in a statement to CNN on Thursday. Taylor, who was chief of staff to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, wrote a lengthy statement explaining why he penned the …

CNN reports: President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner boasted in mid-April about how the President had cut out the doctors and scientists advising him on the unfolding coronavirus pandemic, comments that came as more than 40,000 Americans already had died from the virus, which was ravaging New York City. In a taped interview on April 18, Kushner told legendary journalist Bob Woodward …