Trump Corruption

Politico reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday passed up an opportunity to knock Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, seemingly deflating President Donald Trump in the presence of reporters in the Oval Office. Addressing his foreign counterpart, who was on speakerphone, Trump asked Netanyahu: “Do you think Sleepy Joe could have made this deal, Bibi? Sleepy Joe? I think …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump signed an executive order that appears to provide him and his agency appointees more leeway in the hiring and firing of federal employees deemed disloyal, a move that critics say politicizes civil service and could lead to career officials being pushed out for political reasons. The President has vilified some career officials as the “deep …

Politico reports: The Trump campaign’s communications director asserted on Friday that the reason some migrant families separated by the administration at the U.S. border have not been reunited is because the parents do not want their children back. Multiple media outlets reported this week that the federal government remains unable to find the parents of more than 500 children who …

Bloomberg News reports: A federal judge late on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit from President Trump’s re-election campaign to block New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) plan to send mail-in ballots to all registered voters as a safety precaution during the pandemic. U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp wrote that the plaintiffs claims that unsolicited mail-in ballots would lead to rampant illegal …

CNN reports: Donald Trump’s more sedate debate performance on Thursday night was a departure in tone from his chaotic performance weeks ago, but the President continued to cast his warped view of the world as truth. Trump came into the debate needing to clean up from his first performance and he clearly listened to his advisers who urged him to …

The indefatigable Daniel Dale reports for CNN: President Donald Trump makes a lot of false claims on issues that are crucial to Americans’ lives: the coronavirus pandemic, the election, health care, the economy. But Trump also makes a lot of false claims about trivial subjects nobody much cares about. One of the very strangest is about “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” …

“We have called for, since last Thursday when the New York Post story broke, for either the — Rudy Giuliani said it first, that Wray should resign. I say he should be fired if he couldn’t answer the questions. “The Washington Post broke a big scoop that the president is thinking about Wray. Note to Washington Post, you’ve got to …

The Associated Press reports: A New York court on Thursday upheld a decision dismissing state mortgage fraud charges against Paul Manafort on double jeopardy grounds, affirming a lower court finding that they mirrored the federal charges that landed President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman behind bars. A four-judge panel in the state’s intermediate appeals court ruled that Manhattan prosecutors failed …

This should totally firm up confidence in the COVID vaccine: Infuriated by the FDA’s defiance in a showdown over the Trump administration’s standards for authorizing a coronavirus vaccine, health secretary Alex Azar has spent recent weeks openly plotting the ouster of FDA chief Stephen Hahn. Azar has vented to allies within the Health and Human Services Department about his unhappiness …

Mediaite reports: White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien seemed undisturbed by the idea of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, being targeted by foreign efforts to meddle with the 2020 election. CBS’ Paula Reid asked O’Brien, “Were you aware of concerns that the president’s personal attorney might be the target of a foreign influence campaign?” “I think there …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Thursday posted his full interview with “60 Minutes” ahead of its scheduled air time in an attempt to undercut the news program after he bristled at questioning from journalist Lesley Stahl. The president posted the nearly 40-minute sit down to his Facebook page with the caption: “Look at the bias, hatred and rudeness on …

The Washington Post reports: As President Trump entered the final stretch of the election season, he began making more than 50 false or misleading claims a day. It’s only gotten worse — so much so that the Fact Checker team cannot keep up. As of Aug. 27, the tally in our database that tracks every errant claim by the president …

Politico reports: The Trump administration is considering declaring that several prominent international NGOs — including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam — are anti-Semitic and that governments should not support them, two people familiar with the issue said. The proposed declaration could come from the State Department as soon as this week. If the declaration happens, it is likely …

Forbes reports: President Trump on Wednesday tweeted photos of 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl holding a large book ostensibly documenting his healthcare accomplishments – but one photo showed Stahl opening the book to a blank page, underscoring Democratic attacks against Trump’s health care record. Trump famously held a press conference in 2017 flanked by what appeared to be stacks of …

The New York Daily News reports: President Trump claimed that politics would be ‘boring without me,’ as he slammed Joe Biden while speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. Trump’s comments came as he spoke to supporters in Erie. “If you had Sleepy Joe, nobody’s going to be interested in politics anymore,” Trump said. He claimed Biden would bring …

Politico reports: Back in early September, Trump weighed spending as much as $100 million of his own money on his reelection bid, according to Bloomberg News. When asked by reporters if he planned to self-fund part of his run, Trump said, “If I have to, I would.” But the money has not materialized. Trump has contributed just over $8,000 to …

The New York Times reports: It turns out that China is one of only three foreign nations — the others are Britain and Ireland — where Mr. Trump maintains a bank account, according to an analysis of the president’s tax records, which were obtained by The New York Times. The foreign accounts do not show up on Mr. Trump’s public …

Bloomberg News reports: Elliott Broidy, once a top Republican fundraiser, pleaded guilty to illegally lobbying President Donald Trump’s administration to help a Malaysian businessman end a federal investigation into the 1MDB scandal and to seek the extradition of a Chinese dissident from the U.S. Broidy’s plea Tuesday in federal court in Washington comes ahead of an expected criminal settlement with …

“This commission has been stacked against him from day one. It’s part of the corruption that we’ve seen in Washington. They don’t like Donald Trump. “This is a city that’s plugged in for Joe Biden, and to have this supposed non-partisan commission continue to make rule changes without consulting the Trump campaign. “They break promises that they made to the …

Axios reports: White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows confirmed in court on Tuesday that President Trump’s tweets authorizing the disclosure of documents related to the Russia investigation and Hillary Clinton’s emails “were not self-executing declassification orders,” after a federal judge demanded that Trump be asked about his intentions. Why it matters: BuzzFeed News reporter Jason Leopold cited the tweets …