Trump Corruption

The Hill reports: President Trump on Thursday said there was never a special counsel appointed when illegal acts were committed during the administration of former President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s campaign. In another tweet, Trump appeared to refer to the probe into his campaign’s ties to Russia as the “single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history.” With …

And the hits keep coming. Reuters reports: Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters. The previously undisclosed interactions form …

“As I have stated many times, a through investigation will confirm what we already know — that there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity. I look forward to this matter concluding quickly. In the meantime, I will never stop fighting for the people and the issues that matter most to the future of our country.” – …

The Washington Post reports: A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin. “There’s two people …

CNBC reports: Odds are that President Donald Trump will survive a growing brew of controversies, but bettors see his chances declining by the minute. Online wagering sites have been busy taking bets on whether the 45th president will make it through the year. As the heat has intensified, more action has been going toward expectations that he will be impeached …

Politico reports: Donald Trump’s approval rating is at a new low — and that’s before claims that he disclosed sensitive information to Russian officials in the Oval Office and tried to shut down an FBI investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. A new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, conducted after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey but before the two …

Public Policy Polling reports: For the first time we find more voters (48%) in support of impeaching Trump than there are (41%) opposed to the idea. Only 43% of voters think Trump is actually going to end up serving his full term as President, while 45% think he won’t, and 12% aren’t sure one way or the other. Voters are …

And the hits just keep coming. From the Washington Post: We got a call Friday from a reader named Paul Redmond that The Post had accidentally published Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis’s private cell phone number. A story about President Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller, Redmond said, was accompanied by a photograph of the two of them walking on White House …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said that Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State. The information Trump relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing …

The Daily Beast reports: White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer refused to comment on the existence of taped conversations between President Donald Trump and former FBI director James Comey. During a Monday press briefing, Spicer repeatedly stated that Trump had “nothing further” to say about alleged taped recordings, which Trump first referenced in a Friday tweet. During the Monday press …

Via press release: The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Justice Department and FBI asking for all records related to President Trump’s dismissal of FBI Director James Comey. “White House interference with any FBI investigation is incompatible with democratic safeguards, and that’s especially the case when the investigation involves the president or …

An op-ed in today’s Roll Call supports Trump’s threat to end these briefings. An excerpt: President Donald Trump tweeted Friday that, because his aides can’t speak with “perfect accuracy,” it might be best “to cancel all future ‘press briefings’ and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy.” I agree. Trump has identified an obvious truth in his administration: …

Yesterday afternoon Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribe published a Washington Post op-ed in which he forcefully calls for Trump to be impeached. His essay begins: The time has come for Congress to launch an impeachment investigation of President Trump for obstruction of justice. The remedy of impeachment was designed to create a last-resort mechanism for preserving our constitutional system. It …

The Associated Press reports: Several people close to the president say his reliance on a small cadre of advisers as he mulled firing Comey reflects his broader distrust of many of his own staffers. He leans heavily on daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as Hope Hicks, his trusted campaign spokeswoman and Keith Schiller, his longtime bodyguard. …

And of course, Hannity agrees. The Hill reports: Former Speaker Newt Gingrich is urging President Trump to follow through on his threat to cancel daily White House press briefings, accusing news media of being “dishonest opponents” of the president. “What they ought to do is get out of all this junk, they ought to focus on the big goals, they …

Last this afternoon Fox News anchor Chris Wallace went off on Sean Spicer’s handling of Trump’s blackmail threat against James Comey. Wallace: “When I heard that exchange today between Jeff Mason, White House reporter, and Sean Spicer speaking from the podium in the briefing room for the President of the United States, it took my breath away. That was what …

The Independent reports: Donald Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey has seen the odds on his impeachment slashed to their shortest ever price. Bookmaker Paddy Power said its odds reflected a 60 per cent chance of the billionaire being impeached during his first term in office. Mr Comey’s sacking reverberated around Washington on Tuesday night and throughout Wednesday. He …

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump’s lawyers say a review of his last 10 years of tax returns do not reflect “any income of any type from Russian sources,” with some exceptions. The lawyers did not release copies of Trump’s tax returns so The Associated Press cannot independently verify their conclusions. The letter says there is no equity investment …

Ben Shapiro writes at the Daily Signal: First, it’s not smart to blackmail a fellow who is scheduled to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee next week. Comey obviously had few limits on what he was willing to say publicly before Trump blackmailed him; now he’ll be even more loose with his tongue. Second, revealing that there may be “tapes” …

The New York Times reports: Only seven days after Donald J. Trump was sworn in as president, James B. Comey has told associates, the F.B.I. director was summoned to the White House for a one-on-one dinner with the new commander in chief. The conversation that night in January, Mr. Comey now believes, was a harbinger of his downfall this week …