Trump Corruption

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 …

After yesterday’s bumbling and lie-filled press briefing by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, snippets of which were dissected and replayed throughout yesterday afternoon, this morning Hair Furor made excuses for the lies because, after all, he’s a VERY BUSY president. Trump followed up with an open threat to end press briefings entirely. Which is totally normal. Everything is fine. Again, the story …

NBC News reports: Despite what President Donald Trump said earlier in the day, James Comey did not seek a dinner with the president to retain his job, one current and one former FBI official close to Comey told NBC News Thursday evening. The January dinner meeting between the two men, the sources said, was requested by the White House. And …

Let’s see if she’s getting any better at lying. Via Patch: The White House continues to face questions about the firing of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday night. The events that led up to Comey’s termination are unclear, and many press reports tell a very different story than the one the administration has laid out. Some recent reports have …

NBC News reports: President Donald Trump, in an exclusive interview Thursday with NBC News’ Lester Holt, called ousted FBI chief James Comey a “showboat” and revealed he asked Comey whether he was under investigation for alleged ties to Russia. “I actually asked him” if I was under investigation, Trump said, noting that he spoke with Comey once over dinner and …

Consumerist reports: In response to an unfair competition lawsuit filed against President Trump by a D.C. restaurant claiming that it’s lost business to a Trump-operated building within walking distance to the White House, the President’s legal team says that not only are the claims without merit, but that Trump is immune from this sort of legal action. The owners of …

The New York Times reports: The unfolding story over Mr. Trump’s abrupt firing of Mr. Comey hung over the hearing, infusing political theater into annual testimony by the nation’s top security officials about the biggest threats facing the United States. Mr. McCabe rejected the White House’s assertion that Mr. Comey had lost the backing of rank-and-file F.B.I. agents, a pointed …

Raw Story reports: Donald Trump Jr. on Thursday defended his father’s decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey by retweeting a conspiracy theory about Vince Foster, the former deputy White House counsel in the Clinton administration who took his own life in 1993. President Bill Clinton fired former FBI Director William Sessions in 1993 amid charges of corruption, including …

The Washington Post reports: Last week, then-FBI Director James B. Comey requested more money and resources from the Justice Department for his bureau’s investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, according to two officials with knowledge of the discussion. Comey, who was fired by President Trump on Tuesday, made the request in a meeting last week …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump weighed firing his FBI director for more than a week. When he finally pulled the trigger Tuesday afternoon, he didn’t call James Comey. He sent his longtime private security guard to deliver the termination letter in a manila folder to FBI headquarters. He had grown enraged by the Russia investigation, two advisers said, frustrated by …

Of course the Russians are thrilled: Russia’s top diplomat on Wednesday appeared to joke about President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey during a visit to the State Department. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson introduced Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during the Washington visit. “I want to welcome foreign minister Lavrov to the state department and express my appreciation …

From the editorial board of the New York Times: The American people — not to mention the credibility of the world’s oldest democracy — require a thorough, impartial investigation into the extent of Russia’s meddling with the 2016 presidential election on behalf of Donald Trump and, crucially, whether high-ranking members of Mr. Trump’s campaign colluded in that effort. By firing …

From the right wing Washington Times: In the wake of President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James B. Comey, the White House is rejecting lawmakers’ calls for a special prosecutor to take over the agency’s probe of possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. “There is clearly at this point no evidence of a reason to do that,” White …

Via press release from the ACLU: The independence of the FBI director is meant to ensure that the president does not operate above the law. For President Trump to fire the man responsible for investigating his own campaign’s ties to the Russians imperils that fundamental principle. Regardless of how one judges the performance of James Comey in either the Hillary …

CNN reports: Senate Russia investigators have sent a request to the Treasury Department’s criminal investigation division for any information related to President Donald Trump, his top officials and his campaign aides, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee told CNN Tuesday. “We’ve made a request, to FinCEN in the Treasury Department, to make sure, not just for example vis-a-vis …