Trump Corruption

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 …

The Associated Press reports: Donald Trump wrote “The Art Of The Deal,” but it was Florida’s Seminole Indians who made a truly amazing deal to buy the opulent casino built by the man who is now president. The Trump Taj Mahal, the Atlantic City casino that the real estate mogul built for $1.2 billion in 1990, went for 4 cents …

Oh, well then. A letter. That settles it, huh? Talking Points Memo reports: White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday that President Donald Trump “welcomes” an investigation of possible ties between his businesses and Russia. “The President, obviously, was aware of Sen. Graham’s suggestion after he made it today and he’s fine with that,” Spicer said Tuesday. “He has …

Talking Points Memo reports: In the wake of long-awaited testimony from former acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that neither had anything new to say. Yates made headlines by testifying that she warned the White House that Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn could be “compromised …

The Associated Press reports: Ivanka Trump will head a review of US climate change policy even as President Donald Trump considers pulling the US out of a global emissions-cutting deal. The United States says it it will continue attending United Nations climate change meetings next week in Bonn, Germany next week, but Trump’s advisers will meet Tuesday to discuss what …

Salon reports: The real estate development firm partly managed by the sister of White House senior adviser Jared Kushner has issued an apology over a weekend event in Beijing in which Kushner’s name was used to attract wealthy Chinese to a cash-for-visa scheme commonly used by investment-hungry U.S. real estate developers. Kushner Companies “apologizes if that mention of [Kushner] was …

The Washington Examiner reports: Golf writer James Dodson claims Eric Trump told him in 2014 that all the funding for Trump golf courses comes from Russia while the two were at one of the family’s clubs. “As we were setting off, I said, ‘Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks — because of the recession, the Great Recession — have …

The Washington Post reports: The Kushner family came to the United States as refugees, worked hard and made it big — and if you invest in Kushner properties, so can you. That was the message delivered Saturday by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s sister to a ballroom full of wealthy Chinese investors, renewing questions about the Kushner family’s business …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Friday said he is staying at his golf club in New Jersey over the weekend because he wants to avoid causing a major disruption in New York City and save the country money. “Rather than causing a big disruption in N.Y.C., I will be working out of my home in Bedminster, N.J. this weekend. …

The Washington Examiner reports: President Trump, ahead of the expected vote in the House on Thursday to partially repeal Obamacare, accused Democrats of defending an “Obamacare lie.” “I am watching the Democrats trying to defend the ‘you can keep you doctor, you can keep your plan & premiums will go down’ ObamaCare lie,” Trump tweeted. Trump, according to the White …

The Washington Post reports: The president’s speeches and interviews are so chock full of false and misleading claims that The Fact Checker often must resort to roundups that offer a brief summary of the facts that the president has gotten wrong. So here are the numbers for the president’s first 100 days. 488: The number of false or misleading claims …

The New York Times reports: President Trump cut short an interview with the host of “Face the Nation” on CBS after being asked about his unsubstantiated claim that President Barack Obama wiretapped his campaign, saying he was entitled to his own “opinions.” Mr. Trump, speaking during a prerecorded interview in the Oval Office with John Dickerson that was broadcast on …

This story is REALLY something. Buzzfeed reports: When Donald Trump’s casino business went bankrupt in 2009, a lawyer whose clients stood to lose more than a billion dollars told police and the FBI that he got a menacing phone call from a man with a thick New York accent who threatened his family. “My name is Carmine. I don’t know …

The Guardian reports: A day after Watergate reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward issued a stirring call for the press to hold Donald Trump to account, the president’s chief of staff said the White House is actively considering a change to libel laws affecting news reporting. “I think it’s something that we’ve looked at,” said Reince Priebus, appearing on ABC’s …