Trump Corruption

Raw Story reports: MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough suggested President Donald Trump is being blackmailed by Russian president Vladimir Putin. “Donald Trump, at some point in his life, has insulted everybody around him in the harshest of terms, including his own children,” Scarborough said. There is only one exception to Trump’s bullying and belligerence, he said. “The only person that I certainly …

Bloomberg reports: Manafort had alerted authorities to a controversial meeting on June 9, 2016, involving Trump’s son Donald Jr., other campaign representatives and a Russian lawyer promising damaging information on Hillary Clinton, according to people familiar with the matter. The president and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were dragged into the matter in July as details repeatedly emerged that contradicted the …

The Washington Post reports: Addressing for the first time Putin’s decision late last month that the U.S. Embassy and consulates in Russia would have to cut 775 diplomatic and technical staff, Trump told reporters that he sees no reason for them to continue working in Russia. “I want to thank him because we’re trying to cut down our payroll and …

The New York Times reports: Investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, recently searched the Northern Virginia home of President Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, for tax documents and foreign banking records, a sign that the inquiry into Mr. Manafort has broadened, according to a person briefed on the matter. Until now, it was only known that …

Bloomberg reports: Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, his son Donald Trump Jr. and former campaign manager Paul Manafort have started turning over documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of the panel’s expanded investigation of Russian election-meddling. The Trump campaign turned over about 20,000 pages of documents on Aug. 2, committee spokesman George Hartmann said Tuesday. Manafort provided about 400 …

USA Today reports: President Trump has publicly called the widening federal investigation into Russia’s election meddling a “witch hunt.” But through his lawyer, Trump has sent private messages of “appreciation” to special counsel Robert Mueller. “He appreciates what Bob Mueller is doing,” Trump’s chief counsel John Dowd told USA TODAY in an interview Tuesday. “He asked me to share that …

The Associated Press reports: As President Donald Trump spends much of August at his New Jersey golf club, Democratic lawmakers are making a new push for information about how much money the federal government is spending at his for-profit properties. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday asked departments to hand over information about their Trump-related spending by Aug. …

Late this afternoon CNN’s Jake Tapper reported on Trump’s early morning tweetstorm, which included a three-tweet rant against Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal. And since today’s soggy weather has kept Trump off the golf course, he was obviously watching television and therefore just HAD to fire out another attack on Blumenthal after one of Tapper’s panelists said, “By any objective standard, …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump began his 200th day in office on Monday in the same way that he has started so many others since moving into the White House: by attacking the media on Twitter. “Hard to believe that with 24/7 #Fake News on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, NYTIMES & WAPO, the Trump base is getting stronger!” he tweeted. …

Posted last night to Fox News Politics: The stock market is up, unemployment is down and the economy seems to be picking up some steam. The streets are mostly safe, the nation is mostly secure and the world is mostly at peace. So does it matter to you whether or not the president is a crook? The answer for a …

Reuters reports: Grand jury subpoenas have been issued in connection with a June 2016 meeting that included President Donald Trump’s son, his son-in-law and a Russian lawyer, two sources told Reuters on Thursday, in a sign that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is gathering pace. The sources added that Mueller had convened a grand jury in Washington to help investigate …

CNN reports: Federal investigators exploring whether Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russian spies have seized on Trump and his associates’ financial ties to Russia as one of the most fertile avenues for moving their probe forward, according to people familiar with the investigation. The web of financial ties could offer a more concrete path toward potential prosecution than the broader …

Tick tock tick tock: Special Counsel Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in Washington to investigate Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. That’s a sign that his inquiry is growing in intensity and entering a new phase, the report said. Legal experts quoted by the newspaper say …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump made building a wall along the southern U.S. border and forcing Mexico to pay for it core pledges of his campaign. But in his first White House call with Mexico’s president, Trump described his vow to charge Mexico as a growing political problem, pressuring the Mexican leader to stop saying publicly that his government …

Politico reports: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is resisting the pleas of State Department officials to spend nearly $80 million allocated by Congress for fighting terrorist propaganda and Russian disinformation. It is highly unusual for a Cabinet secretary to turn down money for his department. But more than five months into his tenure, Tillerson has not issued a simple request …

Talking Points Memo reports: A former Justice Department official specializing in fraud and illegal foreign bribery cases has become the sixteenth lawyer on the special counsel team investigating into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, Reuters reported Tuesday. Josh Stueve, a spokesperson for special counsel Robert Mueller, confirmed the hiring of attorney Greg Andres to Reuters. During his two-year tenure …

CBS News reports: Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto is calling into question President Trump’s most recent claims that the leader called him to praise his administration’s work on the U.S.-Mexico border. As Mr. Trump welcomed his new Chief of Staff John Kelly to the Cabinet table on Monday, Mr. Trump took time to applaud the work Kelly had done during …

The Hill reports: The White House on Tuesday denied that Fox News gave President Trump prior review of a story that raised conspiracy theories about the death of a Democratic National Committee staffer. “The president had no knowledge of the story and its completely untrue that he or the White House [had] involvement in the story,” said White House press …

The Washington Post reports: Flying home from Germany on July 8 aboard Air Force One, Trump personally dictated a statement in which Trump Jr. said that he and the Russian lawyer had “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children” when they met in June 2016, according to multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations. The statement, issued …

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman will not be testifying Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, as originally scheduled, after the committee rescinded its subpoena. The committee withdrew its subpoena for Paul Manafort late Tuesday after Manafort agreed to turn over documents and to continue negotiating about setting up an interview with the panel, according to …