Trump Corruption

NBC News reports: White House counsel Pat Cipollone is expected to argue on behalf of President Donald Trump during the Senate impeachment trial, a senior administration official told NBC News on Friday. It wasn’t immediately clear whether any additional counsel would either represent or advise the White House in the impeachment trial. As Trump’s lawyer in the Senate, Cipollone — …

CNN reports: President Trump was just asked if he prefers a long or short trial in the Senate. “I’ll do whatever I want. Look — we did nothing wrong, so I’ll do long or short,” Trump said. If the House approves the articles of impeachment against Trump as they are expected to do next week, the Senate will then hold …

Fox News reports: After the vote, the White House released a scathing statement, dismissing the inquiry as a “charade.” “This desperate charade of an impeachment inquiry in the House Judiciary Committee has reached its shameful end,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said. “The President looks forward to receiving in the Senate the fair treatment and due process which continues …

The Associated Press reports: After a grueling 14-plus hours of debate Thursday, the House judiciary committee advanced two articles of impeachment to a full vote before the House of Representatives next week, bringing President Trump one step closer to being impeached. The committee was supposed to vote on the articles Thursday, but Democratic chair Jerry Nadler made a surprise decision …

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump’s fight to keep his personal financial records private reaches a new stage on Friday when U.S. Supreme Court justices meet to consider up to three hotly-contested cases pitting Trump against congressional Democrats and a New York prosecutor. The Republican president is trying to block subpoenas for bank records, tax returns or other materials demanded by …

Mediaite reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says he will take his marching orders during an impeachment trial directly from President Donald Trump’s lawyers. Appearing on Hannity Thursday night, McConnell dished on his strategy for a Senate impeachment trial. “Everything I do during this, I’m coordinating with White House counsel,” McConnell said. “There will be no difference between the …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen today asked a judge to consider either reducing his three-year prison term to just one year, or to release him into home confinement and community service for the remainder of his existing sentence. Cohen’s lawyers suggested that the U.S. Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General William …

Talking Points Memo reports: A Richmond federal appeals court was united on Thursday on one question: the emoluments issues raised by President Trump’s ownership of hotels while in office are virtually without precedent. The questions of exactly how and why a case brought was unprecedented, however, left judges split along partisan and ideological lines. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals …

“I believe President Trump is engaged in the most direct, sustained assault on freedom of the press in our history. Our is a great profession — maybe the best way to make a living anyone ever came up with. “Think of it. We are paid to tell the truth—to cut through all the spin — all the distractions — and …

Mediaite reports: Supporters of President Donald Trump implied that they could angrily take up arms and widespread violence rivaling the Civil War could break out if the president was removed in a Senate trial after being impeached by the House. In a video taken by CBS News’ Jason Silverstein at Trump’s Hershey, PA rally on Tuesday, one man in a …

NBC News reports: As the Senate begins preparations for an impeachment trial next month, many Republican members are questioning the wisdom of having President Donald Trump call witnesses and are instead discussing a speedy resolution. Republican senators have been holding talks about the likely trial and few see the benefit of a slate of witnesses testifying on behalf of the …

From an op-ed by former AG Eric Holder: Virtually since the moment he took office, though, Barr’s words and actions have been fundamentally inconsistent with his duty to the Constitution. Which is why I now fear that his conduct — running political interference for an increasingly lawless president — will wreak lasting damage. The American people deserve an attorney general …

Politico reports: Vice President Mike Pence’s counsel rejected House Democrats’ request to declassify details of a Sept. 18 call between Pence and Ukraine’s president, calling the request illegitimate because the impeachment inquiry has concluded. In a letter to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Pence’s lawyer, Matthew Morgan, said it “serves no purpose” to declassify supplemental testimony from one …

Bloomberg News reports: Rudy Giuliani’s associate Lev Parnas got $1 million from an account in Russia in September, a month before he was charged with conspiring to funnel foreign money into U.S. political campaigns, according to U.S. prosecutors who asked a judge to jail him for understating his income and assets. “The majority of that money appears to have been …

“So FBI lawyer Lisa Page was so in love she didn’t know what the hell was happening. Texted the head of counterintelligence Peter Strzok, likewise so in love he couldn’t see straight! “This poor guy. Did I hear he needed a restraining order after this whole thing to keep him away from Lisa? “That’s what I heard. I don’t know …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump has paid $2 million in court-ordered damages for misusing funds in a tax-exempt charity he controlled, the New York attorney general said Tuesday. The payment was ordered last month by a New York state judge in an extraordinary rebuke to a sitting president. Trump had been sued in 2018 by New York, who alleged …

Bloomberg News reports: President Trump warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov against “any Russian attempts to interfere in United States elections” during an Oval Office meeting on Tuesday, according to the White House. Trump also urged Moscow to “resolve the conflict with Ukraine,” the White House said, referring to Russia’s 2014 seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Trump’s meeting with Lavrov …

NBC News reports: Attorney General William Barr said he still believes the FBI may have operated out of “bad faith” when it investigated whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, and he contends the FBI acted improperly by continuing the investigation after Donald Trump took office. In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Barr essentially dismissed the findings of the …

CNN reports: In conversations with the White House, the Kentucky Republican has made clear he hopes to end the trial as soon as he can, an effort to both get impeachment off his lap and protect his conference from potentially damaging votes should the process break out into partisan warfare. That will include a continuous whip count until McConnell feels …

Law & Crime reports: Former Trump campaign deputy chairman Rick Gates, the former Paul Manafort associate who flipped and cooperated with the Mueller investigation, was offered “monetary assistance” not to cooperate with the government, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday. Note that while the government did not say who was applying the pressure and making these monetary “assurances,” it did praise …