Trump Corruption

The Associated Press reports: An effort to qualify Kanye West for the ballot in Montana as a presidential candidate has fallen short, the secretary of state’s office said Thursday. Only 3,972 signatures out of nearly 8,800 turned in were deemed valid, state officials said. West needed 5,000 to qualify as an independent candidate. It wasn’t clear who was behind the …

Law & Crime reports: Former Trump 2016 campaign guru and White House advisor Steve Bannon made his first court appearance on Thursday afternoon after being arrested for wire fraud and money laundering earlier in the day. The arraignment was a pro forma session that largely passed uneventfully–with the defendant consenting to various procedural asks posed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Stewart …

CNN reports: The president who complains about censorship by Twitter wants to censor people himself. On Thursday, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s decision and grant President Donald Trump the ability to block his critics on Twitter. The petition seeks to revive a case decided by a New York federal judge in 2018. At …

CBS News reports: President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., is seeking to distance himself from the “We Build the Wall” crowdfunding campaign after former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon and three others were arrested and charged with defrauding donors. A spokesperson for Trump Jr., whose name is listed on the organization’s website as having endorsed it, said he had …

From an exhaustive report published today by Forbes: A new report from the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence offers a damning portrait of the people Donald Trump chose as his partners for potential projects in Russia. They include individuals with alleged connections to the mob, to Vladimir Putin and to human trafficking. The group would comprise an extraordinary list …

ABC News reports: President Trump sought to distance himself from Stephen Bannon on Thursday following the former White House chief strategist’s arrest, with Trump saying he hasn’t dealt with Bannon in a “long” time and calling a fundraising project for which Bannon and three others were indicted “inappropriate.” “I feel very badly. I haven’t been dealing with him for a …

The New York Times reports: A federal judge on Thursday rejected President Trump’s latest effort to block the Manhattan district attorney from obtaining his tax returns, dismissing Mr. Trump’s arguments that the prosecutor’s grand jury subpoena was “wildly overbroad” and issued in bad faith. The ruling by Judge Victor Marrero of Manhattan Federal Court is the latest turn in a …

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump wants to deny China some of the proceeds from the sale of ByteDance’s U.S. operations of its video-sharing app TikTok, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Wednesday, but it would be unusual for any company that acquires TikTok to provide funds to the U.S. Treasury. “Well he’s said that,” Kudlow told CNBC when …

The Daily Beast reports: President Trump once asked aides if he could sell Puerto Rico and buy Greenland instead, according to former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor, who told MSNBC on Wednesday that he heard the remarks directly in Aug. 2018, when officials were regularly going to Puerto Rico to coordinate hurricane recovery efforts. “One time before we …

Axios reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called out Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Wednesday, saying his alleged suspension of operational changes and cost-cutting “is wholly insufficient and does not reverse damage already wreaked.” Pelosi said that a conversation with DeJoy revealed the USPS has no intention of replacing the sorting machines, mailboxes and other mail infrastructure that has already been …

The Hill reports: White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday would not say whether President Trump would accept the results of the November election if he is not declared the winner, adding to comments from the president in recent days sowing doubt about the outcome of the vote. “Is the president saying if he doesn’t win this election that …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump personally ordered his secretary of homeland security to head to the border at least half a dozen times, taking her away from her focus on pressing national security matters, according to her former chief of staff. Miles Taylor, who worked in the Department of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019, told POLITICO that Trump often …

The New York Post reports: Speaking to reporters today, Trump called Oracle a “great company” following reports that the software giant had preliminary talks about buying TikTok’s operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. “I think that Oracle would be certainly somebody that could handle it,” the president said. Trump also said he thinks the company’s owner “is …

Heavy.com reports: Goodyear has been receiving some heat on social media and most recently from President Donald Trump after an employee shared a photo of a slide appearing to show the company’s new zero-tolerance policy, saying it’s “discriminatory.” The photo shows a slide that the employee said was presented during diversity training at the Topeka plant but that was provided …

The Hill reports: The Trump campaign on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against New Jersey after Gov. Phil Murphy (D) after he announced that every voter in the state would receive a mail-in ballot, in addition to being allowed to vote in-person, as a safety precaution during the coronavirus pandemic. The lawsuit, obtained by Reuters, was filed in the U.S. District …

The Louisville Courier-Journal reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday night that House legislation focusing on the U.S. Postal Service could be a chance to make some headway in the stalled negotiations over a coronavirus relief package. However, he indicated the Senate is unlikely to pass a bill that addresses only the Postal Service. The Democrat-controlled House could pass …

Politico reports: A raft of big-name business groups is warning many employers won’t participate in President Donald Trump’s payroll tax deferral plan. Calling it “unworkable,” they said in a letter Tuesday to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that it risks saddling their workers with large postponed tax bills they could have trouble paying back. Someone earning $35,000 would see their biweekly …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the U.S. Postal Service is suspending operational changes, like removing mail processing equipment and collection boxes, until after the November election, as the agency tries to reassure Americans that it can handle the anticipated surge in mail-in voting. Mr. DeJoy also said the agency won’t change retail hours at post …

Reuters reports: Several Democratic state attorneys general said on Tuesday they will announce legal action against President Donald Trump’s administration over Postal Service changes that may affect mail-in voting in the November U.S. presidential election. The attorneys general for Washington state and Pennsylvania were due to announce legal action at 1 p.m. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said he will …

“We built the greatest economy in the history of the world and now I have to do it again. You know what that is? That’s right. That’s God testing me. He said, ‘You know, you did it once.’ And I said, ‘Did I do a great job, God? I’m the only one who could do it.’ He said, ‘That you …