Trump Corruption

Just in via White House Press release: The resolution put forward by Speaker Pelosi confirms that House Democrats’ impeachment has been an illegitimate sham from the start as it lacked any proper authorization by a House vote. It continues this scam by allowing Chairman Schiff, who repeatedly lies to the American people, to hold a new round of hearings, still …

This is a fascinating turn of events: Republicans may quibble with the substance of Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman’s testimony as they try to protect President Donald Trump from the fast-moving impeachment inquiry. But congressional GOP leaders say it’s out of bounds to attack Vindman’s patriotism and allegiance to the United States, as some conservative pundits did on Monday night. “That …

Politico reports: Some Democrats have begun to raise the specter that Gordon Sondland, a Republican donor who is Trump’s representative to the European Union, perjured himself during his closed-door testimony to impeachment investigators earlier this month. Sondland was careful to say in his opening statement that he did not “recall” certain incidents, rather than stating categorically that they never happened. …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump launched a sustained online offensive Tuesday morning after details emerged of damaging congressional testimony by a senior White House official — retweeting numerous messages by Republican lawmakers attacking the latest developments in House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. The flurry of activity on the president’s social media feed came hours before Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a National …

The Washington Post reports: Billing himself as one of President Trump’s top fundraisers, Michael Hodges told fellow payday lenders recently that industry contributions to the president’s reelection campaign could be leveraged to gain access to the Trump administration. “Every dollar amount, no matter how small or large it is” is important, Hodges, founder of Advance Financial, one of the country’s …

Mediaite reports: Fox & Friends reacted to the incoming congressional testimony of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman by making a show of talking about his Ukrainian heritage. As Fox & Friends covered this, Brian Kilmeade noted that Vindman has a purple heart, but then he also noted that he’s “from the Soviet Union. He immigrated here and has an affinity to …

The New York Times reports: A White House national security official who is a decorated Iraq war veteran plans to tell House impeachment investigators on Tuesday that he heard President Trump appeal to Ukraine’s president to investigate one of his leading political rivals, a request the aide considered so damaging to American interests that he reported it to a superior. …

The Hill reports: Donald Trump Jr. has launched a new website where fans can go to send a copy of his new book, “Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us,” to Democratic leaders and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) in an effort to drum up interest while “having some fun and doing some trolling.” In a …

From Citizens for Responsibility And Ethics in Washington: The cost of a basic room at Trump’s DC Hotel is nearly three times its average rate on November 7th. Conspicuously, that’s the night between Senate Republicans’ two day retreat at Trump’s Hotel. Filling the hotel with a who’s who of Republican power players serves as an invitation for anyone looking to …

Courthouse News reports: The Justice Department took early appeal steps Monday after a federal judge upheld the legality of the impeachment inquiry led by Congress into President Donald Trump. Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell had issued the decision Friday in an order that gave the Department of Justice until Oct. 30 to turn over redacted secret grand jury material …

The Daily Beast reports: U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland returned to Capitol Hill Monday to review the transcript of his testimony to the House impeachment investigators earlier this month, according to two sources familiar with his schedule. Sondland told lawmakers that President Donald Trump assigned his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to carry out Ukraine policy for the …

NBC News reports: The White House was alerted as early as mid-May — earlier than previously known — that a budding pressure campaign by Rudy Giuliani and one of President Donald Trump’s ambassadors was rattling the new Ukrainian president. Alarm bells went off at the National Security Council when the White House’s top Europe official was told that Giuliani was …

Newsweek reports: The chief official White House photographer for former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama suggested the Trump administration staged Saturday’s stern-faced Situation Room picture in the wake of a U.S. military raid that resulted in the death of a major ISIS figurehead. Pete Souza, the former director of the White House Photography Office, called the timestamp of the …

The Washington Post reports: A company in which President Trump’s brother has a financial stake received a $33 million contract from the U.S. Marshals Service earlier this year, an award that has drawn protests from two other bidders, one of which has filed a complaint alleging possible favoritism in the bidding process. The lucrative government contract, to provide security for …

CNN reports: A new biography of former Defense Secretary James Mattis reports President Donald Trump personally got involved in who would win a major $10 billion contract to provide cloud computing services to the Pentagon, according to the website Task & Purpose, which writes about military issues. That hotly contested contract was awarded to Microsoft on Friday evening over Amazon …

CBS News reports: Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan says he will not testify in front of Congress next week even after the House Homeland Security Committee issued a subpoena for his appearance. The outgoing Trump administration official wrote in a letter to Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chair of the panel, saying he was “disappointed” and “extremely surprised” to …

ABC News reports: A judge has ordered the Justice Department to give House Democrats secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell made the directive in a brief order on Friday. Democrats had requested that the department provide the material, which was redacted from Mueller’s report, as part of their ongoing …

Rich Schapiro reports for NBC News: Late in the evening on Oct. 16, Rudy Giuliani made a phone call to this reporter. The fact that Giuliani was reaching out wasn’t remarkable. He and the reporter had spoken earlier that night for a story about his ties to a fringe Iranian opposition group. But this call, it would soon become clear, …

CNN reports: Federal prosecutors in New York have subpoenaed the brother of one of the recently indicted associates of Rudy Giuliani as they escalate their investigation in the campaign-finance case. The subpoena to Steven Fruman is the latest indication of prosecutors’ actions since the rushed arrest two weeks ago of his brother, Igor Fruman, and another defendant, Lev Parnas, at …

From the editorial board of the Kansas City Star: If Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is running to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, then he should quit his rather important day job and do that. Or if, as he told The Star and The Wichita Eagle in a testy, credulity-straining interview on Thursday, he isn’t even …