Trump Corruption

Reuters reports: Lev Parnas, an indicted Ukrainian-American businessman who has ties to President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, is now prepared to comply with requests for records and testimony from congressional impeachment investigators, his lawyer told Reuters on Monday. Parnas, who helped Giuliani look for dirt on Trump’s political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, is a key figure …

Politico reports: In 2006, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump traveled to Ukraine to meet with government officials about building a multimillion dollar hotel and golf course in the country. Two years later, Trump Jr. was back to meet with developers. The Trumps were looking to erect luxury resorts across the former Soviet republics, and Ukraine seemed like a promising …

The Daily Beast reports: Facing a concerted campaign from Rudy Giuliani and his allies to oust her, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovich struggled in vain to get cover from U.S. diplomats, including her boss: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. At one point, according to a transcript of her Oct. 11 deposition in front of congressional impeachment investigators, she …

CNN reports: Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch told House lawmakers last month that the State Department leaders did not speak up for her because they had concerns that President Donald Trump would undermine it, possibly using Twitter. “What I was told is that there was concern that the rug would be pulled out from underneath the State Department …

CBS News reports: The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has concluded that high-level presidential advisers have “absolute immunity” from congressional subpoenas for their testimony, according to a letter sent Sunday. In the letter to White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel said John Eisenberg, a White House attorney who was scheduled to be deposed Monday morning, …

Politico reports: The final year of President Donald Trump’s first term will be loaded with legal landmines — and it’s not just the impeachment cases. Trump could face court rulings that say he is illegally profiting from foreign governments, that he must hand over his tax returns and that lawmakers should see more of Robert Mueller’s Russia probe evidence. He …

Popular Information reports: The Trump campaign has held at least 15 contests since 2018 offering the chance to win breakfast, lunch, or dinner with President Trump. Supporters are enticed to donate to Trump’s campaign with promises of free travel, accommodations, and an “epic” meal with Trump at various locations across the country. An investigation by Popular Information, however, did not …

The New York Times reports: Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, spread a conspiracy theory now at the center of the impeachment investigation — that Ukraine, not Russia, hacked the Democratic National Committee — as early as five months before the 2016 election, according to newly released documents from the special counsel’s investigation. Mr. Manafort told his deputy on …

Talking Points Memo reports: President Donald Trump’s obsession with the whistleblower’s identity is intensifying, as he prodded White House reporters to investigate and release the person’s identity Sunday. “As you know, certain of the media released information about a man that they said was the whistleblower; I don’t know if that’s true or not,” he said. “But what they said …

USA Today reports: The impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump moves forward Monday even as the full House of Representatives is on a week-long break. Four White House officials scheduled to appear before the House Oversight, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, are not expected to show up. Two of the officials — John Eisenberg, the National Security Council’s lawyer, and …

Mediaite reports: President Donald Trump baselessly claimed transcripts from his impeachment inquiry will be altered in some way by “freak” Rep. Adam Schiff, demanding the GOP release their own versions. “If Shifty Adam Schiff, who is a corrupt politician who fraudulently made up what I said on the “call,” is allowed to release transcripts of the Never Trumpers & others …

The Hill reports: President Trump said early Monday that there is “no reason” to call witnesses in the impeachment inquiry. “What I said on the phone call with the Ukrainian President is ‘perfectly’ stated. There is no reason to call witnesses to analyze my words and meaning,” he tweeted. The president’s early morning posts, which included multiple retweets of Fox …

The Huffington Post reports: President Donald Trump on Sunday dismissed polls from several major media outlets showing that nearly half of Americans support his impeachment and removal from office. “I have the real polls,” he told reporters gathered outside the White House. “The CNN polls are fake. The Fox polls have always been lousy; I tell them they ought to …

“All of foreign relations is a quid pro quo. You know, we do things for them, they do things for us. There’s good quid pro quo and there’s bad quid pro quo. I would argue a really bad quid pro quo was the deal with Iran that President Obama put forward. “This quid pro quo, if it actually was completed …

CBS News reports: A lawyer for the whistleblower who reported concerns about the president’s dealings with Ukraine told CBS News he offered to have Republicans on the House Intelligence Community submit questions to his client directly without having to go through the committee’s Democratic majority. Attorney Mark Zaid told CBS News he contacted Representative Devin Nunes, the committee’s ranking member, …

The Daily Beast reports: During a typically contentious and lengthy CNN interview on Sunday morning, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway insisted that she didn’t know whether President Donald Trump held up military aid because he wanted Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, Conway first attempted to claim …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump and other top 2016 Trump campaign officials repeatedly privately discussed how the campaign could get access to stolen Democratic emails WikiLeaks had in 2016, according to newly released interview notes from Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation. CNN sued the Justice Department for access to Mueller’s witness interview notes, and this weekend’s release marks the first …

Politico reports: The senior White House lawyer who placed a record of President Donald Trump’s July 25 call with Ukraine’s president in a top-secret system also instructed at least one official who heard the call not to tell anyone about it, according to testimony heard by House impeachment investigators this week. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a decorated Army officer who …

Politico reports: White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Friday that the White House is “prepared” for Trump to be impeached by the House of Representatives. “We are prepared for an impeachment to happen,” Grisham said in an interview on Fox News. “Nancy Pelosi has made it very, very clear that the House Democrats are going to vote.” When pressed, …

CNN reports: News footage from an October 20, 2018, midterm election rally in Nevada shows indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas standing behind President Donald Trump. Parnas and his business partner and fellow Giuliani associate, Igor Fruman, are alleged by prosecutors to have illegally funded donations from foreign nations to Republican political campaigns in attempts to buy influence. They are …