Trump Corruption

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 …

The Hill reports: The White House says President Trump is hoping a Senate impeachment trial begins “sooner rather than later” as senators indicate the process likely won’t commence until after the holidays. “The president wants it sooner rather than later. I think that’s pretty obvious as well,” deputy spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters. “But in what form that takes, time …

The Washington Post reports: Attorney General William P. Barr had planned to hold a 200-person holiday party at the Trump hotel in Washington Sunday night, but the event was rescheduled, according to a Justice Department spokeswoman. The spokeswoman declined to say when the event would take place but said it would still be at the Trump International Hotel, a choice …

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump criticized FBI Director Christopher Wray in a tweet on Tuesday, a day after the U.S. Justice Department’s internal watchdog said it found no evidence of political bias when the FBI began investigating contacts between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia in 2016. Wray, in an interview on ABC News on Monday, acknowledged the numerous errors the …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump’s former deputy campaign chairman and top witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe Rick Gates has asked for a sentence of just probation after extensive cooperation with prosecutors following a guilty plea to two federal crimes. The court filing highlights just how significant Gates had been in the Mueller investigation and to prosecutors as they …

ABC News reports: FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday dismissed conspiracy theories pushed by allies of President Trump — including some Republican members of Congress — that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election. Wray said in an interview with ABC News that Russian agents represented the clearest threat both in 2016 and in the upcoming presidential election next year. “We …

Axios reports: Steve Castor, the counsel representing Republicans from the House Intelligence Committee, argued during Monday’s impeachment hearing that House Democrats failed to properly obtain and enforce subpoenas for Trump administration staffers to garner additional testimony in their impeachment inquiry. Yes, but: For the last two months, the White House has blasted the impeachment inquiry as “constitutionally illegitimate” and refused …

Politico reports: Roger Stone’s supporters are making a pardon pitch everywhere President Donald Trump looks: Fox News, InfoWars, Twitter, even the White House driveway. Michael Flynn abruptly hired a bombastic lawyer who spouts Trump-friendly theories about FBI duplicity that are widely seen as a pardon play. Paul Manafort has kept himself on Trump’s radar from behind bars in a federal …

Fox News reports: Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is preparing for a likely impeachment trial in the Senate, and he lambasted House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for his actions in leading the inquiry into President Trump. “Adam Schiff is doing a lot of damage to the country,” Graham said. “And he needs to stop.” Schiff is …

Newsweek reports: Republican Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz offered several defenses of Rudy Giuliani visiting Ukraine this past week, saying that while it is “weird,” Americans should give him “the benefit of the doubt” because of his role after 9/11. Gaetz appeared on ABC News’ This Week on Sunday to produce a litany of defenses for President Donald Trump and Giuliani’s …