Trump Corruption

NBC News reports: President Donald Trump has given his administration broad authority to slap sanctions on Turkey, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday. Trump signed an executive order authorizing the powers, though the administration will not move yet to punish Turkish individuals or entities after the country’s offensive in northern Syria. Still, Mnuchin threatened devastating actions in the wake of …

The New York Times reports: Marie L. Yovanovitch, who was recalled as the American ambassador to Ukraine, testified to impeachment investigators on Friday that a top State Department official told her that President Trump had pushed for her removal for months even though the department believed she had “done nothing wrong.” In a closed-door deposition that could further fuel calls …

CNBC reports: A federal appeals court in a split ruling Friday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to block a House committee subpoena for his income tax returns. The subpoena was issued earlier this year to Trump’s accountants at Mazars USA by the Democrat-controlled House Committee on Oversight and Reform for his tax returns. A federal judge in Manhattan had denied …

CNN reports: Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch is slated to testify on Capitol Hill behind closed doors Friday, a high-stakes deposition that could shed light onto the role the Trump administration played in withholding US military aid to the country as Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani pushed Ukraine to open an investigation into Joe Biden. Yovanovitch was unexpectedly …

The Daily Beast reports: A member of the House Intelligence Committee is calling on Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to disclose information on who financed his attempts to dig up dirt on Joe Biden amid a wave of reports that the work has dovetailed into official government business. “Rudy needs to disclose his clients for the Ukraine work,” said …

The Hill reports: A key witness in House Democrats’ ongoing impeachment inquiry will testify next week despite the State Department’s objection. U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland will testify before the House on Thursday in compliance with a congressional subpoena, according to his counsel. “Notwithstanding the State Department’s current direction to not testify, Ambassador Sondland will honor the …

CBS News reports: President Trump said Thursday that he doesn’t know the two business associates of his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani who were arrested on campaign finance charges, but acknowledged he may have been photographed with them at some point. “I don’t know those gentleman. Now, it’s possible I have a picture with them because I have a picture with …

Mediaite reports:  President Donald Trump attacked the “absolute scum” in the FBI and “embarrassment” Jeff Sessions in a new interview with former White House assistant Sebastian Gorka. The friendly interview, which appears in Gorka’s new book, The War For America’s Soul — released this week — was also published by the Daily Caller on Thursday. “How are we doing, Mr. …

CNBC reports: House Democrats issued a subpoena to Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Thursday, the latest salvo in the party’s impeachment probe into whether President Donald Trump abused his power through his interactions with the leadership of Ukraine. The subpoena for a variety of Ukraine-related documents was issued by the Democratic chairmen of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs …

The Hill reports: Retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who was ousted as President Trump’s national security adviser in 2018, said Thursday “it’s absolutely not” appropriate to solicit foreign interference in U.S. elections. “It just didn’t happen when I was there or in any conversation that I was privy to and part of, which was I think almost all the, really …

That was quick. CNN reports: House Democrats on Thursday issued subpoenas to two associates of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani who were indicted by federal prosecutors on the same day. The subpoenas to Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, the associates working with Giuliani to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son in Ukraine, …

Axios reports: President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton has decided to write a book about his time in the Trump administration, according to 2 people familiar with the matter. Bolton has agreed to be represented by Javelin’s Matt Latimer and Keith Urbahn. Why it matters: Given the fact that he wrote a book about his tenure in the …

“There’s been no vote. You have a half a dozen committee chairman running off, throwing subpoenas if it was confetti in a Mardi Gras parade, you know. And there’s no due process for the president, Republicans can’t ask questions, they can’t subpoena their own witnesses. So I urge the president to resist. This is a kangaroo court, Adam Schiff is …

The Daily Beast reports: Two Soviet-born businessmen with ties to Rudy Giuliani were arrested on Wednesday on federal charges of violating campaign finance laws through a six-figure donation they facilitated to President Donald Trump’s official super PAC. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were taken into custody in New York, the Wall Street Journal reported. The precise charges against them were …

The Indianapolis Star reports: Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday that he has no objection to the White House releasing transcripts of his conversations with the Ukrainian president, a move he said White House lawyers are considering even as the administration has refused to turn over other documents requested by House Democrats as part of their impeachment inquiry. “I’d …

Bloomberg reports: President Donald Trump pressed then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to help persuade the Justice Department to drop a criminal case against an Iranian-Turkish gold trader who was a client of Rudy Giuliani, according to three people familiar with the 2017 meeting in the Oval Office. Tillerson refused, arguing it would constitute interference in an ongoing investigation of the …

CNN reports: Michael Cohen, the former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump, is expected to be brought back to New York for a meeting with state prosecutors where he’s expected to tell them everything he knows, a law enforcement official tells CNN. The information, if deemed credible, could result in Cohen testifying before a grand jury, the official said. …

Mediaite reports: Trey Gowdy joined Fox News as a contributor earlier this year. A spokesperson for Fox News said in a statement provided to Mediaite that Gowdy has been “terminated” and is no longer a network contributor. With the news of Gowdy joining Team Trump amid the White House refusing to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry, there’s been renewed attention …

CBS News Minneapolis reports: The mayor says the campaign must pay $530,000 in additional security costs up front. But AEG — the company that runs Target Center and booked the rally — backed down on the demand. “It was another effort to make this impossible to happen,” said Kayleigh McEnany, Trump 2020’s national press secretary. She said Thursday’s rally will …

“Of course due process is necessary. Basic fairness. The American people, when they think about this are going to be totally outraged. They actually want to impeach him on the testimony of hidden witnesses who are behind a curtain, we don’t know who they are. “I went back to read two books about the Salem witch trials.  They required witnesses …