Trump Corruption

Axios reports: Former White House official Fiona Hill will tell Thursday’s impeachment hearing that a “fictional narrative” about Ukraine, driven by partisan politics, distracted President Trump from the real threat that Russia poses to America’s democracy. Why she matters: Hill, who left last summer as Trump’s top adviser on Russia and Europe, gives House investigators a window into former national …

The House is obviously running behind schedule. PBS NewsHour reports: Laura Cooper is the Defense Department’s deputy assistant secretary for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia and thus the top Pentagon official working on Ukraine. In closed-door testimony last month, she told investigators that the White House had directed the freeze on aid to Ukraine and that Kyiv was concerned by the …

Fox News reports: During day four of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, European Union ambassador Gordon Sondland “took out the bus” and “ran over” President Trump and other top officials, host of “Fox News Sunday” Chris Wallace said Wednesday. Appearing on “America’s Newsroom” with host Bill Hemmer and Sandra Smith, Wallace said he thinks what Gordon Sondland was “trying to do” …

Yahoo News reports: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday he did not watch a testimony from European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump and that he was proud of American policy in Ukraine. “I didn’t see a single thing … I was working, I was in meetings all day,” Pompeo told …

Vox reports: On Wednesday, Trump — who nominated Sondland for an ambassadorship after Sondland gave $1 million to his inaugural fund — said to reporters outside the White House, “I don’t know him very well. I have not spoken to him much. This is not a man I know well. Seems like a nice guy though,” Trump said of Sondland. …

“It’s dry, boring and as invested as I am in this whole thing, it certainly doesn’t keep your attention very well. And I’ve been trying to watch it for the last couple of days and it’s, I don’t know, it’s pretty painful. If this is a Democratic Hail Mary, they’re not going to be successful with this. “I mean, look …

USA Today reports: President Donald Trump “should not” provide testimony to the House impeachment inquiry because Democrats are conducting unfair hearings, a White House aide said Wednesday. “No one would advise him to testify because this is a sham court,” said Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general brought in as a White House communications adviser. On Monday, Trump tweeted …

The Washington Post reports: Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified Wednesday more bluntly than he had before that President Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, sought to condition a White House invite for Ukraine’s new president to their demands that his country publicly launch investigations that could damage Trump’s political opponents. “I know that members of this committee have frequently …

NBC News reports: Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland is pointing the finger at President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former national security adviser John Bolton in explosive public testimony on Wednesday in which he says explicitly there was a “quid quo pro” linking a White House visit for Ukraine’s president to investigations into Trump’s political opponents. …

The Washington Post reports: A federal judge said she intends to rule no later than the end of the day Monday on whether former White House counsel Donald McGahn must testify under subpoena to Congress, after the House Judiciary Committee asked her to accelerate a decision because it aims to call him after the current round of public impeachment hearings …

The Daily Beast reports: The Trump White House has taken the extraordinary step of distributing talking points to allies of the president trashing one of its employees. The talking points, which were shared with The Daily Beast, focus on Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who testified publicly on Tuesday that he had registered complaints about President Donald Trump’s call with the …

There have been comparatively bigger fish for the media to fry lately, but Trump is still stiffing cities for his rally costs. The mayor’s office in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said this week that the city is resending a $211,000 bill to President Trump’s campaign for costs incurred during his visit to the area earlier this year. A spokeswoman for the …

Politico reports: The former special U.S. envoy for Ukraine was the first impeachment witness to testify behind closed doors and assured lawmakers he saw no indication that President Donald Trump had conditioned a White House meeting and military assistance for Ukraine on a promise from the country’s president to investigate Trump’s political rivals. But after a cascade of witnesses told …

The Hill reports: An attorney representing a whistleblower in the intelligence community who filed an inspector general complaint at the center of the impeachment proceedings lashed out at Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Tuesday, accusing the congressman of lying and spreading conspiracy theories. Andrew Bakaj tweeted Tuesday that Jordan had lied about who the unnamed whistleblower had contacted before filing …

Politico Europe reports: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday expressed annoyance that he’s been dragged into the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Following an event in Kyiv, the president responded to questions from a CNN reporter about whether he was prepared to publicly announce investigations into the Biden family. “I think everybody in Ukraine is so tired about …

CNN reports: A Manhattan judge has cleared the way for President Donald Trump to be deposed in a defamation lawsuit filed by a former “Apprentice” contestant who has accused Trump of sexual assault. Trump’s legal team had argued that a stay is necessary “given the novel and important Constitutional issues involved,” the “special considerations due” their previous requests to dismiss …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The U.S. Army is prepared to move Col. Vindman and his family onto a military base in the area to ensure their security if it is determined that they are in physical danger, according to U.S. officials. Army security officials in recent weeks conducted a security assessment at Col. Vindman’s request, reviewing both his and …

Axios reports: As televised impeachment hearings roll into Week 2, one surprise has been how many of the Trump team’s wounds have been self-inflicted, because of his allies’ curious habit of leaking on themselves. Rudy Giuliani, at the center of the Ukraine interference, butt-dialed an NBC reporter, and was “heard discussing need for cash and trashing Bidens.” Reporters took to …

PBS NewsHour reports: Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday told the PBS NewsHour that asking for personal favors and using United States assets as collateral is “wrong.” Tillerson spoke with NewsHour anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff at a luncheon hosted by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in San Antonio. Tillerson discussed reports that President …

The Associated Press reports: Nine witnesses. Five hearings. Three days. The Trump impeachment inquiry is charging into a crucial week as Americans hear from some of the most important witnesses closest to the White House in back-to-back-to-back live sessions. Among them, Ambassador Gordon Sondland, the wealthy donor whose routine boasting about his proximity to Donald Trump is now bringing the …