Trump Corruption

The Hill reports: Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee and Sen. Mitt Romney’s niece, split with her uncle Wednesday after he announced he would vote to convict President Trump on one article of impeachment. The statement came after Romney, an elder statesman within the GOP and the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, broke party lines and announced he …

Mediaite reports: President Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. called for Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) to be expelled from the Republican Party, Wednesday, after the senator announced he would be voting to convict President Trump in the Senate impeachment trial. “Mitt Romney is forever bitter that he will never be POTUS. He was too weak to beat the Democrats then …

“I think it’s very disappointing for people to literally watch Democrats sitting on their hands. Nancy Pelosi shredding the memory of Kayla Mueller, shredding the Tuskegee airman, shredding a little two-year-old who was born at 21 weeks and six days, and the list goes on and on. “I think it shows you how petty and peevish and partisan the Democratic …

The Daily Beast reports: Despite decades of default worries, lawsuits, and acrimony, Deutsche Bank officials are said to have ignored deep internal concerns about Donald Trump and his finances and loaned him billions of dollars and introduced him to wealthy investors—including Russians—who were looking to keep their real-estate dealings anonymous. Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail …

Fox News reports: Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a key swing vote in President Trump’s impeachment trial, announced Tuesday she would vote to acquit on both articles of impeachment — noting that Democrats’ “abuse of power” charge “did not even attempt” to allege that Trump had committed a crime, and instead constituted a “difficult-to-define, non-criminal act.” Even as she criticized …

Roll Call reports: The Justice Department on Monday night backed President Donald Trump in the Supreme Court fight over congressional subpoenas for his financial documents, telling the justices that lawmakers must meet a higher bar when seeking a sitting president’s personal records. The cases, set for March 31 oral argument, center on subpoenas from three House committees to accounting firm …

From the government watchdog group CREW: White House Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President Jared Kushner violated the Hatch Act during a CNN interview on Sunday, according to a complaint filed today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) with the Office of Special Counsel (OSC). Throughout the interview, Kushner advocated on behalf of the Trump campaign …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump’s targeting of CNN is moving to yet another arena: The annual presidential lunch with television network anchors. CNN anchors are being excluded from Tuesday’s lunch, three sources said on Monday night. Trump, like presidents before him, typically invites anchors from all the major networks to dine with him at the White House in advance of …

Vanity Fair reports: Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, Mitt Romney, and John Bolton. “Trump’s playbook is simple: go after people who crossed him during impeachment.” Several sources said Bolton is at the top of the list. Trump’s relationship with Bolton was badly damaged by the time Bolton left the White House in September. Trump has since blamed his former national security …

Politico reports: A businessman facing federal charges over an alleged plot to trade political donations for help obtaining marijuana licenses around the country was working on a medical cannabis research deal with the Department of Veterans Affairs just weeks before his indictment. Andrey Kukushkin, a Ukraine-born cannabis investor whose multi-state marijuana projects and political donations were allegedly illegally funded by …

Politico reports: A Senate vote to convict President Donald Trump in his impeachment trial is now a mathematical impossibility. More than 34 senators have indicated they intend to acquit the president, or have declared the House’s two impeachment charges against him to be insufficient to merit a conviction, according to a POLITICO analysis of public comments and official statements from …

The Huffington Post reports: Taxpayers shelled out another $3.4 million to send President Donald Trump to Florida this weekend so he could host a Super Bowl party for paying guests at his for-profit golf course. The president’s official schedule shows him spending two and a half hours Sunday evening at a “Super Bowl LIV watch party” at Trump International Golf …

Bloomberg News reports: Iowa Senator Joni Ernst warned Sunday that Republicans would immediately push to impeach Joe Biden over his work in Ukraine as vice president if he win the White House. “I think this door of impeachable whatever has been opened,” Ernst said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “Joe Biden should be very careful what he’s asking for …

From the far-right Newsmax: A Florida preacher says Roger Stone, facing up to 50 years in jail later this month on a his felony conviction, prayed with evangelical leader Franklin Graham and has “put his faith in God.” “Hundreds of Graham’s supporters flocked to meet Roger with nothing but well-wishes, support, and prayers,” Tampa Bay area-based millennial pastor Randy Coggins …

Axios reports: Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he believes President Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine to “encourage” its government to investigate the Bidens, but that he will vote to acquit Trump on Wednesday because he believes the consequences of the president’s actions should be decided in the next election. “If you have eight …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that impeachment has not hurt the President’s support, insisting that his base “is strong and getting stronger” and that former White House officials who have raised concerns about Trump “didn’t have what it took.” Kushner told Zakaria that people outside Washington aren’t paying attention to the impeachment …

CNN reports: The Department of Justice revealed in a court filing late Friday that it has two dozen emails related to the President Donald Trump’s involvement in the withholding of millions in security assistance to Ukraine — a disclosure that came just hours after the Senate voted against subpoenaing additional documents and witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial, paving the way …

The New Jersey Advance reports: A Senate vote to end President Donald Trump’s impeachment proceedings without calling witnesses should be considered “half a trial,” the president’s former chief of staff John Kelly said Friday. “In my view, they kind of leave themselves open to a lot of criticism,” Kelly said in an interview in advance of his Feb. 12 appearance …

Axios reports: Former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch has retired from the State Department, NPR first reported. The career diplomat remained on payroll since she was ousted from the department last year, per NPR. Why it matters: During her closed-door deposition before House impeachment committees, Yovanovitch testified that President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani led the smear campaign that led to her …

NPR reports: The Senate still must vote on whether or not to acquit Trump of the charges against him, a vote now expected to come next Wednesday, Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri told reporters. The agreement would give senators the weekend off, with the trial resuming Monday with closing arguments from both sides, as well as time for senators …