Trump Corruption

NBC News reports: Former national security adviser John Bolton derided President Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law during a private speech last week and suggested his former boss’ approach to U.S. policy on Turkey is motivated by personal or financial interests, several people who were present for the remarks told NBC News. According to six people who were there, Bolton also …

Law.com reports: Mick Mulvaney on Tuesday said he would defy a U.S. congressional subpoena seeking his testimony as part of the impeachment inquiry, abruptly dropping plans to file a lawsuit confront whether House Democrats could force him to sit for questioning. The about-face came a day after Mulvaney’s lawyer, William Pittard of Washington’s KaiserDillon, told a Washington federal trial judge …

Politico reports: At least eight former White House, presidential transition and campaign officials for President Donald Trump were hired as outside contractors to the federal health department at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, according to documents newly obtained by POLITICO. They were among at least 40 consultants who worked on a one-year, $2.25 million contract …

NBC News reports: President Trump said he would release the transcript of his first call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this week, describing it as more important than his second call with the leader that is at the center of the House impeachment inquiry. Trump indicated last week that he would was open to publicly releasing a transcript of his …

NBC News reports: Laura Cooper, the top Pentagon official overseeing U.S. policy regarding Ukraine, told House impeachment investigators last month that President Donald Trump directed the relevant agencies to freeze aid to Ukraine over the summer, according to a transcript of her testimony released Monday. Cooper, during Oct. 23 testimony before the three House committees leading the impeachment inquiry into …

Radio host Dean Obeidallah writes for CNN: In keeping with their “tin foil hat” defense to impeachment, Republicans want to call as a witness, Hunter Biden. Nunes explained in his letter that the purported reason they are calling Biden is so that he “can assist the American public in understanding the nature and extent of Ukraine’s pervasive corruption.” If the …

This will totally work out fine: Rudy Giuliani is considering re-entering the impeachment fray by launching a podcast to provide impeachment analysis of the public hearings in the House of Representatives scheduled for later this week. Giuliani was overheard discussing the plans with an unidentified woman while at a crowded New York City restaurant, Sant Ambroeus, over lunch on Saturday. …

“There are two issues: What happened on those phone calls, and is there any possibility that there is an impeachable offense? Let’s get to the second one first — the answer is no. There is no possibility. Take the worst, worst, worst-case scenario — the president abused his foreign policy power to gain political advantage. How many presidents have done …

CNN reports: In the long saga of Donald Trump’s tax returns, Monday was a very important day. A three-judge federal appeals court ruled that Trump cannot claim presidential immunity to avoid eight years of his tax returns being subpoenaed by a grand jury. Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow immediately released a statement saying that Trump will appeal the ruling. Which is …

Raw Story reports: White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham on Monday went off on a nonsensical rant about the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry. During an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” Grisham accused House Democrats of violating the Constitution by impeaching Trump, despite the fact that impeachment is a process outlined in the Constitution. “Undermining the president is dangerous and …

The Associated Press reports: ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS will set aside scheduled programming to cover the House’s first open impeachment hearings on President Trump. The cable news networks CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC and CSPAN will also provide live coverage. The broadcast networks’ announcement Friday that they would televise the hearing, however, gives the event an extra measure of …

The New York Times reports: Not long before the Ukrainian president was inaugurated in May, an associate of Rudolph W. Giuliani’s journeyed to Kiev to deliver a warning to the country’s new leadership, a lawyer for the associate said. The associate, Lev Parnas, told a representative of the incoming government that it had to announce an investigation into Mr. Trump’s …

The Associated Press reports: Two political supporters of U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry secured a potentially lucrative oil and gas exploration deal from the Ukrainian government soon after Perry proposed one of the men as an adviser to the country’s new president. Perry’s efforts to influence Ukraine’s energy policy came earlier this year, just as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s new government …

The New York Daily News reports: President Trump on Sunday called on Republicans to fully support his “perfect” Ukraine call and not just attack the impeachment inquiry. Trump appeared to take aim at a number of party members starting to attack his July 25 chat with the Ukrainian president while still arguing it was not deserving of ousting an elected …

“I think we’ve gotten lost in this whole idea of quid pro quo. If you’re not allowed to give aid to people who are corrupt — there’s always contingencies on aid. Presidents since the beginning of time have resisted Congress and there’s been this sort of back and forth jockeying over what is sent. “But also presidents have withheld aid …

Bloomberg reports: President Donald Trump says he lifted his freeze on aid to Ukraine on Sept. 11, but the State Department had quietly authorized releasing $141 million of the money several days earlier, according to five people familiar with the matter. The State Department decision, which hasn’t been reported previously, stemmed from a legal finding made earlier in the year, …

Axios reports: Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris, Richard Blumenthal and Sheldon Whitehouse requested documents and communications from the Justice Department on Nov. 8 related to President Trump’s reported call for Attorney General Bill Barr to hold a press conference exonerating the president of any wrongdoing on the July 25 Ukraine call. The White House continues to defy congressional subpoenas related to …

Politico reports: Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney is asking to join a pending lawsuit aimed at clarifying whether the House of Representatives can require senior advisers to President Donald Trump to testify in the ongoing impeachment probe related to Ukraine. Mulvaney’s move in a court filing late Friday night could breathe new life into the suit filed …

Fox News reports: House Republicans plan to call Hunter Biden, the Ukraine whistleblower and a range of other witnesses to testify in the upcoming public Trump impeachment hearings, according to a witness list obtained exclusively by Fox News. It is unclear, at this point, how many of the Republicans’ proposed witnesses will be approved by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam …

The Hill reports: Former National Security Council (NSC) official Fiona Hill described a meeting with Ukrainian officials on July 10 during which U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland said he had an agreement with Mulvaney that a White House meeting with Ukraine’s president would be contingent on Kiev launching investigations. “Sondland, in front of the Ukrainians, as I …