Trump Corruption

Business Insider reports: The US House Intelligence, Oversight and Reform, and Foreign Affairs Committees released a trove of text messages between top US diplomats’ revealing their internal turmoil regarding Ukraine, on Thursday night. The content of the messages range from Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, military aid to Ukraine, and, investigations, among other topics. The messages are between Bill Taylor, …

CNN reports: Thursday’s comments weren’t the first time Trump has injected Biden into his relationship with China, though he said Thursday he has never pushed Xi to investigate the former vice president. Nor is it the first time he has sought to trade favors with Xi, who this week celebrated the 70th birthday of his ruling communist party with a …

The Washington Post reports: The former U.S. special envoy for Ukraine told House investigators on Thursday that he warned President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, that Giuliani was receiving untrustworthy information from Ukrainian political figures about former vice president Joe Biden and his son, according to two people familiar with his testimony. Kurt Volker, who resigned last week after …

Andrew Napolitano writes for Fox News: The House of Representatives has begun to gather evidence in an effort to determine if President Trump has committed impeachable offenses. The Constitution defines an impeachable offense as “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” The president need not have committed a crime in order to be impeached, but he needs to have …

NBC News reports: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday to suspend the House impeachment inquiry until she establishes more “transparent and equitable rules and procedures.” “Unfortunately, you have given no clear indication as to how your impeachment inquiry will proceed — including whether key historical precedents or basic standards of due process will be …

From the Hollywood Reporter: CNN won’t run a 30-second advertisement purchased by Donald Trump’s re-election campaign after the network decided it does not meet their standards. The advertisement, which was tweeted by the president last week, relates to Joe Biden’s conduct toward Ukraine while he served as vice president. In it, a narrator derisively refers to CNN personalities Don Lemon, …

Because nothing matters anymore: President Trump on Thursday called on both Ukraine and China to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter in relation to the younger Biden’s business dealings during the tenure of the former vice president. He comments came as Kurt D. Volker, who resigned last week as the Trump administration’s special envoy for Ukraine, …

The Hill reports: Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was asked by a Fox Business Network host on air if he had drunk “a little merlot with dinner” and was told he sounded “a little slurry.” The interaction took place as Lewandowski appeared on the network to talk about the latest news from the ongoing impeachment inquiry by House Democrats. …

The New York Daily News reports: Rudy Giuliani is off the rails, according to a cheeky ad that popped up in the New York City subway Tuesday. The satirical ad, which was spotted on at least one A train Tuesday afternoon, touts the ex-New York mayor-turned-Trump attorney’s “crazy” legal services, including “back-channel deals” and “cable news appearances.” The blue-banner ad …

Bloomberg reports: Ukraine’s recently departed president, Petro Poroshenko, says that Joe Biden never asked him to open or close any criminal cases, adding to the list of Ukrainian officials saying they saw him do nothing improper involving his son. Speaking out to the news media for the first time on the matter, Poroshenko rebutted claims made by President Donald Trump …

Trump’s media team is getting even more pathetic: President Trump on Wednesday tweeted a video that inserted a photograph of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter golfing with a Ukrainian gas company executive into the music video for Nickelback’s 2005 song “Photograph.” Ukrainian officials have not suggested any wrongdoing by either Biden in connection with the company …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump repeatedly involved Vice President Pence in efforts to exert pressure on the leader of Ukraine at a time when the president was using other channels to solicit information that he hoped would be damaging to a Democratic rival, current and former U.S. officials said. Trump instructed Pence not to attend the inauguration of Ukrainian …

Buzzfeed News reports: Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday refused to say what sort of agreement, if any, he has with President Donald Trump to act as his lawyer. “If I did, I wouldn’t show it to you, and what right do you have to ask me that?” Giuliani said in a phone call with BuzzFeed News. “I’m a private lawyer. I …

Politico reports: House investigators are looking into an allegation that groups — including at least one foreign government — tried to ingratiate themselves to President Donald Trump by booking rooms at his hotels but never staying in them. It’s a previously unreported part of a broad examination by the House Oversight Committee, included in Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, into whether Trump …

Today Forbes reports that the Trump sons have sold $110 million of real estate since inauguration day, mostly in relatively small transactions that have escaped much notice. In the Dominican Republic, the younger Trumps sold a piece of land in January 2018 for $3.2 million. It was the clearest violation of their father’s pledge to do no new foreign deals …

CBS News reports: Addressing reporters in Rome during an overseas visit, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that he was on the July call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesnky. “I was on the phone call,” he told the press. “I know precisely what the American policy has been with respect to Ukraine. It’s been remarkably consistent, and …

The Washington Post reports: On Tuesday night, Rudolph W. Giuliani proposed an unusual legal strategy in response to the ongoing investigation into President Trump’s dealings in Ukraine: Suing Democratic members of Congress. Speaking on Fox News show “The Ingraham Angle,” Trump’s personal attorney said that he “had a couple of talks” with attorneys amid the accelerating impeachment probe and a …

“I’m talking about the deep state, Lou. Everything we are trying to do to make working Americans have a better future is constantly blocked and sabotaged by the deep state, and we are breaking through and we are winning and we’ll keep on winning. “But what you have with this current non-scandal, non-controversy, made-up, phony story from this fake whistleblower …

NBC News reports: Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine who resigned his post last week after his name appeared in a whistleblower complaint about President Donald Trump’s dealings with the Ukraine, will testify in the House’s impeachment inquiry on Thursday, two committee aides told NBC News Tuesday. Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who was …

The Daily Beast reports: When Attorney General William Barr showed up at the U.S. embassy’s Palazzo Margherita on Rome’s tony Via Veneto last week, he had two primary requests. He needed a conference room to meet high level Italian security agents where he could be sure no one was listening in. And he needed an extra chair for U.S. Attorney …