Trump Corruption

CBS News reports: In an on-the-record interview with the Wall Street Journal, Wisconsin GOP Senator Ron Johnson said he learned of a possible quid pro quo from Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union. Sondland told him that aid to Ukraine, according to the Journal, was tied to the president’s wish that Ukraine investigate matters related to the …

The Hill reports: White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Friday declined to say whether he’s ever raised investigating Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden during talks with Chinese officials. During a combative exchange with CNN’s Jim Sciutto, Navarro slammed the network’s reporting that President Trump spoke about Biden’s political prospects during a June call with Chinese President Xi Jinping without …

Time Magazine reports: The White House is preparing to formally object to Democrats’ impeachment inquiry as soon as today, saying it won’t cooperate with the probe because it was initiated without a vote of the House. The White House Counsel’s Office was preparing to send a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi objecting to the form of the impeachment investigation, …

Axios reports: President Trump is going all in. He declared he has the “absolute right” to call for foreign nations to investigate political rivals — publicly calling on China to investigate the Bidens — and he plans to ask Democrats to vote on starting impeachment or get stonewalled. Why it matters: It now seems increasingly inevitable the House will impeach …

The Associated Press reports: Ukraine’s Prosecutor General said on Friday that his office is reviewing all the cases that were closed by his predecessors, including several related to the owner of a gas company where former Vice President Joe Biden’s son sat on the board. Ruslan Ryaboshapka’s comments came amid an impeachment inquiry against U.S. President Donald Trump that relates …

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 …