Trump Corruption

Quartz reports: US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and presidential son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner plan to attend this year’s “Davos in the Desert,” a Saudi Arabian economic conference the US and many others skipped last year after Saudi security agents murdered Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi. According to a federal procurement filing reviewed by Quartz, the State Department recently …

Mediaite reports: Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich refused to answer if President Donald Trump had abused his powers in his controversial call with the president of Ukraine in an appearance on Fox News Monday. In the middle of a heated argument with Fox News contributor Jessica Tarlov on Outnumbered, Gingrich repeatedly would not answer her question. Tarlov questioned: …

Politico reports: Jurors at the upcoming trial of GOP political consultant Roger Stone won’t be treated to an in-court screening of a scene from a “Godfather” film that prosecutors wanted to show, the judge overseeing the case ruled Monday. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson sided with Stone’s attorneys, who argued that showing the clip from the Mafia-themed 1974 …

Newsweek reports: People online quickly called out President Donald Trump’s previous use of aliases on Monday, after the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. and former GOP Governor Mike Huckabee criticized Republican Senator Mitt Romney’s fake Twitter account. The president has repeatedly used pseudonyms and fake names in the past. Trump has been known to call up reporters, using a fake …

The Guardian reports: President Donald Trump on Monday claimed he’s receiving unfair scrutiny because of the “phony emoluments clause,” as he defended his prior decision to host next year’s G-7 summit at his Doral resort in Miami.  “You people with this phony emoluments clause,” Trump said has he took questions from reporters during a Cabinet meeting. The president was defensive …

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department distanced itself on Sunday from Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, declaring that department officials would not have met with Mr. Giuliani to discuss one of his clients had they known that federal prosecutors in New York were investigating two of his associates. Several weeks ago, Brian A. Benczkowski, the head …

Mediaite reports: The Wall Street Journal took a deep dive into Lev Parnas’s private Instagram account, revealing some interesting details about the timeline of his relationship with Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump. Parnas, who was recently arrested for campaign finance violations alongside Igor Fruman, kept a multitude of photos from his meetings with the Trump family, his visits to Trump …

The Hill reports: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of President Trump’s most vocal supporters on a variety of issues, said in an interview that he is open-minded about supporting impeachment. “Sure, I mean show me something that is a crime. If you could show me that, you know, Trump actually was engaging in a quid pro quo outside the phone …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump was forced to abandon his decision to host next year’s Group of Seven summit at his private golf club after it became clear the move had alienated Republicans and swiftly become part of the impeachment inquiry that threatens his presidency. In a round of phone calls with conservative allies this weekend, Trump was told …

ABC News reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he never saw the kind of quid pro quo that acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney referred to on Thursday with regard to the decision-making process he was involved in. “The conversation was always around what were the strategic implications,” Pompeo said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “Would …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: The pictures show Ron DeSantis leaning in to hug a heavy-set, middle-aged man amid a sea of onlookers. DeSantis then turns to another man, who wraps his arms around the newly-elected governor at his victory celebration in Orlando. The two men embraced by DeSantis in these previously unpublished pictures? Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, the …

The Irish Herald reports: A €14,000 spend by gardai on sandwich/snack bags for members was part of an overall €107,625 catering payment to the Donald Trump-owned Trump Doonbeg resort in west Clare. That is according to figures released by An Garda Siochana concerning its €11.3m overtime operation put in place to protect the US President during his two-night stay at …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump announced abruptly Saturday night that he would no longer host next year’s Group of Seven summit at the Trump National Doral Miami resort in Florida, bowing to criticism for having selected his own property as the venue for a major diplomatic event. Trump was buffeted by two straight days of allegations of self-dealing and …

CNBC reports: Three Democratic senators are asking the White House for a raft of information to justify what they called the “outrageous” decision to have the G-7 summit held at President Donald Trump’s Miami golf resort next year. But even as they did so, a Republican senator said that the decision to have Trump National Doral Miami, which is owned …

The Hill reports: Democrats introduced legislation Friday that would block federal funding for next year’s Group of Seven (G-7) summit at Trump National Doral Miami. Democratic Reps. Lois Frankel (Fla.), Bennie Thompson (Miss.) and Steve Cohen (Tenn.) introduced the Trump’s Heist Undermines the G-7 (THUG) Act after acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told reporters Thursday that the …

The Floridian reports: Florida Senator Marco Rubio is one of the Republicans elated that the G7 will be held in his own back yard. Rubio, whose senate office is located no more than 50 yards from the entrance of Trump Doral National, told Bloomberg reporter Steven Dennis that he thought is was “great” the event was being held in Miami. …

CNN reports: Career diplomat George Kent told congressional investigators in his closed-door testimony this week that Rudy Giuliani asked the State Department and the White House to grant a visa to the former Ukrainian official who Joe Biden had pushed to have removed when he was vice president, according to four people familiar with Kent’s testimony. Kent, the deputy assistant …

Politico reports: Energy Secretary Rick Perry is refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena seeking a host of records related to his actions in Ukraine at the heart of Congress’ ongoing impeachment inquiry. Perry becomes the latest official in President Donald Trump’s administration to refuse to turn over documents, heightening the stakes for the Energy chief who announced his intention …

Via press release from the watchdog group CREW: In less than a year, Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway appears to have violated the Hatch Act on more than 50 occasions using her @KellyannePolls Twitter account which she uses for both personal and official government business. On June 13, 2019, Special Counsel Henry Kerner, a Trump appointee, took the unprecedented …

CNN’s ever intrepid Daniel Dale reports: President Donald Trump made at least 26 false claims in his 87-minute rally speech in Dallas on Thursday, including an inaccurate declaration that Texas had somehow profited from one of the costliest hurricanes in American history. Touting the “billions and billions of dollars” in relief money he authorized for Texas in the wake of …