Trump Corruption

The New York Times reports: President Trump’s older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, has retired as a federal appellate judge, ending an investigation into whether she violated judicial conduct rules by participating in fraudulent tax schemes with her siblings. The court inquiry stemmed from complaints filed last October, after an investigation by The New York Times found that the Trumps had …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is offering House Democrats new information in a bid to stay out of jail while he cooperates with Congress. Cohen’s attorneys Lanny Davis and Michael Monico told lawmakers in a letter Thursday that Cohen has discovered substantial files on a hard drive that might be helpful to investigators. Cohen …

Axios reports: Sen. Rand Paul on Thursday blocked a resolution calling for special counsel Robert Mueller’s report to be released to Congress and the public. This is the 5th time that Republicans — led by Paul and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — have blocked the resolution, which passed unanimously in the House last month. Paul has argued in favor …

The Washington Post reports: Members of Mueller’s team have complained to close associates that the evidence they gathered on obstruction was alarming and significant. “It was much more acute than Barr suggested,” said one person, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the subject’s sensitivity. The New York Times first reported that some special counsel investigators …

NBC News reports: For ambassador to the United Arab Emirates — a job so sensitive in the tense Middle East that every previous president gave it to a career diplomat — Trump picked a wealthy real estate developer with no diplomatic experience. The ambassador to Morocco? A well-heeled car dealer. The nominee for Iceland? While well-traveled, he had never been …

CNN reports: The House Oversight Committee voted Tuesday to authorize a subpoena to the former personnel security director at the Trump White House. The committee voted to authorize subpoenas related to two issues — White House security clearances and the US Census — on Tuesday afternoon, escalating Democrats’ fight against administrative stonewalling. The security clearance vote passed along party lines, …

The New York Post reports: President Trump’s spokeswoman on Tuesday ripped ObamaCare and Congressional Democrats for not supporting the president’s agenda and for demanding the release of the special counsel’s full report on Russia. “We know by the actions that we have seen from Nadler and other Democrats in Congress is that the president’s right. They will never be satisfied. …

Business Insider reports: In an interview broadcast Monday night, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, shrugged off questions over his White House security clearance, granting a glimpse of a political playbook that could loom large in the months to come. Speaking with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, Kushner used the central finding of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s report …

The Washington Post reports: A White House whistleblower told lawmakers that more than two dozen denials for security clearances have been overturned during the Trump administration, calling Congress her “last hope” for addressing what she considers improper conduct that has left the nation’s secrets exposed. Tricia Newbold, a longtime White House security adviser, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee …

The Daily Beast reports: Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano defended embattled House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) today, stating the Democratic lawmaker is likely correct to insist there will be evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the still-unseen Mueller report. A day after Napolitano caused a stir by declaring both that …

AlterNet reports: The Pentagon agreed to buy nearly $900,000 in jet fuel from the conservative university owned by Jerry Falwell Jr., just months after President Donald Trump took office. The Department of Defense signed the contract with Freedom Aviation, which is wholly owned by Liberty University, on May 9, 2017, and had since purchased more than $400,000 in turbine fuel …

Bloomberg reports: The still-secret report on Russian interference in the 2016 election submitted by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, last week was more than 300 pages long, according to American officials with knowledge of it, a length that raises new questions about Attorney General William P. Barr’s four-page summary. The total of 300-plus pages suggests that Mr. Mueller …

The Daily Beast reports: The U.S. Department of Energy has approved six authorizations for U.S. companies seeking to conduct nuclear related work in Saudi Arabia, according to two sources with knowledge of those approvals. Federal law stipulates that companies obtain clearance from the U.S. government for exporting nuclear technology to or engaging in the production or development of special nuclear …

CNBC reports: House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., has requested a decade’s worth of President Donald Trump’s financial records from an accounting firm that prepared several years of financial statements for Trump, according to a letter Cummings sent on March 20, but which was only released on Wednesday. The move represents an escalation of congressional Democrats’ longstanding interest in …

CNN reports: Jay Sekulow, an attorney for President Donald Trump, said Monday he does not want the written answers the President submitted to special counsel Robert Mueller to be released, describing them as “confidential.” “Well, that would not be a position that I would want, to just make a statement where we would release confidential communications that took place between …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump began his victory lap over special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings on Sunday with a tweet that read, simply: “No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION. KEEP AMERICA GREAT!” Later, the president spoke to reporters at an airport in south Florida. “It’s a shame that our country had to go through this,” Trump said. “This …

Fox News reports: More voters trust Special Counsel Robert Mueller than President Trump when it comes to learning the truth about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. At the same time, many say there is no chance Mueller’s investigation will change how they feel about the president, according to the latest Fox News Poll. The poll, completed before the …

The Huffington Post reports: President Donald Trump has emblazoned the “Trump” brand name on images of the White House to sell in his Trump Store and at the Trump International Hotel in the capital. The products give the bizarre impression that the White House is a Trump hotel. Walter Shaub, who was director of the Office of Government Ethics in …

Benjamin Wittes writes at the highly-regarded Lawfare: The president should wait before popping the champagne corks over this and tweeting in triumph. Yes, in the best-case scenario for the president, Mueller is not proceeding further because he lacks the evidence to do so. But even this possibility contains multitudes: everything from what the president calls “NO COLLUSION!” to evidence that …

The Associated Press reports: Special counsel Robert Mueller is not recommending any further indictments in the Russia investigation. That’s according to a Justice Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the confidential recommendation. Mueller notified Attorney General William Barr on Friday that he had concluded his probe of Russian election …