Trump Corruption

The Washington Post reports: President Trump confirmed Tuesday that he withheld military aid from Ukraine, saying he did so over his concerns that the United States was contributing more to Ukraine than European countries were. “My complaint has always been, and I’d withhold again and I’ll continue to withhold until such time as Europe and other nations contribute to Ukraine …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold back almost $400 million in military aid for Ukraine at least a week before a phone call in which Trump is said to have pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate the son of former vice president Joe Biden, according to three senior administration officials. …

Just in via press release: Today, Common Cause filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that President Donald Trump, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and other political operatives illegally solicited a political contribution from a foreign national—by urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials to investigate Hunter Biden …

From the transcript of a September 2nd interview with Pence: Q: Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President. I wanted to ask you about your meeting yesterday with the Ukrainian President and for an update on Ukrainian security aid money. Specifically, number one, did you discuss Joe Biden at all during that meeting yesterday with the Ukrainian President? And number …

“The real issue here is a phone call. The claim that the president pressured a foreign leader to investigate of political rival and the failure to pass the whistleblower complaint to Congress. There is no known evidence that Joe Biden did anything wrong. “The whole thing involved corruption in the Ukraine. A corrupt prosecutor who much of the world was …

Mediaite reports: White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham cited the conduct of reporters on Monday as the basis for the near-complete cancellation of White House press briefings. In an interview with Fox & Friends, Grisham’s hosts gushed over Trump by remarking that “he is the best communicator” and, therefore, doesn’t need anyone to speak for him. “He is his own …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump on Monday intensified his attempts to justify a phone call with Ukraine’s president in which he reportedly pushed for an investigation into one of his chief political rivals, maintaining that he‘s merely concerned about stamping out corruption. He once again dismissed the accusations that he was using his position of power to pressure a foreign …

The Hill reports: Bill Weld, the former Massachusetts governor seeking to challenge President Trump in a GOP primary, said the president’s efforts to pressure Ukraine’s leadership into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden’s son amount to “treason pure and simple.” “Talk about pressuring a foreign country to interfere and control a U.S. election,” Weld said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “It …

Bloomberg reports: Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani didn’t rule out the possibility that the president threatened to cut off aid to Ukraine over calls for an investigation into largely discredited allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. Giuliani first said in response to a question on Fox Business Monday that Trump didn’t threaten Ukraine aid, but …

Bloomberg reports: President Trump told reporters on Sunday that he would consider releasing a transcript of his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which is said to be the subject of an intelligence community whistleblower complaint. “We’ll make a determination about how to release it, releasing it, saying what we said,” Trump said in Houston, defending his conversation with Zelensky …

“I’m very, very seriously thinking about running for the United States Senate. After this week, no American citizen should have to go through what I had to go through, should never have to be disparaged or attacked the way that I was by these committee members because they didn’t like my politics. “When you attack a Trump supporter, it’s okay. …

Reuters reports: Joe Biden has called on Trump to disclose the transcript of his conversation with Zelensky so “the American people can judge for themselves.” When asked about releasing the transcript, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told ABC News that “those are private conversations between world leaders and it wouldn’t be appropriate to do so except in the most extreme …

Politico reports: Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Sunday that allegations that President Trump elicited dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, a 2020 White House hopeful, during a phone call with Ukraine’s leader are merely speculation. “I think things are being implied that just don’t exist,” Mnuchin said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Tapper on Sunday pressed Mnuchin …

The Hill reports: President Trump argued Saturday that Democrats in Congress have launched another “Witch Hunt” against him amid backlash over reports that he urged Ukraine’s president to launch an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden. In a tweet Saturday afternoon, the president asserted that Democrats were attempting to shield Biden from an investigation by going after him on …

From a Washington Post op-ed jointly authored by George Conway and former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal: So it appears that the president might have used his official powers — in particular, perhaps the threat of withholding a quarter-billion dollars in military aid — to leverage a foreign government into helping him defeat a potential political opponent in the United …

The Washington Post reports: Days after the two presidents spoke, Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, met with an aide to the Ukrainian president in Madrid and spelled out two specific cases he believed Ukraine should pursue. One was a probe of a Ukrainian gas tycoon who had Biden’s son Hunter on his board. Another was an allegation that Democrats …

Reuters reports: In a press conference Friday evening, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford announced the US would be sending “hundreds” of US troops, as well as additional air defense capabilities, to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. “The president has approved the deployment of US forces which will …

The Hill reports: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden dismissed President Trump’s call for an investigation into the former vice president’s ties to Ukraine amid conservatives’ accusations of misconduct. “Not one single, credible outlet has given any credibility to his assertion. Not one single one,” Biden told reporters Friday. “So I have no comment except the president should start to be …

NPR reports: In an exclusive interview with NPR, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has not changed her mind on pursuing impeachment but is ready to change the law to restrain presidential power and make it clear that a sitting president can, in fact, be indicted. “I do think that we will have to pass some laws that will have …

The Wall Street Journal reports: President Trump in a July phone call repeatedly pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, urging Volodymyr Zelensky about eight times to work with Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, on a probe, according to people familiar with the matter. “He told him he should work with him [Giuliani] on …