Trump Corruption

The Washington Post reports: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday told House Democrats he would not furnish President Trump’s tax returns despite their legal request, the latest move by Trump administration officials to shield the president from congressional investigations. Mnuchin, in a letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), said he had consulted with the Justice …

The Hill reports: New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Treasury Department and IRS, arguing that the agencies have failed to respond to information requests about its guidance reducing donor disclosure requirements for certain tax-exempt groups. “My office depends on these critical donor disclosure forms to be able to adequately oversee non-proofit organizations in …

The Washington Post reports: More than 370 former federal prosecutors who worked in Republican and Democratic administrations have signed on to a statement asserting special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings would have produced obstruction charges against President Donald Trump – if not for the office he held. The statement – signed by myriad former career government employees, as well as high-profile …

The Associated Press reports: House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler has scheduled a Wednesday vote to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress after the Justice Department declined to provide an unredacted version of the Mueller report to Congress. The vote to hold Barr in contempt marks the first time that House Democrats are moving to punish a Trump …

The New York Times reports: He spoke eight times with Robert S. Mueller III’s investigators, appeared before three congressional committees and helped federal prosecutors with at least two criminal inquiries into President Trump’s inner circle. But on Monday, perhaps the most important number in Michael D. Cohen’s life will be 1,095: the number of days in a three-year prison term. …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump on Sunday seemed to warm to the idea of reparations — for himself, and in the form of an unconstitutional, two-year addition to his first term in the White House. He retweeted a proposal offered by Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, that he be granted another two years in office as …

Axios reports: President Trump tweeted on Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller should not testify before Congress, arguing that Democrats are “looking for a redo” after the investigation failed to establish that his campaign conspired with Russia. Attorney General Bill Barr — despite being accused by many Democrats of obfuscating and spinning the Mueller report’s findings in favor of Trump …

Just in from Quinnipiac Polling: American voters say 57 – 28 percent that Donald Trump committed crimes before he became president, according to a Quinnipiac University National Poll released today. This compares to results of a March 5 survey, before release of the Mueller Report, in which voters said 64 – 24 percent that President Trump committed crimes before he …

Law & Crime reports: President Donald Trump‘s attorneys filed a memorandum of law on Friday in an effort to block Deutsche Bank and Capital One from complying with subpoenas from the House of Representatives ahead of a May 6 deadline. Attorneys moved for a preliminary injunction to block the “outrageously broad” subpoenas. They noted that the subpoenas demand, “among other …

CBS News reports: In April, protesters outside the nation’s largest facility for unaccompanied migrant children noticed a familiar face enter the massive, fenced site in Homestead, Florida: former White House chief of staff John Kelly. Soon after, a local television station recorded footage of him riding on the back of a golf cart as he toured the grounds. It wasn’t …

The Washington Examiner reports: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham invited special counsel Robert Mueller to “provide testimony” to the panel if Mueller wanted to discuss any discrepancies with Attorney General William Barr’s responses to questions from lawmakers this week about a phone call between the two men. “Please inform the Committee if you would like to provide testimony regarding …

The Associated Press reports: “The Situation” and the Fyre Festival fraudster are already there. President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, is up next. It’s not reality TV. It’s a federal prison 70 miles (113 kilometers) from New York City where white-collar and D-list scoundrels can do time while playing bocce ball and noshing on rugelach. Otisville is …

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump said on Thursday he did not believe he would allow former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify to committees in Congress, saying McGahn had already spoken to the special counsel on the Russia probe. “I would say it’s done,” Trump told Fox News. “I’ve had him testifying already for 30 hours,” Trump said, referring …

USA Today reports: Attorney General William Barr refused on Wednesday to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation because of a dispute about how he would be questioned. The Justice Department also did not comply with a subpoena for the unredacted version of the 448-page Mueller report. The committee had demanded that the department produce …

We join this story in mid-grift: At some point later that evening, a group repaired to Mar-a-Lago’s Library Bar, a wood-paneled study with a portrait of Trump in tennis whites (titled “The Visionary”) hanging nearby. The group asked the bartender to leave the room so it “could speak confidentially,” according to an email written by Mar-a-Lago’s catering director, Brooke Watson. …

This hearing today has just been unreal: At a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) questioned Barr over whether Trump obstructed justice. “You still have a situation where a president essentially tries to change the lawyer’s account in order to prevent further criticism of himself,” Feinstein said, referencing an episode detailed in Mueller’s report …

Politico reports: Attorney General William Barr’s two-day tightrope walk through congressional hearings just got a lot more perilous. Hours before he was set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee — the first of two days of hearings on his handling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report — news of Mueller’s own dissatisfaction with Barr leaked out. Now, the attorney …

The Washington Post reports: Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III wrote a letter in late March complaining to Attorney General William P. Barr that a four-page memo to Congress describing the principal conclusions of the investigation into President Trump “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of Mueller’s work, according to a copy of the letter reviewed Tuesday …

Mediaite reports: Eric Trump blamed the “Deep State” over the fact that Deutsche Bank and Capital One have faced congressional subpoenas to hand over their financial records on his father and the Trump Organization. When Eric Trump was asked about this during a Tuesday interview with Fox & Friends, the president’s son called it “presidential harassment 101” from people who …

The Washington Post reports: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that his panel would make a criminal referral to the Justice Department regarding potential false testimony by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of the private military contractor Blackwater and an ally of President Trump. “The evidence is so weighty that the Justice Department needs to consider …