Trump Corruption

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump on Tuesday appealed a decision from a federal judge upholding a subpoena issued by a congressional committee seeking information about Trump’s finances. The move, which was expected, has set up an early legal test of the president’s strategy of fighting off congressional oversight by rejecting the legitimacy of subpoenas he argues are motivated by politics. …

USA Today reports: President Donald Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, told Congress it was Trump’s personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, who suggested he tell lawmakers that the negotiations for Trump Tower Moscow ended in January 2016, even though they continued for months after that. The House Intelligence Committee on Monday released two transcripts of closed-door interviews with Cohen from earlier this …

Fortune reports: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has rejected House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal’s subpoena for six years of President Donald Trump’s personal and business tax returns. Now, Neal will likely turn to the courts, embarking on a lengthy battle that could help define Congress’ powers to oversee the executive branch. In a letter denying Neal’s subpoena, Mnuchin on …

The Daily Beast reports: Reacting to a Fox News interview with Attorney General William Barr that included Barr essentially threatening Democrats who criticize him and justifying the president calling the Mueller probe a “witch hunt,” Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said Friday that Trump now has a new fixer. The Fox News anchor went on to note that we had …

NBC News reports: Former national security adviser Michael Flynn told investigators that people linked to the Trump administration and Congress reached out to him in an effort to interfere in the Russia probe, according to newly-unredacted court papers filed Thursday. The communications could have “affected both his willingness to cooperate and the completeness of that cooperation,” special counsel Robert Mueller …

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a full pardon for former media mogul Conrad Black, who was convicted in 2007 of fraud and obstruction of justice and spent 3-1/2 years in prison, the White House said. Black, 74, a Canadian-born British citizen, once ran an international newspaper empire that included the Chicago Sun-Times, Britain’s Daily Telegraph and the …

Fox News reports: Bill Barr did not mince words about his brawl with House Democrats when he ran into Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday on the sidelines of a Capitol Hill event. According to a source close to the attorney general, Barr approached her in a holding tent after the National Peace Officers Memorial Service and asked whether she had …

Roll Call reports: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday he expects the courts will resolve the conflict between the administration and House Ways and Means Chairman Richard E. Neal over the release of President Donald Trump’s tax returns. “This will go to the third branch of government to be resolved,” Mnuchin said during questioning before the Senate Appropriations Financial Services …

The Hill reports: The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday requested that a judge allow a higher court review previous rulings in favor of a lawsuit alleging President Trump has violated the Emoluments Clause. The DOJ attorneys argue in the filing that there is enough “difference of opinion” on the legal questions in the lawsuit, including the definition of the …

The New York Times reports: Donald Trump Jr. and the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee reached a deal on Tuesday for the president’s eldest son to sit for a private interview with senators in the coming weeks that will be limited in time, an accord that should cool a heated intraparty standoff. The deal came after an aggressive push by the …

Mediaite reports: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio continued his public feud with first-son Eric Trump over the city’s new Green New Deal initiative, which has specifically targeted the Trump Organization for their “failure to cut emissions” at a number of their properties. On Monday, de Blasio held an impromptu press conference at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, which …

The Hill reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday praised special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections as “objective.” “On the whole he had a very objective investigation and he confirmed that there are no traces whatsoever of collusion between Russia and the incumbent administration, which we said was absolutely fake,” Putin said during …

The New York Times reports: The House Intelligence Committee is investigating whether lawyers tied to President Trump and his family helped obstruct the panel’s inquiry into Russian election interference by shaping false testimony, a series of previously undisclosed letters from its chairman show. In recent weeks, the committee sent lengthy document requests to four lawyers — Jay Sekulow, who represents …

The Washington Post reports: The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee encouraged Donald Trump Jr. to invoke his right against self-incrimination and refuse to answer questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee if he complies with the panel’s subpoena for a second closed-door interview. “You just show up and plead the Fifth and it’s over with,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) …

Mediaite reports: President Donald Trump this afternoon blasted the House Ways and Means Committee request for his tax returns, claiming he is still under audit. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin this week rejected the request from Democratic chairman Richard Neal. The committee has now subpoenaed the Treasury Department and the IRS. He followed up with another tweet on the Mueller report, …

The Guardian reports: Rudy Giuliani has said his controversial planned visit to Ukraine will not go ahead, because of concerns about who he would be meeting. Earlier this week, the former New York mayor who is now an attorney for Donald Trump said he planned to push Ukraine to pursue investigations he hoped could benefit the president politically. But on …

The New York Times reports: White House officials asked at least twice in the past month for the key witness against President Trump in the Mueller report, Donald F. McGahn II, to say publicly that he never believed the president obstructed justice, according to two people briefed on the requests. Mr. McGahn, who was the president’s first White House counsel, …

CNN reports: House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal has issued subpoenas for President Donald Trump’s tax returns, the committee told CNN on Friday, an escalation in the fight for the President’s personal financial records and the latest step this week in Democrats’ fight for information from the Trump administration. Neal sent subpoenas to both IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig …

Reuters reports: The number of Americans who said President Donald Trump should be impeached rose 5 percentage points to 45 percent since mid-April, while more than half said multiple congressional probes of Trump interfered with important government business, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released today. The opinion poll, conducted on Monday, did not make clear whether investigation-fatigued Americans wanted House …

“Much as I like the visual of [throwing people in jail], I think it’s far more practical to consider levying individual fines on the person — not the office — until they comply. You could fine someone $25,000 a day until they comply. You can do that. We’re looking through the history and studying the law to make sure we’re …