Trump Corruption

The Palm Beach Post reports: President Donald Trump is said to be ready to nominate couture handbag designer and Palm Beach resident Lana Marks to become ambassador to South Africa, making her the fourth member of the Mar-a-Lago Club that the president has tapped for an ambassadorship. The potential nomination of yet another Mar-a-Lago member to a top post in …

Roll Call reports: Key House Democrats pressed the head of the General Services Administration to provide more information Thursday about President Donald Trump’s role in the proposal to rebuild the FBI headquarters building on its current footprint on Pennsylvania Ave. “As a direct result of President Trump’s clear conflict of interest on this matter, we are now requesting information and …

Media Matters has the transcript: BRIAN KILMEADE: Every time there’s an international incident, they say, well, the president is too nice to Vladimir Putin, that’s because he has so many investments in Russia. Then he says, he’s too open to letting this investigation play out, that’s because he has investments in Saudi Arabia. You’re running the Trump Organization. What’s the …

CNN reports: Michael Cohen and his attorney met Wednesday with a group of state and federal law enforcement officials investigating various aspects of President Donald Trump’s family business and charitable organization, according to people familiar with the meeting. The group, which included the federal prosecutors from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York who charged Cohen …

The Daily Kos reports: In a letter sent today, eleven Democratic senators have demanded Trump account for financial ties between the Trump Organization and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The letter notes that the Trump Organization “for decades has maintained business relationships with the government of Saudi Arabia and with members of the Saudi royal family.” The letter notes some …

Well, this is just a shame: A federal judge on Wednesday rejected Paul Manafort’s request to wear a professional suit during a hearing later this week about his sentence, noting the former Trump campaign chairman is now a convicted felon who has lost the right to wear street clothing in all his court proceedings. “This defendant should be treated no …

The Chicago Tribune reports: Special Counsel Robert Mueller is expected to issue findings on core aspects of his Russia probe soon after the November midterm elections as he faces intensifying pressure to produce more indictments or shut down his investigation, according to two U.S. officials. Specifically, Mueller is close to rendering judgment on two of the most explosive aspects of …

Vanity Fair reports: Robert Mueller’s special investigation into collusion and obstruction of justice continues apace. So does the Southern District’s probe into campaign-finance violations. Despite having no formal cooperation agreement with the government, Cohen has willingly assisted and provided information critical to several ongoing investigations, according to two sources familiar with the situation, in a string of meetings that have …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump’s legal team is preparing answers to written questions provided by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to sources familiar with the matter. The move represents a major development after months of negotiations and signals that the Mueller investigation could be entering a final phase with regard to the President. The questions are focused on matters related …

CNN reports: White House press secretary Sarah Sanders will soon take reporters’ questions. It’ll be the first White House press briefing she has held since Sept. 10. Here are some question that could come up: Several Republican senators are pushing back on President Trump’s comments last night about Christine Blasey Ford. Does the President think his comments will hurtSupreme Court …

The Washington Post reports: A federal judge on Friday gave the go-ahead to a lawsuit filed by 200 congressional Democrats against President Trump alleging he has violated the Constitution by doing business with foreign governments while in office. The lawsuit is based on the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which bars presidents from taking payments from foreign states. Trump’s business, which he …

The Rising reports: “I think it’s entirely possible that I could be framed on some matter that relates not to Russian collusion or WikiLeaks collaboration or advanced knowledge on the acquisition or publication of John Podesta’s emails,” Roger Stone told Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton. “There is no evidence, no witness that can claim that I’m involved in any of …

Talking Points Memo reports: Ex-Trump lawyer John Dowd wanted to contribute to the legal fees racked up by former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates, but White House ethics officials who wanted to keep an arm’s length between the trials and the President foiled the effort. According to a Friday Wall Street Journal report, Dowd first …

ABC News reports: President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, has participated over the last month in multiple interview sessions lasting for hours with investigators from the office of special counsel, Robert Mueller, sources tell ABC News. The special counsel’s questioning of Cohen, one of the president’s closest associates over the past decade, has focused primarily on all aspects …

“There is actually a transcript of the entire Lester Holt interview. And as you know, because you do TV and know that when there are interviews, there are edits and there is a longer transcript. And I will just tell you without disclosing any detail, that when you review the entire transcript, it is very clear as to what happened …

Famous last words, going by recent history. The Palm Beach Post reports: As special counsel Robert Mueller appears to be zeroing in on him, Roger Stone told hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump in West Palm Beach on Monday night that he’ll never turn against Trump, even if Mueller tries to “frame me for some extraneous crime.” The longtime …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump on Wednesday morning insisted he had no concerns about former campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s recent agreement to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller. “If he’s honest, and he is, I think he’s going to tell — as long as he tells the truth, it’s 100 percent,” Trump said on the South Lawn of the White …

Courthouse News reports: Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Congress earlier this year that he added a citizenship question to the 2020 census to help the Department of Justice enforce the Voting Rights Act. Contradicting that sworn testimony, new evidence shows that Ross received a memo several months earlier informing him that the Justice Department wanted to avoid monkeying …

President Broken Record is playing his scratchy vinyl again: President Trump on Sunday reiterated his claim that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between his campaign and Russia during the 2016 election is illegal. Trump has regularly denounced Mueller’s investigation as a “witch hunt” driven by political motivations to undermine his presidency. On Thursday, he called the investigation …

The Hill reports: Donald Trump Jr. accused Vanity Fair on Friday of purchasing some of the site’s more than 4 million Twitter followers after the magazine reported that Trump Jr. was worried his father, President Trump, has trouble sleeping. In a tweet, the president’s eldest son attacked the news magazine as “sad” and “irrelevant,” while urging Vanity Fair reporters to …