Trump Corruption

The Daily Beast reports: President Donald Trump charged millions of dollars for a single 15-minute meeting and has privately boasted of making $500 million from deep-pocketed executives looking to gain his favor, according to the Wall Street Journal. The paper reported that Meredith O’Rourke, Trump’s top fundraiser, said a minutes-long sit down with the MAGA chief would sting into the …

The New York Times reports: The Department of Government Efficiency, the federal cost-cutting initiative championed by Elon Musk, published on Monday a list of government contracts it has canceled, together amounting to about $16 billion in savings itemized on a new “wall of receipts” on its website. Almost half of those line-item savings could be attributed to a single $8 …

The New York Times reports: President Trump’s media company sued a Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Wednesday, accusing him of illegally censoring right-wing voices on social media. The unusual move was made all the more extraordinary by its timing: Just hours earlier, the Brazilian justice had received an indictment that would force him to decide whether to order the arrest …

“It’s hard to see somebody out-Spicer Sean Spicer or out-Huckabee Sarah Huckabee Sanders, but Karoline Leavitt—she’s making a run for it. “You know, she just might get on Trump’s all-star team of liars. She might be on the bench right now, but if she keeps working hard, does her homework, she just might make it onto the team. “It’s a …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive order bringing independent agencies under the control of the White House — an action that would greatly expand his power but is likely to attract significant legal challenges. It represents Trump’s latest attempt to consolidate power beyond boundaries other presidents have observed and to test the so-called unitary executive …

Newsweek reports: President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he directed the Justice Department to dismiss all remaining U.S. attorneys from former President Joe Biden’s era, claiming unprecedented politicization. The president posted on Truth Social, “Over the past four years, the Department of Justice has been politicized like never before. Therefore, I have instructed the termination of ALL remaining “Biden Era” …

JONATHAN SWAN: “Mr. President, given your concerns about corruption, you said if there were any conflicts of interests with Elon Musk, you wouldn’t let him anywhere near it. DOGE and SpaceX employees are now working directly at the Federal Aviation Administration and the Defense Department, agencies that have billions of dollars of contracts with Musk’s companies or regulate them. How …

CNN reports: A federal judge declined on Tuesday to temporarily block Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing federal data systems at a slew of executive branch agencies. The decision by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan is an early blow to efforts by a group of Democratic state attorneys general to hamstring Musk and DOGE as they undertake …

404 Media reports: A worker at the General Services Administration told colleagues in a Slack message Tuesday that they have resigned in protest after Elon Musk ally Thomas Shedd requested “admin/root access to all components of the Notify.gov system,” which is a government system used to send mass text messages to the public that contains information the worker said is …

CNN reports: The Trump administration has quietly fired multiple members of the “privacy team” and other officials from the office that oversees the hiring of federal workers, a move that limits outside access to government records related to the security clearances granted to Elon Musk and his associates. CNN was first notified of the firings at the Office of Personnel …

The Washington Post reports: The head of the criminal division in the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C. resigned Tuesday morning after declining to comply with a Trump administration demand to freeze the assets of a multibillion-dollar Biden administration environmental grant initiative. Veteran prosecutor Denise Cheung did not spell out her reasons for her sudden resignation in an emailed announcement to …

ABC News reports: A U.S. foreign service officer deployed overseas blamed President Donald Trump administration’s “cruel and harmful shutdown” of USAID for threatening the lives of his pregnant wife and unborn child, according to court documents filed Monday night. Identified in an affidavit only as Terry Doe, the foreign service officer explained in vivid detail how the emotional strain, financial …

NBC News reports: Michelle King, the top official at the Social Security Administration, left her position this weekend after she refused a request from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to access sensitive government records at the agency. White House spokesperson Harrison Fields confirmed in a statement that King was no longer the head of the agency. One of the …

Axios reports: Top Democrats on the Hill suspect President Trump will ignore one of the many major court rulings that’ll be coming his way, and are gaming out legal and political responses behind the scenes. Democrats are meeting with state attorneys general, top lawyers, litigation firms, constitutional experts and advocacy organizations, multiple top lawmakers told Axios. “Looking into all the implications …

The Hill reports: Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan said Monday he asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) whether Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) efforts to educate people about their rights while facing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is impeding the agency’s operations. Speaking on Fox News, Homan said he finds it disturbing that “any member of Congress wants to educate people …

Yahoo News reports: Demonstrators in New York City filled Manhattan’s Union Square on Monday afternoon, February 17, demanding Congress “uphold the Constitution and end executive overreach,” organizers said. Footage taken by Gili Getz shows the scene in Union Square on Monday afternoon. Demonstrators are seen holding various signs and chanting, “Stop the coup!” Protests had been organized by the 50501 …

The Associated Press reports: Donald Trump is the president, but billionaire Elon Musk is the focus for thousands of Democratic activists launching a protest campaign this week to fight the Trump administration’s push to gut federal health, education and human services agencies. Hundreds of protests are scheduled outside congressional offices and Tesla dealerships, with organizers hoping to send a pointed …

Politico reports: U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Monday appeared poised to reject an effort to immediately bar Elon Musk and his allies from accessing data or causing firings across a broad swath of the federal government. The judge said an effort by Democrat-led states lacked enough concrete evidence to justify that extraordinary restriction. Chutkan agreed that Musk’s operations through …

Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy wrote yesterday: America deserves safe, state-of-the-art air travel, and President Trump has ordered that I deliver a new, world-class air traffic control system that will be the envy of the world. To do that, I need advice from the brightest minds in America. I’m asking for help from any high-tech American developer or company that is …

From the New York Times editorial board: President Trump’s determination to bend the American justice system to his will, combined with his broad tolerance for political corruption and his abhorrence of checks and balances on his power, slammed hard last week into the commitment to duty, honor and the rule of law shared by a group of federal prosecutors in …