Trump Corruption

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 …

The New York Times reports: President Trump, his three eldest children and his private company filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against Deutsche Bank and Capital One, in a bid to prevent the banks from responding to congressional subpoenas. In the suit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, the president and his family members argue that the Democratic House committee …

Axios reports: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has formally submitted his resignation to President Trump, effective May 11. Rosenstein was expected to leave the Justice Department after seeing the Mueller investigation through to its conclusion. His successor Jeffrey Rosen has already been nominated by President Trump and is awaiting confirmation in the Senate. After writing the letter that Trump used …

“You are going to find me guilty of campaign finance, with McDougal or Stormy, and give me three years — really? And how come I’m the only one? I didn’t work for the campaign. I worked for him. And how come I’m the one that’s going to prison? I’m not the one that slept with the porn star. He was …

CBS News reports: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Sunday that he doesn’t care if President Trump told former White House counsel Don McGahn to fire special counsel Robert Mueller. “I don’t care what they talked about. He didn’t do anything. The point is the president did not impede Mueller from doing his investigation,” …

Newsweek reports: Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of President Donald Trump’s, once said that a president’s refusal to comply with congressional oversight was an impeachable offense. In a video unearthed from December 1998 circulating on Twitter on Friday, the South Carolina legislator passionately states that Richard Nixon could have been impeached for failing to comply with subpoenas from Congress. …

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with almost every press secretary beginning with Pierre Salinger of John F. Kennedy’s administration. And except for Ron Ziegler who lied for Richard Nixon I’ve never seen anything like this with Sarah Sanders. There’s a difference. Ziegler lied about one thing, the question of whether the president of the United States was covering up …

The Washington Post reports: A majority of Americans say they oppose calls for Congress to launch impeachment proceedings against President Trump in the wake of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the president sought to interfere with the probe, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Thirty-seven percent of Americans …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump’s reelection campaign won’t say whether it would use stolen information from hacks or other breaches, setting up a clash with Democratic rivals who have pledged to forgo such tactics and prompting some worry in Trump’s own party. Trump campaign representatives did not respond to several inquiries this week seeking its policy on purloined material, …

CNN reports: A Democratic lawmaker on Thursday ratcheted up warnings to the Trump administration amid a growing standoff over subpoenas and oversight requests the White House says it will resist. Rep. Gerry Connolly threatened jail time for White House officials who are declining to comply with congressional committees’ efforts to conduct oversight of President Donald Trump’s administration. It’s the latest …