Trump Corruption

Mediaite reports: CNN contributor Brian Karem yelled at White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders during a briefing about the practice of separating immigrant children from their families as a deterrent. “Don’t you have any empathy? Come on, Sarah. You’re a parent. Don’t you have any empathy for what these people are going through?” he pressed, his voice raised. “They have …

NBC News reports: New York’s attorney general announced a lawsuit against the Trump Foundation Thursday, saying it engaged in a pattern of illegal self-dealing over more than a decade. NBC News has reached out to the White House and Trump Organization, but Trump commented about the case on Twitter shortly after it was announced. He claimed the foundation gave out …

Mediaite reports: Donald Trump Jr. paid a visit to his and his father’s favorite program, Fox & Friends, to discuss, among other things, the notion that his father has created something of a “cult” within the GOP. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) was the one to use the term to refer to Trumpism, and it received a great deal of criticism, …

CNBC reports: New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood on Thursday sued President Donald Trump and three of his adult children, claiming “a pattern of persistent illegal conduct” for more than a decade at the charity named for Trump. Underwood claims that the Donald J. Trump Foundation engaged in “extensive unlawful political coordination with the Trump presidential campaign.” She also alleged …

Politico reports: Rudy Giuliani insisted Wednesday evening that Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, would not flip on his ex-boss by cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. “I checked into this last night. It’s not so,” Giuliani told Laura Ingraham of Fox News. The former New York mayor is one of the president’s chief attorneys fending off …

Raw Story reports: Longtime Donald Trump confidante Michael Cohen has received word from federal prosecutors that they are preparing to arrest the New York City lawyer, MSNBC’s Katy Tur reported Wednesday. Tur joined guest anchor Kristen Welker, “minutes” after speaking to a source close to Cohen. Lawyers at the Southern District of New York reportedly called Cohen’s attorneys, saying they …

ABC News reports: As attorneys for Michael Cohen rush to meet Judge Kimba Wood’s Friday deadline to complete a privilege review of over 3.7 million documents seized in the April 9 raids of Cohen’s New York properties and law office, a source representing this matter has disclosed to ABC News that the law firm handling the case for Cohen is …

Vanity Fair reports: Within the next month, Mueller is reportedly planning to deliver his findings in the obstruction of justice investigation to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. “Donald is very worried,” said a Republican close to Trump. The difference is that Trump is now more unshackled than at any point in his presidency, meaning that firing Mueller or Rosenstein remains …

Yet another tentacle in the Trump corruption syndicate: AT&T and drug giant Novartis got nothing but bad publicity when they asked Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen for help with business, but a Florida immigration firm that tapped him appears to have gotten nearly everything it wanted. When Nicholas Mastroianni II hooked up with Cohen last year, his business was …

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump’s hotel company did not break the law by doing business with other countries, a Justice Department lawyer told a federal judge Monday. The state of Maryland and the District Columbia have accused Trump of capitalizing on the presidency and causing harm to local businesses that compete with his Washington hotel. Monday’s arguments before …

McClatchy reports: Several prominent Russians, some in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle or high in the Russian Orthodox Church, now have been identified as having contact with National Rifle Association officials during the 2016 U.S. election campaign. The contacts have emerged amid a deepening Justice Department investigation into whether Russian banker and lifetime NRA member Alexander Torshin [photo] illegally channeled …

The Daily Beast reports: On Sunday’s edition of Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver delivered an update on what he’s coined “Stupid Watergate” in honor of the one-year anniversary of the Mueller investigation—or a “witch-hunt,” according to the hysterical folks over at State TV (Fox News). Oliver broke down the Fox News Army’s three diversionary tactics for swaying public opinion …

The New York Times reports: Striking a note for transparency, a federal judge ruled on Friday that President Trump and his longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, cannot proceed in total secrecy as they weigh in on the final stages of a laborious review of a huge trove of materials seized from Mr. Cohen during a series of raids by …

“I’ll double-down on what I’ve said to you before: I cannot believe Manafort is ever going to go into a court with these charges. We had charges before in the indictment that I thought were significant and now you add years on to that previous indictment and you say he has to sit down and flip at some point. This …

The Associated Press reports: House Democrats on Friday formally requested that the Justice Department investigate Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt for potential criminal conduct. In a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray and Justice criminal division chief John Cronan, six Democratic lawmakers with oversight of Pruitt’s agency allege he repeatedly violated federal anti-corruption laws by seeking to leverage his …

The New York Times reports: The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, brought new obstruction charges on Friday against President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and added allegations against a close associate, who prosecutors suspect has ties to Russian intelligence. Prosecutors said the obstruction charge relates to Mr. Manafort’s efforts to coach the stories of witnesses against him. He …

Politico reports: Lawyers representing about 200 Democratic members of Congress urged a federal judge on Thursday to allow them to press ahead with a lawsuit seeking to block President Donald Trump from taking payments and other benefits from foreign governments doing business with his corporate empire. Nearly a year after the suit was filed, Judge Emmet Sullivan of U.S. District …

David Corn reports at Mother Jones: On Thursday afternoon, Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, made a dramatic request: He essentially asked special counsel Robert Mueller to consider whether perjury charges should be brought against witnesses who testified to the committee during its Trump-Russia investigation. Schiff did not convey this request directly to Mueller. …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Thursday assailed special counsel Robert Mueller’s team for bias, calling for the group’s “many conflicts of interest” to be publicized. The president has recently taken to labeling special counsel Robert Mueller’s team as a a collection of “13 angry Democrats,” despite the fact that Mueller himself is a Republican. Trump has recently spread the …

“When I first learned of the Steele dossier, it just rang true to me, because that’s how the Russians do things. And before he became a candidate or president, Donald Trump was the perfect target for Russian intelligence. Here is someone who has no self-control, a sense of sexual entitlement and intermittent financial crisis. I mean, that’s made-to-order for seduction …