Trump Corruption

Vanity Fair reports: For the first time in Donald Trump’s presidency, the West Wing soap opera appears to be in hiatus, with many of its starring characters (Gary Cohn, Hope Hicks) either permanently offstage or with much reduced roles (John Kelly, Jared Kushner). Currently, there’s one star—a situation Trump is obviously enjoying—and his new freedom is used to focus ever …

Law & Crime reports: A judge for the New York Supreme Court ruled that Summer Zervos‘s defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump will continue, but POTUS’s legal team isn’t going to accept that. Court records obtained by Law&Crime show that they filed a notice of appeal on Sunday. The attorneys want to take the ruling to the Appellate Division of the …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The special counsel investigating alleged links between Trump campaign associates and Russians is looking into longtime adviser Roger Stone’s 2016 claim that he had met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to a person familiar with the matter. WikiLeaks, an antisecrecy website, later released a trove of material on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton that U.S. …

The Hill reports: Two watchdog groups on Thursday filed a criminal complaint alleging that the Trump campaign and a super PAC controlled by President Trump’s new national security adviser John Bolton worked with the consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to violate a law preventing foreign nations from participating in U.S. elections. In the complaint, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington …

CNN reports: Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team last year made clear it wanted former Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates’ help, not so much against his former business partner Paul Manafort, but with its central mission: investigating the Trump campaign’s contact with the Russians. New information disclosed in court filings and to CNN this week begin to show how they’re getting …

Politico reports: The deposition of President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Michael Cohen in the case over Stormy Daniels’ nondisclosure agreement is “absolutely not going to happen,” Cohen’s attorney said on Thursday. David Schwartz, the lawyer who represents Trump’s longtime personal attorney, told NBC host Megyn Kelly that a motion filed by Daniels’ legal team seeking permission to question …

The New York Times reports: A lawyer for President Trump broached the idea of Mr. Trump pardoning two of his former top advisers, Michael T. Flynn and Paul Manafort, with their lawyers last year, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. The discussions came as the special counsel was building cases against both men, and they raise questions …

CNN reports: A federal judge said Wednesday that a lawsuit alleging foreign gifts made to President Donald Trump may be illegal can proceed. But the ruling from Judge Peter Messitte of the US District Court of Maryland says the Maryland and District of Columbia attorneys general who brought the case will have to focus it on the Trump Organization’s operations …

How many lies will she tell today? White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is set to take questions from reporters on Wednesday afternoon. The briefing follows revelations from the special counsel’s office that former Trump deputy campaign manager Richard Gates communicated with an associate who was a known former Russian intelligence officer. The news briefing is set to begin …

The New York Times reports: As a start-up called Cambridge Analytica sought to harvest the Facebook data of tens of millions of Americans in summer 2014, the company received help from at least one employee at Palantir Technologies, a top Silicon Valley contractor to American spy agencies and the Pentagon. It was a Palantir employee in London, working closely with …

The Daily Beast reports: Prosecutors working on the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election have linked Rick Gates, Donald Trump’s former deputy campaign chairman, to a person with ties to a Russian intelligence service. In a court filing released Tuesday night, prosecutors said Gates and the unnamed person, who had lived in Kiev and Moscow and …

Politico reports: A pair of veteran white-collar lawyers have turned down President Donald Trump’s offer to help lead his defense in the Russia probe, marking another setback for a legal team that’s seen its numbers dwindle over the past week while it prepares for a potentially critical interview between the president and special counsel Robert Mueller. The law firm Winston …

Sarah Huckabee Sanders just told a whopper in defense of the GOP’s attempt the suppress the minority vote. USA Today reports: The Commerce Department is reinstating a citizenship question to the 2020 Census for the first time in decades, a move that some arguewill lead to an undercount of minorities living in the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau counts …

PBS reports: White House officials have been looking into whether $500 million in loans that went to Trump administration senior adviser Jared Kushner’s family real estate company may have spurred ethics or criminal law violations, according to the head of the federal government’s ethics agency. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is likely to address the inquiry at a …

The Washington Post reports: Stormy Daniels ramped up her legal battle against President Trump on Monday, alleging in court that his personal attorney Michael Cohen defamed her by insinuating that she lied about an affair with Trump more than a decade ago. Daniels amended her existing lawsuit against Trump, adding Cohen as a defendant in the pending case. The expansion …

The Associated Press reports: George Nader, an adviser to the UAE who is now a witness in the U.S. special counsel investigation into foreign meddling in American politics, wired $2.5 million to Trump fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, through a company in Canada, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about …

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, is challenging porn actress Stormy Daniel’s unsubstantiated charge that someone tied to Trump threatened her with physical harm if she went public with her story about a tryst with Trump years ago. “In truth, Mr. Cohen had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any such person or incident, and …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Monday ripped “so much fake news” in a tweet following the highly anticipated “60 Minutes” interview with adult film star Stormy Daniels. Daniels claims she had an affair with Trump before he was president and was paid a sum of money before the 2016 election to keep quiet. A lawyer for Trump has denied …

Maggie Haberman reports at the New York Times: As President Trump heads into one of the most critical phases of the special counsel’s investigation, his personal legal team has shrunk to essentially just one member, and he is struggling to find any top lawyers willing to represent him. That lawyer, Jay Sekulow, is a conservative commentator who made his name …

Fox News reports: The lawyer for Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal attorney, sent adult film star Stormy Daniels a cease and desist letter late Sunday following her interview with “60 Minutes” where she spoke about her alleged affair with Trump and claimed she faced threats to her safety. Brent Blakely, Cohen’s attorney, demanded that Daniels apologize for insinuating that his …