Trump Corruption

The Atlantic reports: The messages show WikiLeaks, a radical transparency organization that the American intelligence community believes was chosen by the Russian government to disseminate the information it had hacked, actively soliciting Trump Jr.’s cooperation. WikiLeaks made a series of increasingly bold requests, including asking for Trump’s tax returns, urging the Trump campaign on Election Day to reject the results …

Talking Points Memo reports: Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the role played by former national security adviser Michael Flynn in an alleged plot to forcibly remove a Muslim cleric living legally in the U.S. to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The alleged plot described by the Journal involves a direct quid …

ABC News reports: George Papadopoulos, the Trump foreign policy aide who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, initially misled agents out of what he claimed was loyalty to President Donald Trump, according to a person with direct knowledge of the investigation. Trump had publicly denied that there had been any contact between his campaign and Russian officials, and Papadopoulos …

Bloomberg reports: A Russian lawyer who met with President Donald Trump’s oldest son last year says he indicated that a law targeting Russia could be re-examined if his father won the election and asked her for written evidence that illegal proceeds went to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, said in a two-and-a-half-hour interview in Moscow that she would …

NBC News reports: Federal investigators have gathered enough evidence to bring charges in their investigation of President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser and his son as part of the probe into Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. Michael T. Flynn, who was fired after just 24 days on the job, was …

CNN reports: Former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page privately testified Thursday that he mentioned to Jeff Sessions he was traveling to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign — as new questions emerge about the attorney general’s comments to Congress about Russia and the Trump campaign. During more than six hours of closed-door testimony, Page said that he informed Sessions …

The Hill reports: U.S. district court judge Amy Berman Jackson said President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort could be a flight risk on Thursday as she mulled requests to loosen the conditions of his house arrest. The judge set a bond hearing for Monday morning at 9:30 a.m. to discuss a request made by Manafort’s lawyers to remove a …

The Washington Post reports: Onetime Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort keeps three U.S. passports with different identification numbers and submitted 10 passport applications in as many years, the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III disclosed in a new court filing Tuesday arguing that Manafort poses a significant flight risk. The 17-page filing came one day after Manafort and …

Politico reports: Sam Clovis, President Donald Trump’s controversial nominee to be the Agriculture Department’s chief scientist, has been “a fully cooperative witness” in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts told POLITICO. Clovis, a former co-chair and policy adviser to Trump’s campaign, knew that another campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, was …

Lewandowski is literally blaming the FBI for not warning Trump about Manafort. Check out the twisting. Via Mediaite: “He came on to the campaign in a very limited capacity, to help us find delegates,” Lewandowski said of Manafort, who was hired by the Trump campaign as chairman. But when Fox News’s Steve Doocy asked if federal authorities are supposed to …

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to respond to the indictment of Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, and others. Concerned that the president may fight back after Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling led to two indictments and a guilty plea for his former advisers Monday, top Democrats laid down a marker for …

The Associated Press reports: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates have pleaded not guilty following their arrest on charges related to conspiracy against the United States and other felonies. The charges are the first from the special counsel investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. Manafort and Gates appeared before a federal …

“This is the first of many dominoes to fall. Bob Mueller is following the standard M.O. of federal prosecutors. You’ve got a totem pole, you’ve got somebody at the top of the totem pole, that’s your big prize: no surprise, it’s the president of the United States. You’re going to indict people going up the totem pole to see if …

The Huffington Post reports: President Donald Trump on Monday responded to charges against former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a Manafort business associate in special counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia in last year’s election. In a tweet, Trump sought to distance himself from Manafort and insisted that “the focus” should turn to …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Monday is scheduled to have lunch with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, just hours after Trump’s former campaign chairman was indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller. Sessions was invited to join Trump’s weekly lunch with Vice President Pence, which is closed to press coverage. It’s likely Trump will raise the indictment of former Trump campaign …

The BBC reports: The FBI special counsel’s spokesman has just given us this statement: “Paul J. Manafort, Jr., 68, of Alexandria, Va., and Richard W. Gates III, 45, of Richmond, Va., have been indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 27, 2017, in the District of Columbia. “The indictment contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to …

The Washington Examiner reports: President Trump responded to reports that special counsel Robert Mueller is about to indict people in his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election by pointing the finger at Democrats. Trump said the investigation into whether his campaign colluded with the Kremlin is “phony,” “bad for our country,” a “witch hunt,” and “evil politics.” He …

The New York Times reports: Natalia V. Veselnitskaya arrived at a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 hoping to interest top Trump campaign officials in the contents of a memo she believed contained information damaging to the Democratic Party and, by extension, Hillary Clinton. The material was the fruit of her research as a private lawyer, she has repeatedly …

Raw Story reports: President Donald Trump was reportedly on the verge of deporting billionaire Chinese fugitive Guo Wengui, but changed his mind after aides informed him that Guo is a fellow billionaire and a member in good standing at the president’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago. According to Vanity Fair‘s Isobel Thompson, Guo is wanted on charges of rape, bribery and kidnapping …

Yet another big scoop from Axios: President Trump has promised to spend at least $430,000 of his own money to defray legal costs incurred by campaign associates and White House staff due to the Russia investigations, a White House official tells Axios. The Republican National Committee has paid roughly $430,000 to lawyers representing the president and his eldest son, Don …