Trump Corruption

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump on Tuesday called his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., a “high-quality person” and applauded his transparency. “My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency,” Trump said in a brief statement read to reporters by White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.

Ted Cruz is in full deflect mode: Speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Cruz insisted that interest in the Russia scandal was simply a fixation of the media — and that average American citizens couldn’t care less. “Washington is obsessed right now, it is the Democratic talking point du jour,” Cruz told a gaggle of reporters. “But when …

Mediaite reports: Jake Tapper joined Kate Bolduan’s CNN show Tuesday to emphasize the gravity of Donald Trump Jr.’s newly released emails revealing he sought damaging information on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government. “It’s a staggering turn of events, and it’s rather momentous,” Tapper continued. “This can’t just be, this can’t be dismissed as people out to get Donald J. …

The Hill reports: President Trump’s deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka mocked CNN’s ratings on its morning program “New Day” on Tuesday, stating “more people watch Nick at Nite cartoons than CNN today,” in a contentious interview with co-anchor Alisyn Camerota. “The amount of time you spend in desperation on a topic that has plummeted you to 13th place in viewership ranking …

Raw Story reports: Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) thinks it’s time for Donald Trump Jr. to talk with the Senate Intelligence Committee. Collins told Bloomberg reporter Steven Dennis on Monday that she wanted Trump Jr. to talk with the Senate Intel Committee about his interactions with a Russian lawyer who promised him dirt on former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The …

The Intercept reports: Not long before a major crisis ripped through the Middle East, pitting the United States and a bloc of Gulf countries against Qatar, Jared Kushner’s real estate company had unsuccessfully sought a critical half-billion-dollar investment from one of the richest and most influential men in the tiny nation, according to three well-placed sources with knowledge of the …

The Washington Post reports: The Kremlin on Monday said it was unaware of a 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer purported to have information that could potentially damage Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. President Trump’s eldest son said Sunday that Natalia Veselnitskaya, who represents business executives close to the Russian government had approached him in June 2016, …

The Week reports: MSNBC justice and security analyst Matthew Miller said Trump’s statement in and of itself could be the potential confession of a crime. “You know, it is a crime to solicit or accept anything of value from a foreign national in a campaign,” Miller explained to the Morning Joe hosts. “The ‘thing of value’ has never come up …

Reuters reports: After Ivanka Trump faced heat for briefly stepping in for her father at the G-20 summit on Saturday, President Trump has redirected criticism of her at former first daughter Chelsea Clinton. “When I left Conference Room for short meetings with Japan and other countries, I asked Ivanka to hold seat,” Trump tweeted. “Very standard. Angela M agrees!” Trump …

The New York Times reports: President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign, according to three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it. The meeting was also attended by his campaign chairman …

Politico throws shade: At this week’s G-20 summit in Germany, one subject the world’s most powerful leaders are discussing is why Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman did not cooperate with U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials as they investigated cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee, President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter Friday morning. “Everyone here is talking about why John …

Politico reports: The Trump Organization has renewed its claim on more than 1,000 of the web domains registered by its general counsel, including some politically sensitive websites such as TrumpRussia.com and TrumpTowerMoscow.com. The company, which President Donald Trump’s two adult sons are managing while he serves in the White House but from which he has not divested, has reserved thousands …

The New York Daily News reports: The top Republican and Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe threatened to subpoena the White House if it doesn’t give more information about whether there were recordings of meetings between President Trump and former FBI Director James Comey on Thursday. Reps. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said the White House’s …

From the Wall Street Journal: Before the 2016 presidential election, a longtime Republican opposition researcher mounted an independent campaign to obtain emails he believed were stolen from Hillary Clinton’s private server, likely by Russian hackers. In conversations with members of his circle and with others he tried to recruit to help him, the GOP operative, Peter W. Smith, implied he …

Politico reports: The firm headed by Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, made more than $17 million working as a foreign agent of a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party, according to newly filed disclosure reports. The filing makes Manafort the second Trump campaign official to retroactively disclose foreign lobbying. Michael Flynn, Trump’s ousted former national security adviser, filed paperwork …

The Hill reports: The New York Times has compiled a massive list called “Trump’s Lies,” in what they say catalogues “nearly every outright lie” President Trump has made since his January inauguration. The Times‘s list, which ran in the paper’s opinion section, including his inaccurate claim that there was a terror attack in Sweden last February and his recent incorrect …

Media Matters has the transcript of the Fox & Friends interview that aired this morning: AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Big news today. You said you didn’t tape [former FBI Director] James Comey. Do you want to explain that? Why did you want him to believe you possibly did that? PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well I didn’t tape him. You never know what’s …

ABC News reports: Despite his foreboding warning in the aftermath of James Comey’s dismissal in May, President Donald Trump does not have tapes of his conversations with the former FBI director, he tweeted Thursday. In May, three days after Comey’s firing, Trump wrote: “James Comey better hope that there are no “tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to …

Unshockingly, Trump is twisting what Johnson said. Jeh Johnson, the former Homeland Security chief, says he wasn’t aware that the FBI had opened a counterintelligence investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. The top Democrat on the House Intelligence committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, asked Johnson if former FBI Director Jim Comey would have opened such an …

CNN reports: Two of the nation’s top intelligence officials told Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team and Senate investigators, in separate meetings last week, that President Donald Trump suggested they say publicly there was no collusion between his campaign and the Russians, according to multiple sources. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers described …