Trump Corruption

CNN reports: Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has postponed an anticipated grand jury testimony linked to his investigation into Michael Flynn amid growing indications of possible plea deal discussions. Additional witnesses were expected to be questioned soon including a public relations consultant hired by Flynn’s lobbying firm who was given an early December date deadline to appear before the grand …

ABC News reports: The lawyer for President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn met Monday morning with members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, the latest indication that both sides are discussing a possible plea deal, ABC News has learned. President Trump’s legal team confirmed late last week that Flynn’s attorney Robert Kelner alerted them that he could …

McClatchy reports: Political guru Paul Manafort took at least 18 trips to Moscow and was in frequent contact with Vladimir Putin’s allies for nearly a decade as a consultant in Russia and Ukraine for oligarchs and pro-Kremlin parties. Even after the February 2014 fall of Ukraine’s pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych, who won office with the help of a Manafort-engineered image …

The New York Times reports: Lawyers for Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, notified the president’s legal team in recent days that they could no longer discuss the special counsel’s investigation, according to four people involved in the case — an indication that Mr. Flynn is cooperating with prosecutors or negotiating a deal. Mr. Flynn’s lawyers had …

Buzzfeed News reports: Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his longtime associate Rick Gates got permission from a judge on Tuesday to temporarily leave house arrest later this week to celebrate Thanksgiving. The order from US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson came with a few conditions: Manafort and Gates will remain under GPS monitoring, must report exactly where they’re …

ABC News reports: Travels by Trump campaign adviser Carter Page to meet with senior officials in Hungary during the 2016 presidential election are being closely examined by congressional investigators, given the increasingly close ties between Hungary and Russia and the role of the country as a hub for Russian intelligence activity. The Hungarian prime minister was the first foreign leader …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner received and forwarded emails about WikiLeaks and a “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite” that he kept from Senate Judiciary Committee investigators, according to panel leaders demanding that he produce the missing records. Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) sent a letter to …

Politico reports: Vice President Mike Pence was not aware of communications between WikiLeaks and President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., during the 2016 campaign, his office said in a statement on Monday. Trump Jr. exchanged messages with WikiLeaks during the fall of 2016, and alerted top campaign officials of the contacts, The Atlantic reported on Monday. Trump Jr. later …

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 …