Trump Lies

TIME Magazine reports: Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page bragged that he was an adviser to the Kremlin in a letter obtained by TIME that raises new questions about the extent of Page’s contacts with the Russian government over the years. The letter, dated Aug. 25, 2013, was sent by Page to an academic press during a dispute over edits …

The Palm Beach Post reports: President Donald Trump arrived in Palm Beach Friday night with first lady Melania Trump and son Barron for a weekend at Mar-a-Lago. Air Force One landed at Palm Beach International Airport at 6:55 p.m. for Trump’s 12th presidential visit to Palm Beach. He’s expected to remain through Sunday night. Trump sent out two tweets en …

The Hill reports: President Trump took to Twitter Saturday to react to the release of a previously classified memo alleging abuse of government surveillance powers by the Justice Department, claiming the memo “totally vindicates him” and assailing the Russia investigation as “an American disgrace.” The memo, released Friday, accuses senior Justice Department officials of improperly using information from the so-called …

ABC News reports: Lawyers are laying the groundwork for a new legal defense fund to aid those who have at one point served candidate and now President Donald Trump and who have been pulled into the ongoing Russia probe. The fund, called the “Patriot Legal Expense Fund,” is being looked to as a way to provide financial support for any …

Via press release: Earlier today President Donald J. Trump declassified a memorandum from the House Permanent Select Committee On Intelligence. This memorandum raises serious concerns about the integrity of decisions made at the highest levels of the Department of Justice and the FBI to use the government’s most intrusive surveillance tools against American citizens. This decision was made with input …

Axios reports: White House aides recognize there could be a high cost to President Trump’s decision to allow — with no redactions — release of that classified memo about the Russian investigation. The White House plans to dress up the decision by arguing that it’s an action of “transparency.” But this puts President Trump publicly crossways with both the intelligence …

Politico reports: Special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation has gathered enough steam that some lawyers representing key Donald Trump associates are considering the possibility of a historic first: an indictment against a sitting president. While many legal experts contend that Mueller lacks the standing to bring criminal charges against Trump, at least two attorneys working with clients swept up in …

The Washington Post reports: The president did not actually see the memo — written by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Nunes’s staff — until Wednesday afternoon, following the committee’s Monday vote to initiate its release, officials said. White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly marched the document into the Oval Office so that he and Trump …

Politico reports: Three attorneys representing Rick Gates told a federal court Thursday they are immediately withdrawing as counsel for the former Donald Trump campaign aide, who is fighting special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of him on money laundering and other charges. Lawyers Shanlon Wu, Walter Mack and Annemarie McAvoy said in a two-page motion that they would explain the reasons …

“Orrin — I love listening to him speak. He said once that I am the single greatest president in his lifetime — now he’s a young man, so it’s not that much. And he actually once said I’m the greatest president in the history of our country, and I said, ‘Does that include Lincoln and Washington?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ …

CNN reports: Top White House aides are worried FBI Director Christopher Wray could quit if the highly controversial Republican memo alleging the FBI abused its surveillance tools is released, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation tell CNN. Wray has made clear he is frustrated that President Donald Trump picked him to lead the FBI after he fired FBI Director …

CBS News reports: President Donald Trump will speak Thursday at GOP policy retreat in West Virginia where Republicans will begin to plan out their strategy for the new year. It’s the same retreat many GOP members of Congress were traveling to Wednesday when their train struck a garbage truck in Crozet, Virginia. A man in the truck was killed. He’s …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump is expected to approve the release of a controversial congressional memo alleging surveillance abuses by the FBI, after the White House agreed to some redactions at the bureau’s request, according to senior administration officials. The redactions were the result of a review of the memo’s classified contents by White House and intelligence community officials, …

The Hill reports: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) compared House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes’s (R-Calif.) move to make a memo on surveillance at the Department of Justice (DOJ) public to former Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s (R-Wis.) aggressive probe of suspected communists in the 1950s. “The release of this memo is really reminiscent of the darkest days of the McCarthy era, with …

The Daily Beast reports: Mark Corallo, the former spokesman for President Donald Trump’s legal team, will reportedly tell special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators that White House Communications Director Hope Hicks said Donald Trump Jr.’s emails about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians “will never get out.” According to The New York Times, Corallo was concerned that Hicks “could …

NBC News reports: President Donald Trump reached an audience of 45.6 million people for his first State of the Union address, not enough to give him bragging rights over his predecessor. But that didn’t stop Trump from saying his address had more viewers than any other. The Nielsen company said former President Barack Obama drew 48 million people for his …

The Miami Herald reports: Miami Gardens Congresswoman Frederica Wilson criticized Donald Trump’s handling of congressionally ordered Russia sanctions Tuesday night during a boycott of his state of the union speech, suggesting the president has taken it easy on Russia because “they have something on him.” “The House and Senate voted on all kinds of sanctions against Russia. Now, the president …

“Americans are their own fact-checkers. The stock market is something they know about because they’re part of the investor class. And so, people know, they have their own facts and figures, in terms of meaning which facts and figures are important to them. I just have the faith in people to see through that.” – Propaganda Minister Kellyanne Conway, responding …

British television host Piers Morgan has written a lengthy Daily Mail column in which he lists more than a dozen tweets posted last night by anti-Trump celebrities. He then comes to this conclusion: On and on it went, with these stars and many more assuming America agreed with them. But it turned out the vast majority of Americans DIDN’T agree …

Talking Points Memo reports: In a rare public statement, the FBI on Wednesday expressed “grave concerns” about the accuracy of a congressional Republican memo that purports to show anti-Trump prejudice among senior FBI and Justice Department officials. It’s extremely unlikely that the highly critical comment would be sent out without the approval of top Trump appointees at the FBI and …