Tag Archives: Trump corruption

From the Washington DC watchdog group CREW: Yet again, the president used the Secret Service as an excuse for his profiteering, and yet again Secret Service records suggest he’s not telling the truth. In February, President Trump traveled to the West Coast for a multi-day trip through four states. But instead of staying locally, President Trump traveled each evening to …

“Jeff Sessions was a disaster. I didn’t want to make him Attorney General but he was the first senator to endorse me, so I felt a little bit of an obligation. He came to see me four times, just begging me to be Attorney General. He wasn’t, to me, equipped to be Attorney General but he just wanted it, wanted …

The Daily Beast reports: Of the nine senior Trump administration officials, campaign staff, outside advisers, and longtime associates of the president reached on Thursday, all said that they wanted Flynn to assume some public-facing role, including potentially as an official Trump surrogate. One even compared the ex-general, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian …

Talking Points Memo reports: Attorney General Bill Barr defended the Justice Department’s bombshell move to drop its case against Michael Flynn Thursday, telling CBS News that it was an “easy decision.” “I think easy because once I saw all the facts and some of the tactics used by the FBI in this instance and also the legal problems with the …

ABC News reports: Secretary of State Pompeo is leaning even harder into his attacks on the Chinese government over the novel coronavirus pandemic — even as he further walks back his claim that the U.S. has “enormous evidence” a biomedical laboratory in Wuhan, China, is responsible for the outbreak. The change comes as an intelligence official says there is no …

The Associated Press reports: The Justice Department on Thursday said it is dropping the criminal case against President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for Trump and his supporters in attacking the FBI’s Russia investigation. The move is a stunning reversal for one of the signature cases brought by special …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to temporarily block a ruling that requires the Justice Department to give Congress certain secret grand jury material from the investigation conducted by former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in March cleared the way for Congress to access secret …

The Washington Post reports: A top donor to President Trump and the Republican National Committee will be named the new head of the Postal Service, putting a top ally of the president in charge of an agency where Trump has long pressed for major changes in how it handles its business. The Postal Service’s board of governors confirmed late Wednesday …

Axios reports: President Trump has complained to advisers about the way coronavirus deaths are being calculated, suggesting the real numbers are actually lower — and a number of his senior aides share this view, according to sources with direct knowledge. What’s next: A senior administration official said he expects the president to begin publicly questioning the death toll as it …

STAT News reports: Rick Bright, the ousted head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, has filed a formal whistleblower complaint alleging he was involuntarily transferred to a lower position at the National Institutes of Health because he raised concerns about the Trump administration’s Covid-19 response and about nepotism in the Department of Health and Human Services. Among the …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Tuesday said Anthony Fauci will be allowed to testify before the Senate next week, but that he would prevent the government’s top infectious diseases expert from appearing before the House because he believes it’s full of “Trump haters.” “The House is a set up. The House is a bunch of Trump haters,” the president …

The New York Post reports: States left cash-strapped by the coronavirus crisis shouldn’t count on federal bailouts — especially states run by Democrats, President Trump told The Post on Monday. “It’s not fair to the Republicans because all the states that need help — they’re run by Democrats in every case. Florida is doing phenomenal, Texas is doing phenomenal, the …

The Daily Beast reports: Even by President Donald Trump’s historically low standards, the town hall on reopening the nation’s economy featured some astounding falsehoods on Sunday night: that he was never warned about the novel coronavirus until late January; that all 43,000 people who returned to the United States from China after the implementation of his travel ban were tested; …

The Independent reports: Donald Trump pushed back on Sunday against recent reporting that intelligence officials were issuing classified reports to his administration as early as last November warning about the early outbreak of coronavirus in the Wuhan province of China. The president also claimed the restrictions he placed on travel to the US from China in January have saved “tens …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Sunday took aim at George W. Bush after the former Republican president issued a call to push partisanship aside amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. In a three-minute video shared on Twitter on Saturday, Bush urged Americans to remember “how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat.” In an …

Deadline reports: White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Friday did something her predecessor never did: She held an official press briefing. “I will never lie to you. You have my word on this,” she said in response to a question. She also told reporters that they do plan to continue the briefings and she will announce “timing forthcoming.” For …

The Daily Beast reports: Michael Cohen, President Trump’s longtime lawyer and fixer who was due to be released from federal prison to house arrest on Friday will remain behind bars, two people familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast. It was unclear what prompted the last-minute decision to not release Cohen after he – along with other prisoners – …

Mediaite reports: President Donald Trump stated at the daily White House coronavirus press conference that he would consider rehiring his former national security advisor, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. “What they did to General Flynn was a disgrace,” Trump said on Thursday afternoon when asked by Fox News White House correspondent John Roberts …

Axios reports: Vice President Mike Pence told reporters Thursday that following the release of new FBI documents, he is “more inclined to believe” that former national security adviser Michael Flynn unintentionally lied to him in 2017 about the nature of his conversation with former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Why it matters: Flynn was forced to resign for misleading Pence and …

The New York Times reports: Last summer, on his final day of work at the nation’s consumer finance watchdog agency, a career economist sent colleagues a blunt memo. He claimed that President Trump’s appointees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had manipulated the agency’s research process to justify altering a 2017 rule that would have sharply curtailed high-interest payday loans. …