Donald J. Trump After the White House - Page 22
By Veronica Stracqualursi and Daniella Diaz, CNNWashington (CNN) The Trump-era Justice Department's decision to secretly seize data of Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee went even beyond the nefarious actions of former President Richard Nixon, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday. The California Democrat also believes former Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr, as well as former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, should testify before Congress. "What the administration did, the Justice Department, the leadership of the former President goes even beyond Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon had an enemies list. This is about undermining the rule of law," Pelosi told CNN's Dana Bash Sunday on "State of the Union." more...
By COLLEEN LONGWASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has made no secret of his long list of political enemies. It just wasn’t clear until now how far he would go to try to punish them. Two House Democrats disclosed this week that their smartphone data was secretly obtained by the Trump Justice Department as part of an effort to uncover the source of leaks related to the investigation of Russian-related election interference. It was a stunning revelation that one branch of government was using its power to gather private information on another, a move that carried echoes of President Richard Nixon during Watergate. more...
Thomas ColsonFormer President Donald Trump has been spotted wandering into memorial services and engagement parties at his Mar-a-Lago resort in recent weeks as he seeks "adulation" from members of the public, Bloomberg reported. The president has lived in private quarters at his Mar-a-Lago resort since leaving the White House in January, but he frequently mingles with the wealthy crowds who pay huge membership fees to be a part of the club. One Mar-a-Lago member told Bloomberg that Trump had walked into a club memorial for a friend, made a speech, and then stayed around afterward. more...
Steve KovachApple said Friday it didn’t know former President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice was asking for the metadata of Democratic lawmakers when it complied with a subpoena seeking the information. Apple’s admission that it complied with the DOJ’s request demonstrates the thorny position tech companies are placed in when forced to balance their customers’ private online activity with legitimate requests from law enforcement. In general, companies like Apple challenge such requests, but in this case a grand jury and federal judge forced Apple to comply and keep it quiet. more...
Kevin BreuningerHouse Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is demanding answers from the Department of Justice on the heels of a bombshell report that the Trump administration had secretly subpoenaed Apple for his data. But the Biden administration has so far shared little with the committee about the Trump-era seizures of at least two House Democrats’ records, one frustrated official on the intelligence panel told NBC News. “We have repeatedly posed basic and readily answerable questions to the Department for more than a month, but have received virtually no information beyond a confirmation that the investigation is closed,” the official told NBC on Friday. more...
Krishnadev CalamurThe Trump Justice Department subpoenaed Apple in 2018 in order to obtain the metadata of at least two Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee, as well as their current and former staff, and even family, including a minor, a committee official tells NPR's Ryan Lucas. The story was first reported by the reported by The New York Times. The subpoena was part of an effort to find the source of leaks of classified information in the early years of the Trump administration. Ultimately, the data did not tie the committee to the leaks. Apple informed the committee that the metadata had been seized after a gag order in the matter was lifted in May 2021. The committee contacted the Biden Justice Department, which informed them that the investigation had been closed, the committee official says. more...
At least two House members including Adam Schiff targeted in 2018, say officials familiar with the investigationAdam GabbattThe records of at least 12 people connected to the House intelligence committee were eventually shared, including Schiff, the panel chairman. The US justice department under Donald Trump seized data from the accounts of at least two members of the House of Representatives intelligence committee in 2018 as part of an aggressive crackdown on leaks related to the Russia investigation and other national security matters, according to a committee official and two people familiar with the investigation. Prosecutors from the previous president’s DoJ subpoenaed Apple for the data, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the secret seizures first reported by the New York Times. The records of at least 12 people connected to the intelligence panel were eventually shared, including the chairman, Adam Schiff, who was then the top Democrat on the committee. more...
Sam Levine and Anna Massoglia | guardian.orgDark money groups pushing baseless election claims appear to be playing key role in unprecedented review of 2.1m ballots. Dark money groups tied to Donald Trump’s inner circle and backed by people who have spread baseless claims about the 2020 presidential election appear to be playing a key role in funding an unprecedented review of 2.1m ballots in Arizona. Republicans in the Arizona state senate, which authorized the inquiry, allocated $150,000 in state funds to pay for it – just a fraction of the projected overall cost, which is still unknown. The state senate had enough money in its operating budget to pay for the investigation, the Arizona Mirror reported in April, but chose not to pay the full price. Instead, the effort is being paid for by private donors, who remain hidden from the public, according to a review by OpenSecrets and the Guardian. Arizona Republicans and Cyber Ninjas, the Florida-based company overseeing the review, have refused to say who is providing the rest of the money. more...
By Erica Orden, CNNNew York (CNN) The Justice Department argued in a brief filed Monday that it should be permitted to substitute itself for former President Donald Trump as defendant in a defamation lawsuit brought by a longtime magazine columnist, E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of rape, continuing the argument it had initiated under the previous administration even as the White House has changed hands. "Then-President Trump's response to Ms. Carroll's serious allegations of sexual assault included statements that questioned her credibility in terms that were crude and disrespectful," Justice Department lawyers wrote in a brief to the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals. "But this case does not concern whether Mr. Trump's response was appropriate. Nor does it turn on the truthfulness of Ms. Carroll's allegations." Rather, the lawyers wrote, because they believe Trump was an employee of the government and that he acted "within the scope of employment," the department, rather than Trump personally, should serve as defendant in the case. more...
Kemp shows there may be hope for Republicans who have incurred Trump’s public wrath.By DAVID SIDERS and MAYA KINGJEKYLL ISLAND, Ga. — Few Republicans have taken more abuse from Donald Trump than Brian Kemp, the Georgia governor whose resistance to overturning the November election results in his state enraged the former president. As a result, much of the state’s pro-Trump base is in open revolt against Kemp. On Saturday, Republicans booed him at their state convention. But what didn’t happen at the party gathering may ultimately matter more. Convention delegates did not censure Kemp, even as they formally rebuked another Trump enemy, Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state. Kemp’s standing with the rank-and-file has, improbably, improved, according to interviews with more than 30 party officials, strategists and activists here. And in his partial rehabilitation — the product of a relentless focus on so-called election integrity issues and culture war staples to excite the base — Kemp may serve as a model for dozens of Republicans elsewhere who have incurred Trump’s public wrath and are seeking to regain their standing with Republicans at home. more...
Former president to give speech at North Carolina Republican convention as Arizona emails show how audit came to be set upMartin Pengelly and Victoria BekiempisDonald Trump was forced to confront his drastically diminished online presence this week, as a two-year suspension from Facebook for inciting the Capitol attack followed the closure of his blog, an endeavour which failed to attract an audience. Nonetheless, the former president was poised to return to the public arena on Saturday night, with a speech to the North Carolina Republican convention in Greenville. Trump, who will be 75 on 14 June, was impeached for inciting the Capitol attack as part of his lie that his electoral defeat was the result of mass fraud. He was acquitted thanks to Republican supporters in Congress, who also blocked a bipartisan investigation of 6 January, and remains eligible to run for office again. The former president is reportedly due to hold rallies this summer in other keenly contested states, Florida and Georgia among them. In Arizona, meanwhile, emails were released on Friday in which the Republican president of the state senate said Trump called her after his defeat by Joe Biden in November, to thank her “for pushing to prove any fraud”. more...
By Musadiq BidarFacebook is banning former President Trump from its platform for at least two years, after finding that his posts on January 6 stoked violence and posed a risk to public safety. And, as part of a new enforcement policy for public figures, the social media giant isn't guaranteeing that Mr. Trump will be allowed to return at the end of the ban. "At the end of this period, we will look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded," Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice president of global affairs, wrote in a blog post. "If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded," he added. more...
Taunt directed at Mark Zuckerberg suggests either a presidential run or the unfounded belief that ex-president might be reinstatedMartin PengellyDonald Trump has appeared to drop his strongest hint yet at another presidential run in 2024, responding to news of his two-year ban from Facebook on Friday by saying he would not invite Mark Zuckerberg to dinner “next time I’m in the White House”. It has also been widely reported this week that Trump believes he will be reinstated in the presidency by August. He will not. But in his statement on Friday he did not say if he thought he would return to the White House because he would be reinstated or because he would run for the Republican nomination again and then defeat Joe Biden or another Democrat. Trump’s statement read: “Next time I’m in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be all business!” more...
Domenico MontanaroA day after being suspended from Facebook for another two years, former President Donald Trump returns to the political arena Saturday night, poised to get back into his comfort zone speaking from the kind of platform he seems to enjoy most. He's making a speech before the North Carolina Republican Party convention, kicking off what's likely to be a spree of summer campaigning. It's his first public speech since his address at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. Trump called it "a great honor to be speaking" before the group. "I understand the place will be packed, all records broken!" he boasted in an emailed statement. more...
Mike AllenPresident Trump plans to make Anthony Fauci a top target at upcoming rallies, using increased attention to the Wuhan lab-leak theory as a weapon against an official long viewed as more trustworthy.Why it matters: Trump and conservative media have made Fauci an improbable face of the opposition, trying to give him the cartoon-villain status once accorded to former Sen. Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or — in Trump’s case — Hillary Clinton.Trump amped up his longtime Fauci rants yesterday in a statement calling for COVID reparations from China: more...
By Gabby Orr, Dana Bash and Michael Warren, CNN(CNN) A cadre of aides and advisers working to tame Donald Trump's obsession with the 2020 election, including his fixation with debunked voter fraud theories and ballot audits, are realizing the task at hand is much tougher than they thought. Over the past few weeks, Trump has faced pleas from inside his orbit to move the ball forward as Republicans approach the 2022 midterm elections, when the party hopes to regain control of both congressional chambers, and brace for his high-profile return to the campaign trail. Several former advisers and allies still close to the 45th President said he is under mounting pressure to concentrate on promoting GOP policy priorities and defining his successor, rather than re-litigating his failed reelection campaign. But the former President has brushed those voices aside, choosing instead to listen to a crowd of characters both on television and in his wider circle who have encouraged him to keep his focus on the 2020 election. more...
By Adam BrewsterFormer Vice President Mike Pence told a crowd of Republican activists in New Hampshire on Thursday night that he doesn't know whether he and former President Trump will "ever see eye-to-eye" about the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Pence was at the Capitol overseeing the counting of the Electoral College votes when the mob of angry Trump supporters overran the Capitol, and he had to be evacuated from the Senate chamber. "January 6 was a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol, but thanks to the swift action of the Capitol Police and federal law enforcement, violence was quelled, the Capitol was secured and that same day we reconvened the Congress and did our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States," Pence said Thursday. "President Trump and I have spoken many times since we've left office and I don't know if we'll ever see eye-to-eye on that day, but I will always be proud of what we accomplished for the American people over the last four years." more...
By Tal Axelrodhe Republican Study Committee (RSC) will huddle with former President Trump next week in New Jersey as conservatives plan their messaging efforts heading into the 2022 midterms. Spokespeople for both Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), the RSC’s char, and Trump confirmed the meeting will take place at Trump’s Bedminster resort. The summit was first reported by the New York Post. Banks, who has emerged as an increasingly influential force among House Republicans said the meeting will serve as an opportunity to sync up messaging and what policies the GOP can try to push for on the campaign trail and in the House, both before and after the 2022 elections. more...
Jon Ward | Yahoo NewsThe Republican Party finds itself in befuddling circumstances as former President Donald Trump prepares to hold political rallies again, beginning this weekend with an appearance in North Carolina. Trump was one of the only Republican candidates to lose a high-profile competitive race in 2020. GOP candidates won the majority of close races across the country, in the U.S. Senate, in the U.S. House and in state legislatures and gubernatorial races. Yet the party remains stuck with Trump as its standard bearer for the foreseeable future, due to his intense popularity with a vocal portion of the party. A substantial majority of Republicans also say they believe his claims that the election was stolen from him, according to a recent Yahoo News/YouGov survey, and he leads the rest of the hypothetical GOP field in some early polls for the party’s nomination in 2024. more...
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large(CNN) The evidence is everywhere. CNN's Dana Bash reported Thursday morning that former President Donald Trump is "more obsessed than ever with the 2020 election," with one former Trump aide telling her that the former President is only listening to "the bottom of the bottom of the crazies in the barrel." That follows on reporting from The New York Times and The Washington Post that Trump is convinced that he will, at some point this summer, be reinstated as president once a variety of kooky and non-credible audits come to, uh, fruition. "Trump has become so fixated on the audits that he suggested recently to allies that their success could result in his return to the White House this year, according to people familiar with comments he has made," wrote the Post. more...
By Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb, CNN(CNN) Two Senate committees plan to release a flurry of recommendations in a thorough 100-page-plus report about what went wrong on January 6, but they will stop short of examining former President Donald Trump's role in the run-up to the attack on the US Capitol, which is likely to fuel the partisan debate about whether further investigation is needed. The Senate Rules and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees are expected to release their findings on the security failures that led to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol next week, which includes a detailed look at how security failures, poor planning, slow response time from law enforcement and lackluster sharing of intelligence and communications all contributed to the deadly insurrection where the Capitol was breached, according to sources familiar with the effort. The report's recommendations are likely to provide the basis of a new funding package in the Senate aimed at beefing up Capitol security, an issue that became mired in a partisan fight in the House last month. more...
Anderson Cooper 360CNN's Dana Bash reports that a former Trump adviser says the former president is so focused on the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him that he's listening to "the bottom of the bottom of the crazies in the barrel." video...
He faces more than a dozen lawsuits and investigationsJosh Marcus, San Francisco, Louise HallLawsuits and investigations have hung over Donald Trump throughout his business career, then his presidency. He’s reportedly faced an estimated 4,000 cases, plus two (unsuccessful) impeachments, two (successful) divorces, six bankruptcies, and 26 sexual misconduct allegations. Things are only going to get worse now that he’s a private citizen again, without the backing of the Justice Department. more...
Dan ManganThe Federal Election Commission will let former President Donald Trump avoid punishment for directing hush money payments to his alleged ex-mistress Karen McDougal — but the publisher of The National Enquirer agreed to pay more than $187,500 for its role in the scandal, records showed Tuesday. The FEC recently likewise failed to approve a recommendation from staff that it sanction Trump for directing a $130,000 hush money payout to former porn star Stormy Daniels, who has said she had sex with him years ago, according to the advocacy group Common Cause. That group had filed FEC complaints related to payments to both women. more...
As Liberty University plots its post-Falwell future, young people want to steer clear of politics. The trustees aren’t buying it.By MAGGIE SEVERNSFor years, there was an adage around Liberty University that if God split Jerry Falwell in half, you would have his sons Jerry and Jonathan. Jerry Jr. inherited his father’s desire to be a force in American politics, and his post as Liberty University president, while Jonathan inherited his father’s gift for evangelical uplift and became pastor of his church. Now, 14 years after Jerry Falwell Sr. died and nine months after Jerry Jr. was ousted in a scandal, Liberty is enmeshed in a debate that could have profound implications for the nation’s religious right: Whether it should keep nurturing Jerry Jr.’s focus on politics and maintain its high-flying role in the Republican Party, or begin to change its culture and back away from politics, an approach increasingly favored by younger evangelicals. more...
The 45th president has brought new voices and voters to the party, but he’s driven them out too. Insiders fear the repercussions.By MERIDITH MCGRAW, DAVID SIDERS and SAM STEINAs Donald Trump ponders another presidential bid, top Republicans have grown fearful about what they’re calling the party’s “lost generation.” In conversations with more than 20 lawmakers, ex-lawmakers, top advisers and aides, a common concern has emerged — that a host of national and statewide Republicans are either leaving office or may not choose to pursue it for fear that they can’t survive politically in the current GOP. The worry, these Republicans say, is that the party is embracing personality over policy, and that it is short sighted to align with Trump, who lost the general election and continues to alienate a large swath of the voting public with his grievances and false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. more...
“They should tell Donald Trump,” the Republican Accountability Project urges in its new ad.By Lee MoranEx-President Donald Trump’s vitriolic blog posts are used to dispel a major Republican talking point in a conservative group’s damning new ad. “Republicans say they want to move on past the 2020 election,” the narrator begins in Republican Accountability Project’s latest spot, released Thursday. The 76-second clip cuts to various screenshots of Trump’s blog, where he repeatedly rants about the 2020 election and baselessly claims that it was stolen from him. Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) then appear on-screen, declaring that it’s time to move forward. “If Republicans want to move on from the 2020 election, they should tell Donald Trump,” the narrator concludes. more...
By Katelyn Polantz, CNN(CNN) A federal judge on Wednesday wrote that Donald Trump's "Big Lie" that the 2020 election was stolen from him could still inspire some of the former President's supporters to take up arms, as they did in January during the deadly US Capitol insurrection. The judge's blunt assessment of the current, charged political climate came in a legal decision about a defendant who was drawn to Washington, DC, in January. And it adds to a growing chorus of warnings from the officials most closely weighing the aftermath of the Capitol riot about what the threat level still might be. "The steady drumbeat that inspired defendant to take up arms has not faded away; six months later, the canard that the election was stolen is being repeated daily on major news outlets and from the corridors of power in state and federal government, not to mention in the near-daily fulminations of the former President," Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the DC District Court wrote in an opinion to keep defendant Cleveland Meredith Jr. in jail because he could endanger the public if released. more...
By Daniella Diaz, CNNWashington (CNN) Former House Speaker Paul Ryan is set to criticize former President Donald Trump and his hold on the Republican Party during a speech Thursday night, according to excerpts obtained by CNN. Ryan, a critic of the former President in the past, is expected to say at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, that Republicans must move away from the "populist appeal of one personality" because "then we're not going anywhere." "Once again, we conservatives find ourselves at a crossroads. And here's one reality we have to face: If the conservative cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality, or on second-rate imitations, then we're not going anywhere. Voters looking for Republican leaders want to see independence and mettle," Ryan is expected to say. more...
By Daniella Diaz, CNNWashington (CNN) Former House Speaker Paul Ryan is set to criticize former President Donald Trump and his hold on the Republican Party during a speech Thursday night, according to excerpts obtained by CNN. Ryan, a critic of the former President in the past, is expected to say at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, that Republicans must move away from the "populist appeal of one personality" because "then we're not going anywhere." "Once again, we conservatives find ourselves at a crossroads. And here's one reality we have to face: If the conservative cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality, or on second-rate imitations, then we're not going anywhere. Voters looking for Republican leaders want to see independence and mettle," Ryan is expected to say. more...
The move is a sign that the investigation into the former president's company has entered a new phase.By Dareh GregorianFormer President Donald Trump on Tuesday blasted reports that a special grand jury had been convened to hear evidence against the Trump Organization, calling it “a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history.” “This is purely political, and an affront to the almost 75 million voters who supported me in the Presidential Election, and it’s being driven by highly partisan Democrat prosecutors,” the former president said in a statement. New York prosecutors’ imminent presentation of evidence against Trump’s business, first reported by the Washington Post, citing two people familiar with the development, signals that the criminal investigation into the former president has entered a new phase. more...
The Associated PressNEW YORK — New York prosecutors have convened a special grand jury to consider evidence in a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump's business dealings, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The development signals that the Manhattan district attorney's office was moving toward seeking charges as a result of its two-year investigation, which included a lengthy legal battle to obtain Trump's tax records. The person familiar with the matter was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity. The news was first reported by The Washington Post. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into a variety of matters such as hush-money payments paid to women on Trump's behalf, property valuations and employee compensation. more...
newsbreakMichael Cohen , Donald Trump 's former personal attorney, on Wednesday mocked the former president, who is currently facing a criminal probe into his organization, by sharing a photoshopped image of him in a jail cell. Cohen said on Twitter that "troubles" for Trump "will keep on coming." "Soon enough, Donald and Associates will be held responsible for their actions," Cohen wrote, noting that the New York attorney general's office and the Manhattan district attorney are investigating the Trump Organization. more...
Stuart AndersonDonald Trump’s tariffs and the trade war his administration launched against China turned out to be far more damaging than many believed. That is the conclusion of research finding companies, consumers and the U.S. economy paid a heavy price for the Trump administration’s protectionist trade policies. In new research, Mary Amiti, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Sang Hoon Kong and David Weinstein, both economists at Columbia University, used movements in stock prices to measure the response to policy announcements on tariffs and the escalation of the U.S.-China trade war initiated by the Trump administration. “Stock prices are well suited for this purpose because firm market value equals the expected present value of future firm profits,” according to Amiti, Kong and Weinstein. “Therefore, movements in stock prices tell us about changes in the expected future value of firm-specific capital (both tangible and intangible).” more...
Nicholas Reimann Forbes StaffFormer President Donald Trump's last-minute decision to grant six months of post-presidency Secret Service protection to his adult children has already come at a big cost to taxpayers, with a watchdog group finding just their travel in the first 30 days after Trump left office cost at least $140,000—but that’s probably just a fraction of the true price tag. more...
Opinion by Karen TumultyAmid the furor over the purging of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from the House Republican leadership, it can be easy to forget that she was not the only GOP lawmaker who voted in January to impeach President Donald Trump a second time. What made Cheney stand out — along with frequent television guest Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) — is the persistence of their criticism of Trump and his role in sparking deadly mob violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. more...
By David A. Fahrenthold and Josh DawseyFormer president Donald Trump charged the Secret Service more than $40,000 this spring for rooms that Trump’s own protective detail used while guarding him at his Mar-a-Lago Club, according to federal spending records. The records show that Trump’s club charged the Secret Service $396.15 every night starting Jan. 20, the day he left the White House and moved full-time into his Palm Beach, Fla., club. more...
By Jeremy Herb and Jessica Schneider, CNNWashington (CNN) The Trump administration secretly sought and obtained the 2017 phone and email records of a CNN correspondent, the latest instance where federal prosecutors have taken aggressive steps targeting journalists in leak investigations. The Justice Department informed CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, in a May 13 letter, that prosecutors had obtained her phone and email records covering two months, between June 1, 2017 to July 31, 2017. The letter listed phone numbers for Starr's Pentagon extension, the CNN Pentagon booth phone number and her home and cell phones, as well as Starr's work and personal email accounts. more...
“It really signals that she thinks, not only is this a strong—and likely winnable—criminal case, but that something is going to happen relatively soon,” says former SDNY prosecutor Danya Perry, discussing the New York AG joining the criminal probe into Trump’s businesses. video...
The Democratic ex-president was candid in remarks to donors and advisers, according to Battle for the Soul by Edward-Isaac DovereMartin PengellyFor much of Donald Trump’s presidency, Barack Obama largely abided by the convention that former presidents do not publicly criticize or attack their successors. Obama jettisoned any such caution during the 2020 election that put his own vice-president, Joe Biden, in the White House. But behind the scenes, with donors and advisers, Obama was reportedly much more candid. According to a new book, Obama called Trump a “madman”, a “racist, sexist pig”, “that fucking lunatic” and a “corrupt motherfucker”. The remarks are reported in Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats’ Campaigns to Defeat Donald Trump by Edward-Isaac Dovere, a staff writer at the Atlantic, which will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy. more...
Bill Chappell, Andrea Bernstein, Ilya MarritzNew York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating former President Donald Trump's business, the Trump Organization, "in a criminal capacity," her office says, ratcheting up scrutiny of Trump's real estate transactions and other dealings. The state attorney general is joining forces with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who has been conducting a separate criminal inquiry into Trump's business practices and possible insurance or financial fraud as well as alleged hush money payments to two women who said they had affairs with Trump before he became president. Trump has in the past refused to cooperate with the investigations, calling them instances of "political persecution." Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Vance to subpoena Trump's tax returns and other financial documents. Here's a brief recap of where things currently stand: more...
Trump's long statement didn't address the subject of the investigation, which stems from allegations that he inflated the value of his assets.By Rebecca ShabadWASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump tore into New York Attorney General Letitia James and other prosecutors Wednesday after James' office said it is pursuing a criminal investigation of the Trump Organization. Trump attacked James, who announced the criminal inquiry Tuesday, and other officials in a long statement that said: "There is nothing more corrupt than an investigation that is in desperate search of a crime. "But, make no mistake, that is exactly what is happening here," he said. "The Attorney General of New York literally campaigned on prosecuting Donald Trump even before she knew anything about me." Trump said the prosecutors' investigations are simply "a continuation of the greatest political Witch Hunt in the history of the United States." more...
By Sonia Moghe and Kara Scannell, CNN(CNN) New York Attorney General Letitia James is joining the Manhattan district attorney's office in a criminal investigation of the Trump Organization, James' office said Tuesday. The attorney general office's investigation into the Trump Organization, which has been underway since 2019, will also continue as a civil probe, but the office recently informed Trump Organization officials of the criminal component. "We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature. We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA," James' spokesman Fabien Levy told CNN. "We have no additional comment." more...
By Sara Murray, Kara Scannell, Jessica Schneider and Jason Morris, CNN(CNN) Five independently elected investigators have turned their attention to former President Donald Trump, a sign his legal woes are mounting as he no longer enjoys the protections once afforded to him by the Oval Office. Trump is now facing inquiries run by elected officials from Georgia to New York to Washington with only their constituents to answer to. Most are Democrats, but one key investigation was launched by a Georgia Republican who has faced heavy criticism from Trump since the election. And the former President's actions on his way out of office, including his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and to stir up his supporters with baseless claims of fraud until they stormed the US Capitol on a harrowing January day, have only added to his legal problems. more...
Trump wanted his supporters First Amendment rights protected but has Trump trampled the rights of those who he does not agree with and those who do not support him.By Jenni FinkFormer President Donald Trump was criticized for failing to squelch the Capitol riot, but ahead of the January 6 rally, he requested that the Secretary of Defense pull out all the stops to protect people's First Amendment rights. Christopher Miller, former acting secretary of defense, defended his response to the Capitol riot before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. He pushed back on beliefs that there were delays in the deployment of federal resources and told legislators he filled the request he received for National Guard members. more...
By Kristine Phillips, USA TODAYWASHINGTON – Proud Boys leader Ethan Nordean lashed out at President Donald Trump, accusing him of misleading his supporters and then deserting them despite their unwavering loyalty. "We are now and always have been on our own. So glad he was able to pardon a bunch of degenerates as his last move and s--- on us on the way out," Nordean said in an expletive-laden message about the former president. "F--- you trump you left us on [t]he battle field bloody and alone." more...
By Larry Buchanan, Karen Yourish, Ainara Tiefenthäler, Jon Huang and Blacki MigliozziThe 38-minute video below shows how Donald J. Trump’s persistent repetition of lies and calls to action over two months created an alternate reality that he won re-election. Mr. Trump’s words, which were echoed and amplified by the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, are a central focus of his second impeachment trial. In hundreds of public statements from Nov. 4, 2020, to Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Trump repeatedly used phrases like “we won the election” and “won it by a landslide,” and he said that the election was “rigged” and “stolen” by the Democrats. Such assertions have been proven false by the courts and elections officials across the country. Mr. Trump’s language later signaled to his supporters that they needed to “fight” because “you’ll never take back our country with weakness.” Some of Mr. Trump’s statements were outright lies (that he won). Some were his own sentiments (“this is a disgrace to our country”). Some were oblique calls to action (“if you don’t fight to save your country with everything you have, you’re not going to have a country left”). more...
By Kristin Wilson and Daniella Diaz, CNN(CNN) Rep. Liz Cheney is outlining her next steps in the aftermath of her ousting from leadership, telling NBC, "I intend to be the leader, one of the leaders, in a fight to help to restore our party," and warning that former President Donald Trump is willing "to unravel the democracy to come back into power." The Wyoming congresswoman, and now former House Republican Conference chair, also didn't rule out a run for president in the "Today" interview that aired Thursday morning, but she did confirm she will run for reelection for her US House seat next year. Cheney said "silence is not an option" when speaking out against Trump, and she said admonishments from her fellow Republicans to move forward are not possible because the damage that the former president is causing is "an ongoing threat." The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney reiterated her assertion Wednesday that Trump cannot become president again. "He's unfit," she said. "He never again can be anywhere close to the Oval Office." more...
Donald Trump's hero, Andrew Jackson, showed a campaign based entirely on political comeuppance can work. For the GOP today, it could also be a winning strategy.By David Mark, political analystFrom time to time, House members who have been elected to top party positions get deposed from those coveted roles. Usually, these internecine bouts of political bloodletting happen when an election has gone poorly and rank-and-file lawmakers want a proverbial head to roll. It's a sign of the unorthodox political times we're in that on Wednesday, we witnessed a rare instance of change in party leadership in the midst of a congressional term. House Republicans voted out Liz Cheney of Wyoming as chair of the House Republican Conference, the No. 3 position in House GOP leadership, over her unwillingness to keep quiet about former President Donald Trump's lies that the 2020 election was stolen. more...
Sophia AnkelTrump allies are growing increasingly concerned about the future after former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's office and apartment were raided by federal agents this week, according to CNN. On Wednesday, Giuliani, who acted as Trump's former attorney, was the target of two raids in which investigators seized several of his electronic devices as well as a computer belonging to his personal assistant. The searches were in connection to a criminal probe into Giuliani's dealings in Ukraine, The New York Times reported. Trump's allies and former members of his inner circle are now reportedly becoming increasingly worried about further raids and upcoming FBI investigations. more...
By Katelyn Polantz and Marshall Cohen, CNN(CNN) Former President Donald Trump's continued promotion of the "big lie" about the 2020 election could still incite his followers to violence, the Justice Department and judges noted repeatedly this week, as courts weigh the future dangerousness of US Capitol riot defendants. Two federal judges this week brought up the disinformation about 2020 from right-wing figures, and even Trump himself, as they considered keeping alleged Capitol rioters in jail before trial. And prosecutors from the Justice Department are arguing more explicitly that violent threats stemming from Trump-backed conspiracy theories are still alive, and that Trump supporters could be called to act again. "It's never too late" for pro-Trump extremist groups like the Proud Boys to mobilize, because the right-wing political climate hasn't shifted much since Trump left office, federal prosecutor Jason McCullough argued at a hearing for one of the accused Proud Boys leaders earlier this week. more...
BY MARIK VON RENNENKAMPFFIt’s official: The Trump campaign colluded with Russia. In an explosive development, the Biden administration confirmed that a Russian government agent with close connections to Donald Trump’s top 2016 campaign official “provided the Russian Intelligence Services with sensitive information on polling and [Trump] campaign strategy.” This revelation demolishes, once and for all, Trump’s ceaseless claims that he was the victim of the “greatest witch hunt in the history of our country.” (Recall that a Trump appointee directed Robert Mueller to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.”) more...
David R. LurieAfter letting its hosts make wildly false claims about how Donald Trump’s political opponents supposedly “stole” the election from him, Fox News is facing potentially catastrophic lawsuits seeking billions in damages from election systems companies Dominion and Smartmatic. That’s why the former president’s personal propaganda network is now trying to raise the shield of legal protections for the press that Trump has spent years smashing. more..
By TARA PALMERI and RACHAEL BADEA slew of well-heeled Republican National Committee donors descended on Palm Beach this weekend, excited to be schmoozed, eager for access to DONALD TRUMP and other potential 2024 nominees, but mostly interested in hearing how far their dollars would go toward winning back the Congress and White House. Trump’s speech didn’t do any of that. “It was horrible, it was long and negative,” one attendee with a donor in the room tells Playbook. “It was dour. He didn’t talk about the positive things that his administration has done.” Instead, Trump used the final night of the retreat to talk about himself, his grievances and how he plans to enact retribution against those who voted to impeach him — which runs counter to the donors’ main objective of making sure their dollars go toward winning overall. more...
The former president spoke at an RNC donor retreat Saturday night.By ALEX ISENSTADTFormer President Donald Trump ripped into Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell before a Republican National Committee donor retreat Saturday evening, deriding him as a “dumb son of a bitch.” Trump veered off his prepared during a roughly 50-minute speech before several hundred well-heeled GOP donors at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida, saying that he was “disappointed” in former Vice President Mike Pence, calling last year's presidential election election a “fraud” and mocking Dr. Anthony Fauci. more...
Republicans do not have an issue with cancel culture when they are the ones using it; remember Freedom fries and what they did to the Dixie chicks. Republicans only hate cancel culture when it is used against them.“The hypocrisy and the doublespeak and the shiny objects and the lying continues,” lamented the CNN anchor.By Lee MoranCNN’s Don Lemon on Tuesday reeled off a long list of things that Donald Trump has attacked or called to be banned or boycotted to show why the former president is the real “king of cancel culture.” Trump this week demanded his supporters boycott companies and organizations — including Coca-Cola and Major League Baseball — for opposing Georgia’s new voting restrictions. Though he frequently echoes the right-wing cry against “cancel culture,” Trump is actually one of its biggest proponents, Lemon pointed out. more...
BY JOSEPH CHOIThe stepsister of Anne Frank said in an interview published Thursday that she believes former President Trump “obviously admired Hitler.” Eva Schloss, 91, co-founder of The Anne Frank Trust UK which seeks to preserve Frank’s memory as well as educate others on the Holocaust, spoke with The Daily Beast reporter Marlow Stern to discuss her history and touched on what she thought of Trump. Stern noted there was a rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes during the Trump administration and that he once praised a group of people that included neo-Nazis as “very fine people.” more...
By Josh Dawsey, Lori Rozsa and David A. FahrentholdOn Thursday night, the Mar-a-Lago Club hosted a dinner for more than 100 people, put on by a conservative activist group, at which its owner, former president Donald Trump, spoke for more than an hour. On Friday, the club was booked again, for a lunch fundraiser to benefit Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). Arkansas gubernatorial candidate Sarah Sanders and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) also have fundraisers scheduled at the club this weekend. And Saturday night, the Republican National Committee has reserved Mar-a-Lago for a 400-person banquet. The price tag for that dinner: more than $100,000, according to a person involved in the planning. The GOP is still Donald Trump’s party. The clearest proof of that: It is still finding ways to pay Donald Trump money. more...
Posted by The HillFormer Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is blaming former President Trump for the deadly Jan. 6 rioting at the U.S. Capitol, saying he riled the crowd to commit violent acts for "selfish" political reasons. “Whatever they end up doing, or not doing, none of it will compare to one of the lowest points of American democracy that we lived through in January 2021," Boehner wrote in a new book set to be published this month, excerpts of which were obtained by The New York Times. The former Speaker also wrote that Trump “incited that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons, perpetuated by the bullshit he’d been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November.” Boehner said it was "painful" for him to watch what unfolded at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and the incident "should have been a wake-up call for a return to Republican sanity.” more...
BY DARRAGH ROCHEAformer adviser to Vice President Mike Pence has said Donald Trump didn't care about people suffering from COVID-19 on board a cruise ship near the start of the pandemic. Olivia Troye, a national security adviser who was on the White House coronavirus task force and was Pence's lead staffer, recalled the events surrounding the Grand Princess in tweets on Wednesday. At least 122 passengers and crew eventually tested positive for COVID, according to The Guardian. Although the outbreak on the ship was announced by Pence on March 6, those on board were not allowed to disembark for three days amid reports that President Trump was unwilling to let the infections add to the total U.S. virus numbers. more...
By Grace PanettaThe National Republican Congressional Committee debuted a bright-yellow pre-checked recurring donation box on its donation page with a startling ultimatum. The message from House Republicans' campaign arm, which on Wednesday caught the eye of many reporters, warns people that if they opt-out of recurring donations and "UNCHECK this box, we'll have to tell Trump you're a DEFECTOR & sided with the Dems." more...
Opinion by Greg SargentPerhaps we should be thankful that Rep. Jody Hice is running to be the new chief of elections in Georgia, with the enthusiastic backing of former president Donald Trump. That’s because the Republican’s candidacy is exposing vile truths about the GOP’s ongoing slide into authoritarianism with dispiriting but useful clarity. We need to retheorize what’s right in front of our noses. Republicans have launched new voter-suppression efforts everywhere, while Democrats are pushing reforms to thwart those tactics and make voting easier. Yet this is often covered as a “partisan” struggle, as if each side were trying to manipulate election rules to its advantage in a manner that was vaguely equivalent. more...
CNN's John Avlon explains how the 2020 Trump campaign made online donations "repeat by default," causing many of his supporters to donate money they did not initially consent to. video...
By Graeme MassieDonald Trump has urged his followers to completely boycott baseball as he admitted he “doesn’t know what the hell he’s watching.” The ex-president said that baseball games are “not appropriate” after MLB ‘s decision to move the All-Star event out of Atlanta in the wake of Georgia ’s new restrictive voting law. “A woke group of people ... and that’s baseball and people are tired of it ... they decided to hurt the people of Georgia by moving it out and it’s just ridiculous,” Mr Trump told Newsmax host Heather Childers. more...
GABRIELLE OLYABeing president comes with perks that extend past your time in the Oval Office, so even though former President Donald Trump is no longer in the White House, he’s still getting benefits courtesy of your taxpayer dollars. Here’s a look at the post-presidential perks taxpayers foot the bill for — plus, other ways Trump is still costing American taxpayers. The Former Presidents Act of 1958, which provides several benefits and perks that are available to presidents after they leave office, entitles former presidents to an annual pension equal to the pay for a cabinet secretary, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. In 2021, that amounts to $221,400. more...
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large(CNN) Donald Trump's presidency is now behind us. But the debate over how bad a president he was has only just begun. A new Pew poll sheds some light on how Trump's presidency currently ranks -- and the returns are not great for the billionaire businessman. A total of 53% of those polled say that Trump was either a "terrible" (41%) or "poor" (12%) president, while 35% call him either "great" (18%) or "good" (17%). As you might expect, how you feel about Trump's presidency is largely dependent on the party with which you identify. Almost 9 in 10 Democrats say Trump was a "terrible" (72%) or "poor" (17%) president. More than 6 in 10 Republicans call Trump a "great" (37%) or "good" (36%) president. While it's a bit early to draw conclusions about Trump's legacy and how history will remember him, this poll is far from the only evidence that suggests that the 45th President may wind up toward the bottom of rankings of the 44 men who have held the office. (Grover Cleveland was both the 22nd and 24th president, and these rankings don't yet count President Joe Biden.) more...
By Celine CastronuovoFormer President Trump ’s 2020 reelection campaign reportedly issued a total of roughly $122 million in refunds to supporters in 2020. The refunds were given, in part, because of a fine-print disclaimer in communications that officials used to continue charging one-time donors or doubling their contribution amounts. A New York Times investigation published Saturday found that starting in September, with only two months to go to before the 2020 presidential election, the Trump campaign allegedly set up weekly recurring donations as the default for online donors. more...
Trump 'money bomb' scheme raised millions from unwitting donors – report
Practice that used pre-checked boxes and obscure design on fundraising emails condemned as ‘unethical and inappropriate’
Martin Pengelly in New YorkDonald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign used pre-checked boxes and obscure design on fundraising emails to wring millions of dollars out of unwitting supporters, detonating a “money bomb” which allowed the Republican to compete against Joe Biden in the last months of the race. The practice, pursued by the campaign and WinRed, a for-profit company, was detailed in an extensive report by the New York Times on Saturday. It is legal, but Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, told the paper it was “unfair, unethical and inappropriate”. Another expert quoted by the Times said such “dark pattern” digital marketing “should be in textbooks of what you shouldn’t do” in politics. more...
Lawsuit seeks damages for ‘physical and emotional injuries caused by Trump’s wrongful conduct inciting a riot’ on 6 JanuaryGuardian staff and agencyTwo US Capitol Police officers have filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, accusing him of inciting the deadly 6 January insurrection and saying he was responsible for physical and emotional injuries they suffered as a result. James Blassingame, a 17-year veteran of the force, and Sidney Hemby, an 11-year veteran, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in US district court for the District of Columbia seeking damages of at least $75,000 each. “This is a complaint for damages by US Capitol Police officers for physical and emotional injuries caused by the defendant Donald Trump’s wrongful conduct inciting a riot on January 6, 2021, by his followers trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election,” the lawsuit said. more...
Kevin ShalveyFormer President Donald Trump doubled down on his criticism of companies that oppose Georgia's new voting law, and widened his appeal for more boycotts. "Never submit, never give up!" Trump said. In a statement, he added that his political opponents — the "Radical Left Democrats" — had long used brand boycotts to send messages. "It is finally time for Republicans and Conservatives to fight back — we have more people than they do — by far! Boycott Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, JPMorgan Chase, ViacomCBS, Citigroup, Cisco, UPS, and Merck. Don't go back to their products until they relent. We can play the game better than them," Trump said. Trump was in opposition to another former president, Barack Obama, who supported Major League Baseball's (MLB) decision to move its 2021 All-Star Game. more...
BY ALEXANDRA HUTZLERWisconsin Governor Tony Evers has called on former President Donald Trump and others to foot the bill for their failed legal challenges to overturn the state's 2020 election results. In motions filed Wednesday by Evers' attorneys, Trump and La Crosse County Republican Party Chairman William Feehan were asked to pay a total of $250,000 for cases brought to federal court in the wake of the presidential contest: $144,000 from Trump and $106,000 from Feehan. The governor's legal team deemed the litigation "meritless" and argued in court documents that it was "built on inscrutable conspiracy theories." more...
NewsbreakA federal judge on Tuesday ruled that a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) that employees on former President Trump ’s 2016 campaign had to sign is unenforceable. U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe, a George W. Bush appointee, found that the language of the far-reaching contract was so vague that it was invalid under New York contract law, Politico reports. “The vagueness and breadth of the provision is such that a Campaign employee would have no way of what may be disclosed, and, accordingly, Campaign employees are not free to speak about anything concerning the Campaign,” Gardephe wrote in his decision. “The non-disclosure provision is thus much broader than what the Campaign asserts is necessary to protect its legitimate interests, and, therefore, is not reasonable.” Gardephe also found fault in the non-disparagement clause of the agreement, Politico reports, writing that the contract showed the Trump campaign did not operate “in good faith.” more...
Distrust, whisper campaigns and a bit of backstabbing are rampant as aides scramble for access and power.By MERIDITH MCGRAW and GABBY ORRJust one month after Donald Trump left the White House, a top donor to his campaign received a call on his personal cellphone from a Republican candidate seeking financial support. The call was unsolicited, according to four people familiar with the situation, and it rubbed the donor, whose friends had received similarly unexpected fundraising pleas, the wrong way. Shortly thereafter, the firm Jones Day, which served as counsel to Trump’s campaign committee, sent out a letter to former staff and consultants, warning them that they risked prosecution if they misused campaign resources. The letter then asked recipients to destroy or return any information they might have taken from the Trump campaign’s vast Rolodex of donor contacts. more...
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