The following article by Cody Fenwick was posted on the AlterNet website August 6, 2018:
Tag: corruption
How money flowed through Michael Cohen’s multi-purpose shell company
The following article by Philip Bump was posted on the Washington Post website May 8, 2018:
When Stormy Daniels’s lawyer tweeted out bank records for President Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, a whole new web of connections was unfurled. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
To keep news of a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels quiet, President Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen created a limited liability company in Delaware called Essential Consultants. Cohen said that he paid $130,000 of his own money into a bank account associated with the company and, from that account, transferred the money to Daniels’s attorney at the time, Keith Davidson.
The bank account, it seems, was a little busier than just that. Continue reading “How money flowed through Michael Cohen’s multi-purpose shell company”
The Cost of Corruption: Waste and Abuse in President Trump’s Cabinet
The following article by Sam Berger and Gwen Calais-Haase was posted on the Center for American Progress website January 16, 2018:
Since taking office less than a year ago, President Donald Trump has created the most corrupt administration in modern American history. He has used his position to enrich himself and his family, filled his administration with former industry lobbyists, and sought to prevent an investigation into his shady business practices. The American people have noticed. Not only do most Americans believe President Trump has broken his promise to combat corruption, they also view the Trump administration as the most corruptgovernment institution in the United States.
The corruption is broader than just the President and his family. President Trump has assembled the wealthiest and least experienced Cabinet in recent memory. Unsurprisingly, the president’s senior leadership has taken cues from their boss: While arguing for devastating cuts to services that millions of Americans depend on, several Cabinet members have engaged in extravagant—and at times legally questionable—spending on themselves at the taxpayer’s expense. Public service requires a respect for and responsible stewardship of public resources. But, based on public information to date, the Cabinet has spent nearly $2 million on questionable flights and private office upgrades. For scale, these expenditures are more than 33 times what the average American family earned in 2016. Continue reading “The Cost of Corruption: Waste and Abuse in President Trump’s Cabinet”
These Russian Oligarchs Are Making Donald Trump Rich
The following article by Cristina Maza of Newsweek was posted on the National Memo website November 19, 2017:
During the many government investigations into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential elections, President Donald Trump has insisted he doesn’t have business dealings with Russia.
“I have no loans in Russia. I don’t have any deals in Russia,” the president said in February.
But that doesn’t mean that Russians are investing in Trump. In fact, at least 63 Russian elites and oligarchs have invested around $100 million into Trump-brand real estate in southern Florida, a Reuters investigationrevealed. In the Florida resort town of Sunny Isles Beach, an area with the highest number of Russian-born residents in the U.S., the Trump brand has six residential towers. Continue reading “These Russian Oligarchs Are Making Donald Trump Rich”
Trump’s Business of Corruption
The following article by Adam Davidson was posted on the New Yorker website as part of their August 21, 2017 issue:
What secrets will Mueller find when he investigates the President’s foreign deals?
President Donald Trump’s attorney Jay Sekulow recently told me that the investigation being led by Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed by the Justice Department, should focus on one question: whether there was “coördination between the Russian government and people on the Trump campaign.” Sekulow went on, “I want to be really specific. A real-estate deal would be outside the scope of legitimate inquiry.” If he senses “drift” in Mueller’s investigation, he said, he will warn the special counsel’s office that it is exceeding its mandate. The issue will first be raised “informally,” he noted. But if Mueller and his team persist, Sekulow said, he might lodge a formal objection with the Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, who has the power to dismiss Mueller and end the inquiry. President Trump has been more blunt, hinting to the Times that he might fire Mueller if the investigation looks too closely at his business dealings.
Several news accounts have confirmed that Mueller has indeed begun to examine Trump’s real-estate deals and other business dealings, including some that have no obvious link to Russia. But this is hardly wayward. It would be impossible to gain a full understanding of the various points of contact between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign without scrutinizing many of the deals that Trump has made in the past decade. Trump-branded buildings in Toronto and the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan were developed in association with people who have connections to the Kremlin. Other real-estate partners of the Trump Organization—in Brazil, India, Indonesia, and elsewhere—are now caught up in corruption probes, and, collectively, they suggest that the company had a pattern of working with partners who exploited their proximity to political power. Continue reading “Trump’s Business of Corruption”
The Trump Administration’s Dangerous Indifference to Corruption
The following article by Trevor Sutton was posted on the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s website April 24, 2017:
The Trump administration has already received extensive scrutiny for its unprecedented disregard for long-standing norms on transparency and the avoidance of conflicts of interest—most recently in connection with its refusal to disclose White House visitor logs.1 Yet the questionable ethics of the president and his appointees are only one part of the story of the Republican Party’s hostility to open and accountable government. Since President Donald Trump assumed office, the White House and Republicans in Congress have sent a clear message that the United States has little interest in fighting corruption and promoting good governance beyond America’s borders. This message has taken the form of cuts to foreign aid programs; repeal of transparency requirements for the oil and gas industry; disregard for multilateral anti-corruption initiatives; and open skepticism of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, or FCPA. Cumulatively, these actions constitute a sharp reversal from the policies of previous administrations—one that threatens to sow instability and undermine America’s national security interests across the globe. Continue reading “The Trump Administration’s Dangerous Indifference to Corruption”
Conflicts of DeVos
Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos, and a Pay-to-Play Nomination
The following article by Ulrich Boser, Marcella Bombardieri and CJ Libassi was posted on the Center for American Progress’ website January 12, 2017:
Billionaire activist Betsy DeVos and her family have given a massive $4 million to the Republicans who will decide whether to confirm her as Trump’s secretary of education, according to a new analysis by the authors.
DeVos’ hearing begins this Wednesday, and her family has donated a quarter of a million dollars alone to the members of the education committee who are tasked with vetting her nomination. The DeVos family has given a total of more than $950,000 to 21 senators who will have the opportunity to vote on her confirmation. Continue reading “Conflicts of DeVos”