Tag: Doanld Trump

Manafort indicted by Manhattan DA on mortgage fraud charges

The Manhattan District Attorney on Wednesday indicted former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in connection to a mortgage fraud scheme, announcing the charges within minutes of his sentencing in federal court in Washington, D.C.

District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced 16 charges against Manafort, including residential mortgage fraud, attempted mortgage fraud, falsifying business records and conspiracy. Prosecutors said Manafort engaged in the scheme over the course of roughly a year, from December 2015 until January 2017.

The 11-page indictment, filed in New York Supreme Court in New York City, alleges that Manafort falsified business records to obtain millions of dollars in mortgage loans.

View the complete March 13 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

DNC on Trump Administration’s Unconstitutional Contraception Rule

DNC Women’s Media Director Elizabeth Renda released the following statement on the Trump administration’s new rule vastly expanding the number of employers that may refuse to cover workers’ birth control by citing religious or moral objections. The rule, which went into effect this morning, has already been temporarily blocked in 13 states and the District of Columbia by a U.S. district judge. A court in Pennsylvania is also already considering a request for injunction.

“The Trump administration’s new contraception rule is yet another attack on every woman’s right to make decisions about her own body with her doctor. This rule is unconstitutional, immoral, and shameful. This is just the latest move the Trump administration has made to turn its back on women, and it’s just another reason why Democrats are winning women’s votes by historic margins in the Trump era. Every woman deserves the fundamental right to make her own decisions about her reproductive health. Democrats will never stop fighting back against the Trump administration’s and Republicans’ ceaseless efforts to come between women and their doctors.”

As Republicans “hide in the tall grass,” a darkening shadow engulfs Donald Trump’s presidency

The following article by Eric Lutz was posted on the Mic.com website August 22, 2018:

Donald Trump attends a meeting at his New Jersey golf club in August. Credit: Brendan Smialowski, Getty Images

It was one of the most consequential hours of Donald Trump’s presidency.

On Tuesday afternoon, the president’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort was found guilty on eight bank and tax fraud charges stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation — verdicts that could send him to prison for the rest of his life.

Simultaneously in New York, Trump’s former longtime personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight charges — and, perhaps most significantly, implicated his former boss in the process.

View the complete article here.

Controversies pile up for White House, alarming GOP

The following article by Jonathan Easley was posted on the Hill website February 21, 2018:

Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump’s White House is consumed by controversies on several fronts, putting the administration on the defensive at a time when Republicans are increasingly worried about their electoral prospects.

Republicans would be content to spend every day between now and Election Day focused on the GOP’s tax-cut bill and the economy. But those efforts are complicated by the sheer volume of controversies the White House is juggling. Continue reading “Controversies pile up for White House, alarming GOP”

Anyone home in Trumpville?

The following commentary from the Editorial Board at the Washington Post was posted February 20, 2017:

IN NORMAL times, the State Department holds a daily briefing, like the White House, to respond to urgent developments around the globe. But there hasn’t been one in weeks. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is now on his first trip abroad, but no permanent deputy has been nominated. Hard-working government officials are holding down posts in an acting capacity, but hundreds of vital sub-Cabinet appointments have not been made. President Trump boasts of a “fine-tuned machine,” but his government halls are more echo than beehive.

The president is correct that his Cabinet nominees have run into flak from Democrats in the Senate; nine of 15 department secretaries have been confirmed. The situation is much worse when you include those below Cabinet level. Of 549 key appointments, the White House has yet to name 515, according to a tracker by The Post and Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. Only 14 have been confirmed, and 20 are waiting. These key positions are among the roughly 1,200 total that require Senate confirmation and about 4,100 overall that the new administration must fill. Continue reading “Anyone home in Trumpville?”