Tag: Donald Trump

Trump went to the border to attack Biden — but he mainly talked about himself

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PHARR, Tex. — Former president Donald Trump traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border here Wednesday for a trip billed as an opportunity to assail President Biden on immigration — an issue core to Trump’s political identity and one Republicans view as a weakness for Democrats.

But Trump often got sidetracked from the day’s message, instead launching into grievance-filled rants.

He tried to re-litigate the results of the 2020 election. He questioned whether Biden would pass the mental acuity test that he has often used to boast about his own mental fitness. Continue reading.

U.S. arrests more than a dozen in Capitol riot, among the most made public in a single day

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More than a dozen arrests in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot were announced or unsealed Wednesday, revealing charges against alleged supporters of extremist right-wing groups including the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and “boogaloo boys” movement, and individuals accused of attacking the property of news media.

The arrests ranked among the most made public in a single day and came as an alleged Oath Keepers member reached an unexpected plea deal with prosecutors in the largest conspiracy case brought against those accused of obstructing Congress as it met to confirm the 2020 election results.

Mark Grods, 54, of Mobile, Ala., became the second from the anti-government group publicly to flip in the 16-defendant conspiracy case and cooperate with prosecutors in the latest sign of movement in the investigation. Continue reading.

How Trump paying Cohen and Weisselberg’s legal fees could lead to extortion problems: reporter

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Legendary reporter and Trump foe Kurt Eichenwald noted that one of the biggest mistakes Donald Trump made with Michael Cohen could come back to bite him.

When Cohen was first indicted, he recalls the Trump family wrapping their arms around him. He was promised that all of his legal fees would be taken care of. “You are family,” he was told. But after a while, Cohen realized it would come down to him or Trump and he abandoned the president. That’s when Trump stopped paying his legal fees. 

As Eichenwald explained, if Trump does the same thing with Weisselberg, it could add an extortion charge to Trump. Continue reading.

Homeland Security Watchdog Delayed Inquiry, Complaint Says

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The department’s inspector general delayed looking into a retaliation complaint by a former intelligence chief until after the 2020 election, according to officials and a whistle-blower.

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general blocked an inquiry into whether senior agency officials demoted an employee who criticized the Trump administration, according to people familiar with the matter and a whistle-blower complaint obtained by The New York Times.

The inspector general, Joseph V. Cuffari, ignored recommendations from his investigators and delayed the inquiry until after the 2020 election, according to officials familiar with the matter and a whistle-blower complaint filed in April.

At issue was whether Brian Murphy, a former intelligence chief at the department, was demoted by its leadership last summer for warning his superiors and Mr. Cuffari’s office that the Trump administration had deliberately withheld reports about the rising threat of domestic extremism — a warning that proved prescient after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 — and Russia’s attempts to influence the election. Continue reading.

Prosecutors allege a 15-year tax fraud scheme as the Trump Organization and CFO Allen Weisselberg are arraigned on multiple criminal charges

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NEW YORK — Prosecutors charged former president Donald Trump’s business with a 15-year “scheme to defraud” the government and charged its chief financial officer with grand larceny and tax fraud in a Manhattan courtroom Thursday, describing what they said was a wide-ranging effort to hide income from tax authorities.

In charging papers, prosecutors alleged that the Trump Organization effectively kept two sets of books. In one — for internal use — it carefully tallied the value of benefits given to executives as part of their compensation: apartments, cars, furniture, tuition payments, even money for holiday gifts.

But in the documents that the Trump Organization sent to tax authorities, prosecutors said, those benefits were omitted. Prosecutors said the result was that the Trump Organization and its executives avoided taxes on their full compensation: CFO Allen Weisselberg, they said, avoided paying more than $900,000. Continue reading.

Trump Organization Is Charged With Running 15-Year Employee Tax Scheme

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The company was accused of helping its executives evade taxes on compensation by hiding luxury perks and bonuses.

The Trump Organization, the real estate business that catapulted Donald J. Trump to tabloid fame, television riches and ultimately the White House, was charged Thursday with running a 15-year scheme to help its executives evade taxes by compensating them with fringe benefits that were hidden from the authorities.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which has been conducting the investigation alongside the New York attorney general, also accused a top executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, of avoiding taxes on $1.7 million in perks that should have been reported as income. Mr. Weisselberg, Mr. Trump’s long-serving and trusted chief financial officer, faced grand larceny, tax fraud and other charges.

“To put it bluntly, this was a sweeping and audacious illegal payments scheme,” Carey Dunne, general counsel for the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., said during an arraignment in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. Continue reading.

Trump exec Weisselberg pleads not guilty to fraud, conspiracy charges

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New York City prosecutors on Thursday charged the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, with various fraud and conspiracy charges.

Weisselberg, who turned himself in earlier Thursday morning, pleaded not guilty to all 15 charges, which include tax fraud, conspiracy, grand larceny and falsifying business records. He and the Trump Organization have denied wrongdoing.

In an indictment that was unsealed Thursday afternoon, prosecutors alleged that Weisselberg helped orchestrate a scheme to compensate himself and “other Trump Organization executives” with unreported income. Continue reading.

House approves select committee to investigate Jan. 6 Capitol riot

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The House voted 222-190 on Wednesday to create a select committee to investigate the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Why it matters: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi moved forward with the creation of a committee controlled by Democrats after Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would have established a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to probe the Jan. 6 attack.

  • Only two House Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) voted for the select committee, whereas 35 Republicans had previously voted for the bipartisan commission. Continue reading.

Historians give Trump brutal grades in new survey — and rank him worse than the president who died after a month

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C-SPAN on Wednesday released its latest rankings of American presidents as determined by dozens of prominent historians — and it revealed some very unwelcome news for former President Donald Trump.

Overall, historians ranked Trump as the fourth-worst president ever, coming in one spot below former President William Henry Harrison, who died after just one month in office.

The only presidents on the list to rank worse than Trump were Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan. Continue reading.

Disillusioned MAGA rioter demands Trump pay his legal fees: ‘This all happened because of you!’

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A man arrested this week for participating in the January 6th riots at the United States Capitol building demanded that former President Donald Trump pay his legal bills.

As reported by Reuters legal affairs journalist Jan Wolfe, MAGA rioter Zvonimir Jurlina was arrested in Austin, Texas this week and charged with inciting violence against members of the media who were covering the rioting Trump supporters and with encouraging the theft of media equipment.

In a video posted shortly after his court appearance Jurlina complained about being a “political prisoner” who was being persecuted for being a “patriot.” Continue reading.