Tag: federal investigation

Federal grand jury investigating former RNC finance chair and major Trump donor for inaugural violations

AlterNet logoA federal grand jury is investigating whether former Republican National Committee finial official and top GOP donor Elliott Broidy violated federal law by using his position on Donald Trump’s inaugural committee to secure business deals with foreign leaders, according to the Associated Press.

The AP reports that the U.S> Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn sent a “wide-ranging subpoena” to Trump’s inaugural committee in search of financial records corresponding to 20 different people and business entities.  Every one of them has something in common: Broidy.  Federal investigators are examining whether Broider traded things like access to Trump in order to secure business contracts for his global security firm Circinus, thereby violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.  Broidy’s attorneys maintain that their client did nothing wrong.

The Brooklyn investigation into Broidy seems to be taking place alongside a separate probe in Manhattan examining whether foreign entities unlawfully contributed money to the record-setting $107 million inaugural fund.

View the complete July 8 article by Kerry Eleveld from Daily Kos on the AlterNet website here.

Trump’s allies worry that federal investigators may have seized recordings made by his attorney

The following article by Ashley Parker, Carol D. Leonnig, Josh Dawsey and Tom Hamburger was posted on the Washington Post website April 12, 2018:

President Trump’s personal attorney Michael D. Cohen sometimes taped conversations with associates, according to three people familiar with his practice, and allies of the president are worried that the recordings were seized by federal investigators in a raid of Cohen’s office and residences this week.

Cohen, who served for a decade as a lawyer at the Trump Organization and is a close confidant of Trump’s, was known to store the conversations using digital files and then replay them for colleagues, according to people who have interacted with him. Continue reading “Trump’s allies worry that federal investigators may have seized recordings made by his attorney”

‘A bomb on Trump’s front porch’: FBI’s Cohen raids hit home for the president

The following article by Philip Rucker, Josh Dawsey and Robert Costa was posted on the Washington Post website April 9, 2018:

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal attorney, is under federal investigation. The Washington Post’s Tom Hamburger explains what you need to know. (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

President Trump has howled in all caps for nearly a year as the Justice Department has delved deeper and deeper into his orbit. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III indicted his former campaign chairman. Then he secured a guilty plea from his former national security adviser. All the while, Mueller and his investigators have spent hours questioning White House officials about whether the president had sought to obstruct justice.

But the FBI’s seizure on Monday of privileged communications between Trump and his private lawyer, Michael D. Cohen — as well as documents related to a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, the adult-film actress who has alleged a sexual affair with Trump — was a particularly extraordinary move that opens a whole new front in the converging legal battles ensnaring the administration. Continue reading “‘A bomb on Trump’s front porch’: FBI’s Cohen raids hit home for the president”

Kellyanne Conway Under Federal Investigation After Ethics Complaint

The following article by Mary Papenfuss was posted on the Huffington Post website November 30, 2017:

Conway slammed Alabama Senate candidate Doug Jones on national TV in violation of the Hatch Act, document argues.

Federal officials have opened an investigation into activities by senior White House counselor Kellyanne Conway following a complaint that she violated ethics laws.

The probe aims to determine if Conway broke the law when she slammed Democrat Doug Jones — who is battling Republican Roy Moore to become Alabama’s next senator — on national TV. Continue reading “Kellyanne Conway Under Federal Investigation After Ethics Complaint”