Tag: Trump corruption

Trump’s Bank Was Subpoenaed by N.Y. Prosecutors in Criminal Inquiry

New York Times logoThe subpoena, sent to Deutsche Bank, suggests that the inquiry into President Trump’s business practices is more wide-ranging than previously known.

The New York prosecutors who are seeking President Trump’s tax records have also subpoenaed his longtime lender, a sign that their criminal investigation into Mr. Trump’s business practices is more wide-ranging than previously known.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office issued the subpoena last year to Deutsche Bank, which has been Mr. Trump’s primary lender since the late 1990s, seeking financial records that he and his company provided to the bank, according to four people familiar with the inquiry.

The criminal investigation initially appeared to be focused on hush-money payments made in 2016 to two women who have said they had affairs with Mr. Trump. Continue reading.

D.A. Is Investigating Trump and His Company Over Fraud, Filing Suggests

New York Times logoThe office of the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., made the disclosure in a new court filing arguing Mr. Trump’s accountants should turn over his tax returns.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office suggested on Monday that it had been investigating President Trump and his company for possible bank and insurance fraud, a significantly broader inquiry than the prosecutors have acknowledged in the past.

The suggestion by the office of the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., came in a new federal court filing arguing that Mr. Trump’s accountants should have to comply with a grand jury subpoena seeking eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns. Mr. Trump has asked a judge to declare the subpoena invalid.

Until now, the district attorney’s inquiry had appeared largely focused on hush-money payments made in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election to two women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump. Continue reading.

Manhattan DA filings indicate Trump is being investigated for possible fraud and ‘protracted criminal conduct’: report

AlterNet logoIn New York City, new court filings by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, according to the New York Times, indicate that President Donald Trump may be under investigation for possible fraud.

According to Times reporters William K. Rashbaum and Benjamin Weiser, the filings indicate a “significantly broader inquiry than the prosecutors have acknowledged in the past.” And in the filings, Vance’s office argues that Trump should have to comply with subpoenas that demanded eight years of the president’s financial and tax documents.

Rashbaum and Weiser explain, “The reports, including investigations into the president’s wealth and an article on the congressional testimony of his former lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, said that the president may have illegally inflated his net worth and the value of his properties to lenders and insurer.” Continue reading.

Government watchdog finds ‘strong indicators of widespread fraud’ in crucial economic recovery program

AlterNet logoAs the coronavirus pandemic rages on, many small businesses in the United States are worried about their survival. But at the same time, there have also been reports of some companies abusing the Paycheck Protection Program — and the office of the Small Business Administration’s inspector general, according to Business Insider’s Graham Rapier, has found likely examples of PPP-related fraud.

Passed by Congress earlier this year as part of the CARES Act, the PPP was designed to make it easier for businesses to keep employees on their payrolls and avoid laying them off. Rapier reports that the IG, in a preliminary review of the PPP, found “strong indicators of widespread fraud.”

“Specifically, its investigation into hundreds of hotline complaints found $250 million in loans and grants to ‘potentially ineligible recipients’ and another $45.6 million in potential double payments,” according to Rapier. “In total, the potential wrongdoing totals less than 1% of the program’s total $520 billion in loans provided to about 5.03 million businesses since March.” Continue reading.

Appeals court will rehear case over Flynn charges

The Hill logoA federal appeals court will revisit an earlier decision ordering a district court judge to allow the Department of Justice (DOJ) to withdraw its criminal charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the earlier decision in a brief order issued on Thursday, setting up a new round of arguments over the DOJ’s controversial move to withdraw its case against Flynn.

The full court will hear oral arguments on Aug. 11. Continue reading.

Trump Appointees Let Aviation Firms Keep Money That Was Supposed To Assist Workers

This spring, as the coronavirus spread and international travel bans grounded flights, Gebrish Weldemariam got a layoff letter from his airline catering job at Dulles International Airport.

He’d been working as a driver making more than $18 per hour for Flying Food Group, ferrying in-flight meals between the company’s kitchen and gated planes waiting on the tarmac. Between overtime at the airport and a part-time job driving buses on the side, Weldemariam felt that times were good. Last fall, with his wife expecting a fourth child, the family bought a house not far from the airport, allowing him to be nearby to help care for his oldest son, who has Down syndrome and needs constant attention.

“I have kids. I have a mortgage. I have two car loans,” Weldemariam said. “That’s why I work hard.” Continue reading.

One moment in Bill Barr’s testimony clearly exposed his complete fealty to Trump’s delusion and lies

AlterNet logoAttorney General Bill Barr finally showed up for his long-scheduled hearing before the House Judiciary Committee and once again proved himself to be Trump’s eager henchman. He didn’t read aloud some of the more incendiary parts of his opening statement (which as Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., observed, “reads like it was written by Alex Jones or Roger Stone”) but for all his braying about “the law” his arrogant attitude and slippery answers left no doubt about where his allegiance lies. Let’s just say Trump doesn’t have to worry about Barr’s loyalty.

The list of Barr’s odious comments is a mile long, starting with his fatuous answers regarding the question of systemic racism in policing. He evidently thinks it’s cute, just as his boss does, to insist that “more white people are shot by police than Black people” when responding to the question of why Black people, who make up only 13 percent of the U.S. population, account for 25 percent of those shot and killed by police since 2015 while “non-Hispanic” whites, who are more than 60 percent of the population, only account for 45 percent. This answer is insulting to the intelligence of the American people.

Barr also obfuscated, dissembled, misled and evaded questions about his interference in cases on behalf of Trump’s cronies, the firing and reassigning of U.S. attorneys working on cases involving the president, the shocking events at Lafayette Square in June and his inconsistency in applying federal laws to benefit the president, while ignoring them when they don’t. As hard as it is to believe, he even took it upon himself to strenuously defend the president’s botched COVID-19 response in great detail, something he could have easily avoided by saying it isn’t his purview.

Trump’s 8 potentially impeachable offenses in the last 6 months

AlterNet logoIt has been almost six months since Senate Republicans refused to hold Trump accountable for the two articles of impeachment referred to them by the House. Senator Susan Collins of Maine didn’t attempt to defend the president’s actions, but instead, claimed that he had learned his lesson.

One month ago, Fred Hiatt set out to determine if there was any evidence that Collins was right. What he found was that Trump had committed four additional offenses that were worthy of an impeachment inquiry. This week, he revisited that list and added three more offenses, with updates to some of the original four. Here’s a summary of all of them.

Article 1: Negligence, leading to the deaths of thousands of Americans, in the handling of the novel coronavirus. Continue reading.

Democrats seek to shame Barr over politics at the Justice Department

Washington Post logoDemocrats clashed with Attorney General William P. Barr on Tuesday at a congressional hearing marked by angry recriminations over racial justice protests in Portland, Ore., and around the country, as the nation’s top law enforcement official said additional agents were needed to subdue aggressive, violent crowds.

The hearing before the House Judiciary Committee was acrimonious from the outset, as liberal lawmakers accused the conservative attorney general of politicizing the Justice Department through his deployment of federal agents to U.S. cities, his involvement in high-profile prosecutions of people connected to President Trump, and his posture toward the upcoming presidential election.<

Lawmakers spent months seeking Barr’s testimony on a host of issues related to the Trump administration’s interactions with the Justice Department. With the attorney general finally seated at the witness table, Democrats mostly made speeches or talked over him as he attempted to answer their questions, seemingly squandering any chance of getting new information or an admission out of him. Continue reading.

Lawsuit alleges Trump campaign, fundraising committee shielded millions in payments

Washington Post logoA legal complaint filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission alleges that the Trump campaign and an affiliated fundraising committee have not properly reported nearly $170 million in campaign spending that was done through firms that paid subcontractors on behalf of the campaign.

The Campaign Legal Center, which advocates for greater regulation of money in politics, alleged in the complaint that payments made by two firms that were set up and run by former campaign manager Brad Parscale should have been reported to the public because the ultimate recipients of the payments effectively worked for the campaign.

Under campaign finance law, campaign committees must publicly disclose the names of firms and people they are paying. These firms are not required to disclose payments they make to others as long as they are not simply acting as a conduit for payments to avoid public disclosure. Continue reading.