Tag: Trump corruption

Investigation of Trump Organization now exploring possible criminal conduct, N.Y. attorney general’s office says

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NEW YORK — New York Attorney General Letitia James’s investigation into the Trump Organization is now considered a criminal matter, James’s office said Tuesday night, noting that officials with the former president’s company were recently apprised of the development.

“We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the company is no longer purely civil in nature,” said Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office. “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA. We have no additional comment at this time.”

The attorney general’s notification to the Trump Organization suggested a cooperative relationship has developed between investigators working for James and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., whose office has been heading a criminal probe into the company and its officers since 2018. Both officials are Democrats. A person familiar with the matter, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the district attorney was not specifically mentioned in James’s letter to Trump’s company. Continue reading.

Trump Organization Accused Of Abusing U.K.’s COVID-19 Furlough Program

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The Trump Organization has received up to £575,000 through the U.K. job retention program, with at least £110,000 claimed while the former president was still in office. Critics see this as an abuse of the U.K.’s coronavirus furlough program.

Union officials are calling for an investigation of the scandal by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and have lodged complaints about Trump Turnberry’s “all-out assault on jobs and conditions.”

The former director of the Office of Government Ethics under the Obama and Trump administrations called the Trump Organization “disgraceful” for making U.K. taxpayers “prop up” Trump’s business interests. Continue reading.

Trump White House counsel Donald McGahn expected to answer House committee questions ‘as soon as possible’

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Former Trump White House counsel Donald McGahn is expected to answer questions “as soon as possible” in a closed session with House lawmakers about former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, according to an agreement outlined in court filings Wednesday night.

McGahn will appear before the House Judiciary Committee after House Democrats sued to enforce a 2019 subpoena for his testimony about whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice in Mueller’s Russia investigation.

The agreement, negotiated by President Biden’s Justice Department and House lawyers, is intended to end the long-running litigation over McGahn’s testimony that the Trump administration had blocked. But it leaves unresolved the question of whether a congressional committee can compel the testimony of a close presidential adviser. Continue reading.

‘Justice is coming’: Ex-prosecutor zeroes in on the ‘really good indication’ Trump will face consequences

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A former prosecutor believes there is a good indication former President Donald Trump will be facing consequences for his actions in the very near future. 

According to HuffPost, Glenn Kirschner, who worked as a prosecutor for the District of Columbia’s U.S. attorney’s office for more than 20 years, recently weighed in on the investigation into the former president and a number of his close allies.

While he acknowledged that the wheels of the justice system tend to turn slow, Kirschner noted that there are indications that the case is about to gain momentum. Kirschner, now a legal analyst for MSNBC, discussed Lisa Monaco and her new role as deputy attorney general. Shortly after her confirmation back in April, she began working on the case. Continue reading.

Rudy Giuliani’s ‘hallucinatory’ Ukraine dossier may come back to haunt him: report

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Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani two years ago began pushing an anti-Biden dossier based on purported information he’d gathered from Ukrainian officials — and now it may come back to haunt him legally.

The Daily Beast reports that prosecutors are looking into whether Giuliani’s dossier was part of a paid lobbying campaign by the former New York City mayor done on behalf of former Ukrainian officials.

Giuliani initially pushed the dossier to Trump administration officials during his campaign to oust former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, but officials who spoke with the Daily Beast say that they were deeply unimpressed by its contents. Continue reading.

Now Focus Of Criminal Probes, Trump’s Money Man Said He Leaves ‘Legal Side’ To Others

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NEW YORK — Allen Weisselberg, the financial sentry at the Trump Organization now in the crosshairs of prosecutors diving into Donald Trump’s business dealings, frankly claims he steers clear of the “legal side” of the money flow.

In previously unreported deposition documents obtained by the New York Daily News, Weisselberg, who has micromanaged the organization’s finances for decades, shrugged off interest in or knowledge of the legalities of Trump’s till. “That’s not my thing,” he declared.

It’s very much the thing of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr., who recently used a grand jury subpoena to seize boxes of documents from Weisselberg’s estranged ex-daughter-in-law, and of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who’s doing a civil investigation into Trump’s alleged asset inflation and deflation. Continue reading.

Justice Dept. sues Trump ally Roger Stone for unpaid taxes

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The Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit on Friday against Roger Stone, the longtime GOP political operative and ally to former President Trump, accusing him of owing the government about $2 million in unpaid federal income taxes.

The lawsuit comes nearly four months after Trump pardoned Stone following his conviction on charges of lying to Congress and witness tampering.

In a federal district court in Florida, the Justice Department alleged Friday that Stone and his wife Nydia used a limited liability corporation called Drake Ventures to “receive payments that are payable to Roger Stone personally, pay their personal expenses, shield their assets, and avoid reporting taxable income to the IRS.” Continue reading.

Watchdog group sues DOJ for records to determine if Erik Prince probe was ‘influenced’ by ‘officials seeking to accommodate’ Trump

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A government watchdog organization on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice alleging that the federal executive department violated the government’s public records law and failed to disclose non-exempt documents. 

According to Law & Crime, the documents focused on a probe into whether or not former President Donald Trump and his longtime ally Erik Prince provided false statements during the Russian investigation.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) alleges that “the government had failed to follow the law by not providing responses to its requests for public information concerning the Prince probe and whether it may have been affected by the Blackwater founder’s close ties to the Trump administration.” Continue reading.

Trump official spent millions of taxpayer dollars on legal team to dig up dirt on his own staff: report

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On Thursday, NPR reported that Michael Pack, the appointee of former President Donald Trump to lead the parent agency of Voice of America, spent millions on a team of lawyers hunting for dirt on his own employees.

“Last summer, an appointee of former President Donald Trump was irate because he could not simply fire top executives who had warned him that some of his plans might be illegal,” reported David Folkenflik. “Michael Pack, who was CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media that oversees Voice of America, in August suspended those top executives. He also immediately ordered up an investigation to determine what wrongdoing the executives might have committed.”

“Instead of turning to inspectors general or civil servants to investigate, Pack personally signed a no-bid contract to hire a high-profile law firm with strong Republican ties,” said the report. “The bill — footed by taxpayers — exceeded a million dollars in just the first few months of the contract.” Continue reading.

Trump’s Justice Dept failed to prosecute cabinet members (4 times)

In a normal term, having a cabinet secretary referred to the Justice Department for prosecution would be extraordinary. With Trump, it happened four times.

First, there was Ryan Zinke. Corruption allegations involving Donald Trump’s scandal-plagued Interior secretary were referred to Justice Department prosecutors, but Trump’s DOJ declined to charge the Montana Republican.

Then there was Alex Acosta, Donald Trump’s scandal-plagued Labor secretary, who was also referred to Justice Department prosecutors, only to have Trump’s DOJ decline to charge the Florida Republican, too.

And who can forget Robert Wilkie, Donald Trump’s controversial VA secretary, who was — you guessed it — referred to Justice Department prosecutors, only to have Trump’s DOJ choose not to charge him, either. Continue reading.