Tag: Trump sleaze

Richard Spencer: I was fired as Navy secretary. Here’s what I’ve learned because of it.

Washington Post logoThe case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was charged with multiple war crimes before being convicted of a single lesser charge earlier this year, was troubling enough before things became even more troubling over the past few weeks. The trail of events that led to me being fired as secretary of the Navy is marked with lessons for me and for the nation.

It is highly irregular for a secretary to become deeply involved in most personnel matters. Normally, military justice works best when senior leadership stays far away. A system that prevents command influence is what separates our armed forces from others. Our system of military justice has helped build the world’s most powerful navy; good leaders get promoted, bad ones get moved out, and criminals are punished.

In combat zones, the stakes are even higher. We train our forces to be both disciplined and lethal. We strive to use proportional force, protect civilians and treat detainees fairly. Ethical conduct is what sets our military apart. I have believed that every day since joining the Marine Corps in 1976.

View the complete November 27 commentary by former Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer on The Washington Post website here.

Trump tax records reveal new inconsistencies — this time for Trump Tower

AlterNet logoDocuments show the president’s company reported different numbers — higher ones to lenders, lower ones to tax officials — for Trump’s signature building. Last month, ProPublica revealed a similar pattern in two other Trump buildings.

Donald Trump’s business reported conflicting information about a key metric to New York City property tax officials and a lender who arranged financing for his signature building, Trump Tower in Manhattan, according to tax and loan documents obtained by ProPublica. The findings add a third major Trump property to two for which ProPublica revealed similar discrepancies last month.

In the latest case, the occupancy rate of the Trump Tower’s commercial space was listed, over three consecutive years, as 11, 16 and 16 percentage points higher in filings to a lender than in reports to city tax officials, records show.

View the complete November 27 article by Heather Vogell from ProPublica on the AlterNet website here.

Giuliani was in talks to be paid by Ukraine’s top prosecutor as they together sought damaging information on Democrats

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, negotiated this year to represent Ukraine’s top prosecutor for at least $200,000 during the same months that Giuliani was working with the prosecutor to dig up dirt on former vice president Joe Biden, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The people said that Giuliani began negotiations with Ukraine’s top prosecutor, Yuri Lutsenko, about a possible agreement in February. In the agreement, Giuliani’s company would receive payment to represent Lutsenko as the Ukrainian sought to recover assets he believed had been stolen from the government in Kyiv, those familiar with the discussions said.

The talks occurred as Giuliani met with Lutsenko in New York in January and then in Warsaw in February while he was also gathering information from Lutsenko on two topics Giuliani believed could prove useful to Trump: the involvement of Biden and his son Hunter Biden in Ukraine, and allegations that Ukraine, not Russia, had interfered in the 2016 election.

View the complete November 27 article by Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger and Matt Zapotosky on The Washington Post website here.

Trump Attacks Yovanovitch Over Failure To Display His Portrait (Not Her Fault)

Donald Trump’s latest reasons for firing Marie Yovanovitch as ambassador to Ukraine: She was an “Obama person” who refused to hang Trump’s portrait in the U.S. Embassy. That’s false on both counts.

Trump’s pique about not having his picture displayed in a timely way — actually the fault of his administration, not the ambassador — came during a week of unfounded or distorted statements by the president about the impeachment inquiry and the political favor he sought from Ukraine.

“This ambassador that everybody says is so wonderful, she wouldn’t hang my picture in the embassy. OK? She’s in charge of the embassy. She wouldn’t hang it,” Trump said in a Fox News interview Friday. “It took like a year and a half or two years for her to get the picture up.”

View the complete November 25 article from the Associated Press on the National Memo website here.

Senate Impeachment ‘Jurors’ Dining With Trump

Many Senate Republicans have dodged questions about the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, saying that they are staying neutral because they will likely be “jurors” in any impeachment trial.

But according to a Politico report on Thursday, Trump has been hosting many of these same prospective “jurors” for a series of group lunches, part of an “intense outreach” in advance of possible impeachment.

With a public that narrowly approves of the inquiry into Trump’s potentially illegal behavior and a GOP base that strongly opposes it, several Republican senators have punted on questions, noting that they might have to be impartial jurors.

View the complete November 22 article by Josh Israel on the National Memo website here.

R.N.C. Spent Nearly $100,000 on Copies of Donald Trump Jr.’s Book

New York Times logo“Triggered,” published Nov. 5, topped the best-seller list thanks in part to a big order from the Republican National Committee.

When Donald Trump Jr.’s new book “Triggered” appeared at the top of the New York Times best-seller list this month, a debate erupted over how and why it had claimed the No. 1 spot.

The book, a broad attack on his critics, Democrats and the news media, was published on Nov. 5. The following week, it topped the list. But some skeptics noted that Mr. Trump had gotten a boost from his father’s Twitter feed and from the Republican National Committee, which emailed supporters the day the book came out, asking them to purchase signed copies and touting it as the book the “left doesn’t want you to read.”

Others noted a tiny dagger symbol that appeared next to the title on the list, indicating that bulk purchases of the book had boosted its ranking. (Of the 10 nonfiction hardcover titles currently on The Times’s best-seller list, “Triggered” is the only one featuring that symbol.) Some of Mr. Trump’s supporters pushed back on social media and anonymously to Fox News, saying that even without bulk sales, “Triggered” would still top the list.

View the complete November 21 article by Alexandra Alter and Nicholas Confessore on The New York Times website here.

‘I get no lawyer’: Trump goes into full meltdown mode — falsely claims open impeachment inquiry hearings are a ‘trial’

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump is in full meltdown mode. Thursday morning the man purported to be the leader of the free world, the post powerful person to hold elected office in this country, tweeted witness testimony in the House open impeachment inquiry hearings slated to begin next week are a “trial.”

They are not.

The trial takes place in the Senate, assuming the House passes articles of impeachment and Majority Leader Mitch MCConnell allows the Senate trial to proceed.

View the complete November 7 article by David Badash from The New Civil Rights Movement on the AlterNet website here.

4 big takeaways from Bill Taylor’s full transcript

Washington Post logoHouse Democrats on Wednesday released the impeachment inquiry’s full testimony of the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, William B. Taylor.

We already knew Taylor was the first U.S. official to indicate that an explicit quid pro quowas communicated to top Ukrainian officials, based upon his publicly released opening statement. That claim that has since been confirmed by White House aide Tim Morrison and European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland, who personally conveyed the quid pro quo.

Below are some takeaways from Taylor’s full testimony.

View the complete November 6 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.

Reporter corners GOP’s Jim Jordan after he says Trump’s word is sufficient evidence of no quid pro quo

AlterNet logoRep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) insisted on Wednesday that he takes Donald Trump’s word over the word of four other witnesses who indicated that the president pushed Ukraine for a quid pro quo in order to receive promised aid.

While speaking to reporters at the U.S. Capitol, Jordan was asked how he weighs the words of different witnesses with regard to Ukraine.

“If one witnesses says there’s no quid pro quo but multiple others say there is, what do you do with that?” the reporter wondered.

View the complete November 6 article by David Edwards from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Most Republicans on impeachment committees aren’t showing up, transcripts reveal

Freedom Caucus members have taken lead role in questioning, foreshadowing public hearings

Republicans have for weeks blasted the closed-door impeachment process, but transcripts released this week of private depositions show most GOP lawmakers on the three panels at the center of the probe have simply not shown up.

The low attendance for most committee Republicans paints a very different picture of a party that recently stormed the secure room where the depositions have been conducted, demanding to participate in the process. Republican questioning during these private interviews have been driven by a handful of President Donald Trump’s allies and GOP staff.

Conservative Republicans, many closely tied to Trump from the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, have led the GOP questioning, a preview of the coming tumultuous public impeachment process. What is unclear is what role, if any, other Republicans will play.

View the complete November 5 article by Michael Macagnone and Patrick Kelley on The Roll Call website here.