Tag: what is Trump hiding?

Trump administration is refusing to turn over details on secret Kushner 2017 meeting in China until after the election: report

AlterNet logoWhile President Trump was on a 12-day tour of Asia back in 2017, there was one meeting that didn’t appear on White House or State Department agendas: it was a meeting with Chinese private equity investors convened by Jared Kushner and U.S. Ambassador Terry Branstad. According to a report from CNBC, the meeting took place during a time when the Kushner family was under fire for pursuing overseas investors while Jared occupied a senior role in the White House.

“A White House official had subsequently confirmed the existence of the meeting to CNBC, but when pressed on attendees, the official would only say no real estate investors were present,” CNBC’s Kayla Tausche writes.

CNBC filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get more information on the meeting, and while the State Department acknowledged the request on December 11, 2017, but said that getting more information would be difficult because of the “unusual circumstances” surrounding the request. Continue reading.

Democrats cite Starr in effort to lift stay in Trump tax returns case

They noted the suit was filed more than six months ago.

House Democrats are asking a judge to end a delay in their suit seeking President Donald Trump’s federal tax returns, citing comments from Kenneth Starr, one of Trump’s defense attorneys in his impeachment trial.

In a court filing released Tuesday evening, lawyers for the House asked District Judge Trevor McFadden to allow the case to proceed, complaining, “this case has been stalled long enough.”

They noted the suit was filed more than six months ago, and expressed concern that time is running short, noting the current session of Congress ends in less than a year. Continue reading.

Capitol Hill ‘furious’ after Trump’s State Department abruptly cancelled briefing ‘required by law’: report

AlterNet logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo is receiving heat after the State Department stood-up Congress one day after damning text messages showed associates of Rudy Giuliani targeted an American ambassador, according to a new report.

“The State Department abruptly canceled a classified congressional briefing Wednesday that was supposed to focus on embassy security, a House aide said, infuriating Capitol Hill staffers seeking answers on alleged Iranian threats to U.S. missions overseas,” Politico reported Wednesday.

“The cancellation also coincides with documents suggesting that associates of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani put the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine under surveillance,” Politico noted. Continue reading.

Impeachment trial security crackdown will limit Capitol press access

Press pens and ‘no walking and talking’ draw criticism from press corps advocates

The Senate sergeant-at-arms and Capitol Police are launching an unprecedented crackdown on the Capitol press corps for the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, following a standoff between the Capitol’s chief security officials, Senate Rules Chairman Roy Blunt and the standing committees of correspondents.

Capitol Police Chief Steven A. Sund and Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael C. Stenger will enact a plan that intends to protect senators and the chamber, but it also suggests that credentialed reporters and photographers whom senators interact with on a daily basis are considered a threat.

Additional security screening and limited movement within the Capitol for reporters are two issues that are drawing criticism from Capitol Hill media. Continue reading.

Former Acting Solicitor General: Trump ‘should have nothing to fear’if he’s innocent — and his refusal to testify ‘speaks volumes’

AlterNet logoIt remains to be seen who will or won’t testify at President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate; former National Security Adviser John Bolton has said that he would testify if subpoenaed. And attorney Neal Katyal, former acting solicitor general in the Obama Administration, has another idea for a witness: Trump himself.

Sunday on Twitter, Trump reiterated his assertion that his impeachment is nothing more than a “witch hunt” carried out by “partisan” Democrats. Trump posted, “Many believe that by the Senate giving credence to a trial based on the no evidence, no crime, read the transcripts, ‘no pressure’ Impeachment Hoax, rather than an outright dismissal, it gives the partisan Democrat Witch Hunt credibility that it otherwise does not have. I agree!”

Katyal, in response, tweeted, “So come and testify and explain why 18 witnesses, many from your own Administration, have testified in Congress and thrown the book at you. So far, the count is 18-0. Your party controls the Senate. If you are innocent, you should have nothing to fear.”  Continue reading.

White House silent as Saudi government reveals Oval Office meeting with Trump and Jared Kushner

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner apparently had a meeting on Monday with Saudi Arabia’s vice minister of defense even though the White House never made any announcement of the meeting.

Writing on Twitter, Saudi defense official Khalid bin Salman revealed that he met with Trump and Kushner “to deliver a message from the Crown Prince, and review aspects of our bilateral cooperation, including efforts to confront regional and international challenges.”

CBS News White House reporter Kathryn Watson says that the meeting with the Saudis “wasn’t on the president’s public schedule yesterday” and wonders, “would we have known about the meeting if the Saudis didn’t promote it?” Continue reading.

White House hiding documents that show officials waved red flags over reasons for withholding Ukraine aid: report

AlterNet logoOn Saturday (December 21), The Daily Beast reported that the White House is blacking out documents that could reveal more about whether low-level officials at the Office of Management and Budget were concerned that President Donald Trump’s scheme to withhold military aid from Ukraine was illegal.

“The administration so far has declined to release copies of its internal communications about this vital issue — the legality of what Trump had ordered,” reported The Beast. “On Friday, in 146 pages of new documents provided to the Center for Public Integrity under a court order, the Justice Department blacked out — for the second time — many of the substantive passages reflecting what key officials at the Pentagon and the Office of Management and Budget said to one another.”

At issue is a federal law known as the Impoundment Control Act. Under this law, the White House must release funds appropriated by Congress, and cannot withhold them without a clear reason under law communicated to Congress. There was a September 30 deadline past which point failure to release any of the funds would be illegal — and while the delay ultimately did not hit that deadline, OMB officials worried that the longer they waited, the more difficult it would be to follow the law. At least two resigned rather than carry out the suspension.

Continue reading

Supreme Court will take up Trump’s broad claims of protection from investigation Add to list

Washington Post logoThe Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether President Trump may shield disclosure of his financial information from congressional committees and a New York prosecutor, raising the prospect of a landmark election-year ruling on a president’s immunity from investigation while he is in office.

Trump asked the court to accept the cases, and they will be heard in March, with a ruling before the court’s session ends in late June. It means that whatever the outcome of Trump’s separate impeachment proceedings, the controversies over investigations into Trump’s conduct will continue into the heart of the presidential election campaign.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and three Democratic-led congressional committees have won lower-court decisions granting them access to a broad range of Trump’s financial records relating to him personally, his family and his businesses. The court on Friday said it would consider all three cases.

Continue reading

Deutsche Bank executive who signed off on Trump loans commits suicide

AlterNet logoThe boss of Donald Trump’s personal banker at Deutsche Bank died by suicide last week on Tuesday.

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1/ Thomas Bowers, a former Deutsche Bank who was the head of the American wealth-management division, killed himself in Malibu, California on Tuesday, November 19th according to the coronor’s initial report.

View the complete November 28 article from the Daily Kos on the AlterNet website here.

CNN attorney accuses DOJ of ‘slow-rolling’ FOIA’d Mueller documents: ‘News delayed is news denied’

AlterNet logoWith President Donald Trump facing an impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House of Representatives because of the Ukraine scandal, the media aren’t focusing on “Russiagate” nearly as much as they were earlier this year. Nonetheless, CNN has continued to pursue sealed records from former special xounsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, and this week, an attorney representing CNN complained that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has yet to hand over all of the records the cable news outlet has requested.

Attorney Charles Tobin, according to Courthouse News, told U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, “News delayed is news denied.” Tobin noted that the first Mueller-related documents the DOJ gave CNN in response to its Freedom of Information Act request were delivered to CNN’s Washington, D.C. office on November 2. But CNN has yet to receive other Mueller-related documents it requested, Tobin complained.

“We are convinced that the government is slow-rolling these documents,” the attorney told Walton.

View the complete November 26 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.