Trump scandels and controversies

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On Friday, The New York Times reported that Cohen recorded a conversation with Trump just two months ahead of the 2016 election in which they discussed payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal. That recording was among several the FBI seized in April when it raided Cohen's properties. Meanwhile, the tape seemed to contradict the Trump campaign's past denial of any knowledge of such payments to McDougal.

In a payment that Cohen helped negotiate, the National Enquirer purchased McDougal's story of an affair with Trump for $150,000 in August 2016. But the outlet never published the piece. That practice is known as "catch and kill," and it effectively silenced McDougal's allegations. Federal investigators had sought documents in the Cohen raids related to that payment and similar payments to other women.

David Pecker, the head of American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer, is a longtime friend of both Trump and Cohen. Citing a person familiar with the recording, The Washington Post reported Friday that in it, Cohen and Trump discussed a plan to purchase the rights to McDougal's story from Pecker's company for about $150,000.

Ken White, a criminal-defense attorney, told Business Insider that the tape "could move Trump closer to danger." "Suddenly we're not talking about whether Cohen flips and whether his testimony should be believed," White said. "Suddenly we have recorded words from Trump's own mouth about his knowledge of and participation in the hush money payments. If the discussion includes anything about doing the payments, or recording the payments, in a way that defrauds a bank or violates campaign finance law, we're off to the races."

Legal experts say Michael Cohen secretly recording Trump is bad news for him - Business Insider

• At the minimum, Trump can no longer deny that he had no knowledge of the payments.
  
• This is a possible violation of election campaign finance laws.
  
• It's also curious why Cohen taped his client in the first place, perhaps he felt it necessary to have some kind of insurance policy.
  

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Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) on Sunday dismissed President Trump's claim that he hasn't visited U.S. troops overseas because of a "busy schedule." Beyer noted in a tweet that Trump has frequently spent time as president golfing and visiting his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. "Asked by Chris Wallace why he has has not visited American troops stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan since he took office, Trump cites his 'unbelievably busy schedule.' So far he has spent 1 of every 4 days golfing, and 2-3 months at Mar-a-Lago," Beyer, whose father was an Army lieutenant colonel, wrote.

Dem rep dismisses Trump’s excuse of ‘unbelievably busy schedule’ for not visiting troops | TheHill

Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling said Sunday that President Trump's attacks against the former Navy SEAL who oversaw the operation that killed Osama bin Laden were "disgusting." “I’d use one word. And that’s 'disgusting,'" Hertling said on CNN when asked about his reaction to Trump's criticism of retired Adm. William McRaven.  "You know everyone knows Bill McRaven as being the guy that led the bin Laden raid. I know him as the guy as the joint special operations commander in Iraq, and there were multiple missions where this guy placed himself in danger, led soldiers in some of the most challenging situations you can imagine." Hertling, who served with McRaven in Europe and Iraq, added that to have someone "that holds an office that’s supposed to represent all people and who says he supports the military, to just dismiss this great American hero as a guy who was a Hillary Clinton lover, which is patently not true, is just really disgusting."

Retired lieutenant general tears into Trump over attacks against Navy SEAL: 'Disgusting' | TheHill

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Amazing and entirely predictable at the same time..

Donald Trump is poised to start withdrawing troops from the US-Mexico border as early as this week, according to a report that prompted instant criticism that their deployment was a political stunt. The US president spent the final weeks of the midterms election campaign whipping up fears of a migrant caravan travelling through Mexico towards the border. He sent in around 5,900 troops to prevent the “invasion” but, once polls closed, talked far less about the issue. On Monday the Politico website reported that the Pentagon is planning to begin a drawdown of the troops.

Trump ready to begin drawdown of troops at US-Mexico border | US news | The Guardian

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So when lobbyists representing the Saudi government paid for an estimated 500 nights at Trump’s Washington DC hotel within a month of his election, and the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, rented so many rooms at the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan that its revenues rose in 2018 after years of decline, Trump saw it as half of a private transaction.

The other half: Trump would continually go to bat for Saudi Arabia and the crown prince, even after the Senate passed a resolution blaming him for the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. “Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40m, $50m,” Trump told a crowd at an Alabama rally in August 2015. “Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”

Ethics shmethics. Without a public interest, no deals can be ethical violations. All are just private transactions.
When someone donated $1m to Trump’s inaugural committee and subsequently received a $5bn loan from the energy department, what’s the problem? Both parties got what they wanted. (Federal prosecutors are now investigating this.)

When Trump aide and former Fox News executive Bill Shine continues to rake in millions each year from Fox News, and Fox News continues to give Trump the positive coverage he wants, why worry? It’s a good deal for both sides..

In Trump's mind, all deals are private. 'Public interest' means nothing to him | Robert Reich | Opinion | The Guardian

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Underwood's lawsuit, filed in June, alleged that Trump used the charity for political and personal gain. Underwood said the investigation she opened against the foundation in 2016 revealed the charity “was little more than a checkbook for payments to not-for-profits from Mr. Trump or the Trump Organization.” “This resulted in multiple violations of state and federal law because payments were made using Foundation money regardless of the purpose of the payment,” she argued in the court filing. “Mr. Trump used charitable assets to pay off the legal obligations of entities he controlled, to promote Trump hotels, to purchase personal items, and to support his presidential election campaign.”

Trump charity agrees to dissolve amid allegations of a 'shocking pattern of illegality' | TheHill

Let this sink in for a moment:

• Remember all off the noise (without any evidence) Republicans and their media made about the Clinton Foundation? Not a peep now..
  
• The Trumps have now closed down the Trump Foundation.
  

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Reports this weekend said the FBI and authorities in New Jersey are investigating whether management at Trump’s New Jersey golf club actually provided immigrants employed with fake documents to make it seem as if they had legal employment status when they did not. The Washington Post interviewed a lawyer for two women who worked at the Bedminster golf resort. The attorney said he met with investigators from the state attorney general’s office and handed over fraudulent green cards and Social Security numbers that club management gave to his clients. The story was first reported on Saturday by the New York Daily News..

Fake green cards, Social Security numbers allegedly given to workers at Trump golf resort – ThinkProgress

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But when we look back now and recall that there was actually a vigorous debate in the media in 2016 about whether not Donald Trump but Hillary Clinton was too corrupt to be president, the mind boggles. That's because, as I've argued repeatedly for some time now, even as he ran for president it was obvious that Trump was not simply someone who ignored some inconvenient rules or regularly stretched the truth in his life's work of self-promotion. No, he may well be the single-most corrupt major business figure in America. Not so much because of the scale of his corruption—there are Wall Street bankers who pulled scams with bigger dollar amounts—but because of its variety, its sheer depravity, and the way it was woven into everything Trump did.

Whether it was scamming struggling people out of their money with Trump University, lending his name to pyramid schemes, refusing to pay vendors, exploiting foreign workers, using illegal labor, doing business with the mob, or building properties that for some mysterious reason became the go-to vehicle for Russian oligarchs and mobsters to launder their money, Trump's corruption is so comprehensive and widespread that it's difficult to imagine him in his pre-presidential life getting through a single day without pulling a con on somebody. And nearly two years into his presidency, we're still learning more about his unethical behavior and, yes, even crimes..

The First Family of Fraud

And it reminds us of the swiftboating of John Kelly, a genuine war hero who's advantage on his war record was turned into a disadvantage against a candidate who managed to evade front-line service.

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President Trump’s inaugural committee received a sweeping subpoena from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York — meaning criminal investigations into the inauguration’s money are heating up.
The scope of documents requested in the subpoena and potential crimes investigators are probing are both remarkable — investigating everything from false statements to money laundering. Investigators are said to be interested in the inaugural committee’s spending, its donations, whether any donations came from illegal foreign sources, and potential corruption involving favors for donors. Since last year, there have been reports that special counsel Robert Mueller was investigating potential foreign donations to the inaugural committee. But in December, news broke that federal prosecutors in New York were overseeing a broader probe into the inauguration and its money.

Trump inaugural committee subpoenaed: what we know about the investigation - Vox

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• Trump made promises to the reluctant Deutsche bond salesmen tasked with raising buyers for Trump's bonds. Trump reportedly said: "If you get this done, you'll all be my guests at Mar-a-Lago," his private club in Florida. Trump flew about 15 salesmen to the resort on his private plane. A year later, in 2004, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts defaulted on the bonds.
  
• He filed a lawsuit against the bank in 2008, days before part of a loan used to build Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago was due, claiming the financial collapse that year was an act of God.
  
• Trump borrowed money from one part of the Deutsche Bank to pay off a loan from another, in what the Times called "an extraordinary act of financial chutzpah."
  
• "Deutsche Bank's leaders repeatedly saw red flags surrounding Mr. Trump," the Times said.
  

Trump-Deutsche Bank loans; Mar-a-Lago promise before bond default - Business Insider

Lots more highlights in that article..

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Since 2016, of course, concern for corruption has been riveted on the sleaze show that is the Trump administration. As the New York Times revealed last fall in a remarkable investigative report, US President Donald Trump's life since boyhood has rested on assorted frauds, tax scams, and shady business dealings, and his recent conduct suggests high office did not alter the family's modus operandi. Since becoming president, Trump has breezily ignored the emoluments clause of the Constitution, handed taxpayers amultimillion-dollar bill for his frequent trips to his own properties, appointed his daughter and son-in-law to sensitive positions for which they are manifestly unqualified, andsurrounded himself with a host of shady characters.

Former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and several other campaign advisors has been convicted of fraud or other crimes, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has been convicted of lying to the FBI, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke both resigned over ethics violations. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta is under fire for the plea deal he gave the wealthy and well-connected accused sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein back when Acosta was a US attorney in Florida, and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross continues to serve despite serious conflicts of interest.

Instead of fulfilling his campaign promise to "drain the swamp," Trump dug it wider and filled it deeper. Small wonder that the United States has fallen out of the ranks of the top 20 "least corrupt" nations—according to the watchdog group Transparency International—and is now considered a "country to watch" by that nonpartisan organization.

Scandals show US is a lot more corrupt than Americans realize - Business Insider