Trump’s advisers are pushing him to not publicly defend Gaetz: NYT’s Maggie Haberman

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On CNN Wednesday, New York Times reported Maggie Haberman said that former President Donald Trump is being pressed by his aides not to come to the defense of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) amid the scandal surrounding a federal investigation for sex trafficking.

“Congressman Gaetz is a staunch and vocal ally of President Trump,” said anchor Jim Sciutto. “Any sense how this news is being received by the president or people in his orbit?”

“The only other person I can think of that I have seen handled an investigation this way is Donald Trump, under investigation by the Mueller team,” said Haberman. “But he was president. And it’s a little different the protections you have as president, versus anyone else.” Continue reading.

Matt Gaetz’s claim that ‘travel records’ debunk the allegations against him

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“It is a horrible allegation, and it is a lie. The New York Times is running a story that I have traveled with a 17-year-old woman, and that is verifiably false. People can look at my travel records and see that that is not the case.”

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), in an interview on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News, March 30, 2021

“I have not had a relationship with a 17-year-old. That is totally false. … And records will bear that out to be false.”

— Gaetz, in the interview

The Justice Department is investigating Gaetz over an alleged sexual relationship about two years ago with a 17-year-old girl.

Gaetz, 38, has confirmed that he is a subject of the investigation. He denies the allegations and says his family is being blackmailedby a former federal prosecutor seeking $25 million.

The Gaetz investigation was first reported by the New York Times on Tuesday. That night, Gaetz went on Fox News and called the story “verifiably false.” He said “people can look at my travel records and see that that is not the case.” Continue reading.

Ivanka Trump’s flagship policy program slammed by government auditors

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She touted more rigorous standards for women’s empowerment, but USAID delivered the opposite.

The Government Accountability Office has issued a damning report about the implementation of legislation supporting Ivanka Trump’s signature women’s empowerment initiative, from her time as an adviser to her father, President Donald Trump.

As Ivanka Trump traveled the world talking up the whole-of-government Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, deep problems were developing in roll out of the bipartisan Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act of 2018 at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Trump’s stump speech on the global conference circuit was anchored in stories about the legal and regulatory barriers many women face around the world in establishing their property rights and starting businesses, and she had a solution: W-GDP. Continue reading.

Anti-Asian hate crimes heighten calls for new legislation in Minnesota, Congress

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DFL-backed bills seek better hate-crime reporting, police training. 

A troubling rise in anti-Asian incidents reported to Minnesota community groups started a month before COVID-19 appeared in the state last year.

As the pandemic worsened, so did reports to groups like the St. Paul-based Coalition of Asian American Leaders. In one call to the group, a couple said an angry fellow grocery shopper blamed them for the coronavirus and shoved the husband in the parking lot.

“This time it was shoving. What if next time someone wants to run them over with their car?” said Bo Thao-Urabe, the group’s executive director. Continue reading.

Biden’s Big Bet: Tackling Climate Change Will Create Jobs, Not Kill Them

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WASHINGTON — In 2017, as Donald J. Trump was announcing the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, the largest global effort to attack planetary warming, he declared, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”

On Wednesday, President Biden traveled to Pittsburgh to try to make the opposite case: that the workers Mr. Trump was appealing to have more to gain from combating climate change than to lose.

It is going to be a tough bet. To Mr. Biden, a $2 trillion infrastructure plan is about creating union jobs, hundreds of thousands of them, in wind and solar power, electric cars and road- and bridge-building. Even those more basic infrastructure projects would have a climate angle: the new roads and bridges would be built to withstand the high waters and brutal storms of a changing climate.

“I am a union guy. I support unions, unions built the middle class. It is about time you start to get a piece of the action,” Mr. Biden said in Pittsburgh. Continue reading.

Janet Yellen: Climate change poses ‘existential threat’ to financial markets

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The FSOC focused on climate for the first time since Congress established the body in 2010.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday called climate change “an existential threat” and the biggest emerging risk to the health of the U.S. financial system, pledging to marshal regulatory forces to guard against its harmful effects.

Yellen made the promise during her inaugural appearance as the head of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, a panel of top regulators tasked with policing Wall Street behavior that has the potential to crash the entire economy.

The council held its first public meeting under Yellen’s leadership Wednesday and focused on climate for the first time since Congress established the body in 2010. The group includes the heads of the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Continue reading.

N.Y. Seeks Trump Insider’s Records, in Apparent Bid to Gain Cooperation

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State prosecutors in Manhattan subpoenaed the personal bank records of the Trump Organization’s longtime C.F.O. and are scrutinizing gifts he received from the former president.

State prosecutors in Manhattan investigating former President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization have subpoenaed the personal bank records of the company’s chief financial officer and are questioning gifts he and his family received from Mr. Trump, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

In recent weeks, the prosecutors have trained their focus on the executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, in what appears to be a determined effort to gain his cooperation. Mr. Weisselberg, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, has overseen the Trump Organization’s finances for decades and may hold the key to any possible criminal case in New York against the former president and his family business.

Prosecutors working for the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., are examining, among other things, whether Mr. Trump and the company falsely manipulated property values to obtain loans and tax benefits. Continue reading.

Gaetz investigation complicated by overture to his father about ex-FBI agent who went missing

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Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican known for his fierce allegiance to former president Donald Trump, had been under Justice Department investigation for months for a possible sex crime when two men approached his father with a proposal, people familiar with the matter said.

The men had learned of the investigation, they wrote to Don Gaetz, and wanted to offer an opportunity to help his son, the people said. He could give a huge sum of money to fund their effort to locate Robert A. Levinson — the longest-held American hostage in Iran, whose family has said they were told he is dead. If the operation were a success, he would win public favor and help alleviate Matt Gaetz’s legal woes.

But Don Gaetz, a prominent Florida Republican who once led the state Senate, viewed the communication suspiciously, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe a continuing and politically sensitive probe. The investigation into Matt Gaetz’s alleged crime — he is suspected of having sex with a 17-year-old girl, as well as funding her travel — was not public knowledge. Fearing his family was being extorted, Don Gaetz contacted the FBI. Continue reading.

‘Case closed — he did it’: Jim Jordan mocked for proclaiming Matt Gaetz’s innocence

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Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) drew ridicule on Wednesday when he proclaimed that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was innocent of any allegations involving underage sex trafficking.

Jordan, who has long been one of Gaetz’s staunchest congressional allies, told CNN’s Ryan Nobles that “I believe Matt Gaetz” is innocent after it was revealed on Tuesday night that he’s being investigated by the Department of Justice for potentially having an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old.

However, Gaetz may not want Jordan to be the man vouching for him, as the Ohio congressman has been accused by former wrestlers at Ohio State University of covering up sexual abuse by former OSU doctor Richard Strauss during Jordan’s tenure as an OSU wrestling coach. Continue reading.

Gaetz, on the ropes, finds few friends in GOP

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In four years on Capitol Hill, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has experienced a meteoric rise to national prominence — one fueled by a close alliance with former President Trump, a penchant for political theatrics and a no-apologies brand of conservatism that’s made him a darling of the right-wing cable outlets.

Yet this week, facing a federal investigation into allegations of a sexual relationship with an underage girl, Gaetz is finding himself in an unusual spot: on the ropes and virtually alone.

Few of Gaetz’s GOP colleagues are coming to the defense of the third-term Floridian following a New York Times report that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating allegations of sexual misconduct with — and interstate trafficking of — a minor roughly two years ago. And a number of Republicans, while warning against jumping to premature conclusions about Gaetz’s conduct, also suggested they wouldn’t miss him if he were gone. Continue reading.