Tag: Trump criminal investigations

House Intelligence Committee to subpoena Trump associate Felix Sater

The Hill logoThe House Intelligence Committee says it will issue a subpoena for President Trump’s onetime business associate Felix Sater after he did not show up to testify behind closed doors before the panel on Friday.

“The Committee had scheduled a voluntary staff-level interview with Mr. Sater, but he did not show up this morning as agreed. As a result, the Committee is issuing a subpoena to compel his testimony,” committee spokesman Patrick Boland said in a statement Friday morning.

The committee, led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), had requested Sater’s testimony as part of its investigation into Russian interference and Trump’s business dealings with Russia and other foreign entities.

View the complete June 21 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

‘It’s a fascist statement!’ Trump totally freaks out about Nancy Pelosi saying he committed crimes

President Donald Trump accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of making a “fascist statement” during a Fox & Friends interview on Friday morning.

After being shown a clip of Pelosi saying that she believed Trump engaged in a “criminal coverup,” the president exploded with rage.

“It’s a fascist statement, it’s a disgraceful statement!” he shouted. “I call her Nervous Nancy, she’s a nervous wreck. For her to make that statement, it’s outrageous!”

View the complete June 14 article on the AlterNet website here.

Why Marsha Blackburn fell on a grenade for Donald Trump

At least a dozen Republican congressional campaigns used materials stolen from Democrats by Russian hackers during the 2016 election. Several other Republican campaigns received millions in contributions from an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2018, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called on the National Republican Congressional Committee to make a bipartisan pledge not to utilize stolen or hacked information in House elections. After months of negotiations, in September of 2018, House Republicans backed out and refused to sign the pledge. These are just some of the often-overlooked reasons why Republicans have been so reluctant to criticize President Trump’s willingness to accept “dirt” on an opposing candidate from a foreign government.

One day after Trump told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he wouldn’t necessarily go to the FBI in the event his re-election campaign is contacted by foreign groups, Senate Republicans killed legislation to safeguard American democracy from foreign interference.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., failed in his attempt to unanimously pass a bill that would require candidates to report election assistance offered by foreign governments to federal officials. Under Warner’s Foreign Influence Reporting in Elections (FIRE) Act, campaigns would have to report contacts with foreign nationals who are trying to make campaign donations or coordinate with the campaign to the Federal Election Commission, which would then notify the FBI. It’s already illegal for electoral campaigns to knowingly accept help from a foreign entity or power.

View the complete June 14 article by Sophia Tesfaye from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

‘Follow the money’: Nancy Pelosi lays out the source of all Trump family scandals

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) harkened back to the Watergate scandal in her weekly press conference Thursday and instructed the press to “follow the money.”

When speaking about the mounting scandals facing President Donald Trump and his White House, she said that Americans should all be concerned and disgusted by the president’s statements in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.

“Everybody in the country should be totally appalled by what the president said last night,” she said. “Should be totally appalled. He has a habit of making appalling statements. This one borders on so totally unethical but he doesn’t even realize it.”

View the complete June 13 article by Sarah K. Burris from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

House Majority Leader threatening to hold all Trump allies who defy subpoenas in contempt of Congress: ‘This is a huge cover-up’

Although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to voice her opposition to impeaching President Donald Trump — much to the chagrin of pro-impeachment House Democrats — she is very much in favor of aggressive House investigations of the president. And House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is threatening to hold all Trump officials who have defied House subpoenas in contempt of Congress next week.

One of the people in danger of being held in contempt of Congress is former White House Communications Hope Hicks, who the Trump White House has ordered to defy a House Judiciary Committee subpoena. Hicks, however, has expressed some willingness to cooperate with the Committee and has already provided some of the documents that Rep. Jerry Nadler (chairman of the Committee) has requested. Nadler has described Hicks’ actions as an act of “good faith” and indicated that he will continue to negotiate with her as well as with Annie Donaldson, a top aide to former White House Counsel Don McGahn and another recipient of a House subpoena.

Hoyer, speaking to reporters this week, said of Hicks and other Trump allies who might defy subpoenas, “This is the way to enforce the subpoena and to compel witnesses to testify that we have a constitutional responsibility — not just authority, but a constitutional responsibility — to get information on the operations of the people’s government that the American people should have. And if the administration and the president take the position, ‘We’re not going to cooperate,’ that’s untenable and unacceptable. And we’re going to move forward to try to enforce that, and this is the first but important step.”

View the complete June 5 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.