Tag: Trump family corruption

Republican senators urge Trump to dodge pardon controversies

The Hill logo

Republican senators say President Trump should proceed cautiously in granting pardons during his final weeks in office.

They want him to follow federal procedures, which give the Office of the Pardon Attorney a role in vetting pardon requests. While GOP senators recognize that Trump has broad pardon authority, they’re hoping to avoid a political uproar over last-minute pardons of figures within his inner circle — such as members of his family, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former advisers or wealthy donors.

Trump has discussed potential pardons for his three oldest children, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump, as well as his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Giuliani, according to The New York Times. Continue reading.

New Subpoena Will Demand Trump Tax Returns (Including Ivanka, Eric, And Don Jr.)

Following a Supreme Court ruling on the matter, the House Intelligence Committee has narrowed a subpoena request to focus more specifically on Donald Trump and the immediate members of his family: Eric Trump, Don Jr., and Ivanka Trump.

The subpoena, which was originally broader and issued to Trump’s longtime lender Deutsche Bank, “no longer seeks financial records for any other members of President Trump’s family,” according to a memo released by the House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff. Schiff added that the panel had taken action voluntarily in order to “accelerate resolution” of the matter.

According to TPM, the move came after the Supreme Court laid out a new test last month instructing courts to weigh congressional subpoenas targeting a sitting president against whether the information can be obtained elsewhere, how broad the subpoena is, its legislative purpose, and how burdensome complying would be for a president. Continue reading.

New York attorney general investigating Trump over financial statements

The Hill logo

New York state Attorney General Letitia James (D) is investigating whether President Trump illegally inflated his assets to attract investors and earn loans, her office revealed in court documents Monday.

James asked a judge to force the president’s son, Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization to comply with subpoenas as part of the investigation. Her office said in the court filings that the investigation is ongoing and authorities haven’t determined whether the president’s businesses violated the law.

“For months, the Trump Organization has made baseless claims in an effort to shield evidence from a lawful investigation into its financial dealings,” James said in a statement. “They have stalled, withheld documents, and instructed witnesses, including Eric Trump, to refuse to answer questions under oath. That’s why we’ve filed a motion to compel the Trump Organization to comply with our office’s lawful subpoenas for documents and testimony. These questions will be answered and the truth will be uncovered, because no one is above the law.” Continue reading.

Deutsche Bank Opens Review Into Personal Banker to Trump and Kushner

New York Times logoThe bank will examine a 2013 transaction between the banker, Rosemary Vrablic, and a company part-owned by Jared Kushner.

Deutsche Bank has opened an internal investigation into the longtime personal banker of President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, over a 2013 real estate transaction between the banker and a company part-owned by Mr. Kushner.

In June 2013, the banker, Rosemary Vrablic, and two of her Deutsche Bank colleagues purchased a Park Avenue apartment for about $1.5 million from a company called Bergel 715 Associates, according to New York property records.

Mr. Kushner, a senior adviser to the president, disclosed in an annual personal financial report late Friday that he and his wife, Ivanka Trump, had received $1 million to $5 million last year from Bergel 715. A person familiar with Mr. Kushner’s finances, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said he held an ownership stake in the entity at the time of the transaction with Ms. Vrablic. Continue reading.

Ethics experts explain why Ivanka Trump’s endorsement of Goya Foods is a ‘serious offense’

AlterNet logoGovernment ethics experts across the nation are denouncing Ivanka Trump’s late-night endorsement of Goya Foods as a violation of law – and ethics – especially as it comes just days after the company’s CEO appeared on national television in the Rose Garden of the White House to praise President Donald Trump.

“If it’s Goya, it has to be good,” the First Daughter and Senior Advisor to the President tweeted Tuesday night, with the statement repeated in Spanish. In her tweet Ivanka Trump is displaying a can of Goya black beans by holding it with her right hand and suggestively motioning to it with her left, as many do when endorsing a product.

Walter Shaub, who has become America’s most prominent government ethics expert, weighed in Wednesday morning on Trump’s tweet with a lengthy thread on Twitter. He says her endorsement is “clearly a violation” of federal law. Continue reading.

Trump family seeks to block book by president’s niece that calls him ‘World’s Most Dangerous Man’

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s brother on Tuesday petitioned a New York court to block the publication of a book by Mary L. Trump that describes the president, her uncle, as the “world’s most dangerous man.”

Presales of the book, slated for publication on July 28, have soared to the top of bestseller lists on the basis of a description from publisher Simon & Schuster that it will reveal decades of family secrets, including a “nightmare of traumas” that explain the psychology of the man who is now president.

President Trump told the Axios news service earlier this week that Mary Trump is “not allowed” to write the book, because she signed a nondisclosure agreement in 2001 that settled her suit against him and his siblings over her inheritance from her grandfather Fred Trump Sr., the president’s father. President Trump said the agreement was a “very powerful one” that “covers everything.” Continue reading.

Judge Allows Lawsuit Against Trump Family Pyramid Scheme

One of the many lawsuits that the Trump Organization and members of the Trump family have faced allegations that they engaged in an illegal pyramid scheme. Attorneys for the company have tried to get the class action lawsuit placed on hold, but Judge Lorna G. Schofield — a federal judge in New York — has refused to stay the case.

In Law & Crime, reporters Matt Naham and Aaron Keller explain, “The class action plaintiffs allege that the Trump family business promoted a multi-level marketing or pyramid scheme known as ACN Opportunity, LLC. ACN, the plaintiffs said, was a ‘get-rich-quick scheme’ that relied on Trump and his family (conning) each of these victims into giving up hundreds or thousands of dollars,’ in violation of various state laws.”

Members of the Trump family named in the lawsuit include President Donald Trump and three of his children: Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump and White House Senior Adviser Ivanka Trump. Continue reading.

Is Kushner’s Covid-19 ‘Team’ Profiting From The Crisis?

Hot off of singlehandedly ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, America’s Son-In-Law-In-Chief has put himself in charge of handling half of the White House response to the coronavirus crisis.

Didn’t you know that? No? Oh, well, it seems the White House just decided that, ah, the people didn’t need to hear about this. Oh, and FYI, most of his team are from the private sector. That’s not a problem, Congressional Democrats, is it?

Thanks to some thorough reporting by Politico, we now know that Jared Kushner is running a shadow COVID-19 response team alongside the official task force led by Mike Pence. Pence once characterized his group as an “all-of-government response,” but Kushner’s team is an “all-of-private-sector response” full of private equity executives and health care profiteers. That “all-of-private-sector” line isn’t me being snide: it’s how some of the anonymous White House officials in the report characterized their own colleagues. Continue reading.

Jared Kushner once controlled the health insurance company that has launched a coronavirus testing website

AlterNet logoOne of the major complaints about President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been the shortage of testing in the United States. Aggressive testing throughout the U.S., critics assert, should have been carried out weeks ago. But now, a new website owned by the company Oscar Health Insurance is pointing Americans in the direction of places where they can be tested for coronavirus — and according to Mother Jones’ Washington, D.C. bureau chief, David Dorn, Oscar was once co-owned by White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner.

Oscar Health Insurance, reporter Jerry Lambe notes in Law & Crime, has “held itself out” as being founded by Kushner’s brother, Joshua Kushner. In 2015, an article by journalist Andrew Khouri for the Los Angeles Times’ described Oscar as a “Silicone Valley-backed startup” that had been founded by “three young Harvard Business School graduates” in 2012: Joshua Kushner, Mario Schlosser and Kevin Nazemi. But according to Corn, Jared Kushner played a major role in the company.

Corn reports that “several years ago,” Jared Kushner “controlled a family business” that owned Oscar — which, Corn explains, “has often been described in media accounts as co-founded by Jared’s brother, Joshua. But New York State records reviewed by Mother Jones show that in 2013, the year the business was incorporated, Jared with his brother controlled the holding company that owned Oscar.” Continue reading.

Trump ordered to expand document search in suit alleging he endorsed pyramid scam

Washington Post logoNEW YORK — President Trump and three of his adult children have been ordered by a federal judge to search through 15 years of business records for materials that could inform a lawsuit alleging they profited by promoting a marketing scam targeting vulnerable investors.

Trump is being sued by four people who say they were duped into joining the multilevel marketing company ACN years ago because of his endorsement. The suit characterizes ACN as a pyramid scheme and accuses Trump of having made misleading claims as a paid pitchman prior to his presidency. All four say they suffered financially as a result.

The order on Friday by U.S. District Court Judge Lorna Schofield allows the plaintiffs to look further into the Trump Organization’s history — to 2005 — for others who may have been involved in the president’s deal with ACN. Continue reading.