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Donald J. Trump White House Page 1
The Trump Presidency is over, it started with lie and 30,000 lies later, it ended with lies. Trump's first lie was about the size of his inauguration claiming it was bigger than Obama it was not. Trump ended his presidency with a lie about the election claiming he won more votes than Biden did he did not. This page is dedicated to Donald J. Trump's (aka Don the Con) time in the White House the ups, the downs, the corruption, the chaos, the destruction, the devastation and the hatred created by Donald J. Trump. Donald J. Trump has corrupted the white house, the House, the Senate, the DOJ, the state department and other government departments and agencies to protect and defend Donald J. Trump. Instead of putting America first, they are putting Donald J. Trump first. Donald J. Trump is threat to Democracy, our National Security, America and you, we are dedicated to shining a light on that threat. Trump is a bully who can dish it out but cannot take it, Trump does not punch back he lashes out like a child when his feeling get hurt. You cannot trust the information you get from Trump, his surrogates, the GOP or right wing media who lie, use fake news and alterative facts to distract from the truth and to promote the right wing agenda. If Trump opens his month it is probably a lie, Trump is a liar who lies about his lies; many of the Trump’s surrogates, the GOP and right wing media lie, use alternative facts and fake news to protect Trump and the GOP while attacking and destroying our Democracy. Do not take our word for it, read it for yourself and find out more about the real Donald J. Trump and how he is destroying America and our Democracy with the help of Fox News (Fake News) and right wing media (more fake news). We have added the capital riot otherwise known as the Trump insurrection to the Trump White House pages. Trump and his enablers are to blame for what happen at capital riot. The more you know the better informed you will be to make your own determination on the real Donald J. Trump (aka Don the Con). Looking for more information about Trump Administration Scandals, Trump Impeachment Inquiry, Trump EPA, Trump before the White House, Trump Lawsuits, The Trump-Russia Affair, The Trump-Ukraine Affair, Trump News, Moscow Mitch, GOP Watch, Election Fraud or Election Interference. #Trump, #TrumpWhiteHouse, #WhiteHouseFind out about the real Donald J. Trump. Donald J. Trump is a crook, a con man and liar who uses alternative facts and projection of himself on to other. Find out about Trump, Russia, Putin and the Mueller investigation. trump campaign colluded or conspire with Putin and the Russians. Is trump the king of fake news alternative facts? trump lies Donald Trump a racist? Learn about don the con trump and Russia. Find out about the trump Russia Putin connection. Is trump a traitor? Find out more about don the con, con man don and learn about the trump university, trump foundation, Russian collusion, money laundering, Trump the money launder and more…
Donald J. Trump White House Pages   
With help from his allies, Fox News, right-wing media and some in the Republican Party; Donald J. Trump incited insurrection, sedition, attempted a coup d’etat and caused the sacking of the United States capital. Donald J. Trump’s coup attempt involved some House members, some Senate members, and Mike Pence overturning the election certification process with the hope that Trump could steal the election and steal the presidency. If those on the right really wanted to stop the steal, they should have told Trump to stop lying about the election and stop trying to steal the election. Trump sent his supporters to the United States capital in hopes that maybe they could scare congress into helping him over turn the election so he could remain the president.
Videos of the riot and violent attack against the 117th United States Congress and the sacking of the United States Capitol. On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol was sacked in a riot and violent attack against the 117th United States Congress to overturn the 2020 election in an attempted coup d’état. Some of Donald J. Trump’s MAGA supporters carried out the coup attempt in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election and overthrow the government of the United State of America. Some of the insurrectionist came prepared to kidnap and kill some in congress, hang Mike Pence and stop the vote count to keep Trump in power and prevent Biden from becoming president.
Donald J. Trump has been impeached by the house. Moscow Mitch and GOP Senators will make a mockery of our Republic to protect Donald J. Trump.   
Annotated transcripts of Trump's remarks
64 words. 4 weeks. 1 bracket. Only one word can win. Cast your vote in Trump’s Best Word Bracket at dailyshowbracket.com #TheDailyShow, #BestWordBracket
Donald J. Trump Has Failed In His Response To Coronavirus (Covid-19)
Donald J. Trump failure to act quickly and reasonably to protect the American people from the Coronavirus has put America lives at risks.
Chris Hayes: “It is entirely possible that there were people in that crowd, looking to apprehend, possibly harm, and possibly murder the leaders of the political class that the President, and people like Mo Brooks, and even to a certain extent Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, have told them have betrayed them." video...
The Washington Post’s Capitol Hill reporter Rhonda Colvin and video journalist Lindsey Sitz were reporting live from the Capitol on Jan. 6 when a pro-Trump mob stormed the building. This is their account of the harrowing hours that followed. video...
NBC News congressional reporter Haley Talbot was inside when the violence and chaos started. video...
*** Trump lied when he said he would be too busy being president to play golf. ***

Cost to Taxpayer: About $144,000,000**
*Daytime visits to golf clubs since inauguration, with evidence of playing golf on at least 150 visits. Our last recorded outing was on December 30, 2020. Click on complete data table for a list of Trump's outings, or view our breakdown of total costs. more...
Story by Zeleb.es

Donald Trump’s time as president was marked by the chaotic approach to policy that his administration brought to the executive branch of government, and it appears that all the chaos affected many of those working for the president.

The White House Medical Unit had a problem
Uppers and downers were allegedly handed out like candy to officials serving the former president according to Rolling Stone's Nikki McCann Ramirez, who made her claim after the Department of Defense issued a report on the issue.

An investigation by the Department of Defense
In January 2024, the Department of Defense’s Office of the General Inspector published an 80-page document detailing how the White House Medical Unit was engaged in a lot of problematic behavior while Trump was the president.

“Severe and systemic problems”
The report concluded the White House Medical Unit’s pharmacy operations “had severe and systemic problems” and stated that the unit relied on “ineffective internal controls to ensure compliance with pharmacy safety standards.”
Story by Will Daniel

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen came out swinging in a Thursday speech at a National Association for Business Economics conference. “When the President and I took office in January 2021, we inherited a financial stability apparatus at Treasury that had been decimated,” she said in prepared remarks, arguing that Trump administration budget cuts left her without the proper resources to regulate banks when she took office.

After the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank earlier this month, along with demise of the crypto-focused Signature Bank and Silvergate Bank, Yellen and other regulators have been under fire from politicians and Wall Street for missing clear red flags. Konrad Alt, cofounder of the investment firm Klaros Group, who previously served as counsel to the Senate Banking Committee, told Fortune earlier this month that the main issue at SVB—not accounting for the risk of rising interest rates—has been well-known for years.

“‘The fact is, we’ve known that this was a gap for a long time….regulators should have caught it, and they didn’t catch it,” he said. But the Treasury Secretary pinned much of the blame for the failure to foresee SVB’s collapse on her lack of resources and deregulation efforts that happened after Dodd-Frank’s creation in 2010 this week. “Regulatory requirements have been loosened in recent years. I believe it is appropriate to assess the impact of these deregulatory decisions and take any necessary actions in response,” she said.
By Tom Boggioni | Raw Story

According to a report from Rolling Stone, officials in Donald Trump's administrationconned Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) into voting for current Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh while ridiculing her at the same time for being easy to manipulate with one going so far as to crassly mock her as a "cheap date." As the Rolling Stone's Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley report, Collins "was deliberately manipulated by Trump administration officials — and a future Supreme Court Justice — who viewed her as an easy mark." Collins, often mocked for her constant professions of being "concerned" by current events, was considered to be a walkover by the Trump administration officials and supporters of Kavanaugh who felt she only needed "vague assurances" that Kavanaugh would not be a vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. According to Rolling Stone, two former Trump officials admitted that they played Collins and then laughed at her behind her back.
Historians say the destruction or misappropriation of White House records is a threat to posterity and the public interest. It could also be a criminal act.
By Jonathan Allen

Former President Donald Trump says he never flushed history down a White House toilet. But some historians and public-interest advocates say that new details about Trump's habit of destroying documents — along with his decision to take at least 15 boxes of items home from Washington — have exposed holes in the law governing the preservation of White House records and threatened to muddy the picture of his presidency in ways that are significant for posterity and the rule of law. "You can’t hold anyone accountable and you can’t write an accurate history if you don’t know all that’s there," said Lee White, a lawyer who is executive director of the National Coalition for History. "For historians, it’s the old 'if the tree falls in the forest and no one is there,' how are you going to know a record is missing if it’s missing?" more...
Mike Allen

While President Trump was in office, staff in the White House residence periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet — and believed the president had flushed pieces of paper, Maggie Haberman scoops in her forthcoming book, "Confidence Man."

Why it matters: The revelation by Haberman, whose coverage as a New York Times White House correspondent was followed obsessively by Trump, adds a vivid new dimension to his lapses in preserving government documents. Axios was provided an exclusive first look at some of her reporting. more...
Joshua Zitser

It has been widely reported that former President Donald Trump had a penchant for tearing apart presidential documents, but new details have emerged about how his aides disposed of potentially important papers. According to The Washington Post, staffers frequently put documents into "burn bags" to be incinerated at the Pentagon. Burn bags resemble paper grocery bags and are widely available throughout the White House complex. Organizations dealing with top-secret information, like the CIA and NSA, often use them because destruction via burn bags is considered superior to shredding. more...
Hansi Lo Wang

Former President Donald Trump's administration alarmed career civil servants at the Census Bureau by not only ending the 2020 national head count early, but also pressuring them to alter plans for protecting people's privacy and producing accurate data, a newly released email shows. Trump's political appointees at the Commerce Department, which oversees the bureau, demonstrated an "unusually" high level of "engagement in technical matters, which is unprecedented relative to the previous censuses," according to a September 2020 email that Ron Jarmin — the bureau's deputy director — sent to two other top civil servants. more...
By Joseph Choi

The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that former President Trump made a total of 30,573 false or misleading claims during his time in office. The Post only counted one inaccurate claim per topic per venue, such as during a particular speech, tweet or interview. Among the most repeated false claims that Trump spread was that he was responsible for the greatest economy in history. As the Post notes, former Presidents Eisenhower, Johnson and Clinton all were responsible for larger economic growth than Trump when using modern metrics. The number of falsehoods from Trump reportedly increased exponentially around October with the approach of the presidential election that he eventually lost, though he has yet to acknowledge that the vote was free and fair. more...
Two sources are communicating with House investigators and detailed a stunning series of allegations to Rolling Stone, including a promise of a “blanket pardon” from the Oval Office
By Hunter Walker

As the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack heats up, some of the planners of the pro-Trump rallies that took place in Washington, D.C., have begun communicating with congressional investigators and sharing new information about what happened when the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Two of these people have spoken to Rolling Stone extensively in recent weeks and detailed explosive allegations that multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.

Rolling Stone separately confirmed a third person involved in the main Jan. 6 rally in D.C. has communicated with the committee. This is the first report that the committee is hearing major new allegations from potential cooperating witnesses. While there have been prior indications that members of Congress were involved, this is also the first account detailing their purported role and its scope. The two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump’s team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity to prevent the violence. more...
By Darragh Roche

Republican members of Congress appear to have conspired with former President Donald Trump 's administration in efforts to prevent the certification of President Joe Biden 's 2020 election victory, according to text messages revealed by the House Select Committee investigating January 6. The select committee released texts from as-yet unnamed lawmakers to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Monday before the panel voted unanimously to recommend contempt charges against him. Those messages appear to show the lawmakers supporting a plan to object to the certification of Electoral College votes on January 6 where then Vice President Mike Pence would have played a key role. more...
Fox News, right wing media and the GOP blamed Antifa and BLM even though they knew it was Trump supporters who attacked the capitol.

House investigators held Mark Meadows in criminal contempt after releasing a trove of messages aimed at getting President Trump to take stronger action amid the Capitol riot.
By NICHOLAS WU and KYLE CHENEY

As rioters swarmed the Capitol, President Donald Trump’s eldest son pleaded with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to get his father to do more to end the violence. “He’s got to condemn this [shit] Asap. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough,” Donald Trump Jr. texted, one of a series of messages Meadows provided to the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the former president’s effort to overturn the election. The text message was one of a handful described and released by the committee on Monday from the trove shared by Meadows that showed lawmakers, aides and even Fox News hosts pleading with Meadows to press Trump to take stronger action. After they described the messages, the panel held Meadows in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to testify to investigators. The matter now goes to the full House, which is expected to refer Meadows to the Justice Department on Tuesday. more...
Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows handed over a trove of pre-Jan. 6 documentation. It’s damning stuff
By Ryan Bort

The House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol on Thursday released slides from a PowerPoint calling for former President Trump to declare a national security emergency in order to delay the certification of the results of the 2020 election. The presentation, headlined was referred to in an email provided to the committee by Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff who’s had a rough couple of weeks, to say the least. The revelation is the latest piece of evidence that Trump and his inner circle, including his allies in Congress, were very actively and very aggressively trying to overturn the results of the election, which Trump lost handily. The PowerPoint presentation, which spanned 38 pages and was titled “Election fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 JAN,” was part of an email sent on Jan. 5, the day before the attack on the Capitol. more...
U.S. leaders took pains to manage what they considered the president's volatile moods and erratic behavior, according to the forthcoming book Peril
By Aaron Parsley

The nation's top military official grew alarmed about President Donald Trump's White House and took steps to avoid clashing with China in the final months of his volatile administration, according to a forthcoming book.

The new details come from Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, which describes scenes of anxiety and fear over Trump's behavior.

But it's the descriptions of what Gen. Mark A. Milley did that have drawn sharp responses from Republican lawmakers and Trump himself, though Milley has downplayed his actions as not undercutting the president or civilian control of the military. more...
By Jenni Fink

Members of the public pushed members of former President Donald Trump's cabinet to remove him from office in the wake of the Capitol riot, according to emails that were recently released. Trump faced harsh scrutiny from both Democrats and Republicans after the January 6 insurrection for encouraging the behavior by pushing the message that the election was stolen from him. The House of Representatives passed a resolution urging former Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would remove Trump from office and make him the interim president until President Joe Biden's inauguration. more...
John Haltiwanger

Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who was tasked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with conducting a review of the US Capitol's security after January 6, on Tuesday said President Donald Trump's White House was "complicit" in orchestrating the insurrection. "It's my personal opinion that the executive branch was complicit in the planning and the delayed response that occurred in bringing in more federal assistance to the Capitol that day," Honoré said during an MSNBC appearance, underscoring that this conclusion was not reached as a result of the security review he spearheaded. more...
Donald Trump with Bill Barr in 2019. In Barr, Trump appeared to find someone almost entirely aligned with the idea of doing his bidding.
Peter Stone

New investigations will examine the scale of wrongdoing – and experts say there could be more revelations of abuse to come. Donald Trump never did much to hide his dangerous belief that the US justice department and the attorneys general who helmed it should serve as his own personal lawyers and follow his political orders, regardless of norms and the law. Former senior DoJ officials say the former president aggressively prodded his attorneys general to go after his enemies, protect his friends and his interests, and these moves succeeded with alarming results until Trump’s last few months in office. But now with Joe Biden sitting in the Oval Office, Merrick Garland as attorney general and Democrats controlling Congress, more and more revelations are emerging about just how far Trump’s justice department went rogue. New inquiries have been set up to investigate the scale of wrongdoing. more...
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

(CNN) The Republican Party has turned to another page in the authoritarian playbook as it whitewashes the history of Donald Trump's presidency. It's as if the fawning over Vladimir Putin never happened. Or Trump's assurance that Covid-19 would simply "go away" never passed his lips. Trump's acolytes have, meanwhile, rebranded the worst assault in American democracy in modern times into a January 6 tourist jaunt as they seek to cleanse the reputation of the former President who told rioters to "fight like Hell" and, months later, still holds enormous sway over the GOP. Trump and conservative propaganda media are also assailing Dr. Anthony Fauci to expunge the ex-President's neglect of a pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans on his watch. more...
The former president's aides and emissaries pressed Justice Department leaders to join legal challenges to the vote.
By JOSH GERSTEIN

Top Justice Department officials derisively dismissed a series of last-ditch efforts by then-President Donald Trump’s aides and emissaries to get DOJ lawyers and the FBI to investigate outlandish election fraud claims in the waning weeks of Trump’s presidency, newly-released emails show. The emails — made public by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee — detail the Justice Department’s response to attempts by Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows to get investigators to look at bizarre allegations in a YouTube video where a former intelligence officer named Brad Johnson asserted that individuals in Italy were manipulating votes in the U.S. through satellites. more...
By COLLEEN LONG

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has made no secret of his long list of political enemies. It just wasn’t clear until now how far he would go to try to punish them. Two House Democrats disclosed this week that their smartphone data was secretly obtained by the Trump Justice Department as part of an effort to uncover the source of leaks related to the investigation of Russian-related election interference. It was a stunning revelation that one branch of government was using its power to gather private information on another, a move that carried echoes of President Richard Nixon during Watergate. more...
Krishnadev Calamur

The Trump Justice Department subpoenaed Apple in 2018 in order to obtain the metadata of at least two Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee, as well as their current and former staff, and even family, including a minor, a committee official tells NPR's Ryan Lucas. The story was first reported by the reported by The New York Times. The subpoena was part of an effort to find the source of leaks of classified information in the early years of the Trump administration. Ultimately, the data did not tie the committee to the leaks. Apple informed the committee that the metadata had been seized after a gag order in the matter was lifted in May 2021. The committee contacted the Biden Justice Department, which informed them that the investigation had been closed, the committee official says. more...
At least two House members including Adam Schiff targeted in 2018, say officials familiar with the investigation
Adam Gabbatt

The records of at least 12 people connected to the House intelligence committee were eventually shared, including Schiff, the panel chairman. The US justice department under Donald Trump seized data from the accounts of at least two members of the House of Representatives intelligence committee in 2018 as part of an aggressive crackdown on leaks related to the Russia investigation and other national security matters, according to a committee official and two people familiar with the investigation. Prosecutors from the previous president’s DoJ subpoenaed Apple for the data, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the secret seizures first reported by the New York Times. The records of at least 12 people connected to the intelligence panel were eventually shared, including the chairman, Adam Schiff, who was then the top Democrat on the committee. more...
By Jeremy Herb and Jessica Schneider, CNN

Washington (CNN) The Trump administration secretly sought and obtained the 2017 phone and email records of a CNN correspondent, the latest instance where federal prosecutors have taken aggressive steps targeting journalists in leak investigations. The Justice Department informed CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, in a May 13 letter, that prosecutors had obtained her phone and email records covering two months, between June 1, 2017 to July 31, 2017. The letter listed phone numbers for Starr's Pentagon extension, the CNN Pentagon booth phone number and her home and cell phones, as well as Starr's work and personal email accounts. more...
FBI Uncovers Contact Between Trump White House and Proud Boys Before Capitol Attack
The bureau is also looking into members of Congress who communicated with rioters
By Peter Wade

Federal law enforcement officials have uncovered contact between the Trump White House and a member of the far-right extremist organization, the Proud Boys, just days before the January 6 attack on the Capitol. According to a New York Times source, the FBI obtained “location, cellular and call record data revealed a call tying a Proud Boys member to the Trump White House.” Earlier this week, CNN reported that law enforcement officials are looking at communications data to determine “whether lawmakers wittingly or unwittingly helped the insurrectionists.” And so far they’ve found “indications of contact” between “alleged rioters discussing their associations with members of Congress.” On Thursday, a former Trump State Department aide, Federico Klein was arrested for taking part in the attack of the Capitol. more...
By Manu Raju, Barbara Starr, Zachary Cohen and Oren Liebermann, CNN

(CNN) The Department of Defense inspector general has issued a scathing review of Rep. Ronny Jackson during his time serving as the top White House physician, concluding that he made "sexual and denigrating" comments about a female subordinate, violated the policy for drinking alcohol while on a presidential trip and took prescription-strength sleeping medication that prompted concerns from his colleagues about his ability to provide proper care. The findings outlined in the report, which was obtained by CNN prior to its release on Wednesday, stem from a years-long IG investigation into Jackson -- who currently represents Texas in the House of Representatives and sits on the House Armed Services subcommittee overseeing military personnel -- that was launched in 2018 and examines allegations that date back to his time serving during the Obama and Trump administrations. Members of Congress were briefed on the IG report findings on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the matter. more...
The 45th president profoundly altered our system of government.
Jonathan Rauch | The Atlantic

When I step back to look at the legacy of President Donald Trump, a surprising conclusion emerges: He has substantially altered the Constitution. His changes aren’t formal, of course. But his informal amendments are important. If left to stand, they threaten to make Congress an advisory body and give carte blanche to rogue presidents. The surprising aspect of this conclusion is not that the Constitution can be informally amended. That has been the usual way of making revisions. In 1803, the Supreme Court granted itself the power to review laws and overturn them. In 1824, the states tied the electoral vote to the popular vote. Neither of those changes was inscribed on parchment or envisioned by the Founders, but today we can’t imagine our constitutional system without them. more...
There’s no doubt who must be held responsible for attacking the Capitol and trying to overturn the results of the election.
By The New York Times Editorial Board

If you fail to hold him accountable, it can happen again. This is the heart of the prosecution’s argument in the ongoing impeachment trial of Donald Trump. It is a plea for the senators charged with rendering a verdict not to limit their concerns solely to the events of Jan. 6, when a mob of Trump supporters sacked the U.S. Capitol, but also to act with an eye toward safeguarding the nation’s future. To excuse Mr. Trump’s attack on American democracy would invite more such attempts, by him and by other aspiring autocrats. The stakes could not be higher. A vote for impunity is an act of complicity. It is unfortunate that the country finds itself at this place at this moment, American pitted against American. But there is no more urgent task than recentering the nation’s political life as peaceful and committed to the rule of law. more...
By Jamie Gangel, Kevin Liptak, Michael Warren and Marshall Cohen, CNN

Washington (CNN) In an expletive-laced phone call with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy while the Capitol was under attack, then-President Donald Trump said the rioters cared more about the election results than McCarthy did. "Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are," Trump said, according to lawmakers who were briefed on the call afterward by McCarthy. McCarthy insisted that the rioters were Trump's supporters and begged Trump to call them off. Trump's comment set off what Republican lawmakers familiar with the call described as a shouting match between the two men. A furious McCarthy told the then-President the rioters were breaking into his office through the windows, and asked Trump, "Who the f--k do you think you are talking to?" according to a Republican lawmaker familiar with the call. mode...
By Kaitlan Collins and Jim Acosta, CNN

(CNN) Former President Donald Trump's condition after testing positive for Covid-19 became so concerning last October that there was talk of putting him on a ventilator, according to what Trump told one person at the time. The detail raises questions about whether the former President's condition was worse than officials were willing to publicly acknowledge, a development first reported in detail by The New York Times on Thursday. CNN reported in October that when Trump was flown to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, he not only had trouble breathing, but had received supplemental oxygen. Trump "definitely has had oxygen," the source with knowledge told CNN. The former President's physician, Dr. Sean Conley, waffled on the issue at the time, saying Trump "is not on oxygen right now." When he was asked if Trump had received it at all, Conley would not directly answer, saying, "He has not needed any this morning, today at all." Asked if he had ever been on supplemental oxygen as part of his Covid-19 treatment, Conley said, "Right now he is not," adding, "Yesterday and today, he was not on oxygen." more...
By Simon Shuster

“Let these investigations go forward,” Rudy Giuliani told the presidential headquarters in Kyiv, Ukraine, his voice turning impatient. “Get someone to investigate this.” On the other end of the line, hunched over a speakerphone, two Ukrainian officials listened in disbelief as Giuliani demanded probes that could help his client, then-President Donald Trump, win another term in office. The 40-minute call, a transcript of which was obtained by TIME, provides the clearest picture yet of Giuliani’s attempts to pressure the Ukrainians on Trump’s behalf. The President’s personal lawyer toggled between veiled threats—“Be careful,” he warned repeatedly—and promises to help improve Ukraine’s relations with Trump. “My only motive—it isn’t to get anybody in trouble who doesn’t deserve to be in trouble,” Giuliani said. “For our country’s sake and your country’s sake, we [need to] get all these facts straight,” he added. “We fix them and we put it behind us.” more...
Charles Davis

Former aides to Donald Trump told CNN that Trump enjoyed watching his supporters assault the US Capitol in the final days of his presidency. The January 6 Capitol riot, which broke out soon after Trump gave a speech near the White House falsely claiming he won the 2020 election, resulted in five deaths, including the killing of a US Capitol Police officer. As the violence unfolded last month, Republicans and Democrats alike pleaded with Trump to intervene — to call on his supporters to stop. For hours, however, he remained largely silent, ensconced at the White House and, reports indicate, consuming cable news. CNN quoted a former senior Trump official as saying the president was enjoying what he saw on the screen: people — some in MAGA hats and with Trump flags — breaking into the home of the federal government's legislative branch. more...
Hours after the United States voted, the president declared the election a fraud — a lie that unleashed a movement that would shatter democratic norms and upend the peaceful transfer of power.
By Jim Rutenberg, Jo Becker, Eric Lipton, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Martin, Matthew Rosenberg and Michael S. Schmidt

By Thursday the 12th of November, President Donald J. Trump’s election lawyers were concluding that the reality he faced was the inverse of the narrative he was promoting in his comments and on Twitter. There was no substantial evidence of election fraud, and there were nowhere near enough “irregularities” to reverse the outcome in the courts. Mr. Trump did not, could not, win the election, not by “a lot” or even a little. His presidency would soon be over. Allegations of Democratic malfeasance had disintegrated in embarrassing fashion. A supposed suitcase of illegal ballots in Detroit proved to be a box of camera equipment. “Dead voters” were turning up alive in television and newspaper interviews. The week was coming to a particularly demoralizing close: In Arizona, the Trump lawyers were preparing to withdraw their main lawsuit as the state tally showed Joseph R. Biden Jr. leading by more than 10,000 votes, against the 191 ballots they had identified for challenge. more...
David Smith in Washington

The KGB ‘played the game as if they were immensely impressed by his personality’, Yuri Shvets, a key source for a new book, tells the Guardian. Donald Trump was cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years and proved so willing to parrot anti-western propaganda that there were celebrations in Moscow, a former KGB spy has told the Guardian. Yuri Shvets, posted to Washington by the Soviet Union in the 1980s, compares the former US president to “the Cambridge five”, the British spy ring that passed secrets to Moscow during the second world war and early cold war. Now 67, Shvets is a key source for American Kompromat, a new book by journalist Craig Unger, whose previous works include House of Trump, House of Putin. The book also explores the former president’s relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

“This is an example where people were recruited when they were just students and then they rose to important positions; something like that was happening with Trump,” Shvets said by phone on Monday from his home in Virginia. Shvets, a KGB major, had a cover job as a correspondent in Washington for the Russian news agency Tass during the 1980s. He moved to the US permanently in 1993 and gained American citizenship. He works as a corporate security investigator and was a partner of Alexander Litvinenko, who was assassinated in London in 2006. more...
Trump’s campaign of denial was abetted by his fellow Republicans. What will they do next?
By Charlie Sykes, MSNBC Opinion Columnist

Until recently, the official website of the St. Croix County Republican Party in Wisconsin bore the words, in Latin and English: "If you want peace, prepare for war." Even after objections following last week's violent storming of the U.S. Capitol, which included the county sheriff's posting a message on the department's Facebook page saying he was "shocked and disheartened" by the tone, members at first refused to remove the slogan. (The site was reported to be down Wednesday.) This may seem like an anecdote from the fringe. But on Jan. 6, two-thirds of the House GOP caucus voted against certifying Electoral College votes from Pennsylvania, and more than a quarter of GOP senators had indicated that they had planned to do the same thing. What happens next time if that fringe is in a position to determine the outcome of a presidential election? That is what is at stake in the division breaking out in GOP ranks. Decisions by the likes of Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who voted in favor of the article of impeachment, will highlight the stark choice that Republicans now have to make: Will they put President Donald Trump first? Or their country? more...
What Trump tried is called a “self-coup,” and he did it in slow motion and in plain sight.
By FIONA HILL

Fiona Hill served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019. She is currently a senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. Since last Wednesday, people have been arguing what to call what happened at the U.S. Capitol — was it a riot? An uprising? An insurrection? I’ve been public in calling it a coup, but others disagree. Some have said it’s not a coup because the U.S. military and other armed groups weren’t involved, and some because Donald Trump didn’t invoke his presidential powers in support of the mob that broke into the Capitol. Others point out that no one has claimed or proved there was a secret plan directed by the president, and that Trump’s efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election could never have succeeded in the first place. These observations are based on the idea that a coup is a sudden, violent seizure of power involving clandestine plots and military takeovers. By contrast, Trump’s goal was to keep himself in power, and his actions were taken over a period of months and in slow motion. more...
Analysis by Marshall Cohen

Washington (CNN) Former President Donald Trump flouted the limits of presidential power unlike any of his recent predecessors, leaving behind a legacy of unmatched abuses that range from violations of longstanding norms to potentially criminal behavior. It was hard to keep track amid the daily deluge of controversial tweets and distractions that were a hallmark of the Trump presidency. And some of the most egregious abuses of power weren't clear at the time but came into focus after exhaustive investigations. To chronicle Trump's most consequential abuses of power, CNN spoke with a politically diverse group of constitutional scholars, presidential historians and experts on democratic institutions. While these 16 experts did not agree on everything, there was consensus that Trump's pattern of abusing his powers for personal or political gain reached an alarming level that hasn't been seen in modern history, and will have long-lasting consequences for the future of American democracy. Here is a breakdown of Trump's 10 most significant abuses of power. more...
Mitch Prothero

The supporters of President Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday to stop the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's election victory were attempting a violent coup that multiple European security officials said appeared to have at least tacit support from aspects of the US federal agencies responsible for securing the Capitol complex. Insider spoke with three officials on Thursday morning: a French police official responsible for public security in a key section of central Paris, and two intelligence officials from NATO countries who directly work in counterterrorism and counterintelligence operations involving the US, terrorism, and Russia. They said the circumstantial evidence available pointed to what would be openly called a coup attempt in any other nation. None were willing to speak on the record because of the dire nature of the subject. more...
The riot at the Capitol followed years of escalating rightwing violence and an obsession with overturning the election result
Joshua Chaffin in New York and Courtney Weaver and James Politi in Washington January 8 2021

At the dais in the chamber of the Senate where Daniel Webster used a two-day speech to win the argument for a tightly-bound United States, where Jefferson Davis bid farewell to the union and future presidents such as Barack Obama honed their oratory, a shirtless man wearing a fur hat and Viking horns that seemed more in keeping with Mardi Gras presided on Wednesday afternoon. He was later identified as Jake Angeli, a devout adherent of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which posits that the US government is run by a cabal of devil-worshipping paedophiles engaged in a secret war against the heroic President Donald Trump. As a spear-carrying Mr Angeli paraded around one of the most hallowed spaces in American democracy like a drunk at a Christmas party, a fellow marauder, Richard “Bigo” Barnett, propped his boots on the desk of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and reclined in her chair. Mr Barnett had previously claimed on social media that he was ready to spill blood to overturn a US election he believed had been stolen from Mr Trump. On Wednesday, he scribbled a note to Ms Pelosi reading: “Nancy, Bigo was here, you bitch.” more...
Early in Trump’s presidency, emboldened neo-Nazi and fascist groups came out into the open but were met with widespread revulsion. So the tactics of the far right changed, becoming more insidious – and much more successful
by Brendan O’Connor

In March 2018, on a cold, grey Monday afternoon in East Lansing, Michigan, about 500 militant antifascists gathered in a car park with the intention of stopping Richard Spencer, the high-profile white nationalist, from speaking at Michigan State University (MSU). Spencer had not been asked to come by any student group on campus, but had instead invited himself. After the university denied his initial request to speak a few months earlier, Spencer sued. As part of the settlement agreement, Spencer agreed to speak in the middle of spring break at the MSU Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education, a venue more than a mile away from the main campus. There in the parking lot, the antifascists kept one another warm, dancing to hardcore and hip-hop played over a wheeled-in guitar amplifier, sharing cigarettes and news from elsewhere. Some people talked about the leaked chat logs of the fascist gang Patriot Front, members of which were on their way to campus that very moment. Others discussed the arraignment of one of Spencer’s followers the night before on weapons charges after he pulled a gun on protesters. About 40 police officers in riot gear huddled at the far end of the car park. Bike cops on patrol swirled by. more...
Robert Reich

A swift impeachment is imperative but from Rudy Giuliani and Don Jr to Fox News and Twitter, the president did not act alone. Call me old-fashioned, but when the president of the United States encourages armed insurgents to breach the Capitol and threaten the physical safety of Congress, in order to remain in power, I call it an attempted coup. The rampage on Wednesday left five dead, including a Capitol police officer who was injured when he tangled with the pro-Trump mob. We’re fortunate the carnage wasn’t greater. That the attempted coup failed shouldn’t blind us to its significance or the stain it has left on America. Nor to the importance of holding those responsible fully accountable. Trump’s culpability is beyond dispute. “There’s no question the president formed the mob, the president incited the mob, the president addressed the mob. He lit the flame,” said Elizabeth Cheney, the No3 House Republican. Trump should be impeached, convicted and removed from office – immediately. more...
By Devan Cole, CNN

Washington (CNN) Millions of dollars in federal funds earmarked for vaccine development and other public health matters were wrongly used for the removal of office furniture, news subscriptions and other administrative expenses by an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, according to an investigation launched by its inspector general into a whistleblower complaint. The anonymous whistleblower made a complaint in 2018 that "alleged that (HHS') Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response ... misappropriated millions of dollars that Congress appropriated for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority ... to respond to public health emergencies like outbreaks of Ebola, Zika, and -- now -- Covid-19," according to a letter sent by special counsel Henry Kerner on Wednesday to President Joe Biden detailing the report's findings. Although the report by HHS's inspector general doesn't include a single estimate of how much money was misspent, it "contains evidence that -- as recently as (fiscal year) 2019 -- approximately $25 to $26 million" was taken from BARDA's funding and improperly used for ASPR expenses, Kerner wrote. more...
By HOPE YEN, CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and CALVIN WOODWARD

On his way out, President Donald Trump claimed credit for things he didn’t do and twisted his record on jobs, taxes, the pandemic and much more. Falsehoods suffused his farewell remarks to the country. As well, in noting Americans were “horrified” by the storming of the Capitol this month, he brushed past the encouragement he had given to the mob in advance and his praise of the attackers as “very special” people while they were still ransacking the seat of power. A look at some of his statements Tuesday:

COVID-19
TRUMP: “Another administration would have taken three, four, five, maybe even up to 10 years to develop a vaccine. We did in nine months.”

THE FACTS: Actually, the administration didn’t develop any vaccines. Pharmaceutical companies did. And one of the two U.S. companies that have come out with vaccines now in use did not take development money from the government. Trump’s contention that a vaccine would have taken years under a different administration stretches credulity. COVID-19 vaccines were indeed remarkably fast, but other countries have been developing them, too. A vaccine for the coronavirus is not a singular achievement of the United States, much less the Trump administration. more...
*** How times and how many ways did Trump try to steal the election? **

The former president dropped the efforts to replace the acting attorney general after top DOJ officials agreed to resign en masse in protest if he succeeded, people familiar said
By Jess Bravin and Sadie Gurman

WASHINGTON—In his last weeks in office, former President Donald Trump considered moving to replace the acting attorney general with another official ready to pursue unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, and he pushed the Justice Department to ask the Supreme Court to invalidate President Biden’s victory, people familiar with the matter said. Those efforts failed due to pushback from his own appointees in the Justice Department, who refused to file what they viewed as a legally baseless lawsuit in the Supreme Court. Later, other senior department officials threatened to resign en masse should Mr. Trump fire then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, according to several people familiar with the discussions.

Senior department officials, including Mr. Rosen, former Attorney General William Barr and former acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall refused to file the Supreme Court case, concluding that there was no basis to challenge the election outcome and that the federal government had no legal interest in whether Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden won the presidency, some of these people said. White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his deputy, Patrick Philbin, also opposed Mr. Trump’s idea, which was promoted by his outside attorneys, these people said. more...
By Joan Biskupic, CNN legal analyst & Supreme Court biographer

(CNN) President Donald Trump will exit the White House on Wednesday but leave behind three of the nine Supreme Court justices and a majority that was willing to partner with him for much of his agenda. Trump's imprint on the Supreme Court and overall three-tier federal judiciary represents one of the most significant right-wing successes of his tenure, even as his instigation of the US Capitol assault and final destructive days appear to be leaving the most indelible mark of his legacy. With forceful leadership from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Republicans enabled Trump to make lifetime appointments to nearly 30% of the 870-seat federal bench. A majority of the powerful US appellate courts are now dominated by Republican appointees. more...
The congressman’s involvement underlined how far the former president was willing to go to overturn the election, and Democratic lawmakers have begun calling for investigations into those efforts.
By Katie Benner and Catie Edmondson

WASHINGTON — When Representative Scott Perry joined his colleagues in a monthslong campaign to undermine the results of the presidential election, promoting “Stop the Steal” events and supporting an attempt to overturn millions of legally cast votes, he often took a back seat to higher-profile loyalists in President Donald J. Trump’s orbit. But Mr. Perry, an outspoken Pennsylvania Republican, played a significant role in the crisis that played out at the top of the Justice Department this month, when Mr. Trump considered firing the acting attorney general and backed down only after top department officials threatened to resign en masse. It was Mr. Perry, a member of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, who first made Mr. Trump aware that a relatively obscure Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, the acting chief of the civil division, was sympathetic to Mr. Trump’s view that the election had been stolen, according to former administration officials who spoke with Mr. Clark and Mr. Trump. Mr. Perry introduced the president to Mr. Clark, whose openness to conspiracy theories about election fraud presented Mr. Trump with a welcome change from the acting attorney general, Jeffrey A. Rosen, who stood by the results of the election and had repeatedly resisted the president’s efforts to undo them. more...
Ex-president, whose Senate trial will start in two weeks, reportedly planned to oust acting attorney general in bid to overturn election.
Martin Pengelly

Donald Trump was at his Florida resort on Saturday, beginning post-presidency life while Joe Biden settled into the White House. But in Washington and beyond, the chaos of the 45th president’s final days in office continued to throw out damaging aftershocks. In yet another earth-shaking report, the New York Times said Trump plotted with an official at the Department of Justice to fire the acting attorney general, then force Georgia Republicans to overturn his defeat in that state. Former acting US defense secretary Christopher Miller, meanwhile, made an extraordinary admission, telling Vanity Fair that when he took the job in November, he had three goals: “No military coup, no major war and no troops in the street.” The former special forces officer added: “The ‘no troops in the street’ thing changed dramatically about 14.30 [on 6 January]. So that one’s off [the list].” That was the day a mob incited by Trump smashed its way into the US Capitol, in some cases allegedly looking for lawmakers to kidnap or kill. More than 100 arrests have been made over the riot, which also saw Trump impeached a second time. more...
*** Donald J. Trump is a sore loser and a small and petty child. ***

Mikhaila Friel

Joe and Jill Biden may have been waiting to enter the White House for longer than necessary on Inauguration Day because there was a lack of staff there to greet them. In a break from White House protocol, the new President and First Lady were left standing in front of closed doors as they took photos outside of their new residence for the first time on Wednesday. The Trumps "sent the butlers home when they left so there would be no-one to help the Bidens when they arrived," a well-placed official not associated with the Biden administration told The National Journal. Chief usher Timothy Harleth was also fired by the Trumps before they left on Wednesday morning, the publication reports. White House press secretary Jen Psak later confirmed that Harleth's exit occurred "before we walked in the door." more...
*** Trump tried to overturn the election results in Georgia again. Once again, Trump is caught trying to interfere in the election and attempted to overturn the election in Georgia in one of his many coup attempts. ***

By Tal Axelrod

Former President Trump sought to oust his acting attorney general in a bid to overturn the presidential election results in Georgia, according to a new bombshell report in The New York Times. Trump reportedly planned to replace then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, a lawyer at the Justice Department, in an effort to apply pressure to Georgia politicians to overturn the results of the race there. Rosen had refused to back Trump’s disputed claims that voter fraud had cost him the election, drawing the president’s ire. Trump had also pressed Rosen to appoint special counsels to investigate what he said were irregularities in the election, though he never provided any evidence for his claims. Among the investigations he wanted launched was one into Dominion Voting Systems, a company that made the election equipment Trump’s backers falsely said had ties with Venezuela to prevent Trump’s reelection. more...
*** Trump tried to overturn the election results in Georgia again. Once again, Trump is caught trying to interfere in the election and attempted to overturn the election in Georgia in one of his many coup attempts. ***

Trying to find another avenue to push his baseless election claims, Donald Trump considered installing a loyalist, and had the men make their cases to him.
By Katie Benner

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department’s power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results. The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Mr. Trump’s continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Mr. Rosen had refused the president’s entreaties to carry out those plans, Mr. Trump was about to decide whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark. The department officials, convened on a conference call, then asked each other: What will you do if Mr. Rosen is dismissed? The answer was unanimous. They would resign. more...
Analysis: Donald Trump promised to end "American carnage" and "Make America Great Again." Four years later, he leaves with those goals far from reach.
By Jonathan Allen

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump did not build a wall or end American carnage or finish his term with a robust economy. His slogan was "Make America Great Again," but the lasting image of his term — rioters assaulting the U.S. Capitol and the country's republican form of governance, in his name — was anything but great. The failed coup — if it was organized enough to call it that — concluded a presidency that often used Orwellian tools of Newspeak and Doublethink to communicate. "This mob was fed lies," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Tuesday. "They were provoked by the president and other powerful people." Trump's lies, told up until the end in service of accumulating and maintaining power, were so conspicuous and dangerous that he was booted from the very social media sites that had built his base. Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, said Trump shook the foundations of the country over four years. more...
Social media platforms, banks, law firms and even the country’s largest golf association all cut ties with former president
Chris Riotta

Donald Trump’s legal troubles began mounting before he could even step foot out of the White House on Wednesday. Reports indicated early in the morning on Inauguration Day that federal prosecutors in New York had obtained some of his financial records amid an investigation into the former president and his private business. Those records were obtained despite the Supreme Court having not yet made a decision on whether Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr can demand eight years of Mr Trump’s tax records from his accounting firm, Mazars USA. While the district attorney’s office was still waiting for an order from the nation’s highest court on its subpoena powers, Bloomberg News reported the new developments meant investigators can begin verifying criminal allegations against the Trump Organization and former president. By the afternoon, as President Joe Biden was officially sworn in as the next commander-in-chief, reports said Mr Trump’s team of tax lawyers were officially severing ties with him. A spokesperson for Morgan Lewis said the global law firm was ending its relationship with Mr Trump and his business, which predated his 2015 presidential bid, according to The American Lawyer. more...
By Bill Allison

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign paid more than $2.7 million to individuals and firms that organized the Jan. 6 rally that led to violent rioters storming the U.S. Capitol, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The payments, which span Trump’s re-election campaign, show an ongoing financial relationship between the rally’s organizers and Trump’s political operation. They were all made through Nov. 23, the most recent date covered by Federal Election Commission filings, which is before the rally was publicly announced. Eight paid Trump campaign officials were named on the permit issued on by the National Park Service for the rally, including Maggie Mulvaney, the niece of Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s former chief of staff who resigned his position as special envoy to Northern Ireland after the riots. Maggie Mulvaney was paid $138,000 by the campaign through Nov. 23. After the rally, in which the president encouraged them to march on the Capitol, Trump supporters stormed the building, disrupting the count of Electoral College votes in an event that ultimately killed five people. Lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over what is normally a ceremonial event, were forced to flee. more...
by: Nexstar Media Wire

(NEXSTAR) – Before leaving office former President Trump ensured that his extended family would receive protection from the U.S. Secret Service for the next six months, according to several reports. The Washington Post, citing three people briefed on the plan, reports that Trump instructed the elite team of agents to protect not only himself, his wife Melania, and their son Barron, as provided by federal law, but also 14 extended family members. A memorandum signed by then-president Trump allows the U.S. Secret Service to extend its protection, according to CNN. The arrangement will come at no cost to the Trump family and is funded by taxpayers, the Post reports. The Secret Service will protect Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, along with their three children; Donald Trump Jr. and his five children; Eric Trump and wife Lara; and Tiffany Trump. more...
By Zachary Cohen and Paul LeBlanc, CNN

(CNN) National Security Agency General Counsel Michael Ellis, who was installed by former President Donald Trump during his final days in office, was put on administrative leave Wednesday because his appointment is now the subject of a Department of Defense inspector general investigation, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday demanded former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller "immediately cease" his plans to install the Trump loyalist as the NSA's general counsel. She called the move "highly suspect" and argued it represents a "disturbing disregard" for the country's national security. "I ask that you immediately cease plans to improperly install Michael Ellis as the new NSA General Counsel," Pelosi wrote in a letter to Miller on Sunday. The California Democrat also said she was calling for a probe "into the circumstances of the NSA General Counsel selection process" by the department's acting inspector general. "The circumstances and timing -- immediately after President Trump's defeat in the election -- of the selection of Mr. Ellis, and this eleventh-hour effort to push this placement in the last three days of this Administration are highly suspect," the letter read. more...
By Jeffrey Kucik

It is difficult to select just one issue that defines President Trump’s legacy. There is his tragic mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is his alienation of America’s allies. There are even his wars on science and the rule of law. Any of these disasters would provide a suitable byline for the history books. But we need to add something equally important to this list: Four years after Trump took office, income inequality continues to grow. And it is growing at a faster rate than during any of the last five administrations. Inequality certainly isn’t new. Over the last three decades, the share of total U.S. income held by the bottom 20 percent of earners fell steadily. Most households haven’t seen meaningful appreciation in their purchasing power since the 1970s as average wages have barely outpaced inflation. These long-term trends gained political traction during the Great Recession. It became popular to refer to the “1 percent,” the group of ultra-rich who now hold more wealth than America’s entire middle class. more...
By Carol D. Leonnig and Nick Miroff

In the days before he left office, President Donald Trump instructed that his family get the best security available in the world for the next six months, at no cost — the protection of the U.S. Secret Service. According to three people briefed on the plan, Trump issued a directive to extend post-presidency Secret Service protection to his four adult children and two of their spouses, who were not automatically entitled to receive it. Trump also directed that three key officials leaving government continue to receive the protection for six months: former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, former chief of staff Mark Meadows and former national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien, two people familiar with the arrangement said. Under federal law, Trump, his wife, Melania Trump, and their 14-year-old son are the only members of his immediate family entitled to Secret Service protection after they leave office. The couple will receive it for their lifetimes, and Barron is entitled to protection until he turns 16. more...
Biden can help us get it back.
Tom Nichols

What should have been a week-long celebration of the resilience of American democracy has turned into a dark circus. Instead of citizens lining Pennsylvania Avenue to cheer and greet a new president, all of downtown Washington, D.C., is an armed camp. Soldiers patrol the streets while workers clean excrement off the walls of the Capitol, a perfect tableau for the end of the short and ghastly age of Trump. We are expecting far too much of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris if we think they can fix all of the damage Donald Trump did to the republic. Presidents and vice presidents are not wizards. They cannot rewind history. They cannot single-handedly make us better people.

However, I do believe that Biden can inspire the American people to regain one of the most important virtues Trump destroyed: seriousness, our understanding that ideas, actions, and words matter. The collapse of seriousness is the greatest loss we have sustained under Trump, one of the least serious human beings ever to occupy a position of great power in America. What do I mean by seriousness? It is the burden of knowing that we own our decisions, that our actions have consequences. It is the sense of responsibility that helps us to act without being ordered to act, the instinct that tells us, even when we are alone, that we owe a duty to others and that our behavior affects them as much as it does ourselves. more...
By MICHAEL TARM and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — The Trump administration early Saturday carried out its 13th federal execution since July, an unprecedented run that concluded just five days before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden — an opponent of the federal death penalty. Dustin Higgs, convicted of ordering the killings of three women in a Maryland wildlife refuge in 1996, was the third to receive a lethal injection this week at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. President Donald Trump’s Justice Department resumed federal executions last year following a 17-year hiatus. No president in more than 120 years had overseen as many federal executions. Higgs, 48, was pronounced dead at 1:23 a.m. Asked if he had any last words, Higgs was calm but defiant, naming each of the women prosecutors said he ordered killed. more...
By Matt HamiltonStaff Writer

Federal prosecutors had accused Robert Zangrillo, a Miami developer, of a costly and criminal effort to secure his daughter’s entry to USC. In 2017, Zangrillo hired associates of Newport Beach consultant Rick Singer to secretly complete his daughter’s high school classes. Later, Zangrillo paid others to complete his daughter’s community college classes. And to get his daughter accepted to USC as a transfer student, prosecutors alleged, he opted for Singer’s notorious “side door,” paying $250,000 as part of a scheme to falsely cast his daughter as a crew recruit. A trial was scheduled for later this year in Boston on charges related to fraud, bribery and money laundering. more...
The list includes Steve Bannon, Elliott Broidy, Lil Wayne, and Kodak Black.
Blake Montgomery

In one of his last acts as president, Donald Trump pardoned cronies and celebrities—including strategist Steve Bannon, fundraiser Elliott Broidy, and rapper Lil Wayne—hours before he was set to leave the White House. Just before 1 a.m. Wednesday, the long-awaited list was released with pardons for 73 people and commutations for another 70. Many of the names would be unfamiliar to the average American, but the list also included figures from high-profile cases and people with ties to Trumpland. Notably missing from the list were WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Tiger King star Joe Exotic—whose supporters had pushed for pardons. Trump also did not issue pre-emptive pardons for any members of him family, his attorney Rudy Giuliani, or himself. Four people who received clemency were supported by lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who was part of the defense team during Trump’s first impeachment. Among them is Sholam Weiss, who was sentenced to more than 800 years in prison in connection with a massive fraud scheme that destroyed a life insurance company and stripped its customers of their savings. Weiss fled the country in the middle of the trial but was captured in Austria and extradited. more...
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