A deputy to Eric Trump helped his family build a campaign shell company to protect the president

Source: Business Insider

EXCLUSIVE: A deputy to Eric Trump helped his family build a campaign shell company to protect the president from grift. But the secretive operation morphed into a mystery — even for top Trump campaign staffers.

The Trump campaign shell company that helped hide $617 million in 2020 presidential campaign spending was almost exclusively a Trump family production, run in part by a top deputy to Eric Trump, Insider has learned.

That Eric Trump deputy, attorney Alex Cannon, worked closely to run American Made Media Consultants with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump, and former campaign manager Brad Parscale. Together, they built a campaign shell company so powerful and opaque that key Trump campaign aides feared what they might uncover if they learned too much about its operations, according to interviews with more than a dozen Trump advisors and Republicans close to the campaign.

Vast swaths of AMMC's spending still remain a mystery to the public and Trump's own campaign team, although Insider was able to uncover some of American Made Media Consultants' expenditures based on interviews and public documents filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The power and secrecy of the shell company has spurred calls for federal investigations, including requests filed by three Democratic lawmakers after Insider broke the news last week of Kushner and Lara Trump's involvement.


Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/eric-trump-deputy-kushner-campaign-spending-shell-company-2020-12

Pa. senators head to White House for pre-holiday lunch with President Trump

Source: Penn Live

In the midst of making decisions about who to grant pardons to and pressuring Congress to provide more relief in a negotiated coronavirus relief package, President Donald Trump will take time out on Wednesday to have lunch with some Pennsylvania senators.

Four senators confirmed that Sen. Doug Mastriano invited fellow members of the Senate Republican Caucus to have lunch at the White House with the president.

Attempts to contact Mastriano on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning for comment were unsuccessful. The point of contact at the White House identified on the invitation, William Crozer, special assistant to the President and deputy director of White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, referred questions to the White House press staff who didn’t immediately respond.

Aside from an opportunity to take in the “America the Beautiful”-themed holiday decorations at the White House, the senators said they had been given no clue as to the purpose of the gathering.

Read more: https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/12/pa-senators-head-to-white-house-for-pre-holiday-lunch-with-president-trump.html

'Our blood is cheaper than water': Iraqis' anger over Trump pardons

Source: The Guardian

Joe Biden to be lobbied to reverse Trump decision to pardon security guards jailed over massacre

Iraqis have reacted with outrage to Donald Trump’s move to pardon four security guards from the security firm Blackwater who had been jailed for a 2007 massacre that sparked an outcry over the use of mercenaries in war.

The four men were part of a security convoy that fired on civilians at a central Baghdad roundabout, killing 14 people including a nine-year old child and wounding many more.

The four guards – Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Nicholas Slatten – opened fire indiscriminately with machine guns, grenade launchers and a sniper on a crowd of unarmed people at a roundabout, known as Nisour Square.

The killings were one of the lowest points of the US-led invasion of Iraq, and the convictions had been seen by many Iraqis as a rare occasion where US citizens had been held to account for atrocities committed during the aftermath. Baghdad residents who spoke to the Guardian described the outgoing US president’s announcement as a “cruel slap” and an insult.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/23/our-blood-is-cheaper-than-water-iraqis-anger-over-trump-pardons

Giuliani told to preserve all records as lawyers for Dominion warn legal action is 'imminent'

Source: CNN

(CNN)A defamation law firm representing Dominion Voting Systems has sent letters to White House counsel Pat Cipollone and President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani instructing them to preserve all records related to the company at the center of Trump's conspiracy theories and warning Giuliani that legal action is "imminent."

Through two well-known defamation attorneys, Dominion Voting Systems sent letters to Cipollone and Giuliani Tuesday, demanding Giuliani stop making "defamatory claims against Dominion" and ensure there is "no confusion about your obligation to preserve and retain all documents relating to Dominion and your smear campaign against the company." The attorneys told Cipollone their preservation request is vast and includes conversations White House officials had with attorneys like Giuliani or Sidney Powell regarding Dominion.

...

"With this letter you are on notice of your ongoing obligations to preserve documents related to Dominion's claims for defamation based on allegations that the company acted improperly during the November 2020 presidential election and somehow rigged the election in favor of President-Elect Joe Biden," the letter to Giuliani reads.

Trump's personal attorney must adhere to the preservation request as well as his "principals, agents, employees, partners, associates, paralegals, and subcontractors under your supervision." That also includes contact they had with Trump campaign staffers, Powell, Jenna Ellis and Lin Wood.


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/23/politics/dominion-voting-trump-campaign-lawsuit-imminent/index.html

Trump orchestrates final loyalty test in dying bid to subvert election

Source: Politico

President Donald Trump is plotting a final stand in Congress on Jan. 6, casting it as the ultimate loyalty test in his quest to remain in power and shutting out anyone who won’t get in line.

Trump has been strategizing in recent days with a band of his fiercest congressional supporters about the effort, which will involve lodging objections during the typically pro forma congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

It’s a gambit that even Republican leaders and those around Trump concede is doomed to fail, given the makeup of Congress. But that’s not the only point, according to GOP lawmakers, Trump advisers and Republican operatives.

The objections will also force Republicans in Congress to go on record voting to affirm Biden’s victory — acknowledging the outcome and likely inflaming Trump’s diehard supporters, a crucial GOP faction that has joined the president in denying the election results. Republican strategists and Trump allies inside and outside Washington said Trump’s core supporters will remember how their lawmakers vote on Jan. 6.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/22/trump-final-loyalty-test-election-450183

Trump Pardons Two Russia Inquiry Figures and Blackwater Guards

Source: NYTimes

In an audacious pre-Christmas round of pardons, President Trump granted clemency on Tuesday to two people convicted in the special counsel's Russia inquiry, four Blackwater guards convicted in connection with the killing of Iraqi civilians and three corrupt former Republican members of Congress.

Among those pardoned was George Papadopoulos, who was a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Trump's 2016 campaign and pleaded guilty in 2017 to making false statements to federal officials as part of the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.

Also pardoned was Alex van der Zwaan, a lawyer who pleaded guilty to the same charge in 2018 in connection of the special counsel's inquiry. Both men served short prison sentences.

The Mueller-related pardons are a signal of more to come of people caught up in the investigation, according to people close to the president.



Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/politics/trump-pardons.html

Senior Trump advisers prepare to launch policy group

Source: Politico

Senior advisers to President Donald Trump are preparing to launch a nonprofit group to promote the president’s policies once he leaves office, creating a landing spot for former Trump officials after the White House changes hands.

White House domestic policy adviser Brooke Rollins and National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow have been putting the organization together and are expected to be heavily involved once it gets off the ground. National Security adviser Robert O’Brien and former Energy Secretary Rick Perry are also among those likely to play roles.

Word of the yet-to-be-named outfit comes as top White House officials plot their futures and Trump’s post-presidential political apparatus gradually comes into focus, featuring a new PAC and potentially other entities as well. The new nonprofit group is expected to become a destination for many of the administration’s top policy advisers and Cabinet officials.

Kudlow has spoken about the nascent organization with the president, and senior White House adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner has also been involved in the discussions.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/22/trump-advisers-launch-policy-group-449886

Texas AG Ken Paxton urged White House to revoke Harris County COVID relief

Source: Houston Chronicle

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Ken Paxton tried to get the Trump administration to revoke millions in federal COVID relief funding that Harris County budgeted for expanding mail-in voting earlier this year, newly revealed records show.

Paxton wrote in a May 21 letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that Harris County’s plan was an “abuse” of the county’s authority and an “egregious” violation of state law. The letter was obtained and published by the Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

“We respectfully ask the department to scrutinize its award of CARES Act funding to Harris County in light of the county’s stated intent to use federal funding in violation of state law, and to the extent possible, seek return of any amounts improperly spent on efforts to promote illegal mail-in voting,” Paxton wrote. “Without implementing adequate protections against unlawful abuse of mail-in ballots, the department could be cast in a position of involuntarily facilitating election fraud.”

Paxton and other state leaders alleged that mail-in voting is more susceptible to fraud, though there is no evidence to support those claims. Paxton’s office resolved 16 prosecutions for voter fraud in 2020, all minor cases from Harris County in which residents gave false addresses on their voter registration forms.



Read more: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Texas-AG-Ken-Paxton-urged-White-House-to-revoke-15821993.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Premium)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral

Trump co has refused to transfer the @POTUS & @WhiteHouse Twitter accounts with followers to Biden

Growing number of lawmakers decline early access to COVID-19 vaccine

Source: The Hill

A small but growing number of lawmakers are declining early access to a COVID-19 vaccine that’s being offered to them under continuity of government policies.

A handful of lawmakers in both parties, including Reps. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), Jefferson Van Drew (R-N.J.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and incoming Rep.-elect Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), all made a point of announcing they would refuse a vaccine before all front-line health care workers and seniors get inoculated.

Most other lawmakers are getting their first of two doses of the vaccine and urging others to follow suit, arguing it's necessary to ensure continuity of government in the pandemic.

But some are wary of the optics of representatives getting priority access to a vaccine and would rather wait until it’s widely available to the public.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/531198-growing-number-of-lawmakers-decline-early-access-to-covid-19-vaccine