**Official Trump Conflict of Interest Thread**

[boutons_deux]

Pence is pretty ing stupid, and looks it

Mike Pence has changed his story 3 times on why he stayed at Trump hotel for Ireland meeting

“So, if you’re re-explaining are you losing again?” Melber asked.

“Because Mike Pence is revising his story a third time ongoing 180 miles out of his way all to get government money, your tax dollars into Donald Trump’s company in Ireland. T

his is now one day after Pence’s team said that Trump suggested he stay there so we know about that.”

But now there’s another story.

“At no time did Trump direct our office to stay at his Doonbeg resort,” Pence’s team claimed.

Melber recalled when former Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen was testifying before Congress about what information he knew about the president’s lies.

Cohen explained that Trump doesn’t ask people to lie or tell people to do things to benefit him,

he simply works to ensure people understand what he wants.

“Pence and his team plunked down taxpayer money to go stay at Trump’s resort which you see here, was 180 miles away from the government meetings he had in Dublin,” Melber said.

In fact,

it caused Pence to travel at least four hours each day to the meetings all the way across the country.

Pence claimed it was because

no hotel could accommodate his entourage,

which seems like a stretch for the nation’s capital city,

or any other city within 180 miles of Dublin.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/mike-pence-has-changed-his-story-3-times-on-why-he-stayed-at-trump-hotel-for-ireland-meeting-msnbc-host/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaig n=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29

180 miles everyday? Houston - San Antonio

[boutons_deux]

In the mafia, there is a name for what Pence and Barr did

As a federal organized crime prosecutor, I learned that

the mafia uses a practice known as "kicking up" or "paying tribute" to the boss.

Essentially, all members of a mafia family must make sure that

some of their earnings end up in the boss' pocket.

From the member's point of view, "kicking up" is a way to show respect, curry favor, and reinforce the hierarchical power structure.

From the boss's point of view, it's a way to get rich.

now a political version of it seems to be catching on within the Trump administration. Vice President Mike Pence has decided to stay at Trump's golf resort in Doonbeg, Ireland, during an official visit to Dublin (over a one-hour flight away, so not particularly close or convenient).

in the "posterior osculation" category (as Paul Begala colorfully put it),

Attorney General William Barr reportedly will spend more than $30,000 of personal money

to throw a private holiday party at the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC.

there is no escaping that Barr's choice to patronize a Trump property, like Pence's, will put thousands of dollars in Trump's pocket.

First,

the payments could violate the Emoluments Clause of the Cons ution, which prohibits federal government officials from accepting

(1) "any present, emoluments, le or office" from any foreign country or

(2) any income beyond official salary from any American state or the federal government.
Second,

the decisions by Pence and Barr to patronize Trump's private business raise vexing precedent and serious ethical questions.

Do other high-ranking federal officials need to take notice and follow suit?

Will they be punished or disfavored if they don't throw a couple bucks Trump's way?

Is there some implicit understanding that Trump will favor those who pay?

Even if the answer to all of these questions is "no,"

the appearance itself is terrible; "we don't need no steekin appearances":;ol

The attorney general is supposed to be independent and stand above politics, but

Barr looks weak and sycophantic to Trump.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/04/opinions/pence-barr-money-trumps-pocket-honig/index.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_ content=link&ICID=ref_fark

[boutons_deux]

Air Force crew made an odd stop on a routine trip: Trump’s Scottish resort

Now the layover is part of a broader House inquiry into military spending at and around the Trump property.

In early Spring of this year, an Air National Guard crew made a routine trip from the U.S. to Kuwait to deliver supplies.

What wasn’t routine was where the crew stopped along the way: President Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort, about 50 miles outside Glasgow, Scotland.

why the crew on the C-17 military transport plane made the unusual stay — both en route to the Middle East and on the way back

But they have yet to receive any answers from the Pentagon.

The inquiry is part of a broader, previously unreported probe into U.S. military expenditures at and around the Trump property in Scotland.

the military has spent $11 million on fuel at the Prestwick Airport

fuel that would be cheaper if purchased at a U.S. military base.

The letter also cites a Guardian report that the airport provided cut-rate rooms and free rounds of golf at Turnberry for U.S. military members.

the military has helped keep Trump’s Turnberry resort afloat —

the property lost $4.5 million in 2017,

but revenue went up $3 million in 2018.

On previous trips to the Middle East, the C-17 had landed at U.S. air bases such as Ramstein Air Base in Germany or Naval Station Rota in Spain to refuel,

, the plane landed in Glasgow — a pitstop the five-man crew had never experienced in their dozens of trips to the Middle East.

The location lacked a U.S. base and was dozens of miles away from the crew’s overnight lodging at the Turnberry resort.

the choice of hotel — markedly different than the Marriotts and Hiltons the 176th maintenance squadron is used to

the crew’s per diem allowance wasn’t enough to cover food and drinks at the ritzy resort.

Trump’s properties are unfairly ILLEGALLY profiting off of his administration have dogged the president since entering office.

the potential involvement of the military takes the issue to a different level.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/06/air-force-trump-scottish-retreat-1484337

[boutons_deux]

Pence family boondoggle in Ireland cost U.S. taxpayers $600,000 for the limos alone

Pence and his family opted to stay on the opposite side of the country,

to be near the hometown of Pence’s great-great-grandpappy, which also happened to be conveniently located near the once struggling Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg.

Now we learn that the travel back and forth from Dublin to Doonbeg, where the Pence family spent two nights at Trump’s hotel, were quite costly for American taxpayers. CREW obtained the contracts from the State Department and learned that

taxpayers ponied up $599,454.36 just for the limousines used to ferry the Pence family back and forth across Ireland.

the Doonbeg stay wasn’t the first time Mike Pence has directly helped Donald Trump’s bottom line:

he is one of the most frequent visitors in the Trump administration,

visiting Trump businesses at least 20 times.

Additionally, political groups linked to Pence have also hosted 6 events at Trump properties.

"@GOPLeader: "The President's resorts are hotels that he owns, that people are traveling. what?

It's just like any other hotel...

I don't know that that's different than anything else.

Is it different than if I go and stay or eat at a Marriott here or eat at the Trump?"

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/9/10/1884643/-Pence-family-boondoggle-in-Ireland-cost-U-S-taxpayers-600-000-for-the-limos-alone?detail=emaildkre

Remember the Fox/Repug/Spurstalk insane outrage when Mic e took her girls on a trip to Africa?

[boutons_deux]

Checking In at Trump Hotels, for Kinship (and Maybe Some Sway)

To ethics lawyers, the most extraordinary aspect of the

daily merging of President Trump’s official duties and his commercial interests is that

it has now become almost routine.

Staying at the Trump hotel or hosting an event in one of its ballrooms is hardly a guarantee of getting something in return from the Trump administration, or even getting on Mr. Trump’s personal radar.

But many people like Ms. Bartlett have learned that it also does not hurt.

“President Trump has really been on the side of the evangelicals and we want to do everything we can to make him successful,”

“And if that means having dinner or staying in his hotel, we are going to do so.”

Since Mr. Trump became president,

there have been thousands of visits to his properties,

not only by Mr. Trump himself,

but by foreign leaders,

lobbyists,

Republican candidates,

members of Congress,

cabinet members and

others with ties to the president.

At least 90 members of Congress,

250 Trump administration officials and

more than 110 foreign officials have been spotted at Trump properties since 2017,

“It reflects the normalization of corruption — this is just how business works in Trump’s Washington, D.C.,”

since January 2017, at least $5.6 million has been spent at Trump properties by political candidates or party organizations, including by Mr. Trump’s own political operation,

In the four years before Mr. Trump’s bid for president, these same hotels and other venues collected a total of only $119,000 in federally regulated payments from political groups.

“The committee does not believe that U.S. taxpayer funds should be used to personally enrich President Trump, his family and his companies,” duh

“When you have an event there or do something there, it signifies that you are supporting the president, and supporting what he is doing,” Mr. Navarro said.

“It sends a clear message.” that one supports stealing taxpayers $Ms and blatant corruption

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/u...ump-hotel.html

[boutons_deux]

Trump Adviser Tom Barrack Pushed for Saudi Nuclear Deal — and Planned to Profit From It

Do ents released by a congressional committee reveal

Barrack’s plan to team up with Arab princes to buy a U.S. nuclear company.

Federal prosecutors are investigating foreign influence.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-adviser-tom-barrack-saudi-nuclear-deal

Barr's DoJ will obviously do bang up job on Barrack

[boutons_deux]

How Payday Lenders Spent $1 Million at a Trump Resort — and Cashed In

At the Trump Doral outside Miami, payday lenders celebrated the potential death of a rule intended to protect their customers.

They couldn’t have done it without President Donald Trump and his latest deregulator, Kathleen Kraninger.


In mid-March, the payday lending industry held its annual convention at the Trump National Doral hotel outside Miami.

Payday lenders offer loans on the order of a few hundred dollars, typically to low-income borrowers, who have to pay them back in a matter of weeks. The industry has long been reviled by critics for charging stratospheric interest rates —

typically 400% on an annual basis —

that leave customers trapped in cycles of debt.

Payday lenders, many dressed in golf shirts and khakis, enjoyed an open bar and mingled over bites of steak and coconut shrimp.

They had plenty to be elated about.

A month earlier, Kathleen Kraninger, who had just finished her second month as director of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, had delivered what

the lenders consider an epochal victory:

Kraninger announced a proposal to gut a crucial rule that had been passed under her Obama-era predecessor.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-payday-lenders-spent-1-million-at-a-trump-resort-and-cashed-in

[boutons_deux]

This Is Still Happening: Elaine Chao

An ongoing roundup of Trump administration malfeasance.





his administration has been beset by levels of corruption rarely seen outside of the worst dictatorships and global sports governing bodies.

Given their boss’s open venality and complete lack of accountability,

it’s been hard to keep track of everything that Trump officials have themselves gotten away with.


Chao, who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and who previously served as George W. Bush’s labor secretary, faced back-to-back-to-back-to-back scandals this summer with a series of pieces about her and her husband’s various public grafts.

First, at the end of May, the Wall Street Journal published a report that Chao had failed to divest her shares in a crushed stone, sand, and gravel company, which supplied construction materials to the transportation sector, a year after she had promised to do so. In the meantime, she had netted more than $40,000.


a 5,500-word feature on her family’s shipping company,

its deep ties to the government of China,

the money it has provided Chao and her husband and his campaigns, and

Chao’s apparent efforts to use her positions to bolster the business. Chao repeatedly sought to include family members and relatives affiliated with the company in meetings with top Chinese officials during overseas trips (this was reportedly stymied by State Department officials);

in a response to a Senate confirmation questionnaire, Chao failed to list multiple honorary awards, les, and appointments she had received in China;

her agency has proposed U.S. maritime program budget cuts that would hurt compe ors of her family’s business;

she took at least 21 meetings or interviews with Chinese-language media in her first year in office, including multiple appearances with her father, the company’s former chairman;

she attended an event celebrating a company deal that involved transit projects that fell under her oversight;

she did not recuse herself from any decisions affecting the shipping industry.

The Times also reported that 13 members of Chao’s family had given $1.1 million to McConnell’s campaigns and political action committees tied to him between 1989 and 2018.

The paper noted that Chao’s father had given the couple a gift of between $5 million and $25 million in 2008 that

catapulted McConnell to become the 10th wealthiest senator. Chao’s apparent efforts to boost her husband’s political career through favorable Department of Transportation treatment for McConnell-friendly Kentucky communities. Among the highlights of that piece:

Chao had an aide on her payroll specifically working as an intermediary to McConnell’s office and dedicated to Kentucky transportation projects;

Owensboro, the Kentucky community where the special adviser was from, received an $11.5 million federal grant for a highway-widening project after it was rejected by the previous administration;

days before launching his 2020 Senate campaign, McConnell held an event in Owensboro touting his work for the community;

after Chao met with a top county official,

her department approved “a $67 million discretionary grant to upgrade roads in rural Boone County, another McConnell stronghold northeast of Louisville.”

a separate McConnell stronghold, the town of Paducah, had benefited from Chao’s largesse.

Members of the community of 25,000 had donated $331,029.50 to McConnell’s reelection campaign in 2013 and 2014,

contributing at three times the rate of Louisville’s residents and eight times the rate of Lexington’s.

Meanwhile:

A local marine transportation equipment company received $377,000 from Chao’s DOT in 2017 to boost the town’s dry dock capabilities;

Chao helped kill an administration proposal that would have ended a subsidy for small rural airports like Paducah’s;

last year, Chao opened a Maritime Administration office in Paducah;

and Chao’s department offered a $251,927 grant to the town for maritime highway projects.

etc, etc.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/09/elaine-chao-trump-corruption-still-happening.html

[boutons_deux]

Appeals panel allows emoluments case against Trump's self-enrichment to proceed

federal appeals panel in New York voted 2-1 Friday to let a lawsuit challenging the cons utionality of Donald Trump's failure to divest from his businesses to move forward.

The decision overturned a lower court decision from December 2017 and scored a victory for the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which has brought the suit on behalf of Trump's compe ors.

"If President Trump would like to avoid the case going further and curtail the serious harms caused by his uncons utional conduct, now would be a good time to divest from his businesses and end his violations of the Emoluments Clauses of the Cons ution," CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement.

Judge Pierre Leval wrote for the majority,

"Plaintiffs have plausibly pleaded that the President’s ownership of hospitality businesses that

compete with them will induce government patrons of the hospitality industry

to favor Trump businesses over those of the Plaintiffs so as to secure favorable governmental action from the President and Executive branch."

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/201...ent-to-proceed

[boutons_deux]

House committee investigating Elaine Chao for possible efforts to boost her family's fortunes

The House Oversight and Reform Committee has asked Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to provide do ents relating to her family's shipping company, The New York Times reports.

The committee is investigating whether she has acted in her capacity as transportation secretary

to benefit herself and her family, which includes her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The committee is investigating communications between the Transportation Department and Foremost Group,

the shipping company owned by her family and headed up by her sister,

which have been part of a Times investigation that found

"numerous instances in which Ms. Chao, as transportation secretary, may have boosted Foremost’s image."

Chao has made multiple joint appearances with her father, James Chao, who founded the company, since she became the department's secretary, essentially under the au es of the department.

She and her father have conducted interviews with Chinese-language reporters standing in front of the logo and the flag of the Transportation Department, and

she appeared at a signing ceremony celebrating an agreement between Foremost and a Japanese company that has mass transit projects in the U.S., overseen by her department.

A spokesman for the department told the Times that these "were just routine family events."

Like all our families do.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/201...tail=emaildkre

Lock Her Up

[boutons_deux]

Democrats, Don’t Forget About Wilbur Ross

When the incoming Congress begins its investigations into Trump’s inner circle, the commerce secretary should be near the top of the list.

another journalist has homed in on the business practices of one of the Trump administration’s highest-profile cabinet members: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

Ross is involved in many of the issues closest to the president’s heart:

the North American Free Trade Agreement, 1
trade negotiations with China,
tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, and so on.

to judge by the work of Dan Alexander of Forbes,

Ross may also be Trump’s most corrupt cabinet member,

which is saying something in a cabinet that includes
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, 2 and
once included Scott Pruitt,

In a different administration, Alexander’s exposés of Ross would dominate the front page,

but they’ve gotten buried in the blizzard of news generated by the president.

Yet just as Fahrenthold’s work will likely spark Trump-related investigations,

so will Alexander’s stories trigger investigations into Ross.

Last year, his net worth was said by the magazine to be $2.9 billion,

When Trump nominated Ross to be commerce secretary, he was required to publicly disclose his finances.

That’s when Alexander realized there were huge discrepancies between the information listed in his financial disclosures and the Ross-aided calculations the magazine used to grant him billionaire status.

Indeed, the disclosures suggested that he was worth no more than $700 million.

Alexander began digging around. Almost exactly a year ago — November 7, 2017 —

he published his first big Ross story, which concluded that the missing $2 billion had never existed.

“It seems clear that Ross lied to us,” Alexander wrote,

“the latest in an apparent sequence of
fibs,
exaggerations,
omissions,
fabrications and
whoppers that have been going on with Forbes since 2004”

Ross had failed to disclose 19 lawsuits on a Senate questionnaire he filled out as part of the nominating process.

detailed holdings Ross or his family had continued to own even after he was confirmed as commerce secretary — and even though they cons uted major conflicts of interest.

Navigator Holdings was a shipping company “connected to cronies of Vladimir Putin.”

His family held a stake in the Bank of Cyprus, which was also connected to Putin allies.

He had a stake — along with the Chinese government — in a company called Diamond S Shipping.

Ross’s Wall Street firm had taken “a 30 percent interest alongside a state-owned company named Shanghai Shenda and got roughly $300 million in cash.

That same month Chinese officials hosted trade talks with none other than Wilbur Ross.”

After learning that the New York Times was about to publish an investigation into his relationship with Navigator Holdings, Ross shorted the company’s stock.

the commerce secretary was trading on the not-yet-public news that he was about to be exposed!

Alexander reported that several senators were calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Ross for insider trading.

Alexander got ahold of Ross’s calendar, and wrote a story nicely summed up by its headline:

“Wilbur Ross’ Calendar Reveals Dozens of Meetings With Companies Tied To His Personal Fortune.”

Only when Alexander’s story was about to be published did Ross finally announce that he was selling off all of his equity holdings — holdings that in many cases he had failed to disclose as required by law.

In a story in early August, Alexander actually labeled the commerce secretary a “grifter.”

Many of those who worked directly with him claim that

Ross wrongly siphoned or outright stole a few million here and a few million there,

huge amounts for most but not necessarily for the commerce secretary. …

But all told, these allegations — which sparked lawsuits, reimbursements and an SEC fine —

come to more than $120 million.

If even half of the accusations are legitimate,

the current United States secretary of commerce could rank among the biggest grifters in American history.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/ar...ocrats-inquiry

[boutons_deux]

Transportation Secretary Chao turned her department into a gravy train for Kentucky and McConnell



Elaine Chao's position in the cabinet—has been very, very good to Chao’s spouse, Moscow Mitch McConnell. Politico has found out just how good.

In just her first 14 months in office, one-quarter of all Chao's scheduled meetings with local officials about Department of Transportation projects were with Kentuckians.

Kentucky did not have 25% of the nation's transportation projects from January 2017 through March 2018. At least five of the 18 meetings Chao had in those months with local officials from Kentucky were requested by McConnell's staff, and were identified as "friends" or "loyal supporters" of McConnell.

"Some of the officials who met with Chao had active grant applications before the Department of Transportation through compe ive programs and

the emails indicate that the meetings sometimes involved the exchange of information about grants and opportunities for the officials to plead their case directly before Chao."

Clearly, Chao was giving deferential treatment to McConnell's friends and supporters, and to projects in their state.

"Ever since she came in, it's been very hard to figure out how to get time with her," Beth Osborne, executive director of Transportation for America,

suggested that they invite Chao to their states to see projects.

"And while I was giving that recommendation I kept hearing from folks,

'Oh, she doesn't accept invitations to such things. She just doesn't do that,'" Osborne said.

"And I heard that repeatedly:

'We offered and we were told she just doesn't do trips. That's just not her thing.'"
Her thing, it appears, is making sure that the bucks go to Kentucky and that her husband keeps his job.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/7/1890811/-Transportation-Secretary-Chao-turned-her-department-into-a-gravy-train-for-Kentucky-and-McConnell?detail=emaildkre

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/1...-grants-028412

If there's any doubt, assume that that entire Trash/Repug/judicial assholes are totally corrupt.

[spurraider21]

cocaine mitch and the china people!

[Trill Clinton]

[boutons_deux]

Frey, seeing how Trash has stiffed other cities ($500K in El Paso), is asking for $500K up front.

Trash has $125M in his campaign fund.

[boutons_deux]

Trump chief of staff announces G7 will be held at Trump’s FAILING golf course

Mulvaney insisted that the president will not personally profit from holding the meeting there

and claimed that it was simply the “best” place to hold the summit.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/trump-chief-of-staff-announces-g7-will-be-held-at-trumps-golf-course/

[boutons_deux]

Fox objects to Trash's self-enrichment


https://www.facebook.com/washingtondcpress/videos/442580029715105/

[LkrFan]

[Winehole23]

Trump continues to normalize self dealing.

https://www.propublica.org/article/t...re-mar-a-lago/

[Winehole23]

Using power to steer federal contracts to yourself, that's just what a sharp businessman does, get over it!

[boutons_deux]

One Day After Trump Called Emoluments Clause ‘Phony,’
Court Sets Hearing in Emoluments Case Against Him

a federal court scheduled a proceeding to address an ongoing Emoluments Clause lawsuit aimed at Trump, meaning that

two Emoluments-related proceedings will occur in the same week this December.

Several legal experts quickly notedt hat the Emoluments Clause is not phony whatsoever–it’s an integral part of the U.S. Cons ution.

In truth, the so-called “Emoluments Clause” is actually comprised of two separate sections of the U.S. Cons ution:

(1) the le of Nobility Clause located at Article I, Section 9, Clause 8; and

the Presidential Emoluments Clause located at Article II, Section 1, Clause 7–collectively known as the Emoluments Clauses.

... understood from time immemorial to stand for and enshrine the idea and ideal that

U.S. presidents cannot make substantial profits from either foreign or domestic sources during their time in office

if such profits are made as a direct or indirect result of their being president.

“It is harder to imagine a more clear example of exactly what the emoluments restrictions were designed to prevent than

the president of the United States literally hosting international events in his official capacity at his privately owned properties,”


One lawsuit, stylized as Richard Blumenthal, et, al. v. Donald Trump, is currently pending before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

This action was brought by 30 Democratic Party Senators and 166 Representatives.

The suit alleges that

Trump has violated and continues to violate the le of Nobility Clause (also known as the Foreign Emoluments Clause) by accepting gifts and payments from foreign governments without congressional approval.

second case is being brought by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia. Filed over the summer, the case was initially shelved by a three-judge panel of GOP appointees.

The full court, however, brought the case back to legal life earlier this month–agreeing to hear the case all together or, in legalese: en banc.

That case, stylized as D.C. and Maryland v. Trump also alleges that

Trump has violated and continues to violate the Foreign Emoluments Clause–and other “unprecedented cons utional violations”–through the operation of his luxury D.C. Trump International Hotel.

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile...e-against-him/

[Winehole23]

The Trump campaign is a family grift:

https://twitter.com/Heidi_Cuda/statu...915291136?s=19

[Winehole23]

“They worked with the White House on it and want to be sure we are coordinated,” wrote the official, Christine Roeder, in an email with the subject line “Quicken.”

The exact role of the White House is not clear. But less than two weeks after the email was written, the Trump administration revised its list of census tracts that were eligible for the tax break. New to the list? One of the downtown Detroit tracts dominated by Gilbert that had not previously been included. And the area made the cut even though it did not meet the poverty requirements of the program.

https://www.propublica.org/article/h...r-dan-gilbert/

[DarrinS]

He sucks at this, I guess

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/bus...sident-n916221

[Winehole23]

He sucks at this, I guess

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/bus...sident-n916221

Grifting isn't a crime if you lose money because you tarnished your own brand, overstated the value of your holdings, and accelerated your own security costs by staying at your own resort.

Great point, Darrin.

Did you read your own post, or did you stop at the headline again?