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Manafort, US government settle civil case for $3.15 million
Read full article: Manafort, US government settle civil case for $3.15 millionThe former chairman of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Paul Manafort, has agreed to pay $3.15 million to settle a civil case filed by the Justice Department over undeclared foreign bank accounts.
Feds seek nearly $3M from Manafort over undisclosed accounts
Read full article: Feds seek nearly $3M from Manafort over undisclosed accountsThe Justice Department is suing Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, seeking to recover nearly $3 million from undeclared foreign bank accounts.
Trump aide Paul Manafort removed from plane at Florida airport
Read full article: Trump aide Paul Manafort removed from plane at Florida airportFormer Trump adviser Paul Manafort was removed from a plane at Miami International Airport before it took off for Dubai because he carried a revoked passport.
Banker gets gets 1 year in prison in Manafort loan scheme
Read full article: Banker gets gets 1 year in prison in Manafort loan schemeA Chicago banker has been sentenced to a year in prison for his conviction in a scheme to make $16 million in loans to Paul Manafort to gain influence in the Trump administration.
Lawyers deny spy suspect discussed fleeing to evade arrest
Read full article: Lawyers deny spy suspect discussed fleeing to evade arrestLawyers for a Maryland woman charged along with her husband in a scheme to sell Navy submarine secrets to a foreign government are pushing back on prosecutors’ arguments that she was motivated to leave the United States because she was afraid of getting caught.
FBI at Russian oligarch's homes for 'law enforcement' action
Read full article: FBI at Russian oligarch's homes for 'law enforcement' actionFederal agents have been carrying out “law enforcement activity” at a Washington mansion and New York City townhouse tied to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
EXPLAINER: What to know about the Giuliani investigation
Read full article: EXPLAINER: What to know about the Giuliani investigationA long-running federal investigation into Rudy Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine has moved back into public view after federal agents seized electronic devices from the former New York mayor.
US says Russia was given Trump campaign polling data in 2016
Read full article: US says Russia was given Trump campaign polling data in 2016The Treasury Department says Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian and Ukrainian political consultant, shared sensitive information from Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign with Russian intelligence services.
New York Assembly hires top law firm for Cuomo investigation
Read full article: New York Assembly hires top law firm for Cuomo investigationNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks before getting vaccinated at a church in the Harlem section of New York, Wednesday, March 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)ALBANY, N.Y. – New York’s Assembly has hired a Manhattan law firm to assist in its impeachment investigation of Gov. The Manhattan firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, which has more than 900 attorneys, will lead the probe, said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Lavine. “I have the utmost faith that Assemblymember Lavine and our Judiciary Committee will conduct a full and fair investigation,” Heastie said. On Wednesday, Cuomo received his COVID-19 vaccination at a church in Harlem, where several Black leaders in New York City appeared at his side.
Trump pardons ex-strategist Steve Bannon, dozens of others
Read full article: Trump pardons ex-strategist Steve Bannon, dozens of othersTrump is expected to pardon Bannon, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, as part of a flurry of last-minute clemency action that appears to be still in flux in the last hours of his presidency. Trump did not pardon himself, despite speculation that he would, in the face of potential federal investigations. Another was Ken Kurson, a friend of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner who was charged last October with cyberstalking during a heated divorce. Bannon was charged in August with duping thousands of donors who believed their money would be used to fulfill Trump’s chief campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border. “Steve Bannon is getting a pardon from Trump after defrauding Trump’s own supporters into paying for a wall that Trump promised Mexico would pay for,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said on Twitter.
Trump wishes new administration luck in farewell video
Read full article: Trump wishes new administration luck in farewell videoPresident Trump is seen on a network monitor after his pre-recorded farewell speech was released, inside the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021, in Washington. “This week we inaugurate a new administration and pray for its success in keeping America safe and prosperous,” Trump said in the video “farewell address,” released by the White House less than 24 hours before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. Trump is set to leave Washington early Wednesday morning after a grand farewell event at nearby Joint Base Andrews. He is boycotting not just the ceremony at the Capitol, but also passed on inviting the Bidens to the White House for a get-to-know-you meeting. That threw an already paralyzed White House into even further chaos.
Lingering questions about how Trump will finish out his term
Read full article: Lingering questions about how Trump will finish out his termA U.S. Secret Service guard stands post at the North Portico of the White House, after the U.S. House impeached President Donald Trump in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021. Trump did not make a concession phone call or invite Biden to the White House after his victory. But last week the White House invited Biden to spend the night of Jan. 19 at Blair House. Officials do not expect Trump to invite Biden to the White House for the traditional pre-inauguration tea on Wednesday, but they said it is still a remote possibility. With Trump skipping the event, White House officials say Trump has not decided yet how and when he will leave the White House for his residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
After pardon, Blackwater guard defiant: ‘I acted correctly’
Read full article: After pardon, Blackwater guard defiant: ‘I acted correctly’In this Dec. 31, 2020, file photo pardoned Blackwater contractor Evan Liberty poses for a photo in Washington. The Blackwater contractors meet none of that criteria. They were convicted in the killings of unarmed Iraqi women and children and have long been defiant in their assertions of innocence. “I feel like I acted correctly,” he said of his conduct in 2007. He says he's grateful to his supporters and to Trump for what he calls a “second chance at life."
A look at the 29 people Trump pardoned or gave commutations
Read full article: A look at the 29 people Trump pardoned or gave commutationsTrump commuted his sentence in July just days before he was scheduled to report to federal prison. The president commuted her sentence; the White House said the commutation was supported by several former U.S. attorneys general. A White House news release praised the men as “model prisoners,” who had earned support and praise from other inmates. She was in the White House when Trump signed the overhaul measure, known as the First Step Act, into law. Black was a co-defendant in the case and was also convicted; Trump previously pardoned him.
New round of Trump clemency benefits Manafort, other allies
Read full article: New round of Trump clemency benefits Manafort, other alliesFILE - In this Thursday, June 27, 2019 file photo, Paul Manafort arrives in court in New York. President Trump's former campaign manager is to be arraigned on state mortgage fraud charges. Manafort, who led Trump's campaign during a pivotal period in 2016 before being ousted over his ties to Ukraine, was among the first people charged as part of Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Though the charges against Manafort did not concern the central thrust of Mueller's mandate — whether the Trump campaign and Russia colluded to tip the election — he was nonetheless a pivotal figure in the investigation. Trump and the elder Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009.
A look at the 29 people Trump pardoned or gave commutations
Read full article: A look at the 29 people Trump pardoned or gave commutationsTrump commuted his sentence in July just days before he was scheduled to report to federal prison. The president commuted her sentence; the White House said the commutation was supported by several former U.S. attorneys general. A White House news release praised the men as “model prisoners,” who had earned support and praise from other inmates. She was in the White House when Trump signed the overhaul measure, known as the First Step Act, into law. Black was a co-defendant in the case and was also convicted; Trump previously pardoned him.
New round of Trump clemency benefits Manafort, other allies
Read full article: New round of Trump clemency benefits Manafort, other alliesFILE - In this Thursday, June 27, 2019 file photo, Paul Manafort arrives in court in New York. President Trump's former campaign manager is to be arraigned on state mortgage fraud charges. Manafort, who led Trump's campaign during a pivotal period in 2016 before being ousted over his ties to Ukraine, was among the first people charged as part of Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Though the charges against Manafort did not concern the central thrust of Mueller's mandate — whether the Trump campaign and Russia colluded to tip the election — he was nonetheless a pivotal figure in the investigation. Trump and the elder Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009.
Trump expected to flex pardon powers on way out door
Read full article: Trump expected to flex pardon powers on way out doorWASHINGTON – Advocates and lawyers anticipate a flurry of clemency action from President Donald Trump in the coming weeks that could test the limits of presidential pardon power. No, Mr. President, that would be a gross abuse of the presidential pardon authority,” Schumer said. Trump then featured Johnson's story in a Super Bowl ad and pardoned her during this year's Republican National Convention. He has participated in several meetings at the White House during Trump's term as officials brainstormed potential changes to the formal clemency process. “For those people that should be free," he said, Trump's friends-and-family approach to pardons is "a deep and real tragedy."
Court won't revive state fraud charges against Manafort
Read full article: Court won't revive state fraud charges against ManafortNEW YORK – A New York court on Thursday upheld a decision dismissing state mortgage fraud charges against Paul Manafort on double jeopardy grounds, affirming a lower court finding that they mirrored the federal charges that landed President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman behind bars. A four-judge panel in the state's intermediate appeals court ruled that Manhattan prosecutors failed to show that the state charges they brought against Manafort last year warranted an exception to state double jeopardy protections. Manhattan Judge Maxwell Wiley reached the same conclusion in December, explaining at the time that "the law of double jeopardy in New York state provides a very narrow window for prosecution." Prosecutors contended that the state charges qualified for an exception because they were meant to prevent “very different kinds” of harm than the federal charges that landed Manafort behind bars and that Wiley had taken an “exceedingly broad view” in reaching his decision. In their appeal, Manhattan prosecutors acknowledged their case involved some of the same issues as the federal case.
How a probe of Trump-Russia ties turned into a GOP rally cry
Read full article: How a probe of Trump-Russia ties turned into a GOP rally cryYet in the 2020 campaign, Democrats are largely ignoring the Russia probe. While some of the revelations from the steady drip of newly declassified documents are serious, they do not undercut the reasons the Russia probe was launched or its principal findings. Meanwhile, Attorney General William Barr has appointed a prosecutor to investigate the origins of the Russia probe. Meanwhile, attacking the Russia probe is a core part of Trump's campaign. Those attacks on the Russia probe may not win over many undecided voters.
Bank shares slide on report of rampant money laundering
Read full article: Bank shares slide on report of rampant money launderingShares of Deutsche Bank dropped 8.3%. Deutsche Bank has been under scrutiny for years. Deutsche Bank neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the settlement. The London bank HSBC, Europe's largest acknowledged in 2012 that it had laundered at least $881 million for Latin American drug cartels. However, according to the report, HSBC continued to manage money for shady clients, including suspected Russian money launderers and a Ponzi scheme under investigation in multiple countries.
Appeals court keeps Flynn case alive, won't order dismissal
Read full article: Appeals court keeps Flynn case alive, won't order dismissalFILE - In this Sept. 10, 2019 file photo, Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, leaves the federal court following a status conference in Washington. The arrest of President Donald Trumps former chief strategist Steve Bannon adds to a growing list of Trump associates ensnared in legal trouble. They include the president's former campaign chair, Paul Manafort, whom Bannon replaced, his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, and his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)WASHINGTON A federal appeals court won't order the dismissal of the Michael Flynn prosecution, ruling Monday that a judge is entitled to scrutinize the Justice Department's request to dismiss its case against the former Trump administration national security adviser. In May, the Justice Department moved to dismiss the prosecution even though Flynn himself had pleaded guilty and admitted lying to the FBI during the Russia investigation.