Your Daily Dose of Trump and His Administration News
- President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussed the new North American free trade agreement earlier this week, as House Democrats appeared to close in on a deal with the White House after months of uncertainty over the historic agreement.
- House Democrats agreed to support the new U.S. trade deal with Mexico and Canada. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the new version of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement a “victory for American workers.” The pact will replace Nafta when ratified and contains provisions aimed at creating more manufacturing jobs, for example, by increasing the proportion of vehicles that must originate in North America for the cars and trucks to receive duty-free treatment.
- House Democrats announced two articles of impeachment against President Trump on Tuesday, accusing him of abuse of power over his dealings with Ukraine and obstruction of Congress for his response to the subsequent investigation. Mr. Trump is only the fourth president in U.S. history to have articles of impeachment drafted against him, and appears likely to become the third to be impeached by the House of Representatives.
- President Trump paid more than $2 million in damages as part of a court-ordered settlement stemming from allegations that his defunct charity misused funds, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James. “Not only has the Trump Foundation shut down for its misconduct, but the president has been forced to pay $2 million for misusing charitable funds for his own political gain,” James said in a statement released Tuesday.
- Attorney General William Barr said he still believes the FBI may have operated out of “bad faith” when it investigated whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, and he contends the FBI acted improperly by continuing the investigation after Donald Trump took office. Barr’s blistering criticism of the FBI’s conduct in the Russia investigation, which went well beyond the errors outlined in the inspector general report, is bound to stoke further debate about whether the attorney general is acting in good faith, or as a political hatchet man for Trump.
- Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, said Tuesday that the president has asked him to brief the Justice Department and Republican senators on his findings from a recent trip to Ukraine ahead of a likely Senate impeachment trial. Giuliani also said Tuesday he has unsuccessfully sought to learn why he is under investigation in the Southern District of New York, the office he led as U.S. attorney in the 1980s. “They are refusing to tell us why they are investigating.”Giuliani said he wants to present evidence that he is innocent to prosecutors, but has not been given the chance. He said that his former office is pursuing the “most unfair, vindictive investigation they have ever conducted.”
- Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page is suing the FBI and Department of Justice, alleging that the government’s publication of her salacious text messages with anti-Trump ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok constituted a breach of the Federal Privacy Act.
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was in Washington to meet with his counterpart, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to discuss US-Russia relations. A White House official said Lavrov requested a meeting with Trump, though, and the president met with Lavrov in the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon.
- For the second year in a row, the United States has prevented the United Nations Security Council from scrutinizing North Korea’s abysmal human rights record, sending a clear message to Pyongyang and other abusive governments that the US is prepared to look away regarding rights violations.
The Past 24 Hours Or So 