Your Daily Dose of Trump and His Administration News
- Newly obtained documents show $157,000 in additional payments by the Secret Service to Trump properties. Trump’s company says it charges taxpayers “like 50 bucks” for rooms used by government employees. It actually charged $650 and $396 per night for rooms Mar-a-Lago, and $566/night for a cottage in NJ. Total bill to taxpayers: $628,000 – at least.
- A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Justice Department to privately show him the portions of the Mueller report that were censored in the public version so he could independently verify the justifications for doing so. The ruling came in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking a full-text version of the report.
Judge Reggie B. Walton sharply criticized Attorney General William Barr’s handling of the report by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, saying that Mr. Barr put forward a “distorted” and “misleading” account of its findings and lacked credibility on the topic.
- Walton said Mr. Barr could not be trusted and cited “inconsistencies” between his statements about the report when it was secret and its actual contents that turned out to be more damaging to President Trump. Judge Walton said Mr. Barr’s “lack of candor” called “into question Attorney General Barr’s credibility and, in turn, the department’s” assurances to the court.
- President Donald Trump falsely blamed the Obama administration for the slow rollout of U.S. tests for the new coronavirus, ignoring his own administration’s response to the health crisis and mischaracterizing Obama-era policies.
- A state coronavirus-response team in Utah is calling comments from President Trump “misinformation” and warning people to stay home from work if they show symptoms that match the virus.
- The Bureau of Land Management has lost more than half of its Washington-based employees who were going to be forced to move out west as the Trump administration moves forward with a controversial plan to relocate staff out of D.C. — where they’re able to more closely work with lawmakers. The exodus of employees means a loss on experts and a “huge brain drain” on the agency that protects land.
- President Donald Trump abruptly canceled his scheduled Friday visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta even as the coronavirus outbreak escalates. Trump’s schedule Friday, which was released publicly at nearly midnight, no longer listed the trip to Atlanta. The president planned to fly to the Nashville area following a series of deadly tornadoes there, and then onto Florida, where he is scheduled to spend three nights at his south Florida retreat, Mar-a-Lago.
- In a televised Town Hall meeting, Trump again stated he is going to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.
The Past 24 Hours Or So 