#rick gates

They deserve each other

Which is more ludicrous - the idea of somebody soliciting financial contributions under false pretenses, or the impulse of supposedly normal people to contribute to the construction of a physical barrier between the U.S. and Mexico?

By now you know the story. Steve Bannon, Trump’s former adviser and 2016 campaign manager was charged Thursday with soliciting donations to a fund-raising campaign called “We Build the Wall.”

Bannon and two others stand accused of a big chunk of the money for personal expenses. In one more layer of poetic justice, Bannon was arrested Thursday on a $35 million yacht owned by an exiled Chinese businessman.

Bannon denies the charge and calls the arrest a “political hit job.”

Innocent or not, Bannon’s indictment makes him No. 6 on the list of Trump cronies who have faced federal charges. Also on that list: Paul Manafort, Rick Gates,  Michael Flynn, Roger Stone and Michael Cohen.

And didn’t Trump tell us over and over again that the Mexican government would pay for the wall ... ?

An Early Christmas Gift

An Early Christmas Gift.

Steve Bannon, aka Wormtongue, was indicted and arrested today for his role in a fraud within a fraud—raising money for Trump’s wall. I do so hope we will be able to watch him being led away in handcuffs on the evening news.

The Trump campaign, which has long embodied the expression—if given lemons, make lemonade, has announced that the Republican Convention will air an…

Walgreens steps up Microsoft partnership, adds Adobe deal to roll out new digital tools

Walgreens Boots Alliance is expanding its 18-month partnership with Microsoft to roll out new technology tools to personalize the healthcare and retail experiences for its 100 million customers.

Working with the tech giant and Adobe, the drugstore company plans to implement new customer analytics and outreach tools to help it better serve customers.

The digital experience and customer insights…

Jason Leopold at BuzzFeed News: 

Donald Trump was told in advance that Wikileaks would be releasing documents embarrassing to the Clinton campaign and subsequently informed advisors that he expected more releases would be coming, according to newly unredacted portions of special counsel Robert Mueller's report into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

In July 2016, political consultant Roger Stone told Trump as well as several campaign advisors that he had spoken with Julian Assange and that WikiLeaks would be publishing the documents in a matter of days. Stone told the then-candidate via speakerphone that he "did not know what the content of the materials was," according to the newly unveiled portions of the report, and Trump responded "oh good, alright" upon hearing the news. WikiLeaks published a trove of some 20,000 emails Russians hacked from the Democratic National Committee on July 22 of that year.

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen told federal investigators that he overheard the phone call between Stone and Trump. Agents were also told by former campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates that Stone had spoken several times in early June of something “big” coming from WikiLeaks. Assange first mentioned having emails related to Clinton on June 12.

The new revelations are the strongest indication to date that Trump and his closest advisors were aware of outside efforts to hurt Clinton’s electoral chances, and that Stone played a direct role in communicating that situation to the Trump campaign. Trump has publicly denied being aware of any information being relayed between WikiLeaks and his advisors.

Allegations of communications between Stone and Trump to discuss WIkiLeaks first surfaced early last year, when Cohen testified to a congressional committee about the June 2016 conference call. At the time, Stone denied any such involvement. “Mr. Cohen’s statement is not true,” he told BuzzFeed News.

But based on the interviews investigators conducted with those three men and other officials, Mueller’s report concluded it had "established that the Trump Campaign displayed interest in the WikiLeaks releases, and that former Campaign member Roger Stone was in contact with the Campaign about those releases, claiming advance knowledge of more to come."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The District of Columbia is suing President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee and two companies that control the Trump International Hotel in the nation’s capital, accusing them of throwing parties for the Trump family with nonprofit funds, and overpaying for event space at the hotel.

The city’s attorney general, Karl Racine, announced the lawsuit Wednesday. According to his office, the inaugural committee abused non-profit funds, and to coordinated with the Trump family to “grossly overpay for event space” in the hotel.

The committee has maintained that its finances were independently audited, and that all money was spent in accordance with the law.

The suit alleges that the committee knew it was overpaying, but didn’t consider less expensive alternatives.

The committee raised an unprecedented $107 million to host events celebrating Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. But the committee’s spending has drawn mounting scrutiny.

“District law requires nonprofits to use their funds for their stated public purpose, not to benefit private individuals or companies,” Racine said. “In this case, we are seeking to recover the nonprofit funds that were improperly funneled directly to the Trump family business.”