U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is puzzled as to why 800,000 furloughed federal workers need to visit food banks to keep their families from starving, when they can simply get a loan.
Billionaire Wilbur Ross, 79, was sworn in today as secretary of commerce. According to DC Report, Ross' "role as Vice Chair and a leading investor in the Bank of Cyprus, the largest bank in Cyprus, one of the key offshore havens for illicit Russian finance," makes him a poor choice for this position. — Read the rest
• Users who sued claim Trump's ban on WeChat prohibits "millions of WeChat users in the United States … from using the most popular social media space for Chinese speakers in the world."
The Justice Department said on Wednesday that U.S.-based — Read the rest
The planned delegation included Pompeo and Mnuchin.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders says the Trump administration has canceled a planned trip to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum. The announcement was made today, Thursday, the 27th day of Trump's partial government shutdown.
Over the weekend it seemed like a solid trade agreement – putting the trade war on hold for 90 days – had been made between the United States and China. And then Trump couldn't resist Twitter, where, over a few posts, he warned that if the deal didn't happen, he was a "Tariff Man." — Read the rest
1.4TB/13.4 million documents have leaked from Appleby, the offshore law-firm that is part of the "magic circle" of firms employed by the super-rich to manipulate their finances; the documents are supplemented with another "offshore provider"'s files, and the company registries of 19 tax havens.
Breaking news from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP): "A trove of 13.4 million records exposes ties between Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump's billionaire commerce secretary, the secret dealings of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's chief fundraiser and the offshore interests of the queen of England and more than 120 politicians around the world." — Read the rest
Executives from Google, Apple, Intel, Adobe, and other Silicon Valley tech firms met with Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner today, to talk about reducing government waste and improving information technology services.
Trump administration officials in attendance included Mike Pence, Steve Mnuchin andWilbur Ross. — Read the rest
Trump keeps saying that the media's relentless investigations into Russia's corrupting influence on the White House is "fake news," but the media keeps finding out more and more about how Trump and his inner circle have cozied up to Russian and eastern European mobsters and kleptocrats. — Read the rest
Why would a savvy Russian billionaire buy a tear-down, mold-infested house from Donald Trump for $100 million, and what does it have to do with newly confirmed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross? — Read the rest