Wicked Blue
Wicked Blue's JournalTrump Tax Law Firm Ends Work for Ex-President
Wall Street Journal
Corinne Ramey
The law firm that handled the tax affairs of Donald Trump and his company during his presidency said it would stop representing him and his business.
The firm, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, is currently wrangling with the New York attorney general’s office over documents related to its work for the former president’s business, the Trump Organization. Led by Democratic Attorney General Letitia James, the office is conducting a civil-fraud probe into Mr. Trump’s financial dealings.
“We have had a limited representation of the Trump Organization and Donald Trump in tax-related matters,” a Morgan Lewis spokeswoman said. “For those matters not already concluded, we are transitioning as appropriate to other counsel.”
The spokeswoman didn’t provide a reason for the firm’s decision.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-tax-law-firm-ends-work-for-ex-president-11611252382
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner move out of DC and lease luxury condo in Miami
By Kate Bennett, CNN
CNN Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have moved out of their Washington, DC, home, and have signed a one-year lease on a luxury condo in Miami at the Arte, an expensive oceanfront residential building, a source familiar with the couple's move confirmed to CNN.
The last of their moving trucks departed the now-vacant property in the Kalorama neighborhood of DC Thursday.
Trump's and Kushner's items are scheduled to be delivered to Miami, said a source with information on where the trucks were headed.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report the Trump-Kushner Miami rental.
CNN reached out to a representative for Ivanka Trump and has not immediately received a response.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/politics/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-luxury-condo-miami/index.html
Enjoy it while you can. Prison awaits.
Also, the CNN article states that rents hover in the $40,000-per-month range, while units typically sell for between $7 and 15 million.
Biden: Wearing a mask is a 'patriotic act' amid 'wartime effort' to fight Covid-19
CNN
DJ Judd
In remarks at the White House Thursday afternoon, US President Joe Biden acknowledged the uphill battle his administration faces to vaccinate enough Americans to achieve immunity at any significant level.
“The brutal truth is it's going to take months before we can get the majority of Americans vaccinated, so, while we increase vaccinations, we're gonna take steps necessary now to slow the spread of the diseases as well," he told reporters Thursday.
“One of our 100 day challenges is asking the American people to mask up for the first 100 days, the next 99 days," Biden added.
"The mask has become a partisan issue unfortunately, but it's a patriotic act. But, for a few months to wear a mask, no vaccines, the fact is that they’re the single best thing we can do, they’re even more important than the vaccines, because they take time to work." (my boldface - w.B.)
https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-01-21-21/index.html
Pelosi says House will be "completely ready" to pass Biden's Covid-19 package first week of February
CNN
Clare Foran, Annie Grayer and Manu Raju
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressed the timing of a Senate impeachment trial during her opening remarks of her weekly news conference, but did not specify exactly when that will unfold and when the House will send articles.
"We will be, in the next few days, I’ll be talking with the managers as to when the Senate will be ready for the trial of the then-President of the United States for his role in instigating an insurrection on the Capitol of the United States," she said.
"Everyone’s asking – I’m not going to be telling you when it is going. We had to wait for the Senate to be in session. They have now informed us they are ready to receive, the question is other questions about how a trial will proceed, but we are ready," she said.
Pelosi was later asked, can you put finer point on impeachment timing and said, "No," adding, "you’ll be the first to know."
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/president-joe-biden-news-01-21-20/index.html
Florida-based bank announces it is closing Trump's accounts
Source: Washington Post
David A. Fahrenthold
Another one of former president Donald Trump’s banks said Thursday that it is closing his accounts, as Trump returns to a business hammered by covid-19 and the backlash to Trump’s role in the deadly attack on the Capitol.
“We no longer have any depository relationship with him," Bank United said Thursday. The bank declined to give a reason for its decision.
The Florida-based bank had held some of Trump’s money since at least 2015, according to the former president’s financial disclosures. At the end of 2020, Trump said he had two money market accounts at Bank United, containing between $5.1 million and $25.2 million combined. The financial disclosure forms allowed Trump to list his assets in ranges, rather than exact dollar amounts.
Since the Jan. 6 attack, a number of key partners, vendors and customers have cut ties with Trump’s company. That list now includes three of the four banks that held Trump’s largest deposits: Signature Bank and Professional Bank announced their decisions earlier this month. The fourth, Capital One Bank, has declined comment, saying it does not discuss current or former customer relationships.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/21/joe-biden-live-updates/
Sorry Donald, you can't get cash from the ATM
Biden plans for tougher stance on Russia
Source: Washington Post
By John Hudson
Jan. 21, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. EST
President Biden is seeking a five-year extension with Russia on the only remaining treaty limiting the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals just days before it expires, said two senior U.S. officials.
At the same time, his administration is preparing to impose new costs on Russia pending a newly requested intelligence assessment of its recent activities. The officials said Biden is ruling out a “reset” in bilateral relations with Moscow as many new U.S. presidents have done since the end of the Cold War.
“As we work with Russia, so, too, will we work to hold Russia accountable for their reckless and aggressive actions that we’ve seen in recent months and years,” said a senior U.S. official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive security matter.
The decision to seek a five-year treaty extension, which Russia supports but the Biden administration hadn’t settled on until now, reflects the rapidly approaching deadline for Washington to renew the New START pact Feb.?5, the officials said.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/biden-russia-nuclear-treaty-extension/2021/01/21/4667a11e-5b40-11eb-aaad-93988621dd28_story.html
Biden tweets about Covid-19 action he plans to take today: "We don't have a second to waste"
CNN
President Biden tweeted out his intent to sign executive actions on the coronavirus pandemic today, emphasizing that "we don't have a second to waste" to get the virus under control.
Biden has made Covid-19 the focus of his first full day in office. He plans to sign six executive orders and one presidential policy directive on the virus.
The executive orders include things like a review of supply chain, additional data collection and transparency, and support for additional Covid-19 treatment research and supply. A presidential policy directive will call on agencies to “strengthen efforts to combat COVID-19 globally and strengthen global pandemic preparedness.”
We don't have a second to waste when it comes to getting this virus under control. That's why today, I'll be signing executive actions to expand testing, administer vaccines, and safely reopen schools and businesses.
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 21, 2021
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/president-joe-biden-news-01-21-20/index.html
Without a power sharing agreement, Republicans in the Senate still chair committees
CNN
Manu Raju
Biden's Cabinet nominees could face a bumpy road ahead since no deal has been reached on power sharing in the Senate. That means Republicans are still chairing key committees and have the power to set the agenda until such an agreement is reached.
This is evident this morning in the hearing for President Biden's Transportation nominee, Pete Buttigieg, who is being questioned by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, is chairing the hearing, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, is serving as ranking member.
What is power-sharing? A power-sharing agreement will spell out the number of seats that each caucus will have on Senate committees. Absent an agreement, the Senate will operate under the rules of the last Congress when the GOP controlled the Senate majority and held the committee chairmanships
A power sharing agreement is under discussion between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, but the two have hit a snag over McConnell's demands that Schumer promise to save the filibuster and not move forward with efforts to gut the potent stall tactic on legislation.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/president-joe-biden-news-01-21-20/index.html
Trump's hotels and golf resorts lost revenue as pandemic took financial toll
Washington Post
By David A. Fahrenthold
Former president Donald Trump’s hotels and golf resorts fell into sharp decline in 2020 — with some losing more than 60 percent of their normal revenue, as the coronavirus pandemic forced long-term closures and kept tourists away — according to new financial disclosure documents.
The disclosures, which Trump was required to file as his term ended, hit particularly hard at three of Trump’s biggest operations: his D.C. hotel, and his golf resorts in Doral, Fla., and Turnberry, Scotland. These three are key to Trump’s financial future, because the D.C. and Doral properties carry large debt loads, and the Turnberry property has been a sinkhole of cash for Trump.
A year of coronavirus decimated the properties: Their combined revenue fell from $148 million in 2019 to $71 million in 2020, a drop of more than half. There was one bright spot: Revenue at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, a members-only operation in Palm Beach, Fla., that is now doubling as the former president’s home, increased 12 percent. And Trumpstore.com, a website selling t-shirts, candles and bath bombs with the former president’s name, reported that its income doubled, to $1.9 million.
Now out of office, Trump has returned to a business beset by troubles, both legal and financial. His own staff have estimated that covid’s impact on the hotel business could last for four to nine years. He is facing at least two state-level investigations into his past financial practices. And, in the days since a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol, some of Trump’s key allies in the business world have cut their ties with him. His company has lost three banks, two real-estate brokers, at least one law firm, and its chance to host the 2022 PGA Championship.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/21/joe-biden-live-updates/
Russia pushes back after Alexei Navalny's Putin 'palace' probe
Source: Agence France-Presse
Russian prosecutors warned supporters of Alexei Navalny on Thursday against staging demonstrations, after his probe into President Vladimir Putin's alleged "palace" became the Kremlin critic's most-watched YouTube investigation.
Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Thursday that the two-hour video report into an opulent Black Sea property allegedly owned by Putin had been viewed more than 41 million times since its release Tuesday.
The 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner published the investigation into "the world's most expensive palace" days after his arrest in Moscow on arrival from Germany.
Navalny in the video urged his supporters to take the streets on Saturday to protest Putin, who had ruled over Russia for two decades.
Read more: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210121-russia-pushes-back-after-navalny-s-putin-palace-probe
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