DC reaches $750K settlement in Trump inaugural lawsuit
The District of Columbia attorney general said Tuesday that his office had reached a $750,000 settlement to resolve a lawsuit that alleged former President Donald Trumpโs inaugural committee overpaid for events at the Trump International Hotel to enrich the former presidentโs family in the process. Attorney General Karl Racine announced the settlement agreement in the case against the Presidential Inaugural Committee, the Trump Organization and the Trump International Hotel in Washington in a tweet on Tuesday. As part of the agreement, the defendants will pay the District of Columbia a total of $750,000, which will be used to benefit three nonprofit organizations, the settlement paperwork says.
news.yahoo.comWalgreens executive says widespread Covid vaccines will be available in the spring
Covid vaccines are still hard to come by, but that should change by the spring, said Rick Gates, Walgreens senior vice president of pharmacy and health care. Walgreens is part of a federal pharmacy program that will ship doses directly to drugstores this week. The pharmacy chain plans to start vaccinations Friday at some of its stores in 15 states, along with Chicago and New York City. Both vaccines that currently have emergency authorization for use from the Food and Drug Administration โ Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines โ require two doses. "It's just good news for all of us that there's going to be more vaccine available," he said.
cnbc.comAbout 60% of nursing home staff declined Covid vaccines, Walgreens exec says
Many Americans have logged on to websites before sunrise, waited in long lines and driven hours to get Covid vaccines. Yet in nursing homes, many people have reacted the opposite way to vaccination opportunities: About 60% of employees at long-term care facilities declined the shots, said Rick Gates, Walgreens senior vice president of pharmacy and health care. Walgreens and CVS Health were chosen by the federal government to administer vaccines to residents and staff at thousands of long-term care facilities across the country. Gates said excess vaccine doses from long-term care facilities were ultimately returned to the states or given to other high-priority people. He said he expects doses to be more widely available for the general public across all of Walgreens' stores in late March or early April.
cnbc.comCovid vaccine will be administered in โsafe and appropriate places,โ assures Walgreens executive
Rick Gates, senior vice president of pharmacy and healthcare at Walgreens, assured CNBC that the company will safely and efficiently administer Covid vaccines. White House Covid response coordinator Jeff Zients said the process will start out slow, with 6,500 pharmacies receiving 1 million doses. More than 95,000 Americans died from Covid in January alone, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data. Gates explained that the past few months have been a learning experience to help equip the company to deal with administering the Covid vaccine in the wake of criticism from New Jersey Gov. Murphy blamed Walgreens for the Garden State's sluggish vaccine rollout during a Jan. 20 interview on "The News with Shepard Smith."
cnbc.comNew round of Trump clemency benefits Manafort, other allies
FILE - In this Thursday, June 27, 2019 file photo, Paul Manafort arrives in court in New York. President Trump's former campaign manager is to be arraigned on state mortgage fraud charges. Manafort, who led Trump's campaign during a pivotal period in 2016 before being ousted over his ties to Ukraine, was among the first people charged as part of Muellerโs investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Though the charges against Manafort did not concern the central thrust of Mueller's mandate โ whether the Trump campaign and Russia colluded to tip the election โ he was nonetheless a pivotal figure in the investigation. Trump and the elder Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009.
A look at pardons, clemency in waning weeks of Trump tenure
On Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020, President Donald Trump pardoned 15 people, including Collins. Papadopoulos was the first Trump aide to plead guilty as part of Muellerโs investigation โ pleading guilty to lying to the FBI โ and served a nearly two-week sentence in federal prison. The White House said Stockman had contracted coronavirus while in federal prison and has served more than two years of his 10-year sentence. Esformesโ prison sentence was commuted by the president on Tuesday, but other aspects of his sentence, including supervised release and millions in restitution, remained intact. The White House said the commutation was supported by a number of former attorneys general and said Esformes is in declining health.
A look at pardons, clemency in waning weeks of Trump tenure
On Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020, President Donald Trump pardoned 15 people, including Collins. Papadopoulos was the first Trump aide to plead guilty as part of Muellerโs investigation โ pleading guilty to lying to the FBI โ and served a nearly two-week sentence in federal prison. The White House said Stockman had contracted coronavirus while in federal prison and has served more than two years of his 10-year sentence. Esformesโ prison sentence was commuted by the president on Tuesday, but other aspects of his sentence, including supervised release and millions in restitution, remained intact. The White House said the commutation was supported by a number of former attorneys general and said Esformes is in declining health.
Covid vaccinations for the general public โwonโt be chaos,โ assures Walgreens executive
Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine rolled out in long-term care facilities Friday and pharmacists from Walgreens administered many of those shots. The federal government has agreements with Walgreens and other pharmacies, including CVS, to vaccinate millions of people across the country. Host Shepard Smith asked Gates how Walgreens would handle turning people away who come to their pharmacies to get a vaccination, but are not in a priority population. Gates explained that vaccines will be pre-scheduled and will not be given "walk-up" format, like the flu shots. He added that Walgreens pharmacies around the country will be working with states and with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ensure those who need vaccines, get them.
cnbc.comWalgreens may begin Covid vaccinations at nursing homes before Christmas
The start of vaccinations at nursing homes will represent a significant milestone in the coronavirus pandemic because long-term care facilities have been particularly hard hit with Covid-19 outbreaks and deaths. He said he hopes the vaccinations at long-term care facilities gives Americans more comfort and confidence in the vaccine. That is the final hurdle before the multi-step process of Covid-19 vaccines arriving at nursing homes can be finalized at the state level and then ultimately begin. The company said it's hiring between 8,000 and 9,000 pharmacy team members to support the Covid-19 vaccine and other related efforts, such as testing. About 30,000 nursing homes and assisted living facilities have chosen Walgreens to administer the vaccine, and the company expects to make between two to three visits per nursing home, Gates said.
cnbc.comIvanka Trump says she was deposed for 5 hours in inaugural spend probe. Here's what she failed to mention
Ivanka Trump arrives to introduce her father, US President Donald Trump during a "Make America Great Again" rally at Total Sports Park on November 1, 2020, in Washington, Michigan. Last January, Washington's attorney general, Karl Racine, announced he was suing the Trump Inaugural Committee, The Trump Organization and the Trump International Hotel "for blatantly and unlawfully abusing nonprofit funds to enrich the Trump family." "This came as a result of coordination between Inaugural Committee Deputy Chairman Rick Gates, Trump International Hotel management, and members of the Trump family." "This week spent 5+ hours in a deposition with the Democrat D.C. AG's office where they questioned the rates charged by the Trump Hotel at the inauguration," Ivanka Trump griped in her tweet Thursday. Garten and a White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC on Thursday about Ivanka Trump's tweet.
cnbc.comTrump expected to flex pardon powers on way out door
WASHINGTON โ Advocates and lawyers anticipate a flurry of clemency action from President Donald Trump in the coming weeks that could test the limits of presidential pardon power. No, Mr. President, that would be a gross abuse of the presidential pardon authority,โ Schumer said. Trump then featured Johnson's story in a Super Bowl ad and pardoned her during this year's Republican National Convention. He has participated in several meetings at the White House during Trump's term as officials brainstormed potential changes to the formal clemency process. โFor those people that should be free," he said, Trump's friends-and-family approach to pardons is "a deep and real tragedy."
Ex-Trump campaign aide Gates asks to serve sentence at home over coronavirus fears
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trumps former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates has asked to serve his remaining 45-day intermittent prison sentence from his home over fears of contracting the coronavirus, a court filing showed. FILE PHOTO: Rick Gates, former campaign aide to U.S. President Donald Trump, departs federal court after being sentenced to 45 days in jail and three years probation, in Washington, DC, U.S., December 17, 2019. The gravity of the virus and its potential impact on Mrs. Gates are substantial, he said. If Mr. Gates were to return to his home carrying the virus, it could create serious ramifications for his wife. He was sentenced to serve an intermittent term of 45 days in jail and 36 months of probation in December last year.
feeds.reuters.comEx-U.S. Treasury employee pleads guilty to leaks linked to Russia probe
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former U.S. Treasury Department employee on Monday pleaded guilty to leaking confidential documents relating to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and others to a reporter from digital media company BuzzFeed. Edwards lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, told reporters after the hearing that his client believed she had good reason for disclosing the reports. As part of her plea agreement, she has given up the right to appeal any sentence of six months or less. Prosecutors said beginning in October 2017, Edwards disclosed suspicious activity reports connected to Manafort, his longtime associate Rick Gates, the Russian embassy and others. Manafort was convicted in Virginia of financial fraud in August 2018 and is now serving a 7-1/2-year prison sentence.
feeds.reuters.comEx-Treasury official pleads guilty to SARS leaks about former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Russians
A former U.S. Treasury official pleaded guilty Monday to illegally leaking highly confidential documents about suspicious financial transactions of ex-Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort and others to reporters at BuzzFeed News. The official, Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards, leaked so-called suspicious activity reports, or SARS, starting in October 2017 about Manafort, his business associate and fellow Trump campaign official Rick Gates, Russian agent Maria Butina, the Russian Embassy in Washington and a suspected Russian money laundering entity. Edwards, 41, continued leaking the sensitive documents for the next year. A criminal complaint filed against Edwards in October 2018 says she had "hundreds of electronic communications" with a reporter, "many via an encrypted application." After Edwards began leaking the documents, the journalist wrote articles which mentioned the details of those reports, the complaint said.
cnbc.comTrump ally Roger Stone asks for delay in criminal sentencing in WikiLeaks lie case
During Stone's trial, former top Trump campaign official Rick Gates testified that Trump talked to Stone about WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaignGates testified that less than a minute after finishing a July 2016 call from Stone, Trump indicated that "more information would be coming" from Wikileaks. That testimony contrasted with Trump's claim last November that he did not recall speaking to Stone about WikiLeaks. In a written response to Mueller in November 2018, Trump said, "I do not recall discussing WikiLeaks with" Stone, "nor do I recall Mr. Stone having discussed WikiLeaks with my campaign." But Trump also said, "I was aware that WikiLeaks was the subject of media reporting and campaign-related discussion at the time." Both Gates and his former business associate Paul Manafort a one-time Trump campaign chief originally were charged with financial crimes related to their consulting work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine, which was performed prior to their roles on the Trump campaign.
cnbc.comPaul Manafort hospitalized after medical issue in prison, ex-Trump campaign chief to miss NY court hearing
Paul Manafort arrives in court, Thursday, June 27, 2019 in New York. President Trump's former campaign manager is to be arraigned on state mortgage fraud charges. Former Trump presidential campaign chief Paul Manafort was hospitalized after experiencing a medical issue in the federal prison in Pennsylvania where he is serving a 7-year sentence, and will not appear at a scheduled hearing Wednesday in New York state criminal court, his lawyer said Tuesday. However, that hearing in Manhattan is still scheduled to take place. At the hearing, a judge is expected to rule on Manafort's motion to dismiss state charges of mortgage fraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records.
cnbc.comRick Gates, ex-Trump official who aided Mueller probe, sentenced to 45 days in jail
Washington Rick Gates, the former Trump campaign official and onetime business partner of Paul Manafort, was sentenced to 45 days in jail on counts of conspiracy and lying to federal investigators. Gates, 47, appeared in federal court in Washington to learn his sentence Tuesday. Rick Gates arrives at federal court in Washington for his sentencing on Tuesday, December 17, 2019. Jose Luis Magana / APGates was Manafort's right-hand man and became his deputy when Manafort was named chairman of the Trump campaign in 2016. In the case of former Trump adviser Roger Stone, Gates testified he overheard a phone call between Stone and then-candidate Trump talking about Wikileaks in July 2016.
cbsnews.comEx-Trump campaign deputy chairman Rick Gates sentenced to 45 'intermittent' days in jail, 3 years' probation after Mueller cooperation
Rick Gates, former campaign aide to U.S. President Donald Trump, departs federal court after being sentenced to 45 days in jail and three years probation, in Washington, DC, December 17, 2019. Rick Gates, the former deputy campaign chairman and inaugural official for President Donald Trump, was sentenced Tuesday to 45 days in jail to be served intermittently and three years of probation, winning leniency for his "extraordinary" cooperation with federal prosecutors against other Trump associates. Gates will be allowed to serve his jail term on weekends or on a scheduled to be determined later. "Mr. Gates received pressure from Mr. Manafort not to plead, and Mr. Manafort assured that there would be a defense fund if Mr. Gates decided not to plead," assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Gaston told Jackson. Prosecutors last week told Jackson in a court filing that they supported his request for only probation, given his "extraordinary assistance" to them.
cnbc.comTrump campaign wanted updates on 2016 WikiLeaks releases on Clinton: ex-aide testifies
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trumps 2016 campaign was keen to keep abreast of the release of emails potentially damaging to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, reaching all the way to Trump himself, the Republicans former deputy campaign chairman testified in court on Tuesday. WikiLeaks disclosed several batches of stolen emails in the months before the November election that damaged Clinton. Stone, a longtime Republican operative and self-proclaimed dirty trickster, is accused of telling Congress five lies related to WikiLeaks. Gates said Stone had spoken to him as early as spring 2016 about an expectation that information would be coming out from WikiLeaks. But when WikiLeaks finally dumped a batch of emails on July 22, 2016, the campaign was elated.
feeds.reuters.comTrump was keen to be up to date on 2016 WikiLeaks releases on Clinton: ex-aide testifies
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The 2016 Trump election campaign was keen to keep abreast of the release of emails potentially damaging to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, reaching all the way to Trump, the Republicans former deputy campaign chairman testified in court on Tuesday. REUTERS/Yuri GripasRick Gates, testifying in the criminal trial of President Donald Trumps longtime political adviser Roger Stone, said he witnessed a call with Trump and Stone related to WikiLeaks website in July 2016. WikiLeaks disclosed numerous stolen emails in the months before the election that damaged Clinton. Although Gates acknowledged he could not hear the contents of the call, he said that within 30 seconds or so of Trump hanging up with Stone, Trump said that more information would be coming from WikiLeaks. Then-campaign manager Paul Manafort and aides Jason Miller and Stephen Miller held brainstorming sessions based in part on Mr. Stones predictions about WikiLeaks, Gates said.
feeds.reuters.comTrump talked to Roger Stone about WikiLeaks, Rick Gates says in testimony contradicting the president
Gates testified in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that less than a minute after finishing a July 2016 call from Stone, Trump indicated that "more information would be coming" from Wikileaks. A former top Trump campaign official on Tuesday testified that President Donald Trump talked to political trickster Roger Stone about WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign. In a written response to special counsel Robert Mueller last November, Trump had said, "I do not recall discussing WikiLeaks with" Stone, "nor do I recall Mr. Stone having discussed WikiLeaks with my campaign." Gates testified Tuesday that in addition to speaking to Trump about WikiLeaks, Stone was known in the campaign as a source for information expected to be released by the group. In that email, Stone asked Gates for the contact information of Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and a senior advisor to the president.
cnbc.comFormer top Trump advisor Steve Bannon will testify against Roger Stone in Mueller case
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon will testify against Trump's longtime political advisor and confidant Roger Stone, prosecutors said Wednesday. Stone, a self-described "dirty trickster," is accused of obstructing justice, witness tampering and lying to the House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee. This case is not about whether Roger Stone had any communication with any Russians. Former top Trump campaign official Rick Gates was also set to testify against Stone. Gates, who had previously testified against former Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort, pleaded guilty in the Mueller probe and is awaiting sentencing.
cnbc.comPaul Manafort pushed Ukraine hack theory in 2016, according to new Mueller documents
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pushed the idea that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind the hack of the Democratic National Committee servers, Manafort's deputy told investigators during the special counsel's Russia probe. The documents included summaries of interviews with other figures from the Mueller probe, including Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Gates also said that another point, Trump told him that more leaks were coming, though the heavily redacted documents do not indicate how Trump knew that. The RNC would put out press releases to amplify the emails' release, Gates told the FBI. Manafort, meanwhile, was trying to advise the Trump campaign even after severing ties with the campaign, causing alarm among some of the candidate's most senior advisers.
cnbc.comRick Gates back in court to testify against former WH counsel
(CNN) - Top Mueller cooperator and star trial witness Rick Gates had it easier his second time around. Manafort and Gates, who in the summer of 2016 directed Donald Trump's presidential campaign, were two of the highest-profile defendants in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Though Gates has finished helping prosecutors in the Craig case, he could be called to testify again in November against former Trump adviser Roger Stone. That question had been unresolved at the Manafort trial when Gates testified there. Gates' last two yearsGates laughed quickly when asked about the extent of his cooperation with federal prosecutors.