Raw Story Investigate

How one big drug company is trying to keep its claws in HIV patients

The Trump administration appeared this month to finally act on a campaign promise to lower drug prices by taking the maker of an HIV drug to court for violating a government patent. But as with all things Trump, what you see on the surface is not all that’s actually going on. First, this is only […]

‘The mess right in front of us’: Impeachment hearings reveal as much about dishonest congressional GOPers as Trump

If the point of Wednesday’s public testimony opening impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump were meant to show off credible accounts from straight-laced, super-patriotic, service-oriented diplomats, they were bulls-eyes. If the point of Republican questionings was to make a mockery of the proceedings, they may have boomeranged—the Republicans are the ones who come across as partisan […]

David Cay Johnston issues ‘a warning’ after reading ‘Anonymous’ book: Trump is stupid, crazy and dangerous

At DCReport we’ve scored an advance copy of the most anticipated book of the year, “A Warning” by “Anonymous, A Senior Trump Administration Official.” This book, which goes on sale Nov. 19, is as important, fascinating and easy to read as any book in our times. The scariest line comes on Page 238, where the […]

The hammer will fall during the Trump impeachment hearings — only if you believe in magic

Whether you want the hammer to come down on Donald Trump or finally get the chance to dismiss the whole impeachment inquiry as wrongheaded, the hammer may fall this week if you believe in magic. Wednesday is Opening Day for the Democrats’ assault on the White House, a chance for House Intelligence Committee members led […]

EXCLUSIVE: Counterterrorism expert worries that ‘Putin leads Donald Trump around on a leash’

A counterterrorism expert believes that Donald Trump’s current worldview was “manufactured” by Russia — and the damage the president is doing to the global standing of the United States could last for decades. Malcolm Nance spent 20 years at the NSA and worked as a United States Navy senior chief petty officer, specializing in naval […]

David Cay Johnston explains how Trump’s trade tariffs are really a tax on his base

Candidate Donald Trump railed against America’s chronic trade deficits, vowing to eliminate them if he became president. So, how’s Trump doing? Awful. Trade deficits are growing on his watch. The overall trade deficit in September was 21% larger than during his first full month in office. In 2016, under President Barak Obama, America imported $502.9 […]

Trump’s incoherent administration defends whistleblowers as the president attacks one

While Donald Trump has renewed demands that the media expose the person who first warned about his Ukraine phone call that triggered the impeachment inquiry, other parts of his administration are defending whistleblowers and showing how essential they are to the proper functioning of our government. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday that it […]

How government deregulation is killing people

Your government at work: Members of Congress were hot on both sides of the aisle last week about air safety, relentlessly attacking Boeing over safety lapses on the 737 Max. But they were pretty silent about our government’s role altogether in giving the job of supervising new technology to the air manufacturers themselves. In other […]

Radical Republicans are on a whistleblower witch hunt

Just what do Republicans gain by unveiling the whistleblower? Conservative news media are circulating—without confirmation—the identity of a CIA operative who had been assigned to Donald Trump’s White House, and outspoken Republicans like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) are joining with Trump in seeking to publicize the name. Paul, by the way, would be an “impartial” […]

Impeachment transcripts expose the truth: House Republicans don’t give a damn about protecting America

Transcripts of closed-door testimony in the Trump impeachment investigation show a disturbing pattern of behavior by Republican lawmakers, not one of whom expressed concern about our national security, White House undermining of our diplomats or their safety. Maria Yovanovitch, who got a middle of the night call from the State Department telling her to be […]

Trump tries bribing the jury — and no Republican seems bothered by it

Last week, as the House moved closer to impeaching Donald Trump, the almost more disturbing note was that Trump is working to buy Senate support with campaign cash. According to Politico, Trump is tapping his vast fund-raising network for a handful of loyal senators facing tough reelection bids in 2020. Each of them has signed […]

Court deals a huge blow to Trump’s attempts to hide the mysterious sources of his income

The public is one giant step closer to learning about the mysterious sources of Donald Trump’s income. A federal appeals court ruling on Monday that Donald Trump’s accountants must turn over his tax returns and business records to Manhattan prosecutors is likely to stand despite a promised appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. But it […]

There’s a secret ‘deep state’ army quietly uncovering Trump’s corruption

Our government’s Inspectors General pose one of the biggest threats to Donald Trump’s presidency. The IGs’ unique status as independent watchdogs that report both to their own agencies and to Congress make them a powerful tool to root out presidential abuse, fraud and corruption. The Intelligence Community Inspector General triggered the House impeachment investigation by […]

Meet Trump’s ‘see no evil’ energy commission nominee

The attorney Trump nominated for a seat on a federal commission that oversees pipeline construction and other energy projects wants to impose the legal equivalent of the three monkeys that see no evil in assessing how oil and gas companies are destroying our planet. James Danly, a relatively inexperienced attorney who was an associate at […]

A distracted White House does nothing as China makes a startling expansion into the South China Sea

While President Donald Trump basked in the glow of a fake picture of him giving a military hero dog a medal of honor and infuriated Russia by claiming the U.S. is “keeping the oil” in Syria, he’s blowing off two key summits in East Asia this week, despite China’s increasing aggression in one of the […]

Trump flees to his bankruptcy-proof Florida home as New York prosecutors close in

Donald Trump signaled in a trio of Halloween night tweets that criminal investigations into his New York tax and business filings are vexing him. Knowing how Donald’s mind works, my bet is that he just learned he is getting closer to civil lawsuits or indictment New York law gives prosecutors powerful tools to pursue Trump, […]

The Roy Cohn playbook: David Cay Johnston explains how Trump will try to derail impeachment

The damning Oct. 29 testimony by a decorated Army officer who revealed misleading White House edits to the infamous rough transcript of Donald Trump’s “perfect” call to Ukraine’s leader fits perfectly Trump’s lifelong abuse of records. Altering, destroying, fabricating and hiding records is Trumpian behavior going back decades that the late Wayne Barret and others […]

Trump wants to let local officials veto federal decisions

It’s not enough that the Trump government has cut legal and illegal immigration, has tried to ban Muslims, has put into place agreements to force waits of a year or more in Mexico for families fleeing Central American violence. Now he has issued an executive order that requires state and local governments consent—in writing—before refugees […]

Syria is still a bewildering mess — with or without the US

Time was, conflict in the Middle East was complicated. Trump changed all that. Given the betrayal of the Kurds as a result of the abrupt withdrawal of U.S. troops, ISIS prisoners on the loose and an alleged ceasefire with Turkish-funded fighter-bombers and jihadis that’s been shaky at best, one thing’s been clear: The mess in […]

David Cay Johnston on Trump’s lying, crazy, self-absorbed weekend

That Donald Trump is manifestly unfit to be president, and cannot be trusted with national security secrets, was on full display Sunday morning. What should have been a simple but triumphant announcement on the death of a dangerous man, the ideological leader of ISIS, became a display of Trump’s sick mind. It also showed that […]

Energy commission stacked with Trump appointees is shielding a big political donor

A federal commission stacked with Trump appointees said the organization that runs our nation’s largest wholesale electricity market may keep secret how it spends millions of Americans’ utility-bill dollars on lobbying and political contributions. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, ostensibly independent, slapped down a complaint by a watchdog group known as Public Citizen. The watchdog […]

Donald J. Trump: A graceless boor — even in victory

The announcement that U.S. commandos targeted and killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, founder and leader of ISIS, was welcome news, of course. Removal of the terrorist leader, plus retrieval of documents and plans, calls for congratulations. That Donald Trump would make it a star turn for himself was, well, expected. It’s a legitimate accomplishment, by others, […]

Republicans have embraced an ideology of grievance and it’s a threat to public safety

Nate Kalmoe, an assistant professor of political communication at Louisiana State University and an expert on political violence, explained to me in 2017 that regardless of whether people lean right or left, those whose ideological positions are at least in the neighborhood of the mainstream tend to “have a greater commitment to nonviolent approaches to […]

David Cay Johnston: Trump’s lawless mob of renegade Republicans was egged on by Sean Hannity

The Republican gang that crashed a secure hearing room on Capitol Hill Wednesday was no flash mob. Donald Trump, working with junior Republican House members, arranged the stunt, equally lawless and juvenile. “To be a Democrat you can’t believe in truth, reason, common sense,” Fox’s Sean Hannity thundered on Tuesday night, projecting on House Democrats […]

Acid rain, that ’70s scourge, comes back

Starting in the 1970s acid rain turned hundreds of lakes and streams in Adirondack Park in upstate New York so acidic that fish could not survive. Acid rain can be so toxic that it etches paint off cars. The good news is that some naturally reproducing trout were recently found in one body of Adirondacks […]