On Thursday, the “Trump, Inc.” team gathered with laptops, pizza and Post-its to disconnect — and to read special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. What we found was page after page of jaw-dropping details about the inner workings of the administration of President Donald Trump, meetings with foreign officials and plots to affect our elections. But we also found rich details on how Trump ran his business dealings in Russia, itself the subject of our recent episode on his Moscow business partners....
Apr 19, 2019•35 min•Ep. 38
In this Trump, Inc. podcast extra, we talk about what we know, what we don’t know and what we still want to know after Attorney General William Barr gave his summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Trump, Inc co-hosts Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz joined Maya Wiley, professor at the New School and MSNBC Legal Analyst on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show to review the on-going investigations. Collusion was never the only thing. For the last year and a half, we have been looking at the conf...
Mar 25, 2019•37 min•Ep. 37
This week, we’re exploring President Donald Trump’s efforts to do business in Moscow. Our team — Heather Vogell, Andrea Bernstein, Meg Cramer and Katie Zavadski — dug into just who Trump was working with and just what Trump needed from Russia to get a deal done. (Listen to the podcast episode here.) First, the big picture. We already knew that Trump had business interests involving Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign — which he denied — that could have been influencing his policy positi...
Mar 21, 2019•39 min•Ep. 36
Being investigative journalists means we’re constantly asking questions. But these days, it also means people are asking us questions. One we hear a lot nowadays: “When is the Mueller report coming — and what will it say?” Our answer: We don’t know. But we’ve realized that perhaps we can be more helpful than that. We don’t have insider information on special counsel Robert Mueller’s office. (Sorry!) But we have spent lots of time investigating the president and his businesses. And we thought we’...
Mar 05, 2019•16 min•Ep. 35
For a year now, Trump, Inc. has been digging into the president’s business. We’ve reached out repeatedly to the Trump Organization with questions. Mostly, we haven’t gotten answers. Yesterday was different. Michael Cohen worked for a decade as the president’s in-house attorney and fixer. In his testimony before the House Oversight Committee, he offered a detailed, insider account of alleged fraud, secrecy and cover-ups. In many cases, what he described connected to the very stories we’ve been di...
Feb 28, 2019•34 min•Ep. 34
We spent a night at President Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington, D.C. — and we met lots of interesting people.
Feb 27, 2019•31 min•Ep. 33
We talk with the ProPublica reporter who helped uncover the Trump administration’s plan to bring nuclear technology to the Saudis.
Feb 22, 2019•9 min•Ep. 32
Last year, our Trump, Inc. podcast with WNYC explored the mystery of how Donald Trump’s inaugural managed to raise and spend $107 million. A lot has happened since then. We now know the inaugural committee is the subject of a wide-ranging criminal investigation. And we at Trump, Inc. broke the news that some of the inaugural money went to Trump’s own business – and that Ivanka Trump played a role in the negotiations. That could violate tax law . (A spokesman for Ivanka said she simply wanted a “...
Feb 20, 2019•31 min•Ep. 31
Court filings by prosecutors last week shined a light on the business lives of two men who worked get Donald Trump elected president: former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Trump, Inc co-hosts Ilya Marritz and Andrea Bernstein talk with Franklin Foer of The Atlantic about what the documents show -- and the further questions they raise. Among those questions:- What exactly was Manafort’s connection to a business partner who some in the intel...
Dec 12, 2018•25 min•Ep. 30
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, took a stake last year in a startup whose co-chairman is a major Trump campaign fundraiser who has sought financial support from the federal government for his other business interests, according to records obtained by ProPublica. The fundraiser, Texas money manager Gentry Beach, and Trump Jr. attended college together, are godfather to one of each other’s sons and have collaborated on investments — and on the Trump presidential campaign. Since Trump...
Dec 04, 2018•19 min•Ep. 29
There’s lots of talk about congressional investigations of the Trump administration that may be coming. Meanwhile, there is already a push to pull back the veil on the president’s conflicts. And it’s making progress. This month, a federal judge ruled that Maryland and Washington, D.C., can move ahead with a lawsuit claiming the president has violated the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which bars presidents from accepting payments from foreign and state governments without congressional approv...
Nov 14, 2018•18 min•Ep. 28
We talk with The New Yorker’s Adam Davidson, The Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold, and McClatchy’s Anita Kumar about the midterms and future investigations by Democrats.
Nov 08, 2018•37 min•Ep. 27
We spent weeks investigating his work and clients in the former Soviet Union.
Oct 31, 2018•37 min•Ep. 26
Donald Trump has multiple different ways of playing the game when it comes to taxes — and he always seems to come out the winner.
Oct 24, 2018•30 min•Ep. 25
In the wake of the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, we discuss President Donald Trump’s business interests in the kingdom.
Oct 19, 2018•14 min•Ep. 24
Donald Trump claims he only licensed his name for projects developed by others. Our investigation finds his family had deeper involvement and the deals often had misleading practices.
Oct 17, 2018•37 min•Ep. 23
Late on a Thursday evening in February 2017, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plane landed at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland for his first visit with President Donald Trump. A few hours earlier, the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson’s Boeing 737, which is so large it can seat 149 people, touched down at Reagan National Airport after a flight from Las Vegas. Adelson dined that night at the White House with Trump, Jared Kushner and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Adelson and his wife, Miria...
Oct 10, 2018•28 min•Ep. 22
A new investigation by Forbes magazine finds the president's net worth has dropped significantly since he took office.
Oct 05, 2018•14 min•Ep. 21
Trump has long worked to enforce silence. And he’s been trying to take the practice to the White House.
Oct 03, 2018•28 min•Ep. 20
Our podcast investigation is back — and this time we’re looking at more than just the president’s family.
Sep 26, 2018•32 min•Ep. 19
In April, we published an investigation into Michael Cohen’s past . That episode traced how so many of Cohen’s associates over the years have been convicted of crimes, disbarred or faced other legal troubles. But — at the time of the episode — the president’s former lawyer had himself never been convicted, or even accused of a crime. Well, it’s time for an update. Cohen pleaded guilty Tuesday to eight felony counts, including tax fraud, lying to a bank and campaign finance violations. The same h...
Aug 22, 2018•42 min•Ep. 18
Paul Manafort was Donald Trump’s campaign chairman for three critical months in 2016, leading up to the Republican Convention. But for a decade before that, he did political work in Ukraine. And it's the money Manafort made from that work that is now under the microscope in a Virginia courtroom. Manafort stands accused of tax fraud and bank fraud in the first case in the Mueller investigation to go to trial. Allegedly, Manafort set up secret offshore bank accounts, took in tens of millions of do...
Aug 02, 2018•21 min•Ep. 17
Tracking the money that goes to the president from political campaigns and taxpayers.
Jun 28, 2018•24 min•Ep. 16
The Trump, Inc. Team holds a live show in New York City to ponder Donald Trump’s business model from the 1980’s to today.
May 18, 2018•36 min•Ep. 15
Donald Trump has proclaimed himself "the king of debt." So how come he paid all-cash for mansions, golf courses, and a winery?
May 11, 2018•18 min•Ep. 14
Trump’s first call with the Vietnamese prime minister was arranged by Marc Kasowitz, a Trump personal lawyer who has another client with business interests in Vietnam.
Apr 25, 2018•28 min•Ep. 13
Long before Donald Trump’s attorney paid Stormy Daniels or had his office raided by the FBI, a pattern was established: The associates of Michael Cohen often land in legal trouble.
Apr 18, 2018•46 min•Ep. 12
Why is Trump’s business arguing its properties are worth just a fraction of what Trump has claimed they are on his own financial disclosures? To save on taxes.
Apr 11, 2018•23 min•Ep. 11
This week, we’re doing a couple of things differently on Trump, Inc. Instead of focusing on President Trump’s businesses, we’re looking more broadly at business interests in the Trump administration. We’re also giving you, our listeners, homework. Last month, ProPublica published the first comprehensive and searchable database of Trump’s 2,685 political appointees , along with their federal lobbying and financial records. It’s the result of a year spent filing Freedom of Information Act requests...
Apr 04, 2018•20 min•Ep. 10
The Trump Organization has five active projects in India, a country where corruption is common in the real estate industry.
Mar 28, 2018•30 min•Ep. 9
