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Rebecca Ballhaus

@rebeccaballhaus93k followers

@WSJ investigative reporter. Previously covered the White House and money in politics. rebecca.ballhaus@wsj.com or Signal at rballhaus.79

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1May 29, '19NEW: The White House wanted the USS John McCain “out of sight” for Trump’s visit to Japan. A tarp was hung over the ship’s name ahead of the trip, and sailors—who wear caps bearing13.6×018k12k366
2Aug 31, '20"We don't have a family pastor," Jacob Blake's father says on CNN. "I don't know who he talked to." Trump said at tonight's briefing he had spoken with the Blake family's pastor.12.1×048k12k268
3Nov 20, '18Trump just now: “I don’t make deals with Saudi Arabia. I don’t have money from Saudi Arabia. I have nothing to do with Saudi Arabia.” Trump in August 2015: “Saudi Arabia, I get alo8.6×029k12k126
4Aug 19, '20Former DHS chief of staff Miles Taylor recalled on MSNBC that Trump “wanted to see if we could sell Puerto Rico, ‘could we swap Puerto Rico for Greenland,’ because, in his words, ‘7.9×023k11k485
5Aug 21, '18The crowd at tonight’s Trump rally in West Virginia is chanting, “Drain that swamp” and “Lock her up," on a day where the president’s former lawyer pleaded guilty to campaign-finan6.9×026k6.3k45
6Apr 20, '20Trump just referred to FEMA as FIFA.6.2×028k3.6k110
7Jun 15, '20Trump on the number of coronavirus cases, per pool: “If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any.”6.0×018k4.2k181
8Jul 12, '18Trump arrived 30 minutes late to today’s NATO summit, missed his scheduled meetings with at least two world leaders, prompted the secretary general to call an emergency session, he5.4×014k7.4k80
9Apr 14, '17Trump won’t post WH visitor logs, citing “security risks,” & says move will save taxpayers $70K by 2020. One Mar-a-Lago trip costs $2M+.5.1×013k8.7k0
10Dec 7, '17Franken: "There is some irony that I am leaving while a man who bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office, and a man who preyed on young girls run4.8×016k6.7k0
11Nov 6, '20Trump is racing to raise money for an “official election defense fund.” But the fine print on the solicitations tells a different story: Half -- or more -- of any contribution will4.6×012k5.3k269
12Mar 13, '19A software fix to the Boeing 737 MAX was delayed for months as discussions between regulators and Boeing dragged on—and U.S. officials said the government shutdown halted work on t4.0×08.1k6.3k132
13Jan 8, '21NEWS: Betsy DeVos has resigned, writing in a letter to the president: "There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me."3.7×06.1k2.6k160
14Sep 25, '25Trump told aides he couldn’t understand why people were so obsessed with Epstein and that people didn’t understand that Palm Beach in the 90s was a different time. Pam Bondi compla3.6×1.4M6.3k1.8k1.1k
15Oct 4, '19NEWS: GOP Sen. Ron Johnson tells WSJ that the U.S. ambassador to the EU told him in August that the status of aid to Ukraine was tied to Trump’s interest in having Kiev investigate3.6×010k5k139
16Jun 11, '19Kavanaugh has hired the daughter of Amy Chua, who defended his treatment of women during his confirmation, as a clerk on the Supreme Court. During the confirmation, Chua and her da3.6×08.5k5.5k80
17Oct 10, '19Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman had lunch with Rudy Giuliani at the Trump hotel in Washington YESTERDAY, a source who saw them tells @nataliewsj. They were arrested later that night at 3.5×010k4.4k99
18Nov 27, '18Bolton, asked if he has listened to the tape of Khashoggi’s murder: "No, I haven't listened to it. Why do you think I should? What do you think I'll learn from it?" Reporter: "You'3.2×014k2.8k25
19Feb 14, '25Melania pitched her documentary idea to Bezos over dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Amazon agreed to pay $40M—with more than 70% going to her. And her agent has been trying to sell "sponsorsh3.1×1.1M4.2k1.6k797
20Nov 11, '25Fannie Mae watchdogs who were removed from their jobs had been probing if Trump appointee Bill Pulte had improperly obtained mortgage records of key Democratic officials, including2.9×1.1M4.2k988466
21Jul 22, '17.@WSJ found $1B in undisclosed loans to firms Kushner partly owns. Not in revised file either2.7×05.6k5k1
22Oct 26, '19John Kelly says he warned Trump before he left: “Whatever you do, don’t hire a ‘yes man,’ someone who won’t tell you the truth — don’t do that. Because if you do, I believe you wil2.7×08.9k2.8k92
23Mar 28, '20Trump has told people he wants his signature to appear on the direct payment checks that will go out to many Americans. Normally, a civil servant—the disbursing officer for the pay2.6×04.4k2.2k138
24Feb 17, '20The auditorium applauds when Duke professor Peter Feaver asks Bolton why he was willing to comply with Senate subpoena but not House subpoena.2.5×013k1.5k35
25May 21, '17Trump pilloried Clinton for such donations to the Clinton Foundation on the campaign trail2.5×06.2k4.3k0
26Oct 10, '19NEWS: Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two Giuliani associates who donated to a pro-Trump super PAC, were arrested late Wednesday on criminal charges of violating campaign finance rules2.5×06.9k3.1k49
27Aug 8, '19News: Major Wall Street banks including Deutsche Bank and Bank of America have given congressional committees investigating Trump thousands of pages of documents related to Russian2.4×08.1k3.1k59
28Nov 27, '18Trump in Mississippi: “Three border patrol people yesterday were very badly hurt, getting hit with rocks and stones.” CBP commissioner earlier today: “Four agents were hit with roc2.4×08.2k3.1k27
29Mar 26, '18White House attorneys are examining whether two loans totaling more than $500 million to Jared Kushner’s family business may have violated any criminal laws or federal ethics regul2.3×06.8k3.3k12
30Aug 1, '19Jason Statham negotiated a deal limiting how badly he can be beaten up. Vin Diesel has his sister police the # of punches he gets. Dwayne Johnson enlists producers to balance his w2.3×05.9k2k500
31Jul 10, '19A State Dept intelligence analyst has resigned in protest after the White House blocked portions of his testimony to a congressional panel to exclude data and evidence on climate c2.3×06.3k3.8k60
32Nov 29, '18Investigators have emails from late 2015 and early January 2016 in which Cohen communicated with or copied Don Jr. and Ivanka and discussed the Trump Tower Moscow project. Ivanka a2.3×06.8k3.1k38
33Feb 21, '20Trump goes after the Oscars. “And the winner is a movie from South Korea. What the hell was that all about? We’ve got enough problems with South Korea, with trade. And after all th2.3×07.3k1.4k201
34Feb 3, '18DOJ prosecutors seeking a surveillance warrant against Carter Page alerted the FISA court that some of the information in their application came from a politically motivated source2.3×06.5k3.3k2
35Oct 5, '18Grassley suggests his panel has trouble attracting women because "It's a lot of work—maybe they don't want to do it." He later clarified: "We have a hard time getting men on the co2.2×03.5k2.8k35
36Jul 7, '20Michael Cohen testified Trump told him to threaten his high school, colleges, & the College Board to never release his grades or SAT scores. Fordham confirmed a Trump aide call2.2×07.9k2.9k55
37Nov 22, '20An administration official texts, unsolicited: “This has become a farce. The legal effort is now making the president a national laughingstock.”2.2×07k1.3k62
38Nov 9, '18NEW: Trump was involved in or briefed on every step of the hush payments arranged by Michael Cohen, telling him of the Stormy Daniels payment in Oct. 2016, “Get it done,” according2.2×06.4k3.1k58
39Oct 3, '20A White House official clarifies Dr. Conley’s timeline. He says Conley meant to say it’s Day 3, not 72 hours in—the diagnosis was made Thursday night—and that Garibaldi meant to sa2.1×03.9k1.3k92
40Jan 30, '21NEWS: Alex Jones played a greater role than previously known in organizing the Jan 6 rally where Trump told supporters to go to the Capitol, helping bring in a top Trump donor—a Pu2.1×06.1k3k140
41Jan 6, '21The National Association of Manufacturers calls on Pence to "seriously consider" working with the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment "to preserve democracy."2.0×06.3k2.5k84
42Jun 17, '20NEW Bolton book excerpt in WSJ: In June 2019, Xi "explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang. ... Trump said that Xi should go ahead with buil2.0×04.6k2.8k137
43Oct 27, '20This is the first time a Supreme Court nominee has been confirmed without a single vote from a major minority party since December 1869.2.0×07.1k2.3k79
44Apr 29, '19Foxconn got a $4B tax incentive package to build a huge factory in Wisconsin, a plan urged by Trump. Contractors bulldozed 75 homes and cleared hundreds of acres. Then Foxconn retr2.0×03.9k3.5k95
45Feb 27, '19The D.C. attorney general has subpoenaed Trump’s inaugural committee for documents related to any payments to the Trump Organization and related to Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric Trump.2.0×06.4k2.4k37
46Apr 16, '20The White House announces that all Senate Republicans except Mitt Romney—who voted to impeach Trump on one of two counts in February—have ben invited to join a bipartisan task forc1.9×04.9k1.7k40
47Jun 24, '20Alvin Cole, a black teenager who was shot five times while fleeing police earlier this year, was the third person to be killed by the same police officer in five years in Wauwatosa1.9×04.4k3.6k101
48Oct 4, '20NEW: As the virus spread among the people closest to him, Trump asked one adviser not to disclose results of their own positive test. “Don’t tell anyone,” Trump said. More on the s1.7×04.7k2.7k94
49Sep 26, '18New: A decade ago, Julie Swetnick made a sexual harassment complaint against her former employer, New York Life Insurance. Representing her was the firm run by Debra Katz, who now 1.7×03.2k2.5k43
50Aug 2, '18NEWS: Top Trump donor Franklin Haney agreed to pay Michael Cohen $10 MILLION earlier this year if Cohen successfully helped obtain funding for a nuclear-power project, including a 1.7×03.7k3k29
51Nov 17, '17In congressional testimony, Kushner said no one on the campaign ever had contact w/WikiLeaks or Assange. In fact, Don Jr. forwarded his DMs w/WikiLeaks to Kushner + other top campa1.6×04.6k2.5k0
52Sep 22, '19Trump CONFIRMS @wsj report that he discussed Biden w/the Ukrainian president in their July call. Says their conversation was largely congratulatory” and “largely the fact that we d1.6×05.3k1.7k34
53May 10, '19NEWS: Within a day of the release of the Mueller report, Trump sought to have Don McGahn publicly declare he didn’t consider Trump’s directive that he seek Mueller’s dismissal to b1.6×04.8k2.3k32
54Aug 24, '20Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer and a longtime confidant of Trump, gave sworn testimony to the state investigators over two days last month. He 1.6×04.9k2.1k71
55Mar 23, '18NEW: When Trump threatened to veto the spending bill this morning, aides warned him that he might catch blame for shutting down the government on a weekend he planned to spend at M1.6×03.7k2.2k19
56Jan 10, '20New details of Trump’s involvement in the 2016 payoff scheme: On June 27, 2016, after Trump learned that Karen McDougal was shopping around her story of an alleged affair with him,1.5×04.4k2.4k89
57May 13, '20Unmasking U.S. identities in intel reports is a fairly routine process that occurs thousands of times a year and is requested by senior administration officials to better understan1.5×03.9k1.4k83
58Sep 27, '19Andriy Yermak, a top aide to the Ukrainian president, in July asked the State Dept for Giuliani’s number. Then he called Giuliani to ask him to tone down his TV criticism of Zelens1.5×03.9k2.5k64
59Apr 18, '18New: Trump called one of his longtime legal advisers, Jay Goldberg, on Friday to discuss the Cohen probe. Goldberg warned him not to trust Cohen, saying on a scale of 100 to 1—wher1.5×04.3k2k19
60Apr 26, '18Trump on Michael Cohen: “He represents me with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me.” Trump has previously said he was unaware of Cohen’s efforts in Oct. 2016 to pay S1.5×05.3k1.7k11
61Nov 17, '19New: Emails reviewed by @WSJ show that in the lead-up to the Trump-Zelensky call, Sondland kept officials including Mulvaney apprised of the push for investigations. Mulvaney repli1.4×04.5k2k56
62Jan 26, '20Tom Cotton, a military veteran, on CBS defends Trump calling head injuries suffered by American service members in the Iranian missile strike “headaches.” "He’s not dismissing thei1.4×03.1k1.2k25
63Mar 22, '18Trump introduces Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin, as Marillyn Lockheed. Tells her of the F-35: “It’s stealth. You cannot see it. Is that correct? It better be correct.”1.4×03.7k1.6k15
64Oct 3, '19NEW: Trump ordered the removal of the ambassador to Ukraine after months of complaints from allies, including Rudy Giuliani, that she was undermining him abroad and obstructing eff1.4×03.6k2.2k48
65Jan 18, '20New: A network of at least 30 FB pages purporting to represent groups of Trump supporters from different states all appear to be set up by Robert Hyde, the latest impeachment figur1.4×03.5k2.4k58
66Oct 27, '19New: Gordon Sondland told House committees last week that efforts by Trump and his allies to press Kyiv to open investigations in exchange for a White House meeting with Ukraine’s 1.4×04.6k1.8k35
67Sep 28, '18Alan Dershowitz, a staunch Trump ally, calls for the Senate Judiciary Committee to "slow down and postpone its vote” on Kavanaugh "until the FBI can investigate accusations of sexu1.4×04.5k1.8k10
68Jul 7, '20Donald Trump paid someone to take the SAT on his behalf, his niece Mary Trump writes.1.4×04k1.5k53
69Dec 14, '17The FBI employees who called Trump an "idiot" in their texts called Bernie Sanders an "idiot," too. Also had harsh words for Holder, Chelsea Clinton, Paul Ryan + Edward Snowden.1.4×03.4k2.1k1
70Dec 7, '18Tillerson in Texas: “So often, the president would say here's what I want to do and here's how I want to do it and I would have to say to him, Mr. President I understand what you w1.3×04.6k1.7k31
71Jan 26, '21Remarkable @WSJ investigation finds that the Proud Boys, who have tried to play down their involvement in the Capitol riot, in fact led some of the most pivotal moments of escalati1.3×03.9k1.8k202
72Oct 25, '19Trump on Rudy Giuliani: “He looks for corruption wherever he goes."1.3×03.4k60318
73Dec 13, '18NEWS: Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether Trump's 2017 inaugural committee misspent some of the record $107 million it raised, and whether some of its top do1.3×04.1k1.7k19
74Jan 24, '20ABC has a recording that appears to capture Trump telling associates he wanted Yovanovitch fired at a dinner with Parnas and Fruman in the spring of 2018—backing up Parnas’s allega1.3×03.3k1.5k24
75Oct 15, '19NEW: Fiona Hill told House committees today that she and other White House officials grew so alarmed about efforts to push Ukraine to open certain investigations that they raised t1.3×04.3k1.7k33
76May 14, '18Michael Cohen repeatedly pitched Uber, which said no, citing his ownership of NYC taxi medallions as a potential conflict of interest. He modified his pitch in response and reminde1.3×03.3k2.1k29
77Nov 21, '19Fiona Hill, asked if she believes Sondland that he didn’t know a Burisma investigation meant a probe of the Bidens, says: "It is not credible to me that he was oblivious."1.2×05.7k1.1k5
78Apr 23, '18Trump told Comey the dossier couldn't be right because he never even spent the night in Russia on his 2013 trip there. But Bloomberg has flight records showing he landed in Moscow 1.2×03.6k1.7k10
79Aug 22, '18NEW: Trump returned to the White House last night in a "rotten" mood—not only because of the convictions of his former lawyer and campaign chairman, but because he felt the audienc1.2×03.6k1.3k11
80Apr 29, '19In an Oval Office meeting just now, Trump asked the Baylor Lady Bears’ head coach Kim Mulkey, "Would you like to work at the White House, by any chance?" Her response, per pool: "N1.2×05.3k97415
81Aug 20, '18Omarosa Manigault Newman tells @peterwsj she has joined the #resistance and plans to spend the midterm campaign season laying out her case against supporting Trump.1.2×03.1k1.2k14
82Jan 9, '21New: It took just hours for pro-Trump rioters to storm and occupy the U.S. Capitol. But the groundwork was laid for weeks by the president and a circle of key allies who fanned the1.2×04.1k1.4k137
83Apr 15, '18The Trump campaign paid $93,000 in the first two months of 2018 to the law firm of Charles Harder, the lawyer representing Trump in the Stormy Daniels case, per new FEC filing.1.2×03.1k1.9k7
84Feb 2, '21Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin dismissed every member of the Pentagon’s advisory boards, ousting last-minute Trump administration nominees as well as officials appointed by previou1.1×04.6k97229
85Nov 25, '19NEWS: Subpoenas indicate a broad federal investigation into possible money laundering, obstruction of justice & campaign finance violations. Among the entities the subpoenas se1.1×03.7k1.4k41
86Sep 28, '18Yale Law School—where Kavanaugh said yesterday he got admitted by "busting my tail in college"—calls for an "additional investigation" into the allegations, saying proceeding witho1.1×03.8k1.6k7
87Jan 27, '20Jay Sekulow just argued that "not a single witness” said they heard from the president himself that the security assistance was linked to investigations. Doubling down on that argu1.1×04.6k1k10
88May 15, '20Trump pauses his remarks on vaccine development to note that the loud honking in the background is from truckers who are protesting in favor of him, calling it a “sign of love.” Th1.1×04.2k1.3k17
89Apr 20, '20Trump says he banned travel from Europe before March. He announced that ban March 11.1.1×04.7k1k21
90Nov 17, '19“I talked to Zelensky just now. He is prepared to receive Potus’ call. Will assure him that he intends to run a fully transparent investigation and will ‘turn over every stone,’” S1.1×03.7k1.5k33
91Jul 15, '21Trump says he never threatened a coup and that “if I was going to do a coup, one of the last people I would want to do it with is General Mark Milley,” in not the most persuasive r1.0×04.5k58336
92Oct 22, '19“All I have to say is that in my 10 short months in Congress — it’s not even noon, right — and this is my most disturbing day in Congress so far. Very troubling.” —Rep. Andy Levin,1.0×03.5k1.3k31
93Nov 15, '18NEWS: The Justice Department is preparing to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and is increasingly optimistic it will be able to get him into a U.S. courtroom, per @aviswa1.0×03.2k1.3k13
94Feb 13, '21WSJ scoop: New York prosecutors are investigating financial dealings around some of Trump’s signature Manhattan properties, extending the known range of the criminal probe of the f1.0×03.8k1.1k34
95Oct 15, '19NEWS: A grand jury has issued a subpoena related to the SDNY investigation into Rudy Giuliani’s business dealings in Ukraine, seeking documents from former Rep. Pete Sessions about1.0×03.3k1.4k15
96Jul 19, '19If SDNY uncovered evidence of criminal conduct by Trump in office, Cummings wrote, "this would be the second time the president has not been held accountable for his actions due to1.0×03.4k1.2k17
97Jun 5, '20John Kelly, in interview with @Scaramucci, says he agrees w/Mattis. "The idea that you would unleash American active duty folks unless it’s an extremist situation…These are civilia0.9×03.7k99515
98Dec 3, '18Mueller news this week— Tuesday: Prosecutors file sentencing memo on Flynn that details his cooperation & could shed more light on campaign activity. By Friday: Prosecutors det0.9×03.2k1k10
99Jan 20, '21McConnell just fist-bumped Obama.0.8×03.9k31729
100Nov 7, '20Rarely has a president's hometown been so delighted by his defeat.0.8×04k48924

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