Day 480
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Members of the Trump transition team met in December 2016 with a Qatari diplomat accused in a recent lawsuit of attempting to bribe Trump administration officials. Michael Avenatti shared photos of Michael Cohen and Michael Flynn meeting with a person who appears to be Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, the man in charge of a division of Qatar's massive sovereign wealth fund. The meeting was previously unreported. Rapper and actor Ice Cube, along with his business partner Jeff Kwatinetz, recently filed a $1.2 billion lawsuit alleging that Al-Rumaihi and other Qatari officials tried to buy access to people connected to Trump. (Mother Jones)
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The Department of Education has been winding down the special team charged with investigating widespread abuses by for-profit colleges. The rollback of the team has essentially killed investigations into possible fraudulent activities by several large for-profit colleges where people hired by Betsy DeVos previously worked. (New York Times)