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| Porn Users Forum » WHY DOESN'T POTUS ARREST BILL CLINTON, HILARY CLINTON, AND OBAMA? |
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| 05-17-18 07:55am - 2411 days | #701 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User  Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump is too busy dealing with important matters that affect the entire US. So why is Mueller wasting Trump's time? Shut down the Mueller probe, so that Trump can be the Greatest President the US has ever had. Shame on the Democrats, for trying to drag down the United States. Shame on Bob Mueller, for his attacks on Trump. Shame on everyone who is attacking Trump for hateful reasons. Go, Trump, President-For-Life-Of-Trumpland USA, the greatest nation on earth. And thanks to Fox News, that is the only news that is truthful, and standing firmly behind our Glorious President. | |
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| 05-17-18 08:57am - 2411 days | #702 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Drug companies want to ensure their drugs are used properly. That is why they try to prevent rival drug makers from obtaining samples of their drugs. Do we want rival drug makers to get hold of drugs and possibly use them at shameful, illegal drug parties? Of course not. And it helps if rival drug companies can not get samples. This prevents them from making cheaper, generic copies of the drugs. For example, Celgene, maker of one of the world’s biggest brand-name cancer treatments, Revlimid, has been frequently accused of using safety programs to forestall cheaper versions of its drugs. Revlimid, which costs more than $100,000 a year, had sales of $8.19 billion in 2017. Celgene certainly does not want the price of their drugs to drop due to generic competition. Profits at Celgene would fall. I'm not sure which patients can afford to pay $100,000 a year to stay alive on Revlimid. It would be much cheaper to just die. There are all kinds of tricks the drug companies can play to keep their drug price high, and rising. All in the name of saving lives, of course. ---------- ---------- Business U.S. Names Drugmakers ‘Gaming’ Safety System to Shield Profits Cynthia Koons, Anna Edney Cynthia Koons, Anna Edney 2 hours 20 minutes ago The Trump administration released a list of pharmaceutical companies including Gilead Sciences Inc. and Celgene Corp. that rivals say are blocking attempts to create cheaper generic versions of their products. The move by the Food and Drug Administration is a major step by Commissioner Scott Gottlieb to end what he has called “gaming” of the system by branded drugmakers. The list, posted on the FDA website on Thursday, will be updated as generic manufacturers make the agency aware of further problems obtaining samples, he said. “We hope that this increased transparency will help reduce unnecessary hurdles to generic drug development and approval,” Gottlieb said in a statement. As part of the process of developing and getting clearance for a generic pill, which can cost a fraction of a brand-name version, manufacturers typically obtain samples of original drugs before they go off patent in order to begin development of replicas. Generic-drug makers usually need about 1,500 to 5,000 samples, Gottlieb said in the statement. Makers of the copycat drugs say that in some cases they’ve been unable to get samples of the drugs due to safety programs that were designed to protect patients, but that have been used instead to prevent competition. “They’re using laws to promote public health and innovation to pad their pockets instead,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a speech Wednesday. Celgene Cited Celgene, maker of one of the world’s biggest brand-name cancer treatments, Revlimid, has been frequently accused of using safety programs to forestall cheaper versions of its drugs. Revlimid, which costs more than $100,000 a year, had sales of $8.19 billion in 2017. According to the database, generic drugmakers contacted the FDA 31 times to say they were unable to obtain samples of a Celgene drug. The complaints were divided among three drugs, with 13 instances pertaining to Revlimid, which is also the subject of a legal battle over its intellectual property. In addition to Celgene, Swiss drugmaker Actelion, which was bought by Johnson & Johnson last year, had 26 inquiries on four drugs. Novartis AG had 11 inquiries on four drugs and Gilead had 11, 10 of which were about its high-blood-pressure treatment Letairis. Read more: A drug program that keeps patients safe (and profits too) Pharmaceutical companies block access to their brand-name products through tight safety restrictions on how the drugs are distributed. The FDA can require those restrictions as part of what’s called a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy, or REMS. That program is used when the agency wants a drugmaker to keep a closer eye on a drug once it’s on the market. Companies can impose the distribution limits on their own, and are sometimes accused of doing so solely to block generic competition. “I’m not looking to shame drug companies,” Gottlieb said at a breakfast with reporters Tuesday. “I’m looking to bring transparency around what I think are reasonable public health questions.” Safety Factors Many of the about 50 drugs on the FDA’s list published Thursday aren’t subject to a REMS. For those that are, the FDA will review the protocol the generic company proposes to use to protect the tight distribution and write a “safety determination letter” to ensure the original drugmaker that releasing samples won’t violate the REMS. Revlimid has a REMS program and the FDA has sent Celgene four safety determination letters. Some 74 drugs with 2016 sales totaling roughly $22.7 billion were subject to a restricted access program, according to a report by Matrix Global Advisers, which was sponsored by the generic drugmaker lobby, the Association for Accessible Medicines. Around half were government-mandated REMS programs and the other half are sold through a company’s elective limited-distribution programs. The trade group has pushed Congress to pass a bill that would prevent pharmaceutical companies from using safety programs to block generic-drug firms’ access to samples. While the bill has bipartisan support, it hasn’t become law. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the lobbying group for brand-name drugmakers, has argued that it would be a boon for trial lawyers. | |
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| 05-17-18 12:57pm - 2411 days | #703 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
If Stormy Daniels' first attorney was working with Michael Cohen, it seems to be a conflict of interest: her attorney was supposed to be representing Stormy Daniels. But it seems that he was actually representing the other side. It seems to be an ethical violation, if he did not disclose that relationship to Stormy Daniels at the time he was representing her. I would guess it's not only an ethical violation, but it should be a legal violation, if he was representing the opposing side. I'm not a lawyer, but unless Stormy Daniels was told about this conflict of interest, she should be able to sue that lawyer, and that should be added basis for declaring the Non Disclosure Agreement null and void. But I haven't read where Avenatti, her current lawyer, has used that argument publicly or in court. So maybe it is legal to not tell your client that you also getting paid by the other side (in addition to whatever fees you charge your client). Which seems crazy, to me. If your lawyer is not representing you, what the fuck are you paying him for? --------- --------- The key detail in Ronan Farrow’s stunning report on Michael Cohen’s finances Who did Elliot Broidy pay? Judd Legum May 17, 2018, 10:37 am Ronan Farrow, writing for the New Yorker, published a remarkable report on Wednesday evening on the finances of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s long-time attorney. Farrow’s article is based on an interview with a law enforcement official who leaked a confidential Treasury document known as a “suspicious-activity report” filed by First Republic Bank, with whom Cohen’s shell company, Essential Consulting, has an account. These reports revealed Cohen’s lucrative secret financial deals with numerous corporations inked shortly after Trump won the presidency. In one of his less-than-savvy moves, Cohen used this same shell company to pay off adult film star Stormy Daniels, who alleged she had an affair with Trump. Advertisement The main thrust of Farrow’s story details the reasons why this official leaked these documents — a worthy question, given the fact that doing so exposes the leaker to the risk of jail time. Disturbingly, the official tells Farrow that he was motivated to act after discovering that he was unable to find two other “suspicious-activity reports” (SARs) filed by First Republic Bank that were once filed in the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) database — reports that the official claimed detailed “even larger flows of questionable money into Cohen’s account.” So the official leaked the SARs that were still available, fearing that they, too, would disappear. But tucked away at the end of the New Yorker piece is an intriguing detail about information filed by other banks which raises key questions about the hush money deals Cohen struck with Daniels and others. Farrow’s report includes details of payments made by Cohen on behalf of Republican fundraiser Elliot Broidy, related to a $1.6 million hush money pay-off to a Playboy Playmate named Shera Bechard. (This arrangement, which Cohen claims to have negotiated for Broidy, bears so many similarities to the Trump-Stormy Daniels pay-off that it has given rise to all manner of speculation.) According to Farrow, the financial records indicate that Broidy paid his lawyer, Cohen, as well as Keith Davidson, the lawyer ostensibly representing Bechard. (Through his attorney, Broidy said this description of the payments was “not correct,” specifically denying paying Keith Davidson.) One, filed by City National Bank, follows money paid to Cohen by Elliott Broidy, at the time the deputy finance chairman for the Republican National Committee. The report notes, “Broidy also owns a private security company, Circinus, which provides services to the U.S. and other governments. The company has hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts with the U.A.E.” Broidy has said that Cohen and another lawyer, Keith Davidson, worked out a deal in which Broidy would pay $1.6 million to a former Playboy model he had impregnated. Broidy appears to have paid both lawyers for arranging the deal. The City National report shows that Broidy funneled the payments through Real Estate Attorneys’ Group, a legal corporation. Broidy seems to have paid Davidson two hundred thousand dollars, and to have sent three payments, of $62,500 each, to Cohen—one to the Essential Consultants account and two to the account of Michael D. Cohen and Associates. The importance of this payment structure, if proven true, is that it suggests that Cohen and Davidson were working in tandem, rather than representing their individual clients. This is not the first time questions have been raised about the relationship between Cohen and Davidson. Karen McDougal, another former Playmate who received a hush money payment from AMI, the pro-Trump media conglomerate that publishes the National Enquirer, alleged that Davidson was secretly communicating with Cohen while he was representing her. After McDougal sued, AMI agreed to cancel McDougal’s non-disclosure agreement and allowed her to keep the money she was paid. The settlement foreclosed the possibility of discovery that could have revealed more details on Cohen’s role in the settlement. Davidson also represented Stormy Daniels at the time she struck a hush money deal with Cohen. Davidson came to represent Daniels after Cohen learned that she was shopping her story to various media outlets and asked Davidson to look into it. As recently as this year, Cohen appeared to be coordinating with Davidson, his supposed legal adversary, according to emails released by Daniels new lawyer, Michael Avenatti. There is nothing illegal or improper about negotiating a non-disclosure agreement to cover up an affair or alleged affair. But the details about the payments in Farrow’s report provide more evidence that the agreements negotiated by Cohen were not arms-length transactions but one where lawyers on both sides were working toward a single objective.  2018 ThinkProgress | |
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| 05-17-18 04:06pm - 2411 days | #704 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
This article only touches on a small part of the debate about ZTE. It leaves out that a Trump Organization project in Indonesia got a $500 million investment by China, as well as a potential additional $500 million from Chinese banks. The project will be branded and managed by the Trump Organization, which will personally benefit President Trump. Which seems to be a clear case of graft. Which seems to be illegal, prohibited by the US Constitution. ------------- ------------- Yahoo Politics House committee accepts amendment to uphold ZTE ban Brian Heater,TechCrunch 41 minutes ago The bizarre recent tale of ZTE is getting another wrinkle. Earlier today, a bipartisan House Appropriations Committee unanimously voted to accept an amendment to uphold sanctions against the company. The amendment to the 2019 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill is, of course, being viewed as a rebuke of the president, whose tweets over the weekend appeared to suggest a softening on the seven-year ban imposed by the Department of Commerce last month. In fact, the amendment’s author, Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, called out Trump by name on social media, adding in a press release tied to the news, “This amendment, which passed with the unanimous support of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, shows that, when the United States enacts sanctions, we stand behind them.” https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Perhaps unsurprisingly, the release name checks not just the sanctions violations that led to the export ban, but also claims of spying that have put the company in the crosshairs of U.S. intelligence agencies. It’s a complicated series of events that I went into a bit more detail over here. Trump, meanwhile, surprised the world by suggesting that he was working with the Chinese president to help ZTE find a way around the seven-year ban that has threatened to wipe the company off the map. The president cited job losses in China as his major motivator. That statement was met with bipartisan disapproval and Trump appeared to walk it back yesterday in another tweet, accusing The Washington Post and CNN of writing “false stories.” It’s clear, however, that ZTE is being viewed as an important stumbling block as trade tensions increase between the two superpowers. The bill carrying the new amendment will come under consideration by the House of Representatives next month. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. | |
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| 05-17-18 05:11pm - 2411 days | #705 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Guiliani made a name for himself as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, prosecuting Mafia figures, Wall Street, and government corruption. As President Trump's lawyer, he's switched sides: Now he is defending Trump from charges of corruption and other crimes. As a prosecutor, he worked with the FBI. Now, defending Trump, he says the FBI is corrupt, and engages in illegal activities. I guess that's politics. What you believe depends on what party you belong to. But with Rudy Guiliani, he takes it to an extreme. --------- --------- Politics Giuliani Says FBI 'Possibly' Had a Spy in Trump's Campaign Team Newsweek Harriet Sinclair,Newsweek 14 hours ago Rudy Giuliani appears to have bought into the theory there was an FBI informant placed inside the Donald Trump campaign in 2016. Speaking in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Wednesday, the president's recently appointed lawyer initially said he did not know if there had been a mole in the Trump campaign. However he later came back to the subject, suggesting there may have been. “What they did with [Paul] Manafort, what they did with Michael Cohen, all the illegitimate things they’ve done—possibly placing a spy in the Trump campaign,” Giuliani said, referencing the Bureau carrying out raids on Manafort and Cohen, as well as the new favoured theory that says there was an informant in the campaign team. Trending: Where is ‘One Piece’ Chapter 905? Manga Seemingly Missing From ‘Weekly Shonen Jump’ Issue 25 “All these things are areas where indictments have been dismissed because of government misconduct,” he added. The idea of an informant in the Trump campaign comes following testimony by Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, who told the Senate Judiciary Committee in August 2017 that he understood the FBI had a source in the Trump campaign, The Washington Post reported. Simpson, whose firm carried out opposition research and put together the Trump dossier, said additional information that backed up the dossier included a “human source from within the Trump organization,” The Hill reported in January. However, a source told the publication that Simpson had misspoken and was in fact referring to information from an Australian diplomat about Trump’s campaign aide George Papadopoulos. But the theory since has been picked up by a number of people, including Giuliani, who also commented in the Wednesday interview that the ongoing Russia probe should be brought to an end and that Special Counsel Robert Mueller "has nothing." “It's been a year, he’s gotten more than 1.4 million documents, he’s interviewed 28 witnesses, and he has nothing, which is why he wants to bring the president into an interview,” Giuliani said. “It's about time to get the darn thing over with. It's about time to say, 'Enough. We've tortured this president enough,” he added. This article was first written by Newsweek | |
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| 05-17-18 05:20pm - 2411 days | #706 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Washington Post: Trump lawyer Cohen sought $1M from Qatar in late 2016 Thomson Reuters May 17th 2018 3:38PM WASHINGTON, May 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen asked the Qatari government for at least $1 million in December 2016 in exchange for access or insight into the Trump administration, the Washington Post reported. Qatar turned down Cohen's offer, made weeks before Trump's inauguration, the Post reported late on Wednesday, citing several people with knowledge of the situation. A spokesman for Ahmed al-Rumaihi, who at the time was head of the investments division of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, confirmed Cohen had requested a $1 million fee. But the spokesman, Robert Siegfried, said the request related to the possibility of advising Qatar on investments in U.S. infrastructure, and that at no point was access to the administration discussed. "The conversation was regarding infrastructure investment in the U.S.," he said. "At no point did Mr. Al-Rumaihi or anyone else from Qatar Investments pay the requested fee, nor did Mr. Al-Rumaihi ever entertain making such a payment." Cohen's attorney Stephen Ryan did not respond to a request for comment. Al-Rumaihi told the Post that Cohen made the solicitation in early December at the Peninsula Hotel in New York, an account Siegfried confirmed. They later spoke again outside a meeting in Trump Tower in New York on Dec. 12, 2016, where al-Rumaihi was part of a Qatari delegation that included Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed al-Thani, the Post reported. The solicitation would be the latest such exchange offered by Cohen to be made public following acknowledgements by U.S. and European companies last week that they paid Cohen, who was Trump's lawyer for about a decade and self-described "fixer" for Trump. Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG said it had paid Cohen nearly $1.2 million; U.S. telecommunications company AT&T Inc said it made payments of $600,000; and South Korea's Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd said it hired him for $150,000. Novartis and AT&T have said they were contacted by the office of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller about the situation in late 2017. Mueller is investigating possible collusion between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, something that Trump has repeatedly denied. At the same time, prosecutors are investigating Cohen for possible bank and tax fraud, possible campaign law violations linked to a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, and perhaps other matters related to Trump's presidential campaign, a person familiar with the probe has said. (Reporting by Eric Beech and Tim Ahmann) | |
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| 05-17-18 05:39pm - 2411 days | #707 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Since Trump took office, lobbyists have raked in over $28 million. Not a bad payday for a group that Trump promised to destroy in his campaign speeches, with the slogan, "Drain the swamp." -------- -------- USA TODAY Millions flow to fast-growing lobbying firms with ties to the Trump administration Fredreka Schouten, USA TODAY Published 6:01 p.m. ET May 17, 2018 | Updated 6:46 p.m. ET May 17, 2018 WASHINGTON – Lobbying firms managed by former campaign aides, fundraisers and others with ties to President Trump and Vice President Pence have collected at least $28 million in federal lobbying fees since Trump assumed the presidency, a USA TODAY analysis found. Leading the way: Ballard Partners, overseen by Brian Ballard, a veteran Florida lobbyist who raised money for Trump’s campaign and inauguration. Its leadership includes Susie Wiles, who ran Trump’s winning 2016 campaign in Florida. Although Trump campaigned on a pledge to "drain the swamp" of Washington special interests, his former political aides and other figures in his orbit are building larger profiles in the world of Washington influence he criticized. In all, registered lobbyists with ties to Trump and Pence have leadership roles in at least 10 firms in Washington, a USA TODAY review shows. Other federal lobbyists with growing client lists and ties to the administration include Pence's former chief of staff Bill Smith, whose clients include AT&T; Victor Smith, who served as Pence’s commerce secretary in Indiana; and Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign aide who built a firm with a roster of domestic and deep-pocketed international clients. Their lobbying activity is legal, and a spending surge is common when a new president enters the White House. Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen faces scrutiny about the big sums his shell company, Essential Consultants, received from blue-chip firms for insights into the administration. Since Trump's election, Cohen has received more than $2.3 million in payments from corporate clients, including $600,000 from telecom giant AT&T and $1.2 million from Swiss-based drugmaker Novartis. Cohen, the target of a criminal investigation in New York about his business dealings, is not registered as a lobbyist and instead cast himself as a consultant in reaching the closed-door deals. White House officials did not respond to a request for comment Thursday about the lobbying activity. Of Trump allies who went the lobbying route, Ballard has been among the most successful. His firm has pulled in nearly $14 million in lobbying fees since it began its Washington operations in February 2017 and has represented more than 70 federal lobbying clients, including online retail giant Amazon, reports filed with Congress show. Ballard Partners ranks as Washington’s 11th-largest lobbying operation by revenue, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics and boasts several well-known Democrats on staff, including former Florida congressman Robert Wexler. Ballard, who counted Trump among his longtime Florida lobbying clients, said his firm sells expertise, not access. “I’m proud of our association with the administration,” Ballard told USA TODAY. “But we strive diligently to prove our worth based on merits, not on who did what during the campaign. That’s in the past.” In addition to its growing roster of domestic clients, Ballard's firm attracts international attention. Records maintained by an arm of the Justice Department that monitors foreign lobbying activity show Ballard’s firm signed a one-year contract worth as much as $2.1 million with the government of Qatar. Ballard said the work is focused mostly on potential Qatari investments in Florida Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser who oversees a lobbying firm and global consultancy, is earning even more from Qatar through a contract he signed last July as tensions between Qatar and its neighbors worsened. Qatar has waged an intense lobbying campaign to win over the Trump administration amid a regional dispute with Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates and its other neighbors. Federal records show Qatar agreed to pay Bennett's firm $150,000 a month — or $1.8 million over a year. But the government boosted that to $500,000 a month for a four-month period late last year, delivering $2 million to Bennett’s Avenue Strategies Global between September and December of 2017. Bennett, who helped manage Ben Carson’s presidential campaign before joining Trump’s camp, said he provides Qatar and its royal family with strategic advice about navigating the U.S. government. In a surprise move last June, Trump sided with Saudi Arabia and three other Gulf nations in their efforts to isolate Qatar. In tweets, Trump indicated that his push to end the funding of "radical ideology" prompted the four-state embargo against the oil-rich Qatar. Bennett said he was meeting with Qatari officials in Doha when Trump's tweets landed. “It freaked them out,” he said of the response by officials in Qatar. “It was a baptism. I just calmed them down and said, ‘This is bark, not bite.’ " As Qatar's lobbying efforts intensified, Trump's views about Qatar softened. Last month, he praised the country as a partner in the fight against terrorism during a White House meeting with its leader, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Wednesday, The Washington Postand The Intercept reported that Cohen unsuccessfully solicited $1 million from Qatar. It was the first known overture by Cohen to a foreign government since the 2016 election. In an interview with USA TODAY, Bennett defended his work as a lobbyist, saying he is transparent about his activity — unlike Cohen, who sought to leverage his relationship with Trump through secret deals. Under federal rules, people who make more than one contact with a federal official on behalf of a client and spent at least 20% of their time on lobbying in a three-month period are required to register as a lobbyist. “If you are going to do the work, report it,” Bennett said. “Why would anyone hire Trump’s personal attorney if he’s not going to talk to anybody at the White House” on their behalf, he said. “What’s Cohen going to tell you? What kind of cereal (Trump) likes?” Neither Cohen nor his attorney Steve Ryan responded to an interview request. Last week, the Public Citizen watchdog group filed complaints against Cohen, arguing that he violated federal ethics and lobbying laws by failing to register as a lobbyist. Fred Wertheimer, who oversees the watchdog group Democracy 21, said the race to make money off Trump connections mirrors the president's decision to retain ownership of his real estate and branding empire while serving in the White House. "When the tone is 'I'm going to make money off my administration,' how can I complain about anyone else doing it?" he said. More: Trump's company earned $40M from Washington hotel in 2017, disclosure shows White House officials said Trump remains committed to his "drain the swamp" promise and did not take action to benefit Cohen's clients. Last week, when asked about Cohen's closed-door deals with corporations, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders singled out the Justice Department's move to block a merger between AT&T and Time Warner as proof Trump isn't unduly influenced by special interests. AT&T's agreement with Cohen specifically sought his advice on the proposed $85 billion merger, which Trump denounced on the campaign trail in 2016. "It's pretty clear that the Justice Department opposed the merger, and so certainly the president has not been influenced or his administration influenced by any outside special interests," Sanders said. Foreign clients Ballard’s firm has contracts with foreign interests that could yield more than $8 million on top of the $14 million it collected in federal lobbying fees from February 2017 through March this year. Those clients range from the government of Turkey to the tourism arm of the Maldives, which is working to repair relations with the United States amid international alarm over its crackdown on opposition leaders. The Maldives' exiled former president Mohamed Nasheed has become an international cause celebre and was represented by Amal Clooney, the high-profile human rights lawyer married to actor George Clooney. Ballard Partners inked a $50,000-a-month deal with Maldives Marketing and Public Relations on Feb. 11, days after Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen declared a state of emergency. Yameen took the action when the country's Supreme Court tossed out convictions against nine opposition figures imprisoned or forced into exile, including Nasheed. Wexler, the former Florida congressman, represents the Maldives for Ballard Partners and said the situation in the Maldives isn't "black and white." His job, he said, includes making the case to State Department officials that the United States needs "to enjoy a strong relationship with the duly elected government" there as China increases its investments and influence in the nation of islands southwest of India. Lobbying's 'cyclical' nature The USA TODAY review shows Barnes & Thornburg, where longtime Pence ally Bob Grand serves as managing partner, seeing big growth in the Trump era. The firm took in nearly $5.5 million in lobbying fees last year — the most it has earned in Washington lobbying in a single year and more than double its lobbying receipts from 2016, according to data compiled by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. Clients, ranging from U.S. Steel to the drug industry's trade association, paid $1.6 million to the firm during the first three months of this year, congressional records show. | |
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| 05-18-18 06:55am - 2410 days | #708 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Trump complains that people are out to get him. Doesn't he realize he is the President, and everyone loves him? So what if people around him might be slimeballs in corruption? Trump has stated he loves everyone. And if Trump himself has done a little graft, or even accepted bribes or payoffs, they were possibly legal, according to his lawyers. And you can trust his lawyers, just like you can trust Trump. ---------- ---------- Trump's attorney says special counsel has narrowed questions Associated Press ANNE FLAHERTY and CATHERINE LUCEY,Associated Press 23 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's attorney said Friday the special counsel in the Russia probe has narrowed the scope of potential questions for the president, even as Trump advanced an unverified theory that the Justice Department planted a spy in his 2016 campaign and is now "out to frame him." Rudy Giuliani said on CNN Friday that special counsel Robert Mueller has narrowed his question subject areas from five to two, as negotiations continue over whether the president will sit down for an interview. Giuliani said they don't expect to be asked about the president's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who faces a separate criminal investigation in New York. But Giuliani did not provide many additional details, saying that some of it is "subject to negotiation." His comments came after Trump sent out an early morning tweet that seemed intended to undercut the ongoing Russia investigation, which he has repeatedly called a "witch hunt." Promoting a theory that is circulating in conservative circles, Trump quoted Fox Business anchor David Asman and tweeted: "Apparently the DOJ put a Spy in the Trump Campaign. This has never been done before and by any means necessary, they are out to frame Donald Trump for crimes he didn't commit." On whether there was an "informant" in the 2016 presidential campaign, Giuliani said on CNN, "'I don't know for sure, nor does the President, if there really was one," though he said they have long been told there was "some kind of infiltration." Last week, the National Review raised the question of a possible FBI spy on Trump's campaign. The article cites work by Rep. Devin Nunes, an ardent Trump supporter and head of the House intelligence committee, who has demanded information on an FBI source in the Russia investigation. The New York Times reported separately this week that at least one government informant met several times with Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, both former foreign policy advisers on Trump's Republican campaign. The newspaper attributed the information to current and former FBI officials. In a tweet Thursday, Trump cited the National Review article suggesting that the FBI source was really a "confidential informant in the campaign." "If so, this is bigger than Watergate!" he tweeted. | |
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| 05-18-18 06:55am - 2410 days | #709 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
How the Trump team's story has evolved on their New York meeting with the Russians David Knowles 4 hours ago Throughout Donald Trump’s political rise to the presidency, he has remained adamant that his success has had nothing to do with help from Russia, punctuating almost every tweet about the investigation into the 2016 campaign with the catch phrase “No Collusion!” But the explanations and defenses offered by Trump and his advisers have changed, as new facts have emerged in the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller and in Congress. Here is a summary of some of the more notable twists: _____ ‘None of that was set up’ In March 2017, months before the Trump campaign’s meeting with a Russian operative was reported by the New York Times, Donald Trump Jr. assured the paper that his father’s team had not sought out or had official contact with any Russians. “Did I meet with people that were Russian? I’m sure, I’m sure I did. But none of that was set up. None that I can think of at the moment, and certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way shape or form,” Donald Trump Jr. told the New York Times. _____ ‘Discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children’ A story that appeared in the New York Times on July 8, 2017, revealed that Trump Jr.’s March statement was false. He had indeed arranged a meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin, at Trump Tower in Manhattan. The meeting took place on June 9, 2016, just two weeks after Trump secured the Republican presidential nomination, and included Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and adviser Jared Kushner. Confronted with the emails that showed he had planned the meeting, Trump Jr. claimed that the attendees “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children.” A day later, the New York Times reported that the meeting had been arranged because Veselnitskaya had promised Trump Jr. damaging information about his father’s likely presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton. _____ ‘Was not a government official’ The New York Times reporting continued apace, and on July 11, 2017, the paper filled in the details of the promised dirt, releasing a June 3, 2016, email to Trump Jr. from an intermediary, British publicist Rob Goldstone, making it clear that the Kremlin was on Trump’s side. “The Crown Prosecutor of Russia […] offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump,” Goldstone wrote. In a statement released on July 11, Trump Jr. clarified that he believed that the information on Clinton would be “Political Opposition Research” and that it was OK to meet with Veselnitskaya because she “was not a government official.” _____ ‘No part of the meeting I attended included anything about the campaign’ On July 24, Trump’s son-in-law Kushner testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee about the Trump Tower meeting with Veselnitskaya, claiming that he had not read Trump Jr.’s emails describing the Russian offer of political dirt on Clinton. Kushner made a point of saying he wasn’t responsible for arranging the meeting. “In June 2016, my brother-in-law, Donald Trump Jr., asked if I was free to stop by a meeting,” his prepared statement began. And he emphasized that the agenda, as far as he was concerned, had nothing to do with the campaign. “No part of the meeting I attended included anything about the campaign, there was no follow up to the meeting that I am aware of, I do not recall how many people were there (or their names), and I have no knowledge of any documents being offered or accepted,” Kushner testified in a prepared statement. _____ ‘You know this Trump is killing us’ In an interview with NBC News on April 27, 2018, Veselnitskaya disclosed what many in the U.S. intelligence community had already concluded, that she is an informant for the Russian government. That public declaration did not sit well with Trump, who, at a Michigan campaign rally one night later, floated a theory about her disclosure. “I guarantee you, I’m tougher on Russia. Nobody ever thought. In fact, have you heard about the lawyer? For a year, a woman lawyer, she was like, ‘Oh, I know nothing.’ … Now all of a sudden she supposedly is involved with government. You know why? If she did that, because Putin and the groups said, ‘You know this Trump is killing us,'” the president told his audience. “Why don’t you say that you’re involved with government so that we could go and make their life in the United States even more chaotic.’ Look at what’s happened. Look at how these politicians have fallen for this junk. Russian collusion. Give me a break.” _____ ‘You have a made up, phony crime, Collusion’ After months of denying that any collusion took place between his campaign and the Russians, Trump tried a new tack to blunt the impact of an April 30, 2018, story on the questions special counsel Mueller intended to ask the president in an interview. Some of those questions, the New York Times reported, focused on the help the Russian government offered to the Trump campaign. _____ ‘So I believe you have some information for us’ On Wednesday, May 16, the Senate Judiciary Committee released 2,500 pages of documents relating to its investigation of the Trump campaign’s Russian ties. Among the revelations was that Trump Jr. kicked off the meeting with Veselnitskaya by asking her directly for the dirt on Clinton. “So I believe you have some information for us,” Trump Jr. told Veselnitskaya. The “opposition research” turned out to be fraud allegations made against Clinton by Democratic donors that Trump Jr. deemed underwhelming. _____ ‘They never used it is the main thing.’ In a May 16, 2018, interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani further adjusted the goalposts of guilt by arguing that the collusion rises to the level of a crime only if the information in question is acted upon. “And even if it comes from a Russian, or a German, or an American, it doesn’t matter. And they never used it is the main thing. They never used it. They rejected it. If there was collusion with the Russians, they would have used it,” Giuliani said. | |
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| 05-18-18 07:11am - 2410 days | #710 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Did you ever see Donald Trump in bed with Putin? Not someone else seeing Donald Trump in bed with Putin, but you, yourself? If you have not seen Donald Trump in bed with Putin, with your own eyes, then Trump is innocent. End of case. And even if you saw, with your own eyes Trump in bed with Putin, do you have a signed confession by Trump and Putin that they were in bed? If no signed confession, then they are still innocent. Remember, innocent until proven guilty. So Trump and Putin are heroes, for standing up to the gossip spread by their enemies. Putin is more admirable than Trump, because Putin handles his enemies more efficiently: they just disappear, never to be seen or heard from again. Except the ones that are still alive in some prison somewhere. Trump wishes he had Putin's powers, to make Trump's enemies disappear. Instead, he only has his Tweets. Which are not quite as powerful as Putin's secret police. | |
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| 05-19-18 07:01am - 2409 days | #711 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Jimmy Kimmel Shreds 'Cowardly' Trump, Lawmakers After Texas School Shooting HuffPost Lee Moran,HuffPost 7 hours ago Jimmy Kimmel fiercely rebuked President Donald Trump and lawmakers on Friday night, hours after 10 people were killed in a school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas. “President Trump said he is ‘with the people of Santa Fe in this tragic hour and will be with them forever,’ except for when it comes time to do something ― then he will not be with them, and neither will any of the congresspeople or governors who don’t ever do anything because they are fearful that it will hurt them politically,” Kimmel said. “They know the truth, they know this has gone too far,” he added. “But they are too cowardly to do the right thing.” Kimmel said Trump and lawmakers care more about the support of the National Rifle Association “than they do about children.” “So they sit there with their hands in their pockets, pockets that are full of gun money, and they do nothing. They just wait for the outrage to pass,” he said. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 05-19-18 01:18pm - 2409 days | #712 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Why is it legal for the FBI and CIA to spy on US citizens? But if they spy on the President, Republicans call it treason? Also, the Republicans outed an agent working for the CIA. Was that legal? Or criminal? Double standard, anyone? -------- -------- Trump campaign informant revealed as Cambridge professor, sparking debate on treason Republicans think this news is proof Trump was spied on, while Dems argue the name shouldn’t have been disclosed Taylor Link May 19, 2018 4:57pm (UTC) For weeks, congressional Republicans tried to procure sensitive information relating to a source involved with the Trump campaign, which culminated in a standoff between Rep. Devin Nunes and the Department of Justice. On Friday, reports suggested that a Cambridge professor with "ties" to the CIA was the root of the controversy. The Daily Caller reported Friday that Stefan Halper, a Cambridge professor who served in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations, was the informant who sought information about the hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton. During the campaign, Halper reached out to two campaign associates who have now become targets of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Halper contacted George Papadopoulos in September under the guise of a business opportunity. The academic flew Papadopoulos out to London for the purpose of discussing a potential policy paper on energy issues in Turkey and Cyprus, however, much of their talks ended up focusing on Russia's alleged involvement in the hacked emails. According to the New York Times, Halper asked Papadopoulos over drinks what he knew about Russia's participation. Papadopoulos insisted he did not have any personal knowledge of this, but did say that, months earlier, he had heard that Russians had damaging information on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of her emails. Halper also met repeatedly with Carter Page in the run up to the election. Their communications continued through 2017. Page told the Times that their interactions were mostly benign, but they were significant in that their last exchange in September 2017 was about a month before a secret warrant to surveil Page expired. This news of Halper's covert acts has shook political punditry. Right-leaning media members have argued that Halper was a spy, meaning the U.S. government had run an intelligence campaign on a presidential candidate. Even the name of the New York Times' article, "F.B.I Used Informant to Investigate Russia Ties to Campaign, Not to Spy, as Trump Claims," has stirred the controversy. Trump opponents, on the other hand, believe any efforts to gain information about collusion was appropriate, if not necessary, and that the real scandal here is that Republicans outed an agent who was trying to aid the U.S. It should be noted that the Daily Caller made the editorial decision to name Halper in its exclusive story. The New York Times arrived at the opposite conclusion, choosing instead to conceal the informant's name, yet provide notable details. Daily Caller reporter Chuck Ross has not revealed who his sources were in regards to Halper's involvement, but has insinuated that the New York Times did not receive its tips from a Trump ally. Much of the debate is about the semantics of the word "spy" and whether the traditional definition of the word is proper in the context of Papadopoulos and Page. Conservatives seem to be unreasonably suspicious of the FBI and America's intelligence community here, considering these agencies were probing foreign efforts to swing the presidential election. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has poured gasoline on the apprehension, tweeting late Friday, “Apparently the DOJ put a Spy in the Trump Campaign. This has never been done before and by any means necessary, they are out to frame Donald Trump for crimes he didn’t commit.” One thing is for sure: Halper's counter-intelligence operation was nowhere near as devious or unethical as Trump's original claim that former President Barack Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower. Liberals defended Obama at the time by maintaining that he would never have ordered his intelligence community to spy on a political opponent. Now conservatives are pointing to Halper as de facto proof that the Obama administration had orchestrated some convoluted, covert scheme against Trump. The reporting from the Times has shown that Halper was not a secret agent or a mole, as Trump would like the American people to believe. Halper simply sought out certain campaign officials and asked them questions about Russia, hardly the espionage campaign Nunes thought was being concealed by the Department of Justice weeks ago. Taylor Link is an assistant editor at Salon. | |
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| 05-19-18 09:41pm - 2409 days | #713 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Michael Moore has been highly critical of Trump in the past and taunted Trump last month to “grow a pair” and fire Mueller following the president's persistent attacks on the special counsel leading the Russia probe. ------ ------ Michael Moore: ‘Trump has to go, but that shouldn’t be the main goal’ By Luis Sanchez - 05/19/18 04:42 PM EDT Michael Moore: ‘Trump has to go, but that shouldn’t be the main goal’ Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore says that impeaching President Trump shouldn’t be the "main goal" when there are many other problems left to fix. Moore, who has in the past said he thinks the president will be impeached, noted that impeachment won’t solve all the issues the country is facing today. “Just getting rid of Trump, what does that do?” Moore told The Washington Post for a story published Saturday. “So we go back to the day before Trump, and was that that great a day? We have a lot of problems we have to fix. Yes, Trump has to go, but that shouldn’t be the main goal.” Moore’s comments come after Rudy Giuliani, a member of Trump's personal legal team, said this week that special counsel Robert Mueller told the president's lawyers that they cannot indict a sitting president. Giuliani told CNN that when it comes to Trump, Mueller's team can only produce a report at the conclusion of its probe into ties between Trump campaign associates and Russia during the 2016 election. CNN noted that Mueller's team could still make referrals to Congress, which would have to decide on whether to pursue impeachment proceedings depending on the report's findings. Moore has been highly critical of Trump in the past and taunted Trump last month to “grow a pair” and fire Mueller following the president's persistent attacks on the special counsel leading the Russia probe. --------------- --------------- BBC Twitter account trolls Trump over royal wedding crowd size By Jacqueline Thomsen - 05/19/18 11:50 AM EDT A BBC Twitter account winked at the previous controversy over the size of the crowd at President Trump's inauguration compared to the crowd at the royal wedding on Saturday. “Just saying” a tweet by BBC Three read, including a picture of the crowd outside the wedding at Windsor Castle next to a photo of Trump’s inauguration crowd. just saying ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/1zoOGFKeU3 — BBC Three (@bbcthree) May 19, 2018 Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle married Saturday, drawing international crowds to the U.K. and television for the event. Trump disputed media reports about the size of the crowd gathered for his inauguration last year, claiming that the audience was the largest ever. However, photos indicated that the crowd for former President Obama’s 2009 inauguration was significantly larger. Then-press secretary Sean Spicer also inaccurately claimed a day after the inauguration that Trump had “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.” Spicer later said he regretted arguing with reporters about the crowd size and poked fun at himself for it. Fox News host Howard Kurtz writes in his book about the Trump White House that the president made "a rare admission" of regret for having Spicer defend Trump’s claims about the crowd size. | |
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| 05-19-18 10:06pm - 2409 days | #714 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump: chief leaker and traitor and coward and bully. Trump demands Justice Department must give lawmakers access to documents on informant. For what reason? Trump believes leakers are cowards and traitors. Now, he wants Congress (many of which are leakers) to have access to classified documents, that will then be leaked to the press. So Trump wants the informant's identity leaked to the press. Double standard? Of course. ------- ------- Trump calls for Justice Department to give lawmakers access to documents on informant By Matt Korade and Alessia Grunberger Updated 7:50 PM ET, Sat May 19, 2018 Trump: DOJ placed a spy in my campaign team (CNN)President Donald Trump on Saturday called for his Justice Department to allow members of Congress to review documents related to an FBI informant who spoke to some of Trump's advisers during the 2016 presidential campaign. "If the FBI or DOJ was infiltrating a campaign for the benefit of another campaign, that is a really big deal," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Only the release or review of documents that the House Intelligence Committee (also, Senate Judiciary) is asking for can give the conclusive answers. Drain the Swamp!" The tweet, which fosters an unsupported theory circulating on Capitol Hill and conservative media outlets about an intelligence "informant" spying on the Trump campaign, appears to be the first time Trump has called for the department to allow lawmakers to see the documents. It sets up another possible battle between the President and his own Justice Department. Trump has attacked the department's leaders over their handling of the Russia investigation, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions' recusal from that probe, and criticized the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server. Earlier this month, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes threatened to hold Justice Department officials in contempt of Congress if they don't release documents related to the source that he has subpoenaed. The FBI dispatched an informant to speak with some advisers to Trump's presidential campaign about its possible ties to Russia, according to multiple reports Friday. The New York Times identified the informant as "an American academic who teaches in Britain," but noted that it "typically does not name informants to preserve their safety." The Times reported the informant spoke to Trump campaign advisers George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, while The Washington Post named those two as well as Trump campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis. Clovis' lawyer, Victoria Toensing, told the Post that most of the discussion was about Clovis' views on China, adding, "Russia never came up." US officials have told CNN that the confidential intelligence source was not planted inside the campaign to provide information to investigators despite the President's suggestion in recent days that an FBI informant was embedded in his campaign. "Reports are there was indeed at least one FBI representative implanted, for political purposes, into my campaign for president," Trump tweeted on Friday. One of the US officials said the informant is a US citizen, but provided no other details on the identity. The officials say that the identity of the informant had been closely held at the highest levels of the FBI and intelligence community, and the individual has been a source for the FBI and CIA for years. Officials from the Justice Department, FBI and Office of the Director of National Intelligence have maintained that turning over that information Nunes has requested on the specific individual would pose a grave risk to the source's life. "The day that we can't protect human sources is the day the American people start becoming less safe," FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. "Human sources in particular who put themselves at great risk to work with us and with our foreign partners have to be able to trust that we're going to protect their identities and in many cases their lives and the lives of their families." Earlier this month, Trump suggested he would force the Justice Department to turn over documents lawmakers are seeking. "A Rigged System - They don't want to turn over Documents to Congress," Trump tweeted. "What are they afraid of? Why so much redacting? Why such unequal "justice?" At some point I will have no choice but to use the powers granted to the Presidency and get involved!" Rudy Giuliani, who is representing Trump in the Russia investigation, admitted Friday morning that he didn't know for sure if the FBI had an informant "embedded" in the Trump campaign, as others have asserted. "Here's the issue that I really feel strongly about with this informant, if there is one. First of all, I don't know for sure, nor does the President, if there really was. We're told that," the former New York City mayor told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day," without providing details on the source for that information other than to hint some are "gone from the FBI." | |
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| 05-20-18 03:04pm - 2408 days | #715 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: In Trump's own words: "“As many are now finding out, however, there was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State.” My guess is that Trump's own leaking, lying and corruption far outweighed whatever the FBI, Justice & State did. It's not a matter of the kettle calling the pot black: it's more a matter of a master hypocrite trying to smear his opponents with lies. ------- ------- Politics Trump: 'Real Americans' Should Get 'Tough' On Russia Probe HuffPost Hayley Miller,HuffPost 5 hours ago President Donald Trump attacked the credibility of special counsel Robert President Donald Trump attacked the credibility of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation once again on Sunday, encouraging Republicans and “real Americans” to start “getting tough” on the federal probe. In a flurry of tweets, Trump bashed the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, claiming it’s a “scam” that has cost nearly $20 million. Five days earlier, Trump tweeted it cost $10 million; the new reference may include the amount his own budget set aside for the probe for the 2019 fiscal year. As he has before, Trump accused the probe’s investigators of being biased against him, claiming they were “13 Angry and Heavily Conflicted Democrats.” He failed to mention Mueller is a Republican. In another familiar pattern, his tweets fixated on Hillary Clinton and her 2016 presidential campaign associates. Trump’s latest Twitter rant against the Mueller investigation follows a damning report published Friday by The New York Times about Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, and his August 2016 meeting with an envoy representing the crown princes of United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The envoy offered to help the Trump presidential campaign, according to the Times. Trump and his legal team have repeatedly called for an end to Mueller’s investigation, which entered its second year this month. Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to lead the Russia investigation after Trump fired former FBI director James Comey a year ago this month. Trump’s tweets Sunday mark his latest efforts to undermine the Justice Department and the U.S. intelligence community ― a tactic he has used repeatedly since several federal agencies jointly determined the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in order to help Trump win. “As many are now finding out, however, there was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State,” Trump tweeted in March. “The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime.” Despite Trump’s repeated attacks, the majority of Americans have said they support Mueller’s probe into possible collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, according to a poll conducted in April by The Washington Post and ABC News. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 05-20-18 11:41pm - 2408 days | #716 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: I wondered, in an earlier post, why Avenatti was not suing Stormy Daniels' first lawyer. It seemed that her first lawyer was not representing her to the best of his ability, but, instead, working at least partially for the opposing side, and getting paid, separately from his client Stormy Daniels, by the opposing side. Now it appears that Avenatti is using the argument that the first lawyer was not working in the best interests of Stormy Daniels. My question now is: why did it take so long for Avenatti to bring up this issue? Or, maybe, it was his plan all along, to gradually increase the scope of his defense of Stormy Daniels. --------- --------- Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti has turned up the heat on another target — his client's first lawyer Allan Smith 2h Adult-film star Stormy Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, is increasing the heat on Keith Davidson, his client's first attorney. He and his clients say Davidson was not working in their best interests. Rather, they say, he was working in tandem with Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. Avenatti published a pair of emails from Cohen to Davidson last week. "The relationship between these two 'opposing' attorneys has been anything but traditional," Avenatti told Business Insider in an email. "Significant questions remain." Before Michael Avenatti, there was Keith Davidson: Davidson served as adult-film actress Stormy Daniels' previous attorney, negotiating a $130,000 hush money payment with President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen just prior to the 2016 presidential election. Davidson also represented Playboy model Karen McDougal, negotiating a similar $150,000 payment for her alleged affair with Trump Federal investigators obtained documents related to the McDougal settlement in the raids on Cohen's home, office, and hotel room, according to The New York Times. And Davidson's name comes up again in a third Cohen-related settlement — with Shera Bechard, a Playboy playmate who entered into a $1.6 million agreement brokered by Davidson and Cohen to promise that she would not reveal an affair with Republican financier Elliot Broidy. Broidy said in a statement that he retained Cohen after Davidson recommended him. As the legal scrutiny surrounding Cohen intensifies, Avenatti has sought to raise questions about Davidson's conduct and whose interests he had at heart. 'The relationship between these two 'opposing' attorneys has been anything but traditional' At the heart of the controversy involving Davidson is whether or not he was zealously advocating for his own clients — or if he was working to actually provide the best possible outcome to Cohen and his clients, as Daniels and McDougal allege. "The relationship between these two 'opposing' attorneys has been anything but traditional," Michael Avenatti, Daniels new attorney, told Business Insider in an email. "Significant questions remain." Last week, Avenatti published a pair of emails between Cohen and Davidson exchanged last month. In one email, Cohen messaged Davidson just days after the FBI raids to say he "lost all my contacts as I had to get a new phone." "Please send me all your contact info," Cohen wrote, adding, "Let me know how you want to communicate." In the second email, which was sent from Cohen to Davidson in February, Cohen writes that it is his "understanding that Ms. Clifford has or is seeking the advice of additional counsel regarding the above matter," referring to Daniels' real name, Stephanie Clifford. Cohen added that Davidson "under no circumstances should forward" certain information he described in the email to anyone without Cohen's written consent. Avenatti told The Daily Mail that he "demanded" the emails from Davidson when asked how he obtained them. Davidson did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider for this story. 'He's in a hell of a pickle' That's what Mitchell Epner, a former assistant US attorney for the District of New Jersey and an attorney at Rottenberg Lipman Rich, told Business Insider of Davidson. "As an attorney, you have a duty to be a zealous advocate for your client, and if what's been alleged by Avenatti is true and Davidson and Cohen were colluding to sell out Stephanie Clifford to have Davidson pocket a very large sum, that is taking your law license in your hands," he said. Davidson previously denied any insinuation of unethical or inappropriate behavior. An attorney must disclose any such conflict to a client. Davidson was contacted by federal investigators as a part of the Southern District of New York's ongoing criminal probe into Cohen, who has not been charged with a crime. A spokesman for Davidson, Dave Wedge, told The Washington Post that the attorney was asked to provide "certain limited electronic information" to investigators. "He has done so and will continue to cooperate to the fullest extent possible under the law," Wedge told The Post in a statement. Avenatti has zeroed in on the attorney in recent weeks, culminating with his publishing of Cohen's recent email correspondence with Davidson. "I don't think there's any question that the relationship between Keith Davidson and Michael Cohen was not arm's length," Avenatti said on NBC's "Meet the Press" earlier this month. "It's unclear as to exactly how close they were. But that was not a traditional relationship among two adversaries." Davidson denies he worked to bolster Cohen's interests over his clients' Davidson gave an extensive interview with CNN last month, in which he said he believes Daniels and McDougal were telling the truth about their alleged affairs with Trump. But he said the details of the deals he helped negotiate have not been fully disclosed. During that interview, which took place just days before the Cohen raids, Davidson said he was contacted by Cohen, who encouraged him to reveal what he knew about Daniels and McDougal and their agreements. "He suggested that it would be appropriate for me to go out into the media and spill my guts," Davidson said, before saying that an ethics attorney told him it would not be wise. "I read each of the ladies' complaints and pleadings. ... The recitation of the facts that are contained within those pleadings I do not agree with, and I look forward to an opportunity in an appropriate forum to discuss them," Davidson said. Davidson's law license was suspended twice within the past decade: Once for 90-days by the State Bar of California for four counts of misconduct in three separate cases, the other for nine days after he failed to pay bar membership fees. Of that first suspension, Davidson told CNN he "was spread a little too thin." In 2011, Davidson represented Daniels in her effort to have details of her alleged Trump affair removed from a gossip website called TheDirty.com. That was when Davidson first spoke to Cohen, he told CNN. | |
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| 05-21-18 02:01pm - 2407 days | #717 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
It was a mistake to elect Trump as President. But let's get over it. Impeach him, and fire his corrupt administrators. End of story. ----------- ----------- Lifestyle Appointment Of Special Counsel In Russia Probe Was 'A Mistake,' Says Alan Dershowitz Newsweek Harriet Sinclair,Newsweek Sun, May 20 8:41 AM PDT It was “a mistake” to appoint a special counsel to investigate alleged meddling by Russia in the 2016 presidential election, according to Attorney Alan Dershowitz. Speaking to ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Dershowitz said a non-partisan; independent commission should have been used instead. "I think it was a mistake to appoint a special counsel. They should have appointed a non-partisan independent commission, like 9/11, to find out how this election went wrong," Dershowitz said. Trending: Can Iran, Russia and Europe Sideline Washington to Save the Iran Deal? "This is one of the worst elections in modern history, with the Russian attempts to influence, other attempts by Gulf countries to influence, the existence of FBI agents trying desperately to turn the election away from Trump," he continued. Both the Russia probe and Special Counsel Robert Mueller have been criticized by President Donald Trump, who has insisted there was no collusion between his campaign team and Russia, and describes the probe as “a witch hunt.” RTS183XG Was the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller (above, right) a mistake? Reuters Don't miss: Russia, China Would Destroy U.S. Command Aircraft on 'Day 1' of War, Air Force Warns Indeed, on Sunday, the president once again blasted the ongoing investigation, suggesting the probe should be brought to an end and appearing to try to deflect attention away from the Russia probe by suggesting Hillary Clinton’s campaign should be investigated. Initially hitting out at a New York Times article that said the investigation was looking at the rest of the world after looking into alleged collusion with Russia, the president wrote: “At what point does this soon to be $20,000,000 Witch Hunt, composed of 13 Angry and Heavily Conflicted Democrats and two people who have worked for Obama for 8 years, STOP!” “They have found no Collussion with Russia, No Obstruction, but they aren’t looking at the corruption in the Hillary Clinton Campaign where she deleted 33,000 Emails, got $145,000,000 while Secretary of State, paid McCabes wife $700,000 (and got off the FBI hook along with Terry M) and so much more. Republicans and real Americans should start getting tough on this Scam,” the president added. This article was first written by Newsweek | |
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| 05-21-18 04:05pm - 2407 days | #718 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
“Donald Trump had more Russian connections than Aeroflot,” Kasparov said. “While I believe in coincidences, I also believe in the KGB.” Why are the FBI and CIA wasting tax payer dollars? Seize Trump, the puppet of his master Vladimir Putin, and waterboard him until he confesses his crimes. Much faster and cheaper than pandering to this Russian mole. ---------- ---------- Garry Kasparov: I told you Putin would attack U.S. election — and he will again Dylan Stableford 2 hours 51 minutes ago NEW YORK — Garry Kasparov has a message for those who didn’t foresee Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election: “I told you so.” “I’ve been saying many of the same things about Vladimir Putin for over 17 years,” Kasparov, the former world chess champion and political activist, said at a conference on activism here Monday. Other attendees included former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, human rights activist Kerry Kennedy and David Hogg, a Florida high school student who has emerged as a gun control advocate. Kasparov — whose 2015 book, “Winter Is Coming,” warned of Putin’s rise on the global stage — said he voiced his concerns about the Russian president to anyone who would listen. “Putin is not a democratically elected leader — he is a dictator,” Kasparov said, recalling remarks from a 2007 conference he attended in Washington, D.C. “I said, yes, Putin was a bad guy. He was Russia’s problem, but if he wasn’t contained, he would be a regional problem — and soon after, everybody’s problem.” Kasparov said Russia’s spread of so-called fake news across American social media networks — part of a disinformation campaign aimed at undermining the U.S. elections — was “nothing new for us in Russia.” By the time Putin took aim at the U.S., Kasparov said, his cyber army had more than 10 years of experience in such attacks. Kasparov — originally from Azerbaijan, the former Soviet republic — has been living in forced exile in New York City since 2013. He did not mention special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia. But he suggested where there’s smoke, there’s fire. “Donald Trump had more Russian connections than Aeroflot,” Kasparov said. “While I believe in coincidences, I also believe in the KGB.” “Every country has its own mafia,” he continued. “In Russia, the mafia has its own country.” Still, Kasparov echoed the conclusions of U.S. intelligence officials that the Kremlin will continue to target elections, in the U.S. and abroad. “Putin will attack again, here and elsewhere,” Kasparov said. “He has no choice. He needs enemies — big ones.” Kasparov said that to combat Putin, Americans must put value in democracy and the truth. “You can’t defend yourself against Putin and the Putins of this world if you don’t believe what they are attacking is worth defending,” he said. | |
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| 05-21-18 04:18pm - 2407 days | #719 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Why is the FBI and Justice pandering to Trump? If Trump has no evidence for his claims, many of which have been proven false, why waste taxpayer money chasing Trump's paranoid fantasies? And if, as Trump has said, leakers are cowards and traitors, why not arrest Trump and Devin Nunes for leaking classified information? They are not above the law. And it's a serious mistake to allow them to break the law with impunity. Trump has lied repeatedly to the American public. He says he is shielded by the doctrine of political speech. Subpoena Trump, and get his statements under oath. He can either plead the 5th, or expose himself to perjury. ----------- ----------- Under pressure from Trump, FBI and Justice agree to expanded Russia probe Reuters By Steve Holland,Reuters 1 hour 15 minutes ago By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Monday agreed to expand its investigation into alleged Russia collusion in the 2016 election to include "any irregularities" in FBI tactics involving Trump's presidential campaign, a White House spokeswoman said. Trump suggested on Friday that the FBI might have planted or recruited an informant in his presidential campaign for political purposes, citing unidentified reports that at least one FBI representative was "implanted." The agreement came during a meeting that Trump had with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray, the spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders, said. The Justice Department "has asked the inspector general to expand its current investigation to include any irregularities with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s or the Department of Justice’s tactics concerning the Trump Campaign," Sanders said in a statement. Federal investigators are probing whether anyone in the Trump campaign worked with Russia to sway the election to the Republican candidate. Trump has denied any collusion and repeatedly dismissed the investigation as a "witch hunt." Trump said in a Twitter post on Sunday that he would demand the Justice Department look into whether the FBI "infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes - and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!" Hours later, a spokeswoman said the department asked its inspector general to expand a review of the process for requesting surveillance warrants to include determining whether there was impropriety or political motivation in how the FBI conducted its investigation.The FBI was looking into Trump election campaign ties to Moscow before Special Counsel Robert Mueller took over the probe a year ago. "If anyone did infiltrate or surveil participants in a presidential campaign for inappropriate purposes, we need to know about it and take appropriate action," Rosenstein said in a statement on Sunday evening. Democrats said Mueller and his investigation should be protected and information, such as about any informant, should not be shared with Congress. Justice Department "regulations protect this type of information from disclosure to Congress for legitimate investigative and privacy reasons,” Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a letter to Rosenstein on Monday. Trump has shown increasing signs of impatience with the investigation led by Mueller as it enters its second year, saying it was politically motivated and had its roots in the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama. His Republican allies in Congress, led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, have pushed the same message. In March, the Justice Department's inspector general launched a review into allegations by Republican lawmakers that the FBI made serious missteps when it sought a warrant to monitor a former adviser to Trump’s 2016 election campaign. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said his review will examine whether the FBI and Justice Department followed proper procedures when they applied for a warrant with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to secretly conduct surveillance on former adviser Carter Page and his ties to Russia. Republican U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin said he and 16 other members of Congress will introduce a resolution on Tuesday alleging Justice Department and FBI misconduct involving surveillance in the Trump-Russia probe. Neither Trump nor his new lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, provided any evidence of government infiltration into Trump’s presidential campaign. The New York Times, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the FBI sent an informant to talk to two Trump campaign advisers, Page and George Papadopoulos, after the agency received evidence that the two men had suspicious contacts linked to Russia during the campaign. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty last fall to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russia. (Reporting by Steve Holland, Doina Chiacu, Roberta Rampton and Patricia Zengerle; editing by Cynthia Osterman) | |
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| 05-21-18 05:15pm - 2407 days | #720 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Yahoo Interior moves to lift restrictions on hunting bears, wolves Associated Press MICHAEL BIESECKER,Associated Press 1 hour 30 minutes ago FILE - In this July 4, 2013, file photo, a brown bear walks to a sandbar to eat a salmon it had just caught at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. The Trump administration is moving to reverse Obama-era rules barring hunters on some public lands in Alaska from baiting bears with bacon and doughnuts and using spotlights to shoot mother bears and their cubs hibernating in dens. The National Park Service issued notice Monday of its intent to amend regulations for sport hunting and trapping in national preserves to bring the federal rules in line with Alaska state law. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File) WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is moving to reverse Obama-era rules barring hunters on some public lands in Alaska from baiting brown bears with bacon and doughnuts and using spotlights to shoot mother black bears and cubs hibernating in their dens. The National Park Service issued a notice Monday of its intent to amend regulations for sport hunting and trapping in national preserves to bring the federal rules in line with Alaska state law. Under the proposed changes, hunters would also be allowed to hunt black bears with dogs, kill wolves and pups in their dens, and use motor boats to shoot swimming caribou. These and other hunting methods — condemned as cruel by wildlife protection advocates — were outlawed on federal lands in 2015. Members of the public have 60 days to provide comment on the proposed new rules. "The conservation of wildlife and habitat for future generations is a goal we share with Alaska," said Bert Frost, the park service's regional director. "This proposed rule will reconsider NPS efforts in Alaska for improved alignment of hunting regulations on national preserves with State of Alaska regulations, and to enhance consistency with harvest regulations on surrounding non-federal lands and waters." Expanding hunting rights on federal lands has been a priority for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a former Montana congressman who displays a taxidermied bear in his Washington office along with mounted heads from a bison and an elk. The Obama-era restrictions on hunting on federal lands in Alaska were challenged by Safari Club International, a group that promotes big-game hunting. The Associated Press reported in March that Zinke had appointed a board loaded with trophy hunters to advise him on conserving threatened and endangered wildlife, including members of the Safari Club. President Donald Trump's sons are also avid trophy hunters who have made past excursions to Africa and Alaska. Collette Adkins, a lawyer and biologist with the advocacy group Center for Biological Diversity, expressed outrage at the rollback. "Cruel and harmful hunting methods like killing bear cubs and their mothers near dens have no place on our national preserves," she said. The Humane Society of the United States said it would oppose the new rules. "These federal lands are havens for wildlife and the National Park Service is mandated to manage these ecosystems in a manner that promotes conservation," said Anna Frostic, a lawyer for the animal rights group. "This proposed rule, which would allow inhumane killing of our native carnivores in a misguided attempt to increase trophy hunting opportunities, is unlawful and must not be finalized." ___ To comment on the new rules, starting Tuesday, visit the website http://www.regulations.gov and submit a comment for "RIN (1024-AE3  " and include the words include the words "National Park Service" or "NPS" | |
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| 05-21-18 05:40pm - 2407 days | #721 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump, a man of moral courage, can not understand why more Democrats are not in jail for treason. Drain the swamp in Washington. Trump wants all Democrats in jail, until they can prove they are innocent of leaking and cowardly acts of treason. --------- --------- Politics Trump Quotes 'Fox & Friends' in Claim Ex-CIA Director Could Go to Jail for Starting Russia Investigation Newsweek Greg Price,Newsweek 11 hours ago President Donald Trump quoted a conservative radio host who appeared on Fox & Friends Monday morning for an attack on former CIA director John Brennan. The slamming of Brennan appeared to be in response to him challenging Republican leadership Sunday following Trump’s “demand” for the Justice Department to investigate whether his campaign was “infiltrated or surveilled” for “political purposes” or if any Obama administration officials had directed such an inquiry. The president, who often cites information he’s viewed on Fox News’ morning program, took three tweets to sum up the accusations made by Dan Bongino about Brennan, who the former Secret Service agent called “disgraced” and “largely responsible for the destruction of Americans faith in the intelligence community…” “John Brennan is panicking. He has disgraced himself, he has disgraced the Country, he has disgraced the entire Intelligence Community," Trump tweeted citing Bongino. "He is the one man who is largely responsible for the destruction of American’s faith in the Intelligence Community and in some people at the top of the FBI. Brennan started this entire debacle about President Trump." Trump continued, quoting Bongino: "We now know that Brennan had detailed knowledge of the (phony) Dossier...he knows about the Dossier, he denies knowledge of the Dossier, he briefs the Gang of 8 on the Hill about the Dossier, which they then used to start an investigation about Trump. It is that simple. This guy is the genesis of this whole Debacle. This was a Political hit job, this was not an Intelligence Investigation. Brennan has disgraced himself, he’s worried about staying out of Jail.” Bongino had appeared on Fox News earlier Monday morning, and part of the segment is below. Brennan, who headed up the CIA from 2013 to 2017, has been a frequent critic of Trump. However, it remains unclear why he is being implicated, given the CIA was not previously known to be part of the Russia investigation either during the campaign or presently. Brennan directly responded to Trump’s decree for a Justice Department investigation Sunday, by naming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and stating “you will bear major responsibility for the harm done to our democracy.” The president has in recent days increased his attacks on the special counsel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, exactly what one of his personal attorneys, Rudy Giuliani, said would happen at the one-year anniversary of Robert Mueller’s appointment. Over the weekend, Trump referenced a New York Times report that detailed how his eldest child, Donald Trump Jr., had met with a representative for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in August 2016. Like a Russian lawyer who met with Trump Jr. and other campaign representatives two months prior, they too were offering to help the Trump campaign. “The Witch Hunt finds no Collusion with Russia - so now they’re looking at the rest of the World. Oh’ great!” Trump tweeted Sunday. This article was first written by Newsweek | |
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| 05-21-18 05:53pm - 2407 days | #722 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Politics Donald Trump Is ‘Like a Velociraptor: If You Don’t Show Him Deference He Kills You,’ Says Former Ambassador Newsweek Jason Le Miere,Newsweek 10 hours ago John Feeley, the former United States ambassador to Panama who retired from the post in March, hit out at the man he until recently served: President Donald Trump. In an interview with The New Yorker published Monday, Feeley expanded on the criticisms he directed at the president shortly following his exit in an op-ed for The Washington Post titled “Why I Could No Longer Serve This President.” “He’s like a velociraptor,” Feeley told The New Yorker. “He has to be boss, and if you don’t show him deference he kills you.” In resigning, Feeley cited Trump’s travel ban, his push to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and the president’s response to deadly violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, as motivating factors. Feeley said that in his first meeting with Trump, in June 2017, the president asked him: “So tell me—what do we get from Panama? What’s in it for us?” The ambassador, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama, then outlined the benefits of the U.S.’s relationship with Panama, including counter-narcotics work. Trump was then said to have responded by saying “who knew?” before moving on to extoll the virtues of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Panama City. “How about the hotel?” Trump was reported to have said. “We still have the tallest building on the skyline down there?” Feeley specifically criticized the Trump administration’s policies in Latin America, including rolling back the easing of relations with Cuba. “The rhetoric has had a chilling effect,” Feeley said. “Latins believe that Trump and his senior officials have no real interest in the region, beyond baiting Mexico and tightening the screws on Cuba and Venezuela.” He added: “We have all these ties that bind us: proximity, commerce, shared Judeo-Christian values. But right now, it feels like a market adjustment gone south.” This article was first written by Newsweek | |
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| 05-21-18 06:02pm - 2407 days | #723 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Al Jazeera Unfair Game: How Trump Won Big data politics and how the American public was tricked into opening the doors of the White House to Donald Trump. 21 May 2018 14:35 GMT Filmmaker: Thomas Huchon More than a year after the election of US President Donald Trump, there are still some questions about how this controversial figure managed to become the most powerful man in the world. While he lost the popular vote to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by three million votes, he took Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania by a total of 77,000 votes - three key states that carried him to victory. ---- "The mainstream media is disrupted, and because the mainstream media is disrupted, truth is disrupted. And if truth is disrupted, you can spread your own version of it." Carole Cadwalladr, journalist, The Guardian ---- The spread of fake news disrupted mainstream media and a lack of regard for the truth became more apparent than in any other US presidential campaign. According to Politifact, an independent fact-checking website, only four percent of Trump's statements during the 2016 campaign were true. False information was constantly circulating, and eventually became self-propagating. "Conservatives only get their news through Fox News or alternative sites like Breitbart, so that's the only news they see," explains pollster Ben Tulchin. "They only get their news via very slanted sources. And Trump picks up his information from these same news sources ... so the voters say 'I heard that on the news, and I heard that from President Trump, so he must be telling the truth'. There's a silo, and it is hard to break that silo, it's a self re-enforcing cycle of mistruths." It became increasingly difficult to discern fact from fiction and the traditional press was brushed aside. "Trump's disregard for making [a] true statement is something a lot of reporters have had trouble dealing with, because we are not used to it. We are not used to politicians or press people just straight-up lying," says Rosie Gray, a journalist for The Atlantic. Facebook Analytica and the man behind Trump's success In the shadows of Trump lies an enigmatic billionaire, Robert Mercer, a man who has poured millions of dollars into conservative causes for a decade, including Trump's campaign. He controls Breitbart News, an ultra-conservative website turned into an alt-right propaganda machine, headed by Steve Bannon, a white nationalist and Trump's former chief strategist. Mercer's psychometric firm, Cambridge Analytica , obtained big data from Facebook, Google, banks, credit companies, social security and more, to learn all about voters in order to try and change their political opinions and influence the election in Trump's favour. In the days before the election, using a little-known Facebook feature, "dark posts", Trump's campaign - with the help of Cambridge Analytica - deployed highly manipulative and personalised messages, which could be seen only by the user before disappearing. In the darkness of the web, democracy was trumped by data. "The idea is that a company or a Facebook page can put out a message for a specific population, and that this message is only visible to that group, it will not appear on their own page," explains mathematician Paul-Olivier Dehaye of PersonalData.IO. "In an electoral context, it means that candidates can target individuals on Facebook with negative messages against the other candidate, without journalists being aware, because these messages will not appear publicly." After Trump's election win, two former employees at Cambridge Analytica came forward to say that the firm used the unauthorised Facebook profiles it had claimed it deleted: Christopher Wylie, the former director of research at Cambridge Analytica, and Brittany Kaiser, the former business development director. On May 2, 2018, SCL Group announced that it was filing for insolvency and closing all of its operations - including its subsidiary, Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica stated that "the siege of media coverage has driven away virtually all of the company's customers and suppliers." It claimed that it "has been vilified for activities that are legal and widely accepted as a standard component of online advertising in both the political and commercial arenas." However, the acceptance of this digital strategy is challenged as the manipulation of public opinion becomes clearer. As Trump's campaign strategy opened democracy to new threats, it also drew more attention to data technology's role in politics around the globe. Source: Al Jazeera | |
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| 05-21-18 06:11pm - 2407 days | #724 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump promised to drain the swamp in Washington. Maybe he did get rid of some of the influence peddlers. But he brought in his own scavengers when he took office. ------------ ------------ Pair sought big contracts from Gulf princes in exchange for access to Trump: report By Olivia Beavers - 05/21/18 06:30 PM EDT Pair sought big contracts from Gulf princes in exchange for access to Trump: report Greg NashTwo American businessmen sought to leverage access to President Trump while angling for lucrative contracts from two Gulf countries wanting to shift U.S. foreign policy against Qatar, The Associated Press reported Monday. GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy and businessman George Nader reportedly worked to catch the president's ear by passing along praise from the princes of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Broidy and Nader, who marketed themselves as having a back channel to the Oval Office, sought million-dollar contracts with the two Gulf countries for their efforts, according to the AP investigation, which included dozens of interviews as well as the review of hundreds of pages of leaked emails between the two men. The New York Times reported earlier this year that Broidy and Nader had worked to push Emirati and Saudi interests in the White House to take a hard-line stance on Iran and Qatar. According to the AP, this new tranche of emails further reveals their "ambitious, secretive lobbying effort to isolate Qatar and undermine the Pentagon’s longstanding relationship with the Gulf country." The newswire had previously reported that Broidy and Nader sought to pass an anti-Qatar bill through Congress, while trying to hide their money trail related to such efforts. Chris Clark, one of Broidy's lawyers, pushed back on the AP report, saying it “is based on fraudulent and fabricated documents obtained from entities with a known agenda to harm Mr. Broidy.” “To be clear, Mr. Nader is a U.S. citizen, and there is no evidence suggesting that he directed Mr. Broidy’s actions, let alone that he did so on behalf of a foreign entity,” Clark told the AP. Broidy and his wife had filed a lawsuit in late March alleging the Qatari government has carried out a sophisticated disinformation campaign that aimed to tarnish his reputation. They did this, he argued, by hacking into his email accounts, stealing his data and then maliciously leaking the information to the press. Some of the information passed on to the media outlets was forged, he said. Nader’s lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, declined the AP's request for comment. A senior Saudi official, however, confirmed to the newswire that the government had discussions with Nader, but never signed any contracts with either Nader or Broidy. Broidy, who wrote summaries of his two meetings with the president, says he shared the two princes’ messages with Trump, the documents show. According to these summaries, he tried to dissuade Trump from intervening on behalf of Qatar as well as quietly set up a meeting between Trump and the Abu Dhabi crown prince, Mohammed Bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi, who they referred to as “MBZ” their correspondence Nader and Broidy were also working to get contracts with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Neither Broidy nor Nader were reportedly registered with under the U.S. government’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a federal law that requires lobbyists to disclose their ties as well as political efforts done on behalf of foreign governments. FARA requires individuals who are working on behalf of foreign interests to register even if they do not get paid for such efforts — or they could face up to five years in prison or a maximum $10,000 fine. Broidy has argued that he did not need to register under FARA because he carried out the anti-Qatar campaign on his own volition, the AP reports. Sponsored Content The Highest Paying Card Has Hit The Market Sponsored By Next Advisor The AP notes that its investigation reveals that he was looking early on to receive contracts from his lobbying campaign. A spreadsheet from Broidy’s company, Circinus LLC. countries, lists the two princes as “clients” for the lobbying campaign. “I have represented Mr. Broidy for many years. He has complied with all relevant laws, including FARA,” Clark said in a statement to the AP. Broidy and Nader, who met during Trump’s inauguration, planned to prove that Qatar had a close relationship to Iran, Saudi’s regional rival, according to the report. They planned to do this by providing evidence that Qatar supported Islamist extremist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, proposing $12 million plan to “expose and penalize” Qatar as well as get the U.S. to pressure the state into taking "coercive action against Iran,” the AP reported, citing a March 2017 document. Shortly after Broidy met with the president, the UAE offered Broidy an intelligence contract that would award him up to $600 million over the course of five years, the AP reports, citing a leaked email. Broidy told Nader in January that he had received $36 million, the first installment of this deal. “First among many to go!” Nader reportedly responded. Broidy also wrote an analysis of Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia, detailing the progress of his lobbying efforts, the documents show. The recipient is redacted in some of the publicly released documents, but the AP reports it is Nader. "We have introduced a fully integrated campaign that is yielding tremendous results," Broidy writes. He then begins to highlight the possible contracts he could receive on behalf of Saudi Arabia, noting his access to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “I can help in educating Mnuchin on the importance of the Treasury Department putting many Qatari individuals and organizations on the applicable sanctions lists,” Broidy said in an email to Nader. "My Goals, Circinus' goals and the Goals of Saudi Arabia are completely aligned," he added. After the UAE and Saudi Arabia began their blockade last year, Trump sent out tweets that indicating Qatar was behind "funding extremism." “[Saudi Arabia] said they would take a hard line on funding extremism and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to horror of terrorism!” Trump tweeted last June. The news wire reports that their anti-Qatar efforts appear to have lost momentum. A senior official told the AP the Saudi Prince had ordered an end to “engagement with these people.” Broidy, however, is also one of Cohen’s clients. He has admitted to trying to pay 1.6 million to silence Playboy Playmate Shera Bechard, after having an affair with her. The report comes amid scrutiny about contacts between Trump associates and Qatari officials during the 2016 presidential election. Trump’s longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, offered Qatari government officials access to the president in exchange for at least $1 million, The Washington Post reported last week. The proposed arrangement came shortly around the time Qatari officials visited Trump Tower to meet with Trump's then-national security adviser Michael Flynn. Nader is now reportedly cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller's team of investigators, who are said to be examining foreign influence inside the Trump White House. —Updated at 7:31 p.m. | |
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| 05-21-18 07:20pm - 2407 days | #725 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Donald Trump has now been revealed as a member of the Illuminati. I'm not sure what the Illuminati is. But it's probably a bad organization that wants to rule the world. Maybe it's something to do with witchcraft, which Trump is always tweeting about. The test of a witch: submerge him or her in water. If he drowns, she is probably not a witch. If he does not drown, he is probably a witch, who must be burned at the stake. The FBI and the CIA must put Trump to the test, before he and his disciples rule over us with his evil overlord, Vladimir Putin, the high priest of the Illuminati. ----------- ----------- Trump Illuminati Accusers Now Say He and Cohen Are Behind a ‘Kidnapping’ The California couple who once accused the president in a lawsuit of being an Illuminati leader has now jumped into the Michael Cohen case, according to two newly public letters. Kate Briquelet 05.21.18 7:51 PM ET A California couple who once filed a lawsuit accusing President Trump of being the Illuminati’s stealth candidate and a leader of the New World Order has now filed court papers in the legal saga surrounding Michael Cohen. Since April, Janis and Gregory Kaighn have filed two letters to U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood, who is presiding over Cohen’s case. (Cohen, Trump’s embattled personal attorney, has waged a court battle to limit prosecutors’ review of his attorney-client records after the FBI raided his home, office, and hotel.) On Monday, the Kaighns’ bizarre letters became part of the Southern District of New York’s official public record. The couple first wrote to Wood on April 23 “for the purpose of asserting our rights as crime victims,” the letter states. The Kaighns claim their son was kidnapped “by persons acting on behalf of” Trump and Cohen in 2016 and that they have an audiotape to prove it. “We have every reason to believe that information related to both of us and our son is included in the materials seized from Michael Cohen,” the Kaighns wrote. While the couple claims their child was snatched away by Trump conspirators, a review of social media posts suggests he is free and well. The missives come as Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’ fast-talking lawyer, seeks to intervene in the Cohen legal drama. Attorney Peter Gleason is also requesting a protective order for his own Cohen communications. In court filings, Gleason said he represented two women who accused former New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman of sexual abuse. According to Gleason’s letter to Wood, he shared dirt on the now-disgraced Schneiderman with Cohen in 2013, as Trump mulled a run for governor of New York. Gleason’s clients did not participate in the New Yorker exposé about Schneiderman’s alleged misconduct, journalist Jane Mayer said. On May 17, the Kaighns wrote Wood again. They said, “for reasons unexplained, our letter has not been filed in the public records of this case,” while Gleason’s made it to the court file. They latched onto Gleason’s second letter to the judge, filed last week, which described corruption in New York politics. “Mr. Gleason is completely correct about corruption in New York; but the corruption he describes is originating with Donald Trump and Michael Cohen,” the Kaighns wrote. “As we previously stated, a sitting President can be criminally indicted while in office,” the couple continued. “We are not amused by the wacky statements coming from Rudy Giuliani over whether a sitting president can or cannot be indicted.” Lawyers for Trump demanded the Kaighns’ “Illuminati” suit be dismissed for a panoply of reasons, including that their complaint “fails to properly identify relevant evidentiary facts and applicable law.” U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller dismissed the Kaighns’ case in August 2017. In her order, Mueller wrote, “The Kaighns do not explain how any injury they have suffered is connected to challenged action of the defendant—i.e., Trump’s alleged involvement in the ‘Illuminati’ and the ‘New World Order.’ “Because the Kaighns fail to provide any causal narrative whatsoever, they do not meet their burden to establish causation,” she added. Records show Gregory Kaighn, once a California lawyer who was admitted to practice in 1986, was disbarred last month. Kaighn was accused of making “false, disparaging comments in a pleading” about a court official. Kate Briquelet @kbriqueletkate.briquelet@thedailybeast.co | |
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| 05-22-18 01:03am - 2407 days | #726 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The truth comes out: the Obama administration perverted the United States government to spy on political opponents. The Department of Justice, the FBI and the Obama White House were all involved in corruption, deceit, and criminal activity. If Obama knew of these crimes, he belongs in jail. Along with anyone else who tried to block Trump's campaign. Americans must be told the truth! ----- ----- By Charles Hurt - The Washington Times - Sunday, May 20, 2018 ANALYSIS/OPINION: At the end of all the scandal and drama, all of the breathlessly reported lies and false accusations, at the end of all the money wasted on some zany kabuki swamp dance choreographed to the thrumming of giant bullfrogs and yipping of excited coyotes — at the end of all of this — it comes down to precisely what we said it was a year and a half ago. The Obama administration — with or without the knowledge and direction of President Obama himself — perverted one of the most powerful, clandestine spying operations in the world and used it at the very height of a presidential campaign to spy on political opponents, punish them and, ultimately, silence them through extortion. If this was orchestrated without the express knowledge of Mr. Obama, then it reveals just how blatantly he instructed by example the weaponizing of the entire federal government to carry out his low, dishonest and unjust ideology. By any means necessary, one might say. Only instead of being driving by visions of justice, these people were driven by visions of undying power. If this conspiracy was carried out at the express direction of Mr. Obama or other high officials in his administration, then they belong in jail. From unmasking of political opponents, to leaking their names to the press, to killing legitimate investigations, to launching politically motivated witch hunts, a racket of this scale could not have been carried out without some major juice and cover at the top levels of the Department of Justice, FBI and the White House. The rogue henchmen carrying out the dirty work, as always, presented as perfect, decent and most honest little Boy Scouts like former FBI Director James B. Comey. Most of the FBI today must be horrified by the degree to which Mr. Comey and his goon squad handed over the entire mission of the FBI to political hacks inside the Obama administration. Still, there were far too many inside the bureau willing to junk their oath in the name of some kind of higher “justice.” Which is just another way of saying “selling their soul for partisan gain.” | |
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| 05-22-18 10:08am - 2406 days | #727 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
News flash of the day, maybe even the week: DHS secretary says she is unaware Russia wanted Trump to win. Of course. Even if she is a moron, she knows if she said she was aware Russia wanted Trump to win, she would be out of a job, with Trump tweeting "Good riddance to bad trash". So what else can she say? Trump rewards loyalty, and demands that his appointees lie for him, or they are out of job. Trump, probably the most corrupt President the US ever had. A true slimeball. And if the DHS secretary happened to read an intelligence report stating that Trump was aided by Russia, she would deny the report, unless she was forced to confess the truth by waterboarding, a technique Trump wants to use on his enemies (anyone who is not fervently pro-Trump), but calls anyone who opposes him a traitor, coward and slimeball. Trump, the biggest bully in the US. The biggest liar in the US. The biggest slimeball in the US. ---------- ---------- DHS secretary says she's unaware Russia wanted Trump to win Associated Press JILL COLVIN and COLLEEN LONG,Associated Press 20 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Tuesday that she was unaware of intelligence assessments concluding that Russia favored President Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. The U.S. intelligence community said in a January 2017 assessment that Russia had tried to influence the election to benefit Trump. "I do not believe I've seen that conclusion that the specific intent was to help President Trump win. I'm not aware of that," Nielsen said, responding to a reporter's question after briefing House members on election security efforts. She said she believed the Russians have attempted to manipulate public confidence on both sides. "We've seen them encourage people to go to a protest on one side. We've seen them simultaneously encourage people to go to that same protest on the other side. So I think what they're trying to do, in my opinion, and I defer to the Intel community is just disrupt our belief in our own understanding of what's happening." A spokesman for the department said later that Nielsen had previously reviewed the assessment — but it was nuanced, and the question asked by a reporter didn't reflect that nuance. "So the secretary correctly stated she had not seen the conclusion as characterized by the reporter," spokesman Tyler Houlton said in a statement. The question the reporter had asked was: "Do you any reason to doubt the Jan 2017 intelligence community assessment that said it was Vladimir Putin who meddled in the election to help President Trump win?" Trump has expressed skepticism over whether the Russians tried to help him win the election. But the Senate intelligence committee said last week that it agrees with the intelligence agencies' assessment. That was at odds with Republican members of the House intelligence committee, who said that while Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to hamper Clinton's campaign, that didn't mean he wanted to help Trump. The House committee said the intelligence agencies failed to use "proper analytic tradecraft" when they assessed Putin's intentions. The top Democrat on the intelligence panel, Mark Warner, sent out a list a list of three separate occasions where the report of Russia's attempt to sway the election was made public. And Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and ranking member of the House homeland security committee, said he'd personally deliver Nielsen a copy. "This report is over a year old, has stood the test of time, was agreed to by the entire Intelligence Community, and was backed up by Senate investigators," he said in a statement. About two weeks ago, the president unloaded on Nielsen at a heated Cabinet meeting — railing against her for failing to stop illegal border crossings. HuffPost | |
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| 05-22-18 01:12pm - 2406 days | #728 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Can you say cover-up? The FBI needs to investigate the entire Trump administation. Put them in jail before they destroy and delete records that will bring them down, leading to jail terms for corruption and graft and other crimes. The treasury secretary should be indicted and removed from office for derelection of duty: Hiding or losing financial records. "“There is no excuse whatsoever for anybody who has access to these important systems to release information on an unauthorized basis,” Mnuchin said. And why would anyone release information to the public? Because they fear the government will either hide or destroy the financial documents. Put Mnuchin in jail, for obstruction of justice. He's one of Trump's lackeys, who will repeat Trump's lies to the public, while allowing important papers to go missing. ------------ ------------ Mnuchin says Cohen’s financial records are missing By Mark Moore May 22, 2018 | 2:44pm | Updated Modal Trigger Mnuchin says Cohen’s financial records are missing Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said financial records of President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen appear to be missing from his agency and the inspector general is investigating. “Our inspector general is reviewing the issue of leaks. There is the appearance that some of the information may have gone out,” Mnuchin told the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. The New Yorker last week wrote about a law enforcement official who released documents to the media about Cohen’s banking records because he thought the information was being hidden. “There is no excuse whatsoever for anybody who has access to these important systems to release information on an unauthorized basis,” Mnuchin said. He added that procedures do exist at Treasury to “suppress important information” for law enforcement reasons, but would not comment on “whether this was or was not done” with the Suspicious Activity Reports on Cohen’s accounts in a Treasury database. Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels, publicly released information from those accounts, showing that Cohen had received payments from a number of corporations, including one firm connected to a Russian oligarch. Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 weeks before the 2016 election to remain quiet about an affair she alleges she had with Trump a decade earlier. | |
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| 05-22-18 02:14pm - 2406 days | #729 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Bad news for Stormy Daniels lawyer? His firm is hit with a $10 million judgment. But the lawyer, Avenatti, says they have confused him with an unrelated legal entity. I hope that's true, because Stormy Daniels needs all the help she can get, in her fight with Cohen and Trump. -------- -------- Firm of Stormy Daniels lawyer hit with $10 million judgment By Josh Delk - 05/22/18 03:50 PM EDT Firm of Stormy Daniels lawyer hit with $10 million judgment Getty ImagesThe law firm of Michael Avenatti, who represents adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, was served with a $10 million settlement fine on Tuesday in bankruptcy court over a lapsed payment agreement. The Eagan Avenatti law firm will be required to pay the sum after Avenatti failed to follow through in paying $2 million to a former associate, Jason Frank, to settle the firm's bankruptcy, according to the Los Angeles Times. Avenatti's firm also owes back taxes to the IRS that includes more than $1.3 million in employee taxes that it never handed over to the government, the Justice Department reportedly said at the hearing. The name partner, who agreed to personally pay back $1.5 million of the total sum, has missed an installment and will reportedly soon face legal action by the federal government to demand payment. Despite his position as the lead equity partner in the firm, Avenatti told the Times that they had confused him with an unrelated legal entity. Avenatti is handling the legal affairs of Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, as she pursues legal action to nullify a nondisclosure agreement regarding her alleged affair with President Trump more than a decade ago. Avenatti has said that all of his legal fees are paid by Clifford and a crowd-funding website that urges supporters to contribute to their efforts. The lawyer has become a constant presence on cable news networks, where he often disparages the lawyers for Trump and hints at new developments in the legal case. | |
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| 05-22-18 02:24pm - 2406 days | #730 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Schwarzenegger to Pruitt: Drink contaminated water 'until you tap out or resign' By Jacqueline Thomsen - 05/16/18 02:40 PM EDT Arnold Schwarzenegger tweeted a jab at Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt on Wednesday after reports that the EPA intervened to stop the publication of a federal study that would have set stricter levels for toxic chemicals in drinking water. “I’m a simple guy so I have a simple remedy when people like Pruitt ignore or hide pollution: if you don’t have a problem with Americans drinking contaminated drinking water, drink it yourself until you tap out or resign,” Schwarzenegger tweeted. I’m a simple guy so I have a simple remedy when people like Pruitt ignore or hide pollution: if you don’t have a problem with Americans drinking contaminated drinking water, drink it yourself until you tap out or resign. https://t.co/RwPpGJPthE — Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) May 16, 2018 The former California governor’s suggestion follows the release of internal Trump administration emails this week that showed EPA officials were concerned about a public relations “nightmare” that could stem from another agency's expected plans to strengthen standards for fluorinated chemicals in water. Their suggestion would set safe levels for the chemicals at almost one-sixth of the EPA's current suggested standard. Politico first reported on the emails on Monday. Fluorinated chemicals are used in products like hoses to reduce emissions for vehicles and stain resistance for clothing, but are also associated with major health risks including kidney and testicular cancer. Pruitt is facing several probes for a number of ethics issues, including his use of first-class travel, his rental of a condo co-owned by the wife of a then-energy lobbyist and his use of private email accounts for official EPA business. He is already under pressure to resign from some critics because of those issues. Pruitt, testifying before senators on Wednesday, said that some of the decisions leading to the scandals were not handled properly. “There have been decisions over the last 16 months or so that, as I look back on those decisions, I would not make the same decisions again,” he said. Miranda Green contributed to this report, which was updated at 3:12 p.m. | |
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| 05-22-18 02:30pm - 2406 days | #731 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I'm glad Stormy Daniels lawyer, Avenatti, is giving us some insight into the Stormy Daniels case and the Cohen-Trump connection. If we depended on Cohen-Trump for news, all we would hear is denials and lies. If we depended on the Special Prosecution, all we would hear is silence, until months or years from now. ------------ ------------ Stormy Daniels lawyer alleges Cohen is leaking recordings seized in FBI raids By Jacqueline Thomsen - 05/22/18 04:49 PM EDT Stormy Daniels lawyer alleges Cohen is leaking recordings seized in FBI raids Getty ImagesStormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti is alleging that President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen may have selectively leaked audio recordings seized during the FBI raid on his office to the media. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood on Tuesday, Avenatti states that he has “reason to believe” that Cohen or members of his team are leaking the recordings, and that the recordings may be related to Daniels. “We think that these select leaks are meant to paint a false narrative relating to Mr. Cohen and his business dealings at the same time he is not disclosing numerous other recordings of him speaking with individuals such as Mr. Trump,” the letter states. Avenatti requested that the court ask whether Cohen or members of his team leaked the recordings. The Hill has reached out to Cohen’s attorney for comment. It’s not clear which recordings Avenatti is referring to in the letter, or which media outlets he claims have received the recordings. ABC News reported that FBI agents had seized recordings during the raids on Cohen’s office, hotel room and home last month. Trump associates told the Washington Post at the time of the raids that they feared FBI agents could have taken Cohen’s secret recordings of conversations, which included discussions about both business and politics. A so-called special master has been appointed to review the evidence seized in the raids to determine which records are protected by attorney-client privilege and which ones can be handed over to federal prosecutors. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is suing Cohen for defamation for suggesting that she is lying about her alleged affair with Trump. The attorney is also under criminal investigation. | |
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| 05-22-18 02:42pm - 2406 days | #732 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
By Jacqueline Alemany CBS News May 22, 2018, 2:08 PM EPA bars reporters from attending summit led by Scott Pruitt The Environmental Protection Agency barred reporters from The Associated Press, CNN and other media organizations from attending a national summit on water contaminants, led by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on Tuesday morning. One reporter says she was "forcibly removed" from the event. CBS News, Politico, The Wall Street Journal, the Hill and a handful of other news organizations did attend the kickoff of the EPA's two-day summit that included representatives from 38 states from around the country to discuss polyfluoroalkyl substances — chemical water contaminants widely used in commercial substances found to have adverse health effects in lower quantities than initially recognized by the EPA. E&E News tweeted that its reporter Corbin Hiar tweeted that reporters from his outlet, The AP, and CNN had been "selectively shut out" from covering the event. "This morning's PFAS Leadership Summit at @EPA headquarters is open to the press... just not to reporters from @EENewsUpdates, @AP or @CNN. We've all asked the agency's press office why we're being selectively shut out and have gotten no responses," he wrote. This morning's PFAS Leadership Summit at @EPA headquarters is open to the press... just not to reporters from @EENewsUpdates, @AP or @CNN. We've all asked the agency's press office why we're being selectively shut out and have gotten no responses. — Corbin Hiar (@CorbinHiar) May 22, 2018 EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox told CBS News in a statement that their exclusion was a matter of room capacity. "This was simply an issue of the room reaching capacity, which reporters were aware of prior to the event," he said. "We were able to accommodate 10 reporters, provided a livestream for those we could not accommodate and were unaware of the individual situation that has been reported." EPA opened the second portion of the summit to press. CBS News' Caitlin Conant contributed to this report. | |
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| 05-22-18 05:49pm - 2406 days | #733 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Judge orders law firm of Stormy Daniels' lawyer to pay $10M Associated Press MICHAEL BALSAMO,Associated Press 35 minutes ago LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge in California ordered a law firm linked to Stormy Daniels' attorney to pay $10 million on Tuesday to a lawyer who claimed that the firm had misstated its profits and that he was owed millions. The judgment came after Jason Frank, who used to work at Eagan Avenatti, alleged that that the law firm failed to pay a $4.85 million settlement he had reached in December. He said in court papers that the settlement was personally guaranteed by Michael Avenatti, who has garnered national attention as the attorney for Daniels, the porn actress who is suing President Donald Trump following an alleged 2006 affair. Frank had worked at Avenatti's firm under an independent contractor agreement and was supposed to collect 25 percent of the firm's annual profits, along with 20 percent of fees his clients paid, according to court documents. He resigned in May 2016 after alleging that the firm didn't pay him millions of dollars that he was owed, misstated the firm's profits and wouldn't provide copies of tax returns and other financial documents. After he resigned, Frank brought the case to a panel of arbitrators, who found that the firm "acted with malice, fraud, and oppression by hiding its revenue numbers," according to a copy of the arbitration report included in court documents. In December, Frank settled with Avenatti's firm for a total of $4.85 million, which was supposed to include an initial $2 million payment and then a second payment for $2.85 million. The $2 million payment was supposed to be made by May 14, but Avenatti and his firm never paid, Frank said in court papers. The settlement agreement included a clause that the firm couldn't oppose a request for a $10 million judgment if the settlement payments weren't made within three days of the due date. Frank did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment on Tuesday. The judgment is final and cannot be appealed, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Catherine Bauer said in her ruling. Court records in the bankruptcy proceeding also show Avenatti had personally agreed to pay about $2.4 million in back taxes and penalties. During Tuesday's hearing, an assistant U.S. attorney said Avenatti had not made a payment that was due last week for unpaid taxes as part of the agreement that was reached in January. Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, said lawyers from that office represent the government in bankruptcy court when there's a debt to a government agency, like back taxes or unpaid student loans. Avenatti told The Associated Press that he would not discuss "irrelevant nonsense" and wouldn't answer specific questions about the case. Court documents say Avenatti is the "managing member and majority equity holder" of Eagan Avenatti and "solely owns and controls" another firm, Avenatti & Associates, which represents Daniels. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and has sued to invalidate the confidentiality agreement she signed days before the 2016 presidential election that prevents her discussing it. She's also suing Trump and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, alleging defamation. ___ Associated Press journalist Catherine Lucey in Washington contributed to this report. | |
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| 05-23-18 07:08am - 2405 days | #734 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
If you lie to the FBI, that is a crime, and you can be put in prison. But the FBI lies, and keeps smiling with a straight face. Or maybe the FBI gives a stern face, saying, "We are the law. How dare you question my integrity?" Double standard? Of course. ---------- ---------- U.S. FBI reportedly overestimated inaccessible encrypted phones by thousands Devin Coldewey,TechCrunch 13 hours ago The FBI seems to have been caught fibbing again on the topic of encrypted phones. FBI director Christopher Wray estimated in December that it had almost 7,800 phones from 2017 alone that investigators were unable to access. The real number is likely less than a quarter of that, the Washington Post reports. Internal records cited by sources put the actual number of encrypted phones at perhaps 1,200 but perhaps as many as 2,000, and the FBI told the paper in a statement that "initial assessment is that programming errors resulted in significant over-counting of mobile devices reported." Supposedly having three databases tracking the phones led to devices being counted multiple times. Such a mistake would be so elementary that it's hard to conceive of how it would be possible. These aren't court notes, memos, or unimportant random pieces of evidence, they're physical devices with serial numbers and names attached. The idea that no one thought to check for duplicates before giving a number to the director for testimony in Congress suggests either conspiracy or gross incompetence. The latter seems more likely after a report by the Office of the Inspector General that found the FBI had failed to utilize its own resources to access locked phones, instead suing Apple and then hastily withdrawing the case when its basis (a locked phone from a terror attack) was removed. It seems to have chosen to downplay or ignore its own capabilities in order to pursue the narrative that widespread encryption is dangerous without a backdoor for law enforcement. An audit is underway at the Bureau to figure out just how many phones it actually has that it can't access, and hopefully how this all happened. It is unmistakably among the FBI's goals has been to emphasize the problem of devices being fully encrypted and inaccessible to authorities, a trend known as "going dark." That much it has said publicly, and it is a serious problem for law enforcement. But it seems equally unmistakable that the Bureau is happy to be sloppy, deceptive, or both in its advancement of a tailored narrative. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. U.S. FBI repeatedly overstated encryption threat figures to Congress, public Los Angeles Daily News 19 hours ago The FBI has repeatedly provided grossly inflated statistics to Congress and the public about the extent of problems posed by encrypted cellphones, claiming investigators were locked out of nearly 7,800 devices connected to crimes last year when the correct number was much smaller, probably between 1,000 and 2,000, The Washington Post has learned. Over a period of seven months, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray cited the inflated figure as the most compelling evidence for the need to address what the FBI calls “Going Dark” — the spread of encrypted software that can block investigators’ access to digital data even with a court order. The FBI first became aware of their phone-counting problem about a month ago, and still does not have an accurate count of how many encrypted phones they received as part of criminal investigations last year, officials said. ... Read more U.S. FBI inflated the number of encrypted devices it can't access Fox News 1 hour 1 minute ago For the past several months, the FBI has been claiming that encryption has prevented the agency from accessing around 7,000 mobile devices connected to various crimes. But it turns out that number is very wrong. On Tuesday, the FBI told PCMag that a programming error resulted in a "significant overcounting" of the encrypted devices. "The FBI is currently conducting an in-depth review of how this over-counting previously occurred," the agency said in a statement. The news was first reported by The Washington Post, which said the correct number is probably between 1,000 and 2,000 devices. One internal estimate from the FBI puts the figure at 1,200, but the agency plans to launch an audit to get the full number, The Post said, citing unnamed sources. The mistake seriously undercuts one of the FBI's central arguments in the ongoing encryption debate. For years now, the agency has been pushing for what critics call a "backdoor" into smartphone products that'll let federal agents easily unlock mobile devices tied to crimes. Without such access, some investigations may grind to halt, the agency claims. | |
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| 05-23-18 08:12am - 2405 days | #735 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
This is sad. A preacher said if a woman is abused, she should pray to God for help, and be submissive in every way to her man. And if a woman is raped by a man, she should not go to the police to complain. Instead, she should forgive the rapist. That is God's will. That must be obeyed. As a side note: this minister is probably a follower of President Trump, who believes that women are to be used. However, even though the minister was removed from his post, he was promoted to president emeritus of his church, with compensation (salary, plus whatever benefits are usual for a man of his position). ------------ ------------ Southern Baptist Leader Who Said Abused Women Should Just Pray Is Removed From Post HuffPost Willa Frej,HuffPost 2 hours 53 minutes ago A prominent Southern Baptist Church leader who is known to have made inappropriate comments about abuse and women’s bodies was removed from his position early Wednesday after thousands of evangelical women signed a petition calling for his ouster. Paige Patterson, formerly the head of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, was demoted to president emeritus of the church after a 13-hour board meeting on Tuesday, according to a statement. He will receive compensation for the position. The statement didn’t refer specifically to his comments about women, but said the discussion about the new leadership direction focused on “challenges facing the institution, including those of enrollment, financial, leadership and institutional identity.” Dr. D. Jeffrey Bingham, dean of the School of Theology, was appointed as interim president. He currently serves as the vice president of the North American Patristics Society. More than 3,200 women affiliated with Southern Baptist churches and beyond signed a petition calling for “decisive action” this month. “We are shocked by the video that has surfaced showing Dr. Paige Patterson objectify a teenage girl and then suggest this as behavior that is biblical,” the letter says. “We are further grieved by the dangerous and unwise counsel given by Dr. Patterson to women in abusive situations. His recent remarks of clarification do not repudiate his unwise counsel in the past; nor has he offered explanation or repentance for inappropriate comments regarding a teenage girl, the unbiblical teaching he offered on the biblical meaning of womanhood in that objectification, and the inappropriate nature of his own observations of her body.” A 2000 audio clip resurfaced online recently in which he counseled physically abused wives to “pray through” the situation, stay in abusive relationships, “be submissive in every way” and try as hard as possible not to get divorced. “I had a woman who was in a church that I served and she was being subject to some abuse and I told her, I said ‘All right, I want you to do this every evening,’ ” Patterson said. ”‘Get down by your bed as you go to sleep, get down by the bed when you think he’s just about asleep, pray and ask God to intervene.’ I said, ‘Get ready because he may get a little more violent when he discovers it.’” He has also joked in the past about how everyone should “own at least one” woman and has spoken inappropriately about the body of a 16-year-old girl, defending the comments by claiming it’s what the Bible says. And he reportedly encouraged a woman who had been sexually assaulted not to go to the police and instead told her to forgive the assailant, the woman told The Washington Post. Although some Southern Baptists have urged Patterson to resign, others have defended him. A petition defending him, which garnered almost 600 signatures, referred to the resurfacing of Patterson’s past comments as “malicious attacks” and “wrong.” Paige Patterson has suggested that female victims of abuse should remain submissive. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram via Getty Images) This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 05-23-18 03:34pm - 2405 days | #736 | |
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biker (0)
Active User  Posts: 632 Registered: May 03, '08 Location: milwaukee, wi |
I thank God I'm a atheist every day. Warning Will Robinson | |
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| 05-24-18 12:36am - 2405 days | #737 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Steve Bannon, a former White House aide, says Martin Luther King would be proud of Trump's presidency. Trump has been fighting to make America great again, and making blacks proud to be Americans. Go, Trump, the leader of all Americans, even the ones that came from shithole countries like Africa. Except, maybe, if there are too many black people in America, they can go back to where they came from. Let's make America white again, the way it should be. What a great idea. Trump demands total transparency. You have to have transparency. That's why he's never released his tax returns. That's why he has kept his private business interests while he is President, because he wants to know how much he is making on the side while President--which happens to be illegal, but he's been getting away with it for now. Graft? Bribes from China? How dare you try to say such terrible things. Trump is a simple businessman, after all. He does not understand what graft is, what a bribe is. So everything he does is legal and above board. That's why he demands transparency. -------- -------- Bannon: Martin Luther King Jr. would be 'proud' of what Trump's done for black, Hispanic communities Geobeats May 23rd 2018 7:48PM X Steve Bannon, a former White House aide and past executive chairman of Breitbart News, recently asserted that Martin Luther King Jr. would be “proud” of President Trump. In an interview with BBC’s ‘Newsnight,’ Bannon said, “Martin Luther King would be proud of him — what he’s done for the black and Hispanic community for jobs.” “His economic policies to black — by the way, it’s the lowest unemployment in recorded history…Look at the unemployment we had in the black community five years ago,” Bannon further commented. While the statements about unemployment statistics aren’t false, they are a bit misleading. “Black unemployment fell fairly consistently from 2010 on, as did the rates for whites and Hispanics,” according to the Washington Post. Recent declines include 1 percent in both 2017 and 2016, 1.9 percent in 2015, and 1.5 percent and 1.8 percent in 2014 and 2013, respectively. Edited on May 24, 2018, 12:42am | |
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| 05-24-18 01:53am - 2405 days | #738 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Don't tell me the US Government can lie! Say it's not true! Not just Donald Trump, but his lackeys can lie. Oh my God, the devil is let loose in the world. And Trump claims that if a "spy" spied on him during his presidential campaign, that is worse than Watergate. But here, an undercover police officer is infiltrating people who want to protest against Trump. That is right and moral. Hang the traitors, or put them in jail. But if anyone spied on Trump, heaven forbid, that is vile and against his rights as a citizen. (I guess the rights of people other than Trump don't really count.) ----------- ----------- Prosecutor lied about key evidence in Trump inauguration protester trial, judge rules The latest big setback for the crusade against Inauguration Day protesters could be its death knell. Alan Pyke May 23, 2018, 5:39 pm The federal prosecutor who has pursued hundreds of Trump inauguration protesters on unprecedented felony riot charges for over a year lied to the court about edits her team made to a key video filmed by right-wing operative James O’Keefe’s organization, a judge found Wednesday. The ruling does not guarantee that the remaining defendants in the case will go free. Judge Robert Morin agreed with defense lawyers that Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff had illegally suppressed evidence, but declined to make a final ruling on their motion to dismiss all charges in light of the government’s cheating. That motion governs only one of several clusters of defendants who may yet land in prison for marching alongside people who broke windows and threw rocks. The full video captures an undercover police officer saying of organizers from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), “I don’t think they know anything about any of the upper echelon stuff.” But that moment was edited out of the video before prosecutors turned it over to defense counsel in an earlier case, and was only discovered after the court ordered the government to hand over the full, unedited files. Withholding a police witness’s in-the-moment statement that organizers had no knowledge of the thing they’re being accused of planning is a clear violation of the laws governing evidence-sharing. Kerkhoff had previously told the court that no potentially exculpatory evidence had been withheld because the videos were only altered to conceal the identities of the police officer and the O’Keefe operative. Defense counsel has asked Morin to censure Kerkhoff for that false claim. Police deploy pepper spray on Inauguration Day in Washington, D.C., after “kettling” a large crowd. 230 people were eventually arrested and charged with felonies, seemingly without distinguishing between bystanders and those who damaged property. CREDIT: AP Photo/John Minchillo Federal prosecutors slap felony charges on more than 200 inauguration protesters The lawyers are also asking Morin to toss out all the charges, arguing that the withholding of helpful evidence over such a long period of time fundamentally undermines their fair trial rights. If Morin does decide the felony cases can proceed despite Kerkhoff’s violation of evidence rules codified in the 1963 Supreme Court decision Brady v Maryland, the lawyers say he should at the very least bar prosecutors from using any of the O’Keefe videos at trial. The edited video is the central piece of evidence in an unusual, chilling legal argument that already failed spectacularly once. An undercover operative from O’Keefe’s Project Veritas had infiltrated a planning meeting ahead of the inauguration protests and secretly filmed parts of a raucous discussion of tactics and plans for various anti-Trump marches. The video, corroborated by Metropolitan Police Department officer Brian Adelmeyer based on his attendance at the meeting on an undercover assignment, showed various people discussing various activities loosely coordinated under the banner #DisruptJ20. After a handful of marchers smashed shop windows and scrapped with riot police, MPD opted to “kettle” hundreds of people and conduct a mass arrest. More than 200 people were subsequently charged with a long list of felonies as the government sought to hold every attendee collectively guilty for the property-smashers’ actions. Protesters and cops on Inauguration Day in Washington, D.C., where federal prosecutors seek hundreds of felony convictions against people they acknowledge did not personally smash a window or assault an officer. CREDIT: AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana Judge: No, wearing all black isn’t ‘inciting a riot’ The O’Keefe video was the key piece of evidence that everyone who participated in the march was party to a willful conspiracy to destroy property and stage a riot. It failed to persuade jurors in December, when Kerkhoff got skunked in the first group trial stemming from the mass arrests. Those acquittals prompted her office to drop all but 59 of the cases, supposedly narrowing the pool to people with a stronger connection to actual violent acts or planning that anticipated such violence. The first trial was a wacky affair, laden with awkward tech glitches and haunted by ghosts both partisan and ideological. The key investigator working to analyze hundreds of hours of video from the protest and arrests is a Trump fan with a history of bashing Black Lives Matter and other street protest movements. Police witnesses struggled to justify some uses of force and the decision to shoot pepper spray into crowds of detained people awaiting arrest. Lawyers and judges have argued about what “antifa” and “black bloc” mean almost as much as they’ve argued about the First Amendment implications of the collective-guilt prosecution of protesters. For all that to end with a whimper, after millions of dollars in prosecutor spending and nearly 18 months of endless disruption to the allegedly-criminal marchers’ lives, would be shocking. There’s grim irony in Kerkhoff getting tripped up by her own team’s editing of a video provided by James O’Keefe, whose career is built on deceptively editing video clips to smear progressive political organizations and other perceived enemies of the political right. This is what happens when James O’Keefe succeeds But while O’Keefe has become a laughingstock after attempted stings involving a house boat full of sex toys and an attempt at bugging a government office, the J20 trials offer a reminder of how dangerous his operation can be. Democrats joined Republicans in destroying the longstanding community organizing stalwart ACORN in 2009 based on an O’Keefe scam, ripping up one of the most effective grassroots organizations focused on the legal and economic interests of low-income families and people of color. Even when everybody knows he’s lying, as in the case of the “sting” that put him on the map a decade ago, his work can still prompt devastating outcomes if people in power don’t stand up for the truth of the matter. In 2009, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) decided to stand with O’Keefe instead of with the truth. Where Judge Morin chooses to stand in 2018 remains to be seen. The judge has promised a final ruling on the motion to dismiss the J20 charges in the week after Memorial Day. | |
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| 05-24-18 06:54am - 2404 days | #739 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump on NFL protesters: "Maybe they shouldn't be in the country." American people: "Maybe Trump should be in jail, where he belongs for taking graft from China as president." ------------- ------------- Trump on NFL protesters: 'Maybe they shouldn't be in the country' Yahoo Sports Jay Busbee May 24th 2018 7:54AM You knew this was coming: President Donald Trump, whose fiery comments on NFL protesters last year inflamed his populist base, gloated Thursday morning about new rules that sharply restrict pregame protests. Speaking to Fox & Friends’ Brian Kilmeade, Trump expressed satisfaction that NFL owners “did the right thing” by requiring players on the field to stand. “I don’t think people should be staying in the locker rooms, but still I think it’s good,” he said. “You have to stand proudly for the National Anthem. You shouldn’t be playing, you shouldn’t be there. Maybe they shouldn’t be in the country.” “Throw the ungrateful protesters out of the country” is a red-meat take that’ll play well with the angry base, but it’s one that doesn’t even stand up to the most basic examination of American freedoms. Granted, the president has a habit of cranking every hot take up to 11, and this one does nothing but pour rocket fuel on the protest controversy’s smoldering fire. Forcing people to respect the flag isn’t generally an American value, and threatening, however absurdly, to throw someone out of the country for voicing their opinion — yes, even while on the job — is un-American on its face. The president’s words inflamed the controversy last season, and this time around, they’re likely to have the same effect. The NFL crafted this policy in part to appease Trump and avoid any critical tweets. In so doing, the league has managed to get its entire workforce disrespected in front of the country. That’s not going to play well in the locker rooms of the league, and not among a sizable contingent of the stands, either. | |
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| 05-24-18 10:04am - 2404 days | #740 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Security troops on US nuclear missile base took LSD. Your civilian tax dollars at work. Why didn't they fire off a few missiles, so we could all have a show? Or, maybe launch a couple dozen at Washington, so we could have better leadership? Enquiring minds want to know. The punishment for taking LSD, cocaine and other drugs: a slap on the wrist. A civilian would normally face severe penalties for taking or selling these drugs, but the Air Force is different: boys will be boys, wink wink. ---------- ---------- Security troops on US nuclear missile base took LSD Associated Press ROBERT BURNS,Associated Press 5 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) — One airman said he felt paranoia. Another marveled at the vibrant colors. A third admitted, "I absolutely just loved altering my mind." Meet service members entrusted with guarding nuclear missiles that are among the most powerful in America's arsenal. Air Force records obtained by The Associated Press show they bought, distributed and used the hallucinogen LSD and other mind-altering illegal drugs as part of a ring that operated undetected for months on a highly secure military base in Wyoming. After investigators closed in, one airman deserted to Mexico. "Although this sounds like something from a movie, it isn't," said Capt. Charles Grimsley, the lead prosecutor of one of several courts martial. A slipup on social media by one airman enabled investigators to crack the drug ring at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in March 2016, details of which are reported here for the first time. Fourteen airmen were disciplined. Six of them were convicted in courts martial of LSD use or distribution or both. None of the airmen was accused of using drugs on duty. Yet it's another blow to the reputation of the Air Force's nuclear missile corps, which is capable of unleashing hell in the form of Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. The corps has struggled at times with misbehavior, mismanagement and low morale. Although seen by some as a backwater of the U.S. military, the missile force has returned to the spotlight as President Donald Trump has called for strengthening U.S. nuclear firepower and exchanged threats last year with North Korea. The administration's nuclear strategy calls for hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending in coming decades. The service members accused of involvement in the LSD ring were from the 90th Missile Wing, which operates one-third of the 400 Minuteman 3 missiles that stand "on alert" 24/7 in underground silos scattered across the northern Great Plains. Documents obtained by the AP over the past two years through the Freedom of Information Act tell a sordid tale of off-duty use of LSD, cocaine and other drugs in 2015 and 2016 by airmen who were supposed to be held to strict behavioral standards because of their role in securing the weapons. "It's another black eye for the Air Force — for the ICBM force in particular," says Stephen Schwartz, an independent consultant and nuclear expert. In response to AP inquiries, an Air Force spokesman, Lt. Col. Uriah L. Orland, said the drug activity took place during off-duty hours. "There are multiple checks to ensure airmen who report for duty are not under the influence of alcohol or drugs and are able to execute the mission safely, securely and effectively," he said. Airman 1st Class Tommy N. Ashworth was among those who used LSD supplied by colleagues with connections to civilian drug dealers. "I felt paranoia, panic" for hours after taking a hit of acid, Ashworth said under oath at his court martial. He confessed to using LSD three times while off duty. The first time, in the summer of 2015, shook him up. "I didn't know if I was going to die that night or not," he said as a witness at another airman's drug trial. Recalling another episode with LSD, he said it felt "almost as if I was going to have like a heart attack or a heat stroke." Airman Basic Kyle S. Morrison acknowledged at his court martial that under the influence of LSD he could not have responded if recalled to duty in a nuclear security emergency. In prosecuting the cases at F.E. Warren, the Air Force asserted that LSD users can experience "profound effects" from even small amounts. It said common psychological effects include "paranoia, fear and panic, unwanted and overwhelming feelings, unwanted life-changing spiritual experiences, and flashbacks." It's unclear how long before being on duty any of the airmen had taken LSD, which stands for lysergic acid diethylamide. The drug became popularized as "acid" in the 1960s, and views since then have been widely split on its mental health risks. Although illegal in the U.S., it had been showing up so infrequently in drug tests across the military that in December 2006 the Pentagon eliminated LSD screening from standard drug-testing procedures. An internal Pentagon memo at the time said that over the previous three years only four positive specimens had been identified in 2.1 million specimens screened for LSD. Yet Air Force investigators found those implicated in the F.E. Warren drug ring used LSD on base and off, at least twice at outdoor gatherings. Some also snorted cocaine and used ecstasy. Civilians joined them in the LSD use, including some who had recently left Air Force service, according to two officials with knowledge of the investigation. The Air Force declined to discuss this. Airman 1st Class Nickolos A. Harris, said to be the leader of the drug ring, testified that he had no trouble getting LSD and other drugs from civilian sources. He pleaded guilty to using and distributing LSD and using ecstasy, cocaine and marijuana. He acknowledged using LSD eight times and distributing LSD multiple times to fellow airmen at parties in Denver and other locations from spring 2015 to early 2016. "I absolutely just loved altering my mind," he told the military judge, blaming his decisions to use hallucinogens and other drugs on his addictive personality. Other airmen testified that it was easy to obtain LSD in a liquid form spread on small tabs of perforated white paper. Airmen ingested at least one tab by placing it on their tongue. In one episode summarized by a military judge at Harris' court martial, he and other airmen watched YouTube videos and "then went longboarding on the streets of Denver while high on LSD." Harris was sentenced to 12 months in jail and other penalties, but under a pretrial agreement he avoided a punitive discharge. The lead prosecutor in that case, Air Force Capt. C. Rhodes Berry, had argued Harris should be locked up for 42 months, including nine months for the "aggravating circumstance" of undercutting public trust by using hallucinogens and other drugs on a nuclear weapons base. "I cannot think of anything more aggravating than being the ringleader of a drug ring on F.E. Warren Air Force Base," Berry said at the courts martial. In all, the AP obtained transcripts of seven courts martial proceedings, plus related documents. They provide vivid descriptions of LSD trips. "I'm dying!" one airman is quoted as exclaiming, followed by "When is this going to end?" during a "bad trip" on LSD in February 2016 at Curt Gowdy State Park, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of Cheyenne, where F.E. Warren is located. A portion of that episode was video-recorded by one member of the group; a transcript of the audio was included in court records. Others said they enjoyed the drug. "Minutes felt like hours, colors seemed more vibrant and clear," Morrison testified. "In general, I felt more alive." He said he had used LSD in high school, which could have disqualified him from Air Force service; he said that his recruiter told him he should lie about it and that lying about prior drug use was "normal" in the Air Force. At his court martial, Morrison acknowledged distributing LSD on the missile base in February 2016. A month later, when summoned for questioning by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Morrison confessed and became an informant for the agency, an arrangement the Air Force said yielded legally admissible evidence against 10 other airmen. Under a pretrial agreement, he agreed to testify against other airmen and avoided a punitive discharge. He was sentenced to five months' confinement, 15 days of hard labor and loss of $5,200 in pay. Most of the airmen involved were members of two related security units at F.E. Warren — the 790th Missile Security Forces Squadron and the 90th Security Forces Squadron. Together, they are responsible for the security and defense of the nuclear weapons there as well as the missile complex. By coincidence, the No. 2 Pentagon official at the time, Robert Work, visited F.E. Warren one month before the drug investigation became public. Accompanied by an AP reporter, he watched as airmen of the 790th Missile Security Forces Squadron — whose members at the time included Harris, the accused leader of the drug ring — demonstrated how they would force their way into and regain control of a captured missile silo. Work, the deputy defense secretary, was there to assess progress in fixing problems in the ICBM force identified by then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who ordered an investigation after the AP reported on personnel, resource, training and leadership problems in 2013-14. Those problems included the firing of the general in charge of the entire ICBM force for inappropriate behavior the Air Force said was linked to alcohol abuse. A month later the AP revealed that an unpublished study prepared for the Air Force found "burnout" among nuclear missile launch officers and evidence of broader behavioral problems, including sexual assaults and domestic violence. Air Force officials say the force has since rebounded. CONTINUED: | |
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| 05-24-18 10:05am - 2404 days | #741 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
In an interview, Work said he was not aware during his visit that anything was amiss. Nor was he briefed later on the investigation. He said he wouldn't have expected to be briefed unless the Air Force found that LSD or other illegal drugs were a "systemic problem" for the nuclear force, beyond the security forces group at F.E. Warren. Work said he had never heard of LSD use anywhere in the nuclear workforce. For the inexperienced members of the drug ring, Harris, the ringleader, had set out several "rules" for LSD use at a gathering of several airmen in a Cheyenne apartment in late 2015 that was recorded on video. Rule No. 1: "No social media at all." He added: "No bad trips. Everybody's happy right now. Let's keep it that way." But social media proved their undoing. In March 2016, one member posted a Snapchat video of himself smoking marijuana, setting Air Force investigators on their trail. As the investigators closed in, one of the accused, Airman 1st Class Devin R. Hagarty, grabbed a backpack and cash, text-messaged his mother that he loved her, turned off his cellphone and fled to Mexico. "I started panicking," he told a military judge after giving himself up and being charged with desertion. The Air Force said Hagarty was the first convicted deserter from an ICBM base since January 2013. In court, he admitted using LSD four times in 2015-16 and distributing it once, and he said he had deserted with the intention of never returning. He also admitted to using cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana multiple times. He was sentenced to 13 months in a military jail. In all, disciplinary action was taken against 14 airmen. In addition, two accused airmen were acquitted at courts martial, and three other suspects were not charged. | |
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| 05-24-18 12:27pm - 2404 days | #742 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
South Korea responds to Trump's cancellation of Kim Jong Un summit. South Korea is confused. Why did Trump cancel? Trump is the master of cruel, bullying tweets. But if N Korea tweets, fuck them. Cancel the meeting. However, there is still the possibility that S Korea can nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Why? Everyone wants to make nice to Trump, because he can give out millions or billions of dollars to his friends and allies, and business partners. Can anyone spell China? Which might not be a legal business partner, but China just invested $500 million to $1 billion US dollars in a Trump project. Call it a bribe. What will Trump do to pay back this investment? Help out ZTE, the China phone company that has been slapped with US sanctions that would cripple the China company from operating. You help me, I help you. (But illegal as hell, according to the US Constitution.) ------------- ------------- South Korea responds to Trump’s sudden cancellation of Kim Jong Un summit HuffPost US Willa Frej May 24th 2018 11:36AM South Korea was at a loss for words Thursday after President Donald Trump’s announcement that he was scrapping next month’s planned nuclear summit with North Korea. “We are attempting to make sense of what, precisely, President Trump means” South Korean presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a statement. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, testifying on Capitol Hill, wouldn’t comment on whether Trump’s letter blindsided the South Koreans. The summit’s fate was thrown into question after North Korea backed away from the Trump administration’s demands to fully denuclearize. Trump then appeared to soften the demand, hinting first that he was flexible, but then saying there would be no meeting without full denuclearization. Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton and Vice President Mike Pence sparked further North Korean outrage with comments comparing North Korea with Libya. Just hours before Trump pulled the trigger to cancel the meeting, North Korean officials called Pence a “political dummy” and threatened to pull out of the summit themselves. “Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,” Trump wrote in a letter to Kim shared with reporters on Thursday. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 05-24-18 12:54pm - 2404 days | #743 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
My hope is that Trump will still win the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Why? If Trump becomes too enraged, he might decide to fire missiles at people and countries he thinks are his enemies. That could be dangerous. Better to give Trump what he wants, the Nobel Peace Prize, and everlasting peace and wealth on earth (and increasing millions to the Trump organization). Much better. And safer. Than an enraged leader who threatens to rain down fire from the sky with nuclear missiles. ---------- ---------- Politics Twitter Critics Mercilessly Mock Trump For Canceling Summit With Kim HuffPost David Moye,HuffPost 3 hours ago If you thought President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel his planned summit with Kim Jong Un would go unnoticed by the Internet, you were sadly mistaken. Once Twitter saw the letter Trump sent the North Korean dictator, people immediately began mercilessly mocking what they saw as a blatant effort to save face in the face of failure. Some people had questions: Some pointed out the similarities between the two leaders: Others pointed out that Trump’s angry letter pulling out of the meeting was written after the Korean leader threatened to cancel. Some people offered their own theories for why Trump ditched the meeting. More than a few people noticed that the tone of Trump’s letter seemed less like a political statement than like a note between two people in an unstable romance: A few observed that this means Trump’s chances of a Nobel Peace Prize were probably kaput: Others smelled opportunity: And some just had to gloat: Finally, one man had words of advice ― not for Trump, but for journalists covering him. For more news videos visit Yahoo View. This article originally appeared on Huffpost | |
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| 05-24-18 01:18pm - 2404 days | #744 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
And justice for all. Except if you are black, Mexican, or some other minority. The cop should have just shot the black man, and claimed self-defense. The black man had parked his vehicle across multiple handicapped spaces in an empty drug-store parking lot at 2 a.m. on Jan. 26. But instead of issuing a parking ticket, the cop called for backup, more cops arrived, they forced the black man to the ground, tased him multiple times, handcuffed him, arrested him, took him to jail. Unfortunately, the incident was captured on camera. So the charges against the black man were dropped. The officers were penalized. The main officer (the one who started the incident) apparently got a 2-day suspension. What is really funny: Making matters worse, the Milwaukee Police Association not only excused the actions of all officers involved — instead placing blame on Brown and city leadership for understaffing the department — but preemptively warned the public that “the death of subjects” may result from similar scenarios. So if a cop beats on you, your safest response is to lay down and take it. Because even if you offer no resistance, and it's caught on video, the cop has the legal right to beat on you, maybe even to shoot you, if he feels threatened. Or maybe if he got into a fight with his girlfriend, and wants to take out his frustrations on you. Citizens who feel their civil rights have been violated can sue. But even if the citizen wins monetary damages, who pays the bill? The public, not the police department or the officers involved, end up paying the bill. No accountability. Which is why cops shoot people dead, and get away with it. -------- -------- Yahoo Sports Report: Milwaukee police suspend officer in Sterling Brown incident for just 2 days Yahoo Sports Ben Rohrbach,Yahoo Sports 1 hour 13 minutes ago With a startling lack of self-awareness, the Milwaukee Police Department has issued a two-day suspension for the officer whose actions first escalated the incident involving Milwaukee Bucks rookie Sterling Brown outside a Walgreens this past January, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The department also suspended a pair of supervisors who arrived on the scene for 10 and 15 days, and more officers received warnings, the report said. Milwaukee police did not name any of the officers in question, but the Journal Sentinel identified the officer first on scene as Joseph Grams. Video released by the department on Wednesday showed Grams approaching Brown outside his vehicle, which was parked across multiple handicapped spaces in an empty drug-store parking lot at 2 a.m. on Jan. 26. The officer called for backup, harassed Brown and accused him of “getting up in” his face, which did not happen on camera. At least half a dozen more officers arrived on scene, where Brown was ultimately tackled and tased by multiple officers despite no visual signs of resistance. Milwaukee Police Department’s apology falls short Milwaukee police chief Alfonso Morales apologized on behalf of the department in a prepared statement for a press conference conducted prior to the video’s release. He did not take questions. “During the encounter, Mr. Brown was decentralized, tased and arrested,” he said. “The department conducted an investigation into the incident which revealed members acted inappropriately, and those members were recently disciplined. Criminal charges against Mr. Brown were not pursued.” We now know the brevity of that discipline. Police captain Steven Caballero told reporters that the department will release the officers’ identities “once all statutory requirements have been met.” Milwaukee mayor ‘offended’ by police conduct The department’s actions came under heavy fire even before the video’s release, when Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett braced the city for the disturbing behavior of several officers in the incident. “As a human being, I am offended by what I saw on the video,” Barrett said from a press conference later on Wednesday. “As mayor, I am committed to improving police-community relations. Mr. Brown deserves an apology. I am very sorry the Milwaukee police treated him in the fashion he was treated.” Milwaukee police arrested Bucks guard Sterling Brown for allegedly resisting an officer. (AP) Bucks call police behavior ‘shameful’ and ‘inexcusable’ Likewise, the Bucks issued a statement expressing support for Brown and shame for the department: “The abuse and intimidation that Sterling experienced at the hands of Milwaukee Police was shameful and inexcusable. Sterling has our full support as he shares his story and takes action to provide accountability. Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated case. It shouldn’t require an incident involving a professional athlete to draw attention to the fact that vulnerable people in our communities have experienced similar, and even worse, treatment. Sterling Brown filing lawsuit against Milwaukee police Brown told the Journal Sentinel earlier this week that he will file a civil-rights lawsuit against the Milwaukee police, and he issued a statement through the Bucks charging the department with “police intimidation, followed by the unlawful use of physical force, including being handcuffed and tased, and then unlawfully booked.” He likened the incident to others like it across the country “every day.” “The common denominator in all of these situations has been racism towards the minority community, the abuse of power, and the lack of accountability for officers involved,” Brown said in a statement after the video’s release. “The lack of repercussions for the police officers involved in so many of these cases is offensive. This is a slap in the face to the victims’ families and communities.” A day later, we learned of Grams’ two-day suspension, reinforcing Brown’s point about repercussions. Police union accepts zero responsibility Making matters worse, the Milwaukee Police Association not only excused the actions of all officers involved — instead placing blame on Brown and city leadership for understaffing the department — but preemptively warned the public that “the death of subjects” may result from similar scenarios. Because a handful of police officers failed to issue a parking ticket and send Brown on his way. Morales “vowed to rebuild trust between the Milwaukee Police Department and the community” during his statement on Wednesday, but his department’s slap on the wrist for the offending officer and the union’s refusal to acknowledge a problem only serve to enable this behavior to continue. – – – – – – – Ben Rohrbach is a writer for Yahoo Sports. | |
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| 05-24-18 01:44pm - 2404 days | #745 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
If Trump meets with Mueller, will Trump be guarded by a squad of secret service agent? Of course. But will it be enough? Remember, Mueller is FBI, specially trained to deal with terrorists, spies, and other agents of evil. So Trump can not feel completely safe. Also, what if the FBI or CIA has planted spies, or worse--paid assassins-in President Trumps secret service? Trump must strike first. Have the secret service raid the FBI, the CIA, and any other Federal crime unit for criminals. Drain the swamp in Washington. That includes the criminals hiding inside law enforcement agencies. ------------ ------------ Rudy Giuliani: Trump Won't Interview With Mueller Until We Get ‘Spygate’ Report HuffPost S.V. Date,HuffPost 1 hour 57 minutes ago WASHINGTON ― After weeks of describing June’s planned meeting with North Korea as all-consuming, President Donald Trump’s lawyer said the canceled summit does not mean Trump will soon be speaking with prosecutors investigating his campaign. “No,” Rudy Giuliani said with a laugh. “It means he can talk to me.” He said the cancellation of the Singapore meeting that had been set for June 12 gives him more time to work with Trump to decide next steps. “We could probably decide by June 12 whether to testify,” Giuliani told HuffPost on Thursday. That decision, though, will apparently hinge on whether Trump is given whatever report is produced following a Justice Department probe of the FBI’s use of an informant to learn about his campaign’s contacts with Russia. Trump demanded the review on Sunday following a coordinated effort by his Capitol Hill allies and conservative media to discredit the informant. “Are we going to get a report on ‘spygate’?” Giuliani said, using the term Trump invented this week. Giuliani allowed that, as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, he never would have turned over all of his investigatory material to a potential target in that manner. “But I wasn’t investigating the president,” he said, justifying the demand for the FBI informant details. “You cannot compel criminal process on the president.” It’s one of the reasons I’ve become so aggressive, so his tweeting would be confined to the subject that we’ve chosen for the day. Rudy Giuliani on President Donald Trump Giuliani said he still would prefer for Trump to avoid Mueller completely. “I would not like to talk to Mueller at all,” he said. “I don’t see what you gain from that.” But, Giuliani added, Trump himself has the opposite opinion. “He has a strong view that he should testify,” Giuliani said. “He believes he’s telling the truth: He didn’t collude with the Russians and he didn’t obstruct justice.” Giuliani conceded that Trump’s habit of saying false things on a near-daily basis could create a problem for him. But, he added, that could be avoided if Trump had enough time to prepare for a session with Mueller. “If we sat him down for an interview, we would be careful that it would be a solid explanation,” Giuliani said. He added that he has not asked Trump to stop issuing tweets about the investigation ― based on his unsuccessful attempts to persuade Trump to stop tweeting during the 2016 campaign. “No use,” he said. “Didn’t work.” But Giuliani has come up with a strategy he thinks might be working: taking a higher profile with inflammatory public comments of his own. “It’s one of the reasons I’ve become so aggressive, so his tweeting would be confined to the subject that we’ve chosen for the day,” he said. Giuliani said the cancellation of the trip to Singapore next month opens up more time for him and Trump to plan strategy, in addition to the daily or twice-a-day phone calls they have been sharing. He said he met Trump for half an hour Wednesday evening in New York City, where Trump had traveled for a fundraiser. “That half hour was devoted to the investigation,” Giuliani said. The U.S. intelligence community concluded during the 2016 campaign that Russia was interfering in the U.S. election, and was actively trying to help Trump and hurt Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The FBI began its probe of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians well before Election Day. Control of the investigation was shifted to special counsel Robert Mueller after Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey in May 2017. Soon after, the president told NBC News, as well as senior Russian officials visiting the Oval Office, that he had done so because of the investigation. “The fact that he did it because of the Russian investigation is not obstruction of justice,” Giuliani said. “If he did it for that reason, that would be a legitimate reason to fire [Comey]. He works at the will of the president.” Mueller’s investigation has so far resulted in the guilty pleas of five individuals, including three former Trump campaign staffers, and the indictment of 14 other people and three companies. That total includes 13 Russians, Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and the Internet Research Agency “troll farm” that was used to create and disseminate propaganda to help Trump win. A related investigation by Giuliani’s former office is examining the dealings of longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. A former business partner has agreed to cooperate in that probe and plead to New York State charges. Giuliani, though, said Mueller’s investigation thus far has been tangential to Trump, and asserted that none of those who have pleaded guilty or are under indictment have any information that can hurt Trump. “They haven’t gotten anyone to flip on this,” Giuliani said, using courthouse slang for those accused of crimes to testify against associates in return for leniency. “They’re not going to do it on the bullshit that they have. Manafort’s not flipping. Cohen’s not flipping. And he has nothing to flip about.” This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 05-24-18 02:08pm - 2404 days | #746 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
How can you tell if a White House official is going to lie? They open their mouth. Sometimes they even lie with their mouth closed. They can be tricky. In this case, Sarah Sanders, White House Press Secretary, told reporters two days before a meeting, that no one from the White House would attend. At the meeting, two days later, two White House officials attended the meeting: A lawyer who represents Trump. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly also reportedly attended the meeting. Does Trump ever tell the truth? Only God in Heaven knows the answer to that one. ----------- ----------- Two White House officials attend a meeting and give the middle finger to the rule of law "No one from the White House staff will attend." Judd Legum May 24, 2018, 3:34 pm On Thursday, two White House officials, including a lawyer who represents President Trump, attended meetings with top law enforcement officials about documents related to the ongoing investigation of Trump and his campaign. Two days ago, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters no one from the White House would attend. The topic of the meeting was a subpeona by Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) for “all documents referencing or related” to an informant who spoke to members of the Trump campaign during the FBI’s counter-intelligence investigation of Russian interference with the election. Nunes also attended the meeting on Thursday. The Department of Justice has resisted the subpoena, arguing that it would compromise special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation. They agreed to the meeting after Trump personally intervened earlier this week. Also attending the meeting were FBI Director Christopher Wray, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Edward O’Callaghan, a top Justice Department Official. Nunes, at least officially, was requesting the documents in his role of Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, which has the power to conduct oversight over the intelligence community. But Nunes has also operated effectively as a political operative for Trump. To ease concerns that the meeting was merely a fishing expedition to help Trump discredit the Mueller investigation and defend himself from potential legal jeopardy Sarah Sanders assured reporters on Tuesday that no one from the White House would attend the meeting with Nunes. Q Thanks, Sarah. I want to ask about this meeting the Chief of Staff is setting up with lawmakers regarding the documents that they requested about the Russia investigation. Can you say what specific documents the lawmakers will be allowed to see? Chairman Nunes has requested all documents related to this intelligence source. Will he get to see all of the documents? SANDERS: That’s something that you would have to ask the Department of Justice. I can tell you the President asked Chief of Staff Kelly to set up the meeting. It is scheduled to take place on Thursday of this week. The individuals that are expected to attend are Chairman Nunes, Chairman Gowdy, FBI Director Wray, DNI Director Coats, and DOJ official Ed O’Callaghan. No one from the White House staff will attend. That was untrue. White House attorney Emmett Flood attended the meeting with Nunes. Flood was brought into the White House earlier this month. At the time of his hiring, Sanders said that Flood’s job was to “to represent the president and the administration against the Russia witch hunt.” So now it is clear. Nunes is using his oversight powers as a means of providing access to documents related to an ongoing investigation involving Trump. There was always a possibility, even a likelihood, that Nunes would share this information with Trump. But Nunes isn’t even bothering to pretend like the request has a legitimate purpose. He invited Trump’s attorney, whose job is to defend him in the investigation, to the meeting. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly also reportedly attended the meeting. Flood also attended a second meeting with law enforcement officials on the same topic with a different group of lawmakers. On Thursday, Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, said that Trump would not agree to an interview with Mueller unless he receives the information as well. Giuliani acknowledged that the demand is irregular and as “as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, he never would have turned over all of his investigatory material to a potential target.” Trump has sought to cast the existence of an FBI informant, which is not unusual, as a major scandal that discredits Mueller’s investigation. In a tweet Thursday morning he called it “one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history.” UPDATE: White House confirms that the Kelly and Flood attended the meeting but said they left early and the meeting didn’t really start until after they left. | |
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| 05-24-18 06:24pm - 2404 days | #747 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump shows his power and wrath. He prays to God that he will not have to unleash a nuclear strike over North Korea. While his trigger finger is hovering over the buttons that will send nuclear missiles to eliminate our foe (while also, by happenstance, vaporizing thousands or more of our allies in the region, and dooming other allies to a slow and lingering death from nuclear fallout. Gosh, what will the President do? "Trump is not alone in hoping that the U.S. does not unleash its nuclear wrath on North Korea. Experts have estimated that even a non-nuclear conflict would result in up to a million casualties, and German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in August that such a conflict "could result in more victims than World War II," making it the deadliest ever. While the U.S. military is far more powerful and advanced than North Korea's armed forces, defense officials have warned of the unpredictability and difficulty of waging such a battle." However, there is a cleaner way to end the problem. Get the N Korean leader to the table. Promise to meet with him. Then send a double in place of the real Trump. And firebomb the site when the meeting takes place. Zoom! End of N Korean leader. End of N Korean problem. ------------ ------------ World Will U.S. Go to War with North Korea? Trump Says ‘Our Military Is Ready’ After Calling Off Kim Jong Un Talks Newsweek Tom O’Connor,Newsweek 7 hours ago President Donald Trump has called off a landmark summit with North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un, raising fears that the alternative to diplomacy is military action against the reclusive, nuclear-armed state. In a letter addressed directly to "His Excellency Kim Jong Un," Trump cited a recent statement carried earlier Thursday by the official Korean Central News Agency as the reason he canceled what would have been the first meeting between a sitting U.S. president and North Korean supreme leader, slated to take place June 12 in Singapore. The statement, attributed to North Korean Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son Hui, branded Vice President Mike Pence "ignorant and stupid" as well as a "political dummy" for threatening to overthrow Kim as the U.S. did Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi. Threatening to walk away from the summit, Choe said it was up to the U.S. to respect the talks or face a "nuclear-to-nuclear showdown." Trump responded to this, directly writing, "You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used." He later told a press conference, "Our military is ready if necessary," along with Pacific allies Japan and South Korea "should foolish action be taken by North Korea." Trump is not alone in hoping that the U.S. does not unleash its nuclear wrath on North Korea. Experts have estimated that even a non-nuclear conflict would result in up to a million casualties, and German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in August that such a conflict "could result in more victims than World War II," making it the deadliest ever. While the U.S. military is far more powerful and advanced than North Korea's armed forces, defense officials have warned of the unpredictability and difficulty of waging such a battle. Trump's decision to nix an unprecedented diplomatic opportunity between the U.S. and North Korea may also empower administration hard-liners such as national security adviser John Bolton, a traditional proponent of regime change against U.S. foes. He championed the so-called "Libya model" that spurred the first cracks in what was already a tenuous peace process. Related: Why did Trump cancel summit with North Korea? Five reasons president will not meet Kim Jong Un Don't miss: What Is Propofol, The Drug Found in Michael Jackson's Body When He Died? "The cancelation is unfortunate and risks derailing the legitimate openings of recent months. There is no chance of freezing or rolling back the North’s nuclear weapons program if we don’t talk to them–and the 'military option' would be an absolute catastrophe. The cancelation could empower hawkish voices in the administration to push for even greater pressure against the DPRK–and potentially even military action, which Bolton fully supports," John Carl Baker, Mellon-ACLS Public Fellow at the Washington, D.C.–based Ploughshares Fund. "Trump’s letter contained a not-so-subtle nuclear threat, which at the very least signals a willingness to break from the conciliatory stance of the last few weeks. We aren’t quite there yet, but a return to 'fire and fury' is certainly possible, especially if North Korea responds to Trump’s letter with further brinksmanship," Baker added. RTX5XZBO A timeline shows the history of the two Koreas since 1900, published on April 25. The once-Japanese occupied Korean Peninsula was split by the U.S. and the Soviet Union following World War II and the two satellite states went to war in the 1950s, spawning a decades-long hostility. 2018 INTER-KOREAN SUMMIT PREPARATION COMMITTEE/REUTERS Bolton was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations when Qaddafi decided to abandon nuclear weapons for better relations with the West in 2003, the same year the world watched the U.S. invade Iraq on weapons of mass destruction charges that later proved to be false. Bolton, a staunch Iraq War supporter, lauded Qaddafi's decision and asked North Korea to do the same. Fifteen years later, after Qaddafi was overthrown and killed by a 2011 rebellion supported by the U.S., Bolton felt the framework for such a deal was still relevant. North Korea disagreed. First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Kye Gwan issued a scathing response last week, asserting that "the world knows too well that our country is neither Libya nor Iraq, which have met a miserable fate" and argued that Trump "will be recorded as a more tragic and unsuccessful president than his predecessors" if his administration did not change course from such remarks. Trump then appeared to disavow Bolton's words, saying, "The Libyan model is not a model that we have at all when we are thinking of North Korea" and conceding that the North African country "was decimated" by the policies of former President Barack Obama. Trump vowed to keep Kim in power and that a U.S. deal would make him "very rich." Pence, however, revived the Libya model in Monday's interview, saying, "As the president made clear, this will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong Un doesn't make a deal." It was this comment that prompted Choe's Korean Central News Agency statement. North Korea has developed its nuclear weapons in pursuit of a credible deterrent from U.S. invasion, often pointing to countries like Iraq and Libya as examples of those who gave up weapons of mass destruction only to later be invaded anyway. RTS1RZ1H A composite photo shows President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on May 17 and North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un in Panmunjom, South Korea, on April 27. Both men have warned that war was likely the only alternative to achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula. KEVIN LAMARQUE/KOREA SUMMIT PRESS POOL/REUTERS Rorry Daniels, deputy project director for the National Committee on American Foreign Policy's Asia-Pacific Security Forum, said there was likely a deep debate within the different branches of the U.S. government—such as Congress, the Cabinet, the military and diplomatic corps—over "how much regime security the U.S. can offer to the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] given their political system and history of provocations." While the U.S.'s top goal may be denuclearization, North Korea's priority is guaranteeing the safety of Kim and his government, she explained. "We see these two competing priorities clash in the recent statements by top administration officials about whether or not a deal would follow the Libya model—an upfront dismantlement of the program without a long-term security guarantee for the regime," Daniels told Newsweek. "In the absence of any mutual trust between the two sides, these statements and the follow-on responses from North Korea laid bare these divisions at a sensitive moment when both sides are testing the sincerity of the other to listen to and understand their goals. And coming to a common understanding of the goals of the summit is critical to ensuring both sides can declare it a success," she added. The U.S. and North Korea have not fought directly since the 1950s Korean War that spawned the ongoing hostilities between the two. However, as IRIS Independent Research President Rebecca Grant pointed out in a statement sent to Newsweek on Thursday, "The U.S. Forces Korea motto is 'Fight Tonight' for a reason." This article was first written by Newsweek | |
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| 05-24-18 07:22pm - 2404 days | #748 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Meeting in a summit in Bulgaria's capital of Sofia, European Council President Donald Tusk told the assembled leaders: "Looking at the latest decisions of President Trump, someone could even think: With friends like that, who needs enemies? But frankly speaking, Europe should be grateful to President Trump. Because thanks to him we have got rid of all illusions." ------------- ------------- Europe sticks its thumb in Trump's eye David Andelman By David A. Andelman Updated 9:00 AM ET, Fri May 18, 2018 (CNN)Europe's leaders are suddenly developing a backbone. This new sense of purpose has come about out of necessity. The continent is currently facing the duel prospects of a nuclear-armed Iran and a financial hit to scores of linchpin European companies as a result of President Donald Trump pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. And none of this bodes well for the President or the United States. In the fog of Russiagate, Kim Jong Un's volte-face on nuclear disarmament, trade wars with China and half the world, as well as Palestinian violence, suddenly all 28-member states of the European Union have remarkably adopted a unified stance against the one man calculated to unite: Donald Trump. Meeting in a summit in Bulgaria's capital of Sofia, European Council President Donald Tusk told the assembled leaders: "Looking at the latest decisions of President Trump, someone could even think: With friends like that, who needs enemies? But frankly speaking, Europe should be grateful to President Trump. Because thanks to him we have got rid of all illusions." Trump's Korea hopes thrown into turmoil The European leaders seem to be talking in a rare, public and unified voice that the Iranian nuclear deal must be preserved and that their nations, individually and collectively, must do all within their power to preserve it. So, look out, America. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are reportedly committed to finding ways for their companies to avoid any new American sanctions against Iran and prolong the treaty. Even Russia -- not a member of the EU but a signatory of the Iran accord -- with barely restrained glee, agreed to play a role in Europe's efforts. All the Kremlin's wildest dreams seem to be coming to life. At a joint news conference in Brussels with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, affirmed that allowing the Iran agreement to come apart would "seriously threaten peace and security" and urged the political leaders meeting in Bulgaria to arrive at "a common and consensual approach." In a direct challenge to Trump, Juncker added: "We must say that we have the means, we will use them, but we must face the truth: Means are limited but we will fully exploit the means we have at our disposal." In all, another bad omen for trans-Atlantic relations. Particularly since Europe was already feeling somewhat less than charitable toward Trump. Bolton: US will impose all pre-deal Iran sanctions 03:05 First came a series of slaps in the face -- Trump withdrawing from the global climate pact in the early days of his presidency, followed by some frosty first meetings with Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May. Then along came the threat of stiff global tariffs on steel and aluminum exports from Europe. And finally, the latest visits by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Merkel and Macron. All three made strong pitches in Washington for maintaining the Iran agreement. But all found themselves slapped rudely with an immovable and irreconcilable Trump wielding the single-minded fixation of continuing to undo anything negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama, with whom all three European politicians had maintained quite cordial relations. The big question is whether Europe is in a position to make good on its plans to go it alone with a still nuclear-free Iran and at the same time preserve the ability of some of its major companies to continue doing what promises to be lucrative business there. Already, French oil company Total has warned it will have to pull out of Iran if its joint venture there does not get a waiver from promised American sanctions and help from the EU. Other companies including German insurer Allianz have warned they may have to take similar actions. Trump has pledged to retaliate against any European company or country that seeks to contravene the sanctions he says are en route against Iran after America's pullout from the nuclear agreement. With so much of the world tied deeply into the dollar-denominated US financial system, it does not appear there could be anyway around Trump's intransigence. But European leaders now suddenly seem motivated to try. Juncker has proposed some options, playing on the strength of the euro and the European Investment Bank, which has the power to coordinate euro-denominated credit lines from European governments. Even more powerfully, the EU leaders decided in Sofia to invoke a procedure first developed in 1996 to bypass American sanctions against Cuba, though never used. Called a "blocking statute," it turns around and blocks any EU company from honoring all US sanctions imposed on Iran and orders nonrecognition of any court rulings that might seek to enforce American penalties. Trump's simple worldview is good for his enemies and bad for his allies Trump's simple worldview is good for his enemies and bad for his allies Both Merkel and Macron have pledged government backing for any of their nations' companies who want to buck the American sanction machine and continue operations or investments in Iran -- a central demand of Tehran if it is to continue to honor the nuclear accord. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the Kremlin was supporting a proposal surfaced in Sofia for an EU meeting next week in Vienna, Austria, specifically to strategize on how to continue implementation of the Iran pact. So, the big question that remains is whether the United States really wants to embark on a battle with so many of its longstanding friends and strategic allies at the very moment it is embarking on similarly self-centered and challenging encounters elsewhere. A high-level Chinese delegation arrived Thursday in Washington to continue a series of trade talks with their American counterparts that did not go especially well in Beijing and exposed some deep rifts between senior US negotiators Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro. There appears to be little likelihood now that the NAFTA agreement, which Trump pledged to rip up or renegotiate, will be ready this year, just as the EU and Mexico arrived at a landmark pact that all but eliminates tariffs. At the same time, Trump is fighting multifront diplomatic wars with North Korea as a smooth road to a summit in Singapore has suddenly hit a rocky stretch indeed. And Palestinian riots and violence in Gaza have overshadowed the precipitous decision to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem -- again over sharp protests from European nations. At a time when Trump would seem to need every friend he can get, he is finding very few indeed. Perhaps it's time for some more carve-outs for European companies already doing business in Iran in an effort to preserve what's left of trans-Atlantic comity. | |
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| 05-24-18 07:53pm - 2404 days | #749 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Nancy Pelosi is a pussy who lets Donald Trump bend her over backward and fuck her up the ass. And she screams in joy: "More. More. You horny bastard!" My question: Why is Nancy Pelosi saying impeaching Donald Trump would do more harm than good? Trump says Democrats are evil and traitors. And Pelosi says Donald Trump should not be impeached? Fight fire with fire. Or go down in defeat. Pelosi is a woman without any moral sense, if she is willing to support Trump. 'she is instead focused on restoring "democracy."' Is she is a hypocrite, who's too blind to understand what Trump supports? Whatever, the Democrats need to get rid of Pelosi, and find someone with a better moral compass. ----------- ----------- Politics Nancy Pelosi Says Impeaching Donald Trump Would Divide the Country, Do More Harm Than Good Newsweek Gillian Edevane,Newsweek 12 hours ago House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi may be one of President Donald Trump's favorite targets, but that doesn't mean she's rooting for Congress to impeach the blustery business mogul. During a CNN town hall on Wednesday evening, the California representative said pushing Trump out of office would further "divide the country" and suggested it could do more harm than good. Pelosi explained to host Chris Cuomo why she wasn't fully behind the idea when presented with polls that showed 70 percent of Democrats support evicting Trump from the Oval Office. "I take it as a responsibility in choosing, prioritizing, what is unifying for our country," she said. "I've hesitated to use impeachment.... I do not think that impeachment is a policy agenda." The Democratic leader, who has sparred with Trump numerous times, suggested that there was a partisan aspect to impeachment talks. She told Cuomo that she was last pressured to impeach President George W. Bush for invading Iraq, and that Republicans pushed to throw Clinton out of office. “Impeachment is, to me, divisive,” Pelosi continued. “Again, if the facts are there, if the facts are there, then this would have to be bipartisan to go forward. But if it is viewed as partisan, it will divide the country, and I just don’t think that’s what we should do." Pelosi, who confirmed plans to run for Speaker of the House if Republicans lose their majority in the midterm elections, said she is instead focused on restoring "democracy." Clenching the flow of money in politics and reducing lobbyists' power are priorities, she said. Despite her cynicism regarding impeachment proceedings, Pelosi has been one of Trump's most frequent political foes. Trump regularly lobbed personal insults at the Democratic leader during the campaign and continued to lambast her policies via Twitter since taking the Oath of Office. Pelosi, who has mostly kept her criticism reserved to Trump's policies, responded by accusing him of denigrating the presidency. "They are part of the Trump administration’s unmistakable campaign to make America white again," Pelosi remarked, speaking about Trump's immigration platform. Earlier this week, Trump claimed Pelosi expressed support for MS-13 gang members. "And the other day—just the other day—Nancy Pelosi came out in favor of MS-13," Trump said on Tuesday. "That’s the first time I’ve heard that. She wants them to be treated with respect, as do other Democrats." In fact, Pelosi was responding to misleading reports that claimed Trump had called undocumented immigrants—not gang members—animals. This article was first written by Newsweek | |
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| 05-24-18 09:38pm - 2404 days | #750 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Let's clean the swamp in Washington. Avenatti wants to speed up the lawsuit to end the NOL agreement. Trump has admitted knowledge of the NOL. Therefore, Avenatti wants to depose Trump, to get the lawsuit moving again, after it was suspended. Trump stated he wanted to drain the swamp in Washington. Let the federal judge force Trump to testify in the NOL case, which might help drain the swamp. "Avenatti also said Thursday that the delay is unfair to Clifford because it has given Trump time to post "incendiary tweets" about the case to his 52 million followers, including claims that Clifford’s assertions are "false and extortionist" and that he’d sue her for $20 million." Trump is a liar. Claiming that a porn star is trying to extort him (without offering any proof), while saying he would sue her for $20 million. That seems to be legal extortion on Trump's part. While also trying to smear Stormy Daniels. Which is a favorite tactic of Trump and his allies. Hold the President accountable to the law. ----------- ----------- politics Avenatti Seeks to Revive Hush Money Lawsuit After Trump’s Comments By Erik Larson May 24, 2018, 9:49 AM PDT Updated on May 24, 2018, 11:00 AM PDT Avenatti seeks to end hold on effort to end confidentiality President acknowledged to new of deal forged by lawyer Cohen Adult film star Stormy Daniels said President Donald Trump’s sudden acknowledgment of her 2016 hush agreement means that a judge’s hold on her lawsuit to void the deal can be lifted. Trump’s admission that he knew about the pact shows there’s no need to question his lawyer, Michael Cohen, whose home and office were raided by FBI agents in a New York criminal probe, the actress’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, said Thursday in a filing in Los Angeles federal court. Cohen and Trump secured the 90-day delay by arguing the criminal investigation could overlap with the hush-payment case and that Cohen’s rights against self-incrimination would be violated if he were questioned in the Daniels suit. But Avenatti said Thursday he’d only pursue a deposition of Trump. "Mr. Trump’s newfound voice on facts concerning this lawsuit demonstrates he will be able to testify in his defense," he said. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, signed the agreement in October 2016 and said it was intended to silence her about a sexual encounter she had with Trump more than a decade ago. Trump has denied having sex with the porn star. When the stay was issued on April 27, the California judge wasn’t aware of Trump’s statements a day earlier on Fox News, where the president said the criminal investigation in New York had nothing to do with the hush-agreement case, according to Avenatti’s filing. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, also asserted Cohen’s innocence on May 2, telling Fox’s Sean Hannity that Trump was aware of the agreement and repaid Cohen for the "perfectly legal" hush payment. Avenatti also said Thursday that the delay is unfair to Clifford because it has given Trump time to post "incendiary tweets" about the case to his 52 million followers, including claims that Clifford’s assertions are "false and extortionist" and that he’d sue her for $20 million. "The only way to fully escape the cloud of millions of dollars of alleged damages and liability, would be to allow the lawsuit to proceed and to have the settlement agreement declared null and void," Avenatti said. Avenatti also cited comments by Trump and Giuliani that the criminal investigation in New York pertains only to Cohen’s "businesses" and that the nondisclosure payment to Clifford, just a month before the election, "did not result in campaign violations," as some legal experts have speculated. "The new developments in the case make it clear that less drastic measures than a complete stay of all proceedings are available," Avenatti said. (Adds Fox News interview.) | |
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