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lk2fireone (0)
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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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| 05-21-18 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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| 05-21-18 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 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 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 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 05:15pm - 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 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 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 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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| 05-20-18 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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| 05-20-18 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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| 05-19-18 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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| 05-19-18 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 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 07:01am - 2410 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 06:19am - 2410 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Are Officially Married. I saw a photo of the happy couple. Prince Harry was dressed in a black uniform. Like he was at a funeral, or maybe that's the British version of camouflage-undercover? So he could disappear when it grows dark? The bride wore white. Like she was a virgin. Even though this is her second marriage. She is 36 years old. But maybe she was saving herself for Harry. Let's wish the happy couple luck. --------- --------- Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Are Officially Married Carly Ledbetter 1 hour 21 minutes ago Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are officially husband and wife! The two exchanged vows Saturday in a gorgeous ceremony at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, in front of 600 guests (and millions of people watching worldwide). Notable wedding attendees included Oprah, Serena Williams, James Blunt, Elton John, David and Victoria Beckham and George and Amal Clooney. Markle was escorted to Windsor Castle by her mother, Doria Ragland. Prince Charles walked the former actress down the aisle, as her father, Thomas Markle, was too ill to attend the ceremony. Markle then joined Harry at the alter, where he took a moment to tell Markle “You look amazing” and hearts all over the world melted: The sweet ceremony included so many highlights, including a reading from the late Princess Diana’s sister, Lady Jane Fellowes, and a rousing sermon from Bishop Michael Curry which he included quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. People also loved Karen Gibson and The Kingdom Choir singing “Stand By Me:” After the wedding, Harry and Meghan stepped out to acknowledge the 200 representatives in attendance from charities that Harry supports. From there, the newlyweds took a carriage ride around Windsor Town that lasted about 25 minutes. Following the ride, the newlyweds will head to a reception at St. George’s Hall, where the 600 wedding guests are expected to enjoy a standing-only meal with light bites. Only 200 guests are invited to the following reception at Frogmore House. Hosted by Prince Charles, it’s for select family and friends of the bride and groom. That’s where Markle is expected to break with tradition and possibly give a speech. The palace hasn’t confirmed any musical guests, but it’s rumored that Elton John, the Spice Girls or even Ed Sheeran (despite his repeated denials) might perform. After the big day, the couple will likely head back to London to their new home at Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex plan to delay their honeymoon so they can immediately begin charity work and attend Prince Charles’ 70th Birthday Patronage Celebration, which takes place May 22. Markle and Harry officially announced their engagement on Nov. 27. They began seeing each other in 2016 after a friend set them up on a blind date. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 05-18-18 08:53pm - 2410 days | #16 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I thought Wonder Woman was a pretty good movie. Enjoyable, with not too complicated plot lines. I liked it much better than Infinity War. But that's just me. I spoke with a number of people who really enjoyed Infinity War. But not me. Actually, as I said, I don't really appreciate most Comic Book Movies. But I did enjoy the first Captain America, and the first Wonder Woman. I hope the sequel to Wonder Woman will be good. But that remains to be seen. I didn't like the sequel to Captain America. Because instead of fighting the Nazis in part 1, in part 2, he is fighting evil Americans. Maybe, like PinkPanther wrote: "Maybe it's a response to The Trump years." | |
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| 05-18-18 07:11am - 2411 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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| 05-18-18 06:55am - 2411 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 06:55am - 2411 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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| 05-17-18 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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| 05-17-18 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 05:11pm - 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 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 01:23pm - 2411 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I stopped watching Star Wars after the first movie, "Star Wars", the original. I enjoyed 2001 a lot more, thought that was a better movie than Star Wars. However, since Star Wars is so huge in popularity and sequels and whatever, I've heard of Lando Calrissian. The news that Calrissian is pansexual does not surprise me. Not with today's shifting attitudes toward sexuality. Disney, when Walt Disney was still alive, was homophobic and prejudiced as hell. Today's Disney is very different. You have to change with the times, or you fall by the wayside. And Disney made a ton of money with Black Panther. However, I do not think we are going to see many scenes of Calrissian making love to an earthworm. Maybe in another 30 years, however.... -------------- -------------- Movies The Wrap Lando Calrissian Is Pansexual, Says ‘Solo’ Screenwriter “There’s a fluidity to Donald and Billy Dee’s [portrayal of Lando’s] sexuality,” says Jonathan Kasdan Umberto Gonzalez | May 17, 2018 @ 12:09 PM “Solo: A Star Wars Story” screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan has dropped an intergalactic revelation: Smuggler Lando Calrissian is pansexual. “I would say yes,” Kasdan told the Huffington Post. “There’s a fluidity to Donald and Billy Dee’s [portrayal of Lando’s] sexuality,” Kasdan added. “I mean, I would have loved to have gotten a more explicitly LGBT character into this movie. I think it’s time, certainly, for that, and I love the fluidity ― sort of the spectrum of sexuality that Donald appeals to and that droids are a part of.” In the original “Star Wars” trilogy, Lando was played by Billy Dee Williams, who gave Donald Glover the simple instructions to “just be charming.” It appears that Glover took the advice to heart because as young Lando, he plays up the character’s charm and adds a new layer to the gambling swashbuckler. “He doesn’t make any hard and fast rules. I think it’s fun,” Kasdan said. “I don’t know where it will go.” “Solo: A Star Wars Story” follows young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) as he gets started on his life of crime, meets and befriends Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), gets hold of the Millennium Falcon and gambles with Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover). It also stars Woody Harrelson, who plays Tobias Beckett, Han’s mentor in piracy. “Solo: A Star Wars Story” opens May 25. Edited on May 17, 2018, 01:27pm | |
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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 08:57am - 2412 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 07:55am - 2412 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 07:48am - 2412 days | #700 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Guiliani says the Republicans never used any dirt on Hilary Clinton. The Republicans did nothing illegal. So why are the Democrats running a probe that is a waste of American money? Shut down the Mueller probe, that is damaging America and its standing in the world. Save America. It is Comey who should be investigated. It is Mueller who should be investigated. It is Hilary Clinton who should be investigated. Expose the traitors, for what they are. Put them and jail. And let Trump be free to make America great again. -------- -------- Politics Rudy Giuliani Offers A Head-Spinning New Defense Of Trump HuffPost Dominique Mosbergen,HuffPost 6 hours ago Rudy Giuliani says there’s “nothing illegal” about trying to find compromising information about opponents — even if the source is Russia. “When I ran against [the Democrats], they were looking for dirt on me every day,” Giuliani told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday night, in response to a question about Donald Trump Jr.’s apparent quest to find “dirt” on Hillary Clinton before the 2016 presidential election. “That’s what you do, maybe you shouldn’t, but you do. Nothing illegal about that,” Giuliani said. “Even if it comes from a Russian or a German or an American, doesn’t matter.” Giuliani, who joined President Donald Trump’s legal team last month, went on to say that the “main thing” was that the Trump campaign “never used it … they rejected it,” referring to political “dirt.” “If there was collusion with the Russians, they would’ve used it,” he added. Observers on Twitter expressed bewilderment at Giuliani’s remarks. Giuliani also told Ingraham that special counsel Robert Mueller, whose probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election will enter its second year on Thursday, should promptly wrap up the investigation. Mueller “has nothing” on Trump, said the former New York City mayor. “We’re trying to get [Mueller] to end this,” Giuliani said. “This is not good for the American people." This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 05-17-18 03:02am - 2412 days | #7 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Business Stan Lee files $1 billion lawsuit against former business partners People 17 hours ago Stan Lee is suing his former business partners for $1 billion dollars. The comic book legend, just filed a mammoth $1 billion lawsuit against his ex-business partners at POW! Entertainment, whom he claims took advantage of his name without his permission. Stan Lee is suing his former business partners for a dollar figure that would even make Tony Stark blush. The comic book legend, 95, just filed a mammoth $1 billion lawsuit against his ex-business partners at POW! Entertainment, whom he claims took advantage of his name without his permission, according to a complaint filed in Los Angeles and obtained by PEOPLE. Lee founded the production company in 2001 alongside current CEO Shane Duffy and Gill Champion, whom he claims in the complaint “conspired and agreed to broker a sham deal to sell POW! to a company in China and fraudulently steal [Lee’s] identity, name, image and likeness as part of a nefarious scheme to benefit financially at Lee’s expense.” Additionally, Lee claims Duffy and Champion “knowingly made material misrepresentations of fact, and forged or fraudulently obtained a signature from Lee to give POW! Inc. the exclusive use of Lee’s identity, name, image and likeness.” The complaints also claims that Duffy and Champion took advantage of Lee while he was grieving the loss of his wife Joan in 2017: “Upon her death, Lee at the age of 94 became the target of various unscrupulous businessmen, sycophants and opportunists who saw a chance to take advantage of Lee’s despondent mind, kind heart and devotion to his craft.” Lee claims in the complaint that Duffy and Champion “knew about [his] diagnosis of advanced macular degeneration, which has left him unable to read or drive on his own since about 2015, and they prayed (sic) on his infirmities while he was in a state of disrepair.” According to the complaint, POW! needed Lee’s permission to use his name, which he says he never knowingly gave. Therefore, the complaint claims, the production company either forged Lee’s signature, or tricked him into signing over the rights to his name, image and likeness. The complaint notes that Lee’s name is “the most important and prized possession Lee and his family owned his entire life” and that even when he inked a $4 billion deal with Disney in 2010, he refused to give the company the right to use his name. In addition to the $1 billion, Lee is asking for an order to get the rights to his name back. Meanwhile, Lee made a recent appearance at the Avengers: Infinity War premiere in Los Angeles at the end of April, his first public appearance since he revealed he’s battling pneumonia in late February to TMZ. Speaking to Disney on the Infinity War red carpet, Lee gave a shout out to his fans, thanking them “for having spent all these years coming to see my cameos [in the Marvel films].” On the day of the premiere, news broke of a lawsuit in which Lee is accused of sexual misconduct by a massage therapist who says he acted inappropriately with her during two separate sessions. A rep for Lee did not return PEOPLE’s request for comment at the time. Controversy has recently swirled around Lee, who sued a former business manager alleging fraud and has spoken out defending his daughter after others around him claimed she was trying to gain control of his assets. Lee lost his longtime wife Joan, who died at the age of 93 last July. “She was the girl I had been drawing all my life,” Lee once recalled of his late wife. | |
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| 05-17-18 02:31am - 2412 days | #699 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Why Mike Pence won't be president Matt Bai 15 minutes ago Throughout the first year of the administration, as President Trump veered from one crisis of his own invention to another while fending off fast-moving investigations, people talked about Mike Pence as the guy more likely than any of his recent predecessors to wake up one morning and find himself president of the United States. Now, with Trump nearing the halfway mark, with the investigations plodding along and the country acclimated to daily chaos, people talk about Pence as the guy in Washington who most desperately wants to be president, and who would say just about any noxious thing to set himself up as Trump’s natural successor. In a much-discussed Washington Post column last week, the venerable conservative George Will proclaimed Pence the single worst person in government for publicly deifying Trump at Cabinet meetings and for sucking up to Trump supporters like the infamous Sheriff Arpaio in Arizona. “Trump is what he is, a floundering, inarticulate jumble of gnawing insecurities and not-at-all compensating vanities, which is pathetic,” Will wrote. “Pence is what he has chosen to be, which is horrifying.” Then, a few days later, a team of reporters at the New York Times weighed in with a detailed account of how Pence is subtly supplanting Trump, even as he exalts the president, by taking control of the party’s midterm strategy and establishing his own power base in the states. But if it’s true that Pence is scheming and charming his way into prime position, like some slow-eyed version of Frank Underwood, then he’s probably wasting whatever talent he has, playing chess on a checkerboard. Because history and common sense would tell you that this is probably as close as Pence is getting to the presidency — or at least if the voters have anything to say about it. There’s no question that Pence is building his own political operation, separate from Trump’s. Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers, is one of the party’s sharpest young strategists, having once worked closely with Haley Barbour and Jeb Bush to elect a bevy of Republican governors. Recently, as you may have read, Pence also tried to hire Jon Lerner, an aide to U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, as his foreign policy adviser. (Trump nixed the idea, because Lerner had been a “never Trumper” during the campaign.) Lerner is a pollster by trade, and a good one, who used to do focus groups for House Republicans. If you think Pence wanted him around for his advice on North Korea, then you probably think Jared Kushner has a unique grasp of the Middle East. No, Pence is definitely positioning himself for an opening, which is exactly why he goes off at Cabinet meetings about how blessed he is just to breathe the same air as Trump. He says those things because the only way he can privately maneuver to consolidate power is to publicly venerate the boss at the same time. This is politics 101. A guy like Ayers can do that math in his sleep. Except here’s the problem for Pence: Close as he is to the presidency, his chances of ever getting the job fall somewhere between remote and imaginary. Let’s look at three possible scenarios as Pence and his team must see them. The first, I guess, is the 2024 plan. Trump gets reelected in 2020 on a soaring economy, leaves office a hero and bequeaths his legacy to his loyal No. 2, who vows to erect the new Trump Memorial on the site of the now-leveled FBI building. Pence must know how unlikely this one is. Even if Trump were to be reelected and celebrated by a majority of Americans, which seems mathematically dubious, he’d probably try to keep the whole thing inside the family brand, drafting Ivanka to run, or maybe Jared, if they could teach him to speak without sounding like Mr. Bill from the old “Saturday Night Live”s. At a minimum, Trump’s success would validate the idea of celebrity-driven, antiestablishment politics, leaving a pretty slim path for a career politician who promises Trumpism without the personal magnetism. The second possibility is what you might call the gift wrap scenario. Robert Mueller stumbles on some kind of explosive revelation, Trump resigns or defects to Moscow, and the presidency is handed to Pence just in time for the 2020 campaign. Pence becomes this generation’s Gerald Ford, who was a healer of the country after Watergate and barely lost to Jimmy Carter in 1976, even after pardoning Richard Nixon and enduring a brutally divisive primary. Run that same election on five different days, and Ford probably wins it twice. Except that Pence wouldn’t be anything like Ford, really. Ford had succeeded Spiro Agnew as vice president at the end of 1973; he’d barely had time to learn the lunch menu when he ascended to Oval eight months later. Everyone knew Ford had nothing to do with Watergate. Pence, on the other hand, has played a one-man Greek chorus to Trump’s never-ending Zeus routine. If Trump goes down, Pence does, too. He might get a few months of presidential proclamations under his belt, but his odds for beating out other Republicans for the nomination, let alone a Democratic challenger, are about on par with Stormy Daniels winning an Oscar. Which leads us to the final and most plausible path, which we can call the 2020 vision. Facing historic disapproval numbers, and growing tired of the same cheeseburger every night, Trump declares himself an overwhelming success and passes on reelection. Pence, like Hubert Humphrey, steps into the breach, the one man who can appeal to both Trump loyalists and party hacks, and trounces Gov. Cynthia Nixon in the Electoral College. Well, OK. But if Trump is so unpopular that he feels obliged to step aside, it’s hard to imagine Republicans turning to his lackey as a savior. If they wanted someone who could bridge that intraparty divide, they could look to a Cabinet member like Haley or even Rick Perry, who wouldn’t have to walk back a bunch of poetic odes to the great leader. And let’s be clear: There have been 24 vice presidents since 1900. Exactly one of them — George H.W. Bush — was elected president while occupying the vice presidency, following a popular presidency and facing a weak opponent. That would not be Pence’s situation. A really talented politician might be able to pull it off. But this is the underlying problem: Pence is not an especially talented politician. His only statewide victory, to the governorship of Indiana in 2012, came in an overwhelmingly Republican state. By 2016, after a series of controversies, most notably the antigay law that cost the state badly, Pence’s reelection was in serious doubt. Had he not been rescued by Trump, it’s plenty possible that he’d be running to reclaim the congressional seat that his older brother is now trying to win. Pence is, to use a phrase once employed by Barack Obama, likable enough. He’s really not the worst person in government. He’s not even the worst person on the hallway. What he is is too eager to please, too bendable in his convictions, too easily carried away in fawning rhetoric. History has a name for people like that. It’s called a running mate. No amount of plotting will make it something else. | |
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| 05-16-18 11:29pm - 2412 days | #698 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Let's make it a night to remember. Give President Donald Trump the Nobel Peace Prize. But make it conditional on him accepting the prize in Sweden. Then, have the CIA kidnap him, waterboard him (since Trump approves of waterboarding), and force him to confess his crimes. Since confessions under torture might not be legally admissable, have the CIA put Trump in one of his out-of-sight torture camps, the ones that are officially denied. Then the US can have a special election, to vote for the next President of the United States. Everyone will be happy and satisfied at such a happy and momentous occasion. (Except Mike Pence, who might grouse that he should be the next President.) --------- --------- The Wrap Jordan Klepper Begs Nobel Committee to Just Give Trump the Peace Prize (Video) “This prize has been Trump’s life-long dream, right behind ‘threesome in space,'” “The Opposition” host says Ross A. Lincoln Last Updated: May 16, 2018 @ 10:39 PM On Wednesday’s episode of “The Opposition,” Jordan Klepper basically begged the Nobel Committee to give Donald Trump a Nobel Peace Prize, even if talks in Korea appear to have stalled. “This prize has been Trump’s life-long dream, right behind ‘threesome in space,'” said Klepper, who asked the Nobel committee to “focus up” on the fact that Trump has “almost achieved peace on the Korean peninsula.” On Tuesday, North Korea threatened to abandon the nuclear summit planned for June in response to upcoming joint military operations between South Korea and the United States. About this move, Klepper joked that “this chubby, egomaniacal tyrant can’t be trusted, and every American knows who I’m talking about,” while nodding to a side-by-side image of Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. “Just give Trump his Nobel now,” Klepper said. “So what if he put the cart before the horse — horses love it when the cart comes first.” In 2009, the Nobel committee awarded the peace prize to Barack Obama just 10 months into his presidency for what critics at the time said was essentially not being George Bush. So perhaps there’s hope for Trump yet. | |
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| 05-16-18 10:28pm - 2412 days | #697 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The man who leaked Michael Cohen's financial info did so because other information on Trump’s lawyer mysteriously disappeared Rob Price A whistleblower who leaked financial documents related to Michael Cohen did so because files about Cohen were missing from a government database. That revelation came via a New Yorker interview published on Wednesday, in which the whistleblower, a career law-enforcement official, claimed two missing Suspicious-Activity Reports (SAR) indicate Cohen pulled down millions more dollars through his shell company than originally reported last week. That shell company is Essential Consultants, LLC, which Cohen set up in October 2016 to issue a $130,000 payment as part of a nondisclosure agreement with an adult-film star who claimed she had an affair with Donald Trump. After Trump's election, Cohen solicited corporations for "consulting" gigs and funneled large sums of money from those firms through Essential Consultants, LLC. A whistleblower who leaked financial information about Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen's finances to the media did so because files about Cohen were missing from a government database, sparking concerns about a potential cover-up, according to a new report from The New Yorker's Ronan Farrow. Farrow spoke to the law-enforcement official who leaked the documents, and who has not been publicly identified. The documents in question are Suspicious-Activity Reports (SARs) filed by a bank used by Cohen, First Republic Bank. There are believed to be three of these reports written — but the official was only able to find one of them in FINCEN, a database operated by the Treasury Department, the report said. This absence was unusual, the official reportedly said: "I have never seen something pulled off the system. ... That system is a safeguard for the bank. It's a stockpile of information. When something's not there that should be, I immediately became concerned." In response, The New Yorker's source took the decision to leak the one available SAR to the media. It has sparked a string of damaging headlines about Cohen and how Trump's lawyer and so-called fixer sought payments from companies following Trump's 2016 election, apparently for consulting work — including AT&T and pharma giant Novartis. The two SARs that the whistleblower couldn't find detail larger quantities of money being paid to Cohen, according to the report: One for "a little over a million dollars" and another for "suspect transfers totaling more than two million dollars." The official is reportedly worried that the documents are "being withheld from law enforcement," though another possibility is that they may have been restricted due to their contents, potentially at the request of special counsel Robert Mueller — though sources told The New Yorker such a move would be highly unusual. Either way, the reported existence of two additional SARs suggests there may be further revelations to come about Michael Cohen's financial activities. Washington Post columnist and former US Treasury Department official, Daniel Drezner reacted to the revelations on Wednesday evening: "As someone who worked at Treasury on anti-money laundering activities, my reaction to this Ronan Farrow story is holy s--t," Drezner wrote. Funneling money through Essential Consultants LLC Cohen set up the shell company, Essential Consultants LLC, in October 2016 to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to the adult-film star, Stormy Daniels, who claimed she had an affair with Trump a decade prior. Shortly after Trump won the presidential election in November that year, Cohen solicited large sums of money from corporations, with various promises of access and insight on Trump. The telecom giant AT&T and the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis are among the companies that contracted Cohen's service s. Other companies Cohen reached out to declined his offers. News of Cohen's solicitations put an unflattering light on his post-election activities and raised some ethics questions about the use of his existing relationship with Trump for personal financial gain. Cohen is currently the subject of a criminal investigation via the US Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York. The FBI raided his properties last month.. | |
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| 05-16-18 10:14pm - 2412 days | #696 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
One further note on the payment by Trump to Cohen. The president’s June 2017 financial disclosure form showed that Trump paid Cohen an amount between $100,000.01 and $250,000.00. However, in his news interview a few weeks ago, Guiliani stated that Trump made payments to Cohen of $35,000 per month, for a total of $460,000 to $470,000. So what happened to the money above the $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels? And why wasn't that money listed on the financial disclosure forms? Is it because Trump does not bother following the laws? That would make him a criminal, if he is prosecuted for these crimes. | |
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| 05-16-18 09:18pm - 2412 days | #695 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I can understand why the White House might be irritated that John McCain is not dead. He has cancer. Let him die already, so the White House won't have to deal with him or any of his friends, who should also die from cancer, bless God in Heaven. That's an emotion I can sympathize with. It would be a blessing if all my enemies died of cancer. But I don't pray to God for such an event. I trust that God will do the right thing, on His own. ------------ ------------ Politics White House 'Irritated That John McCain Is Not Dying Of Cancer,' Ana Navarro says Newsweek Harriet Sinclair,Newsweek Tue, May 15 7:37 AM PDT CNN commentator Ana Navarro has said the White House is “irritated that John McCain is not dying of cancer” following its failure to apologize after an aide quipped that the senator’s opinion didn’t matter because “he’s dying anyway.” As the White House faced criticism for not issuing an official apology over the aide’s comments, the political pundit, who is no fan of President Donald Trump, slammed officials. “I think, frankly, what’s happening here is that the White House is irritated that John McCain is not dying of cancer—he’s living with cancer," Navarro said on CNN's New Day on Tuesday. "And he is choosing to make every single day on this Earth something that’s meaningful and counts, and he is still confronting Donald Trump for his outrages.” The aide at the center of the controversy, Kelly Sadler, has offered the McCain family a private apology following comments made in a closed-door meeting that dismissed the senator’s opposition to President Donald Trump’s CIA nominee Gina Haspel with the crude comment about his health. However, the White House has not offered a public apology, instead stating that the incident has been “dealt with internally,” The Hill reported. But the lack of public apology has upset McCain’s family, and left some prominent members of the Republican party at odds with the White House. Senator Lindsey Graham was among those who spoke out against the remark, telling Face the Nation on Sunday: "If it was a joke, it was a terrible joke. I just wish somebody from the White House would tell the country that was inappropriate, that's not who we are in the Trump administration." Graham added that it was not up to him to decide whether Trump should issue an apology, but added: “If something happened like that in my office—somebody in my office said such a thing about somebody, I would apologize on behalf of the office.” This article was first written by Newsweek | |
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| 05-16-18 09:05pm - 2412 days | #694 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump writes that his failure to disclose his payment to lawyer Michael Cohen last year was OK. And that he disclosed the payment he made on this year's form only because he is a nice man. However, knowingly and willfully falsifying or omitting required information on the financial disclosure form can be prosecuted as a criminal offense, punishable by as long as a year in jail. And the Office of Government Ethics determined Wednesday that Cohen’s payment to Daniels, which Trump repaid last year, constituted a loan that should have been reported on the president’s June 2017 financial disclosure form. So President Trump could be prosecuted for this. Imagine, the President, who promised to make America great again, being accused of a crime? ---------- ---------- HuffPost Trump’s Failure To Report Stormy Daniels Payoff Referred To Prosecutors HuffPost S.V. Date,HuffPost 5 hours ago WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s failure last year to disclose that he repaid his lawyer Michael Cohen for Cohen’s pre-election payout to Stormy Daniels has been referred to the Department of Justice. The Office of Government Ethics determined Wednesday that Cohen’s payment to Daniels, which Trump repaid last year, constituted a loan that should have been reported on the president’s June 2017 financial disclosure form. Trump did disclose the liability in a footnote to the form he filed Tuesday. The note claimed he did not have to make the disclosure, but was doing so anyway “in the interest of transparency.” In a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, acting OGE Director David Apol wrote, “You may find the disclosure relevant to any inquiry you may be pursuing regarding the president’s prior report that was signed on June 14, 2017.” Knowingly and willfully falsifying or omitting required information on the financial disclosure form can be prosecuted as a criminal offense, punishable by as long as a year in jail. Trump and his White House staff had for months denied knowing anything about Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Daniels to buy her silence about the affair the porn star said she had with Trump a decade earlier. Trump’s newest outside lawyer Rudy Giuliani finally admitted that Trump had repaid Cohen in a Fox News interview earlier this month. The White House did not respond to requests for comment. In a Wednesday interview with HuffPost, Giuliani continued to insist that Cohen’s payment to Daniels ― which he previously described as the settlement of a nuisance claim ― was fully aboveboard. “This is a perfectly legitimate thing,” Giuliani said. “There’s nothing wrong with it.” When asked why an ostensibly legitimate payment had been funneled through the newly registered Delaware shell company Essential Consultants, Giuliani said: “No, it wasn’t.” He then added that there was no need to list Trump’s monthly payments to Cohen at all. “It was listed out of an excess of caution.” Both of Giuliani’s assertions, however, are incorrect. “OGE has concluded that, based on the information provided ... the payment made by Mr. Cohen is required to be reported as a liability,” Apol wrote in his letter to Rosenstein. The payment to Daniels ― whose real name is Stephanie Clifford ― was made on Oct. 27, 2016, by Essential Consultants LLC to her lawyer at the time, Keith Davidson, according to a copy of the wire transfer. Essential Consultants was created by Cohen days earlier. He used it in the coming weeks and months to collect millions of dollars in consulting fees from corporate clients like AT&T, Swiss drugmaker Norvatis and Columbus Nova, which described itself as an affiliate of a conglomerate known to be owned by a Russian oligarch. “Once again Mr. Giuliani has attempted to deceive the American people with this payment,” said Michael Avenatti, Daniels’ new lawyer, who is trying to break the nondisclosure agreement in court. In a follow-up interview, Giuliani said that he did not know how Cohen had paid Daniels ― “Lawyers do things under LLCs all the time,” he said ― and that he had correctly anticipated that the OGE would rule that Trump had needed to disclose the $130,000 as a loan. That is why, he said, he decided to disclose it himself. The FBI and federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York are investigating Cohen. They removed documents and electronic equipment from Cohen’s offices using a search warrant last month, although he has not been charged with any crime. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, meanwhile, continues his year-old investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russian intelligence services, which were actively working to help Trump win in 2016. Rosenstein appointed Mueller after Trump first fired FBI Director James Comey, and then shortly thereafter told both NBC News and Russian diplomats visiting the Oval Office that he had done so because of the FBI’s Russia probe. Trump has repeatedly called the Mueller probe a “witch hunt” spurred by Democrats angry that they had lost an election they believed they would win. Giuliani, who was once the U.S. attorney leading the office now investigating Cohen, makes that same argument and says news outlets that cover the Mueller investigation and the Stormy Daniels payment are treating Trump unfairly. “The guy’s making tremendous progress for us all over the world,” Giuliani said of Trump. “You guys are worse than he says you are.” 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 individuals 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. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which filed a complaint with the OGE and the Justice Department in March asserting that Cohen’s payment to Daniels constituted a loan to Trump, filed a second complaint Wednesday. “There is substantial evidence that President Trump had knowledge of the loan when he filed his 2017 [financial disclosure form] notwithstanding his failure to report it,” read the complaint signed by Noah Bookbinder, CREW’s executive director, and Norm Eisen, its chairman. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 05-16-18 08:47pm - 2412 days | #6 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
That made me laugh. They told me the same thing. Must have been reading from the same script. When I got older, I still didn't have a lot of spending money. But instead of reading comics at the local drug store, I switched to reading paperback novels. I grew up.  | |
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| 05-16-18 08:39pm - 2412 days | #693 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Civil rights and environmental groups are afraid of Trump's choices for judges. Says Trump's picks are bad for the environment, bad for civil rights. The best solution to their worries: Impeach Donald Trump now. Don't be stupid. Don't be afraid to act. If there is not enough evidence to convict, not a problem: The impeachment process takes a long time. Time enough, just as Republicans have done, to string the process out, long enough to gather more evidence. And then Trump can be convicted when there is sufficient evidence. In the meantime, Trump's legal problems will occupy him enough to slow his attack on the environment and civil rights, but maybe not enough to stop his graft, because Trump, as everyone knows, has a hard head for business. ----------- ----------- Civil rights and environmental groups raise the alarm on a key judicial nomination Michael Walsh 4 hours ago Civil rights leaders and environmentalists are calling on the Senate to reject President Trump’s choice of Andrew Oldham for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit when it votes on the nomination Thursday. During a press call on Wednesday, top brass for national civil rights and environmental advocacy organizations accused Oldham, 39, the top legal adviser to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, of fighting against voting rights, reproductive rights and government efforts to safeguard the environment and the public health. As Abbott’s general counsel, Oldham repeatedly helped the Lone Star State join then-Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s lawsuits against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Tiernan Sittenfeld, the senior vice president of government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters, said Oldham challenged the EPA’s ability to implement the Clean Air Act and advocated overruling the landmark Massachusetts v. EPA decision that directed the agency to limit carbon pollution. “But it’s not just that. Oldham is so extreme that he doesn’t just disagree with federal protections; he actually questions their constitutionality,” Sittenfeld said. “He said, and I quote, ‘One of the reasons why the administrative state is enraging is not that you disagree with what the EPA does — although I do disagree with a lot of what it does. That’s not the thing that makes it enraging. It’s the illegitimacy of it.’” When contacted for comment, the Office of the Texas Governor told Yahoo News via email, “Andrew Oldham has an impressive and extensive background, as well as a robust understanding of the Constitution and the rule of law. Mr. Oldham has served with dedication and distinction as chief legal adviser in the General Counsel’s office, and the justice system would be well-served by his appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Governor Abbott wholeheartedly supports his appointment to the court.” Even without a Supreme Court vacancy, Trump is reshaping the judiciary with his nominations to the U.S. Court of Appeals, which comprises 11 circuit courts with jurisdiction over different regions of the country. All of the speakers on the press call expressed concern for what Oldham’s confirmation would mean for the Fifth Circuit, which covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Yahoo News asked whether Oldham’s ascent would have implications outside those states. Joanne Spalding, the chief climate counsel for the Sierra Club, replied that the Fifth Circuit’s decisions are not binding for other regions, but they are persuasive and could be cited in any other district. “There are many extreme decisions that are never actually reviewed by the Supreme Court. They stand and are binding by the states,” she said. Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice, added that the Supreme Court used to release opinions on about 150 cases a year but that this figure has been chopped roughly in half over the decades. That means, she said, that appeal courts more often issue rulings that become the law of the land. “It is also why the administration is focusing on and prioritizing filling seats on the courts of appeal because they know how critically important and powerful these judges and courts are, particularly given the fewer number of cases heard by the Supreme Court.” Aron noted that if he is confirmed by the Senate, Oldham would be Trump’s fifth appointee to the circuit courts. “It’s extremely worrisome and reflects an extreme case of court-packing,” she said. Kristine Lucius, executive vice president for policy for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said key civil rights questions — such as voting rights and educational opportunities — have historically been raised in the Fifth Circuit, whose population includes more people of color than any other circuit. “What we also saw in the DACA and DAPA cases is that there was forum shopping, and people go to that circuit and are able to get nationwide injunctions. So, to the extent your question is about implications outside those states, we have very recent cases as examples where cases were brought but had nationwide impact,” Lucius said. The Obama administration introduced DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) in June 2012 and DAPA (Deferred Action of Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents) in November 2014. DACA protected some undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. DAPA granted deferred action status to some undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. since 2010 and have children who are American citizens or lawful residents. Texas and 35 others states sued the federal government, and the Fifth Circuit blocked these executive orders on immigrations from then-President Barack Obama in 2015. The Alliance for Justice said Oldham was “the architect of Texas’s strategy to block the expansion of DACA to additional Dreamers and parents of U.S. citizens or green card holders across the country.” Daniel Goldberg, legal director for the Alliance for Justice, said Oldham is just one of many “narrow-minded elitists” appointed by Trump to “erode and eviscerate” critical rights and legal protections. He said that Trump knows his legislative agenda is going nowhere and that if he introduced legislation to repeal the Clean Air Act, millions of people would be outraged. Instead, Goldberg suggested, Trump is stacking the courts with young ideologues who will destroy the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and worker protections through their rulings. “This is a very conscious strategy of Donald Trump and the far right to weaken our laws through stacking the courts,” he told Yahoo News. Goldberg said past presidents, such as Obama, consulted with senators from the other party and nominated mainstream jurists who enjoyed broad, bipartisan support. Rather than finding consensus nominees, he continued, Trump is nominating jurists with clear ideological records of chipping away at legal rights. Trump nominated John Bush, who spread “birther” conspiracies on an anonymous blog, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He nominated Damien Schiff, who said Justice Anthony Kennedy was akin to a “judicial prostitute,” to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. He nominated Wendy Vitter, who promoted the idea that taking birth control increases a woman’s chance of being attacked or murdered and wouldn’t say whether Brown v. Board of Education was rightly decided, to the Eastern District of Louisiana. “These are not individuals past presidents would have nominated,” Goldberg said. “These are individuals who are being nominated for one purpose, and that’s to get on the court so they can weaken our constitutional rights and critical laws.” Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute and editor-in-chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review, said these “cry-wolf” accusations are commonly brought against Republican judicial nominees by liberal advocacy groups. Shapiro had worked with Oldham on the DAPA litigation because CATO had filed amicus briefs and had helped to craft the legal arguments. “I think he’s a very bright lawyer, a skilled lawyer. His commitment to originalism and textualism is clear, and that can be said of most of the Trump judicial nominees, certainly at the circuit court” level, Shapiro told Yahoo News. The goal of Trump’s White House Counsel’s office, he continued, is to nominate originalists and textualists (adherents of philosophies that lean toward a strict reading of the letter of the Constitution and statute law) with a track record of intellectual rigor and commitment to their philosophies. “Every president tries to reshape the judiciary and should! This is a very big power that every president has over judicial nominations,” Shapiro said. “I would argue that, at least in the domestic sphere, it’s the biggest presidential power because executive actions can be rescinded, as we’ve seen. Regulations can be repealed, legislation can be sunsetted or changed, but federal judges are for life.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked President Obama’s nomination to fill a Supreme Court vacancy for nearly a year, leaving the seat open for Trump to make an appointment. | |
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| 05-16-18 07:04pm - 2412 days | #692 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
House of Lies and Graft. Can you believe anything Donald Trump and Michael Cohen state? Maybe it helps if you are drunk, or believe in blind ambition and greed. ------- ------- Michael Cohen's efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow went on longer than he has previously acknowledged Hunter Walker and Brett Arnold 2 hours 20 minutes ago WASHINGTON — Prosecutors and congressional investigators have obtained text messages and emails showing that President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, was working on a deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow far later than Cohen has previously acknowledged. The communications show that as late as May 2016, around the time Trump was clinching the Republican nomination, Cohen was considering a trip to Russia to meet about the project with high-level government officials, business leaders and bankers. Cohen has said that, beginning in September 2015, he worked with a Russian-born developer named Felix Sater to build a luxury hotel, office, and apartment complex called Trump World Tower Moscow. In a statement to Congress, Cohen claimed he gave up on the project in late January 2016, when he determined the “proposal was not feasible for a variety of business reasons and should not be pursued further.” However, Yahoo News has learned that text messages and emails that Sater provided to the government seem to contradict Cohen’s version of events. The communications show Cohen was discussing the deal until at least May 2016. Multiple sources have described to Yahoo News the texts and emails with Cohen that Sater has provided to the government. Sater confirmed to Yahoo News that he provided all of his texts and emails with Cohen to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team as well as to the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate’s Intelligence and Judiciary committees. Sater also confirmed that his communications chronicled his extensive efforts to get the tower built. “I was trying to build the tallest tower in Europe. For me, it was a business transaction,” Sater told Yahoo News. “I have fully cooperated with every investigation and every committee. I have provided absolutely everything voluntarily, and not under subpoena, that was asked of me and will continue to willingly cooperate. All my communications show I was tenaciously trying to get a supertall tower built and nothing else.” Cohen and his attorneys have not responded to requests for comment on this story. Mueller’s probe into Russian intervention in the 2016 election has increasingly turned its focus on Cohen, who spent over a decade as an executive at Trump’s company and became one of the future president’s closest confidantes. Cohen left the Trump Organization after Trump’s election, but he remained the president’s personal lawyer. Sources familiar with the Mueller investigation have previously told Yahoo News that prosecutors working with Mueller have been asking questions about Cohen’s work to build the Moscow tower, his personal taxi business and his real estate portfolio, as well as payments to women who claimed they had affairs with Trump. Last month the FBI searched Cohen’s residences and office under a warrant obtained by federal prosecutors in New York, acting on a referral by Mueller. The warrant sought records related to Cohen’s personal business dealings and the payments to the women. Trump Tower Moscow was not covered by the warrant, which could indicate that Mueller has decided to keep that aspect of the investigation under his own control. Sater, who first met Cohen when they were both in high school, worked with President Trump’s real estate company to build hotels in Florida and New York during the mid 2000s. At that time, he also discussed potential projects in Russia with Trump’s company. As part of his deal to build Trump-branded properties, Sater had a Trump Organization business card and an office in the company’s Manhattan headquarters. Sater was convicted on charges related to a stock fraud scheme orchestrated by Russian organized crime figures in 1998. He then became a federal informant who spent years providing crucial information to the government about mobsters and terrorists. The emails and texts show Cohen and Sater began discussing a potential tower in Moscow in the second half of 2015. Sater said he could introduce Cohen to high-level figures in Russia, including bankers, business people and politicians. In emails that were published by the New York Times, Sater suggested that he could get the backing of Russian President Vladimir Putin and that the project could benefit both Trump’s chances of being elected and America’s relations with Moscow. “I will get Putin on this program, and we will get Donald elected,” Sater wrote in a November 2015 email. The emails and texts described to Yahoo News, which have not previously been made public, show Sater and Cohen continued discussing the deal into 2016. Sater was explicit that high-level figures in Russia needed to be involved because a project of this magnitude could not be completed without Putin’s approval. Around the start of that year, Cohen became frustrated because Sater had not been able to set up the necessary meetings. Cohen swore at Sater and said he would make his own high-level contacts in Russia. As part of his efforts to pursue the Moscow project on his own, Cohen emailed top Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in mid-January 2016 requesting “assistance” for the tower development. “Without getting into lengthy specifics, the communication between our two sides has stalled,” Cohen wrote. The email was sent to a generic Kremlin press address, and Cohen has said did not receive a response. In a statement to the House Intelligence Committee, Cohen said he abandoned the Moscow project “for business reasons” in January 2016 when the company couldn’t get necessary government permissions. Cohen further said the decision to give up on the Moscow tower was not related to Trump’s presidential campaign. But the communications Sater provided to Mueller’s team and three congressional committees paint a different picture of the deal. After Cohen made his own attempts to pursue the plan in January, the messages indicate that he continued to communicate with Sater about the potential project. The pair continued talking between January and May of 2016, when Sater began pressing Cohen to travel to Russia to work on the deal. Sater encouraged Cohen to go to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in mid-June 2016. Sater presented the event as an opportunity for Cohen to meet top Russian officials, business leaders and bankers in one place. He obtained an invitation for Cohen, who indicated he was considering the trip but ultimately said any travel to Russia would have to take place after the Republican convention, which took place in July 2016. They did not discuss the project further. In his statement to the House Intelligence Committee, Cohen said that Sater “constantly” encouraged him to go to Russia and that he declined to make the trip. According to Sater, he eventually gave up on the project in December 2016 when Trump, who had just been elected, said his company would do “no new deals” while he was in office. | |
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| 05-16-18 03:06pm - 2412 days | #691 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Rex Tillerson warns of 'integrity and ethics crisis' – but doesn't name Trump The Guardian Tom McCarthy,The Guardian 1 hour 21 minutes ago Former secretary of state speaks at Virginia Military Institute and urges graduates to resist ‘leaders [who] seek to conceal the truth’ On Wednesday, Rex Tillerson said: ‘When we as a people, a free people, go wobbly on the truth, even on what may seem the most trivial of matters, we go wobbly on America.’ Rex Tillerson, the former secretary of state, warned on Wednesday that America had plunged into a “crisis of ethics and integrity in our society and among our leaders” that could set the country down “a pathway to relinquishing our freedom”. Tillerson, who was dismissed in March by Donald Trump, did not name the president. But his remarks, before a graduating class at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington were largely seen as directed at the Trump administration. “If our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom,” Tillerson said. “A responsibility of every American citizen to each other is to preserve and protect our freedom by recognizing what truth is and is not, what a fact is and is not, and to begin by holding ourselves accountable to truthfulness and demand our pursuit of America’s future be fact-based, not based on wishful thinking, not hoped-for outcomes made in shallow promises, but with a clear-eyed view of the facts as they are and guided by the truth that will set us free to seek solutions to our most daunting challenges.” If we do not confront the crisis of ethics and integrity in our society, democracy as we know it is entering its twilight years Rex Tillerson Trump has presented himself as a defender of the truth, having invented and popularized the phrase “fake news”, by which he means news that is bad for him. But the president has been repeatedly exposed as an habitual liar prone to exaggerating the size of his crowds, his fortune and his popularity; given to denials of acquaintances, deals and relationships; and offering changing and contradictory descriptions of his own actions and motivations and those of people around him. Tillerson’s address to the military school was scheduled before he was removed as secretary of state. Upon Tillerson’s departure, Trump praised him by saying: “I very much appreciate his commitment and his service and I wish him well. He’s a good man.” But Trump admitted that he and Tillerson “disagreed on things”, including the Iran nuclear deal, which Tillerson wished to stay in, and the 2017 blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia, which Tillerson criticized and Trump supported. “We were not really thinking the same,” Trump said. Ironically, Tillerson was an early advocate of making diplomatic overtures to North Korea, prompting Trump to tweet last year, “he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man”. Such clashes may have fed the concerns Tillerson aired on Wednesday, in a speech that warned that the United States must never take its “long-held allies for granted, both in trading relations and in national security matters”. Tillerson’s most powerful theme, however, was the importance of standing up for the truth. “When we as a people, a free people, go wobbly on the truth, even on what may seem the most trivial of matters, we go wobbly on America,” he said. “If we do not as Americans confront the crisis of ethics and integrity in our society and among our leaders in both the public and private sector, and regrettably at times into the nonprofit sector, then American democracy as we know it is entering its twilight years.” Tillerson, the former chief executive of ExxonMobil, has largely avoided the spotlight since leaving government. His tenure as secretary of state was criticized for his perceived aloofness, his failure to fill rank-and-file jobs and his failure to maintain the alliances he touted in his speech. In October 2017, Tillerson denied that he had considered resigning over a news report that he had called the president a “moron” – but he did not deny calling Trump that. Tillerson was succeeded in the secretary of state job by Mike Pompeo, who ended Tillerson’s hiring freeze and said he wanted to give the department its “swagger” back. In excerpts of a pep talk for staff, Pompeo said: “Swagger is not arrogance; it is not boastfulness, it is not ego. No, swagger is confidence; in one’s self, in one’s ideas. In our case, it is America’s essential rightness.” | |
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| 05-16-18 02:38pm - 2412 days | #690 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Trump vows to shut down company that helped police to illegally record phone calls. Trump is fierce about the protection of privacy: his own privacy. He is also fierce about the police being able to invade the privacy of anyone not connected to him. So in this case, where a company was helping police illegally spy on people, Trump would obviously take the side of the police: find the evil doers, and put them in prison. And if they are already in prison, keep them there even longer. Except: if it's a friend or buddy of Trump, it's a witch hunt, which is a shameful act and maybe even treason. ----------- ----------- Business The company that helps police track phones was reportedly hacked Engadget Rob LeFebvre,Engadget 43 minutes ago Securus is known for allegedly helping prisons violate Sixth Amendment Securus is known for allegedly helping prisons violate Sixth Amendment protections by recording "at least" 14,000 phone calls between inmates and lawyers. There was also a report at The New York Times that a former sheriff in Mississippi County used the service to track cellphones, including those of other officers, without court orders. Now, an unidentified hacker has apparently provided Motherboard data from Securus, which includes usernames and "poorly secured" passwords for thousands of the company's customers in law enforcement. The concern here is that any malicious entity could use these logins to access the location of any of the phones tracked by the company. Motherboard reports that the hacker sent several internal company files, including a spreadsheet marked "police," which contained 2,800 user names, email addresses, phone numbers, hashed passwords and security challenge questions. The data is apparently from 2011 forward, and includes information from sheriff departments and city police from places including Minneapolis, Phoenix, Indianapolis and more. We've reached out to Securus for comment and will update this post if we hear back. Motherboard This article originally appeared on Engadget. | |
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| 05-16-18 02:23pm - 2412 days | #689 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The knives are out for Rudy Giuliani. And not all of them are Democrat knives. There is at least one Republican knife in Giuliani's back. Who is the Republican traitor? Jay Goldberg, a lawyer, who thinks that Guiliani should not be Trump's lawyer. Although I don't have a lot of respect for Guiliani, who seems more like a vicious attack dog than an attorney, I think Guiliani has opened up the eyes of many to the slimeball nature of him and his boss, Donald Trump. So I am willing to let Guiliani continue to tell us lies and contradictions about Trump, in the hope that Guiliani will help to bring Trump down. --------- --------- HuffPost Longtime Trump Lawyer Slams Giuliani As 'Polarizing Figure' Who Shouldn't Deal With Mueller Jay Goldberg, the attorney who represented President Donald Trump for almost two decades, doesn’t think Rudy Giuliani is fit to be handling the legal team tasked with handling special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Not only is Giuliani not sufficiently experienced, Goldberg said, but he also may be in it for his own gain. “I think he’s a polarizing figure,” Goldberg said of the former New York City mayor on MSNBC’s “The Beat With Ari Melber” on Tuesday. “There are those people who think he was a wonderful prosecutor but he has no record managing a defense of someone who’s accused of wrongdoing. I told him that I didn’t think that Giuliani was the right person for him to select. I thought there were much better people that he could use in terms of negotiating with Mueller.” Giuliani is misguided if he thinks he can scare Mueller into winding down the investigation, Goldberg added. And to go on cable television and make revelations ― he was referring to Giuliani telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity that the $130,000 that Trump’s current lawyer Michael Cohen paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels came from Trump himself ― without fully debriefing the client points to “the height of unpreparedness,” Goldberg said. Goldberg also noted his concern that Giuliani joined Trump’s legal team in order to “aggrandize himself whether at the expense of Trump or not.” Giuliani, who joined Trump’s legal team in April, said he planned to use this week’s one-year anniversary of the probe to continue calling for its completion. “There has been no evidence presented of collusion or obstruction, and it is about time for them to end the investigation,” Giuliani told Bloomberg News on Tuesday. “We don’t want to signal our action if this doesn’t work ― we are going to hope they listen to us ― but obviously we have a Plan B and C.” This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 05-16-18 02:08pm - 2412 days | #688 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
How do you know if Pruitt, the Head of the EPA is lying? He opens his mouth. ----- ----- The Independent Scott Pruitt: EPA chief had ‘round-the-clock’ security since first day in office, contrary to his claims The Independent Mythili Sampathkumar The Independent Tue, May 15 8:30 AM PDT President Donald Trump’s head of environment Scott Pruitt has had round-the-clock security detail since his first day in office, contrary to his prior claim. Mr Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), read aloud a list of alleged threats he had received in 2017 in front of a Congressional panel as a reason for spending in excess of $3m in taxpayer money on his extensive security. However, emails obtained by the Washington Post show that there was no proper “threat assessment” done prior to Mr Pruitt’s security detail in place. In a letter to Democratic Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Thomas Carper earlier this week, EPA inspector general Arthur Elkins said that: “EPA’s Protective Service Detail began providing 24/7 coverage of the Administrator the first day he arrived”. Mr Elkins also said his office “played no role in this decision” and that Mr Pruitt requested the detail. Mr Pruitt and the EPA have defended the high costs - which included first-class plane tickets and several special agents - and said "these are threats that the [Inspector General of the EPA] has documented," Mr Pruitt told Congress just last month. The agency issued a statement last month that read: "According to EPA's assistant inspector general, Scott Pruitt has faced an unprecedented amount of death threats against him and his family. Americans should all agree that members of the President's Cabinet should be kept safe from these violent threats”. The emails actually showed that the detail was requested by Don Benton, a former state senator from Washington and a Republican who had been working as the agency’s White House adviser just ahead of Mr Pruitt’s February 2017 appointment. The threat assessment was only done once, in August 2017. The newspaper reported: "there were no confirmed threat cases open the day Pruitt took office, according to an individual with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation". Mr Benton said in a February 2017 email: “There will be several Executive Orders signed when [Pruitt] is sworn in that will likely stir the hornets nest and with the security issue in the Atlanta office last week as well as the lady who threatened former administrator [Gina] McCarthy not showing up for court and at large in DC it is best to be on the safe side". As a result the number of agents in the criminal and investigative unit of the agency had to be double to 16. Mr Pruitt's Cabinet position is not normally one that receives such extensive protection like the Secretaries of Defence, Homeland Security, and State. His predecessor Ms McCarthy guard was roughly a third of the size of Mr Pruitt's and she said in a recent interview that she kept her detail to a "minimum". What has stirred even more controversy in addition to spending taxpayer money was that the special agent in charge Eric Weese, who had predicted the increased security would be a "major disruption," was replaced at the request of Mr Pruitt. | |
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| 05-16-18 01:31pm - 2412 days | #687 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Draining the swamp in Washington. Republicans have a higher moral code: put money in my pocket, and I am King of the World. -------- -------- Pruitt grilled over reported use of sirens to beat DC traffic By Nikki Schwab May 16, 2018 | 12:57pm | Updated WASHINGTON – EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said Wednesday that he didn’t recall asking that lights and sirens be used on his motorcade so he could get through Washington traffic faster. “I don’t recall that happening,” Pruitt told Sen. Tom Udall ( D-N.M.), who pressed the EPA chief on an array of allegations, including that he had used lights and sirens to make his way more quickly to Le Diplomate, a trendy French restaurant in Washington where Pruitt likes to have dinner. Pruitt was testifying before a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday and mainly tussled with Udall, who announced early on that the EPA administrator was facing 16 separate investigations. Udall wanted to know, generally, if Pruitt’s security detail had ever flashed its lights or used its sirens in a non-emergency situation. What he received was a non-answer. “There are policies in place that governs the use of lights,” Pruitt said. “Those policies were followed to the best of my knowledge.” Udall pointed to reports, including one in the New York Times that said that Pruitt had encouraged the use of lights and sirens, even in non-emergency situations. Pruitt again answered that the “policies were followed to the best of my knowledge” as he said he didn’t recall ordering the lights and sirens to be used. The back-and-forth prompted Udall to announce that he was submitting for the record an email written by EPA aide Pasquale Perrotta that had the subject line “Lights and Sirens.” “Btw – Administrator encourages the use …” Perrotta wrote to a number of EPA officials whose names were blacked out. Perrotta left the EPA at the beginning of the month. “I think he’s been caught in a lie,” Udall told reporters after the hearing. Pruitt was pummeled by the Democrats on some of his other mini-scandals as well. “What a silly reason you had to fly first class,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who made a brief appearance at the hearing. “Nobody even knew who you were.” Pruitt has said he’s flown first class – instead of coach like most government employees – due to security concerns. The EPA chief has also taken heat for a sweetheart rental apartment deal, but at Wednesday’s hearing that took a backseat to his use of a government aide for his real estate hunt. “The individual that you’re referring to is a longtime friend of my wife and myself,” Pruitt said, explaining that Millan Hupp, a top scheduling aide, had searched for apartments for the EPA chief on her own time. “All activity that I’m aware of that was engaged in by the individual that you’re speaking about occurred in personal time.” Pruitt then told Udall that Hupp wasn’t paid for this work. “Then that’s a gift,” Udall said. “That’s in violation of federal law.” | |
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| 05-16-18 01:18pm - 2412 days | #686 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump, the man of 1 million lies. He now admits he repaid Cohen $100,000 plus. But does not say what the money was used for. Could it have been used for Michael Cohen's expenses at McDonalds? McDonalds has a $1 value menu. That would cover a lot of meals. But to find what the payment was for, would take subpoenas, maybe waterboarding, and extreme torture, because these guys are admitting nothing on their own. However, one nice thing about the loan/business expense: Cohen did not charge Trump any interest on the loan. Wow, what a friend. Loaning a billionaire over $100,000, and not charging interest. Michael Cohen is the kind of friend that everyone should have. -------------- -------------- Trump repaid attorney Cohen for 'third party' expense: disclosure Reuters By Ginger Gibson,Reuters 1 hour 22 minutes ago By Ginger Gibson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump acknowledged for the first time that he repaid his attorney Michael Cohen for a payment of at least$100,001 made to a "third party" in 2016, according to ethics disclosures signed by the president that were released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on Wednesday. Cohen made a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, shortly before the Nov. 8, 2016, presidential election in exchange for her staying silent about an alleged affair she had with Trump. Trump's new disclosure statement did not describe the purpose or the recipient of the 2016 payment made by Cohen. But the acting director of the ethics office, David Apol, in a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said it should have been disclosed in ethics documents that Trump filed in June 2017. Apol's letter was released with the Trump disclosures. The ethics office is a government watchdog that provides oversight of the executive branch program designed to prevent and resolve conflicts of interest. Trump's latest disclosure filing said Cohen incurred the expense in 2016 and that Cohen "sought reimbursement" in 2017. "Mr. Trump fully reimbursed Mr. Cohen," the report said. The payment made by Cohen was between $100,001 and $250,000 and there was no interest incurred, the report said. Trump had previously disputed whether he was aware of the payment by Cohen and if he reimbursed his attorney. In April, Trump told reporters he did not know anything about the payment. On May 2, Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who joined Trump's personal legal team in April, said that Trump had reimbursed Cohen for the payment. Cohen has publicly acknowledged paying Daniels, saying he obtained the cash through a line of credit on his home. (Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Leslie Adler) | |
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| 05-16-18 12:44pm - 2412 days | #685 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Draining the swamp in Washington, and moving it to Texas. ------- ------- U.S. Disgraced former congressman Blake Farenthold won’t repay $84K sexual harassment settlement Good Morning America JOHN PARKINSON,Good Morning America 21 hours ago Former Rep. Blake Farenthold, the disgraced Texas Republican who resigned last month in the aftermath of a sexual harassment settlement, has secured his next paid gig – as a government lobbyist. But even though he’s going to be raking in a reported six-figure salary, Farenthold told ABC News that he has no intention of repaying an $84,000 sexual harassment settlement funded by taxpayers. Farenthold told a Corpus Christi, Texas talk radio station Monday that he’s accepted a position as a “legislative liaison” at the Calhoun Port Authority, previously known as the Port of Port Lavaca-Point Comfort. Farenthold’s hiring announcement was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Reached via phone Tuesday morning by ABC News, Farenthold declined to comment on his new job. “I’m a private citizen now, so I’m not commenting about my employment,” Farenthold said. Farenthold then made clear that he has no intention of repaying an $84,000 taxpayer settlement stemming from a 2014 complaint by a former congressional aide alleging sexual harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation. “I will say this on the record: I have been advised by my attorneys not to repay that,” Farenthold told ABC. “That’s why it hasn’t been repaid.” Farenthold refused to disclose his attorneys’ justification for that legal advice. After Farenthold resigned on April 6, House Speaker Paul Ryan said he fully expected Farenthold to repay the settlement to the U.S. Treasury. The House Ethics Committee even released a statement urging Farenthold to uphold his promise to repay the settlement. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has also demanded Farenthold cover the costs for a special election to fill his seat in the 27th district, though Farenthold has also signaled he will not cover that expense either. In a May 2 letter, which Farenthold mistakenly addressed to The Honorable “Gregg” Abbott, Farenthold pointed at Texas special election Texas law, contending that Abbott’s call for a special election was “not warranted and should not have been called.” “Since I didn’t call it and don’t think it’s necessary, I shouldn’t be asked to pay for it,” Farenthold wrote. Farenthold declined to further discuss the governor's request with ABC. Farenthold served in the House of Representatives from January 5, 2011, until April 6, 2018. He sat on the House Committees on Oversight and Government Reform, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Judiciary. "I'm starting a new job today that has an hour-and-a-half commute," Farenthold said on 1360 KKTX-AM's Lago in the Morning. "You're gonna have me listening and calling in a whole lot now." His annual salary will be $160,000.10, just under the $174,000 he was paid in the House, according to Charles R. Hausmann, port director at the Calhoun Port Authority. "Blake is paid biweekly a salary of $6,153.85. He will not receive any incentives/bonuses," Hausmann wrote in an email to ABC. Hausmann confirmed that Farenthold started his new job on Monday, and added he "assisted on many projects that have benefited the Port and his District that led to his hiring." While former members of the House are prohibited from lobbying for at least one year after leaving office, Farenthold is seizing on a loophole that enables him to lobby on behalf of a government agency immediately. “Cooling off” restrictions do not apply to former lawmakers employed by a government agency, institutions of higher education and hospitals or medical research organizations, according to House Ethics rules. In a news release, Hausmann noted that Farenthold would be the port's "full-time legislative liaison" and "will be responsible for promoting the port’s agenda" and "helping in resolving funding issues." "Blake has always been a strong supporter of the Calhoun Port Authority and is familiar with the issues facing the Port. The Board looks forward to the services Blake can provide in assisting the Port with matters in Washington, D.C.," Hausmann stated. Hausmann added that Farenthold will also work to increase the Port’s presence and visibility in Washington with legislators, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Executive Branch, and other policy makers "to further the Port’s agenda and to obtain public funding." | |
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| 05-16-18 09:33am - 2413 days | #684 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Let's cut out the bullshit. Have President Trump and Michael Cohen seized by the FBI and the CIA, taken outside the United States, and waterboarded until they confess their crimes. Trump has tweeted in support of waterboarding. Let's use waterboarding to find the truth, to stop wasting time and taxpayers money, to drain the swamp of Washington lies, graft, corruptions, and slimeball politicians. | |
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| 05-16-18 09:29am - 2413 days | #683 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The Republicans stand for high morals, clean conduct, and the Great American Way. If they were looking for dirt on Hilary Clinton, it was only to make America clean. All for a good cause. Democrats are slimeball creatures, who should be thrown out of the country as soon as they finish their prison terms. Hail to Trump, President of Trump-America, King of the greatest land in the world. ---------- ---------- Trump Tower transcripts detail quest for dirt on Hillary Clinton Jeremy Herb By Jeremy Herb, CNN Updated 1608 GMT (0008 HKT) May 16, 2018 New documents released on 2016 Trump Tower meeting (CNN)Thousands of pages of interview transcripts with the participants of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting shed new light on how eager Donald Trump Jr. and senior members of the Trump campaign were to obtain damaging information on Hillary Clinton — and how frustrated and angry they were that the material did not come to fruition. The nearly 2,000 pages of interviews do not appear to contain information that would change the course of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Trump's team and Russia. But the transcripts released by the Senate Judiciary Committee fill in new details about how Trump Jr., President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort were expecting a bombshell from Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. Rob Goldstone, the British music publicist who arranged the Trump Tower meeting, told the committee he was anticipating a "smoking gun" from Veselnitskaya when he urged Trump Jr. to take the meeting, even though he thought it was a "bad idea and that we shouldn't do it." "I just sent somebody an email that says I'm setting up a meeting for someone that is going to bring you damaging information about somebody who was running to become the President of the United States," Goldstone said. "I thought that was worthy of the words 'smoking gun,' yes." The Senate Judiciary Committee's release Wednesday of the Trump Tower transcripts and hundreds of pages of exhibits provide the most comprehensive view yet into the circumstances surrounding the controversial meeting and the details of the roughly 20-minute encounter, in which Trump's team was expecting dirt from Veselnitskaya. The meeting -- and whether President Trump knew about it -- has become a central focus of Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, as well as the congressional Russia investigations. Trump Jr. has told House investigators that he did not communicate with his father about the meeting before it happened. The White House has said the President weighed in on a misleading statement his son issued after the meeting became publicly known, more than a year later. Trump Jr. — who had emailed Goldstone ahead of the meeting about the dirt, "if it's what you say I love it" — told congressional investigators he was interested in "listening to information" about Clinton in the June Trump Tower meeting. "I had no way of assessing where it came from, but I was willing to listen," he said. Trump Jr. also said he did not inform his father about the meeting ahead of time, because he didn't want to bring him "unsubstantiated" information. And when the damaging information didn't materialize, as Veselnitskaya focused on US sanctions on Russia under the Magnitsky Act that the US passed to punish Russian human rights abuses, the testimony gives new insight into how Trump's team reacted. "Jared Kushner, who is sitting next to me, appeared somewhat agitated by this and said, 'I really have no idea what you're talking about. Could you please focus a bit more and maybe just start again?'" Goldstone said of Kushner, who was not interviewed by the committee. "And I recall that she began the presentation exactly where she had begun it last time, almost word for word, which seemed, by his body language, to infuriate him even more." But there is also discrepancy between the meeting participants about how long Kushner was present. While Kushner and Trump Jr. have said the now-White House senior adviser left in the middle of the meeting, others who were there told the committee they remembered Kushner staying the whole time. The committee on Wednesday released transcripts and hundreds of pages of related material from nine people connected to the meeting. The documents contain a record of closed-door committee interviews with five of the eight meeting attendees, including Trump Jr., Goldstone, Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin, translator Anatoli Samochornov and Ike Kaveladze, a Russian with ties to oligarch Aras Agalarov. Following the documents' release, Trump Jr. said the transcripts show he "answered every question asked." "I appreciate the opportunity to have assisted the Judiciary Committee in its inquiry," Trump Jr. said in a statement, "The public can now see that for over five hours I answered every question asked and was candid and forthright with the Committee. I once again thank Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Feinstein, as well as other members of the Committee and their staff for their courtesy and professionalism." The committee's documents also included responses from Veselnitskaya, as well as a statement from Kushner and a page of notes from Manafort. The committee also included the formal release of the transcript of Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, who was not at the Trump Tower meeting but whose transcript was unilaterally released in January by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. In January, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said he planned to release the transcripts because the committee's interviews connected to the Trump Tower meetings had wrapped up. Democrats had pressed Grassley to subpoena Kushner for his testimony or schedule a public hearing for Trump Jr., but he chose not to do so following Feinstein's decision to release the Simpson transcript. This story has been updated and will continue to update with new developments. CNN's Katelyn Polantz, Kara Scannell, Juana Summers, Marshall Cohen, Jenna McLaughlin, Jeremy Diamond, Caroline Kenny, David Wright, Eli Watkins and Liz Stark contributed to this report. | |
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| 05-16-18 08:58am - 2413 days | #682 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Is President Donald Trump getting his presidential pardons ready for Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner? Or will he let Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner go to prison, where they can learn humility and respect for the law, to be better people like President Trump? Enquiring minds want to know. Let's ask Sarah Huckabee Sanders, since she's the one person, besides Trump himself, who knows all the secrets of the Trump administration. She's the friendly sort, who is glad to explain how President Trump is making America great again. ------------ ------------ President’s aides believe Donald Trump, Jr. and Jared Kushner could be indicted: report The silence has driven President Donald Trump “mad,” according to MSNBC’s John Heilemann Travis Gettys May 14, 2018 5:46pm (UTC) This article originally appeared on Raw Story. The special counsel investigation has resulted in four guilty pleas and 19 indictments — but no one in Washington knows what could come next, because Robert Mueller isn’t talking. Many Trump aides and associates believe the president will ultimately be exonerated in the probe, but they told the Washington Post that Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner could be indicted. “The interactions with the Mueller team have been limited for this White House,” said the Post‘s Robert Costa, who reported the story. “Officials go in as witnesses, (Rudy) Giuliani, the former New York mayor, working as the president’s personal lawyer and interacting with some of the Mueller prosecutors and FBI agents.” Costa told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that a meeting with a Russian attorney set up by Trump Jr. and attended by both Kushner and Manafort remains under scrutiny by Mueller, who’s also looking into possible efforts by the president to obstruct the investigation of that Trump Tower meeting. “They also feel like there’s this variable inside the probe with regard to the president’s family,” Costa said. “Some of his advisers, they know about Gen. (Mike) Flynn, they know about others like (Paul) Manafort, who have been indicted and are about to go to trial. But those who haven’t even been interviewed, or with Mr. Kushner, they’re not sure where this is going, and that’s part of the problem for this White House. That’s why Giuliani said the president is trying to work on foreign affairs, because they just don’t know how long Mueller will take when it comes to the conduct question of the investigation and the collusion aspect.” New York Times reporter Nick Confessore said Mueller may be the quietest but most powerful man in Washington, D.C., and MSNBC’s John Heilemann said that silence had driven the president mad. “It makes Trump crazy,” Heilemann said. That leaves plenty of room for attorney Michael Avenatti, who’s suing the president on behalf of porn actress Stormy Daniels, to antagonize the president with findings from his own investigation. “All he gets is more Avenatti in his face,” Heilemann said. “It’s like there’s a double teamed yin-yang thing going on that I think is part of the mental gamesmanship that’s put Trump on defense.” He noted that Trump stopped his personal attacks last week and left Vice President Mike Pence, White House chief of staff John Kelly and attorney Rudy Giuliani to push back against the Mueller probe. “That’s how a normal White House would go about making the argument, not have the president on Twitter or acting in a histrionic way,” Heilemann said. “You wonder if for all the other noise whether they’re finding their way towards a more conventional strategy of trying to undermine the various probes under which they’re operating.” | |
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