Donald Trump has been busy this Sunday, but not in a good way. While most American presidents spend their weekends with family and friends, or even catching up on their reading, Trump spent most of the morning tapping away on his cell phone, sending out one tweet after another. Continue reading “The giant manbaby was rushed to the golf course to keep him from tweeting”
After Andrew McCabe’s firing Friday night, watch for the FBI and the CIA to start unloading intel on Trump. Chances are also good that Trump fires Mueller this week. In the meantime, here is a recipe for kettle corn, since you will need some snacks!
The New York Times confirmed this afternoon that, for the first time, Robert Mueller has subpoenaed documents from the Trump Organiization. The subpoena was issued at least several weeks ago — which could explain Trump’s belligerent mood. Witnesses recently interviewed by Mueller say they were asked about a possible real estate deal in Moscow. (Trump has… Continue reading “Mueller subpoenas Trump Org’s documents in Russia probe”
Nothing will happen, of course, because Trump won’t enforce it:
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway violated the Hatch Act on two occasions, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) informed the Trump administration Tuesday.
Appearing in her official capacity, Conway endorsed and advocated against political candidates, the watchdog said, referring its findings to President Trump “for appropriate disciplinary action.”
The violations occurred during two television appearances in 2017, one on Fox News’s “Fox and Friends,” and one on CNN’s “New Day.”
“While the Hatch Act allows federal employees to express their views about candidates and political issues as private citizens, it restricts employees from using their official government positions for partisan political purposes, including by trying to influence partisan elections,” OSC says in its report.
“Ms. Conway’s statements during the “Fox & Friends” and “New Day” interviews impermissibly mixed official government business with political views about candidates in the Alabama special election for U.S. Senate.”
The report goes on to state that Conway received “significant training” on the Hatch Act and possible violations. OSC says it gave Conway, a former GOP pollster who served as Trump’s campaign manager, the opportunity to respond as part of its report, but she did not.
Building on our 2015 decision to not sell modern sporting rifles, we announced important changes today:
– Raising the age for purchase of firearms and ammunition from 18 to 21 years old
– Removing online items resembling assault-style riflesSee details https://t.co/K7wnc0XEwK
— Walmart (@Walmart) February 28, 2018
Kushner’s Business Got Loans from Companies After White House Meetings https://t.co/gV7N6u195m
— Peter Applebome (@Applebome) March 1, 2018
NEW: Mueller’s team has been asking witnesses questions about whether Donald Trump knew in advance that Democratic emails had been stolen, and whether he was involved in their strategic release, according to multiple people familiar with the probe. https://t.co/vbhq4Fik0L
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) February 28, 2018
The president of United States just proposed grabbing your guns without due process. Congratulations Trumpists. https://t.co/q0CwbU7sU9
— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) February 28, 2018
https://twitter.com/Adampasick/status/968979552545525761
https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/968955048540692480
Just a reminder that, for hundreds of days during the campaign, Trump’s main attack on Clinton was that she couldn’t be trusted to handle classified information. https://t.co/jciaMZl5sN
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) February 28, 2018
“Trump slammed Clinton over her handling of classified info. That looks like hypocrisy now.”
—Kushner downgraded
—Scores of W.H. aides lacked permanent clearance
—Countries wanted to manipulate Kushner
—Trump revealed classified info to Russian FMhttps://t.co/lTie6eMXaj— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 28, 2018
ICYMI check out @arwaCNN report for @CNN on the horrors happening right now in Ghouta (https://t.co/BiX06IVmWL). Remind Syrian children that people out there care about them by donating to INARA so we can provide medical treatment https://t.co/BiX06IVmWL pic.twitter.com/UTnVNMBxml
— INARA (@INARAorg) March 1, 2018
WHOA IF TRUE https://t.co/OtzP4cyMHE
— Wonkette (@Wonkette) March 1, 2018
Trump’s legal team are willing to consider allowing the president to be interviewed by Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian collusion if the questions are “limited in scope,” a source close to the president’s legal team told the Wall Street Journal. Continue reading “Trump to answer some Mueller questions”
Last night’s breaking news, and a summary thread from former U.S. attorney Renato Mariotti:
1/ Today @nytimes reported that last June, a month after Comey was fired and Mueller was appointed Special Counsel, Trump ordered Mueller fired. https://t.co/aOw4PRlYPA
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January 26, 2018
2/ According to @nytimes, Trump argued Mueller had three conflicts of interest that disqualified him from overseeing the investigation: pic.twitter.com/9xgjWqS1A3
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January 26, 2018
3/ None of the three represent actual conflicts of interest for Mueller. First, Trump argued that Mueller had resigned from a Trump golf club years earlier due to a fees dispute. It’s hard to see that preventing Mueller from being fair.
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January 26, 2018
4/ Second, Trump argued that Mueller had a conflict because he previously worked at the law firm that represented his son-in-law Jared Kushner. If anything, that would suggest that Mueller would be favorable to Trump.
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January 26, 2018
5/ Trump also argued Mueller had a conflict because Trump interviewed him to be FBI Director shortly before his appointment. That’s an odd argument to make—Trump thought he was impartial enough to oversee the entire FBI, but not impartial enough to oversee this investigation?
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January 26, 2018
6/ These appear to be thinly veiled excuses to fire Mueller, and they came after Trump already asked Comey to drop the Flynn investigation and fired Comey. Trump offered a false public explanation for the Comey firing as well.
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January 26, 2018
7/ This new data point is really important, because Mueller has to prove that Trump was acting with “corrupt” intent. In other words, that his intent when he fired Comey was to impede the FBI investigation to help himself or his associates.
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January 26, 2018
8/ Trump’s defense would likely be that he had a genuine belief that there was nothing to the Russia investigation and that it was a waste of time. He also could argue that he was ignorant of the gravity of his actions and thought firing Comey wouldn’t impede the investigation.
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January 26, 2018
Apparently he’s been doing what he was told not to do:
WASHINGTON ― Former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, while under federal indictment that could send him away to prison for years, recently ghostwrote an op-ed with a Russian with ties to the country’s intelligence services, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team alleged on Monday.
Manafort, currently on house arrest with an ankle monitor, had reached a proposed bail deal with prosecutors that was awaiting court approval. But Mueller’s team says the court should reject Manafort’s request to modify the conditions of his pre-trial release because he has violated a court order that instructed him and other parties to “refrain from making statements to the media or in public settings that pose a substantial likelihood of material prejudice to this case.”
Mueller’s team allege that Manafort and a colleague were “ghostwriting an editorial in English regarding his political work for Ukraine” as recently as Nov. 30.
This just sounds like plausible deniability to me, where they take the truth and make it sound benign. I’m not buying Schiller’s version:
WASHINGTON — After a business meeting before the Miss Universe Pageant in 2013, a Russian participant offered to “send five women” to Donald Trump’s hotel room in Moscow, his longtime bodyguard told Congress this week, according to three sources who were present for the interview.
Two of the sources said the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, viewed the offer as a joke, and immediately responded, “We don’t do that type of stuff.”
Uh huh. That’s not what we hear, Keith!
The two sources said Schiller’s comments came in the context of him adamantly disputing the allegations made in the Trump dossier, written by a former British intelligence operative, which describes Trump having an encounter with prostitutes at the hotel during the pageant. Schiller described his reaction to that story as being, “Oh my God, that’s bull—-,” two sources said.
The conversation with the Russian about the five women took place after a morning meeting about the pageant in Moscow broke up, two sources said.
That night, two sources said, Schiller said he discussed the conversation with Trump as Trump was walking back to his hotel room, and Schiller said the two men laughed about it as Trump went to bed alone. Schiller testified that he stood outside Trump’s hotel room for a time and then went to bed.
One source noted that Schiller testified he eventually left Trump’s hotel room door and could not say for sure what happened during the remainder of the night.
