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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
March 3, 2019
Posted on Sun, Mar 3rd, 2019 by Jason Easley
Trump Is Freaking Because Adam Schiff Is Investigating Him For Russian Money Laundering
House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) revealed that he is investigating Trump Russian money laundering, which explains why the president is freaking out.
Schiff said on CBS’s Face The Nation, “We are certainly looking deep into the set of issues surrounding Moscow Trump Tower. We’re also looking at persistent allegations that the Russians have been laundering money through the Trump Organization. I don’t know if that’s true, but if it is again, it’s a profound compromise of this president.”
Video @ link:
Adam Schiff Has Jurisdiction to Look At Trump’s Finances Because He May Be Compromised By Russia
Trump’s rant about Schiff at CPAC takes on a whole different context when reviewed after what Rep. Schiff said on Sunday.
https://twitter.com/PoliticusSarah/status/1101934702250913794
Trump doesn’t want investigators to follow the money, because the heart of his relationship with Russia is cold hard cash. There has long been speculation that Trump got the money for his projects by laundering cash in violation of US sanctions for Russia.
Adam Schiff has the jurisdiction to investigate Trump’s finances because he is probing to see if Trump has been compromised by a foreign power. Rep. Schiff knows where to look, and he is about to expose the potential financial crimes that Trump committed with Russia.
Trump Is Freaking Because Adam Schiff Is Investigating Him For Russian Money Laundering
https://www.politicususa.com/2019/03/03/adam-schiff-trump-money-laiundering.htmlPosted on Sun, Mar 3rd, 2019 by Jason Easley
Trump Is Freaking Because Adam Schiff Is Investigating Him For Russian Money Laundering
House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) revealed that he is investigating Trump Russian money laundering, which explains why the president is freaking out.
Schiff said on CBS’s Face The Nation, “We are certainly looking deep into the set of issues surrounding Moscow Trump Tower. We’re also looking at persistent allegations that the Russians have been laundering money through the Trump Organization. I don’t know if that’s true, but if it is again, it’s a profound compromise of this president.”
Video @ link:
Adam Schiff Has Jurisdiction to Look At Trump’s Finances Because He May Be Compromised By Russia
Trump’s rant about Schiff at CPAC takes on a whole different context when reviewed after what Rep. Schiff said on Sunday.
At CPAC Trump said, “I saw little shifty Schiff yesterday. It’s the first time he went into a meeting and he said we’re going to look into his finances. I said where did that come from? He always talked about Russia, collusion with Russia, the collusion delusion. Now we have people that lost and unfortunately, you put the wrong people in a couple of positions. And they leave people for a long time that shouldn’t be there. And all of a sudden, they’re trying to take you out with bullshit, okay?”
https://twitter.com/PoliticusSarah/status/1101934702250913794
Trump doesn’t want investigators to follow the money, because the heart of his relationship with Russia is cold hard cash. There has long been speculation that Trump got the money for his projects by laundering cash in violation of US sanctions for Russia.
Adam Schiff has the jurisdiction to investigate Trump’s finances because he is probing to see if Trump has been compromised by a foreign power. Rep. Schiff knows where to look, and he is about to expose the potential financial crimes that Trump committed with Russia.
March 3, 2019
Dems feel growing pressure on impeachment
By Mike Lillis - 03/02/19 02:00 PM EST
House Democratic leaders are facing new pressures over a radioactive debate they've fought to keep under wraps: the impeachment of President Trump.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has confronted the question since the earliest days of Trump's White House tenure, hoping to discourage any talk of ousting the president so long as the effort remains strictly partisan.
But a group of liberals in her ranks have pressed on, introducing articles of impeachment while threatening additional floor votes on the legislation. And this week's explosive testimony by Trump's former personal attorney, who lodged a string of allegations that the president broke numerous laws before and since he took office, has only fueled the impeachment push — and complicated efforts by Democratic leaders to prevent debate over the volatile "I" word from cascading into an intraparty free-for-all.
Appearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Michael Cohen told lawmakers that Trump had a direct hand in distributing hush money payments to a porn star during the 2016 campaign — payments that would violate campaign finance laws — and also steered an unsuccessful effort to expand his business empire in Russia even as he was seeking the White House.
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who introduced articles of impeachment in the last Congress, told The New York Times after the hearing that impeachment "is almost going to be impossible not to deal with."
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), another impeachment supporter, told MSNBC that Congress has a constitutional responsibility to check Trump's business dealings because "this is not going to be our last CEO" in the White House. And impeachment advocates off of Capitol Hill are pointing to Michael Cohen's testimony as just the latest — and perhaps most damning — evidence that Trump is unfit for office.
more...
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/432288-dems-feel-growing-pressure-on-impeachment
Dems feel growing pressure on impeachment
Dems feel growing pressure on impeachment
By Mike Lillis - 03/02/19 02:00 PM EST
House Democratic leaders are facing new pressures over a radioactive debate they've fought to keep under wraps: the impeachment of President Trump.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has confronted the question since the earliest days of Trump's White House tenure, hoping to discourage any talk of ousting the president so long as the effort remains strictly partisan.
But a group of liberals in her ranks have pressed on, introducing articles of impeachment while threatening additional floor votes on the legislation. And this week's explosive testimony by Trump's former personal attorney, who lodged a string of allegations that the president broke numerous laws before and since he took office, has only fueled the impeachment push — and complicated efforts by Democratic leaders to prevent debate over the volatile "I" word from cascading into an intraparty free-for-all.
Appearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Michael Cohen told lawmakers that Trump had a direct hand in distributing hush money payments to a porn star during the 2016 campaign — payments that would violate campaign finance laws — and also steered an unsuccessful effort to expand his business empire in Russia even as he was seeking the White House.
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who introduced articles of impeachment in the last Congress, told The New York Times after the hearing that impeachment "is almost going to be impossible not to deal with."
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), another impeachment supporter, told MSNBC that Congress has a constitutional responsibility to check Trump's business dealings because "this is not going to be our last CEO" in the White House. And impeachment advocates off of Capitol Hill are pointing to Michael Cohen's testimony as just the latest — and perhaps most damning — evidence that Trump is unfit for office.
more...
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/432288-dems-feel-growing-pressure-on-impeachment
March 2, 2019
Trump Aides Keep Writing Memos to Protect Themselves
Their urge to document the president's requests and interactions is justified by his behavior.
David A. Graham
snip//
Time and again, Trump has attacked former aides only to have their contemporaneous documentation back them up. Cohen has become a frequent target of the president, who has called him a “rat” and said he is not to be trusted. Cohen is in fact a convicted liar, who will soon report to prison to serve time for tax evasion, bank fraud, and lying to Congress. That makes the tape even more important, because it requires less faith in Cohen.
Comey and Trump have been engaged in a dramatic he-said, he-said drama, but the fact that the former FBI director’s memos were written at the time of the conversations lends his version credence (as does Trump’s prolific lying). McCabe was fired for lying to investigators (which he claims was a pretense), but once again, his memos from the time hold more weight.
Trump has not publicly attacked McGahn or Kelly in the same way, but he has tension with both men. He and Kelly were reportedly barely on speaking terms by the time the chief of staff left the White House. Trump had become disgruntled with McGahn and publicly announced that the lawyer would be leaving before telling McGahn himself.
In short, if aides are keeping these notes because they feel the president will turn on them or try to point fingers at them, they are not wrong. While the Comey, McCabe, and Cohen documentations are by now old news, the news about McGahn and Kelly opens up the question of how many other memos from the two men there might be, and what topics they could cover. It seems likely that Mueller would already have anything from McGahn’s shop related to the Russia probe—McGahn cooperated extensively with the special counsel—but there’s no telling what trove of revelations might exist for the rest of the American people.
Trump Aides Keep Writing Memos to Protect Themselves
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/trump-aides-keep-documenting-their-actions-safety-net/583966/Trump Aides Keep Writing Memos to Protect Themselves
Their urge to document the president's requests and interactions is justified by his behavior.
David A. Graham
snip//
Time and again, Trump has attacked former aides only to have their contemporaneous documentation back them up. Cohen has become a frequent target of the president, who has called him a “rat” and said he is not to be trusted. Cohen is in fact a convicted liar, who will soon report to prison to serve time for tax evasion, bank fraud, and lying to Congress. That makes the tape even more important, because it requires less faith in Cohen.
Comey and Trump have been engaged in a dramatic he-said, he-said drama, but the fact that the former FBI director’s memos were written at the time of the conversations lends his version credence (as does Trump’s prolific lying). McCabe was fired for lying to investigators (which he claims was a pretense), but once again, his memos from the time hold more weight.
Trump has not publicly attacked McGahn or Kelly in the same way, but he has tension with both men. He and Kelly were reportedly barely on speaking terms by the time the chief of staff left the White House. Trump had become disgruntled with McGahn and publicly announced that the lawyer would be leaving before telling McGahn himself.
In short, if aides are keeping these notes because they feel the president will turn on them or try to point fingers at them, they are not wrong. While the Comey, McCabe, and Cohen documentations are by now old news, the news about McGahn and Kelly opens up the question of how many other memos from the two men there might be, and what topics they could cover. It seems likely that Mueller would already have anything from McGahn’s shop related to the Russia probe—McGahn cooperated extensively with the special counsel—but there’s no telling what trove of revelations might exist for the rest of the American people.
March 2, 2019
Posted on Sat, Mar 2nd, 2019 by Jason Easley
Trump Is Now Illegally Promoting His Golf Course As Foreign Policy
Trump is now illegally claiming that his golf course in Scotland is a part of US foreign policy.
Trump is breaking the law
Donald Trump tweeted a commercial for his golf course and wrote about it:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1101837499230498816
Trump’s tweet is a violation of the federal statute that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain. Donald Trump is using his status as president to proclaim a for-profit golf course a part of US foreign policy so that he and his family can profit off of the publicity.
Trump is using the presidency to market his golf course
A private for-profit golf course is not foreign policy. The relationship between the United States and the UK was a strong alliance, so Trump’s golf course did nothing to help US foreign policy. The reality is that Trump’s Scottish golf course is losing piles of money. The course hasn’t been profitable for decades. Trump is using his platform as president to try to make money for his failing business.
Trump’s behavior is an abuse of presidential power, and almost as importantly, it serves as confirmation of what Michael Cohen said during his testimony.
Cohen said:
Michael Cohen was right. Trump isn’t going to govern or lead. He is only here to suck the credibility out of the presidency and turn it into a marketing opportunity for Trump.
This is the type of damage that the current president is doing to our institutions that will take years to remove the Trump stink and restore honor to the Oval Office.
Trump Is Now Illegally Promoting His Golf Course As Foreign Policy
https://www.politicususa.com/2019/03/02/trump-illegal-golf-course.htmlPosted on Sat, Mar 2nd, 2019 by Jason Easley
Trump Is Now Illegally Promoting His Golf Course As Foreign Policy
Trump is now illegally claiming that his golf course in Scotland is a part of US foreign policy.
Trump is breaking the law
Donald Trump tweeted a commercial for his golf course and wrote about it:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1101837499230498816
Trump’s tweet is a violation of the federal statute that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain. Donald Trump is using his status as president to proclaim a for-profit golf course a part of US foreign policy so that he and his family can profit off of the publicity.
Trump is using the presidency to market his golf course
A private for-profit golf course is not foreign policy. The relationship between the United States and the UK was a strong alliance, so Trump’s golf course did nothing to help US foreign policy. The reality is that Trump’s Scottish golf course is losing piles of money. The course hasn’t been profitable for decades. Trump is using his platform as president to try to make money for his failing business.
Trump’s behavior is an abuse of presidential power, and almost as importantly, it serves as confirmation of what Michael Cohen said during his testimony.
Cohen said:
Donald Trump is a man who ran for office to make his brand great, not to make our country great. He had no desire or intention to lead this nation – only to market himself and to build his wealth and power. Mr. Trump would often say, this campaign was going to be the “greatest infomercial in political history.”
He never expected to win the primary. He never expected to win the general election. The campaign – for him – was always a marketing opportunity.
He never expected to win the primary. He never expected to win the general election. The campaign – for him – was always a marketing opportunity.
Michael Cohen was right. Trump isn’t going to govern or lead. He is only here to suck the credibility out of the presidency and turn it into a marketing opportunity for Trump.
This is the type of damage that the current president is doing to our institutions that will take years to remove the Trump stink and restore honor to the Oval Office.
March 1, 2019
House Democrats prepare case to request Trump tax returns
Democrats are crafting a request to send to the IRS and say they will "take all necessary steps" to obtain the president's returns.
March 1, 2019, 4:52 PM EST
By Heidi Przybyla
WASHINGTON — The top tax-writing committee in the House is readying a request for years of President Donald Trump’s personal tax returns that is expected to land at the Internal Revenue Service as early as the next few weeks, according to congressional aides involved in the process. And Democrats are prepared to "take all necessary steps," including litigation, in order to obtain them.
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., has asked the committee’s attorneys to prepare the request, according to two aides involved in the process. Neal has also contacted the chairs of several other House investigative committees, including Oversight and Government Reform, Financial Services, Intelligence and Judiciary, asking them to provide detailed arguments for why they need the president’s tax returns to conduct their probes.
"Every day the American people and Congress learn more about President Trump’s improprieties, from conflicts of interest to influence peddling, potential tax evasion and violations of the Constitution — all roads leading back to President Trump’s finances," said Ashley Etienne, spokeswoman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Ways and Means is the only congressional committee with the authority to directly make the request for Trump’s returns. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, whose department has authority over the IRS, will decide whether or not to grant the request.
more...
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-democrats-prepare-effort-request-trump-tax-returns-n978246?fbclid=IwAR0DtVGaKqf_FV6bhFflDFfFb9Of1uVtMVLxjuYnGfIutzr52bhF18jQz-c
House Democrats prepare case to request Trump tax returns
House Democrats prepare case to request Trump tax returns
Democrats are crafting a request to send to the IRS and say they will "take all necessary steps" to obtain the president's returns.
March 1, 2019, 4:52 PM EST
By Heidi Przybyla
WASHINGTON — The top tax-writing committee in the House is readying a request for years of President Donald Trump’s personal tax returns that is expected to land at the Internal Revenue Service as early as the next few weeks, according to congressional aides involved in the process. And Democrats are prepared to "take all necessary steps," including litigation, in order to obtain them.
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., has asked the committee’s attorneys to prepare the request, according to two aides involved in the process. Neal has also contacted the chairs of several other House investigative committees, including Oversight and Government Reform, Financial Services, Intelligence and Judiciary, asking them to provide detailed arguments for why they need the president’s tax returns to conduct their probes.
"Every day the American people and Congress learn more about President Trump’s improprieties, from conflicts of interest to influence peddling, potential tax evasion and violations of the Constitution — all roads leading back to President Trump’s finances," said Ashley Etienne, spokeswoman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"These improprieties, and the lack of transparency around them, give the House legitimate legislative, oversight and legal reasons to review the President’s tax returns. We will take all necessary steps, including litigation, if necessary, to obtain them." Etienne confirmed that the committees are working together to "ensure the House is able to present the strongest possible case."
Ways and Means is the only congressional committee with the authority to directly make the request for Trump’s returns. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, whose department has authority over the IRS, will decide whether or not to grant the request.
more...
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-democrats-prepare-effort-request-trump-tax-returns-n978246?fbclid=IwAR0DtVGaKqf_FV6bhFflDFfFb9Of1uVtMVLxjuYnGfIutzr52bhF18jQz-c
March 1, 2019
Here’s what Allen Weisselberg, the Trump family’s longtime money man, could tell Congress
According to Michael Cohen, Weisselberg knows where the bodies are buried.
Danielle McLean
Mar 1, 2019, 3:09 pm
snip//
Weisselberg likely knows Trump’s business practices better than anyone: He started as an accountant for Trump’s father, Fred Trump, a real estate developer, in the 1970s and has held financial roles within the Trump family’s inner circle since. Weisselberg helped run Trump’s failed casino in Atlantic City in the early 2000s. He was also treasurer of the president’s charitable organization, the Trump Foundation, which dissolved in 2018 after prosecutors found it was used to fatten Trump’s business and campaign coffers.
The office of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly investigating the foundation for receiving improper donations from foreigners, and lawmakers, including Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), have signaled they want to initiate an investigation after Cohen’s Oversight Committee testimony. Cohen said Trump used foundation funds to improperly purchase a portrait of himself and inflate its selling price.
The Trump Organization and its finances are also under investigation by the Southern District of New York. Prosecutors are looking into whether company executives may have violated campaign finance laws, the New York Times reported. Weisselberg has reportedly been a focus of that inquiry.
Weisselberg, according to Cohen, signed some of the checks that reimbursed Cohen for hush-money payments made to women who claimed they had affairs with the president. Cohen also said the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and President Trump himself signed such checks.
Cohen was sentenced in December to three years in jail after pleading guilty to what the judge described as “veritable smorgasbord of criminal conduct” — including tax dodging, lying to banks, and campaign-finance violations related to those hush-money payments. Weisselberg was granted immunity for his cooperation in that case.
Cohen made other claims about illegal business practices by Trump through the Trump Foundation and Trump Organization, which Weisselberg could have insight into.
Cohen claimed Trump directed the Trump Foundation to refund a fake bidder he paid to purchase a portrait of himself at an auction in the Hamptons in 2013. He also claimed that Trump inflated his net worth to lenders, inflated property values to insurers, and deflated property values for tax dodging purposes.
Weisselberg, along with Eric Trump and Don Jr., has also managed Trump’s private trust.
Here's what Allen Weisselberg, the Trump family's longtime money man, could tell Congress
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-michael-cohen-money-handler-testify-929317bc9a47/Here’s what Allen Weisselberg, the Trump family’s longtime money man, could tell Congress
According to Michael Cohen, Weisselberg knows where the bodies are buried.
Danielle McLean
Mar 1, 2019, 3:09 pm
snip//
Weisselberg likely knows Trump’s business practices better than anyone: He started as an accountant for Trump’s father, Fred Trump, a real estate developer, in the 1970s and has held financial roles within the Trump family’s inner circle since. Weisselberg helped run Trump’s failed casino in Atlantic City in the early 2000s. He was also treasurer of the president’s charitable organization, the Trump Foundation, which dissolved in 2018 after prosecutors found it was used to fatten Trump’s business and campaign coffers.
The office of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly investigating the foundation for receiving improper donations from foreigners, and lawmakers, including Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), have signaled they want to initiate an investigation after Cohen’s Oversight Committee testimony. Cohen said Trump used foundation funds to improperly purchase a portrait of himself and inflate its selling price.
The Trump Organization and its finances are also under investigation by the Southern District of New York. Prosecutors are looking into whether company executives may have violated campaign finance laws, the New York Times reported. Weisselberg has reportedly been a focus of that inquiry.
Weisselberg, according to Cohen, signed some of the checks that reimbursed Cohen for hush-money payments made to women who claimed they had affairs with the president. Cohen also said the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and President Trump himself signed such checks.
Cohen was sentenced in December to three years in jail after pleading guilty to what the judge described as “veritable smorgasbord of criminal conduct” — including tax dodging, lying to banks, and campaign-finance violations related to those hush-money payments. Weisselberg was granted immunity for his cooperation in that case.
Cohen made other claims about illegal business practices by Trump through the Trump Foundation and Trump Organization, which Weisselberg could have insight into.
Cohen claimed Trump directed the Trump Foundation to refund a fake bidder he paid to purchase a portrait of himself at an auction in the Hamptons in 2013. He also claimed that Trump inflated his net worth to lenders, inflated property values to insurers, and deflated property values for tax dodging purposes.
Weisselberg, along with Eric Trump and Don Jr., has also managed Trump’s private trust.
March 1, 2019
Chris Wallace Rips Trump: ‘Why on Earth Would You Side With Kim Jong Un Over the Warmbier Family?’
by Julio Rosas | Mar 1st, 2019, 12:15 pm 2479
Fox News anchor Chris Wallace expressed his confusion and dismay at President Donald Trump saying he believes North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un did not know about the torture of Otto Warmbier.
more...
https://www.mediaite.com/trump/chris-wallace-rips-trump-why-on-earth-would-you-side-with-kim-jong-un-over-the-warmbier-family/?fbclid=IwAR1Nj6vHstHC65KYSNGQZ3nB276gHuc70ja-PX_ZdMWeAMw-1DBGv1xhFD8
Chris Wallace Rips Trump: 'Why on Earth Would You Side With Kim Jong Un Over the Warmbier Family?'
Chris Wallace Rips Trump: ‘Why on Earth Would You Side With Kim Jong Un Over the Warmbier Family?’
by Julio Rosas | Mar 1st, 2019, 12:15 pm 2479
Fox News anchor Chris Wallace expressed his confusion and dismay at President Donald Trump saying he believes North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un did not know about the torture of Otto Warmbier.
“This strikes me as a completely unforced error by the president and the White House. Why on an issue like this, there’s no question that Otto Warmbier was brutally tortured, basically killed by the North Koreans. Why on Earth would you side with Kim Jong Un over the Warmbier family and the sense of outrage,” he asked.
“First of all, there is a real question whether the captivity and the incarceration of an American is something that the dictator of North Korea wouldn’t know about,” Wallace continued. “But even if that’s true why would you want to get into this fight? The fact is the North Korean regime was responsible. You’re getting pushback from the Warmbier family. You’re getting pushback from the president’s former U.N. Ambassador, Nikki Haley.”
“I just don’t understand why you would even get into this and make it sound like in any way you are siding with Kim and saying that he is somehow to be held blameless for what happened to Otto Warmbier,” he concluded.
“First of all, there is a real question whether the captivity and the incarceration of an American is something that the dictator of North Korea wouldn’t know about,” Wallace continued. “But even if that’s true why would you want to get into this fight? The fact is the North Korean regime was responsible. You’re getting pushback from the Warmbier family. You’re getting pushback from the president’s former U.N. Ambassador, Nikki Haley.”
“I just don’t understand why you would even get into this and make it sound like in any way you are siding with Kim and saying that he is somehow to be held blameless for what happened to Otto Warmbier,” he concluded.
more...
https://www.mediaite.com/trump/chris-wallace-rips-trump-why-on-earth-would-you-side-with-kim-jong-un-over-the-warmbier-family/?fbclid=IwAR1Nj6vHstHC65KYSNGQZ3nB276gHuc70ja-PX_ZdMWeAMw-1DBGv1xhFD8
March 1, 2019
the national circus 1:38 P.M.
Are Foreign Countries Benefiting From Jared Kushner’s Security Clearance?
By Frank Rich
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today, new revelations about Jared Kushner’s security clearance, the fallout from the Michael Cohen hearing, and Mark Meadows’s birtherism.
According to a report in the New York Times, Jared Kushner received his top-secret security clearance because of an “order” by Donald Trump, spurring the White House counsel and chief of staff to compose memos at the time outlining their concerns. In previous interviews with the press where they had been asked about this directly, Trump and Ivanka both seem to have lied. Should Kushner be forced to resign?
Surely you are not suggesting that Jared resign before he unveils his Middle East peace plan! In any case, there may be no way to force any of these grifters out of the White House short of handcuffs. It has long been my contention that Jared’s subconscious ambition is to follow his father, Charles, into prison. Every revelation brings him closer to his goal, starting as far back as his attempt to set up a secret communications back channel between the Trump transition and the Russians to circumvent America’s intelligence agencies. His and the Kushner family’s international dealings to secure financing for their struggling real-estate ventures since Inauguration Day have repeatedly raised the question of which country he is actually serving from his perch in the White House. Russia? Saudi Arabia? Qatar? China? Certainly there is nothing in Kushner’s record to suggest that he is loyal to the United States of America.
This latest bombshell raises a whole bunch of ancillary questions. Indeed, why did Ivanka and Jared’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, appear to lie about his devious path to his security clearance? And what about John Kelly, that good soldier who was widely praised in Washington as the “adult” in the Trump circle? We’ve already learned that he is a racist and a nativist from various incidents during his craven tenure in the administration, but now we have to wonder if he, Michael Flynn–style, betrayed his country by facilitating Jared’s access to intelligence at Trump’s insistence. He could have protested more forcibly at the time, and even now, in disgrace and retirement, he still remains silent. If Jared is a mole for a foreign power who damaged American interests, Kelly will bear partial responsibility for activating him. A plea that he was just following the boss’s orders will not get him off the hook.
But let’s not let this episode distract from the bigger picture of what Jared has been doing while armed with classified secrets and his White House role as de facto chief of staff. The three most bizarre and mysterious man-crushes in American history may be his for Mohammed bin Salman, and his father-in-law’s for Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin. We don’t know if MBS has written Jared love letters as Kim has Trump (or vice versa), but this week he had another furtive assignation with the Saudi prince, as if the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi never happened. Exactly what business — whether Kushner’s or America’s — is on the table when they canoodle? In a similar vein, the president, despite being embarrassed by the collapse of the Hanoi nuclear talks that were supposed to secure his Nobel Peace Prize, still went weirdly out his way to clear Kim of any responsibility for the brutal murder of the American student Otto Warmbier, who had been imprisoned and tortured in North Korea. Along with the other ways that the Trump operation resembles a gangster enterprise, we must always include the reality that its criminal allies are piling up corpses as surely as associates of the Gotti family once did.
more...
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/kushner-security-clearance-do-other-countries-benefit.html?utm_source=fb&utm_campaign=nym&utm_medium=s1&fbclid=IwAR1MHwcX9hdrDJ0zgGQc8Em_gqiCeM51M0VW3_wYqKZRrerAp-0WlIb91sc
Frank Rich: Are Foreign Countries Benefiting From Jared Kushner's Security Clearance?
the national circus 1:38 P.M.
Are Foreign Countries Benefiting From Jared Kushner’s Security Clearance?
By Frank Rich
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today, new revelations about Jared Kushner’s security clearance, the fallout from the Michael Cohen hearing, and Mark Meadows’s birtherism.
According to a report in the New York Times, Jared Kushner received his top-secret security clearance because of an “order” by Donald Trump, spurring the White House counsel and chief of staff to compose memos at the time outlining their concerns. In previous interviews with the press where they had been asked about this directly, Trump and Ivanka both seem to have lied. Should Kushner be forced to resign?
Surely you are not suggesting that Jared resign before he unveils his Middle East peace plan! In any case, there may be no way to force any of these grifters out of the White House short of handcuffs. It has long been my contention that Jared’s subconscious ambition is to follow his father, Charles, into prison. Every revelation brings him closer to his goal, starting as far back as his attempt to set up a secret communications back channel between the Trump transition and the Russians to circumvent America’s intelligence agencies. His and the Kushner family’s international dealings to secure financing for their struggling real-estate ventures since Inauguration Day have repeatedly raised the question of which country he is actually serving from his perch in the White House. Russia? Saudi Arabia? Qatar? China? Certainly there is nothing in Kushner’s record to suggest that he is loyal to the United States of America.
This latest bombshell raises a whole bunch of ancillary questions. Indeed, why did Ivanka and Jared’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, appear to lie about his devious path to his security clearance? And what about John Kelly, that good soldier who was widely praised in Washington as the “adult” in the Trump circle? We’ve already learned that he is a racist and a nativist from various incidents during his craven tenure in the administration, but now we have to wonder if he, Michael Flynn–style, betrayed his country by facilitating Jared’s access to intelligence at Trump’s insistence. He could have protested more forcibly at the time, and even now, in disgrace and retirement, he still remains silent. If Jared is a mole for a foreign power who damaged American interests, Kelly will bear partial responsibility for activating him. A plea that he was just following the boss’s orders will not get him off the hook.
But let’s not let this episode distract from the bigger picture of what Jared has been doing while armed with classified secrets and his White House role as de facto chief of staff. The three most bizarre and mysterious man-crushes in American history may be his for Mohammed bin Salman, and his father-in-law’s for Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin. We don’t know if MBS has written Jared love letters as Kim has Trump (or vice versa), but this week he had another furtive assignation with the Saudi prince, as if the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi never happened. Exactly what business — whether Kushner’s or America’s — is on the table when they canoodle? In a similar vein, the president, despite being embarrassed by the collapse of the Hanoi nuclear talks that were supposed to secure his Nobel Peace Prize, still went weirdly out his way to clear Kim of any responsibility for the brutal murder of the American student Otto Warmbier, who had been imprisoned and tortured in North Korea. Along with the other ways that the Trump operation resembles a gangster enterprise, we must always include the reality that its criminal allies are piling up corpses as surely as associates of the Gotti family once did.
more...
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/kushner-security-clearance-do-other-countries-benefit.html?utm_source=fb&utm_campaign=nym&utm_medium=s1&fbclid=IwAR1MHwcX9hdrDJ0zgGQc8Em_gqiCeM51M0VW3_wYqKZRrerAp-0WlIb91sc
March 1, 2019
Posted on Fri, Mar 1st, 2019 by Jason Easley
House Democrats Immediately Demand All Records On Kushner Security Clearance
House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) has demanded that Trump immediately turn over all records related to Jared Kushner’s security clearance.
In a letter to the White House, Cummings wrote, “I am now writing a final time to request your voluntary cooperation with this investigation. I ask that you begin producing all responsive documents immediately, and I request that you begin scheduling transcribed interviews with each witness identified by the Committee. Please provide your response to the Committee by March 4, 2019.”
Read the full letter @ link~
Cummings has been trying to get the documents and all related correspondence about Kushner’s security clearance for nearly two months. The White House has continually stonewalled him, and it is clear that he has had enough.
Rep. Cummings wants to know why the officials did not want to give Kushner a security clearance, “Today, I am writing in light of grave new reports that—just eight days after the Committee launched this investigation—President Trump may have falsely claimed that he played no role in the security clearance process. If true, these new reports raise grave questions about what derogatory information career officials obtained about Mr. Kushner to recommend denying him access to our nation’s most sensitive secrets, why President Trump concealed his role in overruling that recommendation, why General Kelly and Mr. McGahn both felt compelled to document these actions, and why your office is continuing to withhold key documents and witnesses from this Committee. ”
Democrats are dropping the hammer on Trump
The country has been returned to the two eternal questions that dominate this White House. What is Trump hiding, and why is the president lying? The Republican-controlled House turned a blind eye to the national security risk posed by Jared Kushner. Democrats aren’t going to let Trump get away with jeopardizing the nation. House Democrats want answers, and the best news of all is that they now have the power to get them.
House Democrats Immediately Demand All Records On Kushner Security Clearance
https://www.politicususa.com/2019/03/01/kushner-security-clearance.htmlPosted on Fri, Mar 1st, 2019 by Jason Easley
House Democrats Immediately Demand All Records On Kushner Security Clearance
House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) has demanded that Trump immediately turn over all records related to Jared Kushner’s security clearance.
In a letter to the White House, Cummings wrote, “I am now writing a final time to request your voluntary cooperation with this investigation. I ask that you begin producing all responsive documents immediately, and I request that you begin scheduling transcribed interviews with each witness identified by the Committee. Please provide your response to the Committee by March 4, 2019.”
Read the full letter @ link~
Cummings has been trying to get the documents and all related correspondence about Kushner’s security clearance for nearly two months. The White House has continually stonewalled him, and it is clear that he has had enough.
Rep. Cummings wants to know why the officials did not want to give Kushner a security clearance, “Today, I am writing in light of grave new reports that—just eight days after the Committee launched this investigation—President Trump may have falsely claimed that he played no role in the security clearance process. If true, these new reports raise grave questions about what derogatory information career officials obtained about Mr. Kushner to recommend denying him access to our nation’s most sensitive secrets, why President Trump concealed his role in overruling that recommendation, why General Kelly and Mr. McGahn both felt compelled to document these actions, and why your office is continuing to withhold key documents and witnesses from this Committee. ”
Democrats are dropping the hammer on Trump
The country has been returned to the two eternal questions that dominate this White House. What is Trump hiding, and why is the president lying? The Republican-controlled House turned a blind eye to the national security risk posed by Jared Kushner. Democrats aren’t going to let Trump get away with jeopardizing the nation. House Democrats want answers, and the best news of all is that they now have the power to get them.
March 1, 2019
Hanoi Summit Failed Because Trump Refuses to Prep
Trump hates to prepare and likes to negotiate from the gut. The Hanoi humiliation with Kim Jong Un was the direct result.
Samantha Vinograd
02.28.19 10:37 AM ET
Nothing about the Hanoi summit’s outcome is a surprise. The writing was on the wall, the president just refused to read it.
President Donald Trump’s failure to engage in the most basic preparatory work for this summit—and his longstanding penchant for putting personal convictions ahead of his experts’ opinions—meant that there was no way that he could have come out of this summit with a denuclearization deal.
I helped prep President Barack Obama for high-level meetings, and President Trump’s failure to engage in the first step of any presidential meeting prep was a strong indicator that this summit was doomed to fail.
Typically, summit prep begins with the president and his intelligence community agreeing on a baseline assessment of the state-of-play, in this case the status of North Korea’s nuclear program and Kim Jong Un’s intentions. The intelligence community’s assessment that North Korea will not denuclearize, the open-source analysis that Pyongyang is still proliferating weapons of mass destruction, and reporting that North Korea is taking extra steps to disburse its arsenal seemingly fell on deaf ears.
In January President Trump said that his intelligence community was wrong on North Korea and there’s reporting that he put more faith in Vladimir Putin’s North Korea analysis (which is never unbiased) underplaying North Korea’s missile threat than he did in the U.S. intelligence community’s analysis.
Without presidential agreement on a baseline assessment on North Korea’s program and Kim’s intentions, it was clear that President Trump couldn’t have been fully prepping with his own, home team. Absent an agreed upon assessment, there was no way to identify a realistic goal for the summit or a strategy to achieve it.
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/after-the-hanoi-fail-heres-a-textbook-for-trump-summiting-for-dummies?ref=home
Hanoi Summit Failed Because Trump Refuses to Prep
Hanoi Summit Failed Because Trump Refuses to Prep
Trump hates to prepare and likes to negotiate from the gut. The Hanoi humiliation with Kim Jong Un was the direct result.
Samantha Vinograd
02.28.19 10:37 AM ET
Nothing about the Hanoi summit’s outcome is a surprise. The writing was on the wall, the president just refused to read it.
President Donald Trump’s failure to engage in the most basic preparatory work for this summit—and his longstanding penchant for putting personal convictions ahead of his experts’ opinions—meant that there was no way that he could have come out of this summit with a denuclearization deal.
I helped prep President Barack Obama for high-level meetings, and President Trump’s failure to engage in the first step of any presidential meeting prep was a strong indicator that this summit was doomed to fail.
Typically, summit prep begins with the president and his intelligence community agreeing on a baseline assessment of the state-of-play, in this case the status of North Korea’s nuclear program and Kim Jong Un’s intentions. The intelligence community’s assessment that North Korea will not denuclearize, the open-source analysis that Pyongyang is still proliferating weapons of mass destruction, and reporting that North Korea is taking extra steps to disburse its arsenal seemingly fell on deaf ears.
In January President Trump said that his intelligence community was wrong on North Korea and there’s reporting that he put more faith in Vladimir Putin’s North Korea analysis (which is never unbiased) underplaying North Korea’s missile threat than he did in the U.S. intelligence community’s analysis.
Without presidential agreement on a baseline assessment on North Korea’s program and Kim’s intentions, it was clear that President Trump couldn’t have been fully prepping with his own, home team. Absent an agreed upon assessment, there was no way to identify a realistic goal for the summit or a strategy to achieve it.
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/after-the-hanoi-fail-heres-a-textbook-for-trump-summiting-for-dummies?ref=home
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