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deminks
deminks's Journal
deminks's Journal
December 19, 2016
The Embassy of Kuwait allegedly cancelled a contract with a Washington, D.C. hotel days after the presidential election, citing political pressure to hold its National Day celebration at the Trump International Hotel instead.
A source tells ThinkProgress that the Kuwaiti embassy, which has regularly held the event at the Four Seasons in Georgetown, abruptly canceled its reservation after members of the Trump Organization pressured the ambassador to hold the event at the hotel owned by the president-elect. The source, who has direct knowledge of the arrangements between the hotels and the embassy, spoke to ThinkProgress on the condition of anonymity because the individual was not authorized to speak publicly. ThinkProgress was also able to review documentary evidence confirming the source’s account.
In the early fall, the Kuwaiti Embassy signed a contract with the Four Seasons. But after the election, members of the Trump Organization contacted the Ambassador of Kuwait, Salem Al-Sabah, and encouraged him to move his event to Trump’s D.C. hotel, the source said.
(snip)
One looms large over the apparent hotel deal with the Kuwaitis: The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which prohibits the president from receiving money from a foreign government or head of state.
According to Democratic and Republican legal experts, such a payment is not only unconstitutional, it’s an impeachable offense.
(end snip)
Under political pressure, Kuwait cancels major event at Four Seasons, switches to Trumps D.C. hotel
https://thinkprogress.org/under-political-pressure-kuwait-cancels-major-event-at-four-seasons-switches-to-trumps-d-c-1f204315d513#.ldp6n6lg6The Embassy of Kuwait allegedly cancelled a contract with a Washington, D.C. hotel days after the presidential election, citing political pressure to hold its National Day celebration at the Trump International Hotel instead.
A source tells ThinkProgress that the Kuwaiti embassy, which has regularly held the event at the Four Seasons in Georgetown, abruptly canceled its reservation after members of the Trump Organization pressured the ambassador to hold the event at the hotel owned by the president-elect. The source, who has direct knowledge of the arrangements between the hotels and the embassy, spoke to ThinkProgress on the condition of anonymity because the individual was not authorized to speak publicly. ThinkProgress was also able to review documentary evidence confirming the source’s account.
In the early fall, the Kuwaiti Embassy signed a contract with the Four Seasons. But after the election, members of the Trump Organization contacted the Ambassador of Kuwait, Salem Al-Sabah, and encouraged him to move his event to Trump’s D.C. hotel, the source said.
(snip)
One looms large over the apparent hotel deal with the Kuwaitis: The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which prohibits the president from receiving money from a foreign government or head of state.
According to Democratic and Republican legal experts, such a payment is not only unconstitutional, it’s an impeachable offense.
(end snip)
December 19, 2016
Judge orders unsealing of Clinton email probe search warrant
Source: Reuters
A U.S. judge on Monday ordered the unsealing of the application used to obtain a search warrant that allowed the FBI to gain access to emails related to Democratic nominee Hillary Clintons private server shortly before the Nov. 8 presidential election.
U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan directed the release by Tuesday of redacted materials used to obtain a search warrant after Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey informed Congress of newly discovered emails on Oct. 28.
end snip
edited to add Reuters link
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-clinton-idUSKBN148213
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/judge-orders-unsealing-of-clinton-email-probe-search-warrant/
December 19, 2016
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — The mayor's chief of staff in Mobile, Alabama, is apologizing for his role in having a large tree cut down at a city park so it could be used as a prop during President-elect Donald Trump's recent "thank you" rally.
Colby Cooper said he became "overzealous" while trying to ensure that expectations of Trump's advance team were met.
Al.com reports (http://bit.ly/2hAuyZB ) that Mobile residents raised questions almost immediately after the cedar tree at Public Safety Memorial Park was felled Friday. It was taken to Ladd-Peebles Stadium, placed in front of the scoreboard and decorated with Christmas ornaments to serve as a backdrop while Trump spoke at Saturday's rally.
(end snip)
:facepalm
City Official Apologizes After Tree Is Cut Down To Be Used For Trump Rally
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/city-official-tree-cut-down-trump-rally?utm_content=buffer70c8d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=bufferMOBILE, Ala. (AP) — The mayor's chief of staff in Mobile, Alabama, is apologizing for his role in having a large tree cut down at a city park so it could be used as a prop during President-elect Donald Trump's recent "thank you" rally.
Colby Cooper said he became "overzealous" while trying to ensure that expectations of Trump's advance team were met.
Al.com reports (http://bit.ly/2hAuyZB ) that Mobile residents raised questions almost immediately after the cedar tree at Public Safety Memorial Park was felled Friday. It was taken to Ladd-Peebles Stadium, placed in front of the scoreboard and decorated with Christmas ornaments to serve as a backdrop while Trump spoke at Saturday's rally.
(end snip)
:facepalm
December 17, 2016
Donald Trump's campaign struck a deal with Sinclair Broadcast Group during the campaign to try and secure better media coverage, his son-in-law Jared Kushner told business executives Friday in Manhattan.
Kushner said the agreement with Sinclair, which owns television stations across the country in many swing states and often packages news for their affiliates to run, gave them more access to Trump and the campaign, according to six people who heard his remarks.
In exchange, Sinclair would broadcast their Trump interviews across the country without commentary, Kushner said. Kushner highlighted that Sinclair, in states like Ohio, reaches a much wider audience — around 250,000 listeners — than networks like CNN, which reach somewhere around 30,000.
(snip)
Sinclair, a Maryland-based company, has been labeled in some reports as a conservative-leaning local news network. Local stations in the past have been directed to air “must run” stories produced by Sinclair’s Washington bureau that were generally critical of Obama administration and offered perspectives primarily from conservative think tanks, The Washington Post reported in 2014.
A Kushner spokeswoman declined to comment on his remarks, made at an off-the-record meeting in the Morgan Stanley Cafeteria for the Partnership for New York City, a business group, and referred questions to the campaign.
(end snip)
Even your local news isn't your local news.
Kushner: We struck deal with Sinclair for straighter coverage
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-campaign-sinclair-broadcasting-jared-kushner-232764Donald Trump's campaign struck a deal with Sinclair Broadcast Group during the campaign to try and secure better media coverage, his son-in-law Jared Kushner told business executives Friday in Manhattan.
Kushner said the agreement with Sinclair, which owns television stations across the country in many swing states and often packages news for their affiliates to run, gave them more access to Trump and the campaign, according to six people who heard his remarks.
In exchange, Sinclair would broadcast their Trump interviews across the country without commentary, Kushner said. Kushner highlighted that Sinclair, in states like Ohio, reaches a much wider audience — around 250,000 listeners — than networks like CNN, which reach somewhere around 30,000.
(snip)
Sinclair, a Maryland-based company, has been labeled in some reports as a conservative-leaning local news network. Local stations in the past have been directed to air “must run” stories produced by Sinclair’s Washington bureau that were generally critical of Obama administration and offered perspectives primarily from conservative think tanks, The Washington Post reported in 2014.
A Kushner spokeswoman declined to comment on his remarks, made at an off-the-record meeting in the Morgan Stanley Cafeteria for the Partnership for New York City, a business group, and referred questions to the campaign.
(end snip)
Even your local news isn't your local news.
July 28, 2016
(snip)
CNN’s Cuomo countered that Democrats were “bashing” Trump instead of promoting Clinton’s policies.
“Especially when it comes to this latest wrinkle, this gift that you guys say he gave you about asking Russians to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails to release them,” the CNN host charged. “You guys are calling it treason. He went on TV this morning and said, ‘I was being sarcastic. This is the Democrats trying to frame me as a bad guy.'”
“We have to stop excusing him when he says these nasty things,” Cummings interrupted. “We really do. Because words do matter.”
“But is it treason?” Cuomo pressed.
“I’ll let the FBI and others decide that,” the Maryland Democrat remarked. “My point is — and by the way, no matter what it is, it should not have been said. If I did that, I’d be out of office or in jail.”
(end snip)
‘Stop excusing him’: Elijah Cummings derails CNN interview for ‘ridiculous’ Trump double standard
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/07/stop-excusing-him-elijah-cummings-derails-cnn-interview-for-ridiculous-trump-double-standard/(snip)
CNN’s Cuomo countered that Democrats were “bashing” Trump instead of promoting Clinton’s policies.
“Especially when it comes to this latest wrinkle, this gift that you guys say he gave you about asking Russians to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails to release them,” the CNN host charged. “You guys are calling it treason. He went on TV this morning and said, ‘I was being sarcastic. This is the Democrats trying to frame me as a bad guy.'”
“We have to stop excusing him when he says these nasty things,” Cummings interrupted. “We really do. Because words do matter.”
“But is it treason?” Cuomo pressed.
“I’ll let the FBI and others decide that,” the Maryland Democrat remarked. “My point is — and by the way, no matter what it is, it should not have been said. If I did that, I’d be out of office or in jail.”
(end snip)
July 16, 2016
After being kept out of the public eye for 13 years, Congress on Friday declassified 28 pages of a controversial report outlining a series of potential connections between the terrorist hijackers who attacked the United States on 9/11 and the government of Saudi Arabia. The document details a number of alleged instances wherein individuals linked to the Al Saud family may have assisted or provided financial support to the al Qaeda operatives who committed the terrorist attacks.
(snip)
Two men conducted a “dry run” on a flight to D.C., with tickets paid for by the Saudi government
In 1999, Mohammed al-Qudhaeein and Hamdan al-Shalawi reportedly asked flight attendants a handful of suspicious questions and tried to enter the cockpit of the airplane twice. Al-Qudhaeein and al-Shalawi were flying to Washington, D.C., where they planned to attend a party at the Saudi Embassy. The two claimed the embassy also paid for their tickets aboard the flight.
(end snip)
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/287947-congress-publishes-redacted-28-pages-from-9-11-report
(snip)
And in one instance that appeared notable in retrospect, two men flying on tickets paid for by the Saudi embassy in 1999 acted suspicious during the flight and twice tried to enter the cockpit. Charges were not filed in that instance even though the plane was forced to make an emergency landing, but the FBI’s field office in Phoenix believed the incident may have been a “dry run” to test airline security.
(end snip)
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/07/read-28-declassified-pages-about-potential-saudi-involvement-911
Another frightening passage described what seemed to be a dry run or information-gathering mission for the eventual hijackings. 1999, Saudi citizens Mohammed al-Qudhaeein and Hamdan al-Shalawi flew from Phoenix to Washington, DC to attend a party at the Saudi embassy. After the plane departed, they asked flight attendants suspicious technical questions about the flight. Qudhaeein twice attempted to enter the cockpit, and the plane made an emergency landing. The two men claimed the flight was paid for by the Saudi Embassy. The FBI investigated the incident and ultimately decided not to pursue a prosecution, but did uncover that both men had "connections to terrorism."
(end snip)
Who could have imagined?
Two men conducted a 9/11/01 'dry run' in 1999 with tickets from Saudi government
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/07/declassified-report-saudi-ties-september-11After being kept out of the public eye for 13 years, Congress on Friday declassified 28 pages of a controversial report outlining a series of potential connections between the terrorist hijackers who attacked the United States on 9/11 and the government of Saudi Arabia. The document details a number of alleged instances wherein individuals linked to the Al Saud family may have assisted or provided financial support to the al Qaeda operatives who committed the terrorist attacks.
(snip)
Two men conducted a “dry run” on a flight to D.C., with tickets paid for by the Saudi government
In 1999, Mohammed al-Qudhaeein and Hamdan al-Shalawi reportedly asked flight attendants a handful of suspicious questions and tried to enter the cockpit of the airplane twice. Al-Qudhaeein and al-Shalawi were flying to Washington, D.C., where they planned to attend a party at the Saudi Embassy. The two claimed the embassy also paid for their tickets aboard the flight.
(end snip)
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/287947-congress-publishes-redacted-28-pages-from-9-11-report
(snip)
And in one instance that appeared notable in retrospect, two men flying on tickets paid for by the Saudi embassy in 1999 acted suspicious during the flight and twice tried to enter the cockpit. Charges were not filed in that instance even though the plane was forced to make an emergency landing, but the FBI’s field office in Phoenix believed the incident may have been a “dry run” to test airline security.
(end snip)
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/07/read-28-declassified-pages-about-potential-saudi-involvement-911
Another frightening passage described what seemed to be a dry run or information-gathering mission for the eventual hijackings. 1999, Saudi citizens Mohammed al-Qudhaeein and Hamdan al-Shalawi flew from Phoenix to Washington, DC to attend a party at the Saudi embassy. After the plane departed, they asked flight attendants suspicious technical questions about the flight. Qudhaeein twice attempted to enter the cockpit, and the plane made an emergency landing. The two men claimed the flight was paid for by the Saudi Embassy. The FBI investigated the incident and ultimately decided not to pursue a prosecution, but did uncover that both men had "connections to terrorism."
(end snip)
Who could have imagined?
May 22, 2016
In his signature book, The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump boasted that when he wanted to build a casino in Atlantic City, he persuaded the state attorney general to limit the investigation of his background to six months. Most potential owners were scrutinized for more than a year. Trump argued that he was “clean as a whistle”—young enough that he hadn’t had time to get into any sort of trouble. He got the sped-up background check, and eventually got the casino license.
But Trump was not clean as a whistle. Beginning three years earlier, he’d hired mobbed-up firms to erect Trump Tower and his Trump Plaza apartment building in Manhattan, including buying ostensibly overpriced concrete from a company controlled by mafia chieftains Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Paul Castellano. That story eventually came out in a federal investigation, which also concluded that in a construction industry saturated with mob influence, the Trump Plaza apartment building most likely benefited from connections to racketeering. Trump also failed to disclose that he was under investigation by a grand jury directed by the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, who wanted to learn how Trump obtained an option to buy the Penn Central railroad yards on the West Side of Manhattan.
(snip)
No other candidate for the White House this year has anything close to Trump’s record of repeated social and business dealings with mobsters, swindlers, and other crooks. Professor Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian, said the closest historical example would be President Warren G. Harding and Teapot Dome, a bribery and bid-rigging scandal in which the interior secretary went to prison. But even that has a key difference: Harding’s associates were corrupt but otherwise legitimate businessmen, not mobsters and drug dealers.
(snip)
“Why’d Donald do it?” Barrett said when I put the question to him. “Because he saw these mob guys as pathways to money, and Donald is all about money.”
(end snip)
Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-2016-mob-organized-crime-213910?o=0In his signature book, The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump boasted that when he wanted to build a casino in Atlantic City, he persuaded the state attorney general to limit the investigation of his background to six months. Most potential owners were scrutinized for more than a year. Trump argued that he was “clean as a whistle”—young enough that he hadn’t had time to get into any sort of trouble. He got the sped-up background check, and eventually got the casino license.
But Trump was not clean as a whistle. Beginning three years earlier, he’d hired mobbed-up firms to erect Trump Tower and his Trump Plaza apartment building in Manhattan, including buying ostensibly overpriced concrete from a company controlled by mafia chieftains Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Paul Castellano. That story eventually came out in a federal investigation, which also concluded that in a construction industry saturated with mob influence, the Trump Plaza apartment building most likely benefited from connections to racketeering. Trump also failed to disclose that he was under investigation by a grand jury directed by the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, who wanted to learn how Trump obtained an option to buy the Penn Central railroad yards on the West Side of Manhattan.
(snip)
No other candidate for the White House this year has anything close to Trump’s record of repeated social and business dealings with mobsters, swindlers, and other crooks. Professor Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian, said the closest historical example would be President Warren G. Harding and Teapot Dome, a bribery and bid-rigging scandal in which the interior secretary went to prison. But even that has a key difference: Harding’s associates were corrupt but otherwise legitimate businessmen, not mobsters and drug dealers.
(snip)
“Why’d Donald do it?” Barrett said when I put the question to him. “Because he saw these mob guys as pathways to money, and Donald is all about money.”
(end snip)
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