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demmiblue

demmiblue's Journal
demmiblue's Journal
September 28, 2019

State Dept. intensifies email probe of Hillary Clinton's former aides

Source: WaPo

The Trump administration is investigating the email records of dozens of current and former senior State Department officials who sent messages to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email, reviving a politically toxic matter that overshadowed the 2016 election, current and former officials said.

As many as 130 officials have been contacted in recent weeks by State Department investigators — a list that includes senior officials who reported directly to Clinton as well as others in lower-level jobs whose emails were at some point relayed to her inbox, said current and former State Department officials. Those targeted were notified that emails they sent years ago have been retroactively classified and now constitute potential security violations, according to letters reviewed by The Washington Post.

State Department investigators began contacting the former officials about 18 months ago, after President Trump’s election, and then seemed to drop the effort before picking it up in August, officials said.

Senior State Department officials said that they are following standard protocol in an investigation that began during the latter days of the Obama administration and is nearing completion.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/state-dept-intensifies-email-probe-of-hillary-clintons-former-aides/2019/09/28/9f15497e-e1f2-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html



https://twitter.com/joelmsiegel/status/1178085456770154496
September 28, 2019

... the Irish govt paid Trump over $100K to feed the police officers guarding him.

Great scoop by @gordondeeg: when @realdonaldtrump made a side trip to visit his Irish resort this summer, the Irish govt paid Trump over $100K to feed the police officers guarding him.

State pays Donald Trump's Doonbeg resort €113k to feed and accommodate gardaí during US President's visit

https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold/status/1178070067944263680
September 28, 2019

Republicans right now:

September 28, 2019

Mulvaney on shaky ground in wake of whistleblower fallout, sources say

Source: CNN

(CNN)Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney is on shaky ground in the wake of a bad week for President Trump, according to multiple sources with knowledge of discussions surrounding the whistleblower fallout.

The sources say the President is not upset with Mulvaney for the White House releasing the summary of his July 25 call with Ukraine's leader or the whistleblower complaint because he had been convinced that it was necessary.

What Trump and other aides are frustrated with, according to the sources, is that Mulvaney did not have a strategy for defending and explaining the contents of those documents as soon as they were publicly released.

One of the sources says it's not just the President, but also widespread frustration in the White House about the lack of a response plan to deal with the fallout after the release of the whistleblower complaint ignited more controversy surrounding the President. The sources say Mulvaney is taking the heat for that.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/28/politics/mick-mulvaney-impeachment-inquiry-donald-trump/index.html



September 28, 2019

Kehinde Wiley's Times Square Monument: That's No Robert E. Lee

The sculpture, of an African-American man in streetwear and mounted on a horse, was unveiled Friday and will eventually move to Richmond, Va., home to a number of Confederate memorials.


The sculpture, called “Rumors of War,” is Kehinde Wiley’s first work of public art and his first major piece since his portrait of President Obama. Rachel Papo for The New York Times

He looks like a man lost in time, uprooted, with the horse he rode in on, from a previous century, perhaps, or was it a future one?

In a riot of flashing neon signs and costumed avengers, populating a patch of Times Square on Broadway between 46th and 47th Streets, he can be seen looking regal and triumphant astride a rearing steed worthy of Napoleon, flanked between the modern colonial outposts of American Eagle Outfitters and Express.

The new statue, a bronze sculpture on limestone titled “Rumors of War” and unveiled on Friday, is the first public work by the artist Kehinde Wiley. Mr. Wiley, 42, is best known for his aristocratic portraits of African-American men, including the one of President Obama that hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.

“Rumors of War,” Mr. Wiley’s largest sculpture to date at a towering 27 feet high and 16 feet wide, was inspired by the heroic, equestrian statues of Confederate generals in Richmond, Va., that line its famous Monument Avenue. After the sculpture leaves Times Square in December, it will be permanently installed in Richmond on Arthur Ashe Boulevard, a major thoroughfare, recently renamed after the Richmond-born African-American tennis icon, that crosses Monument Avenue.







https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/27/arts/design/kehinde-wiley-times-square-statue.html
September 27, 2019

White House restricted access to Trump's calls with Putin and Saudi crown prince

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN)White House efforts to limit access to President Donald Trump's conversations with foreign leaders extended to phone calls with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, according to people familiar with the matter.

Those calls -- both with leaders who maintain controversial relationships with Trump -- were among the presidential conversations that aides took remarkable steps to keep from becoming public.

In the case of Trump's call with Prince Mohammed, officials who ordinarily would have been given access to a rough transcript of the conversation never saw one, according to one of the sources. Instead, a transcript was never circulated at all, which the source said was highly unusual, particularly after a high-profile conversation.

The call - which the person said contained no especially sensitive national security secrets -- came as the White House was confronting the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which US intelligence assessments said came at the hand of the Saudi government.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/27/politics/white-house-restricted-trump-calls-putin-saudi/index.html



https://twitter.com/joshscampbell/status/1177721670435405824

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