DonViejo
DonViejo's JournalGOP senator warns of 'holy hell to pay' if Trump fires Sessions
Source: The Hill
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 07/27/17 11:07 AM EDT
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is warning President Trump that any move to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions will spark backlash from lawmakers.
"If Jeff Sessions is fired there will be holy hell to pay," Graham told reporters on Thursday morning.
Graham added that Trump's public criticism of Sessions is an effort to "marginalize" and "humiliate" the attorney general. The president's actions aren't "going over well" with his former colleagues, according to the senior Republican senator.
Graham also warned Trump against firing special counsel Bob Mueller, who is investigating any potential connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. Graham warned it would be the "beginning of the end for the Trump presidency."
Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/344106-gop-senator-holy-hell-to-pay-if-trump-fires-sessions
Joint Chiefs chairman: No change in transgender policy until Trump sends Pentagon direction
Source: Talking Points Memo
BY REBECCA KHEEL - 07/27/17 11:09 AM EDT
The highest ranking military officer in the country told the service chiefs and others that the military’s transgender policy won’t change until President Trump sends direction to the Pentagon, according to multiple reports.
“There will be no modifications to the current policy until the president’s direction has been received by the secretary of Defense and the secretary has issued implementation guidance,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford wrote in a letter, according to a copy posted online by CNN’s Barbara Starr.
The letter comes a day after Trump tweets that he would ban transgender people from the military.
https://twitter.com/barbarastarrcnn/status/890587556596809728
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Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/defense/344107-joint-chiefs-chairman-no-change-in-transgender-policy-until-trump-sends
Pence: White House, GOP releasing tax reform principles today
Source: The Hill
BY NAOMI JAGODA - 07/27/17 11:06 AM EDT
The White House and congressional GOP leaders will be releasing tax-reform principles on Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence said.
"Later today, Congress and the White House will issue a statement laying out our guiding principles for tax reform," Pence said Thursday in a speech to members of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).
"I'll make you a promise: Discussions and negotiations will continue, details will continue to be worked out, but rest assured, we're going to cut taxes, and we're going to cut taxes this year," the vice president added.
A group of Trump administration officials and prominent congressional Republicans known as the "Big Six" have been meeting regularly for the last several months to reach an agreement on a tax plan that the White House, House and Senate can all back.
Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/finance/344105-pence-white-house-gop-releasing-tax-reform-principles-today
NOT A LEAK! Politico Reporter Reveals She Got Scaramucci's Financials Via Public Request
Source: Mediaite
by Justin Baragona | 10:42 am, July 27th, 2017
Last night, White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci created a firestorm of controversy when he seemed to publicly accuse White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus of leaking his financial disclosures to Politico. That story stated that Scaramucci stands to profit from an investment firm he has an ownership stake in while working in the White House.
Well, the reporter who worked on that story took to Twitter this morning to note that she was able to obtain the comms director’s financials as they were publicly available:
Last night, White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci created a firestorm of controversy when he seemed to publicly accuse White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus of leaking his financial disclosures to Politico. That story stated that Scaramucci stands to profit from an investment firm he has an ownership stake in while working in the White House.
Well, the reporter who worked on that story took to Twitter this morning to note that she was able to obtain the comms director’s financials as they were publicly available:
https://twitter.com/Woellert/status/890485330540982272
https://twitter.com/Woellert/status/890559337789353984
Read more: http://www.mediaite.com/online/not-a-leak-politico-reporter-reveals-she-got-scaramuccis-financials-via-public-request/
Conway Rails Against Leakers Who Think 'It's Cute And It Makes Them Popular'
By ESME CRIBB Published JULY 27, 2017 10:31 AM
Senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway on Thursday morning continued the Trump administration’s onslaught against leakers, some of whom she claimed are “using the press to shiv each other in the ribs.”
“The fact is that we just have to cut down on people thinking it’s cute and it makes them popular,” Conway said on “Fox and Friends.”
She speculated that leakers think “it somehow enhances their resume and their portfolio for later on to curry favor with folks who are more interested in covering the style and not the substance here, more interested in covering the palace intrigue.”
White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci kicked off the anti-leaker festivities Wednesday evening with a since-deleted tweet in which he appeared to sic the FBI and Department of Justice on White House chief of staff Reince Priebus for the “leak” of his publicly available financial disclosure form.
more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/conway-complains-leakers-think-it-makes-them-popular
Voter Fraud Panel Makes Another Data Request, California Immediately Rejects
Source: Talking Points Memo
By NICOLE LAFOND Published JULY 27, 2017 10:21 AM
On Wednesday, the chair of the White House’s bogus voter fraud panel Kris Kobach sent another request to states asking for publicly available voter registration records, a request the state of California has already shut down.
The latest request outlines a recent legal battle between the President’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a group that filed a motion to keep the commission from receiving the voter data. The motion was denied on Monday, which prompted the most recent request.
“I appreciate the cooperation of chief election officials from more than 30 states who have already responded to the June 28 request and either agreed to provide these publicly available records, or are currently evaluating what specific records they may provide in accordance with their state laws,” Kobach said in one letter to California Secretary of State Alex Padilla. “Like you, I serve as the chief election official of my state. And like you, ensuring the privacy and security of any non-public voter information is a high priority.”
The commission’s first request for voter data, which asked for everything from voter addresses and political party affiliation to military status and the last four digits of social security numbers, was met with harsh pushback from nearly every state. Most states said they would either not provide the data or only share publicly available information.
Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/voter-fraud-panel-makes-another-data-request-california-immediately-rejects
Trump's dishonest betrayal of America's transgender troops - WaPo Editorial Board
By Editorial Board July 26 at 7:11 PM
IN A series of tweets Wednesday morning, President Trump turned his back on the thousands of transgender people currently serving in the military — and he did so with his characteristic dishonesty. He claimed that he had consulted “with my Generals and military experts” before deciding that transgender individuals would not be allowed “to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military” — a reversal of the policy adopted by the Obama administration. In fact, Mr. Trump appears to have made his decision hastily, interrupting an ongoing Pentagon review and taking key military and congressional players by surprise. He asserted that allowing transgender personnel to serve would result in “tremendous medical costs and disruption” — though careful studies and the experience of other nations have shown just the opposite.
What the president no doubt did not consider is this: How will his decision affect the thousands of patriotic Americans now serving, including in war zones, who happen to be transgender? In addition to depriving them of the respect they deserve from their government, Mr. Trump puts them at risk: To continue serving, transgender personnel will have to conceal their identities, which in turn will make them less likely to come forward with health concerns or reports of sexual assault. Mr. Trump is essentially reinstating a shameful policy of silence and discrimination.
The decision disregarded the results of a year-long review conducted by the Obama administration that found the costs associated with accepting transgender troops would be minor. The Rand Corp. estimated that allowing these troops to serve openly would have a “minimal impact” on troop readiness and would mean between $2.4 million and $8.4 million in additional health-care costs per year — a little more than a rounding error in the military budget. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine reached similar conclusions. Around the world, 18 countries allow transgender troops to serve openly and none have reported experiencing ill effects or “disruption.”
The directive will surely weaken the armed forces, depriving them of thousands of service members and potential recruits. Yet Mr. Trump seems to have made his decision without significant input from the Defense Department. Several Pentagon officials told the New York Times they were caught off guard by the announcement, while spokeswomen for both the Senate and House Armed Services committees said the committees had not been informed in advance. A review of the policy ordered by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was not due to be completed until December.
According to a report by Politico, the president’s precipitous action actually came in response to appeals from House Republicans, who feared a defense appropriations bill containing funds for Mr. Trump’s border wall would be blocked by their own disagreements over the issue. That thousands of serving military personnel would be abruptly stripped of their rights for such crass political reasons would be shocking — if Mr. Trump had not already drastically devalued the norms for presidential behavior.
more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-dishonest-betrayal-of-americas-transgender-troops/2017/07/26/99cf4414-7229-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html?utm_term=.e3990f4e4c8e&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1
The norms of government are collapsing before our eyes - By E.J. Dionne Jr.
By E.J. Dionne Jr. Opinion writer July 26 at 7:15 PM
The news is being reported on split screen as if the one big story in Washington is disconnected from the other. But President Trump’s lawless threats against Attorney General Jeff Sessions have a lot in common with the Senate’s reckless approach to the health coverage of tens of millions of Americans.
On both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, we are witnessing a collapse of the norms of governing, constant violations of our legitimate expectations of political leaders, and the mutation of the normal conflicts of democracy into a form of warfare that demands the opposition’s unconditional surrender.
Trump’s latest perverse miracle is that he has progressives — along with everyone else who cares about the rule of law — rooting for Sessions. The attorney general is as wrong as ever on voter suppression, civil rights enforcement and immigration. But Sessions did one very important thing: He obeyed the law.
When it was clear that he would have obvious conflicts of interest in the investigation of Russian meddling in our election and its possible links to the Trump campaign, Sessions recused himself, as he was required to do.
more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-norms-of-governing-are-collapsing-before-our-eyes/2017/07/26/ae32e112-7239-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html
What Sessions Should Tell Trump About Pardons -- Before It's Too Late - by Joe Conason
Displayed with permission from The National Memo -- Don
Joe Conason
What Sessions Should Tell Trump About Pardons — Before It’s Too Late
July 27, 2017 7:00 am
Displayed with permission from The National Memo
When Donald Trump issued a tweet reminding everyone that as president he has “the complete power to pardon,” did he mean to suggest that he can pardon himself? Or simply to boast that he can issue pardons without consulting any other authority or facing any consequences?
The impact of Trump’s provocative statement — along with news accounts suggesting he may issue a flurry of pardons to stonewall special counsel Robert Mueller — forced a denial from his lawyer Jay Sekulow. But whatever impulse propels him now, someone ought to tell Trump that while the pardon power is indeed a solo prerogative of his office, it isn’t quite absolute. And should he appear to use that power for a corrupt purpose, such as obstruction of justice, he could place himself in serious legal jeopardy. Not only could he be impeached, since the Constitution specifically prohibits pardoning any impeached official, but he might just be criminally prosecuted as well.
If Trump has any doubts about that possibility, he should ask Bill Clinton or James Comey — or his own Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Within weeks after President Clinton pardoned the fugitive oil trader Marc Rich, on his final day in office, that widely denounced decision became the subject of a criminal investigation by the Justice Department. Acting on the premise that Rich might have bribed Clinton by channeling political contributions via his ex-wife Denise, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White announced the probe’s launch on February 15, 2001.
A Clinton appointee, White was outraged by the pardon, like many of her colleagues in law enforcement, and determined to settle the score. Her office issued scores of subpoenas to the former president’s associates, donors, and friends, as well as to the Clinton Foundation, while FBI agents conducted dozens of interviews across the country, seeking any evidence that Clinton had sold the Rich pardon.
As for Clinton, he gritted his teeth and cooperated with the investigation, which added fresh legal bills to the enormous debt he already owed his attorneys.
Years later, after Comey had replaced White as U.S. Attorney, the pardon investigation finally sputtered to a close in 2005 when the government gave up looking for evidence that didn’t exist. (I examined the real motivation behind the Rich pardon, which had become obvious long before Comey closed the investigation, in my recent book Man of the World: The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton.)
The Rich pardon probe went nowhere, slowly. Yet for Trump its outcome isn’t nearly as important as the precedent it established. A president may issue a pardon to anyone (except perhaps himself), but if his purpose is corrupt then he is not necessarily exempt from prosecution.
Nobody appears to have disagreed with that judgment at the time, least of all the Congressional Republicans who were pursuing their own enthusiastic investigation of the Clinton pardons.
Among the prominent lawmakers who endorsed the pardon inquiry was none other than Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (R-AL), who offered his own theory of the case to ABC News: “If a person takes a thing of value for themself [sic] or for another person that influences their decision in a matter of their official capacity, then that could be a criminal offense.” And in principle, any criminal motive for a pardon could leave the president equally culpable.
Perhaps someone should ask Sessions on the record whether he still believes a pardon can be a criminal act — before Trump fires him.
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http://www.nationalmemo.com/sessions-tell-trump-pardons/
A 'Saturday Night Massacre' Veteran Offers Trump Some Advice - By William D. Ruckelshaus
By WILLIAM D. RUCKELSHAUS JULY 27, 2017
William D. Ruckelshaus, a former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, was the acting F.B.I. director and deputy attorney general under President Richard Nixon
On Monday, Oct. 15, 1973, I stuck my head in Attorney General Elliot Richardson’s office to tell him I was going to Grand Rapids, Mich., to oversee the F.B.I.’s background investigation into Gerald Ford, President Nixon’s choice as his new vice president. I was the deputy attorney general.
Five days earlier, Spiro Agnew had pleaded no contest to a tax evasion charge and had been forced to resign as vice president.
Elliot and I and his immediate staff had spent most of the summer working on the Agnew case. It had been intense and emotionally exhausting. The vice president was facing criminal charges not only for tax evasion but also for taking kickbacks from contractors while governor of Maryland.
As I was about to leave, Elliot said, “We’ve got an even worse problem than Agnew.”
That’s not possible, I replied.
“Yes, it is,” he said. “The president wants to fire Cox.”
more
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/opinion/a-saturday-night-massacre-veteran-offers-trump-some-advice.html?emc=edit_th_20170727&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=57435284&_r=0
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