The Trump administration is considering bypassing Congress to grant a $100 billion tax cut to wealthy Americans by allowing taxpayers to account for inflation while determining capital gains tax liabilities, the New York Times reported on Monday.

The newspaper, quoting from an interview with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, said the administration could change the definition of “cost” used to calculate capital gains, allowing taxpayers to adjust the value of an asset for inflation when it is sold.

Treasury officials were not immediately available to comment on the report, which said the administration has not concluded whether it has the authority to make such a change.

“If it can’t get done through a legislation process, we will look at what tools at Treasury we have to do it on our own and we’ll consider that,” the Times quoted Mnuchin as saying. “We are studying that internally, and we are also studying the economic costs and the impact on growth.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/07/trump-administration-eyes-capital-gains-tax-cut-wealthy-ny-times/

Kyle Griffin
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8 days after Trump tweeted this, he said he would meet with the president of Iran without preconditions.



https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1024006915876167680

“After meeting Judge Kavanaugh and reviewing his record, I have decided to support his nomination,” Paul said in a series of Twitter posts explaining his decision.

Kavanaugh, tapped to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, planned to meet later on Monday with Senator Joe Manchin, who was one of three Democrats to support Trump’s first nominee to the high court, Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Manchin will be the first Senate Democrat to meet with Kavanaugh, a conservative appeals court judge, since his nomination earlier this month.

“I have expressed my concern over Judge Kavanaugh’s record on warrantless bulk collection of data and how that might apply to very important privacy cases before the Supreme Court,” he wrote.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/07/republican-senator-rand-paul-supports-trumps-supreme-court-nominee/

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Kyle Griffin Retweeted Josh Marshall
Giuliani says that Michael Cohen claims there was a meeting two days before the Trump Tower meeting involving Don Jr., Manafort, Kushner, Rick Gates to go over "strategy" for the Russian meeting.

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1023960205804093442

https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1023941522260148224

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This is going to be a pretty problematic admission for Rudes and Trump. I'll explain in a moment.

Donald J. Trump
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We must have Border Security, get rid of Chain, Lottery, Catch & Release Sanctuary Cities - go to Merit based Immigration. Protect ICE and Law Enforcement and, of course, keep building, but much faster, THE WALL!

4:57 AM - 30 Jul 2018

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1023900404352991232

Melania Trump’s parents are legal permanent residents, raising questions about whether they relied on ‘chain migration’



https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/melania-trumps-parents-are-legal-permanent-residents-raising-questions-about-whether-they-relied-on-chain-migration/2018/02/21/3b573df8-1687-11e8-8b08-027a6ccb38eb_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.757eaa569f78

Questions over the Knavses’ immigration status have escalated since Trump campaigned for the White House on a hard-line anti-immigration agenda. Those questions grew sharper last month, when the president proposed ending the decades-long ability of U.S. citizens to sponsor their parents and siblings for legal residency in the United States.

Trump has repeatedly blasted the long-standing policy as “chain migration.” In last month’s State of the Union address, the president called that process a threat to Americans’ security and quality of life. Under his plan, he said, only spouses and minor children could be sponsored for legal residency.

But immigration experts said that such a path was the most likely method his in-laws would have used to obtain permits to live in the United States.

Matthew Kolken, a partner at a New York immigration law firm, said there are only two substantive ways Trump’s in-laws could gain green cards: through sponsorship by their daughter or an employer. The latter is unlikely, he said, as it would require evidence that there were no Americans who could do the job for which they were hired.

Paul Manafort, a former chairman of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, faces 18 criminal counts in his trial in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, that starts on Tuesday. Half the counts involve bank fraud and bank fraud conspiracy, which can carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for each count. He has pleaded not guilty. Here is a summary of the charges:

FALSE TAX RETURNS – FIVE COUNTS

FAILURE TO REPORT FOREIGN BANK ACCOUNTS – FOUR COUNTS

LOANS FROM CITIZENS BANK – THREE COUNTS

LOAN FROM BANC OF CALIFORNIA – TWO COUNTS

LOANS FROM THE FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK – FOUR COUNTS



https://www.rawstory.com/2018/07/ex-trump-aide-paul-manafort-faces-18-criminal-counts/