Guess who paid for Donald Trump's crazy-corrupt Mar-a-Lago Christmas party? We did
War criminals, Rudy Giuliani, '70s nostalgia and some shameless self-dealing. It's the spirit of Christmas present!



https://www.salon.com/2019/12/23/guess-who-paid-for-donald-trumps-crazy-corrupt-mar-a-lago-christmas-party-we-did/

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
DECEMBER 23, 2019 2:31PM (UTC)

Never let it be said that Donald Trump lets a little ignominy and disgrace get in the way of a good time and money in his pocket. Last Wednesday he became the third president in American history to be impeached. By Saturday he was throwing down at the Mar-a-Lago Studio 54 Party, alongside his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. It must have been reminiscent of the good old days when Trump and his former lawyer Roy Cohn used to frequent the famous New York club on 54th Street in its 1970s heyday, only this time around Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol were replaced by war criminal Eddie Gallagher and evangelical leader Franklin Graham.

These parties seem to be a regular theme at Trump's Palm Beach club. Back in February of 2018, he had to make an official visit to see some first responders and Parkland shooting victims at the Broward County sheriff's office, but then he and Melania hightailed it out of there to, yes, a Studio 54 party at Mar-a-Lago. Perhaps he finds these shindigs comforting when he's feeling stressed. Or maybe he just enjoys remembering how he cost the owner of Studio 54 and his investors a million dollars once by failing to disclose that a property he had sold them was in bankruptcy. Life was much simpler when all he had to worry about was outrunning frustrated bankers and angry women. Now he's trying to outrun the U.S. Congress and the verdict of history, which is undoubtedly not quite as much fun.

Trump didn't bother meeting any boring gun-violence victims before the party this year. Instead, he appeared at a big gathering of the Trumpen Youth at the Turning Point USA yearly meeting. Giuliani had warmed up the crowd the day before with a new call and response:

Giuliani said, “this is why they don’t like what I’m doing in Ukraine. Because you know who was making big bucks in Ukraine?”

“Biden!” the audience replied.

During brunch at The Mark, a five-star hotel on East 77th Street in New York, Giuliani fumed about the federal prosecutors at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York who are reportedly investigating him for a wide assortment of potential crimes.

“If they think I committed a crime, they’re out of their minds,” Giuliani told Nuzzi. “I’ve been doing this for fifty years. I know how not to commit crimes. And if they think I’ve lost my integrity, maybe they’ve lost theirs in their insanity over hating Trump, with some of the things they did that I never would’ve tolerated when I was U.S. Attorney.”

Giuliani also ordered and consumed at least two Bloody Marys during the course of the interview, and Nuzzi reports that the waiter at The Mark’s restaurant was not surprised when the former New York mayor asked about them.

“Yes, sir, and I know you love them,” the waiter said when Giuliani inquired if they still made “wonderful” Bloody Marys.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/i-know-how-not-to-commit-crimes-rudy-giuliani-goes-off-the-rails-during-booze-fueled-interview/

Trump May Be Acquitted in a Senate Impeachment Trial. That's Not the Same as Being Exonerated

https://time.com/5754646/impeachment-senate-trial/

BY JOYCE WHITE VANCE 12:10 PM EST

Imagine this scenario in a courtroom: The prosecutor and defense lawyer speak to the judge in advance of a trial for an attempted bank robbery The indictment, voted on by the grand jury, recites that the defendant tried to rob the bank by demanding money from a teller and threatening her if she didn’t give it to him. But the crime was interrupted by others in the bank who saw it in progress and the defendant wasn’t able to finish the robbery.

During the investigation, the defendant was able to keep people who were around him while he was planning the robbery from talking with investigators. He denied that he had ever wanted to rob the bank. The defendant ignored subpoenas for documents that could have shed light on his thinking or proven his innocence. Fortunately, some witnesses did come forward and some documents came to light. Prosecutors obtained enough evidence to get an indictment, which requires probable cause to believe a crime was committed, despite the defendant’s efforts to obstruct their work.

Now, as they discuss the trial with the judge, the prosecution learns the usual rules won’t apply. It won’t be able to put on any evidence at trial to support the allegations against the defendant. None of the witnesses it interviewed will be permitted to testify. None of the withheld information will be available. And although newly discovered evidence suggests that the defendant may have asked some of his friends to help him carry out the robbery, it won’t be admitted, and witnesses that the prosecution has requested to testify about that won’t be permitted to testify.

Also, some of the jurors have already committed to vote for the defendant. They will still be permitted to participate and vote in the trial.

Donald J. Trump Retweeted
Andy Puzder @AndyPuzder
·
Dec 22

It’s all but impossible to look at this chart and conclude anything other than that ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ ‘s tax cuts have unequivocally benefitted working class Americans. It’s the kind of benefit that wins elections.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/senate-republicans-tell-white-house-to-withdraw-puzder-nomination-235062

Labor nominee Puzder withdraws

The fast-food exec faced numerous scandals, including a video of his ex-wife accusing him of abuse on 'Oprah' in 1990.

By BURGESS EVERETT, TARA PALMERI and MARIANNE LEVINE 02/15/2017 02:21 PM EST Updated 02/15/2017 04:51 PM EST

House speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that she is not yet ready to name her team for President Donald Trump’s trial in the US Senate on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

“The House cannot choose our impeachment managers until we know what sort of trial the Senate will conduct,” the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives said on Twitter.

McConnell, speaking on the Fox & Friends television show on Monday, said Pelosi “apparently believes that she can tell us how to run the trial.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/house-speaker-not-ready-to-name-team-for-trump-senate-trial/

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Pelosi gives us the most unfair trial in the history of the U.S. Congress, and now she is crying for fairness in the Senate, and breaking all rules while doing so. She lost Congress once, she will do it again!
8:38 AM · Dec 23, 2019·Twitter for iPhone

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1209106016551481344

On Monday, the Hollywood Reporter revealed that Bret Baier, a “hard news” anchor for Fox News’ “Special Report,” asked President Donald Trump’s Treasury Department for special treatment.

Specifically, emails provided to the Reporter by nonprofit group Democracy Forward show Baier asked Treasury officials for his family and a family friend to be granted a tour of the U.S. Mint — a request that was promptly granted.

“If it doesn’t work — don’t worry about it,” wrote Baier to former Treasury spokesman Tony Sayegh. “Meant to request last week. Don’t spend too much time on it. If you can point us to someone — and it’s easy — great. If not — no worries. Thanks.”

Immediately, Sayegh emailed a staffer saying, “Bret Baier is asking to help him get his friends and family a Mint tour tomorrow. Who can help us do that?”

Other emails revealed that Fox News would reach out to the Treasury for political help, with one booker for the Dana Perino Show asking if Secretary Steve Mnuchin had any policies he would like to promote on the network.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/hard-news-anchor-at-fox-busted-asking-trumps-treasury-department-for-favors/

Laurence Tribe
@tribelaw

Pence’s Chief if Staff Mark Short says it was just “coincidence”
that OMB’s Michael Duffy emailed DOD to hold the $391M just 2 hours after Trump’s July 25 shakedown call with Ukraine’s president Zelensky. How gullible do these dudes think we are? Duffy must testify in the Senate

12:10 PM · Dec 22, 2019·Twitter for iPhone

https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1208797056028073993

The Trump administration is proposing changes to Social Security that could terminate disability payments to hundreds of thousands of Americans, particularly older people and children.

The new rule would change aspects of disability reviews — the methods by which the Social Security Administration determines whether a person continues to qualify for benefits. Few recipients are aware of the proposal, which is open for public comment through January.

Critics of the plan liken it to the administration’s efforts to cut food stamps, among other entitlement programs, with insufficient information offered to explain curtailing benefits.

Social Security officials declined to comment. For years, Republicans have argued that Social Security benefits need to be reined in to save money.

https://www.inquirer.com/news/social-security-ssi-ssdi-trump-administration-disability-20191212.html

Trump is taking another two week golf vacation — as the taxpayer bill for his hobby sets records



“President Donald Trump has pushed his taxpayer-funded golf tab past $118 million on his 26th visit to Mar-a-Lago, his for-profit resort in Palm Beach, Florida, with a Saturday visit to his course in neighboring West Palm Beach,” HuffPost reported Saturday. “The new total is the equivalent of 296 years of the $400,000 presidential salary that his supporters often boast that he is not taking.

“And of that $118.3 million, at least several million has gone into Trump’s own cash registers, as Secret Service agents, White House staff and other administration officials stay and eat at his hotels and golf courses,” HuffPost reported. “The exact amount going into Trump’s pocket cannot be determined because the White House refuses to reveal how many Trump aides have been staying at his properties when he visits them and the administration will not turn over receipts for the charges incurred.”

“At this exact point in former President Barack Obama’s first term, he had spent 88 days on a golf course. Saturday was Trump’s 227th day as president on a course that he owns. If Trump continues golfing at the pace he has set in his first three years, he will surpass in just one term the total number of days Obama spent golfing over two full terms — despite having repeatedly criticized Obama for playing too much golf and having promised, as a candidate, that he would be too busy to play any golf at all,” HuffPost noted.

“Just three years into his presidency, Trump’s travel and security expenses for his golf hobby exceed an estimate of eight years worth of expenses incurred by Obama’s family travel by millions of dollars,” HuffPost noted. “Trump’s costs are so much higher than Obama’s because Trump insists on playing golf at his own courses — primarily in Bedminster, New Jersey, and Florida — during which he greets and spends time with paying club members whose dues continue to enrich him. Each trip to Bedminster costs taxpayers about $1.1 million, while each Mar-a-Lago trip costs about $3.4 million. Trump has also visited his courses in Los Angeles; Doral, Florida; Turnberry, Scotland; and Doonbeg, Ireland — all on the taxpayer dime.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/trump-is-taking-another-two-week-golf-vacation-as-the-taxpayer-bill-for-his-hobby-sets-records/