Saturday, July 11, 2020
House Democrats promise investigations, legislation after Trump commutes Roger Stone
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-democrats-investigations-legislation-trump-commutes-stone
House Democrats reacted furiously to President Trump’s Friday move to commute the prison sentence of political operative Roger Stone -- demanding an investigation and even legislation to stop similar commutations happening again.
“President
Trump’s decision to commute the sentence of top campaign advisor Roger
Stone, who could directly implicate him in criminal misconduct, is an
act of staggering corruption,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,
said in a statement on Saturday.
The White House announced Friday
that Trump has signed an Executive Grant of Clemency for the colorful
political operative, who was sentenced to more than three years in
prison after he was convicted last year on seven counts of obstruction,
witness tampering and making false statements to Congress in relation to
FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
“Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its
allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the
Trump Presidency,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in
a statement Friday night. “There was never any collusion between the
Trump Campaign, or the Trump Administration, with Russia. Such
collusion was never anything other than a fantasy of partisans unable to
accept the result of the 2016 election.”
Trump commutes Roger Stone's sentence
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/10/politics/trump-stone-prison-clemency/index.html
President Donald Trump on Friday commuted the prison sentence of his longtime friend Roger Stone,
who was convicted of crimes that included lying to Congress in part,
prosecutors said, to protect the President. The announcement came just
days before Stone was set to report to a federal prison in Georgia.
Trump's decision to commute
the sentence of his friend and political adviser is the crescendo of a
months-long effort to rewrite the history of the Mueller investigation.
This has included selective declassification of intelligence materials, a
ramped-up counter-investigation into the origins of the Russia probe
and attempts to drop the case against Michael Flynn. The President has
broad constitutional power to pardon or commute sentences. But Trump is
unlike almost any other president in how he's used the power proactively
to save political allies.
Friday, July 10, 2020
Pentagon opens investigation into media leaks amid Russian bounty reports
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/09/pentagon-investigation-media-leaks-russia-bounty-355360
Defense Secretary Mark Esper told
lawmakers on Thursday he has launched an investigation into leaks across
the Pentagon, in response to a series of "bad" disclosures of sensitive
information to the news media over the past year and amid reports that
Russians paid militants in Afghanistan to kill U.S. troops.
"We are aggressively pursuing leaks
within the Defense Department," Esper told the House Armed Services
Committee during a hearing about the military's role in civil law
enforcement, adding that leaks are a problem across the U.S. government.
"It's bad and it's unlawful and it needs to stop."
In
response to additional questioning later, Esper acknowledged that he was
in fact briefed on intelligence reports that Russia made "payments" to
militants to kill American troops in Afghanistan.
Esper
added that the intelligence reports on the bounty program was not
produced by the Defense Department, and defense intelligence agencies
have been unable to corroborate them.
New York City paints Black Lives Matter mural outside Trump Tower in Manhattan
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/09/us/trump-tower-black-lives-matter-mural-new-york-trnd/index.html
New York City is painting a Black Lives Matter mural on the street directly outside of Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan.
City
employees began painting a stretch of Fifth Avenue, just in front of
the Trump Organization's headquarters, on Thursday morning. Mayor Bill
de Blasio authorized the stark yellow mural earlier this month.
The
New York mayor rolled up his sleeves and painted a bit of the mural,
too, clad in a mask and flanked by civil rights leader, the Rev. Al
Sharpton.
Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen back in federal prison
https://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-back-in-federal-prison/
US President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and
fixer, Michael Cohen, was returned to federal prison on Thursday, weeks
after his early release to serve the remainder of his sentence at home
because of the coronavirus pandemic, the federal Bureau of Prisons said.
In a statement to The Associated Press, the US Bureau of Prisons
said Cohen had “refused the conditions of his home confinement and as a
result, has been returned to a BOP facility.” His return to prison comes
days after the New York Post published photos of him and his wife
enjoying an outdoor meal with friends at a restaurant near his Manhattan
home.
A federal judge had denied Cohen’s attempt for an early release to
home confinement after serving 10 months in prison and said in a May
ruling that it “appears to be just another effort to inject himself into
the news cycle.” But the Bureau of Prisons can move prisoners to home
confinement without a judicial order.
Flynn judge asks appeals court to reconsider dismissal order
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/09/flynn-judge-calls-on-appeals-court-to-review-355389
A federal court judge is putting up a
highly unusual fight against an appeals court ruling seeking to
immediately shut down the prosecution of former national security
adviser Michael Flynn for making false statements in the FBI’s
investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Lawyers for U.S. District Court Judge
Emmet Sullivan filed a petition Thursday asking the full bench of the
D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review a 2-1 decision a panel of that
court issued last month, directing Sullivan to cancel his plans for a
hearing and instead grant the government’s request to drop the case.
Trump spins political victory out of Supreme Court defeat
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/09/trump-political-victory-supreme-court-defeat-355454
So
essentially, even though the nation’s highest court rejected several of
Trump’s legal arguments, he got what he wanted politically — his
financial records will likely remain private until after voters go to
the polls in November.
It’s
the way Trump has gotten by his whole life, in business and politics.
Nothing is a loss, just an opportunity to delay and attack. Trump the
businessman countersued when facing loan collectors or allegations of
wrongdoing. Trump the politician counterattacks when faced with any
staffer who disagrees with him, any opponent who questions his behavior,
or any judge who rules against him.
How the Supreme Court Delivered Trump a Short-Term Political Win — and a Long-term Loss to His Quest for Broader Power
https://time.com/5865242/trump-supreme-court-financial-records/
The Supreme Court handed a short-term
political win to Trump on Thursday when justices punted on rulings that
will likely keep his financial records out of public view until after
the November election. But while the rulings spared Trump that immediate
scrutiny, they were ultimately a long-term loss to his claims of sweeping executive power.
The decisions fenced in Trump’s authority by denying both his claim to
be immune from prosecution as President and his insistence that the
separation of powers between Congress and the executive limits how
deeply Congress can reach into his personal papers.
Trump seethed in response, taking the judicial ruling as a personal
attack. “Courts in the past have given ‘broad deference’ BUT NOT ME!” he
wrote on Twitter.
Trump described being investigated by the Manhattan district attorney
as “a political prosecution,” adding on Twitter: “Now I have to keep
fighting in a politically corrupt New York. Not fair to this Presidency
or Administration!”
Pentagon chief confirms he was briefed on intelligence about Russian payments to the Taliban
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/09/politics/esper-briefed-russian-payments-to-taliban/index.html
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper confirmed Thursday that he had been briefed on information regarding Russian payments to the Taliban,
seemingly acknowledging that Russia's support for the militant group in
Afghanistan is not a "hoax," as President Donald Trump has claimed.
However, Esper also made clear that he has not seen intelligence that
corroborates claims that American troops were killed as a result of the
"bounty" payments, walking a delicate line between acknowledging a
well-known threat and potentially clashing with the President.
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