More Than 50,000 People Sign Petition Demanding Investigation Into DOJ's Roger Stone Reversal As Prosecutors Resign

https://www.newsweek.com/thousands-sign-petition-investigation-doj-over-trump-ally-roger-stone-sentencing-proposal-1486928

More than 50,000 people have signed a petition calling for an investigation into the Department of Justice's decision to slash the amount of prison time it is seeking for Roger Stone, the former Trump adviser convicted last year of obstructing Congress's probe into Russian inteference in the 2016 presidential election.

"The Department of Justice appears to be putting Donald Trump's friends above the law," reads the petition which was published on MoveOn.org, reaching more than 51,800 signatures by early Wednesday morning.

"The Justice Department's internal watchdog must investigate the corrupt about-face made at the seeming behest of Donald Trump and call out cronyism within its own ranks," it states. "But given how compromised disgraced Attorney General William Barr is, we cannot trust the Justice Department to correct its course. The House Judiciary Committee, which has oversight of Barr, must also investigate independently."

Gaining tens of thousands of signatures overnight, the petition comes after four prosecutors who were working on the Stone case quit on Tuesday after the DOJ moved to reduce the proposed sentence recommendation it had just put forward on Monday.

 

king Trump congratulates Barr on ‘taking charge’ of Roger Stone case, says it ‘was totally out of control’

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-congratulates-barr-on-taking-charge-of-roger-stone-case-says-it-was-totally-out-of-control

 President Trump offered "congratulations" to Attorney General Bill Barr after the Justice Department submitted an amended filing in Roger Stone's criminal case seeking a lighter sentence for the former Trump campaign adviser than prosecutors first recommended -- a move that comes as Democrats accuse the White House of politicizing the DOJ and career prosecutors are withdrawing from the case in apparent protest.

Federal prosecutors initially suggested a lengthy sentence of between 87 and 108 months in prison on Monday, which Trump called "a horrible and very unfair situation." The following day, the DOJ leadership overruled the prosecutors in the case, submitting a new filing that said the DOJ "respectfully submits that a sentence of incarceration far less than 87 to 108 months’ imprisonment would be reasonable" for Stone.

Police investigate Bnei Brak preschool assistant suspected of abuse

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/275902

David was videotaped slapping an 11-month-old baby, throwing him on the couch and carpet, and placing a towel over his face and suffocating him. Later, she went out to smoke, leaving him alone.

Attorney Yaron Forer, who is representing David, said: "The prosecution decided to respond with excess severity. Over the course of the year, my client has expressed sorrow and regret for her actions. We are aware of the fact that these actions are not simple, but at the same time she has undergone a very difficult period, both due to the embarrassment and due to the shaming on social media."

 

With New Hampshire Win, Bernie Sanders Is the Democrats’ 2020 Front-Runner

https://time.com/5782619/bernie-sanders-2020-democratic-frontrunner-new-hampshire/

At first, the cheers for Bernie Sanders were so deafening he could hardly begin his speech. “This victory here is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump,” the Vermont Senator and newly minted Democratic presidential front-runner declared. “No matter who wins—and we certainly hope it’s going to be us—we are going to unite together and defeat the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country.”

 

Sanders holds off Buttigieg to clinch New Hampshire in tight primary race

https://www.timesofisrael.com/sanders-holds-off-buttigieg-to-clinch-new-hampshire-in-tight-primary-race/

  New Hampshire — Bernie Sanders was on track to beat Pete Buttigieg in the New Hampshire Democratic primary Tuesday night as the two men from different generations and wings of their party battled for front-runner status in the chaotic nomination fight to take on US President Donald Trump. With nearly 90 percent of ballots counted, Sanders — the flag-bearer for the party’s progressive wing — had 26 percent of votes, with Indiana ex-mayor Buttigieg narrowly trailing on 24.3 percent and fellow Midwesterner Klobuchar on 19.9 percent.

 

George F. Will On The Need To Defeat Trump | The Last Word | MSNBC

Every Prosecutor On Roger Case Quits In Protest After DOJ Lightens Sentencing Recommendation | MSNBC

Trump says US military may discipline dismissed security official Vindman

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/11/trump-alexander-vindman-impeachment-trial-us-military

 “I obviously wasn’t happy with the job he did,” Trump said of Vindman. “First of all he reported a false call … what was said on the call was totally appropriate.”

One of Vindman’s lawyers, David Pressman said, “There is no question in the mind of any American why this man’s job is over, why this country now has one less soldier serving it at the White House. Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth.”

Vindman’s twin brother, who served as a senior NSC lawyer, was also recalled last week, though he did not serve as a witness in the impeachment. The Vindman brothers will be reassigned to the defense department, according to a spokesperson.

 

‘We are not a banana republic’: National security adviser defends Vindman dismissals

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/11/banana-republic-obrien-vindman-dismissals-114212

 National security adviser Robert O’Brien on Tuesday defended the dismissal of Lt. Cols. Alexander and Yevgeny Vindman from the National Security Council, suggesting that the officials were trying to undermine the president.

“We’re not a country where a bunch of lieutenant colonels can get together and decide what the policy is of the United States,” O’Brien said during an event at the Atlantic Council think tank. “We are not a banana republic.”

 

O’Brien also insisted that the twin brothers — one of whom, Alexander, was a crucial witness against President Donald Trump in the investigation that led to his impeachment on a charge of abuse of power — were “absolutely” not retaliated against.

But Trump tweeted on Saturday that Alexander Vindman was “OUT” because he was “insubordinate” and had reported the contents of Trump’s July phone call with the Ukrainian president “incorrectly.” It also still isn’t clear why Yevgeny Vindman, an NSC ethics lawyer who was not involved in the impeachment process at all, was fired.

4 Prosecutors Quit After Justice Dept. Takes Extraordinary Step of Lowering Recommended Prison Time for Roger Stone

https://time.com/5782201/roger-stone-prison-recommendation-change/

The four attorneys, including two who were early members of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia team, had made up the Justice Department’s trial team and had signed onto a Monday court filing that recommended up to nine years in prison for Stone.

The department’s decision to back off the sentencing recommendation raised questions about political interference and whether Trump’s views hold unusual sway over the Justice Department, which is meant to operate independently of the White House in criminal investigations and prosecutions.

 

Driver arrested for plowing into a tent of Trump supporters registering voters, police say

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/02/09/gop-voter-registration-attack/

Republican volunteers in Jacksonville, Fla., were registering people to vote in a shopping center Saturday afternoon when a man drove a van through their red tent, then fled, according to law enforcement officials, an incident that has drawn condemnation from prominent Florida lawmakers and President Trump.

The Trick To Tracking Trump’s Lies And Corruption | MSNBC

Chris Hayes: Trump Is Weak, And Beatable | All In | MSNBC

Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security: Trump's Proposed Budget Slashes Entitlements—and Campaign Promises

https://www.newsweek.com/medicare-medicaid-social-security-trumps-proposed-budget-slashes-entitlements-campaign-1486595

President Donald Trump has vowed over the course of his presidency not to cut federal spending for entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. But his $4.8 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2021, unveiled Monday, seeks to do just that.

The White House budget, which is a proposal that congressional appropriators can choose whether to take into consideration when it's offered by the administration each year, would cut billions from the three major safety-net programs over the next decade. It's unclear in what way and by how much the slash in funding to agencies that oversee the programs would affect recipients' benefits.