https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/22/politics/stormy-daniels-trump-judge-order/index.html
A California Superior Court judge has ordered President Donald Trump to pay $44,100 to Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, to reimburse her attorneys' fees in the legal battle surrounding her nondisclosure agreement.
https://time.com/5882072/rise-and-fall-of-steve-bannon/
After Donald Trump won the U.S. election in November 2016, some Republicans hoped that the new President would mellow in office and moderate his hardline campaign positions. Steve Bannon saw it as his job to make sure that didn’t happen.
Bannon, a former investment banker and right-wing documentary filmmaker who served as one of Trump’s principal advisers during the final months of his campaign, moved into the West Wing in January 2017, taking over an office at a crucial hallway intersection steps from the Oval Office. His perch allowed him to see nearly everyone visiting then-chief of staff Reince Priebus on one side, and Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner on the other.
Bannon’s official new title was chief strategist, and he saw himself as besieged by ideological rivals trying to slow-walk Trump’s controversial campaign promises to build a border wall, gut trade deals, and ban Muslims from entering the country. His ascent was seen by many as bringing the fringe voices of white nationalists and the alt-right directly into the West Wing. He spent hours on calls with GOP donors and reporters painting Priebus as beholden to the old Republican establishment and Kushner as a Democrat in Trump’s house. He lasted seven months, before being pushed out for leaking about palace intrigue and refusing to cede access and control to Trump’s second chief of staff, John Kelly.
Bannon’s time in the White House may have been short, but it was influential. Within a few weeks of moving in, Bannon helped launch Trump on the hardline policy path he has rarely deviated from since. Bannon, along with senior advisor Stephen Miller, pushed for the hasty freeze of the U.S. refugee program and the halt in immigration from seven majority Muslim countries, moves that were later challenged in court and required revisions. He kept a white board on the wall next to his desk and put green check marks next to actions that weakened international trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and North American Free Trade Agreement.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-accuses-democrats-trying-to-steal-election
In an exclusive interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, President Trump argued Thursday that Democrats are "trying to steal the election" through their fervent support for and facilitation of mass mail-in balloting.
"They are talking about sending 51 million ballots out to anybody who, you know, nobody knows who is going to get them," the president said on "Hannity". "It's a horrible thing. It's a fraudulent election. Everybody knows it, you don't even have to know politics to know it.
"That the closest Western allies of the U.S. unambiguously reject the legitimacy of using the snapback procedure set in [U.N. Resolution] 2231 confirms their commitment to the JCPOA, their opposition to the maximum pressure policy against Iran," Gerard Araud, France's most recent ambassador to the U.S., who also served as ambassador to the U.N. and Israel, tweeted shortly after the decision. "And says a lot about the world status of the U.S. today."
The U.S. attempted last week to adopt a resolution that would have extended an arms embargo against Iran – set to expire in October – but failed to receive the support necessary in the Security Council. Only the Dominican Republic backed the U.S. resolution.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/20/politics/donald-trump-new-york-tax-records/index.html
A federal judge on Thursday said New York state prosecutors could have access to President Donald Trump's accounting records for a criminal investigation, siding harshly against the President.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/pompeo-aims-fury-at-europe-as-iran-sanctions-snapback-bid-rebuffed/
European powers rejected a US bid to reinstate sanctions on Iran and torpedo the 2015 nuclear deal, drawing an accusation from Washington that they were “siding with the ayatollahs.”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chris-wallace-reaction-joe-biden-dnc-speech
Joe Biden accepted the Democratic nomination for president Thursday night with an "enormously effective" speech that "blew a hole" in President Trump's characterization of the former vice president, "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace said.
"Remember, Donald Trump has been talking for months about Joe Biden as [being] mentally shot, a captive of the left," Wallace said during Fox News special coverage of the Democratic National Convention. "And yes, Biden was reading from the teleprompter and a prepared speech, but I thought that he blew a hole, a big hole, in that characterization."
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/20/politics/kushner-uae-israel-f-35-fighter-jet/index.html
A secret push by President Donald Trump's senior adviser Jared Kushner to sell advanced arms -- including F-35 stealth fighter jets -- to the United Arab Emirates has caused confusion and frustration among agencies and congressional committees that would normally be involved in such a sale but have been left in the dark.
Trump, hearing of the charges, tried to distance himself from his former adviser. Trump said he feels “very badly” his former adviser was arrested for defrauding donors and called the project “inappropriate.” He said he hadn't dealt with Bannon, who also worked on his 2016 campaign, in "a very long time."
"I feel very badly. I haven't been dealing with him for a very long period of time," Trump told reporters. "I haven't been dealing with him at all."
The president said he didn’t “know anything about the project at all” but also said he “didn’t like” it.
“I thought it was being done for showboating reasons,” Trump said.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/20/politics/bannon-build-the-wall-indictment/index.html
New York federal prosecutors on Thursday charged President Donald Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon and three others with defrauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of a fundraising campaign purportedly aimed at supporting Trump's border wall.
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/new-covid-19-cases-in-orthodox-communities-elicit-concern-639273
Over the past week, the reports have come fast and furious.
The controversy over the possibility that the United Arab Emirates could purchase F-35 jets has continued despite a very firm denial by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And that’s because, well, Netanyahu doesn’t really have the final say here.
