Sunday, July 12, 2020
Roger Stone: Critics blast Trump for commuting ex-adviser's jail term
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53373128
Mr Biden's spokesman Bill Russo said Mr Trump could not be shamed and could only be stopped at the ballot box.
"President
Trump has once again abused his power, releasing this commutation on a
Friday night, hoping to yet again avoid scrutiny as he lays waste to the
norms and the values that make our country a shining beacon to the rest
of the world," he said.
House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff condemned Mr Trump's clemency.
"With
this commutation," said the top Democratic lawmaker, "Trump makes clear
that there are two systems of justice in America: one for his criminal
friends, and one for everyone else."
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said it showed Donald Trump was the most corrupt president in history.
Sen. Mitt Romney Calls Trump's Decision to Commute Roger Stone's Sentence 'Historic Corruption'
https://time.com/5865809/mitt-romney-trump-roger-stone/
On Saturday morning, Utah Sen. Mitt
Romney became the first Congressional Republican so far to speak out
against President Donald Trump’s Friday night decision to commute the
sentence of his longtime associate Roger Stone.
Stone had been sentenced to 40 months in prison for multiple felonies
including lying to Congress and attempting to obstruct the Congressional
investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Jeff Mason on Trump commuting Stone's sentence: 'Bringing this up again may in some ways be positive' for POTUS
https://www.foxnews.com/media/jeff-mason-donald-trump-commuting-roger-stone-sentence
Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason reacted Saturday to President Trump commuting Roger Stone's sentence, saying there will more more "fireworks" regarding the president's actions.
"This
is his Broadway, really, right now of responding to what he thinks was
unfair the entire time related to Robert Mueller's investigation of the
Russia probe and specifically to his friend and confident Roger Stone,"
Mason said on "America's News HQ."
"I
think it is important to remember that Stone was convicted by a jury,
and so in terms of the political risk for the president, this does come
at a time when the president himself has been focusing on a law and
order response to the protests around the country, emphasizing himself
as a law and order president."
Mueller defends Stone prosecution and says 'his conviction stands' in Washington Post op-ed
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/11/politics/robert-mueller-defends-roger-stone-prosecution/index.html
Former special counsel Robert Mueller, in a very rare move, has written an op-ed for The Washington Post
defending his office's prosecution of Roger Stone and saying he is
still a convicted felon and "rightly so" in light of President Donald
Trump's commutation of Stone.
"Congress
also investigated and sought information from Stone. A jury later
determined he lied repeatedly to members of Congress. He lied about the
identity of his intermediary to WikiLeaks. He lied about the existence
of written communications with his intermediary. He lied by denying he
had communicated with the Trump campaign about the timing of WikiLeaks'
releases. He in fact updated senior campaign officials repeatedly about
WikiLeaks. And he tampered with a witness, imploring him to stonewall
Congress," Mueller wrote in the op-ed posted Saturday evening.
Saturday, July 11, 2020
Tucker Carlson's top writer resigns after secretly posting racist and sexist remarks in online forum
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/10/media/tucker-carlson-writer-blake-neff/index.html
Neff worked at Fox News for nearly four years and was Carlson's top writer. Previously, he was a reporter at The Daily Caller, a conservative news outlet that Carlson co-founded. In a recent article in the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, Neff said, "Anything [Carlson is] reading off the teleprompter, the first draft was written by me." He also acknowledged the show's influence, telling the magazine, "We're very aware that we do have that power to sway the conversation, so we try to use it responsibly."
During the years that Neff wrote for him at Fox, Carlson has hosted one of the most influential shows on cable news. In the last quarter, Carlson had not only the highest-rated program in cable news, but the highest-rated show in the history of cable news. Carlson also counts President Trump among his most loyal viewers. On multiple occasions, the President has tweeted out videos of Carlson's program. Which is to say, the scripts that Neff likely helped write and shape were being shared by the President of the United States.
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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