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Giuliani: Trump Repaid Michael Cohen $130K Stormy Daniels Hush Money

The political world is all agog today as Donald Trump’s newest legal eagle, former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity last night that Trump did, indeed, repay his other lawyer Michael Cohen for the infamous $130K hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels. From HuffPost:

“It’s going to turn out to be perfectly legal; that money was not campaign money,” Giuliani, Trump’s new lead attorney regarding issues related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

“Sorry, I’m giving you a fact now that you don’t know,” Giuliani continued, before saying that the payment was “funneled through a law firm, and then the president repaid it.”

The news directly contradicts Trump’s statements last month that he had no knowledge that Cohen had paid Daniels. Reporters aboard Air Force One had asked whether Trump knew about the payment, to which the president replied: “No.”

“You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen,” Trump said when pressed on the issue. “Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael.”

The Trumpster’s Twitter account attempted to address the issue today. Although, I think a lawyer wrote these tweets as they don’t have Trump’s signature caps-lock yelling and errant air quotes.

The Twitterverse, of course, chimed in:

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News Round-Up: May 2, 2018

(image via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• Yes, in case you were wondering, folks do make passes at guys who wear glasses. Especially if you look like Germany’s Obaid Habibi (above).

• The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved a resolution to recognize the South of Market neighborhood as the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District, ensuring the location will remain an LGBTQ haven protected from overzealous gentrification efforts.

• The oh-so-handsome Jake Gyllenhaal will portray gay legendary composer (West Side Story, Candide) and conductor Leonard Bernstein in an upcoming film The American. Gyllenhaal is also set to produce the pic.

• As the Boy Scouts prepare to welcome girls into the organization, they are dropping the word ‘boy’ from the name of its signature program. Boy Scouts, which includes kids from 10 to 17, will become Scouts BSA in February.

• Anthony Shelton 20, and Cameron Ajiduah, 19, were sentenced to 20 and 15 years in prison, respectively, after having been found guilty of federal hate-crimes charges for assaulting and robbing gay men in four home invasions in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The two men used the dating app Grindr to target their victims.

• The two black men who were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks while waiting for a business colleague have settled with city officials for a symbolic $1 plus the promise to set up a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs.

• And how about one more shot from “Hunk of the Day,” Mr. Obaid Habibi…

A post shared by O B A I D 🐻 (@obaid_habibi) on Apr 19, 2018 at 9:18am PDT

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New Hampshire State Senate Approves Transgender Non-Discrimination Protections

The New Hampshire state Senate, by a 14-10 vote margin, has approved a bill that will add gender identity to the state’s nondiscrimination law.

New Hampshire is the only state in the New England area without transgender protections in its non-discrimination law.

Notable – both chambers of the state legislature are controlled by Republicans.

Openly gay state Rep. Ed Butler (D) introduced the measure in the House as HB 1319, which was approved in March by a vote of 195-129, with 51 Republican votes.

Gov. Chris Sununu (R) has indicated he will sign the bill into law.

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Queer Theater: “217 Boxes Of Dr. Henry Anonymous” In NYC

Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Obie Award winner Laura Esterman
as “Katherine Luder” in 217 Boxes of Dr. Henry Anonymous

Three-time Obie award-winning playwright Ain Gordon has written and directed a new play, 217 Boxes of Dr. Henry Anonymous, that chronicles the successful efforts of Dr. John Fyer to declassify homosexuality as a mental illness.

Fryer’s testimony at the 1972 American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting is considered one of the most significant moments in the history of the gay-rights movement.

As an openly gay psychiatrist who could have lost his medical license, Fryer used a pseudonym, mask and voice modulator to address his colleagues.

The cast includes Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Obie Award winner Laura Esterman (Marvin’s Room), Derek Lucci, and Broadway veteran Ken Marks (Mamma Mia!, Dear Evan Hansen, Dancing at Lughnasa, Hairspray).

Performances begin May 3 at Baryshnikov Arts Center’s Jerome Robbins Theater in New York City (450 West 37th Street).

For more information, head over to the official website here.

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Mat Staver: Conservative Haters Are “Literally” A Few Months Away From Overturning Gay Marriage

Mat Staver of the anti-LGBTQ law group Liberty Counsel

Mat Staver, founder of the virulently anti-LGBTQ legal outfit Liberty Counsel, told radio host Jim Schneider of VCY America this week that “we are a few months away” from overturning Supreme Court rulings like the Obergefell decision which made marriage equality the law of the land.

From Right Wing Watch:

“The nice thing about what President Trump has done, different from other Republican presidents, is that he is appointing, he’s nominating, so far, judges who are what I would call constitutionalists, originalists, dedicated to the original understanding and interpretation of the Constitution and the statutes,” he said. “On the other hand, Republican presidents in the past, they’ve been hit or miss. President Trump so far has been hitting this on the nail.”

Staver added that social conservatives are “one midterm election away from eventually overturning the Roe v. Wade decision” because “there will be at least one, maybe two more” Supreme Court vacancies during Trump’s first term in office.

But in order for that to happen, he said, Republicans must maintain control of the Senate or Trump will be forced to nominate “somebody who’s palatable to the judicial activist crowd in the Senate.”

If Trump is able to replace any liberal or moderate justice “with someone like Gorsuch,” he said, “that means the abortion decision, the same-sex marriage decision, all of those things that went the wrong way will ultimately be in the balance to be reversed. So literally we are a few months away.”

Listen to Staver boast about overturning our marriage rights below.

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Dance Documentary “Transmission: Roots To Branches”

Chita Rivera (L) and Graciela Danielle (R)

Featuring a virtual ‘who’s who’ from the world of dance including Chita Rivera, Graciela Danielle, Andy Blankenbuehler, Warren Carlyle, Susan Stroman and more, the dance documentary Transmission: Roots To Branches does a deep dive into the history, lineage and future progressions of Jazz Dance.

“Don’t you feel wonderful when your spirit finally meets your body, and it turns into dance?”

“It’s not easy. But anything that’s good is not easy.”

– Broadway icon Chita Rivera

Featuring interviews and choreography from some of the worlds leading dance voices, Transmission aims to shine a light on Jazz Dance.

The film is still being shot and the creators are looking to raise funds for the next block of filming.

Head over to the official website for more info.

Watch the teaser below. It looks to be a fascinating film.

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Olympic Silver-Medalist Gus Kenworthy To Headline DNC’s LGBTQ Gala In June

Gus Kenworthy (image via Instagram)

Woofy out Olympic silver medalist Gus Kenworthy will headline the Democratic National Committee’s LGBTQ Gala on June 25 in New York City.

From ABC News:

“I couldn’t be more excited to join the DNC at their LGBTQ Gala this Pride season. Over the last year, the Trump-Pence administration has pushed our community to the sidelines, attacking us for who we are and who we love,” Kenworthy wrote to ABC News in a statement.

“It’s time we take a stand against this administration by electing representatives this upcoming November who actively support and believe in equality for everyone,” he said.

The seven-time world champ quite publicly skipped the White House reception for 2018 Winter Olympians last Friday along with fellow high-profile athletes Lindsey Vonn, Erin Hamlin, Adam Rippon and Chloe Kim.

At the reception, Donald Trump told attendees that watching the Paralympics was “tough to watch.” Gus was among the Olympians who clapped back at the insult.

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Trump Threatens To “Get Involved” In Department Of Justice’s “Rigged System”

Donald Trump

UPDATE – The Justice Department has officially said “no” to the Freedom Caucus’ request for the unredacted version of the DOJ memo to Robert Mueller.

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Donald Trump began the day with yet another meltdown on Twitter with cries of “Witch Hunt!” and “Rigged System.”

His rant was centered on the dispute between conservative members of Congress and a memo from the Department of Justice that outlines the topics for investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

CNN has the details:

The House Republican duo targeting senior leaders at the Justice Department have a new demand for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein: They want to see an unredacted copy of the memo he sent to whom detailing the scope of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

The same lawmakers are also demanding a new disclosure from Attorney General Jeff Sessions: They want to know whether he was involved in the decision to raid the personal attorney of President Donald Trump, Michael Cohen, according to a letter sent last week.

The two new requests are the latest in a series of asks from Republican Reps. Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Jim Jordan of Ohio, the conservative Freedom Caucus lawmakers who say the Justice Department is stonewalling Congress and have suggested the department leaders could be on the “path to impeachment” if they won’t cooperate.

In a private meeting last month, Jordan and Meadows laid out their concerns to Rosenstein about what they believe has been a lackluster response by the Justice Department to the GOP’s request for documents. And one document request appeared to catch Rosenstein by surprise: the demand for the August memo laying out the scope of the Mueller probe, a document that was heavily redacted in recently unveiled court filings.

Rosenstein resisted the request by the GOP lawmakers to review an unredacted, or less redacted, version of the memo, according to Jordan.

Apparently, according to folks with knowledge of the document, the full memo includes which Trump associates are under investigation and for what.

At an event last night, Rosenstein told reporters “the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted.”

The Washington Post has reported that Meadows and the House Freedom Caucus have drafted articles of impeachment against Rosenstein as a “last resort.”

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Quote Of The Day: Sen. Marco Rubio

Sen. Marco Rubio

In a recent interview with The Economist, Sen. Marco Rubio admitted the much-ballyhooed 2017 GOP tax cuts haven’t helped lower and middle class Americans:

“There is still a lot of thinking on the right that if big corporations are happy, they’re going to take the money they’re saving and reinvest it in American workers. In fact they bought back shares, a few gave out bonuses; there’s no evidence whatsoever that the money’s been massively poured back into the American worker.”