Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti just announced during an interview with MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace that he has been told Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen intends to “plead the 5th amendment against self incrimination” and “will seek an emergency stay” against the defamation lawsuit.
You’ll recall that in September of 2016, during the presidential campaign, Trump told a crowd in Iowa, “The mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”
Wonder if Trump considers his personal lawyer “the mob?”
Watch Avenatti’s news on MSNBC below.
JUST IN: Stormy Daniels’ attorney @MichaelAvenatti says Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen will “plead the 5th amendment against self incrimination” and he “will seek an emergency stay” against the defamation lawsuit. pic.twitter.com/a0qmLEldZV
More news on the Trump “silencing” front as multiple sources are now reporting that a former doorman for Trump World Tower was apparently paid $30,000 in the late 80s to stay quiet about rumors that Donald Trump had a relationship with a former housekeeper.
The rumors, first reported by Ronan Farrow for The New Yorker, allege the relationship produced a child.
Late in 2015, a former Trump Tower doorman named Dino Sajudin met with a reporter from American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.
A few weeks earlier, Sajudin had signed a contract with A.M.I., agreeing to become a source and to accept thirty thousand dollars for exclusive rights to information he had been told: that Donald Trump, who had launched his Presidential campaign five months earlier, may have fathered a child with a former employee in the late nineteen-eighties.
Sajudin declined to comment for this story. However, six current and former A.M.I. employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared legal retaliation by the company, said that Sajudin had told A.M.I. the names of the alleged mistress and child.
The New Yorker says it has no evidence that Trump fathered a child by the woman.
The payment to Sajudin would mark the third payment meant to silence embarrassing information about Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, taking into account allegations from former Playboy model Karen McDougal and porn star Stormy Daniels.
Sajudin says he passed a lie detector test regarding the rumors at the time of the transaction claiming high-level Trump employees, including Trump’s head of security, Matthew Calamari, had shared the story with him.
A.M.I. acknowledged the payment to Sajudin through company-owned sister website Radar Online today.
As the reports have dominated much of today’s news, Sajudin issued a statement to CNN today which read:
“Today I awoke to learn that a confidential agreement I had with AMI [The National Enquirer] with regard to a story about President Trump had been leaked to the press. I can confirm that while working at Trump World Tower, I was instructed not to criticize President Trump’s former housekeeper due to a prior relationship she had with President Trump which produced a child.”
While sources at A.M.I. say they didn’t have much confidence in the allegations, they found it unusual that the company would write a $30,000 check for a “catch and kill” story.
Once source told The New Yorker, “It’s unheard of to give a guy who calls A.M.I.’s tip line big bucks for information he is passing on secondhand. We didn’t pay thousands of dollars for non-stories, let alone tens of thousands. It was a highly curious and questionable situation.”
All of this is of interest when viewed through the lens of the recent raid of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s office where FBI agents searched and seized info pertaining to “hush money” payments.
Not so much about the payoff itself by A.M.I., but the attempt to coverup the story in order to help Trump during the election.
Make sure you take a few minutes to enjoy this super-sweet short film depicting the romance of two young guys in NYC – one hearing, one deaf.
Directed by Broadway’s Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Newsies) and composer Adam Wachter, their award-winning new film Sign which spent a year being honored on the film festival circuit.
Along the way, the short picked up awards like Best Short at the Sidewalk Film Festival, the Youth Jury Award at the Iris Prize Festival, and Best Men’s Short at OUT on Film Atlanta.
From Andrew and Adam:
Using only silent vignettes, a musical score and American Sign Language, SIGN tells the story of the relationship between Ben, a hearing man, and Aaron, who is deaf.
We were inspired to portray an under-explored human experience with the help and collaboration of our talented Deaf friends in the New York theatre community, combining Andrew’s passion for visual imagery with Adam’s love of musical storytelling.
The film was shot in a four-day marathon session in multiple locations across New York City, on a set staffed by actors, ASL interpreters, Deaf consultants and many passionate hearing and Deaf volunteers.
Sensitive and artful, the short film (starring John McGinty and Preston Sadleir) plays out effortlessly with no dialogue needed.
Bravo to the creators. This made me smile.
I missed the initial release of the film, so kudos to TheOUTFront for bringing the short to my attention 🙂
Donald Trump backtracked today on his previous Twitter rant threatening Russia and Syria with a missile strike saying that an airstrike wasn’t necessarily imminent.
“Never said when an attack on Syria would take place,” Trump tweeted this morning. “Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS.”
Trump curiously asked for praise from Americans for doing his job: “Where is our ’Thank you America?’”
Trump yesterday:
Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!
Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our “Thank you America?”
During Mike Pompeo’s confirmation hearing today for Secretary of State embarrassingly hemmed and hawed when asked by New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker on whether Pompeo still believes, as he had previously stated in a speech, that being gay is a “perversion” and same-sex marriage should not be legal.
Booker: So, you do not believe it’s appropriate for two gay people to marry? Pompeo: Sir, I continue to hold that view.
The response by Pompeo, a sputtering word salad of halted speech, made it clear that Pompeo was not happy to have to admit that he finds homosexuality a “perversion,” a word he chose to use in public speeches as a politician.
Just one aspect of the role of U.S. Secretary of State is to stand up for the human rights of people around the world.
How does one do that when they view an entire slice of humanity as “perverse?”
THIS is how a real Secretary of State handles the topic of LGBT rights:
Gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights. Being LGBT does not make you less human.https://t.co/JkWZto9fz9— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 20, 2016
p.s. Pompeo also stated he can’t recall whether President Trump pressured him to interfere in the Russia investigation. Sounds like something you’d remember, no?
Watch the exchange below.
Sen. Cory Booker asking Mike Pompeo if he believes that being gay is a perversion during the Secretary of State nomination hearing. pic.twitter.com/sYAoqanZ19
President Trump’s pick for secretary of state remains opposed to same-sex marriage. When pressed by Sen. Booker, Mike Pompeo refused to say whether he believes gay sex is a perversion https://t.co/7JPdULRMbBpic.twitter.com/q4Q0KdxUIE
Evangelical Christian Mike Pompeo opposes abortion, insists he talks to God (lol), denies climate change, is connected to anti-Muslim groups and wants to bomb half the planet.
So in summary, if he were not so against the LGBTQ he’d be married to Mike Pence.
Justice Devindra Rampersad, who is presiding over the case, stated in his ruling: “The court declares that sections 13 and 16 of the [Sexual Offences Act] are unconstitutional, illegal, null, void, invalid and of no effect to the extent that these laws criminalise any acts constituting consensual sexual conduct between adults.”
Sections 13 and 16 of that law criminalize buggery and indecency between adults. Trinidad inherited that law from its days as a British colony.
There have been rallies recently by Christian protesters who, of course, offered dire warnings that overturning the law would lead to same-sex marriage.
A sovereign state consisting of twin islands with a population of 1.3 million near Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1962.
The UK repealed their buggery laws in 1967.
🌈Great news from Trinidad and Tobago! 🌈 Court finds provisions criminalising ‘buggery’ and serious indecency unconstitutional as applied to adult consensual acts.
Not the most normal sight: a gun left in the bathroom stall. But that’s exactly what went down on Sunday in a men’s room at the Deerfield Beach Pier.
The circumstances of how the Glock 9mm got there are unusual.
According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the weapon was left by Sean Simpson. If his name sounds familiar, he’s the teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas who said he’d be willing to arm himself while on duty.
According to the sheriff’s office report, Simpson told deputies he’d left his gun by accident. By the time the chemistry teacher realized his mistake, the Glock was already in the hands of a drunk homeless man who had picked it up and fired. The bullet hit a wall.
Simpson was able to grab the gun away from the vagrant, Joseph Spataro, who was charged with firing a weapon while intoxicated and trespassing. As for the MSD teacher, he was arrested and charged with failing to safely store a firearm, a second-degree misdemeanor.
Simpson got slapped with a second degree misdemeanor for failing to properly store a firearm.
The Broward School Board, which includes Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, unanimously rejected the state’s new program to arm school staff this week. The funds will be used for more resource officers instead.
• Since its Hump Day I’m starting this round with two – count’em two – InstaHunks as there’s a birthday in the house as Alex Abramov celebrates #31 with bf Brett Miles (above).
• Illinois lawmakers have advanced a bill that would require public schools to include teaching the accomplishments of LGBT folks in history classes much like current laws that require students learn about other groups such as African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans.
• John Sherman at Buzzfeed has penned an interesting essay wondering if gay media is still focusing on gay acceptance (i.e. Love, Simon) instead of celebrating queer difference? Sherman brings up some points I hadn’t considered. Def worth the read.
• The raid on Donald Trump’s personal lawyer’s office and home specifically looked for documents regarding the now infamous “Grab’em by the pussy” Trump video from Access Hollywood. Political experts posit the investigation may be looking into payments to silence women who might have affected Trump’s electoral chances in 2016.
• This week we got our first look at Anything, a story about love and acceptance that follows widower Early (John Caroll Lynch) after his move to LA in the aftermath of the death of his wife. Early finds an unlikely friend in his neighbor, Freda, who is a transgender sex worker.
While the film’s premise is welcome, folks have raised concerns about the casting of Matt Bomer, a cisgender man, as the trans character Freda.
Today is National Pet Day and to celebrate I’m looking back at when there were more dogs living in our house than people.
Basically, everyday is National Pet Day in our house, although I’ve never been a fan of the word “pet.” I feel like I belong to the furry family members in our home.
