Some news items you might have missed: • A group of men arrested in Egypt for waving a rainbow Pride flag are being subjected to hideous forced anal exams to prove whether they’ve had sex with men. Gay sex isn’t illegal per se in Egypt, but the country is currently cracking down on so-called “moral decency.” • Handsome Downton Abbey star Rob James-Collier says playing the troubled, gay butler “Thomas Barrow” on the hit series has left him type-cast and shut out of opportunities his fellow DA stars have had. • Ivanka and brother Donald Trump Jr. were close to being charged with fraud in NYC back in 2012 until the Manhattan District Attorney received a campaign donation of $25,000 from Trump Sr.’s personal lawyer. The case was summarily dropped. #ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm • Sad to read one of my favorite Major League Baseball teams, the New York Yankees, are one of four MLB teams to have never hosted an LGBT pride night for fans. The New York Timeswrites that the Yankees have “shied away from promotions with an ethnic or cultural flavor.” • Check out your new judges for the American Idol reboot for the first time on Good Morning America this week: Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan
• My buddy Brandon Pereyda, currently one of the stars (and poster boy) for Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity here in Las Vegas, gets in “mid-show workouts” during his already grueling performances. And yes, everything in the pic is real from the mohawk to the body to everything else 🙂
• Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was removed from office for blocking same-sex marriages in his state, could very well be the next U.S. Senator from the “Yellowhammer” state. And he’s not sure if gays should be executed or not for being who they are.
• Is it weird that not only does Donald Trump Jr. face the pictures of his children on his desk AWAY from his view, but he also has a pic of HIMSELF right there in the middle? #hmmm
• More big stars are signing on for guest spots on the upcoming Will & Grace reboot beginning September 28 on NBC. Jane Lynch and Andrew Rannells will guest star together joining previously announced appearances by Ben Platt, Harry Connick, Jr., Minnie Driver and Bobby Cannavale.
• Any day is a good day for some fresh Cher. Like this new spot for GAP which pairs the diva with Future on a new take on Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People.”
The eldest son of Donald Trump gave hours of testimony to Senate investigators today regarding his June 2016 meeting with a “Russian government attorney” regarding information about his father’s opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump Jr. told Senate investigators on Thursday that he set up a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer because he was intrigued that she might have damaging information about Hillary Clinton, saying it was important to learn about Mrs. Clinton’s “fitness” to be president.
But nothing came of the Trump Tower meeting, he said, and he was adamant that he never colluded with the Russian government’s campaign to disrupt last year’s presidential election.
In a prepared statement during an interview with Senate Judiciary Committee investigators, the younger Mr. Trump said he was initially conflicted when he heard that the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, might have damaging information about Mrs. Clinton. Despite his interest, he said, he always intended to consult with his own lawyers about the propriety of using any information that Ms. Veselnitskaya, who has ties to the Kremlin, gave him at the meeting.
Don Jr. initially told the media that he attended the meeting to talk about Russian adoptions.
Shortly after Don Jr.’s testimony, Sen. Chris Coons send the media the specific statute that addresses lying to Congress.
I’m guessing that’s a not-so-subtle hint he didn’t believe Uday?
👀 After Don Jr. testimony to Senate Judiciary Cmte, Sen. Chris Coons’ office sends out statute on giving false statements to Congress pic.twitter.com/OUdKXMBfqm
Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly questioning how much President Donald Trump knew about his son Donald Trump Jr.’s 2016 meeting with Kremlin-linked lawyers at Trump Tower and if the president sought to hide the purpose of that meeting, NBC reports.
Trump has denied knowing about the matter until it was revealed by The New York Times. The president did, however, help draft his son’s statement to the press in response to reports about the meeting, according to The Washington Post.
“Even if Trump is not charged with a crime as a result of the statement, it could be useful to Mueller’s team to show Trump’s conduct to a jury that may be considering other charges,” an unnamed source told NBC.
According to the Washington Post, President Trump himself dictated the statement his son Donald Jr. would initially release regarding his meeting with a “Russian government attorney.”
Whether it is criminal or not, it never looks good when someone who is being criminally investigated works to hide information or mislead. To release this statement under the guise of coming from Don Jr. was an organized effort to mislead the public.
Flying home from Germany on July 8 aboard Air Force One, Trump personally dictated a statement in which Trump Jr. said that he and the Russian lawyer had “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children” when they met in June 2016, according to multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations. The statement, issued to the New York Times as it prepared an article, emphasized that the subject of the meeting was “not a campaign issue at the time.”
The claims were later shown to be misleading.
Over the next three days, multiple accounts of the meeting were provided to the news media as public pressure mounted, with Trump Jr. ultimately acknowledging that he had accepted the meeting after receiving an email promising damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help his father’s campaign.
The extent of the president’s personal intervention in his son’s response, the details of which have not previously been reported, adds to a series of actions that Trump has taken that some advisers fear could place him and some members of his inner circle in legal jeopardy.
As a refresher, this is the message that Donald Trump dictated for his son to release:
“It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up.
“I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand.”
Don Trump Jr. (L), Paul Manafort (C), Jared Kushner (R)
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has announced that Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort will testify in an open hearing under oath on July 26.
Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner has agreed to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on July 24, but in a closed door session.
Why is Kushner’s testimony happening under wraps as opposed to Junior and Manafort?
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee, told CNN, “There has been an enormous amount that has been said publicly but it’s not under oath, which means that people are free to omit matters or lie with relative impunity.”
People.com reports that Donald Trump Jr., who is currently in the spotlight for his June 2016 meeting with a “Russian government attorney” who promised to deliver dirt on Hillary Clinton at the height of the presidential campaign, is “miserable” having his father in the White House and can’t wait for the four year term to end.
Long outshone by his sister—first at the Trump Organization and now in the White House, where she and her husband, Jared Kushner, have West Wing offices and White House titles—Don Jr. has had a harder time adapting to life after the election.
Most weekends, he escapes Trump Tower Manhattan to a rustic cabin upstate with his wife, Vanessa, and their five children. He’s a regular at the Riverside Café in Roscoe, New York, where the manager says Trump Jr. is “good people,” doesn’t seek attention, and “never has his hair slicked back like he does on TV.”
A friend of the Trump brothers tells PEOPLE they hate their role as First Sons: “Eric and Don, they never wanted this.”
Adds a source in their circle: “Don can’t do any deals, because he’ll be overly scrutinized. He just goes to work every day and is miserable.”
In an interview with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow attempted to shift the blame for Donald Trump Jr.’s now-infamous meeting with a “Russian government attorney” to the U.S. Secret Service saying the USSS didn’t properly vet the visitor.
“Well, I wonder why the Secret Service, if this was nefarious, why the Secret Service allowed these people in. The president had Secret Service protection at that point, and that raised a question with me.”
Secret Service spokesman Mason Brayman clapped back at Sekulow with this statement: “Donald Trump, Jr. was not a protectee of the USSS in June, 2016. Thus we would not have screened anyone he was meeting with at that time.”
President Trump continued to defend his son’s meeting telling Twitter today, “Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That’s politics!”
Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That’s politics!
Actually, it’s quite unusual to agree to take a meeting with a foreign national who tells you in advance they have dirt on your opponent from an enemy of the U.S.
A new ABC/WaPo poll out over the weekend reports 63% of people think the meeting was inappropriate.
Trump continues defending Don Jr. by saying most people would attempt to collude with a foreign government to win an election. https://t.co/l8tWdOM0FP
No, Mr. @POTUS, it's not politics. More like espionage! I've seen plenty in 40 yrs of politics, as a journalist & strategist. Never this. https://t.co/LW3bcPq5em— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) July 17, 2017
Trump’s FBI director nominee testified that anyone who receives such a solicitation believed to be from adversarial govt should call FBI https://t.co/wZH9WxgDFE
NBC News is reporting that there was yet another person – yes, Russian – at June 9, 2016, meeting at Trump Tower where Donald Trump Jr. expected to receive dirt on Hillary Clinton from a “Russsian government attorney.”
The Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. and others on the Trump team after a promise of compromising material on Hillary Clinton was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist — a former Soviet counterintelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, NBC News has learned.
The lobbyist, who denies any current ties to Russian spy agencies, accompanied the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by Donald Trump Jr.; Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law; and Paul Manafort, former chairman of the Trump campaign.
The Russian-born American lobbyist served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S., where he holds dual citizenship.
The Associated Press identified the lobbyist as Rinat Akhmetshin, and said he acknowledged attending the meeting, though he said it was not substantive. “I never thought this would be such a big deal, to be honest,” he told the AP.
Alan Futerfas, the attorney retained by Donald Trump Jr., told NBC News two other people accompanied Veselnitskaya to the meeting — someone Futerfas described as a translator and someone he described as a “friend of Emin [Agalarov]’s and maybe as a friend of Natalia [Veselnitskaya]’s.”
Futerfas said he has talked with that individual. “He is a U.S. citizen. He told me specifically he was not working for the Russian government, and in fact laughed when I asked him that question.”
So, a full year of “Russian” whispers and accusations regarding a Trump campaign/Russia connection, and total denials from Team Trump the whole way.
“There was NO contact between anyone in the campaign and any Russians.”
“There was NO contact – except those calls between Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador.”
“There was NO contact – except those calls, and Jeff Sessions’ contact at that gala event last year.
“There was NO contact – except those calls, and Sessions’ gala contact, oh – and that meeting about Russian adoption with Junior at Trump Tower.”
“There was NO contact – except those calls, and Sessions’ gala contact, and Junior’s meeting with the “Russian government attorney,” oh – and her friend she brought along who spoke Russian and it turns out used to be “a former Soviet military counterintelligence officer.”
No. This doesn’t look sketchy at all.
By the way, this was Don Jr. on July 11th – “This is everything. This is everything.”
REMINDER: Don Jr. on July 11
Q: As far as this incident is concerned, this is all of it? DON JR.: "This is everything. This is everything." pic.twitter.com/1grv2UDWYY— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 14, 2017
