Tag: Donald Trump

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Trump Sues To Block Congress From Accessing His Financial Records

Donald Trump, Rep. Elijah J. Cummings

The Washington Post reports that Donald Trump is suing to block Congress – specifically House Oversight Committee Chair Elijah Cummings –  from accessing his financial records.

The lawsuit seeks a court order to prevent Trump’s accounting firm from complying with what his lawyers say is an improper use of subpoena power by congressional Democrats.

“Democrats are using their new control of congressional committees to investigate every aspect of President Trump’s personal finances, businesses, and even his family,” the filing by Trump claims. “Instead of working with the President to pass bipartisan legislation that would actually benefit Americans, House Democrats are singularly obsessed with finding something they can use to damage the President politically.”

The filing, in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, further escalates a clash between the White House and the Democratic-controlled House over congressional oversight.

Last week, Cummings subpoenaed Mazars USA, an accounting firm long used by Trump.

It’s important to note that the House Oversight Committee is specifically charged with oversight of the Executive Branch of government.

Cummings’ committee is seeking 10 years of financial records from Trump.

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Trump Still Ranting On Mueller Report

Donald Trump

Donald Trump, who claims he was ‘totally exonerated’ (he wasn’t) by the report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller can’t stop ranting about it.

He took to Twitter yet again this morning to rail about it yet again mentioning “angry Democrats,” “conflicted Mueller,” and the always obligatory “”no collusion, no obstruction.”

What the Mueller report actually did was find 10 episodes of potential obstruction. He detailed them in the report and left it to the Attorney General William Barr and Congress to decide if they rose to the level of a crime that could be proven in court.

Political experts are also considering that Mueller didn’t attempt to charge Trump with a crime because of a long-standing position in the Justice Department that a sitting president can’t be charged.

For all those folks calling for “Impeachment!” – it’s not going to happen.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi knows it would be an act of futility because even if the House did vote of articles of impeachment, the Republican-led Senate would never convict Trump.

And he would look like a martyr for the 2020 election.

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Mueller Report Released – “Total Exoneration” Would Not Be Accurate

Lots of news this morning about the release of the report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Donald Trump

Lots of news this morning about the release of the report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Here’s just a few take-aways from the report.

First up, Mueller made clear in his report that he lacked confidence to clear Donald Trump of obstruction of justice but suggested Congress could take action on at least 10 instances where the president sought to interfere with the probe.

CNN is posting excerpts from the Mueller report.

“With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has the authority to prohibit a President’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice.”

“The Russian contacts consisted of business connections, offers of assistance to the campaign, invitations for candidate Trump and Putin to meet in person, invitations for campaign officials and representatives of the Russian government to meet, and policy positions seeking improved US-Russian relations.”

“If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. The evidence we obtained about the President’s actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

Additionally, the Washington Post reports on Trump’s reaction when he was told the Special Counsel had been appointed:

In May 2017, then Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Trump that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein had just appointed Mueller as special counsel.

Trump slumped back in his chair, according to notes from Jody Hunt, Sessions’s chief of staff. “Oh my God, this is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m f—ed,” Trump said. Trump further laid into Sessions for his recusal, saying Sessions had let him down.

“Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency,” Trump said, according to Hunt’s notes. “It takes years and years and I won’t be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.” The next morning, Trump tweeted, “This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!”

Plus, as Reuters reports Mueller did find that Russian operatives organized political rallies in support of Trump and opposing Hillary Clinton’s candidacy:

Special counsel Robert Mueller in his highly-anticipated report said his team identified “dozens” of U.S. political rallies organized on social media by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian troll farm that was later indicted for attempting to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.

According to Mueller’s report, which was released on Thursday, the IRA organized political rallies in the U.S. using social media starting in 2015 and continued to coordinate rallies after the 2016 election.

The IRA, a Russian troll farm with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence agencies, organized pro-Trump and anti-Clinton rallies on U.S. soil for years, including events in New York, Florida and Pennsylvania. The Trump campaign put a post on Facebook about one of the IRA-organized rallies in Miami, Fla. in 2016, Mueller noted.

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Trump Accuses Fox News Of ‘Stuffing’ Sanders Town Hall Audience With Supporters

As I suspected yesterday, Donald Trump is accusing Fox News of "stuffing" the audience at the televised Town Hall with Sen. Bernie Sanders this past weekend with Bernie supporters.
Donald Trump

As I suspected yesterday, Donald Trump is accusing Fox News of “stuffing” the audience at the televised Town Hall with Sen. Bernie Sanders this past weekend with Bernie supporters.

The Trumpster simply can’t believe that Sanders would get the positive reaction he did at the event.

Trump also believes Sanders personally owes the Donald for income he’s made the past few years. Why? I don’t have a clue.

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Trump Drags Fox News For Giving Bernie Sanders Air Time

Donald Trump ranted on Twitter about Fox News giving Sen. Bernie Sanders prime time exposure in a town hall last night with anchor Bret Baier. He wrote, "So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on @FoxNews. Not surprisingly, @BretBaier and the “audience” was so smiley and nice. Very strange, and now we have @donnabrazile?"

Is the Trumpster getting jelly?

Donald Trump ranted on Twitter about Fox News giving Sen. Bernie Sanders prime time exposure in a town hall last night with anchor Bret Baier.

He wrote, “So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on @FoxNews. Not surprisingly, @BretBaier and the “audience” was so smiley and nice. Very strange, and now we have @donnabrazile?”

Notice that he puts the word audience in quotations…? Is the Donald calling the folks in attendance ‘fake?’

Perhaps what really riled the Donald up was Sanders’ pitch for ‘Medicare for all’ without any interruption by the Fox folks.

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Trump Lies About Obama-Era Lawyer, Doesn’t Mention Charges Stem From Working With Trump Campaign Manager

(Graphic via CallToActivism)

Donald Trump got oh-so-excited about a former member of the Obama administration, Gregory Craig, being indicted this week.

As Call To Activism points out, though, the charges against Craig came from his involvement with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort years after leaving the Obama administration.

From The New York Times:

The indictment alleged that, while a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Mr. Craig took on work on behalf of the government of Viktor F. Yanukovych, then the president of Ukraine.

The work was brought to Mr. Craig by Paul Manafort, then a political consultant for Mr. Yanukovych and later the campaign chairman for President Trump in 2016.

The charges stated that Mr. Craig lied in order to avoid registering with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and withheld information about the full scope of his activities.

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Why Doesn’t Trump Want Report That “Totally Exonerates” Him To Be Released?

Donald Trump tweeted this morning questioning why Congressional Democrats should be allowed to see the report filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller regarding Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Donald Trump

Now, if you had a report that “totally exonerated” you of any wrongdoing, wouldn’t you want the world to see that?

Donald Trump tweeted this morning questioning why Congressional Democrats should be allowed to see the report filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller regarding Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“Why should Radical Left Democrats in Congress have a right to retry and examine the $35,000,000 (two years in the making) No Collusion Mueller Report, when the crime committed was by Crooked Hillary, the DNC and Dirty Cops? Attorney General Barr will make the decision!”

Trump previously told the press that he wanted the report released to the public.

Now, why had he changed his mind? #ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmm

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Trump Dragged For Inciting Violence Against Member Of Congress

Donald Trump

It’s difficult to imagine that a president – a current occupant of the White House – could do something so lacking in dignity.

And yet, he did.

On Friday, Donald Trump incited anger against a member of Congress, Muslim Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).

Trump tweeted out an edited portion of a speech given by the congresswoman at a March event for the Muslim civil rights organization Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The full quote was:

“Far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen, and frankly, I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it. CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.”

But Trump’s video took just a few words from Ilhan – “some people did something” – and repeated it while cutting to video clips of the attack on 9/11. The intention was to make it appear as if Rep. Ilhan was downplaying the attack, which was not the case in any way, shape or form.

Trump was taking Ilhan’s words out of context to incite violence toward her.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a military veteran and White House hopeful for 2020, responded on Twitter.

“After 9/11 we all said we were changed. That we were stronger and more united. That’s what “never forget” was about. Now, a president uses that dark day to incite his base against a member of Congress, as if for sport. As if we learned nothing that day about the workings of hate. That day, some people did this: killed thousands of Americans in order to try to make us smaller, more divided and less free. To weaken us by distancing us from our own values through fear and anger. This is the function of terrorism.”

Buttigieg continued: “I served overseas, at risk to my life, in the struggle against such terrorism. But it can only be fully defeated if we have leaders at home who defuse its capacity to sow hate—hate against Islam or against any number of “others.” The president today made America smaller. It is not enough to condemn him; we must model something better.”

“The threats against the life of @IlhanMN make clear what is at stake if we fail to to do this, and to beat back hate in all all its forms,” he concluded.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts also condemned Trump’s actions: “The President is inciting violence against a sitting Congresswoman—and an entire group of Americans based on their religion. It’s disgusting. It’s shameful. And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it.”

And Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont: “Ilhan Omar is a leader with strength and courage. She won’t back down to Trump’s racism and hate, and neither will we. The disgusting and dangerous attacks against her must end.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted this: “Members of Congress have a duty to respond to the President’s explicit attack today.@IlhanMN’s life is in danger. For our colleagues to be silent is to be complicit in the outright, dangerous targeting of a member of Congress.We must speak out. ‘First they came…'”

And then there was the onslaught on Twitter using the #IStandWithIlhanOmar hashtag. Click here to get some of that.