Roger Stone (screen capture) A senior Justice Department official tells the Washington Postthe DOJ now plans to reduce its sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone, who was convicted in November of obstructing Congress and witness tampering in the Robert Mueller investigation. The announcement comes after Donald Trump ranted on Twitter about the requested seven-to-nine year recommendation.
In a stunning rebuke of career prosecutors that will surely raise questions about political interference in the case, a senior Justice Department official said the department “was shocked to see the sentencing recommendation in the Roger Stone case last night.”
“That recommendation is not what had been briefed to the department,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive case. “The department finds the recommendation extreme and excessive and disproportionate to Stone’s offenses. The department will clarify its position later today.”
The statement came hours after Trump tweeted about the sentence prosecutors recommended, saying: “This is a horrible and very unfair situation. The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!” The senior Justice Department official, though, said the decision to revise prosecutors’ recommendation came before Trump’s tweet.
Let’s face it, folks. Trump is going to pardon Stone AND Michael Flynn. No matter what, no matter what prison sentence they get, he will pardon them. Mark my words.
This is a horrible and very unfair situation. The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice! https://t.co/rHPfYX6Vbv
L-R Sean Hayes of Will & Grace and Olympian Gus Kenworthy (image via Instagram) Some news items you might have missed: • Will & Grace: Out Olympian Gus Kenworthy shared the pic above with W&G star Sean Hayes as he shares the news he shot an episode for the upcoming final season of the iconic sitcom. Congrats, Gus! • Washington Blade: 133 LGBTQ activists were arrested outside the U.S. Supreme Court building today as justices heard oral arguments regarding whether federal civil rights laws protect LGBTQ people in the workplace. • Politico: Since taking office, Donald Trump has continually suggested asking White House staffers to take lie detector tests. The Donald has ramped up the idea again as two whistleblowers have come forward with clear information about his phone call with the Ukrainian president. • Netflix: The Fab 5 jet off to Japan for a four-episode Queer Eye mini-season. Streaming giant Netflix premieres the bonus installments on November 1.
• KIT212: It’s Tennis Tuesday over at Kenneth’s place where he always finds the hottest tennis players to showcase. Last week’s specimen will be pretty hard to top… 🙂 • Washington Post: The Senate Intelligence Committee, a Republican-led panel that has been investigating foreign electoral interference for more than two and a half years, said in blunt language that Russians worked to damage Democrat Hillary Clinton while bolstering Republican Donald Trump — and made clear that fresh rounds of interference are likely ahead of the 2020 vote. • New Music: Halsey drops the music video (nearly a million views in 6 hours) for her single, “Graveyard,” which has already amassed over 65 million streams since its release. The music video, featuring Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney, begins in Halsey’s bedroom but evolves into a sweet same-sex romp at a carnival. Stereogum praised “Graveyard” as a “strong pop song about depression and co-dependence” and noted, “Halsey… can sing about stark internal stuff and still make the songs sound like they belong in an arena.”
Donald Trump ranted on Sunday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller should not testify before Congress, arguing that Democrats are “looking for a redo” after the investigation failed to establish that his campaign conspired with Russia.
….to testify. Are they looking for a redo because they hated seeing the strong NO COLLUSION conclusion? There was no crime, except on the other side (incredibly not covered in the Report), and NO OBSTRUCTION. Bob Mueller should not testify. No redos for the Dems!
Trump has previously said that he would not stop Mueller from testifying and that he will leave it up to Attorney General Bill Barr to decide.
Barr has said the Justice Department has no issue with Mueller testifying.
The House Judiciary Committee is in negotiations with Mueller’s team and is hoping to bring him in to testify on May 15.
Note: The Mueller investigation will not cost $35,000,000 thanks to the millions of dollars seized from former Trump campaign manager, now-convicted felon, Paul Manafort.
• Out singer/songwriter and American Idol alum David Hernandez found my favorite place in Puerto Vallarta – Mantamar Beach Club. If you look behind him in the lower right hand corner, you can see the cabanas hot hubby Michael and I always spend our days in 🙂
• Five states – California, New Mexico, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington – have announced they will refuse to impose Donald Trump’s trans military ban and therefore not remove trans people from their National Guards.
• Donald Trump says his administration is “fighting all the subpoenas” claiming the Democrats are hoping to “luck out” by going after him. If you’re innocent, why hide anything?
“We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” Pres. Trump says, saying Democrats are trying to “luck out” in 2020 by “constantly going after me on nonsense.” https://t.co/WFGygHVmLApic.twitter.com/IbOTtySbaz
• Former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was told not to bring up any concerns about Russian forms of interference in the 2020 election in front of Donald Trump because he “equated any public discussion of malign Russian election activity with questions about the legitimacy of his victory.”
• Today is True Colors Day – launched by Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors United organization in an effort to raise public awareness about LGBTQ youth homelessness, and to provide supporters with simple ways to make a difference.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) young people are 120% more likely to experience homelessness than non-LGBTQ youth. While many factors contribute to LGBTQ youth homelessness, identity-based family rejection is the most commonly cited reason.
The cast of FX’s Pose sat down to make this video for True Colors Day about how we can change our culture to one of love and acceptance.
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.
“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 Postreports 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.
Robert De Niro returned to SNL in his recurring role as special Counsel Robert Mueller for the show’s cold open last night.
In the skit, Mueller – along with Attorney General William Barr (Aidy Bryant) and Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) – played out their separate roles in the release of the report from the Special Counsel.
Each performer offered an introduction at the start of the sketch. De Niro said, “Dear Attorney General Barr, officials from the Justice Department and esteemed members of Congress.”
Bryant said, “Hey, guys, William Barr here. You might want to sit down for this one.”
And Baldwin said, “Guess what? Guess what? Guess what? Daddy is about to freak.”
De Niro: “I am submitting these 380 pages.”
Bryant: “I am writing almost four pages.”
Baldwin: “I am reading zero pages, but Sean Hannity has read it and he was so excited that he texted me an eggplant.”
De Niro: “On the charge of obstruction of justice, we have not drawn a definitive conclusion.”
Bryant: “But I have, and my conclusion is: Trump’s clean as a whistle.”
A new CNN poll conducted by SSRS (March 25-26) found a majority of Americans do not believe Donald Trump and his campaign associates have been exonerated of collusion by the Special Counsel’s report per Attorney General William Barr.
When asked the question “Do You Think The Report Exonerates Trump of Collusion?,” 56% say no while 43% answered yes.
Broken down by political affiliation, Republicans believe their guy (77% vs. 23%) and Democrats do not (80% vs. 19%).
But when it comes to all-important Independent voters, a majority (56% vs. 41%) do not feel Trump has been exonerated.
After nearly two years, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has submitted his report on the Trump campaign and any collusion/coordination with Russia, according to NBC News.
Special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday wrapped up his nearly two-year investigation into Donald Trump and Russia and sent his report to Attorney General Barr.
No details of Mueller’s findings have been released, and it is not clear how soon the public will see them.
The transmission of the report to Barr concludes an investigation that has resulted in the indictments of 34 people, infuriated the president and thrown the administration into turmoil.
The long-awaited development comes almost two years after Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump” and “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.”
“Let it come out, let people see it,” Trump said. “That’s up to the attorney general. We have a very good attorney general, he’s a highly respected man. And we’ll see what happens. But it’s sort of interesting that a man out of the blue just writes a report.”
“But I want to see the report,” he said. “And you know who I want to see it? The tens of millions of people that love the fact that we have the greatest economy we’ve ever had.”
With Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation possibly coming to a close soon, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly (420-0) for a non-binding resolution calling for Mueller’s final report to be provided to Congress and the public.
According to NBC News, the final decision regarding the release of the report will fall to Attorney General William Barr.
Don’t count on the Republican-controlled Senate to take up the resolution anytime soon.
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied to prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about matters close to the heart of their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
The judge’s finding that Manafort, 69, breached his cooperation deal with prosecutors by lying after his guilty plea could add years to his prison sentence and came after a set of sealed court hearings.
Manafort had denied intentionally lying after his plea deal, but U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District found he lied in three of five areas alleged by prosecutors. She said she would factor in his deception on other topics at sentencing March 13.
The special counsel’s office “has established by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant intentionally made multiple false statements to the FBI, [Mueller’s office] and the grand jury concerning matters that were material to the investigation,” Jackson wrote.
This means any leniency for Manafort is out the window as Judge Jackson will take these lies into account when considering sentencing.
CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin said last night 70-year-old Manafort could expect to get 10 years in prison.
