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More on this from WaPo - what the RNC says it is paying for $2 million for over a 2 year period while the Trump group has paid over $5.6 million for a 2 yr period .- 2017 - 2019.
Absolutely does NOT pass the smell test @Keaton_James and feels like yes…
The payment to Washington law firm Jones Day was disclosed in new Federal Election Commission records Monday night, as a part of routine political committee filings made public every month.
The RNC said in a statement that the payment was a bulk billing for two years’ worth of work.
The payments went to Jones Day the same month that the House Judiciary Committee began seeking McGahn’s testimony in connection with its investigation into potential obstruction of justice by Trump. McGahn delivered key testimony on the matter that was documented in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report.
On Tuesday, McGahn was a no-show at a hearing in front of the committee, which had issued a subpoena for him to testify.
Jones Day is the main legal firm for the Trump campaign, which has paid the firm $5.6 million between January 2017 and March 2019 for legal consulting.
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Confidential draft IRS memo says tax returns must be given to Congress unless president invokes executive privilege
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The Justice Department has agreed to hand over counterintelligence findings from the Special Counsel Office to comply with a subpoena from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff after he had schedule a vote for unspecified “enforcement action” against the Justice Department. That vote has been cancelled— speaking with reporters, Schiff said, “[This] does not obviate the need for the subpoena.” He added: “We will keep that in force until we get all the documents we are seeking.”
The House Intelligence Committee chairman said Wednesday that the Justice Department had agreed to begin honoring a subpoena for intelligence materials related to the special counsel’s investigation — a hint of easing tensions between the Trump administration and Congress.
The department could begin handing over counterintelligence and foreign intelligence related documents as soon as this week, the chairman, Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California, said Wednesday morning. The action prompted him to cancel a committee meeting scheduled for later in the day at which Democrats had planned to vote on an unspecified “enforcement action” to increase pressure on the department.
Mr. Schiff’s subpoena is broad, encompassing Robert S. Mueller III’s full report, its underlying evidence and the intelligence-related materials his investigation produced. But in an effort to find an initial compromise, Mr. Schiff said he would accept documents in 12 narrower categories, though he has not specified publicly what they are.
Speaking with reporters a short time later, he said the initial compliance “does not obviate the need for the subpoena.” He added: “We will keep that in force until we get all the documents we are seeking.”
[…]
But the department has stated that it would comply in this way only if the committee did not proceed with the previously scheduled vote on its enforcement action.
“The proposal set forth above represents a good-faith effort and extraordinary accommodation of the committee’s request for information by proposing a realistic process to provide the committee with information pertaining to counterintelligence and foreign-intelligence activities related to the special counsel’s investigation,” Stephen E. Boyd, an assistant attorney general, wrote in the Tuesday letter.
The department said it was also willing to allow all members of the Intelligence Committee to view a limited redacted version of the first volume of Mr. Mueller’s report. It had previously allowed only a handful of lawmakers in both the House and Senate to see those materials.
The House Intelligence Committee is entitled to see everything. This game of “keep away” is childish and will only drag this process out.
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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi emerged from closed meeting of the House Democrats today on impeachment saying, "We believe that no one is above the law, including the President of the United States. And we believe the President of the United States is engaged in a cover-up.” When asked if she felt pressure from democrats to open an impeachment inquiry she replied, “No” and then stated, “we don’t have division.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi emerged from a closed-door meeting with all House Democrats on Wednesday, iincluding a growing number pressuring her to move forward with an impeachment inquiry, saying, "We believe that no one is above the law, including the President of the United States. And we believe the President of the United States is engaged in a cover-up."
She called it a “very productive meeting” but was apparently sticking with her previous strategy of having various Democratic-led committees conduct separate investigations, including the House Judiciary Committee led by Rep. Jerry Nadler, and then deciding later whether the politically-risky move of impeachment was warranted.
"Jerry Nadler spoke in the beginning to give us a context for all of this," she said. "It was a very positive meeting, a respectful sharing of ideas, I think a very impressive presentation by our chairs. We do believe that it is important to follow the facts…"
"We do have our legislative agenda that we are moving forward on," she said.
Despite being faced with frustrated Democrats calling for her to take a harder-line, Pelosi on Tuesday continued to try to deflect the reality that her caucus is beginning to shift toward impeachment, telling ABC News, “No,” when asked if she was under increased pressure to impeach Trump.
"We don’t have division," she told reporters.
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Worth noting that before the Rose Garden briefing today - there stands a very hyper-conflated boast of what the WH says is the public’s view of NO COLLUSION.
This is all out war from the Administration to gain public appeal.
But for us…no words. Just shameful. 
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Trump’s comments below in his Rose Garden delivery…
Philip Rucker Retweeted Felicia Sonmez
“I don’t do cover-ups,” Trump says, making no mention of the hush money payments to a porn star and a Playmate to secure their silence about his affairs in the weeks before 2016 election
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Trump angry 
President Trump abruptly blew up a scheduled meeting with Democratic congressional leaders on Wednesday, lashing out at Speaker Nancy Pelosi for accusing him of a cover-up and declaring that he could not work with them until they stopped investigating him.
He then marched out into the Rose Garden, where reporters had been gathered, and delivered a statement bristling with anger as he demanded that Democrats “get these phony investigations over with.” He said they could not legislate and investigate at the same time. “We’re going to go down one track at a time,” he said.
The dramatic confrontation came on a day when pressure over a possible impeachment effort raised temperatures on both sides of the aisle. Ms. Pelosi arrived at the White House for a session with the president set to talk about infrastructure shortly after meeting with restive House Democrats to talk about impeachment. She emerged from that meeting with Democrats accusing Mr. Trump of a “cover-up.”
When she and Senator Chuck Schumer arrived at the White House, Mr. Trump was loaded for bear. He walked into the room, did not shake anyone’s hand or sit in his seat, according to a Democrat informed about the meeting. He said he wanted to advance legislation on infrastructure, trade and other matters, but that “Speaker Pelosi said something terrible today and accused me of a cover-up,” according to the Democrat.
After just three minutes, he left the room before anyone else could speak, the Democrat said.
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More of same coverage…bullying from the President and an unwillingness to move on working the Dems, in his pursuit to shut down any inquiry into himself, his administration. Shame on him.
Trump says he refuses to work with Democrats until investigations halt
By Kevin Liptak, CNN
Updated 11:57 AM ET, Wed May 22, 2019
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump said in impromptu remarks Wednesday that he told Democrats at the White House he couldn’t work with them while they were pursuing investigations into him and his administration.
The Rose Garden speech came after an abbreviated meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who were there to discuss a bipartisan infrastructure spending package.
"I’ve said from the beginning – right from the beginning – you probably can’t go down two tracks. You can go down the investigation track or you can go down the investment track," Trump said.
He said during the meeting with Democrats that he couldn’t work with them until their investigations are over.
"I walked into the room, and I told Sen. Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, I want to do infrastructure," he said. "But you can’t do it under these circumstances."
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@dragonfly9
I’m all for an impeachment inquiry but watching Nancy drive Trump this crazy is pretty fun.
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She is masterful…gets his goat every time. AND reminds us of the better Presidents, the ones who acted with thoughtfulness and guided our country as opposed to this bozo.
#Shame&GameHim
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She is, she’s playing very close to the vest. But it’s all very normal political maneuvers, she’s putting Trump on the defensive. Once he’s on the defensive, it’ll be easier to make strong offensive moves. We know she can hold the offense. She kinda turned the tide today. 
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Treasury Secretary Testifies on International Financial System
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testified on the international financial system before the House Financial Services Committee.
Watch the hearing 
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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday dismissed an internal IRS memo concluding it is “mandatory” for the IRS to turn over President Donald Trump’s tax returns to Congress unless the president invokes executive privilege.
“I actually don’t believe that’s the case,” he told the House Financial Services Committee at an unrelated hearing where he was repeatedly questioned about his refusal to turn over Trump’s returns. “That memo, I understand, is addressing a different issue, and is not addressing the issue that we and the Department of Justice looked at.”
In rejecting House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal’s (D-Mass.) request for six years’ worth of Trump’s returns, Mnuchin has said that Treasury and Justice have concluded there must be a “legitimate” legislative reason for the request, and that Neal doesn’t have one.
He’s providing misleading statements to congress. There is no actual argument here. Congress will always have a legislative purpose, you can’t just wish that away because you did bad things.
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New York lawmakers gave final passage to legislation Wednesday that would allow President Donald Trump’s state tax returns to be released to congressional committees that have, so far, been barred from getting the president’s federal filings.
The Democrat-led Senate and Assembly both approved the measures Wednesday, sending them to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat. A spokesman has said the governor supports the principle behind the legislation but will review the bill carefully before deciding whether to sign it.
The legislation doesn’t target Trump by name, but it would allow the leaders of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee or the Joint Committee on Taxation to get access to any New York state tax returns filed by elected officials and top appointed officials. The legislation would apply to personal income tax returns, as well as business taxes paid in New York.
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All indications are that he never intended to go through with the meeting; the podium in the Rose Garden had those signs up already, reporters were summoned last minute, and he claimed that his little speech was pre-planned and Democrats purposely re-scheduled their meeting during or right before it, when there is no sign anybody outside the WH knew he planned this.
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Good looks? Um, wut?
Attorney General Bill Barr should resign over his conduct before Congress, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Wednesday, calling the attorney general a “personal attorney” for President Donald Trump.
The California Democrat said he hesitates to "call Bill Barr the Attorney General."
"I think Bill Barr has all the duplicity of Rudy Giuliani without all the good looks and general likability of Rudy Guliani," Schiff said during the Center for American Progress 2019 Ideas Conference Wednesday. "The most dangerous thing, I think, that Bill Barr has done is basically say that a president under investigation can make the investigation go away if he thinks its unfair which, by the way, means the other 14 investigations firmed up through other offices he can also make go away."
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Judge says Deutsche Bank, Capital One can give Trump financial records to House Democrats
A federal judge in New York City on Wednesday said Deutsche Bank and Capitol One can turn over financial documents related to President Donald Trump and his businesses in response to subpoenas from House Democrats.
The judge’s ruling rejected arguments by lawyers for Trump, his three older children, and the Trump Organization that the subpoenas should be quashed.
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Buckle up. Reuters just reported that Deutsche Bank will comply!
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