WTF Community

Day 854

General Discussion
#1

1/ A ten-year-old girl died in September 2018 while in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. She was the first of six migrant children that have died while detained by U.S. authorities. Rep. Joaquin Castro accused the Trump administration of concealing the girl's death from the public. "I have not seen any indication that the Trump administration disclosed the death of this young girl to the public or even to Congress," Castro said. "And if that's the case, they covered up her death for eight months, even though we were actively asking the question about whether any child had died or been seriously injured. We began asking that question last fall." (CBS News)

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/05/23/day-854/
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#2

More charges stemming from the quid pro quo (I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine) philosophy with Manafort getting $16 million in loans from banker Stephen Calk who was hoping for a big post. Calk indicted today.

Stephen Calk, a former economic adviser to President Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was indicted Thursday for allegedly approving $16 million in loans to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in exchange for his help seeking a top post in the administration.

Calk, the founder of mortgage lender Federal Savings Bank of Chicago, illegally used the bank’s resources to curry favor with Manafort, ignoring internal standards and lying to regulators, according to the indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York.

Calk gave Manafort a list ranking the administrative jobs he wanted, starting with Treasury Secretary, the indictment alleges. The list also included 19 ambassadorships, including to the United Kingdom, according to the indictment.

Calk ultimately was interviewed as a candidate for undersecretary of the Army but didn’t get the job, prosecutors said.

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#3

Pelosi’s news conference this am she made remarks about T (“he flipped”) is a direct reference to the 25th Amendment…:boom:

She is either baiting him or sending out a warning signal to all the reticent, yet all-seeing parties (R, Family, MAGA’s) that he is not right.

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#4

Amash is tweeting again. Click link to read the whole thread :point_down:

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#5
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#6

This headline says it all.

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#7

All sorts of Red Flags on the Espionage Act and Assange because of the direct effect it will have on all journalists. It creates a precedent to say any leaked classified information may not be published and that journalists with ANY organization can be indicted as well.

See thread

1/Assange thread I despise Julian Assange. I cannot stand him. However, the superseding indictment brought by DOJ is terrifying in terms of constitutional implications for every single media outlet - no matter its ideological bent or size - that has ever published or would ever

2/publish leaked classified information. If DOJ can win this case against Assange, and they can get established precedent for the idea that the Government decides who is and is not a journalist for purposes of the Espionage Act, it will threaten the very foundation of the free

3/ press. This is the case the Obama team wasn’t willing to make due to fears about constitutional ramifications. Trump’s team is apparently willing to make the argument. You have to wonder why, don’t you? So thanks a lot, @ realDonaldTrump , because now I have to defend Assange

4/ and say that these new charges are unconstitutional. And I really don’t look forward to making that statement. /end

@ BradMossEsq

National security lawyer, lawful transparency and whistleblower advocate, and “Father of Daughters”. Occasional media commentator. ProtonMail & Signal available

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#8

Infuriating…and another ‘above the law’ type scenario. T’s group (Jared, Pompeo) all gung ho about selling arms to the Saudi’s and Unite Arab Emirates outside of approval from Congress. That’s what T Administration does though…do exactly what they want.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is preparing to circumvent Congress to allow the export to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of billions of dollars worth of munitions that are now on hold, according to current and former American officials and legislators familiar with the plan.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other senior aides are pushing for the administration to invoke an emergency provision that would allow President Trump to prevent Congress from halting the sales, worth about $7 billion. The transactions, which include precision-guided munitions and combat aircraft, would infuriate lawmakers in both parties.

**They would also further inflame tensions between the United States and Iran, which views Saudi Arabia as its main rival and has been supporting the Houthi** rebels in Yemen in their campaign against a Saudi-led military coalition that includes the United Arab Emirates.

American legislators from both parties remain incensed by the Trump administration’s equivocal response to the grisly killing last October by Saudi agents of [Jamal Khashoggi](The Jamal Khashoggi Case: Suspects Had Ties to Saudi Crown Prince - The New York Times), a Washington Post columnist and Virginia resident. They are also frustrated by the administration’s role in supporting the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemen war, a four-year conflict that the United Nations has deemed the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with thousands of civilians killed and millions suffering from famine.

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#9

WSJ comes in close 2nd in the category of best headline of the day.

“I’m an extremely stable genius,” Mr. Trump told reporters.

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#10

This is a big deal.

President Trump took extraordinary steps on Thursday to give Attorney General William P. Barr sweeping new authorities to conduct a review into how the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia were investigated, significantly escalating the administration’s efforts to place those who investigated the campaign under scrutiny.

In a directive, Mr. Trump ordered the C.I.A. and the country’s 15 other intelligence agencies to cooperate with the review and granted Mr. Barr the authority to unilaterally declassify their documents. The move gave Mr. Barr immense leverage over the intelligence community and enormous power over what the public learns about the roots of the Russia investigation.

The order is a change for Mr. Trump, who last year dropped a plan to release documentsrelated to the Russia investigation amid concerns from Justice Department officials who said making them public could damage national security. At the time, Mr. Trump was being encouraged by a group of Republican Congress members to declassify the information.

One official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters, said previously that Mr. Barr wanted to know more about what foreign assets the C.I.A. had in Russia in 2016 and what those informants were telling the agency about how President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia sought to meddle in the 2016 election.

Mr. Barr, who has used the word “spying” to describe how the Trump campaign was investigated, has been deeply involved in the department’s review of how the intelligence was collected on it. Mr. Barr has told Congress that he personally authorized the review. While he has asked John H. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, to spearhead it, a Justice Department official said that Mr. Barr has personally met with the heads of the intelligence agencies to discuss the review and that the project is a top priority after the rollout of the Mueller investigation.

The C.I.A. on Thursday referred questions to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. A spokesman for the office did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The directive is likely to irk the intelligence community, which has long prized its ability to determine what information about its operations can be released to the public.

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#11

:pushpin: Day 612: As Bad As She Says

5/ Trump reversed his demand to immediately declassify documents related to the Russia investigation , including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court application to wiretap Carter Page. Less than a week later, Trump tweeted that the Justice Department inspector general would instead review the documents, adding that he “can always declassify if it proves necessary.” Trump said that while DOJ officials told him the “declassification” of documents “may have a perceived negative impact on the Russia probe,” he received calls from “key Allies,” who asked him not to release the documents. (Washington Post / New York Times / CNN)

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#12

This should surprise no one…T’s patriotism remains with his donors.

President Trump has personally and repeatedly urged the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to award a border wall contract to a North Dakota construction firm whose top executive is a GOP donor and frequent guest on Fox News, according to four administration officials.

In phone calls, White House meetings and conversations aboard Air Force One during the past several months, Trump has aggressively pushed Dickinson, N.D.-based Fisher Industries to Department of Homeland Security leaders and Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, the commanding general of the Army Corps, according to the administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal discussions. The push for a specific company has alarmed military commanders and DHS officials.
>
Semonite was summoned to the White House again Thursday, after the president’s aides told Pentagon officials — including Gen. Mark Milley, the Army’s chief of staff — that the president wanted to discuss the border barrier. According to an administration official with knowledge of the Oval Office meeting, Trump immediately brought up Fisher, a company that sued the U.S. government last month after the Army Corps did not accept its bid to install barriers along the southern border, a contract potentially worth billions of dollars.

Trump has latched on to the company’s public claims that a new weathered steel design and innovative construction method would vastly speed up the project — and deliver it at far less cost to taxpayers. White House officials said Trump wants to go with the best and most cost-effective option to build the wall quickly.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/he-always-brings-them-up-trump-tries-to-steer-border-wall-deal-to-north-dakota-firm/2019/05/23/92d3858c-7b30-11e9-8bb7-0fc796cf2ec0_story.html?utm_term=.48b0f10369b2

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#13

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