1/ The Manhattan District Attorney subpoenaed eight years of Trump's "personal and corporate tax returns" as part of its investigation into hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. Trump and his company reimbursed Michael Cohen for the $130,000 Cohen he paid Stormy Daniels just before the election to buy her silence about an affair she had with Trump. Cyrus Vance's office is exploring whether the reimbursements violated New York state laws and whether the Trump Organization falsely accounted for the reimbursements as a legal expense. The subpoena was served last month to Mazars USA, which prepares Trump's tax returns. (New York Times / NBC News / CNBC / Axios)
It’s becoming impossible to keep up with the insanity of this Administration. Just hours after Trump said we were “locked and loaded,” Pence’s Chief of Staff, Marc Short told a bald faced lie by claiming that the phrase was not a reference to military action. Say what?! That phrase is clear and unequivocal. It is an aggressive threat of military action. There is no other possible interpretation.
This is exactly why it was so important to call out Trump on his lie about the hurricane that was not headed for Alabama. Now, in a similar fashion, he’s trashing whatever shred of credibility he had left in the international arena – consequently, he is botching a response to an international incident that has us on the brink of war. It’s increasingly apparent to us here at home and to the entire world that he has absolutely no idea what he is doing.
A top White House official is downplaying the threat of imminent action against Iran after President Donald Trump said the U.S. is “locked and loaded” following a drone attack on Saudi Arabia that cut into global energy supplies.
Vice President Mike Pence’s Chief of Staff Marc Short told reporters at the White House Monday that the president’s language is “a reflection” that his administration is advancing policies that protect the U.S. “from these sorts of oil shots.”
Short says: “I think that ‘locked and loaded’ is a broad term that talks about the realities that” the U.S. is “safer and more secure domestically from energy independence.”
And while we’re on the subject of Trump saying things and then claiming he never said them, he tweeted this today: "The Fake News is saying that I am willing to meet with Iran, “No Conditions.” That is an incorrect statement (as usual!)."
Yet here’s video of him saying exactly that:
And here’s a White House transcript from another press briefing where he said the same thing – emphatically.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: … I ended the Iran deal; it was a ridiculous deal. I do believe that they will probably end up wanting to meet, and I’m ready to meet any time they want to. And I don’t do that from strength or from weakness. I think it’s an appropriate thing to do. If we could work something out that’s meaningful, not the waste of paper that the other deal was, I would certainly be willing to meet.
Q Do you have preconditions for that meeting?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No preconditions. No. If they want to meet, I’ll meet. Anytime they want. Anytime they want. It’s good for the country, good for them, good for us, and good for the world. No preconditions. If they want to meet, I’ll meet.
The legal team for Andrew McCabe has asked federal prosecutors in the District whether a grand jury had rejected their bid to indict the FBI’s former acting director on charges of lying to investigators
“It is clear that no indictment has been returned,” the lawyers wrote, citing coverage of the case by The New York Times and The Washington Post. A grand jury hearing evidence that was recalled on Thursday after months of inactivity left for the day without any sign of an indictment, The Post reported. None had emerged on Friday.
Trump hit with a furious backlash for letting the Saudis dictate US foreign policy -
Donald Trump is taking marching orders from Saudi Arabia, said progressive members of Congress and foreign policy analysts, after the president tweeted Sunday that the U.S. military is prepared and waiting for the kingdom to assign blame for attacks on its oil facilities over the weekend.
“There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed,” Trump said.
Karen Attiah, global opinions editor at the Washington Post, called the tweet the “clearest expression of Trump’s ‘Saudi Arabia First’ doctrine yet.”
“The Saudi regime has drained its economy of billions to bombard Yemen for years,” said Attiah. “All there is to show for it is a humanitarian disaster. This is the regime Trump wants to take targeting orders from.”
Both compounds, and at least some of the expelled diplomats, played key roles in a brazen Russian counterintelligence operation that stretched from the Bay Area to the heart of the nation’s capital, according to former U.S. officials. The operation, which targeted FBI communications, hampered the bureau’s ability to track Russian spies on U.S. soil at a time of increasing tension with Moscow, forced the FBI and CIA to cease contact with some of their Russian assets, and prompted tighter security procedures at key U.S. national security facilities in the Washington area and elsewhere, according to former U.S. officials. It even raised concerns among some U.S. officials about a Russian mole within the U.S. intelligence community.
As part of Trump’s ongoing war with car companies and California ever since they embarrassed him and turned down his pollution-favoring emissions rollback, he first opened an anti-trust case into the four car companies involved, and now is trying to take away California’s right to set emissions levels. So much for the vaunted state’s rights the GOP loves to claim it defends.
13 other states follow California’s tighter standards, together representing roughly a third of the U.S. auto market.
If this is substantiated, it is a major black eye for Trump and his supporters. How many times have we heard how easy it is to get an indictment from a Grand Jury? The old saying being, “A Grand Jury will indict a ham sandwich.” Well, evidently, they won’t indict Andrew McCabe because he’s done nothing wrong and is more innocent than a ham sandwich.
If McCabe is indeed not indicted that will totally shred Trump’s argument that he was persecuted by the FBI. I can’t help picturing Barr and Trump scrambling behind the scenes to somehow “fix” this.
