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turbinetree's JournalTrump's worst legal nightmare isn't Robert Mueller: Meet Letitia James
ALEX HENDERSON, ALTERNET - COMMENTARY
15 DEC 2018 AT 07:42 ET
The blue wave that came with the 2018 midterms was bad for President Donald Trump not only because Democrats obtained a majority in the House of Representatives (with a net gain of 40 seats) and picked up more than 350 seats in state legislatures around the United States—they were also bad for the president because of a Brooklyn native named Letitia James. On November 6, the 60-year-old Democrat was elected attorney general for New York State. And James has made it abundantly clear that after she starts her new job in January, she will launch comprehensive investigations of Trump, his family and his business associates.
In 2019, Trump’s legal headaches at the federal level will include Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing Russiagate investigation, the investigations of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the new Democratic House of Representatives—which will be able to launch all kinds of investigative committees and subpoenas. But the election of James in November presents a different type of legal headache for Trump, his family and his associates: one at the state level.
As president of the United States, Trump enjoys certain executive powers—including the power to issue pardons for federal crimes. The people Trump has pardoned so far at the federal level range from Scooter Libby to former Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt for his unconstitutional tactics against undocumented immigrants. But the key word with the Libby and Arpaio pardons is “federal”: Trump had the power to pardon them for federal crimes—and he has the power to grant Paul Manafort (his former campaign manager) a presidential pardon for tax fraud, bank fraud and all the other crimes he has been convicted of. But Trump does not have the power to issue presidential pardons for criminal convictions in individual states, including any that might come about in 2019 in New York State. And James obviously plans to keep her staff very busy next year.
James, in a recent interview with NBC News, was quite specific about the things she plans to investigate—including whether or not Trump’s business interests in New York City represent a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s emoluments clause, which restricts presidents and other federal politicians from receiving gifts or payments from foreign powers (for example, the Russian government).
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/trumps-worst-legal-nightmare-isnt-robert-mueller-meet-letitia-james/
Nunes Attacks FBI Over Flynn Guilty Plea: 'It Was Nothing Short Of Entrapment'
By Caitlin MacNeal
December 14, 2018 5:24 pm
Outgoing House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) on Friday claimed that federal investigators “entrapped” former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, echoing a pre-sentencing memo from Flynn’s lawyers arguing that he was somehow tricked by the FBI officials who questioned him in January 2017.
“It was nothing short of entrapment,” Nunes told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto.
Lawyers for special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday pushed back on the arguments made by Flynn’s lawyer, telling the judge overseeing Flynn’s sentencing that the former national security adviser was well aware of the consequences of lying to the FBI. Cavuto noted this to Nunes and asked if he really believed the FBI somehow prompted Flynn to lie.
Nunes replied that he had been briefed on the issue and continued to attack the FBI, something Nunes is notorious for.
“This is an embarrassment for our country,” he said, adding that Flynn’s chats with the Russian ambassador was “exactly what he’s supposed to be doing.”
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/nunes-flynn-entrapment-fbi
Hey, Nunes..................do you know what aiding and abetting means in criminal law..................in a crime, have you ever thought about that....................because I firmly believe that you are a fucking criminal who aided and abetted in cover-up and crime to hurt this country........................
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2
November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough..............................
Sally Yates Was 'Not Happy' About The FBI's Move To Interview Mike Flynn
By Tierney Sneed
December 14, 2018 4:55 pm
President Trump was too busy directing workers where to place art in the West Wing on Jan. 24, 2017 to notice the two FBI agents walking by whose impending interview of his national security advisor was about to dog his presidency for years.
That, and other details about the fateful day that Michael Flynn lied to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador, were revealed in a court filing Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Before the FBI sat down with Flynn, he had given false accounts of the conversations with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to top administration officials, who in turn repeated it to the media, Mueller pointed out.
Nevertheless, then-Acting Attorney General Sally Yates was reportedly “not happy” about the plan to interview Flynn about the Kislyak discussion, which took place during the presidential transition.
According to notes from a July 2017 FBI interview with Peter Strzok — the lead FBI agent who interviewed Flynn and who later got kicked off the Russia probe for anti-Trump texts — then-FBI Director James Comey was only going to tell Yates right before the interview about the plan, though he ended up telling her a little earlier when she called him about another matter.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/sally-yates-was-not-happy-about-the-fbis-move-to-interview-mike-flynn
-snip-
"Regardless, it was Yates — accompanied by then-Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord — who traveled to the White House two days later to inform the White House that Flynn had made false statements to the FBI. Yates met with then-White House Counsel Don McGahn the following day to discuss the matter again, she later testified in front of Congress, and on Jan. 30, she called McGahn to invite him to the Justice Department to review the underlying evidence showing Flynn had made false statements. McGahn never made the trip, and Yates was soon fired for refusing to defend in court Trump’s travel ban."
What I find striking is that this Federalist Society asshole, McGahn, he was being asked to review the information................he needs to be brought before Congress....................I don't trust him with anything.................he knows, in my opinion, he knows, even if he did 30 hours of talks...................he knows......he really is a sleazeball......
https://ballotpedia.org/Donald_McGahn
MI Gov Signs Laws Limiting Citizen-Led Minimum Wage, Sick Leave Initiatives
Source: Talking Points Memo
By DAVID EGGERT
December 14, 2018 3:44 pm
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Rick Snyder on Friday signed laws to significantly scale back citizen-initiated measures to raise Michigan’s minimum wage and require paid sick leave for workers, finalizing an unprecedented Republican-backed legislative maneuver that opponents blasted as shameful.
To prevent minimum wage and earned sick time initiatives from going to voters last month, GOP lawmakers approved them in September so they could be more easily altered after the election with simple majority votes rather than the three-fourths support that would have been needed if voters had passed the proposals.
The tactic — never done until now — was pushed by the business community as necessary to avoid jeopardizing the economy. But it was criticized as an unconstitutional attack on voters’ will at a time Republicans in Michigan are trying to dilute the powers of incoming elected Democrats.
In another Midwest state, GOP Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Friday signed a sweeping package of legislation that restricts early voting and weakens the Democratic governor and attorney general.
Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/michigan-governor-snyder-scales-back-minimum-wage-paid-sick-citizen-initiatives
This right wing fucking asshole should be indicted for conspiracy for what he and his fucking Koch backed lackeys have done to Flint, and then charged with premeditated murder for those people that died because of this poisoning.................no if's or and's about it.............I really do hate right wing backed libertarian Koch backed fascist .....................
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/flint-water-crisis-deaths-likely-surpass-official-toll/
Graham: Campaign Finance Violations Have Never Been Used For Impeachment!
Source: Talking Points Memo
By David Taintor
December 14, 2018 4:42 pm
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a staunch supporter of President Trump, said Friday that Trump directing Michael Cohen to make hush-money payments could represent a campaign finance violation "in theory." But he cautioned Democrats against crying impeachment.
"Campaign finance violations have never been used to impeach anybody," Graham told Neil Cavuto on Fox News.
"If you think that this is worthy of impeachment in the House, go ahead," Graham said. "I think most Americans probably won't agree with you."
Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/lindsey-graham-trump-impeachment-campaign-finance
Well asshole.....................Nixon had a slush fund from campaign funds, and you trying to bull shit about this, well, it's bull shit and a fucking lie.......... and you should be called out for this lie..................so fuck you......................... he got pardoned before he could be fucking indicted............................
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/12/09/archives/nixons-taped-remarks-onapparent-slush-fund-called-key-evidence-in.html
https://www.cnn.com/2012/02/04/politics/watergate-reform/index.html
November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough.........................
70% of the new House Democrats had never held public office before being elected to Congress
Look at the new House majority if you need more motivation to run for something.
FRANK DALE
DEC 14, 2018, 12:01 PM
The 2016 election was a dire moment for the Democratic Party. As if President Donald Trump‘s stunning win — facilitated by a margin of approximately 75,000 votes in three states — wasn’t bad enough, Democrats were also left with their lowest level of congressional representation in nearly a century.
And at the time of Trump’s inaugural, many of the party’s most prominent leaders were approaching, or already over, 70 years of age: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is 78, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is 68, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — who is independent but caucuses with Democrats — is 77, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is 69.
Experience counts for a lot in Congress, but political careers do not last forever. Even as she awaits the return of the Speaker’s gavel, Pelosi has agreed to step down as Speaker in 2022, should her party remain in power. So in many significant ways, the Democratic Party in Washington has to face decisions about the future of its party and building out a bench with a new generation of leaders.
But in the aftermath of Trump’s win, that bench-building effort got a considerable boost, beginning with a number of groups that sprung up with a similar guiding principle: Encouraging ambitious progressives to make their first run for office. Run For Something, perhaps the most notable example, launched with a focus on “down-ballot races in order to build a bench for the future.”
https://thinkprogress.org/house-democrats-congress-2018-midterm-elections-public-office-donald-trump-run-for-something-9a1579b496a7/
We have got your back....................protect ours...................
The man behind one of the most controversial Congressional trips this decade finally pleads guilty
Source: Talking Points Memo
Kemal Oksuz finally admits that he covered up the trip's foreign funding.
CASEY MICHEL
DEC 14, 2018, 3:04 PM
A former head of a Texas nonprofit pleaded guilty this week to concealing the funding behind a scandal-plagued Congressional trip to Azerbaijan in 2013.
Dozens of representatives and staffers traveled in luxury throughout their visit to Azerbaijan, all of which was secretly funded by the Azeri government’s state-run oil firm. Between the lavish gifts — including thousand-dollar rugs, crystal tea sets, and DVDs featuring Azerbaijan’s dictator — and the subsequent attempts to cover up the Azeri government’s funding, the trip was easily one of the most controversial foreign junkets of the past decade.
The trip also became a case study in how foreign governments seek to influence American legislators without disclosing their role, including using nonprofits to mask the actual funding, and then lying about who is bankrolling the travel.
This week, Kemal Oksuz, the nominal organizer of the trip, admitted that he had worked to conceal the source of funding from the House Ethics Committee. Oksuz, who was recently extradited from Armenia back to the U.S., pleaded guilty to “devising a scheme to falsify, conceal and cover up material facts from the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ethics,” according to a statement from the Department of Justice.
As investigators determined, Oksuz blatantly lied about the source of the trip’s funding. Oksuz claimed that the trip was funded by his Houston-based nonprofit, called the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians (TCAE). In reality, the source of the funding was SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-run energy firm.
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/mastermind-behind-controversial-congressional-trip-to-azerbaijan-pleads-guilty-937ab10a0922/
-snip-
The affair also highlighted how easily it is for foreign governments to funnel funding via 501(c)(3) charitable organizations in the U.S. without any requisite disclosure. As the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project noted, Oksuz used a network of other nonprofit organizations to further obscure the ultimate source of the funding. (One Azeri representative offered free airfare and lodging to this reporter to cover the 2013 trip, so long nothing “negative” was written “about Azerbaijan.” This reporter declined the offer.)
As one of the heads of one of the nonprofits involved said when asked by investigators whether statements about funding were untruthful, “I mean, to be honest, it seems… like so, yes. I mean, we didn’t accept it maybe, but yes we did. What can I say?”
This is why Citizens United and other forms of this shit should be eliminated...............
Exclusive: Paul Manafort advised White House on how to attack and discredit investigation of Preside
We now have details as to how the indicted former campaign manager worked with the president to undermine federal law enforcement.
By Murray Waas Dec 14, 2018, 11:15am EST
Paul Manafort, who served as the manager for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, provided advice to the president and senior White House officials on the FBI’s Russia investigation during the earliest days of the Trump administration. He gave guidance on how to undermine and discredit the FBI’s inquiry into whether the president, his campaign aides, and family members conspired with the Russian Federation and its intelligence services to covertly defeat Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, according to government records and interviews with individuals familiar with the matter. Manafort himself was under criminal investigation by the FBI during this same time, a fact then known to the White House.
Last Friday, special counsel Robert Mueller alleged in court filings that Manafort told “multiple discernible lies” to FBI agents and prosecutors, in violation of the cooperation agreement between Manafort and the special counsel’s office. Among those, Mueller charged, were lies by Manafort to investigators that he had not been in contact with anyone in the White House.
“After signing the plea agreement, Manafort stated he had no direct or indirect communications with anyone in the administration while they were in the administration,” the special counsel said in a court pleading, “and that he never asked anyone to try and communicate a message to anyone in the administration on any subject.” Citing text messages, Manafort’s electronic records, and witness interviews, the special counsel wrote: “The evidence demonstrates that Manafort lied about his contacts.”
Those contacts continued after Trump and his associates knew that Manafort was under investigation by the FBI; after he was indicted by two federal grand juries on more than two dozen felony counts of money laundering, bank fraud, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice; and after having been convicted by a federal jury of 10 of those felonies while awaiting trial on other charges. And now we have learned, thanks to reports from the New York Times and other media outlets, that those contacts continued (through Manafort’s attorney) even after Manafort became a cooperating witness against the president. The court filings, however, did not disclose any information regarding the subjects of the contacts between Manafort and the White House.
Manafort advised administration officials in the spring and summer of 2017 on how to politically undermine the FBI and Mueller investigation in three ways, according to government records and interviews with three people with knowledge of the contacts. He also gave them advice on how some of the witnesses against both him and the president might be discredited. In short, Manafort and Trump were working together to discredit the investigators as well as potential witnesses.
https://www.vox.com/2018/12/14/18140744/paul-manafort-trump-russia-mueller-investigation
This fucker really should be charged with treason and his enablers............seriously
Vox: Manafort Allegedly Guided White House On How To Discredit Russia Probe
Source: Talking Points Memo
By Allegra Kirkland
December 14, 2018 1:08 pm
In the days after President Trump took office, Paul Manafort allegedly guided the administration on how to undermine and thwart the FBI probe into Russia’s election interference in the 2016 campaign, Vox reported Friday.
Citing government records and “interviews with individuals familiar with the matter,” Vox reported that the former Trump campaign chairman was providing this advice while both he and the White House knew Manafort was personally under FBI investigation. Contact between the two parties continued through this year, according to court filings from special counsel Robert Mueller.
Mueller has alleged that Manafort violated his cooperation agreement by lying in their interviews about an array of subjects, including his ongoing contacts with the Trump administration.
Per Vox, the advice that Manafort offered closely aligned with the attack lines that Trump and his backers ended up adopting.
A “person familiar with the advice” told Vox that Manafort instructed the President to aggressively attack the legitimacy of the FBI, the Justice Department and the Steele dossier.
Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/report-manafort-guided-white-house-how-discredit-russia-probe
I seriously think that the Ukrainian government and this government should try this person with treason.................
Trump's Inauguration Paid Trump's Company -- With Ivanka In The Middle
By Ilya Marrit ProPublica and Justin Elliott ProPUblica
December 14, 2018 2:39 pm
As the inaugural committee planned the landmark celebration, internal concerns were raised about whether Trump’s Washington hotel was overcharging for event space. The spending could be a violation of the law.
When it came out this year that President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee raised and spent unprecedented amounts, people wondered where all that money went.
It turns out one beneficiary was Trump himself.
The inauguration paid the Trump Organization for rooms, meals and event space at the company’s Washington hotel, according to interviews as well as internal emails and receipts reviewed by WNYC and ProPublica.
During the planning, Ivanka Trump, the president-elect’s eldest daughter and a senior executive with the Trump Organization, was involved in negotiating the price the hotel charged the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee for venue rentals. A top inaugural planner emailed Ivanka and others at the company to “express my concern” that the hotel was overcharging for its event spaces, worrying of what would happen “when this is audited.”
If the Trump hotel charged more than the going rate for the venues, it could violate tax law. The inaugural committee’s payments to the Trump Organization and Ivanka Trump’s role have not been previously reported or disclosed in public filings.
“The fact that the inaugural committee did business with the Trump Organization raises huge ethical questions about the potential for undue enrichment,” said Marcus Owens, the former head of the division of the Internal Revenue Service that oversees nonprofits.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-inauguration-paid-company-ivanka
Embezzlement is still embezzlement ................
LOCK HER UP....................
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