The Serious Side - part 6

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6050963/2-ferry-workers-suspended-week-pro-Trump-flag.html

[size=34]North Carolina ferry captain and crew member are suspended for hoisting 'Trump 2020' flag on state-owned boat[/size]

• Catherine Mitchell, a passenger on the MV Frisco ferry, took a picture of the 'Trump 2020' flag flying below the U.S. flag on July 26
  
  
• A captain and crew member were found to have hoisted the flag as the boat traveled from Hatteras to Ocracoke
  
  
• They were suspended for 'unacceptable personal conduct,' North Carolina Department of Transportation's Ferry Division spokesman Tim Hass said
  
  
• He did not release the names of the employees suspended for a week
  
  
• NC General Statute futher clarifies that employees working for the state can't use money, supplies or vehicles for politics 
  
  

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 15:58 EDT, 11 August 2018 | UPDATED: 01:56 EDT, 12 August 2018

    


Officials with North Carolina's ferry system have suspended a boat captain and crew member for a week after they hoisted a flag supporting President Donald Trump's re-election on a state-owned ship.
Catherine Mitchell, a passenger on the MV Frisco ferry, took a picture of the 'Trump 2020' flag flying below the U.S. flag and even with the North Carolina flag and posted it to Facebook on July 26.
The suspensions given were for 'unacceptable personal conduct,' North Carolina Department of Transportation's Ferry Division spokesman Tim Hass said on Friday to The Charlotte Observer.  


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Catherine Mitchell, a passenger on the MV Frisco ferry, took a picture of the 'Trump 2020' flag flying below the U.S. flag on July 26
NC General Statute futher clarifies that employees working for the state can't use money, supplies or vehicles 'to secure support for or oppose any candidate, party, or issue in an election involving candidates for office or party nominations'



Hass told media outlets that putting campaign material on a state-owned vessel is not appropriate. He did not release the names of the employees suspended for a week.
He plans to check with state officials to determine whether it is legal to release the names. 


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A captain and crew member were found to have hoisted the flag as the boat traveled from Hatteras to Ocracoke


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They were suspended for 'unacceptable personal conduct,' North Carolina Department of Transportation's Ferry Division spokesman Tim Hass said. Hass told media outlets that putting campaign material on a state-owned vessel is not appropriate
Hass says the flag was only up for one run on the Outer Banks ferry. It was flown as the boat traveled from Hatteras to Ocracoke. 
NC Ferry Division and NC Department of Transportation's Employee Relations Divisions investigated the matter and came to the suspension conclusion. 
It began after Mitchell's photo quickly gained traction. 
'I love our ferries. I love our ferry personnel. This does not make me happy,' Mitchell's post said, according to the The News & Observer. 'I'm sorry, but is this legal? How would the person who flew this flag feel about a Hillary Clinton flag instead? I thought that government services were supposed to serve everyone and not be political.'

Stupid men. Smart woman. Appropriate action taken.

Very scary stuff here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-45154497/hacking-the-us-mid-terms-it-s-child-s-play

As long as the Republicans think the hacking will benefit them they will do nothing to stop it. That's what's really scary - that we have a government filled with such bottom-feeders that they would sell their country's future for personal gain. Disgusting!

A senator from Florida has stated that the Russians have already hacked into some of the counties’ voting system this year.  The Governor of Florida who happens to be a strong Trump supporter claims that isn’t true.  Supposedly the Russians did try to infiltrate the Florida voting apparatus back in 2016.  Not sure how successful they were.

It is clearly in the Republicans interest not to admit that hacking is taking place this year.  Unless the Russians have made a 360 degree turnaround and want to get Democrats elected to create more chaos in our democracy.  Highly unlikely but can’t rule out anything these days!

Mm. Interesting that the Republicans stopped the funding for updating the electoral process in July..........

https://www.apnews.com/6580a9fdf5364b46be462d73ed0c5422

PAN - Not so interesting when you consider that they still have trouble even admitting that Russia interfered in the election - and even if they do admit it, they say it wasn't to help any one party or that it really had no effect. - Right! And I'm, the pope.

This is all predictable. The Republicans are trying their damnedest to hold onto their seats at least through the next election cycle.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6052457/White-supremacists-arrive-Washington-far-right-rally.html

[size=34]Thousands of counter-protesters dwarf just 20 white supremacists who marched through Washington DC under police protection before they called off the far-right rally because of RAIN[/size]

• Twenty white supremacists marched through Washington in Unite the Right 2 rally on Sunday afternoon
  
  
• But they were vastly outnumbered by thousands of counter-protesters who gathered to shout them down 
  
  
• March was organised by Jason Kessler on the first anniversary of the deadly gathering in Charlottesville
  
  
• Rally ended hours before scheduled finish time after heavy rain saw white supremacists driven away in vans
  
  

By AFP and REUTERS and CHRIS PLEASANCE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 10:18 EDT, 12 August 2018 | UPDATED: 07:56 EDT, 13 August 2018

    


Twenty white supremacists marched through Washington DC on Sunday but were vastly outnumbered by thousands of counter-protesters in a rally on the first anniversary of the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Jason Kessler, who organized last year's 'Unite the Right' rally, led the small group of activists through the streets of DC holding an American flag in his hands after police reportedly confiscated the pole - concerned that it could be used as a weapon.
They marched through the streets of the capital surrounded by a ring of cops.
But his group was vastly outnumbered by thousands of counter-protesters as he made his way to Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House, while surrounded by police. 

Scroll down for video  


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Just 20 white supremacist protesters marched through Washington DC on Sunday while surrounded by police as thousands of counter-demonstrators turned out to shout them down


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The march was organised by Jason Kessler (pictured center, holding a flag) on the first anniversary of the deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which he also led


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The marchers (pictured) were escorted under heavy police guard to Lafayette square, opposite the White House, where they staged their demonstration 'to stand up for free speech'


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Many counter-demonstrators held up signs bearing the name Heather Heyer, the woman killed as she marched with Black Lives Matter protesters when James FIelds Jr drove his car into the crowd


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The white supremacist marchers were vastly outnumbered by counter-demonstrators in Washington DC on Sunday


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Counter-demonstrators shouted 'shame' and 'get out of my city' as the white supremacists arrived. Kessler had originally tried to organize another event in Charlottesville, but was blocked from doing so


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Anti-fascist protesters, often known as antifa, were among the crowds which gathered on Sunday


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Black Lives Matter activists joined the counter-demonstrations, having also marched against the original Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville


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Counter-demonstrators chant slogans and wave banners during the Unite the Right 2 rally in Washington on Sunday


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A counter-protester waves a sign reading GTFO - or 'get the f** out' - Nazi scum during the far-right rally on Sunday


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Far-right marchers dissipated hours ahead of the scheduled march finish time after heavy rain saw them driven back to the Metro station in police vans


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A white supremacist marcher wears a Donald Trump cap and Make America Great Again shirt during the rally. Mr Trump issued a tweet on Sunday condemning 'all types of racism and acts of violence'
Earlier in the day officers had closed part of Vienna station to the public and cordoned off a subway car so that Kessler and his entourage could get to the protest site.
Washington police closed streets and threw a ring of steel across a park where the rally was held to keep the demonstrators and counter-protesters apart.
The day appeared to end without major incident, though officers used pepper spray on anti-fascists a few blocks from the White House.
The tiny group of demonstrators trickled in from nearby Vienna, Virginia under heavy police escort at Washington's Foggy Bottom Metro station - and were met by hundreds of counter-protesters screaming 'Shame!' and 'Get out of my city!'
Most of the demonstrators wore masks, prompting counter-protesters to taunt them as cowards.
Heavy rain helped bring the so-called 'Unite the Right 2' demo to an early end, hours before the scheduled finish of what had been billed as a 'white civil rights rally' protesting, among other things, the social media shut down of some voices on the extreme right. 


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Unite the Rite organizer, Jason Kessler (pictured) was spotted arriving at the Vienna station ahead of the protests


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Kessler, the principal organizer of last year's 'Unite the Right' event was seen arriving at the Vienna Metro Station with his entourage Sunday afternoon


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Kessler, who abandoned his bid to stage a similar anniversary event in Charlottesville, told local news outlets that Unite the Rite 2 demonstrators are there to 'stand up for free speech, which has really been in danger over the last year since Charlottesville'. Officers are seen blocking off the entrance of the Vienna Metro station in DC 


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Washington's Metro closed its Vienna station north gates to the public Sunday afternoon. Fairfax police said they were only opening the gates for Unite The Rite 2 protesters, according to local reports


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Police out in full force as they gear up for the White Supremacist rally in Washington,DC


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Police escort far-right demonstrators during a rally at Lafayette Park opposite the White House on Sunday 


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Police surround demonstrators participating at a white nationalist-led rally marking the one year anniversary of the 2017 Charlottesville riots

Kessler, who abandoned his bid to stage a similar anniversary event in Charlottesville, told local news outlets that Unite the Rite 2 demonstrators are there to 'stand up for free speech, which has really been in danger over the last year since Charlottesville'. 
After marching to Lafayette Square in front of the White House, the group was driven in police vans back to a different Metro station outside of Washington.
'Behold the master race,' one counter-protester mockingly yelled.
By the end of the day, only six individuals remained, protected from angry counter-protesters by a ring of police officers.
'The US is for all of us, NOT just some of us,' one counter-protester sign read, while another said, 'Fighting Nazis: An American Tradition.'
One year ago torch-bearing white supremacists in the first 'United the Right' event marched through Charlottesville, Virginia in two days of chaos, chanting slogans such as 'Blood and Soil' - the English version of a Nazi chant - and 'White Lives Matter.'
That event culminated with a man driving a car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. 


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Several demonstrations by counterprotesters, who outnumbered the white nationalists, were held nearby 


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Counterprotesters gather at Freedom Plaza ahead of the Unite the Right rally in Lafayette Park across from the White House 


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Authorities promised an enormous police presence to keep both sides apart and avoid the street brawls that broke out last year in downtown Charlottesville


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Police officers arrived to the Vienna Metro Station with their riot gear ahead of the protests on Sunday


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Groups protest in Freedom Plaza with the US Capitol in the background, on the one year anniversary of Charlottesville's 'Unite the Right' rally


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Counterprotesters march in front of white nationalists being escorted by police to a rally set to begin at 5.30pm near the White House 


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It's believed that this may be the first time DC's Metro system allowed a white supremacist, his entourage and security to privately board a train. Kessler is seen on the train 


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A 'White Lives Matter' supporter and his fellow white supremacists gather outside the Vienna. Kessler is seen on the train


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People gather on Freedom Plaza to join a counterprotest to the Unite the Right rally in Washington, DC. One protester was seen holding a sign that read: 'Stop pretending your racism is patriotism'


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Hundreds of people held signs of protest as they gathered on Freedom Plaza. This woman's sign reads: 'No shirt, no shoes, no nazis'


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A man holds a banner as people gather at Freedom Plaza to protest the white supremacist Unite the Right rally held in front of the White House on the one-year anniversary of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville
Some of the white demonstrators in Charlottesville carried guns, including assault rifles, but all firearms were barred from Sunday's rally.
On Sunday the demonstrator chants, if any, were drowned out by the counter-protesters. 
Kessler told reporters that he was not a white supremacist but a 'civil rights advocate for white people' and wanted to 'tell the truth about Charlottesville,' which he claimed was 'sabotaged' by city officials.
In a video posted on the Politico website, Kessler said that many sympathizers failed to show up because they were 'terrified that they are going to be attacked' by counter-demonstrators. 
'It would be a major mistake if we allowed fascists to just walk into the nation's capital and go in unopposed,' said Kei Pritsker, 22, a volunteer with the Answer Coalition that organized the counter-protest.
The white supremacist movement is enjoying a sense of empowerment under President Donald Trump, Pritsker said.
Trump drew broad criticism immediately after last year's Charlottesville clashes when he appeared reluctant to condemn the extreme right-wingers - many of whom have rallied behind him since his election.
The President drew widespread criticism when he said there were 'very fine people' on both sides of the rally in Charlottesville. 
On Saturday, Trump issued a condemnation of 'all types of racism and acts of violence' via Twitter. 










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Susan Bro, the mother of Heather Heyer, is embraced at the site where her daughter was killed, on the one year anniversary of 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Rite protests


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Several people hugged Bro who spoke about remembering her daughter a year after her tragic death 


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Hundreds of demonstrators (pictured) took to the streets of Washington, DC, to make a stand against racism 


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Heather Heyer (left), was killed when an Ohio man, James Fields (right), drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters


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This silver Dodge Charger was allegedly driven by James Alex Fields Jr into a crowd of counterprotesters on Water Street on August 12, 2017  


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Counter-demonstrators begin to assemble in Lafayette Park rally across from the White House ahead of the planned white supremacist Unite the Right rally


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City worker Kenneth Keeles removes newspaper boxes from a street corner ahead of a white supremacists, neo-Nazis, members of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups gathering for the Unite the Right rally in Lafayette Park across from the White House
'The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division. We must come together as a nation,' the president tweeted. 
'I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!' he added. 
Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to Trump, said on Sunday that the media was 'just not covering' the president's repeated denunciations of white nationalists.
'He's calling for unity among all Americans and he denounced all forms of bigotry and acts of violence and racism,' Conway said on ABC's 'This Week.'
Democratic US Representative Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said Trump was not doing enough to disavow racists.
'He has not gone far enough,' Cummings said on ABC. 
'I think it's a low bar for the president of the United States to simply say he's against racism. He's got to do better than that. He's got to address the people who are spouting racist-type comments and do racial, racist-type acts.'
In Washington on Saturday evening, nearly two dozen police officers patrolled Lafayette Square, where members of the Washington chapter of Black Lives Matter were sprinkled through the park, seemingly standing on guard.
Organizers of #OccupyLafayettePark, a civil rights group that holds nightly protests in the square, held up posters reading 'Love America, Hate Trump' and 'Defend The District From White Supremacy' just steps away from the White House.


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At the time, Trump said there were 'very fine people' on both sides, spurring criticism from across the political divide that he was equating the counterprotesters with the rally attendees, who included neo-Nazis and other white supremacists


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But on Saturday, Trump condemned 'all types of racism' in a Twitter post marking the anniversary. 'The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division. We must come together as a nation,' the president tweeted (pictured)


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In the picturesque college town of Charlottesville, hundreds of police officers maintained a security perimeter around the normally bustling downtown district throughout the day on Saturday. Students from the University of Virginia, along with residents, marched across the campus on Saturday


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Many of the protesters directed their anger at the heavy police presence, with chants like 'cops and Klan go hand in hand,' a year after police were harshly criticized for their failure to prevent the violence


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On Sunday, demonstrators took to the streets again to march against racism as they marked the anniversary of last year's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia 
In the picturesque college town of Charlottesville, hundreds of police officers maintained a security perimeter around the normally bustling downtown district throughout the day on Saturday. 
Vehicular traffic was barred from an area of more than 15 city blocks, while pedestrians were allowed access at two checkpoints where officers examined bags for weapons.
Hundreds of students and activists took to the streets on Saturday evening. 
Many of the protesters directed their anger at the heavy police presence, with chants like 'cops and Klan go hand in hand,' a year after police were harshly criticized for their failure to prevent the violence.
Earlier on Saturday, a group of anti-fascist protesters walked through the downtown area, holding signs with messages like 'Good Night White Pride.' But the day was largely free of confrontation.
On Sunday morning, activist Grace Aheron, 27, donned a Black Lives Matter T-shirt and joined hundreds of fellow Charlottesville residents who gathered at Booker T. Washington Park to mark the anniversary of last year's bloodshed.
'We want to claim our streets back, claim our public space back, claim our city back,' Aheron said at the park.
Several events were scheduled in the city including a gathering that will include veteran civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton and Susan Bro, the mother of the woman who was killed a year ago.
There were also impromptu memorial services at the site where Heyer was mowed down by an alleged Nazi sympathizer on August 12 last year.
A group of some 60 people marched up The Mall to the spot on 4th Street where Heyer was killed. The few passers-by clapped them as they chanted anti-Fascist slogans.
They were pictured holding hands in a circle at the intersection where Heyer was fatally struck. 


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Last year, several hundred white nationalists and white supremacists carried torches and marched in a parade through the University of Virginia campus


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The march lasted 15 to 20 minutes before ending in skirmishing when the marchers were met by a small group of counterprotesters at the base of the statue of Thomas Jefferson, the university's founder

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6056069/Married-government-workers-told-four-year-old-adopted-Peruvian-daughter-deported.html

[size=34]Married US government workers are told their four-year-old adopted Peruvian daughter could be deported within weeks after her citizenship application was rejected[/size]

• Angela Becerra was abandoned by her mom in an orphanage in Peru in 2014
  
  
• Amy and Marcos Becerra, who were living in Peru,  decided to adopt her
  
  
• The Becerras were denied citizenship for Angela. The US government awarded the young girl a tourist visa, but that expires August 31
  
  
• The family has no idea why immigration officials have denied her case and fear she will be thrown out of America 
  
  

By ADRY TORRES FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 12:55 EDT, 13 August 2018 | UPDATED: 16:30 EDT, 13 August 2018

    



The adopted Peruvian daughter of an American couple could be kicked out of the US unless the four-year-old is given a last-minute reprieve.
Angela Becerra was adopted by Amy and Marcos Becerra in 2014. She had been abandoned at a Peruvian orphanage at 11 days old by her biological mother, a sex trafficking victim. 
The Becerras, who had been living in Peru, immediately fell in love with Angela when they met her and decided to make her a permanent part of their family, they told Fox31 Denver.
They began legal adoption proceedings.  And by April 2017, a Peruvian court had legally recognized the adoption, paving the way for the family to return to the US.

But family life has been anything but simple since then. The Becerras were denied citizenship for Angela, who was merely granted a tourist visa.


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Amy and Marco Becerra asked the US government to look into the denied immigration case of their daughter Angela Becerra.


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Angela hasonly been allowed to enter the US with a tourist visa. It expires August 31 and she will have to leave the country unless immigration officials intercede.
She has now again been denied citizenship, and the Becerras fear she will have to leave the US when the tourist visa runs out on August 31. 
Amy Becerra works for the State of Colorado and Marco Becerra works for the federal government, and they have now recruited Congressman Mike Coffman to help to help fight their cause with the local U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Denver.
'[Angela's natural mother] was treated like a dog,' Mrs Becerra told KDVR in Denver. 'She was chained to the table and sex-trafficked. That's the reality. No running water. No electricity. Very little food.'
She said Angela's citizenship documents were continuously delayed and denied because of the stringent measures imposed by the Trump aministration. 


She said the family had to stay in Peru for 13 months during the initial application, and it wasn't until March that officials finally granted Angela Becerra a tourist visa.
But the upcoming expiry of that visa, and the decision to deny her citizenship, has left Angela's future in limbo. 
An appeal could be submitted, but the law forbids it within three weeks of the visa's expiration.


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An old shot of the Becerras with a young Angela. She was just 11-days-old when her biological mother, a sex trafficking victim, gave her up for adoption.
'I mean this is beyond belief,' Representative Coffman told FOX31 Denver.
 'We believe there were errors in that process, I believe we have a broken immigration system, and this is a symptom of that broken immigration system.'
If Angela's last attempt at citizenship is denied, the Becerras could well leave the US and resettle back in Peru.
'We're both citizens. My husband and I have a full legal binding adoption completed and we have a birth certificate that lists no other parent,' Amy Becerra said.
'If she expires her visa, she is officially here as an undocumented alien and legally is at risk for deportation even though both her parents are citizens.'

I’m not familiar with international adoption laws but Americans have been legally adopting children from other countries for years. This seems like a continuation of the heartless and shameful policy the Trump administration has put in place. I know we have a broken immigration system in our country but I cannot imagine that this Peruvian child would have been considered for deportation under the Obama administration. Of course there never would have been a family separation policy for asylum seekers put into place under Obama either.

There have been countless stories over the past several months of immigrants who have lived, worked and paid taxes here for years being deported now under the Trump regime. It’s pretty damn ugly!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6057669/Trump-lashes-Wacky-Deranged-Omarosa-DENY-tapes-saying-N-Word-exist.html

[size=34]Trump claims the producer of The Apprentice called him to DENY there are any tapes of him saying the N-word and lashes out at 'Wacky and Deranged' Omarosa who 'made it up'[/size]

• President Donald Trump has denied allegations made by Omarosa Manigault Newman that he used the N-word
  
  
• 'I don't have that word in my vocabulary, and never have,' the president tweeted
  
  
• Trump claims Apprentice showrunner Mark Burnett told him there are no tapes 
  
  
• Earlier Monday, Trump tweeted that he kept Omarosa on staff because she praised him even though she was no good at her job 
  
  
• Omarosa is set to release a new book, Unhinged, about her time in White House 
  
  

By ARIEL ZILBER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and REUTERS and ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 22:19 EDT, 13 August 2018 | UPDATED: 05:52 EDT, 14 August 2018

    



President Donald Trump has denied allegations made by 'wacky and deranged' Omarosa Manigault Newman accusing the former Apprentice host of using the N-word.
'[The Apprentice producer] Mark Burnett called to say that there are NO TAPES of the Apprentice where I used such a terrible and disgusting word as attributed by Wacky and Deranged Omarosa,' the president tweeted on Monday.
'I don't have that word in my vocabulary, and never have. She made it up.
'Look at her MANY recent quotes saying such wonderful and powerful things about me - a true Champion of Civil Rights - until she got fired.

'Omarosa had Zero credibility with the Media (they didn't want interviews) when she worked in the White House.
'Now that she says bad about me, they will talk to her. Fake News!'
Scroll down for video 



President Trump claims that Mark Burnett (right), the producer of The Apprentice, assured him there are no tapes of him using a racial slur during filming of the reality show


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Trump has denied allegations made by 'wacky and deranged' Omarosa Manigault Newman accusing the former Apprentice host of using the N-word 


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First lady Melania Trump, meanwhile, is disappointed that Manigault Newman 'is lashing out and retaliating in such a self-serving way, especially after all the opportunities given to her by the President,' said White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham. 
Earlier on Monday, the president posted similarly derogatory tweets about Manigault Newman, who was fired from her job as a White House aide by chief of staff John Kelly.
Trump tweeted that he kept her on staff because she praised him even as she failed to do her job, the latest insult in the two former reality television stars' public battle.


Trump said the former Apprentice contestant had begged for a job in the White House but was hated by others, missed work and was 'nasty.' 
Still, he said he directed his chief of staff, Kelly, to try to smooth things over with her. 


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Omarosa is set to release her new book, Unhinged, which describes her time in the White House
'When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems. I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me - until she got fired!' he wrote in a series of posts on Twitter.
Ahead of the Tuesday release of her book Unhinged, which describes her time in the White House, Omarosa - known commonly by her first name - has released recordings of conversations she had with Kelly and Trump when she was fired in December.
The White House has pushed back, saying the recordings raise questions about her integrity. 
Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders on Sunday also said the recordings, including one in the White House's secure Situation Room, showed 'a blatant disregard for our national security.'
Asked if she was concerned about any legal consequences, Omarosa told NBC's Today program: 'No, absolutely not.'
She was previously best known for repeatedly being fired on NBC's The Apprentice and was one of Trump's more visible African-American supporters during his 2016 election campaign.
'It's sad that with all the things that's going on in the country that he would take time out to insult me and to insult my intelligence,' she told MSNBC in reaction to Trump's tweets. 



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The president tapped his gigantic social media audience to write that Omarosa was reviled at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and only had a job there because she 'begged' him for one with 'tears in her eyes'


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Ever the counter-puncher, Trump said he was willing to appear unpresidential in order to counter a 'Fake News Media' narrative that has given Omarosa undeserved credibility


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Before Omarosa Manigault Newman's 'Today' show interview on Monday, NBC News broadcast a clip from a phone call Omarosa recorded with the president; she says he told her the day after she was fired that he was unhappy to see her leave


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The fired Trump aide claims the reason she was in the Situation Room with her smartphone to record her own firing is that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly had 'four men' confine her there without a lawyer and subjected her to 'false imprisonment'


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Manigault Newman told Savannah Guthrie to 'calm down' and repeatedly snapped as she was being grilled about Donald Trump during a heated 'Today' interview on Monday
'This is his pattern with African-Americans, and he doesn't know how to control himself.'   
In Unhinged, the former Trump aide alleges there are audio outtakes from 'The Apprentice' showing the president using the 'N-word' to describe African-Americans.
According to the HuffPost, Manigault-Newman said she was shown the tapes by former Apprentice contestant Troy McClain.
She told Trump aides that his alleged racial slurs were made against black contestant Kwame Jackson, the publication reports.
McClain denied ever showing her such recording and said: 'You've got to be bullsh*****g me. Is this a joke?'
Tom Arnold tweeted 'B*****it' in response to Trump's tweet about Burnett. 
Last month, Vice Media announced that Arnold would be featured in a new show called 'The Hunt for the Trump Tapes' and would investigate rumored recordings of the president. 
She claimed Monday on NBC's Today show that she made a Situation Room tape of Kelly firing her only after his aides locked her in the secure area and refused to let her see a lawyer.
Manigault Newman told Savannah Guthrie to 'calm down' and repeatedly snapped as she was being grilled about Trump during a heated 'Today' interview on Monday.
Omarosa also told Guthrie at various points to 'wait', claimed the host was asking questions 'too quickly' and eventually ended the interview after 10 minutes despite earlier saying she had 'all the time you need'.
The former reality TV star was on the program to promote her new tell-all book, Unhinged, about the Trump White House and air secret audio recordings of conversations with the President and his chief of staff.
She told Guthrie to 'calm down' after being asked how she managed to record chief of staff John Kelly as he was firing her in the White House Situation Room.
Her bright yellow dress she wore on the show baffled style critics and left them wondering what she was thinking.


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Eye-catching outfit: She wore a $550 yellow one-shoulder lace dress from Karen Millen during her appearance on the Today show Monday


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Tom Arnold tweeted 'B*****it' in response to Trump's tweet about Burnett. Last month, Vice Media announced that Arnold would be featured in a new show called 'The Hunt for the Trump Tapes' and would investigate rumored recordings of the president
The 44-year-old former assistant to the president looked ready for a cocktail reception in a $550 one-shoulder lace dress featuring a sweetheart neckline and scalloped hem when she sat down with Savannah Guthrie in Studio 1A.
'Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time. She never made it, never will,' Trump blasted a few hours later on Twitter.
'She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok. People in the White House hated her. She was vicious, but not smart.'
Trump suggested that most of the drama that followed Omarosa around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue went on underneath the Oval Office's high-powered radar.
'I would rarely see her but heard really bad things. Nasty to people & would constantly miss meetings & work,' he added in a two-part tweet.
Ultimately, the president said, he considered Omarosa a booster and wanted her to stay in her job conducting outreach to black communities – over Kelly's objection.
'When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems,' Trump tweeted. 'I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me – until she got fired!'



Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson (left) flatly denied to DailyMail.com that she ever told Manigault Newman she believed an 'n-word' recording existed. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani (right) fumed on 'Fox & Friends' that Manigault Newman came off as arrogant.


+16




+16



Manigault Newman claims that in addition to Katrina Pierson, former Trump campaign communications shief Jason Miller (left) and longtime Trump Organization staffer Lynne Patton (right) were on a conference call in which Pierson said she believed the 'N-word' tape was real 
In a third tweet, the president defended himself for getting down in the mud with Team Trump's newest apostate.
'While I know it's 'not presidential' to take on a lowlife like Omarosa, and while I would rather not be doing so,' he wrote, 'this is a modern day form of communication and I know the Fake News Media will be working overtime to make even Wacky Omarosa look legitimate as possible. Sorry!'
Over the weekend at his New Jersey golf club estate, Trump told reporters that his onetime ally was 'a low-life.'
But Manigault Newman revealed an audio recording Monday morning of a friendly phone call she said Trump placed to her the day after her December 2017 firing.
The astonishing 22-second audio clip shows the president telling her that he knew nothing about her dismissal. He is heard assuring the onetime reality TV contestant that he wasn't happy to see her leave.
'Omarosa what's going on? I just saw on the news that you're thinking about leaving? What happened?' Trump asks her.
She responds: 'General Kelly – General Kelly came to me and said that you guys wanted me to leave.'
'No – I, I, Nobody even told me about it,' Trump says, leading her to interject: 'Wow.'


+16


On the audio recording released Sunday, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is heard telling Omarosa that 'serious integrity violations' had left her without a job
'You know, they run a big operation, but I didn't know it,' Trump tells her. 'I didn't know that. Goddamn it. I don't love you leaving at all.'
Manigault Newman said Monday that 'Donald Trump has no clue what's going on,' concluding that he's not 'fit' to hold office.
'John Kelly is running this White House,' she said, 'and Donald Trump has no clue what's going on. He's being puppeted, and that's very dangerous for this nation.'
It's not unusual for a president to be in the dark about staffing decisions in a White House that employs hundreds of people.
A White House official told DailyMail.com on Monday that 'Omarosa apparently thinks she's important enough to be on Trump's radar 24/7.'
Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani fumed Monday morning on 'Fox & Friends' that Manigault Newman came off as arrogant.  
'Donald Trump made her!' he said. 'What kind of ingratitude!'
And he said it's unremarkable that Kelly, not Trump, handled the management of wayward aides.
'Most of the things about her never came to him. They don't walk in and say to the president, 'So and so leaked something,' or 'So and so is fighting with this one in the White House.' If you did that, the president couldn't do his job. That's for the chief of staff to handle,' he explained.
The question of whether Trump may have used a racial slur to refer to African-Americans on his show's Trump Tower set has hung in the political air since 2016.
Manigault Newman claimed Monday that more than one such recording exists.
'There are multiple tapes,' she said Monday on the 'Today' show of audio outtakes from 'The Apprentice'. She claimed to have heard at least one of them personally.


+16


Trump is seen left with Newman during a campaign stop in Detroit in September 2016
Initially deflecting questions about how and when she was able to listen to it, she eventually explained to host Savannah Guthrie that 'it's about 3 minutes. It's audio.'
'He was talking about some Afrircan-Americans in the production throughout the course of 'The Apprentice.' That's unacceptable,' she said.
Manigault Newman said she didn't have possession of any of the audio but 'the people who have the tape intend to release the tape.'
She focused on what she claimed was an election-year discussion in which one campaign aide, Katrina Pierson, said she believed the recording was real.
'There was a conference call among campaign workers, Jason Miller, Lynn Patton and Katrina Pierson where we talked about the possibility of him saying it,' Manigault Newman said Monday. 'And his own spokesperson, Katrina Pierson, said, 'I have heard from a credible source that yes, he said it'.'
Pierson flatly denied a similar allegation on Sunday, telling DailyMail.com that she has 'never heard President Trump ever use the derogatory language that Omarosa claims' and that she 'never confirmed the existence of an alleged tape from 'The Apprentice' to her.'
'That's a complete fabrication by Omarosa,' Pierson said. 'I feel pity for Omarosa as she embarrasses herself by creating salacious lies and distortions just to try to be relevant and enrich herself by selling books at the expense of the truth. 'Unhinged,' indeed.'
Confronted on Monday with video from a 2017 television interview in which she insisted Trump was not a racist and she would never work for him otherwise, she claimed she was trying at the time to avoid turning the West Wing against her.
'I was being very cautious about what I said, so as not to upset these folks,' she claimed Monday. 

[size=34]WHAT OMAROSA SAYS IN BOMBSHELL BOOK AND INTERVIEWS ABOUT TRUMP[/size]

President uses the N-word and other racial slurs
In 'Unhinged,' Omarosa says she was told he had been recorded using the N-word in outtakes from The Apprentice. 
Now she says she personally heard it after the book went to press: 'When he talks that way, the way he did on this tape, it confirmed that he is truly a racist.'
In the book she claims he called Kellyanne Conway's husband George, who is half-Filipino, 'a goo-goo' and a 'flip.'
Isn't competent to hold office
'They continue to deceive this nation by how mentally declined he is, how difficult it is for him to process complex information. How he is not engaged in some of the most important decisions that impacts our country.' 
She also writes: 'Donald has only a surface-level understanding of the content he’s signing into law.' 
Is in mental jeopardy
She writes of his interview with NBC News's Lester Holt in which he addressed his firing of James Comey: 'Donald rambled. He spoke gibberish. He contradicted himself from one sentence to the next. 
'While watching the interview, I realized something real and serious was going on in Donald’s brain. They thought Trump was being Trump, off the cuff. But I knew something wasn’t right.'
Lies and leads an administration which lies 
'This is a White House where everybody lies; the president lies to the American people,Sarah Huckabee [Sanders] stands in front of the country and lies every single day.'
Disparages his family
He called Jared Kushner 'sweet', a term for gay, and called Don Jr. 'a f***-up' after the notorious Trump Tower meeting with Russians, saying: 'He screwed up again, but this time, he’s screwing us all, big time!'
Wanted sworn in on a copy of The Art of the Deal
Claims she told him: 'It’s the greatest business book of all time. Just think how many copies I’d sell—maybe a commemorative inauguration copy?!'
... and what she says about John Kelly
Manigault-Newman says he is the real boss and that he has mistreated more people than just her.
'John Kelly is running this White House,' she said, 'and Donald Trump has no clue what’s going on. He’s being puppeted, and that’s very dangerous for this nation.'  
'Rob Porter is accused of allegedly abusing his wives. And you know what John Kelly said about Rob Porter? He said he was a man of great integrity. And he's accusing me of integrity violations?'
... and about Melania
Omarosa says the First Lady wore the notorious 'I really don't care, do you?' coat to visit separate immigrant children at the border solely to shame her husband - and it wasn't the first time. 
'The messages behind her style choices aren't always clear, but they are never accidental. Taken as a whole, all of her style rebellions have served the same purpose, and not only misdirection and distraction - strategies her husband knows all too well. I believe Melania uses style to punish her husband.'  
... and about herself
I was complicit with this White House deceiving this nation. I had a blind spot where it came to Donald Trump.'
Unhinged will be released on Tuesday, August 14, 2018 and is available on Amazon  

[size=34]LISTEN - Audio of John Kelly firing Omarosa in the situation room over her 'integrity issues'[/size]

NBCUniversal Privacy Policy
GEN. JOHN KELLY: Hi.
OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN: Hi there, how are you?
JOHN KELLY: Who are you?
FEMALE VOICE: Hi.
OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN: My assistant.
JOHN KELLY: Could you leave us alone?
FEMALE VOICE: Sure.
OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN: Hi.
JOHN KELLY: I'm only going to stay for a couple of minutes. These are lawyers. We're going to talk to you about leaving the White House. It's come to my attention, over the last few months, that there's been some pretty, in my opinion, significant integrity issues related to you and use of government vehicles and some other issues. And they'll, they'll, they'll walk you through the legal aspects of this. But there is some, from my view, there's some money issues and other things, but from my view, the integrity issues are very serious. I'm stuck with my past experience and that is, when we hold people accountable in the military, I would, I compare what I see here at the White House and other issues that I've had to deal with and say what would I do to this, in this case if I was in the Pentagon dealing with a Marine or a soldier or something like that? And the issue that you may or may not have a full appreciation for, but I think you do, this would be a pretty high level of accountability, meaning a court-martial. We're not suggesting any legal action here.
OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN: That I -- that I did?
JOHN KELLY: Just stay with me, just stay with me. Yep. That it would be a a pretty serious offense. So with that I'm just going to ask you -- these gentlemen will explain it. We'll bring a personnel person in after after they talk to you. But just to understand that I'd like to see this be a a friendly departure. There are pretty significant legal issues that we hope don't develop into something that, that'll make it ugly for you. But I think it's important to understand that if we make this a friendly departure we can all be, you know, you can look at, look at your time here in, in the White House as a year of service to the nation. And then you can go on without any type of difficulty in the future relative to your reputation. But it's very, very important I think that you understand that there are some serious legal issues that have been violated. And you're, you're open to some legal action that we hope, I think, we can control, right? So with that, if you would stay here with these gentlemen they'll lay this thing out –
OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN: Can I ask you a couple questions? Does the president -- is the president aware of what's going on?
JOHN KELLY: Don't do -- let's not go down the road. This is a non-negotiable discussion.
OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN: I don't want to negotiate. I just, I've never talked -- had a chance to talk to you General Kelly so if this is my departure I'd like to have at least an opportunity –
JOHN KELLY: No.
OMAROSA: --to understand.
JOHN KELLY: We can, we can talk another time. This has to do with some pretty serious violat -- integrity violations. So I'll let it go at that. So the the staff and everyone on the staff works for me, not the president. And so after your departure I'll inform him if he gets interested on, on where you may be. So with that I'll let you go and if gentlemen you could take it.
MALE VOICE: Thanks. Yep. I'm really sorry we're here. 
SOURCE:  NBC NEWS' 'MEET THE PRESS WITH CHUCK TODD' 


+16


A conference room is shown inside the Situation Room complex at the White House – a signal-hardened place where recording devices and cameras are strictly prohibited

O.k , if he never said the word as he claims why would the producer call him and say there were no tapes of him saying it?


He really does not think before he opens his mouth.

The simple response to that headline is

'Well, he would say that, wouldn't he?'

The BBC News ran the piece about his 'shocked' phone call to her - hilarious
'

Just another act in the Trump circus. Did he say it? Probably. Would him admitting it change anything? No. It's all just another distraction from the real issues.

Omarosa and Trump deserve each other. They totally used each other for their own selfish reasons. So Trump has to take some of his own medicine now. Despicable that he called Omarosa a ‘dog’ this morning. I don’t care what she has done that clearly was another derogatory comment to demean women, especially African American women.

BTW there is no way that Trump has never used the “n” word. So whether Omarosa can claim he did or did not is beside the point.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6061729/Sarah-Sanders-admits-shes-wrong-saying-Trump-created-3-times-African-American-jobs-Obama.html

[size=34]Sarah Sanders issues a rare apology for falsely claiming that Trump has created three times as many jobs for African-American workers as Obama[/size]

• Sanders, 36, rectified her error in stating that Trump had done more for African American employment in his first year-and-a-half than Obama
  
  
• 'Correction from today's briefing: Jobs numbers for Pres Trump and Pres Obama were correct, but the time frame for Pres Obama wasn't,' she tweeted Tuesday
  
  
• She added: 'I'm sorry for the mistake, but no apologies for the 700,000 jobs for African Americans created under President Trump' 
  
  
• Sanders had earlier stated that Obama only created 195,000 jobs during his terms
  
  
• Under Obama, black employment raised by nearly 3 millions at the time of the Great Recession and up until 2017
  
  
• Current administration figures has job growth at 700,000 from January 2017 until July of this year
  
  

By MATTHEW WRIGHT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 
PUBLISHED: 23:24 EDT, 14 August 2018 | UPDATED: 03:02 EDT, 15 August 2018



White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders apologized for her false statement that President Trump had created three times as many jobs as President Barack Obama for African Americans. 
Sanders, 36, took to Twitter on Tuesday to rectify her error in stating that Trump had done more for African American employment in his first year-and-a-half than Obama did for his entire eight years. 
'Correction from today's briefing: Jobs numbers for Pres Trump and Pres Obama were correct, but the time frame for Pres Obama wasn't,' she said.
'I'm sorry for the mistake, but no apologies for the 700,000 jobs for African Americans created under President Trump.' 


+5


White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders apologized for saying the wrong time frame in which African American employment rose under President Barack Obama


+5


She added: 'I'm sorry for the mistake, but no apologies for the 700,000 jobs for African Americans created under President Trump'
Sanders had earlier stated that Obama only created 195,000 jobs during his terms, which is factually incorrect. In actuality, black employment raised by nearly 3 millions at the time of the Great Recession and up until 2017.

Current administration figures has job growth at 700,000 from January 2017 until July of this year. 

+5


After Sanders corrected herself, the White House Council of Economic Adviser released a statement taking responsibility for the blunder
'If you start the clock on Inauguration Day, Obama was slightly ahead. But the real bottom line is that the pace of jobs growth hasn't changed dramatically between the two presidents.' 
Sanders tweet comes after she shared that she could not rule out the possibility that an audio recording existed of Trump using 'n****r' in conversation. 
Sanders told reporters that she has never heard Trump use the 'n-word' or anything like it, but conceded that she hasn't been a part of every meeting the president has taken. She was 22 years old when he allegedly used the racist language on the set of 'The Apprentice' in 2004.
'I can't guarantee anything,' Sanders acknowledged during her first briefing since Omarosa Manigault-Newman hit the media circuit to promote her aggressively salty memoir 'Unhinged.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6064377/Trump-strips-ex-CIA-chief-John-Brennan-security-clearances-wild-outbursts-internet.html

[size=34]BREAKING NEWS: Trump strips ex-CIA chief John Brennan of security clearances for 'wild outbursts on the Internet' and orders review of other Russia critics – including Comey and Peter Strzok[/size]

• Press secretary Sarah Sanders read a statement from the president removing the security clearances of the former CIA chief
  
  
• Brennan is a longtime agent who ran the agency under President Obama and during the Osama bin Laden raid
  
  
• He served under Republican and Democratic presidents and has become a frequent Trump critic on Twitter
  
  
• Sanders read a list of figures whose clearances are under review
  
  
• They include: James Clapper, James Comey, Michael Hayden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and Bruce Ohr 
  
  
• Brennan tweeted that Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin was 'treasonous'
  
  
• Ohr is a current high level Justice Department official 
  
  

By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 14:56 EDT, 15 August 2018 | UPDATED: 15:31 EDT, 15 August 2018




President Donald Trump is stripping former CIA chief John Brennan of his security clearance, in an extraordinary slap at one of his foremost public critics.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the stunning move from the White House podium on Wednesday, as the building was engulfed in controversy over the new tell-all book penned by former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman.
She pushed back at repeated questioning about why each of the officials has been a prominent Trump critic or otherwise features in the Russia probe. 
Among the offenses the statement cited were that Brennan 'leveraged his status' and made 'unfounded and outrageous allegations.' She cited 'wild outbursts on the Internet and television' and 'increasingly frenzied commentary' – turning the tables on a critic just a day after the president called Omarosa a 'dog' on Twitter.


+3


White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders announced the decision on Brennan's clearnaces from the White House podium
She also said a list of officials had their clearances 'under review.' Among them are fired former FBI director James Comey, fired FBI agent Peter Strzok, and current Justice Department official Bruce Ohr. 

All are prominent Trump critics, and each has played a role in the Russia probe Trump has termed a 'witch hunt.' 
The conversation-changing move came a day after Sanders refused to guarantee from the White podium that Trump would not be found on video using the 'n word' an unproven claim from Omarosa's new book.
It also came just hours after Sanders had to make an extraordinary apology after listing African American unemployment figures that were off by nearly 3 million. Her online apology was issued on Twitter, and she was not asked to explain or take account for it at the briefing. 


+3


Ex CIA chief John Brennan has been a harsh critic of Trump's and has called him a virtual puppet of Vladimir Putin
She fielded just a single Omarosa question as reporters in the room processed the unexpected information. 
Brennan, among other things, has said on TV and online that Trump is being manipulated by Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was among a handful of officials who were present and briefed in the earliest stages of the government's Russia probe of Trump officials during the campaign.   
'Any benefits that senior officials might glean from consultations with Mr. Brennan are now outweighed by the risk posed by his erratic conduct and behavior,' Sanders said.
The move came after Brennan admonished Trump for calling Omarosa a 'dog.'
'It’s astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility, & probity,' Brennan commented on Trump's tweet. 'Seems like you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it takes to be a good, decent, & honest person. So disheartening, so dangerous for our Nation,' he wrote. 

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+3


Brennan tweeted: 'Donald Trump's press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of 'high crimes & misdemeanors.' It was nothing short of treasonous.'
Sanders laid out the case in a lengthy statement just as reporters were girding to press her on Manigault Newman's secret tapings of Trump and his aides. 
'Mr. Brennan has a history that calls into question his objectivity and credibility. In 2014, for example, he denied to Congress that CIA officials under his supervision had improperly accessed the computer files of congressional staffers. He told the Council on Foreign Relations that the CIA would never do such a thing. The CIA's inspector general, however, contradicted Mr. Brennan directly, concluding unequivocally that officials had indeed improperly accessed the computer files of congressional staffers.
More recently Mr. Brennan told Congress that the intelligence community did not make use of the so-called "Steele Dossier" in an assessment regarding the 2016 election, an assertion contradicted by at least two other senior officials in the intelligence community and all of the facts,' she said.

Criticism of Trump 

John Brennan called the President Trump's comments in his press conference with Vladimir Putin 'treasonous.'
Brennan tweeted: 'Donald Trump's press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of 'high crimes & misdemeanors.' It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump's comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???'
James Comey wrote a book 'A Higher Loyalty' about his time as FBI director and how Trump fired him. His firing resulted in the special counsel examining whether the president was obstructing the investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election.
Comey said of Trump: 'My impression was he looked exactly like he did on television, except he looked shorter to me than he did on television, but otherwise exactly the same.' 
Andrew McCabe, who was fired by the Trump administration, said of his firing: 'I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey.' 
James Clapper said in December of Trump and Putin's relationship that Putin, a former KBG operative 'knows how to handle an asset, and that's what he's doing with the president.' 
Michael Hayden responded to a Trump tweet in November attacking CNN and praising Fox News with: 'If this is who we are or who we are becoming, I have wasted 40 years of my life. Until now it was not possible for me to conceive of an American President capable of such an outrageous assault on truth, a free press or the first amendment.'
Susan Rice denied a report that she used intelligence for political purposes: 'Absolutely not for any political purposes, to spy, expose, anything.'  She also denied leaking any information about former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn: 'I leaked nothing to nobody and never have and never would.'



'Additionally, Mr. Brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations,' she continued. 'Mr. Brennan's lying and recent conduct, characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary, is totally inconsistent with access to the nation's most closely held secrets and facilities.'
She added: 'I have also begun to review the more general question of the access to classified information by government officials. As part of this review, I am evaluating action with respect to the following individuals: James Clapper, James Comey, Michael Hayden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and Bruce Ohr. Security clearances for those who still have them may be revoked, and those who have already lost their security clearance may not be able to have it reinstated.'
Comey hasn't had a security clearance for many months. McCabe, a former top FBI official, had his clearance deactivated when he was fired from the FBI, said his spokesman Melissa Schwartz when Sanders first said clearances were on the table.
John McLaughlin, the former Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, slammed the decision on MSNBC – and noted that the action could lead to a court case if Brennan wants to push the issue.
He said the message was: 'Be careful what you say if you have a clearance and if you're worried about having it revoked.'
The move comes as the White House also was reeling from criticism that it forced aides to sign non-disclosure agreements that prohibit them from disparaging the president. 
Brennan was blasting Trump on the MSNBC airwaves shortly before Sanders announced the move.
He said Trump had 'badly sullied' the office of the presidency and 'befriending of autocratic governments. He called Trump 'the most divisive president we’ve ever had in the Oval Office.'
House Speaker Paul Ryan, who gets top level intelligence information as a leader, declined to get into the issue.
"This is something that is in the purview of the executive branch," Ryan said. CNN reported that Director of Intelligence Dan Coates was not informed in advance of the decision.

Could they be freaking out because maybe, just maybe, some of their base s starting to believe some of the truth instead of Drumpf's lies? Could the closeness of the midterms have them worried? Or could it be that Mueller is getting really, really close? Whatever it is, I hope they all rot in Hell!

This smacks of the bully in the playground or the behaviour of an authoritarian despot - along the lines of Putin.

Does he seriously think he can silence ALL his critics?

https://twitter.com/JohnKerry/status/1029814901013970944

https://twitter.com/davidaxelrod/status/1029805755216670720

I hear others with clearance are being 'reviewed' but that Michael Flynn never lost his..........!?

Yep PAN other former national security notables are under review: Clapper, Comey, Hayden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice to name a few. The reasoning by Trump to strip Brennan of his clearance status is ludicrous. Calling Brennan’s behavior erratic is beyond the pale. Trump will do whatever it takes to protect himself. Doesn’t matter how it looks. Seems the letter read by Sanders today regarding Brennan was dated July 26th. Hmmm. I think Trump decided to drop this today simply to distract from Omarosa and the Manafort trial.
That’s what he always does. He just stirs things up by distractions when it will benefit him.

Currently watching a documentary on BBC tv titled 'NYPD - Biggest Gang in the World?' focusing on Eric Garner and the fact that the system is based on financial bonuses to reach targets on arrests

This isn't "serious," because I laughed my ass off. Somehow these knuckle draggers got me on their mailing list (I'm off now, of course). Can you imagine the kind of idiocy that has to be receptive to this moronic crap? On a daily, if not hourly, basis? But this is how tRump's base stays riled, giving up whatever meager discretionary cash they have to the millionaires behind this drivel.

Here goes, grammar mistakes and all:

BREAKING NEWS! WH Leaker Found, Much Worse Than We Thought... Read the latest now on TeaParty.org

Patriot,
Are you sick and tired of the President's agenda being stuck at a standstill behind inactive Jeff Sessions? What is he thinking?
Not only is there no end in sight for the Mueller witch hunt, but as the evidence piles up against the Clinton-Obama deep state crime cabal that so very clearly operated in utter corruption and treason, plotting against Trump and trying to pin their own crimes on in...
NONE OF THESE CROOKS ARE BEING INDICTED!
Sessions is quickly turning out to be a major roadblock in the MAGA agenda, and Trump has been incredibly patient to keep him on this long.
It's true, Sessions showed incredibly loyalty to the President during the election, and it was fair to expect great things from him.
But we've waited too long.
The American people need an Attorney General who will take down the unprecedented attack on our democracy and our nation's most sacred legal institutions.
And that Attorney General just might be...
JUDGE JEANINE PIRRO!
With your help, we can tell the President to DITCH SESSIONS AND BRING ON THE JUDGE.
Judge Jeanine has been an unrelenting voice of support for the President's agenda, and there has been chatter that she's been vying for the position for a while now.
She knows about the documents implicating the Obama administration and Crooked Hillary. She knows Obama lied repeatedly to our faces while illegally trying to funnel money to the Iranian government. She knows Comey's corrupt FBI deliberately botched the Hillary email probe. She knows about the illegal wiretaps to infiltrate the Trump campaign.
And she won't back down from standing up to these psychopathic traitors. WE NEED JUDGE JEANINE--but time is running out!
Sure, Sessions has been loyal to the President--but not loyal enough to take down the greatest political scandal in American history.
Every evening on her show, Judge Jeanine makes it very clear that she would never back down from delivering the kind of justice the American people deserve.
She'd chase these criminals down like dogs.
BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP.
Sincerely,
Steve Eichler
CEO, TeaParty.org

God give me strength! The thought that there are people who slavishly follow and believe this garbage makes me cringe. Jeannine Pirro? Really? OMG! If they lived in NY and actually knew something about her, they'd know she's just another Omarosa.This country is going to hell!

Makes me wonder if the Tea Party head is also the National Enquirer's owner, WayToo.

Hope you managed to watch John Oliver's piece on astroturfing.........

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html

[size=34]‘We will not go back to discrimination, sexism, or the KKK’: Cuomo doubles down on claim 'America was never THAT great' after Trump accused New York's governor of having ‘a total meltdown’[/size]

• Governor Cuomo made the remark Wednesday at a Manhattan bill signing event
  
  
• The Democrat is considered a potential 2020 contender for the White House
  
  
• Cuomo tried to make the point that America has never had full equality for all
  
  
• He is battling Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon in the Democratic primary 
  
  
• Conservatives on Twitter were outraged by Cuomo's remark 
  
  

By ASSOCIATED PRESS and DAILYMAIL.COM REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 16:03 EDT, 15 August 2018 | UPDATED: 05:02 EDT, 16 August 2018

    


America 'was never that great' and won't be great until all Americans share true equality, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday in a speech blasting Republican President Donald Trump and his slogan, 'Make America Great Again.'
Cuomo, who is considered a potential White House contender in 2020, made the remarks at a bill signing event in Manhattan. 
He said Trump wants to return to a period of greater sexism, racism and intolerance toward immigrants. 
He said New York would strive to be a liberal alternative where people of all backgrounds have the same opportunities.

'We're not going to make America great again - it was never that great,' said Cuomo, who is running for a third term this November. 
'We have not reached greatness, we will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged, we will reach greatness when discrimination and stereotyping against women, 51 percent of our population, is gone and every woman’s full potential is realized and unleashed and every woman is making her full contribution,' he said. 


+7


America 'was never that great' and won't be great until all Americans share true equality, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday in a speech blasting Republican President Donald Trump and his slogan, 'Make America Great Again'


+7


The crowd at the event reacted with surprised gasps and laughter to the comments, which were highly unusual for a politician of Cuomo's stature and experience
'We have not reached greatness. We will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged.'
The crowd at the event reacted with surprised gasps and laughter to the comments, which were highly unusual for a politician of Cuomo's stature and experience.

+7


Trump blasted Cuomo in a Wednesday night tweet, writing: '“WE’RE NOT GONG TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, IT WAS NEVER THAT GREAT.” Can you believe this is the Governor of the Highest Taxed State in the U.S., Andrew Cuomo, having a total meltdown!'


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'Make America Great Again' was Trump's campaign slogan during throughout 2015 and 2016


+7


But Cuomo shot back with a tweet of his own aimed at Trump late Wednesday night
'What you say would be "great again" would not be great at all...We will not go back to discrimination, segregation, sexism, isolationism, racism or the KKK,' the governor tweeted late Wednesday. 
'Like NY's motto says: Excelsior - Ever Upward (not backward).' 
Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law who also serves in her role as senior adviser to his 2020 campaign, joined the fray, saying: 'Today, Andrew Cuomo showed his true, pessimistic colors when he defamed America as a country that was "never that great."
'Yet, the vast majority of Americans believe in America as the "last best hope of earth." 
'America is not only the most prosperous and generous country to ever exist, it has lifted millions out of poverty and continuously sacrifices for the freedom of others. 
'And President Trump is leading us on the path to greatness like we’ve never seen before, with a booming economy that’s creating millions of jobs, record unemployment and wage growth, the lowest female unemployment in 65 years; as well as new paths to peace, and so much more. 
'Donald Trump’s eternal optimism about America is what people value in a leader committed to delivering real solutions for our country.'
Marc Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive who faces Cuomo in this year's election,' said: 'America, with its imperfections, has always been great.
'Mr. Cuomo owes the nation an apology. He should be ashamed of himself.'



Conservatives on Twitter were outraged over Cuomo's remarks. They lambasted the New York governor, saying he destroyed his chances for the White House in 2020



Joe Walsh, a former Congressman and a staunch conservative, said Cuomo's comments were 'shameful'


+7


Kayleigh McEnany, a spokesperson for the Republican Party, also weighed in
Brian Kolb, the minority leader of the state Assembly, tweeted that Cuomo's remark was 'inexcusable & reprehensible.'
Conservatives on Twitter were outraged over Cuomo's remarks. 
They lambasted the New York governor, saying he destroyed his chances for the White House in 2020.
Joe Walsh, a former Congressman and a staunch conservative, said Cuomo's comments were 'shameful'. 
Kayleigh McEnany, a spokesperson for the Republican Party, also weighed in, calling Cuomo's comments 'outrageous.' 
A spokeswoman for Cuomo later backtracked on the governor's comments in a statement seeking to clarify the point he was making.



Mark Harris tweeted that Cuomo has little chance of being the Democratic nominee for president


+7


Cuomo faces former Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon in next month's Democratic primary. Nixon also reacted to Cuomo's comments, saying: 'I think this is just another example of Andrew Cuomo trying to figure out what a progressive sounds like and missing by a mile'
'The governor believes America is great and that her full greatness will be fully realized when every man, woman, and child has full equality,' Cuomo press secretary Dani Lever said in a statement. 
'When the president speaks about making America great again - going back in time - he ignores the pain so many endured and that we suffered from slavery, discrimination, segregation, sexism and marginalized women's contributions.'
The war of words between Cuomo and Trump, a native New Yorker, escalated in recent days when Trump, on a visit to upstate New York, said Cuomo had called him and promised not to challenge Trump in 2020. 
Cuomo denied the president's account.
Cuomo faces former Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon in next month's Democratic primary.
Nixon also reacted to Cuomo's comments, saying: 'I think this is just another example of Andrew Cuomo trying to figure out what a progressive sounds like and missing by a mile.' 
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Well Cuomo isn’t wrong on the point that the U.S. has a long way to go to achieve our ideals. But he should have known better. There are lots of ways he could have made his point without using that line. How did he not realize he would get blasted for saying that???
What America stands for is what is right and great about our country. And every day we try to achieve those ideals. It does feels right now we are retreating from our progress as a democracy.

I like what Obama used to quote from Dr. King .... “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Poor choice of words, especially taken out of context as he should have known it would be. His point, though, is well taken.

It is well taken by those who understand the truth and are willing to admit it.

I'm just rewatching 'Spotlight' for obvious reasons...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/us/catholic-church-sex-abuse-pennsylvania.html

Catholic Priests Abused 1,000 Children in Pennsylvania, Report Says
Image
Victims of clerical sex abuse and their relatives reacted as Attorney General Josh Shapiro discussed the grand jury report at a news conference in Harrisburg.CreditMatt Rourke/Associated Press
By Laurie Goodstein and Sharon Otterman
Aug. 14, 2018

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Bishops and other leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania covered up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over a period of 70 years, persuading victims not to report the abuse and law enforcement not to investigate it, according to a searing report issued by a grand jury on Tuesday.

The report, which covered six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses and found more than 1,000 identifiable victims, is the broadest examination yet by a government agency in the United States of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The report said there are likely thousands more victims whose records were lost or who were too afraid to come forward.

It catalogs horrific instances of abuse: a priest who raped a young girl in the hospital after she had her tonsils out; a victim tied up and whipped with leather straps by a priest; and another priest who was allowed to stay in ministry after impregnating a young girl and arranging for her to have an abortion.

The sexual abuse scandal has shaken the Catholic Church for more than 15 years, ever since explosive allegations emerged out of Boston in 2002. But even after paying billions of dollars in settlements and adding new prevention programs, the church has been dogged by a scandal that is now reaching its highest ranks. The Pennsylvania report comes soon after the resignation of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, who is accused of sexually abusing young priests and seminarians, as well as minors.

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“Despite some institutional reform, individual leaders of the church have largely escaped public accountability,” the grand jury wrote. “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades.”

[Listen to an episode of “The Daily” about how the report sheds light on the systemic nature of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.]

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The grand jury said that while some accused priests were removed from ministry, the church officials who protected them remained in office or even got promotions. One bishop named in the report as vouching for an abusive priest was Cardinal Donald Wuerl, now the archbishop of Washington. “Until that changes, we think it is too early to close the book on the Catholic Church sex scandal,” the jury wrote.

The report is unlikely to lead to new criminal charges or civil lawsuits under the current law because the statute of limitations has expired. Only two of the cases in the report so far have led to criminal charges.

[Read about how Catholics are reacting to the shocking report here.]

In statements released on Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s Catholic bishops called for prayers for victims and for the church, promised greater openness and said that measures instituted in recent years were already making the church safer.

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But several bishops, including Bishop David A. Zubik of Pittsburgh, rejected the idea the church had concealed abuse.

“There was no cover-up going on,” Bishop Zubik said in a news conference on Tuesday. “I think that it’s important to be able to state that. We have over the course of the last 30 years, for sure, been transparent about everything that has in fact been transpiring.”

Church officials followed a “playbook for concealing the truth,” the grand jury said, minimizing the abuse by using words like “inappropriate contact” instead of “rape”; assigning priests untrained in sexual abuse cases to investigate their colleagues; and not informing the community of the real reasons behind removing an accused priest.

“Tell his parishioners that he is on ‘sick leave,’ or suffering from ‘nervous exhaustion.’ Or say nothing at all,” the report said.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro, whose office initiated the investigation, said in a news conference, “They protected their institution at all costs. As the grand jury found, the church showed a complete disdain for victims.”

He said that the cover-up by senior church officials “stretched in some cases all the way up to the Vatican.”

No other state has seen more grand jury investigations of abuses in the church than Pennsylvania, where about one of every four residents is Catholic and the local attorneys general have been particularly responsive to victims. Previous grand juries examined the dioceses of Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown; the new report covers the rest of the state.

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Mr. Shapiro was surrounded on Tuesday by about 20 abuse victims and their family members, who gasped and wept when he revealed that one priest had abused five sisters in the same family, including one girl beginning when she was 18 months old.

Some victims said in interviews that they were relieved to finally be heard and to have their perpetrators publicly named.

“I had gone to two bishops with allegations over five years, and they ignored and downplayed my allegations,” said the Rev. James Faluszczak, an Erie priest on extended leave who was abused as a child and who testified before the grand jury. “It’s that very management of secrets that has given cover to predators.”

For others, it was too little, too late. Frances Samber, whose brother Michael was abused by a priest in Pittsburgh and committed suicide in 2010, said, “It’s good that the public sees this, but where is the justice? What do you do about it? Why aren’t these people in prison?”

Grand Jury Report on Catholic Church Sex Abuse in Pennsylvania
The grand jury report is the government’s broadest look yet in the United States at child sexual abuse in the church.

 1356 pages, 78.21 MB
There has been no comprehensive measurement of the full scope of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in the United States, though some have tried. American abuse survivors have pushed for years for the government to undertake a nationwide inquiry similar to the one conducted in Australia, where a royal commission spent four years examining the sexual abuse of children by a variety of religious and civic institutions, including the Catholic Church.

There have been 10 previous reports by grand juries and attorneys general in the United States, according to the research and advocacy group BishopAccountability.org, but those examined single dioceses or counties.

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The Pennsylvania grand jury report lands as the sex abuse scandal in the church has reached a new stage, with calls to discipline bishops who sexually abused younger priests and seminarians, or who have covered up for abusive colleagues.

Catholics are calling for independent investigations into why Cardinal McCarrick was advanced up the hierarchy despite warnings to his superiors in Rome and fellow bishops that he had molested seminarians and young priests. Cardinal McCarrick resigned in July over allegations of sexually abusing minors, but since then priests in the diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, and seminarians in Boston and elsewhere have publicly accused their superiors of turning a blind eye to sexual misconduct.

The Pennsylvania grand jury met for two years, reviewed 500,000 documents from dioceses’ secret archives, and heard testimony from dozens of victims and the bishop of Erie. The report covers the dioceses of Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton. Two of the dioceses — Greensburg and Harrisburg — tried to quash the grand jury investigation last year, but later backed off that stance.

The report lists each of the accused priests and documents how they were sent from parish to parish, and even sometimes out of state. The grand jury said that while the list is long, “we don’t think we got them all.” The report added, “We feel certain that many victims never came forward, and that the dioceses did not create written records every single time they heard something about abuse.”

In the Greensburg diocese, the Rev. John Sweeney was charged by the attorney general’s office with sexually abusing a boy in the early 1990s. Father Sweeney pleaded guilty this month and awaits sentencing. In the Erie diocese, the Rev. David Poulson was arrested in May and charged with sexually assaulting a boy for eight years, starting at age 8. Father Poulson has yet to enter a plea.

The Pennsylvania State Legislature has so far resisted calls to lift the statute of limitations, which has prevented childhood victims from filing civil lawsuits against the church after they turn 30. For many victims, it has taken decades to gain the courage to speak about the abuse, long past when the law would allow them to sue.

The grand jury and the attorney general strongly recommended that the statute of limitations be extended in civil and criminal cases. They recommended opening a temporary “window” that would permit older victims to file civil lawsuits against perpetrators, and the church.

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The church has lobbied against any change to the statute or to open such a window, its efforts led by Bishop Ronald W. Gainer of Harrisburg, president of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference. But abuse survivors and advocates say that in September they plan to begin a fresh campaign to press lawmakers and Bishop Gainer to drop their opposition.

“If this doesn’t start a serious debate on the elimination of the statute of limitation, there’s something seriously wrong with my fellow Pennsylvanians,” said Shaun Dougherty, now 48, who testified before the Altoona-Johnstown grand jury about being abused by a priest for three years starting at age 10.

About two dozen people named in the report petitioned the court to have their names redacted from it.

In the news conference, Mr. Shapiro, the attorney general, described the “intense legal battle” that played out over the last several months as some people named in the report appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to block its release.

“They wanted to cover up the cover-up,” he said.

Mr. Shapiro said his office would continue to fight for a full version of the report to be released with no redactions.

One example of a cover-up detailed in the report concerns the Rev. Ernest Paone, a priest who was caught molesting boys and using guns with young children in Pittsburgh. A fellow pastor intervened in 1962 to stop the police from arresting him. The district attorney at the time, Robert Masters, wrote to the diocese in 1964 to say that he had halted his investigation of the case “in order to prevent unfavorable publicity” for the diocese.

In testimony before the grand jury, Mr. Masters said that he had wanted the church’s support for his political career.

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Father Paone was relocated successively to Los Angeles, San Diego and Reno in the following years, with Pittsburgh’s bishops attesting to his fitness as a priest. Among those bishops was Cardinal Wuerl, now the archbishop of Washington. He accepted Father Paone’s resignation from ministry in good standing in 2003, allowing him to collect his pension.

Cardinal Wuerl released a letter to his priests on Monday, saying that while the grand jury report would be “critical of some of my actions, I believe the report also confirms that I acted with diligence, with concern for the survivors and to prevent future acts of abuse.”

As of Tuesday, all six of the dioceses covered by the report had released the names of priests with allegations against them.

Bishop Gainer in Harrisburg recently ordered that the names of accused priests and of bishops who mishandled abuse cases be taken down from all church buildings in the diocese.

The report says that one of the victims who had testified before the grand jury tried to commit suicide while they were deliberating.

“From her hospital bed, she asked for one thing,” the grand jury wrote in the report, “that we finish our work and tell the world what really happened.”

Correction: August 14, 2018
An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a priest in the Erie diocese who was arrested in May. He is the Rev. David Poulson, not Poulsson.

A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 15, 2018, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Church Hid Abuse of 1,000 Children, Grand Jury Finds. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
READ 2361 COMMENTS
Related Coverage
Pennsylvania Grand Jury Says Church Had a ‘Playbook for Concealing the Truth’
Aug. 14, 2018

Thanks Carol for posting the NYT’s article.  I was so disgusted when I read this story a couple of days ago.  
I’m not a religious person so I am looking from the outside in at religious institutions and what amazes me is the hypocrisy.  The Catholic Church with its hierarchy and incredible wealth has let down the very people who look to it for guidance and faith.  I won’t even go into how in the U.S. the conservative Evangelical base has found a way to compromise God’s word for transactional purposes.

The question is now what does the Catholic Church do to right this despicable wrong that the leaders have allowed to continue for decades?  It wasn’t enough when the ‘Boston Globe’ revealed the sexual abuse that was being covered up in Boston for so many years. The movie ‘Spotlight’ was an education for me.  But unbelievably these abuse crimes continue. Can we just imagine how many unreported cases of sexual abuse by the Church have yet to be revealed in other states?

Donna,
at the end of 'Spotlight' there was a list of all the cities / areas and countries of where sexual abuse of priests were published.
I know that most children are sexually abused by family members, and I also know that mamy priests simply look after their congregants. But the system of coverups just makes me sick. Priests have to be celibate but often live with a housekeeper, and the church pays alimony for up to three children - as long as the priest doesn't admit that they are his family. 
And to hear that sexual abuse of children committed by priests still continues and that the catholic church tries to tell everybody that these are just individual cases while amercing the priests themselves instead of leaving it to judges, to install a sort of parallel judicature, simply doesn't work. The limitation period of sexual abuse is still too short, children have to find out that it was wrong what was done to them, and then have to find the courage to go public with their allegations - and need people who believe them which is probably the worst part...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6069425/Trumps-military-parade-planned-November-postponed-Pentagon.html

[size=34]President Trump's military parade is POSTPONED until at least next year after its estimated $92million cost was more than THREE TIMES the initial maximum[/size]

• Pentagon says the parade was originally planned for November in Washington
  
  
• The increased cost of the parade is believed to be one reason for postponement
  
  
• Earlier estimate pegged the cost of the parade at between $10 and $30 million 
  
  

By REUTERS
PUBLISHED: 20:49 EDT, 16 August 2018 | UPDATED: 02:14 EDT, 17 August 2018

    




A military parade requested by U.S. President Donald Trump that had been planned for November in Washington has been postponed until at least next year, the Defense Department said on Thursday.
'We originally targeted November 10, 2018 for this event but have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019,' Defense Department Spokesman Colonel Rob Manning said in a statement.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was unclear exactly what caused the postponement but the increased cost of the event had caused concern and could be one reason.
The parade to honor U.S. military veterans and commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One could cost more than $90million, the U.S. official said, citing provisional planning figures that were nearly three times an earlier White House estimate.


+5


The White House budget office earlier estimated to Congress the parade would cost between $10 million and $30 million. Pictured: President Trump stands with admirals at the Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, DC, on June 1 


+5


The official said the cost estimate of about $92million had not yet been approved by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and could still be changed and more options could be included.

In February, Trump asked the Pentagon to explore a parade in celebration of American troops, after the Republican president marveled at the Bastille Day military parade he attended in Paris last year.
Earlier this year, the White House budget chief said the parade would cost U.S. taxpayers between $10million and $30million.
It was not immediately clear why the recent cost estimate was so much higher than the earlier one, and what exactly it included.

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Trump was inspired to host the large show of military pride in DC after he attended France's Bastille Day parade alongside President Emmanuel Macron on July 14, 2017


+5


The parade on Paris's Champs-Elysees was held to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of America's entering World War One
Critics say the government should not spend money on a costly display of troops and weapons when the Pentagon is struggling to cover the expenses of training, support and personnel.
The District of Columbia Council had ridiculed the idea of a parade on Pennsylvania Avenue, the 1.2-mile stretch between the Capitol and the White House that is also the site of the Trump International Hotel.
Military parades in the United States are generally rare. 


+5


The annual event (pictured on July 14, 2017) sees military tanks and ranks of soldiers marching down the Champs-Élysées in the center of Paris
Such parades in other countries are usually staged to celebrate victories in battle or showcase military might.
In 1991, tanks and thousands of troops paraded through Washington to celebrate the ousting of President Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces from Kuwait in the Gulf War.
The American Legion, an organization representing U.S. veterans, released a statement saying that a military parade would be a misuse of taxpayer money.
‘The American Legion appreciates that our President wants to show in a dramatic fashion our nation’s support for our troops,’ the group said in a statement.
‘However, until such time as we can celebrate victory in the War on Terrorism and bring our military home, we think the parade money would be better spent fully funding the Department of Veteran Affairs and giving our troops and their families the best care possible.’

A. If there's so much money lying around waiting to be wasted on a stupid, useless parade that helps no one and does nothing but kiss Drumpf's butt, they can use it to pay for Drumpf's stupid, useless wall. Better yet, why doesn't Mr. I-Do-Everything-Better-Than-Everyone-Else pay for it all himself? He's a gazillionaire, right?

B. Real reason to postpone? Putin is too busy to come this year.

If I were Drumpf I would think twice about standing in front of a mass of armed men.

lol Lizzy his own personal firing squad.

Now of course he is saying he canceled it because it was too expensive, no we know he threw a tantrum and sulked when told no.

https://people.com/politics/jimmy-carter-modest-life-georgia/




KAREN MIZOGUCHI
 
August 17, 2018 04:38 PM
Jimmy Carter is the only modern-era president to return full-time to the house he lived in before he entered politics.
In fact, he’s also the only living president who saves taxpayers money, specifically less than half the $952,000 budgeted for George H.W. Bush and the $1 million for Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Carter, who will become the second president ever to reach age 94, opened up about his modest life in Plains, Georgia, with wife, former first lady Rosalynn, telling The Washington Post, “It just never had been my ambition to be rich.”
Unlike his successors, the Democratic former president, who served one term, purposefully chose not to join corporate boards or get paid as a public speaker because “he didn’t want to capitalize financially on being in the White House.” While others choose to fly via private jet, the Carters fly commercial.
RELATED: The Inside Story of the Ex-Presidents Club Hurricane Aid Video That Conspicuously Excluded Donald Trump
While he doesn’t “see anything wrong with” other former presidents collecting monetary gain from their White House experiences, (“I don’t blame other people for doing it,” he tells the Post), Carter, who is now cancer-free three years after a melanoma diagnosis on his liver and brain, reveals that he prefers a simpler life.
He enjoys spending time in his study or swimming in the pool, even occasionally building furniture and painting in the garage. Meanwhile, his wife likes to practice tai chi and meditate in the mornings. After making their own yogurt, the couple watches Atlanta Braves games or Law and Order in the afternoons inside their two-bedroom rancher assessed at $167,000.
WATCH: Barack Obama Bemoans ‘Head-Spinning and Disturbing’ Events in Speech After Trump-Putin Meeting




[size]
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MICHELLE OBAMA SHARES THROWBACK PHOTO FROM WEDDING TO BARACK: 'WE'RE STILL HAVING FUN'
QUEEN ELIZABETH MEETS DONALD TRUMP AND WIFE MELANIA FOR THE FIRST TIME AMIDST PROTESTS IN LONDON[/size]
The Carters’ frugal living may have to do with their failed peanut business.
They returned to Plains from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. when he was 56 years old as his peanut business was $1 million in debt. “We thought we were going to lose everything,” Rosalynn told the Post of the company her husband was forced to sell.
These days, they live off the income of his numerous books as well as the $210,700 annual pension all former presidents receive.
“He doesn’t like big shots, and he doesn’t think he’s a big shot,” said Gerald Rafshoon, who was the 39th president’s former White House communications director.
As for what he thinks of current commander in chief, President Donald Trump?
“I think he’s a disaster,” Carter, who has rarely spoken out about Trump, told the Post. “In human rights and taking care of people and treating people equal.”




 
[/size]

In terms of being a truly decent human being, Carter has long been my favorite president. He may not have been the greatest in terms of accomplishments while in office, but he has always been someone who leads by example. The contrast to the thing now occupying the Oval Office is enormous.

I’ll second that Lizzy.  There’s no contest.  I always thought Carter was able to accomplish so much more once he left office.  What makes Carter such a worthy President is his humanitarian outreach and a moral compass.

Absolutely. I have always thought of him as the true example of what Jesus would have expected of his followers. He truly lives a Christian life.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6078457/Pope-sex-abuse-We-showed-no-care-little-ones.html

[size=34]'We showed no care for the little ones': Pope Francis breaks his silence and condemns priestly sex abuse and the ensuing cover up after horror report revealed decades of misconduct by the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania[/size]

• Pope Francis condemned the 'crime' of priestly sexual abuse and cover-up
  
  
• He issued a letter to Catholics around the world, demanding accountability
  
  
• Francis wrote: 'We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them'
  
  

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 06:38 EDT, 20 August 2018 | UPDATED: 07:51 EDT, 20 August 2018

    



Pope Francis has issued a letter to Catholics around the world condemning the 'crime' of priestly sexual abuse and cover-up.
Francis demanded accountability in response to new revelations in the United States of decades of misconduct by the Catholic Church.
He begged forgiveness for the pain suffered by victims and said lay Catholics must be involved in any effort to root out abuse and cover-up.


+2


Pope Francis has issued a letter to Catholics around the world condemning the 'crime' of priestly sexual abuse and cover-up. Pictured: delivering a blessing in St. Peter's Square
He blasted the self-referential clerical culture that has been blamed for the abuse crisis, with church leaders more concerned for their reputation than the safety of children.

Francis wrote: 'We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.'


The Vatican issued the letter Monday, ahead of Francis' trip this weekend to Ireland that is expected to be dominated by the abuse crisis.
The Vatican has come under fire for its failure to respond to a shocking grand jury report which alleged decades of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Pennsylvania.
At least 1,000 children were molested and assaulted by 'predator priests' who used Catholic rituals and symbols of the faith to commit their horrifying abuse, the grand jury found. 


+2


Pope Francis (left) demanded accountability in response to new revelations in the United States of decades of misconduct by the Catholic Church
Priests across Pennsylvania used religious rituals and the threat of eternity in hell to groom, molest and rape children, a grand jury found, in what the state's top prosecutor Josh Shapiro called the 'weaponization of faith.'
In a letter to the Pope, Shapiro said the report had found a 'systemic cover-up' of the sexual abuse by leaders of the Catholic church. 
He called on the Pope to urge church leaders to 'abandon their destructive efforts to silence the survivors' and 'follow the path of truth'.  
One priest tied up a victim with rope in the confessional in a 'praying position,' the grand jury wrote. When the victim refused to perform sex, the angered priest used a 7-inch crucifix to sexually assault him, the report said.
One priest rinsed a boy's mouth with holy water after abusing him while another priest allegedly told a boy he was fondling that it was OK because he was 'an instrument of God.' 
In another church, a priest told a boy who confided he had been gang-raped as a 7-year-old that he had to provide sex to get to heaven.
At a parish rectory, the report said, four of the priests made a boy strip and pose as Jesus on the cross while they took photos. 
Only two of the priests have been charged with crimes as a result of the grand jury investigation, though a number were prosecuted in years past. Over 100 have died, and many others have retired.
The Pennsylvania grand jury said that in almost every case there, the statute of limitations for bringing criminal charges has run out.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6078727/Trump-charges-special-counsel-looking-trouble.html

[size=34]Trump charges special counsel with 'looking for trouble' and making up collusion as a 'phony crime' as his lawyers realize they don't know what top White House attorney Don McGahn told the Russia investigation[/size]

• President Trump is railing against reports top White House lawyer Don McGahn has spoken to the special counsel investigation
  
  
• He has gone a repeated twitter rant since Saturday, making Monday the third day in a row he tweeted repeatedly about the subject 
  
  
• He told lawyer Rudy Giuliani to say the New York Times report was wrong but Giuliani did not do so
  
  
• Meanwhile his legal team has realized they don't know what McGahn told special counsel Robert Mueller in his 30 hours of testimony 
  
  
• Trump says members of the press complained and apologized for a story in the New York Times on top White House lawyer talking to special counsel
  
  
• Trump slammed the tone of the New York Times story and said White House counsel Don McGahn is not 'a John Dean type 'RAT''
  
  
• Trump claims the testimony shows 'I have nothing to hide' 
  
  
• The Times is standing by their story 
  
  
• White House counsel Don McGahn has met with Mueller's team at least three times over the last nine months, The New York Times reported on Saturday
  
  
• White House counsel has talked to Mueller about President Trump's actions related to the Russia investigation 
  
  
• Last year, McGahn threatened to resign after he refused a directive by Trump to fire the Special Counsel 
  
  
• Relations between McGahn and Trump are tense - the president thinks McGahn is disloyal, while the White House counsel calls Trump 'King Kong'
  
  
• Trump says he voluntarily allowed McGahn to cooperate with the Mueller probe
  
  

By EMILY GOODIN, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER and ARIEL ZILBER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 08:13 EDT, 20 August 2018 | UPDATED: 09:23 EDT, 20 August 2018

    


President Donald Trump is charging the special counsel's team with 'looking for trouble' and making up a 'phony crime called collusion' as his lawyers are realizing they don't know what top White House lawyer Don McGahn told the investigation during 30 hours of testimony on the Russia probe.
The president has railed against the New York Times' reporting on McGahn's' conversations with special counsel Robert Mueller since the first story was published on Saturday, making Monday the third day in a row he has tweeted repeatedly on the subject.
In his repeated Twitter rants, Trump has claimed the story is a 'fake piece' of news, that McGahn had his permission to testify, that his lawyer is not a rat who has turned as White House counsel John Dean did on President Nixon, and that the situation is worse than McCarthyism.


+20


President Donald Trump is charging the special counsel's team with 'looking for trouble'


+20


Trump's legal team is said to have realized they don't know what White House counsel Don McGahn has told the Russia investigation


+20


Trump and his legal team have argued collusion is not a crime


+20


Trump has tweeted repeatedly about Don McGahn since it was first reported he was talking to the Russia probe
He added a new charge on Monday morning after The Times reported his legal team has realized they are unaware of what McGahn has told the investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election and whether Trump obstructed it.

Trump is charging Mueller with 'looking for trouble,' claiming that the 30 hours of testimony by McGahn shows 'anybody needing that much time when they know there is no Russian Collusion is just someone.... ....looking for trouble.' 
He also is claiming the investigation is political and designed to hurt the Republican Party in the upcoming midterm elections.  
Finally he claims collusion is a 'phony crime' being used against him because he is fighting back at the investigation. Last month the president and his legal team began the arguments that collusion is not a crime.
'Disgraced and discredited Bob Mueller and his whole group of Angry Democrat Thugs spent over 30 hours with the White House Councel, only with my approval, for purposes of transparency. Anybody needing that much time when they know there is no Russian Collusion is just someone....,' the president tweeted Monday morning.
'....looking for trouble. They are enjoying ruining people's lives and REFUSE to look at the real corruption on the Democrat side - the lies, the firings, the deleted Emails and soooo much more! Mueller's Angry Dems are looking to impact the election. They are a National Disgrace!,' he added.
'Where's the Collusion? They made up a phony crime called Collusion, and when there was no Collusion they say there was Obstruction (of a phony crime that never existed). If you FIGHT BACK or say anything bad about the Rigged Witch Hunt, they scream Obstruction!,' Trump tweeted. 
McGahn has only offered the president's legal team a limited account of what he told investigators and that has them concerned about their original decision to cooperate, The Times reported. 
Trump was in Bedminister, New Jersey, at his golf club when the reports came out.
He instructed his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to tell reporters that the article was wrong, the newspaper reported, but Giuliani did not go that far when he made appearances on the Sunday morning talk shows.
Trump is also said to be obsessed with the role John Dean played during the Watergate investigation when, during his time as White House counsel, he turned in evidence against Nixon.  
Trump also claimed on Sunday some members of the media apologized to him for a story in the New York Times on McGahn talking to the special counsel about whether or not the president obstructed the Russia investigation.
He also slammed the paper for implying McGahn is a 'RAT' who turned on him and is claiming the testimony by the top White House lawyer shows he has 'nothing to hide' in the Russia investigation. 
The Times stood by its story.  



Trump claims members of the media apologized for the story


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He also said White House counsel Don McGahn has not turned on him



He charged the Mueller probe with being worse than McCarthyism


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Special Counsel Robert Mueller has 30 hours of testimony from top White House lawyer Don McGahn
'Some members of the media are very Angry at the Fake Story in the New York Times. They actually called to complain and apologize - a big step forward. From the day I announced, the Times has been Fake News, and with their disgusting new Board Member, it will only get worse!,' Trump tweeted Sunday morning.
The DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House about which members of the press made the apologizes. 
Trump used a series of tweets on Sunday morning to paint a New York Times story on McGahn's conversations with special counsel Robert Mueller as a 'fake piece.' 
In a twitter rant, he repeatedly condemned the story and the newspaper.
The Times responded to the tweets with a tweet.
'The New York Times stands behind the reporting of our Pulitzer-Prize winning reporters @nytmike and @maggieNYT,' the paper's public relations team tweeted. 
The president took umbrage with the tone of the story, charging the newspaper with portraying McGahn as 'a John Dean type 'RAT'' - a reference to the former aide to President Richard Nixon who became a key witness to the prosecution in the Watergate scandal.
Trump, who values loyalty, also disputed reports of a troubled relationship between the two men, writing McGahn has not turned on him.
'The Failing New York Times wrote a story that made it seem like the White House Councel had TURNED on the President, when in fact it is just the opposite - & the two Fake reporters knew this. This is why the Fake News Media has become the Enemy of the People. So bad for America!,' he tweeted Sunday morning. 
The Times reported that McGahn has told people he is talking to Mueller in order to avoid the fate of John Dean, who served as Nixon's White House counsel and feared Nixon was setting him up to take the fall on Watergate. Dean cooperated with investigators while still working in the White House. 
Trump emphasized he 'allowed' McGahn and others to testify, a point he also made on Saturday evening when the story was first posted on line.
'I didn't have to. I have nothing to hide,' he wrote on Twitter Sunday morning.  
The president went on to claim Mueller's investigation is 'McCarthyism at its WORST!' and, in a series of tweets, he used his favorite criticisms of the probe, calling it a 'Rigged and Disgusting Witch Hunt.' 


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The Times responded to the president's tweets with a tweet


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Trump slammed the New York Times for implying Don McGahn is a 'rat'


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He emphasized he allowed McGahn to testify


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He renewed his call for an investigation into Hillary Clinton
'The failing @nytimes wrote a Fake piece today implying that because White House Councel Don McGahn was giving hours of testimony to the Special Councel, he must be a John Dean type 'RAT.' But I allowed him and all others to testify - I didn't have to. I have nothing to hide......,' Trump tweeted.
'....and have demanded transparency so that this Rigged and Disgusting Witch Hunt can come to a close. So many lives have been ruined over nothing - McCarthyism at its WORST! Yet Mueller & his gang of Dems refuse to look at the real crimes on the other side - Media is even worse!'
He then renewed his call for the special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton.
'No Collusion and No Obstruction, except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats. All of the resignations and corruption, yet heavily conflicted Bob Mueller refuses to even look in that direction. What about the Brennan, Comey, McCabe, Strzok lies to Congress, or Crooked's Emails!,' he wrote.
He also claimed Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election would make Joseph McCarthy's look in the 1950s into whether communist agents had infiltrated the United States 'look like a baby.'
'Study the late Joseph McCarthy, because we are now in period with Mueller and his gang that make Joseph McCarthy look like a baby! Rigged Witch Hunt!,' he tweeted. 
Late Saturday, Trump said he was fully aware that the top lawyer in the White House has been fully cooperating with Mueller's investigation into whether he obstructed justice in the Russia probe.
Responding to a New York Times story on Twitter, the president said that he 'allowed White House Counsel Don McGahn' to fully cooperate and said that his administration handed over one million pages of documents.
The president then added that his cooperation was the most 'transparent in history' and again labeled the investigation a 'witch hunt'.  
This comes after it was revealed that McGahn has given lengthy statements to Mueller's team.
He has spent 30 hours being interview on three separate occasions in the last nine months.


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Donald McGahn (above), the White House counsel, has been fully cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice in the Russia probe


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The extent of McGahn's cooperation was first reported by The New York Times on Saturday afternoon, which cited dozens of current and former White House officials familiar with the matter.
Trump dismissed the significance of the cooperation in a Saturday evening tweet, writing: 'I allowed White House Counsel Don McGahn, and all other requested members of the White House Staff, to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel. In addition we readily gave over one million pages of documents. Most transparent in history. No Collusion, No Obstruction. Witch Hunt!' 


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McGahn has told the Special Counsel's investigators about Trump's responses to the Russia investigation, the president's firing of FBI Director James Comey, and attempts to pressure Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reassume control over the probe after he recused himself


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McGahn has given lengthy statements to Mueller's team - some 30 hours worth spread out over at least three voluntary interviews during the span of nine months. Mueller is seen in the above file photo
McGahn has told the Special Counsel's investigators about Trump's responses to the Russia investigation, the president's firing of FBI Director James Comey, and attempts to pressure Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reassume control over the probe after he recused himself. 
The White House counsel also told Mueller's team about Trump's attempts to fire the Special Counsel.


Last year, Trump ordered Mueller fired but backed down after McGahn threatened to resign rather than follow his directive.
Mueller, who is investigating allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, learned of the incident in subsequent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior White House officials in an inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice.
The Times is reporting on Saturday that McGahn is the one who likely revealed the president's intent to fire Mueller.
The idea that the president's top lawyer would be so forthcoming with prosecutors with potentially damaging information about his client is considered unusual, legal experts told the Times. 

[size=34]THE ROBERT MUELLER PROBE SO FAR: FIVE GUILTY PLEAS, ONE JAILED ATTORNEY AND 25 RUSSIANS ACCUSED[/size]

GUILTY: MICHAEL FLYNN 
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in December 2017. Awaiting sentence
Flynn was President Trump's former National Security Advisor. He previously served when he was a three star general as President Obama's director of the Defense Intelligence Agency but was fired. 
He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his conversations with a Russian ambassador in December 2016. He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.

GUILTY: RICK GATES 
Pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and making false statements in February 2018. Awaiting sentence
Gates was Manafort's former deputy at political consulting firm DMP International. He admitted to conspiring to defraud the U.S. government on financial activity, and to lying to investigators about a meeting Manafort had with a member of congress in 2013. As a result of his guilty plea and promise of cooperation, prosecutors vacated charges against Gates on bank fraud, bank fraud conspiracy, failure to disclose foreign bank accounts, filing false tax returns, helping prepare false tax filings, and falsely amending tax returns.

GUILTY: GEORGE PAPADOPOLOUS
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in October 2017. Awaiting sentence
Papadopoulos was a member of Donald Trump's campaign foreign policy advisory committee. He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his contacts with London professor Josef Mifsud and Ivan Timofeev, the director of a Russian government-funded think tank. 
He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.

GUILTY: RICHARD PINEDO
Pleaded guilty to identity fraud in February 2018. Awaiting sentence
Pinedo is a 28-year-old computer specialist from Santa Paula, California. He admitted to selling bank account numbers to Russian nationals over the internet that he had obtained using stolen identities. 
He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.

GUILTY AND JAILED: ALEX VAN DER ZWAAN
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in February 2018. He served a 30-day prison sentence earlier this year and was deported to the Netherlands upon his release.
Van der Zwaan is a Dutch attorney for Skadden Arps who worked on a Ukrainian political analysis report for Paul Manafort in 2012. 
He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about when he last spoke with Rick Gates and Konstantin Kilimnik.

CHARGED: KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK
Indicted for obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. 
Kilimnik is a former employee of Manafort's political consulting firm and helped him with lobbying work in Ukraine. He is accused of witness tampering, after he allegedly contacted individuals who had worked with Manafort to remind them that Manafort only performed lobbying work for them outside of the U.S.
He has been linked to  Russian intelligence and is currently thought to be in Russia - effectively beyond the reach of extradition by Mueller's team.
INDICTED: THE RUSSIANS 
Twenty-five Russian nationals and three Russian entities have been indicted for conspiracy to defraud the United States. 
Two of these Russian nationals were also indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 11 were indicted for conspiracy to launder money. Fifteen of them were also indicted for identity fraud. 
Vladimir Putin has ridiculed the charges. Russia effectively bars extradition of its nationals. The only prospect Mueller has of bringing any in front of a U.S. jury is if Interpol has their names on an international stop list - which is not made public - and they set foot in a territory which extradites to the U.S. 




People close to McGahn told the Times that he decided to fully cooperate with Mueller because he feared Trump was setting him up to take the fall for any potential illegal activity, including obstruction of justice.
McGahn and his lawyer, William Burck, decided to cooperate in order to show Mueller that the White House counsel had nothing to hide, according to the Times. 
McGahn has told Mueller's team that he never personally witnessed Trump breaking the law, but the information he has divulged could be potentially damaging.
Trump, meanwhile, appears to have mistakenly believed that McGahn would act as his personal attorney who would defend the president's interests. 
News of McGahn's extensive cooperation with Mueller is likely to complicate the already-strained relationship between the two men.

[size=34]TIMELINE OF SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT MUELLER'S RUSSIA PROBE[/size]

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether the Trump campaign and Russia colluded to help Trump win the 2016 U.S. presidential election and whether Trump has unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. 
Trump has called the investigation a 'witch hunt.' 
June 2015 - Donald Trump, a wealthy real estate developer and reality TV personality, announces his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.
March 2016 - Around this date, Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, begins a cyber campaign aimed at interfering with the 2016 presidential election, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.
April 2016 - Trump foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos meets with an academic who has just returned from Moscow. The academic tells Papadopoulos that the Russians have obtained dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, including 'thousands of emails.'
June 9, 2016 - Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort meet at Trump Tower in New York with a Russian lawyer and others. Emails later made public show Trump Jr. believed he would receive information harmful to Clinton.
July 5, 2016 - Former British spy Christopher Steele, who was investigating Trump’s Russia connections in an effort paid for by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), briefs an FBI agent on his findings.
July 22, 2016 - On the eve of the Democratic presidential nominating convention at which Clinton became her party’s nominee, WikiLeaks releases 44,000 emails hacked from the DNC. The content of some of the emails prompts the resignation of DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.


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U.S. President Barack Obama meets Russian President Vladimir Putin during a G-20 summit in China and warns him of a strong response if Russia’s meddling continues
Late July 2016 - The FBI begins a counter-intelligence investigation of Russian meddling in the election.
Aug. 19, 2016 - Manafort resigns as Trump’s campaign chairman following news reports of his business dealings in Ukraine.
Sept. 5, 2016 - U.S. President Barack Obama meets Russian President Vladimir Putin during a G-20 summit in China and warns him of a strong response if Russia’s meddling continues.
Oct. 7, 2016 - Within an hour of the airing of an Access Hollywood video in which Trump talks in vulgar terms about women, WikiLeaks begins serial publication of thousands of private emails belonging to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Office of Director of National Intelligence issue a statement that for the first time publicly blames Russia for the election-related computer hacks.
Nov. 8, 2016 - Trumps wins the U.S. presidential election.
Dec. 29, 2016 - Obama, in response to the hacking and harassment of U.S. diplomats in Moscow, places sanctions on Russian intelligence agencies and individuals, expels 35 Russian diplomats and shuts Russian-owned compounds in Maryland and New York.
After the sanctions are announced, Trump national security aide Michael Flynn holds a series of phone calls with Sergei Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States.


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Trump unexpectedly won the 2016 presidential election. He is seen right with Vice President-elect Mike Pence during their victory rally in New York City on November 9, 2016
Jan. 6, 2017 - In an unclassified report, the U.S. intelligence community states that Putin ordered an election meddling effort whose goals eventually included helping Trump and harming Clinton. President-elect Trump is briefed by U.S. intelligence chiefs on the finding, and is told of the existence of information gathered by Steele.
Jan. 10, 2017 - BuzzFeed publishes the Steele 'dossier' detailing alleged collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow and containing salacious allegations regarding Trump.
Jan. 20, 2017 - Trump is sworn in as president.
Feb. 13, 2017 - Flynn resigns as Trump’s national security adviser, reportedly having misled Vice President Mike Pence and others about his talks with Kislyak.
March 20, 2017 - FBI Director James Comey for the first time publicly confirms the bureau’s Russia counter-intelligence investigation.
May 9, 2017 - Trump fires Comey, and days later attributes the dismissal to 'this Russia thing.'
May 17, 2017 - Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the No. 2 Justice Department official, appoints former FBI director Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
July 26, 2017 - Federal agents execute a pre-dawn raid of Manafort’s home.
Oct. 30, 2017 - As part of Mueller’s investigation, Manafort and business partner Rick Gates are indicted on money-laundering and other charges. Manafort pleads not guilty. Gates later pleads guilty to lesser charges and cooperates with Mueller’s probe.
Papadopoulos pleads guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts and agrees to cooperate with the special counsel.


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Former U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn resigned as Trump’s national security adviser, reportedly having misled Vice President Mike Pence and others about his talks with Kislyak. He is seen above arriving at a Washington, D.C. court July 10
Dec. 1, 2017 - Flynn pleads guilty to lying to the FBI and agrees to cooperate with the special counsel.
Feb. 16, 2018 - Mueller charges 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies, including the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, with conspiracy to tamper with the 2016 election.
April 3, 2018 - Alex van der Zwaan, the Dutch son-in-law of one of Russia’s richest men, is sentenced to 30 days in prison and fined $20,000 for lying to Mueller’s investigators, becoming the first person sentenced in the special counsel’s probe.
April 9, 2018 - FBI agents raid the offices and home of Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. The raid is in part related to Cohen’s payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an affair she said she had with Trump.
June 8, 2018 - Mueller filed new charges against Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian political operative with alleged ties to Russian intelligence. The two men were charged with tampering with witnesses about their lobbying for Ukraine. Mueller has said Kilimnik has links to Russian spy agencies, an allegation Kilimnik denies.
July 3, 2018 - A Senate Intelligence Committee report supports three U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia tried to help Donald Trump win the 2016 U.S. presidential election. 
July 13, 2018 - A federal grand jury charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democratic computer networks in 2016, in the most detailed U.S. accusation yet that Moscow meddled in the presidential election to help Trump.


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In April 2018, FBI agents raided the office of Trump's former personal lawyer. The raid was in part related to a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels (seen left with her attorney, Michael Avenatti)
July 16, 2018 - Trump tried to calm a storm over his failure to hold Putin accountable for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, saying he misspoke in a joint news conference in Helsinki.
July 21, 2018 - The FBI released documents related to the surveillance of former Trump presidential campaign adviser Carter Page as part of a probe into whether he conspired with the Russian government to undermine the 2016 U.S. election. 
July 27, 2018 - Trump denied knowing about the 2016 meeting his son Donald Trump Jr. and other campaign staff held at Trump Tower with a group of Russians who offered damaging information about Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. 
August 1, 2018 - Trump appealed to Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end the Russia investigation, drawing a rebuke from his fellow Republicans in Congress who said the probe must go on. The president tweeted: 'This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further.'
August 5, 2018 - Trump acknowledged that his son met with Russians in 2016 at Trump Tower to get information on his election opponent Hillary Clinton, saying it was 'totally legal' and 'done all the time in politics.'
                                                                                                                         Source: Reuters 




The two men rarely speak to one another face to face. While Trump believes McGahn is not loyal enough, McGahn has called the president 'King Kong' behind his back because of his temper tantrums, the Times is reporting. 
Despite tensions over the Russia probe, however, McGahn has played a key role in one of Trump's signature accomplishments since he became president - the dozens of judicial appointments to the federal bench, including the Supreme Court.
'The president and Don have a great relationship,' White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement to the Times. 
'He appreciates all the hard work he's done, particularly his help and expertise with the judges, and the Supreme Court' nominees.  
McGahn, his attorney, and the Special Counsel's office declined to comment.

[size=34]Trump's in-house guardrail: White House Counsel Don McGahn[/size]

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White House counsel Donald McGahn, left, listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018
As Donald Trump raged in an Oval Office filled with tense senior aides, he trained his eyes on one in particular: White House Counsel Don McGahn.
During a tirade on March 3, 2017, Trump erupted over his attorney general's decision to step out of a sensitive investigation on Russian contacts and tangled with his team over how to redo his troubled travel ban. 
His angriest remarks were reserved for McGahn, who was tasked with making a complex legal case on both fronts to a president concerned about political optics.
But less than 24 hours after being on the receiving end of a Trump smackdown, McGahn was in Florida with his boss at an amiable work session and dinner. 
The new travel ban the president signed days later showed he took the lawyer's advice to stop pursuing his appeal of the first one.
In a White House that prides itself on defying the system, McGahn often has the unenviable task of defining that system's parameters. 
He's an in-house guardrail for a president who likes to veer out of traditional bounds, and McGahn certainly doesn't win all of his battles. 
Yet for far longer than anyone in the White House outside of Trump's family, McGahn has retained his status of trusted confidant and adviser to a man who isn't interested in making the job easy.
'Don's style is such that it avoids having him get sucked into the vortex,' said Leonard Leo, an adviser to the White House on the Supreme Court nomination process and judicial and legal appointments. 
'He's not yapping in the president's ear just for the sake of being close to power. So when they do talk, it's more meaningful.'
McGahn - a 49-year-old election lawyer who ended his side-gig as a guitarist in an '80s cover band to take on the all-consuming his White House post - walked into an empty West Wing office on Jan. 20. 
He's lived the past year and a half in dog years. 
In rapid fire, he's fielded unprecedented ethics questions, suffered a bruising legal defeat on a signature policy and managed the hiring, and one firing, of prominent officials.
A single tweet can send him scrambling without warning, as last weekend when the president accused former President Barack Obama of wire-tapping his phone at Trump Tower. 
McGahn and his team were dispatched to find out what, if any, options the president had to learn more about the situation, according to former White House spokesman Sean Spicer, who disputed there was anything inappropriate about the inquiry.


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As the campaign's general counsel, McGahn was with Trump on June 16, 2015, the day he announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination
'If you know Don and the team here, these are unbelievably talented lawyers,' Spicer said Monday. 
'They are very skilled at knowing where the bounds are.'
McGahn declined to comment for this story.
In one of his few interviews, with a conservative TV station during the Republican National Convention last summer, he laughed when asked to preview what Trump would say in his speech that night: 'I wouldn't dare begin to guess what Mr. Trump is going to say.'
His boss' unpredictability isn't McGahn's only challenge. 
Trump's business ties raise a pile of legal and ethical quandaries for this White House. 
McGahn has hired 26 senior lawyers for his Office of the White House Counsel, including a team of four to contend with the nonstop questions that dog a billionaire president who retains a financial interest in his global real estate and marketing empire.
He has sought advice and support from many of his predecessors, including Obama's first chief White House Counsel Bob Bauer and George H.W. Bush's top attorney C. Boyden Gray.
'It was more of a commiseration,' Gray said of his conversation with McGahn. 
While the elder Bush had a successful private-sector career in which he pioneered offshore drilling, he'd sold everything off by the time he went into politics, he said.
'There weren't the entanglements the Trump family has.'
As the campaign's general counsel, McGahn was with Trump on June 16, 2015, the day he announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. 
He was with him on the ground in every important primary state and again on Nov. 8, 2016, as the final results rolled in. 
Only Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law-turned adviser, has also traveled each step in Trump's improbable rise.
That familiarity has made McGahn comfortable enough with Trump to push him without permanently damaging their relationship - even if a discussion becomes 'heated' or 'spirited,' as two administration officials described last week's exchange.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations.
It fell to McGahn to explain that it was up to no one but Attorney General Jeff Sessions to make the decision to recuse himself from any investigation into Trump campaign links to Russia - a move that Trump argued felt like an admission of defeat.
'It can be emotionally draining,' the adviser Leo said. 
'You don't just have to answer complex legal questions, but you have to do so in a way that is accepted and embraced by your boss.'
Although Trump's first travel ban was written with little legal vetting, McGahn took heat for it as courts blocked it. 
Some legal experts called the executive order sloppy. 
The federal appeals panel said it could not rely on McGahn's after-the-fact written assurance that lawful permanent residents were exempt. The new ban expressly does not apply to that group.
McGahn also was in the middle of the ouster of Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser. 
According to the White House, he was the first to learn from the acting attorney general, Sally Yates, that Flynn had not been forthcoming about the nature of his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.
McGahn took the information to Trump that same day, although Flynn wasn't fired until after details were made public.
McGahn, who friends say has both the humor and intensity to withstand pressure, is a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, where he pushed to give political groups and candidates more flexibility in raising and spending money. 
His wife, Shannon McGahn, recently joined the Treasury Department as a senior adviser, after serving as staff director for the House Financial Services Committee. 
Source: Associated Press




In March of last year, footage emerged appearing to show the impact of an agitated Trump dressing down top aides Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus on Friday.
But the footage actually depicted fallout from the president directing his ire at McGahn, according to three sources familiar with the tense meeting.
'He was chewing out the White House counsel about Sessions,' a senior administration official told DailyMail.com, referring to Sessions' move to recuse himself from federal investigations linking Russian officials with Trump campaign personnel.
Sessions' move came hours after Trump said he had 'total' confidence in Sessions, and shortly after then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer pre-recorded a Fox news Channel interview in which he said there was no reason for Sessions to step away.
McGahn absorbed most of Hurricane Donald's force after the president found glowing media coverage – following his well-received speech to a Joint session of Congress – crowded out by the Sessions mini-scandal.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6080553/Trump-says-run-Mueller-probe-wanted-to.html

[size=34]BREAKING NEWS: Trump says he could 'run' the Mueller probe himself 'if I wanted to' as he also raises prospect of ending sanctions on Russia[/size]

• The president said in a new interview he was 'totally allowed' to intervene in the Mueller probe
  
  
• He said he has 'decided' to stay out 
  
  
• 'I can go in and I could... do whatever, I could run it if I want,' he said
  
  
• Trump has been railing against the probe as a 'witch hunt'
  
  
• His lawyers have been negotiating for months but he has not agreed to an interview 
  
  
• He has called Mueller 'totally conflicted' and would not say whether he might revoke his security clearance 
  
  

By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 18:25 EDT, 20 August 2018 | UPDATED: 18:59 EDT, 20 August 2018

    



President Donald Trump has found someone he may have greater confidence in to oversee the Russia probe than special counsel Robert Mueller: himself.
'I could run it if I want,' Trump said, in a bald declaration of what he says is authority to either assist, or take over the Russia probe that has upended his term in office.
Trump told Reuters he is 'totally allowed' to intervene in the probe, but has chosen to stay out.



'I could run it if I want,' Trump said of the Russia probe



'I've decided to stay out. Now, I don't have to stay out, as you know. I can go in and I could... do whatever, I could run it if I want,' he said.
Trump made the brash statement on the third day of jury deliberations in the trial of his former campaign chair, Paul Manafort. The Jury concluded the day without reaching a verdict.
In recent days, the president has continued to rail against Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who last year recused himself from the probe – a decion that led to the appointment of Mueller by deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.
Trump said he would consider lifting sanctions on Russia, imposed by the Obama administration as well as his own, if Moscow moves toward the U.S. on issues like Ukraine. 


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Trump did not say whether he would agree to an interview with Mueller
Trump last week revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, a formidable outside critic who called Trump's Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin 'treasonous.'
He then continued to rail against Brennan and the Russia probe over the weekend. 
Trump also echoed a statement by his lawyer Rudy Giuliani that agreeing to an interview with Mueller's investigators is a 'perjury trap,' as Giuliani put it.
'Even if I am telling the truth, that makes me a liar,' Trump said, without further explanation. 'That´s no good.' 


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Trump indicated he may view an interview with Mueller as a perjury trap. ''Even if I am telling the truth, that makes me a liar,' he said


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President Donald Trump answers a question during an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S. August 20, 2018


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Trump said he would consider lifting sanctions on Russia, imposed by the Obama administration as well as his own, if Moscow moves toward the U.S. on issues like Ukraine. Here First Lady Melania Trump, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, and US President Donald Trump (L-R) after a news conference at the Presidential Palace
He said he was concerned that things he said in an interview could be used to bring charges against him.
The White House, Trump, and family members have offered conflicting statements about a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr., Manafort, and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner with Russians who offered dirt on rival Hillary Clinton.
The Mueller team has charged former Trump campaign members with lying to the FBI during interviews as it investigates possible collusion between the Trump camp and the Russians. 
Trump has said repeatedly there was 'no collusion.' 
Trump on Friday called Mueller 'totally conflicted' even as he backed up Manafort, who could go to jail for the rest of his life if convicted and faces 18 charges on tax and fraud issues.
'I think it's a very sad day for our country. He worked for me for a very short period of time, but you know what? He happens to be a very good person. And I think it's very sad what they've done to Paul Manafort,' Trump said, defending Manafort while a jury deliberated in Virginia. 
Trump did not say whether he would agree to an interview with Mueller. Nor did he answer whether he would strip Mueller's security clearance, which he did to Brennan last week following repeated criticism of himself.
 Trump listed general areas he spoke about during his Helsinki summit with Putin. There was no note-taker and his director of national intelligence has said he doesn't know the details of what went on.
He listed Israel's security, Syria – where the U.S. and Russia are at odds – and Russia's annexation of Crimea. That action drew sanctions from the Obama administration. He also mentioned the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia to Germany, something he blasted Germany for during the NATO summit last month. 
Trump said Putin didn't raise sanctions with him. He said he would consider lifting sanctions if Russia took steps on areas like Syria or Ukraine – although many sanctions are set in law.  
'I would consider it if they do something that would be good for us. But I wouldn´t consider it without that,' Trump said.
Trump went after the Mueller probe on Twitter earlier Monday.
'Where's the Collusion? They made up a phony crime called Collusion, and when there was no Collusion they say there was Obstruction (of a phony crime that never existed). If you FIGHT BACK or say anything bad about the Rigged Witch Hunt, they scream Obstruction!' he wrote.
Trump charged the special counsel's team with 'looking for trouble' and making up a 'phony crime called collusion' as his lawyers are realizing they don't know what top White House lawyer Don McGahn told the investigation during 30 hours of testimony on the Russia probe.


+9


Trump and his legal team have argued collusion is not a crime


+9


President Donald Trump is charging the special counsel's team with 'looking for trouble'


+9


Trump's legal team is said to have realized they don't know what White House counsel Don McGahn has told the Russia investigation


+9


Trump slammed the New York Times for implying Don McGahn is a 'rat'
The president has railed against the New York Times' reporting on McGahn's' conversations with Mueller since a first story was published on his role Saturday.
In his repeated Twitter rants, Trump has claimed the story is a 'fake piece' of news, said McGahn had his permission to testify, and that his lawyer is not a rat who has turned as White House counsel John Dean did on President Nixon, and that the situation is worse than McCarthyism.
'Disgraced and discredited Bob Mueller and his whole group of Angry Democrat Thugs spent over 30 hours with the White House Councel, only with my approval, for purposes of transparency. Anybody needing that much time when they know there is no Russian Collusion is just someone....,' the president tweeted Monday morning.
'....looking for trouble. They are enjoying ruining people's lives and REFUSE to look at the real corruption on the Democrat side - the lies, the firings, the deleted Emails and soooo much more! Mueller's Angry Dems are looking to impact the election. They are a National Disgrace!,' he added.
'Where's the Collusion? They made up a phony crime called Collusion, and when there was no Collusion they say there was Obstruction (of a phony crime that never existed). If you FIGHT BACK or say anything bad about the Rigged Witch Hunt, they scream Obstruction!,' Trump tweeted. 
He also slammed the paper for implying McGahn is a 'RAT' who turned on him and is claiming the testimony by the top White House lawyer shows he has 'nothing to hide' in the Russia investigation.

This man is the epitome of idiocy!  The FACTS will eventually come out from the Mueller investigation despite this con man’s efforts to sabotage the investigation.  Notice all the adjectives he’s uses to describe his so-called enemies?  They actually describe him to a ‘T’?

Who else is exhausted from all of this?  I hope people are paying attention and come out in droves to VOTE in November.  VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html

[size=34]Trump attacks Cohen as a rat and says: 'I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. Unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to "break" - make up stories in order to get a 'deal.' Such a brave man!'[/size]

• Trump praised his former campaign manager Paul Manafort for not making a deal with federal prosecutors
  
  
• Trump emphasized that 10 out of 18 counts could not be decided and has not ruled out a pardon for Manafort
  
  
• He contrasted Manafort's behavior with that of his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to eight counts on Tuesday 
  
  
• Jury of six men and six women returned verdict on Manafort at end of the first trial brought by Robert Mueller's special counsel probe
  
  
• He is found guilty of eight of the ten counts of fraud on the fourth day of deliberations - the jury deadlocked on the other ten
  
  
• Prosecutors had outlined how he used tax and bank fraud to fund a lavish lifestyle, with his spending including a now notorious $15,000 ostrich jacket 
  
  
• Cohen pleaded guilty to fraud and crucially to campaign finance violations for paying Stormy Daniels and a Playboy model on Trump's order
  
  
• Manafort now faces possibility of a lengthy prison sentence from Judge T.S. Ellis III who will ask for background reports and recommendations from both sides
  
  
• Lobbyist remains in custody ahead of a second trial in Washington D.C. next month on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent
  
  

By EMILY GOODIN, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER and ALANA GOODMAN IN ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA, FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 09:41 EDT, 22 August 2018 | UPDATED: 14:05 EDT, 22 August 2018

    

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Guilty: Paul Manafort faces up to 80 years in prison after being convicted of eight charges of fraud
President Donald Trump praised his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, now a convicted felon, of being a 'brave man' who didn't 'break' under pressure in a tweet Wednesday - sharply contrasting him to Michael Cohen who 'made up stories'.
He compared Manafort to his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to eight counts that included tax fraud and campaign finance violations in an attempt to cast doubt on Cohen's truthfulness.
The tweet is the first indication of a likely strategy of how Trump plans to fight back against Cohen if he is used by the Robert Mueller special counsel probe, or by a future Democratic push for impeachment. It may also hint at a pardon for Manafort, although he faces a second trial in September on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent.

'I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. 'Justice' took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to 'break' - make up stories in order to get a 'deal.' Such respect for a brave man!,' the president wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning.
He added: 'A large number of counts, ten, could not even be decided in the Paul Manafort case. Witch Hunt!'
Trump has not ruled out a pardon for Manafort, who was found guilty of tax and bank fraud by a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, on Tuesday, a verdict that will likely bolster special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and undermine arguments from Trump's supporters that the probe is baseless and politically motivated.
Manafort did not testify in his trial and didn't make a deal with federal prosecutors. 
Cohen, meanwhile, told a federal judge on Tuesday that the payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal during the 2016 election were done 'at the direction of the candidate,' and 'for the principal purpose of influencing the election' - a revelation that could have legal and political implications for Trump.
He was pleading guilty to eight counts at a New York federal court at precisely the same time as Manafort's verdict was delivered.
After four days of deliberation, a jury found Manafort guilty of eight counts of bank and tax fraud, which could send the former Trump campaign manager to prison for up to 80 years. 


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Trump is praising is former campaign manager Paul Manafort, now a convicted felon, of being a 'brave man' who didn't 'break' under pressure



Trump emphasized that 10 out of 18 counts in Manafort's case could not be decided



Donald Trump hit his former lawyer with a searing-one liner on Wednesday morning after Michael Cohen's attorney appeared on a sea of news programs to claim the sitting president is guilty of criminal acts



Trump attacked Cohen further as his former attorney's own lawyer said his guilty client was only following the president's orders in a series of television appearances


+22


Cohen's racquet: The president's former lawyer slipped in to his apartment building in New York by a side entrance with with a tennis raquet bag. He has made no public statement since pleading guilty but his attorney has accused the president of committing a crime


+22


In the side door: Michael Cohen was casually addressed as he returned home to his Park Avenue apartment hours after the president accused him of lying in his guilty plea
Trump also said the campaign finance violations his former lawyer claims to have committed at the direction of the president are 'not a crime' as he laid out his own defense on Wednesday morning in tweets.
Trump pointed to his predecessor, Barack Obama's, campaign finance violations in 2012, and argued that they were 'easily settled' and did not result in jail time.
And the president laughed at Cohen is not very bright after his ex-attorney's attorney appeared on a sea of news programs to claim the sitting president is guilty of criminal acts.
'If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!' the president said of the former legal counsel to the Trump Organization.
The evening prior, Trump signaled that he felt 'badly' for Cohen, his longtime fixer and former lawyer, who pleaded guilty to eight counts of fraud and campaign finance violations to avoid a trail that could end with a sentence of life in prison.
He said he was disgusted with the judicial system that led his ex-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, to be found guilty of eight financial crimes, as well.
Trump changed his tune on Cohen, however, after his former attorney's lawyer jumped on television and said his guilty client was only following the president's orders.
Cohen's lawyer claimed in multiple appearances that Trump participated in illegal acts, and his client doesn't need to offer evidence - the president's lawyers have already done that.

WHAT MANAFORT IS GUILTY OF - AND WHAT HE COULD GET

[size=13]The jury found Paul Manafort, 69, guilty of: 
[/size]

• Five counts of filing false income tax returns (one each for the years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014). Each count carries three year statutory maximum
  

• One count of filing a false FBAR Foreign Bank Account Report in 2012. Carries a five year statutory maximum
  

• One count of bank fraud for a $3.4 million Citizens Bank loan. Carries a 30 year statutory maximum 
  

• One count of bank fraud for a $1 million Bank of California loan. Carries 30 years statutory maximum
  

Lanny Davis said his client's guilty plea draws on a letter that Trump's current attorneys sent special counsel Robert Mueller admitting the president 'directed' Cohen to make the Stormy Daniels hush-money payoff. 
'Let me make 100 percent clear: the evidence was provided definitively by Donald Trump's lawyers,' Davis said Wednesday. 'It's not a dispute. It's not about credibility. It's his lawyers in a letter used the word directed.'
Invoking Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who claimed it's not a crime to lie to the American people, Davis said that it is federal crime to make illegal campaign contributions like the one that Cohen pleaded guilty to making on Tuesday afternoon.
'President Trump committed a criminal act that corrupted our democracy,' Davis on 'Good Morning America' charged. 'That's what the campaign finance laws are about.'
Davis told CBS, 'He committed a crime. He should be indicted if he were not president, he clearly would be indicted and jailed for that crime. Whether he can be indicted as president of course, is not yet decided by the Supreme Court.'
'It's not about evidence, it is definitive indisputable that Donald Trump's lawyers said in a letter to the Special Counsel that President Trump directed, the same word that Michael Cohen used in court yesterday under oath, directed Cohen to make illegal payments,' he said on the network's flagship morning program.
'And why did he direct? Because he didn't want his signature on the check. Why?' Davis said. 'Because he was covering up right before the election. Or else, why didn't he do it himself?' 
Trump did not dispute his involvement in the hush-money payoff to Daniels on Wednesday, including the claim that he 'directed' it. Rather, he argued that campaign finance violations are not crimes and Cohen should never have plead guilty to the charges.
'Michael Cohen plead guilty to two counts of campaign finance violations that are not a crime. President Obama had a big campaign finance violation and it was easily settled!' he said.
Trump preemptively accused Cohen of fabricating other claims he might have made to prosecutors as part of his plea deal, saying in a tweet: 'I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. “Justice” took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to “break” - make up stories in order to get a “deal.” Such respect for a brave man!'
He went on to note that 'a large number of counts, ten, could not even be decided in the Paul Manafort case,' which he called a 'Witch Hunt!' - his preferred term for the special counsel probe.
In his reference to Obama, Trump appeared to be referring to the $375,000 in fines the Federal Election Commission levied on the former president's 2012 campaign apparatus for repeatedly missing reporting deadlines.
The then-president's campaign shrugged off the fee - one of the largest in American history - as the cost of doing business in a billion-dollar campaign that raised a record-breaking amount of money at an extremely fast pace.


+22


DARKEST DAY: President Donald Trump looked pensive as he stepped off Air Force One upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Tuesday hours after learning that two of his former confidantes would be going to prison
Celebrity attorney Alan Dershowitz suggested Tuesday evening that Trump could get himself off the hook by similarly arguing that that violating FEC rules is not akin to committing a major crime.
'Violation of election laws are regarded as kind of jaywalking in the realm of things about elections,' Dershowitz told Fox News. 'Every administration violates the election laws, every candidate violates the election laws when they run for president.'
Cohen's crime was that he exceeded campaign contribution limits when he paid off a woman who said she had an affair with the president in order to influence the outcome of a presidential election.
He subsequently lied about the nature of the payment to the government, claiming falsely that income he generated in 2017 was for work he was doing on behalf of the president, when he was really recouping costs from the $130,000 hush-money payoff as part of an orchestrated cover-up.
In his guilty plea, Cohen says that he committed the crimes 'in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office' that was clearly Trump.
Cohen's lawyer has claimed in multiple appearances since that Trump participated in illegal acts, and his client doesn't need to offer evidence - the president's lawyers have already done that.
Davis also settled the debate over whether Cohen should be pardoned by the president for the crimes he says he committed at Trump's behest in another appearance, an interview on NBC's 'Today.'
The attorney who's best known for his defense of Bill Clinton in the former president's impeachment scandal claimed that Cohen would neither request a pardon nor accept a get-out-jail-free card if the White House came calling.
'Not only is he not hoping for it, he would not accept a pardon. He considers a pardon from somebody who has acted so corruptly as president to be something he would never accept,' Davis said. 
For his part Manafort faces anywhere between eight to 10 years in prison for falsifying tax returns, bank fraud conspiracy and failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial records.
The conviction is the first major court victory for Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation into the Trump campaign and Russian election tampering, a probe that has divided Americans and come under attack from the White House.

What Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to doing 

Five counts of tax evasion. Avoided declaring $4.1 million in income earned in 2012 through 2016, depriving the government of about $1.3 million in tax revenue.
Making false statements to a bank. Failed to disclose a $14 million line of credit when taking out loans, including for the purchase of an $8.5 million summer home. Declared a net worth of $40 million when applying for a home equity loan, omitting the $14 million debt.
Campaign finance violations. Helped deal with 'Individual-1's relationships with women' by identifying stories and keeping them from being published. Negotiated $150,000 payment to 'model and actress' and made a $130,000 payment to 'an adult film actress.' He caused and made the payments 'in order to influence the 2016 presidential election.' 
He faced up to 65 years in prison for what he is being charged with had he not pleaded guilty. 



The jury's verdict defies Donald Trump, who last Friday called Manafort 'a very good person' and the trial 'sad'.
Manafort had initially been charged with a total 18 counts of fraud. The jury deadlocked on the majority of the most serious counts, including seven of the nine bank fraud charges which each carried 30 years maximum prison time.
Manafort was convicted on all five counts of filing inaccurate tax returns for the years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. These each carry a three year minimum sentence.
He was convicted on one of four counts, for the year 2012, of failing to disclose the existence of his offshore bank accounts. The jury could not agree on whether he was also guilty of this for the years 2011, 2013 and 2014. The single count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Manafort was also convicted of providing false financial information to obtain a $1 million loan from the Bank of California and a $3.4 million loan from Citizens Bank. These charges each carry a maximum of 30 years in prison.
He was not convicted of seven additional bank fraud charges, including conspiracy to fraudulently obtain a bank loan and providing false financial information to Federal Savings Bank.
It is a stunning fall from grace for the jet-setting political consultant, who once spent $15,000 on an ostrich jacket and millions on high-tech gear for his Hamptons home, but now faces the rest of his life in a jail cell.
He will be sentenced by Judge T.S. Ellis after background reports and argument from both prosecution and defense over what sentence is appropriate. 
But he will remain behind bars regardless ahead of a second trial next month in Washington D.C. at which Manafort will try to fight charges that he failed to register as a foreign agent. 
The judge in that trial had kept him in custody over allegations of witness tampering - meaning that Manafort attended the trial from custody each day.
Outside court the lobbyist's attorney hinted at a plea deal with Mueller to avoid a second trial, saying he was 'evaluating all of his options.  
'Mr. Manafort is disappointed at not getting acquittals all the way through, or a complete hung jury on all counts,' said attorney Kevin Downing.
'However, he would like to thank Judge Ellis for granting him a fair trial, thank the jury for their very long and hard-fought deliberations. He is evaluating all of his options at this point.'
The verdict will likely increase pressure on the White House, which has called on Mueller to shut down the investigation by September 1. 
It could lead to a pardon for Manafort from Trump - but the president had also distanced himself from the lobbyist during the trial, saying he should have been told about his tax issues. It is almost certain to lead to further angry reaction from Trump to the Mueller probe.


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Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations 'in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office' earlier on Tuesday. His lawyer confirmed that the candidate referenced is Trump


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Michael Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis says his client doesn't need to provide evidence that Donald Trump directed him to commit crimes - the president's lawyers have already done that
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End of the road: Paul Manafort stood alongside his attorneys as the six men and six women of the jury returned their verdict. He showed no emotion as they delivered guilty verdicts on eight of the charges brought by Robert Mueller's special counsel probe


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 Now what happens: Judge T.S. Ellis III will decide whether to drop the ten charges which the jury said they could not reach a verdict on. Regardless, Manafort will be sentenced on eight fraud charges which could carry a sentence as high as 80 years in prison


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Nothing to do with me: A defiant Donald Trump claimed the Manafort trial result was unrelated to him and added: 'It does not have anything to do with Russian collusion.'


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Present in court: Kathleen Manafort was present to see her 69-year-old husband found guilty by the jury. She had been in court for every minute of his trial

[size=34]Indictment or impeachment: What happens to Trump next?[/size]

By Chris Pleasance 
President Trump appeared in peril as Paul Manafort was found guilty and Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to charges leveled as part of Robert Mueller's election meddling probe.
So what comes next for Donald Trump himself?
Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, insists Trump is implicated in a crime because he ordered Cohen to make hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal before the 2016 election.


+22


Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked the Russian election meddling probe as a 'rigged witch hunt', but on Tuesday it delivered two guilty parties
But the prevailing legal opinion is that Trump will not face criminal prosecution while in office, though there is nothing in the Constitution that strictly forbids it.
The text of Article 2, Section 4, and Article 1, Second 3, when taken together  imply that a president must be impeached and convicted by the Senate before he can be prosecuted, but does not outright say it.
Article 2, Section 4, makes clear what the impeachment power is.  
'The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors,' it says. 
Article 1, Second 3, sets out the existence of the Senate and says: The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. 
'When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.
'Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.' 
That has led to legal debate in the past and the question even ended up before the Supreme Court in 1974 during the Watergate scandal, but a ruling was never made.
Justice Department guidelines say that a sitting President shouldn't be charged with a crime while in office, but that could be subject to a challenge.
Even if Trump cannot be indicted on criminal charges, he could still be impeached for 'treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors'.







Lanny David (left), the attorney for Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen (right), argues that Trump is implicated in the crime - but it is unlikely a sitting president would be indicted on criminal charges
Impeachment requires a majority in the House to pass articles of impeachment against the president. 
The House Judiciary Committee then prosecutes the president in front of the Senate, with the Chief Justice presiding. 
There needs to be a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate to convict.
As things stand the Republicans control both houses, so it is highly unlikely that Trump will face impeachment so long as the status quo holds.
However, the Democrats are hoping that mid-term elections in November will hand control of both houses back to them, which would put Trump in trouble.
As one Republican lawyer told Politico, Cohen's allegations that Trump forced him to make payments provides the perfect fodder for impeachment.
'It's the only excuse they'll need. And believe me, they won't need much of an excuse,' he said.
On Tuesday, Trump urged people to vote Republican in the elections, warning that voting Democrat would lead to 'open borders and crime'.


+22


Trump could be impeached, though that is unlikely to happen unless the November mid-terms hand control of the House and Senate back to the Democrats




A CNN poll found that two-thirds of Americans would like Mueller to conclude the investigation before the midterm elections, and Trump allies such as Rudy Giuliani claim the special counsel has a legal obligation to do so.
But some legal experts have disputed this, and Mueller has shown no sign of slowing down.  
In addition to Manafort's conviction, his team has already secured five guilty pleas and issued 30 indictments. Their targets in the U.S. include former Trump campaign aides and abroad, they include alleged Russian agents.
Trump tried to brush aside his former campaign chairman's conviction as he spoke just hours later after landing in West Virginia for a rally.
'I feel very sad about that, because it involved me, but I still feel, you know, it's a very sad thing that happened,' he said.
Trump did not take the same opportunity to praise his Cohen but he indicated that he sympathizes with his ex-attorney and his ex-campaign manager.
Walking over to reporters on the tarmac in Charleston, Trump said: 'I feel badly for both.
'I must tell you that, Paul Manafort's a good man,' he insisted.
In a flash of anger Trump berated Robert Mueller and his team of investigators.
'This has nothing to do with Russian collusion. This started as Russian collusion. This has absolutely nothing to do - it is a witch hunt and it's a disgrace,' he said. 'This has nothing to do with what they started out, looking for Russians involved in our campaign - there were none.'
Trump had an hour on his way to West Virginia to process the guilty verdict for Manafort and the guilty plea for Cohen. And still he was still in shock when Air Force One landed.
'I feel very badly for Paul Manafort,' Trump repeated. 'Again he worked for Bob Dole, he worked for Ronald Reagan, he worked for many people.'

Decision time: Judge T.S. Ellis III will sentence Manafort after presiding over his trial
Pausing to take it all in, Trump added: 'And it's just the way it ends up.
'It was not the original mission, believe me. It was something very much different. So it had nothing to do with Russian collusion.
'We continue the witch hunt,' he concluded.   
Trump has publicly vacillated on how to deal with Manafort, tweeting in the course of the trial first that Manafort 'worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders. 
'He worked for me for a very short time. Why didn't government tell me that he was under investigation.'
But later in the same day he tweeted: 'Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and 'Public Enemy Number One,' or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement - although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?'
Manafort spent the run-up to the trial in prison and was brought to court every day for the hearing. His wife Kathleen was present for every minute of it but he was warned not to turn round to her from his seat beside his attorneys.
The court had never heard how he cheated on her with a mistress who flaunted their relationship on Instagram - and that his daughters' texts were hacked and leaked for the betrayal to be made public.
Prosecutors laid out a meticulously detailed, document-heavy case against Manafort, 69, during the two-week trial which focused on his lies over money which funded a lavish lifestyle.
'Mr. Manafort lied to keep more money when he had it, and to get more money when he didn't,' prosecutor Greg Andres told the jury in his closing statement on Wednesday.
Prosecutors connected Manafort to at least 30 undisclosed offshore companies where they said he stashed $60 million in political consulting fees from his Ukrainian clients, evading taxes on $15 million.
Although Manafort failed to disclose this money to the IRS or his own tax preparers, he used it to fund his extravagant lifestyle, witnesses told the court.
Two luxury menswear retailers testified that Manafort spent over $1.5 million on custom suits and bespoke clothing between 2010 and 2014, often paying by foreign bank wire transfers
His purchases included a python jacket, a $15,000 ostrich coat, and a $21,000 on a limited edition, black titanium and crystal watch from the House of Bijan, known as the 'most expensive men's store in the world.'
Joel Maxwell, the owner of a Florida electronics company, told the court that Manafort paid him over $2 million over five years for electronic equipment, including internet and TV systems.

[size=18]Trump says he feels 'very badly' for both Manafort and Cohen




Lo[/size]



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Manafort faces a second federal trial in Washington D.C. in September
That included an $18,000 karaoke machine and specialty TV screen from the New York-based luxury audio visual company Sensoryphile.
Michael Regolizio, a landscaper, testified that Manafort paid him around $460,000 from 2010 to 2014 on landscaping and lawn maintenance for his Bridgehampton home.
Regolizio said Manafort's palatial 1.5.-acre Hamptons estate featured an enormous red-and-white flower bed in the shape of an 'M' for 'Manafort.'
The property also included a tennis court with 'hundreds of flowers planted' around it and a pond with a massive waterfall feature, according to Regolizio.
Manafort wired the payments from accounts in Cyprus, witnesses testified.
From 2010 to 2014, millions of dollars flowed into Manafort's bank accounts from his political consulting clients in Ukraine. But the money dried up after his main patron, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted from power in 2014.
Manafort's extravagant spending habits left him unable to pay even basic bills such as medical insurance, according to testimony from his personal bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn.
Washkuhn, said Manafort became delinquent on many of his bills around 2015 and didn't have enough money in his accounts to cover them.
He was also unable to pay a $200,000 American Express bill that he racked up by purchasing season tickets to the Yankees, according to prosecutors.
Washkuhn noted that on a few occasions Manafort also failed to pay her own bookkeeping fees – which she said were about $100,000 per year.
According to prosecutors, Manafort's desperation for money led him to file false financial information with banks, in his effort to secure $20 million in loans.
Prosecutors said Manafort spent at least $6 million of his hidden offshore money on properties in New York and Florida.
This included extensive renovations at his $1.5 million home at the BallenIsles Country Club in Palm Beach and his mansion in Bridgehampton. Manafort also purchased a $3 million Brooklyn brownstone and a $2.8 million loft in SoHo, in addition to the 5-acre horse farm and condo he owned in northern Virginia.
In one of Manafort's loan applications, he claimed his daughter Jessica and son-in-law Jeffrey Yohai used the SoHo apartment as a second home. But prosecutors said the couple didn't actually live there and was renting the apartment out on AirBnB.
Yohai, a real estate developer who is now divorced from Manafort's daughter, pleaded guilty earlier this year to unrelated federal crimes.
In late 2015, Manafort's financial situation was so dire that his personal book keeper, Heather Washkuhn, was forced to ask Yohai for money from the AirBnB rental to cover Manafort's delinquent bills.
His tax and bank fraud schemes were aided by his deputy Rick Gates, who pleaded guilty to lying to investigators earlier this year and cooperated with prosecutors on the case.





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Lavish lifestyle: The government case was that Paul Manafort lied to first the IRS and then to banks to fund spending which included a now notorious $15,000 ostrich jacket. A guilty verdict is a major victory for Robert Mueller's special counsel probe


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Family affair: Paul Manafort emailed his then son-in-law Jeff Yohai - who was married to Manafort's daughter Jessica - to ask him to tell a bank that the couple lived in the SoHo apartment as a second home when it was actually on AirBnb


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Property empire used for fraud: Paul Manafort owned a loft in this SoHo, Manhattan, building (left) which he bought for $2.8 million and this $3 million Brooklyn brownstone (right)  in upscale Carroll Gardens. He lied about the financial status of both as he tried to get loans when his 'cash spigot' was turned off


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Lavish: Michael Regolizio, a landscaper, testified that Manafort paid him around $460,000 from 2010 to 2014 on landscaping and lawn maintenance for his Bridgehampton home. But the money was wired from a foreign bank account which Manafort never declared to the Treasury


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Make me treasury secretary: Steve Calk (left) wanted an executive at his bank to ask Manafort for help to get a Trump cabinet position. He had posed with the then candidate before the election but sought to enlist Manafort's aid after also pushing the executive to give the lobbyist loans. When Manafort emailed Jared Kushner about getting Calk a job, Kushner replied: 'On it'
Gates testified against Manafort for three days, claiming Manafort directed him to hide millions of dollars in offshore accounts from U.S. tax collectors and to submit false financial information to banks in order to collect fraudulent loans.
'At Mr. Manafort's request at different points in the years we didn't disclose the foreign bank accounts [to accountants],' said Gates.
'That was in order to reduce the taxable income on [Paul Manafort's] tax returns,' he said.
Gates – who also admitted to embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manafort while carrying out an extramarital affair with a woman in London – faces up to 10 years in prison for obstruction of justice, although he  
Manafort's defense team countered that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had targeted Manafort in a 'desperate' attempt to convict the former Trump aide.
They also claimed that Gates was actually responsible for the tax and bank fraud, but pinned the crimes on Manafort to deflect from the fact he was stealing millions from his boss.
'The government – so desperate to make a case against Mr. Manafort – made a deal with Rick Gates,' said Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing. 'Mr. Gates was orchestrating a multi-million dollar embezzlement scheme.' 
New details that emerged during the trial are also likely to increase scrutiny on the Trump administration and raise questions about potential influence peddling.
Prosecutors revealed that Manafort asked Trump officials to give an administration job and other political perks to the CEO of a bank where he was trying to get a $16 million loan.
Manafort emailed Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner to recommend that Trump appoint Stephen Calk, the head of Federal Savings Bank, as secretary of the army.
The November 30, 2016 email – which was sent shortly after Manafort received the first part of his loan from the bank – was submitted as evidence in the case.
'Calk was an active supporter of the campaign since April. HE served on the National Economic Policy Committee for Trump campaign and has made over 40 television interviews during the course of the General Election,' wrote Manafort. 'His background is strong on defense issues, management and finance. His preference is Secretary of the Army.'
Kushner wrote back to Manafort: 'On it!'
After the election, Manafort also emailed Gates – who was working on Trump's inauguration committee at the time – to ask him to get Calk and his son an invitation to the presidential inauguration.
Gates admitted in his testimony that during this time it was 'possible' he also embezzled money from the Trump inauguration committee – raising additional questions about the committee's finances. 

[size=34]ROBERT MUELLER'S PROBE SO FAR: SEVEN CONVICTIONS - INCLUDING THREE TOP TRUMP AIDES, A JAILED ATTORNEY AND 25 RUSSIANS ACCUSED[/size]

GUILTY: MICHAEL FLYNN 
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in December 2017. Awaiting sentence
Flynn was President Trump's former National Security Advisor and Robert Mueller's most senior scalp to date. He previously served when he was a three star general as President Obama's director of the Defense Intelligence Agency but was fired. 
He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his conversations with a Russian ambassador in December 2016. He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.

GUILTY: MICHAEL COHEN
Pleaded guilty to eight counts including fraud and two campaign finance violations in August 2018. Awaiting sentence
Cohen was Trump's longtime personal attorney, starting working for him and the Trump Organization in 2007. He is the longest-serving member of Trump's inner circle to be implicated by Mueller. Cohen professed unswerving devotion to Trump - and organized payments to silence two women who alleged they had sex with the-then candidate: porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.He admitted that payments to both women were felony campaign finance violations - and admitted that he acted at the 'direction' of 'Candidate-1': Donald Trump.
He also admitted tax fraud by lying about his income from loans he made, money from  taxi medallions he owned, and other sources of income, at a cost to the Treasury of $1.3 million.


GUILTY: PAUL MANAFORT
Found guilty of eight charges of bank and tax fraud in August 2018. Awaiting sentence and second trial
Manafort worked for Trump's campaign from March 2016 and chaired it from June to August 2016, overseeing Trump being adopted as Republican candidate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. He is the most senior campaign official to be implicated by Mueller. Manafort was one of Washington D.C.'s longest-term and most influential lobbyists but in 2015, his money dried up and the next year he turned to Trump for help, offering to be his campaign chairman for free - in the hope of making more money afterwards. But Mueller unwound his previous finances and discovered years of tax and bank fraud as he coined in cash from pro-Russia political parties and oligarchs in Ukraine.
Manafort pleaded not guilty to 18 charges of tax and bank fraud but was convicted of eight counts. The jury was deadlocked on the other 10 charges. A second trial on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent is due in September.  

GUILTY: RICK GATES 
Pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and making false statements in February 2018. Awaiting sentence
Gates was Manafort's former deputy at political consulting firm DMP International. He admitted to conspiring to defraud the U.S. government on financial activity, and to lying to investigators about a meeting Manafort had with a member of congress in 2013. As a result of his guilty plea and promise of cooperation, prosecutors vacated charges against Gates on bank fraud, bank fraud conspiracy, failure to disclose foreign bank accounts, filing false tax returns, helping prepare false tax filings, and falsely amending tax returns.

GUILTY: GEORGE PAPADOPOLOUS
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in October 2017. Awaiting sentence
Papadopoulos was a member of Donald Trump's campaign foreign policy advisory committee. He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his contacts with London professor Josef Mifsud and Ivan Timofeev, the director of a Russian government-funded think tank. 
He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.

GUILTY: RICHARD PINEDO
Pleaded guilty to identity fraud in February 2018. Awaiting sentence
Pinedo is a 28-year-old computer specialist from Santa Paula, California. He admitted to selling bank account numbers to Russian nationals over the internet that he had obtained using stolen identities. 
He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.

GUILTY AND JAILED: ALEX VAN DER ZWAAN
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in February 2018. He served a 30-day prison sentence earlier this year and was deported to the Netherlands upon his release.
Van der Zwaan is a Dutch attorney for Skadden Arps who worked on a Ukrainian political analysis report for Paul Manafort in 2012. 
He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about when he last spoke with Rick Gates and Konstantin Kilimnik.

CHARGED: KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK
Indicted for obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. 
Kilimnik is a former employee of Manafort's political consulting firm and helped him with lobbying work in Ukraine. He is accused of witness tampering, after he allegedly contacted individuals who had worked with Manafort to remind them that Manafort only performed lobbying work for them outside of the U.S.
He has been linked to  Russian intelligence and is currently thought to be in Russia - effectively beyond the reach of extradition by Mueller's team.
INDICTED: THE RUSSIANS 
Twenty-five Russian nationals and three Russian entities have been indicted for conspiracy to defraud the United States. 
Two of these Russian nationals were also indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 11 were indicted for conspiracy to launder money. Fifteen of them were also indicted for identity fraud. 
Vladimir Putin has ridiculed the charges. Russia effectively bars extradition of its nationals. The only prospect Mueller has of bringing any in front of a U.S. jury is if Interpol has their names on an international stop list - which is not made public - and they set foot in a territory which extradites to the U.S. 

[size=34]POLITICS, SEX, AND LIES: THE RISE AND FALL OF PAUL MANAFORT[/size]

In the span of just two years, Paul Manafort has gone from one of Washington's most sought-after Republican lobbyists to a political pariah - and now his conviction will seal that status forever.
It has been a long and spectacular fall from grace for the 69-year-old former Trump campaign manager, the son of a small-town mayor who went on to work for four U.S. presidents and made his fortune as the Washington mouthpiece for some of the world's most notorious dictators.
Today Manafort has few defenders in the nation's capital, after being charged with tax fraud and failing to register as a foreign agent by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Even Manafort's former boss, President Trump, claimed he never would have hired the former lobbyist if he had known about the allegations.
'Paul Manafort came into the campaign very late and was with us for a short period of time (he represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole & many others over the years), but we should have been told that Comey and the boys were doing a number on him, and he wouldn't have been hired!' wrote Trump in a Twitter post in June.


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[size=14]The power brokers: Paul Manafort, his future business partners Roger Stone and Lee Atwater, were photographed as young Republican operatives. Stone, a Trump confidante and notorious political dirty trickster is now fighting off the Mueller probe himself; Atwater died in 1991, a former RNC chairman with a reputation for dirty campaigns. All three cashed in on their political work by lobbying those they got elected[/size]
Manafort, the grandson of an Italian immigrant, was raised in a staunch Republican home in New Britain, Connecticut. 
When he was 16, his father Paul John Manafort Sr. was elected mayor of New Britain and served for three terms. 
In 1981, Manafort Sr. was indicted – but later acquitted – on perjury charges in a sweeping city corruption and bribery scandal that also ensnared the police and fire chiefs.
After Catholic parochial schools and graduating from Georgetown University Law School, Manafort went on to work as an advisor for Republican Presidents Gerald Ford. 
He served as an advisor to Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole's presidential campaign.
But he - and his business partners - worked out how to turn political advising into a gusher of cash: by lobbying the very politicians they had helped elect.
He co-founded a prominent lobbying firm with ex-Nixon aide Roger Stone, and other partners, which shopped their access to top Republicans to U.S. businesses, state and city governments, and anyone who would pay.
That came to embrace the wider world too; the Manafort lobbying roster included brutal regimes willing to pay high fees for his services – including Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos and Zaire military leader Mobutu Sese Seko.

[size=14]Betrayed: Kathleen Manafort stood by her husband despite his family finding proof of his mistress on Instagram; she attended every minute of his trial[/size]
Manafort went on to found his own political consulting firm in 2005, bringing on his former intern Rick Gates as his trusted deputy.
He also continued to take on controversial clients. In 2010, Manafort helped elect Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, head of Ukraine's Putin-allied Party of Regions.
The victory paid off – between 2010 and 2014, federal investigators said Manafort's firm earned 'a cash spigot': $60 million in fees from the Party of Regions' political patrons.
According to prosecutors, Manafort stashed the funds away in a series of offshore bank accounts and shell companies, and failed to disclose the income in his tax returns. In total, they claim he dodged taxes on $15 million.
But after Yanukovych was voted out of power by Ukraine's parliament in 2014, Manafort's fortunes suddenly changed. He stopped getting payments from Yanukovych's wealthy oligarch supporters, and started to have trouble paying his bills.
This is when prosecutors claim Manafort started applying for loans using phony financial information. In total, they said he scammed banks out of $20 million.
Manafort's alleged crimes were uncovered during the course of a special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller, who has been investigating potential Russian interference in the 2016 election and collusion with the Trump campaign.
In addition to the tax and bank fraud trial in Alexandria, Virginia, Manafort also faces additional counts of failing to register as a foreign agent for his Ukraine work. That trial is set to take place in Washington, D.C.
Even before the charges were filed against him, Manafort's personal life had been unravelling, according to years of hacked text messages between his daughters Andrea, 32, and Jessica, 36, that were posted online.
According to the messages, Manafort's family had caught him having an affair with a woman who was around the same age as his daughters, renting a pricy house for her in the Hamptons and paying her credit card bill.
They discovered the affair after seeing the woman's posts boasting about her expensive travel and dinners on Instagram. 
Manafort, who was undergoing an emotional breakdown according to the messages, committed himself to a psychiatric clinic in Arizona in 2015. 



[size=14]Texts: Manafort's daughters Jessica (left, with now ex-husband Jeff Yohai) and Andrea (right with husband Christopher Shand) exchanged text messages which were hacked revealing his affairs and calling him a psychopath. [/size]


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[size=14]Fruits of lobbying: This is the condo overlooking the Potomac where the FBI raided Manafort on orders from Mueller. He bought it for $2.75 million, part of a property empire worth conservatively $15 million[/size]
After he was released in 2016 - claiming he had 'new insight' into himself - he linked up with the Trump campaign and became the candidate's campaign manager during the crucial months surrounding the Republican National Convention.
His daughter Andrea took a different view of that.She wrote in a leaked text to a friend, who was not named in the leak: 'Trump probably has more morals than my dad. Which is really just saying something about my dad. My dad is a psycho!!! At least trump let his wives leave him. Plus, Trump has been a good father.'
And she also texted: 'Trump waited a little too long in my opinion, but I can attest to the fact that he has now hired one of the world's greatest manipulators. I hope my dad pulls it off. Then I can sell my memoir with all his dirty secrets for a pretty penny.'
Despite the clearly unhappy family, Manafort's wife Kathleen stood by him in the face of his infidelity.
She also loyally attended each day of his tax fraud trial, always sitting in the row directly behind his defense table.
Since June, Manafort has been incarcerated for alleged witness tampering related to his foreign agent case. He has been serving that time in a county jail in Alexandria which is close to the federal court where his tax and bank fraud trial was held.
In a recent mug shot, the fashion-conscious Manafort sported a jailhouse jumpsuit and shadowy stubble. His brown hair, which he previously dyed, is now tinged with grey.
The former lobbyist, who once spent $18,000 on a python skin jacket, has also been forced to attend his trial without socks – because he reportedly balked at the white ones he is required to wear as an inmate.
The charges against Manafort have even impacted the legacy of his father, a popular three-term mayor in New Britain, Connecticut, from 1965 to 1971. 
This month the city changed a street named after the former mayor from 'Paul Manafort Drive' to 'Paul Manafort Sr. Drive' in order to distance it from the controversy surrounding Manafort's trial.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6086869/Michael-Cohens-attorney-begs-cash-supporters-opens-GoFundMe.html

[size=34]Michael Cohen's attorney begs for cash from supporters and opens up a GoFundMe - even though Trump's former lawyer has a newly-refurbished Park Avenue apartment and banked $30,000 negotiating sale of a single French handbag[/size]

• Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis opened the legal defense fund for his client 
  
  
•  It states that he 'declared his independence from Donald Trump' and decided to 'put his family and his country first'
  
  
•  The fund immediately raised $19,000 
  
  
• A government charging document says Cohen failed to disclose $4 million in income
  
  
• He lives in a refurbished $9 million apartment on Park Avenue
  
  
• The Trump Park Avenue was used as collateral for taxi business loans
  
  
• It states that he concealed a $14 million line of credit when financing an $8.5 million summer home
  
  
• Also failed to disclose $30,000 profit for brokering sale of a 'highly coveted' French purse 
  
  

By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 10:16 EDT, 22 August 2018 | UPDATED: 14:21 EDT, 22 August 2018

    


Former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has opened up a GoFundMe account for his legal defense a day after pleading guilty to tax evasion, false statements, and campaign finance crimes.
Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, announced the appeal for the 'Michael Cohen Truth Fund' in an online hours after Cohen rocked the White House with his plea, where he admitted concealing $4 million in income, depriving the U.S. treasury of $1.4 million.
The government laid out a web of loans and income Cohen failed to declare in the criminal information he agreed to.
Some of the information was gleaned through FBI raids on Cohen's $9 million Park Avenue apartment in April. Cohen was living in a Manhattan hotel at the time during renovations at the Trump Park Avenue building where he and his wife live.


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Longtime Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen 'needs your financial help' says his new GoFundMe appeal for help with legal costs
Cohen failed to reveal a $14 million loan he took out on his taxi medallions to a bank when he secured financing for an $8.5 million summer home, the feds charged. 

Among the income he failed to disclose was a $30,000 profit for brokering sale of a 'highly coveted' French purse described as a Birkin bag, produced by Hermes. The bags retail for between $11,900 and $300,000, according to the charging document. Identical information about the value of the bags is contained on Wikipedia's Birkin bag page.
Prosecutors also said Cohen banked $200,000 in income for 'consulting' on real estate and other projects for an assisted living facility – without revealing the nature of the work or why they put the word 'consulting' in quotations.


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The fund raised more than $20,000 within hours Wednesday morning


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Cohen lives in a Trump Park Avenue apartment recently valued at $9 million


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Prosecutors say Cohen failed to disclose a $30,000 profit for brokering sale of a 'highly coveted' French purse. Here an employee holds a $129,000 crocodile Hermes Birkin Bag for the press to see during a private opening for the new Hermes store on Wall Street in New York in 2007


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In this court room drawing, Michael Cohen swears that his statements will be truthful during a hearing at federal court in New York, Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018


But his role at the center of the Stormy Daniels saga placed legal burdens on him. At one point the Trump campaign was assisting in his legal fees, but that ended and Trump mocked Cohen's legal chops in a sarcastic tweet Wednesday.
According to his fundraising appeal: 'On July 2, 2018, Michael Cohen declared his independence from Donald Trump and his commitment to tell the truth.'
'On August 21, Michael Cohen made the decision to take legal responsibility and to continue his commitment to tell the truth,' it continues, referencing his guilty plea on eight counts.


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Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis announced the GoFundMe appeal


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Cohen negotiated a non-disclosure deal with porn star Stormy Daniels


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The plea for cash comes a day after Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts



Prosecutors say Cohen failed to report $4 million in income
'Michael decided to put his family and his country first. Now Michael needs your financial help -- to pay his legal fees. The Michael Cohen Truth Fund is a transparent trust account, with all donations going to help Michael Cohen and his family as he goes forward on his journey to tell the truth about Donald Trump.'
The fund had raised $25,000 during its first morning of operation.
But porn star Stormy Daniels, who inked a non-disclosure agreement with Cohen weeks before the 2016 election, has a big head start on her fund. She had nearly $600,000 in her crowdjustice page.

Words fail me.........but this says it all.........

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/22/the-guardian-view-on-donald-trump-the-company-of-crooks

Such irony that this is the man who LOST the election by three million votes..................

An excellent idea from a Democrat:

https://twitter.com/maziehirono/status/1032327478063321088

PAN, the last paragraph of ‘The Guardian’ article speaks volumes.  The only obstacle preventing the takedown of Trump right now is a principled Republican Congress.  That’s the difference between this scandal and Watergate.  

Not only was the Clinton campaign sabotaged by Comey and Russian bots spewing lies on social media but also Trump covering up his sexual affairs with hush money to illegally affect the outcome of the election.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/22/the-guardian-view-on-donald-trump-the-company-of-crooks


[size=31]The Guardian view on Donald Trump: the company of crooks
[size=31]Editorial[/size][/size]

Robert Mueller’s investigation is vital to ensure that the American republic survives the threat posed by having lawbreakers close to the centre of US power

Wed 22 Aug 2018 13.36 EDTLast modified on Wed 22 Aug 2018 16.50 EDT

• 
  
• [url=https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=The Guardian view on Donald Trump%3A the company of crooks&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2018%2Faug%2F22%2Fthe-guardian-view-on-donald-trump-the-company-of-crooks%3FCMP%3Dshare_btn_tw][/url]
  
  

 Donald Trump salutes his supporters at a political rally in West Virginia on 21 August 2018. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
[size=89]There has never been an hour in the history of the American republic like it. On Tuesday, separated by 230 miles and 60 minutes, in two courts, in two cases brought by two different prosecutors, a US president’s former longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, and his ex-campaign manager, Paul Manafort, were found to be crooks: guilty of bank fraud, tax evasion and paying off a porn star and a Playboy model in violation of federal campaign-finance law. Then again, there has never been a president like Donald Trump.
Mr Trump is a self-aggrandising liar whose desire for riches, infamy and adoration appears insatiable. The father of the US constitution, James Madison, once said that if men were angels they would not need government. But what if government itself is possessed by a character like Mr Trump? That is the threat the work of the special counsel Robert Mueller has been uncovering.
Mr Mueller had his best day on Tuesday. Both Cohen and Manafort had been in Mr Mueller’s sights. Both were convicted on eight counts, although Mr Mueller had handed over Cohen to the New York attorney’s office to prosecute. It is not the end of the story for Manafort, who is scheduled to go on trial in Washington DC in September over his work in Ukraine. Neither has Cohen finished. In court he admitted under oath that he broke the law at the direction of the president. Cohen has a reason to cooperate with Mr Mueller – he can reduce his sentence if he assists in further investigations. No wonder Mr Trump took to Twitter recommending that his followers not hire Cohen.

We are now entering a critical and dangerous period of the Trump presidency. Until now Mr Trump has been a mostly performative autocrat. He has encouraged the idea that he will lock up opponents, but he has not done so. Mr Trump attacks the “fake news” media but he has not sent thugs to smash printing presses. Yet the net is closing in on Mr Trump and his family. Mr Trump could spike Mr Mueller’s guns by pardoning all those found guilty – though that move might itself constitute grounds for impeachment.


[/size][size]
 How to impeach a US president – video

It is clear that the president wants his justice department to dismantle the Mueller investigation. This month, his legal adviser Rudy Giuliani threatened to “unload” on Mr Mueller “like a ton of bricks” if the investigation isn’t wrapped up soon. But this is a risky strategy ahead of midterm Congressional elections, when the Democrats stand a decent chance of retaking the House of Representatives, and perhaps even the Senate. A misstep by Mr Trump could electrify the Democrat base. If the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, they could rehire Mr Mueller as a “congressional” special prosecutor should the president fire him.


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Mr Trump’s reshaping of the courts means that if the battlefield moves from the legislative to judicial arena, then the odds move in the president’s favour. Mr Trump will not voluntarily be interviewed by Mr Mueller’s team. He is daring the special prosecutor to issue a subpoena to force him to comply. If the judiciary is asked to intervene to force the president to testify, it is doubtful that the special counsel would prevail in the end. This would be especially true if Mr Trump’s supreme court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, were on the bench. He has suggested that a sitting president should not be indicted and questioned whether the head of the executive can be investigated by a special prosecutor.
US institutions were not designed to protect the public from a leader like Mr Trump. Principled politicians, judges and lawyers are needed to dig deep in the face of much resistance. The Watergate investigation took two years to play out. It brought down a president and sent dozens to prison. Mr Mueller has been going for 15 months. Watergate showed that the system could cope and that not even a president was above the law. Mr Mueller needs to be shielded to prove that the system can work as well as it did then.


Topics[/size]

Chances are good that it would take months to determine if a sitting president can be indicted for a crime. In the meantime the Republicans will do nothing to impeach Drumpf - which is o.k. with me. I'd rather see him defeated in 2020 than have him leave office prematurely and have Pence entrench himself as President. He'd be a lot harder to defeat in 2020 than Drumpf.

I'm a little bit surprised that folks who gave to his campaign funds don't seem to have realised that it was their money that likely paid off Daniels et al.........

PAN -A. I don't think they've made the connection.
        B. Even if they did, I don't think they'd care. They're so psychologically invested in him they can't acknowledge that he's done anything wrong. Just listen to the so-called "Christians" making excuses for him and explaining why, despite everything he's said and done, they still support him. It's enough to make your head explode.