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What To Do When You're Stopped By Police - The ACLU & Elon James White

What To Do When You're Stopped By Police - The ACLU & Elon James White

Know Anyone Who Thinks Racial Profiling Is Exaggerated? Watch This, And Tell Me When Your Jaw Drops.


This video clearly demonstrates how racist America is as a country and how far we have to go to become a country that is civilized and actually values equal justice. We must not rest until this goal is achieved. I do not want my great grandchildren to live in a country like we have today. I wish for them to live in a country where differences of race and culture are not ignored but valued as a part of what makes America great.

Friday, August 31, 2018

Lobbyist Says He Illegally Helped Russian and Ukrainian Buy Tickets to Trump Inauguration - The New York Times

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"WASHINGTON — An American lobbyist who worked with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs pleaded guilty on Friday to failing to register as an agent of a foreign power and disclosed to prosecutors that he helped a Russian political operative and a Ukranian businessman illegally purchase four tickets to President Trump’s inauguration.
Prosecutors disclosed that the inauguration tickets were worth $50,000 and were purchased with funds that flowed through a Cypriot bank account. Prosecutors did not name the foreigners involved. However, the tickets were purchased for Konstantin V. Kilimnik, a Russian political operative believed to have ties to a Russian intelligence agency, and a Ukranian oligarch."

Lobbyist Says He Illegally Helped Russian and Ukrainian Buy Tickets to Trump Inauguration - The New York Times

Midterms Winning Formula: Excitement vs. Real Strategy

Thursday, August 30, 2018

‘Winter is coming’: Allies fear Trump isn’t prepared for gathering legal storm - The Washington Post



‘Winter is coming’: Allies fear Trump isn’t prepared for gathering legal storm - The Washington Post

Did Trump just admit that he tried to fire Mueller and Sessions? - The Washington Post


In a tweet Thursday morning, Trump called it “fake news” that now-outgoing White House Counsel (or “Councel,” in Trump’s spelling) Donald McGahn stopped him from firing both special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Did Trump just admit that he tried to fire Mueller and Sessions? - The Washington Post

“Mississippi Is Failing”: As Prisoner Deaths Reach 13 in August Alone, A...

Mother of toddler who died after being released from ICE custody files wrongful death claim - ABC News

PHOTO: Mariee Juarez died from a respiratory infection after being released from an immigration detention facility, according to a claim filed by her mother, Yazmin.



"Juarez is now seeking $40 million in damages from the City of Eloy, Arizona, which is "the federal government's prime contractor operating the Dilley facility," one of her attorneys, R. Stanton Jones, said in a statement Tuesday.



"Those responsible for providing safe, sanitary conditions and proper medical care failed this little girl, and it caused her to die a painful death. Mariee Juarez entered Dilley a healthy baby girl and 20 days later was discharged a gravely ill child with a life-threatening respiratory infection," Jones said in his statement.



(MORE: Texas opens investigation into reported death of child after leaving ICE custody)

The City of Eloy did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.



Stanton also said Juarez intends to pursue litigation against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and "others responsible for Mariee's tragic excruciatingly painful death."



An ICE spokesperson told ABC News the agency is not able to comment on pending litigation but did point to a June 2017 Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's report that stated that family residential centers are "clean, well-organized, and efficiently run" and the agency was found to be "addressing the inherent challenges of providing medical care and language services and ensuring the safety of families in detention."



"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) takes very seriously the health, safety and welfare of those in our care. ICE is committed to ensuring the welfare of all those in the agency’s custody, including providing access to necessary and appropriate medical care," ICE said in a statement.



"Comprehensive medical care is provided to all individuals in ICE custody. Staffing includes registered nurses and licensed practical nurses, licensed mental health providers, mid-level providers that include a physician’s assistant and nurse practitioner, a physician, dental care, and access to 24-hour emergency care. Pursuant to our commitment to the welfare of those in the agency’s custody, ICE spends more than $250M annually on the spectrum of healthcare services provided to those in our care," the statement continued..."



Mother of toddler who died after being released from ICE custody files wrongful death claim - ABC News

Matt Apuzzo: More indictments could still come in Mueller probe



Matt Apuzzo: More indictments could still come in Mueller probe

Painter: I Wouldn't Be Donald Trump's Lawyer, I Don't Want To Go To Jail...

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Is Donald Trump A Psychopath?

Former ‘Apprentice’ contestants analyze Omarosa’s change on Trump Omarosa Manigault Newman now says that Donald Trump is a racist, and defended her decision to remain in his White House earlier today on AM JOY. Joy Reid and her panel discuss her apparent change of heart regarding the president. Duration: AM Joy on MSNBC



AM Joy on MSNBC

Omarosa Manigault: Trump Is Trying To Use His Limited Intellect To Fool ...

Hurricane Maria Caused 2,975 Deaths In Puerto Rico, Independent Study Estimates : NPR. Trump's Katrina except hardly anyone talks about it.





Hurricane Maria Caused 2,975 Deaths In Puerto Rico, Independent Study Estimates : NPR

Lawrence: Trump Talks Impeachment, As Trump Allies Talk To Fed Prosecuto...

So, You Want To Impeach The President | Ron's Office Hours | NPR

50 Years Ago: Antiwar Protesters Brutally Attacked in Police Riots at 1968 Democratic Convention | Democracy Now!


50 Years Ago: Antiwar Protesters Brutally Attacked in Police Riots at 1968 Democratic Convention | Democracy Now!

Bound & Gagged: Black Panther Party Chair Bobby Seale Describes His Trial After 1968 DNC Protests | Democracy Now!



Bound & Gagged: Black Panther Party Chair Bobby Seale Describes His Trial After 1968 DNC Protests | Democracy Now!

1968 DNC Protests, 50 Years Later: Organizers Recall Coalition Building. The 50th Anniversary of the police riot at the Democratic National Convention. Bobby Seale and Weather Underground leaders discuss this event interviewed by Juan Gonzalez who was also there.

Monday, August 27, 2018

Bombshell: Paul Manafort Sought Mueller Plea Deal | The Beat With Ari Me...

What the ban on Serena Williams’ catsuit says about the sexualising of black women’s bodies | Life and style | The Guardian

‘A warrior’ … Serena Williams at the French Open.



"If Wide Awoke were invited to come up with a list of feminist moments of 2018, Serena Williams in a black catsuit winning her first grand slam match since giving birth would top it. Williams, probably the greatest female tennis player of all time, said the bodysuit she wore on court at this year’s French Open made her feel like “a warrior”, as well as helping her cope with the blood clots that threatened her life when she gave birth. It was fun, it was functional, it was fabulous. It made returning to work from maternity leave look like the stuff of superhero movies, which it basically is. Minus the kudos.



The catsuit has been banned from future French Opens. “I believe we have sometimes gone too far,” said the French Tennis Federation president, Bernard Giudicelli. “Serena’s outfit this year, for example, would no longer be accepted. You have to respect the game and the place.” But how exactly does a full bodysuit go too far? This has nothing to do with respecting the game; in fact it shows deep disrespect to one of its greatest players."



What the ban on Serena Williams’ catsuit says about the sexualising of black women’s bodies | Life and style | The Guardian

Opinion | Opera of Demons - The New York Times





"Donald Trump has warped reality.



He has turned porn star Stormy Daniels into Joan of Arc.



He has brought Robert Mueller’s protectors to the defense of the horrid Jeff Sessions, who may well be a racist and is definitely a monster for conducting the policy of family separations at our southern border.



He has made foul-mouthed, bullying Michael Cohen, Trump’s “fixer,” emerge as an antihero.



He has made Senators Bob Corker and the Tea Party darling Jeff Flake appear as valiant crusaders for integrity, unafraid to put principle above party.



In this dramatic opera of demons, the lesser evils are part of the phalanx standing between us and the greater evils: Trump’s corruption, possible criminality, and definite rage, racism and cruelty.



They are also what has helped to buy time for Mueller to complete his investigation before Trump can end it.



This is where we are now: building coalitions around causes, often with those to whom we take offense or even despise. The enemy of my enemy is my temporary tool.



Hopefully these coalitions will not need to be longstanding. Trump’s fortress of fraudulence is showing cracks. A life lived on the edges of the law is inching into full view. Justice is yearning to be served.



Last week, not only did Cohen implicate Trump in a criminal conspiracy, Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, told MSNBC: “Mr. Cohen has knowledge of certain subjects that should be of interest to the special counsel and is more than happy to tell the special counsel the obvious possibility of a conspiracy to collude and corrupt the American democracy system in the 2016 election.”



Cohen flipped, and Trump flipped out.



He gave a rambling, nearly incoherent interview to Fox News, in which he not only seemed to confess to a campaign finance violation, one of the things Cohen pleaded guilty to, but he also made himself sound more like a mob boss than a law-and-order president. He told the network:



“If somebody defrauded a bank and he is going to get 10 years in jail or 20 years in jail, but you can say something bad about Donald Trump and you will go down to two years or three years, which is the deal he made, in all fairness to him, most people are going to do that. … And I have seen it many times. I have had many friends involved in this stuff. It’s called flipping, and it almost ought to be illegal.”



The use of informants is a central part of how some criminal prosecutions are executed. This is how the justice system works.



Trump is a man who has lived a life evading justice, using the legal system and the threat of legal action against people. For him, the justice system is a tool at the disposal of the wealthy and the ruthless, one to be used against anyone of lesser means and lesser fortitude.



In his mind, the fact that he may be implicated by the justice system is a blasphemy, a distortion of the American power structure, in which the wealthy almost always win.



As he told Fox: “I’ve always had controversy in my life and I’ve always succeeded. I’ve always won. I’ve always won.”



CNN’s Chris Cillizza wrote about that comment:



Two notes here: a) he’s right — his entire life has been controversial and b) he only sees things through the lens of winning or losing. There is no other measure of success or failure. If you win, you were right.



Not only has Cohen flipped, but The New York Times also reported last week:



“Federal prosecutors in Manhattan struck a deal earlier this summer with Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, granting him immunity for his grand jury testimony about Michael D. Cohen, a person briefed on the arrangement said Friday.”



And not only that, but The Wall Street Journal reported last week that David Pecker, chairman and C.E.O. of American Media — which publishes the National Enquirer — was also granted immunity in the Cohen case.



This wannabe-king’s court is filled with rats and weasels more interested in their own preservation than his. Trump demands loyalty, and loyalty freely given should be honored and revered. When the dishonorable attempt to purchase it, either with money or fear, it will always prove false in the end.



No one can outrun the truth forever. Eventually, the truth always catches up. It comes out. It shines. I predict that the whole truth of Trump will shock the world, even more than it is already shocked.



Trump may have the undying loyalty of the zombies who rose from what was once the mainstream Republican Party, but not even that can forever stave off the reckoning.



I’m not a very religious person, but I am fond of Galatians 6:7 in the Bible:



“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”



Opinion | Opera of Demons - The New York Times

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Opinion | The Full-Spectrum Corruption of Donald Trump - The New York Times





"... But the greatest damage is being done to our civic culture and our politics. Mr. Trump and the Republican Party are right now the chief emblem of corruption and cynicism in American political life, of an ethic of might makes right. Dehumanizing others is fashionable and truth is relative. (“Truth isn’t truth,” in the infamous words of Mr. Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani.) They are stripping politics of its high purpose and nobility.



That’s not all politics is; self-interest is always a factor. But if politics is only about power unbounded by morality — if it’s simply about rulers governing by the law of the jungle, about a prince acting like a beast, in the words of Machiavelli — then the whole enterprise will collapse. We have to distinguish between imperfect leaders and corrupt ones, and we need the vocabulary to do so...."



Opinion | The Full-Spectrum Corruption of Donald Trump - The New York Times

Friday, August 24, 2018

Why Trump would be indicted if he weren't president



Why Trump would be indicted if he weren't president

Trump didn't disclose full payments to Cohen in official paperwork

Trump underreported payments to Cohen in disclosures, a potential violation from CNBC.



Trump didn't disclose full payments to Cohen in official paperwork

Can a sitting President be indicted? Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681 (1997)

Can a sitting President be indicted? Apparently yes given Clinton V Jones.

"Moreover, the potential burdens on the President posed by this litigation are appropriate matters for that court to evaluate in its management of the case, and the high respect owed the Presidency is a matter that should inform the conduct of the entire proceeding. Nevertheless, the District Court's stay decision was an abuse of discretion because it took no account of the importance of respondent's interest in bringing the case to trial, and because it was premature in that there was nothing in the record to enable a judge to assess whether postponement of trial after the completion of discovery would be warranted. Pp. 25-27.
(d) The Court is not persuaded of the seriousness of the alleged risks that this decision will generate a large volume of politically motivated harassing and frivolous litigation and that national security concerns might prevent the President from explaining a legitimate need for a continuance, and has confidence in the ability of federal judges to deal with both concerns. If Congress deems it appropriate to afford the President stronger protection, it may respond with legislation. Pp. 27-28.72 F. 3d 1354, affirmed."


Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681 (1997)

"Political Corruption from the White House to Georgia". Political Corruption from the White House to Georgia" Tamara Johnson Shealey with David Slavin and John Armwood.

Thursday, August 23, 2018

“Holy Shit, I Thought Pecker Would Be the Last One to Turn”: Trump’s National Enquirer Allies Are the Latest to Defect | Vanity Fair

David Pecker in New York on April 8, 2015.



"As Robert Mueller’s siege closes in on Donald Trump, the president has been left to wonder which of his staff and closest allies will, after all, stay loyal. On Tuesday, Michael Cohen completed his operatic turn against his former boss when he stood in federal court and pleaded guilty to eight felonies that included making hush-money payments at Trump’s direction to women Trump allegedly had sex with. The admission effectively made Trump an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal crime.



Cohen’s stunning admission came just days after The New York Times reported that White House counsel Don McGahn provided 30 hours of testimony to Mueller’s investigators. McGahn’s extensive cooperation with Mueller rattled the West Wing to the core at a time when aides were struggling to contain the fallout from former Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault Newman’s scathing White House memoir.



And now Trump’s most powerful media ally next to Fox News has broken with him. According to two sources briefed on the Cohen investigation, prosecutors granted immunity to David Pecker, chairman of The National Enquirer publisher, American Media Inc., and A.M.I.’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, so they would describe Trump’s involvement in Cohen’s payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal during the 2016 campaign. The Wall Street Journal first reported Pecker’s cooperation on Wednesday night. (Pecker and Howard did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.)



“Holy Shit, I Thought Pecker Would Be the Last One to Turn”: Trump’s National Enquirer Allies Are the Latest to Defect | Vanity Fair

TIME Cover: The Story Behind the 'In Deep' Donald Trump | Time

trump triptych



TIME Cover: The Story Behind the 'In Deep' Donald Trump | Time

Trump tweets false white supremacist talking point

Major prison strike spreads across US and Canada as inmates refuse food | US news | The Guardian

An inmate at San Quentin in California. The strike was symbolically timed to mark the death of a Black Panther held at the prison.

"Prisoners stand against forced labor and other indignities amid reports of action in California, Washington state and Nova Scotia

"A prison strike has begun to take hold in custodial institutions across North America, with reports of sporadic protest action from California and Washington state to the eastern seaboard as far south as Florida and up to Nova Scotia in Canada.
Details remain sketchy as information dribbles out through the porous walls of the country’s penitentiaries. Prison reform advocacy groups liaising with strike organisers said Wednesday that protests had been confirmed in three states, with further unconfirmed reports emerging from Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.
The confirmed cases related to a hunger strike in Folsom state prison in California. A 26-year-old inmate called Heriberto Garcia managed to dispatch to the outside world a smartphone recording of himself refusing food. The video was then posted on Twitter.

When he was told the contents of the meal, Garcia could be heard replying: “Burritos or not, not eating today. Protest. I’m hunger striking right now.”

The second confirmed action was in the Northwest detention center in Tacoma, Washington, where as many as 200 detained immigrants joined the nationwide protest. The Canadian unrest occurred in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where prisoners at Burnside jail put out a statement in solidarity with their striking US equivalents complaining that they were being “warehoused as inmates, not treated as human beings”.

The 19-day strike is the first such nationwide action in the US in two years and was triggered by April’s rioting in Lee correctional institution in South Carolina in which seven inmates were killed. The start of the strike on Monday was symbolically timed to mark the 47th anniversary of the death of the Black Panther leader George Jackson in San Quentin prison in California."

Major prison strike spreads across US and Canada as inmates refuse food | US news | The Guardian

David Pecker: Trump confidant and National Enquirer boss was given immunity in Cohen case | Media | The Guardian

David Pecker reportedly described the involvement of Cohen and Trump in pay-offs to women who alleged affairs in the past with the president.



"David Pecker, chief executive of the company that publishes the National Enquirer, the tabloid magazine involved in hush-money deals to women ahead of the 2016 US presidential election, was granted immunity by federal prosecutors as part of the investigation into Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, it emerged on Thursday.



Pecker met with prosecutors to describe the involvement of Cohen and Trump in payoffs to women who alleged affairs in the past with the president, the Wall Street Journal reported. Pecker, a longtime friend of Trump, was initially subpoenaed by federal investigators four months ago.



News of the media figure’s help in an investigation that is likely to prove damaging to Trump’s presidency came in the week that also saw Cohen turn on his former boss, as other former acolytes continue to assist the special counsel’s parallel Russia inquiry in Washington, further embattling the White House.



The Enquirer, the often lurid tabloid that reportedly played a key role in shielding Trump from negative stories, has become deeply embroiled in the legal storm engulfing the White House. Experts predicted on Thursday that it could have its press protections stripped away..."



David Pecker: Trump confidant and National Enquirer boss was given immunity in Cohen case | Media | The Guardian

The New Phase Of President Donald Trump’s Presidency | Deadline | MSNBC

Giuliani: People would revolt against Trump impeachment. ... The conversation as finally moved to impeachment. Maxine Waters has led the way. LOL.

Cuomo fact-checks Trump’s claim about Obama. #LiarInChief

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Cuomo tax department subpoenas Michael Cohen as part of probe into Trump foundation--the former Trump lawyer immediately responds - NY Daily News

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"ALBANY — The state Tax Department, which has been investigating President Trump’s charitable foundation, on Wednesday issued a subpoena to his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen—and received an immediate response, a source said. The subpoena, according to Tax Department spokesman James Gazzale, seeks ‘relevant information’ from Cohen, who pleaded guilty on Tuesday to eight federal felony charges, including one that he was directed by Trump to pay off two women who say they had sex with him a decade ago. ‘In light of the public disclosures made yesterday, we’ll be working with the New York State Attorney General and the Manhattan district attorney as appropriate,’ Gazzale said. ‘We can’t comment further on this investigation.’ Shortly after the subpoena went out, Cohen personally contacted the tax department to talk, a source with direct knowledge of the situation said. The source wouldn’t say what the response was.

But typically in such cases where someone has a lawyer, investigators deal with their counsel and not directly with the person. While the tax department is leading the probe, a source said other state agencies could get involved. Gov. Cuomo earlier Wednesday noted that Cohen’s lawyer ‘went out of his way to say Cohen would be forthcoming on both federal and state investigations.’ Cohen lawyer Lanny Davis said on CNN Tuesday that ‘I do believe he has information about Mr. Trump that would be of interest both in Washington as well as in New York State.’ State Attorney General Barbara Underwood recently filed a civil lawsuit accusing the commander-in-chief and his three oldest children of operating a bogus namesake charity ‘in persistent violation’ of federal and state laws for more than a decade. In addition, the state Tax Department opened an investigation into whether Trump and his charitable foundation violated state law by transferring assets or making certain misrepresentations to the state with respect to tax liability and tax assignment. Asked what impact Cohen’s guilty plea and potential cooperation might have on the case, Underwood spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick said: ‘We cannot comment on potential or ongoing investigations.’ ‘As our lawsuit against the Trump Foundation illustrates, we will hold Donald Trump and his associates accountable for violations of state law, and will seek a criminal referral from the appropriate state agency as necessary,’ Spitalnick said. She also said the current situation proves further that the state Legislature needs to act on legislation designed to close a loophole in New York’s double jeopardy law that would ‘ensure anyone pardoned by the President does not evade justice for related state crimes.’ A source with knowledge of the investigation said that the state Tax Department would have to refer the case for prosecution if it finds any wrongdoing. The source said the attorney general’s office, which has an active review of the Trump Foundation, is coordinating with the tax department. Underwood’s office recently secured a plea agreement with Cohen’s taxi industry business partner, Gene Friedman, after receiving a referral from the tax department. ‘Given (the attorney general office’s) prosecution of Friedman, and its ongoing (Trump Foundation) lawsuit & investigation, the office is in touch with (the tax deparment) and other law enforcement authorities regarding Cohen’s plea,’ a source familiar with the AG’s investigation said. "

(Via.).  Cuomo tax department subpoenas Michael Cohen as part of probe into Trump foundation--the former Trump lawyer immediately responds - NY Daily News:

Cohen'a lawyer says Cohen more than happy to tell Mueller all that he knows: attorney



Cohen more than happy to tell Mueller all that he knows: attorney

There’s only one cure for the cancer of Trump’s presidency | Jill Abramson | Opinion | The Guardian

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"One of Cohen’s lawyers, Lanny Davis, revealed before Tuesday’s plea deal that he had contacted Dean in order to help Cohen. ‘I reached out to my old friend John Dean because of what he went through with Watergate, and I saw some parallels to what Michael Cohen is experiencing,’ Davis told Politico. ‘I wanted to gain from John’s wisdom.’

Dean’s testimony was so significant because of his detailed knowledge, as White House counsel, of Nixon’s direct involvement in the criminal Watergate cover-up and his lies about it. In White House conversations with Nixon, which were taped, Dean had direct knowledge of the president’s crimes.

The parallels with Cohen are clear. He said in court on Tuesday that he committed crimes, including making payoffs that constituted illegal campaign gifts, ‘in coordination with and direction of a candidate for federal office’. In July, Cohen released to CNN a tape he’d made of Trump discussing a cash payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels. He has other tapes, too. And on MSNBC Tuesday night, Davis made clear that Cohen was ready to share all that he knows with Mueller, including that Trump had advance knowledge of Russia’s illegal hacking of the communications of Democratic officials...

“… The cancer in Trump’s presidency began during his 2016 campaign, as Cohen and Manafort may help to prove. It has metastasized to his White House. The cure, as was true in Nixon’s time, may involve impeachment.
• Jill Abramson is a political columnist for the Guardian." 

(Via.). There’s only one cure for the cancer of Trump’s presidency | Jill Abramson | Opinion | The Guardian:

This mafia style of government makes Trump a role model for all autocrats | Jonathan Freedland | Opinion | The Guardian

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"More than 18 months into his presidency, Donald Trump’s modus operandi – and the danger it represents – is clear. His working method is that of the mafia boss and gangland chieftain, daily wielding his power to settle scores, teach lessons and crush dissent. Anyone who’s seen will know the routine: the casual intimidation, the obsession with loyalty, the brutal ostracism meted out to those who dare defy the man at the top.
This week’s demonstration came at the expense of John Brennan, the former head of the CIA who spent a quarter-century in intelligence and counter-terrorism. He’s no dove: his record includes rendition, drone strikes and illegal spying on the US Senate. But he has become one of the most trenchant critics of Trump – he accuses him of treason – and the president exacted his punishment, stripping Brennan of the security clearance that had given him access, even in retirement, to some of his nation’s secrets.
You can speculate as to why Trump did it and why he did it now. The answer to the first question was provided by the president himself. He contradicted the official line supplied by his own press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders – that Brennan was punished for “erratic conduct and behaviour” – to tell the Wall Street Journal that what really bothered him was Brennan’s early role in the “sham” Russia inquiry that is driving him to increasing fury. As for why now, this has been a wretched week for Trump, as former aide and Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault Newman published a book alleging, among other things, that tapes exist of Trump using the N-word. Casting out Brennan served as a useful distraction.
On the face of it, this might not look like such a hardship for the former CIA boss. An estimated 4 million Americans have security clearances of one form or another. Losing his might diminish Brennan’s value as a consultant in the private sector; on the other hand, it boosts his stock as a media pundit. But that’s hardly the point. Determining access to classified information has, until now, been a non-partisan, administrative matter. Trump has used it a political tool, which is why on Thursday no fewer than six former CIA chiefs signed a statement denouncing the move. In the words of ex-CIA officer David Priess, this “is something that happens more in a banana republic than the United States of America”.
To be fair, the US is not wholly a stranger to such behaviour. When Sanders named eight other former public servants now similarly threatened with losing their security clearance – all of them connected with the Russia probe, funnily enough – she evoked memories of Richard Nixon’s notorious “enemies list”, a place on which fast became a badge of honour. The parallel is not fatuous: Nixon’s great offence was abuse of power, and this is becoming Trump’s hallmark.
Consider his ongoing war on what he brands the fake news media. That goes beyond “enemy of the people” rhetoric, or denying access to those whose coverage he dislikes. Instead Trump seeks to use federal powers to whip a dissenting press into line. Note his repeated threats to increase the postal rates paid by Amazon: you don’t have to be a fan of that company to see that what Trump really seeks is to punish Amazon’s boss Jeff Bezos for the hostile coverage dished out by the Washington Post, which Bezos also owns. Trump has similarly mused about denying a broadcast licence to NBC, and tried in vain to thwart a merger of AT&T and Time Warner, infuriated by the latter’s ownership of CNN, which he loathes. In each case, Trump took what had previously been regarded as a neutral function of government and abused it to punish those he deems political enemies.
Trump won't recognise there are spheres of administration that are meant to operate free of executive interference
Trump flatly refuses to recognise that there are spheres of administration that are meant to operate free of executive interference. He believes instead that everyone who works for the US government works for him and his family. Recall his reported demand that former FBI director James Comey declare his loyalty not to the constitution but to Trump. Or his shock that the attorney general did not act as his personal lawyer, making the Russia probe go away, but instead recused himself from it. How telling that even his tribute to Aretha Franklin included the tactless and apparently groundless claim that “she worked for me”.
The picture of Trump as president is now crystal clear. His instincts and methods are those of the autocrat. He respects no separation of powers, no zones of authority from which the constitution very deliberately excludes him and his office. He may be called Donald, but he wants to rule like a don.
The danger of all this to Americans is obvious. The US system of government, cherished and nurtured over two centuries, is being eroded by a president who tramples over every convention and custom that ensures its survival – and, crucially, by his Republican enablers in Congress who could stop him but won’t. (In a chorus, they supported his act of revenge against Brennan.)
Americans need to guard against an authoritarian impulse whose existence in their body politic is now demonstrably real. A survey this month found that 43% of Republicans were willing to give Trump the power to close down media organisations, while a separate poll a year ago found 52% would support “postponing” the 2020 election if Trump proposed it. Among all Americans, support for rule by the army – as opposed to elected politicians – is unusually high, with nearly one in five in favour.
But there is a threat here to the rest of us too. For Trump is forging a template for the 21st-century autocrat. Of course, there are already plenty of models to work from – Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, Xi Jinping, Rodrigo Duterte – all of whom have received lavish, fawning praise from Trump. But an American president stands on a uniquely influential platform, observed the world over. Where once the US presidency offered an example of executive power restrained by the “co-equal” judicial and legislative branches, today Trump stands as an inspiration to every would-be strongman and abuser of authority, ready to bellow the line from his 2016 convention speech that could serve as a governing credo for tyrants everywhere: “I alone can fix this”.
Every time he steps over a once taboo boundary, thereby erasing it, Trump acts to normalise autocracy in the US and beyond. Rulers in Budapest and Warsaw, as well as Ankara and Moscow, see what Trump gets away with and they take note and take heart. He is a role model for the international strongman set. Which is why all those who care about global democracy should be praying for Trump’s Republicans to take a thorough beating in November’s midterm elections. As any mafia boss will tell you, the surest way to defeat a would-be strongman is to make him look weak.
• Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistB
This mafia style of government makes Trump a role model for all autocrats | Jonathan Freedland | Opinion | The Guardian
More than 18 months into his presidency, Donald Trump’s modus operandi – and the danger it represents – is clear. His working method is that of the mafia boss and gangland chieftain, daily wielding his power to settle scores, teach lessons and crush dissent. Anyone who’s seen will know the routine: the casual intimidation, the obsession with loyalty, the brutal ostracism meted out to those who dare defy the man at the top.
This week’s demonstration came at the expense of John Brennan, the former head of the CIA who spent a quarter-century in intelligence and counter-terrorism. He’s no dove: his record includes rendition, drone strikes and illegal spying on the US Senate. But he has become one of the most trenchant critics of Trump – he accuses him of treason – and the president exacted his punishment, stripping Brennan of the security clearance that had given him access, even in retirement, to some of his nation’s secrets.
You can speculate as to why Trump did it and why he did it now. The answer to the first question was provided by the president himself. He contradicted the official line supplied by his own press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders – that Brennan was punished for “erratic conduct and behaviour” – to tell the Wall Street Journal that what really bothered him was Brennan’s early role in the “sham” Russia inquiry that is driving him to increasing fury. As for why now, this has been a wretched week for Trump, as former aide and Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault Newman published a book alleging, among other things, that tapes exist of Trump using the N-word. Casting out Brennan served as a useful distraction.
On the face of it, this might not look like such a hardship for the former CIA boss. An estimated 4 million Americans have security clearances of one form or another. Losing his might diminish Brennan’s value as a consultant in the private sector; on the other hand, it boosts his stock as a media pundit. But that’s hardly the point. Determining access to classified information has, until now, been a non-partisan, administrative matter. Trump has used it a political tool, which is why on Thursday no fewer than six former CIA chiefs signed a statement denouncing the move. In the words of ex-CIA officer David Priess, this “is something that happens more in a banana republic than the United States of America”.
To be fair, the US is not wholly a stranger to such behaviour. When Sanders named eight other former public servants now similarly threatened with losing their security clearance – all of them connected with the Russia probe, funnily enough – she evoked memories of Richard Nixon’s notorious “enemies list”, a place on which fast became a badge of honour. The parallel is not fatuous: Nixon’s great offence was abuse of power, and this is becoming Trump’s hallmark.
Consider his ongoing war on what he brands the fake news media. That goes beyond “enemy of the people” rhetoric, or denying access to those whose coverage he dislikes. Instead Trump seeks to use federal powers to whip a dissenting press into line. Note his repeated threats to increase the postal rates paid by Amazon: you don’t have to be a fan of that company to see that what Trump really seeks is to punish Amazon’s boss Jeff Bezos for the hostile coverage dished out by the Washington Post, which Bezos also owns. Trump has similarly mused about denying a broadcast licence to NBC, and tried in vain to thwart a merger of AT&T and Time Warner, infuriated by the latter’s ownership of CNN, which he loathes. In each case, Trump took what had previously been regarded as a neutral function of government and abused it to punish those he deems political enemies.
Trump won't recognise there are spheres of administration that are meant to operate free of executive interferenceTrump flatly refuses to recognise that there are spheres of administration that are meant to operate free of executive interference. He believes instead that everyone who works for the US government works for him and his family. Recall his reported demand that former FBI director James Comey declare his loyalty not to the constitution but to Trump. Or his shock that the attorney general did not act as his personal lawyer, making the Russia probe go away, but instead recused himself from it. How telling that even his tribute to Aretha Franklin included the tactless and apparently groundless claim that “she worked for me”.
The picture of Trump as president is now crystal clear. His instincts and methods are those of the autocrat. He respects no separation of powers, no zones of authority from which the constitution very deliberately excludes him and his office. He may be called Donald, but he wants to rule like a don.
The danger of all this to Americans is obvious. The US system of government, cherished and nurtured over two centuries, is being eroded by a president who tramples over every convention and custom that ensures its survival – and, crucially, by his Republican enablers in Congress who could stop him but won’t. (In a chorus, they supported his act of revenge against Brennan.)
Americans need to guard against an authoritarian impulse whose existence in their body politic is now demonstrably real. A survey this month found that 43% of Republicans were willing to give Trump the power to close down media organisations, while a separate poll a year ago found 52% would support “postponing” the 2020 election if Trump proposed it. Among all Americans, support for rule by the army – as opposed to elected politicians – is unusually high, with nearly one in five in favour.
But there is a threat here to the rest of us too. For Trump is forging a template for the 21st-century autocrat. Of course, there are already plenty of models to work from – Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, Xi Jinping, Rodrigo Duterte – all of whom have received lavish, fawning praise from Trump. But an American president stands on a uniquely influential platform, observed the world over. Where once the US presidency offered an example of executive power restrained by the “co-equal” judicial and legislative branches, today Trump stands as an inspiration to every would-be strongman and abuser of authority, ready to bellow the line from his 2016 convention speech that could serve as a governing credo for tyrants everywhere: “I alone can fix this”.
Every time he steps over a once taboo boundary, thereby erasing it, Trump acts to normalise autocracy in the US and beyond. Rulers in Budapest and Warsaw, as well as Ankara and Moscow, see what Trump gets away with and they take note and take heart. He is a role model for the international strongman set. Which is why all those who care about global democracy should be praying for Trump’s Republicans to take a thorough beating in November’s midterm elections. As any mafia boss will tell you, the surest way to defeat a would-be strongman is to make him look weak.
• Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

Donald Trump's reckoning has arrived | Richard Wolffe | Opinion | The Guardian

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"...Cohen’s plea bargain suggests we may have sought out the wrong historical figure in the Nixon White House. Nixon was forced to resign by his party and his sense of shame: two factors that are absent today.
Instead we should be looking at Nixon’s first vice-president, Spiro Agnew, who was forced out of office by something much more familiar: criminal investigations into conspiracy, tax fraud and bribery, among other things. Agnew had been a corrupt public official since his days as Maryland governor, and the corruption continued into his vice-presidency. A year after his re-election, Agnew accepted a guilty plea bargain on tax evasion and resigned from office.
Until his resignation, Agnew claimed the US Attorney’s investigations were all lies. His lawyers claimed that a sitting vice-president couldn’t be indicted. Both of those arguments collapsed. As one of Agnew’s lawyers recently wrote, there are no constitutional protections against indictment for either a president or a vice-president.
Would Trump resist a plea bargain more than anyone else in his inner-circle? Does he have the spinal fortitude to risk a five-year jail term and a good chunk of his personal fortune for the chance of saving his political career and the undying love of his political base?
He may decide that his base will always love him. He may decide that his freedom is as much about avoiding four more years in the White House as it is about avoiding five years in the Big House. If shame won’t make him quit, perhaps a plea bargain will.
There was a time when we all covered political sex scandals because, as Matt Bai explained so well about Gary Hart, they told us something about character. Those were the old days. Now we know all about Donald Trump’s character, but we still don’t know all about the conspiracies to manipulate the 2016 election.
If only Trump had not run for president, his minions could have continued laundering Russian money, evading taxes, and paying hush money until he tweeted off this mortal coil.
Instead, he attracted the attention of every self-respecting law enforcement and intelligence officer in the nation’s capital and beyond. The downfall of Pablo Escobar’s drug cartel began when he ran for office in Colombia, and the same might just prove to be true about the far smaller Trump enterprise.
Donald Trump has lost so much in court, he must be tired of losing. As a candidate he suggested his supporters would suffer some kind of headache from all of his endless winning. He imagined them saying “Please don’t win so much. This is getting terrible.” How right he was..:.
Donald Trump's reckoning has arrived | Richard Wolffe | Opinion | The Guardian

Michael Cohen claims Trump knew in advance of 2016 Trump Tower meeting - CNNPolitics

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Michael Cohen claims Trump knew in advance of 2016 Trump Tower meeting - CNNPolitics

6 Takeaways From Michael Cohen’s Guilty Plea - The New York Times



"You could easily be confused by the sheer number and variety of the criminal charges that Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s onetime fixer and personal lawyer, pleaded guilty to on Tuesday in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
After all, the combative Mr. Cohen, a former vice president at the Trump Organization, was accused of violating laws that involved his taxi business, his financial dealings with at least three banks and — it was the headline allegation — his secretive efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. He admitted joining forces with the nation’s best-known supermarket tabloid to buy the silence of at least two women who claimed they had affairs with Mr. Trump.
Making matters more arcane, some of these purported crimes overlapped, the government said.
Mr. Cohen, for instance, was said to have used a fraudulently obtained home-equity loan to pay off one of the women, a pornographic film star, Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels.
The charging documents describe a universe of shady dealings and unsavory characters. None of the revelations seem helpful to Mr. Trump.
Here are six takeaways from what happened in court — and what was disclosed in court papers.
The Stormy Daniels cover-up almost fell apart.

According to the government, in October 2016 — one month before the presidential election — Ms. Clifford, who has a second career as an exotic dancer, reached out through her agent to the National Enquirer, the gossip magazine owned by David J. Pecker, a longtime friend and supporter of Mr. Trump.
She had what she believed was a hot story, the government said: the tale of her alleged affair with Mr. Trump.
Court papers say Mr. Pecker and an editor at the National Enquirer then reached out to Mr. Cohen, putting him in touch with Keith Davidson, a Los Angeles lawyer who was representing Ms. Clifford. Over the next few days, the papers claim, Mr. Cohen negotiated a deal to pay Ms. Clifford $130,000 to keep her silent about the affair.
By Oct. 25, however, just two weeks before voters would go to the polls, the deal had not been signed yet, the government said. And even worse, prosecutors claim, Mr. Davidson was threatening to take his client and her scoop to another publication.
It was at that point, court papers say, that the unnamed editor from the National Enquirer sent Mr. Cohen a text message, saying, “We have to coordinate something on the matter” or “it could look awfully bad for everyone.”
Not long after, prosecutors said, the editor and Mr. Pecker called Mr. Cohen on an encrypted phone application, and Mr. Cohen agreed to make the payment.
The very next day, the government said, Mr. Cohen withdrew $131,000 from the fraudulent home-equity loan he had gotten that year and placed it into the account of a shell company he had created, Essential Consultants LLC.
Then, on Oct. 27, in an effort to influence the 2016 presidential election, prosecutors say, he wired $130,000 to Ms. Clifford’s lawyer, Mr. Davidson, apparently keeping the extra $1,000 for himself.
He seemed to like to hold on to evidence.
A few months earlier, in June 2016, Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, started searching for a publication to which she could sell her own tale of an affair with Mr. Trump, the government said. She, too, was represented by Mr. Davidson.
In August that year, the National Enquirer struck a deal with Ms. McDougal and Mr. Davidson to purchase what court papers called the “limited life rights” to her story of infidelity.
In exchange, the government said, the National Enquirer agreed to pay Ms. McDougal $150,000 and promised to feature her on two of its covers and to publish more than 100 articles she wrote.
Mr. Cohen was also part of this deal, prosecutors claim, and to facilitate it, he created another shell company called Resolution Consultants LLC.
But before the agreement was consummated, court papers say, the National Enquirer’s owner, Mr. Pecker, told Mr. Cohen to tear it up.
Mr. Cohen, however, did not tear it up, the government said.
The paperwork was later found by federal agents when they performed “a judicially authorized search” of Mr. Cohen’s office, prosecutors said.
He lied to banks, prosecutors say. Often.
Much of the 22-page criminal information detailing Mr. Cohen’s alleged legal violations involved false statements he is said to have made to banks.
Beginning in 2010, Mr. Cohen began to rack up debts with one bank that ultimately totaled about $20 million, according to court papers.
But his problems started in earnest in 2013, the government said, when he successfully applied, through a different bank, for a mortgage for an apartment on Park Avenue and claimed in his paperwork that he only owed the first bank $6.4 million in outstanding loans.
He neglected to mention he was also on the hook for another $14 million in lines of credit, according to court documents.
Compounding his troubles, the government said, Mr. Cohen also tried to buy an $8.5 million summer home in 2015 and, once again, never disclosed his line of credit. When the second bank questioned him about the $14 million he owed, he “misled” it, prosecutors said, saying he had closed the line of credit in 2014.
In December 2015, Mr. Cohen asked the bank for more money — this time for a $500,000 home-equity loan, the government said. (The same one he is accused of having used to pay Ms. Clifford.)
In getting the loan, court papers say, Mr. Cohen “significantly understated” his debt and falsely represented that he was worth more than $40 million at the time.
A profitable taxi business — but maybe not on his taxes
Mr. Cohen had been involved in the taxi business for years, the government said, earning millions of dollars by leasing taxi medallions to operators in Chicago and New York who paid him a portion of their income.
He also made money, prosecutors said, by offering what amounted to a total of $6 million in personal loans to one taxi operator and collecting interest.
The problem was, the government said, Mr. Cohen did not pay taxes on much of the money he made from the medallions and the loans.
Instead, the government said, he hid millions of dollars in profits in his and his wife’s bank accounts and failed to tell his personal accountant.
Wait, there’s more (including a French handbag).
Mr. Cohen not only disguised the income he earned from his taxi business, prosecutors said, but he also failed to disclose $100,000 he made in 2014 from brokering the sale of a piece of property in “a private aviation community” in Ocala, Fla., and another $30,000 he made from brokering the sale of a Birkin bag, “a highly coveted French handbag,” the government explained.
Then there was the $200,000 in consulting fees that he took in and did not disclose as income from working with “an assisted living company,” prosecutors said, which he gave advice to about real-estate deals.
Enough about Mr. Cohen. What does this mean for the president?
At the moment, it’s hard to say.
Mr. Cohen’s plea agreement with the prosecutors in Manhattan does not require him to cooperate with other pending investigations. But it also does not preclude him in telling what he knows about Mr. Trump to investigators working with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who is looking into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Mr. Cohen’s agreement with the government contains a provision that could allow him to receive a significantly reduced sentence. If Mr. Cohen were to substantially assist the special counsel’s investigation, Mr. Mueller could recommend a reduction.
Looming over negotiations between prosecutors and Mr. Cohen has been the possibility of a presidential pardon.
Mr. Cohen’s lawyer at one point raised the issue of a pardon with Mr. Trump’s several months ago, The Times reported.
By striking a deal with Mr. Cohen that includes prison time, federal authorities were aware of the risk that the president might pardon him.
But the president has given no indication that he was leaning toward one.
6 Takeaways From Michael Cohen’s Guilty Plea - The New York Times

News from the "Witch Hunt"


Opinion | All the President’s Crooks - The New York Times





"From the start of the Russia investigation, President Trump has been working to discredit the work and the integrity of the special counsel, Robert Mueller; praising men who are blatant grifters, cons and crooks; insisting that he’s personally done nothing wrong; and reminding us that he hires only the best people.



On Tuesday afternoon, the American public was treated to an astonishing split-screen moment involving two of those people, as Mr. Trump’s former campaign chief was convicted by a federal jury in Virginia of multiple crimes carrying years in prison at the same time that his longtime personal lawyer pleaded guilty in federal court in New York to his own lengthy trail of criminality, and confessed that he had committed at least some of the crimes “at the direction of” Mr. Trump himself.



Let that sink in: Mr. Trump’s own lawyer has now accused him, under oath, of committing a felony.



Only a complete fantasist — that is, only President Trump and his cult — could continue to claim that this investigation of foreign subversion of an American election, which has already yielded dozens of other indictments and several guilty pleas, is a “hoax” or “scam” or “rigged witch hunt.”



The conviction of Paul Manafort, who ran the Trump campaign for three months in 2016, was a win for prosecutors even though jurors were unable to reach a verdict on 10 of the 18 counts against him. On the other eight, which included bank fraud, tax fraud and a failure to report a foreign bank account, the jury agreed unanimously that Mr. Manafort was guilty. He is scheduled to go on trial in a separate case next month in Washington, D.C., on charges including money laundering, witness tampering, lying to authorities and failing to register as a foreign agent. Mr. Manafort faces many decades behind bars, although he will probably serve less than that under federal sentencing guidelines.



A few hundred miles to the north, in New York City, Michael “I’m going to mess your life up” Cohen stood before a federal judge and pleaded guilty to multiple counts of bank and tax fraud as well as federal campaign-finance violations involving hush-money payments he made to women who said they’d had sex with Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen, who spent years as Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and “fix-it guy” (his own words), was under investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, to whom Mr. Mueller referred his case. In April, F.B.I. agents raided Mr. Cohen’s office, home and hotel room looking for evidence of criminality on a number of fronts. Apparently they found it.



Mr. Cohen didn’t agree at Tuesday’s hearing to cooperate with prosecutors, but if he eventually chooses to, that could spell even bigger trouble for Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen has been involved in many of Mr. Trump’s dealings with Russia, including his aborted effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, and could shed light on connections between the Trump presidential campaign and Russian officials involved in the 2016 election interference.



But back to Tuesday’s news. Mr. Manafort was not an original target of the inquiry by Mr. Mueller, who was appointed in May of last year to look into possible ties between the Trump campaign and efforts by Russian government officials to interfere in the election. But Mr. Mueller’s mandate authorized him to investigate any other crimes that arose in the course of his work. It didn’t take long. As soon as he and his lawyers started sniffing around, the stench of Mr. Manafort’s illegality was overpowering.



As a longtime lobbyist and political consultant who worked for multiple Republican candidates and presidents, Mr. Manafort had a habit of lying to banks to get multimillion-dollar loans and hiding his cash in offshore accounts when tax time rolled round. In at least one case, he falsely characterized $1.5 million as a loan to avoid paying taxes on it, then later told banks that the loan had been “forgiven” so he could get another loan.



He also enriched himself by working for some of the world’s most notorious thugs and autocrats, including Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, Jonas Savimbi in Angola and Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He helped elect the pro-Kremlin Viktor Yanukovych as president of Ukraine, a job that earned him millions until Mr. Yanukovych was ousted from power in 2014.



Despite this mercenary history — or perhaps, more disturbingly, because of it — Donald Trump, while running on promises to clean up Washington, hired Mr. Manafort to run his presidential campaign, a job he may well have kept but for news reports that he was receiving and hiding millions of dollars from his work on behalf of Mr. Yanukovych.



What does it tell you about Mr. Trump that he would choose to lead his campaign someone like Mr. Manafort, whom even on Tuesday he called a “good man”? It tells you that Mr. Trump is consistent, and consistently contemptuous of honesty and ethics, because he has surrounded himself with people of weak, if not criminal, character throughout his career.



While the president has so far dodged questions about whether he will pardon Mr. Manafort, he’s already shown a willingness to make a mockery of the justice system with his pardons of unrepentant lawbreakers like Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Dinesh D’Souza. Last year, the president’s lawyer dangled the prospect of a pardon to lawyers for Mr. Manafort and Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser. If Mr. Trump were to follow through and grant clemency to Mr. Manafort, it would make his pardon of Mr. Arpaio look like the signing of the Civil Rights Act.



You’re forgiven if you’ve lost track of all the criminality, either charged or admitted, that has burst forth from Mr. Trump’s circles in the last couple years even as Mr. Trump has continued to claim that the investigation is a hoax, a pointless waste of taxpayer dollars. So here’s a brief refresher:



In addition to the prosecution of Mr. Manafort, the special counsel’s office has secured guilty pleas from multiple people, including Mr. Flynn and George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser on the Trump campaign, both of whom lied to federal investigators about their communications with Russian officials.



Others have pleaded guilty to identity fraud and making false statements. Mr. Manafort’s longtime associate Rick Gates also pleaded guilty and testified against his former boss.



Meanwhile, Mr. Mueller has charged more than a dozen Russian individuals and companies for their roles in a coordinated and deceptive social-media campaign aimed at hurting Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and helping Mr. Trump’s. Some Trump campaign officials were unwittingly in contact with some of these defendants.



Mr. Mueller has also charged a dozen Russian military officials with hacking and helping to release emails of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The hackers first tried to break into Mrs. Clinton’s personal servers on July 27, 2016 — the same day that Mr. Trump publicly called on Russians to do exactly that.



And he has charged Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian associate of Mr. Manafort and a suspected spy, with obstructing justice.



As Mr. Trump rages on about the unfairness of the investigation, remember that Mr. Mueller has been on the job for just 15 months. For comparison, the Watergate investigation ran for more than two years before it brought down a president and sent dozens of people to prison. The Iran contra investigation dragged on for about seven years, as did the Whitewater investigation, which resulted in President Bill Clinton’s impeachment.



Also remember we still don’t know anything about the ultimate fate of several other Trump associates who have been under Mr. Mueller’s microscope, including Roger Stone, Carter Page and Donald Trump Jr. (“If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer”).



From the start of the Russia investigation, President Trump has been working to discredit the work and the integrity of the special counsel, Robert Mueller; praising men who are blatant grifters, cons and crooks; insisting that he’s personally done nothing wrong; and reminding us that he hires only the best people.



On Tuesday afternoon, the American public was treated to an astonishing split-screen moment involving two of those people, as Mr. Trump’s former campaign chief was convicted by a federal jury in Virginia of multiple crimes carrying years in prison at the same time that his longtime personal lawyer pleaded guilty in federal court in New York to his own lengthy trail of criminality, and confessed that he had committed at least some of the crimes “at the direction of” Mr. Trump himself.



Let that sink in: Mr. Trump’s own lawyer has now accused him, under oath, of committing a felony.



Only a complete fantasist — that is, only President Trump and his cult — could continue to claim that this investigation of foreign subversion of an American election, which has already yielded dozens of other indictments and several guilty pleas, is a “hoax” or “scam” or “rigged witch hunt.”



The conviction of Paul Manafort, who ran the Trump campaign for three months in 2016, was a win for prosecutors even though jurors were unable to reach a verdict on 10 of the 18 counts against him. On the other eight, which included bank fraud, tax fraud and a failure to report a foreign bank account, the jury agreed unanimously that Mr. Manafort was guilty. He is scheduled to go on trial in a separate case next month in Washington, D.C., on charges including money laundering, witness tampering, lying to authorities and failing to register as a foreign agent. Mr. Manafort faces many decades behind bars, although he will probably serve less than that under federal sentencing guidelines.



A few hundred miles to the north, in New York City, Michael “I’m going to mess your life up” Cohen stood before a federal judge and pleaded guilty to multiple counts of bank and tax fraud as well as federal campaign-finance violations involving hush-money payments he made to women who said they’d had sex with Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen, who spent years as Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and “fix-it guy” (his own words), was under investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, to whom Mr. Mueller referred his case. In April, F.B.I. agents raided Mr. Cohen’s office, home and hotel room looking for evidence of criminality on a number of fronts. Apparently they found it.



Mr. Cohen didn’t agree at Tuesday’s hearing to cooperate with prosecutors, but if he eventually chooses to, that could spell even bigger trouble for Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen has been involved in many of Mr. Trump’s dealings with Russia, including his aborted effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, and could shed light on connections between the Trump presidential campaign and Russian officials involved in the 2016 election interference.



But back to Tuesday’s news. Mr. Manafort was not an original target of the inquiry by Mr. Mueller, who was appointed in May of last year to look into possible ties between the Trump campaign and efforts by Russian government officials to interfere in the election. But Mr. Mueller’s mandate authorized him to investigate any other crimes that arose in the course of his work. It didn’t take long. As soon as he and his lawyers started sniffing around, the stench of Mr. Manafort’s illegality was overpowering.



As a longtime lobbyist and political consultant who worked for multiple Republican candidates and presidents, Mr. Manafort had a habit of lying to banks to get multimillion-dollar loans and hiding his cash in offshore accounts when tax time rolled round. In at least one case, he falsely characterized $1.5 million as a loan to avoid paying taxes on it, then later told banks that the loan had been “forgiven” so he could get another loan.



He also enriched himself by working for some of the world’s most notorious thugs and autocrats, including Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, Jonas Savimbi in Angola and Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He helped elect the pro-Kremlin Viktor Yanukovych as president of Ukraine, a job that earned him millions until Mr. Yanukovych was ousted from power in 2014.



Despite this mercenary history — or perhaps, more disturbingly, because of it — Donald Trump, while running on promises to clean up Washington, hired Mr. Manafort to run his presidential campaign, a job he may well have kept but for news reports that he was receiving and hiding millions of dollars from his work on behalf of Mr. Yanukovych.



What does it tell you about Mr. Trump that he would choose to lead his campaign someone like Mr. Manafort, whom even on Tuesday he called a “good man”? It tells you that Mr. Trump is consistent, and consistently contemptuous of honesty and ethics, because he has surrounded himself with people of weak, if not criminal, character throughout his career.



While the president has so far dodged questions about whether he will pardon Mr. Manafort, he’s already shown a willingness to make a mockery of the justice system with his pardons of unrepentant lawbreakers like Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Dinesh D’Souza. Last year, the president’s lawyer dangled the prospect of a pardon to lawyers for Mr. Manafort and Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser. If Mr. Trump were to follow through and grant clemency to Mr. Manafort, it would make his pardon of Mr. Arpaio look like the signing of the Civil Rights Act.



You’re forgiven if you’ve lost track of all the criminality, either charged or admitted, that has burst forth from Mr. Trump’s circles in the last couple years even as Mr. Trump has continued to claim that the investigation is a hoax, a pointless waste of taxpayer dollars. So here’s a brief refresher:



In addition to the prosecution of Mr. Manafort, the special counsel’s office has secured guilty pleas from multiple people, including Mr. Flynn and George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser on the Trump campaign, both of whom lied to federal investigators about their communications with Russian officials.



Others have pleaded guilty to identity fraud and making false statements. Mr. Manafort’s longtime associate Rick Gates also pleaded guilty and testified against his former boss.



Meanwhile, Mr. Mueller has charged more than a dozen Russian individuals and companies for their roles in a coordinated and deceptive social-media campaign aimed at hurting Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and helping Mr. Trump’s. Some Trump campaign officials were unwittingly in contact with some of these defendants.



Mr. Mueller has also charged a dozen Russian military officials with hacking and helping to release emails of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The hackers first tried to break into Mrs. Clinton’s personal servers on July 27, 2016 — the same day that Mr. Trump publicly called on Russians to do exactly that.



And he has charged Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian associate of Mr. Manafort and a suspected spy, with obstructing justice.



As Mr. Trump rages on about the unfairness of the investigation, remember that Mr. Mueller has been on the job for just 15 months. For comparison, the Watergate investigation ran for more than two years before it brought down a president and sent dozens of people to prison. The Iran contra investigation dragged on for about seven years, as did the Whitewater investigation, which resulted in President Bill Clinton’s impeachment.



Also remember we still don’t know anything about the ultimate fate of several other Trump associates who have been under Mr. Mueller’s microscope, including Roger Stone, Carter Page and Donald Trump Jr. (“If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer”).



For a witch hunt, Mr. Mueller’s investigation has already bagged a remarkable number of witches. Only the best witches, you might say."



Opinion | All the President’s Crooks - The New York Times

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Matthews: All the President’s men are guilty



Matthews: All the President’s men are guilty

Donald Trump is now an unindicted co-conspirator.


Donald Trump's Presidency is in jeopardy. There is no doubt about it. It appears that Donald Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator.

Image result for donald trump

Trump is going down. One count in Cohen's plea agreement acknowledges that a candidate paid him back $130,000.00 for a payment to a third party through a company he controlled. The other count was $1050,00 Obviously this referred to Stormy Daniels and the Playboy mode;. These were counts 7 & 8. Trump is in the cesspool he created and he is beginning to slip down the drain.

Paul Manafort Convicted in Fraud Trial - The New York Times

"ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, was convicted on Tuesday in his financial fraud trial, bringing a dramatic end to a politically charged case that riveted the capital.
The verdict was a victory for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, whose prosecutors built a case that Mr. Manafort hid millions of dollars in foreign accounts to evade taxes and lied to banks repeatedly to obtain $20 million in loans.
Mr. Manafort was convicted of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on 10 of the 18 counts and the judge declared a mistrial on those charges.
The trial did not touch directly on Mr. Mueller’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election or on whether Mr. Trump has sought to obstruct the investigation. But it was the first test of the special counsel’s ability to prosecute a case in a federal courtroom amid intense criticism from the president and his allies that the inquiry is a biased and unjustified witch hunt…."

Paul Manafort Convicted in Fraud Trial - The New York Times

The Origin of Race in the USA

Why Did Europeans Enslave Africans?

Live: Michael Cohen surrenders to the FBI - CNNPolitics

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"Michael Cohen: President Trump's former private attorney has surrendered to the FBI, according to a law enforcement source. Guilty: Cohen is expected to plead guilty to multiple counts of campaign finance violations, tax fraud and bank fraud as part of the deal, which includes jail time."

(Via.). Live: Michael Cohen surrenders to the FBI - CNNPolitics:

Trump’s Former Fixer, Michael Cohen, Reaches a Plea Agreement Over Payments to Women - The New York Times

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"Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, on Tuesday reached a plea agreement with prosecutors investigating payments he made to women on behalf of Mr. Trump, a deal that does not include cooperation with federal authorities, two people familiar with the matter said.

Mr. Cohen is expected to plead guilty to multiple counts of bank and tax fraud charges and campaign finance violations. For months, prosecutors in New York have been scrutinizing him for those crimes and focusing on his role in helping to arrange financial deals to secure the silence of women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump.

The United States attorney’s office announced that there would be a “proceeding of interest” in a case against a defendant identified only as John Doe, language that almost always indicates a guilty plea. One person with knowledge of the matter said the proceeding would be the guilty plea by Mr. Cohen..."

Trump’s Former Fixer, Michael Cohen, Reaches a Plea Agreement Over Payments to Women - The New York Times

National Prison Strike Begins: Prisoners in 17 States Demand End to “Sla...

Monday, August 20, 2018

Voter Suppression in Georgia

Opinion | Nixon, Clinton and Trump - The New York Times





"Twenty years ago last Friday, President Bill Clinton testified before the independent counsel, Kenneth Starr, and a grand jury about his sexual relationship with the White House intern Monica Lewinsky.



That night, Clinton addressed the nation, in which he confessed:



I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong. It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible. But I told the grand jury today and I say to you now that at no time did I ask anyone to lie, to hide or destroy evidence or to take any other unlawful action. I know that my public comments and my silence about this matter gave a false impression. I misled people, including even my wife. I deeply regret that.



It was a clear admission, even if offered under duress and after the option to lie had vanished, and even if still splitting some hairs.



Months earlier, Clinton had bluntly said, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time. Never. These allegations are false, and I need to go back to work for the American people.”



Days after Clinton made his admission, Donald Trump gave an interview to Chris Matthews in which he said of Clinton:



I think his little speech after it was a disaster. It wasn’t the right tone, and I’m not sure he should have done it. And, I’m not even sure that he shouldn’t have just gone in and taken the Fifth Amendment, and said: “Look, I don’t get along with this man, Starr. He’s after me. He’s a Republican.” He’s this, he’s that, and you know, just taken the Fifth Amendment. It’s a terrible thing for a president to take the Fifth Amendment, but he probably should have done it.



Donald Trump made clear then his approach to dealing with these sorts of problems: Admit nothing, confess nothing, deny everything, attack the person pursuing you.



For me, it is clear that there was at least an attempt by members of the Trump team to conspire with Russians to influence the elections. The evidence of that is now public record. And, it is just as clear that Trump has attempted to obstruct justice by hampering the investigation and continues to do so.



Whether the special counsel, Robert Mueller, will deem those actions to meet the legal threshold of criminality is another story.



But, it seems to me that Trump is growing increasingly agitated over the very real possibility that more members of his campaign and possibly his family are open to liability and that he himself may be vulnerable to eventual impeachment.



As such, he is mirroring the actions of President Richard Nixon, who resigned before he could be impeached.



Almost 25 years to the day before Clinton addressed the nation with his confession, Nixon addressed the nation with a denial.



Nixon said:



I said on May 22 that I had no prior knowledge of the Watergate operation. In all the testimony, there is not the slightest evidence to the contrary. Not a single witness has testified that I had any knowledge of the planning for the Watergate break‐in. It is also true, as I said on May 22, that I took no part in, and was not aware of, any subsequent efforts to cover up the illegal acts associated with the Watergate break‐in.



We now know, of course, that that was a lie.



But a full reading of Nixon’s statements sound mild compared to the viciousness with which Trump is attacking the investigation looking into illegality, the press reporting on it and those providing information for it.



Even in Nixon’s false statement, one reads at least a rhetorical respect for American institutions and history, even if that respect did not exist in fact or in full.



Trump has none of that.



I believe he has absolutely no plans to personally cooperate with the investigation by sitting for an interview. He may have once believed that he could bluff his way through such an experience, but now his hostility and fear about the inquiry’s conclusion has clipped his courage.



And, I don’t believe Trump is going to confess as Clinton did, or resign as Nixon did, regardless of what Mueller finds, whom he prosecutes or what he says in a report.



Trump lies about almost everything, but one thing that he says is true: He is a fighter. But he’s not a fighter because he is fearsome or brave. Valor has no relationship to the man. Trump fights for vanity.



One of Trump’s greatest fears and greatest insecurities is being embarrassed and being exposed. Trump is petrified that someone will remove the mask he has been crafting for seven decades, or of having it be revealed that that mask is made of paper rather than steel."



Opinion | Nixon, Clinton and Trump - The New York Times