On all fronts, Trump, through his lawyers, is fighting congressional subpoenas issued to him, his businesses, his sons, etc. in the courts. Trump and his allies are working to block more than 20 separate investigations into his actions as president, his personal finances and his administration’s policies, according to a Washington Post analysis. The most important case of all is, ironically, one … Read More
Document Dump: We Have Questions
Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have sent a letter to Republican committee Chair Lindsey Graham to insist on the importance of bringing Robert Mueller before their committee. To demonstrate the importance, the Democratic senators have included a list of 60 questions that can only be answered by the special counsel’s appearance. The letter—which includes the signatures of 2020 presidential candidates … Read More
Barr’s Most Absurd Defenses Of Trump’s Obstructive Conduct
By now, it’s pretty clear that Attorney General Bill Barr thinks there was nothing unusual — let alone potentially criminal — about President Trump’s intervention in the federal Russia investigation. Not the repeated pushes to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, not the public fuming about being the innocent victim of a federal “witch hunt,” not the tweeted threats to the … Read More
Attorney General Barr Testifies Before Senate Judiciary
Despite what he testified to earlier, we learned last night that AG Barr was fully aware that Mueller did not care for Barr’s summary of the Mueller Report. In fact, Mueller sent Barr a letter explicitly complaining about Barr’s characterization of the investigation’s conclusions. The letter, dated March 27, was the second correspondence Mueller sent to Barr after the attorney … Read More
Trump Stonewalling Is A Constitutional Crisis In Itself
Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and Trump’s children with wife No. 1 have combined to sue Deutsche Bank and Capital One in an effort to force them to ignore a congressional subpoena. Among other things, the suit alleges that the subpoenas constitute “harassment” and makes the odd claim that the House Intelligence Committee failed to “negotiate” with Trump over the scope of the order. … Read More
Trump Is Challenging Democrats On Many Fronts
President Donald Trump, while portraying himself as the victim in a political war, is foiling an aggressive House Democratic majority’s investigations with historic fervor by refusing to comply with many subpoenas and other oversight requests. On one level, this is nothing new. Prior Congresses and White Houses have certainly found themselves at odds over how much information to disclose. But … Read More
Trump And His Businesses Go To Court To Block Oversight
What is he hiding? President Trump is seeking a court order to prevent his accounting firm from complying with what his lawyers say is an illegitimate use of congressional subpoena power by congressional Democrats.In a filing Monday morning, the president claims, “Democrats are singularly obsessed with finding something they can use to damage the President politically.” Last week, Rep. Elijah … Read More
To Impeach or Not?
Okay, we have the Muller Report, which — as everyone says — is a roadmap for Congress to start impeachment proceedings, or at least go forward with investigations leading to impeachment proceedings. Steny Hoyer, the number-two Democrat in the House, even after the long-awaited Mueller report, is not on board. “Based on what we have seen to date, going forward … Read More
Trump Tells His Accountants To Disobey The Law
The ongoing fight for Trump’s tax returns. Here’s where we are now: President Donald Trump’s attorneys are warning of potential legal action if an accounting firm turns over a decade of the president’s financial records to the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Trump attorneys William S. Consovoy and Stefan Passantino are urging Mazars USA not to comply with a subpoena that Oversight … Read More
You May Think That’s OK…
Rep. Adam Schiff (D- CA) responded to members of the House after some Republican congressmen called for Rep. Schiff to resign as chairman of the House Intelligence committee.
Suing Fictional Cows And Other Twitter Embarrassments
This is funny, but also disturbing in the sense that some are actually taking it seriously. Yesterday, Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) sued a fictional cow for $250 million. In addition to the anonymous Twitter account “Devin Nunes’ Cow,” Nunes is suingthe “Devin Nunes’ Mom” Twitter account, a political operative named Liz Mair, and Twitter itself. Nunes, a close ally of President Trump, … Read More
Trump To Speak Live From The Oval Office To Sign His First Veto
Donald Trump didn’t just lose any old Senate vote on Thursday. He didn’t even just lose a vote on his signature issue. When 12 Republicans voted to block Trump’s national emergency declaration, they did so despite Trump’s personal lobbying and insistence that the vote was about Donald Trump. The Washington Post reports that, in calls to Republican senators, “the president spoke of the battle almost … Read More
Senate Passes Not-An-Emergency Resolution, Setting Up Trump’s Veto
The Senate delivered a high-profile rebuke to President Donald Trump over his signature agenda issue Thursday when 12 Republicans joined Democrats to overturn the President’s national emergency border declaration. The vote was 59-41, an overwhelming vote against the President’s executive action.Lawmakers don’t have enough votes, however, to override a certain veto from the President, but passage of the resolution in … Read More
The Senate Will Join The House In Blocking Trump’s Border Emergency Declaration
Roll Call reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said senators were still looking into whether the joint resolution to stop President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration can be amended. But, the Kentucky Republican also said he anticipated the Senate would pass the measure disapproving of the border security emergency. “I was one of those hoping the president would not take the … Read More
Cohen Hearing Summed Up
Cohen’s testimony includes accusations — relating to Trump’s racism, his lack of concern for the public weal and his attempts to conceal his academic record — that, if true, are simply embarrassing. But, as noted by Max Bergmann of the Moscow Project at the Center for American Progress, the president’s former lawyer also implicated him in at least four felonies: 1. Conspiracy to defraud … Read More