Or, as Trump would put it… Yup. And except for the word “in-depth”, I guess what he tweets is true. (Well, also, the committee only worked six months out of the “14 month long” investigation) While special counsel Robert Mueller’s work may seem to be reaching a boiling point, the House Intelligence Committee as thrown in the towel, as far … Read More
Stormy Daniels Offers to Return Payment to End Deal for Her Silence
This is cute and clever. Stormy Daniels, the porn star who says she had an affair with President Trump, offered to return $130,000 she received from Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer in 2016 for agreeing not to discuss the alleged relationship. In exchange, the actress (aka Stephanie Clifford) seeks an end to her deal to keep quiet about what she says was … Read More
Trump’s Lawyer Used Trump.Org Emails To Negotiate Payment To Porn Star
NBC: President Donald Trump’s personal attorney used his Trump Organization email while arranging to transfer money into an account at a Manhattan bank before he wired $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence. The lawyer, Michael Cohen, also regularly used the same email account during 2016 negotiations with the actress — whose legal name is Stephanie … Read More
Trump Talks To Witnesses Who Talked To Mueller
For a man unconcerned about Russia collusion, Trump seems very concerned. This reminds me of Nixon, who just COULD NOT keep Watergate off his mind and meddled in it to the point that he became part of it. New York Times tells us: The special counsel in the Russia investigation has learned of two conversations in recent months in which … Read More
A New Russia Collusion Angle: George Nader
Last night the New York Times reported that George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman who advises Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, is cooperating with the Mueller investigation and gave testimony last week to a grand jury. The reason why this is significant is that Nader was actually present at two meetings that could be key in proving that … Read More
Mueller’s Legal Theory
I am uploading this essay by Ben Wittes and Emma Kohse on where Mueller is going with his latest indictment. Briefly, he has taken the abstract word “collusion” — a word Trump and others use, but is legally meaningless to Mueller and other legal eagles — and pinned several statutes to it, most notably 18 U.S.C. §371, the conspiracy statute. It applies … Read More
The Porn Star Sues The President
Wow. The first thing that jumps out at me is this: if you’re going to contest a nondisclosure agreement in court, you should be filing with the court under seal so the NDA isn’t breached unless/until the plaintiff—the person subject to the NDA—prevails in court. Avenatti (Stormy Daniel’s lawyer) didn’t do this and I am sure it was intentional. Because … Read More
OK Then
I'm deleting a tweet from yesterday in which I joked about possible Trump nicknames for Sam Nunberg. He told Charlie Gasparino today that he'd been drinking and will seek treatment. Everyone should root for Sam's sobriety. This transcends politics and legal situations. Full stop. — David Martosko (@dmartosko) March 6, 2018
Sam Nunberg, Former Trump Aide, Becomes Unhinged On Live TV
This just happened and I didn’t see it, so I’m pulling it together. Apparently Katy Tur of MSNBC was talking to Sam Nunberg, former campaign adviser to Trump. Nunberg just got a subpoena from Mueller. Nunberg lost it. Here’s some video released by MSNBC: Watch: Ex-Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg says he’s refusing comply with Mueller subpoena: “I’m not going … Read More
WSJ Reporting Indicates Trump Campaign Violation
Remember how Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid $130,000 of his own money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of the campaign so her past affair with Trump wouldn’t come out? And how there was question about exactly how often Cohen had paid people off for Trump using his own money, whether this was a campaign contribution, and … Read More
Deep Dive On Christopher Steele
This New Yorker piece by Jane Mayer is a must-read: “Christopher Steele, the Man Behind the Trump Dossier.” It’s very long, so don’t expect anyone in the Fox News office to read it, digest it, and incorporate it in their punditry. But there are several things to note: 1. The article details how Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Charles Grassley … Read More
Forget About L’Affaire Russe; Let’s Talk About Good Old Fashioned Corruption
Matt Yglesious is right: The potential for serious corruption was always implicit in Trump’s presidential bid. We have had wealthy presidents before. But the Bushes, Kennedys, and Roosevelts were heirs to large, diversified fortunes consisting of stocks and bonds that could be placed into blind trusts in relatively straightforward ways. Barack Obama just owned index funds. Jimmy Carter sold his peanut … Read More
Trump’s Tariff Follies
Trump said yesterday he plans to impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum. However, he didn’t elaborate on the details, saying the formal announcement will come next week. In a tweet on Friday morning, the president said “trade wars are good and easy to win.” When a country (USA) is losing many billions of … Read More
Devin Nunes, GOP Head of House Intel Committee, Is Subject Of Leak Complaint By Senate Intel Committee
The Senate Intelligence Committee has concluded that Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee were behind the leak of private text messages between the Senate panel’s top Democrat and a Russian-connected lawyer, according to two congressional officials briefed on the matter. Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the committee’s Republican chairman, and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat, … Read More
The Wild West Of The West Wing
It is the first day of March 2018. I wrote a lot of posts yesterday, and I didn’t even it HALF of the things going on. The breaking news that would be major scandals in any other White House. It was insane. Here’s what happened JUST YESTERDAY: Hope Hicks — without question, the aide (family aside) with whom Trump is closest … Read More