https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... associates
President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani reportedly planned to fly to Vienna, Austria, a day after his now-arrested associates attempted to travel to the city.
The Atlantic reported that it was unclear why Giuliani was traveling to Vienna, but that he had said he couldn't meet with one of the magazine's reporters on Thursday evening due to his expected travel.
Multiple news outlets reported that the Giuliani associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were carrying one-way tickets to Vienna when they were arrested at Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Wednesday night...
I strongly suspect Vienna wasn't their final destination.
Original story from The Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... na/599833/
Interesting coincidence here:
Last night, when Rudy Giuliani told me he couldn’t get together for an interview, his reason made sense: As with many nights of late, he was due to appear on Hannity. When I suggested this evening instead, his response was a bit more curious. We would have to aim for lunch, Giuliani told me, because he was planning to fly to Vienna, Austria, at night. He didn’t offer any details beyond that.
Giuliani called me at 6:22 p.m. last night—around the same time that two of his associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested at Dulles Airport while waiting to board an international flight with one-way tickets...
But Giuliani, when confirming today that Parnas and Fruman were heading to Vienna on matters “related to their business,” told the Journal that he himself only had plans to meet with them when they returned to Washington. By this logic, Giuliani was also planning to fly to Vienna within roughly 24 hours of his business associates, but do no business with them while all three were there.
EDIT:
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/1 ... rty-044698
Donald Trump tried to distance himself from the latest scandal that threatens his presidency on Thursday by saying he didn’t know either of the foreign-born Rudy Giuliani associates that his own Justice Department had just indicted for alleged campaign finance violations.
But that’s not what one of the men said three years ago — while attending Trump’s invite-only 2016 election night party in New York
In fact, Lev Parnas described himself to a foreign correspondent at the cash-bar event in midtown Manhattan as a friend of the president-elect who didn’t live far from his South Florida winter home...
...Trump’s election night event...[was] relatively cozy and where die-hard supporters barely outnumbered the throngs of media on hand...
Parnas posted a photo of himself with Trump at the White House on May 1, 2018, with a caption describing an “incredible dinner and even better conversation,” according to a screenshot captured by The Campaign Legal Center. Another picture Parnas posted from May 21, 2018, shows him with Fruman and Donald Trump Jr. in Beverly Hills, with the caption “Power Breakfast!!!”
Trump dismissed the photos “because I have a picture with everybody.”
The White House hasn’t explained why Parnas and Fruman were meeting with the president; a spokesman referred questions about the event to the Trump campaign, and Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh did not immediately respond to a request for comment...
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... d-giuliani
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was dismissed after she insisted that Rudy Giuliani's requests for investigations go through official channels, The Associated Press reported Thursday, citing a former diplomat who spoke with Yovanovitch....
She's testifying today. Should be interesting.
EDIT to add:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ave-played
The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine abruptly recalled from her post by President Trump earlier this year told Congress that she suspects Rudy Giuliani pushed for her ouster on behalf of two of his associates who were arrested this week for an alleged foreign influence scheme....
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ps-ukraine
At least four national security officials raised concerns to a White House lawyer over the Trump administration's attempts to pressure Ukraine before and immediately following President Trump's call with Ukraine's president, The Washington Post reported Thursday. ...
https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... ing-report
A senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has resigned his position as the State Department faces lowering morale amid the Ukraine scandal, according to a new report...
EDIT (I missed this one earlier):
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald ... d-n1064846
Trump's former Russia aide set to give revealing testimony on Giuliani, Sondland
Fiona Hill’s appearance next week before Congress has stoked fear among people close to the president.
Fiona Hill, who was until recently President Donald Trump’s top aide on Russia and Europe, plans to tell Congress that Rudy Giuliani and E.U. ambassador Gordon Sondland circumvented the National Security Council and the normal White House process to pursue a shadow policy on Ukraine, a person familiar with her expected testimony told NBC News...
Another interesting connection:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -s-firtash
Dmitry Firtash, a wealthy Ukrainian and onetime business partner of Paul Manafort who is facing extradition to the U.S. on corruption charges, has hired a legal team with close ties to President Donald Trump.
The lawyers retained by Firtash are Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova, according to representatives for Firtash and for the attorneys...
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4652 ... iny-report
Attorney General William Barr met privately Wednesday night with Rupert Murdoch, the media giant and known confidant of President Trump, at Murdoch's home in New York, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
It is unclear what the two discussed, as aides of both men declined to speak with the Times...
EDIT: Shepard Smith, who has criticized Trump on Fox news, has suddenly and unexpectedly "stepped down," clearly with no replacement planned and with visibly shocked colleagues:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news ... m-fox-news
Is this why Barr was meeting with Murdoch? Are Judge Napolitano and others who have dared to criticize Trump next? Trump has been ranting against Fox news a lot lately, especially when one of their own polls showed high support for the impeachment inquiry. We'll have to see what happens on Fox now but I have my suspicions their criticism of Trump is at an end. If it turns out that Barr, who is a government official, interfered with the news media to quash anything not supportive of Trump, his corruption will be out in plain sight.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... f-his-exit
President Trump took a shot at top Fox News anchor Shepard Smith's "terrible ratings" before wishing the longtime host "well" following news of his exit on Friday afternoon.
“I don’t know. Is he leaving? That’s a shame," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before departing for a rally in Louisiana. “Is he leaving because of bad ratings?” Trump continued. "If he’s leaving, I assume he’s leaving because he had bad ratings.” “He had the worst ratings at Fox," Trump said, before adding, “I wish Shepherd Smith well.”
...Trump, as recently as Thursday, sent a tweet slamming Smith and other network personalities who are perceived to be less friendly to the president. ...
...Court Justice & I turned him down (he’s been terrible ever since), Shep Smith, @donnabrazile (who gave Crooked Hillary the debate questions & got fired from @CNN), & others, @FoxNews doesn’t deliver for US anymore. It is so different than it used to be. Oh well, I’m President!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 10, 2019
Smith had regularly issued fact-checks for the president's comments while also criticizing him on multiple occasions...
Smith's ratings, btw, were apparently excellent.
Follow-ups to two previously reported stories:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -expand-to
The Department of Education maintained that the joint Duke University-University of North Carolina program needs to "expand" to include more religions beyond Islam to fulfill federal grant funding requirements.
The department stood its ground that the consortium needs to diversify its content to meet the requirements of the Title VI federal funding, according to a letter it sent to the program from Assistant Secretary Robert King on Wednesday...
Thus article is badly written (I quoted it from the start) and assumes you already know this is a Middle East and Islamic Studies program.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... ervice-for
Commerce Department officials were responsible for drafting a statement that rebuked National Weather Service staff after they sent a tweet countering President Trump’s [false] statements about Hurricane Dorian, according to a letter sent by the House Science committee Thursday....
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/ ... 45731.html
Hundreds of former US Environmental Protection Agency employees on Thursday urged a congressional probe into whether the agency's feud with California represented retaliation for the state's failure to support President Donald Trump's political agenda...
Spearheaded by the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project, the letter noted that six states have had more large pollution sources in noncompliance with federal environmental laws over the last three years than California: Ohio, New York, Iowa, Missouri, Texas and Indiana. The letter cited agency records. ...
So much for Trump's claim that he's getting out of foreign wars and "bringing the troops home" :
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/ ... 52019.html
The Pentagon said on Friday it has approved the deployment of 3,000 additional US troops and military hardware to Saudi Arabia, boosting the country's defences after attacks on its oil installations.
...Esper later told reporters that the deployments were in response "to continued threats in the region" and came after a conversation with MBS about "efforts to protect from further Iranian aggression". MBS had requested additional support, Esper said.
Since May, the US has increased the number of its forces by about 14,000 in the Central Command area covering the Middle East, the defence department said...
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/ ... 01991.html
An Iranian oil tanker in the Red Sea was hit by two suspected rockets on Friday off the coast of Saudi Arabia, raising fears of further escalation in the already-volatile Gulf region. The National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) said in a statement the hull of the ship sustained two separate explosions about 100km (60 miles) off the Saudi port city of Jeddah. It said the blasts - one at 5am local time (02:00 GMT) and the other at 5:30am (02:30 GMT) - were "probably caused by missile strikes". Oil prices spiked 2 percent on the news...
Lieutenant Pete Pagano, a spokesman for the US Navy's 5th Fleet in the Middle East, said authorities were "aware of reports of this incident" but he declined to comment further....
Al Jazeera's Zein Basravi, reporting from Tehran, said officials at the national oil company said the fire was put out.... "This is the third time in the past six months that an Iranian tanker has been incapacitated in these waters," he noted...
"This latest incident - if confirmed to be an act of aggression - is highly likely to be part of the wider narrative of deteriorating relations between Saudi and the US and Iran," private maritime security firm Dryad Maritime warned. "It is likely that the region, have being stable for the last month, will face another period of increasing maritime threats, as the Iranian and Saudi geopolitical stand-off continues."...
Unlike the earlier attacks on tankers, which were blamed on Iran by the US, this one was clearly caused by someone looking to do some real damage, started a fire, and did leak oil, though that seems to have been stopped now. It seems clear that there are interests in the Middle East looking to escalate tensions.