https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/439 ... s-and-barr
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Friday ripped Attorney General William Barr for declaring President Trump did not obstruct justice with regards to investigations into possible Russian collusion in 2016.
“Mueller passed the obstruction question to the Congress and Barr intercepted the pass and tried to take it over himself,” King said in an appearance on CNN’s “New Day.”
https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... unanswered
More than 900 redactions in special counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report left unanswered major questions about President Trump’s knowledge of Russian-led efforts to steal and disseminate Democratic documents in the 2016 presidential campaign.
They also indicate that federal investigators and prosecutors still have a way to go before closing the book on Russia’s efforts to help Trump defeat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the last election.
While Mueller has completed his investigation, he has transferred two mystery cases to other divisions of the Department of Justice and referred 14 matters of evidence of potential criminal wrongdoing — of which 12 have been kept secret — to other law enforcement authorities.
https://www.euronews.com/2019/04/19/tru ... -t-n996296
resident Donald Trump on Friday ripped special counsel Robert Mueller's "crazy" report, saying that it contained statements about him that "are total bullshit."
"Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue. Watch out for people that take so-called 'notes,' when the notes never existed until needed," Trump wrote.
..."This was an Illegally Started Hoax that never should have happened," Trump wrote.
The comments were his harshest so far since the redacted report was released Thursday by Attorney General William Barr.
Only yesterday, Dear Leader and his Trumpists were celebrating the report as total vindication. And Sarah Sanders called it a good day for Trump because of the release of the report. Certainly didn't last long.
https://www.euronews.com/2019/04/19/mue ... xt-n996316
There's one all-consuming question for the Democratic Party now that the Mueller report has been released: What now?
The ball is in Congress's court. ...On the one hand: Democratic 2020 candidates have been reflecting the reality on the ground ...
But congressional leaders also face the opposite question: Without trying to hold the president accountable, what might they be mainstreaming for the future? If they let this go, do they normalize this type of presidential behavior in the future? If they don't pursue impeachment, what message are they sending about what a president can get away with? It's a political dilemma, but also an ethical one...
...So much of the commentary around the Mueller report has revolved around the parsing of legal arguments about collusion and obstruction.
But beyond the legal weeds, this glaring picture remains: Trump and key members of his team showed themselves in this report to be unbothered by foreign interference in U.S. elections, unconcerned about following the letter or the spirit of the laws about the conduct of a campaign, and unencumbered by the obligation to tell the truth to the American people.
And we've already been so desensitized to it, because so much of the evidence Mueller provided was either reported contemporaneously or simply uttered in public...
...At least 11. That's the number of people in Trump's orbit who the Mueller report shows did NOT go along with a potentially problematic request from the president...
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4396 ... n-to-whats
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said Friday he's "begging the American people to pay attention to what's going on" the day after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. “I think we are in a very difficult time in this country’s history and I’m begging the American people to pay attention to what’s going on," the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Cummings is leading that panel's investigations into President Trump.
"And I often say that people are going to look back at this time 200 years from now and ask the question, ‘What did you do to reverse this?’” he said.
New sanctions by the Trump administration on Latin American countries that are socialist (some of it has already been reported; some hasn't.) Needless to say, there seems to be quite the focus on socialism rather than corruption per se...
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/ ... 24288.html
The administration of United States President Donald Trump intensified its crackdown on Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela on Wednesday, rolling back Obama administration policy and announcing new restrictions and sanctions against the three countries, rolling back Obama administration policy and announcing new restrictions and sanctions against the three countries, whose leaders were dubbed the "three stooges of socialism" by US National Security Advisor John Bolton. "The troika of tyranny - Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua - is beginning to crumble," Bolton said in a hard-hitting speech near Miami, Florida on the 58th anniversary of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, in which the US attempted to overthrow the government of Cuba.
Bolton announced a new cap on the amount of money that families in the US can send their relatives in Cuba...
btw, I found this analysis/ editorial interesting:
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opini ... 29957.html
Guaido's military mutiny miscalculation
The Venezuelan armed forces are not ready to rebel against Maduro and here is why.
One month on from Juan Guaido's decision to declare himself acting president of Venezuela in parallel to President Nicolas Maduro, the country remains in a strange and dangerous limbo. ...
...despite his offer of an amnesty for military personnel transferring their allegiance to his presidency, only a handful of Venezuela's thousands of generals have made the switch. Even a major standoff over allowing US aid into the country on February 23 saw only a small number of defections by low-ranking officials....
The backdrop to any discussion of the Venezuelan military must be its politicisation long before and during the presidency of Hugo Chavez. .. ....In office, Chavez developed [the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement] into a broader civil-military alliance that emphasised social responsibility, participation in national development, and anti-imperialism. Today these three pillars of the civil-military alliance play contradictory roles in the ongoing crisis...
....while for Latin American independence hero Simon Bolivar the oppressor was Spain, by the end of the 20th century the United States had come to occupy this role.This in itself makes the US sponsorship of Guaido's bid to unseat Maduro extremely hard to swallow for the military. More fuel was added to the fire by National Security Adviser John Bolton admitting that Venezuelan oil is a motivating factor for US involvement and by Trump assigning the Venezuela portfolio to Elliott Abrams, best known for his role in covering up gruesome atrocities and illegally channeling funds to murderous paramilitary armies in Central America in the 1980s.
Interesting developments regarding US sanctions on Iran, US allies and aid for Iran's flooding disaster:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/ ... 58215.html
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have donated 95 tonnes of aid to their flood-hit regional rival Iran, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
...Torrential rainfall since March 19 in the Islamic republic of Iran has killed at least 76 people. The downpours have left large swaths of the country submerged by floodwater and caused damage estimated to total about $2.5bn so far.
Tehran has complained that United States sanctions have obstructed relief efforts. ...banking sanctions ...make it impossible to receive financial donations from outside the country.
...In the midst of the spat, Iran has received aid from neighbouring countries such as Pakistan and Kuwait, as well as from Germany, France and Japan. ...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/clim ... ation.html
The Interior Department’s internal watchdog has opened an investigation into ethics complaints against the agency’s newly installed secretary, David Bernhardt.
Mr. Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for the oil and agribusiness industries, was confirmed by the Senate last week to head the agency,...He has played a central role in writing policies designed to advance President Trump’s policy of “energy dominance” and expanding fossil fuel exploration.
... Among the chief complaints have been allegations, revealed by three separate New York Times investigations, that Mr. Bernhardt used his position to advance a policy pushed by his former lobbying client; that he continued working as a lobbyist after filing legal paperwork declaring that he had ceased lobbying; and that he intervened to block the release of a scientific report showing the harmful effects of a chemical pesticide on certain endangered species...
EDIT:
It seems the self-invited, Trump-inspired, armed right wing citizen's group (AKA "militia") has been detaining people at the border:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/us/n ... litia.html
Militia in New Mexico Detains Asylum Seekers at Gunpoint
AA right-wing militia group operating in southern New Mexico has begun stopping groups of migrant families and detaining them at gunpoint before handing them over to Border Patrol agent....
The American Civil Liberties Union denounced the militia’s actions in a letter on Thursday that asked New Mexico’s governor and attorney general to investigate the group. The A.C.L.U. said the militia had no legal authority under New Mexico or federal law to detain or arrest migrants in the United States.
...“We’re just here to support the Border Patrol and show the public the reality of the border,” said Mr. Benvie [spokesperson for the militia group] ... He said the organization plans to remain on the border until the extended wall proposed by President Trump is built or Congress changes immigration laws to make it harder for migrants to request asylum....“Border Patrol has never asked us to stand down.”
The governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham, said in a statement that it was “completely unacceptable” that migrant families “might be menaced or threatened in any way, shape or form when they arrive at our border.” “It should go without saying that regular citizens have no authority to arrest or detain anyone,” she added.
The Guardian's article - the first one I read - is not as balanced, but suggests that the vigilantes misrepresented themselves as Border Patrol in the video:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... a-detained
Several videos taken at the border in New Mexico this week appeared to show men belonging to a group that calls itself the United Constitutional Patriots approaching migrant families and children, ordering them to sit down, calling federal agents on them, and at one point potentially misrepresenting themselves by saying “border patrol” as they approached.
Maybe we'll get lucky and these clowns will be charged. I, for one, don't want a bunch of right wing vigilantes with guns running around "enforcing" the law.
The best part is that the group's spokesperson claims “We can't make them stay if they don't want to.” Sure, a bunch of fanatical guys with guns surrounds you and tells you to sit on the ground, and you're going to say "Oh, you can't really arrest me. I think I'll just stroll off and risk being shot." Not even an American would do that. And many of these people are from countries where armed gangs run around shooting people they don't like.
And it gets even better:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-lov ... s-to-trump
QAnon-Loving Border Militia Is Run by Ex-Con Who Says He Talks to Trump
Larry Mitchell Hopkins runs an armed civilian group that peddles far-right conspiracies and claims to work with Border Patrol. He says Trump’s asked him about ‘Muslim immigration.’
Edit:
Does Trump know which side we're on?
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -combating
The White House said Friday that President Trump spoke earlier this week with a Libyan general whose forces are fighting the U.S.-backed unity government in the country's capital of Tripoli.
...“President Donald J. Trump spoke on April 15, 2019, with Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar to discuss ongoing counterterrorism efforts and the need to achieve peace and stability in Libya," the White House said in a statement Friday. "The President recognized Field Marshal Haftar’s significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya’s oil resources, and the two discussed a shared vision for Libya’s transition to a stable, democratic political system."
...Though Haftar is not popular in the western part of Libya due to past connections with Gadhafi, he is said to have the backing of regional powers such as Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, according to the BBC.
This also seems strange:
The U.S. mission to the United Nations said Thursday it could not support a resolution before the Security Council calling for a ceasefire, though the mission did not detail its reasons, according to reports.
It might be noteworthy that this news came out on Friday afternoon, the time to bury stuff (especially before a holiday weekend) though Trump spoke to Haftar on Monday.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... to-mueller
President Trump is venting frustration with associates who cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation after their notes and first-hand observations were used to paint a negative and damaging picture of his presidency.
...Trump on Thursday traveled to his Mar-a-Lago estate with White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Steven Groves, a White House spokesman on legal matters, in addition to his usual cadre of aides including acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney...
Former White House counsel Don McGahn could be a prime target for Trump...McGahn characterized Trump’s orders to oust Mueller as “crazy shit” ...
Rob Porter, the former White House staff secretary, may also come into Trump’s crosshairs because he testified that he ignored the president’s instructions to see if then-No. 3 Justice Department official Rachel Brand could take over the Russia probe.
Former White House deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn told investigators he refused to pressure then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to take control of the investigation.
Notes from Sessions’s chief of staff Jody Hunt’s showed Trump lamented that he was “f---ed” because of Mueller’s hiring.
Fortunately for them, the targets mostly seem to be "former" aides. btw, Trump played golf with Rush Limbaugh and a couple of other buddies today. It must be nice to be the president and have so little to do.