‘Where is this guy?’: Daniels attorney taunts the rich asshole ‘fixer’ Michael Cohen for ducking press and hiding behind another lawyer
Attorney Michael Avenatti represents Stephanie Clifford, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels.
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The public trial being argued over former porn star Stormy Daniels escalated again on Saturday as her attorney ruthlessly taunted longtime some rich asshole legal fixer Michael Cohen.
On Thursday, attorney Michael Avenatti said he was eager to get into a street fight with the rich asshole and Cohen. Subsequently, Avenatti alleged threats of physical harm against Daniels.
Appearing on MSNBC’s AM Joy, mocked Cohen’s legal reputation.
“I want to go back to Mr. Cohen and some of the threats and tactics that he’s used in litigation,” Avenatti said. “That has no place in any case in the United States.
“I don’t care how big or how small, no attorney should ever conduct themselves in that manner,” he continued. “And if he conducts himself in that manner in this case, he’s going to get his ticket stamped, because he’s not dealing with some two-bit lawyer from down the street.”
“We’re going be as aggressive as we possibly can…but we’re not going to tolerate any nonsense with threats and bullying tactics —
they will go nowhere with me and my client,” Avenatti argued. “If they think that they will, they haven’t been paying attention the last few weeks.”
they will go nowhere with me and my client,” Avenatti argued. “If they think that they will, they haven’t been paying attention the last few weeks.”
Avenatti, who has been a fixture on cable news in recent weeks, dared Cohen to debate in public.
“Where is Michael Cohen?,” Avenatti asked. “I mean, this guy prides himself on being a fixer, he ends his tweets with #raydonovan.”
Ray Donovan is the title character in a Showtime, who is a “fixer” for a powerful law firm in Los Angeles.
“He actually refers to himself as the fictional character Ray Donovan, and yet for the last two weeks no one can get him on the phone, he refuses to go on any show, he refuses to answer a single question,” Avenatti teased. “Where is this guy?”
the rich asshole lawyer demands Rosenstein fire Mueller following Sessions’ ‘brilliant and courageous’ purge of McCabe
the rich asshole lawyer John Dowd (Photo: Emory University)
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President some rich asshole’s personal defense lawyer, John Dowd, told The Daily Beast on Saturday that he is praying for an end to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Dowd, confirming he was speaking on behalf of President the rich asshole, hoped that the controversial firing of Andrew McCabe was only the beginning. Without outright calling for Mueller to be fired, the president’s attorney clearly made his hopes known for “an end” to the investigation.
“I pray that Acting Attorney General Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt Dossier,” Dowd said.
Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein is in charge of the investigation after AG Jeff Sessions was required to recuse himself.
President the rich asshole also celebrated McCabe’s firing.
CNN is now reporting that Dowd has partially walked by his statement, claiming that he was not speaking for the rich asshole, but was only speaking in a personal capacity.
Speaking with MSNBC’s Joy Reid, Beast reporter Betsy Woodruff called the distinction between “firing” and shutting down the investigation “hairsplitting” based on her conversation with Dowd.
the rich asshole campaign data operation exploited 50 million Facebook accounts by catering to user’s ‘inner demons’: whistleblower
Steve Bannon and some rich asshole (Composite / RawStory)
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A whistleblower is claiming that the exploitation of Facebook accounts by some rich asshole’s campaign data firm, Cambridge Analytics, is 185 times larger than the company revealed on Friday night.
the rich asshole strategist Steve Bannon was a vice president at Cambridge Analytica during the time in question, a company partially owned by billionaire Robert Mercer.
The Observer of London Sunday newspaper, the sister paper of The Guardian, sought comment for a story on the scandal four days before Facebook’s suspension of Cambridge Analytics. The story involved allegations from whistleblower Christopher Wylie.
“We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles. And built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons,” Wylie explained. “That was the basis that the entire company was built on.”
The Observer viewed “a dossier of evidence” showing that Facebook “had found out that information had been harvested on an unprecedented scale” yet failed to alert users.
The British newspaper partnered with The New York Times in reporting on the whistleblower’s allegations.
The scale of the data breach is staggering. Facebook’s Friday statement suggested approximately 270,000 accounts were impacted while the Observer is now reporting that 50,000,000 accounts could have been compromised. The Times reported the 50 million number was confirmed in a company email.
The timeline may also shed light on the how Facebook was exploited during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“The evidence he supplied to authorities in the UK and US includes a letter from Facebook’s own lawyers sent to him in August 2016, asking him to destroy any data he held that had been collected,” the Observer explained. “That legal letter was sent several months after the Guardian first reported the breach and days before it was officially announced that Bannon was taking over as campaign manager for the rich asshole and bringing Cambridge Analytica with him.”
“Rules don’t matter for them,” the whistleblower told The New York Times. “For them, this is a war, and it’s all fair.”
“They want to fight a culture war in America,” he continued. “Cambridge Analytica was supposed to be the arsenal of weapons to fight that culture war.”
Former admiral joins ex-Army General McCaffrey accusing the rich asshole of being under Putin’s thumb
Vladimir Putin shaking hands with some rich asshole - MSNBC screengrab
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Another former top military leader in America publicly slammed President some rich asshole for scapegoating former FBI Deputy Dir. Andrew McCabe in defense of Vladimir Putin.
In a Saturday appearance on MSNBC, anchor Alex Witt referenced a blistering tweet from retired United States Army General Barry McCaffrey.
“Reluctantly I have concluded that President the rich asshole is a serious threat to US national security,” General McCaffrey charged. “He is refusing to protect vital US interests from active Russian attacks.”
“It is apparent that he is for some unknown reason under the sway of Mr Putin,” he added.
The MSNBC host asked retired United States Navy Admiral Games Stavridis about McCaffrey’s comments.
“What are your thoughts on this?,” Witt asked.
“I know the general well,” the retired admiral noted. “I have a lot of regard for his opinions, he does not state them loosely.”
“In terms of the current situation with Russia, our president needs to understand that Vladimir Putin is no friend to the United States, that Russia is actively seeking to undermine our nation not only domestically but our foreign policy as well,” Admiral Stravidis explained. “I agree with Gen. McCaffrey that our president does not spend enough time focused on the threat that is emanating from Russia today.”
Watch:
Billy Bush wishes he had ‘changed the topic’ with the rich asshole in 'Access Hollywood' tape
BY JOSH DELK - 03/17/18 12:24 PM EDT
Former "Access Hollywood" host Billy Bush says that in hindsight he would have handled his 2005 interview with President the rich asshole differently.
"I probably would have just changed the topic," Bush said when asked on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher."
Bush's lewd conversation with the rich asshole, which included the former real estate mogul and reality TV star boasting about grabbing women without their consent, sparked broad criticism when a recording of the conversation surfaced weeks before the 2016 election.
Bush, who is a cousin of former President George W. Bush, was serving as a host on NBC's "Today" show when the tape emerged. He left NBC amid public backlash over the tape, an incident he said carried "a little irony" given the rich asshole's later success in the polls that year.
"You sort of meet them where they are, or you can interrupt them," he said of his former job as a celebrity news reporter.
"You know how volatile he is," Bush told Maher, suggesting that losing a "cash cow" like the rich asshole by embarrassing him in the conversation could have wrecked his career as well.
the rich asshole later apologized for the conversation that was seized on by Democrats in the election, dismissing it as "locker room talk."
Bush has said he's making the best of his time away from the media, telling People Magazine in January that he's "had some growing up to do anyway in life."
‘Take your place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history’: Ex-CIA director Brennan rips the rich asshole over McCabe firing
CIA director John Brennan, pictured in March, gave a staunch defense of the framework nuclear deal with Iran, calling some criticism of the accord "disingenuous" while expressing surprise at Tehran's concessions (AFP Photo/Don Emmert)
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Former CIA director John Brennan blasted President some rich asshole for celebrating the firing of former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe late last night in a tweet, with a tweet of his own calling the president a “disgrace” to his office.
“When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America…America will triumph over you,” Brenna tweeted early Saturday morning.
The former intelligence official was responding to a late night tweet where the rich asshole wrote: “Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI – A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!”
You can see both tweets below:
When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America...America will triumph over you. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America...America will triumph over you. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
5 claims McCabe made after being fired
BY ALICIA COHN - 03/17/18 10:51 AM EDT
Andrew McCabe, the former No. 2 official at the FBI, made a series of comments to the press following his ouster on Friday night in which he commented on claims made about his performance and duties at the FBI.
Here are five of McCabe’s most remarkable claims:
Firing an attempt to undermine Mueller probe
McCabe said that during the time he spent as acting director at the FBI, after President the rich asshole fired former Director James Comey, he pushed for Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel to take over the investigation into Russia's election interference.
“I didn’t want anyone to be able to just walk away from the work that we had done,” he told Politico.
But the former deputy director says that Mueller’s ongoing investigation is being targeted by President the rich asshole and that his own firing is further evidence that the administration is seeking to undermine it.
“This is part of an effort to discredit me as a witness,” McCabe told The New York Times.
McCabe told ABC News he “witnessed significant events” during his time at the FBI “so a concentrated effort to consistently undermine my credibility and my reputation makes perfect sense if you are trying to undermine the efforts of the special counsel and discredit the entire FBI.”
Denies leaking to media
One of the accusations against McCabe is that he “made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media,” according to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. That charge comes from an internal FBI investigation that Sessions cited in firing McCabe on Friday night.
McCabe said in a statement that he had the authority to share information with the media.
“It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter,” he said. “It was the type of exchange with the media that the deputy director oversees several times per week. In fact, it was the same type of work that I continued to do under Director Wray, at his request.”
He told ABC, “the fact is this is not a leak.”
The inspector general report, which has not yet been released, reportedly found that, in 2016, McCabe allowed FBI officials to speak with The Wall Street Journal about how the agency handled the probe into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of State.
McCabe told ABC that he made the decision to supply information to reporters in order to counter a narrative that the FBI was not pursuing the Clinton investigation aggressively.
In order to get the reporter "off [the] narrative," McCabe authorized the release of “the content of a conversation that I had had with [a senior official] from the Department of Justice” about the investigation.
Neither Comey nor current FBI Director Christopher Wray has weighed in on these claims, but Comey has been supportive of McCabe, saying after news emerged in January that McCabe would step down that he had “served with distinction.”
Accuses Republicans of misquoting testimony
Accuses Republicans of misquoting testimony
What McCabe did or did not say during a closed-door congressional hearing has been a key source of controversy between Republicans and Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee — and now McCabe is weighing in.
McCabe sided with the Democrats’ version of his testimony, which was recounted in a memo that House Intelligence Democrats released in February to counter one released by Republicans on the panel a few weeks prior.
Republicans insisted that McCabe testified to the committee that unverified material supplied by the so-called Steele dossier was integral to the FBI securing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant against former the rich asshole campaign adviser Carter Page, arguing that helped prompt the ongoing federal probe into Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 election.
Democrats said McCabe did not claim the FISA application depended on the dossier, which McCabe now corroborates.
"We started the investigations without the dossier. We were proceeding with the investigations before we ever received that information," McCabe told CNN. "Was the dossier material important to the package? Of course, it was. As was every fact included in that package. Was it the majority of what was in the package? Absolutely not."
McCabe’s comments could be key to the Democrats’ ongoing attempt to shore up the FBI’s Russia probe.
Says the rich asshole asked whom he voted for, called wife a ‘loser’
McCabe said the president did ask him whether he voted for the rich asshole in 2016, contradicting the rich asshole's previous denials of past news reports.
McCabe, who told ABC he “voted for every Republican candidate for president in every election” previously, said he did not vote in 2016.
But he said his decision not to vote was not motivated by the rich asshole's candidacy or by his wife running as a Democrat in Virginia.
McCabe’s wife, Jill McCabe, received political donations from then-Virginia governor and Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe (D) during her bid for state office in 2015, which has been an ongoing source of conflict between McCabe and the rich asshole.
"In May, when Director Comey was fired and I had my own interactions with the president, he brought up my wife every time I ever spoke to him," McCabe told CNN. He recounted four occasions in which he said the rich asshole called his wife’s campaign a “mistake” or "problem" and called his wife a "loser.”
The alleged “loser” comment was previously reported by NBC News and denied as “pure fiction” by the White House.
"Of course, I disagreed with [the rich asshole],” McCabe told CNN. “I don't see my wife's decision to try to enter public life to help her community [have] greater access to health care as a mistake or a problem."
the rich asshole in January denied asking McCabe whom he had voted for, although he also said he didn’t consider such a question “a big deal.”
McCabe has said his wife’s unsuccessful campaign happened well before he took charge of the FBI’s investigation into Clinton. However, he did eventually recuse himself from the investigation days before the presidential election.
Argues the rich asshole is to blame
McCabe went after the rich asshole explicitly in the statement he released following his firing, further escalating the bad blood between the rich asshole and former FBI leaders.
"The [Office of the Inspector General's] focus on me and this report became a part of an unprecedented effort by the Administration, driven by the President himself, to remove me from my position, destroy my reputation, and possibly strip me of a pension that I worked 21 years to earn," he said. “For the last year and a half, my family and I have been the targets of an unrelenting assault on our reputation and my service to this country. Articles too numerous to count have leveled every sort of false, defamatory and degrading allegation against us. The President's tweets have amplified and exacerbated it all.”
The full allegations against McCabe — beyond the alleged leak and a “lack of candor” — are not known, because the inspector general's report is not yet public. McCabe’s decision to step down in January, and his subsequent firing Friday, just two days before he was set to officially retire, were apparently both prompted by findings in the report, which is the result of a yearlong investigation and expected to be released later this spring.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday said the decision whether or not to fire McCabe would be made by Sessions, but added that he “has had some very troubling behavior and [is] by most accounts a bad actor.”
Those comments follow months of criticism directed at McCabe by the rich asshole.
McCabe’s official retirement was planned for Sunday, when he would be eligible to receive his full pension benefits. McCabe’s firing on Friday puts his pension into doubt.
Some observers expect McCabe to seek legal action — even potentially filing a lawsuit — against the administration.
“McCabe will win his appeal,” predicted Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu (Calif.).
Maher panel proposes a new way of taking down the NRA — and the gun organization should be afraid
HBO host Bill Maher -- (Screen grab)
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During the “Overtime” portion of HBO’s Real Time, host Bill Maher led his panel in a provocative discussion on how to push back against the NRA’s ability to influence lawmakers on gun laws and came to the conclusion that hitting them in the wallet is the best approach.
“Why does the NRA get a tax exemption and how to do we take it away?” host Bill Maher proposed as his audience applauded.
“They would like to say that they don’t run a political action committee, but they do have that wing, saying they are a grassroots non-profit organization,” Sirius radio host Nayyera Haq explained as comedian Pete Dominick interjected, “Elect Democrats.”
“They use legal corporate tax loopholes to build out an entire political lobbying wing that doesn’t get taxed,” Haq continued. “That’s a corporate loophole but that is also because the NRA knows how to work the system.”
“Boy do they. By the way, they know how to use a crisis. They never let a crisis go to waste,” host Maher replied adding the movement to arm teachers was the NRA’s way of “selling more guns.”
“But follow the money on the NRA,” financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin offered. “You can go after them on the taxes or whatever it is, but the real thing, the real opportunity is the companies. It’s all the companies that do business with the NRA, and people who do business with guns. The credit card companies that allow the transactions on the cards. It’s AppleTV, it’s Amazon — everybody that allows this stuff over their airwaves.”
“Washington is unfortunately not going to do anything soon,” he continued. “I hope I’m wrong, but in the meantime I think there is a huge slate of stuff that can happen.”
Watch the video below via HBO:
Ex-CIA director slams the rich asshole after McCabe firing: You'll be remembered as a 'disgraced demagogue'
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 03/17/18 08:32 AM EDT
Former CIA Director John Brennan tore into President the rich asshole for celebrating the firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, saying the rich asshole will be remembered as “a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history.”
“You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America...America will triumph over you,” Brennan tweeted at the rich asshole.
When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America...America will triumph over you. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
The former CIA director was responding to a tweet by the rich asshole hailing McCabe’s firing as a "great day for democracy."
Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI - A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!
Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe on Friday, saying that McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the media and wasn’t forthcoming with investigators.
McCabe claimed he was fired in an effort to undercut special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russia's election interference, arguing he could be a key witness in the investigation.
He also denied being dishonest with investigators, and said that he was authorized to allow FBI officials talk to the media about the investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
the rich asshole celebrates firing of McCabe and denying him his pension with late night tweet calling it a ‘great day’
some rich asshole (CNN/screen grab)
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President some rich asshole celebrated the firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe just after midnight, hopping on Twitter and calling it a “great day.”
Late Friday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe at the last minute, which in effect will deny the 21-year veteran of the FBI his pension after years of service to the country.
the rich asshole was obviously pleased with Sessions’ purge of McCabe 26 hours before the longtime civil servant’s retirement would go into effect.
Writing on Twitter, the rich asshole stated: “Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI – A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!”
You can see the tweet below:
the rich asshole lawyer calls for Rosenstein to shut down Mueller probe
BY JOSH DELK - 03/17/18 10:54 AM EDT
President the rich asshole's personal attorney on Saturday called on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to shut down the federal probe into the rich asshole campaign associates' ties to Russia.
the rich asshole lawyer John Dowd issued the call to "bring an end" to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation a day after Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe following an internal watchdog review.
“I pray that Acting Attorney General Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt Dossier,” Dowd told the Daily Beast in an email.
Dowd initially said he was speaking as the rich asshole's counsel but later told the Daily Beast he was speaking in his personal capacity, according to the report.
"Just end it on the merits in light of recent revelations,” another member of the president’s legal team told The Hill.
Rosenstein has been overseeing the special counsel probe after Sessions recused himself last year over his contacts with Russians during his time as an adviser to the rich asshole's campaign.
Sessions fired McCabe on Friday, saying the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility and Office of the Inspector General had found the No. 2 FBI official made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and "lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions."
McCabe denied that charge, claiming he was fired in an effort to undermine Mueller's probe.
“The idea that I was dishonest is just wrong. This is part of an effort to discredit me as a witness,” McCabe told The New York Times.
McCabe faced months of criticism from the rich asshole and other administration officials for his role in the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton, with the rich asshole repeatedly accusing the official of being biased against him by citing his wife's 2015 Democratic bid for office in Virginia and acceptance of donations from Clinton allies.
House Republicans also mentioned McCabe in a controversial memo alleging an improper surveillance authorization by the FBI and Justice Department on a rich asshole campaign aide, citing the use of a dossier of opposition research that was used in the warrant application.
the rich asshole had reportedly ordered the firing of Mueller last year, but ultimately backed off when the White House counsel threatened to resign.
the rich asshole's lawyers were also trying to find instances supporting the president's claims that Mueller had conflicts of interest in the case.
— Niall Stanage contributed to this report which was updated at 12:03 p.m.
Pressure builds on Sessions for second special counsel
BY KATIE BO WILLIAMS - 03/17/18 06:14 AM EDT
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is under mounting pressure from the right to appoint a second special counsel to investigate conservative allegations of abuse at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI.
Up to now, those calls have gone quietly unanswered, with officials pointing to the existence of a Justice Department inspector general investigation that is expected to wrap up sometime this spring.
But Sessions last week revealed that he has tapped a former official outside of the Beltway “with many years in the Department of Justice” to review the need for a special counsel, suggesting the idea is receiving a serious look.
Powerful GOP lawmakers are urging Sessions to pull the trigger, arguing the inspector general does not have the prosecutorial authority needed to conduct a full investigation of the FBI’s actions.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday sent a letter to Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein calling for a special counsel to “gather all the facts.”
“The FBI and the Department of Justice were corrupt, in my view, when it came to handling the email investigation of [Hillary] Clinton. And the entire FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] warrant application process was abused,” Graham told Fox News’s Bret Baier, referring to a surveillance authority conservatives believe was misused during the 2016 campaign to launch the Russia investigation.
Last week, two powerful House GOP chairmen — Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (Va.) and Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (S.C.) — made a similar request, demanding a review of any evidence of “bias” by DOJ or FBI employee as well as whether there was any “extraneous influence” on the surveillance process.
Critics of the GOP push say the allegations of bias and abuse are a transparent effort to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the rich asshole campaign and Russia.
If Sessions’s review does not result in the appointment of a second special counsel, there’s growing speculation that it could be his own head on the chopping block. President the rich asshole has repeatedly criticized his attorney general since Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation last year, and has hammered him for deferring to Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
"Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse," the rich asshole tweeted after Sessions announced Horowitz would be probing the allegations. "Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on [former FBI Director James] Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!"
Sessions late Friday made one move that could help temper conservative criticism, as he fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, long a target on the right, over alleged misconduct. McCabe had been set to retire on Sunday with a full pension.
But critics of the FBI's handling of the Clinton investigation are likely to see McCabe's firing — which was made after investigators found he made an unauthorized disclosure to the media and "lacked candor" under oath — as further evidence of the need for a special counsel.
Jay Sekulow, a member of the rich asshole’s personal legal team contesting the Russia investigation, has publicly made the case for Sessions to make such an appointment.
“The special counsel has a deeper ability to talk to witnesses outside of the existing Department of Justice personnel, which is one of the limitations imposed on an inspector general,” Sekulow told Fox News’s Sean Hannity last week.
The crux of the allegations leveled by conservatives is that Justice Department and FBI personnel made decisions during the 2016 election that were improperly influenced by bias against then-candidate the rich asshole — in both the investigation into Clinton’s email server and the Russia probe.
GOP lawmakers, citing an investigation conducted by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), say that officials improperly used an unconfirmed dossier of opposition research into the rich asshole to obtain a surveillance warrant for former campaign adviser Carter Page.
Officials did not adequately disclose the provenance of the information when they submitted their application to the clandestine court that approves surveillance requests, Republicans say.
A countermemo from Intelligence Committee Democrats, also based on the classified warrant application, revealed that officials told the court that the dossier was commissioned by someone who wanted to discredit the rich asshole’s campaign. The information formed only a small part of the application and was corroborated with information from independent sources, the Democratic memo says.
For Republicans, those representations to the court were insufficient. The dossier was paid for in part by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee and GOP members have questioned why it was used at all.
“Bias and animus can lead to criminality,” Gowdy said last week, as well as “making misrepresentations or failure to make adequate representations to a tribunal.”
“The manner by which information was secured from nongovernmental sources” could also run afoul of the law, he said.
The FBI frequently makes use of intelligence obtained from biased sources. As long as the information is verified and the agenda is disclosed to the court, former officials say, there is nothing improper about using it in a FISA application.
The Goodlatte-Gowdy request centers solely on FISA abuse. Goodlatte in the past has made a separate request for a second special counsel to investigate decisionmaking in the Clinton probe.
Republicans have long been incensed that Clinton was not charged and have raised questions about former FBI Director James Comey's decision to call her conduct "extremely careless" instead of "grossly negligent," a potentially criminal standard.
Horowitz's investigation has since expanded to encompass the allegations of surveillance abuse. Its original mandate was to probe decision making in the Clinton probe, including Comey's public announcement that the former secretary of State would not face charges.
The Grassley-Graham request also revolves around the bureau’s use of the so-called Steele dossier in its investigation into the rich asshole and Russia.
Under Justice Department regulations, a few preconditions have to be met in order for a special counsel to be appointed. The attorney general must determine that a criminal investigation is warranted and that the Justice Department would have an obvious conflict of interest — and that it would be “in the public interest to appoint an outside special counsel to assume responsibility for the matter.”
Although Grassley and Graham have called for a special counsel to investigate decisionmaking only up to the May appointment of Mueller, such an appointment could throw a wrench in the current special counsel’s probe, some national security lawyers note.
“Permitting this second Special Counsel, even if it was justified under DOJ regulations (and it is not), would almost certainly disrupt and interfere with Mr. Mueller’s inquiry,” Bradley Moss said in an email to The Hill.
Even if the new probe were truly limited to surveillance issues, Moss said, it would encompass investigative work done by Justice Department personnel who would undoubtedly have played a role in the work now being done by Mueller’s team.
“This would require Mueller’s lawyers to get involved to protect the integrity of their own investigation. Now, you have two Special Counsels fighting a bureaucratic turf war.”
BREAKING: The Rich Asshole Tweets Celebration Of McCabe Firing
President some rich asshole took to Twitter to celebrate the firing of Andrew McCabe shortly after midnight – and mere hours after the event – in a tweet that could only be constructed as spiking the ball.
It is probably not the best look for the President, who has drawn controversy in the past over his prolific and rarely-moderated use of the social media network to get his thoughts straight to his fans (and haters!).
McCabe’s firing came two days before he could officially retire with his full pension – a pension he would receive after over twenty years of public service. Still, it seems it was his behavior under former FBI Director James Comey (including leaking information to the press) that scored him the recommendation from the Office of Professional Responsibility.
the rich asshole seems to be thrilled that one of his most noteworthy targets of public ridicule has been given the official boot by Jeff Sessions.
Embattled former FBI deputy says he 'never misled' Justice investigators
CNN)After more than a year of investigations, accusations and taunting tweets from the President of the United States, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is breaking his silence.
The most recent and serious charge he must now defend against: a career-ending claim that he directed FBI officials to talk to a reporter about an ongoing investigation and misled investigators about his actions.
"I absolutely never misled the inspector general in any way," McCabe said during an hour-long interview with CNN, calling his highly public downfall the result of "a series of attacks designed to undermine my credibility and my reputation" including by President some rich asshole.
After an FBI career spanning more than two decades and ascent to the No. 2 spot at the bureau, McCabe was fired Friday -- less than two days before his official retirement.
His troubles began during the 2016 presidential campaign, when a report surfaced that his wife accepted nearly $500,000 from the political action committee of then-Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton family ally, during a failed bid for state senate in 2015.
Though McCabe was not promoted to deputy director until months after his wife lost the race, he became a perennial political piñata for President some rich asshole on the campaign trail given that McCabe later oversaw the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information. As president, the rich asshole has continued to hold McCabe up as Exhibit A of political favoritism infecting the FBI when he lashes out against the Russia investigation.
Inspector general report
Yet it is McCabe's effort to push back on that narrative of bias in October 2016 that landed him in the crosshairs of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, whose office concluded that McCabe misled investigators about his decision to authorize FBI officials to speak with the media about his role in a separate, ongoing investigation tied to Clinton's family foundation, according to source briefed on it.
McCabe defends that move, telling CNN that he'd received word that Devlin Barrett, then a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, was going to write an article suggesting McCabe was slow-walking the bureau's investigation into the foundation. So, as one of the few top FBI officials with authority to share information with the media, McCabe said he asked other officials to speak with Barrett to "correct factually inaccurate things" and provide more context for issues that had already been reported publicly for months about the infighting between the Justice Department and FBI over the case.
"The story (Barrett) was proposing to go with was that I personally, and more importantly, the FBI, was subject to inappropriate influence," McCabe said. "And I thought that would be incredibly corrosive to our credibility both externally and internally ... To have my investigators in the field think that people at headquarters are making decisions with DOJ officials based on political leanings would be absolutely devastating."
The inspector general's office announced its wide-ranging inquiry into a number of actions taken by top officials at the FBI and Justice Department in advance of the 2016 election over a year ago but has not publicly released any findings and CNN has not reviewed the report on McCabe.
McCabe told CNN that in December, about a day or two after the press reported that he had confirmed to lawmakers that his onetime boss, former FBI Director James Comey, had, in fact, informed him of a series of hotly contested conversations with the President last year, McCabe found out the inspector general's office had "changed their plans" and would likely issue a report focused exclusively on his actions.
When asked if he believed there was a correlation, or the inspector general was unduly influenced in some way, McCabe demurred, saying: "I don't know."
"I think every time it becomes clear that I will likely play a significant role in whatever comes of the special counsel's efforts, immediately after that I get targeted and attacked by the President and his Twitter account, and now the IG's approach to their own work changes immediately after my testimony gets leaked," he said.
Yet McCabe chalks up any claims that he was less than forthcoming with Justice Department investigators about The Wall Street Journal story as a misunderstanding.
"There have been times that I now know we came away from interactions with a different understanding as to what they had asked and what I had said," McCabe told CNN. "And in each one of those cases, I proactively reached back to the investigators to ensure that they understood completely my recollection of events."
'He brought up my wife every time'
McCabe also opened up about how the President appeared fixated on his wife's failed campaign, recalling at least four occasions in which the rich asshole taunted him with it as a "mistake" or "problem" and calling her a "loser."
the rich asshole raised the issue with Comey "out of the blue," according to McCabe, saying things "like, 'What's wrong with that deputy director of yours?' " insinuating that he was somehow politically motivated against the President, which, McCabe says is "absolutely not true."
"In May, when Director Comey was fired and I had my own interactions with the President, he brought up my wife every time I ever spoke to him," McCabe told CNN, emphasizing that he pushed back. "Of course, I disagreed with him. I don't see my wife's decision to try to enter public life to help her community (have) greater access to healthcare as a mistake or a problem."
McCabe, who said he always considered himself a Republican, also confirmed that the President asked him who he voted for the day after the rich asshole fired Comey and McCabe stepped in as interim FBI director in May.
"I didn't vote at all in 2016, and I explained to him that I did not vote in 2016 because the work that we were involved in had such political overtones that I felt it was prudent not to take a side in an election," McCabe said.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on their interactions.
May proved to be a monumental month for McCabe as acting FBI director, trying -- as he explained it -- to take "affirmative steps" to ensure that the bureau's investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election was on "solid ground" while also briefing Congress and "working closely with the Deputy Attorney General (Rod Rosenstein) advocating for the appointment of the special counsel."
the rich asshole did not, however, ask McCabe to drop the Russia investigation, McCabe told CNN. Though the President did berate him for the fact that Comey flew from California to Washington on an FBI plane after he was fired in May.
Indeed, throughout the past year, the President's ire at McCabe only grew -- with a barrage of tweets questioning why Attorney General Jeff Sessions hadn't fired him, later followed by a suggestion McCabe was "racing the clock to retire with full benefits."
Coming full circle
McCabe stepped down abruptly in January after he says FBI Director Christopher Wray approached him with concerns about what the inspector general had uncovered.
"(Wray) called me in on a Sunday night to tell me that he had been privy to information from the IG's investigation, and then based on that he was going to move me out of my position," McCabe said, explaining that he then decided to take a leave of absence.
Wray wouldn't tell him exactly what investigators found, but reflecting back now, McCabe surmised that if the approval of his outreach to The Wall Street Journal was the reason for his ouster, it would be somewhat hypocritical.
"In December, I had a ... long conversation with the editor of a major national newspaper at Chris Wray's request, and engaged with this editor in an effort to get them to back off a story that we thought would be harmful to our operational equities," McCabe said. "I was then removed from my position in January for having done the same thing in October 2016."
Billy Bush recalls the rich asshole told him the strategy that gets people to believe everything he says
Former "Access Hollywood" host Billy Bush (Photo: Screen capture)
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During Friday’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” former “Access Hollywood” and NBC host Billy Bush recalled what it was like to know President some rich asshole well prior to the election.
Bush confirmed the accounts that the rich asshole would come back stage at the Miss Universe pageants that Bush hosted and would “view the guard like Kim Jong Un reviews the military.”
“But we know about some rich asshole,” Bush maintained. “We know who the guy is.”
He then recalled a time when he finally called the rich asshole out on his claim that he had the best ratings. Bush informed the rich asshole that “you haven’t been number one for like five years, four years. Not in any category. Not in any [demographic].”
the rich asshole allegedly cited the last five minutes of the show for those over 35-years-old, pointed to Bush and claimed “I told ya.”
“And then later when the cameras are off, he says, ‘Billy, look, you just tell them, and they’ll believe it. Just tell them and they believe it. They just do,'” Bush recalled.
Watch the full conversation below:
VOTED OFF THE ISLAND
For all we—and senior White House staff—know, by the time you’ve read this article, several more people may have been fired. Or not.
03.16.18 4:54 PM ET
The rich asshole White House spent the latter part of this week teasing the likelihood that someone was going to be fired. It could be a National Security Adviser. Or the HUD secretary. Perhaps the chief of staff. Or all of them.
By Friday morning, senior the rich asshole administration officials were wondering if their own jobs were even safe. And then….. nothing happened. The day came and went and no one was let go. Unless they were after this piece was posted. Honestly, it could happen. No one knows, including those sitting inside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
This is the current state of Trumpland: a presidency conducted like a reality show with no one quite certain of the script. Those close to the president say he revels in the drama that he’s allowing to unfold. But veterans of past White Houses find it both counterproductive and, if they’re being blunt, certifiably insane.
“I don’t even know what is happening in Trumpworld. Up is down and down is up. Everyone is getting fired and no one is. The cast of Fox and Friends is going to run the National Security Council,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a former top aide to President Barack Obama. “We obviously operated differently.”
For embattled agency officials in particular, the unfolding drama has fed a sense that, when controversy flares, the West Wing is unhelpful at best and adversarial at worst. “If there’s a crisis, they’re not there to help us,” as one senior administration official put it. “Each agency operates on its own.”
Inside the administration, some officials have grown convinced that the president and his staff can no longer be relied on to defend top officials from controversy and, indeed, will actively work to worsen a cabinet secretary’s troubles if it means insulating the president from any blame.
One official pointed to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson’s staff, which was mostly left to fend for itself this week in the wake of revelations that the secretary spent tens of thousands of dollars on adornments to his office. As a number of cabinet secretaries face scrutiny of their travel habits, that official added, agencies have grown loathe to provide the White House with any information due to concerns that the information will be leaked—or used against those bosses down the line, if they end up on the rich asshole’s bad side.
Even officials who are not on the president's shortlist for sacking seemingly grasp the risks of providing material on demand.
Two knowledgeable West Wing sources have told The Daily Beast that the White House had weeks ago requested that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s staff turn over documents pertaining to Pruitt’s travel expenses. (The administrator is currently facing increased scrutiny after reports surfaced that Pruitt was flying first class on the taxpayer dime.) These sources say that Pruitt’s team has frustrated the White House by “dragging their feet,” according to one source, and not handing over comprehensive documentation of these expenses.
As of Friday morning, the EPA still had not produced the requested materials to the White House. One source described it as further evidence of a “breach of trust” that has become “too common” between senior officials at the EPA and the the rich asshole White House.
Even as it stonewalls the White House, the EPA appears to be working cooperatively with Congress on a nearly identical request. As The Daily Beast reported this week, the EPA missed a deadline for handing over travel records to the House Oversight Committee, but both the committee and the agency said they were working to get those records turned over.
The creeping paranoia and feelings of distrust between cabinet agencies and the West Wing are not without merit. Behind the scenes, White House officials and the rich asshole in particular have mused with outside advisers about potential replacements for officials facing controversy—musings that then made their way into press reports of a seemingly imminent high-level purge. On Friday, Axios reported that in an off-the-record meeting with reporters, Chief of Staff John Kelly acknowledged that the president was likely the source of many of those reports.
“It keeps everyone uneasy and it likely distracts from their ability to do their job effectively,” Mack McLarty, who served as President Bill Clinton's first White House Chief of Staff said of the constant discord. ”We have kind of normalized chaos here.”
No one in Trumpworld is more exposed to that normalized chaos than H.R. McMaster, whose job seems to be perpetually close to an inglorious end. Senior officials told reporters on Thursday that the rich asshole had finally decided put his National Security Adviser out to pasture, only for other officials to clarify that McMaster wasn’t going anywhere—at least not at this immediate second.
“McMaster death watch has been going for a long time now; it’s now a matter of who replaces [him] and when,” is how one senior White House official described it to The Daily Beast on Thursday evening. “It could be National Security Adviser [John] Bolton, it could be Geraldo. Place your bets.”
On Thursday night, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted, “Just spoke to [the rich asshole] and Gen. H.R. McMaster - contrary to reports they have a good working relationship and there are no changes at the NSC.” A White House official later told The Daily Beast that the tweet was calculated and “carefully worded,” noting “nothing in there [is] a lie.”
Speculation has also swirled around Kelly’s future, only to (as in McMaster’s case) be hastily downplayed as Beltway gossip. By mid-day Friday the White House was assuring reporters that the rich asshole and his chief of staff had smoothed out their differences, which stemmed from the firing of White House staff secretary and alleged wife beater Rob Porter last month.
Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin has been on thin ice over the misuse of taxpayer funds. But his standing has been hurt even further as White House officials have agitated for a replacement.
Prominent the rich asshole allies publicly state that all is well, the change can be good—including for the ousted—and that a little bit of uncertain can prompt harder work and energy.
“This is normal turnover that you get in any administration from time to time,” Vice President Mike Pence’s former press secretary Marc Lotter, who left the administration on his own accord last year, told The Daily Beast. “Obviously, they are 14 months in. These jobs are mentally and physically demanding. So, I think you do see that natural transition in bringing in some new faces and new ideas, and folks to deal with these high-stress and mentally taxing positions.”
But not everyone is convinced that the president is playing a game of three-dimensional chess as he lets his top aides and cabinet members wonder if they’ll have a job in the coming day.
“To say what he is doing is mind games would be like calling a monkey throwing his feces art,” said Pfeiffer. “I don't think he knows what he is doing.”
Andrew McCabe reveals the rich asshole was obsessed with his wife — bringing her up ‘every time I ever spoke to him’
President some rich asshole (left, via Creative Commons) and Dr. Jill McCabe, wife of ex-FBI dep. director Andrew McCabe (right, via screengrab).
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In an interview with CNN’s Pamela Brown, former FBI Director Andrew McCabe revealed that President some rich asshole was completely obsessed with McCabe’s wife.
During a 2015 campaign for the state senate, McCabe’s wife Jill accepted a contribution from political action committee for then-Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. Because McAuliffe was an ally of the Clintons in the past, the rich asshole decided it meant McCabe was working against him. McCabe, however, worked against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election with the FBI investigation into the email server, but the rich asshole never cared about the facts. Instead, he was seemingly fixated by McCabe’s wife.
In at last four occasions, the rich asshole taunted him about it being a “mistake or “problem,” and called the man’s wife a “loser.” the rich asshole even raised the issue with former FBI Director James Comey at one point, “Out of the blue,” he told CNN’s Pamela Brown Friday.
the rich asshole would say things “like, ‘What’s wrong with that deputy director of yours?'” The comment implied that somehow McCabe was politically motivated against the rich asshole, which McCabe said is “absolutely not true.”
“In May, when Director Comey was fired and I had my own interactions with the President, he brought up my wife every time I ever spoke to him,” McCabe told Brown. Each time McCabe pushed back. “Of course, I disagreed with him. I don’t see my wife’s decision to try to enter public life to help her community (have) greater access to healthcare as a mistake or a problem.”
He also confirmed that the rich asshole demanded to know who McCabe voted for in the 2016 election in their first meeting after firing Comey.
Andrew McCabe’s full statement in response to his firing by Jeff Sessions: ‘I’m being singled out’
Andrew McCabe (CNN)
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The following statement was released from former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe:
I have been an FBI Special Agent for over 21 years. I spent half of that time investigating Russian Organized Crime as a street agent and Supervisor in New York City. I have spent the second half of my career focusing on national security issues and protecting this country from terrorism. I served in some of the most challenging, demanding investigative and leadership roles in the FBI. And I was privileged to serve as Deputy Director during a particularly tough time.
For the last year and a half, my family and I have been the targets of an unrelenting assault on our reputation and my service to this country. Articles too numerous to count have leveled every sort of false, defamatory and degrading allegation against us. The President’s tweets have amplified and exacerbated it all. He called for my firing. He called for me to be stripped of my pension after more than 20 years of service. And all along we have said nothing, never wanting to distract from the mission of the FBI by addressing the lies told and repeated about us.
No more.
The investigation by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has to be understood in the context of the attacks on my credibility. The investigation flows from my attempt to explain the FBI’s involvement and my supervision of investigations involving Hillary Clinton. I was being portrayed in the media over and over as a political partisan, accused of closing down investigations under political pressure. The FBI was portrayed as caving under that pressure, and making decisions for political rather than law enforcement purposes. Nothing was further from the truth. In fact, this entire investigation stems from my efforts, fully authorized under FBI rules, to set the record straight on behalf of the Bureau, and to make clear that we were continuing an investigation that people in DOJ opposed.
The OIG investigation has focused on information I chose to share with a reporter through my public affairs officer and a legal counselor. As Deputy Director, I was one of only a few people who had the authority to do that. It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the Director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter. It was the type of exchange with the media that the Deputy Director oversees several times per week. In fact, it was the same type of work that I continued to do under Director Wray, at his request. The investigation subsequently focused on who I talked to, when I talked to them, and so forth. During these inquiries, I answered questions truthfully and as accurately as I could amidst the chaos that surrounded me. And when I thought my answers were misunderstood, I contacted investigators to correct them.
But looking at that in isolation completely misses the big picture. The big picture is a tale of what can happen when law enforcement is politicized, public servants are attacked, and people who are supposed to cherish and protect our institutions become instruments for damaging those institutions and people.
Here is the reality: I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey. The release of this report was accelerated only after my testimony to the House Intelligence Committee revealed that I would corroborate former Director Comey’s accounts of his discussions with the President. The OIG’s focus on me and this report became a part of an unprecedented effort by the Administration, driven by the President himself, to remove me from my position, destroy my reputation, and possibly strip me of a pension that I worked 21 years to earn. The accelerated release of the report, and the punitive actions taken in response, make sense only when viewed through this lens. Thursday’s comments from the White House are just the latest example of this.
This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to taint the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally. It is part of this Administration’s ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation, which continue to this day. Their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the Special Counsel’s work.
I have always prided myself on serving my country with distinction and integrity, and I always encouraged those around me to do the same. Just ask them. To have my career end in this way, and to be accused of lacking candor when at worst I was distracted in the midst of chaotic events, is incredibly disappointing and unfair. But it will not erase the important work I was privileged to be a part of, the results of which will in the end be revealed for the country to see.
I have unfailing faith in the men and women of the FBI and I am confident that their efforts to seek justice will not be deterred.
Sessions fires McCabe from FBI
BY KATIE BO WILLIAMS - 03/16/18 10:03 PM EDT
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday fired Andrew McCabe, the No. 2 official at the FBI and a longtime target of President the rich asshole.
McCabe's ouster comes just days before he was scheduled to retire on Sunday, after more than 20 years at the bureau. McCabe had already stepped down under pressure in January and has been on a leave of absence since.
In a statement Friday evening, Sessions said that the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) and Office of Inspector General (OIG) had found McCabe made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and "lacked candor - including under oath - on multiple occasions."
"Pursuant to Department Order 1202, and based on the report of the Inspector General, the findings of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility, and the recommendation of the Department’s senior career official, I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately," Sessions said.
McCabe quickly declared that his termination and the rich asshole's needling against him were an effort to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, in which he could be a potential witness.
“The idea that I was dishonest is just wrong,” McCabe told The New York Times. “This is part of an effort to discredit me as a witness.”
McCabe's dismissal came at the recommendation of an internal FBI office that handles disciplinary matters. According to Times, the recommendation was based on a finding from the Justice Department inspector general that McCabe was not forthcoming during the review, which includes an investigation into a decision he made in 2016 to allow FBI officials to speak with reporters about an investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
The exact details of the allegations against McCabe remain unclear.
It is also unclear why the inspector general, Michael Horowitz, chose to act on his findings regarding McCabe before closing the overall investigation into decisions made during the 2016 election. Horowitz has said publicly that he expects to issue his final report this spring.
A spokeswoman for the Justice Department told The Hill that the agency couldn't comment on whether the decision would strip McCabe of his FBI pension.
The Times reported earlier this week that McCabe's retirement was set to go into effect Sunday and his firing could jeopardize his pension as a 21-year veteran of the FBI.
In a lengthy statement, McCabe blasted his firing, which he claimed was an attempt to destroy his reputation and career in the wake of what he witnessed at the Justice Department surrounding former FBI Director James Comey's firing last year.
"Here is the reality: I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey," McCabe wrote.
"The OIG's focus on me and this report became part of an unprecedented effort by the Administration, driven by the president himself, to remove me from my position, destroy my reputation, and possibly strip me of a pension that I worked 21 years to earn."
McCabe’s dismissal is another indication of the increasingly bitter politics surrounding the federal investigation into the the rich asshole campaign and Russia. As deputy director, McCabe was integrally involved in both the bureau’s investigation into former secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email server and the Russia probe.
A longtime target of the right thanks to political donations his wife accepted from a Clinton ally, McCabe has drawn the president’s ire in recent months.
the rich asshole goaded Sessions into dismissing McCabe, tweeting in July, “Why didn't A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation?”
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday insisted that the determination whether to fire McCabe would be left up to Sessions, but called the career civil servant a “bad actor.”
“We do think it is well documented that he has had some very troubling behavior and by most accounts a bad actor and should have some cause for concern,” she told reporters.
As a career agent, McCabe cannot be fired without just cause of wrongdoing, and the president in theory has no direct say in such a dismissal, as he does with a political appointee.
But the decision is nevertheless almost certain to be controversial in light of the rich asshole’s longstanding ire against the deputy director.
McCabe had been in GOP crosshairs since the 2016 election, over what Republicans have characterized as a conflict of interest in the Clinton probe. His wife, Jill McCabe, accepted almost $500,000 in political donations from a group affiliated with then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), a close Clinton ally, during her run for state Senate.
“How can FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, the man in charge, along with leakin’ James Comey, of the Phony Hillary Clinton investigation (including her 33,000 illegally deleted emails) be given $700,000 for wife’s campaign by Clinton Puppets during investigation?” the rich asshole tweeted in December.
According to documents released by the FBI in November, McCabe recused himself from state corruption cases in Virginia as a result of his wife’s candidacy. He was not warned by bureau officials to step back from the Clinton investigation, however, when it began a few months later.
McCabe was then the assistant director in charge of the Washington field office, according to the bureau, and he “provided personnel resources” to the email investigation in its early stages.
But he “was not told what the investigation was about” until he was appointed deputy director in 2016 — months after the Virginia election had concluded, the documents state.
His abrupt resignation in January was met with glee from conservatives, some of whom said it was long overdue.
“The news that FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is stepping down is a step forward,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said in a statement at the time. “I will continue fighting on behalf of the American people to expose and eradicate corruption within the FBI and Department of Justice.”
Democrats have accused the president of trying to improperly influence law enforcement and say his longstanding aggression towards McCabe and other DOJ officials could help Mueller build an obstruction of justice case against him.
Updated: 10:30 p.m.
FBI’s Andrew McCabe is fired a little more than 24 hours before he could retire
The Washington Post
Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Friday night fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, a little more than 24 hours before McCabe was set to retire.
Sessions announced the decision in a statement just before 10 p.m., noting that both the Justice Department Inspector General and the FBI office that handles discipline had found “that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.”
He said based on those findings and the recommendation of the department’s senior career official, “I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately.”
The move will likely cost McCabe a significant portion of his retirement benefits, though it is possible he could bring a legal challenge. McCabe has been fighting vigorously to keep his job, and on Thursday, he spent nearly four hours inside the Justice Department pleading his case.
McCabe has become a lightning rod in the political battles over the FBI’s most high-profile cases, including the Russia investigation and the probe of Hillary Clinton’s email practices. He has been a frequent target of criticism from President the rich asshole.
His firing — which was recommended by the FBI office that handles discipline — stems from a Justice Department inspector general investigation that found McCabe authorized the disclosure of sensitive information to the media about a Clinton-related case, then misled investigators about his actions in the matter, people familiar with the matter have said. He stepped down earlier this year from the No. 2 job in the bureau after FBI Director Christopher A. Wray was briefed on the inspector general’s findings, though he technically was still an employee.
McCabe disputes that he misled anyone.
Some in the bureau might view McCabe’s termination so close to retirement as an unnecessarily harsh and politically influenced punishment for a man who spent more than 20 years at the FBI. The White House had seemed to support such an outcome, though a spokeswoman said the decision was up to Sessions.
“We do think that it is well documented that he has had some very troubling behavior and by most accounts a bad actor,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday.
the rich asshole and McCabe’s relationship has long been fraught. The president has previously suggested that McCabe was biased in favor of Clinton, his political opponent, pointing out that McCabe’s wife, who ran as a Democrat for a seat in the Virginia legislature, received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from the political action committee of Terry McAuliffe, then the state’s governor and a noted Clinton ally. During an Oval office meeting in May, the rich asshole is said to have asked McCabe whom he voted for in the presidential election and vented about the donations.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz put McCabe in his crosshairs during a broad look at alleged improprieties in the handling of the Clinton email case. In the course of that review, Horowitz found that McCabe had authorized two FBI officials to talk to then-Wall Street Journal reporter Devlin Barrett for a story about the case and another investigation into Clinton’s family foundation. Barrett now works for The Washington Post.
Background conversations with reporters are commonplace in Washington, though McCabe’s authorizing such a talk was viewed as inappropriate because the matter being discussed was an ongoing criminal investigation. The story ultimately presented McCabe as a somewhat complicated figure — one who some FBI officials thought was standing in the way of the Clinton Foundation investigation, but who also seemed to be pushing back against Justice Department officials who did not believe there was a case to be made.
McCabe, who turns 50 on Sunday and would have then been eligible for his full retirement benefits, had quickly ascended through senior roles to the No. 2 leadership post. He briefly served in an interim capacity as the FBI director, in the months between when the rich asshole fired James B. Comey from the post and Wray was confirmed by the Senate.
Jeff Sessions fires Andrew McCabe on his birthday — a day before he’s eligible for his pension
Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe pictured on September 21, 2016 (FBI PHOTO)
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions has fired former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe — and as CNN’s Evan Pérez noted, was terminated just 26 hours before he became eligible for his pension.
In his statement, Sessions said that he came to the conclusion to fire McCabe “after an extensive and fair investigation” of allegations that McCabe made an “unauthorized disclosure to the news media.”
The New York Times reported that the former acting director of the bureau was fired “after the Justice Department rejected an appeal that would have let him retire this weekend.”
Responding to the Times, McCabe accused the attorney general of trying to smear him.
“The idea that I was dishonest is just wrong,” McCabe said. “This is part of an effort to discredit me as a witness.”
In his statement and in comments to reporters, Sessions said that the former deputy director “lacked candor” — a charge that the Times noted is “a fireable offense” at the DOJ.
You can read Sessions’ statement in full below:
Ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe fired
(CNN)Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe late Friday, less than two days shy of his retirement, ending the career of an official who had risen to serve as second-in-command at the bureau.
McCabe had more recently been regularly taunted by President some rich asshole and besieged by accusations that he had misled internal investigators at the Justice Department.
McCabe had been expected to retire this Sunday, on his 50th birthday, when he would have become eligible to receive early retirement benefits.
But Friday's termination could place a portion of his anticipated pension, earned after more than two decades of service, in significant jeopardy.
The origin of his dramatic fall stems from an internal review conducted by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. That report -- the details of which have not been publicly released -- is said to conclude that McCabe misled investigators about his role in directing other officials at the FBI to speak to The Wall Street Journal about his involvement in a public corruption investigation into the Clinton Foundation, according to a source briefed on it.
CNN reported on Wednesday that the findings in Horowitz's report on McCabe were referred to the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility, staffed with career officials, who recommended McCabe's termination. McCabe, accompanied by his lawyer, tried making a last-ditch effort Thursday to avoid the firing, meeting with officials at the deputy attorney general's office at the Justice Department for several hours while Sessions was traveling, but to no avail.
Horowitz's office is continuing to investigate how the Justice Department and FBI handled sensitive investigations leading up to the 2016 presidential election -- including the probe into Hillary Clinton's private email server -- and a more global report is expected this spring. That closely watched report, which the rich asshole has derided as "already late," could prove devastating for former and current top officials at the Justice Department and FBI depending on the findings, as the President has sought to weave a narrative of biased "deep state" holdovers from the Obama administration determined to undermine his presidency.
While former FBI officials say a lack of candor is a death knell for an agent's career, Sessions' decision to fire McCabe presented unique political complications.
the rich asshole often used McCabe as a political punching bag on the campaign trail given his wife's purported past ties to Clinton -- going so far as heckling Sessions over the summer for failing to fire McCabe -- despite the fact that the rich asshole had interviewed McCabe just weeks prior about serving as FBI director after he ousted James Comey. In December, the rich asshole made a cryptic reference to McCabe's approaching retirement, tweeting: "FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!"
The full implications of McCabe's firing on his pension remain to be seen, but he could potentially stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. Retirement benefits for federal employees are based on several variables in employment history, but McCabe's salary is not public and the FBI declined to release it to CNN.
Maddow sounds the alarm on State Department deputy being fired ‘to cover up’ a the rich asshole White House lie
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Image via screengrab.
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Among the high-profile real and speculative firings in the rich asshole administration this week was the removal of a lesser-known figure at the State Department — and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow thinks the latter may be a smoking gun.
The story began with a differential between the White House’s timeline for the firing of outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the State Department’s. According to White House chief of staff John Kelly, he informed the secretary of state that his firing was imminent last Friday — and in a bizarre moment of levity, told reporters earlier today that Tillerson was on the toilet with a stomach bug when he took the call.
The State Department, however, refuted that timeline and said Tillerson learned he was being replaced with CIA Director Mike Pompeo along with the rest of the world when President some rich asshole tweeted about it on Tuesday.
As Maddow pointed out, the rich asshole’s announcement came less than 24 hours after the secretary of state condemned Russia in harsh terms for poisoning a Russian ex-spy on British soil.
“We agree that those responsible – both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it – must face appropriately serious consequences,” Tillerson said, declaring “solidarity” with the UK in their decision to sanction Russia.
Soon after the president announced via tweet the secretary of state’s firing, the White House said Tillerson had known since Friday that he was soon to be removed.
Following the White House’s comments, however, the State Department made its own statement. Steve Goldstein, the department’s fourth-highest-ranking official and a spokesman for its secretary, said Tillerson had no prior knowledge of his termination. He was fired, as Maddow noted, the same day as he made his comments.
“The Secretary had every intention of remaining because of the tangible progress made on critical national security issues,” Goldstein said. “The Secretary did not speak to the President this morning and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling and not to be regretted.”
“In a different White House, in a more normal administration, the fact alone that the White House had fired the number four official at the State Department,” she mused.
Maddow noted than in a typical presidential administration, firing a high-ranking State official for refuting their official statement would normally cause a scandal — “both that they would fire somebody for telling the truth, but also because the firing appears to be an effort to cover up their lie.”
“In a normal administration, this would be a very big deal,” she concluded. “And even in this administration, frankly, it is a big deal.”
Watch below, via MSNBC:
POLITICS
Stormy Daniels’ Mom Hopes Daughter’s Lawsuit Doesn’t Hurt some rich asshole
“If some rich asshole runs four more times, I would vote for him every time,” the porn star’s mother said.
The mother of Stephanie Clifford, aka porn actress Stormy Daniels, is very concerned about the pending legal battle between her daughter and President some rich asshole.
But it’s not because she fears something might happen to her little girl. It’s the rich asshole she’s worried about.
“If some rich asshole runs four more times, I would vote for him every time,” Sheila Gregory told the Dallas Morning News this week. “I like him. I like the way he handles things. It’s time this country is put back where it belongs — taking care of the people here instead of the people who don’t belong here.”
Gregory said she hadn’t spoken to Clifford in 12 years, coincidentally going back to around the time the actress said she had her affair with the rich asshole.
The two have apparently never discussed the affair. The 64-year-old Gregory said her daughter stopped talking to her and she doesn’t know why.
“It hurts me deeply,” she said. “My friends all say the same thing: ‘I can’t believe that is the same sweet child — you took such good care of her.’”
“I say, ‘How do you think I feel?’”
Clifford’s estranged dad, Bill Gregory, is also feeling torn between his concern for his daughter and his love for the rich asshole.
“I see her in the news — everything that’s going on — it’s hard,” he told Inside Edition this week. “It’s become a real mess, looks like to me. I like the rich asshole and I like my daughter. I don’t want to pick sides. It’s unfortunate that it’s gotten to this point.”
Bill Gregory divorced Sheila Gregory when Clifford was about 4, and he admits he didn’t have much contact after that. He said father and daughter have not spoken in 20 years.
But when prompted by Inside Edition, Bill Gregory couldn’t help but offer some fatherly advice.
“Be very careful,” he said. “When you start challenging powerful people with a lot of money, they can ruin your life.”
He added: “the rich asshole has a lot of radical followers that might take offense to her telling stories about him.”
WATCH: Spy who penetrated Kremlin intelligence reveals how he did the same at the rich asshole Towers
Chris Hayes Felix Sater (Photo: Screen capture)
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Felix Sater, who worked with President some rich asshole on his the rich asshole Moscow deal, had a riveting interview with MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes on how he penetrated Russian Intelligence and the rich asshole Tower.
Hayes introduced Sater as having a, “resume out of a spy thriller.”
The former FBI informant gave details on how he penetrated the rich asshole’s inner circle by renting office space in the rich asshole Tower.
“We were on the 24th floor. the rich asshole organization was on the 26th floor,” Sater explained. “I basically knocked on his door, said ‘I think we should become partners, I have great real estate deals, I’m going to be a very successful developer. You want to work with me.”
Sater also recounted how he was approached by an American spy who discretely approached him in the bathroom of a Russian nightclub.
He said the intelligence operative said, “Felix, they seem to like having a drink with you. They seem to make jokes with you…we’ve been trying to penetrate these people for years.”
Watch:
Part 1:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Fox News accidentally publishes pre-written draft saying the rich asshole fired Andrew McCabe
Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, photo courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
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On Friday afternoon, Fox News accidentally published on their website a pre-written draft meant to be posted when and if President some rich asshole fires former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
CNN’s Brian Stetler was first to notice the erroneous posting of the draft, a just-in-case measure employed by many news outlets to be ready in the event of a major death, staffing change or firing.
Shortly after the revelation of the post, Fox News took it down. In a statement to Mediaite, they acknowledged the faux pas.
“FoxNews.com accidentally published on Friday evening a draft version of a news report that was being prepared on standby in the event that Andrew McCabe was fired,” the statement read. “This mistake was the result of a technical error. The article was never surfaced on the website, and it was immediately taken down. We sincerely regret this serious error.”
McCabe, whose pension eligibility officially begins this weekend, was the subject of speculation after reports that the FBI disciplinary office recommended he be terminated earlier in the week. By Friday evening, however, he had not yet been fired.
the rich asshole legal team moves to shift Stormy Daniels case to federal court
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 03/16/18 08:24 PM EDT
President the rich asshole's legal team on Friday filed paperwork to move the lawsuit filed against him by adult film star Stormy Daniels to federal court.
Bloomberg reported the motion to transfer the lawsuit from California state court to a federal court in Los Angeles was made by Essential Consultants LLC, the company set up by the rich asshole’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, signed a nondisclosure agreement with the entity in 2016. As part of the agreement, she was paid $130,000 reportedly to stay quiet about an alleged affair with the rich asshole.
the rich asshole will support the case’s transfer, according to the Essential Consultants filing cited by Bloomberg.
The documents also state that Clifford could face up to $20 million in damages if she violates the nondisclosure agreement.
Cohen claims in the documents filed Friday that Clifford violated the agreement 20 times, according to The Washington Post, which reported that Cohen is seeking to force the legal dispute back into private arbitration.
The documents filed Friday also reveal that the rich asshole is being represented in the case by Los Angeles-based attorney Charles Harder.
Harder, who has worked as an attorney for the rich asshole and first lady Melania the rich asshole, previously served as the lead attorney for Hulk Hogan when the former wrestler won a $140 million judgement against the website Gawker over a leaked sex tape, forcing the company into bankruptcy. Hogan and Gawker later reached a $31 million cash settlement.
Clifford is suing the rich asshole to void the nondisclosure agreement in an effort to publicly discuss what she claims to be a relationship she had with the rich asshole in 2006. Clifford has claimed the nondisclosure agreement is invalid because the rich asshole didn’t sign the document.
Reporter who interviewed Stormy Daniels trusts her over the rich asshole — and there’s one glaring reason why
Porn star Stormy Daniels claims she had an "intimate relationship" with some rich asshole in 2006 and 2007 GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File / MANDEL NGAN, Ethan Miller
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According to Slate reporter Jacob Weisberg, who interviewed Stormy Daniels prior to the election about the alleged relationship she had with President some rich asshole, she is to be believed.
“She led me to believe that what she was telling me — she was holding back the kind of crown jewels,” he explained about their interview. “That she had details and specifics that would make the story more salacious and more interesting. She did share evidence. She said, while I have the personal phone — cell phone number of Keith Schiller, the rich asshole’s bodyguard, this is how I was supposed to get in touch with him. She had a lot of corroborating details. She wasn’t holding back on that.”
She did not, however, mention that she had photos or videos at the time.
“But, I would say this,” he continued. “In the question of should we believe that what she’s saying or is going to say is likely to be true? I think her credibility is very good.”
He said that he talked to her in the fall after she’d spoken to In-Touch magazine more than five years prior. The details from that transcript match up with what she told Weisberg.
“I think she’s been totally consistent since then. So, if you have to ask who should we believe, probably the porn star or the president, the porn star has a lot of credibility. The president lies all the time. He admitted lying this week about something different, about trade with Canada but one of them has credibility and it’s not some rich asshole and it’s not Michael Cohen.”
Watch the full interview below:
Stormy Daniels's lawyer says some accusations against the rich asshole occurred during presidency
BY JOSH DELK - 03/16/18 05:41 PM EDT
The attorney representing the adult-film star who claims she had an affair with President the rich asshole said Friday that some of the accusations by Stormy Daniels against the president occurred after he entered the White House.
Michael Avenatti replied "yes" when asked by CNN's Jake Tapper if there was "anything in the litany of accusations ... the happened while some rich asshole was president?"
Avenatti said he could not elaborate further, but encouraged viewers to watch Daniels's interview on "60 Minutes" later this month for more information.
"I think that when the American people hear from my client who will provide details — very specific details related to this threat — they will conclude, as I have, that this was not a random threat by some wing nut ... out of the blue," he said.
Avenatti's remarks came after his statement earlier Friday on MSNBC that Daniels has received threats of physical harm in regards to her alleged affair with the rich asshole. It wasn't clear who may have threatened Daniels or what those threats entailed.
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, is currently embroiled in a lawsuit seeking to dissolve a nondisclosure agreement she signed just before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels received a $130,000 payout as part of the deal with the rich asshole attorney Michael Cohen, who says he used his own funds.
Legal experts say the payment may have violated federal campaign finance law.
Daniels and her team say the deal, which was first reported in January by The Wall Street Journal, is null and void because the rich asshole never signed it, and because Cohen violated it by confirming the payment.
A hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled for July 12 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
CBS News plans to air its interview with Daniels on "60 Minutes" on March 25. On Sunday, Avenatti tweeted that the rich asshole's legal team was "considering a challenge" to keep the interview with Anderson Cooper from airing.
the rich asshole’s campaign rallies are officially a threat to public health
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A new study shows that violence spikes when the rich asshole comes to town.
the rich asshole’s violent rhetoric on the campaign trail breeds real-life violence, leading to a spike in assaults wherever the rich asshole makes an appearance.
That’s the conclusion of a new study, which found that cities experienced an increase in assaults on days when they hosted a rich asshole campaign rally. There was no corresponding link between the incidence of violence and rallies for Hillary Clinton.
“It appeared to be a phenomenon that’s unique to some rich asshole’s rally,” said Christopher Morrison, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and lead author of the study.
The study, published in the journal Epidemiology, looked at data on assaults surrounding 31 rallies in 22 cities for the rich asshole, and 38 rallies in 21 cities for Clinton.
Comparing the number of assaults on the day of the rally to the number on the corresponding day of the week for the four weeks before and after the rally, the researchers found that cities had an average of 2.3 more assaults on the day of a the rich asshole campaign rally than on a typical day.
The association between the rich asshole’s rallies and increased violence remained significant even after controlling for factors such as population size, day of the week, and weather conditions.
“This research provides evidence that this increase in assaults is associated with candidate the rich asshole’s rallies leading up to the election,” said co-author Dr. Douglas Wiebe.
“In order to prevent the threats to public health due to violence, it is important to understand the underlying motivations and etiologies of violent behavior,” the study authors wrote.
While the research is based on rallies during the 2016 presidential election, the findings take on new meaning as the rich asshole prepares to hit the campaign trail ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
As the researchers noted, violence was a common occurrence at the rich asshole’s rallies.
In March 2016 alone, a the rich asshole campaign rally in Chicago was canceled after violent clashes broke out, and anti-the rich asshole protesters were assaulted at rallies in North Carolina and Arizona. In the Arizona incident, the rich asshole had singled out the protester — calling him a “disgusting guy” — before he was punched and kicked while being escorted out of the rally.
At the same Arizona rally, Corey Lewandowski, the rich asshole’s campaign manager at the time, was caught on video grabbing the collar of a protester and yanking him backwards.
Many of the violent incidents at the rich asshole’s rallies involved racial slurs being hurled at protesters by the rich asshole supporters.
Reporters and photographers were also threatened and physically assaulted at multiple rallies.
In March 2016, Lewandowski “forcibly” grabbed a female Breitbart reporter, “nearly bringing her down to the ground,” when she attempted to ask a question at a campaign event in Florida. The month before that, an acclaimed photographer for Time magazine was body-slammed by a secret service agent as he tried to take pictures of protesters at a the rich asshole rally in Virginia.
Members of the press publicly expressed their fear about the increasing hostility they faced at the rich asshole rallies. Eventually, it got so bad that reporters had to be escorted by security when they covered the events.
But as the new study found, violent incidents also occurred elsewhere in the cities where rallies were held. The researchers suggested that the rich asshole’s violent rhetoric, which was widely covered on television and social media, may have contributed to the spread of violence.
“Violent language may have affected the mood and behavior of rally attendees, as well as those exposed to the rally through news reports and social media,” said Dr. Wiebe.
On stage at events, the rich asshole often egged on his supporters and encouraged the use of violence. At one point, he even promised to pay legal fees for anyone who “knock[ed] the crap out of” protesters. He later said that he was looking into paying the legal fees for a supporter who was caught on video sucker-punching a protester during a rally.
the rich asshole also expressed nostalgia for the “old days” when protestors would be “carried out on a stretcher,” and suggested at one rally that a protester “should have been roughed up.” In November 2016, the rich asshole singled out a protester at a rally and told the crowd that he would “like to punch him in the face.”
Throughout all of this, surrogates for the rich asshole defended and even applauded the assaults on protesters.
With the 2018 midterms approaching, the rich asshole is planning to take to the campaign trail on behalf of Republican candidates — and if his recent rally for defeated GOP candidate Rick Saccone is any indication, the rhetoric will be just as heated as it was during the 2016 campaign.
And now we know that the rich asshole’s unhinged rants are not just politically toxic — they’re also toxic to our nation’s health.
the rich asshole accusers back Stormy Daniels: 'I am sure she is telling the truth'
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 03/16/18 04:36 PM EDT
Some of the nearly 20 women who have accused President the rich asshole of sexual misconduct are coming forward to praise adult film star Stormy Daniels, saying her fight to speak out about an alleged affair with the rich asshole helps to solidify their own claims.
Multiple the rich asshole accusers told People Magazine that they support Daniels’s legal battle to be able to talk.
“I am sure she is telling the truth, I think she is brave to do it and the more women who come forward the better,” one accuser told the magazine, speaking on condition of anonymity because of threats she's received.
“Although that affair with Stormy was consensual, it was tawdry because he was married and had an infant and because she is a porn star,” she said. “I am grateful she’s trying to talk because it shows what type of man he is, for the proof of it.”
Daniels, who says her relationship with the real estate mogul occurred shortly after his marriage to now-first lady Melania the rich asshole in 2005, was paid $130,000 by the rich asshole's personal attorney Michael Cohen just weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
The payment came shortly after the release of the rich asshole's infamous "Access Hollywood" tape, in which he bragged about kissing and fondling women without their consent.
More than a dozen women came forward during the rich asshole’s presidential campaign to accuse him of sexual misconduct. He and the White House have denied all of the allegations.
"His supporters don't care," Jessica Leeds, who says the rich asshole groped her on an airplane in the early 1980s, tells People. "They knew all along and accepted the fact. I don’t think it will change anyone’s opinion, even if she wins her suit."
Another accuser, Natasha Stoynoff, said she Googles Daniels’s name every morning.
“Let’s just say that all week I’ve been envisioning her as Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ come December,” said Stoynoff, who claims that the rich asshole assaulted her while she was interviewing him for a profile for People in 2005.
“I’m cheering her on! She’s got a lot of guts and like many women, I trust she’s had enough of his lies,” Stoynoff continued. “Here’s hoping she puts an end to them once and for all for the sake of country.”
“I think I have more respect for her than for our president,” one accuser told People. “I never thought I’d be rooting for a porn star. I think it’s a more honest way to make a living than what he’s doing.”
Daniels is suing the rich asshole to void a nondisclosure agreement blocking her from speaking out about the alleged affair. She said the deal is void because the rich asshole never signed it himself.
Daniels's lawyer has stated that the adult film star, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is free to discuss the alleged affair because Cohen confirmed the payment, breaking the agreement.
"60 Minutes" is expected to air a highly anticipated interview with Daniels later this month.
Kelly tells White House staff no more personnel changes coming
BY JONATHAN EASLEY - 03/16/18 04:01 PM EDT
Chief of staff John Kelly briefed White House staff on Friday to reassure them that there will be no more dismissals at this time, according to a White House official.
The White House is looking to tamp down the frenzy in Washington over speculation about a staff overhaul after President the rich asshole’s abrupt firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and a number of other departures sent the rumor mill into overdrive.
“The chief of staff actually spoke to a number of staff this morning, reassuring them that there were no immediate personnel changes at this time and that people shouldn’t be concerned, that we should do exactly what we do everyday, and that’s come to work and do the best job we can,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “That’s exactly what we’re doing and exactly what we’re focused on.”
Sanders said she met personally with others who weren’t in the meeting to tell them the same.
The Washington Post reported late Thursday that the rich asshole has decided to remove national security adviser H.R. McMaster. The report said the White House is looking for a soft landing spot for the three-star general, and potentially some place where he could continue his military career and earn a fourth star.
The White House disputed that report, with Sanders saying she spoke directly to the rich asshole and relayed to McMaster that the president is not planning any changes to his National Security Council.
“The president said that it was not accurate and he had no intention of changing and that they have a great working relationship and he looked forward to continuing to work with him,” Sanders said.
“Our focus is not on a lot of the news stories you would like us to be focused on,” she told reporters. “We're actually focused on what the American people want us to do. That's to come here, to do our jobs. General McMaster is a dedicated public servant and he is here not focused on the news stories that many of you are writing but on some really big issues, things like North Korea, Russia, Iran. That's what he's doing. And that's what we'll continue to be focused on every single day we show up for work.”
There has also been speculation that the rich asshole could fire one of his embattled Cabinet secretaries, either David Shulkin at the Department of Veterans Affairs or Ben Carson at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Both are dealing with accusations that they misused taxpayer funds.
Others have speculated that Kelly himself could be on the way out or that the president might have reached the end of the line with his attorney general, Jeff Sessions.
The president’s own words have contributed to the frenzy of speculation.
“There will always be change, and I think you want to see change,” the rich asshole said Thursday.
Those remarks mirrored a statement the president made after removing Tillerson from State on Monday. the rich asshole said he’s “getting very close” to having the Cabinet and advisers he wants.
Sanders said Friday that the president was talking about a desire to get CIA Director Mike Pompeo quickly confirmed to replace Tillerson at State. CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel, who has been nominated to replace Pompeo as CIA director, will also need to be confirmed by the Senate.
“He nominated two new people to be part of his Cabinet, we are getting close,” Sanders said. “We would like those two individuals to be quickly confirmed and put through that process so they can take a seat at the table and continue to engage with the president on big issues that actually matter to the American people.”
The White House has been racked by turnover in recent weeks.
National economic adviser Gary Cohn has stepped down. the rich asshole has tapped economist and television personality Larry Kudlow, who is also an opinion contributor for The Hill, to replace him and the White House is hopeful he can start this month.
Communications director Hope Hicks, who has been with the rich asshole since the start of the campaign, is also leaving, as are a handful of other high-level aides, including Josh Raffel and Reed Cordish.
Several others have been forced out. Former staff secretary Rob Porter resigned after his ex-wives accused him of spousal abuse.
The Porter incident ignited a controversy over the security clearances process within the White House that led to a slew of departures. Most recently, the rich asshole’s personal assistant Johnny McEntee left the White House to join the campaign after a background check turned up red flags that cost him his security clearance.
Fox News hosts go to war with the one Fox host who tells the truth
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Fox News is melting down over Shepard Smith.
He might have just signed a new, multi-year contract, but anchor Shephard Smith may still be the least liked person in the Fox News cafeteria. And now a food fight has broken out in public, with Fox hosts launching insults at each other.
Smith’s long-running sin is that his afternoon program is not only based in fact, which makes it a Fox New anomaly, but Smith has lately been telling the truth about the channel’s fact-free the rich asshole cheerleaders.
“We serve different masters,” Smith told Time magazine, when discussing Fox News’ primetime lineup for right-wing talkers. “We work for different reporting chains, we have different rules. They don’t really have rules on the opinion side. They can say whatever they want. If it’s their opinion.”
“I don’t really watch a lot of opinion programming. I’m busy,” he added. “I’ve always said that I thought politics in America was weird and creepy, and lacked a connection to reality.”
On Friday, Fox News’ the rich asshole cheering section fired back, with Sean Hannity attacking Smith as “clueless”:
While Shep is a friend with political views I do not share, and great at breaking news, he is clueless about what we do every day. Hannity breaks news daily-Warrant on a Trump assoc, the unmasking scandal, leaking intel, Fisa abuse, HRC lawbreaking, dossier and more REAL NEWS! 9p twitter.com/thehill/status…
Shep Smith @shepnewsteam is greatest living breaking TV news anchor. @seanhannity is nation's most powerful political commentator But he's become Best Sourced most effective journalist probing #RussiaGate breaking more Legit News than most investigators including #WAPO & #NYTimes
And:
Always liked Shep, but his comments were inconsiderate & inaccurate. The hard working team at the Ingraham Angle does real reporting, develops impt sources and scores big interviews. Very proud of them. twitter.com/thehill/status…
No word yet from Tucker Carlson, who was clearly a target of Smith’s slights about the rule-free hosts at night on Fox News.
Hannity, Ingraham, and Rivera all cling to the delusional idea that Fox News’ partisan hosts double as super sleuths who dig up fresh news via gumshoeing.
They don’t. They push garbage conspiracies for a living.
Just this week, the family of Seth Rich filed a lawsuit against Fox News exploited and desecrated the memory of their son for partisan gain. Hannity was out front in marketing a ghoulish storyline that turned a young murder victim into a star player in a fantasy scheme connecting the DNC to Wikileaks.
Because Smith most often deals in facts, he represents an outlier at Fox News. And he seems to relish his role of lonely truth teller at the channel.
He’s made headlines this year knocking down White House spin about the Russia investigation being a “hoax.” He also loudly bemoaned the fact that politicians (read: Republicans) can’t step up to the NRA and address the country’s gun violence epidemic.
Deciding whether he was going to resign with Fox News, Smith told Time he worried about what would air in his absence if he left.
“And I wonder, if I stopped delivering the facts, what would go in its place in this place that is most watched, most listened, most viewed, most trusted? I don’t know.”
the rich asshole told advisers Kelly's job is '100% safe': report
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 03/16/18 10:38 AM EDT
President the rich asshole has reportedly told advisers that White House chief of staff John Kelly's job is "100 percent safe," amid fears that the retired Marine general could be the latest to leave the administration amid a series of high-profile firings and resignations.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the rich asshole and Kelly met Thursday, where they patched up a rift that emerged earlier this week when the president abruptly fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a tweet.
Kelly was reportedly taken aback by the rich asshole's treatment of Tillerson, and aides worried that he would push the issue with the president, the Journal reported.
Staff secretary Rob Porter, communications director Hope Hicks and John McEntee, the rich asshole's personal assistant, are among the White House staffers who have left the administration in the last six weeks alone.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the Journal in a statement that "Kelly is not going anywhere."
Kelly and the rich asshole are known to clash at times, but the president has repeatedly expressed confidence in his chief of staff, telling a gathering of Marines in San Diego this week that Kelly is "doing a great job."
"He likes what you do better than what he does," the rich asshole said. "But he’s doing a great job. He misses you."
the rich asshole raised eyebrows on Tuesday when he unexpectedly announced in a tweet that he had fired Tillerson and tapped CIA Director Mike Pompeo as his next secretary of State.
The White House said Tillerson had been given a heads-up about the news days earlier. But a statement issued by Steven Goldstein, the undersecretary of State for public diplomacy, said that Tillerson learned the news from the president's tweet.
Goldstein was fired shortly after that for contradicting the official White House account of Tillerson's ouster.
The Washington Post reported Thursday evening that the rich asshole is currently looking at potential replacements for national security adviser H.R. McMaster.
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March 16, 2018
White House chief of staff John Kelly says HUD secretary Ben Carson is justified in using tax dollars to spend $31,000 on a dining set.
The rich asshole administration is defending HUD Secretary Ben Carson for spending more on furniture for his office than many American families earn in a year.
Carson is under fire for spending $31,000 on a dining set. His spokesperson originally denied that Carson knew about the purchase, and Carson later made an attempt to cancel it, but emails revealed that he and his wife, Candy Carson, were the ones who picked out the furniture.
Now White House chief of staff John Kelly is brushing off the huge waste of tax dollars.
In comments to reporters, Kelly minimized the five-figure expense.
“Kelly said $31,000 sounds like a lot of money,” Axios reports. “But to put it in context he asked a reporter how much they think the chair they’re sitting on costs.” Apparently White House furniture costs much more than any of us could guess.
Kelly further rationalized the cost “by saying the table could last for 80 or 100 years.”
To put the cost in perspective, the federal government considers a family of four living on $25,100 a year to be living in poverty. Carson’s dining set cost nearly $6,000 more than that.
The members of the rich asshole’s Cabinet, following in the footsteps of the rich asshole himself — his Thanksgiving golfing vacation at his Florida resort cost approximately $3 million — have turned the federal government into the funding source for their luxury.
Several members of the administration have been caught using taxpayer dollars for expensive office renovations, helicopter rides, and private plane travel. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin spent $1 million of taxpayer money on eight trips in 2017, traveling on military aircraft instead of flying commercially.
EPA administrator Scott Pruitt has been flying first class, claiming it’s for his “security.” The supposed security threat? Americans have been confronting Pruitt and criticizing his policies. One example provided by his office to justify the tens of thousands of dollars in first-class travel was someone who approached Pruitt in an airport and said, “Scott Pruitt, you’re f—ing up the environment.”
Now, apparently, an expensive dining table and chairs is also a worthwhile expense to force on taxpayers.
The the rich asshole administration is running wild, racking up miles and furniture bills at a ridiculous rate. And when they are caught in the act, key figures like Kelly are simply waving off taxpayer concerns.
They learned it by watching the rich asshole.
John Kelly said $31,000 isn’t all that much for a table if you think about it, according to report
Meanwhile the Department of Housing and Urban Development faces massive budget cuts.
President some rich asshole’s chief of staff, General John Kelly, reportedly defended an extravagant expense made by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson.
Carson recently directed HUD to use some of the agency’s funds to purchase a $31,000 dining set for a rarely-used formal space in his office. As Axios’ Jonathan Swan reported following an off-the-record session with reporters:
“Kelly said $31,000 sounds like a lot of money, but to put it in context he asked a reporter how much they think the chair they’re sitting on costs. Kelly said it’s probably worth hundreds of dollars but it will last a long time. He rationalized Carson’s $31,000 outlay by saying the table could last for 80 or 100 years.”
When asked if there were any plans to fire Carson, Kelly remarked that he takes these kinds of decisions seriously. Reporters meeting with Kelly were left with the impression that Carson would not be fired. Kelly himself is reportedly on the way out, according to some White House sources.
When news of the expensive dining set first broke, both Carson and his wife Candy denied having any involvement in choosing the table and claimed they were surprised to learn of its cost. Newly released emails first reported by CNN, however, show the Carsons actually selected the furniture themselves.
According to CNN’s report, “an August email from a career administration staffer, with the subject line ‘Secretary’s dining room set needed,’ to Carson’s assistant refers to ‘printouts of the furniture the Secretary and Mrs. Carson picked out.’” The emails do not indicate that Carson expressed concern about the dining set’s cost, or made moves to cancel the order until news of the price broke.
Carson didn’t just want an expensive dining table, however. The emails also revealed Carson asked his staff about the legality of using HUD funds to commission a $25,000 portrait. The New York Times notes there are no portraits of Carson’s predecessors in the HUD office. Carson already has a portrait of himself at his home, posed next to rendering of Jesus Christ, no less.
The HUD secretary’s extravagant expense comes at a time when the agency is making severe cuts to affordable housing programs. Carson supports the rich asshole’s budget proposal, which includes cuts to the HUD budget, Carson claims the cuts will move “people toward self-sufficiency.”
This would not be the first out-of-touch mishap to occur in the rich asshole cabinet. Former chief economic adviser Gary Cohn famously said that families would be able to use the $1,000 saved from the rich asshole tax bill to renovate their kitchen or buy a new car.
Cabinet members like EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Secretary of Veteran Affairs David Shulkin have come under fire in recent weeks for using taxpayer dollars to fund their lavish purchases. Pruitt installed a $43,000 sound-proof phone booth in his office while Shulkin had his staff alter an email to justify expenses from his wife’s trip to Europe totaling $4,300.
the rich asshole attorney Michael Cohen scrambles to ‘reclaim control’ of Stormy Daniels case — and brings in a new lawyer
President some rich asshole's personal attorney Michael Cohen inside the gilded foyer of the rich asshole Tower. Image via Bryan R. Smith/AFP.
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President some rich asshole’s personal attorney Michael Cohen has filed to move his lawsuit brought by adult film actress Stormy Daniels from state to federal court.
The New York Times‘ Maggie Haberman tweeted filings on Friday evening that show Cohen filing for the removal from state to federal court, as well as their motion to bring on lawyer Charles Harder.
As the Times‘ Jim Rutenberg noted, the motion marks the first time the rich asshole has formally joined the legal battle against the actress he claimed, through his lawyer, to never have had relations with.
BREAKING, Trump legal team seeks to move Stormy Daniels suit into federal court, Trump formally joins legal wrangling twitter.com/maggieNYT/stat…
Cohen and team are filing a removal to federal court in LA from state court, latest move to reclaim control in battle with Stormy Daniels. Story TK. @MichaelCohen212
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