the rich asshole says McCabe memos don’t exist, unless they do, in which case they are ‘Fake Memos’
A thought from the nation's Commander-in-Tweets.
Former FBI director Andrew McCabe, who was fired by attorney general Jeff Sessions only 48 hours before McCabe was due to retire, kept “personal memos detailing interactions with President some rich asshole,” according to the Associated Press.
the rich asshole, who called McCabe’s firing “a great day for Democracy,” responded to reports of these memos in characteristic fashion, with a tweet:
“Can we call them Fake Memos?” the president (rhetorically?) asks his 49.2 million Twitter followers early Sunday morning. It remains to be seen if the special counsel’s office, which the AP reports has obtained these notes, will refer to the documents by the rich asshole’s moniker of choice.
the rich asshole claims that the memos — which for the purposes of this hypothetical do exist, though again the rich asshole doubts their very existence; do with that brain-teaser what you will — were made only to “help [McCabe’s] own agenda, probably at a later date.”
The AP reports that the McCabe memos “are similar to the notes compiled by dismissed FBI chief James Comey. They could factor into the special counsel’s investigation into the rich asshole campaign ties to Russia.”
Sunday morning’s tweets come less than a day after the rich asshole tweeted that McCabe’s firing was politically motivated.
Trey Gowdy blisters the rich asshole’s attorney for making him look guilty: ‘If you have an innocent client then act like it’
Trey Gowdy speaks to Fox News (screen grab)
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Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) on Sunday blasted President some rich asshole’s lawyer for calling for an end to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
In a statement over the weekend, the rich asshole attorney John Dowd said that Mueller should end his 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 opined.
Gowdy told Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday that the statement makes the rich asshole look guilty.
“The president’s attorney frankly does him a disservice when he says that and when he frames the investigation that way,” Gowdy explained. “If you look at the jurisdiction for Robert Mueller — first and foremost, what did Russia do to this country in 2016. That is supremely important and it has nothing to do with collusion.”
“If you have an innocent client, Mr. Dowd, act like,” the South Carolina Republican added.
Gowdy, who is chairman of the House Oversight Committee, also said that there was little he could do if the rich asshole decides to fire Mueller or Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“I hope that’s not what’s happening,” Gowdy remarked. “I’m not sure the House can do a lot. We don’t have advise and consent. I think the president is going to have a really difficult time nominating and having approved another attorney general. It’s going to be a very, very, long, bad 2018.”
Watch the video below from Fox News.
White House aides ‘whisk the rich asshole to a golf course’ after Sunday morning Twitter meltdown: report
An image of Pres. some rich asshole playing golf (Twitter.com)
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White House staffers reportedly attempted to short circuit President some rich asshole’s Sunday morning Twitter tirade by taking him golfing.
In a tweet storm on Sunday, the rich asshole mocked former FBI officials James Comey and Andrew McCabe. And he suggested that he was nervous over so-called “fake memos” that McCabe wrote about interactions with the president. the rich asshole also complained that special counsel Robert Mueller was allegedly refusing to hire Republicans.
The president said the impetus for at least one of the tweets came from his favorite morning show Fox & Friends.
After the rich asshole fired off three tweets in quick succession, his aides decided to take action, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.
“Aides have decided to whisk the rich asshole to a golf course today,” she wrote, later adding: “Feels a bit cold for golf. But fewer TVs there.”
Feels a bit cold for golf. But fewer TVs there twitter.com/tara_mckelvey/…
McCabe’s Lawyer Uses Twitter For The First Time And Unleashes Hell On some rich asshole
After former reality show star some rich asshole lashed out again at ex-Deputy Directory Andrew McCabe (pictured) after his Attorney General fired him just a day before he was to receive his pension, Michael Bromwich, McCabe’s attorney responded in a statement and on Twitter.
This is the first time Bromwich has ever tweeted.
“I have been involved in DOJ and FBI disciplinary matters since 1994,” he wrote on Twitter. “I have never before seen the type of rush to judgment – and rush to summary punishment – that we have witnessed in the case of Andy McCabe.”
I have been involved in DOJ and FBI disciplinary matters since 1994. I have never before seen the type of rush to judgment – and rush to summary punishment – that we have witnessed in the case of Andy McCabe: bit.ly/2FZB1tH
“We will not be responding to each childish, defamatory, disgusting & false tweet by the President,” he continued. “The whole truth will come out in due course. But the tweets confirm that he has corrupted the entire process that led to Mr. McCabe’s termination and has rendered it illegitimate.”
In a statement, he called the rush to judgment “deplorable.”
“The result of this deplorable rush to judgment is to terminate Mr. McCabe before his long-anticipated retirement and deny him of the full pension and retirement benefits he would have otherwise earned through his 21 years of devoted service to the FBI and this country,” he said.
“This distortion of the process begins at the very top, with the President’s repeated offensive, drive-by Twitter attacks on Mr. McCabe,” he continued. “These attacks began in the summer of 2017 and accelerated after it was disclosed that Mr. McCabe would be a corroborating witness against the President.”
“This concerted effort to accelerate the process in order to beat the ticking clock of his scheduled retirement violates any sense of decency and basic principles of fairness,” he added. “It should make all federal government employees, who continue to work in an Administration that insults, debases, and abuses them, shudder in the knowledge that they could be next.”
GOP head of Russia probe asks Jesus Christ to forgive him for appearing on Chuck Todd’s program
Mike Conaway speaks to Chuck Todd (NBC/screen grab)
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Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX), who was in charge of the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation, told NBC host Chuck Todd on Sunday that he needed Jesus Christ’s forgiveness for appearing on his program.
During an interview on Meet the Press, Todd quizzed Conaway about why his committee would close the investigation without interviewing key members of the rich asshole campaign who were possibly in contact with Russia.
“I hope the Democrats will fold in whatever it is they want to put into the report,” Conaway said. “They’ll disagree with us on whether or not we found evidence of collusion and they can have that section written in there differently. So, we’ll have one report that will answer much of the questions that we wanted to.”
“The collusion issue, we found no evidence of it,” he added. “The Democrats think they have. They’ve not shared that with us if they have. I’ve shared all of my evidence we’ve got with them. But if they’ve got evidence of collusion, they haven’t shared it with us.”
Todd concluded the interview by hoping Conaway’s pastor would forgive him for doing the interview instead of attending church.
“I don’t need my pastor’s forgiveness,” Conaway replied. “I need Jesus Christ’s forgiveness.”
Watch the video below from NBC.
POLITICS
Democrats Flood Andrew McCabe With Federal Job Offers To Save His Pension
The former FBI deputy director was fired two days before he was set to retire with his pension.
Democrats in Congress may have found a way to save former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s government pension, despite Attorney General Jeff Sessions firing him two days before he could qualify for it.
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) on Saturday extended a federal job offer to McCabe, who has worked for the FBI for 21 years. Pocan wants McCabe to work with his office on election security.
Should McCabe accept the offer, Pocan said in a statement it would allow the former FBI official to reach the length of service he needs to retire and collect his pension, estimated at $60,000 a year.
Andrew call me. I could use a good two-day report on the biggest crime families in Washington, D.C. twitter.com/mitchellreport…
The congressman claims Sessions’ ousting of McCabe proves that President some rich asshole and his administration are working to “discredit the FBI and undermine” Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether the rich asshole’s presidential campaign colluded with Russia.
“While Speaker Ryan and House Republicans have become complicit in the President’s destruction of our democracy, we must do all that we can to ensure that the investigation into Russia’s interference in our election is completed and that future elections are safeguarded from these kinds of attacks,” Pocan said.
Sessions ousted McCabe on Friday after the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility recommended he be fired for his alleged lack of candor during an internal review of how the FBI and Justice Department handled an investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
While the rich asshole has accused McCabe of having a political bias in favor of Hillary Clinton, the Justice Department’s internal review reportedly says McCabe authorized a discussion between FBI officials and a Wall Street Journal reporter for an Oct. 30, 2016 story, which included details damaging to Clinton’s presidential campaign.
McCabe abruptly announced he was leaving the FBI in January, amid the Justice Department’s internal investigation. He was using accrued leave to stay on the FBI’s payroll until his retirement date on Sunday, his 50th birthday.
In a statement on Saturday, Pocan called his proposal to McCabe “a legitimate offer, adding: “Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of American democracy and both Republicans and Democrats should be concerned about election integrity.”
The offer came in response to a tweet from NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell, who suggested that a “friendly member of Congress” hire McCabe so he could “qualify for pension benefits by extending his service the extra days.”
Other congress members have followed suit.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) offered McCabe a position in his office as special senior staff attorney assisting the House Judiciary Committee, while Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) told McCabe to call him on Monday for a federal job.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) also told the Boston Globe he’d consider hiring the former FBI official.
A former federal official familiar with retirement rules told the Washington Post that McCabe’s federal job offers, even if the roles only last a few days, could save his pension benefits.
McCabe’s spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz told the Post that McCabe is considering all options.
What a vicious and terrible thing to do to a man who devoted 21 years of service to this country. Trump is purging people who refuse to put the President's politics ahead of the people's interests. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
Andrew McCabe: I have the need to hire a Special Senior Staff Attorney to help me with my work on the House Judiciary Committee dealing with threats to the Constitution and the rule of law in America. You're perfect for the job. DM me.
To Andrew McCabe: If you need a federal job, call me on Monday. I am serious. We have to stand up to bullies like @realDonaldTrump & @jeffsessions @USAGSessions #Resist #twill #AndrewMcCabeFired #standuptobullies #chicago @Comey
McCabe, a lifelong Republican, has been a frequent target of the rich asshole’s scrutiny.
In 2016, the rich asshole reportedly called McCabe into his office for a meeting, then asked him which candidate he voted for in the presidential election, according to the Washington Post. Former and current U.S. officials told the Post the conversation between the rich asshole and McCabe is of interest to Mueller and his investigation.
In an apparent attack on McCabe’s leading role in the FBI’s investigation into the Clinton Foundation, the rich asshole also publicly speculated that McCabe’s wife Jill McCabe, a Democrat, received money from “Clinton Puppets,” during her unsuccessful 2015 run for a Virginia state Senate seat.
the rich asshole was apparently referencing a donation of up to $675,000 from Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s political action committee, though the donation was made before McCabe was promoted to deputy director.
The president has also criticized McCabe’s oversight of the FBI’s Clinton investigations and even mocked his retirement plans.
In response to his firing, McCabe said the Justice Department’s internal investigation “has to be understood in the context of the attacks on my credibility.”
McCabe continued:
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.
WATCH: CNN trolls Melania’s upcoming ‘cyberbullying summit’ with a list of insults the rich asshole uses on Twitter
CNN insult screenshot
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A CNN segment that began by praising First Lady Melania the rich asshole’s upcoming “cyberbullying summit” with tech leaders took a darker turn when New Day hosts Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul shared a list of insults and slurs her husband regularly uses on Twitter.
“Next week, First Lady Melania the rich asshole is hosting a gathering at the White House where she will speak with social media executives about helping to prevent cyberbullying and expected to talk to them what they have done to combat online harassment,” host Paul began.
Introducing Kate Bennett, the CNN correspondent claimed the first lady has mostly kept a low profile since the revelations about the rich asshole and porn star Stormy Daniels overwhelmed the news, so her summit is a “coming out” for her.
Host Paul then interrupted that narrative to talk about cyberbullying and used President some rich asshole’s tweets as exhibit A.
“Let’s take a look at a list here that has been compiled by Victor doing his research of insults that the president has used via Twitter,” Paul said as the onscreen graphic showed an extensive list of insults the rich asshole has deployed at his foes. “It goes on and on. With that said, people — a lot of people view him as being guilty of online bullying. What is Melania’s the rich asshole influence at this meeting given what we see from her husband?”
“Melania the rich asshole’s office has said to me, when I asked about her about her tackling a topic of cyberbullying is flying in the face of her husband, and her office says she doesn’t care,” Bennett replied. “Nothing about what she is doing that really is cohesive with the president in terms of her messaging and that is fine with her as she is independent.”
Watch the video below via CNN:
WATCH: Kate McKinnon absolutely kills it playing a clueless Betsy DeVos on SNL’s Weekend Update
Kate McKinnon as Betsy Devos (Screenshot/SNL)
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Saturday Night Live lampooned Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos following her trainwreck interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
SNL’s Kate McKinnon played DeVos on the show’s Weekend Update, where she attempted to explain why the interview went so poorly.
“I think the problem is that the words that were coming out of my mouth were bad, and that is because they came from my brain,” she remarked.
Watch video below:
RUSSIA
· Mar 17, 2018
North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is the “little rocket man” who will face “fire and fury” if he doesn’t back down, some rich asshole says. Germany is a “total mess” and its chancellor, Angela Merkel, has “ruined” the country, according to the president. Iran “is playing with fire — they don’t appreciate how ‘kind’ President Obama was to them. Not me!” the rich asshole warns. The president has ripped into others, too, including Australian leader Malcolm Turnbull and Britian’s Theresa May. But there’s one world leader he only pussyfoots around: Vladimir Putin.
British authorities have concluded that the Kremlin is to blame for the recent poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal on British soil. The British government has expelled 23 Russian diplomats in response to the attack, which was carried out with a military nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union.
the rich asshole finally mustered up the gumption to say “it looks like” the Russians were to blame, and called the situation “very sad.”
The Skripal incident is only the latest in a long line of vicious attacks against those who stand up to Putin:
- Alexander Litvinenko died of polonium poisoning.
- Alexander Perepilichny, another Putin critic, died under suspicious circumstances in 2012. Traces of gelsemium, a favorite of assassins, were found in his system.
- Ukraine’s Viktor Yushchenko was horribly disfigured after ingesting huge amounts of dioxin.
- Russian lawyer Nikolai Gorokhov, a witness for the U.S. in a criminal investigation, died after he “fell” out of a fourth-floor window.
- Sergei Magnitsky, an anti-corruption lawyer, was beaten to death in a Moscow prison. The Russian government put him on trial for tax evasion — after he died.
There’s no doubt that Putin is a murderous thug and a threat to international peace and security. Or that Russia tried to meddle in America’s 2016 presidential election. (On Thursday, the White House finally announced sanctions Congress mandated several months ago as a response to that interference.) Or that it has tried to meddle in the elections of American allies. Or that it has hacked into the U.S. power grid. Or that it was behind the NotPetya cyber-attack — the most expensive in history — on the U.S. and its allies.
President the rich asshole has ripped the head off other foreign leaders (figuratively speaking) for far less. Yet when it comes to Putin he is as meek as a mouse. Which raises an obvious question: What’s he afraid of?
The Coming Shellacking
the rich asshole is dragging the Republican party down with him.
Two years ago some rich asshole hijacked the Republican party. Now it’s time to think about what steps might have to be taken to regain control of it.
The tocsin of doom that sounded this week in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District could hardly have been more clear in its meaning: This November the GOP is headed for a mega-shellacking with a side order of drubbing sauce. The fault for this lies almost solely with President the rich asshole. Losing the House looks like a foregone conclusion. Losing the Senate, while unlikely, no longer appears unthinkable. After the Democrats take the House, they will be implacably opposed to making deals, and would we want those anyway? Legislatively, President the rich asshole will be finished. Getting appointments through the Senate won’t be easy.
A reasonably normal Republican president could, at this stage, count on holding the House with ease and expect to pick up three or more Senate seats this fall. the rich asshole can boast that under his watch, ISIS has been all but defeated, domestic or foreign policy crises are absent, the stock market has hit one high after another, unemployment has come down sharply from an already low level, and even crime is falling. And let’s not forget that thanks to El Presidente there were no commercial aviation fatalities last year.
So what? say the voters in PA-18, a district the rich asshole won by 20 points, where the Republican candidate Rick Saccone had no major defects (and the Democratic winner Conor Lamb can be expected to vote with Nancy Pelosi on nearly all occasions) and where the rich asshole’s economically illiterate faith in tariffs is popular. Saccone lost the district anyway. To borrow language from the anthem of the rich asshole’s hometown, if the GOP can’t make it there, it can’t make it anywhere. It’s because of the rich asshole that the (R) next to Saccone’s name was too great a burden to overcome.
The behavior of the president shouldn’t be all that salient to, say, the candidacies of Democrats who ran and won in the Virginia House of Delegates. But voters can’t be counted on to be rational. There’s essentially only one issue on their minds this year: It’s the personality, stupid. The Chernobyl cloud of noxious presidential behavior is poisoning the party from coast to coast. That the rich asshole’s approval rating is hovering in the high 30s and (very) low 40s is gobsmacking enough considering the sunny economic news, but what’s really disturbing is that his supporters are so unenthused. PA-18 the rich asshole voters simply didn’t show up on Tuesday, yet he’s supplying the Democrats with a turnout motivator like no other.
You think he sounds erratic, angry, and frustrated now? How will he be when Congress becomes intransigent to his calls? It will almost certainly be the case that the incessant wobble that was 2017 goes down in the books as the rich asshole’s best year. As Ross Douthat argued in the New York Times, the rich asshole to this point has been largely contained by Washington as an institution. But the paper’s finest Trumpologist Maggie Haberman, who comprehends the president on a cellular level, notes in a tweet, “The narrative of the rich asshole unglued is not totally wrong but misses the reason why — he was terrified of the job the first six months, and now feels like he has a command of it. So now he is basically saying, ‘I’ve got this, I can make the changes I want.’”
How can any American read that without gulping? All presidents face crises. There’s bound to be an oil spill, a stock market crash, a major terrorist attack, a foreign-policy showdown. Is there any figure whose temperament is worse-suited to leading the nation through such a tense moment? As Douthat put it, the rich asshole Unbound we’re about to see will make it “more likely that we get more extreme and destabilizing outcomes, somewhere.”
After the November debacle, it’ll be smoke-filled-room time for the senior lawmakers and other grandees of Abraham Lincoln’s party. Although the rich asshole has made strong judicial appointments and signed a tax reform that is boosting the economy, his personality is interfering with his duties as a president, and the voters are right to notice this and take it seriously. How much longer can the GOP tolerate having a de facto party leader — much less a president — who recklessly taunts the North Koreans, brazenly makes up facts even when meeting with the leaders of other countries, picks silly fights with celebrities and television personalities and even his own cabinet members, is too impatient to read briefing books, and possesses the moral compass of a crocodile? I could go on, but this column is supposed to be 900 words, not 157,000.
A presidential candidate even marginally better at politics than Hillary Clinton would easily defeat the rich asshole in 2020, which also aligns as an extremely auspicious year for the Democrats in the Senate, presenting a high degree of likelihood that the Democrats will enjoy unchecked power in Washington. The party needs to think about how denying the rich asshole its nomination in 2020 might be a last-ditch tactic for heading off that catastrophic scenario, which could well lead to nationalized health care or some other debacle.
Surely the most vigorous of the rich asshole fans cannot help noticing that he is burning down everything around him. What good is a president who makes it impossible for the rest of his party? Even Tom Brady couldn’t win a game if he looked to his line and discovered there were only three teammates left. the rich asshole has a proven inability to help other Republican candidates get elected, and most will ask him not to try. The president is a cement jumpsuit that is dragging us all to the bottom.
KYLE SMITH — Kyle Smith is National Review’s critic-at-large. @rkylesmith
Schumer: 'Severe consequences' if the rich asshole moves to shut down Mueller probe
BY JOSH DELK - 03/17/18 03:14 PM EDT
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Saturday warned of "severe consequences" if President the rich asshole moves to shut down the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Schumer cited comments by the rich asshole's personal attorney John Dowd on Saturday asking the deputy attorney general to "bring an end" to the "fraudulent" investigation he claimed was constructed to undermine the president.
"The president, the administration, and his legal team must not take any steps to curtail, interfere with, or end the special counsel's investigation or there will be severe consequences from both Democrats and Republicans," Schumer said in a statement.
Dowd called on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to follow the "courageous example" of the FBI's internal watchdog that recommended former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe be fired. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced McCabe's firing on Friday.
The rich asshole attorney said in a statement obtained by The Hill that Rosenstein should "bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss [former FBI Director] James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt Dossier."
Schumer, who has defended special counsel Robert Mueller against the rich asshole's insistence that the federal probe is a "witch hunt," said Dowd's statement was "yet another indication that the first instinct of the president and his legal team is not to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, but to undermine him at every turn."
The top Senate Democrat previously called for Congress to unite in protecting Mueller from dismissal after it was reported the rich asshole had once ordered the special counsel to be fired.
POLITICS
James Comey Fires Back At the rich asshole, Vowing To Reveal Who’s ‘Honorable’ — And Who Isn’t
Former FBI director is about to bare his history with the president in a new book.
Former FBI director James Comey fired back at President some rich asshole Saturday, vowing that his upcoming revelations will allow the American people “to judge for themselves who is honorable — and who is not.”
Comey tweeted minutes after the president crowed again on Twitter about his Friday firing of FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who the president said was “caught.” the rich asshole added: “How many lies? How many leaks? Comey knew it all, and much more!”
the rich asshole later added:
The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!
McCabe was fired for his alleged lack of candor during an internal review of how the FBI and Justice Department handled an investigation into the Clinton Foundation. But the rich asshole also mentions McCabe’s wife in his earlier tweet. Jill McCabe, a Democrat who lost a state Senate race in Virginia in 2015, accepted $500,000 from the political action committee of then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (the rich asshole’s “Terry M”). McAuliffe is a longtime ally of Hillary Clinton (“Crooked H” in the rich asshole’s tweet).
Comey’s promised revelations are about to come out in his upcoming book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership, to be released April 17. He has already lined up speaking engagements and media appearances to discuss his history with the rich asshole.
Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating if the rich asshole campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election, also is looking into a possible obstruction of justice case against the rich asshole for firing Comey last May.
the rich asshole lawyer sought to bury Stormy Daniels allegations in 2011: report
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 03/17/18 07:59 PM EDT
President the rich asshole's personal lawyer Michael Cohen threatened the career of an agent who had arranged in 2011 for adult-film actress Stormy Daniels to come forward with her account of an alleged affair with the rich asshole.
The Washington Post reported Saturday that Cohen tried to contact the agent, Gina Rodriguez. But her now-ex-husband answered the call at the time.
"You tell Gina that if she ever wants to work in this town again, she’ll call me immediately,” the ex-husband, Randy Spears, recalled Cohen telling him, according to the Post.
Rodriguez had reportedly arranged for Daniels to publish her account of the alleged affair in a celebrity publication for $15,000.
Spears said that Rodriguez ultimately refused to take Cohen's call, and contacted her attorney.
Cohen's call to Rodriguez marked his first effort to bury the Daniels' allegations of an affair with the rich asshole.
The alleged affair has burst into the spotlight in recent weeks, after the Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen had paid Daniels $130,000 weeks before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels says that the payment was intended to buy her silence on the allegations.
That Cohen sought in 2011 to silence Daniels' allegations came as the rich asshole was said to be considering a potential 2012 presidential bid, though he ultimately backed away from a run that year.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, filed a lawsuit earlier this month to void a non-disclosure agreement that she says prevents her from speaking publicly about the alleged affair with the rich asshole more than a decade ago.
The White House has denied that the rich asshole had an affair with Daniels. The president accused Daniels in court papers filed Friday that she had repeatedly violated the non-disclosure agreement. He is seeking $20 million in damages.
Comey hits back after the rich asshole’s dig on Twitter
"The people will hear my story ... and judge for themselves"
some rich asshole, not one to resist kicking a man when he’s down, exulted on Twitter over the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. And for good measure, he also took a swipe at McCabe’s former boss James Comey, who the president had relieved of his duties several months ago.
In an early morning tweet on Saturday, the rich asshole derided Comey as “sanctimonious” and corrupt, as he appeared to revel in McCabe’s firing the previous evening by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
In another tweet later on Saturday, the rich asshole was equally gleeful, suggesting that McCabe and Comey were part of a Democratic plot involving his vanquished opponent in the 2016 presidential race, Hillary Clinton, whom he derided in the post as “Crooked H.”
Comey, as it turns out, was having none of it.
The former FBI director fired off a terse tweet of his own later on Saturday, in which he vowed to have plenty more to say “very soon.”
“Mr. President, the American people will hear my story very soon. And they can judge for themselves who is honorable and who is not,” Comey wrote.
Comey is at work on a book, titled A Higher Loyalty, due to be published in the next few weeks.
The work, with the subtitle Truth, Lies and Leadership, is expected to recount details about his relationship with the rich asshole, including events that led the president to fire him.
Comey has testified that the rich asshole sought to get rid of him after he refused to give the president an oath of “loyalty” as a criminal investigation into the rich asshole’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, gathered steam.
Sessions late Friday issued the statement announcing that McCabe had been sacked, claiming that the 21-year veteran of the bureau “lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.”
POLITICS
James Comey Fires Back At the rich asshole, Vowing To Reveal Who’s ‘Honorable’ — And Who Isn’t
Former FBI director is about to bare his history with the president in a new book.
Former FBI director James Comey fired back at President some rich asshole Saturday, vowing that his upcoming revelations will allow the American people “to judge for themselves who is honorable — and who is not.”
Comey tweeted minutes after the president crowed again on Twitter about his Friday firing of FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who the president said was “caught.” the rich asshole added: “How many lies? How many leaks? Comey knew it all, and much more!”
the rich asshole later added:
The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!
McCabe was fired for his alleged lack of candor during an internal review of how the FBI and Justice Department handled an investigation into the Clinton Foundation. But the rich asshole also mentions McCabe’s wife in his earlier tweet. Jill McCabe, a Democrat who lost a state Senate race in Virginia in 2015, accepted $500,000 from the political action committee of then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (the rich asshole’s “Terry M”). McAuliffe is a longtime ally of Hillary Clinton (“Crooked H” in the rich asshole’s tweet).
Comey’s promised revelations are about to come out in his upcoming book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership, to be released April 17. He has already lined up speaking engagements and media appearances to discuss his history with the rich asshole.
Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating if the rich asshole campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election, also is looking into a possible obstruction of justice case against the rich asshole for firing Comey last May.
the rich asshole’s lawyer reveals that McCabe was fired to discredit Mueller
John Dowd gives up the game.
In a statement sent to Daily Beast on Saturday morning, John Dowd, personal attorney for President the rich asshole, reacted to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ firing of former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe by calling for the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller.
“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.
By linking Mueller’s investigation with McCabe, Dowd confirmed a key claim in McCabe’s response to his termination — that Sessions’ move against him is really all about discrediting the Mueller investigation.
“The 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,” McCabe said. “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.”
As part of his investigation, Mueller is scrutinizing whether the rich asshole’s repeated and public efforts to meddle in the DOJ constitute obstruction of justice. The perception that the rich asshole forced his attorney general to fire a longtime FBI deputy in order to discredit a potential key witness in the investigation certainly doesn’t help the rich asshole or his attorneys make the case that the president did nothing wrong.
Dowd initially told the Daily Beast his statement spoke on behalf of the president “as his counsel.” But perhaps realizing that linking McCabe’s firing with the rich asshole’s desire to end the investigation into himself isn’t a great look, Dowd quickly walked it back.
According to the New York Times, “in a subsequent statement issued on Saturday morning by some rich asshole’s lawyers, Mr. Dowd backtracked from his earlier remarks, saying that he had been ‘speaking for myself, not the president.'”
White House may re-hire the rich asshole’s personal aide just days after firing him and ushering him out: report
John McEntee during his career as a trick-shot QB/Screenshot
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Less than a week ago, some rich asshole’s personal assistant John McEntee was abruptly fired and led out of the White House without his coat. The issue, according to a report from the Washington Post, was that McEntee has a high-dollar gambling habit—the sort of thing that was previously unimaginable among senior aides, it could pose a potential security risk.
the rich asshole immediately hired McEntee to work for his campaign. Now, a new report from Politico suggests the rich asshole may try to bring McEntee back to the White House. The report cites an anonymous source inside the White House who says that discussions about bringing McEntee back were brought up by chief of staff John Kelly during a staff meeting on Friday morning.
A second source said “aides said discussions about rehiring him are still in the early stages.”
Following his dismissal, McEntee’s profile was raised in the White House, with reporters diving into his career as a quarterback known for making showy throws. You can see his trick-shot tosses below.
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March 17, 2018
the rich asshole's lawyer accidentally bolstered a potential obstruction case by revealing that the rich asshole hopes the firing of Andrew McCabe will shut down the Russia probe.
If the rich asshole hoped the firing of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe on Friday would relieve some of the pressure from the ongoing Russia investigation, he was sorely mistaken.
Instead, the ouster of the career FBI official has left the rich asshole looking guiltier than ever — and his personal defense lawyer only made things worse Saturday when he slipped up and revealed that McCabe’s firing is directly linked to the Russia probe.
The circumstances of McCabe’s termination were suspicious from the very start. His ouster, which came barely 24 hours before he was set to retire, was described as unprecedented by one former FBI agent, while Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) said it suggests there were political motives involved.
But the timing is just the tip of the iceberg.
As one of only three people who can reportedly corroborate the circumstances surrounding the firing of former FBI Director James Comey — who testified under oath that the rich asshole pressured him to drop the Russia investigation before firing him — McCabe is considered a key witness in a potential obstruction of justice case against the rich asshole.
the rich asshole knows that Comey’s account could put him in grave legal jeopardy. He already fired Comey, and getting rid of McCabe under the pretenses that he was not forthcoming during an internal FBI investigation is a perfect way to try to discredit any future testimony he may offer.
And that’s exactly what the rich asshole appeared to be trying to do just two hours after it was announced that McCabe had been fired. In a tweet posted minutes after midnight Saturday, the rich asshole celebrated the ouster of McCabe and launched renewed attacks on the credibility of both Comey and McCabe.
“Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI – A great day for Democracy,” the rich asshole tweeted. “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!”
McCabe’s ouster also comes after an intense smear campaign, reportedly carried out under the direction of the rich asshole, targeting McCabe and two other top FBI officials. While the rich asshole and his allies have frequently engaged in coordinated attacks against the FBI and the officials who work there, the targets of this smear campaign were not chosen at random. Rather, they were the specific people who were most likely to testify against the rich asshole and corroborate Comey’s testimony.
Shortly after his firing was announced, McCabe seemed to confirm many of these suspicions, telling the New York Times that he believes he was fired as part of an effort to damage his credibility as a witness in Mueller’s investigation.
“The idea that I was dishonest is just wrong,” he told the Times, adding, “This is part of an effort to discredit me as a witness.”
Of course, the White House is doing its best to claim that McCabe was fired under proper circumstances — or at least it was, until Saturday morning, when the rich asshole’s personal lawyer cited the firing as a rationale for shutting down the Russia investigation.
John Dowd, who serves as the rich asshole’s personal defense lawyer, told The Daily Beast that he thinks Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should shut down the special counsel’s investigation. When he made the remarks, he said he was speaking in his capacity as the rich asshole’s lawyer — and even referred to the rich asshole’s tweet about McCabe’s firing.
Shortly after The Daily Beast published the report, Dowd appeared to realize his slip-up and tried to walk back his remarks, saying that he was acting in his personal capacity and not as the rich asshole’s lawyer.
Dowd’s comments confirmed what many had already believed — that the rich asshole views the firing of McCabe as a way to bring the Russia investigation to an end.
Jens David Ohlin, a vice dean at Cornell Law School and an expert on criminal law, told Business Insider that Dowd’s statement “basically confirms McCabe’s statement from last night: that McCabe’s 11th hour termination from the FBI was directly tied to the Russia investigation, for which McCabe is a crucial witness.”
“Dowd just confirmed it by connecting the two events and saying that Rosenstein should shut down the Russia investigation and ‘follow the brilliant and courageous example’ of AG Sessions,” Ohlin added.
Former DOJ official Matthew Miller had a similar reaction to Dowd’s comments. “Here it is, the point all of the attacks on law enforcement by the rich asshole, Nunes, Fox News and the rest have been inevitably building to,” Miller tweeted, referencing The Daily Beast report. “Red alert time.”
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that the remarks “are yet another indication that the first instinct of the president and his legal team is not to cooperate with Special Counsel Mueller, but to undermine him at every turn.”
The irony of this situation is that it appears that the rich asshole encouraged the firing of McCabe to protect himself from potentially damning testimony in an obstruction of justice case — but in doing so, he may have just sealed the case against himself.
Jeff Sessions’ stunningly dishonest rationale for firing Andrew McCabe
The AG wants employees to do as he says, not as he does.
In a Friday night statement announcing the firing of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, Attorney General Jeff Sessions claimed that the 21-year veteran of the bureau “lacked candor − including under oath − on multiple occasions.”
“The FBI expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity and accountability,” Sessions said. “I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately.”
That Sessions would cite an alleged lack of candor as a reason to fire McCabe just hours before the career FBI agent was to become eligible for his government pension is stunning, given his own repeated lack of candor during sworn testimony — dishonesty that led to Sessions recusing himself from the Russia investigation last year.
Not only was Sessions dishonest when he told senators during his confirmation hearing that he “did not have communications with the Russians,” but his explanations for why he met with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least twice during the 2016 presidential campaign kept shifting throughout 2017. During testimony last October, Sessions retreated all the way to merely denying “a continuing exchange of information” with Russian officials.
Now, the attorney general — who has repeatedly been publicly pressured by President the rich asshole to do more to stymie the rich asshole’s political enemies — wants the American public to believe he fired McCabe because he’s concerned about integrity.
A more likely motivation for McCabe’s firing was alluded to by President the rich asshole in a tweet responding to the news — one in which he tried to discredit McCabe and his former boss, Jim Comey.
“Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy,” the rich asshole tweeted. “He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!”
McCabe and Comey are key witnesses in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the rich asshole campaign for possible collusion with Russia and for possible obstruction of justice. As the New York Times details:
Mr. McCabe was among the first at the F.B.I. to scrutinize possible the rich asshole campaign ties to Russia. And he is a potential witness to the question of whether some rich asshole tried to obstruct justice. some rich asshole has taunted Mr. McCabe both publicly and privately, and Republican allies have cast him as the center of a “deep state” effort to undermine the the rich asshole presidency.As a witness, Mr. McCabe would be in a position to corroborate the testimony of the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, who kept contemporaneous notes on his conversations with some rich asshole. Mr. Comey said some rich asshole prodded him to publicly exonerate the president on the question of Russian collusion and encouraged him to shut down an investigation into his national security adviser.
In a statement, McCabe also linked his firing with the rich asshole’s ongoing efforts to discredit Mueller.
“The 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,” McCabe said. “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.”
While Sessions has the authority to fire McCabe, it’s clear that the rich asshole played a role. In a December tweet containing numerous factual inaccuracies, the rich asshole attacked McCabe for his wife’s purported ties with Hillary Clinton.
The next month, Axios reported that Sessions — “at the public urging” of the rich asshole — “has been pressuring FBI Director Christopher Wray to fire Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, but Wray threatened to resign if McCabe was removed, according to three sources with direct knowledge.” It appears Wray has reconsidered his position since then.
In an interview with CNN, McCabe directly linked his termination with the rich asshole’s efforts to discredit key witnesses in the Mueller investigation.
“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,” McCabe said, adding that he views his firing as part of “a series of attacks designed to undermine my credibility and my reputation.”
UPDATE (3/17, 1:15 p.m.): In a statement released Saturday, McCabe’s lawyer, Michael Bromwich, characterizes his client’s firing as the fruit of an unprecedented “rush to judgment” that is “deeply disturbing.”
Bromwich writes that the “distortion of the process begins at the very top, with the President’s repeated offensive, drive-by attacks on Mr. McCabe,” and links the president’s attitude with the Mueller probe.
“These attacks began in the summer of 2017 and accelerated after it was disclosed that Mr. McCabe would be a corroborating witness against the President,” Bromwich writes. “This intervention by the White House in the DOJ disciplinary process is unprecedented, deeply unfair, and dangerous.”
What Fresh Hell? Chaos Week is going swimmingly for some rich asshole edition
President some rich asshole (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB)
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Welcome to another edition of What Fresh Hell?, Raw Story’s roundup of news items that might have become controversies under another regime, but got buried – or were at least under-appreciated – due to the daily firehose of political pratfalls, unhinged tweet storms and other sundry embarrassments coming out of the current White House.
Forget Infrastructure Week, this was Chaos Week for the rich asshole regime. OK, every week is, but this one seemed more manic, as the rich asshole is reportedly becoming comfortable with his role as Great Leader, and is having a blast lashing out at his confused and perhaps traumatized minions. “Never in the 14 months of the rich asshole White House has there been such a mood of acute anxiety from within the West Wing,” reported Axios. “Nobody knows what exactly is happening, who’s about to be fired, or which staffer will next be frogmarched out the door by security for some shadowy clearance issue.”
This was, of course, capped off with the firing of former FBI Assistant Director Andrew McCabe just a day before he was set to retire, which could mean he loses his pension. One would think that a White House that wanted the Russia story to go away wouldn’t constantly push it front and center, but that’s where we are.
“Integrity is our brand,” said comedic genius Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions, who falsely testified under oath that he “did not have communications with the Russians” and lied on his application for a security clearance, says McCabe was fired because he “lacked candor multiple times.”
This isn’t a shiny object or a mere distraction; it’s a dangerous example of politicizing the federal bureaucracy. Patriots should be prepared to take action if, as seems increasingly likely, the rich asshole moves to shut down Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Kremlingate probe. MoveOn.org and its allied groups have a site, Nobody Is Above the Law, with rapid response materials for that scenario. Check it out.
And let’s see what fresh Hell may gotten lost in the madness this week.
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Speaking of Jefferson Beauregard, Jeff Hauser reported for Slate that “Jeff Sessions is abusing a little-used statute in an unprecedented way that is leading to an end run around the Senate’s advice and consent authority with respect to U.S. attorneys. Given what we know about the ongoing investigations into the president and the rich asshole’s authoritarian instincts, this is a frightening and dangerous development.”
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Among the 17 prosecutors Sessions has appointed without Senate confirmation are three who will make investigative and prosecutorial decisions in NY. One of them, Geoffrey Berman, is presiding over New York’s Southern district. While the district has a “history of exerting its independence from presidential administrations,” according to Law.com, Berman is a former colleague of Rudy Giuliani, “a high-profile ally of President some rich asshole.”
This may prove to be a consequential appointment, as Bloomberg’s Caleb Melby reported this week that, “two months after Jared Kushner joined the White House as a senior adviser, his family firm sold a stake in a Brooklyn building to a unit of a company whose largest shareholder is the government of Japan…
“Questions have been raised repeatedly whether Kushner, whose family business has been in search of overseas investors, might pursue a personal agenda while helping run U.S. policy. This is the first known deal with a government-affiliated firm since he entered the White House.”
Relatedly, The New York Times reported this week that “Jared Kushner’s family company recently began construction on an oceanfront development in this Jersey Shore city, a project that has the strong backing of local officials, who agreed to support it with $20 million in bonds.”
But unknown to Long Branch officials, the Kushners have been in talks to team up with another family-run company that has an even bigger presence in the White House: the the rich asshole Organization.The long-running talks blur the line between family, business and politics in ways that lack precedent: Both some rich asshole and Mr. Kushner, the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law, retain financial interests in their family businesses. The the rich asshole Organization’s outside ethics adviser has raised questions about a potential deal — one reason the two-year-long discussions have not been completed.
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Speaking of the swamp, “some rich asshole Jr. has a previously undisclosed business relationship with a longtime hunting buddy who helped raise millions of dollars for his father’s 2016 presidential campaign and has had special access to top government officials since the election,” according to the Associated Press.
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And speaking of hunting buddies, the AP also reported that “a new U.S. advisory board created to help rewrite federal rules for importing the heads and hides of African elephants, lions and rhinos is stacked with trophy hunters, including some members with direct ties to President some rich asshole’s family.”
Trump’s new International Wildlife Conservation Council is dominated by group who’s most famous member killed Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe motherjones.com/politics/2018/…
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They really seem to have a disdain for animals. We’ve mentioned that Pineapple Pinochet is the first POTUS in 130 years not to have a first Pooch. And now this fresh Hell, via The Hill…
The the rich asshole administration has decided to withdraw an Obama-era rule that would have set new standards for the way animals should be treated if their meat is going to be sold as “certified organic.”Finalized under the Obama administration in April 2016, the rule largely dictated how producers and handlers participating in the National Organic Program are required to treat livestock and poultry to ensure their wellbeing.The rule stipulated, for example, that poultry must be housed in spaces that are big enough for the birds to move freely, stretch their wings, stand normally and engage in natural behaviors. Livestock, meanwhile, must be provided access to an outdoor space year round.
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Speaking of chattel, did you catch that 18 Republican members of Congress came out in favor of slavery this week? Does that sound too crazy? Is there another, more charitable way to interpret this?
Private-prison companies that force undocumented immigrant detainees to work for little or no money have a powerful new group of advocates: Eighteen members of Congress.The members, all Republicans, sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Department of Labor, calling for them to help private-prison company GEO Group defend itself in lawsuits by former detainees.
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This item from The Huffington Post probably should have gotten more attention given the way the regime responded at the time to a domestic terror attack targeting Muslims…
An Illinois contractor bidding to build President some rich asshole’s wall on the Mexican border was among three men arrested Tuesday in connection with the bombing of a mosque in Minnesota and the attempted bombing of a women’s health clinic in Illinois.Michael B. Hari, 47, was arrested and charged Tuesday in federal court in lllinois with arson and possession of machine guns.
Remember how Seb Gorka said Trump hadn't condemned the bombing of a Minnesota mosque because it could have been left-wing plot? Turns out it was a white guy who wants to build Trump's border wall and get Muslims "out of the country" washingtonpost.com/news/post-nati…
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Experts on the subject say we shouldn’t worry about creeping totalitarianism or jackbooted thugs disappearing people in the middle of the night because modern authoritarian governments find that allowing some degree of dissent lets the population blow off steam. They find it easier to manage a country when they permit a veneer of democracy to continue – as long as they control the outcome of elections, that is. They say that in countries like Turkey, Russia or the Philippines, life seems pretty normal for most people. It’s the proverbial frog in the pot – you may not notice that you’ve lost a pluralistic, liberal democracy until you have.
So let’s take careful note of this story from Annie Linskey at The Boston Globe…
President the rich asshole would be able to dispatch Secret Service agents to polling places nationwide during a federal election, a vast expansion of executive authority, if a provision in a Homeland Security reauthorization bill remains intact.The rider has prompted outrage from more than a dozen top elections officials around the country, including Secretary of State William F. Galvin of Massachusetts, a Democrat, who says he is worried that it could be used to intimidate voters and said there is “no basis” for providing the rich asshole with this new authority.
The Senate did not include a similar provision in its version, so we’ll have to watch how this shakes out when the two versions are reconciled.
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You probably heard about the mayhem at a rich asshole branded residential hotel in Panama. Investors appear to have staged a coup of sorts, declaring that the rich asshole Organization had failed to live up to its contract to manage the joint and keep it occupied – the rich asshole’s brand is a stinking pile of dogshit in Latin America, as you might imagine – and physically removing its staff. There were assaults, people brandished guns, the cops made multiple visits to the property – it was a big mess.
Well, Betsy Woodruff reported this week for The Daily Beast this week that while the property was hemorrhaging cash, “Pentagon officials spent more than $17,000 at the the rich asshole Ocean Club hotel in Panama in the first half of 2017, according to documents obtained by a government watchdog group. The money was spent to cover general lodging expenses, according to the documents. It isn’t clear why.”
That was just a fraction of the $140,000 the DoD spent at the rich asshole properties in the first eight months of his presidency, according to CNN.
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A few stories from the Only the Best People file…
Naved Jafry, who got a gig as a senior advisor to HUD, “said he was a multimillionaire – an international property developer with a plan to fix America’s cities through radical privatization,” reported The Guardian. “He felt that some rich asshole’s administration was where he was meant to work.” Turns out he’s just another grafter who resigned this week after The Guardian “asked him to explain multiple allegations of fraud as well as exaggerations in his biography.”
Andrew Kaczynski reported for CNN that Ken Isaacs, the rich asshole’s “pick to head the United Nations organization that coordinates assistance to migrants worldwide regularly pushed anti-Muslim sentiment, including claims that Muslims were trying to impose Sharia law in the US.”
Kaczynski, along with Nathan McDermott, also reported this week that “the new advocacy director at a nonprofit group aligned with President some rich asshole shared an N-word laden post written by someone else on Facebook in December 2014.” Carl Higbie, who resigned from Americorps in January after an earlier report found that he had a history of saying wildly offensive things about Muslims and people of color, appears to have landed on his feet in Trumpworld.
SNL opens with devastating takedown of the rich asshole’s firing of McCabe and Tillerson
Michael Wolfe and the Mooch on SNL/Screenshot
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the rich asshole’s wild week made for a great cold opener on Saturday Night Live, which parodied an episode of Anderson Cooper 360 featuring a panel that covered the week’s many notable firings.
“I’m just a simple man who wanted to make things bad for immigrants, and now here I am taking away the pension of a Christian white,” said Sessions.
The spot started with Kate McKinnon’s always great Jeff Sessions and ended with Fred Armisen’s spot-on impression of Fire and Fury author Michael Wolfe.
In the middle, we got John Goodman as Rex Tillerson, explaining how he was fired by tweet.
“It’s just crazy how one day you’re the CEO of Exxon, a $50 million company, and the next day you’re fired by a guy who used to sell steaks in the mail,” he said.
Host Bill Hader did a great version of the rich asshole’s short-lived spokesman, Anthony Scaramucci.
Who will be the next FBI director? Michael Wolfe’s has some predictions.
Watch below.
Fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe Delivered Handwritten the rich asshole Memos To Robert Mueller
On Saturday, the rich asshole learned just how badly he f*cked up when he pushed for the firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
Not only did reports surface that, like former FBI Director James Comey, McCabe kept handwritten memos regarding the rich asshole but that those memos are now in the possession of Robert Mueller:
McCabe revealed that he had three in-person interactions and one phone call with the rich asshole, in which the President berated him each time about his wife’s failed Virginia Senate campaign.
It is unclear exactly what is in McCabe’s memos and if he memorialized every interaction he had with the President.“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. “Of course, I disagreed with him.”McCabe also confirmed that the President asked him who he voted for in the 2016 election, which was reported back in January and which the rich asshole denied.
The full contents of the memos have not been released, but the rich asshole has every reason to be nervous right about now — especially if they are anywhere near half as revealing as those written by Comey.
OOPS: Fox News Accidentally Published Story Announcing McCabe’s Firing Hours Before It Happened
If you thought there was a teensy chance that Fox News gets inside information from the rich asshole White House, the “news” network provided you with plenty of evidence you were right when they accidentally published a draft they were preparing for former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s firing.
Fox News says that the draft was being prepared just in case he was fired for his “handling of the bureau during the early months of the Russia investigation, and his ties to the Democratic Party” as well as his ” handling of the Clinton email probe.”
Hours after Fox accidentally announced McCabe’s termination, he was fired just before he was set to retire — a completely political firing urged by the rich asshole intended to punish the career public servant for being a witness in Robert Mueller’s Russia probe –as he noted in a statement:
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.
the rich asshole, of course, called the termination a “great day for democracy”:
Is it possible that Fox News was just preparing in case McCabe was fired? Sure, why not? But it wouldn’t be the first time Republicans leaked information to Fox News in recent history.
Naturally, no one believes Fox’s narrative:
Oh @realDonaldTrump never learns!!
Trump demanding @TheJusticeDept Sessions Fire Andrew McCabe as political revenge after ALL of Trump’s public attacks will not end well!
Trump keeps forgetting this is not Russia and the rule of law will Prevail!
WTF did @FoxNews accidentally put out a story about Andrew McCabe being fired hours before the decision was announced. This direct link between the WH and Fox News on National Security matters needs to be investigated and stoppedtwitter.com/oliverdarcy/st…
So that @FoxNews story about Andrew McCabe’s firing earlier today was clearly them getting a heads up on this move from the administration right?
Fox "News" mistakenly posted a draft announcement of the McCabe firing hours before Sessions announced it. Trump ordered his firing months ago, Sessions rushed the decision through to meet Trump's 90 day deadline, then leaked it to State media. We are living in a Banana Republic. twitter.com/oliverdarcy/st…
the rich asshole has been dangerous for a long time, but it is reaching the point that if Republicans can’t summon an ounce of patriotism soon it will be too late.
Former FBI agent scorches Fox’s Brit Hume for trying to justify the rich asshole’s firing of McCabe
Asha Rangappa/Screenshot
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Fox News’ gruff and most plausibly reasonable political analyst Brit Hume went to bat for the rich asshole in a tweet on Friday, arguing that the fact that the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility found fault with Andrew McCabe made his firing an easy and obvious call.
What a crock. To believe this, you have to believe that McCabe did not mislead investigators, but the FBI’s own Office of Professional Responsibility claimed that he did and used that false claim to recommend he be fired. It’s all part of a Trump conspiracy. And I’m Napoleon. twitter.com/maxboot/status…
Former FBI Special Agent Asha Rangappa just smacked Hume down. Anyone who understands the standards that FBI agents are held to understands that it’s easy to make a minor mistake that could run afoul of the OPR, says the former counterintelligence agent.
“Given the FBI’s mission, that means that every FBI agent must be BEYOND REPROACH. This is a tough standard,” she tweeted. “If anyone in the current administration or associated with it were held to the standard FBI agents are in OPR, there would literally be no one left in the Executive Branch.”
Here’s her brilliant thread, which puts McCabe’s alleged “misconduct” into perspective.
THREAD. As usual, @brithume has zero idea what he's talking about. To understand why many agents, and indeed even the FBI Agents Association *which is non partisan) have issues with this, you have to understand an OPR in the FBI. The bar for "misconduct" is very low. twitter.com/brithume/statu…
THREAD. As usual, @brithume has zero idea what he's talking about. To understand why many agents, and indeed even the FBI Agents Association *which is non partisan) have issues with this, you have to understand an OPR in the FBI. The bar for "misconduct" is very low. twitter.com/brithume/statu…
2. The purpose of OPR -- the Office of Professional Responsibility -- is to investigate misconduct in the FBI. Given the FBI's mission, that means that every FBI agent must be BEYOND REPROACH. This is a tough standard, and one that all agents are held to.
2. The purpose of OPR -- the Office of Professional Responsibility -- is to investigate misconduct in the FBI. Given the FBI's mission, that means that every FBI agent must be BEYOND REPROACH. This is a tough standard, and one that all agents are held to.
3. This is, of course, a good thing. OPR will investigate, e.g., a "misfiring" of a weapon. It will look into any discrepancies, whether in your use of the FBI's database, or your use of your government credit card or your Bureau car or phone.
3. This is, of course, a good thing. OPR will investigate, e.g., a "misfiring" of a weapon. It will look into any discrepancies, whether in your use of the FBI's database, or your use of your government credit card or your Bureau car or phone.
4. But every agent knows people who got caught in OPR's net, and it can be pretty brutal -- and it's why OPR is the bane of every agent's existence. ANY infraction, no matter how small, can be "OPR'd" (yes, it's a verb). And once you're in OPR's net, it's hard to get out.
4. But every agent knows people who got caught in OPR's net, and it can be pretty brutal -- and it's why OPR is the bane of every agent's existence. ANY infraction, no matter how small, can be "OPR'd" (yes, it's a verb). And once you're in OPR's net, it's hard to get out.
5. To give an example, my training agent, and partner, advised me when I started to never, ever use my FBI credentials for *anything* other than official business. Why? He once went to an amusement park with his kids which offered a LEO discount, and showed his creds...
5. To give an example, my training agent, and partner, advised me when I started to never, ever use my FBI credentials for *anything* other than official business. Why? He once went to an amusement park with his kids which offered a LEO discount, and showed his creds...
6. ...not sure how it got back to the FBI (maybe the person behind him in line reported him?), but he got accused of "abusing his authority."He was let off with a warning because he was new at the time, but that's the kind of oversight I'm talking about.
6. ...not sure how it got back to the FBI (maybe the person behind him in line reported him?), but he got accused of "abusing his authority."
7. It's also kind of kafka-esque, at least based on the people I saw go through it. Some didn't even know until they weren't eligible for a promotion, for example. As far as I could tell it was a very opaque process, and pretty much stacked against the agent.
7. It's also kind of kafka-esque, at least based on the people I saw go through it. Some didn't even know until they weren't eligible for a promotion, for example. As far as I could tell it was a very opaque process, and pretty much stacked against the agent.
8. I'm sure the process is designed to protect the integrity of the Bureau, and to not allow anyone to have preferential treatment. But to me it seemed like Reverend Hale from The Crucible -- well-intentioned, but sometimes able to be carried away by its own zeal.
8. I'm sure the process is designed to protect the integrity of the Bureau, and to not allow anyone to have preferential treatment. But to me it seemed like Reverend Hale from The Crucible -- well-intentioned, but sometimes able to be carried away by its own zeal.
9. To bring this back to McCabe, it's important to remember that he was not being held to the criminal standard for perjury, i.e., where "intent" would be a major factor. I think that would explain why his attempt to proactively correct things he said would not have mattered.
9. To bring this back to McCabe, it's important to remember that he was not being held to the criminal standard for perjury, i.e., where "intent" would be a major factor. I think that would explain why his attempt to proactively correct things he said would not have mattered.
10. To put another way: If anyone in the current administration or associated with it were held to the standard FBI agents are in OPR, there would literally be no one left in the Executive Branch. "Not remembering" in front of Congress? Correcting your SF-86 10 times? Yeah, FIRED
10. To put another way: If anyone in the current administration or associated with it were held to the standard FBI agents are in OPR, there would literally be no one left in the Executive Branch. "Not remembering" in front of Congress? Correcting your SF-86 10 times? Yeah, FIRED
11. So Brit would be wise to save his sanctimony because members of the current admin are getting a pass that no one -- and I mean NO ONE -- in the FBI would ever get. From lying, to abusing government funds, to associating (and hiring!) with wife beaters and drug addicts.
11. So Brit would be wise to save his sanctimony because members of the current admin are getting a pass that no one -- and I mean NO ONE -- in the FBI would ever get. From lying, to abusing government funds, to associating (and hiring!) with wife beaters and drug addicts.
‘WITCH HUNT!’ the rich asshole’s Saturday night Twitter meltdown starts early
some rich asshole speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at Fountain Park in Fountain Hills, Arizona (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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Not much is consistent about the presidency of some rich asshole, but one thing that is are his frequent Twitter meltdowns in the wee hours of Saturday night or Sunday morning.
The president threw a curveball this week, beginning his meltdown early.
“The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime,” he tweeted at about 8:12 pm eastern. “It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!”
Buckle up, Saturday Night Live hasn’t even aired yet.
The Fake News is beside themselves that McCabe was caught, called out and fired. How many hundreds of thousands of dollars was given to wife’s campaign by Crooked H friend, Terry M, who was also under investigation? How many lies? How many leaks? Comey knew it all, and much more!
The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!
Facebook admits data firm working for the rich asshole scammed millions of U.S. voters
Cambridge Analytica, already under investigation by Mueller for links to Russia, ran "a scam and a fraud."
In an unprecedented move, Facebook announced it is suspending the political data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, from the social media site.
Cambridge Analytica said it helped the rich asshole campaign pull off its narrow win in key swing states by psychologically profiling millions of voters using data from Facebook, so those voters could be microtargeted with messages tailored and tested to persuade them. Now it turns out that much of that data was obtained fraudulently.
The firm “harvested private information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission,” according to a major New York Times investigation published Saturday, “making it one of the largest data leaks in the social network’s history.”
Cambridge Analytica, which is backed by billionaire conservative donor Robert Mercer and has former the rich asshole strategist Steve Bannon on its board, is already under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller for possible connections to Russian interference in the election. It’s also under investigation by the UK Parliament for potential violations of data privacy and claims it did illegal work for the pro-Brexit campaign.
Now Facebook VP and deputy general counsel Paul Grewal has accused the firm of running “a scam and a fraud,” as he described it to the New York Times.
“In 2015, we learned that a psychology professor at the University of Cambridge named Dr. Aleksandr Kogan lied to us and violated our Platform Policies by passing data from an app that was using Facebook Login to SCL/Cambridge Analytica,” Grewal, a former federal judge, explained in his statement.
Moreover, when Facebook learned in 2015 that Kogan, a Russian-American academic, had broken their rules, “we removed his app from Facebook and demanded certifications from Kogan and all parties he had given data to that the information had been destroyed. Cambridge Analytica, Kogan and Wylie all certified to us that they destroyed the data.”
But that certification appears to have been a lie. The Times reported Saturday: “Interviews with a half-dozen former employees and contractors, and a review of the firm’s emails and documents, have revealed that Cambridge not only relied on the private Facebook data but still possesses most or all of the trove.” It added that “copies of the data still remain beyond Facebook’s control,” but the paper was able to view “a set of raw data from the profiles Cambridge Analytica obtained.”
The bottom line of the Times investigation, which it conducted with The Observer of London, is chilling: The data theft “allowed the company to exploit the private social media activity of a huge swath of the American electorate” for the purposes of electing the rich asshole campaign, which paid the firm millions of dollars in the last several months of the 2016 campaign.
Not only was that data used for microtargeting voters, but by tracking the response to those messages in real time on social media, the firm could advise the campaign where the rich asshole should visit and what words would resonate most with voters in the region.
In fact, Breitbart executive board chair Steve Bannon, who became CEO of the rich asshole campaign in mid-August 2016, told Bloomberg in late October of that year, “I wouldn’t have come aboard, even for the rich asshole, if I hadn’t known they were building this massive Facebook and data engine. Facebook is what propelled Breitbart to a massive audience. We know its power.”
The Facebook statement and New York Times investigations add important new information in our understanding of the shady role Cambridge Analytica played in the campaign. We also know that disgraced former national security advisor Michael Flynn had been an advisor to the firm, and as the Wall Street Journal reported in October, its CEO Alexander Nix had “reached out to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to offer help organizing the Hillary Clinton-related emails the website was releasing,”
The full story of Cambridge’s role is unlikely to be known until Robert Mueller finishes his investigation.
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