Mueller Just Had The FBI Raid the rich asshole’s Attorney’s Office, the rich asshole Is Screwed
The FBI on Monday raided the office of some rich asshole’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and seized records related to several topics and that includes payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, according to the New York Times. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained a search warrant after receiving a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller. Cohen’s lawyer called the search “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.” He forgot to add “scary.”
According to the report, the search may not be directly related to Mueller’s investigation, but it appears more likely to have come from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.
“Today the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients,” said Stephen Ryan, Cohen’s lawyer. “I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.”
Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has claimed she had an extramarital affair with the rich asshole and was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about it. Cohen said that he made the payment to Daniels out of his own pocket, and in recent days, the rich asshole denied that he knew anything about it. But, that might make the contract null and void and the rich asshole did not sign it in the allocated space on the NDA.
The records the FBI seized from Cohen’s office include communications between the rich asshole and Cohen, emails, tax documents and business records. The FBI executed the warrants on at least three locations: office, home, and his hotel room.
the rich asshole is going to throw a major Twitter tantrum. The former reality show star has insisted that the Russia investigation is ‘fake’ and that he did not know about the NDA which has a space for his signature.
Daniels alleges she had a sexual affair with the rich asshole in 2006, just months after his wife, Melania, gave birth to their son.
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images.
the rich asshole thanks Xi for 'kind words' on trade amid tensions
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 04/10/18 02:13 PM EDT
President the rich asshole on Tuesday thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping for his “kind words” about lowering auto import tariffs, amid heightened economic tensions between the two countries.
“Very thankful for President Xi of China’s kind words on tariffs and automobile barriers...also, his enlightenment on intellectual property and technology transfers. We will make great progress together,” the rich asshole tweeted.
Very thankful for President Xi of China’s kind words on tariffs and automobile barriers...also, his enlightenment on intellectual property and technology transfers. We will make great progress together!
the rich asshole's tweet came in response to a speech the Chinese leader gave on Monday, in which he renewed his promise to “significantly lower” import tariffs, including taxes on automobiles.
Stock markets rose after Xi’s remarks, but it remains unclear whether they will end the economic dispute between the U.S. and China, which was ignited after the rich asshole announced new tariffs on steel and aluminum and led to concerns over a brewing trade war.
Xi's remarks mostly reiterated pre-existing commitments and contained few new initiatives, raising doubts among some observers that it would be enough to defuse tensions.
“This offer of opening #China market is a total farce,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted before the rich asshole’s remarks.
The senator said it was “unbelievable” to hear Xi’s vow to open Chinese markets, given that “his government has dramatically increased control over & censorship of the internet.”
This offer of opening #China market is a total farce. And it is unbelievable to read how Xi said that “openness leads to progress while seclusion leaves one behind”while his government has dramatically increased control over & censorship of the internet. washingtonpost.com/world/chinas-p…
But the rich asshole appeared pleased by the Chinese leader's comments, even though the president just one day earlier accused China of unfairly targeting him by threatening tariffs on agricultural products.
"It's not nice when they hit the farmers specifically because they think that hits me," the rich asshole said of China.
the rich asshole has threatened to slap $150 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese imports in order to counter what he says are Beijing's unfair trade practices, including forced transfers of intellectual property from U.S. businesses in order to do business there.
Federal prosecutors ask the rich asshole Organization for records related to Stormy Daniels: report
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 04/10/18 01:48 PM EDT
Federal prosecutors have requested records from the rich asshole Organization connected to a payment from President the rich asshole's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The request is reportedly tied to the FBI raid of Cohen's office on Monday, which resulted in the seizure of emails, tax documents and records related to his payment to Daniels. She has claimed the payment, made just before the 2016 election, was hush money to prevent her from speaking out about her alleged affair with the rich asshole in 2006.
Ryan characterized the search as “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.”
The the rich asshole Organization said in a statement to The Hill on Tuesday that the company would comply with the appropriate authorities.
“We do not generally comment on such matters, but have and will continue to comply with inquiries from proper authorities," a spokesperson said.
The Journal previously reported that an attorney for the the rich asshole Organization was involved in the legal efforts to attempt to block Daniels from speaking out about her alleged affair with the president.
the rich asshole on Monday slammed the raid of Cohen's office, calling it an "attack on our country," and appeared to muse about a potential firing of Mueller.
“We’ll see what happens. … Many people have said ‘you should fire him,’ ” the rich asshole said. “Again, they found nothing and in finding nothing, that’s a big statement.”
NYT: FBI sought documents related to payments and the rich asshole's alleged affairs in raid
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 04/10/18 12:38 PM EDT
The FBI sought to get documents regarding payments to two women who claim to have had affairs with President the rich asshole in the bureau's raid of the office of the rich asshole's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Several people briefed on the investigation told The New York Times that FBI agents were looking for information on Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who alleges she had an affair with the rich asshole, as well as Stormy Daniels.
McDougal alleges that she was misled by AMI and her lawyer at the time about the deal.
FBI agents also wanted documents related to Cohen's payment to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with the rich asshole more than a decade ago.
Cohen paid Daniels $130,000, reportedly as part of a nondisclosure agreement, just days before the 2016 presidential election. Cohen admitted to paying Daniels, but denied it violated campaign finance laws.
Last week, the rich asshole denied knowing about the payment. It was the first time he had addressed the issue publicly.
The Times also reported Tuesday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein personally approved the FBI raid of Cohen.
Rosenstein reportedly signed off on the raid, in which the FBI seized emails, tax documents and records.
Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan, said in a statement Monday that federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained a search warrant after receiving a referral "in part" from special counsel Robert Mueller. Ryan called the search "completely inappropriate and unnecessary."
Cohen is being investigated for possible tax fraud and bank fraud as well as campaign finance violations, according to The Washington Post.
The raid enraged the rich asshole, who on Monday condemned the moveas a "disgrace" and a "pure and simple witch hunt."
“It’s an attack on our country in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for,” the rich asshole said at the White House.
The comments also sparked speculation that the FBI raid on Cohen’s office could lead the rich asshole to take steps to try and fire Mueller, who is investigating Russian election interference and possible ties between the the rich asshole campaign and Russia.
“We’ll see what happens. … Many people have said, ‘You should fire [Mueller],’ ” the rich asshole said Monday. “Again, they found nothing and in finding nothing, that’s a big statement.”
Updated at 12:48 p.m.
GOP senator wants committee vote on bill protecting Mueller
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 04/10/18 12:35 PM EDT
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said on Tuesday that he wants the Judiciary Committee to vote on his bill limiting President the rich asshole's ability to fire Bob Mueller, but downplayed the idea that his push is a reaction to the rich asshole's latest attack on the special counsel.
"I think it's a good bill that has enduring value beyond this presidency," Tillis told reporters.
"I do think it's a bill that's worthy of a markup in Judiciary and sending it to the floor."
He added he would be asking for the committee vote even if Hillary Clinton were in the White House and "we were having the same discussion with a different sort of a flare to it."
Tillis and Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) introduced legislation last year that would let Mueller or any special counsel challenge their firing in court.
A separate bill, from GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Democratic Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), would require a judge to approve a Justice Department request to fire Mueller or any other special counsel.
Tillis noted that he's had conversations with Graham about merging their legislation. GOP leadership has repeatedly dismissed the need for Congress to preemptively take action.
Tillis's comments come after the rich asshole lashed out following an FBI raid on the offices and hotel room of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen. A referral from Mueller's team reportedly prompted the raid.
"Attorney–client privilege is dead!" the rich asshole said in a tweet, adding: "A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!"
The president's comments sparked the latest round of warnings from Capitol Hill that firing Mueller would be a mistake.
Tillis said on Tuesday that the president appeared "frustrated" but signaled the rich asshole had made similar comments in the past.
"I feel like the reaction we're seeing is similar to the last time he expressed frustration back in August," the North Carolina Republican said.
ABC: the rich asshole-appointed US attorney was recused from Cohen probe
BY LUIS SANCHEZ - 04/10/18 12:34 PM EDT
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, was recused from the investigation into President the rich asshole’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, ABC News reported.Berman was not involved in the FBI raid of Cohen’s hotel room and office in New York City because of the recusal that was approved by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, sources told ABC News.
Other officials in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York handled the search of Cohen's office, home and hotel room.Berman was appointed to his post by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He previously worked with Rudy Giuliani, who is a supporter of the rich asshole, and donated to the rich asshole's 2016 campaign.Sessions testified to Congress that the rich asshole personally interviewedcandidates for several U.S. attorney positions, including the job in New York, which might partly explain his recusal.Berman replaced Prett Bharara, who has become a vocal the rich asshole critic since his firing.The raid on the rich asshole's lawyer was reportedly carried out after special counsel Robert Mueller — who is investigating potential Russian collusion in the 2016 elections — gave federal prosecutors a referral.While not related to Mueller’s investigation, the raid likely resulted from information Mueller’s team uncovered during its investigation and handed over to New York prosecutors. No. 2 Senate Republican: ‘Big mistake’ to fire Mueller
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 04/10/18 12:01 PM EDT
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) warned on Tuesday that it would be a “big mistake” for President the rich asshole to fire special counsel Robert Mueller and predicted it would not happen.
“I don't think the president's going to fire him because I think it would be a big mistake,” he told The Hill.
Pressed on the consequences, the No. 2 Senate Republican urged the rich asshole to let Mueller continue his probe into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and potential collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Moscow.
“I don't think he or I or anybody could predict what the consequences might be, but there would be a lot of backlash, so I think he should just let Mr. Mueller do his job,” he said.
Cornyn was one of several Republicans on Tuesday who doubled down on warnings that the rich asshole leave Mueller alone.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said it would be “suicide” to fire the former FBI director. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), downplaying the rich asshole’s comments, told CNN that “thematically, he has said similar things before.”
Cornyn separately told reporters that lawmakers have warned the White House that it would be a mistake to fire Mueller.
“I think it's pretty universally being conveyed,” he said.
the rich asshole is lashing out after the FBI raided Michael Cohen's offices and hotel room reportedly off a referral from Mueller's team.
“Attorney–client privilege is dead!” the rich asshole said in a tweet, adding: “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!”
He said Monday that “many people” had said he should fire Mueller.
But doing so would cause a tremendous storm in Washington with consequences that could fall on Republicans in the midterm elections, which are taking center stage on Capitol Hill.
Republicans are increasingly worried about holding onto their House majority in an election season likely to be defined by the rich asshole. They have a much better chance of holding the majority in the Senate, because Democrats are defending more than twice as many seats as the GOP.
Senators have introduced two bills that would limit the rich asshole and the Justice Department's ability to fire Mueller. But GOP leadership has downplayed the need for the legislation because they don’t believe the rich asshole will fire Mueller.
Rosenstein signed off on FBI raid of the rich asshole lawyer: report
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 04/10/18 11:53 AM EDT
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein reportedly personally approved the FBI raid Monday of President the rich asshole's personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
The New York Times reported that Rosenstein signed off on the raid, in which the FBI seized emails, tax documents and records, some of them related to Cohen's payment to adult-film star Stormy Daniels.
FBI officials raided Cohen's office in Manhattan, along with his residence and a hotel room.
Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan, said in a statement Monday that federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained a search warrant after receiving a referral "in part" from special counsel Robert Mueller. Ryan called the search "completely inappropriate and unnecessary."
Cohen is being investigated for possible tax fraud and bank fraud as well as campaign finance violations, according to The Washington Post.
The raid enraged the rich asshole, who on Tuesday condemned the move as a "disgrace" and a "pure and simple witch hunt."
“It’s an attack on our country in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for,” the rich asshole said at the White House.
The fiery comments immediately sparked speculation that the FBI raid on Cohen’s office could lead the rich asshole to take steps to try and fire Mueller, who is investigating Russian election interference and possible ties between the rich asshole campaign and Russia.
“We’ll see what happens. … Many people have said ‘you should fire [Mueller],’” the rich asshole said. “Again, they found nothing and in finding nothing, that’s a big statement.”
the rich asshole's advisers are urging him to avoid making an impulsive decision in response to the raid, according to the Times report.
If the rich asshole were trying to get rid of Mueller, he would need a sign off from Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller and oversees the special counsel's office because of Attorney General Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself.
The president reportedly sought to fire Mueller last year, but the White House counsel refused to carry out the order.
The president has repeatedly voiced frustration with both Sessions and Rosenstein.
- Updated at 12:17 p.m.
Lou Dobbs Twitter poll backfires after most vote against the rich asshole firing Mueller
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 04/10/18 11:42 AM EDT
A majority of people who voted in a Twitter poll posted by Fox Business host Lou Dobbs on Monday night said President the rich asshole should not fire special counsel Robert Mueller.
As of Tuesday morning, about three-quarters of respondents said they didn't think the rich asshole should fire Mueller, Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
The other one-quarter of respondents said the rich asshole should fire Mueller.
Dobbs appeared to be aiming for a different result when he posted the poll on Monday.
#LDTPoll: Do you believe the corrupt leadership and actions of the DOJ and FBI are now so outrageous and overwhelming that President Trump should fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein?
He posted the poll after the FBI raided the office and home of the rich asshole's personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Dobbs harshly criticized the Department of Justice and Mueller after news of the raid broke, and said he would have fired Mueller.
"This is now a man that has to be brought under control, it would seem to me," Dobbs said of Mueller. "Frankly, I can’t imagine, because each of us has to come to terms with our own heart and conscience — I would fire the SOB in three seconds if it were me.”
It was reported that federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan obtained search warrants for Cohen's office after receiving a referral "in part" from Mueller.
Agents reportedly seized communications between Cohen and the rich asshole, tax documents and records related to Cohen's $130,000 payment, made days before the 2016 presidential election, to adult-film star Stormy Daniels.
the rich asshole railed against both the raid and the special counsel's investigation on Monday.
He also said that "many people" have suggested he fire Mueller, renewing speculation over the fate of Mueller's probe into Russian election interference and possible ties between the rich asshole campaign and Russia.
On Tuesday, the rich asshole tweeted that attorney-client privilege is "dead."
the rich asshole likely does not have the power to fire Mueller directly, but he could fire Sessions or Rosenstein and put someone in their place who might fire Mueller.
the rich asshole Explodes In Early-Morning Meltdown After His Lawyer’s Office Is Raided
some rich asshole is pretty worried right now, as is evidenced by his Tuesday morning Twitter meltdown. As you’re probably aware, the rich asshole’s personal lawyer’s office was raided on Monday — a fun new development in the saga surrounding his and his associates’ numerous illegal and otherwise questionable actions.
During the campaign, former the rich asshole attorney Michael Cohen mortgaged his home and cut a $130,000 check to adult actress Stormy Daniels in an effort to cover up an affair the President * had with her after the birth of Barron the rich asshole. Totally not at all suspiciously, the rich asshole organization billed the rich asshole campaign $129,999.72 just five days later.
Cohen is currently under investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations, which probably worries the rich asshole as the text messages between himself and Cohen that were seized probably will run up against the Crime-Fraud exception to attorney-client privilege. In fact, he is worried, as we learned when he declared attorney-client privilege “dead” via Twitter:
“A TOTAL WITCH HUNT,” President Stable Genius added with triple exclamation marks.
For being a “witch hunt,” the FBI sure is finding a lot of witches — including former the rich asshole associates Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Richard Gates, George Papadopoulos, a baker’s dozen of Russians and more.
the rich asshole is breaking down, attacking every single one of our institutions that brings him any inconvenience whatsoever.
Things are already crazy, but we can expect that to amplify in the coming months as Mueller continues to close in.
Top the rich asshole security adviser Tom Bossert resigning
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 04/10/18 10:25 AM EDT
President the rich asshole’s top homeland security aide, Tom Bossert, is resigning, the latest in a long line of staffers to exit the West Wing.
"The president is grateful for Tom's commitment to the safety and security of our great country,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
“President the rich asshole thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well,” she added.
Bossert has served in the White House since the rich asshole’s inauguration and played a key role in responding to cyber threats and last year’s hurricanes that devastated Texas, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen praised Bossert for providing “wise counsel” to the rich asshole on a “range of current and emerging threats to our nation.”
His departure comes one day after John Bolton took over as national security adviser, a move that was expected to cause turnover on the rich asshole’s security team. The 43-year-old aide is close to chief of staff John Kelly and Bolton’s predecessor, H.R. McMaster.
National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton announced his resignation two days before Bossert quit.
A veteran of the George W. Bush administration, Bossert was one of the few the rich asshole aides to have previous White House experience.
the rich asshole turned to Bossert in times of crisis, dispatching him to the White House briefing room and Sunday political talk shows to detail the administration’s relief efforts during last summer’s storms.
He also took the lectern at the White House to announce the U.S. had blamed North Korea for the massive “WannaCry” cyberattack that affected hundreds of thousands of computer across the world.
The timing of Bossert’s exit appeared abrupt.
He appeared on ABC News’s “This Week” on Sunday to speak about the administration’s response to the chemical weapons attack in Syria.
Bossert was also a keynote speaker Sunday night at a conference of national security experts in Sea Island, Ga. His remarks strongly suggested he did not expect to be forced out.
“The only thing that creates instability or the perception of it is (a) the [media] coverage, and (b) the turnover, and I think at this point we’ve reached what seems to be a decent stability point," Bossert said when asked what it is like to work in the White House. "I’m pretty comfortable with the president’s view of that, but it’s a little different.”
His departure continues the wave of staff turnover that has rocked the rich asshole administration.
Just last month, McMaster, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, economic adviser Gary Cohn, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin were fired or tendered their resignations.
Top-level staff turnover at the White House has reached 49 percent, according to data compiled by Brookings Institution scholar Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a number that has not been reached at this point in a presidency in decades.
Updated at 1:12 p.m.
A Saturday Night Massacre would bring a midterm mauling to GOP
BY BRENT BUDOWSKY, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 04/10/18 10:15 AM EDT
Washington, D.C. is now on red alert for the potentially imminent firing by President the rich asshole of special counsel Robert Mueller and other Republicans holding high positions in the Department of Justice.
Monday’s raid targeting one of the rich asshole’s lawyers, Michael Cohen, may well drive the rich asshole to extreme actions that would be a hostile attack against the administration of justice and bring a death knell for Republicans in the midterm elections.
He demonstrated an anger and rage that could soon lead to a Nixon-like "Saturday Night Massacre" that many Republicans as well as Democrats have long feared.
the rich asshole’s anger following the Cohen raid also includes the interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman, who spearheaded the raid and who is also a Republican. the rich asshole appointed Berman to the position after he fired Preet Bharara.
the rich asshole’s anger is also targeted against the FBI, whose director is Christopher Wray, also a Republican and the rich asshole appointee after the rich asshole fired former FBI Director James Comey.
Last week, I wrote that Mueller will drop a series of bombshells that will plague Republicans in the midterm elections unless they stand tall to uphold the administration of justice, and I've been warning about the dangers of the Russian scandal in recent months.
The bombshell of the Cohen raid was not dropped by Mueller, who merely referred the matter to the U.S. attorney in New York, who spearheaded the raid, which was approved in a warrant granted by a federal judge who concluded there is probable cause that a crime was committed and the only sure way to obtain the evidence was through the raid.
Republicans in Congress, who are already in grave jeopardy, facing potentially huge losses in the midterm elections, are well aware that the long list of targets of the rich asshole’s anger and rage are all Republicans!
A failure of Republicans in Congress to stand up for the administration of justice and a failure to oppose firings of Republican officials would create a death knell for GOP chances in November.
The controversy and chaos surrounding the investigations of the Russian attack against America coincide with other developments of paramount importance as the midterms approach.
The most politically powerful development is the endless series of scandals, mini-scandals and ethical failures that have surrounded the rich asshole presidency from its beginning.
the rich asshole promised to drain the swamp, but the swamp is worse than ever under the rich asshole. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has become, outside of anti-environment circles, the poster boy for the swamp at its dirtiest.
The list of cabinet members and other administration officials who have committed ethically dubious actions appears destined to grow even beyond its currently unacceptable levels.
The rich asshole presidency is engulfed in chaos. Shortly after the rich asshole announced he wanted to get out of Syria, the Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad, almost certainly with support from Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who the rich asshole has until recently often praised, launched a brutal and sickening chemical weapons attack.
Hopefully the rich asshole will abandon his plan to get out of Syria soon and will seek and obtain bipartisan support for a strong American and Western response to the Syrian mass murder.
The chaos continues with endless leaks and background comments from administration officials seeking to humiliate retired Marine Corps General and White House chief of staff John Kelly (as the rich asshole and his inner circle humiliated former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former National Security Advisor General H.R. McMaster) by suggesting he is now powerless to do his job.
As the midterm elections near, the American people are exhausted and appalled by the scandals and chaos that surround the rich asshole presidency. There is a rich asshole fatigue that overwhelms the politics of the nation.
There is now a clear and present danger of the rich asshole seeking to execute a Saturday Night Massacre after the Cohen raid, while the Mueller investigation deepens and spreads.
The Mueller investigation and the Cohen raid all involve a Republican attorney general, a Republican deputy attorney general, a Republican U.S. district attorney, a Republican FBI director and a Republican special counsel.
The only way Republicans in Congress can save themselves from a massive debacle in November is to do the right thing, to fully back these Republicans in the administration of justice and to act now to prevent the Saturday Night Massacre before it is too late.
Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.
Pruitt's chief of staff takes responsibility for controversial raises
BY TIMOTHY CAMA - 04/10/18 10:03 AM EDT
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt’s chief of staff said on Tuesday that he is responsible for giving two top aides significant raises after the White House rejected the request.
Ryan Jackson said the move to use a special authority was all his and that Pruitt had nothing to do with it.
“Administrator Pruitt had zero knowledge of the amount of the raises, nor the process by which they transpired. These kind of personnel actions are handled by EPA's HR officials, [Presidential Personnel Office] and me,” Jackson said in a statement.
Jackson said he gave the raises to Sarah Greenwalt and Millan Hupp because they were being paid less than their peers with similar responsibilities.
Jackson’s statement, first reported by The Atlantic, came in response to a Monday report in the magazine that an internal EPA email from Greenwalt stated that Pruitt personally approved of her raise.
As The Atlantic previously reported, Pruitt asked the White House last month to approve raises for Greenwalt and Hupp, since they are political appointees, and the White House refused. So the EPA used a special authority under the Safe Drinking Water Act to give the raises.
Pruitt told Fox News last week that he was not involved in the process and he’d just found out about it when The Atlantic reported about the raises. He also said he reversed them.
“My staff did and I found out about that yesterday, and I changed it,” he said. “The officials that were involved in that process should not have done what they did.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) alleged Monday that if Pruitt truly didn’t know about the raises, the EPA broke the law.
Duckworth in a letter to the Government Accountability Office seeking an investigation into the raises said that under spending legislation, the EPA administrator must approve all hiring and raises under the relevant Safe Drinking Water Act provision.
the rich asshole cancels trip to Peru, Colombia
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 04/10/18 09:23 AM EDT
President the rich asshole has scrapped his planned trip to Peru and Colombia, the White House announced Tuesday.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the rich asshole will remain in Washington to oversee the response to an apparent chemical weapons attack in Syria. Vice President Pence will travel in the rich asshole’s place.
“President the rich asshole will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as originally scheduled,” Sanders said in a statement.
“At the president’s request, the Vice President will travel in his stead. The president will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world.”
The White House had already cut down the number of days the rich asshole planned to spend in South America after Peru’s president resigned over corruption allegations.
the rich asshole said Monday evening that the Syrian chemical attack will be “met forcefully” by the U.S., pointing a finger at Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin. the rich asshole refused to say when a potential military strike would occur.
The decision also comes as the rich asshole deals with the fallout of an FBI raid on the offices of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
the rich asshole has called the FBI's actions a "disgrace" and an attack on the country and has also renewed talk of possibly firing special counsel Robert Mueller.
The raid came after a referral from Mueller's special counsel team.
The Summit of the Americas brings together leaders of Western Hemisphere nations to discuss issues facing the region. This year’s summit theme is “Democratic Governance Against Corruption.”
the rich asshole blasts FBI raid on Cohen: 'Attorney-client privilege is dead!'
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 04/10/18 07:30 AM EDT
President the rich asshole early Tuesday launched a fresh wave of attacks after the FBI raided the office of the rich asshole's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
The president in two tweets posted just after 7 a.m. declared that "attorney–client privilege is dead" and called the ongoing investigation into Russian election meddling headed by special counsel Robert Mueller a "total witch hunt."
Attorney–client privilege is dead!
A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!
Investigators reportedly seized information related to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, whom Cohen has admitted to paying $130,000 weeks before the 2016 election, in a Monday raid on the attorney's office. Daniels claims the payment was intended to buy her silence about an alleged affair with the rich asshole more than a decade ago.
The deal with Daniels has raised questions as to whether it constituted an unreported donation to the rich asshole campaign, as Cohen claims that he supplied the money himself without his boss's knowledge.
Cohen and the rich asshole have both denied the affair, and on Monday the president called the investigation into Cohen a "disgrace" and hinted that he was once again considering having the Justice Department fire Mueller.
“It’s a real disgrace,” the rich asshole told reporters at the White House. "It’s an attack on what we all stand for.”
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April 10, 2018
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders angrily denounced reporters for covering the unusual FBI raid on the rich asshole's lawyer and his bizarre rant about it.
Less that 24 hours after the FBI raided the home and office of the rich asshole’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders complained that the extraordinary event was being covered by the press.
The FBI raided seized records related to Cohen’s payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. Daniels recently revealed the details of an extramarital affair with the rich asshole and attempts to cover it up before the 2016 election.
Monday, shortly after news of the raid broke, the rich asshole ranted for several minutes that the raid was an “attack on our country” and said he is considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller.
The highly unusual raid of the personal attorney to the president of the United States, who is reportedly under investigation for bank fraud potentially committed on the rich asshole’s behalf, is certainly newsworthy. So is the rich asshole’s outraged response to it.
But in the daily press briefing, Sanders complained that the press had any questions about it.
NBC reporter Kristin Welker pointed out that the rich asshole himself appointed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who authorized the raid, and inquired how the rich asshole could then call it a “witch hunt.”
Sanders echoed the rich asshole’s talking point that the special counsel’s investigation, which has already yielded multiple guilty pleas, is a “witch hunt.”
“We’ve spoken about this at length, ad nauseum,” she added, “and frankly think it’s a big distraction that the media has spent every single day for the last year focused on this instead of some of the biggest issues of our day.”
But Sanders’ media bashing — part of her go-to strategy — ignores the fact that there are very real events being covered. The media is not inventing out of whole cloth the series of arrests, indictments, and convictions that have happened in the rich asshole’s inner circle.
On Monday, the rich asshole didn’t even wait to be asked about the FBI’s raid and seizure of his attorney’s records. He launched into his rant on his own and continued to complain on Twitter the following morning.
Certainly the rich asshole’s threat to fire Mueller — essentially admitting he’s considering further obstructing the investigation — is newsworthy too. That threat prompted concern from several lawmakers, specifically Democratic leaders.
The majority of Americans believe the Mueller investigation is fair and want it to continue. Neither Sanders nor the rich asshole are going to make it go away by calling it a “witch hunt” or lashing out at the media for covering it.
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April 10, 2018
As he fumes over more news of his scandals, the rich asshole abruptly canceled a key diplomatic trip to Latin America.
Once again abdicating his role on the world stage, a seething the rich asshole canceled his trip to Latin America this week, where he would have attended the long-planned 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru. He’s also bailing on a trip to Colombia.
“The Vice President will travel in his stead,” announced White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
The White House claimed the abrupt cancellation was to allow the rich asshole to monitor the escalating tensions in Syria. But the sudden news of the summit no-go only came after FBI agents raided the office and home of the rich asshole’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, on Monday.
And of course, the incident has triggered a the rich asshole meltdown, claiming that FBI agents, who had a lawful warrant, “broke into” Cohen’s office, and that the action was “a disgrace” that represented “an attack on our country.”
“Rarely has the rich asshole’s ever-simmering anger over the Russia probe erupted on camera as it did on Monday,” CNN noted.
the rich asshole was reduced to all-cap tweeting on Tuesday morning, as he was undoubtedly rage-watching Fox News:
Rather than monitor developments in Syria, which the rich asshole can do from anywhere, it looks like the canceled trip was really to allow the rich asshole to engage in his version of “damage control” at home, as he and his team become even more deeply enmeshed in criminal investigations. He even seems to be considering the extraordinary move of firing special counsel Robert Mueller as Mueller’s probe digs deeper into potential the rich asshole criminality.
But the rich asshole’s canceled trip just means more headaches for the White House, particularly this week, as former FBI Director James Comey begins to make the media rounds to discuss his new book, which reportedly discusses how the rich asshole fired Comey. Aides were reportedly hoping the rich asshole’s visit to Latin America would mean he’d stay out of the headlines.
“[S]enior aides are hoping the rich asshole’s trip to South America and subsequent summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago will provide a distraction, as well as an opportunity for the president to appear above the fray,” Politico reported on Monday.
Those plans have now been trashed. And meanwhile, it doesn’t sound like diplomats at the summit will miss the rich asshole. After his first year in office, just 16 percent of poll respondents in Latin America approved of the rich asshole’s performance, according to Gallup.
the rich asshole’s safe spaces are rapidly shrinking.
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April 10, 2018
The Fox News host wasted no time making herself the victim after she bullied a school shooting survivor.
After a weeklong vacation amid controversy and boycotts, Laura Ingraham returned to her Fox News time slot on Monday night. And predictably, she offered no contrition.
Instead, she made herself out to be the victim and called the people who boycotted her “Stalinists” whose “objective is a total transformation of American society, not through rational discourse and open debate, but through personal demonization and silencing.”
Notably, at no point during the segment did Ingraham bother to mention that the reason she was boycotted had nothing to do with her “ideas” or with being conservative. It was because she gleefully mocked Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg for not getting into a few colleges.
“We’re winning the war of ideas,” said Ingraham. “On immigration, the economy, life, trade, and yes, political correctness. Which is why we’re seeing the left-wing retaliatory hit squads popping up everywhere. Today in academia, in Hollywood, and in the media, the left will brook no dissent, and they will militantly police the borders of their stale orthodoxy. Well, we are not going to stand for this.”
Ingraham then announced there would be a new recurring feature on her show called “Defending the First,” which will “expose the enemies of the First Amendment, of free expression and free thought, while showcasing those brave voices making a difference.”
She invited viewers who have “been subjected to threats or intimidation because of your speech” to tweet their horror stories to her.
“Because without free speech and a free conscience, we’re not truly a free people. We’re not afraid to debate ideas here. We relish a vigorous debate. They run from it.”
Try as she might to imply otherwise, the First Amendment does not give Ingraham the right to be sponsored by private companies to express her views — as 19 companies have now refused to do. Nor does it protect her from people turning off her show or not buying from companies that sponsor her. These are also acts of free speech.
But Fox executives evidently agree with Ingraham that she has a right to have her attacks on a teenage gun violence survivor “debated” and legitimized as if they are just a political view.
“We cannot and will not allow voices to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts,” said the network in a statement last week.
Ingraham and her supporters would have us believe public support for people like David Hogg is a slippery slope that threatens political discourse. But the real danger is the legitimization of anything said by a prominent public figure based on the need for false balance rather than what they are actually saying.
That lets bullies like Ingraham weaponize their unique platforms to hurt people. And we cannot allow that to be the norm.
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April 10, 2018
One of the GOP's top congressional candidates with a close connection to the rich asshole was caught making up fake questions for herself in an online forum.
A Republican congressional candidate was caught planting questions for herself in an online forum.
Kimberlin Brown Pelzer is running for the congressional seat in California’s 36th Congressional District. As part of a Facebook Live Q&A, where candidates are supposed to be taking on questions from voters, a question about “sanctuary cities” from Pelzer’s personal account was added to the mix.
The Desert Sun newspaper reported that the fake question was planted by Pelzer’s campaign, and that she has been pushing the anti-immigrant position as part of her campaign. After the fakery was uncovered, the campaign deleted the phony question.
Pelzer’s attempt to generate fake news echoes another Republican candidate. Rep. Martha McSally, who is running for Senate in Arizona, also held a Facebook Live event and posted a comment from her own account praising her for “great video quality,” adding, “thank you for your service.”
A former actress on the soap opera “Bold and the Beautiful,” Pelzer is a one of the pro-the rich asshole candidates who has risen in prominence in the Republican Party. She was selected in 2016 to deliver a speech at the Republican National Convention hailing the rich asshole’s candidacy.
Pelzer has been designated by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) as one of its “Young Guns” for the 2018 election. She is challenging Democratic Rep. Raul Ruiz, who easily won his seat in 2016, winning with 62 percent of the vote.
In an interview with the racist pro-the rich asshole site Breitbart, Pelzer said of the rich asshole, “I believe in this president. I spoke for this president. I believe he needs people in office that are going to help the issues that we put him there to get accomplished.”
Republicans hope to hold on to control of Congress, but the unpopularity of the rich asshole administration has put them on defense.
Candidates like Pelzer, who are so closely identified with his presidency, are fighting an uphill battle. Faking key elements of her campaign won’t help her standing with voters.
Cause=effect
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April 10, 2018
Youth vote enthusiasm has doubled since the last midterm cycle, and that's very bad news for the GOP.
The chant of “vote them out” rang out during last month’s March For Our Lives event in Washington, D.C., as hundreds of thousands of activists protested for gun safety. Millions more participated around the country and the globe.
In fact, nearly 5,000 new voters, most under the age of 30, registered to vote the day of the March for Our Lives rally.
And it’s not just anecdotal; the youth vote could be a major factor in this year’s midterms.
A new Harvard Institute of Politics poll suggest that “vote them out” mantra is now a driving force in American politics, especially among young Democratic voters. This, as the student survivors from the Parkland, Florida, school gun massacre continue to reshape political activism in 2018.
And right now, the enthusiasm is sky high.
“Young Democrats are driving nearly all of the increase in enthusiasm; a majority (51%) report that they will ‘definitely’ vote in November,” Axios reports.
That represents a gigantic gain from the 2014 midterm cycle, when just 28 percent of young Democratic voters (ages 18-29) were “definitely” going to vote.
Nationally, only 20 percent of voters ages 18-29 cast votes in the 2014 midterms, the lowest ever recorded, according to the Miami Herald.
One of the hurdles the Democratic Party has faced for years is a weak turnout during midterm elections. All indications are that 2018 will represent a dramatic change, especially among younger voters.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student activist David Hogg is taking a gap year and not attending college in the fall so that he can help work on midterm elections and educate voters.
It’s likely that Hogg and his fellow Parkland activists will be heavily involved in the Florida Senate race, pitting Democrat Bill Nelson against Republican Rick Scott. As governor of Florida, Scott was known as an NRA yes man, and signed into law some of the most radical, pro-NRA guns laws in the country.
Students are getting some help too. Tom Steyer, the billionaire former hedge fund executive, announced in January he was putting $30 million into getting out the youth vote, with a heavy emphasis on Florida.
Parkland activists have already made their presences felt in campaigns nationwide.
Last month, when a Republican candidate for the Maine state House called Parkland students Emma Gonzalez a “skinhead lesbian” and Hogg a “moron” and a “baldfaced liar” on Twitter, he had to drop out of the race because the backlash was so strong.
Meanwhile, the new Harvard youth poll comes just one day after a Reuters survey found that Republicans are leaking voters on the other end of the age spectrum — white, educated, older voters are moving away from the GOP.
In fact, there’s been a 12-point swing toward Democrats among that crucial voting bloc.
Vote them out, indeed.
Laura Ingraham loses another advertiser after complaining about boycott during return to Fox News
"Their efforts are Stalinist, pure and simple."
“Did I miss anything while I was gone?” Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked at the top of her Monday night show. “I’m glad I don’t have a Google alert for my name.”
Ingraham returned to her show, The Ingraham Angle, Monday after a week-long hiatus. Her “Easter break” suspiciously coincided with a mass exodus of advertisers from her program following comments Ingraham made about Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg, mocking him for not getting accepted into some University of California colleges. She did not mention whether the break was planned in advance or in response to the all the negative press she received that week.
Now that Ingraham is back is on television, she is showing little to no remorse.
She started off her Monday show with an extended monologue about the perils of “squelching” free speech.
“The left’s propaganda shaped a new generation of young adults, who then parroted all that malarkey about the ‘patriarchy,’ and then they came up with their own new phrases like ‘micro-aggressions’ and ‘safe spaces’ and ‘white privilege,’” Ingraham said. “Today, left-wing activists use these terms as bludgeons to intimidate those who disagree with them from entering the dialogue at all.”
“Their efforts are Stalinist, pure and simple,” she added. “Their objective is a total transformation of American society, not through rational discourse and open debate, but through personal demonization and silencing.”
As it turns out, over a dozen advertisers didn’t like being associated with a TV host who harangued a kid for not getting into college, and are still continuing to drop her show.
Slimfast has become the 21st advertiser to dump @IngrahamAngle after she calls David Hogg and fellow boycotters "Stalinist." Thank you @SlimFast.#BoycottIngrahamAdvertisers twitter.com/SlimFast/statu…
Liberty Mutual, one of Ingraham’s top advertisers, called the Fox News host’s comments “inconsistent with our values as a company.”
Atlantis Paradise Island Resort said in a statement that while the company believes in free speech, they also “do not condone discrimination, bullying, mockery or harmful behavior of any kind.”
Companies announcing that they have dropped advertisements from her show include Nutrish, TripAdviser, Wayfair, Expedia, Nestlé, Stich Fix, Hulu, Jenny Craig, Office Depot, Honda, Miracle-Ear, Liberty Mutual, Principal Financial Group, Ruby Tuesday, Entertainment Studios, and Johnson & Johnson.
According to a recent consumer poll by YouGov BrandIndex, boycotting Laura Ingraham’s program is no big deal for advertisers.
Advertisers boycotting Laura Ingraham appear unscathed, while Fox News sees perception decline. Nine of them show negligible movement in their Buzz score. This indicates consumers are not swayed positively or negatively toward their actions so far bit.ly/2GQxcrq
Data shows that Fox News, not advertisers, are hurting the most from the Laura Ingraham boycott.
Chris Christie destroys the rich asshole’s ‘witch hunt’ claim about Mueller
the rich asshole's former presidential transition head destroyed his witch-hunt defense.
Former the rich asshole transition chairman and ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) dismantled the president’s latest round of attacks on Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Tuesday and laid out a clear defense of Monday’s raid on the office of the rich asshole lawyer Michael Cohen.
After the raid, the rich asshole threatened to fire Mueller and unleashed a Twitter tirade complaining that “attorney-client privilege is dead!”
But on ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday, Christie warned that firing the special counsel would be untenable. Noting that he had used the exact same process during his own time as a U.S. Attorney, he explained the high bar that had to have been satisfied before the “not that extraordinary” raid.
“They went to Justice at least twice on this. [Deputy Attorney General Rod] Rosenstein sent it to the U.S. Attorney in the Southern. He took an independent look at it,” he explained. “He could have just said, ‘I don’t see anything here,’ or ‘I’ll just serve some subpoenas,’ or take some less intrusive steps. He thought that either one of two things was happening: either he had evidence that Cohen was not cooperating with subpoenas that have already been served, and/or that Cohen was in the midst of destroying evidence.”
Christie noted that the request then needed to be approved by the head of the DOJ’s criminal division and the deputy attorney general again.
Christie shot down the rich asshole’s claim that Monday’s raid was a fatal blow to attorney-client privilege. “There’s gonna be a taint-team… they’ll bring in a whole separate team of agents and assistant U.S. Attorneys who are gonna examine this. They’re going to separate this into stuff that’s privileged and stuff that isn’t.”
And then, he explained, they’d look at whether any of the privileged information showed evidence of an ongoing crime or fraud between the rich asshole and Cohen.
“It’s gotta be a conspiracy-like situation, George, that they see clear evidence of,” Christie told host George Stephanopoulos.
UPDATE: This piece previously said that Geoffrey Berman, the rich asshole administration appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of the New York, ordered the raid of Cohen’s office. Late Tuesday morning, ABC News reported that Berman recused himself and took no part in the raid.
Conway’s husband responds to the rich asshole with link to US attorney rules showing he’s wrong
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 04/10/18 08:37 AM EDT
The husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway responded to President the rich asshole on Twitter after the rich asshole tweeted that "attorney–client privilege is dead" following a raid on the offices of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
George Conway retweeted the message Tuesday morning from the president and included a link to the Justice Department's website explaining why Cohen's offices were not protected from a Monday no-knock FBI raid by attorney–client privilege.
"There are occasions when effective law enforcement may require the issuance of a search warrant for the premises of an attorney who is a subject of an investigation, and who also is or may be engaged in the practice of law on behalf of clients," the Justice Department's website reads.
The website goes on to list a number of guidelines the government must follow when obtaining evidence under such circumstances, including receiving permission from either the attorney general or assistant attorney general.
George Conway, unlike his wife, who formerly ran the rich asshole's campaign and who remains a top media booster of the president, is a frequent critic of the rich asshole on Twitter.
In March, Conway deleted a number of previous tweets critical of the president amid speculation that Kellyanne Conway was under consideration to take over as White House communications director.
George Conway has publicly maintained his support for the rich asshole and his policies in public interviews and postings.
"Just to be clear, and in response to inquiries, I still VERY, VERY STRONGLY support POTUS, his Admin, policies, the executive order ... and of course, my wonderful wife," Conway wrote last year.
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April 10, 2018
the rich asshole just issued his most direct hint that he's looking to fire special counsel Robert Mueller. His Republican enablers in the Senate still refuse to do anything about it.
Senate Republicans insist that the rich asshole firing special counsel Robert Mueller would be “bad” and even “suicide,” but they’re not willing to do anything to prevent it.
the rich asshole issued his clearest public threat yet on Monday, during an unhinged-even-for-him rant about the FBI’s raid on the home and office of longtime the rich asshole attorney Michael Cohen.
“Why don’t I just fire Mueller? Well, I think it’s a disgrace what’s going on. We’ll see what happens,” the rich asshole said Monday. “But I think it’s a really sad situation when you look at what happened, and many people have said you should fire him.”
It’s not a secret that the rich asshole wants to end the investigation, or that he’s willing to go to extraordinary lengths to obstruct it.
But while Democrats are calling for Congress to take steps to protect the investigation before it’s too late, Republicans are, incredibly, still waiting for … well, it’s not clear what they’re waiting for.
The Republican Party’s Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, said “Mueller should be allowed to finish his job,” but brushed off calls for action.
“I haven’t seen a clear indication that we need to pass something because I don’t think he’s going to be removed,” McConnell said, ignoring the rich asshole’s threats.
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) dismissed the idea of legislation entirely.
“I don’t know that that’s necessary. You know?” He added that “legislating on this” might not be “the right path forward.”
Others, like Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), are apparently counting on the rich asshole to exercise good judgment.
“the rich asshole doesn’t need to be told it’s a bad idea to fire Mueller,” Rounds said. “He already knows it’s a bad idea.”
the rich asshole has never shied away from pursuing bad ideas, though. If anything, he’s infamous for doing things because he’s been told they’re a bad idea.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has previously called for legislation to protect Mueller, also shrugged off the rich asshole’s threat.
“I’m not worried about the rich asshole firing Mueller,” he said. “I think he’s smarter than that.”
Last July, Graham was singing a different tune. He was at least worried enough to urge both parties to pass a bill to protect Mueller’s investigation.
“Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the rich asshole presidency,” he said. “We need a check and balance here.”
But now, after several months of more of the rich asshole’s less-than-smart actions and Monday’s not-so-subtle threat, Graham isn’t worried.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) used stark language to “warn” the rich asshole.
“I think it would be suicide for the president to fire him,” Grassley said Tuesday. “I think the less the president says about this whole thing, the better off he will be. And I think Mueller is a person of stature and respected and I respect him. Just let the thing go forward.”
But Grassley has yet to endorse legislation to protect the investigation, which Democrats continue to call for.
On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer detailed exactly why the investigation is so critical and must be protected.
“Special counsel Mueller, a Republican, has uncovered a deep and detailed pattern of Russian interference in our elections that has led to indictments and guilty pleas,” Schumer said. “It has also led to the rich asshole administration itself leveling sanctions against Russian individuals for meddling in our elections, proof that it’s not a so-called ‘witch-hunt.'”
Some Republicans seem to acknowledge that the investigation is important and must continue.
But they’re still choosing party over country, sending a signal to the rich asshole that if he wants to fire Mueller, they have no plans to stop him.
the rich asshole lawyer now claims his statements about Stormy Daniels were just hyperbole
Cohen says not to take him literally or seriously.
A longtime lawyer for President the rich asshole argued in a new court filing this week that he was simply being “hyperbolic” when he suggested adult film actress Stormy Daniels was lying about an affair she claimed to have had with President the rich asshole.
Michael D. Cohen, who has worked with the rich asshole Organization for close to a decade, is currently being sued by Daniels for defamation. Daniels claims she had a sexual relationship with the rich asshole in 2006, one year after the rich asshole’s marriage to his third wife, Melania. Daniels said that she was initially pressured not to go public with her story in 2011, and in 2016, after attempting to speak out about the affair once more, was contacted by Cohen and paid $130,000 to stay silent — weeks before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels claimed that the money was part of a non-disclosure agreement she entered into with Cohen, who signed on behalf of the shell company. the rich asshole, however, did not sign the document.
In February, responding to reports of the payment, Cohen insisted that he had only paid Daniels the $130,000 to prevent her from smearing the rich asshole’s image in the days leading up to the election.
“Just because something isn’t true doesn’t mean that it can’t cause you hurt or damage,” Cohen said at the time. “I will always protect some rich asshole.”
Daniels’ defamation suit claims that this statement constituted an attack on her character and defamed her because it implied that she had made up the affair. In Monday’s filing, however — first highlighted by USA Today’s Steve Reilly on Twitter— Cohen’s lawyers pushed back, arguing that the statement was not defamatory because Cohen was just playing politics. His lawyers cited an earlier case from 2001, Rosenaur v. Scherer, in which a local political candidate sued his opponent for claiming in a “heated exchange at a shopping center” and in various campaign literature that the plaintiff was a “thief.” The court eventually ruled in the defendant’s favor, arguing that he had only used “loose figurative language and hyperbole” and had not insinuated that the plaintiff “actually had a criminal past.”
Michael Cohen's statement explaining the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels was merely "a figurative, hyperbolic expression," according to a new filing by his attorney. assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4434…
“Here, no reasonable reader of Mr. Cohen’s statement would perceive it to be anything other than a figurative, hyperbolic expression,” Cohen’s lawyers wrote. “Pursuant to the foregoing authorities, the statement by Mr. Cohen is not defamatory as a matter of law, but rather is hyperbole.”
The filing was made in an effort to get the court to dismiss the defamation claim.
Earlier in the document, however, Cohen’s lawyers also cited Daniels’ own previous public statement denying the affair herself, which she had issued through her lawyers on January 10. (In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel on January 30, Daniels appeared to imply that she had only done so to avoid violating the NDA, which at the time she believed could still be used against her.)
“…Even assuming Mr. Cohen’s statement can be interpreted as insinuating that Plaintiff is a liar, it is substantially true,” Cohen’s lawyers wrote. “As shown herein, Plaintiff herself repeatedly denied — in 2011 and twice in January 2018 (in writing) — any intimate relationship with some rich asshole. In February 2018, she then alleged an intimate relationship. She either lied in 2011 and January 2018, or she lied in February 2018 and is lying now. Thus, even if Mr. Cohen’s statement insinuates that Plaintiff is a liar, it would be a true statement.”
Cohen’s lawyers, then, appear to be arguing — somewhat confusingly — that Cohen couldn’t have been defamatory because his comments were hyperbolic and not meant to imply that Daniels was lying, and simultaneously claiming that Cohen’s statement was true.
Cohen’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In an email to ThinkProgress, Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, stated, “We are confident the motion will be denied.”
Cohen has faced mounting pressure in the Stormy Daniels controversy of late. On Monday, FBI agents raided Cohen’s office, home residence, and hotel room at the Loews Regency on Park Avenue, in search of personal emails, tax documents, business records, and “other material” related to the $130,000 payment, as specified in a court warrant. According to the New York Times, the raid was instigated following a referral from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is currently investigating allegations of collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 election.
Cohen’s attorney, Stephan Ryan, responded to the raids in a public statement on Monday evening, saying they were “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.”
“[The raids] resulted in the seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients,” Ryan said. “These government tactics are also wrong because Mr. Cohen has cooperated completely with all government entities, including providing thousands of non-privileged documents to the Congress and sitting for depositions under oath.”
Avenatti, weighed in on the raids a short while later, tweeting, “An enormous amount of misplaced faith has been placed on [Michael Cohen’s] shoulders IMO. If he does not hold up, this could end very very badly for [President the rich asshole] and others.”
some rich asshole is very confused about attorney-client privilege
The privilege is alive and well.
The FBI raided on Monday the office, home, and hotel room of President the rich asshole’s longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen. The information seized reportedly includes communications between Cohen and his only client, some rich asshole.
the rich asshole is not happy about this turn of events. On Twitter on Tuesday morning, he declared that the entire concept of attorney-client privilege is “dead.”
the rich asshole is wrong. Like nearly all legal privileges, attorney-client privilege is “qualified” — meaning there are some circumstances where it does not apply.
Among the core exceptions to attorney-client privilege is the “crime-fraud exception,” which means that communications between you and your attorney about future criminal acts are not protected. This is a basic legal concept that has been recognized for decades. As a legal handbook on attorney-client privilege published last year explains:
The attorney-client privilege does not apply when a client consults a lawyer for the purpose of furthering an illegal or fraudulent act. United States v. Zolin, 491 U.S. 554, 563 (1989); In re Antitrust Grand Jury, 805 F.2d 155, 162 (6th Cir. 1986); In re Grand Jury Subpoenas Duces Tecum, 773 F.2d 204, 206 (8th Cir. 1985); United States v. Horvath, 731 F.2d 557, 562 (8th Cir. 1984); cf. Clark v. United States, 289 U.S. 1, 13-14 (1933). The so-called “crime-fraud exception” removes the protection of the attorney-client privilege for communications concerning contemplated or continuing crimes or frauds. This exception encompasses criminal and fraudulent conduct based on action as well as inaction.
Piercing attorney-client privilege is not something a U.S. Attorney’s Office takes lightly. In this case, someone at the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, had to personally sign off on such a raid and obtained the approval of an Deputy Attorney General.
Former US Attorney Preet Bharara says the FBI raids of Michael Cohen's office and hotel room were done by officials who were all "handpicked" by President Trump cnn.it/2qm4JiD
The search warrant would also have to have been approved by a federal judge. The judge would only approve such a warrant if he or she believed there was probable cause that the communications or material involved criminal conduct.
The Justice Department will also undertake special procedures to ensure that materials protected by legitimate attorney-client privilege are protected.
Several the rich asshole family members appear to have misguided notions about the scope of attorney client privilege and the scope of activities that it protects.
For example, when some rich asshole Jr. appeared in front of the House Intelligence Committee last December, he refused to discuss his conversations with his father about a meeting with Russian nationals in the rich asshole Tower during the campaign. the rich asshole Jr. justified the decision by noting that there was a lawyer in the room during the discussion with his father. As the Washington Post reported at the time:
Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that the rich asshole Jr. told the committee he did speak with his father about the rich asshole Tower meeting several days later, after emails showing he had accepted the meeting after being offered “dirt” on Clinton were made public. However, the rich asshole Jr. declined to detail the conversation to the committee, indicating a lawyer had been present and he believed it was subject to attorney-client privilege.
This is not, however, a situation where attorney-client privilege applies. the rich asshole Jr. was talking to his father, not a lawyer.
“Any communications between the Trumps would not be protected, unless the two were effectively speaking jointly to a lawyer to obtain legal advice for both of them. That seems highly unlikely. And the mere presence of a lawyer in the room is legally irrelevant. This is likely a frivolous assertion of the privilege,” Samuel Buell, a professor at Duke University Law School, told the Washington Post.
Confusion about attorney-client privilege apparently runs in the family.
UPDATE: This post has been updated to reflect the fact that U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman recused himself from the matter. It also reflects new reporting that the raid was personally approved by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
the rich asshole follows the Nixon playbook in response to Michael Cohen raid
It didn't work out well for the 37th president.
President the rich asshole’s initial reaction to Monday’s news that his personal attorney was raided by the FBI has been to repeatedly proclaim himself the victim of a “witch hunt” — echoing a talking point used by the last president to leave office in disgrace.
“It’s a disgraceful situation. It’s a total witch hunt,” the rich asshole said during comments to the media on Monday night. “Here we are talking about Syria, we’re talking about a lot of serious things with the greatest fighting force ever, and I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now.”
Hours later, the rich asshole again railed about a “witch hunt” on Twitter.
It wasn’t the first time the rich asshole has posted nearly that exact tweet.
Richard Nixon — who resigned in August 1974 less than a year after he ordered top Department of Justice official to fire the special prosecutor overseeing the investigation of him following the Watergate break-in — also deployed this talking point.
Three months before the “Saturday Night Massacre,” the Washington Post published a story reporting that Nixon perceived himself to be the victim of a “witch hunt.”
Woodward and Bernstein reported that Nixon and his top aides saw the Senate Watergate hearings as “unfair” and nothing more than “a political witch-hunt.”
The sources said that the President in recent weeks had expressed bitterness and deep hostility toward the two-month-old proceedings. “The President sees the hearings as an attempt to get Richard Nixon and do it just damn unfairly,” one source said.
Like Nixon in the fall of 1973, the rich asshole is now openly considering ordering Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, whose team is currently investigating the president’s campaign for possible collusion with Russia, among other matters — including a hush payment the rich asshole’s personal lawyer made shortly before the election to an adult film actress who says she had an affair with the rich asshole, which may have violated campaign finance laws.
“Why don’t I just fire Mueller? Well, I think it’s a disgrace what’s going on — we’ll see what happens — but I think it’s a sad situation when you look at what happened and many people have said you should fire him,” the rich asshole said to reporters on Monday. “Again, they found nothing, and in finding nothing, that’s a big statement.”
the rich asshole immediately changed the topic to Rosenstein, and that Rosenstein signed a warrant allowing the FBI to surveil former the rich asshole campaign adviser Carter Page. Despite Page’s well-documented ties to the Kremlin, the rich asshole and his allies argue that surveillance of him was inappropriate.
the rich asshole posted another tweet Tuesday morning suggesting he thinks the basis of the FBI’s raid was illegitimate.
But even the legal analyst on the rich asshole’s favorite cable news network thinks the rich asshole’s legal footing is precarious. During a segment that aired shortly after news of the raid broke and as the rich asshole was reportedly watching TV coverage of the development, Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano explained that attorney-client privilege does not apply if there is “a serious allegation of illegal activity, by the lawyer with the client.”
“There must be some evidence presented to a federal judge here in New York City sufficient to persuade that judge to sign a search warrant to permit the FBI in broad daylight to raid an attorney’s office, particularly when that attorney has one client and it happens to be the president of the United States,” Napolitano told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto. “That evidence would have to be such as to persuade a neutral observer, the federal judge, that it is more likely than not, that among these seized documents is evidence of crimes by Mr. Cohen or Mr. Cohen and the president.”
WATCH LIVE: Sarah Sanders holds White House press briefing after Cohen raid
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Screenshot)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is holding a news briefing with reports on Tuesday, which is scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. (ET).
The press briefing comes less than 24 hours after FBI agents raided the personal residence and office of some rich asshole’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Watch live video below:
FBI raided Michael Cohen for records of hush payments to two women who say they had affairs with the rich asshole: report
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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The FBI this week raided the offices of Michael Cohen, President some rich asshole’s personal lawyer, in an effort to unearth records of payments to two women who may have signed non-disclosure contracts to keep them from talking about alleged affairs with the president.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that agents were looking for evidence in connection to The National Enquirer’s role in using a non-disclosure contract to silence former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
The agents were also said to be searching for information pertaining to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who Cohen has admitted paying $130,000 to silence her about an alleged affair with the rich asshole.
The Times notes:
The early-morning searches enraged some rich asshole, associates said, setting off an angry public tirade Monday evening that continued in private at the White House as the president fumed about whether he should fire Mr. Rosenstein. The episode has deeply unsettled White House aides, Justice Department officials and lawmakers from both parties, who believe the president may use it as a pretext to purge the team leading the investigation into Russia meddling in the 2016 election.[..]some rich asshole’s advisers have spent the last 24 hours trying to convince the president not to make an impulsive decision that could put the president in more legal jeopardy and ignite a controversy that could consume his presidency, several people close to some rich asshole said.
Michael Cohen has been the rich asshole’s thug for years — here are 7 shocking claims against him
the rich asshole Attorney Michael Cohen/Screenshot
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The office and residences of some rich asshole’s personal attorney Michael Cohen were raided Monday, by federal prosecutors apparently acting on information from special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
the rich asshole promptly melted down over the raids, which may have resulted in the collection of documents like the rich asshole’s tax returns or ties to Russia.
Cohen has been in the news over the Stormy Daniels matter, which involved his paying of hush money. He says he did without the rich asshole’s knowledge and has exchanged barbs with Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti and may have been behind an effort to intimidate Daniels in Las Vegas.
Nothing about what Cohen has done involving the Daniels matter should be a surprise. some rich asshole’s “fixer” has long faced accusations of intimidating anyone who stood up to the rich asshole. Here are seven prime examples.
Sued a woman after she revealed details of the rich asshole fixing a beauty contest. Why was Cohen so aggressive with Stormy Daniels? It may be because he had a track record of intimidating women over revelations of wrongdoing. In 2012, Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin revealed that the rich asshole had fixed the pageant by pre-selecting the finalists. As a result, the contest lost its site. And so Cohen sued. Monnin’s lawyer told her not to respond and a court ended up awarding $5 million in damages to the rich asshole. Of course she didn’t actually have to pay that—privately settling in a way that meant she did not “pay any money out of pocket.”
Cohen threatened to have a Harvard student expelled over a prank. In 2016, staff of the humor magazine the Harvard Lampoon posed as the student’s student newspaper, The Crimson, and told the rich asshole they were considering endorsing him. They even stole a chair from the Crimson and brought it to Manhattan to pose with the future president. It was all a joke, and the rich asshole’s team responded poorly, with Cohen threatening the students.
“He says, you know, ‘I’m gonna come up to Harvard. You’re all gonna get expelled. If this photo gets out you’ll be outta that school faster than you know it. I can be up there tomorrow,” one of the students told 60 Minutes.
Cohen tried to get $5 million from Bill Maher because of a joke. Neither Michael Cohen or some rich asshole have a very good sense of humor. Which is why they reacted so poorly to Maher demanding that the rich asshole present a valid birth certificate to prove that he’s not the product of his mother having sex with an orangutan, with an offer to write a check for $5 million to the charity of the rich asshole’s choice. the rich asshole actually got a document purporting to show he’s not part orangutan and Cohen demanded that Maher pay up. Cohen then filed a lawsuit over the joke, which he then dropped promising that it would be “refiled at a later date.” Maher never paid and the suit was dropped.
Cohen sued a man who rented him a 12,000-square-foot vacation home rental for $250,000—far more than he even paid. According to a report in the New York Post, Cohen’s complaints included that the air conditioning was not working to his satisfaction (he had to sleep with the windows open to the ocean breeze) and that the twin beds were too small for Cohen’s son and sisters. While the lawsuit was for $250,000, the total bill for the home in the Hamptons was $150,000. “He ruined my summer!” Cohen told the paper at the time. Keep in mind that it’s only a two-hour drive from the vacation home to Cohen’s apartment on Park Avenue, so he could have ended the “vacation from hell,” at any moment.
Cohen defended his client by denying the existence of spousal rape… some rich asshole’s first wife has said she felt violated during sex. Ivanka’s mother, Ivana the rich asshole, was married to the rich asshole for 15 years. She does not speak well of the time, and once used “rape” to describe an alleged incident between them that happened in 1989, when Donald was angry about a cosmetic procedure and took it out on her by ripping fist fulls of hair out of her head, tearing off her clothes and forcing himself inside her for the first time in more than sixteen months. It has been reported that Ivana the rich asshole described it as rape, and she’s also said that she “violated” by the experience, but stopped short of describing it as criminal rape. Michael Cohen responded to the allegation by denying the existence of spousal rape. “You cannot rape your spouse. And there’s very clear case law,” he told the Daily Beast.
Cohen is wrong: spousal rape is now a crime in all 50 states. Even some rich asshole backed away from Cohen’s comments on rape.
…and then Cohen threatened a reporter who wrote about the alleged rape. When the Daily Beast’s Brandy Zadrozny and Tim Mark wrote about the alleged rape, they contacted Cohen for comment. He responded by threatening to “mess your life up… for as long as you’re on this frickin’ planet.” Cohen implied that he would die for defamation—which never happened. “I will make sure that you and I meet one day while we’re in the courthouse. And I will take you for every penny you still don’t have,” he told the reporter. “And I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know,” Cohen said. “So I’m warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting. You understand me?”
Cohen refused to stand up to his boss and boss’ wife Melania on birtherism. Cohen was a longtime Democrat—he voted for Obama and even volunteered for the ill-fated 1988 campaign of Michael Dukakis. And he knows the rich asshole was wrong to accuse Obama of not being born in the United States. “I am certain that the president was born in Hawaii—I really am,” Cohen told ABC News. “I am most irritated with the fact that this president has been exceptionally secretive when it relates to any personal documentation about his past.”
Cohen refused to stand up to his boss and boss’ wife Melania on birtherism. Cohen was a longtime Democrat—he voted for Obama and even volunteered for the ill-fated 1988 campaign of Michael Dukakis. And he knows the rich asshole was wrong to accuse Obama of not being born in the United States. “I am certain that the president was born in Hawaii—I really am,” Cohen told ABC News. “I am most irritated with the fact that this president has been exceptionally secretive when it relates to any personal documentation about his past.”
Cohen’s accusations of secrecy are lies: Obama released his Hawaiian birth certificate.
Cohen tried to bully his way out of the fraud lawsuit filed by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. the rich asshole maintained he did nothing wrong—until he settled the lawsuit. Cohen, as is his way, started with threats aimed at the Attorney General. “The damage to the attorney general is going to be very significant,” he said to The New Yorker. “So significant that he will possibly have to resign.”
Schneiderman, obviously, did not resign and may be pursing other investigations of the rich asshole
BUSTED: Roger Stone was caught admitting ‘Russia is going to drop truthbombs’ during the 2016 election
Roger Stone (Photo: Screen capture)
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the rich asshole adviser Roger Stone reportedly said in 2016 that Russia and its agents were “mostly likely” behind an effort to elect President some rich asshole and defeat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Christopher Massie obtained evidence that Stone had made the claims “from late July through August 1, 2016.” The information was discovered after a review of Stone’s emails and interviews.
CNN called Stone’s remarks “a sharp contrast to his more recent posture that Russia was not the source for hacked documents released by WikiLeaks throughout the campaign.”
“The reason that the Russians are probably leaking this information is because they don’t want a nuclear war either. (Hillary Clinton) is bent on a war that benefits her donors and the multinational corporations and the defense contractors,” Stone told radio host Alex Jones in July of 2016.
He spoke about the Russians with Jones again several days later.
“The fact that the Russians will — or whoever — are going to continue to drop bombs on the American people in the form of their own documents,” Stone opined. “The Clintons have cut their own throat because they assume that no one would ever see all of their secret illegal maneuverings.”
He added: “This is why [Clinton] used an unsecured server to hide the very things that I suspect someone — most likely the Russians — is going to drop on the American people like truthbombs throughout this election. She can raise a billion dollars and it may not matter. the rich asshole may beat her like a drum as he pounces on and helps further public knowledge of every one of the bombshells that is coming.”
The longtime the rich asshole adviser made similar remarks on at least two other occasions during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“We know there are gonna be many, many turns in the road, including the material that I assume Julian Assange or WikiLeaks, his organization, drops on the American people,” Stone said three days later, but he denied the Russians were involved.
“We now know that the Russians had nothing to do with these emails, none whatsoever,” Stone said.
After allegedly dining with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2016, Stone was said to back off the braggadocios Russia rhetoric, and has since insisted that he did not collude with the Russian government.
Stone reacted bitterly when asked for a comment by CNN.
“I’m publishing my own time line that will only make you look foolish,” he charged.
The exodus continues: the rich asshole’s ‘stable’ homeland security adviser calls it quits in ‘major loss’ for White House
Tom Bossert (screen grab)
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The White House announced on Tuesday the President some rich asshole’s homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, has tendered his resignation.
The administration declined to give a reason for Bossert terminating his employment, but in a statement, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders wished him well.
The President is grateful for Tom’s commitment to the safety and security of our great country. Tom led the White House’s efforts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen our cyber defenses, and respond to an unprecedented series of natural disasters. President the rich asshole thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well.
Bossert was a crucial figure in the West Wing. He was viewed as someone stable, got things done, trusted by Trump, knew how to communicate with Trump. This will be seen by folks in the White House as a major loss. twitter.com/spettypi/statu…
A source told NBC News that as of Monday Bossert was not aware of any intention at the White House to seek his resignation and he had no plans to leave
by Ken Dilanian and Dartunorro Clark / Apr.10.2018 / 10:33 AM ET
President some rich asshole's homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, has resigned, the White House said Tuesday, making him the latest in a long line of senior officials to leave the administration.
On Monday night, Bossert was socializing with current and former U.S. Intelligence officials at a conference in Sea Island, Georgia, and a source close to him told NBC News that the adviser was unaware of any intention at the White House to seek his resignation, and that he had no plans to quit.
"New team," the source said, without further explanation.
Bossert's departures comes the day after John Bolton officially started his job as the rich asshole's national security adviser.
"The president is grateful for Tom's commitment to the safety and security of our great country," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. "Tom led the White House's efforts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen our cyber defenses, and respond to an unprecedented series of natural disasters. President the rich asshole thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well."
Sanders did not give a reason for his departure.
Bossert, who previously served in George W. Bush's administration, was tapped to be assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism in December 2016.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
POLITICS
the rich asshole’s Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert Resigns
John Bolton reportedly wanted him out.
Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert resigned on Tuesday, the White House confirmed.
“The President is grateful for Tom’s commitment to the safety and security of our great country,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “Tom led the White House’s efforts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen our cyber defenses, and respond to an unprecedented series of natural disasters.”
He reportedly left his position at the request of John Bolton, the new national security adviser, Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs said, which would fall in line with the expectation that Bolton would reportedly further purge the National Security Council and bring in his own staff in an effort to root out any possible leakers.
National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton, suspected of leaking information to the press, announced his own departure a day before ― a move also reportedly demanded by Bolton himself.
Bossert had appeared on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday to defend President some rich asshole’s decision to send National Guard troops to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We’ve got a leaking boat on our border, and we’re all quibbling with how much water’s in the boat. … What we’re doing is taking action now at the appropriate time instead of waiting as others have in the past,” Bossert said.
Rape, he added, is the “price of entry” for many women seeking to cross the border.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
CNN’s Jake Tapper subtly burns Tucker Carlson for covering panda sex on same day FBI raided the rich asshole lawyer
CNN's Tucker Carlson discusses panda sex (Screen cap).
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The biggest news story on Monday was the FBI raid on longtime the rich asshole lawyer Michael Cohen — except on Fox News, where the raid got scant mention even as its hosts found time to cover topics such as the sexual habits of pandas.
During his Monday evening show, Fox host Tucker Carlson did a segment called “Pandas Exposed” in which he said that “when they’re in the wild, male pandas engage in a fierce sexual contest” in which “the winner has sex 40 times!” The chyron for the segment simply read, “Pandas are aggressive and sex-crazed.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday subtly burned Carson on his Twitter account by posting a GIF of fictitious TV anchorman Ron Burgundy doing a “Panda Watch” report.
Although Tapper didn’t mention Carlson by name, his followers quickly understood exactly what he was trying to do with his sly panda reference.
This is Executive Branch Level 1000 SHADE, Jake! LOL
This is great, Jake, thank you! Chin up, @TuckerCarlson! It only gets worse from here!
Jake, why are you ignoring this growing panda problem. Do your job!
the rich asshole defender falters as CNN’s Chris Cuomo grills him over president’s attacks on the Mueller investigation
Alisyn Camerota, Chris Cuomo and David Urban (Photo: Screen capture)
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In a Tuesday morning panel discussion, President some rich asshole’s ally David Urban insisted that the investigators weren’t exactly on the up and up when it comes to the investigation into the rich asshole.
Always the prudent legal analyst, CNN’s Chris Cuomo explained that the public has no idea what the warrant and FBI search yielded.
“The tendency to distract from the process is to attack it. ‘They found nothing in Mueller,'” Cuomo continued, citing previous comments. “We don’t know that. We know they have guilty pleas. we know they have indictment. We don’t know what he has on it but people want to rush the process for political advantage. We’ve seen the same thing coming out of the mouth of the president about this search on [Michael] Cohen.”
Cuomo asked Urban about the president’s proclamation that “attorney-client privilege is dead.”
“It’s just not true,” Cuomo stated. “You have to call it out and you have to say the people making those arguments are wrong and doing a disservice to the democracy. Will you say that?”
Urban confessed that “attorney-client privilege is alive and well,” discounting the president’s claims.
Former FBI agent Josh Campbell explained that what Mueller has done in this case is “handing off to a separate independent U.S. Attorney’s office and saying, ‘You look at this. This doesn’t fall within my purview. You run with this.'” He said to have the rich asshole and the GOP go after Mueller is a disservice.
Urban said that everyone “needs to slow down” and “exhale,” because people are getting too hysterical about the rich asshole and these topics, implying that it is the president’s detractors who are “excited.” The president, however, has been seething.
Urban then parroted a GOP talking point, claiming that Mueller has extremely broad parameters to investigate the rich asshole. However, host Alisyn Camerota fact-checked the rich asshole ally, saying, “Rod Rosenstein laid out the parameters of what Robert Mueller can look at.”
She went on to quote Urban’s need to “exhale” and asked if the rich asshole should follow that advice. He pivoted to talk about the process about what will develop as the investigations continue. Urban claimed Mueller is safe and the president has no intention of firing the special prosecutor.
“He wants to talk about this,” Cuomo cut in. “You know that, Dave. He’s mad at these people. He believes that they are not doing him right.”
Urban maintained that the rich asshole is “frustrated” and that it was perfectly normal. But he maintained the rich asshole would not fire Mueller.
“Can we just agree on one thing, though?” Campbell asked. “All of what you just said is right. This process needs to play out. Can we agree that it’s time to end the open season on the FBI and it’s time to end open season on Robert Mueller? Let them do their job without the political attacks and discredit whatever they come up with, can we do that?”
Urban agreed, demanding that the panel declare everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
“Unfortunately, right, cable news, not necessarily this network, lots of folks across the America aren’t prepared to give the president that presumptuous,” he said.
“And the president of the United States keeps baiting the proposition that it’s a corrupt process,” Cuomo said. “It works both ways.”
Urban accused “both sides” of being problematic and said they need to “dial back the rhetoric.”
“Let’s remember this, the FBI is not on any one’s side,” Campbell said. “When we talk about this side, that side, the FBI doesn’t care. They’re not on sides. They’re about following the facts.”
Cuomo noted “we get it,” saying, the FBI “is like the honey badger.”
Watch the full conversation below:
Dem senator warns Cohen raid is a ‘seismic’ event for the rich asshole: ‘Like a nuclear strike with multiple warheads’
Sen. Richard Blumenthal and President some rich asshole
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Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) described the FBI raid of attorney Michael Cohen’s home and office in apocalyptic terms for President some rich asshole.
The Connecticut Democrat told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the execution of a search warrant at the rich asshole’s longtime personal attorney would send shockwaves through the White House — and rain destruction over the rest of his presidency.
“It’s like a nuclear strike with multiple warheads,” Blumenthal said.
He said the search was an extraordinarily unusual move, and was approved on multiple levels by the rich asshole appointees.
“A raid on a lawyer’s office is an extraordinary event, for a prosecutor, as I was, to contemplate is just a remarkable act of audacity when the lawyer is the sitting president’s lawyer,” Blumenthal said. “He has the keys to the kingdom, he knows all the secrets about some rich asshole — and if he were to cooperate it would be indeed a transformative event, so the raid is seismic.”
He said the warrant required a higher standard than probable cause to be granted by a court.
“The FBI and the U.S. Attorney has to convince the Department of Justice that they are going to come away with significant evidence of a crime,” Blumenthal said.
Blumenthal explained that Cohen could hold evidence of a variety of potential crimes related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the rich asshole campaign ties to Russia.
“I think Cohen has been involved in the rich asshole’s relationship to Russia, his negotiations for the hotel that he wanted to build there, the dealings with Ukrainians have been within Cohen’s purview, but my hunch is that it relates much more to obstruction of justice, perhaps wire fraud or bank fraud or money laundering,” he said. “All of those potential crimes involve some rich asshole.”
Kellyanne Conway’s husband just schooled the rich asshole on the limits of attorney-client privilege
US President-elect some rich asshole's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway (R) talks with George Gigicos at the rich asshole Tower lobby in New York on November 17, 2016. / AFP / Jewel SAMAD (Photo credit JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)
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George Conway, the husband of top the rich asshole adviser Kellyanne Conway, has given President some rich asshole a lesson in the limits of attorney-client privilege.
Responding to the rich asshole’s Tuesday morning declaration that “attorney-client privilege is dead” in the wake of an FBI raid on lawyer Michael Cohen, Conway simply tweeted out a link to laws regarding obtaining search warrants for attorneys in the United States.
Specifically, the law states that “there are occasions when effective law enforcement may require the issuance of a search warrant for the premises of an attorney who is a subject of an investigation, and who also is or may be engaged in the practice of law on behalf of clients.”
As part of the process for obtaining a warrant, the guidelines state that “the affidavit in support of the search warrant may attach any written instructions or, at a minimum, should generally state the government’s intention to employ procedures designed to ensure that attorney-client privileges are not violated.”
Conway has never been shy about criticizing President some rich asshole, despite the fact that his wife is one of the president’s most ardent defenders on cable news shows.
Last year, for instance, he ripped into the president for undermining his own proposed travel ban with a series of impulsive tweets. He has also recently been retweeting articles that criticize the president’s alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels, as well as stories that mock the rich asshole for being unable to hire top-notch legal counsel to defend him in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
the rich asshole ally Chris Christie shoots down president’s crazed tweets: ‘Attorney-client privilege is not dead’
Gov. Chris Christie and some rich asshole (NJ.com)
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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a longtime political ally of President some rich asshole, shot down the president’s latest tweets about the raid on attorney Michael Cohen’s office on Monday.
Appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Christie explained there was no way this raid was approved as part of a Democratic “witch hunt” against President some rich asshole — and he noted many of the players involved in approving the raid were appointed by either the rich asshole or Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“We’re looking at the U.S. District Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who I know well,” Christie said, referring to Geoffrey Berman, the official who would have had to have signed off on the raid. “This is a good guy… he’s a Boy Scout. He’ll do the right thing.”
ABC legal analyst Dan Abrams then explained all of the legal hoops that law enforcement officials had to jump through to get a warrant to raid Cohen’s office, and he said it would have been impossible to obtain such a warrant without ample evidence of probable cause to suspect a crime.
Host George Stephanopoulos then read Christie and Abrams an early morning the rich asshole tweet declaring that “attorney-client privilege is dead” — and Christie promptly smacked it down.
“Attorney-client privilege is not dead because of the way the Justice Department is going to approach this,” Christie said. “There’s going to be a ‘taint team.’ They call it a ‘taint team’ because you don’t want to taint the prosecutors who are actually involved in investigating by seeking potentially privileged information that they have no right to see. So you bring in a whole separate team of agents and assistant U.S. attorneys.”
Watch the video below.
White House sources say Cohen raid ignited the rich asshole’s ‘untethered’ rage: ‘I’ve never seen him like this before’
President some rich asshole speaking to cabinet about FBI raid (Photo: some rich asshole/Twitter)
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President some rich asshole is having an outright meltdown in the West Wing of the White House in real time and sources told Axios’ Mike Allen he’s losing it.
Friends and close associates to the president told Allen that the rich asshole and his allies are acting out a full cataclysm in real time. When speaking to the press and on Twitter Monday, the rich asshole claimed that the country was under attack. However, the reality is that he personally is under attack for legal problems. Like a rogue box of lighted fireworks, the rich asshole is reportedly going off in every direction.
“Mueller’s investigation has been drip, drip,” one source began. “This was a giant leap forward … a personal hit. … They were moving in inches. Today, they moved a mile.”
This also marks the first time the rich asshole is having a crisis since his close advisor Hope Hicks has left the White House. Hicks was known for calming the rich asshole down and keeping things ordered amid the chaos. In her absence, Americans witnessed the president dealing with his emotional collapse in real time.
“This is the first crisis post-Hope Hicks. … This was different: I’ve never seen him like this before. … This is the president you’re going to see more of from here on out: unvarnished, untethered,” the source continued.
Another noted that in the past the president has taken the Russia investigation as a political attack. The raid of his attorney Michael Cohen, however, brought things too close to home.
“He takes the Russia stuff as a political hit job. This was a personal affront. This was the red line” into his personal financial matters, a second source explained.
Allen cited the rich asshole using the word “disgrace” seven times and “disgraceful” twice, while talking about the incident.
Republican allies are cautioning against firing special counsel Robert Mueller, but there is a fear it is possible given his penchant for erratic and self-absorbed behavior.
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President some rich asshole is having an outright meltdown in the West Wing of the White House in real time and sources told Axios’ Mike Allen he’s losing it.
Friends and close associates to the president told Allen that the rich asshole and his allies are acting out a full cataclysm in real time. When speaking to the press and on Twitter Monday, the rich asshole claimed that the country was under attack. However, the reality is that he personally is under attack for legal problems. Like a rogue box of lighted fireworks, the rich asshole is reportedly going off in every direction.
“Mueller’s investigation has been drip, drip,” one source began. “This was a giant leap forward … a personal hit. … They were moving in inches. Today, they moved a mile.”
This also marks the first time the rich asshole is having a crisis since his close advisor Hope Hicks has left the White House. Hicks was known for calming the rich asshole down and keeping things ordered amid the chaos. In her absence, Americans witnessed the president dealing with his emotional collapse in real time.
“This is the first crisis post-Hope Hicks. … This was different: I’ve never seen him like this before. … This is the president you’re going to see more of from here on out: unvarnished, untethered,” the source continued.
Another noted that in the past the president has taken the Russia investigation as a political attack. The raid of his attorney Michael Cohen, however, brought things too close to home.
“He takes the Russia stuff as a political hit job. This was a personal affront. This was the red line” into his personal financial matters, a second source explained.
Allen cited the rich asshole using the word “disgrace” seven times and “disgraceful” twice, while talking about the incident.
Republican allies are cautioning against firing special counsel Robert Mueller, but there is a fear it is possible given his penchant for erratic and self-absorbed behavior.
‘These are Republicans’: Morning Joe delivers devastating takedown of the rich asshole’s panicked ‘witch hunt’ yelps
Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough ripped up President some rich asshole’s panicked claims about a “witch hunt” in the wake of a no-knock FBI raid on his longtime attorney Michael Cohen.
The “Morning Joe” host pointed out that nearly every official involved in executing the search warrant was a Republican, and several were appointed by the rich asshole himself.
“I know this will shock a lot of people that watch our show and that follow some rich asshole every day, but he said so many things yesterday that need a little bit of clarification,” Scarborough began.
The president complained during a Cabinet meeting Monday, after news of the raid broke, that he was the victim of a political witch hunt that began when he won the Republican presidential nomination, but Scarborough walked through each of the key players in the raid to knock down the rich asshole’s claims.
“Just in case you want to know who these witches are, that some rich asshole says are coming after him, they’re Bob Mueller, a Republican, this is the conspiracy,” he said. “You’ve got Rod Rosenstein, who was screaming about yesterday. He’s a life-long Republican, despite the fact that some rich asshole called him a Democrat from Baltimore. The attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who he was raging at — you and I both heard not only some rich asshole, but Jared Kushner (call him) the greatest, most stand-up guy, best Republican ever during the campaign. He, he is also this conspiracy, a Republican.”
“The FBI director, who some rich asshole appointed, Republican,” Scarborough continued. “The four FISA judges that were leading this conspiracy — Republican, Republican, Republican, Republican. The House run by Republicans, the Senate run by Republicans and yesterday’s raid was run by the U.A. Attorney from the Southern District of New York — remember the one that replaced Preet (Bharara)?”
“He fired Preet because he didn’t think he could be loyal, so who did he appoint?” Scarborough added. “He appointed Geoffrey Berman, who executed this raid yesterday, in charge of this raid yesterday, ordered this raid yesterday. Not on Robert Mueller’s behalf, but on the behalf of the people of New York and the United States of America. He was appointed by some rich asshole — and also, he was, his mentor, you guessed it: Rudy Giuliani. He’s a Giuliani guy.”
Scarborough pointed out that Berman had actually contributed $5,400 to the rich asshole’s presidential campaign, and he reminded viewers that the rich asshole had been a Democratic donor until fairly recently.
“Everybody that I named on that list has never been Democrats,” Scarborough said, “they’re most of their lives like some rich asshole, have never contributed hundreds and hundreds of dollars to Democratic campaigns like some rich asshole, have never contributed to Nancy Pelosi like some rich asshole, have never contributed to Rahm Emmanuel, because this is important, he says they’ve Republicans say they’ve contributed to Democrats, some of the people who have investigating on the team, have never contributed to Chuck Schumer, never contributed hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to the DNC.”
“These are Republicans,” he added. “Most of these players that some rich asshole is attacking were appointed by some rich asshole, and this was executed yesterday by a Giuliani man, who gave $5,400 to some rich asshole, was just appointed in January, and is a rich asshole guy through and through.”
“But you know one thing that some rich asshole doesn’t understand?” Scarborough said. “Is that every one of those Republicans that I named are Republicans, but they put their country and they put the rule of law above some rich asshole — and that is something that this man will never understand. Never.”
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