‘They both want to fuck Ivanka’: John Oliver documents Rudy Giuliani’s descent from ‘Person of the Year’ to the rich asshole’s incompetent lawyer
John Oliver takes on John Giuliani/Screenshot
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Rudy Giuliani is a weird dude.
The former New York mayor married his cousin, has a bizarre hatred of ferrets and once announced he was divorcing his wife on television without warning her.
But when 9/11 happened, Giuliani’s brave and steady hand made him a national hero—and Time magazine’s Person of the Year.
On Sunday, John Oliver dug deep into Giuliani’s past, from his racist policing policies to his latter gigs as a narrator for AMC’s Mob Week.
Why does he get along so well with the rich asshole?
They are “two versions of the same person,” Oliver said.
“When you look at all of this in total you realize that Giuliani’s role as the rich asshole’s lawyer isn’t aberration—everything in his life has led him to this point,” Oliver said. “He’s actually the most honest representation of him in general… they’re both New Yorkers coasting on their reputations, they both have three marriages, neither of them can shut up when in front of a camera and perhaps most importantly they both want to f*ck Ivanka. Which is weird for the rich asshole because she’s in his family and weird for Giuliani because she isn’t.”
As part of the show, Oliver registered HillaryClintonIllness.com, Giuliani-Security.com and Giuliani2024.com. All are now ferret-themed.
So what happens next? Oliver sees three possibilities—check that out in the segment below.
Watch here.
Mark Levin says President the rich asshole cannot be subpoenaed — as a lawyer he helped sue Bill Clinton in 1998
Conservative talk show host Mark Levin, who has evolving positions on whether the president is above the rule of law/Screenshot
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It’s obvious that Republicans have altered many of their legal and ethical positions since choosing to back a pathologically lying serial adulterer who had his lawyer pay hush-money to at least one porn star who he had sex with while his wife was at home with their infant child.
The are so many ridiculous conservative hypocrites—Franklin Graham, Newt Gingrich—in this case of sex and lies.
But Mark Levin is making a case for rising to the top of the list.
Levin’s new Fox Show talk show is a pseudo-intellectual circle-jerk in which he interviews doctrinaire wing-nuts like Devin Nunes and the president of Conservative for-profit Hillsdale College (a major advertiser). It’s been bashed by the network’s core audience, who says it’s boring.
But this Sunday night’s show was notable for featuring an extended version of the half-baked legal arguments you hear in Fox News soundbites.
The entire show was dedicated to arguing that the rich asshole cannot be legally forced to appear before a grand jury—and to spinning wild-eyed conspiracy theories about Hillary’s smashed Blackberries and the Russian uranium deal.
“What is this talk of subpoenaing a President of the United States to appear before a grand jury to answer endless questions about his conduct?” Levin asked. “If it is the official position of the Department of Justice—unchanged to my knowledge—that you cannot indict a sitting president, the idea that you can threaten a sitting president with a subpoena to drag them in front of a grand jury?”
But before he was a wild-eyed talk show host railing about gay marriage being the equivalent of incest and atheists, Levin was a conservative activist attorney who ran the Landmark Legal Foundation.
Not only has that group worked closely with Ken Starr—the highly partisan special investigator who pursued Bill Clinton—Levin actively participated in Paula Jones lawsuit.
Levin’s Landmark was involved in helping Paula Jones’ lawsuit against Bill Clinton.
As Salon reported in 1999, Landmark found Jones a lawyer to sue Clinton.
“According to two sources, with the deadline for filing a sexual harassment suit against the president quickly approaching… Landmark assisted the hunt to find top-flight counsel for Jones. Two sources say that Landmark was instrumental in locating two experienced attorneys, Gilbert K. Davis and Joseph L. Cammarata, who agreed to take the case,” the report said.
In 1998, when Levin was at Landmark Legal Foundation, he was asked about the investigation of Bill Clinton.
Levin didn’t say that Clinton couldn’t be forced to answer questions about sex with an intern—he gleefully bragged that Clinton likely faced multiple counts of perjury leading to conspiracy and obstruction charges.
“People usually perjure themselves for a reason and that reason is usually to cover up something—that is, to obstruct an investigation. So typically, in a case like this, if you have one or more perjury counts, you trigger conspiracy and obstruction,” Levin said. “So we’re not talking about one possible instance of perjury, we’re talking about a whole web of criminal issues.”
Levin fully supported Starr’s crusade against Clinton.
“We fall into this trap of simply narrowing the issue to what the White House says it is, which is essentially one possible instance of perjury,” Mr. Levin said in 1998. “The problem is what’s being
investigated here is serial perjury. Perjury about Kathleen Willey, about Gennifer Flowers, about Lewinsky, about Lewinsky’s gifts being returned, about a job for Lewinsky, and on and on.”
investigated here is serial perjury. Perjury about Kathleen Willey, about Gennifer Flowers, about Lewinsky, about Lewinsky’s gifts being returned, about a job for Lewinsky, and on and on.”
In addition to commenting on how the president could be sued and helping one of the president’s accusers find a lawyer so she could sue him, Levin himself even filed papers.
Levin even filed a formal complaint with the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, charging Hustler publisher Flynt with helping Clinton and trying “to influence and impede” the Senate’s impeachment trial.
Watch Levin spin his new legal theories in the segment below.
‘This is super weird’: Watch MSNBC panel debate how ‘King of Debt’ the rich asshole started making big cash buys
Daily Beast editor Sam Stein on Kasie DC/Screenshot
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Why did some rich asshole, the self-professed “King of Debt” suddenly stop borrowing money and start paying for properties in cash?
That’s the subject of a deeply reported Washington Post story that looked at the $400 million the rich asshole spent buying properties in cash in the decade before he ran for president.
This was a dramatic break from his previous practice—and of what others do in a time of low-interest rates.
“The question was why would you defy something that basically at the core of his identity as a developer—hlow-interest lot of money,” asked one of the story’s authors, David Fahrenthold. “And the answer from the Trumps was, basically, they felt like it.”
Eric the rich asshole told the reporters that they liked to have businesses that churned out cash.
Sam Stein of the Daily Beast joined Fahrenthold on the segment and put a finer point on things.
Specifically, he wondered aloud whether this might be tied to money laundering.
“This is super weird,” he said. “$400 million in cash just laying around to play with and buy golf courses is basically unheard of—especially when you can borrow money really cheap right now,” he said. “I looked it up because money-laundering is a very specific legal definition and what we do not know is the origins of the money they had on.. you have to have criminally generated money put in to something that looks legally appropriate. Who knows where this money came from?”
Watch the segment below.
UK foreign secretary pens NYT op-ed urging the rich asshole to stay in Iran deal
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 05/06/18 05:48 PM EDT
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Sunday urged President the rich asshole not to withdraw the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, arguing that the existing agreement provides the best protections against Iran developing a nuclear weapon.
Johnson wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times in which he acknowledged the 2015 agreement that gave Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbing its nuclear program has its disadvantages. However, he said fixing the existing pact would be more effective than starting from scratch.
"Now that these handcuffs are in place, I see no possible advantage in casting them aside. Only Iran would gain from abandoning the restrictions on its nuclear program," Johnson wrote.
the rich asshole has set a May 12 deadline for European allies to agree to address the flaws he sees in the deal. The president has criticized the agreement as "terrible," arguing it goes too easy on Iran.
Johnson wrote that the signatories on the deal — including the United States, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany and the European Union — have shared concerns about Iranian aggression in the Middle East.
In addition to keeping Iran's nuclear program in check, Johnson wrote that the existing deal provides the best framework for limiting Iranian influence in the region.
"I believe that keeping the deal’s constraints on Iran’s nuclear program will also help counter Tehran’s aggressive regional behavior," Johnson wrote. "I am sure of one thing: every available alternative is worse. The wisest course would be to improve the handcuffs rather than break them.
Giuliani dominates days after explosive interview
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 05/06/18 02:14 PM EDT
Presidential attorney Rudy Giuliani dominated the Sunday political shows days after he said in an explosive interview that President the rich asshole reimbursed his personal attorney for a payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.
Giuliani told ABC’s “This Week” that he recently joined the rich asshole’s legal team to handle special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, but the focus Sunday remained on Michael Cohen’s payment to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
The renewed scrutiny over the Daniels controversy comes after Giuliani ignited a firestorm last week when he told Fox News’s Sean Hannity that the rich asshole reimbursed Cohen for the payment to Daniels. Giuliani's statement contradicted a prior claim from the president, who said last month that he was not aware of the payment.
“The agreement with Michael Cohen, as far as I know, is a long-standing agreement that Michael Cohen takes care of situations like this then gets paid for them sometimes,” Giuliani said during his Sunday appearance on "This Week." “Sometimes it’s reimbursed in another way, depends on whether it’s business or personal.”
Giuliani insisted that Cohen made the payment for personal reasons and that it did not constitute a campaign contribution.
“Now this was for another purpose, to protect [the rich asshole], to protect his family. It may have involved the campaign, doesn’t matter,” Giuliani said.
The former New York City mayor also reiterated his need to “focus [his] attention” on Mueller’s investigation, adding that the rich asshole would not need to comply with a potential subpoena.
“He's the president of the United States. We can assert the same privilege as other presidents have,” Giuliani said. “President Clinton negotiated a deal in which he didn't admit the effectiveness of the subpoena.”
But Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) argued that the rich asshole would need to comply with a possible subpoena.
“No, he’s going to need to comply with a subpoena. If they take that case to court, they’re going to lose,” Schiff told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Schiff, a frequent critic of the rich asshole, said he has been “taken aback” by Giuliani’s legal strategy since joining the rich asshole’s team, adding that his methods have been “deeply hurtful” to the president’s case.
“Notwithstanding the efforts of damage control, I think this is a very unpromising strategy,” Schiff said.
Attorney Alan Dershowitz echoed Schiff’s observation, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the rich asshole’s lawyers are playing into Mueller’s hands.
“It seems to me that the approach last week of the rich asshole team plays into the hands of Mueller’s tactic to try at any cost ... to find technical violations against lower-ranking people so that they can be squeezed,” Dershowitz, an opinion contributor for The Hill, said.
White House counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway on Sunday sought to clarify Giuliani's apparent contradiction of the rich asshole over the Daniels payment, arguing that the president meant he was not aware of the transaction at the time Cohen made the payment. Conway, during an appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation," also pushed back against Giuliani’s characterization of the payment as a campaign expenditure.
“I don't know why anyone would say that. I would not characterize it that way, the president himself characterized it as not a campaign expenditure,” Conway said.
“All I can tell you is that as the campaign manager for them, winning part of the campaign, this never crossed my desk.”
Giuliani has spoken to multiple news outlets in the days since his initial interview with Hannity, as he tries to mitigate the fallout from his comments.
His remarks have also put Daniels and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, back in the spotlight. Avenatti said on ABC's "This Week" that he expects proof of other payments to emerge.
"Women have come forward and contacted our office ... as I’ve stated in the past. And we haven’t completed vetting those stories but I think at the end of the day, there’s going to be evidence of such payments," he said.
Giuliani, meanwhile, said Sunday that while he is not aware of any payments Cohen made to other women, he believes the rich asshole’s personal lawyer would have done so if he deemed it “necessary.”
But Conway said during an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” that she is also not aware of any additional payments.
“They didn’t cross my desk as campaign manager,” she said.
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Do European spouses hold hands?
One of Melania the rich asshole’s friends suggests not in a new Washington Post story about the First Lady and her minimalistic dealings with her husband. The story covers everything from the couple’s sleeping arrangements (separate bedrooms) to her relations with Ivanka (distant because they are “very different from one another.”)
“She is a dignified, private person, and she’ll deal with her personal life in private and it’s no one’s business,” said Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a longtime friend of Melania’s. “They are not that couple that holds hands just because; she is old-world European and it’s not who she is.”
Melania the rich asshole’s reluctance to touch the rich asshole has become something of a running joke, as cameras regularly capture her swatting his hand away.
The Post does not indicate whether the couple held hands before reports of the rich asshole’s affairs with adult performers circulated, or whether he just has not taken a hint about this after a decade.
Throughout the piece, the rich asshole’s friends and paid spokespeople push back on every report of discord between the couple.
An anonymous source said that Melania the rich asshole, “seldom sets foot in the West Wing,” but a spokesperson responded to questions about a rumor that Melania the rich asshole stays at a home in the suburbs near her son’s school as “1,000 percent false” and something that she and others “laugh at it all the time.”
“They have an unspoken affinity. They have fun together. He relies on her and he trusts her,” said Wolkoff.
Read the full story here.
Dershowitz: the rich asshole team playing into Mueller's hands
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 05/06/18 11:13 AM EDT
Attorney Alan Dershowitz in an interview broadcast Sunday said President the rich asshole’s lawyers are playing into special counsel Robert Mueller’s hands.
“It seems to me that the approach last week of the rich asshole team plays into the hands of Mueller’s tactic to try at any cost ... to find technical violations against lower-ranking people so that they can be squeezed,” Dershowitz told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The remarks from Dershowitz come amid the fallout from comments made last week by Rudy Giuliani, who recently joined the rich asshole’s legal team. He told Fox News that the president reimbursed his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for the $130,000 payment he made ahead of the 2016 election to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.
Giuliani has conducted multiple interviews with news outlets in the last few days, seeking to clarify his previous remarks.
Dershowitz, an opinion contributor for The Hill, said during the NBC interview that the rich asshole’s team is “admitting to enough that warrants scrutiny,” adding that the last few days constitute a “bad week for both sides.”
Giuliani on Sunday again emphasized that the payment to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was meant to shield the rich asshole's family from embarrassment.
Iran deal on the line as the rich asshole nears deadline
BY REBECCA KHEEL - 05/06/18 10:30 AM EDT
Iran deal supporters and opponents are digging in for a fight over the nuclear agreement as President the rich asshole’s decision on whether to withdraw nears.
Few observers expect that the rich asshole will stay in the deal after next week’s deadline on May 12. But the rich asshole has teased a possible twist, saying “nobody knows what I’m going to do on the 12th.”
Voices, both at home and abroad, are making pitches in hopes of swaying the rich asshole to their side.
But the rich asshole appears intent on withdrawing — barring a last-minute follow-up deal with the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
“The president laid out some pretty clear stakes in ground for what he wanted from the Europeans. I think it’s just that easy,” said James Carafano, a defense policy expert at the Heritage Foundation who worked on the rich asshole transition. “He’s already across the Rubicon. He’s decided the deal’s not working, and a fix that doesn’t fix anything is not acceptable.”
The nuclear accord, which was negotiated by the Obama administration, gives Tehran billions of dollars of sanctions relief in exchange for curbing its nuclear program. The United States, Iran, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, China and the European Union signed the agreement.
the rich asshole has three grievances with the deal. They include sunsets for several provisions, restrictions on which military sites inspectors can demand to see and the deal’s failure to cover other Iranian activities like its ballistic missile program or support for terrorist groups.
Few observers expect that the rich asshole will stay in the deal after next week’s deadline on May 12. But the rich asshole has teased a possible twist, saying “nobody knows what I’m going to do on the 12th.”
Voices, both at home and abroad, are making pitches in hopes of swaying the rich asshole to their side.
But the rich asshole appears intent on withdrawing — barring a last-minute follow-up deal with the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
“The president laid out some pretty clear stakes in ground for what he wanted from the Europeans. I think it’s just that easy,” said James Carafano, a defense policy expert at the Heritage Foundation who worked on the rich asshole transition. “He’s already across the Rubicon. He’s decided the deal’s not working, and a fix that doesn’t fix anything is not acceptable.”
The nuclear accord, which was negotiated by the Obama administration, gives Tehran billions of dollars of sanctions relief in exchange for curbing its nuclear program. The United States, Iran, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, China and the European Union signed the agreement.
the rich asshole has three grievances with the deal. They include sunsets for several provisions, restrictions on which military sites inspectors can demand to see and the deal’s failure to cover other Iranian activities like its ballistic missile program or support for terrorist groups.
In January, the rich asshole announced he would continue waiving sanctions that were lifted as part of the deal, but warned it would be the last time he does so unless the European signatories agree to a second deal that covers those three areas.
Failing to waive the sanctions on May 12 would essentially mean the United States has withdrawn from the agreement. As the deadline approaches, no deal with the Europeans appears imminent.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to persuade the rich asshole to stay in the deal in visits to Washington two weeks ago. The visit from Macron, who has developed a friendly rapport with the rich asshole, was seen in particular by supporters of the deal as the best chance to save it.
But Macron has sounded pessimistic about the deal’s fate since his meeting with the rich asshole.
“My view — I don’t know what your president will decide — is that he will get rid of this deal on his own for domestic reasons,” Macron told reporters at the end of his visit to Washington.
Following Macron and Merkel's visits, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a dramatic presentation this week that appeared aimed at convincing the rich asshole to scrap the nuclear deal.
Netanyahu’s speech was delivered in English in front of a screen on which he displayed visuals and talking points, including the words “Iran lied” in massive black letters. He presented what he said was conclusive evidence that Iran lied about its desire to obtain a nuclear weapon in the early 2000s, then hid the evidence so it has the ability to one day restart the program.
“This is a terrible deal. It should never have been concluded, and in a few days time, President the rich asshole will decide, will make his decision on what to do with the nuclear deal,” Netanyahu said. “I’m sure he’ll do the right thing. The right thing for the United States, the right thing for Israel and the right thing for the peace of the world.”
Many brushed off Netanyahu’s speech as rehashing old information, but it appears to have hit a nerve with the rich asshole.
“I'm not telling you what I'm doing, but a lot of people think they know,” the rich asshole said after Netanyahu’s speech. "That doesn't mean I wouldn’t negotiate a new agreement. We’ll see what happens, but I think if anything what’s happening today and what’s happened over the last little while and what we’ve learned has really shown that I’ve been 100 percent right.”
Still, those who support fixing the deal are hopeful that Netanyahu’s speech will convince Europe they need to make a concrete agreement with the rich asshole.
“There is a possibility for this data to be used for withdrawal, but you could also really pressure the Europeans to meet us more than halfway,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Taleblu thinks Netanyahu made a case to pressure Europe into agreeing to strong language on the military inspections issue.
“I think there’s a more-than-stringent case to go to the Europeans and say, ‘Meet us more than halfway, and this is why [Iran] can’t just give us a promissory note on military inspections,’ ” he said.
Carafano, at Heritage, said he was unsure of how Netanyahu’s play would affect the Europeans. Either way, though, Carafano said it’s an advantage for the rich asshole administration.
“This is fine because it really ramps up pressure on the Europeans, and if that doesn’t work, it reminds people why we’re walking away from the deal,” he said, describing the rich asshole’s thinking.
Meanwhile, Obama administration officials have been out in force defending the agreement they negotiated. Former Secretary of State John Kerry tweeted in support of the deal after Netanyahu’s speech, while former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz talked on CNN about how it would be “foolish” to withdraw.
Three Obama administration officials also held a conference call with reporters Friday to discuss the consequences of not renewing the sanctions waivers, arguing the United States will also be abrogating its commitment to allies that signed the deal and give Iran an excuse to restart its nuclear program.
Failing to waive the sanctions on May 12 would essentially mean the United States has withdrawn from the agreement. As the deadline approaches, no deal with the Europeans appears imminent.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to persuade the rich asshole to stay in the deal in visits to Washington two weeks ago. The visit from Macron, who has developed a friendly rapport with the rich asshole, was seen in particular by supporters of the deal as the best chance to save it.
But Macron has sounded pessimistic about the deal’s fate since his meeting with the rich asshole.
“My view — I don’t know what your president will decide — is that he will get rid of this deal on his own for domestic reasons,” Macron told reporters at the end of his visit to Washington.
Following Macron and Merkel's visits, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a dramatic presentation this week that appeared aimed at convincing the rich asshole to scrap the nuclear deal.
Netanyahu’s speech was delivered in English in front of a screen on which he displayed visuals and talking points, including the words “Iran lied” in massive black letters. He presented what he said was conclusive evidence that Iran lied about its desire to obtain a nuclear weapon in the early 2000s, then hid the evidence so it has the ability to one day restart the program.
“This is a terrible deal. It should never have been concluded, and in a few days time, President the rich asshole will decide, will make his decision on what to do with the nuclear deal,” Netanyahu said. “I’m sure he’ll do the right thing. The right thing for the United States, the right thing for Israel and the right thing for the peace of the world.”
Many brushed off Netanyahu’s speech as rehashing old information, but it appears to have hit a nerve with the rich asshole.
“I'm not telling you what I'm doing, but a lot of people think they know,” the rich asshole said after Netanyahu’s speech. "That doesn't mean I wouldn’t negotiate a new agreement. We’ll see what happens, but I think if anything what’s happening today and what’s happened over the last little while and what we’ve learned has really shown that I’ve been 100 percent right.”
Still, those who support fixing the deal are hopeful that Netanyahu’s speech will convince Europe they need to make a concrete agreement with the rich asshole.
“There is a possibility for this data to be used for withdrawal, but you could also really pressure the Europeans to meet us more than halfway,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Taleblu thinks Netanyahu made a case to pressure Europe into agreeing to strong language on the military inspections issue.
“I think there’s a more-than-stringent case to go to the Europeans and say, ‘Meet us more than halfway, and this is why [Iran] can’t just give us a promissory note on military inspections,’ ” he said.
Carafano, at Heritage, said he was unsure of how Netanyahu’s play would affect the Europeans. Either way, though, Carafano said it’s an advantage for the rich asshole administration.
“This is fine because it really ramps up pressure on the Europeans, and if that doesn’t work, it reminds people why we’re walking away from the deal,” he said, describing the rich asshole’s thinking.
Meanwhile, Obama administration officials have been out in force defending the agreement they negotiated. Former Secretary of State John Kerry tweeted in support of the deal after Netanyahu’s speech, while former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz talked on CNN about how it would be “foolish” to withdraw.
Three Obama administration officials also held a conference call with reporters Friday to discuss the consequences of not renewing the sanctions waivers, arguing the United States will also be abrogating its commitment to allies that signed the deal and give Iran an excuse to restart its nuclear program.
“The full effect of the move to not renew the waivers could take months to come completely into focus, given how the sanctions are structured, given that there’s actually multiple rounds of waivers, of waiver nonrenewals the president will have to go through,” Jake Sullivan, a former deputy assistant to former President Obama, said on the call. “But what will be immediately obvious after May 12 is that President the rich asshole is throwing the United States and the Iran deal into a nuclear crisis essentially to cater to his political base, and neither the president nor his administration appear to have any strategy or plan for what comes next.”
Tapper confronts Conway on the rich asshole: 'I would like him to stop lying'
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 05/06/18 09:58 AM EDT
CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday confronted White House counselor Kellyanne Conway over President the rich asshole’s false statements, saying that he wants the president “to stop lying.”
"Do you think his job includes lying to the American people? Because he continually does so and he undermines his own administration when he does so," Tapper asked Conway on CNN's "State of the Union."
Conway disputed that the rich asshole lies, instead claiming that Tapper wanted "to go viral" by mentioning the rich asshole and lies.
“I would like him to stop lying, quite frankly,” Tapper fired back. Conway also denied that the White House has a "credibility problem."
Her comments come after the rich asshole attorney Rudy Giuliani revealed that the rich asshole had reimbursed his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for the $130,000 payment made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about her alleged affair with the president.
The president had previously denied any knowledge of the payment. Giuliani has said that the rich asshole didn't know about the payment until recently.
Michael Avenatti Scorches Rudy Giuliani Over His Latest ‘Train Wreck’ Interview
“He’s done considerable harm to the president,” Stormy Daniels’ lawyer said.
Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti saw Rudy Giuliani’s latest interview about his new client, President some rich asshole, and had this reaction: “I can’t believe that actually just happened.”
Avenatti appeared on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday after the former mayor of New York sat down with host George Stephanopoulos in a messy and at times rambling interview about the rich asshole’s knowledge of a $130,000 payment to Daniels, a porn star whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford.
“It’s an absolute, unmitigated disaster for Rudy Giuliani and the president,” Avenatti added. “It’s a train wreck.”
Days earlier, Giuliani made some bombshell revelations on Fox News, telling host Sean Hannity that the rich asshole repaid his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen for the $130,000 payment. The president had denied knowing anything about the payment, which was allegedly hush money for an affair that Daniels said she had with the rich asshole.
“This guy’s all over the map in the last 72 hours on some very simple facts that should be very straightforward,” Avenatti said, adding later: “He’s done considerable harm to the president. I think his representation has been nothing short of a disaster.”
Following Giuliani’s appearance on Fox News, the rich asshole told reporters that the former prosecutor was new on the case and that “he’ll get his facts straight.”
On Sunday, Giuliani parrotted the rich asshole’s statement, contradicting himself and taking aim at Daniels for appearing on “Saturday Night Live” the night before. the rich asshole has also appeared on the show in the past.
“The more Rudy Giuliani talks ... the better our case gets,” Avenatti said.
Giuliani: the rich asshole doesn't have to comply with subpoena from Mueller
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 05/06/18 09:30 AM EDT
Rudy Giuliani said Sunday that President the rich asshole would not have to comply with a subpoena in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
“We don’t have to [comply with a subpoena]. He’s the president of the United States. We can assert same privilege as other presidents have," Giuliani said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Giuliani, who was recently hired to the rich asshole’s legal team dealing with the Russia probe, said he’d prefer the president receive the “Hillary Clinton treatment.” He said that would involve answering questions that were received in advance, while not under oath.
Whether the rich asshole will testify before the special counsel has been a point of intrigue as Mueller’s probe nears its one-year mark.
the rich asshole said Friday he would “love to” speak with Mueller on the condition that he would be “treated fairly."
Giuliani expressed uncertainty about an interview on Sunday, saying he believes the special counsel is “trying to trap him.”
“I’ve got a client who wants to testify,” Giuliani said.
“Jay [Sekulow] and I said to ourselves ‘My goodness, I hope we get a chance to tell him the risk he’s taking,' ” he added. “So he may testify.”
the rich asshole has repeatedly railed against the Mueller investigation, calling it a “witch hunt” and a “hoax.”
The New York Times last week published a list of nearly 50 questions Mueller plans to ask the rich asshole.
The topics cover the rich asshole’s decisions to fire ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn and former FBI Director James Comey, and his knowledge of communications between his campaign and Russia.
‘Giuliani is just talking about a different world that people can’t relate to’: Watch MSNBC panelists explain how payouts could play badly with average Americans
Philip Rucker and Julia Ainsley on MSNBC/Screenshot
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some rich asshole is notoriously bullet-proof when it comes to his base. But what about those other regular Americans who flocked to him, believing his promises about Mexico building the fall and all the great deals he could make?
A panel on MSNBC’s Kasie DC took on the extraordinary nature of these allegations, and how the fact that the rich asshole has admitted paying $130,000 to squash a story about his sex with a porn star will play with them. Specifically, the fact that Rudy Giuliani said there could be other payouts to people the rich asshole wanted to silence.
Philip Rucker, White House Bureau Chief at The Washington Post, said that the rich asshole’s payouts are simply not relatable to average Americans.
“He also seemed to discount this $130,000 payout to Stormy Daniels as, ‘Oh it’s not that much money, this is the kind of thing that happens all the time,” he said. “To a lot of Americans this is a pretty extraordinary circumstance, to pay-off this adult films actress. So Giuliani is just talking about a different world, that people’s can’t relate to.”
NBC reporter Julia Ainsley said that Giuliani created “more damage” by mentioning the other payments.
“That’s just more breadcrumbs for us all to follow,” she said.
Watch below.
Jake Tapper Just Hammered Kellyanne Conway Over some rich asshole Constantly Lying (VIDEO)
CNN’s Jake Tapper grilled White House counselor Kellyanne Conway over some rich asshole’s constant lies, including the rich asshole’s recent tweet about the release of three Americans detained in North Korea. Just this past week, the rich asshole tweeted, “As everybody is aware, the past Administration has long been asking for three hostages to be released from a North Korean Labor camp, but to no avail. Stay tuned!” The problem with that is two of those prisoners were detained on the rich asshole’s watch, not Obama’s. Even worse, he didn’t delete the tweet.
Instead of offering an explanation, Conway said, “You’re focusing on the tweet and we’re focused on the hostages.”
Watch:
.@KellyannePolls has absolutely no answers for why Trump hasn't deleted or corrected tweet falsely claiming Obama failed to rescue American hostages ***who were actually taken hostage while Trump was president***
"You're focusing on the tweet and we're focused on the hostages."
Paid liar Kellyanne Conway dodged questions on “State of the Union” as Tapper pressed her on the rich asshole attorney Rudy Giuliani’s recent disastrous interviews, including that he admitted last week that the rich asshole had “reimbursed” his attorney Michael Cohen for the $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. the rich asshole had repeatedly denied that he knew about the payment.
Conway claimed that she couldn’t comment on that because of her “limited visibility in legal matters and big visibility in policy portfolio.”
“A lot of Americans agree, and I hear from people who voted for some rich asshole regularly that they just want the guy to be able to have the space to do his job,” Conway insisted.
“Do you think his job includes lying to the American people?” Tapper pressed on. “Because he continues to do so.”
“You just want that to go viral, you want to say ‘President the rich asshole’ and ‘lying’ in the same sentence,” Conway shot back.
“I want him to stop lying,” Tapper said.
After Conway tried to change the subject, Tapper said, “I understand you don’t want to address the president’s credibility.”
“I already talked about it for five minutes,” Conway said.
Yes, she did but she failed to explain why the rich asshole didn’t delete the tweet in which he blamed Obama for something that happened last year.
POLITICS
Rudy Giuliani’s ABC Interview Was A Mess. Here Are The Biggest Takeaways.
“How do you separate fact and opinion?” Giuliani wondered aloud.
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who recently joined President some rich asshole’s legal team, sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Sunday for a wide-ranging, eyebrow-raising interview.
Giuliani appeared on ABC’s “This Week” following his explosive revelation on Fox News last week that the rich asshole had reimbursed Michael Cohen, the president’s personal attorney, for the $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
the rich asshole, who had previously denied all knowledge of the payment, suggested Friday that Giuliani didn’t have “his facts straight.” Giuliani quickly backpedaled, saying during a Fox News appearance on Saturday that he was “still learning” about the case. On Sunday, he continued to sow confusion about what he knows.
Here were some of the biggest takeaways from his ABC interview:
Giuliani suggested he isn’t concerned about whether the rich asshole lied to the press regarding his knowledge of the Daniels payment because that’s “political” and not a “crime.”
Giuliani said last week that the rich asshole first found out about the payment to Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford) several weeks ago, but claimed Sunday that he was less certain of the timeline.
“I don’t know when the president learned about it,” he said. “The reality is those are not facts that worry me as a lawyer. Those don’t amount to anything ― what is said to the press. That’s political.”
“It’s okay to lie to the press?” Stephanopoulos interrupted.
“Gee, I don’t know,” Giuliani responded. “You know a few presidents who did that. I don’t think that this president has done that. But in any event, that’s not the crime.”
Rudy Giuliani on @ThisWeekABC: "What is said to the press, that's political."
George Stephanopoulos: "It's okay to lie to the press?"
Giuliani: "Uh...gee, I don't know."
Giuliani said $130,000 seems like more of a “nuisance” payment than an effort to keep Daniels quiet about something that really happened.
“I never thought $130,000 was a real payment ― it’s a nuisance payment,” Giuliani said.
“I don’t like saying this, but it’s not a great deal of money ― $1.3 million is a great deal of money,” he continued. “That’s the kind of money you would think of as a settlement. If I saw $130,000, I would never think it was to settle a substantial claim against my client.”
Giuliani smears Daniels as "woman you saw on SNL last nite trying to make more money," then adds this gem: "I know this sounds funny to people at home - I never thought $130k was a real payment. It's a nuisance payment...People don't go away for $130k if it's a meritorious claim"
Cohen may have paid off other women for the rich asshole “if it was necessary,” according to Giuliani.
“I have no knowledge of that, but I would think if it was necessary, yes,” Giuliani said. “[Cohen] made payments for the president or he conducted business for the president.”
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said she didn’t personally know about payments other than the one to Daniels, though she also added a caveat.
If such payments were made, “they didn’t cross my desk as campaign manager” in the 2016 election, Conway told Jake Tapper.
Did Michael Cohen make payments to other women on behalf of the president? Rudy Giuliani tells @GStephanopoulos: “I have no knowledge of that, but I would think if it was necessary, yes." abcn.ws/2KANG5L
Giuliani walked back his comments about Cohen complaining that the rich asshole never reimbursed him for the Daniels payment.
Giuliani told multiple news outlets last week that Cohen had complained after the 2016 election about the rich asshole not reimbursing him for the Daniels payment. But Giuliani appeared to downplay those statements Sunday, calling Cohen’s alleged complaints just “one of the rumors.”
“But that’s what you said,” Stephanopoulos said. “You stated it as fact.”
“Well maybe I did,” Giuliani responded. “I don’t know. How do you separate fact and opinion?”
Giuliani didn’t rule out that the rich asshole may take the Fifth Amendment if subpoenaed to testify in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
“Every lawyer in America thinks he would be a fool to testify,” Giuliani said. “I’ve got a client who wants to testify. ... I hope we get a chance to tell him the risk that he’s taking.”
Giuliani also said he expects Cohen to “cooperate” with prosecutors in the probe of Russian meddling in the presidential election, and claimed pardoning him if he’s indicted or convicted of a crime is “obviously not on the table.”
“It has not been discussed, and would not be discussed” Giuliani said. “I’m a big believer in the pardon power. ... But right now, pardons would be a bit ― they wouldn’t be illegal to talk about, they’d be kind of confusing.”
Either way, Giuliani said it’s time for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to shut down Mueller’s investigation.
“There’s no question that the amount of government misconduct is accumulating,” he said. “I happen to believe it’s greater than anybody realizes.”
President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani tells @GStephanopoulos a pardon for Michael Cohen “is not on the table. That isn’t a decision to be made now. There’s no reason to pardon anybody now… It has not been discussed.” abcn.ws/2KANG5L
Stephanopoulos grilled Giuliani after he accused Mueller’s team of leaking questions it wants to ask the rich asshole.
While discussing whether the rich asshole would testify in the Russia probe, Giuliani claimed the special counsel’s team was behind a New York Times report that featured 49 questions Mueller wants to ask the president. But Stephanopoulos pushed back on that theory.
“Those questions were written by [the rich asshole attorney] Jay Sekulow after a meeting with Mueller and his team,” Stephanopoulos told Giuliani. “And these were ... the impression of the rich asshole team’s take on the questions, and in fact it was a document made by the rich asshole team. It wasn’t something leaked by Mueller.”
“Could it have been somebody formerly on our side? Could it have been somebody formerly on theirs? I don’t know,” Giuliani responded. “Main fact is I don’t care. My client’s prejudiced by that, but in a way we were helped by it.”
As expected, Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, was waiting in the wings to skewer Giuliani over his “train wreck” of an interview Sunday.
“It’s an absolute, unmitigated disaster for Rudy Giuliani and the president,” Avenatti said. “I can’t believe that that actually just happened. I mean, what we witnessed by Rudy Giuliani may be one of the worst TV appearances by any attorney on behalf of a client in modern times.”
Stormy Daniels’ attorney @MichaelAvenatti calls Giuliani’s interview with @GStephanopoulos, “an absolute, unmitigated disaster for Rudy Giuliani and the president… I think it is obvious to the American people that this is a cover-up; that they are making it up as they go along.”
Read John McCain’s scorching takedown of the rich asshole in his forthcoming autobiography
John McCain (Youtube)
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John McCain is reportedly very close to succumbing to brain cancer at age 81.
The Arizona senator has not been in Washington all year, instead staying at his ranch in the Arizona mountains. He’s been talking about his joys and regrets, and also preparing for the release of an autobiography called The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations—which may make some waves given his scorching takedown of some rich asshole.
The Arizona Republic, the McCain-friendly newspaper in Phoenix, has an advance copy of the book. the rich asshole is slammed, the paper reports. McCain says the rich asshole gives “the appearance of toughness or a reality show facsimile of toughness seems to matter more than any of our values.”
“His lack of empathy for refugees, innocent, persecuted, desperate men, women, and children, is disturbing,” McCain writes. “The way he speaks about them is appalling, as if welfare or terrorism were the only purposes they could have in coming to our country.”
McCain has long sparred with the rich asshole, and in his final book, McCain tries to strike the tone of a statesman as he praises the free press and compares the rich asshole to a tyrant.
“His reaction to unflattering news stories, calling them ‘fake news,’ whether they’re credible or not, is copied by autocrats who want to discredit and control a free press,” McCain writes. “He has declined to distinguish the actions of our government from the crimes of despotic ones. He has showered with praise some of the world’s worst tyrants.”
Devin Nunes Just Threatened To Jail Jeff Sessions For Refusing the rich asshole’s Orders
You know how some rich asshole has been looking for a way to punish Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the investigation into the rich asshole and his associates’ criminal collusion with a hostile foreign dictator? Well, Devin Nunes is going to do that for him!
On Sunday, Nunes announced on Fox News that since the Justice Department has refused to comply with a subpoena for information that was used to convince a FISA court to approve wiretaps on the rich asshole cronie Carter Page, he’s going to use that as an excuse to do what some rich asshole wants.
“The only thing that’s left that we can do is we have to move quickly to hold the attorney general of the United States in contempt and that’s what I’m going to press for this week,” Nunes told the rich asshole-friendly panel of morons. “We’ve asked for very important information, it’s still classified. Because of the way they conducted this information, most of this information is classified. But because this is so important, I’m not going to take any excuse to say, ‘Oh we’re harming national security.’”
Recently, the rich asshole lawyer Rudy Giuliani told Fox News that Sessions should end Mueller’s investigation — a conveniently-timed demand that Nunes’ “contempt” threat compliments rather nicely if the goal is to pressure Sessions to interfere in the investigation.
Contempt of Congress can net the Attorney General up to one-year prison time if Sessions doesn’t call in line with the rich asshole.
Watch the interview below:
Five legal headaches facing the rich asshole
BY LYDIA WHEELER - 05/06/18 07:00 AM EDT
President the rich asshole’s legal problems are piling up.
As he faces special counsel Robert Mueller’s wide-ranging investigation, the rich asshole is also entangled in litigation over his refusal to divest his business interests and cases stemming from an alleged affair with a porn star and the $130,000 his personal lawyer reportedly paid her in hush money.
Legal experts say the number of lawsuits involving the president personally is unprecedented.
Josh Blackman, an associate professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston, noted the 1997 landmark Supreme Court decision that allowed a sexual harassment lawsuit to be brought against former President Clinton while in office.
In the majority ruling, Justice Stephen Breyer said only three sitting presidents in the nation’s history had been sued over a private action, noting that it “seems unlikely that a deluge of such litigation will ever engulf the President.”
“When the Supreme Court said these cases won’t be much of a distraction, they didn’t anticipate some rich asshole as president,” Blackman said.
Here’s a look at the cases dogging the rich asshole.
Robert Mueller
The special investigator has threatened to subpoena the rich asshole if he doesn’t agree to an interview in the Russia investigation.
the rich asshole previously said he would love to sit down with Mueller, but has since backed off, calling the accusations of collusion between Russia and his campaign a “hoax” and the investigation a “witch hunt” on Twitter.
“There was no Collusion (it is a Hoax) and there is no Obstruction of Justice (that is a setup & trap). What there is is Negotiations going on with North Korea over Nuclear War, Negotiations going on with China over Trade Deficits, Negotiations on NAFTA, and much more. Witch Hunt!” he tweeted on Wednesday.
The tweets come after The New York Times obtained a list of Mueller’s questions for the rich asshole. The questions largely focus on the president’s ties to Russia, whether he illegally tried to interfere with the investigation and whether he took steps to fire Mueller himself.
Blackman said the rich asshole would be putting himself at risk if he ultimately agrees to talk under oath.
“It’s why his legal team is trying to keep the rich asshole from talking to Mueller, because he’ll lie and then they can say he perjured himself under oath,” he said. “Clinton was impeached because he lied under oath.”
the rich asshole is not likely to be indicted on criminal charges in the Mueller investigation, thanks to a Department of Justice policy against indicting a sitting president. But legal experts say a report recommending criminal charges could prove too difficult and embarrassing for Republicans to ignore.
Michael Cohen
the rich asshole is entangled in the investigation federal prosecutors in Manhattan have launched against Cohen, his longtime personal lawyer. The FBI raided Cohen’s office and hotel room last month, and has been monitoring who he calls.
Investigators are said to be looking into the $130,000 Cohen paid porn star Stormy Daniels, who’s said she had an affair with the rich asshole, and whether any campaign finance laws were violated. Investigators are also said to be looking for records related to the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape, in which the rich asshole can be heard bragging about grabbing and kissing women without their consent, according to media reports. The FBI raids were launched in part by a referral from Mueller.
On Wednesday, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani — the newest member of the rich asshole’s legal team — said the rich asshole repaid Cohen for the $130,000 payment to Daniels. But days later, Giuliani tried to do damage control by releasing a statement that did little to clarify his earlier remarks.
Legal experts say Giuliani may have been trying to keep Cohen from turning on the rich asshole, since the rich asshole has previously said he had no knowledge until recently about the payment.
Under New York Bar rules, according to Georgetown University law professor David Super, attorneys accused of misconduct can break attorney client-privilege to defend themselves.
Federal District Court Judge Kimba Wood has assigned a special master to review the materials seized from Cohen’s office and determine what’s protected under attorney-client privilege.
Stormy Daniels
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, filed a defamation lawsuit last week against the rich asshole for mocking the sketch of the man she said threatened her to keep quiet about her alleged affair with the president.
Daniels is seeking in excess of $75,000 in damages from the rich asshole, arguing that he knew his “false, disparaging statement would be read by people around the world” and that she would be “subjected to threats of violence, economic harm and reputational damage as a result.”
Super said the rich asshole’s attorneys could easily settle with Daniels to make the case go away.
But Daniels has also sued the rich asshole and Essential Consultants, the limited liability company Cohen set up to pay her, to get out of the nondisclosure agreement she signed before the 2016 presidential election. She later amended that lawsuit to include Cohen.
Daniels argues the agreement is invalid because the rich asshole never signed it and that the $130,000 she was paid to keep quiet about the alleged affair exceeded federal limits on campaign donations.
A federal judge in California late last month granted Cohen and the rich asshole’s request to put the case on hold for 90 days, finding it likely Cohen would be indicted on criminal charges in the federal investigation. Cohen has responded to Daniels’s lawsuit by citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Summer Zervos
The former contestant on the “The Apprentice” also sued the rich asshole for defamation in January 2017 for calling her a liar after she publicly alleged he sexually assaulted her in 2007.
During the election, Zervos accused the rich asshole of forcibly kissing her and grabbing her breasts in meetings after her appearance on the show. the rich asshole has since denied those claims.
In March, a judge on the New York Supreme Court ruled the case could go forward. The Times reported this week that Zervos issued subpoenas for recordings of the reality show and for records of the rich asshole’s stay at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where the alleged misconduct occurred.
Super said this case could be more damaging for the rich asshole than the Daniels lawsuit if discovery and depositions in this case extend into the other women who have accused the rich asshole of sexual harassment.
“the rich asshole’s lawyers have a better chance of avoiding having to discuss other sexual encounters in the Stormy Daniels case,” he said.
Emoluments
the rich asshole also faces two separate suits over his refusal to divest his business interests.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) is leading a lawsuit filed against the rich asshole last June by 200 congressional Democrats, arguing the president has violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which bars the president from accepting gifts or payment from foreign governments without Congressional approval.
The lawmakers argue the rich asshole will profit from a foreign state through his ownership of the rich asshole International Hotel in Washington, D.C., the rich asshole World Tower in New York City and as executive producer of “The Apprentice,” in which he is contractually entitled to a percentage of the profits derived from licensing the show and related spin-offs to television networks overseas.
The District Court is scheduled to hear arguments in that case on June 7.
Maryland and the District of Columbia’s local government have filed their own emoluments lawsuit against the president, which a federal District Court judge in Maryland ruled in March could go forward. the rich asshole asked the court this week to dismiss the case.
Court-watchers say these lawsuits are low stakes for the president, but could still turn up some embarrassing financial records.
Super said discovery could produce records that show the rich asshole is not as wealthy as he indicated, that he’s dependent on foreign interests or that he made a quid pro quo deal for a policy decision.
“I don’t know if such evidence exists, but these lawsuits have the potential to bring it into the public eye and make it harder for his supporters to defend him,” he said.
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