And here we have the latest installment in the Trump Russia Master Timeline which sequentially documents the media coverage of events involving the Trump Administration and all it’s ongoing links to Russia Corruption and Crime once a month, with incremental installments each week.
Some of the most interesting developments for his month involve our old friend George Papadopoulos who apparently blabbed to a total stranger in a Chicago bar that Jeff Sessions specifically encouraged him to get the “dirt on Hillary” from Prof Mifsud. This confirms my previous theory that George didn’t keep that information to himself when he was told and other members of the campaign, now including Sessions, were well aware that the Russia government had hacked and stolen Hillary related emails in April of 2016 which was two months before they were mentioned and release by Wikileaks in June.
The fact that Sessions flatly lied about this multiple times to Congress under oath claiming “he didn’t know any surrogates in contact with the Russians” when he clearly did on top of the fact that neither he nor Papadopoulos reported this rather obvious cyber crime to the FBI means that we now have the two of them in a conspiracy to aide and abet Russian criminals after the fact by allowing their theft to remain a secret.
That’s criminal on multiple levels. It doesn’t matter if they helped with the hack itself, knowing about it and not reporting it to the FBI [as both Australian Diplomat Alexander Downer and former MI-6 Officer Christopher Steele did] is a crime, then lying to the FBI and Congress about it — is another crime.
Also there’s the case of Andrew McCabe who was cruelly fired just hours before become eligible for full retirement by Sessions and that fact that he had been investigating Sessions for exactly those lies under oath. Retaliation much?
Two other tight links between the Trump campaign and Russians have come to light as well.
The Russian Oil company Lukoil that funded and directed the Cambridge Analytica American voter analysis app has links to the FSB having signed a cooperative agreement with them.
First Deputy Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation - Head of the FSB Border Guard Service Vladimir Kulishov and President of LUKOIL Vagit Alekperov signed an agreement on cooperation, in Moscow today.
The agreement provides for increased efficiency of coordinated measures taken to ensure security at border areas, guard territorial waters, exclusive economic zones and continental shelf areas of the Russian Federation in regions where LUKOIL Group operates. The agreement also establishes a framework required to counter acts of terror.
Which means it’s very likely that the Facebook app and psychographic modeling data developed by Steve Bannon with Cambridge could had fallen into the hands of FSB and then be used by the Russian Troll Farm in St. Petersburg without anyone else in the campaign specifically sharing or leaking it.
And lastly Roger Stone has been playing cat and mouse trap about whether he was in contact with Julian Assange, at one point saying that he wasn’t and used an “intermediary” and another point saying he had “had dinner with Assange.” He’s since claimed the later was “a joke” he told to Sam Nunberg, but since that time his “intermediary” radio host Randy Credico — whom he wouldn’t name before the House Intel committee — has come forward to state he never shared any information between Assange and Stone even though he’s interviewed both of them several times. Mueller and the FBI now seems really really interested in Stone having picked up and interrogated his associates at Logan Airport.
Democrats have responded to all this and are considering making a criminal referral of perjury to the FBI against Roger Stone, Carter Page and Erik Prince
Slowly the total picture is coming together. Starting in 2014 the Russians likely had access to Cambridge Analytica tools, in 2015 they began their hacking attacks against DNC and Podesta not being able to access Hillary’s server or email as they were already in FBI possession and deleted. The Trump campaign discovered this in early 2016, kept it a secret and then to cover up the fact they already knew have been systematically lying about it ever since. That’s why Papadopoulos ultimately lied, why Flynn lied, why Sessions lied, Van Der Zwaan lied and why Manafort and Gates who are directly linked to Russian Military Intelligence have been under pressure by Mueller. It’s why Don jr. accepted the meeting to “get dirt” on Hillary, because they already knew the Russians had some and they wanted either to get it themselves or have it released — which is just what happened when the Russians used Wikileaks to released emails designed to undermine the Clinton campaign, and used the Cambridge Tools through their Troll farm to inflame the right-wing and further split the Democratic electorate, Trump’s people who should have recognized the same techniques they were using online also being deployed by the Russia — said nothing.
All of that — is collusion.
Instead of reporting it, instead of helping the FBI discover this was going on — they denied everything. They participated in the cover up. Now they’re getting caught — bit by bit.
Also they’re pretty damn corrupt on their own.
Plus there are survey’s that indicate that only 17% Obama voters who were suckered into believing the fake news generated by RT, Sputnik and Brietbart about Hillary continued to support her and about 10% of his 2012 voters went for Trump while 4% went for Jill Stein or others. That’s enough of an impact to shift 60,000 77,000 votes in three states in the wrong direction.
The previous seven Master Documents have been as follows:
The original Master Timeline which begans in 1985 when Trump attempt to open a Casino in Australia was denied because of his links to the mob, and he first began talking about becoming a diplomat/negotiator with Russia so he could “end the Cold War in an hour”
Master List Vol 2 beginning in Mid-June which features Peter W. Smith’s attempts to get Hillary’s deleted emails from Russian hackers, Putin kicking out 700 of our diplomats and Trump thanking him for it, Scaramucci’s hiring and firing and the Race Riots of Charlottesville.
Master List Vol3 beginning in Late August which covers Don Jr’s statements to Congress admitting he was trying to “vet” Hillary by accepting Russian dirt about her, Flynn’s Nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia and the beginning of Trump’s attacks on NFL players for kneeling
Master List Vol 4 beginning in Mid-October which covers the Trump’s trip to Asia, the Sgt. LaDavid Johnson condolence call, Harvey Weinstein and Roy Moore scandals and
Master list Vol 5 starting in late November which features the guilty plea for lying to the FBI by Michael Flynn and the publishing of Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” about Trump’s first 100 Days.
Master Timeline Vol 6 continues in January with the after math of “Fire and Fury” as well as the beginning of the Rob Porter White House Domestic Violence scandal.
Master Timeline Vol 7 picks up in February where the Stormy Daniels story exploded all over everything requiring many tissues, the Parkland Florida and Stephon Clark shootings took place. Also Manafort partner Rick Gates pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with Mueller, as did attorney Alex Van Der Zwaan who lied to the FBI about Gates being in contact with former GRU officer Konstantin Kilimnik, and also Kushner associate George Nader who helped facilities his links to the UAE and the mysterious meeting in the Seychelles between the Crown Prince of the UAE, Russian Billionaire Kirill Dmitriev and ex-Blackwater CEO Erik Prince. Mueller indicted 13 Russian individuals and 3 Companies including the Internet Research Agencies for the cyber efforts to execute conspiracy against the U.S. by impacting the vote and also Steve Bannon’s Cambridge Analytica was exposed as obtaining the private information of 50 Million Americans via Facebook in order to the same thing as the Russians with the direct help of Jared Kushner and brand new Trump 2020 Campaign Manager Brad Pascale.
Daily Updates will be continued here:
-
March 16th
-
Corn and Isakoff tell Chris Cuomo that Mueller has subpoenaed TrumpOrg records to look at his relationship with the Agalarov their previous attempt to cement a $Billion deal over Trump Tower Moscow in 2013, and the Don Jr/Veselnitskaya meeting. Cuomo also tries to get Felix Sater to open up about the Russia investigation but he resists going into details.
-
Stormy Daniels lawyer says she was threatened with physical harm if she didn’t comply with the NDA deal, and that he’s been contacted by at least 6 other women with similar stories.
-
Arizona student who participated in national walkout says they were “hit on the thigh” as corporal punishment from the school.
-
Rumors circulate that National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster is leaving over his tension with Trump. Reports are that Trumps wants someone more fun, but the WH denies everything.
-
Charlottesville resident Deandre Harris who was severely beaten bloody by White Supremacist during their “Unite the Right” march is found not guilty of assault against racist Harold Cruz for swinging a flashlight at him while Harold was trying to impale someone else with a flagpole.
-
Hannity slaps back at Shep Smith: “He’s ‘clueless’ about the ‘REAL NEWS’ I do everyday” [Yeah, so are you]
-
Vanessa Trump hires a criminal defense lawyer in her divorce filing against Don Jr.
-
Adam Schiff and House Dems are reportedly considering making a criminal referral of perjury to the FBI against Roger Stone, Carter Page and Erik Prince based on their testimony to the Intel committee.
-
London police determine that Russian dissident and Putin critic Nikolai Glushkov was murdered in his home due to “compression of the neck.”
-
Jeff Sessions fires Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe one day before he becomes vested for an increased pension on his 50th Birthday, and 2 days before his scheduled retirement.
-
Facebook bans Cambridge-Analytica for misusing the personal data from 270,000 people.
-
Felix Sater admits to Chris Hayes that he did work on Trump Tower Moscow using funding from VTB Bank [which is sanctioned].
-
Michael Cohen files a motion to have the Stormy Daniels suit moved to Federal Court, then accuses her of 20 violations of the NDA totally $20 Million in fines. and hires another attorney to help him on the case.
-
The FISA Court Review panel rules against the DOJ on keeping all FISC decisions secret admit numerous press and FOIA inquiries.
-
Julia Kayyem wonders “Are the Trump people stupid” for firing Andy McCabe because now he’s unleashed rain Hell on them.
-
Russia expels 23 British diplomats and closes some of their consulates in response to their punishment over the Salisbury Chemical Attack on Sergei Skripal.
-
Trump celebrates firing McCabe while he reveals that Trump was obsessed with his wife’s run for Virginia Senate and that he kept notes just like Comey did which have already been turned over the Mueller.
-
Comey Claps back at Trump’s happy dance over McCabe and warns that the American People will hear my story soon, because he has a book coming out.
-
WH denies reports that Trump is ready to fire HR McMaster. [Watch this space, we’ve been to this rodeo before...]
-
March 17th —
-
March 18th —
-
March 19th —
-
Gretchen Carlson’s attorney Nancy Erika Smith.explains to Chris Cuomo that Trump is screwed in his battle with Stormy Daniels. After Trump said publicly that he didn’t know Daniels — “then he wanted to go to arbitration in late February”, she claimed “he waived his claim that he gets to go to a secret court system.” Cohen is clearly function on Trump’s behalf and the NDA isn’t valid since Trump didn’t sign it.
-
Axios reports that Mueller is looking into Trump’s actions after the election which indicates that he is targeting the coverup and obstruction issues.
-
Bombs continue to be set in Austin Texas, now using trip wires. Police offer a $115,000 reward for information.
-
Trump Dating Website invites Don Jr to join since his wife has filed for divorce.[He’s a catch!]
-
Former FBI agent Asha Rangappa points out the McCabe’s memos will be trusted by the courts over Trump’s recollections. [So will Comey’s]
-
GOP candidate Rick Saccone won’t concede the PA-18 race, but is also already running somewhere else.
-
Trump rage-tweets “Witch Hunt” claiming that there should have never been a Mueller investigation [ignoring that they already have 4 guilty pleas and 20 other indictements] and saying he has too many Democrats on his Team [So we’re applying Affirmative GOP Action rules now? You need token Republicans to prove impartiality?]
-
Hannity does a big segment claiming “Not Jailing Hillary was the biggest abuse of power in the history of America” [Really, it wasn’t.]
-
Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie claims that they were working with Corey Lewandowski and Steve Bannon in 2015 before Trump announced his campaign, and that Cambridge Analytica “took fake news to a new level by pairing it with algorithms” to make it more effective at targeting and modifying beliefs.
-
NYTimes reports that Trump plans to hire Fox News correspondent and conspiracy theorist Joe diGenova since he claims the real crime was “letting Hillary go” and that the entire investigation of Trump is a Frame Job by Dem partisans at the head of the DOJ. [Even though Comey, McCabe and Mueller are all Republicans]
-
Vice reports that Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix was filmed talking about using bribes, ex-spies, fake IDs and sex workers to entrap politicians around the world. [So of course they would be the last people develop and share Facebook targeting and manipulation tools with Russian intelligence… although what’s he’s describing sounds exactly like something that was attempted against Alexander Navalny by pals of the Belarusian “sex guru” who had an alleged affair with Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska and now wants to give her info to the US in order to keep from being deported back to Russia from a Taiwanese Jail.]
-
Wapo reports that Trump’s lawyers have recently met with Mueller and given him an outline of potential areas of inquiry for his interview with Trump.
-
Bloomberg reports that on top of everything else, Michael Flynn had a secret business relationship with computer chip maker Bijan Kian who he had tried to help get defense contracts while he was head of the DIA.
-
After he was fired by Obama in 2014 he was brought onto the board of Kian’s company Greenzone Systems Inc., who won a $1.1 Million contract with the DoD’s Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office, which works with the DIA.
-
Flynn tried to sell Kian’s computer chips during his Saudi trip to secure the Nuclear Power plant deal.
-
Kian had met with Homeland Security Official supposed over his chips, but instead used the meeting to demonize Turkish dissident Fattulah Gulen, whom Flynn had been paid $530k to attack and kidnap.
-
Lastly Kian had worked with Flynn on a proposal to create a private intelligence force which would answer directly to the NSA and circumvent the CIA.
-
Rep. Matt Gaetz goes on Anderson Cooper and spouts more of his “Biased FBI Cabal yadda yadda nonsense” when in fact the biased partisan cabal includes himself, Devin Nunes, GOP members of House Intel and Trump.
-
March 20th —
-
Huckabee-Sanders refuses to call Russia’s 70% re-election of Putin a sham: ‘We don’t dictate how other countries operate’. [Yeah, so much for “beacon shining on the hill, standing up for human rights”...] A Fifth Bomb goes off in Texas, this time in San Antonio — but the WH sees no link to terrorism. [Because we all know — it’s probably a white guy.] Trump says “we have to find the suspects immediately.” [Hey wow, that’s an idea I’m sure no one else has even considered.]
-
School Shooting at Great Mills High School in Maryland — 2 dead including the shooter who was reported taken down by school resource officers. [It’s later discovered that his wounds were self-inflicted.]
-
Rep. Barbara Lee blast Education Sec. Betsy Devos for her nonchalant attitude toward racial disparities in school discipline. She also asks her if she understands how children of color might feel when their teachers who are already singling them out for harsher discipline are armed, but doesn’t get a real answer.
-
Kremlin reports that Trump called Putin to congratulate him on his election victory, and that they planned for yet another face-to-face meeting. Chemical Attacks and Election Meddling were not discussed.
-
Local Fox News host cuts off Great Mills survivor as soon as she mentions ‘gun control’.
-
Parkland teens call out lawmakers failure to act for Great Hills shooting. ‘This is on their hands’:.
-
Former FBI Agent Phill Mudd slams Trump’s cynicism in hiring conspiracy-spouting attorney DiGenova to rile up the kook base.
-
Even Rick Santorum is now saying Trump’s attacks on Mueller makes him look ‘like he’s got something to hide’ [That’s because he does.]
-
Facebook demands to look at Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Chris Wylie’s phone and computer while the UK seeks a warrant to look into their servers, and they also happen to have offices located inside Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp building in New York.
-
Nikolas Cruz 18 year-old younger brother Zachary is arrested for trespassing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. Saying he wanted to “soak it all in” he had bypassed the locks and gates and was apprehended while skateboarding through the school. This was his 3rd break in.
-
Ben Carson throws his wife under the bus with his $31,000 dining table strapped to it. “I left it to her.”
-
Politico reports Rep. Goodlatte is preparing to subpoena the DOJ Inspector General for his report on the Clinton email probe, which hasn’t been released yet. Sen. Grassley promises to have hearings on the report once it’s released. [Oh great we’re back to Benghazi-ville again.]
-
In more relevant news Sen. Feinstein requests hearings on Cambridge Analytica. [Oh, Snap!]
-
WaPo reports that Trump apparently attempted to recruit superstar attorney Ted Olson, but was instead shot down in flames via tweet.
-
Former Intelligence Office Lt. Col Ralph Peters quits his “Strategic Analysis” job at Fox News and excoriates them as a Propaganda Machine that “dismiss facts and empirical reality to launch profoundly dishonest assaults on the FBI … all the while scaremongering with lurid warnings of ‘deep-state’ machinations” and “is now wittingly harming our system of government for profit,” He also says.. “As an intelligence professional, I can tell you that the Steele dossier rings true–that’s how the Russians do things,”
-
Cambridge Analytica suspends CEO Alexander Nix as his boasts about buying off and blackmailing politicians airs on live British TV, right after Channel 4 airs part 3 of the special on CA where Nix bragged that “We did all the research, all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting, we ran all the digital campaign, the television campaign and our data informed all the strategy” for the Trump campaign, and admits it was all based on deliberate Fake News: “We just put information into the bloodstream to the internet and then watch it grow, give it a little push every now and again over time to watch it take shape. And so this stuff infiltrates the online community and expands but with no branding – so it’s unattributable, untrackable.” [Yeah, just like the Russian trolls and bots did too. So if this was the strategy that won Trump the election, was it because of Russia paying CA to develop these strategies, or because Russia used these strategies too?]
-
Former Playboy model Karen McDougal is now also suing Trump to void a “catch and kill” story deal the Enquirer Companies which she had signed for $150,000 after alleging Trump had a 10 month affair with her.
-
The Senate Intel Draft Report indicates that the integrity of the 2018 elections remain in jeopardy. [Wha? The Hell you Say!]
-
The Guardian reports on the Trump/Cambridge Analytica’s project to depress the Democratic vote which was created in San Antonio where 13 members of Cambridge Analytica came to huddle with Donald Trump’s IT director Brad Parscale using three key prongs which was presented to their Russian benefactors.
-
Convince black voters that Clinton secretly hated African Americans, but thought she could deceive them into supporting her during the election.
-
Convince Bernie Sanders supporters that Hillary Clinton was a neo-liberal war hawk who had stolen the primaries.
-
Convince younger women that Clinton was from a different era and didn’t understand their concerns while reminding them that Clinton stuck by “sexual predator” Bill Clinton.
-
Wapo Reports that Trump ignored an all caps “DO NOT CONGRATULATE PUTIN” message in his PDB, and his also didn’t follow advise to condemn the Russian WMD attack on England.
-
New York’s Attorney General and City Council want explanations for Kushner Co’s false documents about their rental properties.
-
CA Lt. Governor Gavin Newsome calls the head of ICE an ‘A-plus prick’.
-
Sen. Jeff Flake says that if Trump fires Mueller ‘our only constitutional remedy is through impeachment’.
-
WaPo reports that Steve Bannon led Cambridge Analytica’s efforts to collect Facebook data on millions of Americans according to Chris Wylie.
-
A New York State Judge rules that former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos defamation lawsuit against Trump can move forward “He’s not above the Law.”
-
The Daily Beast reports that Cambridge Analytics employee Emily Cornell wrote an email about Hillary’s emails one week after Wikileaks began releasing the DNC emails ““With her campaign getting hacked, I can only imagine what a new swatch [sic] of emails will do to her already fractured base!” she wrote.
-
March 21st —
-
AP reports British corporate records show that Alexander Nix is also director of a company called Emerdata Ltd. that was incorporated in August 2017. Other Emerdata directors include Johnson Ko Chun Shun, who also deputy chairman of Hong Kong-based Frontier Services Group, whose chairman is Erik Prince.
-
Sunni Hostin on The View calls BS on Melania Trump’s cyber bullying campaign: ‘She can’t control it in her own home’.
-
Austin Texas serial bombing suspect 23 year-old Mark Anthony Conditt who was killed by one of his own bombs after a police shoot out was a white, homeschooled, self-described conservative from a church going family from Fflugerville who wrote a blog where he exposed his views against abortion, same-sex marriage, the sex-offender registry and in support of neoCon Torture proponent Marc Theissen and the Death Penalty. [So his signup papers to be an Official Army of God Terrorist got lost in the mail?]
-
Fox News guest host Geraldo Rivera on Tuesday suggested that a bomber targeted Austin, Texas because it is one of the most liberal cities in the state.[Yeah, ya think?]
-
The Times of London report that a leaked email reveals that Alexander Nixreferred to two prospective black clients as “N*ggers.”
-
The Investigative Fund reports that Don Jr had travelled to India multiple times in the last decade in attempts to illegally restart a Trump project that had been shutdown due to a suspected $100 million fraud scheme and “gross violations”.
-
WH goes on it’s own “Witch Hunt” for the leaker who revealed that Trump had completely ignored the advise not to congratulate Putin in his PDB.
-
During a 2010 New Yorker profile Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg had bragged in a chat to a friend that he had access to private data from “any” Harvard student because the “Dumb Fucks” had voluntarily shared or submitted that information through his platform.
-
Buzzfeed reports that the RNC spent over $270,000 at Trump properties during February, which was 86% of their spending on local venues and is in addition to $2 Million that Republican campaigns have spent on his properties. The RNC is also still paying Trump’s former bodyguard Keith Schiller’s security consulting firm KS Global $15,000 per month.
-
Politico reports that Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt spent over $105,000 on first-class flights during his first year as the department’s secretary.
-
Crank Crack-Pot Wingnut Rep. Louie Gohmert argues that Mueller should be fired, even though there is no legal cause or justification for it.
-
ABC news reports that Andrew McCabe along with Rob Rosenstein had investigated Jeff Sessions for lying under oath to Congress about his and other Trump campaign officials communications with Russians.
-
The Hill reports that Mueller is investigating links between the Trump Campaign and Cambridge Analytica which other reports indicate worked directly together along with Facebook representatives in their campaign offices.
-
Mueller’s list of questions to Trump including details about Don Jr. Trump Tower meeting, Trump’s involvement in the original false statement about that meeting, as well as the firings of James Comey and Michael Flynn.
-
Buzzfeed reports GOP campaign staffers who also used Cambridge Analytica are whining about being ‘unfairly targeted’. “We’re the victims here.” [No, not even a little bit.]
-
Former CIA Director Brennen says there’s a 98% chance that Russia has dirt on Trump: Putin ‘can wipe him out’.
-
The Intercept reports that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly bragged about having White House senior counsel Jared Kushner “in his pocket” and may have used highly sensitive intelligence from the President’s Daily Briefing in his violent crackdown on dissent in Saudi Arabia.
-
Devin Nunes is under investigation for possible Campaign Finance Violations.
-
March 22nd —
-
Trumps signs his Chinese Tariff executive order and the stock market crashes 724 points.
-
Sen. Warren hammers Ben Carson for delaying an anti-discrimination rule until 2020: ‘That’s the scandal that should get you fired’.
-
Details of the WH meeting for new rules on anti-leaking — get leaked.
-
AP reports that a New York City regulator is probing 13 buildings controlled Jared Kushner's family over possible “illegal activity” related to work permits, according to public filings.
-
EPA Director Scott Pruitt’s security detail went with him on his $800k worth of first class flights.
-
Bannon denies all knowledge of data-mining by Cambridge Analytica and entirely blames Facebook.[Who wrote and distributed the Facebook personality survey app that gathered all the data then? That’s like saying ‘Hey Facebook left the door open, so it’s not my fault my company ransacked the house with the open door…!!’]
-
Newly minted Opiod Czar Kellyanne Conway says : ‘Eat ice cream, not fentanyl and ‘it all works out’
-
China considers targeting Trump-voting states in trade war.
-
Trump announces he’s dumping McMaster as national security advisor to be replaced by John Bolton. [Hello Apocalypse, here we come!]
-
Former playmate Karen McDougal tells Anderson Cooper she has proof of a 10-month sexual relationship with Trump including photos and notes.
-
John Dowd — the guy who claimed he wrote the tweet which suggested Trump knew Flynn had lied to the FBI but just didn’t care, who just recently praised Sessions for firing McCabe and suggested Rosenstein should fire Mueller — quits as Trump lead defense attorney reportedly because he won't take his advice, so after asking 4 other attorney’s who all turn him down — including Ted Olsen and Emmet Flood— Trump hires Joe diGenova’s wife Victora Tensing who happens to already represent a Uranium One conspiracy theorist and wants to have Meuller investigated by yet another Special Counsel because he was FBI Director when that deal was approved even though he — like Clinton — had nothing to do with it.
-
The Daily Beast reports that Guccifer 2.0 has been confirmed not be a “lone hacker” but is instead a front operation for Russian Military Intelligence (GRU) [Wait, who didn’t know that? Oh yeah, Roger Stone and Republican consultant Aaron Nevins.] They discovered this because he apparently made a post and forgot to mask his IP address which linked back to a point inside GRU headquarters. [Whoops!]
-
ABC News reports that McCabe oversaw an investigation in potential perjury by Sessions in response to a letter sent to him by Sens. Leahy and Frankendue to his false testimony during his confirmation hearing denying he or other Trump surrogates had had contact with Russians.
-
CBS confirms that they will interiview Stormy Daniels on 60 Minutes.
-
Wapo Reports that in addition to congratulating Putin against advise during their recent phone call, Trump’s claim that he and Putin would meet again soon was also a surprise.
-
Trump responds to Biden’s “take him behind the Gym” comments about Trump needing a beating since High School by saying Joe “would go down hard and fast, crying all the way...” [Yeah, sure, that’s just what you told Stormy and McDougal I’ll bet.]
-
WH says the “DO NOT CONGRATULATE” leak was a “firing offense” but since they haven’t caught who did it yet, I guess they’ll just have to fire everyone in the building one at a time including McMaster who's last public statement — just like Tillersons’s — was blasting Russia for their chemical attack on England.
-
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) blames “somebody in the deep state, not one of [Carson’s] people’ for his $31,000 dining set, even though a long time HUD employee Helen Foster was demoted for opposing the purchase and had stated that it was people in the WH — who said you can’t buy a decent chair for $5,000” — and Carson’s wife who had pushed for it.
-
New York Times reports UAE Rep George Nader and RNC Fund Raiser Elliot Broidy corresponded and worked to influence the Trump WH by advocating for the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and pushing the interests of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia who had both blockaded Qatar.
-
NPR reveals that John Bolton had done a video statement on behalf of the NRA-Linked Russian gun rights group “Right to Bear Arms” which is lead by mobster Alexander Torshin and is reported to have helped funnel Russian money into the 2016 election.
-
Trump again says he’d like to talk to Mueller and his team.
-
CNN President Jeff Zucker calls Fox News ‘State-Run TV, A Pure Propaganda Machine’. [You noticed did you?]
-
March 23rd —
-
March 24th —
-
Andrew McCabe writes a scathing WaPo Op-Ed about his firing where he denies he had a “lack of candor” [especially compared to Sessions false statements under oath] and bemoans Trump’s cruelty. “President Trump’s cruelty reminded me of the days immediately following the firing of James B. Comey, as the White House desperately tried to push the falsehood that people in the FBI were celebrating the loss of our director,” McCabe said. “The president’s comments about me were equally hurtful and false, which shows that he has no idea how FBI people feel about their leaders.”
-
Foreign Policy reports that incoming National Security Advisor Bolton is planing a “massive shakeup” at NSC at the WH and plans to fire dozens of current staff. [That would be the guys who actually did get their clearances right? To be replaced by who…?]
-
WSJ reports that Trump is weighing whether to publicly fight back against Daniels and McDougal’s claims over their NDA’s even though his voters don’t seem to care either way.
-
Bloomberg and CNN reports that Trump has been advised to expel dozens of Russian diplomats over the English chemical attack, and he’s considering it for Monday, but the decision “may not be final.”
-
House GOP Intel Committee releases the findings in their version of a “Russia Probe” and they find that Russia did something, but they’re not sure what — they know it didn’t change the election although they didn't ask, and that they didn’t want to help Trump, but they did want to hurt Clinton which wouldn't help Trump at all, and Trump had nothing to do with it — except for publicly endorsing it, privately soliciting it and trying to cover it up. So there — nothing to see here. Mission Accomplished. Move along now.
-
Parkland Students stage their “March For Life” in Washington, New York, LA and 800 cities worldwide.
-
Another Cambridge Analytica whistle-blower Shahmir Sanni comes forward and claims that the company linked to Analytica illegally received donations of $880,000 to influence the Brexit vote on behalf of the Vote Leave campaign, and that the evidence was hidden and destroyed.
-
Jesse Waters whines to Kellyanne Conway about the Omnibus Bill — “What happened to the Wall?” [It got smashed… by common sense.]
-
March 25th —
-
March 26th —
-
Trump implements Operation:Distract From Stormy and tweets that the Economy is looking lovely this morning.
-
House Intel Dems release their Minority Views on the GOP House Intel “No collusion” report.
-
Cohen’s lawyer Brent Blakley sends Daniels a “cease and desist” letter claiming she made “false and defamatory” remarks during her interview.
-
AP reports that VA Director David Schulkin may be the next contestant defenestrated out the window on this weeks episode of Celebrity WH Cabinet: Death Match Edition.
-
60 Russian Diplomats get the boot over the Chemical Weapons attack in Salisbury. Axios reports that Trump refused to do the expulsion until after France, Germany and other countries had done it first.
-
CBS reports that Trump had dinner with Michael Cohen the night 60 Minutes airing of the Daniels interview.
-
NYTimes reports the former RNC finance deputy chair Elliot Broidy had pitched that he could setup clients and potential clients with a meeting in the WH.
-
Steve King blasts Emma Gonzales for wearing a Cuban Flag patch on her jacket, claiming that that island became a dictatorship because the people were “disarmed.” [I think people on both sides of that revolution were armed, man.]
-
Stoneman Douglas student David Hogg calls BS on Santorum “if you're shot in the head — no amount of CPR will save you, you’re dead.”
-
WH deputy spokes shill Raj Shah states Trump doesn’t believe Daniels was threatened in 2011, and claims payments like Cohen’s to her are “nothing out of the ordinary” although they continue to deny there was an affair/ [But if there wasn’t an affair — why’d she get paid?]
-
Shah also claims “The President is the only one whose been consistent” basically continuing the talking point that Daniels can’t be trust because she signed some claims provided by Cohen that “there was no affair” when she was acting in accordance with the NDA — which basically means they’re calling her a liar for the times she’s agreed with Trump and Cohen.
-
Daniels’ lawyer sues Cohen for Defamation adding it to their previous suit against the NDA.
-
Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke Don’t. Not. Grok. Diversity.
-
Daniels’ attorney : ‘She can describe his genitalia’ [Oh lord, we just found ourselves in Michael Jackson pajama party land...] Then he dares Trump to post a tweet in response to the 60 Minute interview.
-
Politico reports that Trump’s attorneys — well, what’s left of them — are very concerned about what Rick Gates has been telling Mueller since he pleaded guilty. “They’ve been very concerned about it,” said a defense attorney working on the Russia case. “It’s something they’re worried about.” “He saw everything,” said a Republican consultant who worked with Gates during the campaign. [Ruh Roh!]
-
Ex-federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti writes Trump is treading on increasingly dangerous ground without properly experienced legal counsel to help him prepare for an interview with Mueller and his team. “Sekulow has no experience handling federal criminal investigations,” he writes. “Asking him to quarterback the defense to this important investigation would be like asking a neurologist to be your heart surgeon.” [Or perhaps asking a former pediatric neurosurgeon to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Hijinks could ensue.]
-
Melania’s spokesperson won’t say if she watched the Daniels interview. ‘She’s focused on being a mom’ and ‘future projects’.[Or perhaps future husbands...]
-
Megan McCain lashes out at David Hogg for using profanity because kids don't do … ah fuck fit I can't even finish that thought.
-
Wingnut Televangelist claim Parkland students are like ‘demonic’ Nazis who ‘rape’ gun owners. “Hitler took the guns.” [Actually, no he didn’t — Hitler expanded gun rights to everyone except the Jews] This new Conserva-narrative that that Parkland Kids are pocket-sized Nazis seems to be quite deliberate and planned even if it’s factually flawed, and one that the Nazi actually did do was implement the “Big Lie” strategy.
-
Eagles of Death Metal Jesse Hughes who is a survivor of the Bataclan Massacre accuses the Parkland Teen survivors of “Treason” and that they are capitalizing on classmates’ deaths to take time off — “multiple days off of school playing hooky at the expense of 16 of your classmates blood.” — singling out activist Emma Gonzalez in particular as a “liar” while posting the fake photoshopped picture of her supposedly ripping the constitution, when she was really ripping a shooting target.
-
Former homicide prosecutor Katie Phang explained why longtime Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen may be facing felony charges during an interview with MSNBC’s Katy Tur. ”“By all accounts, a $130,000 hush money payment on the eve of the presidential election in 2016 could constitute an in-kind contribution made to influence the outcome of that election,” the MSNBC legal analyst continued. “And if so, then Michael Cohen is going to be looking at felony charges for having done that.”
-
CNN panels goes bonkers after Daniels’ attorney calls Michael Cohen ‘a thug’ to his lawyer’s David Schwartz face. Schwartz criticizes the polygraph test — which wasn’t even mentioned in the 60 Minutes interview — for not having a “galvanic skin response test” claiming it was therefore phony and Avanetti paid $24,000 for it, even that he that was in 2011 and paid for by In Touch Weekly, he also accuses Daniels of participating in “legal blackmail” for her efforts to reach a deal on the NDA.
-
Former CIA counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd argues Daniels allegations may shows the the Steele dossier ugliest allegations may be true. “Did the president ever do anything overseas, and particularly in Russia, that would be embarrassing and that he’d like to hide… If that turns out to be true — and I think we have information that suggests the FBI has corroborated some of that — I could see a national security implication,” Mudd concluded. “But for Stormy Daniels, that one’s out in the open, I don’t see how you can blackmail someone for something that’s public knowledge.” [Well, that “Blackmail” was behind closed doors to keep it private, until it wasn’t anymore]
-
March 27th —
-
NYTimes reports that Trump still talks to his wife beating ex-staffer Rob Porter on the phone, and quietly wishes he could come back even though he still wouldn’t have the clearance needed to do his job.
-
Tom Buchanan and Dan Webb, of the firm Winston & Strawn, confirmed to The Daily Best that the White House asked the pair to serve on Trump’s team, but they had to decline. [So, still not the “Best Lawyer People”]
-
Earlier in March, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) wrote to OGE asking whether Kushner’s meetings with companies who later loaned money to his family presented a ethics issues for the top White House aide. In response OGE Director David Apol said that Kushner’s loans and meetings were worth investigating and that the White House had already launched a probe. Rachel Maddow reports that this internal WH probe, not just issues involving Mueller, may be why Kushner can’t get his clearance.
-
FEC Chairman Trevor Potter says it would be impossible for the FEC to finish an inquiry into the Cohen/Daniels payment before next year as they’re still analyzing other 2015-2016 election issues. That would put it right in the start of Trump’s 2020 campaign.
-
WaPo reports that although Trump may be quiet in public, he’s raging in private over Daniels claiming she’s a “hoax.” [Right and the pictures and the phone calls and the witness who says he tried to invite her over for a 3-some are all a hoax too.] He also says “She's not the sort of woman he finds attractive” — even though she looks a lot like the models he hands picks for Miss Universe, and a lot like McDougal… and Ivanka.
-
The National Rifle Association acknowledged this week that it has moved money from accounts with foreign donations to accounts that are used for spending on U.S. political campaigns. The organization insists the transactions are “permitted by law.” [And just how exactly is that possible?] They claim the money didn’t come from Russia, as if that’s the only problem here.
-
Pulse shooting survivor Brandon Wolf slams back at Steve King for his attack on Emma Gonzales. “Are you serious attacking a shooting survivor for her ethnic identify?” [Yep, he did.]
-
Salon reports that Cambridge Analytica may have violated federal law by having their foreign work force directly involved in the Trump campaign.
-
Aaron Rich, brother of murdered DNC staff Seth Rich sues Trump ally Ed Butowsky; conservative activist Matt Couch and his media group America First Media; and the Washington Examiner for defamation in promulgating a conspiracy theory that Aaron somehow aided his brother Seth leak DNC emails to Wikileaks.
-
Manafort again files a motion to have his indictment by Mueller dismissed, this time in Virginia Federal court instead of DC, arguing that Mueller “overstepped his bounds” by taking on a case unrelated to Russia [even though it is related to Russia because that’s where most of the money he laundered or accepted as an unregistered foreign agent came from.]
-
Huckabee-Sanders claims Trump has a “great experienced legal team” except the only lawyer he has that works for him personally and not the WH and therefore has full attorney-client privilege — is jay Sekulow and he’s never tried a case with a Federal Criminal defendant.
-
Arpaio promise he’ll “Talk about Obama Birth Certificate Again, if he's elected Senator.”
-
Still whining that only $1.6 Billion was slotted for his wall in the budget bill Tweets that he’d like to “Build the Wall through the Military” — which I’m pretty sure isn’t legal since their funding is already slotted for specific projects, unless he plans to take out for the troops pay raise that was included in the bill or forcibly turn them into construction workers which would really piss off the unions.
-
California's DOJ announces that it will be investigating the police killing of Sacramento’s Stephon Clark.
-
Orange County California joins the DOJ Federal lawsuit against the state over the new Sanctuary City Law.
-
NRA “only a good guy with a gun” narrative falls apart in regards of the Great Mills High School in Maryland when it’s discovered that the shooter actually died from self-inflicted wounds, not because he was killed by school resources officers.
-
Politico reports that President Trump and his administration paid far less attention to the island following Hurricane Maria last September than they had other places in the United States following similar tragedies — namely Texas after Hurricane Harvey.
-
Whereas Texas was granted $141.8 million in individual assistance funding, for instance, Puerto Rico, which suffered a far more drastic fate, received a small fraction of that, with only $6.2 million for individual assistance.
-
To date, authorities believe the total cost to repair the island’s decimated electrical grid could reach up to $94 billion. Although the official number of fatalities was estimated at a little over 100, Puerto Rican officials say the real death toll may actually be closer to 1,000.
-
According to Politico, within six days of Harvey making landfall in Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved the aforementioned $141.8 million in “individual assistance” to hurricane victims; within nine days, it had supplied 5.1 million meals, 4.5 million liters of water and over 20,000 tarps to the Houston region, which saw some of the worst flood damage. In the first week and a half following the hurricane, the government was able to provide 30,000 emergency personnel and had deployed 73 helicopters capable of bringing residents supplies and transporting victims.
-
By contrast, rescue and recovery efforts in Puerto Rico were severely lacking: within the first week and a half after Maria made landfall, FEMA had approved the relatively meager $6.2 million in individual assistance for hurricane victims and supplied 1.6 million meals, 2.8 million liters of water, and around 5,000 tarps to the entire island. It took nine days for 10,000 emergency personnel to respond to the crisis and three weeks for the U.S. Northern Command to deploy more than 70 rescue and supply helicopters. Approvals on contracts and federal relief applications continue to move at a snail’s pace.
-
After completely ignoring the Stormy Daniels story on Monday, Fox & Friends finally devoted a segment to it but host Ainsley Earhardt went to extreme lengths to downplay it, making the case that the media has “a double standard” because they have “forgotten about Bill Clinton,” who was impeached 20 years ago.
-
NyTimes and the Guardian outline how Trump Pal Peter Thiel’s Silicon Valley contractor Palantir was involved in the Cambridge Analytica personality questionaire app that grabbed the personal data of 50 Million U.S. Voters.
-
9 out of 10 Democrats on Senate Judiciary sign onto a letter by Sens. Tillis and Coons requesting that Trump not interfere in the Mueller investigation.
-
Buzzfeed reports that Christopher Steele’s investigation of the death of a Russian media mogul in the U.S. may have been murder. In December 2014, Mikail Lesin resigned his position with propagandist Gazprom-Media and moved full time to the United States. A year later, he was found dead alone in his room at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, D.C. with blunt force trauma to his upper and lower body.
-
March 28th —
-
FBI increases staff re-investigating the Clinton email case to 54 agents in response to the letter from Rep. Goodlatte.
-
Mueller releases settlement agreement for Dutch Lawyer Alex Van Der Zwaan which details that his lies to the FBI involved his being aware that Rick Gates was in contact with a business partner with links to Russian Military Intelligence (Kilimnick), and highlights the fact that he’s the son-in-law of Russian Alfa Bank Oligarch German Khan who is suing Buzzfeed for being mentioned in the Steele Dossier.
-
Crying Chris Cantwell says that he's now an FBI informant, but now that he’s told the media that — he should expect to be fired like Steele was for going to the media.
-
Former SCOTUS Justice John Paul Stevens writes that the 2nd Amendment should be repealed and Trump tweet-screams “NEVER!”
-
Biden walks back the “behind the Gym” statement about what Trump deserves. [Perhaps under the bleachers?]
-
Federal Judge Peter Messitte rules that the Emoluments Suit by CREW against Trump’s DC Hotel can move forward despite DOJ attempts to have it dismissed.
-
Santorum apologizes for his “learn CPR” comment, then makes it worse by blaming “both sides” for gun protests.
-
Avanetti moves to have Cohen and Trump deposed quickly in the Daniels case, although he also says he might consider a settlement depending on it’s terms.
-
Sekulow claims he “knows what he’s doing” as Trump sole Federal defense lawyer even though he’s never led a Fedreral Criminal defense — so of course no one believes that.
-
Jr’s wife Vanessa reportedly wept when she learned he planned to leave her, the mother of his five children, to start a second family with his mistress Aubrey O’Day who had been a C-list Celebrity contestant on the Apprentice. And just like his dad, he didn’t use condoms with his side slice either.
-
NYTimes reports that sometime last summer Dowd and Trump had floated possible pardons for Flynn and Manafort lawyers if they refused to cooperate with Mueller — which smells very obstruction of Justice-y. At that time Flynn hadn’t signed his plea deal and Manafort hadn’t been indicted yet.
-
Huckabee-Sanders calls the police shooting of Stephon Clark in Sacramento a “local matter that doesn’t need the Federal Government”, even though he certainly didn’t feel that way about the shooting of Kate Steinle, even though that was an accident and the gunman was acquitted for Murder.
-
Trump fires VA Secretary Schulkin who had been against his privitization plans intended to pay off their wealthy pals and was another cabinet member with a travel scandal only to replace him with his personal WH Physician Admiral Ronny Jackson who has no management experience and will now be heading the 2nd largest organization in the government with a budget of $200 Billion.
-
Katy Tur argues that Trump timed the firing of Schulkin to help distract from the stories of Pardons being offered to Flynn and Manafort.
-
A CNN panel on gun reform with teens goes sideways when a black female member points out that most school shooters are white, only to have a white pro-gun member freak out “You’re a Racist” and then bring up the Pulse Nightclub massacre, except that nightclubs aren’t schools even if they were she's woud still be exactly right most mass gun murderers are white. (Sandy Hook, Aurora, Tuscon, Planned Parenthood, Las Vegas, Parkland, Santa Barbara, Knoxville]
-
Former FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi explains on MSNBC that Mueller may be investigating Dowd for obstruction of justice due to his pardon discussions with Flynn and Manafort’s lawyers.
-
Kellyanne’s husband George Conway tweets “Flabbergasted" in response to the Dowd Pardon offers and apparently pisses off Trump, again.
-
Maddow reports that John Bolton may already be in hot legal water because of a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commision claims the Bolton Super PAC, which paid Cambridge Analytica $1.4 million since 2014 for their services, violated campaign finance law by using the GOP megadonor-funded group to run data operations.
-
Hope Hicks leaves the WH, and the other staffers are Hella Sad.
-
March 29th —
-
Cohen’s lawyer says Trump was never aware of the Daniels NDA agreement and Meghan Kelly tell him “no one believes that” — which is because they don’t. And Cohen better hope it isn’t because legal experts state that if this is true it could open Cohen up to fraud charges, if one party in an agreement doesn’t even know about the agreement.
-
Bloomberg reports that John Kelly was left out of the loop on the decision to hire Bolton for National Security Advisor.
-
The Guardian reports tha In 2010, a small group of businessmen including a wealthy Russian supporter of Vladimir Putin began working on plans to build a glitzy hotel and entertainment complex with Donald Trump in Riga, the capital of Latvia.
-
ABC News reports that EPA Chief Scott Pruitt apparently lives in an expensive Washington DC condo owned by the wife of top energy analyst J. Steven Hart.
-
Adverisers begin dropping Laura Ingraham in the wake of her vicious attacks on Parkland survivor David Hogg.
-
Dr. Sanjay Gupta blasts new VA pick Adm Jackson’s ridiculous claim that Trump will live to be 200 years old.
-
Judge denies Daniels motion to depose Cohen and Trump, but he leaves open the option for it to be refiled.
-
NRA’s Dana Loesch berserk over Parkland teen ‘bigots’ who don’t ‘take action’ claiming “We’re Not Terrorist” [Yeah, you just look and act exactly like them.]
-
DOJ charges a former Minnesota FBI agent Terry Albury with leaking classified information to the The Intercept.
-
Former Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman writes a WaPo editorial stating Manafort has likely refused to cooperate because he believe Trump will pardon him, and it could be impeachable if he does.
-
Laura Ingraham apologizes ‘for any upset’ to David Hogg now that she starting to lose advertisers.
-
Russia expels 60 American diplomats and closes the St. Petersburg consulate.
-
Six Democrats write FBI Director Wray requesting that Kushner be investigated on whether he gave Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman classified information from Trump’s PDB.
-
Former CIA Director Brennen slams Trump hiring his WH Doc to run the VA: ‘Terribly misguided nomination that will hurt our veterans’
-
Court documents indicate Mueller requested information from Rick Gates about Trump campaign contacts and coordination with Russians and didn’t need help on the Manafort cases.
-
Anderson Cooper’s CNN panel descends into total chaos after Trump lies about his border wall being started referring to pictures of a border fence being repaired. Rick Wilson calls Trump’s farm of wall samples “Douchenge” arguing he’s sucking up to Ann Coulter with his phony border wall talks.
-
Former Chief of CIA Russia operations Steve Hall says that more attention needs to be paid to Manafort’s attempts to offer a private briefing on the Trump campaign to Deripaska.
-
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe sets up a Legal Defense Fund, which indicates he plans to appeal his being fired just hours before his retirement.
-
Trump vilifies Jeff Bezos and Amazon for turning the Post Office into their delivery service — which I think is what the Post Office does for everyone — apparently because it hurts the retail businesses of his fatcat buddies but what he’s really mad about is the fact Bezos owns the Washington Post and he’s just been declared the richest man in the world while Trump is now somewhere around #700.
-
George Papadopoulos makes a new acquaintance Jason Wilson at a Chicago bar called Hydrate and tells him that Sessions had encouraged him to “find out anything he could” about Hillary’s hacked emails from Mifsud. His wife Simona Mangiante confirms she and George were at Hydrate and that said to ABC last December he was in “constant communication” with high level members of the campaign, including Sessions, during the election. She later claims that although George and Wilson did talk about the Russia investigation, George couldn't reveal anything beyond what is publicly known.
-
March 30th —
-
Trump claims during an Ohio rally that our Troops will be “leaving Syria very soon” which surprises the heck out of the Troops, the Pentagon and WH staff.
-
Sessions assigns Utah U.S. Attorney John Huber to re-re-investigate the Uranium One Hoax, the Carter Page FISA warrant application and the FBI’s handling of the Clinton emails even though the Inspector General has been working on most of that for a year already.
-
Gloria Allred drops out of Summer Zervos defamation case against Trump.
-
McCabe’s defense fund reaches $507,000 which is double his goal of $250,000.
-
Accused Russian Hacker Yevgeniy Nikulin has been extradited to the U.S. after being arrested in Prague in 2016 for illegally stealing 117 Million user passwords for LinkedIn back in 2012. Russia had wanted Nikulin extradited to his home country over a theft from an online money transfer company in 2009 [where he would have then been recruited into the FSB by Dmitry Dokuchaev.
-
Propublic reports that in 2002 as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton had skewed intelligence claiming that Cuba had Biological WMD’s.
-
Ken Starr calls for a Special Prosecutor to investigate the Stormy Daniels payoff.
-
At Logan Airport in Boston FBI agents working for Mueller detained London-based American Ted Malloch who is an associate of Steve Bannon, UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage and a contributor to Infowars, they take his cell phone for a “full assessment” and questioning him about his contacts with Roger Stone and Julian Assange. He claims he’s never met Assange, but he has met Stone 3 times. He claims he plans to testify before the Grand Jury.
-
New York University School of Law professor Ryan Goodman at his Just Security website shows that the report issued by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee completely contradicts Jared Kushner’s claim that he had no idea what the Veselnitskaya meeting was about, indicating he may have lied to Congress.
-
According to Bloomberg Politics, EPA Director Scott Pruitt has been paying $50 a night for one bedroom in the townhouse owned through a limited liability corporation by Vicki Hart, a lobbyist who specializes in health care. Her husband J. Steven Hart is also a lobbyist with clients such as Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. and Cheniere Energy Inc, he’s also outside counsel for the NRA and had released the statement that they had only taken money from one Russian which, of course, was Alexander Torshin who is being investigated by the FBI to see if his NRA contributions were illegal.
-
Pruitt also took his expensive personal security detail with him and his family to Disneyland, the Rose Parade and a University of Kentucky Basketball game, racking up over $200,000 in travel expenses and he also still has the $25,000 “Cone of Silence” sound proof booth in his office.
-
Wapo reports that two top staffers in the WH Personnel Office, Caroline Wiles and Max Miller have several past arrests for writing bad checks, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, drunk driving and assault.
-
Kellyanne Conway’s husband George has finally started deleting all his snarky anti-Trump tweets.
-
Carter Page tells Chris Hayes that he had told the FBI everything he did involving the Republican National Convention in 2016.
-
Former VA Director Schulkin says Trump didn’t bother to tell him he was fired when they spoke on the phone the day he heard the news.
-
Washington Times Online Opinion writer Cheryl Chumley attacks David Hogg as a “Brown Shirt” for “bullying” Laura Ingraham. [What exactly is with all the Nazi references for people who don’t want to get murdered in their school?]
-
Vice News reports congress is very interested that Oleg Deripaska’s private Gulfrsteam G550 jet was spotted on the ground in Newark, New Jersey in August 2016 just at few weeks after Manafort had told Kilimnik he wanted to give Deripaska a “private briefing” on the Trump campaign, and just hours after Manafort and Kilimnik had met together in Manhattan. The plane had landed after midnight and left the following day.
-
Former Fox News contributor Ralph Peters, who resigned from the network recently over what he saw as its total fealty to Trump, writes an editorial in the Washington Post warning that the network seems to have become a propaganda outlet aimed at tearing down American institutions. “With my Soviet-studies background, the cult of Trump unnerves me,” he says. “For our society’s health, no one, not even a president, can be above criticism — or the law.”
-
The independent Autopsy report for Stephon Clark indicates that he was hit 8 times out of the 20 shots fired— 6 of the shots hit him in the back, 1 in the leg, 1 in the side.
-
Over a week after the death of Austin bombing suspect Mark Anthony Conditt interim police chief Brian Manley declares that he was a “Domestic Terrorist” because of his impact on the community.
-
Daily Beast reports Roger Stone unloads on Sam Nunberg for his testifying to the Muller Grand Jury that Stone was linked to Jullian Assange — which is confirmed by his own DM messages — claiming he’s a lying asshole, psycho and cokehead.
-
CREW files a criminal complaint alleging that Trump’s new national security advisor John Bolton’s Super PAC was a vehicle for Steve Bannon and others to eventually employ Cambridge Analytica and violate federal election laws.
-
Trump pics his former golf caddy and social media director Dan Scavino to replace Hope Hicks as WH Communications Director. Scavino had previously been in the news when he was accused of Hatch Act Violations for tweeting criticism of House Freedom Caucus member Justin Amash who had opposed Trump’s attempts to repeal Obamacare.
-
Russia expels diplomats from 23 Countries and also announces testing of a new hyper-sonic multi-warhead nuclear missile called the “Satan 2.”
-
March 31st —
-
April 1st —
-
Former VA Sec. Schulkin claims “I did not resign” which contradicts the WH story. The Vacancies Law allows Trump to choose his temporary successor until a new Secretary is confirmed, but that law doesn’t cover firings so the job should go to Schulkin’s deputy — but so far it hasn’t since Trump instead announced Robert Wilkie, the Department of Defense’s undersecretary for defense personnel and readiness for the job.
-
Trump tweets “NO MORE DACA DEAL” which is odd since negotiations broke down in the Senate months ago after he opposed the only viable bill which also included $25 Billion for his border wall. And the only bill he did like only got 39 votes.
-
Sen. Ron Johnson complains that Mueller was appointed “too soon” because his investigation is clashing with the House and Senate inquiries. “I would’ve much rather had the Senate and House Intelligence Committees complete their report,” [Seeing as the House gave up halfway and Mueller already has 5 guilty pleas, this is a fairly empty whine]
-
WH continues to claim that Schulkin “resigned” but they don’t produce a resignation letter. Schulkin says that John Kelly called him to confirm the rumor that he was going to be fired by tweet at 2pm, which he was.
-
Trump continues tweeting about the Dead Data Deal and blames Democrats saying they just didn’t care or try — even though he’s the one who rejected their best offer.
-
CNN’s Jim Acosta asks him about DACA during the WH Easter Egg roll and he continue to blame democrats and says “people are taking advantage of DACA” [by which he wrongfully seems to think the humanitarian caravan from central America is an attempt to bring in kids who would get DACA, but it doesn’t work that way]. Acosta then asks “Didn’t you kill DACA?” but doesn't get an answer.
-
NYTimes reports that the Russian nerve agent that sent Sergei Skripal and his daughter to the hospital was smeared on a door handle.
-
NYTimes also report that Jared’s dad Charles Kushner may be headed for financial ruin as investors flee.
-
April 2nd —
-
Now the WH says Schulkin was “given the opportunity to resign” when Kelly called, but he still didn’t do it.
-
Former Cambridge Analytica go-between and Digital director Brad Pascale who is now Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, says Acosta “should be suspended” for breaking protocol and asking Trump a question. [That’s his job you doof!] Acosta claps back ‘Read the first Amendment.”
-
CNN blasts the creepy Sinclair pre-scripted statement after Deadspin posts a mash-up supercut of 150 anchors all saying the same words, so Trump claims “Sinclair is far superior to CNN and NBC” — which is to say they act as another propaganda arm for him just like Fox does. Some Sinclair staff say that this “unethical” top-down manipulation of local news “sickens” them but none are willing to say so on the record.
-
Trump appeals the NY Judges decision allowing the Zervos defamation suit to move forward.
-
Russian online bots are propping up Laura Ingraham in her battle with the Parkland teens — which should surprise no one.
-
18 Democrats on House Oversight send a letter to the Acting Ethics Chief David Apol about the defense fund for Trump associates “The structure of the Fund appears to allow secret donations to these individuals, and it raises serious concerns about whether it complies with ethics, tax, and elections laws, as well as OGE guidance,” the letter reads.
-
Trump congratulates Egyptian President El-Sissi after he wins his rigged election.
-
Trump admin puts a quota of 700 decisions onto Immigration judges in an effort to help speed up deportations. And of course, Trump tweets “Dems want open boarders” and complains that their is a “Caravan” of 1,500 Central American coming to “steal” our country and take “advantage of DACA”, but you have to have been in the U.S. since 2007 to be eligible for DACA and they’re all coming to seek legal humanitarian asylum.
-
China announces counter Trade Sanctions against U.S Pork and other industries that are largely in “Trump Country” — and the Dow plummets 700 points again.
-
CNN’s Bianna Golodryga reports that despite Roger Stone’s conflicting claims of whether he met with Assange in August of 2016 [which he has since said was a joke] he still had a relationship with Wikileaks.
-
Trump blasts Amazon again. for hurting retail, mom and pop businesses [Why don't you take up that issue with Walmart?] Then says their scamming the post office, even though they pay the same rates as other high volume shippers.
-
WSJ reports that Mueller is continuing to investigate Kushner’s “mid-east point man” George Nadler and Wikistrat an Israeli founded consulting firm that contracted by the UAE to produce Islamist war game scenarios in Yemen.
-
A 61 year old woman protesting the shooting of Stephon Clark in Sacramento is struck by a Sheriff Deputy vehicle which then leaves the scene.
-
Sinclair Media sends out an ominous email warning their staff and reporters — Not. to. talk. to. reporters. about their own company policies.
-
RBC News reports that FSB Hacker Dmirtry Dokuchaev — who is also facing charges in the US linked to the hacking of Yahoo and the DNC as well as recently extradited hacker Yevgeniy Nikulin who stole passwords from LinkedIn and money from online transaction services — has pleaded guilty in Russia on charges of sharing information with “foreign intelligence” in exchange for a reduced sentence.
-
Ted Nugent whines that he’s the “victim of hate speech” after his claim that the Parkland teens are “soulless” backfires and explodes in his face.
-
Bloomberg reports that a 3rd woman Jessica Denson is now suing to void another Trump NDA. She alleges she was harrassed by a superior while working phone banks for the Trump campaign’s Hispanic outreach effort.
-
Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie dies at the age of 81.
-
Steven Bochco, creator of Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law and NYPD Blue dies at age 74.
-
Trump overriding all known protocols, chemical attacks, cyber attacks and bots, nuclear missile threats, trading with North Korea and good sense, invited Putin to the White House for a “Summit.”
-
Huckabee-Sander — who clearly got the latest RNC policy memo — claims Democrats Killed DACA because they don’t like all of Trump’s “#Winning” and are now hurting people. [And who cancelled DACA. even after it survived a SCOTUS challenge, in the first place?]
-
Radio Host Randy Credico who had been named as Roger Stone’s “intermediary” with Julian Assange flatly denies that he acted as a go between for the two men on “The Beat” with Ari Melber — which leaves Stone without a fall guy. Did he or did he have a link to Assange?
-
April 3rd —
-
Jill McCabe states: “We will not allow ourselves to be defined by a false narrative”
-
After asking for the Daniels suit to move to Federal Court, Trump and Cohen are now asking for it to be handled through private arbitration.
-
The Wall Street Journal, CNN and Politico all report that EPA Director Scott Pruitt and his spending is being probed by Inspector General and Kelly had already considered firing him, but is waiting for the results of the report.
-
Trump continues to back Sinclair claiming CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC are “Fakers” — but he doesn’t mention Fox. however more voices such as the head of the Photojournalists Union have begun speaking up about Sinclair.
-
LA Times reports that Fox New Co-President Jack Abernethy continues to support Ingraham. “We cannot and will not allow voices to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts,” [Which he pretty much has backwards since she was trying to embarrass David Hogg into silence until it backfired.]
-
American Media, Inc (AMI) which owns the National Enquirer files to have the McDougal suit dismissed claiming they have a first amendment right NOT to publish stories, and they have a valid contract. [Even though they didn’t honor the terms of that contract by giving McDougal a regular fitness column.]
-
Bloomberg reports that Trump gave Pruitt a phone call pep talk :”Keep fighting. Keep your head up.”
-
McCabe’s defense fund hits $554,000.
-
17 States including NY AG Scheiderman sue to block including the citizenship status question included in the 2020 Census.
-
Alex Van der Zwaan is sentenced to 30 Days in prison for lying to the FBI about Rick Gates being in contact with a former member of Russian Military Intelligence.
-
Chinese Billionaire Guo Wengui files a $100 Million defamation suit against Roger Stone for claiming in InfoWars that he was involved in money laundering to Hilary Clinton and Steve Bannon.
-
Court filings show that Rosenstein authorized Mueller to look into Trump financial entanglements on August 17, 2017 just two weeks after he said in an interview that that would be “crossing a red line.” They also allow Mueller to investigate Paul Manafort’s finances as the court documents were released in response to his lawyer’s motions claiming the opposite.
-
Preet Bharara offers a suggestion to Jeff Bezos. ‘Buy Twitter with change in your pocket and shut Trump’s account’.
-
Trump claims he’s right about Amazon costing the Post Office money — without offering any proof.
-
A recent study of nearly 25,000 election social media messages shared by Michigan voters identified nearly half as “unverified WikiLeaks content and Russian-origin news stories” that fall “under the definition of propaganda based on its use of language and emotional appeals.” Further studies indicate Clinton only retained 77% of Obama voters with 10% going to Trump and 4% going elsewhere, they also found only 17% of Obama voters who believed 2 or more of the fake stories about Clinton ultimately voted for her — a difference that could have changed the election.
-
The Atlantic reports that Scott Pruitt overrode WH objections to give two of his long time cronies raises of up to $60k for Sarah Greenwalt and Millian Hupp. And if that isn’t bad enough EPA is also weakening Obama era Fuel standards and looking at blocking California from setting it’s own higher standard.
-
2 people are wounded during a shooting at Youtube Headquarters in San Bruno, DA — the shooter 39-year-old Nasim Aghdam dies of self inflicted wounds.
-
Trump claims “nobodies been tougher on Russia” than him, except for perhaps Kennedy, Reagan and the sanctions Obama imposed which shattered their economy.
-
Then Trump says he’s sending the military to guard the border — even though they can’t do law enforcement due to posse comitatas — and blames the Democrats for “stupid immigration laws”, which are really the due process rules of the 4th Amendment and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. He also says we’re be pulling our 2000 Special Forces Troops out of Syria soon. [So we’re giving up on the fight against ISIS and moving the Troops “protect” America from starving kids seeking asylum to escape murder and rape by Central American narco-gangs?]
-
WaPo reports that Mueller’s team has told Trump’s lawyers that the reason they want to interview him is because he’s “a subject” of the investigation not a target or a witness. DOJ rules say that a President can’t be indicted, so he can’t be a target technically — however that’s only true while he’s in the WH and they also specifically mention “obstruction of justice” so it could be a perjury trap that could get him impeached, removed, then prosecuted.
-
Phil Mudd says that he learned he was the subject of an investigation by Mueller he’d “wet his pants.”
-
Former EPA Secretary Christine Todd Whitman slams the corruption of Scott Pruitt.
-
Pruitt holds a press conference for the EPA but only invites Fox News.
-
CNN reports, according to a DOJ official, Rob Rosenstein has appointed former white collar defense attorney-turned-prosecutor Edward O’Callaghan as the acting Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General in charge of the Russia investigation and Mueller.
-
Dems ask EPA Inspector General to examine Pruitt’s sweetheart Condo deal.
-
Thinkprogress reports that Scott Pruitt signed off on a pipeline deal for a client of his condo landlords lobbying firm.
-
April 4th —
-
NBC news reports that Trump has restricted what his staff can say about Russia. Multiple senior administration officials told the outlet that Trump said they should not tout the decision to provide arms to Ukraine for fear of agitating Putin. When the administration announced the expulsion of diplomats, he insisted that the White House should send the message that he “still wants to work with Russia.”
-
Axios reports that the email system in Trump’s White House is not following protocols established by the Homeland Security and is at risk for hackers who could generate fake messages and spoof government addresses
-
Trump admin ramps up their trade war with China by releasing a new list of $12 billion in Tariffs, then he announces that the Saudi’s “need to pay” if we’re going to keep Troops in Syria [Oh, so our military is basically a protection racket now?] and he lashes out at Democrats over the border again “CRIME!!” even though immigrants still commit less crime than native citizens.
-
The DOW Opens another 500 points down as China announces counter tariffs against U.S. manufacturing as well as Trump-state agriculture.
-
Mexican officials begin vetting the migrant caravan of refugees in an effort to disperse or return them. The group drops from 1,500 down to about 1,100.
-
Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz [on Fox of course] says the Trump’s “not in the clear” since Mueller has named him a subject of his investigation.
-
Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross claims America will WIN the Trade War — and the Dow crashes again as he speaks.
-
In response to the attack on Youtube headquarters Don Jr. sends a hamfisted tweet accusing social media platforms of favoring mass shooters who are “liberal Vegan PETA activists” over NRA-supporting mass shooters because he claims Nasim Aghdam’s Youtube and Instagram accounts hasn’t been pulled yet. [Which is him completely missing the point about why those accounts with hateful threats vs Vegan recipes were pulled down.] Also Aghdam’s primary beef with Youtube was the fact that they’d already yanked some of her videos long before the shooting, and then the entire channel after the shooting so his complaint makes no sense.
-
NRATV blames Youtube’s new restrictive policies on pro-Gun videos for the San Bruno shooting. Dana Rohrabacher links the shooting to “illegal aliens” [From Iran??]
-
People Magazine reports that Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards will be writing in her new book that Jared and Ivanka met with her and essentially offered a bribe of increased funding if they stopped offering abortion services. “In their eyes, if they could stop Planned Parenthood from providing abortions, it would confirm their reputation as savvy dealmakers. It was surreal, essentially being asked to barter away women’s rights for more money.” [How many pieces of silver was it?]
-
Newly appointed Economics Czar Larry Kudlows claims Trump won’t take credit for ‘trade war’ market selloff: ‘Blame China, not Trump’. [And who started this war again?]
-
Judge Amy Berman Jackson hears motions on Manafort’s civil suit against Mueller claiming he’s overstepped his authority — but she sounds real skeptical about it. “I don’t really understand what’s left to your case, “Nobody challenges prosecutions under the APA,” Jackson said while questioning Manaforts attorney. “Do you have case that supports this?” He didn’t.
-
Felix Sater who has recently claimed that he had worked as an intelligence asset for the U.S. talks to the Senate Intel committee for 7 hours, he’s already spoken to Mueller and House Intel.
-
CNN Analyst Juliette Kayyem, who previously oversaw the National Guard for the state of Massachusetts before becoming DHS’ Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs, said that guard deployments in the past have always been done with the coordination of governors — but not this time with Trump.
-
Reports are that the Trump admin may finally begin sanctioning Russian Oligarchs this week — maybe.
-
Migrant caravan members fleeing gang violence, poverty and political repression plead with Trump to “Give us a chance.”
-
Pruitt says to Fox News that he just ‘Found Out About’ Aides’ Huge Raises ‘Yesterday’ but he’s been previously part of the approval process for them over the objections of the WH.
-
Session touts Trump “Successful” attacks on the migrant caravan — when in reality some of them have different destinations other than the U.S. and actually only 200 of them are actually seeking asylum here.
-
April 5th —
-
Newsweek reports that Rex Tillerson spent $12 Million on “efficiency” consultants on a redesign project inside the State Dept which ultimately failed.
-
Twitter claims that they have suspended over 1 Million accounts for promoting violence and terrorism since 2015 average about 270k per year.
-
Trump is reported annoyed with the National Security teams disagreement with his plans to pull out of Syria — because it’s a stupid ass idea.
-
Trump finally answers a question about Stormy Daniels and claims he didn’t know about the NDA of the $130,000 payment by Michael Cohen. This means that Cohen committed fraud by setting up a deal without informing his own client.
-
CNN reports that Trump has floated the idea of replacing Sessions with Pruitt since he used to be Attorney General of Oklahoma and he’s already been confirmed by the Senate.
-
Daily Beast reports that Pruitt’s condo SugarDaddy Steven Hart and his lobbying firm have several clients with business before the EPA, including MillerCoors, Rocky Mountain Bottling Co, Cheniere Energy, Black and Decker, Stanley Oil and Gas, Smithfield foods, Coca Cola, American Airlines, Chrysler, General Motors and Ford.
-
AP reports that Pruitt’s condo lease agreement had originally had Steven Hart’s name as the landlord on it, but his name was scratched out by hand and his wife Vicky’s name was written in — while Steven is an energy lobbyist who might have conflicts being the landlord for the EPA administrator Vicky is a healthcare lobbyist who wouldn’t have that problem.
-
Politico reports that on the day before Manafort was indicted Mueller seized his bank accounts and established wire taps on five of his phones.
-
David Gergen tells Anderson Cooper on CNN that Trump attacks on our government institutions and media may lead to the death of democracy as it has in several other countries recently when they were taken over by authoritarian despots.
-
McClathy reports that Mueller’s investigators have shown up on the doorsteps of Trump businesses associates armed with subpoenas and asking questions about Michael Cohen.
-
Trump decides to triple the tariffs against China to $150 Billion — after they raise their tariffs against U.S. companies. He also literally tosses his prepared statements on tax reform away during a West Virginia rally and instead rails about “Million of Illegal Voters in California” and criticizes all the “rapists” in Mexico when complaining about the migrant caravan from Central America, most of whom are escaping rape and violence in Honduras and seeking legal humanitarian asylum in the U.S. Also the reason their moving as a caravan is for their own safety, and CNN reporters traveling with them ask and they say none of the women have been assaulted, many are traveling with their children and husbands.
-
Vanity Fair reports that while partying at Mar-a-Lago with Trump last weekend Sean Hannity dished smack talk about Shep Smith to the gathered crowd to great hilarity.
-
Daily Beast has sued the DOJ over their refusal to respond to FOIA requests about the Devin Nunes Memo and their edits and redactions to the Schiff counter memo concerning the Carter Page FISA warrant applications.
-
AP reports that Trump has gotten tired of being told “NO” by John Kelly so he’s increasingly leaving him completely out of the loop. WSJ reports that Kelly had wanted to fire Pruitt last week, but Trump has been ignoring him. CNN reports that that’s because he’s been floating the idea of firing Jeff Sessions and replacing him with Pruitt because he used to be Attorney General of Oklahoma and has already been confirmed by the Senate — so no new hearings.
-
CBS reports that early in the administration Pruitt had tried to get his security detail to use their emergency sirens and lights to get him out of a DC traffic jam so he could make his dinner reservation and that Eric Weese his lead agent who refused to do so, was removed.
-
Politico and others report Pruitt aide Samantha Dravis, the senior counsel and associate administrator of the EPA’s office of policy, submitted her resignation last week.
-
CNN reports the Corey Lewandowski unleashed a profane tirade against Democrats during his second interview with House Intel: “I’m not answering your fucking questions.”
-
Reuters reports that the city of San Francisco filed a lawsuit against Jeff Sessions asking a federal court to overturn his December decision to revoke legal guidance designed to protect minorities, the indigent and disabled.
-
Sinclair media explains away their Pravda Hostage Videos by saying “Every word on TV News is Scripted” by someone. Boris Ephsteyn also slams Cable News complaints about the Sinclair mass statement, because of course he does.
-
CNBC reports that WH Lawyers are meeting with John Bolton over his potential conflicts of interest which of course include his political SuperPAC which funded Cambridge Analytica and his public statements in support of Alexander Torshin’s Russian “Right to Bear Arms” group.
-
Homeland Sec. Nielsen says that the National Guard will be deployed to the border “immediately.”
-
Thinkprogress reports that Pruitt has had five senior EPA officials who criticized his travel and his 20 person security detail either demoted or removed.
-
Maddow reports that Scott Pruitt’s lavish trip to Morocco via Paris where he took 7 staffers and he security detail at the cost of $43,000 also had the additional nugget of having him pitch LNG energy to the Moroccan government which isn’t the EPA Administrator Job, but just so happens to benefit his lobbyist landlord Steven Hart’s client Chenier Energy which also happens to be controlled by Carl Icahn who had helped chose Pruitt for his job at EPA.
-
April 6th —
-
WaPo reports that Trump complains about Pruitt in private even though he praises him in public. They also report that on his first day in office Trump was annoyed that the military waited until a suspected terrorist was alone and had left the house with his family inside before launching a drone strike “Why did you wait?” [Cuz human decency?]
-
The Trump Treasury Dept. finally announces sanctions against 7 Russian Oligarchs including Oleg Deripaska, 12 Russian companies and 17 senior government officials including Alexander Torshin who's being investigated for funneling Russia money into the election through the NRA. Fox and Friends “political consultant” Ainsley Earhardt has to look up “Oligarchy” on her phone live on the air in order to report about the new sanctions.
-
CNN reports that Trump campaign foreign policy advisor and former DoD Inspector General Joseph Schmitz had contacted the State Dept and FBI to have them vet, confirm and declassify documents from a dark web sourced called “Patriot” which he believed were copies of Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 deleted emails. Other sources familiar with the materials stated that they were fakes and may have been posted on the dark web version of Reddit. Schmitz would be fifth Trump affiliated person after Peter W. Smith, Rebeccah Mercer, Alexander Nix and Barbara Leeden’s to make similar attempts to access Hillary's deleted emails via the dark web or Wikileaks.
-
Rachel Maddow reports how John Bolton has links both to Cambridge Analytica's stolen personal data which had apparently been used during the 2014 midterm elections in North Carolina … and also had done a video promo for now sanctioned oligarch Alexander Torhsin’s "Right to Bar Arms” group which is verily likely an influence campaign targeting U.S. NRA members and funnelled foreign money into U.S. elections.
- The Guardian reports that between 2011-2013 while Paul Manafort was working for Ukrainian President Yanakovych, he signed off on the stealth media “fake news” project to place articles in the Wall Street Journaland smear then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton through briefings to websites such as Breitbart News.
- Thinkprogress reports that chat logs including members of the White Nationalist Traditional Workers Party (TWP) have been leaked showing that the group specifically planned for violence prior to attending the 2017 “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville, and that they gloated over the death of Heather Heyer.
- WSJ reports that early in his administration former Economics Czar Gary Cohn had given Trump PowerPoint presentations intended to debunk his inaccurate beliefs that Amazon was dodging taxes and abusing the U.S. Postal Service — but he just chose to ignore them.
- ABC News reports that cooperating witness George Nader has given Mueller information that Erik Prince may have lied to congress about his meeting in the Seychelles Island with Russian financier Kirill Dmitriev which he said was informal, but Nader says was intended to help setup a back-channel line of communication between Trump and Putin.
- GOP Financier Elliot Broidy fails to obtain a TRO against Qatar potentially releasing hacked emails which were stolen from his and his wife account and might expose his efforts to lobby the Trump administration against Qatar and in favor of the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
- The Dow drops another 570 points in reaction to Trump’s increased tariff threat against China.
- WaPo reports that on his first day in office Trump had questioned why the Military had waited for a suspected terrorist had been allowed to leave his home with his family inside before a drone strike was launched against him. “Why did you wait?” [Uh, basic human decency perhaps?]
- Reports surface that Pruitt’s landlord had considered him an endless house guest like Kato Kaelin because the lease was only for a few weeks and Pruitt had stayed for months, Eventually they had to change the locks to get him out. Former Ethics Czar Walter Schaub points out that $50-a-night for one room was found to be a fair Air BNB style rate — but Pruitt’s daughter was also staying in the second bedroom for free which would amount to a potentially illegal gift.
- CNN reports that the migrant caravan is now about 500 people only about 200 of whom are planning to travel to the U.S.. This pilgrimage has actually happened every year for the last 5 years in an effort to highlight the violence and inhumane conditions in Honduras and El Salvador.
- Russian Human Rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov claims Putin has “a lot of dirt” on Trump after his 2013 visit to Moscow.
- Roger Stone is interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN. He claims he did nothing wrong with his DMs to Wikileaks but never directly contacted or had dinner with Assange. Flight Boarding passes provided to the DailyCaller tend to back up the claim that he was in West Hollywood the night he emailed Sam Nunberg that he was “dining with Assange” and he only said that to get Nunberg off the phone. He admits to contacting Guccifer 2.0 but basically ignores that that entity has been exposed as a front from the GRU, he continues to say that Randy Credico was a “back channel” for him to Assange, he calls the DNC email hack “alleged” and claims he was poisoned by Pelonium in an effort to frame the Russians, but offers no proof. Van Jones says picking through Stone’s Lies about Lies about Lies is like digging through a pile of bird crap.
- AP reports that Scott Pruitt’s security and travel fees have topped over $3 Million.
- Former Obama national security Sam Vinograd catches Huckabee-Sanders in a lie when she claims that the newly implemented sanctions against Russia oligarchs are about “election meddling” by pointing out that the fine print all relates to Obama’s previous sanction EO’s which were about the annexation of Crimea, not the 2016 Election attacks.
- PETA claims Don Jr should be deported for his hunting.
- 18 companies have pulled their ads from the Laura Ingraham show.
- Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) finally resigns as a result of his sexual harassment scandal.
- Somehow magically Trump’s new tariffs against China manage to completely fail to have an effect on Ivanka’s Clothing Company.
- Axios reports that Trump decided to start his threats of a Trade War with China without having a single deliberative meeting.
- April 7th —
- April 8th —
- April 9th —
- Michael Cohen has his offices raided by the FBI using a no-knock warrant. Documents involving his communications between Cohen and his clients — which include Trump — are seized, but it appears the warrant is in reference to the Stormy Daniels case and is executed through the Southern District of New York after being referred by Robert Mueller and approved by Rosenstein which indicates that this portion of the investigation is new compared to the Russia and money laundering issues and will be handled by the NY U.S. attorney Geoffrey Berman not Mueller.
- Huckabee-Sanders defends Trump’s election lies and claims there are a ‘large number” of voter fraud cases when in reality there have only been about a half dozen legitimate cases in California. Jim Acosta also calls her out when she claim Trump has “always been tough on Russia.”
- Roger Stone emails Credico over his talking to Mueller: “You are a rat. A stoolie. You backstab your friends-run your mouth my lawyers are dying Rip you to shreds.” And he says he would “take that dog away from you,” Later he emails: “I am so ready. Let’s get it on. Prepare to die cock-sucker.”
- Mark Zuckerberg meets with Senators prior to his scheduled testimony tomorrow and says that the fake ads on Facebook reached 126 Million Americans.
- Trump insists his impending Trade War with China will ultimately end well for farmers in Trump country. “We’ll make it up to them.”
- Stormy Daniels attorney Mike Avenatti announces that he ha had a sketch artist recreate the image of the person who threatened his client in 2011and that he’ll be releasing it tomorrow. He also renews his request to depose Cohen and Trump.
- CNN reports that Sinclair Broadcast Group has allowed a critical advertisement by a liberal consumer watchdog group Allied Progress which condemns Sinclair for mandating its anchors to read scripted promotional content to run, but it’s also running its own defense before and after the negative ad.
- Newsweek reports that in 1996 on top of criticizing her weight Trump tried to have sex with former Miss Universe Alicia Machado.
- Ret. Gen. Mark Hertling humiliates Ivanka Trump after she showed ignorance of federal child nutrition and fitness programs that her own father has short changed by claiming that America “needs to do a better job of promoting physical activity among American children or else risk raising a generation of unhealthy kids.” Hertling responds “Ummm...there’s this thing called the President’s Council on Fitness, Sport, and Nutrition. Been around 60 years. Used to have 25 appointees...I was one of them. @MichelleObama helped & generated momentum in this area. No one is on the Council now. @FitnessGov. Check it out”
- John Bolton shows up for his first day as National Security Advisor but he hasn’t bothered to dissolve his SuperPac’s yet which seems like a screaming Hatch Act violation.
- Newsweek reports that Kushner tried to have Joshua Harris of Apollo Global Management — whose company had loaned his families company $184 Million — appointed as director of OMB a year prior to the loan.
- Tom Arnold says his ex-wife Rosanne and ABC should apologize for her conspiracy theory tweets particularly the ones where she dressed up as a Nazi. “I didn’t know she was like that.”
- Daily Beast reports that the code of ethics for Trump New York Hotel Casino is stronger than what he uses in the WH because the don’t allow the hiring of relatives.
- Shares in Oleg Deripaski giant aluminum company Rusal collapse in the wake his U.S. sanctions against him, pushing him close to default part of his debt.
- San Jose Mercury News reports that Ted Osius, the former U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, said he resigned from his post last year after the Trump administration asked him to pressure the Vietnamese government to receive more than 8,000 Vietnamese refugees marked in the U.S. for deportation.
- Todd Brasher the 67 year-old artist who was killed in the Trump Tower fire had been falling on hard financial times and was trying to sell his $2.5 Million apartment, but couldn’t give it away because of the association to Trump.
- A source inside Homeland Security announces that the hack of the Arizona County Election Database during the 2016 election was committed by criminals not the Russian Government as reported by 60 Minutes. [Which could be correct, except FSB is known to use criminal hackers for their own purposes]. Systems in Illinois, Florida and one other state were also detected.
- WaPo reports that Cohen is being investigated for Bank Fraud, Wire Fraud and Campaign Finance violations in relation to his payments to Daniels.
- Trump whines and complains during a National Security Meeting about the Cohen Warrant claiming that they “broke into” his office, [Yeah, I’m thinking that’s what the No-Knock part of the warrant was about] and that it’s a “disgrace” and it’s “an attack on America” and “Mueller Office is the most biased and conflicted group of people” but in fact this raid was setup by Preet Bharara’s successor Geoffrey Berman the current Acting U.S. Attorney for Southern New York. Even if Trump fires Mueller or Berman, this investigation will still go on. “This is a pure and simple Witch Hunt” Trump claims. [Really totally not.]
- Preet Bharara notes on CNN how Trump’s own ‘hand-picked’ federal prosecutors turned on him with Cohen raid.
- CNN segment goes off-the-rails after Trump apologist Steve Cortez calls Russia probe a ‘sham investigation’. “Keep your pants on.”
- Fox’s Lou Dobbs has a melt down calling for Trump to fire Rosenstein and Mueller
- Joe Walsh begs Trump to ‘turn off Fox News’ and ignore advice to fire special counsel. “Leave Mueller Alone.”
- Mueller’s Teams meets with Trump’s Lawyers again to negotiate a face to face interview between Trump and Mueller.
- April 10th —
- Vanity Fair reports that a friend of Trump claims he understands that John Bolton just might start a war, but he decided to fire H.R. McMaster anyway in order to push the constant news about Stormy Daniels off the air.
- ABC News reports that Acting U.S. Attorney for SDNY Geoffrey Berman — who also happens to be a law partner with Rudy Giuliani — recuses himself from the Michael Cohen case soon after he gained the position back in January.
- Axios reports WH Sources says the Cohen raid ignited Trump’s ‘untethered’ rage: ‘I’ve never seen him like this before’.
- CNN reports that Trump is considering firing Rosenstein in retaliation for the Cohen FBI Raid, he may even be willing to fire Sessions or even Mueller as well. NYTimes also reports that Trump almost fired Mueller in December after he had subpoeoned the records of his transactions with Deutsche Bank.
- Madeleine Albright calls BS on Trump for blaming Obama for Syria.
- NYTimes reports that the FBI raid of Michael Cohen’s office, home and hotel room besides looking for documents related to the payoff of Stormy Daniels, were also looking for details on the “catch and kill” deal between American Media Inc (AMI) and former playboy playmate Karen McDougal, and Cohen’s collection of Taxi Medallions.
- Meghan McCain on The View responds to the raid on Michael Cohen by calling on Mueller to ‘wrap up’ Russia probe. [Which makes perfect sense since he didn’t conduct this raid, he’s got two pending trials against Paul Manafort still to deal with, 4 more guilty pleas to go to sentencing and 13 pending indictments against Russians outstanding. Also Benghazi took over 2 years to “wrap up”.]
- Rawstory reports some of the greatest hits of Michael Cohen besides the Daniels and McDougal cases.
- White Sacramento man regrets call that led to Stephon Clark’s death. “I never want to call 911 again.”
- WH economics advisor Larry Kudlow claims Trump can manage scandals while traveling — moments before his overseas trip to South America canceled.
- WH dead-eyed monotone zombie hyper creep National Security Advisor Tom Bossert resigns. [Might this have something to do with the arrival of John Bolton and his vow to “clean house” inside the NSC?]
- Rudy Guilianni emerges from the caves of Mordor to announce that the Cohen raid is no big deal: ‘This is the way prosecutors get information’
- Laura Ingraham says the Advertising boycott is ‘Stalinist’. [Yeah, I don’t think he let people make their own choices in what to buy, or who would buy advertising with.]
- During an interview on Trump’s favorite morning show, Fox & Friends, Judge Anthony Napolitano noted that the U.S. Attorney behind the Cohen raid had been appointed by Trump and suggests that Cohen may have committed bank fraud with his payment to Daniels which prompted Trump go off on yet another “WITCH HUNT!” twitter rant.
- Michael Cohen tells Don Lemon on CNN that the FBI were “professional, courteous and professional” when they executed the search warrants on his office, apartment and hotel despite Trump’s claiming they “broke in.” “Do I need this in my life? No,” he said. “Do I want to be involved in this? No.” [Well, you are now pal, so buckle u, this ride is just starting!]
- Daniels’ lawyer Michael Amenatti says to Anderson Cooper that Cohen talking to Don Lemon was “beyond stupid”, that because of his fake tough talk he’s likely to fold on Trump like “cheap deck of cards” and reveals the Daniels is now cooperating with the FBI and has had some discussions with them. “They won't need to do a no-knock warrant on us.”
- Preet Bharara says that Huckabee-Sanders claim that “Trump can fire Mueller” is flat out wrong. “She frequently says things that are demonstrably false.”
- Rachel Maddow reveals the former Acting Attorney General Dana Boente had generated hand written notes of his discussion with James Comey following his discussions with Trump that exactly mirror and confirm Comey’s own Senate testimony about being asked to “lift the cloud” over the administration regarding Russia and disprove the Trump claim that Comey “lied under oath.”
- Bloomberg reports that a small town Lake Arthur New Mexico mayor Ysidro Salazar has shut down his entire reserve police office program because Robert Mercer is a member and the program allows him a concealed weapons permit and a badge.
- NJ.com reports that Mueller is looking into additional meetings that took place in the Seychelles besides the one with Erik Prince, George Nader, Kirill Dmitriev and the Crown Prince of the UAE.
- Responding to Trump’s Tuesday morning declaration that “attorney-client privilege is dead” in the wake of an FBI raid on lawyer Michael Cohen, Kellyanne’s husband George Conway simply tweeted out a link to laws regarding obtaining search warrants for attorneys in the United States.[Oohh burn!]
- NBC reports that the Russian Troll farm promoted a phony Russian “sex tape” between Hillary and Obama on Reddit that was seen by 250,000 people.
- Chris Christie also responds to Trump: ‘Attorney-client privilege is not dead’. So does former Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
- Huckabee-Sanders is asked “How is an FBI raid on Michael Cohen an ‘attack on our country.” and responds “The [Resident] has been very clear that this has gone on too far, and I have nothing else to add on that.] When one reporter questions the “Witch Hunt” claims noting that some of the Russians that were indicted by Mueller are the same ones who were recently sanctioned “So don’t you agree that some part of the Mueller investigation is legitimate?” — Sanders says that it’s “It’s insane to think the Trump campaign had anything to do with those Russians” However one of them is Oleg Deripaska who had paid Tens of $Millions to Paul Manafort and had been in communications with him through former GRU operative Konstantin Kilimnik who took credit for changing the Pro-Ukraine plank during the RNC so yeah those same Russians had something with the Campaign. Andrew Van Der Zwaan pleaded guilty to lying about Manaforts partner Gates communicating with Kilimnick — that’s called “covering up collusion” sweetheart.
- Mark Zuckerberg appears before the Senate and gets pummeled on the Facebook Privacy Policy, the response to the crisis in Myanmar and generally everything. When asked about whether there could be a link between the 87 Million Americans who had their data taken by Cambridge Analytica and the 127 Million Americans who shown false and fake adds by the Russian Troll farm he says they haven’t finished their analysis yet, but that it’s possible. He also reveals that Meuller’s office may have subpoenaed them — he wasn’t sure — and interviewed Facebook personal, and that they were working together on the matter. He regrets that he was “too slow” to respond to the issue of Russian meddling [Actually he said after Obama warned him about it face to face that it was a “crazy Idea”].
- Rick Wilsons suggests Mueller may have gotten those ‘long-sought tax returns’ from Cohen. [I would think he already has those, and that they probably weren’t part of this search warrant since it was mostly about Daniels and McDougal who didn’t get any money from Trump directly.]
- CBO projects that the deficits will ballon from $563 Billion to over $804 Billion this fiscal year prompting Democrats concern about impending Medicare cuts.
- Yulia Skripal leaves the British Hospital which has been in since being poisoned by a Russian chemical nerve agent along with her ex-Russian spy father.
- The Telegraph reports that Rupert Murdoch’s London Headquarters has been raided by authorities.
- WaPo reports that sources have revealed that Devin Nunes, Peter King and Jim Jordon have told colleuges that Rob Rosenstein and FBI Director Wray should be held in contempt of congress for failure to turn over documents to congress related to ongoing investigations.
- Sinclair’s CEO apologizes to his employees for having to endure ‘politically motivated attacks’ from ‘extremists’ [Which would be every other media outlet on the planet saying that Sinclair is actually the one that is “politically motivated.”]
- Schumer to Trump: ‘Don’t Even Think About’ Firing Mueller After Cohen Raid.
- Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) wrote to Environment and Public Works Chairman Sen, Barraso (R-WY) about Scott Pruitt saying that “Documents provided to us by EPA official(s) suggest the agency has relied on questionable ‘threats’ to the Administrator, including reports of non-violent protests, negative feedback about the Administrator’s actions, or other First Amendment protected activity, to justify millions of dollars in additional security spending, including first-class air travel, as compared to his predecessors at the agency,”
- April 11th —
- Mark Zuckerberg is interviewed by the House over the exploitation of Facebook by Cambridge Analytica and the Russian Troll Farm.
- Trump rage tweets about Rosenstein and Mueller’s “fake and corrupt” investigation causing bad blood with Russia just before he announces a missile strike against Syria (and Russia) for their chemical weapons attack “soon.” Russia vows to shoot down any missiles fired against them and keeps their “thanks for the heads us bro” commentary for themselves. Trump also tweets a denial to a NYTimes story that claims that in 2015 he did a 20 minute Skype speech for Kiev after Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk who then made a $150,000 donation to the Trump Foundation. He doesn’t deny the speech or the donation but instead claims that he was invited to make the appearance by Fox “political pundit Doug Schoen, not a Ukrainian businessman.” [Both things could be possible at the same time.]
- Trump also tweet admits to obstruction of justice which he claims is merely “fighting back.”
- Paul Ryan announces that he won’t be seeking re-election this year and will leave congress in January because he says he doesn’t want his kids to grow up only knowing him as a “weekend dad.” [How about as a wild-eyed grinning granny starver?] He says he’s most proud of passing “tax reform” and responds the question that his tax bill will create giant deficits by saying he regrets that “entitlement reform” passed by the house [privatizing and cutting medicare] hasn’t passed in the Senate, he also claims that he's received assurances from the WH the Trump won't fire Rosenstein or Mueller. [Yeah… right.] Meanwhile the leading Republican running for Ryan’s seat is an avowed White Supremacist.
- Axios reports that the former FBI director Jame Comey compared President Donald Trump to a “mob boss” in the upcoming interview with ABC News for his soon to be released book, and one source tells the publication that the interview will “certainly add more meat to the charges swirling around Trump.”
- Politico reports that EPA staffer Mario Caraballo who was with the Homeland Security department was ousted after he determined that Sec. Scott Pruitt had not provided and “credible direct threats” to justify his $3 Million round-the-clock security detail. [Or for that matter his bullet proof desk, cone of silence of private jet travel simply because someone in an airport once told him he was “fucking up the environment.” Which he is.]
- Thinkprogress reports that Pruitt’s own EPA released analysis in November that shows, by itself, his effort to undo Obama’s climate plan could result in up to 100,000 premature deaths over the next few decades while causing millions of asthma attacks in kids.
- Politico reports that Devin Nunes has threatened Impeachment! for Rob Rosenstein and Christopher Wray as well as contempt of congress if they don’t turn over the unredacted two-page document that started the Russia investigation into George Papadopoulos’ interactions with Russians and knowing that they had “thousands of Hillary’s emails” without reporting it.
- Bloomberg reports that Mueller has requested 35 blank subpoenas — with names to be filled in later — for witnesses he plans to call in the June 10 Manafort trial.
- NPR reports that a letter sent to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has revealed just over $2,500 in total Russia-linked donations from at least 23 persons including Alexander Torshin were made to the NRA since 2015, although the organization says that most of those donations were “routine payments” for membership dues.
- Redstate’s Erick Erikson says that an unnamed Republican Rep confided in him about Trump “If we’re going to lose because of him, we might as well impeach the motherf**ker,”
- Meghan McCain berates The View audience for applauding Paul Ryan’s retirement screaming ”You Deserve Trump”, because Ryan is “a sincere, decent conscientious conservative” and they’re running out of those. [No, he’s really not, he's a fascism complicit black hearted Ayn Randian granny starver whose “greatest accomplishment” just blew the deficit up to $800 Billion while the GDP and DOW slowly crumble,]
- NYTimes reports that the search warrant for the Cohen raid also included records linked to the Access Hollywood tape from 2006, which was released on October 7, 2016 the same day that the Intel Community laid the blame on the DNC on Russia Officially, and the Podesta Emails began to be dumped.
- April 12th —
- Trump backtracks on his “Nice, New and Smart” Missile attack on Syria saying it could be soon, “or not” since no actual attack plan has been drawn up or worked out. He also tweet praises his own ‘historically cooperative, disciplined approach’ to the Mueller probe although it’s also reported that WH staff are preparing talking points for firing Rosenstein.
- The Associated Press and the New Yorker report that AMI and the National Enquirer performed another “Catch and Kill” when they paid a former Trump Tower doorman Dino Sajudin $30,000 in late 2015 for his story about a rumor that Trump had a child with a Trump Tower house keeper. AMI says the story wasn’t published because they didn’t find it credible, but they also didn’t offer the money, as well as a $1 Million disclosure penalty, until after Sajudin had passed a lie detector test.
- Trump again attacks the NYTimes as “Fake News” for their report that he has planned to fire Mueller in December “If I’d wanted to fire Mueller in December, I would have.” although the report actually says that the issue was discussed and the fact is that only Rod Rosenstein, his successor, or Session’s successor can fire Mueller and only for legitimate cause or misconduct, but Trump can’t do it himself.
- WaPo reports that Steve Bannon has been pitching a “Fire Rosenstein” strategy to the WH in retaliation for the Cohen raid and to end the Mueller probe — which makes no sense since the probe will still go on without Rosenstein, or even Mueller since it now involves multiple US Attorney offices and also some state prosecutors. He also says Trump should fire his last competent lawyer Ty Cobb — also nonsensical — and stop cooperating with Mueller completely by calling for “retroactive” executive privilege for all WH staff who’ve already testified or been interviewed. [Just. not. possible.]
- NYTimes reports that Scott Pruitt wanted to take the EPA logo off their signature souvenir coins and replace it with his own name, which is just weird.
- Evangelical Trump judicial nominee Wendy Vitter — who happens to be the wife of former Louisiana Senator and DC Madam Client David Vitter — refuses to give an answer to the question from Sen Blumenthal “Do you agree with Brown v Board” during her confirmation hearings. “Agreeing or disagree with previous SCOTUS decisions is a slippery slope” which again, is just a weird over-the-top way to avoid admitting she opposes Roe v Wade.
- During his confirmation hearing to replace Tillerson as Secretary of State Former CIA Director Pompeo refuses to answer if Trump had asked him and DNI Dan Coats to back off on the Russia probe when asked by Sen Bob Melendez (D-NJ) saying he will not discuss any conversations with the WH Resident to protect giving him honest advice. With McCain being treated for Cancer and Ron Paul already a committed “No” Pompeo’s nomination will need at least Democrat to get out of committee. He also claims that a “couple hundred” Russians were killed during Trump’s previous Tomahawk missile strike in retaliation for Syria’s last chemical weapons attack last year.
- The RNC launches a new lyincomey.com website full of quotes and complaints Democrats over his handling of Hillary Clinton’s emails to discredit James Comey in advance of his new book which is scheduled for release next week.
- Axios reports that Deputy National Security Adviser Ricky Waddell will leave the Trump administration following NSC spokesperson Michael Anton, WH homeland security adviser Tom Bossert and Nadia Schadlow, the deputy national security adviser for strategy as new NSA Director John Bolton continues to clean house — but he also isn’t hiring new replacement for those he ousts.
- Leaks of Comey’s book and interview on ABC’s Good Morning America with George Stephanopoulos begin to drop.
- He says that when he and other Intel heads briefed Trump and his staff about Russia meddling and interference during the election thatinstead of asking what they could do to protect the nation in the future they immediately began to try and spin the news for the press and the public.
- They repeatedly asked, almost rhetorically, that the meddling hadn’t changed the outcome [So basically Russia didn't put him in the WH, right?] But at least twice James Clapper had to say that the Intel Community hadn’t made that determination one way or the otherbecause that’s not their job. He would say that they didn’t think they artificially changed the vote results tho, but in reality they really didn’t check that either at the time and they still haven’t.
- His impressions of Trump was that he was unethical, egotistical, self serving, untethered to truth, unfit for office, used a tanning bed with googles that gave him orange skin with white raccoon eyes, [Yeah we’ve noticed] had normal sized hands even though they were smaller than his own, and his hair helmet was his own [as is the giant bald patch he’s covering up in the back]. Trump and his staff reminded him of mobsters from his earlier career in the FBI like Sammy The Bull with their reality warping, living in their own bubble and demands for loyalty to the “group” over facts or the law or the nation.
- He says that on the day he was fired then Homeland Secretary Gen. John Kelly had called and threatened to quit because the “Dishonorable People” who would fire Comey “made him sick” [Those “dishonorable people” would be TRUMP] but Comey had told him he needed to stay because he was honorable. [So he’s a hostage to honor then?] Comey’s Former Special Assistant Josh Campbell who now works for CNN confirms this call live on the air since he was present with Comey at the FBI Field Office in LA when Comey was fired.
- He says that when he briefed Trump personally on the Steele Dossier and the Russian hookers allegation he had an “out of body experience.” Trump kept denying that it happened saying “Do I look like I need hookers?” while Comey said that he didn’t have confirmation of whether the allegation was true or not, he was just telling him because Russia might be making these claims. Trump later brought up the “Pee Tape” portion of the allegation, which Comey hadn’t briefed him own directly, at least four times saying he it wasn’t possible because he a germophobe while Comey felt it was still possible because of the size of the Moscow Ritz Carlton Presidential Suite [Which is 1390 Sq Ft can host 3 adults with a roll away bed available upon request, a Living and Dining area for 6 people, a Dressing and Bathroom as well as the default King Size Bed in a separate Bed Room.]. Also Trump kept asking if the FBI could investigate it to disprove the claim because if Melania thought it was just a 1% chance of being true it would hurt her terribly. [Saving your marriage is not their job, man!]
- Stormy Daniels Lawyer Michael Avenatti reveals that Michael Cohen has told the court that he plans to plead the 5th Amendment in their civil suit and will attempt to quash the entire thing.
- Don Lemon shuts down Jason Miller’s diversionary rant of talking points in mid spew “Don’t lie to the American People. Being on here is a privilege — it’s not a right.”
- CBO reports that 80% of the benefit from the Trump Tax cut will go to companies that are overseas rather than improve workers benefits and wages, and that it will blow a moon-sized hole in the deficit of $804 Billion for FY2018. “Nearly one-third of the U.S. stock market is owned by foreign investors, which means they’re benefiting from the $238 billion increase in stock buyback authorizations since the tax law passed. An analysis of Fortune 500 companies found that corporations have spent 37 times more on stock buybacks than on American workers’ bonuses and wages.”
- April 13th —
- CNN reports that the WH plans to counter Comey’s book by casting Rosenstein’s decision to assign Mueller Special Counsel as “payback” for his “good friend” Comey being fired — which makes no sense because firing Comey was Rosenstein’s own recommendation and they weren’t really good friends, but they are both Republicans.
- WaPo reports that Cohen was known for keeping digital copies of his business and political conversations on his computer and that the FBI may have seized these recordings along with everything else. That means they probably have records of Trump’s conversations with his own lawyer, which will reveal what he really thinks about what’s been going on for the past two years. Some of that may be protected by attorney client privilege if it involves legal advice, but the business deals and political advice isn’t. Chris Hayes describes how this could be bigger than the Nixon Tapes during the Watergate scandal. WaPo reports that the Cohen tapes have the WH “Terrified.”
- Trump finally responds to Comey’s book via tweet again denying the “Pee Tape” and saying “It was my great honor to fire Comey” because he’s a “Slimeball, Liar and a Leaker.” and claims he should be prosecuted for something or the other even though no one has disproven anything he’s said under oath or in his book.
- NBC news reports that talks between Trump’s lawyer Ty Cobb and Mueller for a one-on-one interview have broken down in the wake of the Cohen raid. Cobb had a full proposal ready before they were scheduled to meet and discuss the scope of the interview the morning before the Cohen raid, then things went sideways as Trump’s people felt betrayed. On the other hand, without the interview — and potentially because of the Cohen raid — reports are that Mueller is nearly ready to move forward on his final obstruction of justice report, although that probably won't be the only report he generates.
- Rachel Maddow says Meuller’s report on Trump and Obstruction will cover four major areas and will soon be ready for release:
- The Intent to fire FBI Director James Comey.
- His role in crafting the public statement about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting.
- Talk of pardoning witness who might testify against him.
- Pressuring AG Sessions not to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.
- Rachel also has a physical copy of Comey’s new book and reads extensive passages from it on the air.
- Fox and Friends hints that bombing Syria just might be a bigger story than Comey’s book. Kellyanne Conway says on FOX that the “pee tape” is none of Comey’s business [So that’s why Trump kept asking him to disprove it?] and that’s he’s a “self-aggrandizing,” “disgruntled ex-employee,” who’s only interested in “selling books.”
- Cohen is reportedly planning to file a motion for a Temporary Restraining Order against the FBI over the materials they collected under warrant arguing that it involved attorney-client privilege, even though the DOJ has a “taint team” which will cleanse those materials before prosecutors see any of it. However instead of Cohen, Trump’s new set of lawyers show up in court to file the motion claiming only the client — Trump — can assert or waive the privilege, which is true but weird since he didn’t “know anything” about the Daniels payment made by Cohen.
- Russia warns that an attack against Syria might lead to a full-on U.S.-Russian war.
- Steele prices have begun to rise 5% as a result of Trump’s tariffs which is beginning to impact Trump Country Farmers.
- CNN reports that test samples smuggled out of Douma Syria indicate the presence of Chlorine and a nerve agent confirming that it was indeed a chemical attack despite the denials by Asaad and Russia.
- WH says Pence will soon meet the Peruvian President even though he resigned in disgrace three weeks ago.
- ABC News reports that Trump has already signed off on a pardon for Scooter Libby who was convicted of lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice after undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity was revealed by the Bush WH for as political pushback against her husband Ambassador Joe Wilson’s criticisms about the bogus “They bought Yellowcake Uranium” rationale for the Iraq War. Libby had been prosecuted by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald who had been assigned his position by then Assistance Attorney General James Comey.
- Trump is now suddenly a fan of the TPP — Surprise!
- According to Vice, Makan Delrahim — the Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division in the Department of Justice — and David Bernhardt — who is currently the No. 2 official at the Department of the Interior — were registered lobbyists for Access Industries, a holding company under the control of Soviet-born billionaire Leonard Blavatnik, who is a naturalized dual U.S.-U.K. citizen. Access Industries’ owns a large stake in sanctioned Russian Businessmen Oleg Deripaska and Vikor Vekselberg’s Russian aluminum company UC Rusal,
- WSJ reports that a White House insider who has spoken with Trump claims the firing of both Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is imminent. Mueller, “appears to have gone from looking at Russian meddling to a quixotic search for the blue dress.” [Actually Stormy did say she kept the mini-dress she was wearing that night which was shimmering gold.]
- WSJ reports Trump lawyer Michael Cohen arranged for a $1.6 million hush payout to a former Playboy model on behalf of Republican Party Fundraiser and Donor Elliott Broidy who had impregnated her last year, before she ultimately had an abortion.
- Several news outlets including the AP were aware of the doorman Dino Sajudin’s secret baby allegations but they didn’t report it because they couldn’t independently confirm it.
- CNN reports that the FBI has already had a current month’s long criminal investigation of Michael Cohen which had a grand jury empaneled and had previously gone thru several of his email accounts via a surveillance warrant, The “Filter Team” had already been through these emails and they revealed that he only has one client — Trump — whom he hardly does any legal work for meaning just about none of the seized materials are protected by attorney-client privilege. In court Cohen’s attorney couldn’t name any other clients of his besides Trump.
- WH sources tell CNN that Trump’s anger is ‘beyond what anyone can imagine’ He’s “pissed, flailing and upset.”
- Parkland education board member smears David Hogg as a “brownshirt” [Can these guys get another line already?”]
- Trump Pardons Libby. Fox’s John Roberts say that he may have pardoned Libby to send a message to Mike Flynn. [Which is too late since he’s already pleaded guilty and has been cooperating for months — Mueller has what he needs from him by now.]
- DOJ Inspector General releases their report on Andrew McCabe:
- They argue that he had a “lack of candor” regarding his reasons for sharing information with the Devlin Barret at the WSJ about the Clinton Foundation investigation which the INSD had investigated as an “unauthorized leak”
- McCabe had authorized his then Special Counsel (Linda Page) and his Assistant Director for Public Affairs (Mike Kortan) to share with Barret information about a phone call between himself and the DOJ’s Principal Associate Deputy AG (Karl R. Thompson) which was intended to counter the narrative that he had terminated the Clinton Foundation investigation under pressure from the DOJ.
- McCabe had recused himself from part of the Clinton Foundation investigation which involved Governor Terry McAuliff because his wife had accepted money from his SuperPAC during her own run for office in Virginia.
- The Journal reported: on October 30th that McCabe had allowed the Washington FBI office to continue investigating the Clinton Foundation, after his recusal, even after DOJ Prosecutors had refused to authorize subpeonas or a grand jury as they felt the evidence was weak:
-
In a meeting with Comey on October 31st after the WSJ article McCabe had supposedly said he didn’t authorize the disclosure to Barret and didn’t know who did it, and that he had repeated these denials to the IG office twice more on May 9 and July 28, 2017, then he reversed these claims during a recorded interview on November 9th saying that he did admit to authorizing the disclosure to Comey, and that he had denied having denied authorizing it in his previous IG interviews and that his answers were because 2 IG agents had pulled him aside and asked him a couple questions about the article.
-
They determine that McCabe was authorized to disclose the information to the WSJ, but not if it advanced his personal goals
-
McCabe wasn’t clear on whether he had spoken to Comey before authorizing the disclosure, but when talking to Comey he stated that he wasn't informed ahead of time and didn’t authorize it.
-
Text Messages between Page and Strzok indicate they blamed Thompson for a WSJ article claiming that Comey’s letter to Congress was outside DOJ policy, and that the disclosure about the Clinton Foundation investigation dispute was “pay back
-
In an interview McCabe had said he wasn’t aware of Page being authorized to talk to Barret, but he later sent an email on Aug 1st, 2017 correcting that issue saying that he HAD authorized her contacts with Barrett. He later repeated this corrected recollection during the November interview.
-
Ultimately the IG argued that McCabe didn’t just “forget” or make a mistake when first talking to them because he apparently made the same mistake talking to Comey — although they seem to still call it a lie when he finally tells them what they their research of his phone and text records show is the truth, he authorized the disclosure.
-
McCabe’s lawyer argues that having him fired based on the “vague and unspecific” recollections of Comey is entirely unfair and unjustified.
-
Trump tweets about the IG Report: “DOJ just issued the McCabe report – which is a total disaster,”“He LIED! LIED! LIED! McCabe was totally controlled by Comey – McCabe is Comey!! No collusion, all made up by this den of thieves and lowlifes!” [Actually the reports says that he lied TO COMEY when he said he didn’t authorize the disclosure to Barret about the Clinton Foundation Investigation continuing, it doesn’t suggest any “Control of McCabe by Comey!”
-
Huckabee-Sanders claims that Comey is a “repeated liar and admitted leaker” and when asked specifically what he lies about claims:
-
-
“Comey claimed re-opening the Clinton investigation was done on the merits, now he says it was based because of poll numbers” — Actually opening the investigation again was based on finding Huma Abedine’s emails on Anthony Weiner’s laptop which was “merit based”. Sanders is wrongly conflating that with Informing Congress publicly with the letter written by Agent Strzok which was based on the idea that if Clinton won the election, which he expected, and he hadn’t been forthcoming to Congress as he’d promised it would have damaged her Presidency. In the end it violated DOJ protocols not to disrupt elections within 30 days of the vote and destroyed her Presidency. So yeah, Democrats are pretty critical of that.
-
“Even the press has reported that he leaked 4 memos with classified information” — however Comey actually only leaked 1 memo to the Press through his friend Colombia Law Professor Daniel Richman out of the 7 that he wrote concerning Trump . The FBI determined 4 of those memos had some classified information in them, but not the one he gave Richman which is what prompted the assignment of Special Counsel Mueller. The other six memos went to Mueller, not the Press.
-
“Comey said the President told him to ‘stop investigating Flynn’ after he previously testified that “no one told him to stop investigating” — This is a flat-out lie. Comey has always said that Trump said “Flynn is a good guy, could you see a way to let him go?” Which doesn't specifically mention anything about ‘stopping an investigation” which is what he’s always said and testified to. You don’t have to “stop” an investigation if you’re ultimately going to not recommend any charges — just like they didn't recommend any charges against Clinton. Unfortunately for Flynn — and Trump — it was out of Comey’s hands after he was fired.
-
“Legal organizations have found that Comey’s leaking was grounds for firing” — Comey was already fired May 9th and he didn’t “leaK” anything -— actually the Colombia Prof. did the leaking — until May 16, 2017. So how can you justify firing him for leaking before he leaked anything?
-
RNC head Ronna McDaniels-Romney goes on CNN and trashes Comey — surprise — and whines that the media gives nothing but non-stop negative coverage to Trump, so thats why they have to have the “LyinComey.com” website up.
-
Citing “several” people close to President Trump, the NYTimes reports his “advisers have concluded that a wide-ranging corruption investigation in New York of Michael Cohen poses a greater and more imminent threat than even the special counsel’s investigation.” [Yep, could be]
-
CNN reports that Former AMI/National Enquirer editor Jerry George reportedly said that AMI CEO David Pecker, a longtime friend of Trump’s, would routinely quash any story that cast the then-businessman and reality television host in an unflattering light. Pecker would also sometimes require that pitches be run by Trump Organization officials. George added that Pecker liked to point out to Trump the favors that he did for him, and that Trump recognized Pecker’s loyalty, tweeting that he should be named editor of Time Magazine.
-
Scott Pruitt tell climate deniers that he’ll stop counting the value of regulations in saved lives.
-
Federal Judge rules against DOJ rules to rewards police for cooperating with ICE.
-
Acting CFPB head Mick Mulvaney blatantly lies in Senate hearing to attack his own agency’s work.
-
12 senators send a letter to Ajit Pai calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate Sinclair Broadcasting for “deliberately distorting news by staging, slanting, or falsifying information.”
-
McClatchy reports that Mueller’s investigators have information about Cohen taking a trip in the summer of 2016 to Prague — an allegation about Trump’s attorney included in Steele’s controversial dossier. [OH FUCK!! This allegation is connected to Cohen supposed paying off some of the Romanian Hackers [such as hacker Yevgeniy Nikulin who was arrested in Prague in 2016 just three days before the Obama administration officially accused Russia of hacking the DNC] to help relocate them to avoid the FBI before the election. Besides the “pee tape” portion this was one of the key items that Trump had claimed was “FALSE” about the Steele Dossier, with this confirmed we are now closer to confirming nearly everything.] Apparently Cohen entered through Germany which allows transportation to the Czech Republic without a passport, whether he met with Russian foreign affairs committee member Konstantin Kosachev while there or negotiated the hacker payment still remains unconfirmed. Exactly where the leave the defamation lawsuit Cohen filed against Buzzfeeed and his “point by point” refutation of the Steele Dossiers allegations remains in question.
-
ABC news reports that the FBI has Cohen recordings of conversations he had with his clients and business partners including Keith Davidson who had represented by Porn Star Stormy Daniels, Playmate Karen McDougal and also the Playboy Playmate who had been impregnated by RNC Fundraiser Elliot Broidy who was paid $1.6 Million in a deal orchestrated by Cohen.
-
As Trump announces in an official statement on Live TV U.S. Forces along with British and French launch an early morning attack on Syrian chemical weapons manufacturing and storage facilities using over 100 Tomahawk and standoff missiles fired from air and sea. Collateral Damage is reportedly minimal and all three targets are completely destroyed.