The Trump Presidency – 2016

[Ben E Lou]

Ummmm...

After significant investigation, we have discovered that Mr. Trump’s atty Mr. Cohen received approximately $500,000 in the mos. after the election from a company controlled by a Russian Oligarc with close ties to Mr. Putin. These monies may have reimbursed the $130k payment.

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 8, 2018

The Executive Summary from our first Preliminary Report on Findings may be accessed via the link below. Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen have a lot of explaining to do.https://t.co/179WvIkRlD

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 8, 2018

[AlexB]

Drain the SWAMP (Save White American Male Presidents)

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Ummmm...

After significant investigation, we have discovered that Mr. Trump’s atty Mr. Cohen received approximately $500,000 in the mos. after the election from a company controlled by a Russian Oligarc with close ties to Mr. Putin. These monies may have reimbursed the $130k payment.

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 8, 2018

The Executive Summary from our first Preliminary Report on Findings may be accessed via the link below. Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen have a lot of explaining to do.https://t.co/179WvIkRlD

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 8, 2018

Michael Cohen’s attorney, Steve Ryan, won’t discuss the $500,000 Michael Avenatti says Cohen received from Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in 2017. “I understand the shorthand you’re using, but it wasn’t a payment,” Ryan says before hanging up.

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) May 8, 2018

Not the best crisis management here.

[BBT]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

To no one's surprise Trump pulls the US out the Iran Nuclear Deal:

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-ne...eal/index.html

Gas prices going up, Iran restarting its nuclear program, we again go against our allies in Europe on the global stage...

But hey, Saudi Arabia and Israel are happy. Israel was so happy they shot missles into Syria right after the announcement.

[mckerney]

Michael Cohen Took Cash From Russian Oligarch After Election

The allegations were initially made Tuesday by Michael Avenatti, porn actress Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, and confirmed by a source familiar with the matter.

“How the fuck did Avenatti find out?” the source asked The Daily Beast.

[JPhillips]

Our Sec. of State doesn't understand Asian names.

Today what we’re hoping to do is – there have been discussions between that day to now, and we’ve continued to develop both administratively and sort of begin to put some outlines around the substance of the agenda for the summit between the President and Chairman Un.

[Ben E Lou]

AT&T has confirmed that it paid the bogus company listed in the Avenatti docs $200K for "insights into the upcoming administration."

So what percentage of our internet bills went to bribe Cohen and Trump?

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Our Sec. of State doesn't understand Asian names.

Isn't that the same guy Jay-Z stabbed? He's done well for himself to be fair.

Also, how insane is it that we find out that the President of the United States took money from a Russian oligarch, a large lump sum of which went towards paying off a porn star he was having an affair with, and we all just respond with a collective "shurg"

[Ben E Lou]

I'm still marveling that apparently a porn star's lawyer has scooped *every* journalist and journalistic team in the country.

[mckerney]

West Virginia voter who says he lost three cousins in mine disaster tied to Don Blankenship tells @TomLlamasABC he's voting for the coal baron anyway.

"I want an honest crook, and that's Blankenship." https://t.co/6CmPQXqK2u pic.twitter.com/jeWQUUZ5hI

— ABC News (@ABC) May 8, 2018

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

I'm still marveling that apparently a porn star's lawyer has scooped *every* journalist and journalistic team in the country.

yeah me too. Surprised the right hasn't found anything to discredit him either since he first appeared on TV

[bronconick]

Originally Posted by BBT

Gas prices going up, Iran restarting its nuclear program, we again go against our allies in Europe on the global stage...

But hey, Saudi Arabia and Israel are happy. Israel was so happy they shot missles into Syria right after the announcement.

Putin blew his load again at tearing NATO apart

[Thomkal]

Morrisey is the apparent winner of the WV primary. Blakenship a distant third. Would have been great to give a big FU to Trump and McConnell if he had won though. Sadly though increases the chances of a Republican win in the general now.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

I'm still marveling that apparently a porn star's lawyer has scooped *every* journalist and journalistic team in the country.

TalkingPointsMemo is speculating through a reader that somehow Avenatti got a hold of the reports of suspicious banking action relating to this LLC.

[PilotMan]

After all this, Avenatti should never be looking for work again. He should have people throwing money at him just to talk to him. Hell, I'm surprised that Trump hasn't offered him a job at this point.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Michael Cohen’s attorney, Steve Ryan, won’t discuss the $500,000 Michael Avenatti says Cohen received from Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in 2017. “I understand the shorthand you’re using, but it wasn’t a payment,” Ryan says before hanging up.

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) May 8, 2018

Not the best crisis management here.

To be fair, there are only so many ways to make a shit sandwich.

[digamma]

Thinking back to when Cohen was raided Preet Bharara tweeted about a "clean team" theory. Essentially that Mueller passed off the recommendation to the SDNY so that they could clean the evidence and then they would have to report any relevant, non-privileged information back to Mueller. With the news today that Mueller has interviewed Vekselberg already....hmmm....

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Morrisey is the apparent winner of the WV primary. Blakenship a distant third. Would have been great to give a big FU to Trump and McConnell if he had won though. Sadly though increases the chances of a Republican win in the general now.

And McConnell got the last laugh:

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign...or-playing-don

[AENeuman]

Glad Blankenship lost because this is all I ever saw:
D9540C0A-DC89-4F2B-AD3D-61F189BAFA8A.jpeg

[stevew]

Urn full of dead miners?

[Thomkal]

hostages coming back home, arriving here at 2 am.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by BBT

Gas prices going up, Iran restarting its nuclear program, we again go against our allies in Europe on the global stage...

But hey, Saudi Arabia and Israel are happy. Israel was so happy they shot missles into Syria right after the announcement.

not the first time Israel/Netanyahu is pushing the US towards a conflict (or at least cheering them on) in the region, if anybody cares to remember Netanyahus self-assured statements before congress regarding Iraq developing nuclear weapons being a certainty and his demise spelling a downright utopian future of peace and prosperity in the region.

Also, helps him to distract from his own scandals of corruption etc.

[BBT]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

hostages coming back home, arriving here at 2 am.

2 of which were detained last year...during Trump's presidency. Just pointing that out since the president seems to think all 3 were detained during Obama's term.

Still, always good to get our citizens back and I keep crossing my fingers that this will all work out in Korea and Iran.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by BBT

2 of which were detained last year...during Trump's presidency. Just pointing that out since the president seems to think all 3 were detained during Obama's term.

Still, always good to get our citizens back and I keep crossing my fingers that this will all work out in Korea and Iran.

Yep he will blame Obama for them all being detained, take all the credit for getting them back home. Typical Trump, but really hard to criticize him right now for it because they are coming home.

[whomario]

The new ambassador to Germany starts his reign off by recommending an article on Iran policy in the "Bild" newspaper as a good read. Which is basically the german version of the New York Post or The Sun or Daily Mail in the UK. Only worse ...

[Thomkal]

Democrats release approx 3000 ads from Facebook and Instagram that show the influence of Russia over our elections:


House Democrats release thousands of Russian-linked Facebook ads - ABC News


There is a link in the article that goes to a website where the Dems have posted all the ads.

[Thomkal]

Interesting twist in the NY DA Eric Schneiderman case-a lawyer was representing two woman not involved in the New Yorker article who had allegations way back in 2013-sent a letter to the judge for this case asking her to protect any records of these two woman the Feds might have seized in the Cohen raids...because at the time he discussed these two women with a reporter who then contacted Trump, who then had Michael Cohen call this lawyer and get the details about his clients. And Trump tweeted about it soon after Cohen found this out. NY Times does a much better job then I just did with explaining it:


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/n...ael-cohen.html


Also Ford has come out and said Cohen came to them with a similar offer that he was making to the other companies and they rejected it.

[JPhillips]

There's been a lot of work on who paid into Essential Consultants, but not much on where the money went. What happened to those millions?

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

There's been a lot of work on who paid into Essential Consultants, but not much on where the money went. What happened to those millions?

I bet Mueller has some good ideas on that.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

There's been a lot of work on who paid into Essential Consultants, but not much on where the money went. What happened to those millions?

Guessing his pocket. To me it seems like a nice little scam and I'm sure people have been doing it for ages. Weren't Clinton relatives getting paid "consulting" fees by companies?

[AlexB]

Disclaimer - I only have an overview of the Iran deal that Trump just pulled out from, but my understanding is that in essence it was financial aid to Iran in return for them not developing nuclear weapons. And to Trump this was a terrible deal.

If this is such a terrible idea, although the numbers could well be wildly different, isn’t this the exact same principle?

U.S. to help North Korea economy if it gives up nuclear weapons, Pompeo says

[BBT]

Very similar.

Biggest difference right now is that our ally, South Korea, is attempting to make peace with the North at this point in time and China would prefer a more stable peninsula to further it's own goals. Japan, who has been very friendly with Trump, would prefer a more stable region as well.

In the Middle East, Trump has allied himself with Saudi Arabia and Israel. Both have seen their power diminish over the last decade and believe that a weaker Iran will help increase their power in the region again. Saudi, especially, has seen Iran become a dominant oil producing entity in the region which has hurt Saudi financially.

Problem with this type of thinking is that the Middle East is a much different animal than it was even 2 years ago. Iran has gained more allies and the Saudis aren't exactly well liked in the region as most don't agree with their strict Islamic beliefs. Throw in the fact that the Russians are backing the Iranians and you have a powder keg that could blow.

In my opinion, we shouldn't really have anything to do with the Saudis as that relationship has been volatile over the years and they aren't exactly a paragon of freedom nor do they really support Israel. However, they have a lot of money and are probably funneling a ton of it into Trump's pockets.

And, then there's the Israel problem. I know it seems like we're tethered to them, but between Netenyahu's corruption issues and there want to fire missiles at everyone...at some point, we might want to issue an ultimatum to them that we'll stop helping unless they get things under control. Never happen though and we'll just continue to sit back and hope things don't get worse.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Guessing his pocket. To me it seems like a nice little scam and I'm sure people have been doing it for ages. Weren't Clinton relatives getting paid "consulting" fees by companies?

I'm not sure. What we know so far is that there were two payments from that company for hush money. My guess, but it's only that, is that Cohen didn't make anything through Essential Consultants.

[JPhillips]

Axios lays out what is publicly known about the Trump admin and Russia.

Why it matters: That’s what makes the Trump-Russia drama all the more remarkable. Forget all we don’t know. The known facts that even Trump’s closest friends don’t deny tell a damning tale that would sink most leaders.

Here's a guide that Jim VandeHei and I put together to the known knowns of Russia:

We know Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chair, has been indicted on 32 counts, including conspiracy and money laundering. We know he made millions off shady Russians and changed the Republican platform to the benefit of Russia.

We know that the U.S. intelligence community concluded, in a report released in January 2017, that Russian President Vladimir Putin “ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election,” to “denigrate” Hillary Clinton and with “a clear preference for ... Trump.”

We know that in May 2016, Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat Russia had political dirt on Hillary. "About three weeks earlier," according to the N.Y. Times, "Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Mrs. Clinton."

We know that in June 2016, Trump’s closest aides and family members met at Trump Tower with a shady group of Russians who claimed to have dirt on Hillary. The meeting was billed as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."

We know the Russian lawyer who helped set it up concealed her close ties to Putin government.

We know that in July 2016, Trump said: "“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 [Hillary] emails that are missing,” and urged their publication.

We know that on Air Force One a year later, Trump helped his son, Don Jr., prepare a misleading statement about the meeting. We know top aides freaked out about this.

We know Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting.

We know Michael Flynn, former national security adviser and close campaign aide, lied to Vice President Pence and FBI about his Russia-related chats. We know he’s now cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller. We know Trump initially tried to protect Flynn with loyalty and fervency rarely shown by Trump to others.

We know that during the transition, Jared Kushner spoke with the Russian ambassador "about establishing a secret communications channel between the Trump transition team and Moscow." We know Kushner omitted previous contacts with Russians on his disclosure forms.

We know Trump initially lied about why he fired James Comey, later admitting he was canned because of the “Russia thing.”

We know Michael Cohen was a close adviser and lawyer, the fixer and secret-keeper. We know Trump seethed when the FBI raided Cohen's office.

We know that in January 2016, just before Republicans began voting, Michael Cohen tried to restart a Trump Tower project in Moscow.

We know Mueller questioned a Russian oligarch who made payments to Cohen who used the money to pay off a porn star who allegedly had an affair with Trump.

We know that oligarch was a bad enough dude that the Trump administration sanctioned him.

[Thomkal]

of course Trump supporters will deny everything on that list as fake news.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by AlexB

Disclaimer - I only have an overview of the Iran deal that Trump just pulled out from, but my understanding is that in essence it was financial aid to Iran in return for them not developing nuclear weapons. And to Trump this was a terrible deal.

If this is such a terrible idea, although the numbers could well be wildly different, isn’t this the exact same principle?

U.S. to help North Korea economy if it gives up nuclear weapons, Pompeo says

I wish people would stop describing it like that It makes it sound like essentially Iran is paid to not build an atomic bomb, when in essence they have simply been allowed to take part again in the global economy and businesses in other countries are no longer forbidden from buying from/selling to Iran. And profitting along the way, i doubt Iran is the one in the strong negotiation position here when dealing with Boeing and other western companies.

Not really want to get into a whole thing here, but i hope people at least recognize that from the iranian (or other countries) point of view this whole thing is pretty much the least that they can expect for agreeing to let themselves be policed by other countries, not some sort of benevolent or humanitarian act of kindness. And i'm not sure they are wrong thinking like that.

I am not saying there is an alternative (or that i wish they were allowed to do whatever the hell they want), but i do recognize that it would look pretty different from the other side.

[PilotMan]

So this happened in Oklahoma this week. It's exactly the kind of thing that we're missing by the news focusing so much on the president and Mueller investigation.

The bad news is that she also signed SB 1140, a religious–based adoption law that the ACLU of Oklahoma has called “discriminatory, anti-family, anti-children, and anti-First Amendment.”

Fallin also signed a bill that will allow the Ten Commandments to be displayed on public property.

According to a statement released by the governor, SB 1140 mandates that “no private child-placing agency shall be required to perform, assist, counsel, recommend, consent to, refer, or participate in any placement of a child for foster care or adoption when the proposed placement would violate the agency’s written religious or moral convictions or policies.”

[Thomkal]

yeah OK is one of the most evangelical/anti-gay states in the Union, so surprised they didn't do it sooner really. I hope they are now flooded with lawsuits and public outcry like when Pence was doing this kind of stuff in Indiana. He tweeted a whole bunch of stuff about religion today after giving a commencement address where he talked about faith.

[JPhillips]

President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2018

Pompeo: “I think Chairman Kim [Jong Un] shares the objectives with the American people, I am convinced of that,” secretary of state says on @FoxNewsSunday

— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) May 13, 2018

Uhhhhh...

[JPhillips]

dola

This seems to be far less than denuclearization.

.@SecPompeo says sanctions relief dependent on North Korea getting rid of its chemical biological weapons program (CBW), & no longer holding America at risk via its “nuclear weapons arsenal” & missiles @FaceTheNation

— margaret brennan (@margbrennan) May 13, 2018

[jeff061]

No kidding, they said they were discontinuing their nuclear program. The one that has already achieved most its goals and had its main facility collapse shortly before these discussions began.

Our goldfish in chief interpreted that as denuclearization. I'm sure his base will as well. Democracy is not a long term solution.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2018

Uhhhhh...

America First has been replaced by China Number One.

Seems notable that ZTE was fined for violating sanctions with Iran, which this administration has been saying is bad as of late.

[Thomkal]

Michael Avernatti has been tweeting today:


Michael Avenatti‏Verified account @MichaelAvenatti 5h5 hours ago




Warning ignored. So here it goes. December 12, 2016 - Trump Tower. Details to follow...


The tweet then shows some pictures of people I assume at that Trump Tower meeting?

[Thomkal]

This is what Avanetti was tweeting about. Not sure if this is a "big deal" or not:


REVEALED: Cryptic tweets from Michael Avenatti prove how Trump's bribery problems just got a lot worse

[BBT]

Originally Posted by mckerney

America First has been replaced by China Number One.

Seems notable that ZTE was fined for violating sanctions with Iran, which this administration has been saying is bad as of late.

ZTE paid $1.19 billion in penalties for violating US sanctions to sell US technology to Iran and North Korea in violation of IEEPA last year. https://t.co/xnWg0fTc0Q

— Sarah Smith ™ (@SLSmith000) May 13, 2018

[BBT]

DOLA

Lying at this level is still crazy to me.

Here's a story from the president about how he's building a wall in San Diego (he isn't) because San Diego wants the wall (it doesn't)...and how officials told him it'd cost $7 million to stop this construction (which isn't happening). pic.twitter.com/mUjesrMnzB

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 13, 2018

[JPhillips]

Melania is to spend the rest of the week in the hospital after a procedure for a, "benign kidney condition." A week in the hospital seems like a long time.

[jeff061]

Pills.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Melania is to spend the rest of the week in the hospital after a procedure for a, "benign kidney condition." A week in the hospital seems like a long time.

depends on what the procedure was really-kidney stones is what I'm guessing

[Thomkal]

Meanwhile Scott Pruitt keeps digging his hole deeper and deeper...this time with a nationwide contaminated water health crisis:


White House, EPA headed off chemical pollution study - POLITICO