| Week #30: June 11, 2017 |
|
This week all eyes were on the testimony of James Comey (the former/fired Director of the FBI), which opened the door for what could be obstruction of justice, an impeachable offense. Despite Republicans controlling the House, Senate and White House, legislative progress has largely come to a halt amid weekly and sometimes daily bombshells, as all eyes turn to the Trump-Russia scandal. Also of note is the complete disarray of the Trump regime, and the difficulty Trump is having hiring staff and even finding legal representation.
|
| 1. |
In the aftermath of terrorists attacks in London Saturday night, Trump attacked the Mayor tweeting, "At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is "no reason to be alarmed!" Read More About This |
| 2. |
The US ambassador to the UK contradicted Trump, tweeting from the embassy account we "Commend the strong leadership" of the Mayor. Read More About This |
| 3. |
Trump used the attack as an opportunity to promote his Muslim Ban, "I am calling it what we need and what it is, a TRAVEL BAN!" Ironically, the Trump regime spent months denying it was a "ban." Read More About This |
| 4. |
Trump also criticized Sessions, tweeting the DOJ should have stayed with the first Muslim ban, "not the watered down, politically correct version." Read More About This |
| 5. |
Experts said Trump's tweets would likely hurt the chances on appeal at the Supreme Court. Read More About This |
| 6. |
NYT reported that Trump is fuming at Sessions, especially over his decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Read More About This |
| 7. |
Mattis tried to reassure allies at a conference in Singapore, asking them to "bear with us" after Trump's disastrous foreign trip. Read More About This |
| 8. |
POLITICO reported that Trump's national security team was blind-sided when he left out the planned language reaffirming US commitment to Article 5 from his NATO summit speech in Brussels. Read More About This |
| 9. |
A noose was found at a construction site in DC, marking the third noose found in the DC area this week. Read More About This |
| 10. |
The Ku Klux Klan applied to hold a rally in Charlottesville on July 8th. Read More About This |
| 11. |
Reuters reported that the Trump regime is seeking to reopen hundreds of cases of illegal immigrants who were granted a reprieve under Obama. Read More About This |
| 12. |
Buzzfeed reviewed more than 50 reports of school bullying, and found that kids nationwide are using Trump's words to taunt their classmates. Read More About This |
| 13. |
Kim Weaver dropped her run for Congress against Trump ally, Steve King, after receiving multiple death threats. Read More About This |
| 14. |
POLITICO reported that Tillerson has made himself largely inaccessible to staff and outsiders, funneling all inquiries through two staffers. Read More About This |
| 15. |
The Mayor of Los Angeles said ICE's aggressive raids could cause high tensions in his city to boil over: "I fear a tinderbox out there." Read More About This |
| 16. |
Canadian searches for flights to US cities have dropped by 43% since Trump's first proposed Muslim Ban. Read More About This |
| 17. |
Ivanka continued her efforts to reset her image, appearing on the cover of US Weekly with a headline, "Why I Disagree with My Dad." Read More About This |
| 18. |
Questions arose of whether it is constitutional for Trump to block users, given he Twitter communicate about domestic and foreign policy. Read More About This |
| 19. |
Trump filed for a 6 month extension for filing his 2016 taxes. His rationale for the extension is unknown. Read More About This |
| 20. |
WSJ reported Saudi Arabia's lobbyists and consultants spent $270k at the Trump Hotel DC as part of an effort to lobby Trump against a bi-partisan Act that lets Americans sue foreign countries over terrorist attacks. Read More About This |
| 21. |
The DOJ argued Trump can accept payments from foreign governments, saying the emoluments clause doesn't apply to "fair-market commercial transactions" like payments for hotel rooms and golf club fees. Read More About This |
| 22. |
As questions remain on why Kushner met with VEB's Gorkov, Bloombergreported that Kushner is seeking a $250mm loan to pay back Chinese investors for a New Jersey luxury tower. US banks are wary to lend. Read More About This |
| 23. |
WNYC reported the Kushner family is set to lose $6.5mm in annual tax credits for a property in Jersey City. Read More About This |
| 24. |
The acting US ambassador to China resigned over Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Accord. Read More About This |
| 25. |
The head of the US Patent Office resigned. Read More About This |
| 26. |
85% of the top science jobs in Trump's executive branch remain unfilled and do not have a nominee. Read More About This |
| 27. |
The chief executive of Newseum warned that Trump's denigration of the media would lead to the "delegitimization of journalists," and encourage authoritarians to target reporters and newspapers around the world. Read More About This |
| 28. |
Rep. Gianforte agreed to pay $50k to the Committee to Project Journalists in a civil settlement for assaulting journalist Ben Jacobs. Read More About This |
| 29. |
Mueller brought in several, well-known attorneys with relevant experience to join his special counsel Russia probe, including Michael Dreeben, the DOJ's top criminal law expert. Read More About This |
| 30. |
Yahoo reported four top law firms turned down requests to represent Trump citing his unwillingness to listen to advice, potential harm to recruiting and client relationships, and his history of not paying bills. Read More About This |
| 31. |
Forbes reported that at a charity golf tournament run by Eric Trump for St. Jude Children's Research, $1.2 million of expenses paid to the Trump Organization had no documented receipts. Read More About This |
| 32. |
Additionally, $500k was re-donated to other charities (4 of whom subsequently held tournaments at Trump golf courses), and $100k was funneled though the Eric Trump Foundation to the Trump Organization. Read More About This |
| 33. |
The NY Attorney General's office said it will look into these payouts by Eric Trump's Foundation. Read More About This |
| 34. |
Flynn turned over more than 600 pages of documents to the Senate Intel Comm. Most are business records, but also some personal documents. Read More About This |
| 35. |
The Intercept published a leaked top-secret NSA document which detailed the efforts of Russian hackers to target a voting-software supplier and more than 100 local election officials just prior to Election Day. Read More About This |
| 36. |
The FBI arrested the leaker: 25 year-old Reality Winner, a federal contractor in Augusta, Georgia. The FBI was able to track the leak to Winner after The Intercept provided a copy to the NSA for comment. Read More About This; Click here, also |
| 37. |
Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intel Comm said Russian attacks on our election were broader and targeted more states than reported in The Intercept. Read More About This |
| 38. |
Sen. Klobuchar asked that the Senate Rules Comm get a classified briefing on the Russian vote hacking attempts. Read More About This |
| 39. |
Deutsche Bank ignored the House Democrats' request for information on Trump's accounts and possible ties to Russia. Read More About This |
| 40. |
Thursday, Deutsche Bank blamed privacy laws for preventing the bank from disclosing the information requested. Read More About This |
| 41. |
At a Senate Intel Comm hearing Wednesday, Coats, Rogers and Rosenstein largely refused to answer senators' questions. One conservative journalist called it contempt of Congress. Read More About This; Click here, also |
| 42. |
A pro-Trump PAC ran ads attacking Comey as a "showboat" and a failure on the day of his testimony. Read More About This |
| 43. |
WAPO reported Coats told associates Trump asked him to intervene to get Comey to back off the FBI's investigation of Flynn in its Russia probe. Read More About This |
| 44. |
Sources said the ask was made at the end of a briefing at the WH, when Trump asked everyone to leave the room, except Coats and Pompeo. Read More About This |
| 45. |
NYT reported the day after Trump asked Comey to end the investigation of Trump, Comey told Sessions not to leave him alone with Trump. Read More About This |
| 46. |
ABC reported that Trump lashed out repeatedly at Sessions in private meetings about recusing himself from Russia, and that Sessions in turn suggested he could resign. Read More About This; Click here, also |
| 47. |
After allegations Nunes was behind the House Intel subpoenas on "unmasking," Nunes refused to confirm if he had stepped aside in the Russia probe. Read More About This |
| 48. |
VOX reported that Comey had spoken to three senior FBI officials (Rybicki, Baker, McCabe), who could vouch for his story that Trump asked him to shut down the Flynn investigation. Read More About This |
| 49. |
Trump's approval hit a new low in a Quinnipiac poll: approve 34%, disapprove 57%. Of note, Trump is almost underwater with white men! Read More About This |
| 50. |
A senior State Dept official will travel to Russia to help solve the "irritants" in our relationship. Read More About This |
| 51. |
Putin threatened Sweden with a military response to "eliminate the threat" if the country joins NATO. Read More About This |
| 52. |
Former DNI Clapper said "Watergate pales" compared to what the US is confronting now. Read More About This |
| 53. |
Ahead of his testimony Thursday, on Wednesday the Sen. Intel Comm released seven pages of Comey's testimony. Read More About This |
| 54. |
Highlights include: unusually frequent contacts with Trump, Trump requested a loyalty pledge, Comey documented all contact, Trump focused on Russian hooker report, and Trump asked him to let Flynn off. Read More About This |
| 55. |
Trump's pick for FBI director, Wray, works for a law firm that counts among it's clients Russian-state oil companies Rosneft and Gazprom Read More About This |
| 56. |
Comey testified in an open session Thursday. Major networks covered the testimony as over 19 million watched. Many in DC caught "Comey fever" and played hooky to watch at restaurants and pubs. Read More About This |
| 57. |
Among the highlights: Comey said Trump lied about him and the FBI; that Sessions had no choice but to recuse himself; and that he was fired because of the Russia investigation. Read More About This |
| 58. |
Comey said he took notes starting directly after the first meeting on January 6 because he was concerned Trump "might lie." Comey did not feel the need to take notes with Obama or W Bush. Read More About This |
| 59. |
On Trump's threat of having taped his conversations, Comey said, "Lordy, I hope there are tapes." This spurred another round of demands by Democrats for Trump to produce the tapes, or admit he lied. Read More About This |
| 60. |
Comey said Sessions seemed uncomfortable when Trump asked him to leave the room, "My sense was the attorney general knew he shouldn't be leaving." Comey said the same of Kushner. Read More About This |
| 61. |
Comey said he leaked a memo about his meeting with Trump through a friend at Columbia to the NYT in hopes of getting a special counsel appointed. Read More About This; Click here, also |
| 62. |
Comey testified he has given his memos to Mueller, and suggested the special counsel is investigating Trump for obstruction of justice. Read More About This |
| 63. |
Comey said there was no doubt that Russia interfered in our election, saying, "they're coming after America" and "they will be back." He also noted this is an attack on our democracy, not a particular political party. Read More About This; Click here, also |
| 64. |
Trump's lawyer, Kasowitz responded, included a written statement where he misspelled President. He also got the timeline of the Comey memo wrong, and falsely accused Comey of leaking classified information. Read More About This; Click here, also; and Here |
| 65. |
After the Comey testimony, Republicans mostly shied away from the camera this week, while Speaker Ryan offered a tepid defense for Trump's actions: "he's just new to this." Read More About This |
| 66. |
Numerous Trump surrogates spent the days surrounding Comey's testimony by trying to smear him as a liar and attention seeker. Read More About This |
| 67. |
NBC reported that during the Senate Intel Comm's closed hearing, senators learned about a third, undisclosed meeting between Sessions and Russia. This confirms an item in Week 29, which the DOJ denied. Read More About This |
| 68. |
PM May suffered a major setback in the UK elections, as her Conservative Party lost the majority. Her party's loss also could spell trouble for Brexit. Read More About This |
| 69. |
Senate Intel Comm staff will interview Kushner next week. NBC reported that Congress wants to ask Kushner if he was seeking funding for his NYC tower. Read More About This; Click here, also |
| 70. |
Pelosi told MSNBC that she is looking into why Trump picked Saudi Arabia as his first country to visit. Past presidents, going back to Reagan had visited close allies Canada or Mexico first. Read More About This |
| 71. |
Pelosi also said she is looking into why while at the visit in Saudi Arabia, Trump had cleared the room. Read More About This |
| 72. |
Trump and Tillerson had an embarrassing difference in foreign policy on Qatar as Tillerson said there should "be no further escalation by parties in the region," and Trump sided with Saudi Arabia and others, slamming Qatar as a sponsor of terrorism. Read More About This |
| 73. |
Trump's attorney said he would file a complaint against Comey for leaking his memo to his friend at Columbia. Read More About This |
| 74. |
According to a letter from the US Office of Special Counsel, Trump's social media director Scavino violated the Hatch Act in April when he tweeted a call to oust a member of the House. He was issued a warning. Read More About This |
| 75. |
In a Friday speech with the president of Romania in the Rose Garden, Trump switched course again and said he would support Article 5 of the NATO pact. Read More About This |
| 76. |
Trump also called Comey a liar and a "leaker," and that Comey's testimony showed there was "no collusion, no obstruction." Read More About This |
| 77. |
Trump also said he would be willing to tell his side of story under oath, "100 percent," but still would not confirm if the "tapes" really exist. Read More About This |
| 78. |
Top Democratic donor Tom Steyer called for impeachment hearings over obstruction of justice. Read More About This |
Replicated from: https://medium.com/@Amy_Siskind/week-30-experts-in-authoritarianism-advise-to-keep-a-list-of-things-subtly-changing-around-you-so-9705fea03cc9
Read About
RSS Feed
