June 3, 2018

Indicted Russian Troll Factory Hails Trump Birthday

Caroline Orr

June 3, 2018 7:40 am

Russian operatives associated with the notorious St. Petersburg-based troll factory known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA) have rolled out a new fake news website just in time to celebrate Trump’s birthday.

The website is part of a new project called “USA Really. Wake Up Americans,” which is run by RIA FAN, a Russian state media conglomerate linked to the IRA.

The first signs of the new website appeared in April, when RIA FAN released a joint press release/job announcement in both Russian and English, calling on English-speaking writers to apply to work for the new venture.

In the RIA FAN press release, “USA Really” is described as an “information agency” that will combat “growing political censorship imposed by the United States” by “promoting information and problems that are hushed up by major American publications controlled by the US political elite.”

RIA FAN press release announcing the launch of “USA Really,” a new Russian-backed propaganda outlet.

more
http://www.nationalmemo.com/indicted-russian-troll-factory-hails-trump-birthday/

June 3, 2018

Preet Bharara: The president pardoning himself is 'almost self-executing impeachment'

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/former-us-attorney-preet-bharara-president-pardoning-almost-self-executing-impeachment/

June 3, 2018

Schumer: Trump lawyers' argument that he can't obstruct justice would be valid in a dictatorship

BY LUIS SANCHEZ - 06/02/18 08:13 PM EDT

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Saturday compared an argument made by President Trump's legal team to one that would be valid in a dictatorship.

A letter obtained by The New York Times and published Saturday revealed that Trump's lawyers sent a confidential letter to special counsel Robert Mueller in January, arguing that the president could not have possibly obstructed justice because he has constitutional authority over all federal investigations.

“This would be a valid legal argument — if our government were a dictatorship,” Schumer tweeted. “Fortunately, we are a government of laws, not men. And in America, no one is above the law, including the president.”

https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1003017623469219841

In his tweet, Schumer linked to the The New York Times article that featured the letter. According to the 20-page note, the Constitution gives Trump the broad authority to, "if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon."

more
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/390426-schumer-trump-lawyers-argument-he-cant-obstruct-justice-would-make

June 3, 2018

WH Flip-flops On Sanctions After Chinese Company Hires Ex-campaign Aide

Oliver Willis

June 3, 2018 7:39 am

Days after China-based telecommunications company ZTE hired a former Trump campaign staffer, the Trump administration backed down on a decision to penalize the company.

Sanctions put in place by the Commerce Department in April prohibited American suppliers from doing business with ZTE. The department said the move was due to ZTE violating the terms of a previous settlement of criminal and civil charges when the company made illegal shipments to North Korea and Iran.

“ZTE misled the Department of Commerce,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement at the time. “This egregious behavior cannot be ignored.” But it appears Ross and the Trump White House have had a sudden change of heart.

On May 14, ZTE signed a deal with Mercury Public Affairs, which included consultant Bryan Lanza. Lanza was also an adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign and transition.

more
http://www.nationalmemo.com/wh-flip-flops-on-sanctions-after-chinese-company-hires-ex-campaign-aide/

June 3, 2018

Zinke cites 'environmental disaster' in sending park police to border

BY MIRANDA GREEN - 06/03/18 10:30 AM EDT

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is doubling down on his decision to send law enforcement officers from his department, including from the National Park Service and U.S. Park Police, to help apprehend illegal immigrants along the U.S., Mexico border.

In a string of interviews this week, Zinke heavily promoted his decision to send 22 officers to patrol two national parks in Arizona and Texas — a move first reported by The Hill in early May.

Speaking to Fox Business News on Thursday, Zinke called the state of the border an “environmental disaster.” He cited strewn needles and garbage on park land at the border and habitat destruction as reasons why he was deploying U.S. Park Police (USPP) and National Park Service (NPS) officers.

“It’s unfettered and we need to shut the border down for a number of reasons,” Zinke said. “I’m in charge of our federal lands. I’m a steward...and now all of a sudden our agents are down at the southern border you know what you have to look at? Needles.” Zinke’s efforts have drawn criticism from Democrats who say it is a political stunt.

“This is not within the purview of Interior,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva (Ariz), the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee. “It’s a ridiculous idea but the motivation is political pure and simple, it has nothing to do with safety or enforcement. And it certainly doesn’t enhance the mission of the Park Service.”

more
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/390257-zinke-cites-environmental-disaster-in-sending-park-police-to-border

June 3, 2018

Canadian foreign minister to US: Think hard about message you're sending your closest allies

Source: The Hill



BY LUIS SANCHEZ - 06/03/18 10:07 AM EDT

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Sunday that the U.S. should “think hard” about the message it sends to allies by imposing steel and aluminum tariffs on them.

“I would just really say to our closest allies in the world you, the United States, please think hard about the message you are sending to your closest allies,” Freeland told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

President Trump announced last Thursday that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum from key U.S. allies, including Canada, Mexico and European Union.


The president justified the action by citing Section 232 law, a rarely invoked law that allows tariffs to be placed on a country in the interest of national security.



Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/390452-canada-foreign-minister-to-us-think-hard-about-message-youre

June 3, 2018

Giuliani Attempts to Clarify Conflicting Statements on Trump Tower Meeting: 'Our Recollection...

Source: Mediate



Giuliani Attempts to Clarify Conflicting Statements on Trump Tower Meeting: ‘Our Recollection Keeps Changing’

by Josh Feldman | 10:05 am, June 3rd, 2018

https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/1003260419832627200

President Trump‘s legal team has acknowledged POTUS dictated the infamous statement on the Don Jr. Trump Tower meeting, which contradicts claims made by one of those lawyers.

At the time there were reports last year saying the President personally dictated the misleading statement, Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow responded in a statement by saying, “Apart from being of no consequence, the characterizations are misinformed, inaccurate, and not pertinent.”

He made similar comments elsewhere last year, and this morning Rudy Giuliani was asked to account for these “shifting explanations” by George Stephanopoulos.

“I remember when this was first reported, Jay Sekulow was on my program,” he said, “said the president had nothing at all to do with that letter. Later, Sarah Sanders said well, wait, he sort of weighed in, but he didn’t dictate it, and now this letter from the president’s lawyers say very, very clearly he dictated the statement.”

Read more: Link to source

June 3, 2018

Trump: Why didn't FBI, DOJ tell me agents were 'secretly investigating' Manafort?

Source: The Hill




BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 06/03/18 09:49 AM EDT

President Trump on Sunday blasted the FBI and Department of Justice for not telling him that agents were “secretly investigating" his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, during the 2016 election.

“As only one of two people left who could become President, why wouldn’t the FBI or Department of “Justice” have told me that they were secretly investigating Paul Manafort (on charges that were 10 years old and had been previously dropped) during my campaign?” Trump asked in a tweet.

He added that Manafort “came into the campaign very late and was with us for a short period of time,” but said the campaign “should have been told that Comey and the boys were doing a number on him, and he wouldn’t have been hired!”

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1003266374473519105
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1003268646070874113

Trump named Manafort head of his campaign in June 2016, but the businessman stepped down in August of that year after media reports of his dealings with the Ukraine government emerged.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/390450-trump-why-didnt-fbi-doj-tell-me-they-were-secretly-investigating

June 3, 2018

Kudlow: Trudeau 'overreacting' to tariffs

Source: The Hill



BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 06/03/18 09:51 AM EDT

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Sunday said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is “overreacting” to the Trump administration’s decision to impose steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada.

“To say that this is an attack on Canada is not right,” Kudlow told “Fox News Sunday.”

“I think he’s overreacting. I don’t want to get into the middle of that.”

Trudeau last week slammed the Trump administration’s decision, calling the tariffs an “affront” to the historic alliance between the two nations.

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/international/global-trade-economy/390451-kudlow-trudeau-overreacting-to-tariffs

June 3, 2018

End of an era? Tea party class of House Republicans fades

By LISA MASCARO
1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican newcomers stunned Washington back in 2010 when they seized the House majority with bold promises to cut taxes and spending and to roll back what many viewed as Barack Obama’s presidential overreach. But don’t call them tea party Republicans any more.

Eight years later, the House Tea Party Caucus is long gone. So, too, are almost half the 87 new House Republicans elected in the biggest GOP wave since the 1920s.

Some, including current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, joined the executive branch. Other slipped back to private life. Several are senators.

Now, with control of the House again at stake this fall and just three dozen of them seeking re-election, the tea party revolts show the limits of riding a campaign wave into the reality of governing.

Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., the class president, objects to the tea party brand that he says was slapped on the group by the media and the Obama administration. It’s a label some lawmakers now would rather forget.

more
https://apnews.com/64b634a91a2d4933b8bca4c95baa1309/End-of-an-era?-Tea-party-class-of-House-Republicans-fades