February 8, 2019

Barbara McQuade: New Trump Probe Looks a Lot Like a RICO Investigation

https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-trump-probe-looks-a-lot-like-a-rico-investigation?ref=home

New Trump Probe Looks a Lot Like a RICO Investigation
The crimes reportedly under investigation—money laundering, fraud, conspiracy—could amount to a criminal enterprise. That’s how my team of prosecutors put away Detroit’s mayor.
Barbara McQuade
02.08.19 4:38 AM ET


Referring to a cooperator as a “rat,” President Trump sometimes sounds like a mob boss. He may ultimately be prosecuted like one, too.

While some reports say that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is winding down, it appears that another investigation is just gearing up. According to reports in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, a grand jury in the Southern District of New York recently issued a subpoena to the Trump inaugural committee, seeking documents relating to donors and spending. According to reports, the subpoena indicates that prosecutors are investigating conspiracy against the United States, false statements, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and violations of campaign finance and inaugural committee laws. In addition, CNN has reported that federal prosecutors in Manhattan have expressed interest in interviewing executives from the Trump Organization.

It is impossible to know exactly what the federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating, but the wide array of crimes brings to mind a case that was prosecuted in Detroit when I served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and several of his associates were convicted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also known as RICO.

RICO is a statute that was passed in 1970 to prosecute organized crime. Until then, mob bosses would often insulate themselves from criminal exposure by directing underlings to commit crimes. In response, Congress enacted RICO, which, among other things, makes it a crime for any person associated with an enterprise to participate, directly or indirectly, in the conduct of the enterprise’s affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity. Pattern of racketeering activity is defined as two or more acts from a list of criminal offenses, such as mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, some of the very same crimes that SDNY prosecutors are reportedly now investigating. The penalties for violating RICO are heavy–up to 20 years in prison and forfeiture of the proceeds of the racketeering activity.

snip//

Even if SDNY follows the Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted, nothing prohibits the Trump Organization or Trump’s associates from being indicted. In addition, even if a sitting president cannot be indicted, a former president can be. Under the statute of limitations, a RICO conspiracy may be charged up to five years after its last predicate racketeering act is committed. If any predicate act was committed on or after Jan. 20, 2016, the statute of limitations would not preclude an indictment from being filed on Jan. 20, 2021, the moment a president is sworn in, so long as that president is not Donald Trump.

February 8, 2019

Former SC Democratic leader moves closer to challenging Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2020

Former SC Democratic leader moves closer to challenging Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2020

By Jamie Lovegrove jlovegrove@postandcourier.com
Feb 7, 2019 Updated 30 min ago



WASHINGTON — Democratic operative Jaime Harrison filed federal paperwork Thursday forming an exploratory committee to likely challenge South Carolina’s Republican senior senator, Lindsey Graham.

The former S.C. Democratic Party chairman, who is now an associate chairman and counselor at the Democratic National Committee, has stoked speculation for months he would run against Graham, who is up for re-election in 2020.

The statement of organization for his exploratory committee, submitted to the Federal Election Commission on Thursday, is the first official step.

Harrison confirmed to The Post and Courier he is planning to publicly lay out his plans in more detail Friday. His campaign website, jaimeharrison.com, has already gone live.

In a recent interview, Harrison said he has been thinking extensively about how to beat Graham and start a “new chapter” in a state where no Democrat has won a statewide race since 2006.



more...

https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/former-sc-democratic-leader-forms-exploratory-committee-to-run-against/article_798afa70-2b16-11e9-aaca-cb7d703bf332.html?fbclid=IwAR3mnp5rSFQiE6makmPsdYC48jzFbhDPatefXq35QRztNgEhfInNz7dYFhg

February 8, 2019

Billionaires Flooded Republicans' Coffers Just Before the Tax Cuts Passed

Billionaires Flooded Republicans’ Coffers Just Before the Tax Cuts Passed
We’re shocked! Shocked!
Allan Holmes, Peter Cary, Joe Yerardi and Chris Zubak-Skees
February 7, 2019 6:00 AM

The story was originally published by The Center for Public Integrity.


In late June 2017, Texas political mega-donor Doug Deason had a stern message for Republicans seeking campaign donations: The “Dallas piggy bank” was closed until they repealed Obamacare and passed major tax cuts. Deason said he had urged about two dozen of his wealthy Texas friends to do the same. The billionaire Koch brothers Charles and David also hinted at withholding money.

Just weeks later, the GOP effort to repeal Obamacare collapsed. Tax reform, which one Republican senator said would make repealing Obamacare look like a piece of cake, ominously loomed as the next item on the GOP agenda, and time was running out. Panic set in. By November, as Congress struggled to push a massive tax cut bill forward, Rep. Chris Collins from New York summed up the stakes: “My donors are basically saying: ‘Get it done or don’t ever call me again.'”

Lawmakers got it done. Just days before the holiday break, relieved Republicans delivered those wealthy donors what they wanted: one of the biggest tax cuts in history, one that would almost exclusively benefit the wealthy.

From the looks of it, GOP politicians got what they wanted, too. From the time the tax bill was first introduced on Nov. 2, 2017, until the end of the year, a 60-day period, dozens of billionaires and millionaires dramatically boosted their political contributions unlike they had in past years, giving a total of $31.1 million in that two months, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of data from the Center for Responsive Politics found.

The Center’s analysis found that 144 wealthy donors, some household names and some behind-the-scenes, contributed at least $50,000 to Republicans and conservative groups in that time frame. For 87 of those, three out of five, the surge of giving at year’s end reflected a marked change in their giving behavior. These well-heeled donors increased the share of their annual giving in the last two months of 2017 compared with previous off-year elections going back to 2009.

The timing of the donations provides “a solid block of evidence that points to some very grateful people rewarding their champions.”

more...

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/02/billionaires-flooded-republicans-coffers-just-before-the-tax-cuts-passed/

February 7, 2019

Trump taps someone else from Fox News for his team (yes, again)

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-taps-someone-else-fox-news-his-team-yes-again

Trump taps someone else from Fox News for his team (yes, again)
02/07/19 03:47 PM
By Steve Benen


About a year ago, Fox News’ Juan Williams joked on the air that he sees Donald Trump’s White House as a reality-television program – and if you want to make it onto the show, you have to be in a Fox News green room “because apparently that’s the staging area.”

Perhaps he wasn’t kidding.



The State Department’s Global Engagement Center is a relatively obscure agency, though it made headlines for a good reason last year. The New York Times reported in March 2018 that the center was provided with $120 million to “counter foreign efforts to meddle in elections,” but it hadn’t spent a dime.

It will now be led by Fox News’ Lea Gabrielle, who, as USA Today’s report added, is facing questions from Trump administration critics about “her qualifications for the job.”

Brett Bruen, who worked on the U.S. response to Russian propaganda in the Obama administration, told the newspaper, “Lea may be a great reporter and pilot. She has evidenced absolutely no knowledge of or experience with information warfare. We need leadership that can take on this danger from day one.”


snip//

This isn’t how the executive branch of a global superpower is supposed to work.

February 7, 2019

House Democrats vow "MRI" of Trump's money

https://www.axios.com/house-democrats-investigation-trump-organization-money-cbe06ada-f27c-4a8a-9849-fc68b33b28b5.html


Jonathan Swan2 hours ago
House Democrats vow "MRI" of Trump's money

snip//

Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, a senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, laid down the marker to Axios last night after the committee deliberated behind closed doors earlier in the day.



Between the lines: Of particular interest to the committee is an extraordinary series of cash purchases Trump made in the decade before his presidential campaign.



Swalwell told me: "Without knowing whether Mueller is investigating money laundering through the Trump Organization, we do have the ability to look at whether that has occurred or is ongoing, and we are going to fulfill that responsibility."

February 7, 2019

Steele Dossier's 'Pee Tape' Source Sergei Millian 'Sought Access to Trump' in 2016: WaPo

1. WELL-CONNECTED2 hours ago
Steele Dossier’s ‘Pee Tape’ Source Sergei Millian ‘Sought Access to Trump’ in 2016: WaPo
Reuters / Kevin Lamarque

February 7, 2019

Trump Slumps to Record Low Approval

https://politicalwire.com/2019/02/07/trump-slumps-to-record-low-approval/

Trump Slumps to Record Low Approval
February 7, 2019 at 8:28 am EST By Taegan Goddard

February 7, 2019

House Democrats turn up the pressure on Trump with onslaught of climate hearings

House Democrats turn up the pressure on Trump with onslaught of climate hearings
For the first time in decades, climate is on the agenda.
E.A. Crunden
Feb 6, 2019, 2:44 pm


House Democrats offered an indicator of what their approach to environmental and climate accountability might look like in a series of initial hearings on Wednesday that ranged from tackling climate change to probing the Trump administration’s actions during the partial government shutdown.

House lawmakers hosted three competing hearings on Feb. 6, part of an ambitious slate of meetings to address pressing environmental issues. Two of those meetings centered climate change — one hosted by the Energy and Commerce Committee to address the economic cost of global warming, and one by the Natural Resources Committee focused on climate impacts. A third Appropriations Committee scrutinized the Interior Department’s shutdown decisions.



Testimony followed from scientists and economic experts, who helped to lay out a “green transition” — an eventual decarbonization of the economy coupled with the creation of new jobs in sectors like renewable energy.

At the same time, a second hearing on Capitol Hill, chaired by Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), also took aim at climate change. “In 2018, there were 14 weather and climate disasters, each with damages over $1 billion, total cost $91 billion,” Grijalva said, pointing to new figures released Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

more...

https://thinkprogress.org/democrats-climate-change-hearings-shutdown-trump-7d8da0e4451f/

February 7, 2019

The Rude Pundit: The State of the Union Is Boring Bullshit

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-state-of-union-is-boring-bullshit.html

The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
2/06/2019
The State of the Union Is Boring Bullshit


There was a moment at last night's State of the Union address when President Donald Trump's delivery had gotten so lugubrious that it threatened to grind to a complete halt, like the batteries in his voluminous ass had worn down and it was time to put him into storage to recharge until Fox and Friends started in the morning. In that moment, Trump was slurringly introducing Herman Zeitchik, a World War II soldier who had helped liberate the concentration camp at Dachau. Zeitchik and the two Holocaust survivors seated near him looked concerned, like they thought Trump might be having a stroke up there.

No, it only felt like that because Trump had taken the audience and the nation on a bipolar journey between deep hatred and fake hope. It was a speech filled with lies and false promises. It was utter bullshit, and, except for the parts where he spoke with spite about some topic, it was completely fucking dull. Honestly, the whole event had the feeling of watching a man who didn't want to be there, who knew he shouldn't be there, who was trying to sound like what stupid people think a leader ought to sound like, but who couldn't be bothered to really commit to the part, like he's just sick of all this shit and wants to get back to porking Russian prostitutes and playing golf and yelling at Eric for not getting a Moscow tower deal done.

His list of "accomplishments" is mostly shit he didn't fuck up yet. Unemployment down for different groups? Yeah, just like it was under Obama. Trump didn't fuck it up yet. More jobs added? Yeah, just like it was under Obama. Trump didn't fuck it up yet. Economy expanding? Yeah, just like it was under Obama. Trump didn't fuck it up yet. The nation producing more oil and gas? Yeah, that happened under Obama. Trump didn't fuck it up yet. (And, really, no one should be proud of that.)

Trump was elected to third base and he's hopping around on it, declaring he hit a triple. And his loyal taint-lickers in the GOP and his idiot hordes keep braying that he's a great batter. Shit, with the failure of his tax cut and tariffs (and just about everything else), with his declaration that he wants to end wars while threatening a war with Iran, he'll get picked off and still declare he scored.

snip//

Goddamn, what a nightmare of a speech, veering between brutality and tedium, between self-glorification and exploitation, all delivered in sleepy tones by a sociopathic dullard.

The only saving graces of the evening were the awesome Democratic women in Suffragette-honoring white, from Nancy Pelosi to Ayanna Pressley, refusing to play along with this cynical game, erupting in a party at one point and showing the nation that it's possible for there to be in-yer-face joy in resistance. Between that and the humane Democratic response by Stacey Abrams, we could remember when we hoped together for better times and, perhaps, could see a light at the end of this orange tunnel.

February 6, 2019

Frank Rich: Trump's Big Speech Failed at Every Level

the national circus 1:11 P.M.
Trump’s Big Speech Failed at Every Level
By Frank Rich


In the State of the Union, Donald Trump called for unity while taking many partisan shots. How do you determine the success of a speech like Trump’s?

Even looking at the 80-minute-plus laundry list from Trump’s point of view, the speech seems to have failed at every level.

If Trump’s number-one political goal was to get his wall built, he didn’t advance the cause but signaled his surrender. His incessantly repeated pre-speech threat that he might declare a “national emergency” to circumvent Congress and get his way evaporated entirely last night. Why? He’s a paper tiger. He’d only been blustering about declaring an emergency in the first place to drum up phony suspense that might draw viewers to tune in. Even he has figured out that too many Republicans in Congress are openly opposed to that legally dubious power grab for him to try it now. Nor will the GOP happily sign on to another politically self-immolating government shutdown. So when Trump declared “I’ll get it built” last night, that can be translated to mean: “I have surrendered and will claim that whatever compromise Congress puts forth by the February 15 deadline means ‘I got my wall.’” Nancy Pelosi has won.

If Trump’s biggest personal goal was to impede what he called “ridiculous partisan investigations,” he has no more chance of accomplishing that than Richard Nixon did when he made a similar pitch in the 1974 State of the Union, seven months before Watergate drove him out of office. If anything, the investigations are metastasizing: Witness the sprawling subpoena that descended on the Trump Inaugural Committee from the Southern District of New York just as Trump was preparing to give his speech. In addition to the ever-growing body of evidence that Trump is a witting Russian agent, there are more criminal investigations of him, his business, his family, and his crime syndicate of a Cabinet than we can easily count. Let’s not forget that in the end it was simple tax evasion, not capital crimes, that brought down Al Capone.

If Trump’s stylistic goal was to somehow reset his image two years into his nasty presidency, his efforts were risible. Having purported to deliver a “message of unity” in his 2017 address to Congress, and having called for summoning “the unity we need to deliver for the people” in 2018, this time he came out for “cooperation, compromise, and the common good.” It is hard to imagine that a single American — whether Trump supporter or foe — bought this bunk any more than they buy his annual promise of an infrastructure push. His efforts to milk the touching real-life stories of the White House’s invited spectators were also disingenuous. He called for a $500 million budget over ten years to fight childhood cancers — less than 10 percent of the $5.7 billion he wants to build his wall this year. His tender words about Holocaust survivors were outrageous coming from a man who refused to condemn Charlottesville neo-Nazis chanting “Jews will not replace us” and countenanced anti-Semitic iconography exploited by his campaign.

If Trump’s rock-bottom goal was to provide television entertainment, here too he failed. The most enjoyable aspect of the entire event was watching Pelosi. Her sarcastic applause when Trump issued his bogus call for compromise – instantly christened the “fuck you” clap by Patton Oswalt – went viral. No less delightful was the sight of her repeatedly thumbing through the pages of his speech on camera as if she were looking for something more substantive, or at least more amusing, to read. It was worthy of a Tina Fey SNL bit. It was also fun to watch the expanded ranks of women in the Democratic caucus seize Trump’s phony embrace of female empowerment and throw it back at him and his party in a spontaneous eruption of joyous victory.

more...

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/frank-rich-trumps-big-speech-failed-at-every-level.html?fbclid=IwAR3za6FxCa1R8lf4Pd8U6Dxuu1mHZv5otpTOCxK8Wbj_Z-AQtuiMsTrGRz0