[AMV] Amerikaanse politiek #515: Lil Rocketman with the big hands

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Op woensdag 13 juni 2018 16:45 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Mja, maar het gaat dan over samenwerking met aanklagers in New York zoals in het bericht staat. Dus niet met Mueller? Of wat?

Aan de andere kant staat er wel dat het nieuws waarschijnlijk is dat het het witte huis en aanhang hard zou raken (veronderstellend dat er strafbare zaken zijn waaraan men zich heeft schuldig gemaakt).

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Op woensdag 13 juni 2018 16:37 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

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Special counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday filed a request for 150 blank subpoenas in the Eastern District of Virginia, where former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort lives.

The two-page filing reveals little, but says that that each subpoena recipient must appear in the Alexandria, Va., courthouse on July 25 to testify in the case.

Judge T.S. Ellis III has now moved the trial date twice, first from July 10 to July 24, and then from that date to July 25.

The 150 blank subpoenas amount to 75 total possible subpoenas — in each case, a subpoena is needed for the witness and another is needed for the defense. Court documents filed in April show that Mueller's team was pushing to subpoena 35 witnesses in the trial.

In May, court documents showed he had filed 70 blank subpoenas.

A blank subpoena means the party serving the subpoena, in this case the federal government, can fill in the name later, as long as it is done so before the subpoena is served.

The document says each recipient “must also bring with you the following documents, electronically stored information or objects” — but what follows that line is under seal.

In Virginia, Manafort is facing charges including tax fraud and failing to report foreign bank accounts.

Manafort is due in court Friday in Washington, when Judge Amy Berman Jackson will hear arguments from Mueller’s team why she should revoke his bail and jail him due to allegations he sought to tamper with potential witnesses in the case against him.

Last week, Mueller unveiled a superseding indictment against Manafort, charging him with obstruction. Russian businessman Konstantin Kilimnik was also charged with obstruction.

The indictment alleged that Manafort and Kilimnik “knowingly and intentionally attempted to corruptly persuade” two people connected with the Hapsburg Group, a firm Manafort worked with while lobbying for Ukrainian clients “with intent to influence, delay, and prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding.”

Jackson ruled Tuesday that Mueller must reveal the identities of the unnamed people he's hoping to use in the case against Manafort.

“[The] defendant is obliged to prepare for a complex trial with a voluminous record within a relatively short period of time, and he should not have to be surprised at a later point by the addition of a new name or allegation,” Jackson wrote.

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Op woensdag 13 juni 2018 17:14 schreef westwoodblvd het volgende:
Hoe lang nog tot Trump tweet: "I hardly knew the guy"?

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Op woensdag 13 juni 2018 19:55 schreef Monolith het volgende:
Ondertussen proberen Kaine en Corker een vrij vergaande wet door het congres te krijgen:
https://trib.al/beyUMkn

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Corker: GOP becoming 'cult-like' on Trump (The Hill)

GOP Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.) warned on Wednesday that members of his party are becoming "cult-like" in their support of President Trump, pointing to leadership's unwillingness to challenge the White House on tariffs.

"We are in a strange place. I mean, it’s almost, it’s becoming a cultish thing, isn’t it? And it’s not a good place for any party to end up with a cult-like situation as it relates to a president that happens to be of — purportedly, of the same party," Corker told reporters.

Pressed on whether he feels Republicans are currently in a "cult-like situation," Corker acknowledged that there are some GOP lawmakers who stand up to Trump and it would be "unfair to try to say" that "about every member."

"[But] is leadership in general not wishing to poke the bear? Absolutely, because it's all about the next election, right?" said Corker, who is retiring after 2018.

Corker's comments come after he was blocked from getting a vote on his bill to rein in Trump on tariffs. His bill, which is backed by roughly a dozen senators, would require congressional approval if Trump wanted to impose tariffs in the name of national security.

Corker added on Wednesday that leadership is "wary" of upsetting the president and "there's a definite fear there."

"It's not a good place for us to be. You know, I think about the things that we, generally speaking, have stood for ... sort of where the Republican Party has been traditionally and were it is today is quite divergent," Corker told reporters.

Trump sparked a backlash from GOP lawmakers with his decision to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico.

But GOP leadership, as well as many rank-and-file members, have shown little interest in legislation that would rein in Trump.

Such a move would set up a high-stakes showdown between the president and members of his own party months before a midterm election, and likely provoke Trump to lash out at individual members.

"There's no question that leadership in general is wary of doing anything that might upset the president. I mean, we're going to be here during recess, generally speaking, which is fine with me but, look, it's more about Trump being upset than it is about anything else," Corker said.

Corker's comments echo that of MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on Wednesday's "Morning Joe," with the former GOP congressman arguing that "primary voters in the Republican Party have devolved into a Trumpist cult."

"There is no more conservative person on protecting tax dollars, balancing the budget, paying down the debt," Scarborough said of GOP Rep. Mark Sanford (S.C.), who lost his primary on Tuesday night as his opponent labeled him a Trump critic. Trump also tweeted 11th-hour criticism of Sanford on Tuesday afternoon.

"But primary voters said no, we don’t care that he’s one of the most conservative people in Congress. He said one or two bad things about Trump," said Scarborough.

“Why don’t we just say it has devolved into a cult? Primary voters in the Republican Party have devolved into a Trumpist cult," the host added.

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Op woensdag 13 juni 2018 16:45 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Mja, maar het gaat dan over samenwerking met aanklagers in New York zoals in het bericht staat. Dus niet met Mueller? Of wat?

Aan de andere kant staat er wel dat het nieuws waarschijnlijk is dat het het witte huis en aanhang hard zou raken (veronderstellend dat er strafbare zaken zijn waaraan men zich heeft schuldig gemaakt).

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renato_mariotti twitterde op woensdag 13-06-2018 om 16:50:14 3/ Although Cohen is cooperating with federal prosecutors in Manhattan (not Mueller’s team), cooperation deals typically require the cooperator to provide all information about any criminal activity he knows about. Prosecutors then share that info with other jurisdictions. reageer retweet

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Op woensdag 13 juni 2018 21:14 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

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Blijkbaar kan igv medewerking alle informatie over criminele activiteiten vervolgens met andere 'jurisdictions' gedeeld worden:

twitter:

renato_mariotti twitterde op woensdag 13-06-2018 om 16:50:14 3/ Although Cohen is cooperating with federal prosecutors in Manhattan (not Mueller’s team), cooperation deals typically require the cooperator to provide all information about any criminal activity he knows about. Prosecutors then share that info with other jurisdictions. reageer retweet

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Trump Appointee Compiles Loyalty List of U.S. Employees at U.N., State (Foreign Policy)
Mari Stull’s arrival at the State Department’s International Organization Bureau is triggering an exodus of top career staffers.

A senior advisor to the State Department appointed just two months ago has been quietly vetting career diplomats and American employees of international institutions to determine whether they are loyal to President Donald Trump and his political agenda, according to nearly a dozen current and former U.S. officials.

Mari Stull, a former food and beverage lobbyist-turned-wine blogger under the name “Vino Vixen,” has reviewed the social media pages of State Department staffers for signs of ideological deviation. She has researched the names of government officials to determine whether they signed off on Obama-era policies — though signing off does not mean officials personally endorsed them but merely cleared them through the bureaucratic chain. And she has inquired about Americans employed by international agencies, including the World Health Organization and the United Nations, asking their colleagues when they were hired and by whom, according the officials.

“She is actively making lists and gathering intel,” said one of the sources, a senior diplomat. Stull was named in April as a senior advisor to the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs, which manages U.S. diplomatic relations with the United Nations and other international institutions.

Her probing, along with a highly secretive management style, has become so uncomfortable that at least three senior officials are poised to leave the bureau, according to the sources. Officials there have warned some Americans employed by the U.N. to sidestep traditional meet-and-greet sessions with the department’s upper management to avoid drawing attention to themselves.

“She is gunning for American citizens in the U.N. to see if they are toeing the line,” the diplomatic source added.

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Op woensdag 13 juni 2018 21:27 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:
Laura Ingraham, een van Fox News belangrijkste propagandisten, is kennelijk klaar met Pruitt.

Top conservative media personality turns on EPA chief Scott Pruitt: He's 'gotta go'

Hoeveel tijd zou hij dan nog hebben?

President Donald Trump: EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Is Doing A Great Job | CNBC

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Op woensdag 13 juni 2018 14:42 schreef Ringo het volgende:

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Feitelijk is dat toch ook zo?

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Trump: “We are paying from 60 percent of 90 percent of NATO.”

Nope, nope, nope. Trump never gets this correct.

There are two types of funding for NATO: direct funding and indirect funding. Direct funding, for military-related operations, maintenance and headquarters activity, is based on gross national income — the total domestic and foreign output claimed by residents of a country — and adjusted regularly. With the largest economy in NATO, the United States pays the largest share — about 22 percent. Germany is second, with about 15 percent. A significant portion of the U.S. share is operating the Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) fleet, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The U.S. share of the actual military budget is negotiated each year, but largely based on the cost-sharing formula, and amounts to less than $500 million a year, according to Defense Department documents. That’s chump change in a $700 billion military budget.

As for indirect funding, since 2006, each NATO member has had a guideline of spending at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense spending. At a 2014 summit, responding to Russian aggression in Ukraine, NATO members pledged to meet that guideline by 2024.

As of 2017, 12 of the 28 members exceed the guideline — with the United States leading the way at 3.6 percent. But this is simply money that each country would spend on its own military — or on missions that do not include NATO, such as peacekeeping in Africa.

Bron

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Op woensdag 13 juni 2018 21:36 schreef Kijkertje het volgende:

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Scott Pruitt is doing a great job!

President Donald Trump: EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Is Doing A Great Job | CNBC

twitter:

maggieNYT twitterde op woensdag 13-06-2018 om 18:33:19 Trump has been fuming about Cohen in private, blaming him for the messy Stormy Daniels situation. But he also is fearful of making that public because of chances it further pushes Cohen toward SDNY https://t.co/5laelv5IjO reageer retweet