Vice President Mike Pence says it’s time for special counsel Robert Mueller to conclude his probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, the AP reports.
Said Pence: “In the interests of the country, I think it’s time to wrap it up.”
Vice President Mike Pence says it’s time for special counsel Robert Mueller to conclude his probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, the AP reports.
Said Pence: “In the interests of the country, I think it’s time to wrap it up.”
Michael Cohen “is potentially more perilous to President Trump than anybody else,” Axios reports.
“The saga has it all: a history of shadowy business deals, ties to organized crime figures connected to Russian mafia, hush money payments to an untold number of women, payments from a U.S. company linked to a Russian oligarch — and, now, Mueller’s team is investigating how Cohen monetized his access to Trump.”
“Bob Mueller has known about the payments to Cohen for months.”
The Hill: Cohen storm grows graver for Trump.
George Will: “Donald Trump, with his feral cunning, knew. The oleaginous Mike Pence, with his talent for toadyism and appetite for obsequiousness, could, Trump knew, become America’s most repulsive public figure. And Pence, who has reached this pinnacle by dethroning his benefactor, is augmenting the public stock of useful knowledge. Because his is the authentic voice of today’s lickspittle Republican Party, he clarifies this year’s elections: Vote Republican to ratify groveling as governing.”
“There will be negligible legislating by the next Congress, so ballots cast this November will be most important as validations or repudiations of the harmonizing voices of Trump, Pence, Arpaio and the like. Trump is what he is, a floundering, inarticulate jumble of gnawing insecurities and not-at-all compensating vanities, which is pathetic. Pence is what he has chosen to be, which is horrifying.”
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Tom Steyer has a new ad highlighting President Trump’s inconsistencies of his story about adult film star Stormy Daniels.
“The curious relationship between one of the world’s biggest drug makers and President Trump’s personal lawyer began early last year when Michael Cohen, a longtime fixer for the president, reached out to Novartis’s then-chief executive officer Joe Jimenez, promising help gaining access to Trump and influential officials in the new administration,” Stat reports.
“Jimenez took the call and then instructed his team to reach a deal with Cohen. A one-year contract worth $1.2 million was signed with Cohen in February 2017.”
“The Treasury Department’s inspector general is investigating whether confidential banking information related to a company controlled by President Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen may have been leaked,” the Washington Post reports.
“One of the world’s largest pharmaceutical corporations acknowledged Wednesday morning that it paid a company set up by Michael Cohen, President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, for consulting services and that it was contacted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office regarding those payments this past fall and ‘cooperated fully,'” BuzzFeed News reports.
“In the statement, Novartis said it entered into a one-year contract with Essential Consultants LLC, a company set up by Cohen in 2016 to facilitate the payment to Stormy Daniels… The revelation means that the special counsel’s office has been looking into payments to Cohen’s company for some time — months before the Wall Street Journal broke the news of the payment to Daniels in January.”
President Trump suggested in a tweet taking away news organizations’ press credentials over “negative” coverage.
Said Trump: “The Fake News is working overtime. Just reported that, despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else, 91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake). Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?”
Politico: “A Dutch attorney now has the dubious distinction of being the first person imprisoned in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Alex van der Zwaan, 33, reported to a low-security Federal Bureau of Prisons facility near Allenwood, Pennsylvania, on Monday to serve the 30-day sentence he received for lying to investigators in the course of Mueller’s investigation.”
“His projected release date is June 4.”
Natasha Bertrand of The Atlantic contacted Michael Cohen’s attorney, Steve Ryan, about the payments made by a Russian oligarch to his client:
“I know you’re using shorthand,” Ryan added, when I asked him whether Cohen was paid by a Ukrainian-born Russian billionaire referenced in an unverified Dossier that Avenatti published to Twitter. “But this was not a payment.”
He followed up in an email, writing, “Don’t contact me again. Ever.”
Michael Avenatti, attorney for Stormy Daniels, on Twitter:
After significant investigation, we have discovered that Mr. Trump’s atty Mr. Cohen received approximately $500,000 in the months after the election from a company controlled by a Russian oligarch with close ties to Mr. Putin. These monies may have reimbursed the $130k payment.
Avenatti also released a “preliminary report” of his findings.
CNN reports special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators have questioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg “about hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments” his company’s US affiliate made to Cohen.
The Daily Beast confirmed the report with a source saying, “How the fuck did Avenatti find out?”
Former Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn told CNBC that he feels “freer,” “more rested” and “happier” since exiting the White House, adding that he stands by his opposition to the trade tariffs that led to his departure.
A new CBS News poll finds a slight majority of Americans thinks that special counsel Robert Muerller’s investigation is politically motivated, 53% to 44%.
“The shift reveals a hardening stance among Republicans, who are now even more critical of the investigation. While a large majority of Republicans has always seen the investigation as politically motivated, the percentage that thinks so has risen seven points since December. There is an even larger shift when it comes to whether Republicans think Mr. Trump should cooperate with the special counsel. In January, 73% said he should cooperate, but now just 53% do.”
Rudy Giuliani confirmed to NBC News that special counsel Robert Mueller rejected a Trump-team offer for the president to answer written questions in lieu of a sit-down interview.
Giuliani said this happened about 10 days ago during his first meeting with Mueller.
Paul Campos: “Let me offer an alternative explanation of the affair and the payoff. It is still just a hypothesis, but, I would argue, it fits more comfortably with what we know about the various players than the reported version of events: Donald Trump, not Elliott Broidy, had an affair with Shera Bechard. Bechard hired Keith Davidson, who had negotiated both Playboy playmate Karen McDougal’s deal with the National Enquirer, and Stormy Daniels’s NDA with Trump. Davidson called Cohen, and the two of them negotiated a $1.6 million payment to Bechard.”
“At this point Cohen needed to find a funding source. Cohen asserts he took out a home equity loan to come up with a mere $130,000 to pay off Stormy Daniels, so it seems clear he couldn’t have fronted the $1.6 million for the Bechard deal himself. So Cohen reached out to Elliott Broidy, a very rich Republican fundraiser with several pending and highly lucrative business deals with foreign governments: deals that hinged on whether Broidy could convince the U.S. government to take various actions.”
“So, according to this hypothesis, when Cohen’s office was raided by federal prosecutors, they found documentation of what was actually a fabricated affair, concocted by Cohen and Davidson to create a justification for funneling Broidy’s money to Bechard, while creating a paper record designed to protect Trump from further exposure.”
A new CBS News poll finds President Trump’s approval rating has inched up to 40%, the first time in a year that the president’s approval has hit that mark.
A majority — 55% — still disapproves.
President Trump “is growing increasingly irritated with lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s frequently off-message media blitz, which has included muddying the waters on hush money paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels and making claims that could complicate the president’s standing in the special counsel’s Russia probe,” the AP reports.
“Trump has begun questioning whether Giuliani, an old friend and former New York City mayor, should be sidelined from television interviews.”
“Trump also expressed annoyance that Giuliani’s theatrics have breathed new life into the Daniels story.”
Lawyers advising President Trump in the Russia investigation hope to decide whether he should testify by May 17, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Preparing Mr. Trump to testify would be a serious distraction to his work as president, eating into time he needs to deal with pressing global issues, Mr. Trump’s lawyers contend.”
“In an informal, four-hour practice session, Mr. Trump’s lawyers were only able to walk him through two questions, given the frequent interruptions on national-security matters along with Mr. Trump’s loquaciousness.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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