Welcome To aBlackWeb

Register

The Official World Politics Thread

talkingpointsmemo.com

Pecker Spoke With NY Prosecutors

The head of the company that publishes the National Enquirer reportedly spoke with New York prosecutors regarding its investigation into the Trump Organization’s involvement with hush money payments.
talkingpointsmemo.com

CNN: National Enquirer Publisher Spoke With NY Prosecutors About Trump Org Hush Payments

The head of the company that publishes the National Enquirer reportedly spoke with New York prosecutors regarding its investigation into the Trump Organization’s involvement with hush money payments.

According to a CNN report Monday, sources with knowledge of the late October meeting said that David Pecker, chairman of America Media Inc., spoke with New York district attorney prosecutors about the hush money payments that the Trump Organization sent to women who alleged affairs with President Trump.

Sources told CNN that Pecker’s meeting could potentially provide details on conversations involving Stormy Daniels and agreements that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen — who was convicted of lying to Congress, among other crimes — set up. The sources added that Pecker is expected to continue discussions with prosecutors.

Pecker was granted immunity as part of federal prosecutors’ investigation into Cohen and the hush money payments, and prosecutors agreed not to prosecuteAmerican Media Inc. As part of that agreement, the company agreed to “provide cooperation in the future”

New York prosecutors are particularly looking into whether any state laws were violated, which would include the Trump Organization defrauding any Daniels payment-related business records, according to CNN.
Click to expand...

194480
 
talkingpointsmemo.com

WSJ: Subpoenas Show Prosecutors’ Interest In Giuliani’s Consulting Work

Subpoenas issued to associates of Rudy Giuliani's indicate that his consulting work has raised red flags for federal prosecutors, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The feds'
talkingpointsmemo.com

WSJ: Subpoenas Show Prosecutors’ Interest In Giuliani’s Consulting Work

Subpoenas issued to associates of Rudy Giuliani’s indicate that his consulting work has raised red flags for federal prosecutors, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The feds’ increasing scrutiny of Giuliani’s work has been reported in multiple outlets since Giuliani’s associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested and charged with a federal conspiracy for allegedly funneling a foreigner’s money into U.S. elections.

But the Journal reported previously unknown specifics, including that subpoenas and other requests for information have named Giuliani Partners, the former New York mayor’s security consulting firm. They’ve also named Fraud Guarantee, a venture, founded by Parnas and a co-indictee, David Correia, that paid Giuliani $500,000 for his services.

Correia, like Parnas and Fruman, has pleaded not guilty.

Since Trump’s election, Giuliani has carved out a curious niche, claiming to represent the President’s interests abroad while working with several wealthy foreigners seeking access to the Trump administration.

The subpoenas indicate that prosecutors are looking into obstruction of justice, money laundering, false statements, and foreign agent registration violations and campaign finance violations, among other potential charges, the Journal reported. Bloomberg News previously reported a similar list of potential charges for Giuliani.

People familiar with the investigation told the Journal that investigators from the Southern District of New York — where Giuliani was once the top prosecutor — and the FBI have also continued asking witnesses about Parnas and Fruman’s business practices. Among other things, investigators sought information about the super PAC America First Action and its sister group, America First Policies.

Parnas and Fruman’s allegedly fraudulent six-figure donation to America Fist Action was among the offenses listed in the criminal complaint against them.

The former New York mayor, who for months has led a hunt for political dirt for President Donald Trump, denied wrongdoing to the Journal and said he hadn’t been contacted by prosecutors.

“All they have to do is come and ask me,” he told the paper. “There’s obviously a concerted effort to spread as many lies about me as possible, to destroy my reputation so that I’m not credible when I continue to reveal all of the massive evidence of criminality by the Bidens.”

Among the more colorful facts uncovered by the Journal Monday is that Fraud Guarantee, Parnas and Correia’s company, hired the right-wing lobbyist and conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman to help apply for a grant from the Obama administration in 2013.

Burkman, who’s since teamed up with the 21-year-old smearmonger Jacob Wohl, told the Journal that he first met Parnas in 2012 and subsequently helped Fraud Guarantee apply for a federal grant for “computer innovation in the role of finance.” The effort was unsuccessful.

Per the the Journal, Parnas even told one potential investor in 2014 that he was headed to Washington, D.C. to meet first lady Michelle Obama. That did not actually occur, an unnamed former White House official told the paper.
Click to expand...

194481
 
talkingpointsmemo.com

SCOTUS Freezes House Subpoena Of Trump Financial Docs While Waiting For Appeal

The Supreme Court on Monday put on pause lower court rulings upholding the House's subpoena of President Trump's accounting firm for his tax returns and other financial records.
talkingpointsmemo.com

SCOTUS Freezes House Subpoena Of Trump Financial Docs While Waiting For Appeal

The Supreme Court on Monday put on pause lower court rulings upholding the House’s subpoena of President Trump’s accounting firm for his tax returns and other financial records.

The halt on enforcement of that subpoena will remain in effect until at least next week. The court gave Trump until Dec. 5 to ask it to take up the case.

The pause will continue if the Supreme Court agree to take the case and until it issues a final judgment, according to Monday’s order. If the Supreme Court does not grant review of the case, the pause will be lifted then.

The schedule laid out by the court could give it time to hear this case this term, particularly if it makes a decision whether to grant the case at it Dec. 13 conference, as the House previously requested.
Click to expand...
 
talkingpointsmemo.com

TX GOP Accidentally Deliver 2020 Playbook To Democratic Inboxes

Texas Republicans’ 2020 election game plan somehow made its way into Democratic inboxes Monday evening.
talkingpointsmemo.com

Texas Republicans Accidentally Deliver 2020 Playbook To Democratic Inboxes


Texas Republicans’ 2020 election game plan somehow made its way into Democratic inboxes Monday evening, listing 12 statehouse districts to attack and focusing on how to mitigate “the polarizing nature” of President Donald Trump.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Republicans intend to set up attack “microsites” for the 12 incumbents who won by less than 4 percent in 2018. Part of the plan includes buying ostensibly supportive domain names to reroute them to the negative sites.

The document is also permeated with Republicans’ concern about the Trump effect on down-ballot races.

“Given the polarizing nature of the President, I suspect some Republicans will refuse to turnout during the General Election because they don’t want to vote for him – though I don’t know that we will know what this universe would look like without us or a stakeholder creating a model,” the document reads. “Regardless, I suggest we set up a contingency budget to target these folks with mailers, digital ads, and texts to encourage them to turnout for U.S. Senate, State Senate, State House, and so on.”

Democrats are aiming to win the majority in the Texas House for the first time since 2003, after making significant gains in the 2018 blue wave.
Click to expand...
 
talkingpointsmemo.com

Richard Spencer Might Not Be The Last Pentagon Official To Exit Over Trump

Several of the Pentagon's top officials are mulling when it might be time to call it quits over President Trump's lack of respect for the military's chain of command, Politico reported.
talkingpointsmemo.com

Richard Spencer Might Not Be The Last Pentagon Official To Exit Over Trump

Several of the Pentagon’s top officials are mulling when it might be time to call it quits over President Trump’s lack of respect for the military’s chain of command, Politico reported.

According to two senior officials who spoke to Politico, the officials felt this way even before Navy Secretary Richard Spencer was pushed out this weekend. Spencer quit after the defense secretary dinged him for not properly handling Trump’s demand that the Navy cancel its disciplinary hearing for Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, who was acquitted of murder, but convicted of posing with a corpse of a militant in Iraq.

“There’s a sense of dejection by senior leaders in the Pentagon, that the President and the secretary of defense are going to side with the loudmouths at Fox News against the reasoned opposition of senior military professionals,” another Pentagon official told Politico. “That’s the sense in a nutshell.”
The Spencer incident was just the latest tension between Pentagon leaders and Trump that spilled out into the open. Other past soar spots include Trump’s decision to pull troops out of Syria, the ban on transgender people serving in the military, Defense Department funding being sent to the border to build Trump’s border wall and the scandal involving the order to cover the name on the U.S.S. John McCain destroyer in Japan last year.

Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned in December over Trump’s push to withdraw from Syria and sources who spoke to Politico believe others will follow suit, including Rear Adm. Collin Green, who oversees the Navy SEALS. Many speculate he will follow Spencer’s departure, according to Politico.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top