Trump Blasts Leaks to Media Revealing Mueller's Questions on Russia
The New York Times claimed Monday night that they had obtained a copy of the questions that special counsel Robert Mueller is intending to ask President Trump in his investigation into Russian election interference and alleged collusion. The questions had already been given to President Trump’s legal team.
On Monday, Michael Schmidt, who broke the story at the New York Times, tweeted: “We have obtained a list of four dozen questions Mueller wants to ask Trump.”
43 specific questions, broken down into 4 categories were leaked to the New York Times. This is how the questions are broken up: The first section is entitled, “Questions related to Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser.” The second section is entitled, “Questions related to James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director.” The third section is entitled, “Questions related to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and a fourth section is entitled, “Campaign Coordination with Russia.”
The questions appear to be an attempt to penetrate the president’s thinking, to get at the motivation behind some of his most combative Twitter posts and to examine his relationships with his family and his closest advisers.
The questions deal chiefly with the president’s high-profile firings of F.B.I. director, James Comey, Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, Trump’s treatment of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and a 2016 Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.
The questions also touch on the president’s businesses, any discussions with his longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, about a Moscow real estate deal, whether the president knew of any attempt by Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to set up a back channel to Russia during the transition, any contacts he had with Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime adviser who claimed to have inside information about Democratic email hackings, and what happened during Mr. Trump’s 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant.
The White House on Tuesday said it's “frustrated” with the direction of the Russia probe, claiming the leaked questions special counsel Robert Mueller reportedly prepared for President Trump prove the federal investigation has veered off its intended course.
“The overwhelming majority of those questions don't focus on the underlying premise of this special counsel. We have been cooperating as a White House with this probe, but we are a little frustrated that the focus of it is not near what it was created to focus on, which is the collusion question,” deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah told Fox News.
On Tuesday, Trump tweeted, “So disgraceful that the questions concerning the Russian Witch Hunt were “leaked” to the media. No questions on Collusion. Oh, I see...you have a made up, phony crime, Collusion, that never existed, and an investigation begun with illegally leaked classified information. Nice!”
Trump went on to say, “It would seem very hard to obstruct justice for a crime that never happened! Witch Hunt!”
John Kelly Says He Didn’t Call Trump an Idiot
On Monday, White House chief of staff John Kelly personally denied calling President Donald Trump an "idiot". In a statement released by Kelly, he said, “I spend more time with the President than anyone else and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship. He always knows where I stand and he and I both know this story is total BS. I am committed to the President, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration's many successes.” Kelly's top aide, Zachary Fuentes, also disputed the rumor that Kelly called Trump an “idiot”, saying he had never heard Kelly describe the president that way.
On Monday, Trump Defended Kelly in a tweet, saying “The Fake News is going crazy making up false stories and using only unnamed sources (who don’t exist). They are totally unhinged, and the great success of this Administration is making them do and say things that even they can’t believe they are saying. Truly bad people!”
John Kelly’s alleged “idiot” remarks are from last year when he allegedly said, “He doesn't even understand what DACA is. He's an idiot. We've got to save him from himself.” Kelly's alleged disparaging remark was first reported Monday by former administration official to NBC News.
Netanyahu: Iran Nuclear Deal Is Based on Lies
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran had lied about never pursuing nuclear weapons. Iran has continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons knowledge even after signing a 2015 deal with global powers.
“Iran’s leaders repeatedly deny ever pursuing nuclear weapons. I’m here to tell you one thing: Iran lied,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a prime-time televised address carried by Israeli networks.
The Israeli leader spoke in English and showed pictures and videos purporting to be of historic secret Iranian nuclear facilities, as well as Iranian documents and plans to develop atomic weapons. “Tonight, we’re going to reveal new and conclusive proof of the secret nuclear weapons program that Iran has been hiding for years from the international community in its secret atomic archive. We’re going to show you Iran’s secret nuclear files.”
“After signing the nuclear deal in 2015, Iran intensified its efforts to hide its secret files. In 2017 Iran moved its nuclear weapons to a highly secret location in Tehran,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Calling it one of the greatest achievements in the history of Israeli intelligence, Prime Minister Netanyahu displayed what he said were files that demonstrate Iran planned to continue pursuing a nuclear weapons program despite the 2015 deal it brokered with the international community. The files were kept in massive vaults inside an "innocent-looking compound" in Shorabad District, the Prime Minister said. The 100,000 files contain, among other things, blueprints, charts, photos, videos and presentations dealing with nuclear weaponry.
May Day: Celebrations and Chaos Around the World
Thousands of people across the globe took to the streets Tuesday to champion the rights of workers and put a spotlight on labor issues. May Day, also known as International Workers' Day, is both a seasonal celebration of spring marked by parades and bright colors and a day to honor workers, often marked by protests and rallies.
French riot police used water cannons and teargas on Tuesday against hundreds of hooded protesters after they smashed shop windows and hurled petrol bombs at the start of an annual May Day rally in Paris. Police had warned on Monday of possible clashes with far-left anarchist groups, known as Black Blocs, after a call on social media to make Tuesday a “Revolutionary Day”.
Authorities said some 1,200 hooded and masked protesters dressed in black had turned up on the sidelines of the annual planned demonstration by labor unions. The protesters smashed the windows of several businesses, including a Renault garage and a McDonalds restaurant on a road near the Austerlitz station in eastern Paris and they set fire to a construction vehicle.
Migrant Caravan Update
Hopes rose on Tuesday among a caravan of migrants who traveled from Central America to seek asylum in the United States after U.S. border authorities allowed the first small group of women and children entry from Mexico overnight. Celebrations erupted on Monday night among dozens of migrants camped near the U.S. border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, after U.S. officials admitted eight women and children, fueling the determination of others to remain until they were admitted.
However, late Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced what it described as the first prosecutions against members of the caravan, filing criminal charges against 11 migrants accused of entering the country illegally about four miles west of the San Ysidro, California, border crossing. Two Salvadorans, six Hondurans, two Guatemalans and a Mexican national face charges, according to federal complaints. They are currently in custody.
The 11 migrants face a misdemeanor charge for allegedly entering the US illegally. One individual, who is alleged to have entered the country after he was previously deported, also faces a felony charge, according to the complaint.
Those left behind said they would continue their sit-in until they were at least allowed to recount their stories to border officials and try to convince them that it was unsafe to go home. The caravan swelled to 1,500 people at one point but has since dwindled to a few hundred.
Press Suicide: White House Correspondents’ Dinner
The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) is gathering feedback and contemplating possible changes to its annual dinner following criticism about the event. Olivier Knox, who will take over as the WHCA president this summer, told CNN on Monday that discussions are underway to address members’ concerns about the annual gala.
Knox did not appear to entertain the idea of getting rid of the event entirely, noting that it serves as a source of revenue for the WHCA. However, he said there is growing support for hosting an event that does not have an entertainer. “My goal is for the center of gravity of the dinner to be reporters — not the president, not the comic,” Knox said. “As somebody who has said for a very long time that the dinner should be ‘boring,’ that is to say focused on journalists and the work of good reporters, I am very open to suggestions about how to change it,” Knox told CNN’s Brian Stelter.
White House Correspondents’ Association President Margaret Talev on Sunday lamented that comedian Michelle Wolf’s routine during the organization’s annual dinner was “not in the spirit” of its mission. Last night’s program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not to divide people,” Talev said on Sunday.
ABBA going back on Tour!
Some 35 years after their split, the four original members of Abba announced that they have recorded two new songs. One, “I Still Have Faith in You,” is set for release in December.
That song will be part of a “Virtual Abba” experience in collaboration with “American Idol” creator Simon Fuller first announced in 2016, and it will premiere, via digital versions of band members, on NBC and ABC at the end of this year. The virtual Abba experience will feature holograms of the members of ABBA – called ABBAtars
In a statement, the band wrote: “The decision to go ahead with the exciting ABBA avatar tour project had an unexpected consequence. We all four felt that, after some 35 years, it could be fun to join forces again and go into the recording studio. So we did. And it was like time had stood still and that we only had been away on a short holiday. An extremely joyful experience!”
Abba are one of the most popular musical artists in history, having sold hundreds of millions of albums worldwide since their formation in Sweden 1972. The group’s simple-sounding but highly sophisticated songs have endured since the group, consisting of two married couples, split amid the breakup of the two couples in 1982.
Mail Time!
- Great column on the White House dinner. Please keep telling it like it is. Otherwise people grow numb to the hypocrisy and imagine it must be acceptable as the new normal. Truth will always resonate, but someone needs to say it loud and clear enough to be heard. It's why we love you.
- Bill, so George Soros and his Media Matters group want to push for sponsor boycotts of anyone with whom they disagree and/or disapprove of...in essence, not meeting their far left progressive agenda. Well, is it possible for two to play at that game? I realize it's not feasible to uncover every profitable entity that Mr. Soros has his mega-bucks invested in, but couldn't a few of his larger concerns be made public to the folks so that we could initiate our own boycott of sponsors of Soros and Media Matters?
- Bill's exactly right. If these people truly sought asylum, they'd ask Mexico first. If they did, and were denied, we need to talk to Mexico to find out why. This is NOT an 'asylum' play. This is an elective migration play, and we've no obligation to take these people. This nonsense guilt trip is not the right way to do this.
Word of the Day: Sniffish |
