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BAD PRESIDENT

The Five Boogeymen Who Keep Trump Awake at Night

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From a legal standpoint, the final weeks of 2018 have been difficult for President Donald Trump and his associates. Michael Cohen (Trump’s former personal attorney) was sentenced to three years in federal prison, Judge Emmet Sullivan read Michael Flynn (Trump’s former national security advisor) the riot act, and the plea deal that Paul Manafort (Trump’s former campaign manager) had with Special Counsel Robert Mueller came to a bitter end when Mueller determined that Manafort had been lying to him repeatedly. But as many legal challenges as Trump and his associates (who veteran television journalist Dan Rather has described as a “flock of felons”) have faced in 2018, 2019 is likely to bring them even more legal headaches. On top of ongoing investigations from Mueller’s office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, they will have a Democrat-dominated House of Representatives to contend with. Trump’s legal worries will increase, not decrease, in 2019.

Here are five government entities that Trump and his associates, from a legal standpoint, will need to worry about in the new year.

  1. Investigative Committees in a Democrat-Controlled House of Representatives

Democrats enjoyed a net gain of 40 seats in the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterms, and that new Democratic House majority is sure to bring about an abundance of investigative committees and subpoenas in 2019. Some of the key House Democrats that Trump and his associates will need to be concerned about in the new year include Rep. Maxine Waters (who will head the House Committee on Financial Services) and Rep. Adam Schiff (who will head the House Intelligence Committee). Waters and Schiff have made it abundantly clear that Trump-related investigations will be a high priority for them in 2019.

  1. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Office

It remains to be seen what Mueller’s final report for his Russiagate probe will reveal, but one important thing to remember is that the special counsel has been incredibly guarded with his information. Mueller has carefully avoided the media, and his recent sentencing memos on Flynn and Cohen were heavily redacted when they were made public. Although Mueller’s probe has led to an abundance of indictments, guilty pleas and prosecutions since 2017, Mueller has revealed only a fraction of what he knows—and it’s entirely possible that the biggest bombshells are yet to be revealed.

  1. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York

Mueller’s team are not the only federal prosecutors who have been paying close attention to Trump and his associates in 2017 and 2018—the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York have been paying close attention as well. In fact, most of the federal crimes Cohen has pled guilty to were for charges brought about by the Southern District. When Cohen recently pled guilty to lying to Congress about plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, he did so for Mueller’s team. But all eight of the counts Cohen pled guilty to on August 22—which ranged from tax evasion and bank fraud to campaign finance violations—were part of his plea agreement with the Southern District of New York.

  1. The New York State Attorney General’s Office

The legal woes of Trump and his associates not only exist at the federal level but also at the state level. And because so many of his business interests are in New York City, they fall under the jurisdiction of the state attorney general’s office for New York State. Barbara Underwood, New York State’s acting attorney general, has been a major thorn in Trump’s side; the president recently agreed to shut down his Trump Foundation after Underwood lambasted him for using the charity for personal and political benefit. But Letitia James, who will be replacing fellow Democrat Underwood in January, is likely to be even more aggressive when it comes to Trump-related investigations. Elected in the 2018 midterms, James campaigned on thorough, comprehensive investigations of the Trump Organization and the Trump family. James recently told NBC News that in 2019, “We will use every area of the law to investigate President Trump and his business transactions and that of his family as well.”

  1. U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia

On December 13, Russian citizen and Washington, DC resident Maria Butina pled guilty to illegally acting as an unregistered foreign agent and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Court for the District of Columbia, Butina was reporting to Russian politician/oligarch Alexander Torshin (who has close ties to President Vladimir Putin) when she infiltrated the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the Republican Party. Although the federal prosecution of Butina was separate from Mueller’s investigation, his team will no doubt be paying close attention to what she has to say in 2019 about the Russian Federation and the Republican Party.

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BAD PRESIDENT

Trump Swipes at Mark Zuckerberg Asking for White House Goodies: ‘He Didn’t Do Too Well’

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Former President Donald J. Trump mocked Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and “big tech” during an interview on Tuesday when he appeared on Fox News with Sean Hannity.

Trump meandered throughout the interview and went off on a tangent claiming he did “big things” when discussing the 2020 election. Trump said Zuckerberg visited the White House “trying to get goodies,” but that “he didn’t do too well.”

Trump added, “So I thought that he was concerned we were doing things. We were doing things. Had we had a second term, we would have had that much, really, pretty much under control. We had some incredible things planned for big tech.”

Watch the video below.

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BAD PRESIDENT

Lincoln Project Trolls Trump with New TV Ad Where He’s Currently Vacationing

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The conservative anti-Trump PAC Lincoln Project is launching an ad campaign in South Florida with the hopes that President Trump, who is currently vacationing in the region, will see them.

According to the Sun Sentinel, the group has bought air time in the West Palm Beach market from Wednesday through Jan. 5. Trump is scheduled to be in the area until Jan. 3.

“A major pillar of The Lincoln Project’s 2020 strategy was aiming to torment an audience of one — Trump — through advertising on cable shows he’s sure to watch on channels such as Fox News,” the Sentinel reports. “That’s the aim of the latest effort, which seeks to drive a wedge between Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, who will preside over the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress at which the electoral votes making Joe Biden the next president will be counted.”

The ad focuses on recent reports that say Vice President Mike Pence is “backing away” from Trumpworld’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

“When Mike Pence is backing away from you, you know it’s over,” the ad states.

Watch the ad below.

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BAD PRESIDENT

‘A Parting Gift to Dictators’: Trump Issues Final Round of Foreign Military Sales in Middle East

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On Monday, writing for The Washington Post, columnist Brian Klaas tore into outgoing President Donald Trump for a final round of foreign military sales in the Middle East that function as a “parting gift to dictators” — and suggested he could even be using them to set up a private quid pro quo down the road in his post-presidency.

“All three regimes have abysmal human rights records,” wrote Klaas. “Saudi Arabia has beheaded dissidents, subjugated women and detained female activists who have pushed for reforms, and murdered and dismembered Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The United Arab Emirates is home to torture, arbitrary detention and forced disappearances. Egypt’s dictatorship has carried

“Given past behavior, we know how these weapons will likely be used,” warned Klaas. “Despots will use them to help facilitate war crimes in places such as Yemen and the Sinai Peninsula while maintaining an iron grip over their own populations — all aided and abetted by the U.S. government.”

And even worse, Klaas argued, Trump himself could be using these sales to call in a personal favor from these countries in his post-presidency. “Once Trump leaves the White House, odds are good that he will cash in,” he wrote. “Seen in that light, the recently approved arms sales and military technology transfers are even more worrying. Are they just the beginning of a quid pro quo?”

All of this is occurring as President-elect Joe Biden alleges the Pentagon is obstructing him from getting all of the national security information he requires for the transition — something administration officials deny.

“For the past four years, Trump has painted the image of a United States that consistently sides with tyrants,” concluded Klaas. “Biden now has an opportunity to reverse Trump’s catastrophic foreign policy. He should take it.”

You can read more here.

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