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Sondland: ‘Giuliani’s Requests Were a Quid Pro Quo’ and He Was ‘Expressing the Desires of the President’

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United States Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland delivered blockbuster testimony Wednesday morning directly charging President Donald Trump and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, directed a “quid pro quo” scheme to extort Ukraine.

“Giuliani’s requests were a quid pro quo for arranging a White House visit for President Zelensky,” Sondland testified before the House Intelligence Committee, saying that he worked on the Ukraine scheme at the “express direction of the president of the United States.”

He added: “Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the President of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the President.”

EARLIER: Sondland: ‘We Followed the President’s Orders’

This is a breaking news and developing story. Details may change. This story will be updated, and NCRM will likely publish follow-up stories on this news. Stay tuned and refresh for updates.

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Trump Has a Hidden Bank Account in China

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President Donald Trump has a bank account in China which until now has been hidden from the public. The account, as first reported by The New York Times Tuesday evening, does not appear anywhere on the President’s financial disclosure forms.

Trump for years attempted to claim he and President Xi of China (photo, at Mar-a-Lago) were good friends.

“Mr. Trump’s own business history is filled with overseas financial deals, and some have involved the Chinese state,” the Times reveals. “He spent a decade unsuccessfully pursuing projects in China, operating an office there during his first run for president and forging a partnership with a major government-controlled company.”

Trump operates his business empire as a “pass-through,” which means that ultimately all profits makes their way to the president and his family.

“And it turns out that China is one of only three foreign nations — the others are Britain and Ireland — where Mr. Trump maintains a bank account, according to an analysis of the president’s tax records, which were obtained by The New York Times. The foreign accounts do not show up on Mr. Trump’s public financial disclosures, where he must list personal assets, because they are held under corporate names. The identities of the financial institutions are not clear.”

The Times goes on to report Trump paid China in taxes from 2013 to 2015 far more than the zero taxes he paid to the U.S. government during the same years.

One of Trump’s companies in China “reported an unusually large spike in revenue — some $17.5 million, more than the previous five years’ combined. It was accompanied by a $15.1 million withdrawal by Mr. Trump from the company’s capital account.”

“Until last year, China’s biggest state-controlled bank rented three floors in Trump Tower, a lucrative lease that drew accusations of a conflict of interest for the president,” the Times adds.

Read the entire report at The New York Times.

 

Image: Official White Photo by D. Myles Cullen via Flickr 

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‘Blight on America’: Internet Trolls ‘Gun Death Merchants’ at NRA With ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ as NY Sues to Dissolve Org

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New York Attorney General Letitia James is announcing a massive, devastating lawsuit against the National Rifle Association for fraud and self-dealing, and calling for the top gun group to be dissolved.

As the news broke, detailing millions in excessive spending for personal use, the suit alleges, the Internet exploded, trolling the NRA with messages of “thoughts and prayers,” the same line conservatives use when they want to appear sympathetic to mass shootings while refusing to take any action to stop them.

Stoneman Douglas High School shooting massacre survivor and March for Our Lives co-founder:

Pulse Nightclub mass shooting survivor:

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America:

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‘These Cases Can Move Very Quickly’: Former Acting Solicitor General Says ‘If I’m Donald Trump I’m Scared Right Now’

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Former Acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal says Thursday’s Supreme Court rulings in the Trump tax cases are not, despite what some are claiming, a “mixed bag.”

“If I’m Donald Trump I’m scared right now,” says Katyal, an award-winning litigator who is a professor of national security law at Georgetown University Law Center.

“I love my MSNBC colleagues and analysts but I profoundly disagree with almost everything that’s been said,” Katyal said on the cable news network late Thursday morning. “This is not a ‘mixed bag,’ or a ‘victory’ for Trump. Trump shouldn’t be happy about this. The fact is he lost. Her lost resoundingly, 7-2, including his own appointees to the court – Kavanaugh and Gorsuch.”

“The court by seven justices rejected his broad claims of immunity, and for a president who’s sworn to take care that the laws be faithfully executed in our Constitution, the Supreme Court is saying, ‘These are bogus claims.'”

Related –
‘Not Fair’: Trump Screams He Deserves ‘Broad Deference’ From Supreme Court in Major Twitter Tantrum

“Now, it’s true, the case is going to go back to New York and to the D.C. courts, but the key question is ‘What’s left?’ And with the Manhattan case, very little,” Katyal pronounced, referring to the case that allows New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. to obtain Trump’s taxes and could lead to prosecution over possible fraud in the President’s hush money payments to porn stars.

Katyal says it’s “doubtful” that Trump will be able to delay the Manhattan DA case past the election.

“These cases can move very quickly. The Nixon tapes case moved in a matter of three months,” he noted, and aded that Bush v. Gore was resolved in 36 days.

“I expect Cy Vance to move incredibly fast,” he says.

“It looks pretty damaging to Donald Trump.”

Watch:

 

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