Tag: Trump abuse of power

Prosecutors quit amid escalating Justice Dept. fight over Roger Stone’s prison term

Washington Post logoAll four career prosecutors handling the case against Roger Stone withdrew from the legal proceedings Tuesday — and one quit his job entirely — after the Justice Department signaled it planned to undercut their sentencing recommendation for President Trump’s longtime friend and confidant.

The sudden and dramatic moves came after prosecutors and their superiors had argued for days over the appropriate penalty for Stone, and exposed what some career Justice Department employees say is a continuing pattern of the historically independent law enforcement institution being bent to Trump’s political will.

Almost simultaneously, Trump decided to revoke the nomination to a top Treasury Department post of his former U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia, who had supervised the Stone case when it went to trial. Continue reading.

George Conway Suggests Why ‘Vindictive’ Trump May Need To Be Impeached Again

“America beware,” writes the husband of the president’s counselor Kellyanne Conway. “He’s very, very angry.”

Conservative attorney George Conway has penned a scorching op-ed about President Donald Trump, in the wake of the president’s firing of two witnesses who testified in the House impeachment inquiry.

Conway, who is married to the president’s counselor Kellyanne Conway, opened his Washington Post article with a quote from Trump following his Senate acquittal Thursday. “We’ll probably have to do it again, because these people have gone stone-cold crazy,” the president riffed on impeachment in the East Room.

Conway posited that, the very next day, Trump demonstrated “precisely why he could be destined to achieve that ignominious fate” with his “retaliatory” dismissals. Continue reading.

‘Vindman Deserves Better’: GOP Group Hits Donald Trump With New Attack Ad On Fox News

“Our military deserves better. Our country deserves better,” Republicans for the Rule of Law declares in the spot that will air on “Fox & Friends.”

A conservative group is hitting President Donald Trump with another attack ad on one of his favorite TV shows, this time declaring that “our country deserves better.”

Republicans for the Rule of Law blasts Trump’s decision to fire Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a key witness in the House’s impeachment investigation into the Ukraine scandal, in its latest spot that will air on Fox News’ flagship morning show “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday.

The promo calls out Trump for ousting Vindman, a decorated Iraq War veteran who served on the National Security Council as an expert on Ukrainian affairs, and his twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, who reportedly had no link to the impeachment investigation. Continue reading.

Trump’s War Against ‘the Deep State’ Enters a New Stage

New York Times logoThe suggestion that Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman should now face punishment by the Pentagon was one sign of how determined the president is to even the scales after his impeachment.

WASHINGTON — As far as President Trump is concerned, banishing Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman from the White House and exiling him back to the Pentagon was not enough. If he had his way, the commander in chief made clear on Tuesday, the Defense Department would now take action against the colonel, too.

“That’s going to be up to the military,” Mr. Trump told reporters who asked whether Colonel Vindman should face disciplinary action after testifying in the House hearings that led to the president’s impeachment. “But if you look at what happened,” Mr. Trump added in threatening terms, “I mean they’re going to, certainly, I would imagine, take a look at that.”

This is an unsettled time in Mr. Trump’s Washington. In the days since he was acquitted in a Senate trial, an aggrieved and unbound president has sought to even the scales as he sees it. Colonel Vindman was abruptly marched by security out of the White House, an ambassador who also testified in the House hearings was summarily dismissed, and senior Justice Department officials on Tuesday intervened on behalf of Mr. Trump’s convicted friend, Roger J. Stone Jr., leading four career prosecutors to quit the case. Continue reading.

New polls find McConnell’s sham impeachment trial of Trump didn’t fool the American public

AlterNet logoBy a 15-point margin Americans say that, despite being acquitted in the Senate, Donald Trump has not been cleared of wrongdoing in the Ukraine matter. Fully 55% say Trump has not been exonerated by his acquittal while 40% believe he has, according a new Quinnipiac poll released Monday. The views of independents track almost perfectly with those findings, with 54% saying Trump has not been cleared and 40% saying he has.

What this means more broadly is that Americans weren’t fooled by Republicans’ sham trial one bit. In the poll, 51% still believe that Trump’s actions were serious enough to warrant impeachment, while 46% believe they didn’t reach the threshold. Independents are split on that question 49% to 49%. Perhaps even more telling are respondents’ views on whether the Senate trial was conducted fairly:

  • Unfairly: 59%
  • Fairly: 35%

That finding is almost identical to Monmouth polling also released today, showing 58% say the trial was unfair, while 35% say it was fair. In effect, Senate Republicans’ sham trial only inspired confidence in GOP voters, 54% of whom called it fair, while Democrats (78%-18%) and independents (56%-39%) overwhelmingly found it unfair. View the post here.

‘Not just chilling but frightening’: Inside Vindman’s ouster amid fears of further retaliation by Trump

Washington Post logoHe had been publicly vilified by President Trump, marched out of his national security office across from the White House, so Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman wanted only to get his mind off politics as he settled in to watch a television show with his grade-school-age daughter Friday evening.

Then his wife returned home with some news: Much of the country had just watched as former vice president Joe Biden implored the audience to give a standing ovation in Vindman’s honor at the nationally televised Democratic presidential debate in Manchester, N.H.

“Stand up and clap for Vindman. That’s not who we are! We’re not what Trump is!” Biden thundered in the name of the Army officer whom Trump had hours earlier ousted from the White House National Security Council in retaliation for his testimony in the House Democrats’ impeachment probe. Continue reading.

‘Campaign of intimidation’: Vindman’s lawyer responds to new attacks by Trump

Trump tweeted that Vindman ‘had problems with judgement, adhering to the chain of command and leaking information.’

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s attorney vigorously pushed back Saturday on President Donald Trump publicly tying the impeachment witness’ ouster to insubordination and leaking information.

In a statement, attorney David Pressman said Trump’s claims “conflict with the clear personnel record and the entirety of the impeachment record of which the President is well aware.”

Trump tweeted Saturday morning that Vindman, who was the top Ukraine policy officer on the National Security Council, “had problems with judgement, adhering to the chain of command and leaking information.” Continue reading.

Nancy Pelosi Rips Republicans For ‘Normalizing Lawlessness’ In Scathing Op-Ed

The GOP-controlled Senate has ensured Trump remains “an ongoing threat to American democracy,” Pelosi wrote in a column for The Washington Post.

Nancy Pelosi on Friday launched a fresh attack on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the GOP senators who earlier this week voted to acquit President Donald Trump on impeachment charges.

The Democratic House speaker, in a searing editorial for The Washington Post titled “McConnell and the GOP Senate are accomplices to Trump’s wrongdoing,” accused them of “normalizing lawlessness and rejecting the checks and balances of our Constitution.”

Pelosi noted how Trump’s defense team “all but” conceded the president’s misconduct in the Ukraine scandal, in which she said he “abused the power of his office to pressure a foreign power to help him cheat in an American election” before stonewalling the congressional investigation into said allegation and preventing key witnesses from testifying in the Senate trial. Continue reading.

Republican Senators Tried to Stop Trump From Firing Impeachment Witness

New York Times logoA handful of senators reached out to the White House to warn the president not to dismiss Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union who testified in the House hearings. But Mr. Trump went ahead anyway.

WASHINGTON — A handful of Republican senators tried to stop President Trump from firing Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union who testified in the House impeachment hearings, but the president relieved the diplomat of his post anyway, according to people briefed on the discussions.

The senators were concerned that it would look bad for Mr. Trump to dismiss Mr. Sondland and argued that it was unnecessary, since the ambassador was already talking with senior officials about leaving after the Senate trial, the people said. The senators told White House officials that Mr. Sondland should be allowed to depart on his own terms, which would have reduced any political backlash.

But Mr. Trump evidently was not interested in a quiet departure, choosing instead to make a point by forcing Mr. Sondland out before the ambassador was ready to go. When State Department officials called Mr. Sondland on Friday to tell him that he had to resign that day, he resisted, saying that he did not want to be included in what seemed like a larger purge of impeachment witnesses, according to the people informed about the matter. Continue reading.

Republicans sense momentum after impeachment win

The Hill logoHouse Republicans believe they are gaining momentum after a terrible week for Democrats and a strong one for President Trump.

GOP lawmakers are becoming optimistic they have a chance to pick up seats or even win back the majority in November.

Taking back the House would require picking up at least 18 seats and would be a tough climb, but Republicans say the turmoil in the Democratic Party and a strong economy bolstering Trump give them reasons for optimism. Continue reading.