Tag: Trump White House

Trump appointee Ken Cuccinelli ‘shamed’ out of a DC bar after face-to-face confrontation with Martin O’Malley

AlterNet logoFormer Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-MD) ran into Ken Cuccinelli in a Capitol Hill pub Wednesday night, but it wasn’t all polite smiles.

According to the Washington Post, O’Malley lit into Cuccinelli.

The DC pub, the Dubliner, is popular for Gonzaga High School graduates who frequently meet up there on Thanksgiving Eve. The two men both attended the high school, but O’Malley graduated five years prior to Cuccinelli.

View the complete November 28 article by Sarah Burris from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Judge temporarily stays McGahn subpoena

The Hill logoA federal district judge on Wednesday issued a temporary stay of her order that former White House counsel Don McGahn comply with House Democrats’ subpoena for testimony.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, an Obama appointee on the district court in D.C., granted McGahn’s request for a temporary stay while she deliberates on whether to issue a lengthier one to allow him to appeal her decision.

The House Judiciary Committee, which had asked the court to enforce its subpoena for President Trump‘s former legal adviser, said it would not oppose a temporary stay.

View the complete November 27 article by Harper Neidig on The Hill website here.

Democrats eye taking fight over McGahn testimony to impeachment trial

The Hill logoLegal experts say the fight over whether White House counsel Don McGahn must testify under subpoena before Congress could be settled at the Senate impeachment trial before it finishes its path through the courts.

A federal judge on Monday ruled against the Trump administration, deciding that McGahn must comply with a House Judiciary Committee subpoena seeking his testimony.

The ruling is being appealed, but Democrats could look to secure testimony from McGahn and other key witnesses directly at the Senate trial, where Chief Justice John Roberts would preside, experts said. There, Roberts would have a key role in deciding questions about admitting evidence before the case even gets to the Supreme Court.

View the complete November 27 article by John Kruzel on The Hill website here.

Pompeo-Trump relationship tested by impeachment inquiry

The Hill logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo is on rocky terrain with President Trump and members of the State Department following critical testimony by diplomatic officials in the public impeachment hearings led by House Democrats. 

Career foreign service officers and Trump appointees came forward last week to lay out in great detail how the president and his allies carried out a smear campaign against the now-former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and how the administration’s policy toward the country raised concerns among veteran diplomats.

The witnesses testified about their frustrations with the lack of a public defense from Pompeo when State Department employees were under attack or sidelined, and Trump has expressed frustration with officials underneath Pompeo who provided the bulk of damaging testimony about the president’s dealings with Ukraine.

View the complete November 27 article by Brett Samuels and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Why Would Any Competent Person Work For Trump?

Donald Trump has a terrible time getting good people to work for him. Just look at who is, and is not, giving testimony in his impeachment hearings, which increasingly suggests a contest between Super Bowl champions and backyard flag football players, most of whom ran away when they saw who was across the scrimmage line.

The impeachment inquiry, and Trump’s entire presidency, is a complete contradiction to his frequent campaign promise that as president he would “surround myself with only the best and most serious people.”

For starters consider Gordon Sondland, the goofy Oregon hotel magnate who bought himself an ambassadorship with a $1 million gift to the Trump inaugural. Sondland is so naive that sitting in a Kyiv restaurant he rings up Trump on his cell phone, not giving a moment’s thought to Ukrainian and Russian intelligence services recording that call.

View the complete November 26 article by David Cay Johnston of DC Report on the National Memo website here.

Trump says he would ‘love to’ have officials testify but is ‘fighting for future presidents’

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Tuesday claimed he was blocking current and former administration officials from testifying in the impeachment inquiry to protect future presidents. The statement came one day after a federal judge ruled former White House counsel Don McGahn must appear before a House panel.

Trump argued in a trio of tweets that he “would love to have” McGahn, former national security adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney testify. The White House has thus far blocked officials from complying with Democratic requests for testimony in the House impeachment inquiry.

“The D.C. Wolves and Fake News Media are reading far too much into people being forced by Courts to testify before Congress,” he tweeted. “I am fighting for future Presidents and the Office of the President. Other than that, I would actually like people to testify.”

View the complete November 26 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

Trump administration to appeal ruling over former WH counsel McGahn testimony

The Hill logoThe Justice Department on Tuesday said it would appeal a ruling by a federal district judge ordering former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before Congress.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) also asked the judge to pause the ruling while the appeal plays out. In the interim, House Democrats, who issued the subpoena for McGahn’s testimony, have agreed to a weeklong suspension, or stay, of the ruling that was issued Monday night.

DOJ lawyers argued that a stay pending appeal should be granted because there is a “significant chance” that a federal appeals court will find McGahn is “absolutely immune from compelled congressional testimony.”

View the complete November 26 article by John Kruzel on The Hill website here.

Jared Kushner’s new assignment: Overseeing the construction of Trump’s border wall

Washington Post logoPresident Trump has made his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the de facto project manager for constructing his border wall, frustrated with a lack of progress over one of his top priorities as he heads into a tough reelection campaign, according to current and former administration officials.

Kushner convenes biweekly meetings in the West Wing, where he questions an array of government officials about progress on the wall, including updates on contractor data, precisely where it will be built and how funding is being spent. He also shares and explains the president’s wishes with the group, according to the officials familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations.

The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser is pressing U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite the process of taking over private land needed for the project as the government seeks to meet Trump’s goal of erecting 450 miles of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of 2020. More than 800 filings to seize private property will need to be made in the coming months if the government is going to succeed, officials aid.

View the complete November 25 article by Josh Dawsey and Nick Miroff on The Washington Post website here.

Want to Read the Judges Ruling on the Trump Suit to Block McGahn Testimony?

Here’s a link to the posting by Politico:

https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000016e-a4c4-d442-a5ef-fee4e04c0000&nname=playbook&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&nrid=00000160-02a9-d1c4-a372-0fedf62a0000&nlid=630318

 

White House keeps Democrats from critical witnesses

The Hill logoWitnesses pointed their fingers at a number of figures close to President Trump who could help untangle the web around the administration’s dealings with Ukraine during the public impeachment hearings. But Democrats won’t be hearing from them.

The White House has prevented the president’s chief of staff, his former national security adviser, budget officials and two individuals named as part of the alleged rogue channel behind a push for investigations by Kyiv — his personal attorney and outgoing energy secretary — from testifying before Congress.

Democrats could go to court to try to force the officials to testify, but they don’t want to further delay their inquiry and so have decided to move forward without the additional testimony.

View the complete November 23 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.