Haspel, Prospective head of the CIA says, “I would never take the CIA back to an interrogation program.
I think they should use any means possible to get information.
It could save thousands of lives.
Make them talk.
“In withdrawing from the Iran nuke deal, the U.S. did not breach a commitment of the United States.
The Trump administration reversed a non-binding, ephemeral policy preference of Barack Obama, who refused to submit the deal as a Treaty under Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution. Had the nuke deal been a treaty, it would have been the supreme law of the land.
Nor was the Iran nuke deal entered into with the consent of Congress, by treaty or otherwise, or under any other authority that made it irrevocable.
Senator Ben Sasse put it perfectly:
The Iran deal has always been terrible. Today is a reminder that if you live by the Presidency, you die by the Presidency. We ought to be clear about this: Donald Trump isn’t ripping up a treaty; he’s walking away from Barack Obama’s personal pledge. Two and a half years ago, President Obama made a bad deal with Iran without support from Congress, and today President Trump is pulling out of President Obama’s personal commitment, and he doesn’t need Congress’s support to do so. American foreign policy makes lasting progress when it is led by the President, approved by Congress, and presented honestly to the American people.
This is another example of Obama’s sandcastles washing away with a new administration. Obama bragged how he would use his pen and his phone to go around Congress on a host of international and domestic issues.
In so doing Obama left most of his legacy at the mercy of the pen and the phone of his successor. Had that successor been Hillary, Obama’s legacy would have been secure. A disaster for our country, but secure.
But Obama’s successor wasn’t Hillary. And Obama’s legacy is washing away.
I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health. Also, good meeting with Kim Jong Un. Date & Place set.
“There were reports that Blankenship was surging in the polls. I don’t know whether he actually was, but if so, President Trump’s tweet urging voters to support Morrisey or Jenkins, and calling Blankenship unelectable, probably stalled, if not reversed, the former coal executive’s momentum.
In raw vote terms, Morrisey leads Jenkins by about 7,000 votes and Blankenship by about 15,000. Early in the ballot counting, Blankenship admitted that the returns didn’t look good for him. He was right.
Blankenship has suggested that he might run in the general election as a third party candidate. We’ll worry about that later, if necessary [Note: state law apparently bans losers of primaries from running in the general election]. Tonight, the news from West Virginia is all good from where I sit.”
“News of former Secretary of State John Kerry’s alleged collusion with the Iranian government played a role in President Donald Trump’s decision to scuttle the Iran deal, two White House sources with direct knowledge of the president’s thinking tell The Daily Caller.
Trump announced he was pulling out of the deal Tuesday, just a few days after news broke that Kerry had been parlaying with Iran in an attempt to keep the deal alive.
A source inside the White House with knowledge of the decision process tells TheDC that the Iran deal was “done” when Trump found out about Kerry’s lobbying behind the scenes. “Trump was headed that way but Kerry just took away any of the teeth of the detractors,” the source said on background. “[Kerry’s] bulls**t ultimately killed the deal.”
Another source inside the West Wing confirms to TheDC that there was a frantic last-minute lobbying effort to keep the deal in place and that the timing of the Kerry news was “ironic.” The source specifically blames Kerry’s meddling in the process as a key decision point in the calculus for pulling out of the deal.
“It was by no means the reason [Trump] decided to pull out, but it certainly influenced the final decision,” the source continued. “I mean, read the tweets.””
“Billionaire political activist George Soros continues to write six-figure political checks in the swing state of Florida ahead of the 2018 elections, the latest being a $250,000 drop to Forward Florida, a political action committee supporting Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum in his run for governor.
Soros contributed $200,000 to Forward Florida in 2017. When adding that to a $50,000 donation from Alex Soros, son of the hedge fund billionaire, the Soros family has staked half-a-million dollars on Gillum via the PAC.
As the Washington Post reported in late April, the Democratic primary races for governor in several states are “emerging as central battlegrounds in the broader struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party.” The same article also pointed out that the governor’s races are sometimes more responsive to the party’s grassroots because, “unlike congressional races, where the parties’ campaign committees have intervened in primaries, there’s no national group that takes sides in choosing the nominee.”
It is against this backdrop of choosing and shaping the issues crucial to the Democratic Party’s future that Gillum has repeatedly sold himself as the only “true progressive” in the race.
The Soros donation to Forward Florida, reported by the Tampa Bay Times, represented a huge chunk of the total funds raised in April to support the Gillum candidacy. The Times noted that Gillum’s campaign raised about $114,000 in direct contributions to his campaign—usually called “hard money” donations—while Forward Florida netted just over $333,000.
Gillum has also been a favorite of the Hollywood class, having been invited to a Southern California fundraiser in March promoted by Alec Baldwin and Alyssa Milano.”
“A behind-the-scenes U.S. intelligence community fight over the merits of publicly scorning President Trump has burst into the open recently, with the CIA’s former Moscow station chief accusing Obama-era spymaster John O. Brennan of crossing a red line through incessant Twitter and cable news excoriations of the current commander in chief.
In addition to claiming that Mr. Brennan is aiding a Kremlin plot to deepen America’s partisan divide, former CIA Clandestine Service Officer Daniel Hoffman says the former CIA director has actually jeopardized national security by publicly insinuating that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be blackmailing Mr. Trump.
Mr. Brennan made the insinuation in late-March when he asserted during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Mr. Trump is “afraid of the president of Russia” and that “one can speculate as to why.”
“The Russians may have something on [Mr. Trump] personally, that they could always roll out and make his life more difficult,” Mr. Brennan said. “That [Mr. Trump] has had this fawning attitude toward Mr. Putin…say[s] to me that he does have something to fear and something very serious to fear.”
The comments quickly became fodder for headlines in other news outlets. But they also had something of an explosive impact inside the intelligence community, where many recoiled at the notion that the former CIA chief had made a public declaration on a matter U.S. spy agencies have never weighed in on conclusively.
Apparently aware of this, Mr. Brennan wasted little time trying to rectify the situation by reiterating that he was only speculating. Within just a few hours of the MSNBC interview, he told The New York Times that, “I do not know if the Russians have something on Donald Trump that they could use as blackmail.”
“As the New York Times was bashing Mike Pompeo for being missing in action while President Trump tore up the Iran nuclear deal, it turned out the secretary of state was busy rescuing three Americans who have been held captive in North Korea.
In an apparent jab at the administration, The Times’ headline said, “At a Key Moment, Trump’s Top Diplomat Is Again Thousands of Miles Away.”
The Times’ story noted that “Senior State Department officials were momentarily speechless on Tuesday when asked why Mr. Pompeo did not delay his trip by a day to be in Washington during Mr. Trump’s Iran deal announcement.”
It became clear on Wednesday morning why Pompeo didn’t delay his trip to Pyongyang when Trump took to Twitter.
“I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health,” Trump wrote. “Secretary Pompeo and his ‘guests’ will be landing at Andrews Air Force Base at 2:00 A.M. in the morning. I will be there to greet them. Very exciting!”
The Times story noted that Pompeo was expected to return from his trip with the detainees in the caption of a photo accompanying the story, so it’s curious why the headline attempted to paint his trip in a negative light.
The New York Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”
————————–
They’re too busy wiping the egg off their faces to take calls right now.
“A junior officer on the destroyer USS Fitzgerald has pleaded guilty to a dereliction of duty charge in connection with a collision that killed seven sailors last year, the Navy announced Tuesday.
Lt. j.g. Sarah Coppock will forfeit a half-month’s pay for three months and receive a punitive letter as punishment, according to a Navy statement.
“Our Sailors personify honor, courage, and commitment,” the statement read, in part. “The Navy will not accept complacency, negligence, or other behaviors contrary to its core values.”
According to the Navy Times, Coppock was serving as officer at the deck at the time the Fitzgerald struck a commercial ship off the coast of Japan early on the morning of June 17. She was accused of failing to follow the commanding officer’s standing orders and international navigation rules.
In August, the Navy announced that the Fitzgerald’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Bryce Benson, would be removed from duty, along with the ship’s second-in-command and the top senior enlisted sailor.
NAVY FAULTS US WARSHIPS IN SUMMER PACIFIC COLLISIONS THAT KILLED 17 SAILORS
A Navy report released in November found that the Fitzgerald was at fault for the collision.
“In the 30 minutes leading up to the collision, neither Fitzgerald nor [the commercial ship] Crystal took such action to reduce the risk of collision until approximately one minute prior to the collision,” the report said.”
That’s all very odd. The CO was removed because he obviously did not train his staff well. The JG not even calling the CO to report trouble was odd, too. Where were the others on deck with her and what were they doing?
This is the best regimental history I have ever read. Our hard-marching heroes just ate breakfast in Virginia, dinner in Maryland, and supper in Pennsylvania. I love reading about June, 1863.
“Michael Avenatti, porn star Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, released a seven-page dossier on Tuesday containing a list of payments purportedly made to Michael Cohen, the lawyer for President Donald Trump.
But there is one problem with the document: two of the allegedly “fraudulent” payments were made to men named Michael Cohen who have no affiliation with Trump.”
“State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman gave the Clinton Foundation a pass on identifying foreign donors in its charitable filings — making it impossible to know if it got any special favors while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, according to a report Tuesday.
Scripps News found that the foundation and its subsidiary, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, took in $225 million in government donations between 2010 and 2014.
New York’s charity law clearly states: “Organizations that received a contribution or grant from a government agency during the reporting period shall include the name of each agency from which contributions were received and the amount of each contribution.”
But both the foundation and the CHAI failed to do that, and Schneiderman, a member of Clinton’s “leadership council” in New York and a fierce critic of Donald Trump, did nothing about it.
Other charities complied, including the George W. Bush foundation, which reported receiving $5 million from Saudi Arabia and $500,000 from Kuwait.”
9:44 is exactly the type of story that turned millions of intellectually lazy people into Trumpkins. The focus was on the $5300 or so that was not paid into the Michael Cohen company used to pay Stormy Daniels and not the millions paid by companies (including one with Russian connections) to that Cohen company.
It calls it all into question Ricky. All we have is Avenatti’s word, which is useless, like his client’s. You’d think he’d get his facts straight, but no..
Wandering Views 
It is Tarzan day on TCM.
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Haspel, Prospective head of the CIA says, “I would never take the CIA back to an interrogation program.
I think they should use any means possible to get information.
It could save thousands of lives.
Make them talk.
LikeLike
Trump keeps pecking away at Obama’s legacy.
And that’s a good thing. 🙂
https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/05/iran-nuke-deal-just-another-obama-legacy-sandcastle/
“In withdrawing from the Iran nuke deal, the U.S. did not breach a commitment of the United States.
The Trump administration reversed a non-binding, ephemeral policy preference of Barack Obama, who refused to submit the deal as a Treaty under Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution. Had the nuke deal been a treaty, it would have been the supreme law of the land.
Nor was the Iran nuke deal entered into with the consent of Congress, by treaty or otherwise, or under any other authority that made it irrevocable.
Senator Ben Sasse put it perfectly:
The Iran deal has always been terrible. Today is a reminder that if you live by the Presidency, you die by the Presidency. We ought to be clear about this: Donald Trump isn’t ripping up a treaty; he’s walking away from Barack Obama’s personal pledge. Two and a half years ago, President Obama made a bad deal with Iran without support from Congress, and today President Trump is pulling out of President Obama’s personal commitment, and he doesn’t need Congress’s support to do so. American foreign policy makes lasting progress when it is led by the President, approved by Congress, and presented honestly to the American people.
This is another example of Obama’s sandcastles washing away with a new administration. Obama bragged how he would use his pen and his phone to go around Congress on a host of international and domestic issues.
In so doing Obama left most of his legacy at the mercy of the pen and the phone of his successor. Had that successor been Hillary, Obama’s legacy would have been secure. A disaster for our country, but secure.
But Obama’s successor wasn’t Hillary. And Obama’s legacy is washing away.
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More good news…..
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Looks like West Virginians took Trump’s advice and did the smart thing, which was don’t vote for the criminal Blankenship..
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/05/morrisey-leading-in-west-virginia-blankenship-third.php
“There were reports that Blankenship was surging in the polls. I don’t know whether he actually was, but if so, President Trump’s tweet urging voters to support Morrisey or Jenkins, and calling Blankenship unelectable, probably stalled, if not reversed, the former coal executive’s momentum.
In raw vote terms, Morrisey leads Jenkins by about 7,000 votes and Blankenship by about 15,000. Early in the ballot counting, Blankenship admitted that the returns didn’t look good for him. He was right.
Blankenship has suggested that he might run in the general election as a third party candidate. We’ll worry about that later, if necessary [Note: state law apparently bans losers of primaries from running in the general election]. Tonight, the news from West Virginia is all good from where I sit.”
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Nice to see Kerry be so consistent. he was a traitor 40 years ago, and he still is today. Now lock him up.
And look, once again, it’s Dems actually colluding with foreigners…..
http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/08/white-house-john-kerry-stealth-lobbying-iran-deal/
“News of former Secretary of State John Kerry’s alleged collusion with the Iranian government played a role in President Donald Trump’s decision to scuttle the Iran deal, two White House sources with direct knowledge of the president’s thinking tell The Daily Caller.
Trump announced he was pulling out of the deal Tuesday, just a few days after news broke that Kerry had been parlaying with Iran in an attempt to keep the deal alive.
A source inside the White House with knowledge of the decision process tells TheDC that the Iran deal was “done” when Trump found out about Kerry’s lobbying behind the scenes. “Trump was headed that way but Kerry just took away any of the teeth of the detractors,” the source said on background. “[Kerry’s] bulls**t ultimately killed the deal.”
Another source inside the West Wing confirms to TheDC that there was a frantic last-minute lobbying effort to keep the deal in place and that the timing of the Kerry news was “ironic.” The source specifically blames Kerry’s meddling in the process as a key decision point in the calculus for pulling out of the deal.
“It was by no means the reason [Trump] decided to pull out, but it certainly influenced the final decision,” the source continued. “I mean, read the tweets.””
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And speaking of Democrats colluding with foreigners……
Soros interfering in US elections, again. This time Florida.
http://freebeacon.com/issues/soros-continues-massive-cash-offensive-florida/
“Billionaire political activist George Soros continues to write six-figure political checks in the swing state of Florida ahead of the 2018 elections, the latest being a $250,000 drop to Forward Florida, a political action committee supporting Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum in his run for governor.
Soros contributed $200,000 to Forward Florida in 2017. When adding that to a $50,000 donation from Alex Soros, son of the hedge fund billionaire, the Soros family has staked half-a-million dollars on Gillum via the PAC.
As the Washington Post reported in late April, the Democratic primary races for governor in several states are “emerging as central battlegrounds in the broader struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party.” The same article also pointed out that the governor’s races are sometimes more responsive to the party’s grassroots because, “unlike congressional races, where the parties’ campaign committees have intervened in primaries, there’s no national group that takes sides in choosing the nominee.”
It is against this backdrop of choosing and shaping the issues crucial to the Democratic Party’s future that Gillum has repeatedly sold himself as the only “true progressive” in the race.
The Soros donation to Forward Florida, reported by the Tampa Bay Times, represented a huge chunk of the total funds raised in April to support the Gillum candidacy. The Times noted that Gillum’s campaign raised about $114,000 in direct contributions to his campaign—usually called “hard money” donations—while Forward Florida netted just over $333,000.
Gillum has also been a favorite of the Hollywood class, having been invited to a Southern California fundraiser in March promoted by Alec Baldwin and Alyssa Milano.”
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Once again, it isn’t Trump helping the Russians achieve their goals. That would be Democrats and the deep state.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/may/7/daniel-hoffman-ex-cia-officer-brennans-trump-attac/
“A behind-the-scenes U.S. intelligence community fight over the merits of publicly scorning President Trump has burst into the open recently, with the CIA’s former Moscow station chief accusing Obama-era spymaster John O. Brennan of crossing a red line through incessant Twitter and cable news excoriations of the current commander in chief.
In addition to claiming that Mr. Brennan is aiding a Kremlin plot to deepen America’s partisan divide, former CIA Clandestine Service Officer Daniel Hoffman says the former CIA director has actually jeopardized national security by publicly insinuating that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be blackmailing Mr. Trump.
Mr. Brennan made the insinuation in late-March when he asserted during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Mr. Trump is “afraid of the president of Russia” and that “one can speculate as to why.”
“The Russians may have something on [Mr. Trump] personally, that they could always roll out and make his life more difficult,” Mr. Brennan said. “That [Mr. Trump] has had this fawning attitude toward Mr. Putin…say[s] to me that he does have something to fear and something very serious to fear.”
The comments quickly became fodder for headlines in other news outlets. But they also had something of an explosive impact inside the intelligence community, where many recoiled at the notion that the former CIA chief had made a public declaration on a matter U.S. spy agencies have never weighed in on conclusively.
Apparently aware of this, Mr. Brennan wasted little time trying to rectify the situation by reiterating that he was only speculating. Within just a few hours of the MSNBC interview, he told The New York Times that, “I do not know if the Russians have something on Donald Trump that they could use as blackmail.”
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The clowns at the NY Times are at it again. Why let the facts get in the way of your narrative, right?
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/05/09/new-york-times-slams-awol-pompeo-then-learns-was-rescuing-americans.html
“As the New York Times was bashing Mike Pompeo for being missing in action while President Trump tore up the Iran nuclear deal, it turned out the secretary of state was busy rescuing three Americans who have been held captive in North Korea.
In an apparent jab at the administration, The Times’ headline said, “At a Key Moment, Trump’s Top Diplomat Is Again Thousands of Miles Away.”
The Times’ story noted that “Senior State Department officials were momentarily speechless on Tuesday when asked why Mr. Pompeo did not delay his trip by a day to be in Washington during Mr. Trump’s Iran deal announcement.”
It became clear on Wednesday morning why Pompeo didn’t delay his trip to Pyongyang when Trump took to Twitter.
“I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health,” Trump wrote. “Secretary Pompeo and his ‘guests’ will be landing at Andrews Air Force Base at 2:00 A.M. in the morning. I will be there to greet them. Very exciting!”
The Times story noted that Pompeo was expected to return from his trip with the detainees in the caption of a photo accompanying the story, so it’s curious why the headline attempted to paint his trip in a negative light.
The New York Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”
————————–
They’re too busy wiping the egg off their faces to take calls right now.
Again.
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Michelle,
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/uss-fitzgerald-officer-pleads-guilty-in-collision-that-killed-7-sailors/ar-AAwYP2v?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=mailsignout
“A junior officer on the destroyer USS Fitzgerald has pleaded guilty to a dereliction of duty charge in connection with a collision that killed seven sailors last year, the Navy announced Tuesday.
Lt. j.g. Sarah Coppock will forfeit a half-month’s pay for three months and receive a punitive letter as punishment, according to a Navy statement.
“Our Sailors personify honor, courage, and commitment,” the statement read, in part. “The Navy will not accept complacency, negligence, or other behaviors contrary to its core values.”
According to the Navy Times, Coppock was serving as officer at the deck at the time the Fitzgerald struck a commercial ship off the coast of Japan early on the morning of June 17. She was accused of failing to follow the commanding officer’s standing orders and international navigation rules.
In August, the Navy announced that the Fitzgerald’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Bryce Benson, would be removed from duty, along with the ship’s second-in-command and the top senior enlisted sailor.
NAVY FAULTS US WARSHIPS IN SUMMER PACIFIC COLLISIONS THAT KILLED 17 SAILORS
A Navy report released in November found that the Fitzgerald was at fault for the collision.
“In the 30 minutes leading up to the collision, neither Fitzgerald nor [the commercial ship] Crystal took such action to reduce the risk of collision until approximately one minute prior to the collision,” the report said.”
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That’s all very odd. The CO was removed because he obviously did not train his staff well. The JG not even calling the CO to report trouble was odd, too. Where were the others on deck with her and what were they doing?
I don’t think this is the complete story.
Very sad.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hmm, where have I witnessed this phenomenon before; where could it be; hmmm
https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/994244706866364416
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Everyone can write this letter from his or her own denominational background. My son asked me for the Baptist version. It is a diffficult task.
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This is the best regimental history I have ever read. Our hard-marching heroes just ate breakfast in Virginia, dinner in Maryland, and supper in Pennsylvania. I love reading about June, 1863.
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/689224
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Ricky…… about that CNN poll again…..
Like I said, not the bad news you thought it was….
“New CNN Poll Shows GOP Surge, Dem Advantage Drops 13 Points To Within Margin Of Error”
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So the media retractions will be coming when exactly, since they all ran with the bogus story?…..
http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/09/avenatti-michael-cohen-israel/
“Michael Avenatti, porn star Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, released a seven-page dossier on Tuesday containing a list of payments purportedly made to Michael Cohen, the lawyer for President Donald Trump.
But there is one problem with the document: two of the allegedly “fraudulent” payments were made to men named Michael Cohen who have no affiliation with Trump.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pervs of a feather gotta stick together….. If they don’t look after each other, who will?
https://nypost.com/2016/09/06/schneiderman-let-clinton-foundation-skip-identifying-foreign-donors/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons
“State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman gave the Clinton Foundation a pass on identifying foreign donors in its charitable filings — making it impossible to know if it got any special favors while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, according to a report Tuesday.
Scripps News found that the foundation and its subsidiary, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, took in $225 million in government donations between 2010 and 2014.
New York’s charity law clearly states: “Organizations that received a contribution or grant from a government agency during the reporting period shall include the name of each agency from which contributions were received and the amount of each contribution.”
But both the foundation and the CHAI failed to do that, and Schneiderman, a member of Clinton’s “leadership council” in New York and a fierce critic of Donald Trump, did nothing about it.
Other charities complied, including the George W. Bush foundation, which reported receiving $5 million from Saudi Arabia and $500,000 from Kuwait.”
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9:44 is exactly the type of story that turned millions of intellectually lazy people into Trumpkins. The focus was on the $5300 or so that was not paid into the Michael Cohen company used to pay Stormy Daniels and not the millions paid by companies (including one with Russian connections) to that Cohen company.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mueller-questioned-payment-to-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen/2018/05/09/6ad3a7d6-538d-11e8-a551-5b648abe29ef_story.html?utm_term=.7dbd86cd873f
Americans are no longer mentally capable of self-government. Good luck to everyone.
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It calls it all into question Ricky. All we have is Avenatti’s word, which is useless, like his client’s. You’d think he’d get his facts straight, but no..
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