Ty Cobb out as Trump moves to hire Clinton impeachment lawyer
Attorney Ty Cobb is set to leave President Trump's in-house legal team and will be replaced by Emmet Flood, who defended former President Bill Clinton during his impeachment.The White House said Cobb would be retiring at the end of May.
Earlier today, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement, “For several weeks Ty Cobb has been discussing his retirement and last week he let Chief of Staff Kelly know he would retire at the end of this month.”
In a statement to the New York Times from Ty Cobb, he said,“It has been an honor to serve the country in this capacity at the White House. I wish everybody well moving forward.”
WashPost: Trump Lawyer Wrote Russia Questions Leaked to NYT
Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that one of President Donald Trump's attorneys, Jay Sekulow, wrote the 49 questions that were leaked to the New York Times.
The Post sourced its report on "three of the four people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly."
Sekulow's questions were based on "more specific information" provided by Mueller's team "about the subjects that prosecutors wished to discuss with the president."
That information from the special counsel resulted from a "testy" March 5 meeting between Trump's team and Mueller's investigators. "With those details in hand," the Post reported, Sekulow "compiled a list of 49 questions that the team believed the president would be asked."
Mueller team asks for second delay in Michael Flynn sentencing hearing
Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Tuesday requested that sentencing for former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn be delayed by at least two months.
Mueller’s team and attorneys for Flynn submitted that Flynn is not ready for sentencing “due to the status of the special counsel’s investigation,” according to a court filing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The parties are required to provide an update on Flynn’s status by June 29, according to the court filing. On Feb. 1, both sides filed a first “joint status report” to federal Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, requesting more time. Sullivan gave them a 90-day deadline (by May 1) to submit an updated status report or a sentencing date.
Trump, not his doctor, wrote glowing 2015 letter on his health
Harold Bornstein, who was Donald Trump's personal doctor for decades, acknowledges that his over-the-top statement about Trump's health in 2015 was not written by him, but by the then-presidential candidate.
On Tuesday, Bornstein told CNN that “He [Trump] dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter. I just made it up as I went along.” Bornstein added, “That’s black humor, that letter. That’s my sense of humor,” Bornstein said. “It’s like the movie Fargo: It takes the truth and moves it in a different direction.”
Bornstein says he felt like a 'slave' when the future president dictated a letter for him to sign, attesting to his robust physical condition. Bornstein told NBC News in an interview broadcast Wednesday that the demand made him uncomfortable – but he did it anyway. He described feeling 'like the slave that carried out, you know, the orders that came from Fifth Avenue.'
Among the key passages in Trump’s health report which Bornstein provided to the news media three years ago, he said Trump’s “physical strength and stamina are extraordinary. If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
At the time Bornstein told reporters that he wrote the letter hastily while treating patients but made it clear he was the author. The letter did not include a lot of medical information on the candidate beyond noting Trump's blood pressure of 110/65, described by Bornstein as "astonishingly excellent." It claimed Trump had lost 15 pounds over the preceding year. And it described his cardiovascular health as “excellent.”
Harold Bornstein Claims His Office was Raided
On Tuesday, Bornstein said publicly for the first time to NBC News that Trump's one-time bodyguard and two others "raided" his office in New York last year and took all his medical files on the president.
In his remarks to NBC News regarding his confiscated files, Bornstein said he felt "raped, frightened and sad" as three "large men" came into his New York office to collect the president's files in February 2017, causing "chaos" in the medical office.
Bornstein said the three men included Alan Garten, a top lawyer at the Trump organization who serves as its chief legal officer, and former Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller, who at the time was serving as the White House's director of Oval Office operations. (Schiller resigned from his post in September.) A third unidentified man accompanied the men, Bornstein told NBC.
The White House said Tuesday that President Donald Trump's former bodyguard did nothing out of the ordinary when he took possession of the president's medical records last year, despite a claim by Trump's former doctor that the episode felt like a "raid." White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders disputed the doctor's characterization of the episode. "As is standard operating procedure for a new president, the White House Medical Unit took possession of the president's medical records," she told reporters at a White House briefing. As for Bornstein's description that it had had the feel of a raid, she said, "No, that is not my understanding."
Texas among states filing DACA lawsuit to end 'unlawful' program
Seven states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Tuesday, May 1st, in an attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The seven states that are involved in the lawsuit are Texas, which is leading the lawsuit, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, West Virginia.
The lawsuit alleges that the Obama Administration violated both federal law and the Constitution in creating the protections for young undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton spoke on Tuesday stating, “Texas has argued for years that the federal executive branch lacks the power to unilaterally grant unlawfully present aliens lawful presence and work authorization. Left intact, DACA sets a dangerous precedent by giving the executive branch sweeping authority to ignore the laws enacted by Congress and change our nation’s immigration laws to suit a president’s own policy preferences.”
The lawsuit does not ask the federal government to remove any alien currently covered by DACA, nor does it ask the Trump administration to rescind DACA permits that have already been issued. The President has a duty under the Constitution to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” and DACA does exactly the opposite. It encourages lawlessness within the federal government and at our borders.
Backlog of illegal immigration court cases over 1 million, delayed deportations 684,000
The backlog of court cases addressing the status of illegal immigrants has reached over one million.
James McHenry, the director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which handles immigration cases, said Tuesday that the backlog of active cases is over 692,000 and that the courts have an additional 330,000 cases that have been put into “administrative closure,” but that are still before the courts.
Across the nation there are 334 immigration judges and Congress has authorized a total corps of 484. President Trump has sought a total of 700. President Trump had pushed for hiring 360 more immigration judges, but only half of that was approved in the latest budget, officials said.
Jessica Vaughan, from the Center for Immigration Studies, hosted the chief of the nation’s immigrant court judges yesterday in Washington, D.C., where she detailed the staggering case load. “It shows the immigration courts have become dysfunctional,” she told the Boston Herald yesterday. “Anybody who made it into the country is now guaranteed to wait years for their case to be decided.”
Vaughan said the migrant caravan now on the California border is a result of illegal immigrants believing the system is so overloaded it’s worth the risk to jump the fence. “This is all a waste of taxpayers’ money,” Jessica Vaughan added. “The Trump administration needs to hire more judges and modernize the system.”
Boy Scouts are dropping the word 'boy' from the name of flagship program
The Boy Scouts of America doubled down Wednesday on its quest to become the scouting organization of choice for boys and girls, announcing it will drop "Boy" from the name of its signature program.
Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh also unveiled the group's new "Scout Me In" marketing campaign aimed at promoting inclusiveness.
“As we enter a new era for our organization, it is important that all youth can see themselves in Scouting in every way possible," Surbaugh said.
The umbrella organization will retain its name, Boy Scouts of America or BSA. The term Cub Scouts, for kids 7-10 years old, is gender neutral and also will go unchanged. Boy Scouts, which includes kids from 10 to 17, will become Scouts BSA in February.
In October, it announced it would provide programs for girls. Several months before that, the group announced it would accept and register transgender youths into its organization. In 2015, it ended its ban on gay leaders. In its peak years, Boy Scout of America had more than 4 million participants, the organization now claims approximately 2.3 million members.
Younger Americans less likely to believe in God of the Bible
A large majority of Americans says it believes in God or a higher power, but those in the millennial generation are far less likely to say they believe in God as described in the Bible than are older respondents.
Just 43 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 29 say they believe in God as described in the Bible, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center. Almost an equal share, 39 percent, say they believe in some other higher power or spiritual force. By contrast, about two-thirds of those over the age of 50 say they believe in the biblical God, while a little more than a quarter say they believe in a spiritual force other than God.
Only about 1 in 20 older Americans does not believe in a God or higher power, while 16 percent of the youngest cohort say they do not believe. Younger Americans are also less likely to attend church services on a regular basis, according to another Pew survey conducted last year. Among those who said they attended church services at least once a week, just 17 percent were between the ages of 18 and 29. More than half, 52 percent, were over the age of 50.
Mail Time!
- Bill, I just received my "Take your Country Back" hat and bumper stickers. Many people are asking me about the meaning of the slogan, what is a short reply I could give to people who ask about the slogan?
- Mr. O., I know we live in different times, but I want your opinion on what Edward R Murrow or Walter Cronkite would say about the bias press today. Would they even make it BIG as they did??
- Hey Bill, thank you for my laugh of the day. I'm with you on the ABBA thing, have mercy on us already!
Word of the Day:Jejune |
