How Michael Cohen's plea deal fits into Mueller's probe - Politico

Cohen kept discussing the Moscow project for longer than he’d admitted and asked Trump about the possibility of traveling to Russia in connection with the "Moscow Project."

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty on Thursday to lying to Congress about his role in negotiating a failed deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign.

This directly contradicts Donald Trump Jr.'s September 2017 testimony to Congress that his family's real estate negotiations with Russians concluded without result "at the end" of 2014.

Here’s how Cohen’s guilty plea fits into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Cohen, who’s cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller, kept discussing the Moscow project for longer than he’d admitted and asked Trump about the possibility of traveling to Russia “in connection with the Moscow Project.” And Cohen spoke at least once with the personal assistant to Dmitri Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, according to Mueller.

Contrary to Cohen’s claim that the Trump Organization had abandoned the potential deal by January 2016, Cohen and Felix Sater - a Russian immigrant and a former broker for the Trump Organization - were still talking about getting Russian government approval for the project “as late as approximately June 2016.”

Cohen discussed the project with Trump more than the three times he’d claimed and also briefed Trump family members on the project.

Trump has said repeatedly that he has no business ties to Russia. “I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA - NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!” he tweeted days before his inauguration.

The full article is available here

U.S. Federal Law About Seeking Asylum - Politifact

https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum

Asylum seekers must be within the United States to apply for the protection.

Asylum may be granted to individuals who have been persecuted or fear they will be persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular social group or political opinion, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

U.S. law says that in general, "any alien who is physically present in the United States, or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum."

The key takeaway from the preceding paragraph is the phrase "physically present in the United States, or who arrives in the United States ..."  Therefore, asylum claims must be made within the United States.

A U.S. consulate or embassy is clearly outside the U.S., so you can’t apply for asylum at a U.S. consulate or embassy," said Stephen H. Legomsky, an emeritus professor at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis who served as chief counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from 2011 to 2013.

The full article is available here

2018 Midterms: Slide Into Oligarchy Stopped, For Now - Historian Heather Cox Richardson

It seems we have woken up just in time to make the next few years a full-out contest for the survival of our democracy.

Until Tuesday, many of us have seen the signs of rising oligarchy in the U.S. and worried that that our fellow citizens would ignore it until it was too late to stop. Now, it seems, we have woken up just in time to make the next few years a full-out contest for the survival of our democracy.

The midterm election is only a stay. It is not the triumph of U.S. democracy it could have been.

Unfortunately, because of gerrymandering, by which Republicans have cut extreme districts that favor themselves, Democrats will pick up only 27 seats despite their popular strength. A majority of voters – by a large margin – rejects the Republican party, but the party has rigged the system to retain power.

Republican leaders are acting precisely as Democratic slave owners did in the 1850's, when they saw a growing majority turn against them.

As then, leaders are packing the courts as fast as they possibly can to try to rig the laws in their favor. They are trying to retain power by tearing the citizenry in two and setting them at each other’s throats.

Taking away their control of the House of Representatives was a victory for democracy.

The full article is available here

White Nationalist Leader Just Posted Pics From White House Visit - Daily Beast

The leader of the white nationalist group Identity Evropa - whose members marched in the August 2017 Charlottesville white supremacist rally - visited the Trump White House, according to pics he posted online.

The group’s motto, "You will not replace us," refers to the racist conspiracy theory that non-white groups are intent on eliminating white Americans.

Sources tell The Daily Beast he could not have reached the location by himself or on a tour.

This triumphant social media posting underscores the degree to which the president has become a magnet for white nationalists, even as he seeks to downplay his ties to them.

The pictures from Casey’s White House visit were tweeted on the same day that President Donald Trump held a press conference in which he bristled when a reporter questioned whether his embrace of “nationalism” encouraged white nationalists.

Trump responded by claiming that the question itself was “racist.”

The reporter who asked the question, PBS’ Yamiche Alcindor, is African American.

The full article is available here

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Shares Doctored InfoWars Video Of Jim Acosta Incident

Trump Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted out a doctored video, originating from an editor at InfoWars, of a testy interchange between President Trump and CNN reporter Jim Acosta during a post-election press conference.

Sanders shared the video in an attempt to justify the White House's decision to revoke CNN reporter Jim Acosta's press credentials.

The video quite obviously appears to have been altered. Some frames look to be sped up and others slowed down to make Acosta's physical actions seem more aggressive than they were in reality - as evidenced when viewing numerous videos captured by multiple news outlets in the room.

The full article is available here

Deceased Republican Brothel Owner Wins Nevada State Assembly Seat - Reuters

A brothel-owning, Pro-Trump, evangelical Christian-backed Republican candidate - who died last month - won his race for the Nevada state legislature late on Tuesday, according to state election officials.

Dennis Hof defeated Democratic candidate and educator Lesia Romanov in the race for Nevada’s 36th Assembly District, earning about 68% of the vote. County officials said they would appoint a replacement candidate from the same party for his seat.

The full article is available here

Thoughts on 2018 Midterms - Jeff Wiersma

I had hoped for (1) a more significant repudiation of white nationalism and (2) Democratic control of the Senate, but Trump now being subject to some kind of oversight is a big deal.

Democrats elected a diverse variety of candidates. Republicans re-elected a neo-Nazi groupie (Steve King, IA) and a race-baiter indicted for misusing campaign funds (Duncan Hunter, CA).

Far-Right Internet Groups Listen for Trump’s Approval, and Often Hear It - NY Times

As President Trump and his allies have waged a fear-based campaign to drive Republican voters to the polls, far-right internet communities have been buoyed in recent weeks as their once-fringe views have been given oxygen.

Right-wing extremists — a catchall category for a messy constellation of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, crypto-fascists, nihilists and attention-seeking trolls — vary widely in style and ideology.

What they have in common is a feeling of empowerment — a sense that the boundaries of acceptable speech are widening in the Trump era, and a suspicion that when they talk, Mr. Trump, or those with access to him, may be listening.

The full article is available here