That's true, which is part of the securing plea deals part. I guess we will find out soon enough. I don't think it will be as juicy as people hoped for though.
House chairmen warn Trump against interfering with congressional oversight https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/13/trump-michael-cohen-congress-oversight-1098732 On Saturday evening, the dotard called in to Fox News to criticize his former personal attorney and longtime fixer Michael Cohen, who is scheduled to testify publicly to the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 7 regarding his role in orchestrating hush money payments on Trump’s behalf ahead of the 2016 election. This has prompted the committee chairmen, Oversight's Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Intelligence's Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Judiciary's Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), to issue this warning shot “The integrity of our process to serve as an independent check on the Executive Branch must be respected by everyone, including the President,” “Our nation’s laws prohibit efforts to discourage, intimidate, or otherwise pressure a witness not to provide testimony to Congress,” “the president should make no statement or take any action to obstruct Congress’ independent oversight and investigative efforts, including by seeking to discourage any witness from testifying in response to a duly authorized request from Congress.”
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is preemptively sharing a series of questions with Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker ahead of his open hearing on 8 February. 2019, stating that he expects direct answers regarding the contacts he's had with President Trump about the Russia probe. Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) in a Tuesday letter to Whitaker said the committee “will not accept your declining to answer any question on the theory that the President may want to invoke his privileges in the future.” "Please take any steps that may be necessary for the White House to consider these communications and for the President to determine whether he will invoke executive privilege," Nadler wrote. these prepared questions include, but not limited to: whether Whitaker had conversations with the president or others about assuming the acting AG role ahead of Trump firing then-AG Jeff Sessions in early November -- and whether special counsel Robert Mueller's probe was mentioned in these conversations. after Trump had found out his former personal lawyer had pleaded guilty. after the recent Buzzfeed story was published, that Trump had directed Cohen to lie to the Congress; did Whitaker ask to Special Council to issue response to Buzzfeed's report if Whitaker consulted the White House when he made the decision not to recuse himself from overseeing the investigation, while questioning the details surrounding the "four-person team of advisors" who gave him guidance on his recusal decision. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/...estions-on-possible-contacts-with-trump-about
Recall that Jared Kushner had withheld numerous financial dealings from his security clearance request, nevertheless, was initially granted clearance The Trump administration’s decision to allow accused domestic abuser Rob Porter to stay on as a top White House aide for more than a year without a permanent security clearance then ranking member of House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Elijahs Cumming called for this scrutiny in a letter to the committee chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who along w other Republican members blocked the effort to obtain information related to White House security clearances. Cummings is now the chair, he has called for the investigation into the WH security clearance process.
A NBC News report, published on Thursday night, suggests that Two career White House officials specializing in assessing individuals for their security risk turned Kushner down for the sensitive “top secret” category; the adjudicators based their rejection of Kushner on FBI background checks that raised red flags over Kushner’s family’s businesses as well as his foreign contacts. Having rejected Kushner for the clearance, the decision was reversed by Trump appointee Carl Kline, a former official in the department of defense who was put in charge of the personnel security office at the White House four months after Trump took office. recall that Kushner later met w Russian diplomats in the US based Russian embassy to discuss about establishing a back-channel communication at that facility Congressional subpoena are forthcoming for Kushner, Carl Kline, John Kelly, et al https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...n-of-jared-kushner-for-top-security-clearance
House Democrats are going to go after Trump's tax returns -- and soon Donald Trump is the only modern POTUS candidate not to have released his tax returns. A new WaPo/ABC News poll seems to suggest a clear next fight for Democrats to pick: a legislative attempt to force Trump to release at least some of his past tax returns. 6 in 10 said House Democrats should seek "to obtain and release Trump's tax returns." The public is on the side of House Democrats here the best political strategists pick fights not that they know they can win, but that they know will be fought on terrain favorable to them. Trump's tax returns are an issue like that for Pelosi and her party. Due to a 1924 provision in the Internal Revenue Service tax code, the chair of the Ways and Means Committee can request that the Treasury Department turn over a president's income tax returns. Once the chair has them, there's little doubt they would quickly be released to the public. The current chair of the House Ways and Means Committee is Richard Neal (D-Mass) https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/28/politics/trump-tax-returns-democrats-congress/
DEMOCRATS WANT TO KNOW WHAT RUSSIA HAS ON STEVE MNUCHIN A top lawmaker wants answers on a $25 million deal the Treasury secretary struck with a Russian oligarch linked to Oleg Deripaska. Representative Jackie Speier, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to Steve Mnuchin last week seeking information about a deal he reportedly struck in 2017 with Ukrainian billionaire Leonid Blavatnik , who just so happens to be an associate of Deripaska’s. Writing that she has “serious concerns” about Mnuchin selling his shares in RatPac-Dune Entertainment to Blavatnik for roughly $25 million, she noted the move is “especially alarming” in light of a recent New York Times article reporting that Deripaska might have gotten something of a sweetheart deal from the Treasury she argues that the secretary’s relationship with a Blavatnik is “clearly a conflict of interest” given Mnuchin’s involvement in lifting the sanctions on Deripaska. . Speier goes on to ask for details related to the sale of the secretary’s RatPac shares, including the dates of the transactions and names of purchasers. She also requests to know whether Mnuchin “sought ethics guidance related to his involvement in the sanctions issue” and if “Blavatnik has tried to communicate with Mnuchin directly about the sanctions.” https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/democrats-want-to-know-what-russia-has-on-steve-mnuchin
'Whistleblower' in White House security clearance office gets suspended. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/na...urity-clearance-office-gets-suspended-n964826 Tricia Newbold, A White House security specialist w 18-yr experience on the job, was suspended less than a week after NBC reported Jared Kushner's top secret security clearance was approved over staff objections. she, a handicapped employee, had previously filed a discrimination complaint against Carl Kline three months ago.
Rep Don Beyer of VA and Tedd Lieu of CA have asked acting WH chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to immediately revoke Jared Kushner's security clearance, citing "serious concerns" about the clearance's implications in a letter Thursday. "The White House's pattern of hiding the truth and devious behavior with regard to Mr. Kushner's security clearance suggests that the Administration does not take information security seriously," "Members of Congress are now placed in the impossible position of wondering what the 'unfavorable information' was in Kushner's records, and why he still has ongoing access to sensitive national security information," These two Dem lawmakers cited five letters they had sent to the administration over the past two years raising concerns about "Kushner's track record of 'omitting' meetings, relationships, and business interests that tie him to foreign officials from his SF-86 clearance application." https://www.newschannel5.com/news/n...ulvaney-to-revoke-kushners-security-clearance
