According to updated information the Trump appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, was recused from any aspect surrounding the FBI raid of President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
One of the key points made by those who defended the highly charged political raid of Michael Cohen’s home, office and hotel suite was that a President Trump appointed U.S. Attorney signed off on the raid. That deflection point is now demonstrably removed.
(Via ABC) […] Berman was not involved in the decision to raid Cohen’s office because of the recusal, two sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
The recusal was approved by senior Justice Department officials who report to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the sources said. Rosenstein himself was notified of the recusal after the decision was made.
It is being reported today that Tom Bossert has been forced to resign his position at the White House by newly appointed National Security Adviser John Bolton. There is absolutely nothing about this that is good news. This is not winning.
According to Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs (very reliable) Bossert was essentially fired from his position as Homeland Security Adviser due to a conflict with incoming National Security Adviser John Bolton (replaced HR McMaster).
According to Jacobs: “Tom Bossert is regarded as an effective and professional figure by colleagues. But he resisted a reorganization of the National Security Council that made him subordinate to the national security adviser, then H.R. McMaster.” The White House released the following statement:
The President is grateful for Toms commitment to the safety and security of our great country. Tom led the White Houses efforts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen our cyber defenses, and respond to an unprecedented series of natural disasters. President Trump thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be appearing before a joint hearing with the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The structural reasoning -as sold by media- surrounds social media privacy, and the use and abuse of user data. However, Democrats are also planning to use this testimony to prove that Facebook allowed Russian operatives to elect Donald Trump. Anticipated start time 2:15pm EST.
You can call it a soft-coup, or you can call it politicization of the DOJ and FBI, but the end result is the same – the intentional effort to manipulate, influence, and ultimately subvert an election for the presidency of the United States. ~SD
Moments ago a righteously angered President Trump responded to the FBI raids on the office and home of his personal attorney Michael Cohen. In addition to expressing outrage at Robert Mueller and his team of “small group” political allies, President Trump expressed his disappointment in Attorney General Jeff Sessions for authorizing the ongoing action.
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[Transcript] THE PRESIDENT: So I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys — a good man. And it’s a disgraceful situation. It’s a total witch hunt. I’ve been saying it for a long time. I’ve wanted to keep it down. We’ve given, I believe, over a million pages’ worth of documents to the Special Counsel.
They continue to just go forward. And here we are talking about Syria and we’re talking about a lot of serious things. We’re the greatest fighting force ever. And I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now — and actually, much more than that. You could say it was right after I won the nomination, it started.
And it’s a disgrace. It’s, frankly, a real disgrace. It’s an attack on our country, in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for.
You can call it a soft-coup, or you can call it politicization of the DOJ and FBI, but the end result is the same – the intentional effort to manipulate, influence, and ultimately subvert an election for the presidency of the United States. ~SD
It is being reported today that Special Counsel Robert Mueller instructed the FBI field office from the Southern District of New York to raid the home and office of President Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen.
[Via New York Times] The F.B.I. on Monday raided the office of President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, seizing records related to several topics including payments to a pornographic-film actress.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, according to Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, who called the search “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.” The search does not appear to be directly related to Mr. Mueller’s investigation, but likely resulted from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.
Earlier today President Trump hosted a cabinet meeting amid the backdrop of media discussions of a chemical weapons attack; Chinese trade negotiations, and ongoing border security.
[Transcript] 11:39 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I’d like to begin by condemning the heinous attack on innocent Syrians with banned chemical weapons. It was an atrocious attack. It was horrible. You don’t see things like that. As bad as the news is around the world, you just don’t see those images.
Tomorrow Attorney General Jeff Sessions will announce the assignment of U.S. Attorney John Lausch to facilitate the production of documents from the DOJ (Horowitz/Huber) to the House Judiciary Committee, and Chairman Bob Goodlatte.
Mr. Lausch is a Trump appointed U.S. Attorney from outside Washington DC. John Lausch currently heads the Northern District of Illinois which includes Chicago, and this specific U.S. Attorney has extensive experience in complex cases of conspiracy and political corruption; a key skill-set given the issues within the Horowitz/Huber investigation of potential politicization of the FBI and DOJ offices.
Accepting the OIG report is almost certainly the most complex undertaking of IG Horowitz career; and accepting the multitude of possible angles within each section of the investigative inquiry are so consequential; there’s a strong likelihood the report could come out in stages.
