The Southern District of New York (SDNY) has announced criminal charges against attorney Michael Avenatti (full complaint pdf below) for attempting to extract more than $20 million in payments from Nike Corp, a publicly traded company, by threatening to use his ability to garner publicity to inflict substantial financial and reputational harm on the company if his demands were not met.
The SDNY counts against Avenatti include conspiracy to transmit interstate communications with intent to extort, conspiracy to commit extortion and more.  In the SDNY case, attorney Mark Geragos is a co-conspirator.
Additionally and simultaneously, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles alleged in a separate criminal complaint that Mr. Avenatti embezzled a client’s money to pay his own expenses and cover debts—including for his law firm and coffee business—and defrauded a bank using phony tax returns.
Here’s the SDNY criminal complaint:
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UPDATE: Below is a video of the SDNY Press Conference:
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White House and administration officials were on multiple news outlets today giving interviews about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report.  Below you will find interviews with Attorney Jay Sekulow, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and White House Senior Advisor to the President, Kellyanne Conway.
Jay Sekulow:

Speaking with “Fox & Friends” after the Mueller report found no evidence of a Trump-Russia conspiracy, President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, issued a cryptic warning Monday that whoever convinced the FBI to pursue the Russia collusion investigation into the Trump campaign will soon be outed.
Giuliani was asked whether someone tricked the FBI into opening the original investigation.  Mr. Giuliani also called for President Trump’s “shameless ” critics to apologize for their false claims.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham holds a press conference after receiving the Principal Conclusion notification from AG William Barr.  Within this presser Lindsey Graham starts the process toward public discussion of investigations against the FBI and DOJ around the fraudulent FISA application against Carter Page.

CTH is going to break down the AG Barr Principal Conclusion notification letter against more than three years of background research.  Yes, more than “three years“, is the correct time-frame here.  The origin of the DOJ/FBI operation against Donald Trump goes back to 2015; the Mueller probe was a 2017 concluding chapter in the seditious conspiracy effort.
I’m going to cite as much background as possible; however, this review encompasses so much granular history that some parts might be too complex for a person who only recently jumped into the story.  Disclaimer: this outline does not fit the narrative from those who claim Mueller and Rosenstein are honorable men.  They ain’t.
The first part that matters is a few paragraphs into the letter.  Here we find the scale of the investigative group, and a description of some of the investigative paths they traveled:

There are several takeaways that are worthy of notation.
♦ First, the team of 19 lawyers and 40 FBI agents is more than the original Crossfire Hurricane investigative team (lawyers added), but includes the exact same group of FBI and DOJ staff level investigative officials that originated the Trump operation long before Robert Mueller was selected to lead them.
The transferring team assembly has been missed by media; and also missed by those who have researched the investigators. It is an important point, yet completely overlooked.
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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

President Donald Trump delivers pointed remarks to the White House press pool upon return from Mar-a-lago.

Alan Dershowitz is exactly correct on the point; but he’s incorrect on the Mueller team’s motive.
Team Mueller didn’t punt the Obstruction issue to the Attorney General because Mueller’s a coward…. Team Mueller punted the Obstruction issue because they specifically wanted to create room for The House to work an impeachment angle.  It was a political decision.

CTH will break down the important granules within the “Principal Conclusion Letter” to congress in another post; including the obvious evidence of how Robert Mueller’s team have conspired to assist the impeachment agenda.  However, in the interim we celebrate the predictably obvious legal finding of ‘no collusion and no obstruction‘.
Here is President Trump responding to the four page summary from AG William Barr.