Barr says he ‘personally felt’ Mueller could have decided on charges, while Trump quickly backtracks after Russian assistance admission
The government now owns Paul Manafort’s condo in Trump Tower. Among other crimes, Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman now serving a seven-and-a-half year sentence in federal prison, was convicted of defrauding the IRS of millions by failing to declare overseas income. Politico reports:
IT'S OFFICIAL: The government owns Paul Manafort's former condo at Trump Tower. Judge Berman Jackson signed the order today. It's now up to U.S. Marshals to "dispose of the Fifth Avenue Property." >>> pic.twitter.com/Vi5EHvogwv
When is Judge Michael Stelzer expected to rule on a Planned Parenthood request to block health officials from closing Missouri’s sole abortion provider? Before midnight Friday, when the license for the clinic in question is set to lapse, reports the St Louis Post Dispatch:
Stelzer’s decision is expected before midnight Friday. He’ll weigh whether DHSS’s interpretation of Missouri rules for renewing licenses conflicts with state law and if the state’s failure to renew Planned Parenthood’s license interferes with a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.
The Riverfront Times reports arrests at the abortion rights rally in the state office building in St Louis:
Protesters who want to protect legalized abortion gather at St. Louis arch Thursday. pic.twitter.com/ahN6opoiKO
The Trump administration can’t resume work on border wall projects in Texas and Arizona using Pentagon funds, pending the resolution of a court appeal, a federal judge in California has ruled:
NEW: A federal judge in California has denied the Trump Administration’s request to continue work on wall projects in Texas and Arizona using Defense Department funds, while an appeal is pending.
But [Judge] Gilliam, the first judge to consider lawsuits challenging the wall, ruled last Friday that Trump appeared to be defying the will of Congress, which must authorize all federal government appropriations. His injunction blocked administration from using $1 billion, which Congress had approved last year for Defense Department antidrug operations, to build walls in border areas near El Paso, Texas, and Yuma, Ariz.
Critics of former special counsel Robert Mueller who fault Mueller for his decision to punt on the question of whether the evidence supported an indictment of the president have included the attorney general, William Barr, who at the start of this month said he was “surprised” that Mueller declined to weigh charges.
In a new interview with CBS News, Barr says “I personally felt he could’ve reached a decision” on whether charges against the president were warranted.
NEW: Attorney General Barr tells @JanCBS he “personally felt” Special Counsel Robert Mueller “could've reached a decision” on obstruction of justice by President Trump.
More on @CBSEveningNews tonight and @CBSThisMorning Friday. #CTM pic.twitter.com/b8ik2q32ZK
Then why didn’t Barr simply tell Mueller “Hey, you need to make a call here”? Would’ve been easy but Barr apparently didn’t want an answer after having read the Mueller report. https://t.co/ZXy41G6vI2
An early look at next week's cover, "The Shining," by Barry Blitt. https://t.co/KVWteOZfAX pic.twitter.com/FsevJqnTq9
In reply to a question from reporters about the USS John S McCain being cloaked to protect Donald Trump’s eyes during a recent trip to Japan, Biden says McCain was a hero, “he was a friend of mine but we argued like the devil” and “we need a lot more John McCains.”
NEW: BIDEN reacts to reports of USS McCain being covered while POTUS was in Japan: McCain was a war hero, Should be treated like a war hero, anything less than that is below anyone who doesn’t treat him that way @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/GRqFgdGXpa
Pending a court decision on health officials’ attempted closure of Missouri’s sole abortion provider, abortion rights activists have taken over several floors of the state office building in St Louis:
Breaking news: Activists have taken over three floors of the Wainwright building -- and say they won't leave until the state renews the license for Planned Parenthood's only Missouri abortion clinic https://t.co/LBN2SvEwfU
Inside Wainwright State Office Building
St Louis Missouri#GovernorParson#StopTheBans pic.twitter.com/SMSjEx2Y3t
Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota senator and presidential candidate, is on the campaign trail in Nevada today:
.@amyklobuchar has arrived at the Fox Brewpub in Carson City. She met with Attorney General Aaron Ford, Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, and Speaker Jason Frierson this morning. pic.twitter.com/eoBtMowqqE
Donald Trump has said he might meet with Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson during his trip to the UK next week.
“Well I may,” Trump said when asked about a potential summit.
Late next month the Democratic presidential candidates will hold two consecutive nights of “debates”, featuring 20 candidates, which collectively will constitute the first primary “debate”. The party has just laid out some ground rules.
That’s ten (10) podiums – per night:
per a campaign source — here is the outline for the debates that the DNC just announced in their phone call with campaigns pic.twitter.com/YDnqINtKhj
Additionally, I am told the candidate make-up for the debate stages will be set via a live “drawing” on June 14 in New York City, handled by the host, NBC/MSNBC/Telemundo.
That will leave campaigns about 12 days to do prep for those they’ll be facing in the June 26-27 debates. https://t.co/zHB9WFDeYx
The most damning evidence yet has emerged that the Trump administration’s efforts to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 US census amount to a racist play to disenfranchise Democrats and voters of color.
The US Supreme Court heard a challenge to the citizenship question plan last month but has yet to issue a ruling.
The disclosures represent the most explicit evidence to date that the Trump administration added the question to the 2020 census to advance Republican Party interests.
New docs show that architect of GOP gerrymandering was behind Trump's push to add citizenship question to 2020 census, said it "would clearly be a disadvantage to the Democrats” & “advantageous to Republicans and Non-Hispanic
Whites” https://t.co/eWImMPC9QM via @hansilowang pic.twitter.com/grtdl0o8Pc
In light of the blockbuster @nytimes report about the census litigation, I *HIGHLY* recommend everyone read “Ratf**ked” by @davedaley3. Highly readable, informative & infuriating (tho the last part is not Mr Daley’s fault).
Here is a relevant section pic.twitter.com/s03EoOTBqg
Judge Michael Steltzer in Missouri’s 22nd Circuit Court has heard Planned Parenthood’s request for an injunction of state health officials’ move to cancel the license of the state’s sole abortion provider.
Judge Steltzer adjourned “promptly” after hearing from both sides, a court officer said. We’re waiting on further action. The license cancellation was anticipated to go into effect Friday.
Here’s video of Warren. “Impeachment it is,” she says:
Elizabeth Warren: If Trump "were anyone other than the President of the United States, he would be in handcuffs and indicted ... I didn't take an oath to support Donald Trump. I took an oath to support the Constitution. So impeachment it is."
Via ABC pic.twitter.com/8JFh1d3HZa
Trump has arrived in Colorado, per Trump.
Just arrived in Colorado. Getting ready to deliver the commencement speech at the Air Force Academy graduation. Very exciting - probably will be broadcast live on TV. They want good ratings!
The president has found a way to use the death announced today of seven-term Mississippi senator Thad Cochran to take another dig at the late senator John McCain. “Thad never let our Country (or me) down!” Trump writes.
Very sad to hear the news on the passing of my friend, Senator Thad Cochran. He was a real Senator with incredible values - even flew back to Senate from Mississippi for important Healthcare Vote when he was desperately ill. Thad never let our Country (or me) down!
The vice-president is in Ottawa for talks with the Canadian prime minister. For those of you looking forward to the Mike Pence-Justin Trudeau joint presser later today, here’s an amuse-bouche:
"The world deserves to know that the people of Venezuela are suffering, and the United States and Canada...will continue to stand together until freedom is restored," Pence said ahead of bilateral talks with Justin Trudeau.
The two will give a joint-presser later this afternoon pic.twitter.com/31j2tJRNzQ
Elizabeth Warren was the first presidential candidate to call for Trump’s impeachment. This morning on the View, she says if Trump weren’t president “he would be in handcuffs”:
.@ewarren on Trump, post-Mueller's statement: "If he were anyone other than President of the United States, he would be in handcuffs and indicted and Mueller served that up." h/t @TheView
Is this the “dramatic” announcement about immigration that Trump telegraphed this morning? Politico reports that Trump is weighing a further move against asylum-seekers from Central America:
President Donald Trump is considering sweeping restrictions on asylum that would effectively block Central American migrants from entering the U.S., according to several administration officials and advocates briefed on the plan.
A draft proposal circulating among Trump’s Homeland Security advisers would prohibit migrants from seeking asylum if they have resided in a country other than their own before coming to the U.S., according to a DHS official and an outside advocate familiar with the plan. If executed, it would deny asylum to thousands of migrants waiting just south of the border, many of whom have trekked a perilous journey through Mexico.
Related: Trump orders officials to charge fees for asylum seekers fleeing persecution
Trump’s typical tactic after someone criticizes him – from Michael Cohen to Mitt Romney – is to say that offstage that person had been begging him, Trump, for some favor, implying that the criticism stems from some personal sour grapes.
Here he tries out the tactic on Robert Mueller, claiming that Mueller wanted to replace James Comey as FBI director, but Trump wouldn’t let him, so Mueller, you know, became special counsel, investigated and prosecuted an elaborate Russian election-tampering campaign and then repeatedly explicitly declined to exculpate the president on suspicions that Trump had committed a criminal obstruction of justice.
Fun Fact: Bob Mueller is barred by law from serving again as the FBI Director. At the meeting POTUS mentions, White House officials told him, per sources, they were willing to push Congress to pass a new law to make Mueller's re-appointment possible. https://t.co/cvW1ihuVlJ
Robert Mueller came to the Oval Office (along with other potential candidates) seeking to be named the Director of the FBI. He had already been in that position for 12 years, I told him NO. The next day he was named Special Counsel - A total Conflict of Interest. NICE!
A Planned Parenthood support group has announced a rally in St Louis, Missouri, where a court will weigh in today on a move by health officials to shutter the state’s sole abortion provider as early as Friday:
Good morning, Missouri! It's a beautiful day to protest!
#EmergencyResponse Rally to Protect Abortion Access in MO!
⏰ 11:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
Luther Ely Smith Park, 20 N. 4th St 63102 pic.twitter.com/qKY1j3qu7z
The View cohost Meghan McCain has responded to Trump’s latest attack on her late father, accusing Trump of having a corrosive effect on military culture:
JUST IN: Meghan McCain responds to Trump on @TheView: "The president's actions have consequences and when you repeatedly are attacking my father and war heroes it creates a culture in the military where people are clearly fearful to show my father's name" https://t.co/TaszHsySDG pic.twitter.com/7hHrySsTcw
Missouri could become the first US state in the modern era without an abortion clinic, officials with the last remaining facility, in St Louis, said on Tuesday.
Health officials in Missouri have refused to renew the clinic’s license, demanding that all seven physicians and trainees practicing there be made available for what officials of the women’s reproductive healthcare provider Planned Parenthood described as an “interrogation”.
Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, which has provided abortions for more than two decades, filed suit Tuesday against Missouri Gov. Michael Parson and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, which administers the license the clinic needs. The suit requests a restraining order against the state, in order to avoid the disruption of services. An emergency hearing on this case originally was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in the Circuit Court of St. Louis. But it was then postponed to late Thursday morning for reasons “outside everybody’s control,” said Judge Michael Steltzer.
Related: Missouri could become first US state without an abortion clinic
After a day of defending himself for being a potential criminal and running a White House that covers the name of a warship with a tarp to protect his eyes, Donald Trump has told reporters outside the White House that he will make a “dramatic” statement about the country’s southern border. Reuters reports:
He told reporters the statement would be his biggest on the issue to date and would be about people crossing the border illegally.
“This is a big-league statement, but we are going to do something very dramatic on the border,” Trump said, adding he was not closing the border.
The acting US secretary of defense, Patrick Shanahan, nominated by Donald Trump earlier this month, has denied knowledge of a reported White House order to the Navy to keep the warship USS John S McCain “out of sight” during a recent presidential visit to Japan.
The ship was named for the father and grandfather of former Arizona senator John McCain, who died last year of cancer. Trump has derided McCain for being a prisoner of war and attacked him for voting down a Republican health care bill.
JUST IN: Shanahan says he’s directed his chief of staff to look into the incident in Japan with the USS McCain. Shanahan says he was completely in the dark about it. He just gave an unequivocal defense of Sen. McCain and insisted he would never have supported that kind of order.
Shanahan on USS McCain: “I never authorized... any action around the movement or activity regarding that ship. Furthermore, I would never dishonor the memory of a great American patriot like Sen. McCain. I would never disrespect the young men and women that crew that ship.“
Trump is a child who will always be deeply threatened by the greatness of my dads incredible life. There is a lot of criticism of how much I speak about my dad, but nine months since he passed, Trump won't let him RIP. So I have to stand up for him.
It makes my grief unbearable. https://t.co/gUbFAla1VE
I was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan. Nevertheless, @FLOTUS and I loved being with our great Military Men and Women - what a spectacular job they do!
Trump on the USS John McCain controversy: "I was not a big fan of John McCain in any way, shape or form. He killed healthcare. I was never a fan, but I would never do anything like that. But someone did that, and they were well-meaning. But I would never do anything like that."
Donald Trump renewed his attack on Robert Mueller Thursday, a day after the former special counsel said at a press conference that investigators could not conclude that the president had not committed a crime.
Immediately after Mueller spoke, the White House declared total vindication. But Trump was back on the defensive on Twitter Thursday morning.
Russia, Russia, Russia! That’s all you heard at the beginning of this Witch Hunt Hoax...And now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected. It was a crime that didn’t exist. So now the Dems and their partner, the Fake News Media,.....
President Trump: "Russia did not help me get elected. You know who got me elected? You know who got me elected? I got me elected. Russia did not help me at all." pic.twitter.com/B7Bb2M32Sq
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