Year: 2018

Omarosa Tell-All Book is Delicious, Nasty Reading about Trump

by

During a speech at the White House last November, 71-year-old Donald Trump awkwardly reached for a bottle of water. Then he used both hands to drink it. It looked as if Trump had a small episode of some kind.

“I found it worrisome,” wrote Omarosa Manigault Newman, an assistant who had known him for nearly 15 years. “I believe that Donald Trump is physically ill. His terrible health habits have caught up with him.”

He’s obese, doesn’t exercise, eats junk food, has daily tanning bed sessions and drinks up to 8 cans of Diet Coke a day. When she first met him on The Apprentice in 2003, he was svelte and weighed 30 pounds less.

She estimates that over the last 15 years he’s poured 43,800 cans of Diet Coke into his system. Omarosa thinks it gave him dementia, based on a Boston University study linking diet soda to brain damage.

This is just one of the stories she tells in Unhinged, her nasty, trashy tell-all book about her time in the presidential campaign and the White House. Progressives will enjoy 334 pages of satisying Schadenfreude written by a woman scorned.

Read more

This is how the Trump crime family syndicate comes undone

by

The Manhattan district attorney’s office is considering pursuing criminal charges against the Trump Organization and two senior company officials in connection with Michael D. Cohen’s hush money payment to an adult film actress, according to two officials with knowledge of the matter. Trump Organization Could Face Criminal Charges From Manhattan D.A.:

A state investigation would center on how the company accounted for its reimbursement to Mr. Cohen for the $130,000 he paid to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, who has said she had an affair with President Trump, the officials said.

Both officials stressed that the office’s review of the matter is in its earliest stages and prosecutors have not yet made a decision on whether to proceed.

* * *

As the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., considers opening an investigation, the New York State attorney general’s office has moved to open a criminal investigation into whether Mr. Cohen has violated state tax law, an inquiry that would be unrelated to the federal tax evasion charges that he pleaded guilty to on Tuesday, according to a person with knowledge of the state matter.

If Mr. Vance decides to proceed, it would not be the first time he investigated members of the Trump family. He was faulted for not pursuing charges against Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who were under criminal investigation in 2012 over allegations that they misled buyers interested in the Trump SoHo condominium project.

The attorney general, Barbara D. Underwood, in recent days sought a referral from the state Department of Taxation and Finance, which is needed to conduct such an inquiry and to prosecute any violations of state tax law it might uncover, the person said. Such requests are seldom denied. The state’s double jeopardy laws do not apply to tax crimes.

Read more

Looks like almost everyone is now ready to ‘flip’ on Donald Trump

by

Allen Weisselberg has served as executive vice president and chief financial officer at the Trump Organization for decades. The Wall Street Journal reported that Weisselberg was once described by a person close to the company as “the most senior person in the organization that’s not a Trump.”

NBC News’ reports that Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, is apparently “Executive 1” referenced in the prosecutors’ filing in the Michael Cohen case.

The Wall Street Journal reports today, Allen Weisselberg, Longtime Trump Organization CFO, Is Granted Immunity in Cohen Probe:

Allen Weisselberg, President Trump’s longtime financial gatekeeper, was granted immunity by federal prosecutors for providing information about Michael Cohen in the criminal investigation into hush-money payments for two women during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Weisselberg, who is chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, was called to testify before a federal grand jury in the investigation earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal previously reported, citing people familiar with the investigation. He then spoke to investigators, though it isn’t clear whether he appeared before the grand jury.

The decision by prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office to grant immunity to Mr. Weisselberg escalates the pressure on Mr. Trump, whom Mr. Weisselberg has served for decades as executive vice president as well as CFO for the Trump Organization. After Mr. Trump was elected, he handed control of his financial assets and business interests to his two adult sons and Mr. Weisselberg.

Mr. Weisselberg didn’t respond to a request for comment. A lawyer for Mr. Trump, who on Thursday said so-called flipping “almost ought to be illegal,” declined to comment.

Read more

The final days of Senator John McCain

by

U.S. Sen. John McCain, who has battled a deadly form of brain cancer for more than a year, is ending medical treatment, his office said in a statement Friday. Sen. John McCain to discontinue medical treatment, family says:

The six-term senator from Arizona and 2008 Republican presidential nominee has been battling glioblastoma cancer from his home near Sedona since December. [This is the same cancer that took the life of Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) in 2009.] His family and a team of caregivers have cared for McCain, 81, ever since.

Washington, D.C. ­– The McCain family released the following statement today:

“Last summer, Senator John McCain shared with Americans the news our family already knew: he had been diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma, and the prognosis was serious. In the year since, John has surpassed expectations for his survival. But the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict. With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment. Our family is immensely grateful for the support and kindness of all his caregivers over the last year, and for the continuing outpouring of concern and affection from John’s many friends and associates, and the many thousands of people who are keeping him in their prayers. God bless and thank you all.”

###

Read more