by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : Paul Manafort, US President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman, repeatedly lied to federal investigators in breach of a plea agreement he signed two months ago, Special Counsel Robert Muellers office said in a court filing.
Prosecutors working for Mueller on Monday said in the filing that Manafort’s “crimes and lies” about “a variety of subject matters” relieve them of all promises they made to him in the plea agreement, reports The New York Times.
But under the terms of the agreement, Manafort, 69, cannot withdraw his guilty plea.
Defence lawyers disagreed that Manafort had violated the deal.
In the same filing, they said that Manafort “believes he has provided truthful information”.
But given the impasse between the two sides, they asked Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia to set a sentencing date for Manafort, who has been in solitary confinement in a detention centre in Alexandria, Virginia.
Striking a plea deal with Manafort in September potentially gave prosecutors access to information that could prove useful to their investigation.
But the filing on Monday, a rare step in a plea deal, suggested that they thought Manafort was withholding details that could be pertinent to the Russia inquiry or other cases.
A jury in Northern Virginia convicted Manafort of eight counts of financial fraud in August stemming from his work as a political consultant in Ukraine. The jury deadlocked on 10 other charges.
Faced with a second trial in the District of Columbia on related charges in September, he pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts and agreed to an open-ended arrangement requiring him to answer “fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly” questions about “any and all matters” of interest to the government.
Manafort is scheduled to be sentenced in the Virginia case on February 8, 2019, The New York Times reported.
Mueller’s investigators have charged a number of Trump’s former aides with lying to them.
Three former Trump campaign officials or advisers have pleaded guilty to misleading federal investigators: Michael T. Flynn, Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, who reported to prison on Monday to serve his 14-day sentence.
A Dutch lawyer, Alex van der Zwaan, who had business dealings with Manafort, also pleaded guilty to lying to Mueller’s office.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : US President Donald Trump will be spending some of his Thanksgiving weekend at his Mar-a-Lago Florida resort interviewing potential candidates for positions in his administration, the media reported.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump was asked if he would be interviewing people this week for administration jobs, reports CNN.
“Yeah, we’ll have a few. Very happy with my Cabinet and people that work for me,” he said, adding, “I’ll probably be changing a couple, maybe a few.”
“But very little. Overall, we’re very happy,” Trump told reporters.
It was reported last week that Trump was eyeing replacements for Chief of Staff John Kelly and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
He also has yet to nominate a permanent replacement for former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, with Matthew Whitaker serving in an acting capacity.
Trump did not say which positions he was talking to candidates about or who would be visiting the Florida resort.
Trump said the people who serve in his administration have gone on to be successful after leaving their positions, and pointed to former White House communications director Hope Hicks as an example.
“She’s become a very important person in the outside world,” Trump said.
In October, Hicks accepted a job at Fox as the executive vice president and chief communications officer.
“People like doing interviews here,” Trump said, referring to Mar-a-Lago as the “Southern White House”.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Washington : US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that the CIA had not reached a “definitive” conclusion about who ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, despite press reports saying that the agency has determined that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the hit.
The CIA has “nothing definitive” on the crown prince’s involvement in the killing, Trump said in a statement released Tuesday, adding that “It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t! That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi,”
Trump clearly suggested in his statement that Saudi oil production was a key factor in his decision not to acknowledge the CIA’s analysis, noting that after the US, “Saudi Arabia is the largest oil producing nation in the world.” Efe reported.
“They have worked closely with us and have been very responsive to my requests to keeping oil prices at reasonable levels — so important for the world,” he said.
The president also said that his decision was made in the “absolute security and safety of America,” emphasising that Riyadh is very important to Washington in the “fight against Iran” and maintaining the kingdom as a partner is vital to “our paramount goal to fully eliminate the threat of terrorism throughout the world!”
“Very simply it is called America First!” the statement reads in closing.
Khashoggi, who was a columnist for The Washington Post, died October 2 inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, where he had gone to obtain documents enabling him to marry his Turkish fiancee.
Weeks later, the Saudi government acknowledged that he was killed inside the consulate and last Thursday the kingdom’s attorney general announced he would seek the death penalty for five of the 11 suspects charged in connection with the journalist’s death.
In a press conference in Riyadh, Saud al-Mojeb insisted that the crown prince had not had any prior knowledge of the operation, whose original aim was to bring Khashoggi back to Riyadh.
Trump awaited a CIA report on Tuesday about Khashoggi’s murder, which, according to media accounts, contains the conclusion that MbS, as the crown prince is known, had ordered Khashoggi’s assassination.
Long a member of the Saudi establishment, Khashoggi became estranged from the government as a result of his criticism of the crown prince and had been living in self-imposed exile in the US since 2017.
In his statement, Trump made light of the CIA’s conclusion and even seemed to contest it when he said of the crown prince that “maybe he didn’t” have any knowledge of the tragic event, and made it clear he was not planning any punitive measures against Saudi Arabia related to the case.
“The US intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region,” Trump said.
“I understand there are members of Congress who, for political or other reasons, would like to go in a different direction — and they are free to do so. I will consider whatever ideas are presented to me, but only if they are consistent with the absolute security and safety of America,” he said.
The statement, apparently dictated by Trump and full of exclamation points, begins with his “America First” slogan, followed by a warning that “The world is a very dangerous place!” and a tirade against Iran’s activities in the Middle East.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : US President Donald Trump confirmed on Tuesday that he is planning to put an end to what he called the “ridiculous” law that grants citizenship to all children born in US territory.
“We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the US… with all of those benefits,” Trump said in an interview with the online daily Axios, reports Efe.
Trump did not mention the fact that more than two dozen other countries, including Mexico and Canada, also have similar laws authorising citizenship for anyone born in their territory.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. And it has to end,” he added.
During the 2016 election campaign, Trump had explored this idea, although experts say that he will face significant obstacles and unleash a prolonged legal battle if he tries to implement it since birthright citizenship is an explicit part of the Constitution.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution states: “All persons born or naturalised in the US and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the US and of the state wherein they reside.”
“It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t,” Trump said, adding that “You can definitely do it with an Act of Congress. But now they’re saying I can do it just with an executive order.”
The US President provided no details about that proposition, saying only that he had discussed the matter with his legal advisers in the White House.
The Democratic National Committee criticised Trump’s proposal as “obviously unconstitutional.”
“His intent is clear: To incite fear, divide our nation, and make vulnerable communities feel unsafe,” DNC spokesman Daniel Wessel said in a statement, adding “If you want leaders who will unite our country instead of divide it, you must vote on November 6.”
Trump’s plan would be directed against the US-born children of illegal immigrants and would not affect people with legal residence.
The escalation of the president’s anti-immigrant rhetoric comes during the final stretch of the election campaign for the November 6 midterm vote in which Republicans are seeking to maintain their majority in Congress.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
By Saket Suman,
Book: Full Disclosure; Author: Stormy Daniels; Publisher: St. Martins Press/Pan Macmillan/Pages: 270; Price: Rs 699
In a tell-all memoir that justifies its title “Full Disclosure”, porn star Stormy Daniels makes stunning claims about US President Donald Trump, dwelling on his psyche, wondering whether he is fit to hold the world’s most powerful office, and detailing his body in a manner that will be clearly seen as “not cool” by the man she had the most unimpressive sex with ever.
Daniels notes that she felt utter disbelief when Trump kicked off his election campaign, and then went on win the Republican nomination in 2016. Several other adult stars who had not met Daniels for years but were aware she had slept with Trump in 2006, began to call her, and they were, according to Daniels’ telling, as surprised as she was.
“It will never happen, I would say. He doesn’t even want to be President,” she writes, describing her initial reaction to his nomination.
However, as Trump kept winning primary after primary, a sudden fear began to grip her. She knew that she held one tight secret about Trump, which he might not want the world to know and, therefore, felt she was in danger.
She claims that she had been threatened once by Trump several years ago and was strictly warned to never spill the beans. She says she was not supposed to tell anybody that she slept with Trump, who warned her to “never tell the story”.
These fears and her decision to sign a $130,000 hush agreement feature in the book along with an explicit description of sex with Trump.
“He needs to shave his balls,” was her first thought before the two would consummate. What Daniels writes thereafter, according to her, is the reason Trump did not ridicule or “oust” her prior to her taking on him in public.
“His penis is distinctive in a certain way, and I sometimes think that’s one of the reasons he didn’t tweet at me like he does so many women. He knew I could pick his dick out of a line-up,” she writes.
So, how was sex with Trump?
“I’d say the sex lasted two or three minutes. It may have been the least impressive sex I’ve ever had but clearly, he didn’t share that opinion. He rolled over and said, ‘Oh, that was just great.'”
Despite the underwhelming sex, she continued to answer Trump’s calls over the next few years, hoping that he would fulfill his promise to put her on his reality show, “The Apprentice”.
According to Daniels, Trump had even suggested that unfair means could be applied to keep her in the show, as it was he who was running the “show”.
“He was going to have me cheat, and it was 100 per cent his idea,” Daniels claims. Every time that she would see Trump on television thereafter, she would be reminded of the sex she had with him. Even the memory was disgusting, she adds.
Major portions of the book revolve around her coming to terms with the fact that she needed to go public with her story about Trump. Doing this meant first revealing it to her then-husband. Ultimately she did so, and that too just before the elections.
While the timing can be construed as being politically motivated, Daniels argues that she did it for her and her daughter’s safety. They would be less vulnerable to attacks if people knew the identity of the only person who had a reason to harm her, she argues. She also recounts an incident when she was approached by a well-built man at a parking lot, adjacent to a gym, who warned her never to let the story out.
The memoir ends on a tragic note, when readers learn of Daniels’ divorce and separation from her daughter. She is resilient, nonetheless, and hopes to sail through.
The memoir was first published in the US by St Martin’s Press earlier this year and has just arrived at Indian bookstores through Pan Macmillan. About the portions detailing Daniels’ tryst with Trump, it should be noted that it is one side of the story, filled with humour, satire and criticism, and may not present the events in their totality, or reality.
(Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)
—IANS
