Trump calls Jan. 6 a “beautiful day” during CNN town hall
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Donald Trump has attacked what he described as “cockroaches” in Washington, DC after the publication of the Durham report.
The 300-page report, from an investigation led by Trump-appointed special counsel John Durham, criticized the FBI for opening an investigation into alleged ties between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Russian government.
“THEY ARE SLUGS, LIKE THE PANDEROSES ALL OVER WASHINGTON, DC,” the former president wrote on Truth Social in response to the findings.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s name has appeared in an explosive lawsuit filed against Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, and his former personal lawyer.
Former Giuliani aide Noelle Dunphy is suing Giuliani for sexual harassment while working for him in 2019 and 2020. Giuliani has strongly denied the claims.
In the lawsuit, Ms. Dunphy claims she was told that she and then-President Trump were offering to sell presidential pardons for $2 million each.
She also claims she was forced to perform oral sex on Mr Giuliani while on speakerphone with Mr Trump.
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Three former Trump officials describe inappropriate behavior
After countless allegations were leveled against him during the election and the Access Hollywood tape near-disaster, one might have predicted that Mr. Trump would have been hypervigilant about how he behaved with women once he was sworn in as to president and moved entirely to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
But according to several women who held top positions during his four-year tenure, that prediction would have been dead wrong.
In the days since the Manhattan jury in Ms. Carroll’s lawsuit returned a verdict against the twice-accused former president, three former high-ranking Trump administration officials have come forward to describe inappropriate behavior by Mr. Trump toward other female officials in his employ.
The trio includes two of Trump’s top lieutenants, Alyssa Farah Griffin, his former White House communications director who is now co-host of ABC’s The View, and Stephanie Grisham, who served as press secretary for both Mr. Trump as former First Lady Melania Trump. to serve as Mrs. Trump’s chief of staff.
Andrew FeinbergMay 17, 2023 06:00
Lara Trump bombarded with falsehoods from Donald Trump after claiming that everything he says comes true
Lara Trump faced a barrage of examples of her father-in-law getting things wrong after claiming that “pretty much everything he’s said” has come true.
Mrs. Trump, Eric Trump’s wife, appeared on Newsmax Monday to discuss special counsel John Durham’s report criticizing the FBI’s handling of the investigation into connections between Russia and the Trump campaign .
“How many times has what he said come true? Almost everything he talked about, and by the way, he was mocked for saying it, everything has come true,” Trump told Newsmax.
Donald Trump claimed before releasing the report that Durham was to solve the “crime of the century”, but the report called the FBI’s actions “extremely problematic”.
The report said the FBI should not have launched its full investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, but the report did not suggest “wholesale changes” were made to the guidelines or policies
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Gustaf KilanderMay 17, 2023 05:30
VIDEO: E. Jean Carroll Reflects On Another Defamation Lawsuit Against Trump: ‘Suspending All Our Options’
E. Jean Carroll reflects on another defamation lawsuit against Trump: ‘Suspending all our options’
Gustaf KilanderMay 17, 2023 05:00
A suspect hunting a Virginia congressman attacked two of his staffers with a baseball bat. What happened?
A Democratic congressman’s office is reeling after two staffers were attacked by a man with a baseball bat who was allegedly looking for the lawmaker.
Xuan Kha Tran Pham was arrested Monday for the attack on Rep. Gerry Connolly’s district office in Fairfax, Virginia.
Authorities are now working to determine the suspect’s motive as the two staff members recover from the employees’ non-life threatening injuries.
Mr Connolly is believed to have been the intended target, while the lawmaker himself said he did not think the motive was political.
“I have the best team in Congress,” Connolly said in a statement. “My district office staff make themselves available to constituents and members of the public every day. The idea that someone would take advantage of the accessibility of my staff to commit an act of violence is inconceivable and devastating.”
Here’s what we know so far:
Independent staffMay 17, 2023 04:30
Kari Lake went to trial for the last remaining loss claim in the Arizona governor’s race
A judge has rejected a bid by election officials to throw out the latest claim of election misconduct by Kari Lake, the 2022 Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, who staged a three-day trial challenging former TV anchor of her defeat to Democrat Katie Hobbs. .
In a ruling issued Monday night, Superior Court Judge Peter A. Thompson declined to dismiss Lake’s claim that focused on early voting signature verification efforts in Maricopa County.
Thompson said Lake should have the opportunity to present testimony about whether Arizona’s most populous county properly verified signatures on ballot affidavit envelopes.
The trial is scheduled to begin Wednesday.
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Jacques Billeaud, AP May 17, 2023 04:00
Eric Trump threatens to sue Rachel Maddow
Eric Trump reportedly threatened to sue MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow for pointing out that she will appear alongside anti-Semitic speakers during a ReAwaken America Tour stop at Trump National Doral in Miami this weekend.
Donald Trump’s youngest son is scheduled to speak this weekend along with his wife, former Fox News contributor Lara Trump, along with right-wing influencers Scott McKay and Charlie Ward, who have been accused of spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories and praising Adolf Hitler. according to The Daily Beast.
Maddow took note of the speakers’ schedule and expressed surprise that one of Trump’s children would appear publicly at her side.
“I really can’t believe they’re following through,” he said on Monday’s broadcast.
Eric Trump took to Twitter the next night to complain about the story, saying Maddow was “walking a fine line” and insisting her family is “the most pro-Israel family in American political history “.
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Graig GraziosiMay 17, 2023 03:30
VOICES: Assault on congressional staff shows how political violence has become all too common
Another day, another example of political violence. On Monday, a man entered the district office of Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia and allegedly attacked two staff members before he was eventually arrested.
The attack is just the latest example of how violence against elected officials has become normal. According to the congressman’s office, the assailant wanted to find the Virginia congressman before he chose to beat the two staff members with a metal baseball bat. He was eventually arrested, but not before both staff members suffered injuries.
Although Mr Connolly’s office said the injuries were not life-threatening to the employees, the attack shows how political violence is no longer limited to Washington, but can spread even to district offices .
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Eric GarciaMay 17, 2023 03:00
How Republicans and the Right-Wing Media Made Jordan Neely’s Killer a Hero
In his flipped version of the parable, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis compared the man who fatally drowned a homeless New Yorker to the “Good Samaritan,” the biblical figure who came to the aid of a man who was stripped, beaten and abandoned. dead by the wayside
According to witnesses, Jordan Neely complained loudly of hunger and thirst when he boarded a Manhattan F train on May 1, said he didn’t care if he was imprisoned or killed and threw his jacket on the ground before a man identified as Daniel Penny. grabbed him from behind and pinned him to the ground with a choke hold for a few minutes.
“We stand with good Samaritans like Daniel Penny,” DeSantis wrote on Twitter after Penny was formally charged with manslaughter on May 12. “Clear the streets for law-abiding citizens,” he wrote.
Republican elected officials and right-wing media and personalities have similarly portrayed Mr. Penny as a heroic figure and criticized the fact that charges have been brought against him, rejecting the idea that prosecutors or law enforcement they should even investigate.
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Alex WoodwardMay 17, 2023 02:30
Rudy Giuliani avoids any mention of a bombshell harassment lawsuit on the hour-long YouTube show
During his 76-minute show, Giuliani didn’t even mention the allegations and continued to share his opinion on the Durham report.
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Alisha Rahman SarkarMay 17, 2023 02:00
How did the FBI respond to the Durham report?
The FBI noted that it had long since taken dozens of corrective actions. Had those measures been in place in 2016, he says, the mistakes at the heart of the report could have been avoided.
He also took pains to point out that the conduct in the report occurred before the current director, Christopher Wray, took the job in the fall of 2017.
what happens next
It didn’t take long for Republicans in Congress to react. Rep. Jim Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said he had invited Durham to testify on Capitol Hill next week. Trump also sought to capitalize on the report, saying it showed how the American public had been “duped.”
While the FBI says it has already taken some steps, Durham said more reform may be needed. One idea, he said, would be to provide additional scrutiny for politically sensitive investigations by identifying an official who would be responsible for challenging actions taken in an investigation.
He said his team had considered, but ultimately did not recommend, measures that would curtail the FBI’s investigative authorities, including using tools under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to wiretap suspected ‘spies or terrorists.
