Category Archives: Donald Trump

The Queen will host Donald Trump at Buckingham Palace when the US president travels to the UK early next month just before the general election, the White House has said.

Trump and his wife, Melania, will be among the world leaders and their partners attending an event at the palace as part of a Nato summit. The couple will be in the UK from 2 to 4 December.The election is on 12 December.

Trump has faced large-scale demonstrations on his two previous visits to London as president. Next month will be the second time he has met the Queen.

He has regularly expressed concern that many Nato members are not providing sufficient financial support for the military alliance.

A White House statement said: Seventy years after its founding, Nato remains the most successful alliance in history, guaranteeing the security, prosperity and freedom of its members. President Trump looks forward to meeting with the other Nato heads of state and government to review the alliances unprecedented progress on burden-sharing, including adding more than $100bn in new defence spending since 2016.

The president will also emphasise the need for the Nato alliance to ensure its readiness for the threats of tomorrow, including those emanating from cyberspace, those affecting our critical infrastructure and telecommunications networks, and those posed by terrorism.

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Donald Trump to be hosted by the Queen days before UK election - The Guardian

His father-in-law was President Nixon and his boss is President Trump, so Ed Cox knows a thing or two about the Oval Office occupant trying to survive impeachment.

Cox predicts a very different outcome this time around.

Trump is going to fight right through, the former longtime New York state GOP boss and current national coordinator of the Trump Victory fund told The Post.

Cox married Tricia Nixon they met as teenagers at a Manhattan prep-school dance in the White House rose garden in June 1971, and had a front-row seat to Richard Nixons fall.

He was a surrogate on the presidents 1972 re-election campaign when the Watergate scandal erupted exposing the campaigns spying on the Democratic challenger, Nixon covering it up, and leading to very public hearings that prompted the 37th president to resign in August 1974 before he could be impeached.

It was much worse then there were no defenders back then, Cox recalled of his father-in-laws impeachment battle.

There was no back and forth then he didnt see it coming. Why should he have? It didnt happen to Eisenhower. It didnt happen to FDR. He was never prepared for thinking that impeachment would be used as a political weapon as it was back then, Cox said.

The Greek tragedy, as Nixon once described it, also unfolded at the worst possible time, sealing his fate, Cox suggested.

It happened in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression and it hit bottom right around August of 74, said Cox.

Trump, conversely, faces his accusers while Wall Street is experiencing record highs, and interest rates and unemployment are low.

The political math is also different: Trump has a Republican-controlled Senate that would have to vote to convict or acquit, whereas Nixon was the only president since at least World War II who didnt come in with at least one house on his side, Cox said.

And counter-puncher Trump is indefatiguable, the veteran political boss added.

President Trump understood he was in a different position hes going to fight. Hes got the resources the media resources, the Twitter account, the 31 Democrats who are in Trump districts, said Cox.

When he gives those speeches, hes holding onto his base, he said. Hes a realist who wants to win.

Cox even drew parallels between the two whistleblowers, then and now.

Im not a conspiracy theorist, but the deep state is there, and its palpable. Its still there.

Who was Deep Throat? A deputy director of the FBI [Mark Felt] They used him as this mysterious guy who knew everything, Cox said. He didnt know a damn thing.

Some 46 years on, the [Trump] whistleblower serves the same purpose, Cox said.

Cox sees parallels in Trump and Nixon.

What I recognized in [Trump] from the start was that the same fire that burns in him burned in my father-in-law political fires, said Cox, speaking in the library of his Upper East Side apartment, where Nixon often sat with such leaders as Henry Kissinger, British PM Ted Heath and the Rev. Billy Graham for informal chats after leaving the presidency.

Completely different people, [yet] they both came up from tough backgrounds. Theyre both anti-elitists.

Trump is a unique president, said Cox, who also worked for Presidents Reagan and George HW Bush. In fact, Coxs in-laws recognized Trumps political promise early on.

The bombastic businessman was making the rounds of talk shows in 1987, hinting at presidential ambitions, when former First Lady Pat Nixon spotted him on The Phil Donahue Show. She told her husband about it and Nixon soon wrote Trump a letter, which encouraged, whenever you decide to run for office, you will be a winner.

Today that framed missive hangs in the White House.

Cox said there was a great mutual fondness between the two men. Nixon, who died in 1994, spoke with respect for Donald Trump.

Trump considered running for governor in 2014, Cox recalled, but was at odds with the tedium that deviated from a presidential election. Trumps then-advisor Roger Stone urged Trump to go bigger.

That run never made sense Roger was right, Cox said.

On Friday, Stone was convicted in federal court of seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements to Congress in connection with former Special Counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation.

Cox not only believes Trump will win his impeachment battle, but secure re-election in a small landslide.

Asked what advice his father-in-law would have given Trump today, Cox said: For the good of the country, fight it and you will win.

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Nixon's son-in-law Ed Cox says Trump will 'fight right through' impeachment - New York Post

President Donald Trump arrives at Morristown municipal airport for a weekend at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, August 2, 2019.

Yuri Gripas | Reuters

Attorneys for President Donald Trump returned to the Supreme Court on Friday to ask the justices for the second day in a row to block a demand for his income tax returns this one from House Democrats.

On Thursday, Trump's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to hear their appeal of a lower-court ruling that would allow the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to obtain eight years' worth of Trump's personal and corporate tax returns from his accountants as part of its criminal investigation.

In their emergency application filed on Friday, Trump's lawyers asked the justices to temporarily halt another subpoena for his tax returns to issued to his accountants at Mazars USA by the House Oversight Committee. The firm has said it will hand over the records if it is required to.

"For the first time in our nation's history, Congress has subpoenaed the personal records of a sitting President from before he was in office," the president's attorney Jay Sekulow said in a statement. "And, for the first time in our nation's history, a court upheld a congressional subpoena to the President for his personal papers."

"Those decisions are wrong and should be reversed," he said.

It take five justices to vote to grant a stay.

The nine-member high court has five Republican appointees. Two of them, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, were appointed by Trump.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide whether to grant the stay before Wednesday, when the subpoena would otherwise be enforced.

William Consovoy, another one of the president's private attorneys, warned in the application that letting the lower court's opinion stand would burden presidents with an onslaught of congressional demands.

"Given the temptation to dig up dirt on political rivals, intrusive subpoenas into the personal lives of Presidents will become our new normal in times of divided government no matter which party is in power," he wrote.

Trump's moves in both cases, which could result in landmark Supreme Court decisions, come as the president faces what is only the fourth presidential impeachment inquiry in American history, and as he seeks reelection next year.

The House is investigating Trump for pressuring Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

If the Supreme Court takes one or both of the cases, it would decide them by the end of the court's term in June less than five months before voters head to the polls to elect the next president..

Trump has vigorously fought to keep his tax returns secret, even after claiming he would release them to the public. He is the first president since Gerald Ford to not publicly reveal his tax returns. Even as his lawyers fight at the Supreme Court to keep his tax returns private, the president is fighting battles in lower courts in related matters.

Although both cases at the Supreme Court involve Trump's tax returns, they have different origins and raise different legal questions.

The case involving Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance Jr.'s office raises the question of whether a state prosecutor can obtain financial records related to a president as part of a criminal investigation.

In that case, Trump's lawyers are arguing that a president cannot be criminally investigated or charged while in office.

That question has never been decided by the Supreme Court so if the high court takes the appeal of Vance's subpoenas it could resolve the question of presidential criminal immunity, setting a precedent that could apply in all future cases.

Vance's office is known to be investigating at the very least how the Trump Organization accounted for hush money payments made in the months before the 2016 presidential election by others to two women who claim they had affairs with Trump years before.

Trump denies having sex with either of the women, porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Daniels was paid $130,000 by Trump's then-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who later was reimbursed by both Trump personally and by the Trump Organization, ostensibly for legal services. McDougal was paid $150,000 by the publisher of The National Enquirer, the supermarket tabloid newspaper, which was a supporter of Trump.

A federal district court judge in Manhattan in October dismissed Trump's lawsuit seeking to block the subpoena. Trump then lost his appeal of that ruling to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which prompted his petition to the Supreme Court.

The second case, related to the subpoena issued by the House committee, involves the constitutional separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches of government.

The Democratic-led House Oversight Committee issued its subpoena to the Mazars accounting firm for Trump's tax returns on April 15 Tax Day. The committee said the records would be of use in the panel's investigation of ethics-in-government laws.

Read the filing:

The committee's action came in response to a finding from the Office of Government Ethics that Trump failed to reveal on his financial disclosure report the debt that he owed to Cohen for the lawyer's payment to Daniels.

In October, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia rejected in a 2-1 vote the president's arguments that the subpoena was an overreach of Congress's authority.

"Having considered the weighty interests at stake in this case, we conclude that the subpoena issued by the Committee to Mazars is valid and enforceable," Circuit Judge David Tatel wrote in the majority decision.

Trump's attorneys then requested that the entire D.C. appeals court panel rehear the case.

On Wednesday, the court denied that request by a vote of 8-3.

That decision prompted two sharp dissents.

One of them came from Judge Neomi Rao, whom Trump appointed to replace Kavanaugh after tapping him to the Supreme Court.

Rao wrote that the decision "shifted the balance of power between Congress and the President and allowed a congressional committee to circumvent the careful process of impeachment."

In addition to the House Oversight Committee's subpoena, the House Ways and Means Committee had demanded that the IRS and the Treasury Department turn over Trump's federal income tax returns.

The IRS and Treasury have refused to do so, despite a section of the federal tax codes that says Treasury "shall furnish" an individual's returns if the committee formally requests them.

The Ways and Means Committee is suing the agencies to obtain the returns.

Earlier this week, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by Trump that sought to bar the committee from using a newly enacted New York state law to obtain the president's state income tax returns. Those state tax returns would contain much of the same information that is on his federal tax returns.

Neither that committee nor the two other congressional committees that have the authority to obtain a president's tax returns under the New York law has actually invoked it to get Trump's state returns.

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Trump asks Supreme Court to block another subpoena for his tax returns this one is from Congress - CNBC

A supporter of Donald Trump holds up a Confederate flag prior to a campaign rally in Virginia in December 2015. The man was removed from the rally by local authorities. (Reuters / Gary Cameron)

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As Americans, our collective desire to maintain a veneer of nationalistic piety tends to supersede our desire to tell the truthand if the past is prologue, President Donald Trump will face no historical reckoning for his sprawling malfeasance. Over time and despite his gropes, tweets, and slurs, his lies, tantrums, and betrayals, his government shutdowns and immigrant cages, Trump will likely be remembered not as he was but as the dutiful head of state the nation needs him to be.Ad Policy

Weve laundered the reputations of worse men. After slaverys fall, Americans feverishly recast the image of those responsible for chattel subjugation. During secession, Jefferson Davis, who would become president of the Confederacy, initially condemned restrictions on slavery as a catastrophe worth thousands of millions of dollars. After defeat, he downplayed the existence of African servitude as only an incident, joining other Southern politicians like Alexander Stephens in retroactively describing slavery as merely a vehicle to address broader issues of states rights.

President Woodrow Wilson further obfuscated the past. At the 50th anniversary of Gettysburg, he did not mention slaveholders, focusing instead on the splendid valor and manly devotion of the men then arrayed against one another. Two years later, he endorsed The Birth of a Nation, the film that lionized the former Confederates as insurgent Klansmen during Reconstruction. He reportedly said the movie was like writing history with lightning.

Hollywood doubled down on this lie, transforming barons of bondage into tragic lovers living on picturesque plantations in films like Gone With the Wind. The same trimming and editing applied to our original sin have sanitized our national transgressions ever since. Whether naming an airport after a president who had slurred African UN delegates as monkeys or defending an international warmonger on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Americans reconstruct what they dont want to recall.Related Article

This is why Toni Morrison observed that written history is filled with erasures and absences and silences. Its why her novel Beloveds characters live in what she described as a society and a system in which the conquerors write the narrative of their lives. Ta-Nehisi Coates aptly compared this American amnesia to the practiced habit of jabbing out ones eyes and forgetting the work of ones hands.

Yet Americans love their brightly rendered history as much as their HDTVs, and most have no desire to gaze at the dark, grainy truth. After all, false memory is what allows football fans in DC to cheer for the Redskins or Atlanta Braves fans to flail their arms like tomahawks. False memory is how we celebrate the genocidal Christopher Columbus as a daring explorer. False memory is why we set off fireworks over the nations largest Confederate memorial on July 4. Upon the slightest confrontation with the historical record, so much that Americans hold dear falls apart.

The pain is often too much to bear for those who inherit the profits of the countrys plunder. In a 2012 PBS documentary on slavery after the Civil War, the descendant of a Jim Crow plantation owner named John S. Williams was overcome with grief when she discovered the truth about her great-grandfather, whom the family remembered as a pillar of the community. Family lore recounted that he worked a few hardened criminals on his farm and that an awful accident occurred one day when they tried to escape. This, too, was an American fairy tale. Williams, like many other plantation owners, profited from racialized peonage: a system in which debt is paid with forced labor. In 1921, when federal investigators found Williams enslaving black laborers, he killed 11 of them to bury the evidence. Hunting them down one by one, he bludgeoned some and drowned others. He even forced one to dig his own grave.Current Issue

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The story came to light for me. It was, of course, totally different from the story that I had heard, the great-granddaughter said as tears pooled in her eyes. I get so emotional when I think about not just the fact that these men were murdered but the cruelty with which it was carried out.

The painful truth that Williamss great-granddaughter reckoned with is what the American historical apparatus works to suppress. In the name of national innocence, in the name of American hegemony, we continuously, forcefully, willfully forget. The reflex is so strong that when The New York Times Magazine recently dedicated an issue to the legacy of slavery, readers convulsed. Newt Gingrich called it a lie and propaganda that the Times wants to brainwash you with. A writer for the conservative website The Federalist labeled it a project to delegitimize America, and further divide and demoralize its citizenry. And this impulse is bipartisan. When confronted on school integration, Joe Biden forcefully declared that he did not oppose busing in America, despite irrefutable reporting by the Times that he was a leading opponent of busing in the Senate during the 1970s and 1980s. Seen in this light, Trumps lies arent a deviation from traditional American revisionism. They merely await the next cadre of patriotic academics, novelists, politicians, and filmmakers eager to cast him as yet another reclaimed American champion.

To expect the country to recall Trumps legacy as vile is to expect citizens to look away from the never-ending Disney movie that is American historysomething we have yet to show a willingness to do. Because if we still remember Confederate generals as dashing heroes, if we still enshrine segregationist senators as congressional philosophers, if we still celebrate incarceration enthusiasts as elder statesmen, then it is comfortably within the realm of possibility that Trump will eventually be remembered as a charismatic, pudgy grandpa who loved to wear red hats and wish people Merry Christmaslike a conservative Santa Claus who saved lumps of coal for migrant children.

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How Will Americans Remember Donald Trump? - The Nation

Except the Ukrainians did know. The Times reported that the Ukrainian government was aware of the freeze during most of the period in August when Mr. Trumps personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani and two American diplomats were pressing President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to make a public commitment to the investigations.

This week, Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union, testified that he explicitly told a top Ukrainian official that release of the aid was contingent on a public announcement of an investigation.

Its all just hearsay. And the whistle-blower is a partisan Democrat.

Not just hearsay, but triple hearsay. This argument first appeared in October, as the outlines of the whistle-blowers complaint came into focus. Today was just more triple hearsay and selective leaks from the Democrats politically motivated, closed-door, secretive hearings, said the White House Press secretary, Stephanie Grisham.

What about the anonymous whistle-blower? The presidents allies and conservative media outlets have been speculating about the persons identity and motivations. But the truth is that the whistle-blower could have been Joe Biden himself at this point. What matters isnt the motivation but the substance of the complaint. Virtually every element has been corroborated by multiple people.

It was a quid pro quo. But so what? This happens all the time.

Did he also mention to me in passing the corruption related to the D.N.C. server? Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, offered this during an October news conference. Absolutely. No question about that, he said. Thats why we held up the money.

For good measure, he added, Get over it.

To their credit, not even Mr. Trumps most steadfast allies have signed on to this particular defense, at least not yet. Mr. Mulvaney, realizing the depth of the hole he had dug, later claimed he had not said what he said. Still, his claim did serve one important function, which was to pivot the administrations basic case away from no quid pro quo to yes, quid pro quo, but so what?

It was a quid pro quo, but President Trump was only interested in rooting out corruption in Ukraine.

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The Disorienting Defenses of Donald Trump - The New York Times

Donald Trump continues to support a White House adviser facing accusations of holding white nationalist views after a trove of his emails to a right-wing website were leaked this week, according to a new report.

Stephen Miller has faced demands from prominent Democrats on Capitol Hill to resign from his post at the White House after the Southern Poverty Law Centres Hatewatch investigative team published an array of emails he sent to Breitbart, while serving as an adviser to former Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, and later on the presidents 2016 campaign.

The 38-year-old encouraged a Breitbart reporter who shared the emails with Hatewatch to publish story angles in line with views espoused on white nationalist sites, often linking to them throughout his exchanges with the outlets editorial staff.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

On Saturday, the Daily Beast published a report citing an anonymous senior White House official who said Mr Trump continued to fully support Mr Miller in spite of the growing calls for him to leave the administration.

Stephen is not going anywhere, the official reportedly told the news outlet. The president has his back.

Accused of abusing his office by pressing the Ukrainian president in a July phone call to help dig up dirt on Joe Biden, who may be his Democratic rival in the 2020 election.He also believes that Hillary Clintons deleted emails - a key factor in the 2016 election - may be in Ukraine, although it is not clear why.

Reuters

Believed to be a CIA agent who spent time at the White House, his complaint was largely based on second and third-hand accounts from worried White House staff. Although this is not unusual for such complaints, Trump and his supporters have seized on it to imply that his information is not reliable.Expected to give evidence to Congress voluntarily and in secret.

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The lawyer for the first intelligence whistleblower is also representing a second whistleblower regarding the President's actions. Attorney Mark Zaid said that he and other lawyers on his team are now representing the second person, who is said to work in the intelligence community and has first-hand knowledge that supports claims made by the first whistleblower and has spoken to the intelligence community's inspector general. The second whistleblower has not yet filed their own complaint, but does not need to to be considered an official whistleblower.

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Former mayor of New York, whose management of the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001 won him worldwide praise. As Trumps personal attorney he has been trying to find compromising material about the presidents enemies in Ukraine in what some have termed a shadow foreign policy.In a series of eccentric TV appearances he has claimed that the US state department asked him to get involved. Giuliani insists that he is fighting corruption on Trumps behalf and has called himself a hero.

AP

The newly elected Ukrainian president - a former comic actor best known for playing a man who becomes president by accident - is seen frantically agreeing with Trump in the partial transcript of their July phone call released by the White House.With a Russian-backed insurgency in the east of his country, and the Crimea region seized by Vladimir Putin in 2014, Zelensky will have been eager to please his American counterpart, who had suspended vital military aid before their phone conversation.He says there was no pressure on him from Trump to do him the favour he was asked for.Zelensky appeared at an awkward press conference with Trump in New York during the United Nations general assembly, looking particularly uncomfortable when the American suggested he take part in talks with Putin.

AFP/Getty

The vice-president was not on the controversial July call to the Ukrainian president but did get a read-out later.However, Trump announced that Pence had had one or two phone conversations of a similar nature, dragging him into the crisis. Pence himself denies any knowledge of any wrongdoing and has insisted that there is no issue with Trumps actions.It has been speculated that Trump involved Pence as an insurance policy - if both are removed from power the presidency would go to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, something no Republican would allow.

AP

Trump reportedly told a meeting of Republicans that he made the controversial call to the Ukrainian president at the urging of his own energy secretary, Rick Perry, and that he didnt even want to.The president apparently said that Perry wanted him to talk about liquefied natural gas - although there is no mention of it in the partial transcript of the phone call released by the White House. It is thought that Perry will step down from his role at the end of the year.

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The former vice-president is one of the frontrunners to win the Democratic nomination, which would make him Trumps opponent in the 2020 election.Trump says that Biden pressured Ukraine to sack a prosecutor who was investigating an energy company that Bidens son Hunter was on the board of, refusing to release US aid until this was done.However, pressure to fire the prosecutor came on a wide front from western countries. It is also believed that the investigation into the company, Burisma, had long been dormant.

Reuters

Joe Bidens son has been accused of corruption by the president because of his business dealings in Ukraine and China. However, Trump has yet to produce any evidence of corruption and Bidens lawyer insists he has done nothing wrong.

AP

The attorney-general, who proved his loyalty to Trump with his handling of the Mueller report, was mentioned in the Ukraine call as someone president Volodymyr Zelensky should talk to about following up Trumps preoccupations with the Bidens and the Clinton emails.Nancy Pelosi has accused Barr of being part of a cover-up of a cover-up.

AP

The secretary of state initially implied he knew little about the Ukraine phone call - but it later emerged that he was listening in at the time. He has since suggested that asking foreign leaders for favours is simply how international politics works.

AFP via Getty

The Democratic Speaker of the House had long resisted calls from within her own party to back a formal impeachment process against the president, apparently fearing a backlash from voters. On September 24, amid reports of the Ukraine call and the day before the White House released a partial transcript of it, she relented and announced an inquiry, saying: The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law.

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Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, one of the three committees leading the inquiry.He was criticized by Republicans for giving what he called a parody of the Ukraine phone call during a hearing, with Trump and others saying he had been pretending that his damning characterisation was a verbatim reading of the phone call.He has also been criticised for claiming that his committee had had no contact with the whistleblower, only for it to emerge that the intelligence agent had contacted a staff member on the committee for guidance before filing the complaint.The Washington Post awarded Schiff a four Pinocchios rating, its worst rating for a dishonest statement.

Reuters

Florida-based businessmen and Republican donors Lev Parnas (pictured with Rudy Giuliani) and Igor Fruman were arrested on suspicion of campaign finance violations at Dulles International Airport near Washington DC on 9 October.Separately the Associated Press has reported that they were both involved in efforts to replace the management of Ukraine's gas company, Naftogaz, with new bosses who would steer lucrative contracts towards companies controlled by Trump allies. There is no suggestion of any criminal activity in these efforts.

Reuters

The former US ambassador to NATO was appointed special envoy to Ukraine, and is thought to have played a role in linking Giuliani with Ukraine officials.He resigned just before giving evidence to Congress, which had subpoenaed him.After his testimony it emerged that he had apparently told Giuliani that he was being fed false information about the Bidens from Ukrainian officials.

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A career diplomat who was appointed US ambassador to Ukraine towards the end of Barack Obamas presidency. She was abruptly recalled from her post in May 2019 amid claims that she was not co-operating with Rudy Giulianis unorthodox activities in Ukraine.In the Ukraine phone call Trump refers to her as the woman and bad news and hints darkly at some sort of retribution, saying: Well, shes going to go through some things.Yovanovitch told House investigators in October that she felt as though she were targeted by a false accusations from Giuliani and his associates, who allegedly viewed her as a threat to their political and financial interests.She also said that State Department officials had told her she did nothing wrong, and that her abrupt removal was not related to her performance. Trump had simply lost faith in her abilities.Expected to testify publicly before House committee on 15 November.

AP

A Seattle hotelier who became US ambassador to the European Union after donating $1 million to Trumps inauguration committee, despite having no diplomatic experience.According to the whistleblower, Sondland met Ukrainian politicians to help them understand and respond to the differing messages they were receiving from official US channels on one hand and from Mr GIuliani on the other.Sondland told House investigators during October 2019 testimony that he had been disappointed with Trump's decision to involve his personal lawyer in dealings with Kiev and stated that the president refused counsel from his top diplomats, and demanded Volodymyr Zelensky satisfy his concerns about corruption. Those diplomats had told Trump to meet with Zelensky without preconditions, according to Sondland.His testimony is at odds with the testimony of some other foreign policy officials, however, who indicated that Sondland was a willing participant.

Reuters

A career diplomat, he was number two at the Ukraine embassy under Marie Yovanovitch. Kent testified before House investigators in October 2019 that he was cut out of Ukraine policymaking after a May meeting orchestrated by acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and was told to "lay low".The deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs said that he though it was "wrong" that he was sidelines by Trump's inner circle.Following the May meeting, Kent said he was edged out by Gordon Sondland, Kurt Volker, and Rick Perry, who "declared themselves the three people now responsible for Ukraine policy", according to a politician who attended the closed door testimony.Expected to testify publicly to House committee on 12 November.

AFP via Getty Images

An adviser to secretary of state Mike Pompeo, with whom he has run businesses. The two were also at West Point military academy together.Swiss-born Brechbuhl is said to handle special diplomatic assignments.Subpoenaed to give evidence to Congress in November.

US State Department

Philip Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of State, testified that he did not find out about a push by the Trump administration to force Ukraine to publicly announce an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden until the whistleblower complaint was made public.While he was asked about any quid pro quo in that regard, Reeker indicated he was in the dark and so could not provide further details.But, he did fill in details during his October 2019 testimony on the circumstances surrounding the firing of Marie Yovanovitch. Democrats described his testimony has providing further backup to other testimony they had heard.

AP

William Taylor, the top US diplomat to Ukraine, testified during an October 2019 hearing in the house that American aid to Ukraine was explicitly tied to the country's willingness to investigate Donald Trump's political rival.Taylor's testimony was explosive, and made him a key witness to the Trump administration's efforts to use the force of the American government to push a politically motivated investigation against Joe Biden.He said the efforts came through an "irregular, informal channel of US policy-making" led by Rudy Giuliani, Kurt Volker, Rick Perry, and Gordon Sondland.Expected to publicly testify before House committee on 13 November.

AP

Lietenant colonel Alexander Vindman is a top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, and a decorated Iraq war veteran.He planned to tell the House impeachment inquiry that he heard Donald Trump appeal to Ukraine's president to investigate his leading political rivals. Mr Vindman said he considered the request so damaging to American interests that he reported it to a superior twice.He is the first person to testify before the House impeachment inquiry who actually listened in on the 25 July phone call, in which Trump urged Volodymyr Zelensky to start an investigation into Joe Biden.

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Accused of abusing his office by pressing the Ukrainian president in a July phone call to help dig up dirt on Joe Biden, who may be his Democratic rival in the 2020 election.He also believes that Hillary Clintons deleted emails - a key factor in the 2016 election - may be in Ukraine, although it is not clear why.

Reuters

Believed to be a CIA agent who spent time at the White House, his complaint was largely based on second and third-hand accounts from worried White House staff. Although this is not unusual for such complaints, Trump and his supporters have seized on it to imply that his information is not reliable.Expected to give evidence to Congress voluntarily and in secret.

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The lawyer for the first intelligence whistleblower is also representing a second whistleblower regarding the President's actions. Attorney Mark Zaid said that he and other lawyers on his team are now representing the second person, who is said to work in the intelligence community and has first-hand knowledge that supports claims made by the first whistleblower and has spoken to the intelligence community's inspector general. The second whistleblower has not yet filed their own complaint, but does not need to to be considered an official whistleblower.

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Former mayor of New York, whose management of the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001 won him worldwide praise. As Trumps personal attorney he has been trying to find compromising material about the presidents enemies in Ukraine in what some have termed a shadow foreign policy.In a series of eccentric TV appearances he has claimed that the US state department asked him to get involved. Giuliani insists that he is fighting corruption on Trumps behalf and has called himself a hero.

AP

The newly elected Ukrainian president - a former comic actor best known for playing a man who becomes president by accident - is seen frantically agreeing with Trump in the partial transcript of their July phone call released by the White House.With a Russian-backed insurgency in the east of his country, and the Crimea region seized by Vladimir Putin in 2014, Zelensky will have been eager to please his American counterpart, who had suspended vital military aid before their phone conversation.He says there was no pressure on him from Trump to do him the favour he was asked for.Zelensky appeared at an awkward press conference with Trump in New York during the United Nations general assembly, looking particularly uncomfortable when the American suggested he take part in talks with Putin.

AFP/Getty

The vice-president was not on the controversial July call to the Ukrainian president but did get a read-out later.However, Trump announced that Pence had had one or two phone conversations of a similar nature, dragging him into the crisis. Pence himself denies any knowledge of any wrongdoing and has insisted that there is no issue with Trumps actions.It has been speculated that Trump involved Pence as an insurance policy - if both are removed from power the presidency would go to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, something no Republican would allow.

AP

Trump reportedly told a meeting of Republicans that he made the controversial call to the Ukrainian president at the urging of his own energy secretary, Rick Perry, and that he didnt even want to.The president apparently said that Perry wanted him to talk about liquefied natural gas - although there is no mention of it in the partial transcript of the phone call released by the White House. It is thought that Perry will step down from his role at the end of the year.

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The former vice-president is one of the frontrunners to win the Democratic nomination, which would make him Trumps opponent in the 2020 election.Trump says that Biden pressured Ukraine to sack a prosecutor who was investigating an energy company that Bidens son Hunter was on the board of, refusing to release US aid until this was done.However, pressure to fire the prosecutor came on a wide front from western countries. It is also believed that the investigation into the company, Burisma, had long been dormant.

Reuters

Joe Bidens son has been accused of corruption by the president because of his business dealings in Ukraine and China. However, Trump has yet to produce any evidence of corruption and Bidens lawyer insists he has done nothing wrong.

AP

The attorney-general, who proved his loyalty to Trump with his handling of the Mueller report, was mentioned in the Ukraine call as someone president Volodymyr Zelensky should talk to about following up Trumps preoccupations with the Bidens and the Clinton emails.Nancy Pelosi has accused Barr of being part of a cover-up of a cover-up.

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The secretary of state initially implied he knew little about the Ukraine phone call - but it later emerged that he was listening in at the time. He has since suggested that asking foreign leaders for favours is simply how international politics works.

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The Democratic Speaker of the House had long resisted calls from within her own party to back a formal impeachment process against the president, apparently fearing a backlash from voters. On September 24, amid reports of the Ukraine call and the day before the White House released a partial transcript of it, she relented and announced an inquiry, saying: The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law.

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Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, one of the three committees leading the inquiry.He was criticized by Republicans for giving what he called a parody of the Ukraine phone call during a hearing, with Trump and others saying he had been pretending that his damning characterisation was a verbatim reading of the phone call.He has also been criticised for claiming that his committee had had no contact with the whistleblower, only for it to emerge that the intelligence agent had contacted a staff member on the committee for guidance before filing the complaint.The Washington Post awarded Schiff a four Pinocchios rating, its worst rating for a dishonest statement.

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Florida-based businessmen and Republican donors Lev Parnas (pictured with Rudy Giuliani) and Igor Fruman were arrested on suspicion of campaign finance violations at Dulles International Airport near Washington DC on 9 October.Separately the Associated Press has reported that they were both involved in efforts to replace the management of Ukraine's gas company, Naftogaz, with new bosses who would steer lucrative contracts towards companies controlled by Trump allies. There is no suggestion of any criminal activity in these efforts.

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The former US ambassador to NATO was appointed special envoy to Ukraine, and is thought to have played a role in linking Giuliani with Ukraine officials.He resigned just before giving evidence to Congress, which had subpoenaed him.After his testimony it emerged that he had apparently told Giuliani that he was being fed false information about the Bidens from Ukrainian officials.

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A career diplomat who was appointed US ambassador to Ukraine towards the end of Barack Obamas presidency. She was abruptly recalled from her post in May 2019 amid claims that she was not co-operating with Rudy Giulianis unorthodox activities in Ukraine.In the Ukraine phone call Trump refers to her as the woman and bad news and hints darkly at some sort of retribution, saying: Well, shes going to go through some things.Yovanovitch told House investigators in October that she felt as though she were targeted by a false accusations from Giuliani and his associates, who allegedly viewed her as a threat to their political and financial interests.She also said that State Department officials had told her she did nothing wrong, and that her abrupt removal was not related to her performance. Trump had simply lost faith in her abilities.Expected to testify publicly before House committee on 15 November.

AP

A Seattle hotelier who became US ambassador to the European Union after donating $1 million to Trumps inauguration committee, despite having no diplomatic experience.According to the whistleblower, Sondland met Ukrainian politicians to help them understand and respond to the differing messages they were receiving from official US channels on one hand and from Mr GIuliani on the other.Sondland told House investigators during October 2019 testimony that he had been disappointed with Trump's decision to involve his personal lawyer in dealings with Kiev and stated that the president refused counsel from his top diplomats, and demanded Volodymyr Zelensky satisfy his concerns about corruption. Those diplomats had told Trump to meet with Zelensky without preconditions, according to Sondland.His testimony is at odds with the testimony of some other foreign policy officials, however, who indicated that Sondland was a willing participant.

Reuters

A career diplomat, he was number two at the Ukraine embassy under Marie Yovanovitch. Kent testified before House investigators in October 2019 that he was cut out of Ukraine policymaking after a May meeting orchestrated by acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and was told to "lay low".The deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs said that he though it was "wrong" that he was sidelines by Trump's inner circle.Following the May meeting, Kent said he was edged out by Gordon Sondland, Kurt Volker, and Rick Perry, who "declared themselves the three people now responsible for Ukraine policy", according to a politician who attended the closed door testimony.Expected to testify publicly to House committee on 12 November.

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An adviser to secretary of state Mike Pompeo, with whom he has run businesses. The two were also at West Point military academy together.Swiss-born Brechbuhl is said to handle special diplomatic assignments.Subpoenaed to give evidence to Congress in November.

US State Department

Philip Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of State, testified that he did not find out about a push by the Trump administration to force Ukraine to publicly announce an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden until the whistleblower complaint was made public.While he was asked about any quid pro quo in that regard, Reeker indicated he was in the dark and so could not provide further details.But, he did fill in details during his October 2019 testimony on the circumstances surrounding the firing of Marie Yovanovitch. Democrats described his testimony has providing further backup to other testimony they had heard.

AP

William Taylor, the top US diplomat to Ukraine, testified during an October 2019 hearing in the house that American aid to Ukraine was explicitly tied to the country's willingness to investigate Donald Trump's political rival.Taylor's testimony was explosive, and made him a key witness to the Trump administration's efforts to use the force of the American government to push a politically motivated investigation against Joe Biden.He said the efforts came through an "irregular, informal channel of US policy-making" led by Rudy Giuliani, Kurt Volker, Rick Perry, and Gordon Sondland.Expected to publicly testify before House committee on 13 November.

AP

Lietenant colonel Alexander Vindman is a top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, and a decorated Iraq war veteran.He planned to tell the House impeachment inquiry that he heard Donald Trump appeal to Ukraine's president to investigate his leading political rivals. Mr Vindman said he considered the request so damaging to American interests that he reported it to a superior twice.He is the first person to testify before the House impeachment inquiry who actually listened in on the 25 July phone call, in which Trump urged Volodymyr Zelensky to start an investigation into Joe Biden.

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The emails were shared with Southern Poverty Law Centre by Katie McHugh, a Breitbart staffer and former right-wing figure who has since denounced the alt-right. She noted how Mr Miller would send her stories to right from popular sites among white supremacists, including one called American Renaissance.

I remember being stuck by the way he called it AmRen, the nickname, she told Hatewatch.

Mr Miller appeared to frequent white nationalist sites and develop supporting material to back what critics say has become a hard-line, anti-immigrant agenda he now spearheads at the White House as the presidents go-to adviser on immigration.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a prominent New York Democrat elected to the US House of Representatives during the 2018 midterm elections, has shared a petition calling for the senior advisers dismissal from the White House, writing in a tweet on Friday: Hes a verified White Supremacist controlling US immigration policy, which has now detained over 70,000 migrant children.

This is not to be dismissed, the congresswoman wrote. Peoples lives are at risk.

Several Democrats running for the White House in 2020 have also called for Mr Millers resignation, from Amy Klobuchar to Bernie Sanders, who described Mr Millers white nationalist views as a danger to the American people in a statement.

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Trump 'backs Stephen Miller' amid accusations of racist ideology - The Independent

Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son and top surrogate, and George Conway, the husband of the president's senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, personally attacked each other on Twitter amid the impeachment hearings on Friday.

The spat began when Trump Jr., an aggressive and outspoken defender of his father, tweeted that the three veteran diplomats who testified in the public impeachment hearings this week deserved to be fired by the president. The witnesses are all widely believed to be credible and nonpartisan, and have all served under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

"America hired @realDonaldTrump to fire people like the first three witnesses we've seen," Trump Jr. wrote. "Career government bureaucrats and nothing more."

George Conway, who's an outspoken critic of the president's despite having supported him in 2016 and early in his presidency, attacked Trump Jr. over his tweet. He defended Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine.

"Each of Taylor, Kent, and Yovanovitch has more intelligence, talent, integrity, decency, honor, and patriotism in each of their fingers than you and your father will ever have," Conway wrote.

Notably, Kellyanne and George Conway have never gone after each other in public, despite their opposing views on the Trump administration.

Trump Jr. hit back, accusing Conway of humiliating his wife by regularly attacking the president for the purpose of "building his own brand."

"A guy who routinely & publicly embarrasses his wife by attacking her boss for the purpose of getting retweets and building his own brand is giving lectures on honor, integrity & decency," Trump Jr. wrote. "I'm sure your family really appreciates it, George. You're a disgrace."

To that, Conway said he was "not selling anything."

"By the way, I'm not building a brand because I'm not selling anything," he wrote. "And I'm not selling anything because I've worked for three decades at a job that my father didn't get me."

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Donald Trump Jr. and George Conway get into a wild Twitter fight full of personal attacks - Business Insider

At long last, President Donald Trump finally saw Joker. According to Yahoo! News, a senior White House official confirmed to the outlet that he screened Todd Phillips revisionist DC origin story for guests including family, friends, and some staff.' That same White House official confirmed that Trump indeed liked the movie.

Mr. Trump is a noted cinephile. Amid his raving tweetstorms, the president has made mention of loving Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. He has also starred on screens big and small, with an appearance in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and a throwaway cameo in the second season of Sex and the City, to name a few.

Trump has also previously been outspoken about controversial 2019 movies before, as indicated when Universal Pictures The Hunt got cancelled over the summer for its unwelcome portrayal of violence amid mass shootings in this country.

Heres what he said about Hollywood at the time: Theyre treating conservatives very unfairly. Hollywood is really terrible. You talk about racist Hollywood is racist. What theyre doing with the kind of movies theyre putting out, its actually very dangerous for our country. What Hollywood is doing is a tremendous disservice to our country. Per The Hunt, he said, The movie coming out is made in order to inflame and cause chaos. They create their own violence, and then try to blame others. They are the true racists, and are very bad for our country!

Over the weekend, Joker cinematographer Lawrence Sher took the top prize at Polands Camerimage festival, securing his spot in the awards-season derby. Despite persistent backlash dating up to and throughout its release, Joker isnt going away anytime soon. Its almost redundant at this point to rehash the numerous takedowns levied upon the movie. Its a celebration of violence! It will incite incels! Horrid acts of cruelty are committed against women and other innocent people!

No matter, because the movie, having now crossed the $1 billion box-office mark, which is unheard of for an R-rated film, is here to stay.

For his deranged portrayal of Arthur Fleck, Joaquin Phoenix is a favorite to beat for the Best Actor Academy Award. And with Donald Trumps support, this is surely no longer a movie any Academy voter can ignore.

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Trump Reportedly Screened Joker at the White House and Liked It - IndieWire

The Trump administration released a plan Friday that would force hospitals and insurers to disclose their negotiate rates or risk being fined.

The administration already requires hospitals to publish list prices, sometimes referred to as "sticker prices." That doesn't always reflect what someone with insurance might pay. The rule presented Friday, expected to be enacted in 2021, will go further by requiring hospitals to also post the prices paid by various insurance plans.

President Donald Trump is expected to discuss his transparency rules for hospitals and insurers Friday afternoon in a Roosevelt Room event.

The rule begins a "new era" in price transparency in health care, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters on a conference call. "This shadowy system has to change. The patient has to be in control."

Hospitals will need to post their standard charges for services, including the negotiated rates with insurers and the discounted price a hospital is willing to accept directly from a patient if paid in cash, administration officials said. Hospitals will also need to publish the same information for at least 300 "shoppable services," such as X-rays or lab tests.

Implementing the changes is likely to cost hospitals less than 1% of their revenue, an official on the call said. Hospitals could be fined $300 a day by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services if they don't comply with the new disclosure rule, officials said. The administration is also proposing extending the disclosure rules to health insurers.

Hospitals and insurers have been criticized for keeping their negotiated rates a secret. The administration argues that forcing companies to disclose rates will empower patients, allowing them to find lower-priced alternatives. Some health-care groups, however, have said the rule is the wrong approach and could actually cause prices and premiums to rise.

Matt Eyles, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, said Friday that the group supports "clear, consistent and concise information that is customized to an individual's circumstances."

"Transparency should aid and support patient decision-making, should not undermine competitive negotiations that lower patients' health care costs, and should put downward pressure on premiums for consumers and employers," Eyles said.

The federal rule was expected to face legal challenges.

The American Hospital Association, an industry trade group, said later Friday it will join with member hospitals to file a legal challenge to the rule on grounds including that it exceeds the administration's authority.

Michael Abrams, the managing partner at health-care consulting firm Numerof & Associates, said hospitals could eventually come around to the idea of disclosing rates.

As far as the rule for insurers, Abrams said we'll have to wait and see.

"In the long term, this will have the effect of eliminating gross outliers, and forcing negotiated rates, more towards a more narrow band of prices which will tend, I think, to eliminate some of the differences between large hospitals and smaller ones," he said.

Shares of hospital stocks were slightly lower following the announcement. Health insurance stocks were flat on the news.

Trump's plan comes as health care remains a top issue for voters ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Trump and Congress are also trying to pass legislation before the end of the year that would bring more transparency to health-care costs and, ultimately, lower costs for consumers.

In October, Trump issued an executive order intended to bolster Medicare Advantage, private Medicare insurance for seniors.

--CNBC's Bertha Coombs contributed to this report.

WATCH: Pro says hospital price transparency won't impact earnings

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Trump releases rule forcing hospitals and insurers to disclose negotiated rates or face fines - CNBC

Twitter revealed a long-awaited political ads policy on Friday that banned paid content from candidates, political parties, and government officials, but allowed advertisers to raise awareness around certain causes including environmental issues and social equity.

The policy, which will go into effect next week, will prohibit political ads that reference candidates, parties, government officials, ballot measures, legislation, regulation, directives, or judicial outcomes. It will also ban ads that appeal for votes or solicit financial support for political causes.

When CEO Jack Dorsey announced the companys initial plan last month, critics wondered how Twitter would define paid political content, much less enforce a complete ban on it. Its policy, however, carves out certain exemptions including some for news publishers and will allow for companies and organizations to run ads that advocate for certain causes with some restrictions.

BuzzFeed News had previously reported about Twitters plans through discussions the San Francisco-based company was having with advertisers. In those meetings earlier this month, Twitter staffers suggested that ads that spread awareness about issues of national significance would still be allowed, while those advocating for candidates or legislation would be banned.

In a call with reporters on Friday, Twitters senior leadership acknowledged that the policy would evolve over time and that the company, which will use a combination of algorithms and human moderators to flag prohibited political ads, will run into problems.

Were absolutely going to make mistakes here, said Vijaya Gadde, Twitters legal and policy head. But we firmly believe that its better for us to start getting it right and giving people ways to tell us how its wrong.

In the US, the company said that advertisements from political action committees and tax-exempt social welfare organizations, or 501(c)(4)s, would be prohibited. Twitter will allow, however, advertisements from approved news publishers that reference political coverage but not ads with content that's for or against a political issue. For example, a newspaper can run ads highlighting its coverage of President Donald Trump, but it cannot publish ads that highlight its editorial boards endorsement of a certain candidate.

The social network will also permit certain cause-based advertising without discrimination based on the point of view of those ads, ranging from fracking advocacy to calls to combat global warming. That stated neutrality is in contradiction to fears raised by presidential candidate and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who suggested that Twitter would allow ads from fossil fuel companies while preventing ads from climate change activists, and by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who raised fears about bias in Twitters new policy on Monday.

The Star Chambers Censorship Rules get more incoherent, he tweeted. Simpler restatement of their policy: Lefty PC propaganda will be allowed; actual facts will not. Trust us. Were Silicon Valley billionaires. And we know best.

Twitters new policy would still allow those ads from activists so long as they do not have the primary goal of driving political, judicial, legislative, or regulatory outcomes and are tied to an organizations publicly stated values.

For cause-based advertising, organizations must go through a certification process and will only be allowed to target users down to the state or province level, not by zip codes. Those advertisers will also be prevented from targeting based on keywords or terms associated with politics, including liberal or conservative.

Del Harvey, vice president of trust and safety, said that Twitter would maintain a public list of non-targetable words for the sake of transparency. She also noted that Twitter did not anticipate any significant financial impact to its business because of the policy change.

When Dorsey announced late last month that Twitter would stop all political advertising, the San Franciscobased company was praised by the likes of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Others criticized Twitter, arguing that the policy would favor political incumbents by preventing challengers from gaining name recognition. Trumps campaign manager, Brad Parscale, called it a move to silence conservatives.

On Fridays call, Gadde and Harvey noted that there will be a learning process in determining what ads are appropriate and acknowledged that bad actors would try to game the system.

We fully expect this to evolve over time, said Harvey. The new policy will go into effect on Nov. 22.

With reporting from Alex Kantrowitz.

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Donald Trump And Joe Biden Will No Longer Be Able To Run Ads On Twitter - BuzzFeed News