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Stormy Daniels thanks Trump for 'admitting that I was telling the truth'
February 01, 2023
Adult film star Stormy Daniels suggested on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump appeared to admit to claims that he paid her hush money to keep quiet about their alleged affair in a Truth Social post.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who declined to charge Trump in connection to the tax fraud violations by his company, has begun presenting evidence to a newly impaneled grand jury related to the alleged $130,000 hush money payment. Prosecutors have begun to interview witnesses to determine whether they will seek to charge Trump with misclassifying the cash as legal expenses to cover up a violation of New York state election law by paying Daniels during the campaign. Trump has denied that he had an affair with Daniels and the hush money payment but his longtime former fixer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with the scheme, which he said was at the direction of Trump.
Trump lashed out over the renewed probe on Truth Social, claiming that the statute of limitations had run out on the 2016 allegations, though legal experts say Bragg has a strong case that the statute of limitations was tolled while Trump was mostly out of the state during his presidency.
"With respect to the 'Stormy' nonsense, it is VERY OLD & happened a long time ago, long past the very publicly known & accepted deadline of the Statute of Limitations. I placed full Reliance on the JUDGEMENT & ADVICE OF COUNCIL [sic], who I had every reason to believe had a license to practice law, was competent, & was able to appropriately provide solid legal services," Trump wrote, referring to Cohen. "He came from a good law firm, represented other clients over the years, & there was NO reason not to rely on him, and I did."
Daniels cited the post as an admission of guilt.
"Thanks for just admitting that I was telling the truth about EVERYTHING," she wrote.
Trump previously insulted Daniels by calling her "horseface" in another Truth Social post insisting that he "NEVER HAD AN AFFAIR."
"Guess I'll take my 'horse face' back to bed now, Mr. former 'president'. Btw, that's the correct way to use quotation marks," she wrote on Tuesday.
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Trump has repeatedly denied that he had an affair and that he had anything to do with the payment to Daniels but she has repeatedly stuck by her story that they had sex in 2006, a year after he married Melania Trump and described the alleged encounter in graphic detail in her 2018 book.
Cohen in 2018 pleaded guilty to a campaign finance violation in relation to the payment. Trump was never charged but was referred to as "Individual-1" in charging documents.
"Dopey Donald gets it wrong AGAIN and AGAIN! First, the [statute of limitations] has not expired. Additionally, Donald is so angry he can't even get his spelling correct," Cohen tweeted on Tuesday. "The proper word is Counsel…not Council. Either way…love the all CAPS."
While New York has a five-year statute of limitations on many potential violations related to the alleged payment and the Trump Organization's tax fraud conviction, prosecutors could argue that the actions were part of an ongoing crime, noted Norm Eisen, a senior Brookings Institution fellow who served as a Democratic counsel during Trump's first impeachment. Prosecutors could also "argue that the statute of limitations should be extended as to Trump because he has been outside of New York 'continuously' over at least the last four years, during the term of his presidency," he wrote, adding that the Manhattan D.A.'s office successfully did this in its prosecution of Harvey Weinstein.
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These House Republicans are willing to risk global economic calamity to cut spending
February 01, 2023
At least some House Republicans have said they're willing to risk global economic calamity to get spending cuts they want – though exactly how many are willing to do it is not yet clear.
Some GOP lawmakers have threatened to push the U.S. Treasury into default by voting against raising the debt ceiling, which could shake domestic and global markets and freeze Social Security payments and Medicare benefits, with a couple of them going on record with The Daily Beast.
"Of course," said first-term Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN). “Look, we have record inflation, we’re in a recession, we have continued supply chain issues. We’ve got to get our fiscal house in order ... so yes, I would vote against it.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) responded when asked if he would do the same with a flat, "Yes," while Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) frequently tweets that Congress "cannot raise the debt ceiling."
House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), on the other hand, is seeking direct negotiations on a spending deal with Democrats and is set to meet Wednesday with President Joe Biden. An unknown number of GOP lawmakers who are unwilling to raise the debt limit are lurking in the shadows.
“There’s always a danger of what I call the barn-burners,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT). “If the door on the barn is broke, you don’t burn down the barn. You fix the door… the winter’s awfully cold.”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who has earned the nickname "Dr. No" for voting against almost everything, said he's willing to consider a raise under certain conditions, while Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), chairman of the House Budget Committee, said the U.S. would not default on its debt due to constitutional obligations.
“Many believe, even constitutionally, that we have to pay the principal and interest on our debt,” Arrington said. “We have to pay our creditors -- like, you can’t not do that.”
Most Republicans are not even considering a vote risking default, whether or not that's constitutionally possible.
“A default’s bad, period," said Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE). “We have a few people who have a history of not wanting to ever vote for a budget or [appropriations], but we’re in the governing majority — so I think we have some of our senior guys who are trying to say, ‘Hey, this is what it means to be part of a majority, you negotiate, you make a deal, you vote on it.’”
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Did Marjorie Taylor Greene 'let the truth slip' about George Santos’ departure from committees?
February 01, 2023
MSNBC News' Chris Hayes recently broke down remarks made by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) that suggest Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) did not willingly make the decision to step down from his committee assignments.
Just one day after Santos met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), reports circulated about the freshman representative's decision to resign from the committees.
McCarthy claimed Santos made the decision. Sharing details about his conversation with the newly-elected lawmaker, McCarthy said, “We had a discussion and he asked me if he could do that. So, I think it was the appropriate decision.”
During his segment on Tuesday, Hayes offered a comparison of the contradictory remarks made by Greene and McCarthy. According to Hayes, Greene painted a very different picture than McCarthy about Santos’ committee departures.
“McCarthy made it seem like stepping down was entirely Santos’ idea,” Hayes said. “But then Marjorie Taylor Greene let the truth slip about what really motivated Santos to step aside.”
Hayes then shared a clip of Greene speaking with CNN where she insisted that McCarthy actually had Santos distance himself from the committees due to the Republican efforts being made to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“He just felt like that there was so much drama, really, over the situation, and especially what we’re doing to work to remove Ilhan Omar away from the Foreign Affairs Committee,” Greene stated.
Hayes then shared his reaction to the far-right lawmaker's claims.
“Ahhh, yes,” Hayes reacted. “There you have it! Republicans wanted to clear the decks, get rid of this annoying argument, like, ‘You’re gonna let George Santos serve on committees?’ So now, they can move to kick Congresswoman Omar off Foreign Affairs for absolutely no valid reason because George Santos, who should never have been put on any committees in the first place, really, when you think about it, has given up his assignments.”
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