Daily Archives: June 17, 2017

(WASHINGTON) The Cuban government is rejecting what it calls the "hostile rhetoric" of President Donald Trump's speech announcing a new U.S. policy toward the island, but says it is willing to continue "respectful dialogue" with the U.S. on topics of mutual interest.

In a statement released on government-run websites and television Friday evening, President Raul Castro's administration says Trump's speech was "loaded with hostile rhetoric that recalls the times of open confrontation."

The lengthy statement goes on to strike a conciliatory tone, saying Cuba wants to continue negotiations with the U.S. on a variety of subjects.

Cuba says "the last two years have shown that the two countries can cooperate and coexist in a civilized way."

Trump announced a series of changes to the Obama-era Cuba policy and is challenging the Cuban government to negotiate a better deal.

Trump said in a speech in Miami that the U.S. will not lift sanctions on Cuba until it releases all political prisoners and respects the Cuban people's right to freedom of assembly and expression.

Trump is also calling for the legalization of all political parties, and free and internationally supervised elections.

The president says his new policy will also restrict the flow of American dollars to the military, security and intelligence services that are the core of the government led by Raul Castro.

He has challenged Cuba to "come to the table" to strike a deal that serves both country's interests.

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Cuba Says President Trump's Speech Was 'Loaded With Hostile Rhetoric' - TIME

President Donald Trumps financial disclosure released today by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics has provided the greatest detail yet of the CEO-turned-Commander-in-Chief since he ran and became President of the United States. The 98-page filing dropped today doesnt include his much-discussed still-private tax returns, but it does show Trumps income related to his Hollywood interests, including his annual SAG pension totaling $84,292, and monies from his production businesses that co-produced The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice.

In the filing (read it in full here) submitted by Trump on June 14, Trump reported assets totaling around $1.4 billion, with $596.3 million in total for the reporting period through April 15. His debts totaled more than $300 million.

Among his Hollywood assets, Trump reported income from Miss Universe LLP of $10,973,722, and his Trump Productions LLC noted as the television production and entertainment business arm of the privately held Trump Organization brought in income of $1,103,161 and is valued between $1 million-$5 million.

He also received stock dividends during the period that included from such entertainment-industry related companies as Comcast, 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal Media LLC, Apple, Yahoo, Alphabet, Verizon and Microsoft.

Among the 12 books listed in the filing, royalties for 1987s The Art Of The Deal grew to as much as $1 million as his profile rose during the GOP primaries and general election. Crippled America, published in 2015 the year he announced his POTUS run, netted royalties as high as $5 million.

Among his numerous golf holdings is Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, which was valued at more than $50 million, earning $14,982,417 in golf-related income and $12,035,000 in land sales.

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Donald Trump's Financial Disclosure Has Hollywood Starpower - Deadline

An abstract, in-case-of-emergency-break-glass executive order drafted by the Trump administration in March may become real-world applicable as the president, raging publicly at his Justice Department, mulls firing special counsel Robert Mueller.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has twice rewritten an executive order that outlines the order of succession at the Justice Department once after President Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates for refusing to defend his travel ban, and then again two months later. The executive order outlines a list of who would be elevated to the position of acting attorney general if the person up the food chain recuses himself, resigns, gets fired or is no longer in a position to serve.

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In the past, former Justice Department officials and legal experts said, the order of succession is no more than an academic exercise a chain of command applicable only in the event of an attack or crisis when government officials are killed and it is not clear who should be in charge.

But Trump and the Russia investigation that is tightening around him have changed the game.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has already recused himself from overseeing the investigation into possible collusion between Trump campaign aides and Russian operatives, after it was revealed that he failed to disclose meetings with the Russian ambassador during the campaign. And Trump started his morning on Friday by appearing to take a public shot at his deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, who has increasingly become the target of his impulsive anger.

I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt, the president tweeted.

The Justice Department said in a statement on Friday that there are no current plans for a recusal, but Rosenstein has said in the past that he would back away from overseeing Muellers investigation if his role in the ouster of former FBI Director James Comey becomes a conflict.

That has legal experts closely examining the dry executive order to figure out who might be next up to bat, or, as Democratic lawyers and consultants view it, who might serve as Trumps next sacrificial lamb.

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We know Rachel Brand is the next victim, said Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the editor-in-chief of Lawfare, referring to the former George W. Bush official who was recently confirmed as associate attorney general, the third-highest position in the Justice Department.

For those of us who have high confidence in Rachel the more confidence you have in someone in this role, the less long you think theyll last, said Wittes, who said he considers Brand a friend. That does put a very high premium on the question of who is next.

That question, however, has become more complicated because the Trump administration has been slow to fill government positions and get those officials confirmed. Typically, the solicitor general would be next in line after the associate attorney general, followed by the list of five assistant U.S. attorneys, the order of which would be determined by the attorney general. But none of those individuals have been confirmed by the Senate, and they would be unable to serve as acting attorney general without Senate confirmation.

Because of that, the executive order comes into play one that puts next in line after Brand the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Dana Boente. Boente, a career federal prosecutor and an appointee of former President Barack Obama, was tapped last April to serve as the interim head of the Justice Departments national security division, which oversees the FBIs Russia investigation.

Boente, who was briefly thrust into the no. 2 spot at the Justice Department after Yates was fired, was also tasked with phoning Preet Bharara, then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to deliver the unexpected news that he was fired. At the time, Boente also vowed to defend Trumps travel ban in the future.

Boente is followed, on the succession list, by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, John Stuart Bruce; and the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, John Parker. Both are career prosecutors who are serving in their posts on an interim basis, until a presidential appointment is made. But they would not need to be Senate confirmed to take over.

It was not clear why the Trump administration chose those three U.S. attorneys to be in the succession line. During the Obama administration, sources familiar with the drafting of the old executive order said, the positions were chosen based on geographic diversity, and purposely included big cities where officials assumed there would be a talented attorney capable of stepping in: The U.S. attorneys on the succession list were from Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles.

Some former Justice Department officials said they would find it inconceivable for Trump to clean house, or to fire Mueller even taking into account the sometimes erratic behavior of the commander in chief.

This president is so unpredictable, its hard to say, said Emily Pierce, a former Justice Department official in the Obama administration. It would be the craziest thing hes done to date if he were to start firing the special counsel or Rosenstein. Im trying to give him the benefit of the doubt that he realizes how much trouble he may be in and that with the firing of Comey, he wouldnt do that.

Deputy U.S. Attorney General nominee Rod Rosenstein and Rachel Brand, then a nominee for associate attorney general, testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 7. Brand is considered the next person in the executive order at the Justice Department. | Getty

But others were less willing to predict the actions of a president who prides himself on being unpredictable. At the rate we're going, it's clearly possible, because you could go through a number of people in one go depending on the things that are asked of them, said Jane Chong, a national security and law associate at the Hoover Institution. If Rosenstein had refused to write the memo [laying out the case for Comeys firing], you can imagine him being fired, and you can imagine Brand doing the same thing. Its not difficult to see a scenario like that playing out down the line, Chong said.

In Washington circles, the comparison being made is between Trumps desire to rid himself of Mueller, at potentially any cost, and the Saturday Night Massacre during Watergate, in 1973, when the attorney general and the deputy attorney general both resigned after refusing to obey President Richard Nixons order to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox. It fell to the solicitor general at the time, Robert Bork, to do the deed.

I think the Watergate scenario would make most self-respecting lawyers loath to put themselves in the role that Bork ended up playing, said Brian Fallon, a former Obama Justice Department and Hillary Clinton spokesman. Most career-minded independent lawyers that have high regard for the Justice Department as an institution would be loath to be the modern-day equivalent to Bork.

But Trump, too, is cognizant of the comparison to Nixon, according to one adviser. The president, who friends said does not enjoy living in Washington and is strained by the demanding hours of the job, is motivated to carry on because he doesnt want to go down in history as a guy who tried and failed, said the adviser. He doesnt want to be the second president in history to resign.

A White House spokeswoman referred queries to the Justice Department. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

Darren Samuelsohn contributed to this report.

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Trump threatens to break the glass on DOJ succession plan - Politico

Gay teacher Nikos Giannopoulos displayed his LGBTQ pride as he sported a rainbow pin and clutched a lacy fan in an official photo with President Donald Trumpand first lady Melania Trump.And now the Rhode Island teacher of the years bold stand for LGBTQ rights has gotten global attention after the image went viral on Facebook.

Giannopoulos, who teaches 11th and 12th graders at Beacon Charter High School for the Arts in Woonsocket, visited the White House with other teacher of the year winners in April. He received the photo of his moment with Trump this week and immediately posted itto Facebook.

Though Trump has previously pledged to protect LGBTQ citizens, but members of the communityhave expressed concern that his administration is rolling backtheir civil rights in areas such as education.

Giannopoulos said he wore the pin to represent my gratitude for the LGBTQ community that has taught me to be proud, bold, and empowered by my identity even when circumstances make that difficult. He brought the fan that day tocelebrate the joy and freedom of gender nonconformity.

When I met the president as Rhode Islands state teacher of the year, I did not know what to expect, he wrote in the Facebook post. After a lengthy security process, we were welcomed into the Roosevelt Room where we each met Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Shortly thereafter, we walked into the Oval Office. The man seated at the desk read prepared remarks from a sheet of paper and made some comments about CEOs and which states he loved, based on electoral votes that he had secured. He did not rise from his seat to present the national teacher of the year with her much-deserved award, nor did he allow her to speak.

He wanted to speak to the president, but none of the teachers got the chance.

The teacher had wanted to tell Trump that queer lives matter and anti-LGBTQ policies have a body count. He also wanted to tell the president how the LGBTQ community is hurt by politicians callously attacking our right to love or merely exist,Giannopoulos added.

But herevealed to NPR that Trump was happy for him to pose with the fan for the official photo.Absolutely go for it, he recalled the president saying. Trump said that he looked very stylish with his fan as the teachers gathered around the president, Giannopoulos told Yahoo.

Giannopoulos said when he thinks of the day he met the president, he will not remember the person seated at the desk. Hell remember the students he has taught and the other teachers with him that day, Giannopoulos added including one who presented Trump with letters from her refugee student, pleading with him to hear their voices.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article suggested incorrectly that Trump was unaware the teacher wanted to pose with the fan.

Originally posted here:

Gay Teacher Of The Year Fans LGBTQ Pride In Viral Photo With Donald Trump - HuffPost