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You still don't seem to realize that the voters REJECTED Trump.

Greg Sargent
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@ThePlumLineGS
Before telling the court that @seanhannity has been Michael Cohen's client, Cohen's lawyer argued against disclosing this, because he said Hannity would be "embarrassed" by it:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/business/media/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-client.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news …

“I understand that he doesn’t want his name out there, but that’s not enough under the law,” she said, ordering Cohen’s attorneys to disclose the name immediately.

Ryan stood up and said, “The client’s name that is involved is Sean Hannity.”

The room broke out in gasps and titters. Reporters elbowed each other, and several dashed out of the room to deliver the news to their editors.

It took a moment for the courtroom to settle down and continue with the proceeding.

President Donald Trump’s U.S. businesses have received at least $15.1 million in revenue from political groups and federal agencies since 2015, according to a new report to be released Monday.

The money went to Trump’s airplanes, hotels, golf courses, even a bottled water company during the presidential campaign and the first 15 months of his presidency, according to a compilation of known records of the spending by Public Citizen obtained by McClatchy.

Asked about the contradiction Tuesday during an appearance on CNBC, Mnuchin offered this explanation: “It was a warning shot at China and Russia about devaluation.”

Mnuchin noted that China had engaged in such manipulation in the past.

“It’s a warning shot to make sure China doesn’t devalue the currency as they have in the past,” he told the hosts of “Squawk Box.”

Trump is locked in a tense trade battle with China, as he has accused Beijing of closing off markets to American exporters while shipping cheap products into the United States in a way that harms U.S. manufacturers. During his 2016 campaign, Trump defiantly said he would label China a “currency manipulator” on his first day in office.

The United States has not formally labeled China a “currency manipulator,” a move that triggers a process of consultation between both countries and could heighten tensions.

Democrats and Republicans in the past have accused Beijing of improperly devaluing its currency in a way that makes Chinese exports more attractive to foreign buyers, but China has recently moved away from this in the face of immense international pressure.

That is one reason Trump has so far declined to label China a currency manipulator through a formal Treasury Department report. He has also said that he did not want to do it because he wanted to preserve a good relationship with China on issues such as containing North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

WASHINGTON
The Justice Department special counsel has evidence that Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and confidant, Michael Cohen, secretly made a late-summer trip to Prague during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Confirmation of the trip would lend credence to a retired British spy’s report that Cohen strategized there with a powerful Kremlin figure about Russian meddling in the U.S. election.

It would also be one of the most significant developments thus far in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of whether the Trump campaign and the Kremlin worked together to help Trump win the White House. Undercutting Trump’s repeated pronouncements that “there is no evidence of collusion,” it also could ratchet up the stakes if the president tries, as he has intimated he might for months, to order Mueller’s firing.

Trump’s threats to fire Mueller or the deputy attorney general overseeing the investigation, Rod Rosenstein, grew louder this week when the FBI raided Cohen’s home, hotel room and office on Monday. The raid was unrelated to the Trump-Russia collusion probe, but instead focused on payments made to women who have said they had sexual relationships with Trump.

Cohen has vehemently denied for months that he ever has been in Prague or colluded with Russia during the campaign. Neither he nor his lawyer responded to requests for comment for this story.

It's a well-worn path: Someone in President Trump's orbit gets in trouble, and the White House bends over backward trying to distance itself from them — often in ways that strain credulity. Top aides suddenly become interlopers. Foreign policy advisers become “coffee boys.” The crucial months of the 2016 campaign are reduced to an insignificant period of time. We are assured Trump doesn't even really need aides.

Trump's longtime personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is the latest to be on the receiving end of this treatment. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested Monday that Cohen was just another lawyer. “I believe they've still got some ongoing things, but the president has a large number of attorneys, as you know,” she said. Fellow White House spokesman Hogan Gidley repeated the talking point on CNN on Monday night, saying Cohen was one of “many” Trump lawyers.

Come on. Trump certainly has lots of lawyers — especially given his Mueller investigation problem — but Cohen was the only one negotiating hush-money payments with porn stars, appearing on TV as a surrogate, and to whom Trump regularly referred as “my attorney.” Cohen is the guy who has expressed unflinching and complete loyalty to Trump. Cohen isn't just another lawyer. In fact, “lawyer” doesn't begin to describe his closeness to Trump.

Similarly, here's how the White House and Trump campaign have downplayed the roles of other aides who found themselves in trouble:

George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser on the 2016 campaign: “The coffee boy.” “An extremely limited role.” “A volunteer position.”

Michael Flynn, White House national security adviser and 2016 campaign adviser: “A volunteer of the campaign.”

Paul Manafort, who served as head of the campaign for months spanning the Republican National Convention: “Played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time.”

Carter Page, another campaign foreign policy adviser: “Hanger-on.” “Has made no contribution to the campaign.” “Was a very low-level member of I think a committee for a short period of time.”

Roger Stone, a longtime informal Trump adviser: “Hanger-on.”

You get the idea.

But it got me thinking: What if other members of the White House or close Trump allies got in trouble? How would their roles be downplayed?

Below are some possibilities:

EPA administrator Scott Pruitt: “Not even an actual Cabinet secretary.”

Chief of staff John F. Kelly: “One of many generals.” “Served as a Cabinet secretary for a very limited amount of time.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders: “Related to one of the president's many vanquished primary opponents.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions: “Not a loyal Trump supporter or defender.”

National security adviser John Bolton: “Trump never liked his mustache and didn't listen to him.”

CIA Director (and secretary of state nominee) Mike Pompeo: “A leader of the deep state.”

National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow: “A TV personality who wasn't even on the good channels.”

Assistant to the president Dan Scavino: “A microblogger.”

Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway: “Spokesperson.”

Vice President Pence: “Not a supporter of Trump's campaign.” “Was going to lose reelection until Trump picked him for VP.”

Judge Kimba Woods: Out of Control

It turns out that Cohen's client, besides Trump and multi-millionaire Elliot Broidy, is FOX television host Sean Hannity. There is absolutely no indication that Hannity is involved in any Cohen related criminal activity, thus it is absolutely bizarre that Woods ordered his name be revealed.

Just what legal purpose does it serve to reveal the clients of an attorney when such clients have nothing to do with a criminal matter at hand?

What is the legal basis? Answer: None.

According to Rasmussen:

Following Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s invasion of the office and home of President Trump’s personal lawyer, voters increasingly believe Mueller’s probe is politically biased. But they also tend to think he is unlikely to nail the president for anything criminal.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 46% of Likely U.S. Voters still believe Mueller’s investigation is an honest attempt to determine criminal wrongdoing, but that’s down from 52% last October. Forty percent (40%) now consider Mueller’s probe a partisan witch hunt, an eight-point increase from 32% in the earlier survey. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided.

And the longer this Counsel drags on, the more people are going to see it for what it really is.

Just a small example of what it means to be a Russian who opposes Putin.

The supreme court announced on Tuesday that part of a federal law that makes it easier to deport immigrants who have been convicted of crimes is too vague to be enforced.

And in a blow to Donald Trump, the judge the president picked to join the court, Neil Gorsuch, who is known as an arch conservative, sided with the more liberal wing of the court in his decisive vote.

And in a blow to Donald Trump, the judge the president picked to join the court, Neil Gorsuch,

IG Report Shows Andrew McCabe Is A Criminal – So When Is He Going To Jail?