monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

WASHINGTON — Justice Department lawyers appeared on Friday to be challenging a Maryland federal judge's decision to allow a case accusing President Donald Trump of violating the U.S. Constitution to move forward to legal discovery.

But the late afternoon filing was only a notice to the court that it could petition the appeals court in Richmond, Virginia. The "response of the president" came as U.S. District Court Judge Peter J. Messitte is poised to potentially allow the subpoenas to begin flowing on Monday. Such information would likely provide the first clear picture of the finances of Trump's Washington, D.C. hotel.

Trump has been fighting multiple lawsuits that argue foreign representatives' spending money at the Trump International Hotel are violations of the Constitution's emoluments clause, which bans federal officials from accepting benefits from foreign or state governments without congressional approval.

The attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia allege that Trump, who hasn't divested himself of his business holdings, is profiting off the presidency.

The president's notice that he may seek a writ of mandamus — to have the appeal heard by a higher court — is considered an "extraordinary remedy," according to the Justice Department's website, which "should only be used in exceptional circumstances of peculiar emergency or public importance."

It's also a move with a demanding standard for petitioners that would partly rest on showing Messitte's decisions to be clearly wrong.

This was the second effort by the president's legal team to delay proceedings. Messitte responded in an at times blistering opinion that said merely disagreeing with the court doesn't constitute a required "substantial" reason for the sought after mid-case appeal. He also said he was unwilling to entertain delaying methods that might be used by the Justice Department lawyers.

"The court has already rejected this type of dilatory behavior on the part of the president and we believe that it's unfounded," said Norman Eisen, chairman of the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which is co-counsel with the two jurisdictions. "We believe that discovery should proceed and we're prepared to commence should the court so order."

Friday's filing in the Maryland court noted that "the president does not believe that discovery should commence now but should await the court of appeals' resolutions of the mandamus petition and stay application. If this court nevertheless finds that discovery should proceed now, then the president does not object to the discovery schedule proposed by plaintiffs."

The Justice Department declined to comment beyond the filing.

DETROIT — President Donald Trump is calling attention to an auto industry boom that doesn't exist.

In a tweet Thursday slamming General Motors for plans to lay off workers, Trump wrote that auto companies "are pouring into the U.S." and GM is "very counter" to the rest of the industry.

He also wrote that BMW just announced a major new plant, which isn't quite true.

Trump has been upset with GM, which on Monday announced plans to close four U.S. factories and shed up to 3,300 blue-collar jobs. The company also said it would cut more than 8,000 white-collar jobs and close a Canadian plant as it downsizes to free capital to invest in autonomous and electric vehicles.

TRUMP'S tweet: "General Motors is very counter to what other auto, and other companies are doing. Big Steel is opening and renovating plants all over the country. Auto companies are pouring into the U.S., including BMW, which just announced a major new plant. The U.S.A. is booming!"

THE FACTS: Automakers have been steadily hiring since 2010 when Barack Obama was president. But the pace of job gains has slowed considerably since Trump took office, according to the Labor Department. That's probably a reflection of slowing sales rather than any policy changes by Trump.

U.S. auto sales are down 0.2 percent through October largely because of a 13 percent plunge in car sales. Truck and SUV sales are up 8 percent. All the factories GM wants to close make slow-selling cars.

The Labor Department found that automakers added 30,600 jobs during Obama's last year in office. That fell to 8,200 in 2017 after Trump became president. Automakers were on pace before the GM layoffs to add 8,660 jobs this year.

Despite the job growth in recent years, auto companies employ far fewer workers than they did in 2000. More than 1.3 million people held auto jobs in 2000, a total that now stands at roughly 970,000.

General Motors Co. is not alone in cutting workers. Crosstown rival Ford Motor Co. is just starting to restructure its white-collar workforce, and thousands are expected to be let go by the middle of next year.

Also, BMW didn't announce a major new plant, but its CEO said Tuesday the company is considering a new U.S. engine factory to supply assembly plants in South Carolina and Mexico. The German automaker now imports engines and transmissions from Europe for SUVs made in the U.S., and it's building a new factory in Mexico.

Volvo Cars opened a factory in South Carolina this year and Toyota and Mazda are jointly building a new plant in Alabama. Volkswagen's U.S. CEO says the company is looking for a site to build a factory to make electric vehicles.

Trump also exaggerates the recovery of the steel industry.

As of October, there were 381,700 jobs in the manufacturing of primary metals such as steel. That figure seesaws based off commodity prices and global economic performance. But it's clearly trended downward since 2000 when the sector had 621,800 jobs.

It's difficult to know just how many jobs will be added by newly planned mills. But construction spending on factories has yet to significantly take off after having been in decline between 2016 and much of 2018. Still, the spending has rebounded in recent months. Construction spending on factories has increased 4.3 percent in the past year, according to the Census Bureau.

A US federal jury has charged three Missouri police officers with attacking a black officer working undercover whom they mistook for a protester.

After texting about how they wanted to rough up protesters, they brutally beat their police colleague with a riot baton, Thursday's indictment says.

It happened during protests in St Louis in 2017 after a white officer who killed a young black man was acquitted.

A fourth officer has also been charged for helping cover-up the incident.

The undercover officer has been named in court only as LH, but he was identified by the St Louis Post-Dispatch as Luther Hall, a city police officer with 22 years of service.

He was beaten so badly that he eventually needed surgery to his neck and spine and could not eat for days because of the injuries to his face, including a 2cm hole above his lip, the Post-Dispatch reported.

The three officers - 35-year-old Dustin Boone, 27-year-old Christopher Myers and 31-year-old Randy Hays - face charges including deprivation of constitutional rights, destruction of evidence and obstruction of justice and could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

The fourth accused officer, 25-year-old Bailey Colletta, faces charges of lying to investigators.

Prosecuting US Attorney Jeff Jensen said in a statement: "These are serious charges and the vigorous enforcement of civil rights is essential to maintaining public trust in law enforcement."

The three police officers exchanged text messages discussing attacking protesters, the indictment said.

"It's gonna be a lot of fun beating the hell out of these [expletive] once the sun goes down and nobody can tell us apart!!!!" one text from Mr Boone read.

"Remember were are [sic] in south city. They support us but also cameras. So make sure you have an old white dude as a witness," read another from Mr Hays.

Mr Boone, Mr Hays and Mr Myers allegedly threw the undercover officer to the ground, kicked him and beat him despite the fact he was "compliant and not posing a physical threat to anyone", the indictment said.

They later allegedly tried to cover up the incident by seeking to influence witnesses and contacting Mr Hall directly to dissuade him from pressing charges.

Ms Colletta, who was in a romantic relationship with Mr Hays, lied about knowing the victim and knowing about the attack, the indictment says. Mr Myers is also accused of intentionally destroying Mr Hall's cellphone.

The four have been suspended without pay.

Police Chief John Hayden said in a statement that he was "deeply disappointed" in the accused officers.

The 2017 protests came after police officer Jason Stockley was acquitted after killing 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith in 2011.

Some activists have now questioned whether Thursday's charges would have proceeded if the victim were not an undercover officer.

"We've had several incidents of protesters and activists being the victims of excessive use of force and police abusing their authority without ever seeing charges like this," local organiser Rev Darryl Gray told the Washington Post.

‘WHY IS THAT?”

“You look at our air and our water and it’s right now at a record clean. But when you look at China and you look at parts of Asia and you look at South America, and when you look at many other places in this world, including Russia , including many other places, the air is incredibly dirty, and when you’re talking about an atmosphere, oceans are very small, and it blows over and it sails over. I mean we take thousands of tons of garbage off our beaches all the time that comes over from Asia. It just flows right down the Pacific. It flows and we say, ‘Where does this come from?’ And it takes many people, to start off with.”

Some activists have now questioned whether Thursday's charges would have proceeded if the victim were not an undercover officer.

Trump aides caught in web of deception over Russia contacts

WASHINGTON — One lied about his knowledge of Russian-hacked emails, another about a Russian real estate deal, a third about dialogue over sanctions with a Russian ambassador.

A pattern of deception by advisers to President Donald Trump, aimed at covering up Russia-related contacts during the 2016 campaign and transition period, has unraveled bit by bit in criminal cases brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. The lies to the FBI and to Congress, including by Trump's former fixer and his national security adviser, have raised new questions about Trump's connections to Russia, revealed key details about the special counsel's findings and painted a portrait of aides eager to protect the president and the administration by concealing communications they presumably recognized as problematic.

The false statements cut to the heart of Mueller's mission to untangle ties between the Trump campaign and Russia and to establish whether they colluded to sway the election. They concern some of the central questions of the investigation, including why the incoming Trump administration discouraged Russia from retaliating over sanctions imposed for election hacking; who knew what when about illegally obtained Democratic emails; and how plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow came together and fell apart.

"I think you can draw a conclusion that these false statements generally relate to an effort to protect the president of the United States in connection with his dealings with Russia," said Daniel Petalas, a defense lawyer and former Justice Department prosecutor. "That's what makes them material to the investigation that Mueller is pursuing, which is a necessary element of a false statement claim — that it has to be material."

The most recent example came Thursday, when Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about negotiations he had on Trump's behalf for a real estate deal in Moscow.

Though he told lawmakers the talks were done by January 2016, he admitted they actually lasted as late as June — after Trump had already secured the Republican nomination and after Russians had penetrated Democratic email accounts for communications later released through WikiLeaks. He also said he had briefed Trump about the project's progress as well as members of his family.

Cohen said he lied out of loyalty to Trump, who insisted throughout the campaign that he had no business dealings in Russia, and to be consistent with his political messaging.

Though the Cohen plea didn't directly connect to Trump's campaign, other cases have.

George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign adviser, pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI about April 2016 conversations with a Maltese professor who told him Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails." Papadopoulos told the FBI he was not part of the campaign when he encountered the professor, Joseph Mifsud, even though the truth was that he had joined weeks earlier.

His lawyers said Papadopoulos, now serving a 14-day prison sentence, "lied to save his professional aspirations and preserve a perhaps misguided loyalty to his master."

Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, is being sentenced later this month after admitting lying to the FBI by saying he didn't discuss sanctions against Russia during the transition with Sergey Kislyak.

That deception was flagged for the White House in January 2017 by Obama administration holdover Sally Yates, who as acting attorney general told White House counsel Don McGahn that officials were misleading the American public by falsely declaring Flynn hadn't talked sanctions.

Flynn's guilty plea was especially significant in that it made clear other transition officials were aware of his Kislyak conversations and discussed with him what he would say. And while Flynn was fired in February 2017, his importance to Trump became evident when ex-FBI director James Comey said Trump had encouraged him during an Oval Office meeting that same month to end an investigation into Flynn.

More lies followed as prosecutors this week accused former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of lying even after his guilty plea, though they have not said about what.

And a draft plea agreement against another Trump supporter, conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, accused him of misrepresenting a conversation with Trump confidant Roger Stone about WikiLeaks, which released thousands of stolen emails in the run-up to the election to harm the Clinton campaign.

A false statement charge can be a powerful cudgel for prosecutors, especially in investigations like this one where witnesses are recalcitrant and openly adversarial. In the Mueller investigation, perhaps emboldened by Trump's antagonist stance, witnesses have increasingly lashed out against the government's authority. Trump and Stone have publicly attacked Mueller's investigation, while Corsi rejected a plea offer and accused prosecutors of trying to bully him into saying what they want to hear.

"You've got a system where you're trying to take evidence from people, get their testimony under penalty of prosecution if you lie," said Duke University law professor Sam Buell. "And that's what you do when you have uncooperative people when trying to conceal something that you're trying to get to the bottom of."

More false statement charges could be coming. Sen. Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said the panel has made referrals to prosecutors and cited Cohen as an example.

"It's a loud message to everybody that is interviewed by our committee, regardless of where that prosecution comes from, if you lie to us, we're going to go after you," Burr said.

Though Trump regularly complains about Mueller's style, there's nothing unusual about prosecutors pursuing false statement charges to send a message and using their testimony to make cases against higher-level targets.

"This is what happened to the mob, this is what happened to the drug cartels," Buell said.

Not to mention, he noted, past Washington investigations like Watergate.

Quote:

‘WHY IS THAT?”

But I think there's a big swathe of the Trumpenproletariat who are simply angry and resentful