TV News LIES

President Donald Trump said Joe Arpaio, the recently convicted former sheriff of Maricopa County, could receive the first presidential pardon of his administration.

“I am seriously considering a pardon for Sheriff Arpaio,” Trump told Fox News on Sunday. “He has done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration. He’s a great American patriot, and I hate to see what has happened to him.”

Arpaio, who was found in contempt of court late July for continuing racial profiling practices, said last week that he would accept a pardon from Trump, though he did not know at the time whether the president knew about his legal tangle. The 85-year-old faces up to six months behind bars.

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The Trump resistance movement cheered when Democratic attorneys general in several states sued to block the president's plan to bar travelers from some Muslim majority countries.

But with far less fanfare in the months since, an emboldened coalition of Democratic state attorneys general has unleashed a torrent of lower-profile litigation they argue is necessary to protect public health, the environment and consumers from a Republican White House.

Jared Kushner, who has spent months divesting pieces of his vast business empire to serve in the White House, was slapped with a fine by the Office of Government Ethics for late reporting of a financial transaction, according to a newly released document.

Another 17 White House staffers, including some of President Donald Trump’s top aides, filed their required personal financial disclosure statements late, according to data compiled by American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic opposition research group, and confirmed by McClatchy.

President Trump called for love and unity in response to the deadly clashes in Charlottesville, Va., but offered no rebuke to the white nationalist groups who brought the violence.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides," Trump said Saturday during a Veterans Affairs bill signing at his country club in Bedminster, N.J.

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort parted ways with WilmerHale, the law firm defending him, earlier this week. That was largely because Bob Mueller’s 16-lawyer Russia probe—which is targeting him—has shifted its focus and is drilling down on tax issues, which aren’t WilmerHale’s specialty. But the parting of ways with WilmerHale was also in part because Manafort’s finances are increasingly strained, according to sources familiar with the situation.

“Paul Manafort’s resolve is limitless, but his resources are not,” said a person close to Manafort.

White House chief of staff John Kelly spent this week in Bedminster, N.J., pondering changes in the West Wing, according to four White House officials.

Kelly summoned aides to President Donald Trump’s golf club there to ask about their portfolios and make suggestions on how to make the West Wing communicate better and get more done, while giving people clear responsibilities and then holding them accountable. The role of chief strategist Steve Bannon has come under particular scrutiny in several conversations, particularly because he has a large staff, including an outside public relations expert, but no specific duties.