Saturday, Jul 20th
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Political Glance
"It was not a campaign contribution, and there were no violations of the campaign finance laws by me. Fake News!" Trump tweeted.
Trump has denied having an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels, and previously denied knowing about payments to her, referring questions about the matter to Michael Cohen – the ex-personal attorney who now says Trump authorized the payoffs.
Michael Bloomberg will not run for president in 2020, the billionaire businessman wrote in a statement posted online on Tuesday, ending months of speculation about the political future of one of the Democratic Party's top donors.
Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, had been toying with the idea of a presidential run for months and was floated as a candidate in every presidential cycle going back to 2008. As recently as the past two months, aides to Bloomberg had been interviewing potential staffers in Iowa and New Hampshire, early contests in the Democratic primary.
But, facing a packed field of Democratic contenders, Bloomberg, 77, wrote he was "clear-eyed" about the obstacles to securing the party's nomination.
The political operative at the center of the election fraud scandal in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District, Leslie McCrae Dowless, was indicted today by the Wake County district attorney's office.
Dowless faces three felony counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and two counts of possession of absentee ballots.
The district attorney's office says it met with investigators for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, which ordered a new election in the 9th District last week after hearing testimony about absentee ballot tampering allegedly masterminded by Dowless, who worked for the consulting firm involved in Republican Mark Harris' 2018 campaign.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that North Korea remains a nuclear threat, straying from President Donald Trump's past comments but maintaining the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, continues to show commitment to denuclearizing the peninsula.
On CNN's "State of the Union," Pompeo was asked by host Jake Tapper whether he believes North Korea remains a nuclear threat.
"Yes," Pompeo replied. Trump and Kim are set to hold a second summit in Vietnam this week.
When pressed about Trump no longer seeing North Korea as a nuclear threat, Pompeo said that's not what Trump said.
If confirmed, Rosen would replace Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel investigation into Russian election meddling.
Rosenstein plans to leave the Department of Justice next month, according to the Washington Post.
Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that Attorney General William Barr, who was confirmed last week, chose Rosen as his deputy.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed a former employee of data firm Cambridge Analytica, a spokesperson for the employee told The Guardian.
The ex-employee, Brittany Kaiser, is cooperating fully with Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the spokesperson added. Kaiser is also cooperating with congressional and other legal investigations into the actions of Cambridge Analytica.
Cambridge Analytica shut down last year after becoming embroiled in controversy for improperly obtaining data on tens of millions of Facebook users.
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If you’re a US president, it’s probably not a great idea to meet with a foreign leader who meddled in your country’s elections without some way to record what’s being discussed.
But that’s just what President Donald Trump apparently did — again.
According to the Financial Times, Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin during last November’s G20 summit in Argentina without a US official present to take notes. First lady Melania Trump was by the president’s side during the chat, but no staff joined them.
The White House had previously acknowledged that both leaders met for an “informal” talk but didn’t disclose that Trump had no official member of his team present. Putin did have someone, though: his translator, although it’s unclear if that person wrote anything down.
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