 Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images January 28, 2017 NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union and other legal organizations today filed a lawsuit on behalf of individuals subject to President Trump's Muslim ban. The lead plaintiffs have been detained by the U.S. government and threatened with deportation even though they have valid visas to enter the United States. One plaintiff, for example, worked for the U.S. military and his life was in danger in his home country due to that relationship. The other’s family was also threatened because of perceived ties to the United States. Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said: “President Trump's war on equality is already taking a terrible human toll. This ban cannot be allowed to continue.” The complaint is at: https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/petition-writ-habeas-corpus-and-complaint-declaratory-and-injunctive-reliefpetition More about the case can be found here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/darweesh-v-trump
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The text of the Executive Order that President Trump signed Friday was not available on the White House website as of this posting. However, the White House released the text of the order Saturday morning to the New York Times. The text in its entirety is below. Peter Alexander, national correspondent for NBC News, made an important point about the new order. While the text refers to the attacks on September 11, 2001 three times, none of the attackers were from the countries mentioned in the order. Peter Alexander's Twitter message stated: "Trump noted 9/11 attacks in signing today’s EO. The hijackers came from Egypt, Saudi, UAE & Lebanon. None of those countries impacted by EO." The countries specifically listed in the order are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen . The September 11, 2001 attackers were from Saudi Arabia (15), United Arab Emirates (2), Egypt (1), and Lebanon (1). President Trump has business interests in these four countries. There was a lot going on in the first week of the new administration. Read about actions taken at the links below.
Politifact’s summary of President Trump’s first week in office can be found here. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/jan/27/heres-what-donald-trump-did-first-week-president-u/ A summary from The Nation can be found here. https://www.thenation.com/article/what-donald-trump-did-this-week/ A link to dispatches from the White House press room can be found here. https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog National Public Radio’s White House correspondent Tamara Keith explains exectuive actions this week in relation to Trump’s campaign promises. http://www.npr.org/2017/01/28/512055554/trump-signs-a-record-number-of-executive-actions-but-nothing-about-ethics A list of how senators have voted so far for Cabinet picks can be found here. https://cabinetvotes.org/ This article from PBS NewsHour explains what executive orders, memoranda, and proclamations do. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/cheat-sheet-executive-orders-memorandums-proclamations/ All of the Presidential Actions and proclamations signed this week can be found here. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions A somewhat bizarre, home video-like live address from the President in the Oval Office was posted to Facebook Saturday morning. https://www.facebook.com/POTUS/videos/1236581346411303/ Some facts about crime committed by immigrants can be found in this New York Times article from January 26, 2017, by Richard Pérez-Peña. For those without subscription access: “A central point of an executive order President Trump signed on Wednesday — and a mainstay of his campaign speeches — is the view that undocumented immigrants pose a threat to public safety. “But several studies, over many years, have concluded that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States. And experts say the available evidence does not support the idea that undocumented immigrants commit a disproportionate share of crime.” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/us/trump-illegal-immigrants-crime.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytpolitics&smtyp=cur  “Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Chairman Jason Chaffetz requesting that all Committee Members be allowed to participate in a private meeting on Monday with the Office of Government Ethics Director Walter M. Schaub, Jr., after Chaffetz reversed his threat to subpoena Director Shaub for a transcribed interview.” (from the website) The controversy has arisen over the Office of Government Ethics chief, attorney Walter Shaub, and his request to Donald Trump to divest his businesses in order to avoid conflicts of interest. Chaffetz accused Shaub of showing partisanship, which Shaub adamantly denies. Many conservative and liberal columnists, newpaper editors, and ethics experts have criticized Chaffetz for targeting the nonpartisan government office tasked with helping members of the Executive Branch avoid the appearance of scandal. The letter from Rep. Cummings to Rep. Chaffetz is linked below. A link to the website for the Democrats on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is linked below.
https://democrats-oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/cummings-asks-chaffetz-to-allow-all-oversight-members-to-join-meeting-with The website for the full committee is linked below. https://oversight.house.gov/subcommittee/full-committee/ Yesterday's Wall Street Journal article about the judgment against Trump Taj Mahal was inaccessible for some readers. A scanned copy is attached below.  Trump Taj Mahal
Donald Trump’s casino agreed to a settlement in 2015 of a federal case that found a pattern of multiple money laundering violations over a period of many years. A Wall Street Journal article describes the settlement. http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-taj-mahal-settles-over-anti-money-laundering-violations-1423669834 This article from Narcosphere contains additional details. http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2016/10/casino-owned-presidential-candidate-donald-trump-violated-us-anti-money Carl Icahn reportedly lost $100 million on the bankrupt casino, which he bought from Donald Trump in 2014. http://www.wsj.com/articles/october-taj-mahal-closing-may-sway-nj-casino-expansion-vote-1470664565 Soho The Financial Times published an article in October of 2016 describing Trump’s “complex, often opaque, business empire” and its “multiple ties to an alleged international money laundering network. Title deeds, bank records and correspondence show that a Kazakh family accused of laundering hundreds of millions of stolen dollars bought luxury apartments in a Manhattan tower part-owned by Mr Trump and embarked on major business ventures with one of the tycoon’s partners.” The complete Financial Times article can be found below. https://www.ft.com/content/33285dfa-9231-11e6-8df8-d3778b55a923  Source: Google maps While it got almost no coverage in United States media, President Obama took an important step toward making it harder for President-elect Donald Trump to roll back sanctions on Russia. The sanctions were originally imposed as a result of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and aggression in Ukraine beginning in 2014.
The sanctions will be extended through March 2018. An article in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty can be found here. http://www.rferl.org/a/us-president-obama-extends-sanctions-russia-agression-in-ukraine-one-year-march-2018/28232805.html The White House press release about extending the sanctions can be found here. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/13/notice-continuation-national-emergency-respect-ukraine The U.S. intelligence community has been prominent in the news in the past few weeks. This will probably continue in coming weeks and months as the Senate Intelligence Committee launches an investigation of allegations of ties between Russia and 2016 political campaigns. This investigation will be part of a broad review of the intelligence community’s report on Russian hacking.
National Public Radio national security correspondent Mary Louise Kelly recently explained the intelligence agencies, how they relate to each other, and how they may be involved in the investigation into Russian involvement. The interview transcript and audio can be found here. http://www.npr.org/2017/01/10/509086405/heads-of-4-u-s-spy-agencies-to-appear-before-senate-panel-on-russia The Washington Post article describing the upcoming Senate investigation can be found here. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/01/13/democrats-accuse-fbi-director-of-stonewalling-on-trump-russia-ties-as-more-call-for-him-to-step-down/?utm_term=.0f31f186a9a5 Here is a list of all the federal agencies with intelligence gathering authority:
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence On Wednesday, January 11, 2016 The Director of the Government Ethics made a public statement regarding the status of ethics agreements with the president-elect and his Cabinet nominees.
The OGE is a nonpartisan, independent agency created to prevent conflicts of interest in the executive branch of the federal government. It is not the enforcement mechanism for pursuing complaints. The public statement by Director Walter Shaub, Jr., can be found here. http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/11/news/office-government-ethics-trump-conflicts/  The link to the Director of national Intelligence web site is here. https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/224-press-releases-2017/1469-dni-clapper-statement-on-conversation-with-president-elect-trump According to Mary Louise Kelly, National Public Radio national security correspondent, and numerous other reporters, the dossier was never a classified document. It was compiled by a former MI6 British intelligence officer who was working for a private company. Donald Trump’s Twitter message about the call he received from Clapper is below.  Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) recommended Thursday reading the statement directly from the Director (above), since Mr. Trump’s message incorrectly characterizes Director Clapper’s position. "If you really want to know what Director Clapper said to @realDonaldTrump, don’t rely on Donald Trump’s tweets. Rely on Clapper’s statement." (Source: Twitter)
Representative Schiff said in an interview with CNN on January 6, referring to Trump's repeated denials of Russian involvement in the hacking: “This is not healthy skepticism, as they would like to portray it. This is very unhealthy, essentially avoidance of the facts, because they don’t suit the President-elect’s own interest.” That quote is from a longer CNNreport that can be found here. http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/11/politics/james-clapper-donald-trump/ |
Truth is a real thing.
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