- Mike Pence was asked to say “black lives matter” and responded with the trite “all lives matter.” When it was pointed out to him that the phrase refers to the UNIQUE situation black people in America face and that it’s an affirmation that their lives do in fact matter, Pence still refused, this time saying it wasn’t necessary because no one believed they don’t matter.
- More passages from the Mueller report have been unredacted. Trump testified in written answers that he never spoke to Roger Stone regarding wikileaks. The newly uncovered passages show Trump lied to Mueller. He had multiple conversations with Stone about wikileaks. The Trump campaign knew when Assange would be releasing his information on Clinton, utilized it in their campaign, and lied about it both publicly and to federal investigators.
- After a panel recommended the immediate reinstatement of Captain Crozier to his command, the Navy has announced he will not return to the USSS Roosevelt. Crozier was fired after drawing attention to the growing number of Covid-19 cases among his crew. The reason given for refusing to reinstate him is that Crozier wasn’t taking the outbreak seriously enough.
Geoffrey Berman is the interim (key word here) US attorney in the Southern District of New York. He has been in that position for over two years with no one named to fill the spot permanently. In that time Berman has overseen numerous cases related to the Mueller investigation, the Trump Organization, Rudy Giuliani, a Turkish company, etc… According to Bolton’s book, Trump told Turkish president Erdogan that the SDNY were not his people and he would be looking into doing something about the investigation – the investigation Berman has been overseeing.
Tonight, the Department of Justice announced Berman had resigned and would be replaced by the head of the SEC. They soon encountered a tiny problem – Berman issued a statement saying he had not resigned and would not leave the position until a Senate-confirmed prosecutor took his place. The law allows the president to fire any US attorney at will. But Berman is not a US attorney. Berman is an INTERIM US attorney who was appointed by a court, not the president. He can’t be fired by Barr or Trump until they can have a replacement confirmed by the Senate.
Trump is trying to get rid of the attorney who is investigating him and his allies. And that attorney is not having any of it.
