But "When the president does it, that means it is not illegal": Trump thread LXXXVIII

[lionheart]

I run a charity. Yet I've never been POTUS... wtf is wrong with me??? Bigly fail for sure.

D.C. attorney general sues Facebook over alleged privacy violations from Cambridge Analytica scandal

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/19/dc-attorney-general-sues-facebook-over-alleged-privacy-violations-cambridge-analytica-scandal

yolo

You can't have used it for 'personal and political benefit'.

I caught some of the media show on radio 4 today and they were discussing different models of news/magazine delivery. One of the guests was from readly, an app that allows subscribers to access lots of different magazines and i think I heard her say that sberbank were one of their investors. She was also speaking about how they use analytics to work out what was popular, the demographics of who was reading what etc and was trying to sell it to another guest, explaining how they could track their audience and use that information to their advantage.

It really brought to mind the recent data scandals, and the (potential, if I didn’t mishear) mention of sberbank didn’t help.

Tariff Man bad for business.
Who'd have known?

read.bi/2PHBNfP

Natasha Bertrand
@NatashaBertrand
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has notified Congress of its intention to terminate the sanctions imposed on Oleg Deripaska's companies...(link: www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Documents/20181219_notification_removal.pdf )

Skimmed that quickly.

Deripaska will remain sanctioned. He will reduce his holdings of certain companies to less than 50% and they will have structural and governance changes.

Properties of which he continues to hold more than 50% will remain sanctioned.

Better than I thought, then, after quickly reading the last post.

New secret filing in case of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen placed in NY federal court vault

A document that is sealed from public view was placed in a New York federal court vault in a criminal case against President Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen.
The filing comes a week after Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for financial crimes and for campaign finance violations related to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Cohen also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about an aborted plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. That case was filed by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is continuing to investigate Trump's presidential campaign and its ties to Russians.

www.cnbc.com/2018/12/19/-filing-in-case-of-former-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen.html

Tariff Man bad for business.

Where does this $6 billion a month paid by firms because of the tariffs get paid to? I mean, who gets to spend it, and on what? It looks to me like a way to cover some hole or other in the budget.

Weird timing.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/19/us-troops-syria-withdrawal-trump

My understanding is that tariffs are paid to the Federal Government.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-eu-countries-hack-putin-diplomats-cables-communications-a8691311.html

Thanks, lion.

www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/jeff-flake-strikes-out-senate-blocks-his-third-push-to-protect-robert-mueller

abcnews.go.com/US/womens-march-2019/story?id=59910140

'As the 2019 freshmen class of senators and representatives is inducted into the age-old traditions of Congress in January, another newer tradition outside of the Capitol building will take place a few days later.

On Jan. 19, 2019, thousands of women will march in the streets of Washington D.C., and other cities across the world, for the third year of the Women's March.'

Natasha Bertrand
@NatashaBertrand
Statement from Senators Schumer, Brown and Menendez on lifting of sanctions on Deripaska’s companies: “The next Congress will need to review this decision as soon as possible to determine whether congressional action is required.”

Emma Loop
@LoopEmma
SSCI seems pretty skeptical of the decision to delist Deripaska's companies:

“Today’s announcement...does not change the fact that Mr. Deripaska, his employees, and his companies work at Vladimir Putin’s behest and operate as de facto representatives of the Russian government"

It seems the Pentagon people were the last to hear about the Syria withdrawal.

Rebecca Ballhaus
@rebeccaballhaus
In an affidavit Trump signed in 2000, when FEC investigated him for violating campaign-finance laws, Trump said he understood laws on corporate $$ to candidates. That would be "valuable and probative evidence" in any case against him, legal experts say.

Trump Testimony From Decades Ago Indicates Knowledge of Campaign-Finance Laws
Legal experts say that could be critical if investigators pursue a case over hush-money payments to women in the 2016 campaign

www.wsj.com/articles/trump-testimony-from-decades-ago-indicates-knowledge-of-campaign-finance-laws-11545257201

Zoe Tillman
@ZoeTillman
NEW: A federal judge in Florida has sided with BuzzFeed (my employer) in a defamation lawsuit brought over the publication of the Trump dossier. Judge found the fair report privilege applied because it involved an official proceeding (link: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5637767/12-19-18-Gubarev-Opinion.pdf )

Ooh that document of the Aleksej Gubarev vs BuzzFeed ruling looks juicy, Pain.

I haven't read the details of the Steele dossier, but this seems to enumerate some of them.

(Disclaimer: haven't had time to do more than peek at the ruling.)

Flake setting his sails for 2020?

www.politicususa.com/2018/12/19/by-becoming-trumps-party-the-gop-will-be-destroyed-in-2020.html