WTF Just Happened Today

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

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1/ Trump pressured John Kelly and White House counsel Don McGahn to give Ivanka a security clearance against their recommendations. While Trump does have the legal authority to grant clearances to anyone he wants, those decisions are typically left to the White House personnel security office, which raised concerns. Trump wanted Kelly and McGahn to make the final decision so it wouldn't look like he had a hand in the process. After both of them refused, Trump granted the clearance anyway. (CNN)

• ???? Day 770: Trump ordered John Kelly to grant Jared Kushner a top-secret security clearance last year and overrule concerns by intelligence officials and Donald McGahn, the White House's top lawyer. Both Kelly and McGahn wrote contemporaneous internal memos outlining Trump's "order" to give Kushner the clearance. In January, Trump said he had no role in Kushner receiving his clearance. (New York Times)

2/ On 11 different occasions while in office Trump issued personal checks to Michael Cohen meant as reimbursement for the hush money payments Cohen made to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. The dates on the checks show Trump was simultaneously managing affairs of state while also repaying his former personal attorney for keeping Trump's personal secrets hidden from the public. Of the eight checks now available, seven were for $35,000 and another was for $70,000. Six were signed by Trump and the other two were signed by Trump Jr. and Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's chief financial officer. (New York Times)

• ???? Day 769: During public testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Michael Cohen accused Trump of "criminal conduct" while in office, including the fact that Trump knew ahead of time about WikiLeaks' plan to release DNC emails that were intended to damage Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Cohen testified that Trump "asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair" with $130,000 of his own money weeks before the 2016 election "to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign." Cohen also described his relationship with Trump: "He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat." (New York Times / Washington Post / Reuters / Vox / Wall Street Journal / Politico)

• Michael Cohen provided documents to the House Intelligence Committee showing edits to the 2017 false written statement he delivered to Congress about the Trump Organization's continued pursuit of the Trump Tower Moscow project during the 2016 campaign. It was Cohen's fourth appearance before Congress since last week....

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