Trump

Supreme Court ‘erred badly’ with Trump ruling, leading US historian says

Rolling Stone - If you ever looked at the actions of the Trump White House and wondered, ‘Are they on drugs?’ — the answer was, in some cases, yes. Absolutely, yes.  In January, the Defense Department’s inspector general released a report detailing how the White House Medical Unit during the Trump administration distributed controlled substances with scant oversight and even sloppier record keeping. Investigators repeatedly noted that the unit had ordered thousands and thousands of doses of the stimulant modafinil, which has been used by military pilots for decades to stay alert during long missions.  The report didn’t say why so many of those pills had been given out. But for many who served in the Trump White House, the investigation highlighted an open secret. According to interviews with four former senior administration officials and others with knowledge of the matter, the stimulant was routinely given to staffers who needed an energy boost after a late night, or just a pick-me-up to handle another day at a uniquely stressful job. As one of the former officials tells Rolling Stone, the White House at that time was “awash in speed.” Knowledgeable sources say that samples of the stimulant were passed around for those contributing lines to major Trump speeches, working late hours on foreign policy initiatives, responding to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, coping with the deluge of media inquiries about that investigation, and so much more. (Trump’s campaign did not respond to an email seeking comment for this story.)

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday railed against Fox News over the presence of certain Republican voices that have been critical of him. While Trump and the conservative Fox News network have generally been on good terms throughout his political career, he has, in recent years, become increasingly critical of it owing to a number of factors. Among these grievances has been its occasional featuring of Republican figures who are critical of him and his impact on the GOP, whom Trump has often derided as "RINOs," or "Republicans in Name Only."

Daily Beast - Now that former Trump Organization accountant Allen Weisselberg has pleaded guilty to perjury, the lawyers who defended Donald Trump at his bank fraud trial have found themselves in a precarious position: open to accusations that they violated professional ethics for remaining silent while their witness lied in court.  Attorneys put their bar licenses at risk if they sit idly by while they know that their witnesses present false testimony under oath. As such, Weisselberg’s recent confession presents a unique and personal threat to Trump’s hired legal guns, who have already gained an unseemly reputation over their willingness to defend their client’s hate-fueled attacks on public officials, attack judges on his behalf, and play delay games by pitting court calendars against each other. “The lawyers could face bar discipline if they knew that this testimony was false and did nothing,” said Rebecca Roiphe, who teaches at New York Law School. “The state bar attorney grievance committee could initiate its own investigation or the trial judge could make a referral.”