Emmy-winning anchor of "The Beat with Ari Melber” | Attorney I MS NOW Chief Legal Correspondent I Latest: ms.now/ari I POD:
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semafor.com/newsletter/03/24…
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Donald Trump has quarantined more strictly in response to losing the election than in response to getting Covid.
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John Kelly: Trump wants "everything out"
EXCEPT:
Trump's tax returns
Trump interview with Mueller
Democrats' rebuttal memo
The other FISA warrants
White House visitor logs
Bannon's House testimony
Stormy Daniels' story
The list of foreign customers at Trump properties
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Taking the Fifth when asked if you merely support the *peaceful* transfer of power in a democracy is, legally, bananas.
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McConnell's literal claim just now:
Trump did it -- but the only time the Senate could lawfully try Trump was in January when I prevented it.
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Paul Manafort’s lenient 4-year sentence — far below the recommended 20 years despite extensive felonies and post-conviction obstruction — is a reminder of the blatant inequities in our justice system that we all know about, because they reoccur every week in courts across America
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Holy cow Gordon Sondland going full John Dean in opening statement:
Confirms his view the WH plot was “quid pro quo” bribery
Implicates Giuliani
Shows Pompeo in the loop with new evidence
Implicates Trump, testifies this was on his orders
Adds new emails and evidence
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FACT: A President under investigation for *firing the FBI Director* & obstructing justice who recently watched guilty pleas & flipping by his personal lawyer, campaign chair, deputy chair & national security adviser just fired his handpicked AG & replaced him with a loyalist.
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Breaking: We just hit the point in the plot where Donald Trump's top lawyer is hiring Hillary Clinton's top lawyer.
That's not good news for Donald Trump.
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In court now:
Prosecutor on Mueller’s team asks Rick Gates if he committed crimes with Paul Manafort.
“Yes,” Gates says.
First time a senior Trump campaign official has confessed to a crime on the stand.
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Speaker Pelosi argues Pres. Trump broke the law, but that is best addressed through the next election not impeachment.
What happens to that argument when Trump’s conduct may undermine whether there even is a fair election?
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If you can delay it, schedule it, or decide later whether or not it exists ... it’s probably not an emergency.
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Ken Starr opens by arguing impeachment has become too common in the modern era. I rarely use caps but that is BEYOND RICH coming from him.
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The former U.S. Attorney for SDNY just told us the SDNY could cancel David Pecker’s immunity deal — and the SDNY may legally indict a sitting President. 🚨
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"I've decided I should be on the pardon list" is one of the most incriminating, damning, guilty and also dumb things a lawyer could ever put in writing. Literally.
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We don’t cover Ivanka Trump much, but you cannot truthfully claim you “very vehemently” oppose something when you literally don’t do anything to oppose it.
Ivanka Trump today: “I am very vehemently against family separation.”
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Shorter Bill Barr:
I stand by intervening to help a convicted Trump adviser, but I wish Trump did not admit what we are doing on Twitter
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As a historical fact, it's worth noting:
Sen. McConnell changed the number of working justices on The Supreme Court from 9 to 8, for well over a year.
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Some parts of this are simple:
The Mueller Report and James Comey’s testimony under oath both document Trump ordering illegal prosecution of political opponents.
That is huge.
Comey and Sessions resisted.
If Trump gets away with it, what happens if there’s a next time?
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Countries Presidents visited by 100 Days
OBAMA
Mexico
Canada
Iraq
UK
France
Germany
Trinidad
Turkey
Czech.R
BUSH
Mexico
Canada
TRUMP
None
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Wow the @Maddow scoop on this new secret tape of Devin Nunes reveals:
1) Nunes secretly wants another Rosenstein impeachment push — just after SCOTUS hearing
2) Nunes admits foreign *collusion* on stolen email *is a crime*
(A legal fact, but at odds with Trump legal team)
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Capitol tours are primarily in the Capitol.
Not in the adjoining buildings. Not in hallways where staff work. Not in staircases far from the Rotunda.
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Crucial point for any national debate over Manafort's punishment:
This is *not* about what people *think* his sentence should be.
It is about what the law recommends -- around 20 years -- and why of all defendants, why would this one merit a huge break from that recommendation?
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Strangest player in all this may be Rod Rosenstein, who:
Wrote the misleading memo backing Comey’s firing
Responded to outrage over *that very firing* by appointing Mueller
Clashed w Trump/GOP while overseeing Mueller
Only to acquiesce to Barr’s misleading letter & presser.
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Trump loses CNN v. Trump because of a longstanding precedent — the government cannot restrict press access because it disagrees with what the press reports.
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Bottom line: Mueller is telling convicts they will be be spared prison time for testifying honestly, while Trump is telling witnesses not to testify at all.
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Bottom line, Sondland is:
- a firsthand participant
- and current Trump appointee
... testifying he carried out:
- a criminal conspiracy
- on Trump’s “orders”
And using language suggesting at least 2 articles of impeachment:
- bribery
- obstruction
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You can’t “flip” on an innocent man, because there’s no material that incriminates him.
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Kavanaugh cites "revenge on behalf of the Clintons" and the 2016 election as animating opposition to him -- easily the most direct partisan language a SCOTUS nominee has used in a confirmation hearing in the modern era.
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By charging a lawyer today, Bob Mueller sends a message to every lawyer involved in this probe, in and out of government, that false statements and obstruction will be prosecuted.
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Trump out here beefing with a guy he can’t fire who could literally have the last word on the Mueller probe.
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"The number is bigger than four."
Fmr RNC Chair @MichaelSteele says he is hearing there are more GOP Senators willing to break with McConnell on the trial than DC conventional wisdom suggests
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As Joe Biden is elected President today, there is not a single pending case, in any court in the country, that could result in changing this outcome.
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Rep. Ratcliffe pressing on why fact witnesses did not use the word “bribery” in their testimony.
Typically fact witnesses describe what they saw and facts, not adding their own legal conclusions.
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A reminder of the very obvious:
Usually innocent people don't need their friends to show "guts" by *refusing* to testify about them -- they just want their friends *to testify truthfully* about them.
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If Brett Kavanaugh privately asserts Roe is *not* settled law and can *always* be overruled, but publicly asserts it is a “double precedent” — that is huge for the Senate to consider.
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BREAKING: Paul Manafort just indicted on new state charges in NY - these are crimes that CANNOT be pardoned by Pres. Trump
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The obvious background here:
Trump felt he won 2016 by casting Clinton as crooked and fixating on an (actual) investigation of her.
He planned for 2020 by going after Biden as crooked and *manufacturing* an investigation of him.
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Donald Trump is talking about declaring a national emergency to *seize taxpayer dollars* to fund a *federal project* that Congress did not approve.
For Congressional Republicans, how is defending that a conservative principle?
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BREAKING: Former Trump Campaign Chair Paul Manafort SENT TO JAIL TODAY over witness tampering allegations.
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Pres. Trump’s new pardons are for well-connected insiders convicted of the *same offenses* Trump and several of his advisers are accused of — serious crimes of extortion, bribery, misleading authorities or abuse of office.
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Trump attempting to order the prosecution of Clinton and Comey is the most significant legal scandal to hit the White House since the report that Trump tried to get Mueller fired.
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Many people at the Capitol right now have legal exposure for committing federal crimes.
Here is some of the relevant law...
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Look at what’s happening now:
Mueller seeking to jail Trump campaign chair for *witness tampering*
Trump aides admit they *lied* about Trump’s Don Jr defense
Trump lawyers say a President can obstruct justice
And Trump says he can pardon himself — pardons are for criminals.
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Trump lawyer now presenting evidence against Hunter Biden's business activities. Note this does not legally support the Trump defense that Trump wanted to fight *domestic* corruption in Ukraine
Instead this (inadvertently?) backs argument that Trump wanted to go after the Bidens
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Dr. Fauci just "apologized" to a journalist at the briefing for being "curt" in responding to an earlier question.
That's unusual at that podium.
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Under federal law, the DOJ Inspector General has formal authority to evaluate the work of US Attorneys
So US Atty John Durham's new statement that he does "not agree" with the IG Report cuts against the oversight rules - the IG *audits* the US Attorneys, not the other way around
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We checked WH schedules and found Trump arrives the Oval Office around 11:30am *on average.*
Most US workers have been on the job 2.5 hours by the time he starts his official day.
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Amb. Volker’s story is basically that he was in the car, could see out the window and hear the Waze directions, but he had *no idea* where they were headed.
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To state the obvious:
if a president commits obstruction without an underlying crime, it’s far worse than a regular citizen, because the President is the leader of the executive branch with the constitutional obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
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For 4 days we’ve covered the Florida recounts, ballot inspections and verification process, and we didn’t know Broward’s entire recount would be tossed when they uploaded it 2 minutes late today because of a user computer error, but we probably should have seen that coming.
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Why do supermarkets list a “sell by” date, when the info we need is the “eat by” date?
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More Americans watched Chris, Rachel and Lawrence last night than *any other* news channels — Congrats to them and thanks for watching the reporting on MSNBC 🙏
RATINGS: On Thursday, @MSNBC prime (8-11pm) was #1 across the board, beating FOX News and CNN in both A25-54 and total viewers.
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"This is a Tuesday Night Massacre."
A former U.S. Attorney tells me this departure of career prosecutors from the Roger Stone case is the kind of move that only happens when there's a "moral" objection to interference.
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Do defendants ever get a max sentence for financial crimes?
It happens.
Former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick got the max *28 years* for fraud & bribery
His co-conspirator got *21 years* (on a potential 28 max)
Unlike Manafort, Kilpatrick expressed remorse at his sentencing hearing.
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This is Giuliani’s actual legal claim, not a punchline, although the two may be indistinguishable
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Mueller Report addresses one enduring mystery — why all the lies if no Trump-Russia conspiracy?
Mueller says evidence indicates Trump lies and hid things out of the fear a probe “would uncover facts” about *Trump and his campaign* that he “could have understood to be crimes.”
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Sondland naming names like no else in public testimony — saying Pompeo, Bolton and key NSC staff “knew what we were doing and why.”
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It is wild that the government has to give out "incentives" for vaccinations.
Vaccinations *are* the incentive.
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Trump attorney Jay Sekulow just told us he got an early version of the Mueller Report on Tuesday.
That confirms AG Barr provided a version of the report to both the White House and The President's defense attorney days before providing anything to Congress.
live on @MSNBC
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Pat Cipollone might consider keeping the Medal of Freedom out of his mouth, until such time that he learns about the true civic courage that it is actually for.
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no shade, but seems like the key to a large number of recipes is just tons of butter?
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The best argument against Trump on obstruction may be:
Nixon tried to hide 18 minutes of evidence — Trump tried to hide ALL of it.
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Cohen reaches for his Watergate moment, tells House Republicans his core mistake was previously doing what *they are doing right now* — gambling everything to protect Trump when they know better.
(paraphrase)
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The government is shut down because POTUS wants to increase spending on a federal project that Congress did not fund.
So POTUS says he may declare an emergency to seize taxpayer dollars for this federal spending.
How is defending that a conservative or Republican principle?
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"We found out tonight why Donald Trump feared Biden so much."
- @JoyAnnReid
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Mueller Report: According to notes from Jody Hunt, when Potus learned of Mueller’s appointment, he said “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’m f-----.”
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New: Pres. Trump just said Jared "works for nothing." Paul Manafort also worked for nothing during the campaign. Working for free, especially with debts, can create extra strain and conflicts of interest.
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"Rick Perry made me do it" is *really* out there as an argument.
Can't even call it a "defense," because it's not a defense to a crime (or high crime) to say an employee asked you to do it.
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Understand what Barr appears to be trying to do here:
Undercut the role and authority of the IG as the watchdog of the DOJ, which is set by federal law, and insert his own prosecutor to do his own audit instead.
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The wife of a sitting Supreme Court Justice secretly pushed a voter fraud scheme to disenfranchise over a million voters in Arizona.
That merits the standard legal investigation - judges and their partners are not above the law - and a fairly unprecedented challenge for SCOTUS.
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Now the actual case for removing Pres. Trump begins on the Senate floor. Not the rules, not the redos.
Manager Schiff begins at the beginning -- quoting Founding Father Alexander Hamilton on the logic for impeachment...
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Length of Bill Barr’s 2018 letter arguing a defense to Presidential obstruction:
19 pages
Length of Barr’s 2019 letter arguing a defense to potential Trump obstruction:
4 pages
Length of Mueller Report documenting the obstruction evidence on Pres. Trump:
Barr won’t say.
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Sessions tells room of reporters he may make it easier to jail them if they don't reveal sources, leaves without taking any press questions.
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Trump's pledge to jail Clinton - which Pence just defended today - was literally one of the articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon:
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Trump on Thursday: Ask Michael Cohen!
Mueller on Monday: FBI Raids Michael Cohen's office.
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It is wrong to say this shutdown is about a “promise” Trump ran on.
The whole promise was the US would NOT pay for the wall. Now he’s shut down the government in an effort to BREAK that promise. Bizarre, even by 2018 standards...
We have a special report on this tonight...
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Why didn’t the Attorney General want anyone to know the Mueller Report was over 300 pages during the 2 days when he read it and shared his own view of the obstruction evidence that went beyond Mueller’s findings?
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Donald Trump stands impeached tonight - the first elected President ever impeached in his first term - partly because he *confessed* in public, and then continued to defy subpoenas to investigate the plot he largely admitted. Wild.
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wow 🙏🙏🙏
RATINGS: @MSNBC is the #1 cable news network for the week of Dec. 17, beating @FOXNews and @CNN for the 1st time in 17 years bit.ly/2EQvF3I
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"Everything Nunes has done is Paul Ryan-sanctioned."
- @Lawrence
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Shorter intelligence report on Ukraine plot:
The calls are coming from... inside the White House.
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New: Speaker Pelosi directly outlining the bribery case as a possible Article of Impeachment against Trump:
“The bribe is to grant or withhold military assistance in return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the elections — that’s bribery.”
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Bill Shine resigning is a reminder that Pres. Trump has found the time to hire and remove *5 different communications directors,* but he has not gotten around to nominating...
Undersec. for Veterans' Health Care
21 ambassador posts
Key financial regulators
& many other posts..
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Tonight we know the Trump administration has now fired *both* the FBI Director *and* the Deputy FBI Director—and claimed both firings are because of the Clinton investigation.
Sessions involved in both firings, while claiming to be recused from matters involving 2016 campaigns.
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“He had to announce the investigations — he didn’t have to actually *do* them.”
- Gordon Sondland captures Trump’s core political goal; pushing for the *PR and perception* of a criminal probe of Joe Biden, whether it was true, or was even being done, was apparently immaterial.
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Trump added Starr and Dershowitz to his defense team to “bring it home” — so it’s striking to see how their presentations today have ranged from legally ineffective to outright backfiring.
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Does POTUS have to turn over evidence in a criminal probe, like the Nixon tapes?
Must a POTUS testify before a grand jury?
Can a POTUS be indicted?
These are questions only SCOTUS decides, making this vacancy especially pivotal given the criminal probe into the Trump WH.
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"Facts do matter"
Ari Melber Delivers Record-Breaking Ratings To MSNBC In 2018, Sees 35% Growth In Viewership bit.ly/2VFOThA
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I have never been involved in an interview like this, on or off air.
Entire interview with Sam Nunberg from @TheBeatWithAri tonight:
WATCH: @AriMelber's full interview with ex Trump aide Sam Nunberg, who is refusing to comply with Mueller’s subpoena. @TheBeatWithAri #TheBeat on.msnbc.com/2Fnt0i7
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