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By Cody Fenwick, AlterNet

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee published a letter Wednesday night strongly implying that there may be evidence of Brett Kavanaugh's engaging in “inappropriate sexual abuse or alcohol abuse” in past FBI background checks.

The letter was written in response to a series of tweets from the committee on an account run by the Republican majority.

“As part of Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to #SCOTUS, the FBI conducted its SIXTH full-field background investigation of Judge Kavanaugh since 1993. As part of these 6 prior FBI investigations, the FBI interviewed nearly 150 different people who know Judge Kavanaugh personally,” the tweet said. Another continued: “Nowhere in any of these six FBI reports, which the committee has reviewed on a bipartisan basis, was there ever a whiff of ANY issue – at all – related in any way to inappropriate sexual behavior or alcohol abuse.”

It was this second tweet that the Democrats took issue with. 

“Each of us reviewed the confidential background investigation of Judge Kavanaugh before the hearing,” they wrote in their letter. “While we are limited in what we can say about this background investigation in a public setting, we are compelled to state for the record that there is information in the second post that is not accurate.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) sent a tweet reiterating the point of the letter. In response, the committee's account tweeted: “Nothing in the tweet is inaccurate or misleading. The committee stands by its statement, which is completely truthful. More baseless innuendo and more false smears from Senate Democrats.”

It was not clear what information the Democrats could be referring to or what the disagreement may specifically be about without further information. However, the dispute may rest on different interpretations of what it means to say the reports contained a “whiff” of the behavior in question.

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• 'Having Fun at Her Expense': CNN's Jake Tapper Condemns Trump's Cruel Mockery of Christine Blasey Ford That Echoed Her Story of …read more

  Source: ALTERNET

By Cody Fenwick, AlterNet

CNN's Jake Tapper observed with dismay Wednesday that President Donald Trump had abandoned any pretense the night before that he has compassion for Christine Blasey Ford, one of the women who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Though he has previously called her “very credible,” at a campaign rally Tuesday night, Trump turned Ford “into an object of ridicule,” Tapper explained. 

Trump mocked Ford's story for having holes in it, despite the fact that this is common in sexual assault allegations. He imitated Ford in a dull monotone and exaggerated the extent of her memory lapses.

“Let's just take a closer look at what President Trump was doing here,” Tapper said Wednesday. “Provoking laughter. Evoking a specific reaction from some of those in the crowd.”

Replaying video of the rally, Tapper showed how the audience delighted in Trump's mockery. Tapper observed how this jeering echoed the “uproarious laughter” Ford recounted hearing from her attackers in her Senate testimony last Thursday.

“Their having fun at my expense,” Ford had added.

“Having fun at her expense,” Tapper echoed. “Whether or not you believe that pain was inflicted by Brett Kavanaugh.”

Even many Republicans, Tapper noted, condemned Trump's decision to mock the victim of sexual assault.

Watch the clip below:

“There appears to be no bottom”: @jaketapper gives his take on President Trump's mocking of Christine Blasey Ford at a rally in Mississippi https://t.co/xKPkaR6iGg pic.twitter.com/nPhGWQG53I

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) October 3, 2018

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• 'You Don't State the Facts': CNN's Jim Acosta Calls Out Sarah Sanders' Lies Right to Her Face
• A New Low for the Presidency: Trump Visciously Mocks Brett Kavanaugh's Accuser Christine Blasey Ford at Campaign Rally to a Cheering Crowd
• Key Red State Paper Urges Republican Senators to Vote Against Kavanaugh

…read more

Source: ALTERNET

By Cody Fenwick, AlterNet

With a bombshell report in the New York Times this week detailing the sketchy tax evasion schemes and reported “outright fraud” President Donald Trump used to shield his massive inherited wealth from the IRS, the topic of his always promised but never released tax returns has reemerged with a vengeance.

And with the midterm elections in sight, there may soon be a way for the world to finally see the president's long-hidden returns.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Democratic lawmakers are frank about their goals: If they reclaim either the House or the Senate in the election, Democrats will have and use the power to obtain the documents from the IRS.

The power to request the documents would fall to the head of the Ways and Means Committee, which is likely to be Rep. Richar Neal (D-MA) in the event of a takeover.

“We will do that,” Neal told the paper when asked if his party would go after the returns.

The report continues:

If he gets the returns, Mr. Neal said he plans to consult with his staff, Democratic leaders and House lawyers on how to analyze them and whether to make them public, which would require a committee vote.

He could release entire returns or redact some information to protect the privacy of other individuals or focus narrowly on potential violations.

“This has never happened before, so you want to be very meticulous,” Mr. Neal said.

The documents examined in the New York Times report come from the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, meaning that any tax-related crimes discovered therein would likely be well beyond the statute of limitations. However, more recent documents may be even more revealing, and would potentially open up the president to serious criminal liability if it could be shown he has broken the law.

There's also the potential that they could reveal embarrassing details about Trump's finances — like that he's much less wealthy than he has claimed — or dubious connections to shady figures or businesses.

Even some Republicans seem to be …read more

Source: ALTERNET

By Hunter, Daily Kos

 

“I think that it's a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something that you may not be guilty of,” Trump said Tuesday afternoon outside the White House. “This is a very difficult time.” [...]

“You could be somebody that was perfect their entire life and someone could accuse you of something,” Trump told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “You are truly guilty until proven innocent.”

At the rally in Southaven, Miss., on Tuesday night, Trump went further.

[...] Trump said. “And a man's life is in tatters! A man's life is shattered.” [...] 

“Think of your son,” Trump said. “Think of your husband.” — www.npr.org/…

It is quite surprising to see Donald Trump suddenly develop sympathy for people falsely accused of sexual assault.

It is not, however, a shock that his sympathy only manifests itself when the accused is a rich, Republican, middle-aged, white man.

Back in 1989, Trump had no fear of shattering lives. In fact, he led a lynch mob, taking out full page advertisements in every New York paper demanding that the death penalty be applied in the Central Park Jogger case.

The NYPD had arrested five black or brown children between 14 and 16 to demonstrate speedy progress after a horrific assault that led a young woman fighting for her life. NPYD detectives forced confessions, in the absence of lawyers or parents, from 4 of the 5 children.

Reflecting on that moment decades later, one of the young boys, Yusuf Salaam said:

“He was the fire starter,” Salaam said of Trump, in his first extended interview since Trump announced his run for the White House. “Common citizens were being manipulated and swayed into believing that we were guilty.” — www.theguardian.com/…

Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise, Antron McCray, and Raymond Santana, the five children who were falsely accused of rape and assault by Donald Trump were eventually exonerated in 2002. No physical evidence had ever tied them to the victim or the scene, but they’d been convicted nonetheless, on the basis of coerced confessions extracted …read more

Source: ALTERNET

By Alex Henderson, AlterNet

No sooner had Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona announced that he planned to vote for the confirmation of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court than he declared, on September 28, that his support of President Donald Trump’s nominee was conditional: Flake requested a limited, one-week investigation of the sexual abuse allegations that Palo Alto University psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford had made against Kavanaugh at her September 27 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But truth be told, the FBI investigation being conducted this week is unlikely to change the outcome of the nomination. If anything, it is a public relations ploy designed to give the so-called “undecided” Republicans in the Senate—namely, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins—an excuse to vote for Kavanaugh. And more than likely, Kavanaugh’s confirmation will be rammed through the Senate despite all the sexual abuse allegations being made against him.

Here are five reasons why the FBI investigation of Kavanaugh being conducted this week is a joke and a sham.

1. The Investigation Is Brief and Superficial, Not Comprehensive  

The FBI investigation of Kavanaugh taking place this week isn’t meant to be a criminal investigation like the Russia-related investigation that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been conducting. It is meant to be more of a background check, and the standards that apply in the Supreme Court nomination/confirmation process are much different from the standards that apply in a criminal trial. But even as a background check, the FBI’s Kavanaugh-related investigation has been a joke. A week isn’t nearly enough time for the FBI to seriously investigate Kavanaugh’s history and all the allegations being made against him.

2. The Investigation Gives ‘Undecided’ Senators an Excuse to Vote for Kavanaugh

For supposedly “undecided” Republicans like Flake, Collins and Murkowski—and possibly, Blue Dog Senate Democrats such as West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp as well—the FBI’s investigation is the best of both worlds. An investigation this brief and superficial is unlikely to produce any startling new revelations, but it will …read more

Source: ALTERNET