Deutsche Bank Received Subpoena on Client Trump - Bloomberg

By Steven Arons

Deutsche Bank Received Subpoena on Client TrumpDecember 5, 2017, 6:16 PM GMT+11 Updated on December 5, 2017, 7:07 PM GMT+11

Mueller is said to ask about bank’s dealings with president

Trump owes lender about $300 million for real estate loans

Deutsche Bank AG has received a subpoena from special prosecutor Robert Mueller over its dealings with President Donald Trump, in another sign that Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election is deepening.

Mueller has demanded that Germany’s largest lender share data on its client relationship with Trump, according to a person briefed on the matter. The subpoena, received several weeks ago, obliges the bank to submit documents detailing its business with Trump and his family, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the action has not been announced publicly. Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

The news comes as Mueller’s investigation appears to be entering a new phase, with Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, pleading guilty Friday to lying to FBI agents, becoming the fourth associate of the president ensnared by Mueller’s probe. More significantly, he also is providing details to Mueller about the Trump campaign’s approach to Flynn’s controversial meeting with a Russian envoy during the presidential transition.

Mueller’s team has also been interviewing White House aides in recent weeks, including former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, former spokesman Sean Spicer and National Security Council chief of staff Keith Kellogg, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Trump Loans

Trump owed Deutsche Bank about $300 million from his real estate dealings before moving into the White House. Democratic lawmakers, led by Representative Maxine Waters of California, have for months been pushing for more transparency over the president’s relationship with the bank.

Waters and other lawmakers have asked whether the bank’s loans to Trump, made years before he ran for president, “were guaranteed by the Russian government, or were in any way connected to Russia.”

Previously, the bank rejected demands that it release information on Trump, saying the sharing of client data would be illegal unless it received a formal request to do so.

As Mueller’s investigation unfolds, Trump has gone on the offensive. Over the weekend on Twitter, he attacked the FBI and Mueller’s team and defended some of Flynn’s actions. In particular, Trump hailed the news that one of Mueller’s aides had been removed from his job over the summer for some anti-Trump text messages.

On Monday, as he left the White House for a trip to Utah, Trump restated his sympathy for Flynn and his assertion that prosecutors should have pursued action against his general election rival, Hillary Clinton.

— With assistance by Billy House, Chris Strohm, and Andrew Blackman

Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh killed by Houthis, party says - Reuters

DEC 4 2017, 11:43 AM ET

Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh killed by Houthis, party says

by REUTERS

DUBAI — Yemen's steely former president of 33 years, Ali Abdullah Saleh, lost his last political gamble Monday, meeting his death at the hands of the Houthi movement — his erstwhile allies in the country's multisided civil war.

Officials in his General People's Congress party (GPC) confirmed to Reuters that the 75-year-old Saleh had been killed outside the capital, Sanaa, in what Houthi sources said was a rocket-propelled grenade and gun attack.

A master of weaving alliances and advancing his personal and family interests in Yemen's heavily armed and deeply fractious tribal society, Saleh unified his country by force, but he also helped guide it toward collapse in its latest war.

Ali Abdullah Saleh Khaled Abdullah / Reuters file

The Middle East's arch-survivor once compared running Yemen to "dancing on the heads of snakes," ruling with expertly balanced doses of largesse and force.

He outlived other Arab leaders who were left dead or deposed by uprisings and civil wars since 2011.

Cornered by pro-democracy Arab Spring protests, Saleh wore a cryptic smile when signing his resignation in a televised ceremony in 2012.

Saleh waged six wars against the Houthis from 2002 to 2009 before he made an impromptu alliance with the group that seized Sanaa in 2014 and eventually turned on him.

The two sides feuded for years for supremacy over territory they ran together. The Houthis probably never forgave his forces for killing their founder and father of the current leader.

Fearing the Houthis are a proxy for their arch-foe Iran, the mostly Gulf Arab alliance sought to help the internationally recognized Yemeni government win the conflict.

Saleh's army loyalists and Houthi fighters together weathered thousands of airstrikes by a Saudi-led military coalition in almost three years of war.

As the conflict wrought a humanitarian crisis, mutual sniping about responsibility for economic woes in northern Yemeni lands that they together rule peaked Wednesday when the capital erupted in gunbattles between their partisans.

Houthi rebel fighters ride an armored vehicle outside Ali Abdullah Saleh's home in Sanaa on Monday. Mohammed Huwais / AFP - Getty Images

The ever-nimble Saleh was a pivotal figure in the war, which has killed at least 10,000 people, displaced 2 million from their homes, led to widespread hunger and a cholera epidemic.

Saleh managed to keep Western and Arab powers on his side, styling himself as a key ally of the United States in its war on terrorism. He received tens of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid for units commanded by his relatives.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S., Yemen came onto Washington's radar as a source of foot soldiers for Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia though his family came from Yemen's Hadramaut region.

Saleh cooperated with U.S. authorities as the CIA stepped up a campaign of drone strikes against key al-Qaeda figures, which also led to scores of civilian deaths.

Companies Are Cutting Back on Holiday Party Booze Amid Sexual Harassment Scandals- TIME

Companies Are Cutting Back on Holiday Party Booze Amid Sexual Harassment Scandals Posted: 04 Dec 2017 06:18 AM PST (NEW YORK) — With a series of high-profile workplace sex scandals on their minds, employers are making sure their holiday office parties don’t become part of the problem. There will be less booze at many. An independent business organization has renewed its annual warning not to hang mistletoe. And some will have party monitors, keeping an eye out for inappropriate behavior. TV and movies often depict office parties as wildly inappropriate bacchanals or excruciatingly awkward fiascoes, if not, horrifyingly, both. But even a regular office party can be complicated because the rules people normally observe at work don’t quite apply, which makes it easier for people to accidentally cross a line — or try to get away with serious misbehavior. Especially when too much drinking is involved. According to a survey by Chicago-based consulting company Challenger, Gray & Christmas, only 49 percent of companies plan to serve alcohol at their holiday events. Last year that number was 62 percent, the highest number in the decade the firm has run its survey. The number had been going up each year as the economy improved. “As soon as you introduce alcohol at an off-site activity, peoples’ guards are dropped,” said Ed Yost, manager of employee relations and development for the Society for Human Resource Management based in Alexandria, Virginia. “It’s presumed to be a less formal, more social environment. Some people will drink more than they typically would on a Friday night or a Saturday because it’s an open bar or a free cocktail hour.” The Huffington Post reported Friday that Vox Media, which runs sites including Vox and Recode, won’t have an open bar this year at its holiday party and will instead give employees two tickets they can redeem for drinks. It will also have more food than in years past. The company recently fired its editorial director, Lockhart Steele, after a former employee made allegations of sexual harassment against him. A survey by Bloomberg Law said those kinds of safeguards are common: while most companies ask bartenders or security or even some employees to keep an eye on how much partygoers are drinking, others limit the number of free drinks or the time they’re available. A small minority have cash bars instead of an open bar. The National Federation of Independent Businesses recommends all of those steps, and adds another that might seem obvious these days: don’t hang mistletoe. It’s been giving those suggestions for several years. Yost said he always gets a lot of requests for advice in planning and managing these events, but he’s getting even more of them this year. He said he’ll be spending his corporate holiday party the way he always does: patrolling hallways, checking secluded areas and trying to watch for people who look like they are stuck in an uncomfortable situation — for example, inappropriate touching or a conversation that’s taken a bad turn. If they’re visibly uncomfortable, he’ll intervene and plan a later conversation with the person responsible. The Challenger, Gray & Christmas survey shows that about 80 percent of companies will have a holiday party, the same as last year. And not everyone is planning changes. Anthony Vitiello, the marketing director for software company Anton Robb Group, said he planned his company’s event and didn’t rethink it. For the last few years the firm’s has marked the holiday with drinks and passed hors d’oeuvres in the wide cellar of a local restaurant. Vitiello thinks the formal setting makes the event calmer. “We haven’t had any incidents, not a single one I can recall, where anyone got loud or over-consumed,” he said. He added that many of his company’s 25 employees go out for drinks once a month, and he’s not aware of any cases of misconduct. Yost said he’s not making changes to his group’s event either. He added that companies concerned about sexual misconduct need to look further than the holiday party. “While there are additional complications that are associated with a holiday event, that’s one day a year,” he said.

Greece's stability is attracting US investors amid tumult in Turkey and Middle East - CNBC News

5/12/2017

Greece's stability is attracting US investors amid tumult in Turkey and Middle East, minister says

There's a renewed interest from the United States in shoring up its investments in Greece, including in the field of energy

At the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, Greece is a key ally for many Western countries

Silvia Amaro | @Silvia_Amaro

CNBC.com

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands at the start of a joint press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., October 17, 2017.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands at the start of a joint press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., October 17, 2017.

A series of positive factors for the Greek economy are attracting U.S. investors back to the embattled euro zone nation, a government minister told CNBC.

"There are many American investors who are interested in participating in projects in Greece, because every clever investor would be interested in an economy that now starts to have positive growth rates," Dimitris Tzanakopoulo, Greek minister of state and the government spokesperson, told CNBC Monday.

Following a meeting between President Donald Trump and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in October, there's a renewed interest from the U.S. in shoring up its investments in Greece, especially in the energy sector.

Aside from a bounce back in economic growth, Tzanakopoulo said that Greece was "a pillar of stability in a region" and is winning back investors.

"(The region) has many, many problems, wherever you look there's destabilization, there is turbulence," Tzanakopoulo said in his office in Athens.

"We think we are one of the factors which will secure and guarantee stability in the region and this is something everybody knows, from the U.S. to our European partners," he said.

At the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, Greece is a key ally for many Western countries in the face of escalating tumult in Turkey and the rest of the Middle East.

In particular, the relationship between Ankara and the U.S. has been underintense strain, not only because Turkey blames the Western world for an attempted coup against the regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but also because of divergent views when it comes to dealing with the Islamic State.

Trump lawyer: ‘The president cannot obstruct justice’ - NBC News

DEC 4 2017, 12:23 PM ET

Trump lawyer: ‘The president cannot obstruct justice’

by PETER ALEXANDER, KRISTEN WELKER and ADAM EDELMAN

President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, John Dowd, revealed Monday a potential legal defense in the ongoing Russia probe, claiming that a president cannot obstruct justice.

"The president cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer under (the Constitution's Article II) and has every right to express his view of any case," Dowd told NBC News Monday.

Dowd added that the president's weekend tweet — which many have argued strengthened a potential obstruction of justice case for special counsel Robert Mueller — "did not admit obstruction."

"That is an ignorant and arrogant assertion," Dowd said.

His comments were first reported by Axios and came two days after Trump tweeted, "I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI."

Did Trump tweet indicate he may have obstructed justice?

Play Facebook Twitter Embed

Did Trump tweet indicate he may have obstructed justice?

"He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!" Trump wrote in his Saturday tweet — his first public comments about his former national security adviser after Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about speaking with Russian officials.

The tweet caused an uproar in Washington because it suggested Trump knew Flynn had committed a felony — lying to the FBI. Then-FBI director James Comey said earlier this year that the president told him to go easy on Flynn the day after the firing. Trump has denied telling Comey that.

Interfering in the FBI's investigation could be construed as obstructing justice, potentially creating legal jeopardy for Trump, some experts argued.

John Dowd, lawyer for Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, speaks to the media outside Manhattan Federal Court in New York

Attorney John Dowd, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer. Brendan McDermid / Reuters file

But within a few hours of the Saturday post, Dowd stepped in to say that he wrote the tweet, not the president.

Meanwhile, several lawmakers and legal experts immediately weighed in Monday morning to express their disagreement with Dowd's position that the president cannot obstruct justice.

"I hope my Republican colleagues in the U.S. Senate will take the lead on this issue and also on obstruction of justice. There is a credible case of obstruction of justice against Donald Trump," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe."

"If you take the president's own statement, his tweet that he knew Michael Flynn was lying to the FBI when he fired him, which means that he knew Michael Flynn committed a felony when he asked Comey to stop the investigation of him, and when he fired Comey when he refused to do so, and when he fired Sally Yates and when he called Michael Flynn in April to tell him to stay strong, all of these acts are to impede and obstruct justice," he explained.

Play MSNBC panel: What does Trump's Flynn tweet mean for Mueller probe? Facebook Twitter Embed

MSNBC panel: What does Trump's Flynn tweet mean for Mueller probe? 9:49

Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who was fired by Trump, acknowledged in an interview with NPR that charging a president with obstruction "is a very high bar, it's a very high threshold, it's a difficult thing, it's never been done before."

"But the mere fact that the president is the president doesn’t immunize him from an accusation of obstruction," Bharara said.

The articles of impeachment against both former Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton included charges of obstruction of justice.

But another prominent legal expert defended Dowd's theory.

"You cannot charge a president with obstruction of justice for exercising his constitutional right to fire Comey and his constitutional authority to tell the Justice Department who to investigate, who not to investigate," Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz told Fox News Channel on Monday. "For obstruction of justice by the president, you need clearly illegal acts."

“The president could've pardoned Flynn if he were really thinking about trying to end this investigation. He would've pardoned Flynn and then Flynn wouldn't be cooperating with the other side and the president would've had the complete authority to do so," he added. "So I think the fact that the president hasn't pardoned Flynn even though he has the power to do so is very good evidence that there's no obstruction of justice going on here."

Donald Trump Jr. Due to Testify Before the House Intelligence Panel This Week - Fortune

5/12/2017

President Donald Trump’s eldest son and a former business associate of the president are due to testify to the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee this week, as it continues its investigation of possible Russian involvement in the 2016 election, a source familiar with the schedule said.

Donald Trump Jr. is due to appear before the committee on Wednesday and Felix Sater, a Russian-American who was a former Trump business associate who claimed deep ties to Moscow, on Thursday, the source said. Neither session will be public.

CNN had reported previously, citing multiple sources, that Donald Trump Jr. was due to appear on Wednesday. His attorney declined a request for comment.

An attorney for Sater, Robert Wolf, did not respond to a request for comment.

Committee aides declined to comment. It is the Intelligence Committee’s policy not to comment on the schedule for closed meetings.

The panel is one of the three main congressional committees, as well as Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller, investigating Russia and the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and the possibility of collusion between Trump associates and Moscow.

Robert Mueller Convenes Grand Jury To Investigate Russia Hack

Separately, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Monday she had made requests to three more people for information related to the Russia investigation.

Feinstein, who has made public similar requests, said she wrote to Rick Dearborn, a deputy White House chief of staff; Maria Butina, a former assistant to Alexander Torshin, a deputy governor of the Russian central bank; and Rick Clay, an advocate for conservative Christian causes.

She asked all three for interviews and for documents related to efforts by Torshin to arrange a meeting between Putin and Trump when he was a presidential candidate.

The Russian government has denied any effort to affect the election and Trump has dismissed talk of collusion.

A range of Trump associates has been called to testify during the investigation. Last week, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke to the House panel behind closed doors, as did Erik Prince, who founded the military contractor Blackwater and was a supporter of Trump’s campaign.

A transcript of Prince’s testimony could be released as soon as Monday. There are no plans to release Sessions’ testimony.

Among other people with ties to Trump who are expected to appear in Congress are Jared Kushner, the president’s close adviser and son-in-law, who had testified to the House committee behind closed doors in July.

Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House panel, said last week that it would “very likely” be necessary for Kushner to testify again.

Jerusalem: New warnings over US shift on city status = BBC News

5/12/2017

Jerusalem: New warnings over US shift on city status

Israel sees Jerusalem as its indivisible capital but Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state

French President Emmanuel Macron has told Donald Trump he is "concerned" the US leader could unilaterally recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Any decision on the contested city's status must be "within the framework of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians", Mr Macron said.

Earlier, similar warnings came from a number of Arab and Muslim nations.

Reports say the US president will recognise Jerusalem as Isreal's capital. President Macron telephoned his US counterpart to express concern, the Élysée palace said

The White House said Mr Trump would miss Monday's deadline to sign a waiver delaying the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

But White House spokesman Hogan Gidley stressed that "the president has been clear on this issue from the get-go: It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when".

Every president, including Mr Trump, has signed the waiver every six months since US Congress passed an act in 1995 calling for the embassy to be moved.

What's so contentious about the move?

The status of Jerusalem goes to the heart of Israel's conflict with the Palestinians, who are backed by the rest of the Arab and wider Islamic world.

The city is home to key religious sites sacred to Judaism, Islam and Christianity, especially in East Jerusalem.

Map of Jerusalem

Israel occupied the sector in the 1967 Middle East war and regards the entire city as its indivisible capital.

The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, and according to 1993 Israel-Palestinian peace accords, its final status is meant to be discussed in the latter stages of peace talks.

Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem has never been recognised internationally, and all countries, including Israel's closest ally the US, maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv.

The alternatives to a two-state solution

Why settlement issue is so difficult

Since 1967, Israel has built a dozen settlements, home to about 200,000 Jews, in East Jerusalem. These are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

If the US recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital, it will put it out-of-step with the rest of the international community and reinforce Israel's position that settlements in the east are valid Israeli communities.

What has been the international reaction?

On Monday, Saudi Arabia said such a move before a final settlement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would "have a detrimental impact on the peace process".

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has urged world leaders to intervene, saying "such a US decision would destroy the peace process".

Jordan has warned of "grave consequences", while Arab League chief Abul Gheit has said such a move would "nourish fanaticism and violence".

Turkish Deputy PM Bekir Bozdag has said this would be a "major catastrophe".

Trump lawyer says a president can't 'obstruct justice.' Can that be true? - CNN Politics

Trump lawyer says a president can't 'obstruct justice.' Can that be true?

By Joan Biskupic, CNN Legal Analyst and Supreme Court Biographer

Updated 0640 GMT (1440 HKT) December 5, 2017

Legal expert: Can a president obstruct justice?

Legal expert: Can a president obstruct justice? 02:02

(CNN)The new assertion of Donald Trump's lawyer that a president can never be guilty of obstructing justice because he is the country's top law enforcement officer recalls Richard Nixon's remark that "when the president does it, that means it is not illegal," and intensifies debate over whether a sitting president can be indicted.

WH lawyer told Trump that Flynn misled FBI and Pence

WH lawyer told Trump that Flynn misled FBI and Pence

Whether a president can be criminally charged -- for any offense -- has never been tested in the courts. But presidents have been subject to obstruction-of-justice charges in impeachment proceedings. And there is no question that a president can be removed for, as the US Constitution dictates, any "high crimes and misdemeanors."

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Unlike a criminal case heard by a judge or jury, impeachment is a political process that comes down to votes: a majority in the US House of Representatives to impeach and a two-thirds vote of the US Senate to convict. Yet both sets of proceedings can follow the kind of special counsel investigation now underway. Comparisons to the Nixon scandal have been rife recent months. In Watergate, Nixon was not criminally charged but was named as an unindicted co-conspirator and pressured to resign with impeachment charges looming.

The deal between special counsel Robert Mueller and Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn ramped up controversy over whether Trump had known Flynn had lied to the FBI, as Flynn pleaded guilty to last Friday, and perhaps tried to interfere with the federal investigation of Flynn. Former FBI Director James Comey, who oversaw the Department of Justice probe related to Russia interference in the 2016 election before being fired by Trump in May, said Trump had asked him to stop pursuing Flynn.

A Trump tweet on Saturday suggested Trump knew before that request to Comey that Flynn had lied when he was fired. If so, that could increase the possibility that Trump was trying to impede Comey's pursuit of Flynn's potentially criminal behavior.

With that new storm brewing, Trump's personal lawyer John Dowd told Axios that "the President cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer (under the Constitution's Article II) and has every right to express his view of any case."

But the Constitution is silent on the issue. And since Nixon and Watergate, lawyers inside and outside the executive branch have debated whether a president may be criminally prosecuted.

Trump's personal lawyer claims the President can't obstruct justice

Trump's personal lawyer claims the President can't obstruct justice

In the early 1970s, Nixon was involved in the cover-up of a June 1972 break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate building. His denials of any wrongdoing dramatically undercut when White House tapes of related conversations were discovered. Nixon resigned in August 1974, shortly after the US Supreme Court ruled he had to turn over the tapes to a special prosecutor.

Later in 1977, in a series of interviews with journalist David Frost, he remarked that when "the president does it, that means it is not illegal." The comment, addressing national security and broader presidential power, has been one of the most startling and enduring from those televised interviews.

During Watergate, the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that criminal prosecution of a sitting president would undermine the executive's duty to carry out his constitutional duties. In 2000, the office reiterated that 1973 position that the Constitution forbids the indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting president.

Still, lawyers then and now say the real answer would rest with the courts, and some lawyers argue that since the Constitution does not address the question, the US Supreme Court could ultimately find that the president was not above prosecution.

Nixon's threatened impeachment, as well as President Bill Clinton's actual impeachment in 1998, both began with reports from special prosecutors in roles such as Mueller's. Obstruction-of-justice charges were leveled in both cases.

In the Clinton ordeal, the Republican-dominated House of Representatives passed two articles of impeachment in December 1998 related to obstruction of justice and perjury. The Senate acquitted Clinton in February 1999 after the chamber fell short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction. The only other US president to be impeached, Andrew Johnson in 1868, was similarly not convicted by the Senate.

So far Mueller has charged Flynn and three other individuals from the Trump campaign with crimes -- former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy on the campaign Rick Gates were indicted (both have pleaded not guilty), and a plea deal was reached with former adviser George Papadopoulos.

It is not known whether Mueller is building a case against the president and whether he would be inclined to put it before a criminal court rather than the House of Representatives.

Obstruction of justice, which Trump lawyer Dowd mentioned, is a federal offense that arises when someone tries to "influence, obstruct, or impede" the "due administration of justice." A key question is whether the President or any defendant acted with a corrupt intent.

Much of the criticism of Trump's actions related to the Russia probe go back to February when Trump asked Comey to drop the Flynn investigation and then fired him.

Whether that or any of the President's other actions would offer sufficient grounds for an obstruction-of-justice conviction could rest with a court, or it may turn out, only with the two chambers of Congress.