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Peter King: Russia probe was a ‘coordinated effort’ to investigate Trump

The Russia probe was “a coordinated effort by certain people at the top level of the government” to go after President Trump that needs to be examined, Rep. Peter King said Friday.

A day after the release of the redacted Muller report, the Long Island Republican told Fox News' “America’s Newsroom” Friday that he questions why the investigation was launched in the first place.

King said as a member of the House Intelligence Committee which conducted its own probe into Russia meddling during the 2016 presidential election, he never saw any evidence “at all” of collusion.

“To launch a law enforcement investigation--they called it counter-intelligence--but it was a law enforcement investigation with wiretaps and everything else based on the flimsiest of evidence,” King said of the FBI's Russia probe.

TRUMP RAILS AGAINST ASSOCIATES WHO SPOKE TO MUELLER, CALLS CLAIMS ‘TOTAL BULL---T’

He believes that for people like former FBI director James Comey and former Deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, the investigation was just an excuse to probe Trump.

“This was to me a coordinated effort by certain people at top levels of the government and that should be investigated to find out how this came about,” King said.

“I would say the same thing if it was Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sander or anybody else,” he added.

King said it remains murky even now as to when the Russia probe began.

MUELLER REPORT IGNITES NEW DEM BATTLE OVER IMPEACHMENT

Even as Trump claimed vindication with the release of the Mueller report, King said there are certain things Muller left out of his 440-page document.

“He has in there that Russia wanted Trump to win,” King said. “From all that I’ve seen they never thought Donald Trump was going to win."

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He added, “What they wanted to do was damaged Hillary Clinton because they thought she was going to win and they wanted to weaken her if she was the president.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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Kuroda brushes aside view BOJ has run out of tools to ease monetary policy

FILE PHOTO : Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda attends a news conference at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo
FILE PHOTO : Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda attends a news conference at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan October 31, 2018. REUTERS/Issei Kato

April 13, 2019

By Leika Kihara

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Friday the central bank was ready to expand monetary stimulus if needed, brushing aside the view the BOJ had little ammunition left to fight the next economic downturn.

Kuroda said it was true major central banks may have less room to cut interest rates because they are already very low after years of aggressive monetary easing.

“But that doesn’t mean central banks have no ammunition left to ease further in response to financial developments,” Kuroda told a news conference after the Group of 20 finance leaders’ meeting.

“The BOJ also has room to ease monetary policy further if doing so becomes necessary,” he said.

The remarks underscore the challenge major central banks face as they struggle to battle growing overseas headwinds to their economies with a dwindling policy tool kit.

The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank have paused in their efforts to dial back crisis-mode policies. But the BOJ has failed to fire up inflation to its elusive 2 percent target despite years of money printing. It is now faced with the growing demerits of prolonged easing, such as the pain ultra-low rates inflict on financial institutions’ profits.

Kuroda also said he has no plans now to change the central bank’s forward guidance, or the message it sends to signal its policy intentions to financial markets.

“Our forward guidance was introduced to clarify our stance of patiently maintaining powerful monetary easing,” Kuroda said.

“I think that stance is understood well by market players. In that sense, our forward guidance is showing its intended effect,” he said.

Kuroda made the remarks, when asked about a proposal by the International Monetary Fund that the BOJ enhance its communication with markets by clarifying the timing for maintaining ultra-low interest rates.

Under a policy dubbed yield curve control (YCC), the BOJ guides short-term interest rates at minus 0.1 percent and the long-term yield around zero percent.

In July last year, it introduced a forward guidance pledge to keep interest rates very low for an “extended period” – language some critics have said is too vague.

Kuroda said the current forward guidance was appropriate because it struck the right balance between the need to make the commitment effective and to leave flexibility for future policy decisions.

He also said there was no need to modify a loose pledge the BOJ makes to buy government bonds so that the balance of its holdings increase at an annual pace of roughly 80 trillion yen ($714.16 billion).

Despite having shifted to a policy targeting rates, the BOJ has kept the bond-buying commitment to appease advocates of aggressive money printing in its nine-member board.

The IMF has called on the BOJ to phase out the loose pledge on the pace of bond buying, arguing that doing so would avoid causing confusion in markets on what the central bank was focusing on in guiding policy.

“There has been no change to our stance of buying large amounts of government bonds,” Kuroda said. “I don’t see the need to change (the bond-buying pledge) at this stage.”

($1 = 112.0200 yen)

(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Tom Brown)

Source: OANN

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Was Trump trying to silence Cohen? Mueller wasn’t sure

Days after the FBI raided Michael Cohen's home and office last year, President Donald Trump called his longtime fixer and urged him to "stay strong" and "hang in there" in the face of the intensifying investigation.

That call was among several assurances Cohen says he received that the White House would have his back so long as he "stayed on message," special counsel Robert Mueller said in his long-awaited report on his Trump investigation. The redacted 448-page document was made public Thursday.

Mueller's team said it found evidence to suggest that the president intended to discourage Cohen from cooperating with federal authorities, noting among other things that after Cohen flipped on his boss, Trump branded him a "rat" and publicly suggested Cohen's family members had committed crimes.

Ultimately, however, the special counsel reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. And last month, upon receiving Mueller's report, Attorney General William Barr decided Trump shouldn't be prosecuted.

Cohen, 52, is set to report to prison next month to begin serving a three-year sentence after pleading guilty to crimes that included lying to Congress about a Trump Tower project in Moscow and arranging the payment of hush money to a porn star and a Playboy centerfold who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.

The Mueller report, though blacked out in places, offers a window into the quiet support Cohen received from Trump before he turned on his longtime boss and began cooperating with federal prosecutors.

In the months after the April 2018 raid against Cohen by the FBI, Trump associates sought to assure him that the president intended to take care of him. Someone associated with the Trump Organization — whose name is blacked out of the report — told Cohen that "everyone knows the boss has your back." Another time, a friend of the president's reached out to tell Cohen that he was with "the Boss" at Mar-a-Lago and that Trump said "he loves you" and not to worry, according to the report.

Cohen "believed he needed the power of the President to take care of him," he told Mueller's team, noting his legal fees were still being paid at the time by the Trump Organization.

But Cohen grew increasingly worried and asked one Trump attorney "what was in it for him," the report says. Cohen "discussed pardons with the President's personal counsel and believed that if he stayed on message he would be taken care of."

By June 2018, however, he had broken with the president, saying in an interview that he needed to put family and country ahead of his loyalty to Trump. Trump reacted by lashing out at him and later, in what Cohen regarded as a threat, accused Cohen family members of illegal acts.

"The evidence concerning this sequence of events," the Mueller report says, "could support an inference that the President used inducements in the form of positive messages in an effort to get Cohen not to cooperate, and then turned to attacks and intimidation to deter the provision of information or undermine Cohen's credibility once Cohen began cooperating."

Some of Cohen's statements to Mueller's team were blacked out of the report. But Cohen attorney and spokesman Lanny Davis tweeted Thursday that Cohen has "7 days, 70 hours, + 100 pages of what #TeamMueller knows and can fill in the bulk of the redactions."

Cohen himself tweeted: "Soon I will be ready to address the American people again ... tell it all ... and tell it myself!" It wasn't clear how or when he would do that.

Source: Fox News National

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Google’s new cloud boss has big task to catch rivals, Reuters data show

A
A Google logo is seen at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, U.S., November 1, 2018. REUTERS/ Stephen Lam

February 21, 2019

By Paresh Dave

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google has a new cloud computing boss and big ambitions to someday produce more revenue from that business than from advertising.

Now comes the hard part: winning over big-spending customers.

Alphabet Inc’s cloud computing division remains a distant third behind Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp in terms of global revenue, according to analysts’ estimates. A few major companies manage their data on Google’s servers. But Google has nowhere near the vast customer base of Amazon, according to a new Reuters analysis of company regulatory filings.

Businesses generally are not required to disclose their cloud vendors. Reuters found 311 out of about 5,000 worldwide that did so in 2018. While not comprehensive, the data provide a window into Google’s challenge.

Thirty five of those companies named Google as a cloud provider. The largest by market capitalization were oil major Total SA and bank HSBC Holdings Plc.

Graphic: Amazon’s cloud dominance – https://tmsnrt.rs/2BMpryP

Amazon Web Services led with 227 clients, including travel company Expedia Group Inc and industrials giant Siemens AG. Microsoft’s Azure cloud had 69 firms, among them weapons maker Axon Enterprise Inc and business data firm Dun & Bradstreet Co.

Thirty four of the companies cited multiple clouds.

The previously untracked data show the work ahead for Thomas Kurian, who is weeks on the job as senior vice president of Google Cloud. Kurian has vowed to double down where Google has seen promising results. Specifically, he plans to target governments and top companies in retail, manufacturing, healthcare, media and finance.

“A lot of our focus as we go forward is making sure that our sales organization has the background and the ability to sell to large, more traditional companies,” Kurian said at a Goldman Sachs investor conference last week. “There’s enormous appetite in those companies to consider Google.”

Google declined to comment or make Kurian available for an interview.

Graphic: Why cloud vendors get disclosed – https://tmsnrt.rs/2BKFoFP

People familiar with his plans said he is looking to reshape his division’s culture. A key part is developing or acquiring easy-to-use, industry-specific corporate applications, an area that Amazon and Microsoft do not dominate.

“It’s about the on-ramp onto their cloud,” said Daniel Ives, a New York-based financial analyst following the cloud industry for Wedbush Securities. “The main way to get that is through applications.”

A 22-year veteran of Oracle Corp, Kurian gave the database company fresh life as the product leader behind its move to selling cloud services. His hire is already making potential customers reconsider Google, said Ray Wang, founder of Constellation Research, a Monta Vista, Calif.-based firm that helps businesses negotiate cloud deals.

“They’ve worked with him,” Wang said. “There’s a trust factor that wasn’t there before.”

Kurian also must reassure some investors bewildered by Google’s cloud ambitions: Diversifying revenue beyond advertising is a plus, but it is not coming cheap.

Google, Microsoft and Amazon combined spent nearly $53 billion on capital expenses last year, driven by data center projects to house their clouds.

With gross margins of 20 percent or less, selling cloud storage or tools for which customers need specialized staff is less lucrative for a small vendor, industry experts said. But margins on the type of software Kurian likely wants to offer can top even the 60 percent of Google’s ad business.

“The next wave of growth is going to have to come from the heavy hitting applications,” said Kerry Liu, chief executive at Rubikloud, which helps retailers with cloud projects.

‘GEEKY, TECHY PLATFORM’

Google got serious about the cloud around 2016, five years after Amazon Web Services had become a multibillion-dollar behemoth. But Google’s reputation for limited customer support has attracted mostly newer businesses or those with significant tech know-how.

Mike Fisher, Etsy Inc’s chief technology officer, said Google’s superior AI tools helped win over the New York-based crafts marketplace. Fisher expects data-crunching algorithms to account for 25 percent of its server use this year, up from 10 percent last year.

“We’ve been more pleasantly surprised than we thought,” Fisher said of the cloud’s benefits.

Advertising software company OpenX recently agreed to spend at least $110 million on Google Cloud over five years. The Pasadena, Calif. firm bet its clients would benefit from transacting on the same infrastructure as Google’s ads system.

“It’s a bit more of a geeky, techy platform, but we’re that kind of company,” said Chief Technology Officer Paul Ryan.

Graphic: Battle for large cap customers – https://tmsnrt.rs/2BMyzTY

KURIAN’S PLAN

To attract more traditional corporate clients, Google Cloud will need to do some handholding, executives at its partners and rivals said.

Kurian is well-suited to the role. Two of his former colleagues said his follow-up and candid disclosures about product limitations helped seal deals at Oracle. An early riser, Kurian impressed staff with his meticulous preparation for morning meetings as well as his recall of the tiniest details of clients’ systems from years before.

Kurian also managed billions of dollars in acquisitions at Oracle, including the purchases of software firms BEA Systems and Taleo.

Applications could come through similar deals and internally: Google is testing product recommendation software for shopping apps, a person familiar with the project said, to

add to its small set of specialized tools.

Kurian told the investor conference that “you will see us continue to expand our footprint there.”

(Reporting by Paresh Dave; Additional reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Greg Mitchell and Marla Dickerson)

Source: OANN

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U.S. criticizes Brunei’s death penalty plan for gay sex, adultery

FILE PHOTO: Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah attends the retreat session during the APEC Summit in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
FILE PHOTO: Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah attends the retreat session during the APEC Summit in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on November 18, 2018. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo

April 3, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Tuesday criticized Brunei’s decision to implement Islamic laws that would allow death by stoning for adultery and homosexuality and urged it to ratify and implement the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

“Brunei’s decision to implement Phases Two and Three of the Sharia Penal Code and associated penalties runs counter to its international human rights obligations, including with respect to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said in a statement.

Brunei, a Muslim-majority former British protectorate with a population of around 400,000, will implement the Sharia laws from Wednesday, punishing sodomy, adultery and rape with the death penalty, including by stoning, and theft with amputation.

Oscar-winning actor George Clooney has called for a boycott of luxury hotels owned by Brunei, including the Beverly Hills Hotel, because of the country’s plans to impose the punishments.

“We continue to encourage Brunei to ratify and implement the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which it signed in 2015, and to sign, ratify, and implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” Palladino said.

(Reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Source: OANN

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China’s top graft buster to go after ‘political deviation’

The headquarters of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China is pictured in Beijing
The headquarters of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China is pictured in Beijing, China February 10, 2018. Picture taken February 10, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee

February 19, 2019

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s top anti-corruption body will target “political deviation” this year along with continued efforts to stamp out graft, it said on Tuesday, as part of a long-running campaign to improve discipline in the ruling Communist Party.

President Xi Jinping has presided over a sweeping corruption crackdown since coming to power in 2012, vowing to target both “tigers” and “flies”, referring to elite officials and ordinary bureaucrats.

The campaign has led to the jailing or punishment of thousands of officials and also brought down dozens of senior party and military officials.

The anti-corruption effort has not only focused on issues like bribery and using public money to fund lavish lifestyles. It has also taken aim at those whose political loyalty is found lacking or who express doubt in public about party policies.

In comments carried on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, Wang Ying, deputy head of the inspection team, said this year they will “deepen political inspections” and “uncover political deviation”. She did not elaborate.

Special effort will be made to find problems in the implementation of party policies and major party decisions, as well as rooting out corruption and “undesirable work styles”, Wang added.

The graft watchdog routinely sends out inspection teams to government ministries and provincial governments, which then issue reports detailing problems found and how they intend to rectify them.

China has rebuffed criticism that the campaign is as much about settling political scores as about stamping out genuine criminal acts.

But several high profile corruption cases have made mention of specific political crimes officials were suspected of, along with actual criminal behavior like taking bribes.

Former party boss of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing, Sun Zhengcai, was accused by the party of having inflated political ambitions and of damaging the party’s image.

Sun was jailed last year for life for corruption.

Vice President Wang Qishan, a close ally of Xi’s and formally in charge of the war on corruption, wrote in 2017 that the country had to step up vigilance against plots to grab power, as political corruption is the worst form of corruption.

Xi has warned, like others before him, that the corruption problem is so severe it could affect the party’s grip on power.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; editing by Darren Schuettler)

Source: OANN

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MP mocked for suggesting all knives should be fitted with GPS trackers

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Representatives of Russian Transneft, Ukranian Ukrtransnafta, Polish Pern and Belarusian Belneftekhim gather to hold talks on fixing tainted oil supplies to Europe, in Minsk
Representatives of Russian Transneft, Ukranian Ukrtransnafta, Polish Pern and Belarusian Belneftekhim gather to hold talks on fixing tainted oil supplies to Europe, in Minsk, Belarus April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko

April 26, 2019

By Katya Golubkova and Andrei Makhovsky

MOSCOW/MINSK (Reuters) – Russia is confident it can soon resolve a problem of polluted Russian oil contaminating a major pipeline serving Europe and affecting supplies as far west as Germany, a senior official said on Friday at talks with importers about the issue.

Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin did not give a precise timeframe but Moscow has previously said it would pump clean oil to the border with Belarus from April 29, seeking to end a crisis hitting the world’s second-largest crude exporter.

Sorokin was speaking at talks with officials from Belarus, Poland and Ukraine in Minsk on the issue. Belarus said the issue had cost it $100 million, while analysts say alternative supply routes for refiners cannot fully fill the gap.

Poland, Germany, Ukraine and Slovakia have suspended imports of Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline. Halting those supplies has knock-on effects further along the network.

The problem arose last week when an unidentified Russian producer contaminated oil with high levels of organic chloride used to boost oil output but which must be separated before shipment as it can destroy refining equipment.

Russia’s Energy Ministry said pipeline monopoly Transneft and other Russian companies had a plan to mitigate the effects of the contaminated oil. It did not give details.

Russian officials have said contaminated oil has already been pumped into storage in Russia and Friday’s talks would focus on how to partially withdraw the tainted crude from the Druzhba pipeline running via other countries.

The suspension cuts off a major supply route for Polish refineries owned by Poland’s PKN Orlen and Grupa Lotos, as well as plants in Germany owned by Total, Shell, Eni and Rosneft.

Some refiners have outlined plans for alternative supplies, but analysts say other routes cannot meet the shortfall.

OIL PRICES

Ukraine’s Ukrtransnafta suspended the transit of oil through the pipeline on Thursday, closing supplies via Druzhba’s southern route to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The pipeline issue, which has supported global oil prices, lifted Russian Urals crude differentials to an all-time high on Thursday.

With pipeline supplies to Europe shut, Russia faces a challenge of how to divert about 1 million barrels per day (bpd) that was meant to be shipped through the network to other destinations at the time when export capacity is at its limits.

State-run Russian Railways held talks with energy firms on using up to 5,000 rail tankers to transport crude, RIA news agency reported on Friday.

Concerns about the quality of Urals crude also caused delays in loadings at the Baltic port of Ust-Luga, when buyers refused to lift cargoes, resulting in a brief shutdown of the port on Wednesday and Thursday. An Ust-Luga official and traders said on Friday loadings had resumed.

Russian loading plans indicate it aims to boost Urals exports in May before the expiry of a deal on output cuts agreed with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, Reuters calculations and Energy Ministry data show.

The provisional loading plan for Russia’s Baltic Sea ports and Novorossiisk in May show exports rising to 10.7 million tonnes, the highest level in half a decade.

Minsk estimated its loss from lower oil product exports due to contaminated Russian oil at around $100 million, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported on Thursday, citing Belarusian state oil company Belneftekhim.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, in charge of government energy policy, said this week that those found responsible for contaminating the oil could be fined. He did not provide names.

(Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko in WARSAW, Sandor Peto in BUDAPEST, Jason Hovet in PRAGUE, Matthias Williams and Natalia Zinets in KIEV, Katya Golubkova, Olesya Astakhova, Gleb Gorodyankin, Olga Yagova and Maxim Rodionov in MOSCOW, Andrei Makhovsky in MINSK; writing by Katya Golubkova; editing by Michael Perry and Edmund Blair)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO - A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat
FILE PHOTO: A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat April 1, 2014. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – India has once again delayed the implementation of higher tariffs on some goods imported from the United States to May 15, a government official said on Friday.

The new tariff structure was to come into force from May 2, the spokeswoman said without citing reasons for the delay.

Angered by Washington’s refusal to exempt it from new steel and aluminum tariffs, New Delhi decided in June last year to raise the import tax from Aug. 4 on some U.S. products including almonds, walnuts and apples.

But since then, New Delhi has repeatedly delayed the implementation of the new tariff.

Trade friction between India and the U.S. has escalated after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans earlier this year to end preferential trade treatment for India that allows duty-free entry for up to $5.6 billion worth of its exports to the United States.

In a further blow, U.S. on Monday demanded buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers which allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers including India to continue importing limited volumes.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar in New Delhi and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Source: OANN

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One of Joe Biden’s newly-hired senior advisers has seemingly had a very recent change of heart.

Symone Sanders, a prominent Democratic strategist and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., staffer in 2016, was announced as one of the big-name members of Team Biden on Thursday.

But Sanders, who has also served as a CNN contributor, is seen in resurfaced footage from November 2016 expressing her opposition to a white person leading her party after Donald Trump’s election.

“In my opinion, we don’t need white people leading the Democratic party right now,” Sanders told host Brianna Keilar during a discussion on Howard Dean potentially becoming DNC chairman.

BIDEN HIRES FORMER BERNIE SANDERS’ SPOKESPERSON AS SENIOR ADVISER

“The Democratic party is diverse, and it should be reflected as so in leadership and throughout the staff, at the highest levels. From the vice chairs to the secretaries all the way down to the people working in the offices at the DNC,” she said.

Sanders wrapped up her remarks by saying: “I want to hear more from everybody. I want to hear from the millennials and the brown folks.”

Footage of the interview was resurfaced by RealClearPolitics.

After news of her hiring broke on Thursday, Sanders backed her new boss on Twitter.

TRUMP ASSESSES 2020 DEMS; TAKES SWIPES AT BIDEN, SANDERS; DISMISSES HARRIS, O’ROURKE; SAYS HE’S ROOTING FOR BUTTIGIEG

“@JoeBiden & @DrBiden are a class act. Over the course of this campaign, Vice President Biden is going to make his case to the American ppl. He won’t always be perfect, but I believe he will get it right,” she wrote.

The hiring of Sanders has been viewed as another indication of the expected tough fight that Biden and Sanders are in for as the two frontrunners battle a deep Democratic field.

While Sanders himself didn’t torch Biden as he jumped into the race, it’s clear that many of his progressive supporters view the former vice president as a threat.

Biden’s entry into the race – at least in the early going – sets up a battle between himself and Sanders, who thanks to his fierce fight with eventual nominee Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination, enjoys name ID on the level of the former vice president.

BIDEN VOWS THAT ‘AMERICA IS COMING BACK,’ SPARKING ‘MAGA’ COMPARISONS

Justice Democrats — who also called Biden “out-of-touch” – is an increasingly influential group among the left of the party. They’ve championed progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York as well as Sanders. The group was founded by members of Sanders 2016 presidential campaign.

Biden has pushed back against the perception that he’s a moderate in a party that’s increasingly moving to the left. Earlier this month he described himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat.”

And Biden said he’d stack his record against “anybody who has run or who is running now or who will run.”

Former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile – a Fox News contributor – highlighted that “Joe Biden can occupy his own lane in large part because he’s earned it. He’s earned the right to call himself whatever.”

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But she emphasized that “elections are not about the past, they’re about the future…I do believe he has the right ingredients. The question is can he find enough people to help him stir the pot.”

Fox News Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who is facing increased calls for her immediate resignation, remains in poor health and is not “lucid” enough to decide whether to step down, her attorney told reporters late Thursday.

Steve Silverman, speaking outside one of Pugh’s residences which was raided by the FBI and IRS earlier in the day, said the embattled city leader could make a decision as early as next week.

“She is leaning toward making the best decision in the best interest in the citizens of Baltimore City,” he said, adding that Pugh has “several options” to consider.

“She just needs to be physically and mentally sound and lucid enough to make appropriate decisions.”

BALTIMORE MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH, ON LEAVE AMID BOOK PROBE, HAS HOMES AND CITY HALL OFFICE RAIDED BY FEDS

Silverman said Pugh met with a doctor at home Thursday and plans to do so again Friday, the Baltimore Sun reported.

In the latest image-tarnishing scandal for struggling Baltimore, the first-term Democratic mayor faces accusations that she used children’s book deals to cover up kickbacks for favorable treatment as a state lawmaker and city leader that earned her roughly $800,000 over several years.

BALTIMORE’S ACTING MAYOR SAYS HE ‘WOULD HATE TO SEE’ EMBATTLED MAYOR RETURN AFTER BOOK SCANDALS

As a state senator, 69-year-old Pugh sold $500,000 worth of her self-published “Healthy Holly” illustrated paperbacks to the University of Maryland Medical System, a major state employer whose board she sat on for nearly 20 years.

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

UMMS reportedly paid Pugh for 100,000 copies of her books between 2011 and 2018 with the stated intention of distributing the books to schools and day care centers. But some 50,000 copies remain unaccounted for and officials are probing if they were even printed.

Pugh also made $300,000 in bulk sales to other customers including health carriers that did business with the city of Baltimore.

BALTIMORE CITY COUNCIL CALLS ON EMBATTLED MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH TO RESIGN IMMEDIATELY

The politically isolated Pugh slipped out of sight on April 1 after a hastily organized press conference where she called her no-contract book deals a “regrettable mistake.” That same day, Maryland’s governor called on the state prosecutor to investigate allegations of “self-dealing.”

Pugh took an indefinite leave of absence, citing her health deteriorating intensely after a bout with pneumonia.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide. (Loyd Fox/Baltimore Sun via AP)

On Thursday morning, agents with the FBI and IRS searched her two Baltimore homes, her City Hall offices, and a nonprofit organization she once led. The home of at least one of Pugh’s aides was also scoured.

Silverman said federal agents also served a subpoena at his law firm, retrieving Pugh’s original financial records. They did not seek any attorney-client privileged communications, he said.

Pugh’s attorney said she was “emotionally extremely distraught” following the searches by FBI and IRS agents.

“There was nothing incriminating that came out of her home,” Silverman said.

UMMS spokesman Michael Schwartzberg told reporters that the medical system received a grand jury witness subpoena seeking documents and information related to Pugh.

Other probes against Pugh include a review by the city ethics board and the Maryland Insurance Administration.

BALTIMORE MAYOR’S $500G DEAL FOR ‘HEALTHY HOLLY’ CHILDREN’S BOOKS DRAWS SCRUTINY

In recent weeks, the calls for Pugh’s resignation have intensified with the strongest voice coming from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who did not mince words after Thursday’s early morning raids.

“Now more than ever, Baltimore City needs strong and responsible leadership. Mayor Pugh has lost the public trust,” he said. “She is clearly not fit to lead. For the good of the city, Mayor Pugh must resign.”

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall.

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun via AP)

Many of her fellow Democrats, including those on Baltimore’s demoralized City Council and state lawmakers, are also insisting that Pugh put the citizens’ interests above any attempt to preserve her political career.

City Council member Brandon Scott called the Thursday raids “an embarrassment to the city.”

However, only a conviction can trigger a mayor’s removal from office, according to the city solicitor. Baltimore’s mayor-friendly City Charter currently provides no options for ousting its executive.

Six of Pugh’s staffers joined her on paid leave earlier this month; three of them were fired this week by the acting mayor.

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Pugh came to office in late 2016 after edging out ex-Mayor Sheila Dixon, who had spent much of her tenure fighting corruption charges before being forced to depart office in 2010 as part of a plea deal connected to the misappropriation of about $500 in gift cards meant for needy families.

She would certainly face a bruising 2020 Democratic primary if she were to return and run for reelection. Veteran City Council leader Bernard “Jack” Young, who is serving as acting mayor, said as she went on leave that he would merely be a placeholder. But this week, before the raids, he said “it could be devastating for her” if she tried to return.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations has blasted the United State and the European Union for imposing sanctions on his country, describing them as “economic terrorism.”

Bashar Ja’afari made his comments Friday in the Kazakh capital of Astana where Russia, Turkey and Iran held a new round of talks with the Syrian government and the opposition on steps to bring peace to the country.

His comments came as government-held parts of Syria are witnessing widespread fuel shortages that are largely the result of Western sanctions on Syria and its key ally Iran.

Ja’afari says: “This is economic terrorism that is escalating through unilateral economic measures.”

A final statement issued at the end of Astana’s 12th round rejected President Donald Trump’s formal recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over Syria’s occupied Golan Heights.

Source: Fox News World

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