Sanctions Mexican and Canadian aluminum imports for "national security" reasons. Removes Russian oligarch aluminum company sanctions for national security reasons after lobbying w/investments to home state. https://www.newsweek.com/company-russian-oligarch-millions-aluminum-plant-mitch-mcconnell-1397061 SANCTIONED RUSSIAN OLIGARCH'S COMPANY TO INVEST MILLIONS IN NEW ALUMINUM PLANT IN MITCH MCCONNELL'S STATE Rusal, the aluminum company partially owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, announced plans to invest around $200 million to build a new aluminum plant in Kentucky just months after the Trump administration removed it from the U.S. sanctions list. The new aluminum plant, slated to be built in the home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, will be the biggest new aluminum plant constructed in the U.S. in decades. Rusal will have a 40 percent stake in the facility. The U.S. removed Rusal from its sanctions list in January, after the Treasury Department struck an agreement with the company that saw Deripaska, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, reduce his stake in the company to below 50 percent and lower his voting rights to below 35. The agreement requires the companies to report any contact between Deripaska and company affiliates, including members of the board. McConnell was among the advocates for lifting sanctions on Rusal, arguing that the deal with Treasury would maintain pressure on Deripaska personally without disrupting global aluminum supplies.
Yeah that is a sham because on paper anyone can show stake and voting rights reduced while they still participate fully behind the scenes. And we are going to enforce owernship and control laws in Russia from Washington D.C.? Mitch McC whored himself out like everyone else.
every Republican you mean: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/us/politics/senate-trump-russia-sanctions.html?module=inline
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/02/politics/vip-tickets-white-house-show/index.html Trump's political allies receive VIP tickets for July 4th show The "Salute to America" ceremony, held at the Lincoln Memorial, will feature military flyovers, music and a speech from the President. While the public will be able to view the event from afar, the areas closest to the monument, where Trump will speak, are reserved for ticket holders. The White House has declined to say how the tickets will be allocated, or even how many will be given out. An official said only that "VIPs, friends and family, and members of the military" are getting access to the cordoned-off area. But at least some of those with the special access appear to be Trump's political boosters. Unlike those events, the "Salute to America" will occur on the National Mall rather than at the White House, which is where presidents have celebrated July 4 in the past. The Democratic National Committee has not received any VIP tickets to allocate for the event, a spokesman said on Tuesday. But Trump's presidential campaign did, a source close to the organization said. And so did some members of the administration, both inside the White House and at Cabinet agencies, according to a person familiar with the matter. https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...d2942f73d70_story.html?utm_term=.c8a3c09bfc59 Park Service diverts $2.5 million in fees for Trump’s Fourth of July extravaganza The National Park Service is diverting nearly $2.5 million in entrance and recreation fees primarily intended to improve parks across the country to cover costs associated with President Trump’s Independence Day celebration Thursday on the Mall, according to two individuals familiar with the arrangement. Trump administration officials have consistently refused to say how much taxpayers will have to pay for the expanded celebration on the Mall this year, which the president has dubbed the “Salute to America.” The two individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed the transfer of the Park Service funds Tuesday. The diverted park fees represent just a fraction of the extra costs the government faces as a result of the event, which will include displays of military hardware, flyovers by an array of jets including Air Force One, the deployment of tanks on the Mall and an extended pyrotechnics show. By comparison, according to former Park Service deputy director Denis P. Galvin, the entire Fourth of July celebration on the Mall typically costs the agency about $2 million. [Pentagon prepares to move tanks from a Washington rail yard to the Mall] For Trump’s planned speech at the Lincoln Memorial, the White House is distributing VIP tickets to Republican donors and political appointees, prompting objections from Democratic lawmakers who argue that the president has turned the annual celebration into a campaign-like event. The Republican National Committee and Trump’s reelection campaign confirmed Tuesday that they had received passes they were handing out for the event. “We’ve never seen anything like this,” Sen. Tom Udall (N.M.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the interior, environment and related agencies, said in a phone interview. “No ticketed political event should be paid for with taxpayer dollars.” The White House referred questions about the celebration to the Interior Department, which declined to comment. Even as some critics questioned the White House’s handling of access to the Lincoln Memorial, officials from the Pentagon and the Interior Department were scrambling to transform Trump’s vision of an elaborate military and pyrotechnics display into reality. Two Abrams tanks, two Bradley Fighting Vehicles and an M88 recovery vehicle sat on train tracks in Southeast Washington on Tuesday, destined for the Mall. Administration officials were finalizing aspects of Thursday’s schedule, according to a senior White House official, including a plan to have one of the planes in Air Force One’s fleet zoom overhead as Trump takes the stage. Separately, according to two individuals familiar with the matter, the White House was negotiating with Park Service officials over whether to project an image from the 1969 Apollo 11 moon mission onto the Washington Monument for the event. Typically the agency does not allow projected images on monuments or historic structures, on the grounds that they should be preserved in their original form. By tapping entrance fees to cover the presidential event, Interior is siphoning money that is typically used to enhance the visitor experience either on the Mall or at smaller parks across the country, with projects ranging from road and bridge repair to habitat restoration. The transfer amounts to nearly 5 percent of the funds that less-profitable parks used last year for upgrades, according to budget documents. “This is a breach of trust with the public,” Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association, said in an email. “The public pays parks fees to fix national parks and for educational programs, not the president’s parade.” [Trump asks for tanks, Marine One and much more for grandiose July 4 event] Udall said Interior Secretary David Bernhardt had yet to respond to a request he and two other Senate Democrats made two weeks ago for a full accounting of how the event would be conducted and what it would cost. Amanda Yanchury, a spokeswoman for Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), chairwoman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Interior Department, said in an email that McCollum “takes her oversight responsibilities seriously and will exercise her role as chair to get a full accounting of the taxpayer costs incurred by this event.” The awarding of tickets to GOP supporters, which was first reported by HuffPost, has exacerbated tensions between the Trump administration and Democratic lawmakers. The White House has also provided a select number of tickets to top staffers at federal agencies, who are free to distribute them as they would like. An official from the RNC, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the group’s inner workings, said in an email that the Democratic National Committee had received passes to White House events when a Democrat was in the Oval Office. “It’s standard practice for the RNC to receive a small number of tickets to events just as the DNC did under Democrat Presidents,” the official wrote. “This is routine for events like the White House Christmas Open Houses, Garden Tours in spring and fall, etc.” Tim Murtaugh, communications director for Trump’s reelection campaign, said in an email that his staff also received passes to the president’s Lincoln Memorial address. [Listen on Post Reports: A presidential July 4 celebration] “As a courtesy, the campaign was provided tickets for staff and their families and friends, much like for the Easter Egg Roll or White House garden tours,” Murtaugh said. While the White House has hosted limited tours for years, this year’s gathering on the Mall marks a departure because presidents have not traditionally participated in the nation’s Independence Day celebration. Brendan Fischer, federal reform director for the Campaign Legal Center, said in an interview that while it may not violate federal ethics law to distribute limited tickets to the president’s speech to party contributors, “it certainly looks bad.” “Limiting public access to a public monument on Independence Day in favor of wealthy donors just sends a signal that our political system favors the wealthy and well-connected,” he said. Since federal appropriations law prohibits using public money for political purposes, Fischer noted, the issue will depend on what Trump says in his speech. If he refers to some of the 2020 presidential hopefuls, or polling related to the race, Trump’s reelection campaign may be required to reimburse the U.S. Treasury. “The content of the event, and the nature of the event, is probably the determining factor,” as opposed to donors getting to see Trump up close, he said. A U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly, said the Pentagon was not planning for tanks to be involved in the July 4 event until late last week. But after the president requested them, they were shipped up by rail from Fort Stewart in Georgia and first spotted by an Associated Press photographer Monday night. [Trump plans Air Force One flyover of Mall for July 4 celebration] The list of fighter jets and other planes involved in Thursday’s military flyover also has grown, with the Pentagon carrying out requests from the White House while Interior officials organize the overall celebration. As late as last week, according to two defense officials, the military was planning to have only about 300 service members involved in the celebration, primarily from drill teams and bands. “The military isn’t in charge of this thing,” said one defense official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. “This is a Department of Interior event that DOD is giving support to, and the White House is giving guidance on how they’d like us to celebrate the Fourth.” The “Salute to America” marks the culmination of Trump’s two-year quest to mount a military-style extravaganza inspired by his visit to a Bastille Day celebration in Paris in 2017. His previous efforts to stage a Veterans Day military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in 2018 were scuttled after estimated costs ballooned to the tens of millions of dollars. The Pentagon has referred virtually all questions about the celebration and the military’s involvement to the White House — a function, officials said, of the president’s desire to have some surprises during the event. “We are referring everyone to the White House, who will be making announcements about the event timeline and participants,” said Jonathan Rath Hoffman, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman. But the department is devoting significant resources to the celebration that are likely to measure in the millions of dollars, given the additional construction, transportation of heavy equipment and personnel, additional security, the price of fuel, and overtime pay that federal employees will receive. The event will include appearances by the Blue Angels, an F-35 jet from the Navy, at least one aircraft from Marine Helicopter Squadron One and one of the planes used in the fleet for Air Force One, the specialized airliner that carries the president. It will also include a B-2 stealth bomber, the batwing-shaped jet that debuted in the 1990s, and F-22 Raptor fighter jets, said a defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans before they are announced. Those details were first reported Tuesday by CNN. Trump touted Salute to America twice on Tuesday, sharing a link to an Interior press release and publicly thanking the two companies that have donated pyrotechnics, Phantom Fireworks and Fireworks by Grucci. “CEO’s Bruce Zoldan and Phil Grucci are helping to make this the greatest 4th of July celebration in our Nations history!” the president tweeted.
https://tucson.com/news/local/inter...cle_ce0dfa75-11b5-5188-bc1b-d21b80004891.html Interior official met 'secretly' with developer on Benson project during permitting process The deputy Interior secretary held a secret meeting with the developer of a big Benson subdivision two weeks before a federal underling says he was pressured to reverse his tough stance on the project, CNN reports. The breakfast meeting was held in August 2017 between then-deputy secretary David Bernhardt, who is now Interior secretary, and Mike Ingram, CEO of Phoenix-based El Dorado Holdings, which proposes to build the 28,000-home Villages at Vigneto in Benson. The meeting was the first of five between Bernhardt and Ingram during the Trump administration, CNN reported Monday. The cable network said this was “a secret meeting, not on any public calendar.” It also reported Ingram had donated $50,900 to President Trump’s political committees since 2015. The report came as U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, was requesting a host of documents from the Department of Interior and an Interior agency, the Bureau of Land Management, about their handling of the development. Grijalva is investigating because of allegations first made to the Arizona Daily Star in March by whistleblower Steve Spangle. Spangle said that in August 2017, when he was a Fish and Wildlife supervisor, Interior officials pressured him to reverse his stance that the development needed more study because its groundwater pumping could dry up the neighboring San Pedro River. Spangle said he complied and then retired. An El Dorado spokesman confirmed the August 2017 meeting between Bernhardt and Ingram, saying it was held at a restaurant in Billings, Montana, although CNN said it was at Ingram’s hunting lodge in Billings. Ingram was only asking that the Interior Department make its decision on Vigneto on the facts of the case, El Dorado attorney Lanny Davis said. Davis told CNN that any implication his client exerted improper influence over Interior officials was “strictly innuendo.” “There is not a single fact that supports the false premise that political lobbying or influence caused a change in environmental policy positions regarding the development of the Villages,” Davis said Tuesday. He noted that the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Arizona office just this summer reaffirmed Spangle’s revised position that the project didn’t need a full-scale environmental analysis. Environmentalists blasted Davis’ statements. “It’s not innuendo. It’s a very specific series of events that reeks not just of improper political interference, but outright pay-for-play corruption,” said Aaron Weiss, director of the environmental group Center for Western Priorities, via Twitter on Tuesday. Robin Silver, conservation chair for the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, said Vigneto is a case where “another one of Trump’s rich friends has access, obviously makes donations and gets a result that otherwise never would have happened.” Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat, is seeking information relating to Spangle’s allegation that he agreed to back off his push for a sweeping environmental analysis of the Vigneto project. Spangle said he did so after he was told in August 2017 by an attorney in the Interior’s Solicitor’s Office that a high-level Interior political appointee wanted him to back off. The attorney, Peg Romanik, has declined to comment. Spangle has said he always suspected it was Bernhardt who applied the pressure. “He was the most high-level political appointee in Interior and there aren’t many political appointees there,” Spangle said. Grijalva is also trying to get information from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on why it hasn’t spoken out on Vigneto’s possible effects on the neighboring San Pedro Riparian Conservation Area. BLM owns the conservation area, which includes the St. David Cienega near Benson. Grijalva sent letters to Bernhardt and acting BLM Director Brian Steed on July 3. Trump named Bernhardt to replace Ryan Zinke as Interior secretary in April 2019. CNN also reported that Ingram had one meeting with Zinke and two meetings and three email exchanges with former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. An El Dorado spokesman told the Star on Tuesday that company officials don’t know where CNN came up with these 11 “interactions” between Ingram and Trump administration officials. But they likely include interactions having nothing to do with the Villages of Vigneto, such as Ingram’s work on the International Wildlife Conservation Council, the spokesman said. Ingram’s only meeting with an Interior official on this project was that Billings breakfast meeting, said the company spokesman. Spangle’s reversal helped speed an Army Corps of Engineers decision in October 2018 to reinstate the project’s then-suspended Clean Water Act permit. The detailed environmental analysis Spangle had previously ordered would have taken many months or longer. Since then, the Corps has suspended the permit a second time and is now considering reinstating it in the face of an environmentalist lawsuit. The Corps has said the review Spangle wanted is outside the proper scope of analysis for its decision-making on the project. That’s in part because El Dorado has said it could build a development, although a different kind, on the 12,000-acre site even if it didn’t have a federal permit for one, the Corps has said. Specifically, Grijalva, who had already told the Star his committee is investigating this case, is seeking: From Interior, copies of “all documents and communications to, from and within” the agency’s Solicitor’s office regarding Vigneto, between Oct. 1, 2016 and Oct. 31, 2017. From BLM, copies of “all documents and communications” relating to BLM’s consideration of Vigneto’s impacts on the national conservation area. Copies of all documents and other communications on Vigneto that BLM sent to the Army Corps. He requested these documents by no later than July 29. Interior Press Secretary Molly Block said in an email to the Star that, “We have received the letters and will respond through the proper channels.” Block also noted that Steed, the acting BLM director, no longer works for Interior. A BLM spokesman emailed the Star on Tuesday that the agency “will be responsive to Rep. Grijalva’s request. We are still in the process of seeing if we have responsive documents.”
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/senate-fails-to-override-trumps-veto-on-saudi-arms-sale-2019-07-29 Senate fails to override Trump’s veto on Saudi arms sale Meanwhile, House report reveals Trump friend Tom Barrack sought job in administration as he lobbied for Saudi nuclear plan WASHINGTON — The Senate failed Monday in a bid to override a trio of vetoes issued by President Donald Trump, allowing the administration to move forward with plans to sell billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Trump’s decision to sell the weapons in a way that would have bypassed congressional review infuriated lawmakers from both parties. In a bipartisan pushback, Democrats and Republicans banded together to pass resolutions blocking the $8.1 billion weapons sales to the U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf. Votes to override Trump’s vetoes failed, 45-40, 45-39 and 46-41. A two-thirds vote was needed in each case. The White House argued that stopping the sales would send a signal that the United States doesn’t stand by its partners and allies, particularly at a time when threats from hostile countries such as Iran are increasing. Saudi Arabia has long been a regional rival to Iran. Its strategic importance has grown as tensions with Iran have mounted after Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 accord that restricts the Iranian nuclear program. The Senate votes came as the House Oversight Committee released a report criticizing the Trump administration over its apparent willingness to allow the president’s friends and allies undue influence over U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia. New documents obtained by the committee “raise serious questions about whether the White House is willing to place the potential profits of the president’s friends above the national security of the American people and the universal objective of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons,” the report said. The report “exposes how corporate and foreign interests are using their unique access to advocate for the transfer of U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the panel’s Democratic chairman. Cummings, who has repeatedly targeted the Trump administration in a series of investigations, came under sharp attack from Trump this weekend, when the president called the congressman’s district a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.” The 50-page Oversight report, released Monday, says Trump’s longtime personal friend, campaign donor and inaugural chairman, Tom Barrack, negotiated directly with Trump and other White House officials to seek positions within the administration, including special envoy to the Middle East and ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. At the same time, Barrack was promoting the interests of U.S. corporations seeking to profit from the transfer of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia; advocating on behalf of foreign interests seeking to obtain U.S. nuclear technology; and taking steps for his own company, Colony NorthStar, to profit from the proposals, the report said. One of the companies leading an effort to build nuclear plants in Saudi Arabia, IP3 International, repeatedly pressed the Trump administration not to require Saudi Arabia to commit to a rigorous “gold standard” in any agreement with the U.S., complaining it would lock them out of lucrative nuclear contracts, the report said. IP3 officials had “unprecedented access” to the highest levels of the Trump administration, including meetings with Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Cabinet Secretaries Rick Perry, Steven Mnuchin, Mike Pompeo, Rex Tillerson, James Mattis and Wilbur Ross, the report said. The report also criticized the White House for refusing to produce any documents in the investigation and said communications obtained from outside sources indicate that Kushner and other officials used personal email or text accounts to communicate about Saudi-related deals. The private communications appear to violate White House policy and the Presidential Records Act, the report said. The White House did not respond to requests for comment Monday. A spokesman for Barrack said he has been cooperating with the Oversight panel and provided documents the committee requested. The spokesman, Owen Blicksilver, said Barrack’s investments and business activities are well known and are intended to “better align” Middle East and U.S. objectives. Barrack has never served in the Trump administration. The Trump administration has approved seven applications for U.S. companies to sell nuclear power technology and assistance to Saudi Arabia. Lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns that Saudi Arabia could develop nuclear weapons if the U.S. technology is transferred without proper safeguards. Congress is increasingly uneasy with the close relationship between the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia. Trump has made the kingdom a centerpiece of his foreign policy in the Middle East as he tries to further isolate Iran. In the process, Trump has brushed off criticism over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the Saudis’ role in the war in Yemen. “From the start, this administration has failed to demonstrate what kind of national security threat or quote-unquote ‘emergency’ from Iran warranted fast-tracking the sale of these weapons to Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E.,” said Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The pending sale “not only is a Saudi jobs program, it is also a give-away of sensitive U.S. military technology,” Menendez said.