June 12 and 13, 2017


News and Views


AS A SORT OF APPETIZER, WATCH THIS VIDEO ON JULIUS CAESAR, THE ONE IN WHICH CAESAR LOOKS A GREAT DEAL LIKE DONALD TRUMP. UNFORTUNATELY THE SPONSORS TOOK THE PATH OF DISCRETION OVER VALOR AND PULLED IT’S FUNDING.

SECOND IS ONE SHOWING THOSE BEHIND THE LAW SUIT AGAINST HIM BY DC AND MARYLAND. THE PRINT ARTICLE FROM POLITICO GIVES MORE DETAIL.


http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/sponsors-pull-support-of-play-featuring-trump-like-caesar/
Controversy over Trump-like Caesar

JUNE 13, 2017, 7:36 AM| The theater company behind New York's famous "Shakespeare in the Park" is playing defense after major advertisers pulled out of its production of "Julius Caesar." The Public Theater's play features a President Trump look-alike in the title role. He is shown stabbed to death on stage. Delta Airlines decided to end its partnership and Bank of America pulled its sponsorship of the production. Jamie Wax reports.


http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/d-c-maryland-sue-president-trump/
D.C., Maryland, sue Trump

JUNE 12, 2017, 6:35 PM| The attorneys general of Washington, D.C., and Maryland sued President Trump Monday, accusing him of violating anti-corruption clauses in the Constitution. Following his inauguration, Mr. Trump retained ownership of the Trump Organization through a trust managed by his sons. Margaret Brennan reports.


http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/12/trump-lawsuit-maryland-washington-dc-239420
D.C., Maryland sue Trump over foreign business dealings
By LOUIS NELSON and JOSH GERSTEIN 06/12/2017 09:31 AM EDT Updated 06/12/2017 03:13 PM EDT

The attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia filed a federal lawsuit against President Donald Trump on Monday, accusing him of violating provisions of the Constitution intended to protect against corruption and seeking to uncover the tax returns that the president has thus far been unwilling to release.

The suit focuses on the president’s continued ownership of his family’s business empire, control of which Trump said he handed over to his two adult sons. But far from the blind-trust standard adopted by past presidents, Trump continues to receive some information about the Trump organization, including profit reports, from his sons.

The lawsuit, brought by D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, both Democrats, was filed Monday morning in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The case focuses primarily on allegations that Trump’s business dealings violate the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause, which prohibits payments to U.S. officials from foreign government sources.

“The suit alleges that President Trump is flagrantly violating the Constitution,” Racine said at a news conference in Washington on Monday afternoon. “Never in the history of this country have we had a president with these kinds of extensive business entanglements.”

In February, Maryland's General Assembly gave Frosh the authority to sue the federal government without the approval of Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, or the legislature, currently controlled by Democrats.

The president’s tax returns, which Trump has refused to release despite a decades-long tradition of presidential candidates releasing them, will be sought through the discovery process if the case is allowed to proceed, Frosh said.

“We will be seeking the president’s financial information, including his tax returns,” the Maryland official said.

The lawsuit accuses Trump, via his businesses, of being “deeply enmeshed with a legion of foreign and domestic government actors.” His continued ownership of the Trump organizations constitutes “unprecedented constitutional violations,” the complaint says.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said he expected the Trump administration to seek the case's dismissal and disputed its allegations, telling reporters that the president's business interests were not dissimilar from those of Penny Pritzker, the Chicago billionaire who served as secretary of commerce under former President Barack Obama, and other past White House officials.

Spicer suggested that the case has parallels to another one already making its way through the courts that the Justice Department late last week asked to have thrown out. That case was filed by the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit watchdog group that goes by the acronym CREW, which is also acting as an outside counsel to the two attorneys general in the case filed Monday against the president.

"It's not hard to conclude that partisan politics may be one of the motivations" for the lawsuit, Spicer said Monday. "The suit was filed by two Democratic attorney generals. The lawyers driving the suit are an advocacy group with partisan ties. It actually started with a press conference as opposed to filing it, which is interesting."

A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, which lately has taken a more prominent surrogate role in defense of the White House, called the lawsuit "absurd" and said the president has "been committed to complete transparency and compliance with the law."

"The actions of the attorneys general represent the kind of partisan grandstanding voters across the country have come to despise," RNC spokeswoman Lindsay Jancek said in a statement. "The American people elected President Trump to lead this country, and it is time Democrats end their efforts to delegitimize his presidency.”

Even if the attorneys general were to get access to Trump’s tax returns, it’s unlikely the documents would be made public through this suit, since such records are typically subject to confidentiality restrictions imposed by the courts.

The suit invokes several anti-corruption provisions in the Constitution, including the foreign emoluments clause and another part banning presidents from supplementing their salaries with other payments from the U.S. government or state governments.

At a news conference in January before his inauguration, the president and his legal team announced that the Trump Organization would donate money earned at its hotels from foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury. But last March, the Trump Organization announced that it would not begin making those donations until 2018, an announcement that was followed in May by another one in which the organization declared that it will be “impractical” to single out foreign guests in order to transfer their payments to the Treasury.

The new suit has been assigned to Judge Peter Messitte, an appointee of President Bill Clinton.

Plans for the suit were first reported by the The Washington Post.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeff-sessions-under-spotlight-as-he-testifies-before-congress/
By REBECCA SHABAD CBS NEWS June 13, 2017, 6:00 AM
Jeff Sessions under spotlight at Senate Intelligence Committee

All eyes will be on Attorney General Jeff Sessions as he testifies in public Tuesday to address issues related to former FBI Director James Comey and the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

Sessions testifies after Comey appearance

Sessions, who served in the Senate representing Alabama, will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. ET. He was originally scheduled to testify on President Trump's budget before the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, but now Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will take his place. The Justice Department's public affairs division confirmed Monday that Sessions would speak in an open session after some speculation that he might testify in a closed hearing.

"The Attorney General has requested that this hearing be public. He believes it is important for the American people to hear the truth directly from him and looks forward to answering the committee's questions tomorrow," the Justice Department said.

What info can Attorney General Jeff Sessions provide on the Russia investigation?
Play VIDEO
What info can Attorney General Jeff Sessions provide on the Russia investigation?

Sessions' appearance comes less than a week after Comey testified before the same panel Thursday for the first time before Congress since Mr. Trump fired him as FBI director on May 9. Comey reportedly told lawmakers in the closed session following the open hearing that Sessions had a third undisclosed discussion with a senior Russian diplomat last year. It was only previously known that Sessions had two meetings with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. He will, therefore, likely face questions about each individual meeting or phone call with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign and after the election.

Sessions last testified before Congress in his confirmation hearing in January.

"I didn't have-- did not have communications with the Russians," he said then. However, since then, he has acknowledged meeting with Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, in 2016.

"Two meetings, one very brief after a speech," Sessions said.

The attorney general will also likely be asked about the conversation revealed by Comey in which he told Sessions never to leave him alone again with the president, following the February 14 meeting in the Oval Office in which Mr. Trump asked everyone but Comey to leave the room, including Vice President Mike Pence and Sessions. During that meeting, Comey said that the president asked him to end the FBI's investigation into former National Security Adviser Lt.-Gen. Michael Flynn (ret.).

He may also be asked about the scope of his involvement in Comey's dismissal, given his decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe. He said at the time, "I should not be involved investigating a campaign I had a role in."

Asked if it was appropriate for Sessions to have been involved in the decision to fire him, Comey said last Thursday, "That's something I can't answer, sitting here. It a reasonable question, but that would depend on a lot of things I don't know, like what did he know, what was he told, did he realize that the president was doing it because of the Russia investigation -- things like that. I just don't know the answer." The stated reason initially given by the White House for Comey's dismissal was his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server. However, in the days after Comey was fired, Mr. Trump said that the Russia investigation was on his mind when he decided to terminate Comey.

Cabinet members testify on Trump's budget

Sessions won't be the only Cabinet member testifying before Congress this week. Other witnesses include Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe is also set to testify. All of them are scheduled to discuss Mr. Trump's 2018 budget proposal, even though lawmakers, including Republicans, declared the blueprint "dead on arrival" when it was unveiled in May.

Health care progress?

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has signaled that the upper chamber may be closing in on a Republican health care plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. He told reporters last week that GOP lawmakers were getting closer to bringing legislation to the floor, but he declined to set any type of timeline for the legislation. McConnell has eyed July 4 as a possible deadline to get it done.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that "the House bill is dead in the Senate" and that the Senate is divided over Medicaid expansion states, non-Medicaid expansion states and he said "the proper role of government."

"Mitch is going to bring this together. It's going to be tough. My advice is, if we can't replace Obamacare by ourselves, to go to the Democrats and say this -- 10 percent of the sick people in this country drive 90 percent of the costs for all of us," Graham said. "Let's take those 10 percent of really sick people, put them in a federal managed care system, so they will get better outcomes, and save the private sector market, if we can't do this by ourselves."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, meanwhile, told "Face the Nation" that if the Senate were to repeal and replace Obamacare without the ability to propose amendments or without hearings, then "it would be one of the most outrageous examples of legislative malpractice in decades." McConnell invoked a rule that fast-tracks the bill, enabling the Senate to skip hearings and bypass amendments to move the bill through the Senate more quickly.

Iran sanctions on the ballistic missile program

The Senate is expected to vote on bipartisan legislation that would expand U.S. sanctions against Iran's ballistic missile program and also target its support for terrorism, human rights violations and transfers of conventional weapons.

Lawmakers are discussing the possibility of attaching tougher U.S. sanctions on Russia to the measure. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is lobbying for two of his chief bills to be included in the language. The other proposal under consideration is a proposal from Sens. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

Cardin introduced one of the bills with Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which would impose sanctions and visa bans on people connected to hostile Russian cyber intrusions, impose sanctions on parts of the Russian economy and bans on those responsible for human rights abuses in any territory controlled by Russia. It also would mandate a report by the secretary of state detailing media outlets controlled and funded by the Kremlin, among other things. Another bill introduced with a bipartisan group of senators would provide congressional oversight of any decision to relieve U.S. sanctions on Russia.

The Crapo-Brown proposal would strengthen existing sanctions against Russia, toughening their effect on Russian energy projects and on debt financing. It would impose sanctions on corrupt Russian actors, people involved in human rights abuses, those supplying weapons to the Syrian regime, those trying to evade sanctions and those conducting malicious cyberactivity on behalf of Russia. It would also authorize sanctions on Russia's metals, mining and railways sectors, among other things.


TOM CAT FIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-friend-spicer-doesnt-deny-claim-president-considering-firing-mueller-133146869.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=60f73942-c8f9-11e5-bc86-fa163e798f6a&.tsrc=notification-brknews
Trump friend: Spicer ‘doesn’t deny my claim the President is considering firing Mueller’
Yahoo News Staff Yahoo News June 13, 2017

Photograph -- Trump attends a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Monday. (Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

One of President Trump’s closest friends is standing by his claim that Trump is considering firing Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor overseeing a federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“I think he’s considering perhaps terminating the special counsel,” Chris Ruddy, the chief executive of Newsmax and a longtime friend of the president, told PBS’ Judy Woodruff after spending several hours at the White House on Monday. “I think he’s weighing that option.”

He pointed out that Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s lawyers, wouldn’t rule out the possibility of Mueller’s firing in an appearance Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

Ruddy added: “I personally think it would be a very significant mistake.”

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PBS NewsHour ✔ @NewsHour
Chris Ruddy to @JudyWoodruff: President Trump is considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller, who he considered for another position.
6:48 PM - 12 Jun 2017
2,180 2,180 Retweets 1,619 1,619 likes
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The White House quickly pushed back against Ruddy’s comments, suggesting that it was idle speculation on his part.

“Mr. Ruddy never spoke to the President regarding this issue,” press secretary Sean Spicer wrote in an email to reporters. “With respect to this subject, only the President or his attorneys are authorized to comment.”

Ruddy fired back in an email to Politico.

“Spicer issued a bizarre late night press release that a) doesn’t deny my claim the President is considering firing Mueller and b) says I didn’t speak to the President about the matter — when I never claimed to have done so,” Ruddy wrote. “Memo to Sean: focus your efforts on exposing the flim-flam Russian allegations against POTUS and highlighting his remarkable achievements! Don’t waste time trying to undermine one of your few allies.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he spoke with Trump on Monday night and that he doesn’t believe the president will fire Mueller.

“I think the president is actually pretty confident that ultimately all of this is going to come out in the wash and ultimately he’s still going to be president,” Gingrich said on “CBS This Morning” on Tuesday. “And this stuff’s all going to go away.”

Earlier Monday, Gingrich, who initially applauded Mueller’s hiring as a “superb choice,” tweeted that it is “time to rethink.”

“Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is going to be fair,” he wrote.

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Newt Gingrich ✔ @newtgingrich
Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is going to be fair. Look who he is hiring.check fec reports. Time to rethink.
7:34 AM - 12 Jun 2017
7,012 7,012 Retweets 13,441 13,441 likes

The idea that Trump may move to fire Mueller has sparked a mini-firestorm in Washington, with some Republicans warning the president not to do so.

“It would be a disaster,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Monday night. “There’s no reason to fire Mueller. What’s he done to be fired?”

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said that if Trump fired Mueller, it would “certainly be an extraordinarily unwise move.”

Administration officials told Politico that they don’t believe Trump will fire Mueller, and that the president has been warned against it “by almost everyone.”

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Adam Schiff ✔ @RepAdamSchiff
If President fired Bob Mueller, Congress would immediately re-establish independent counsel and appoint Bob Mueller. Don't waste our time.
7:23 PM - 12 Jun 2017
29,440 29,440 Retweets 65,924 65,924 likes

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., believes Trump allies are floating the idea to damage the special counselor’s credibility.

“They’re clearly afraid of Mueller and his independence and the thoroughness of the investigation he’s likely to lead,” Schiff said on MSNBC on Monday night. “You can’t exclude the possibility, but I think it’s just a way of raising doubts about this very good man respected by people on both sides of the aisle.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the same earlier Monday

“They know they can’t debate the facts or the issues or defend the actions of the White House on the merits, so what do they do?” Schumer said from the Senate floor. “They attack the referee and try to besmirch the reputation of someone like Mr. Mueller.”



http://www.independent.co.uk/News/world/americas/us-politics/bernie-sanders-comey-trump-testimony-statement-liar-comments-obstruction-justice-investigation-a7780121.html
'What we learned today was deeply troubling'
Clark Mindock New York June 8, 2017

Photograph -- Sanders called Mr Trump a 'blatant liar' in a statement Getty Images

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders says that details surrounding Donald Trump’s alleged attempts to derail an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign are deeply concerning, and that most people are likely to agree with former FBI Director James Comey that the President is a liar.

“What we learned today was deeply troubling and makes me more concerned than ever about President Trump’s attempts to derail an investigation of Russian meddling in our democracy,” Mr Sanders said a statement after Mr Comey’s congressional testimony.

Mr Comey’s testimony provided red meat for people on both sides of the political divide.

READ MORE: James Comey says he could not trust Donald Trump in damning testimony

For the left, the former FBI chief said that the White House had lied about the reasoning behind his firing, saying that he and the FBI he once ran were defamed in the process. He said that the President had made the unusual demand that he be loyal to him.

As for the right: He also said that a February New York Times report detailing Russian ties to the Trump campaign was almost entirely wrong, eliciting cheers on Twitter from conservative sources.

But Mr Sanders was unswayed by elements that heartened Republicans.

Photographs -- The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation, 11 (show all)

“Remarkably, Mr Comey said President Trump is a liar. He said his concern that Trump would lie about their meetings was why he detailed their encounters in writing”, Sanders said. “He also accused the president of spreading ‘lies, plain and simple’ about the FBI that ‘defamed’ Comey and the agency.”

Following Mr Comey’s remarks on Capitol Hill questioning the President’s honesty, the White House denied he was a liar. Mr Sanders didn't agree.

“Unfortunately, most people would agree with Mr Comey”, he said. “On issue after issue after issue, Trump has blatantly lied. Dangerously, this diminishes the office of the president and our standing in the world.”



ON THE MATTER OF WHO IS CRAZY, SEE THIS ARTICLE ON COMEY CALLING TRUMP CRAZY. IT’S A MONTH OLD, BUT I HADN’T SEEN IT BEFORE. WHO HIT THE FIRST BLOW? I KNOW WHICH ONE I THINK IS CORRECT IN HIS CLAIM. OF COURSE, BERNIE SANDERS SAID OF TRUMP, NOT THAT HE WAS “CRAZY,” BUT THAT HE’S “A BLATANT LIAR.” IN DECEMBER 2016, HE CALLED HIM A “PATHOLOGICAL LIAR.” THAT’S ONE WHO LIES COMPULSIVELY, EVEN WHEN THEY DON’T NEED TO, AND WHEN IT WON’T DO THEM ANY GOOD. IN MY VIEW, IT IS A FORM OF MENTAL ILLNESS, IF A MINOR ONE.

OF COURSE, THERE’S ALWAYS THE QUESTION OF WHETHER OR NOT SUCH PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY DELUSIONAL; AND I AM AFRAID, JUDGING BY THE WAY HE REPEATS HIS STORIES IN AN AGGRIEVED MANNER, THAT HE DOES BELIEVE THEM. ONE OF HIS FAVORITE FORMS OF ENTERTAINMENT, THOUGH, IS CONSPIRACY THEORIES, AND TWO OF HIS COMPANIONS, BANNON AND STONE ARE SAID TO BE BEHIND MANY OF THOSE, ALONG WITH ALEX JONES OF INFOWARS. IF TRUMP IS SANE, WHY DOES HE KEEP SUCH STRANGE COMPANY?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/us/politics/how-trump-decided-to-fire-james-comey.html?mcubz=0&_r=0
‘Enough Was Enough’: How Festering Anger at Comey Ended in His Firing
By MAGGIE HABERMAN, GLENN THRUSH, MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and PETER BAKER MAY 10, 2017

Photograph -- The White House on Tuesday. President Trump, according to people close to him, had been openly talking about firing James B. Comey for at least a week. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

RELATED:
JAMES COMEY AND THE F.B.I. By A.J. CHAVAR 3:56
Times Reporters Decode the Trump-Comey Saga
Video
Times Reporters Decode the Trump-Comey Saga
The New York Times reporters Peter Baker, Maggie Haberman and Matthew Rosenberg analyze the firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey. By A.J. CHAVAR on Publish Date May 11, 2017. . Watch in Times Video »


WASHINGTON — By the end, neither of them thought much of the other.

After President Trump accused his predecessor in March of wiretapping him, James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, was flabbergasted. The president, Mr. Comey told associates, was “outside the realm of normal,” even “crazy.”

For his part, Mr. Trump fumed when Mr. Comey publicly dismissed the sensational wiretapping claim. In the weeks that followed, he grew angrier and began talking about firing Mr. Comey. After stewing last weekend while watching Sunday talk shows at his New Jersey golf resort, Mr. Trump decided it was time. There was “something wrong with” Mr. Comey, he told aides.

The collision between president and F.B.I. director that culminated with Mr. Comey’s stunning dismissal on Tuesday had been a long time coming. To a president obsessed with loyalty, Mr. Comey was a rogue operator who could not be trusted as the F.B.I. investigated Russian ties to Mr. Trump’s campaign. To a lawman obsessed with independence, Mr. Trump was the ultimate loose cannon, making irresponsible claims on Twitter and jeopardizing the bureau’s credibility.

The White House, in a series of shifting and contradictory accounts, first said Mr. Trump decided to fire Mr. Comey because the attorney general and his deputy recommended it. By Wednesday, it had amended the timeline to say that the president had actually been thinking about getting rid of the F.B.I. director as far back as November, after he won the election, and then became “strongly inclined” after Mr. Comey testified before Congress last week.

For public consumption, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, said on Wednesday that Mr. Trump acted because of the “atrocities” committed by Mr. Comey during last year’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email. But in private, aides said, Mr. Trump has been nursing a collection of festering grievances, including Mr. Comey’s handling of the Russia investigation, his seeming lack of interest in pursuing anti-Trump leaks and the perceived disloyalty over the wiretapping claim.


“He’d lost confidence in Director Comey and, frankly, he’d been considering letting Director Comey go since the day he was elected,” Ms. Huckabee Sanders said.

Mr. Comey’s fate was sealed by his latest testimony about the bureau’s investigation into Russia’s efforts to sway the 2016 election and the Clinton email inquiry. Mr. Trump burned as he watched, convinced that Mr. Comey was grandstanding. He was particularly irked when Mr. Comey said he was “mildly nauseous” to think that his handling of the email case had influenced the election, which Mr. Trump took to demean his own role in history.

At that point, Mr. Trump began talking about firing him. He and his aides thought they had an opening because Mr. Comey gave an incorrect account of how Huma Abedin, a top adviser to Mrs. Clinton, transferred emails to her husband’s laptop, an account the F.B.I. later corrected.

At first, Mr. Trump, who is fond of vetting his decisions with a wide circle of staff members, advisers and friends, kept his thinking to a small circle, venting his anger to Vice President Mike Pence; the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II; and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who all told him they generally backed dismissing Mr. Comey.

Another early sounding board was Keith Schiller, Mr. Trump’s longtime director of security and now a member of the White House staff, who would later be tasked with delivering the manila envelope containing Mr. Comey’s letter of dismissal to F.B.I. headquarters, an indication of just how personal the matter was to the president.

The chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who has been sharply critical of the F.B.I., questioned whether the time was right to dismiss Mr. Comey, arguing that doing it later would lessen the backlash, and urged him to delay, according to two people familiar with his thinking. Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, at one point mulled similar concerns, but was supportive of the move to the president.

Photo

Mr. Trump initially discussed his decision to fire Mr. Comey with a close circle, including Jared Kushner, left. Stephen K. Bannon, center, questioned whether the time was right, and Reince Priebus, center right, mulled similar concerns at one point but was supportive. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

The Justice Department began working on Mr. Comey’s dismissal. Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed his deputies to come up with reasons to fire Mr. Comey, according to a senior American official. On Monday, Mr. Trump met with Mr. Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein. White House officials insisted Mr. Sessions and Mr. Rosenstein were the ones who raised concerns about Mr. Comey with the president and that he told them to put their recommendations in writing.

At the same time, he signaled his thinking on Twitter, essentially calling for the investigation into the Russian meddling to be halted. “The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?” he wrote on Monday afternoon.

Early Tuesday, he made his final decision, keeping many aides in the dark until news of the firing leaked out late in the afternoon. About an hour before the news broke, an administration official joked that the relatively news-free events of Monday and Tuesday represented the start of a much-needed weeklong respite from the staff’s nonstop work over the past few months.

As the announcement was imminent, Mr. Trump called several congressional leaders from both parties to let them know. He caught Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, on his mobile phone as the lawmaker was walking home after a vote. Mr. Graham told him that a fresh start was good for the F.B.I.

But Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader who had been harshly critical of Mr. Comey for his conduct during last year’s election, told Mr. Trump it would be a mistake. Mr. Trump seemed surprised by the reaction, possibly assuming that Democrats would be happy to remove the F.B.I. director some blamed for Mrs. Clinton’s loss.

Another Democrat he reached was Senator Dianne Feinstein of California. “When I talked to the president last night,” she recalled, “he said: ‘The department’s a mess. I asked Rosenstein and Sessions to look into it. Rosenstein sent me a memo. I accepted the recommendation to fire him.’”

JAMES COMEY AND THE F.B.I. By SUSAN JOAN ARCHER, ROBIN LINDSAY and DAVE HORN 2:34
Trump Fires Comey: Key Moments in a Public Scuffle
Video
Trump Fires Comey: Key Moments in a Public Scuffle

President Trump often publicly pushed back against the now-fired director of the F.B.I., James Comey, including over Hillary Clinton’s emails and Russia links. Here’s a closer look. By SUSAN JOAN ARCHER, ROBIN LINDSAY and DAVE HORN on Publish Date May 10, 2017. Photo by Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times. Watch in Times Video »

Mrs. Feinstein noted that Mr. Rosenstein had just been confirmed by the Senate. “I mean, my goodness. This is a man who’s been there for two weeks. So I’m a bit turned off on Mr. Rosenstein.”

In letters released Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump explained the firing by citing Mr. Comey’s handling of the investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server — a justification that was rich in irony, White House officials acknowledged, considering that as recently as two weeks ago, the president appeared at a rally where he was serenaded with chants of “Lock her up!”

On Wednesday, the president and his staff added to their criticism of Mr. Comey’s conduct on the Clinton inquiry to include a wider denunciation of his performance. “He wasn’t doing a good job,” Mr. Trump said.

Yet even in his letter to Mr. Comey, the president mentioned the Russia inquiry, writing that “I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation.” And that reflected, White House aides said, what they conceded had been his obsession over the investigation Mr. Trump believes is threatening his larger agenda.

The White House was rocked by the backlash to the announcement. Three senior White House officials conceded that its public explanation was an unmitigated mess, blaming the communications shop, with one describing it as the “weakest” element of the West Wing.

Looking back, the two men may have been destined to clash. Five days after Mr. Trump was elected, he said in an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he had not made up his mind about keeping Mr. Comey. But during the transition, Mr. Trump and his aides asked Mr. Comey to remain on as director.

Photo

Mr. Comey testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week. Credit Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

Despite Mr. Trump’s apparent endorsement, Mr. Comey remained skeptical about his future. He believed his unwillingness to put loyalty to Mr. Trump over his role as F.B.I. director could ultimately lead to his ouster.

“With a president who seems to prize personal loyalty above all else and a director with absolute commitment to the Constitution and pursuing investigations wherever the evidence led, a collision was bound to happen,” Daniel C. Richman, a close Comey adviser and former federal prosecutor, said on Wednesday.

Still, according to associates, Mr. Comey thought the president was unlikely to get rid of him because that might be interpreted as a conclusion that the F.B.I. director was wrong to announce shortly before the election that he was re-examining the email case, which would call into question the legitimacy of Mr. Trump’s victory.

While Mr. Trump publicly insisted that he had confidence in Mr. Comey, the hostility toward the F.B.I. director in the West Wing in recent weeks was palpable, aides said, with advisers describing an almost ritualistic need to criticize the Russia investigation to assuage an anxious and angry president.

Roger J. Stone Jr.*, a longtime informal adviser to Mr. Trump who has been under F.B.I. scrutiny as part of the Russia inquiry, was among those who urged the president to fire Mr. Comey, people briefed on the discussions said.

Mr. Trump denied on Twitter on Wednesday morning that he had spoken to Mr. Stone about the F.B.I. director, and Mr. Stone declined to describe his interactions with the president in an interview. But two longtime Trump associates with knowledge of the matter said the two had recently discussed their dissatisfaction with Mr. Comey and his inquiry.

Whatever the specifics, Mr. Stone ultimately reflected the president’s view of Mr. Comey. As Mr. Stone put it shortly after the dismissal became public on Tuesday, “There was a sense in the White House, I believe, that enough was enough when it came to this guy.”

Matt Flegenheimer contributed reporting.


TRUMP’S LUCRATIVE RESORTS AND HOTELS & FOREIGN ENTITIES WHO BOOK THEM

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/which-foreign-entities-are-booking-big-money-events-at-trump-properties/
By JULIANNA GOLDMAN, LAURA STRICKLER CBS NEWS June 12, 2017, 7:21 PM
Which foreign entities are booking big-money events at Trump properties?

WASHINGTON -- Anyone can book an event at a Trump golf club or hotel, and profits can go to President Trump through his trust. So, who's doing this?

Turkish Airlines, half-owned by the Turkish government, paid for its annual tournament at President Trump's Doral golf course in Miami in April.

Last month, a member of the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates and Turkish Airlines were among the sponsors of a Turkish-American conference at Trump International Hotel, just a few blocks from the White House.

And just a month after the inauguration, the government of Kuwait financed a National Day celebration. The site: that same Trump Organization-owned hotel in Washington.

The president still owns his company, so he still benefits from business generated at his properties.

D.C., Maryland announce they're suing Trump over foreign payments to his business

But some legal experts say money from foreign governments, like Turkey and Kuwait, spent at Trump properties, might run afoul of the Constitution.

Trump's plans to divest businesses don't go far enough, experts say
Play VIDEO
Trump's plans to divest businesses don't go far enough, experts say

"Because Donald Trump was unwilling to sell his businesses, and he continues to own them, foreign governments continue to have a way of channeling money to him in an effort to influence him and U.S. policy," said Kathleen Clark, who teaches government ethics at Washington University Law School.

The emoluments clause, which forbids foreign governments from funneling money to the president, was designed to prevent presidential bribery.

Sheri Dillon, one of Mr. Trump's attorneys, spelled out how she'd avoid a violation, back in January.

"He is going to voluntarily donate all profits from foreign government payments made to his hotels to the United States Treasury," Dillon said.

rtx38e7p.jpg
Flags fly above the entrance to the new Trump International Hotel on its opening day in Washington, D.C. REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE

The Trump Organization says it will make that donation at the end of its fiscal year. It created a glossy handout to guide its finance team, but some legal experts say the guidance is ridden with loopholes.

It says banking, defense, energy, health care and other sectors "may not be reasonably identifiable as foreign government entities" and "therefore may not be included."

a10-goldman-trump-lawsuit-transfer.jpg
Kathleen Clark CBS NEWS

"The pamphlet that the Trump Organization put together regarding the emoluments clause, that portion reads like a road map to foreign governments on how to channel money to the president," Clark said.

CBS News asked the Trump Organization if they consider money from Turkish Airlines to be from a foreign government, but it didn't respond.

The Justice Department says the emoluments clause shouldn't apply to Mr. Trump's situation because it was an existing business and customers are paying market rates.



SNOPES ON ROGER J. STONE, JR. – ANOTHER OF TRUMP’S FAVORITE LIARS ALONG WITH BANNON, AND ANOTHER OF HIS “INFORMAL POLITICAL ADVISERS.” MY, OH MY, GOOGLING THINGS CERTAINLY IS FUN!

http://www.snopes.com/roger-stone-nixon-tattoo/
Fact Check Fauxtography
Does Roger Stone Have a Tattoo of Richard Nixon on His Back?

A photograph showing American political consultant and conspiracy theory spreader Roger Stone with an unusual tattoo on his back is real.

American political consultant Roger Stone has a tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back.

RATING
TRUE

ORIGIN
A photograph purportedly showing Roger Stone — an American political consultant known for spreading various far-fetched political conspiracy theories — with a tattoo of former Richard Nixon on his back has been circulating online for several years:

The image received renewed attention in March 2017, when it was mentioned in a New York Times article about the longtime GOP operative and his possible ties to Russia:

In President Trump’s oft-changing world order, Roger J. Stone Jr., the onetime political consultant and full-time provocateur, has been one of the few constants — a loyalist and self-proclaimed “dirty trickster” who nurtured the dream of a presidential run by the developer-turned-television-star for 30 years.

But two months into the Trump presidency, Mr. Stone, known for his pinstripe suits, the Nixon tattoo spanning his shoulder blades, and decades of outlandish statements, is under investigation for what would be his dirtiest trick — colluding with the Russians to defeat Hillary Clinton and put his friend in the White House.

The picture is real and was captured by photographer Platon and was featured for a profile of the GOP operative published by The New Yorker in 2008:

Although Stone shares many of Nixon’s resentments, his own tastes have always tended to more Rabelaisian pleasures than “champagne music” and Salisbury steak. Not long ago, Stone went to the Ink Monkey tattoo shop in Venice Beach and had a portrait of Nixon’s face applied to his back, right below the neck. “Women love it,” Stone said.
A second image of Stone’s tattoo also frequently circulates on social media:

This latter photograph was originally published in an October 2016 Newsweek profile of Stone, which reporter Nina Burleigh acknowledged she had wanted to undertake give her a chance to photograph his infamous tattoo:

Stone has honed his black-arts legend for 40 years. A notorious dandy in bespoke suits and two-tone suede spectator shoes, the 64-year-old is as proud of his hair plugs and body-builder physique as he is of his vast, expensive tie collection. He also boasts something else that, I must admit, gave me a moderately unprofessional and ridiculously juvenile reason for wanting to meet the man behind the legend. I badly wanted to get him to remove his shirt so I could photograph the tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back.

He has boasted that the tattoo is a hit with the ladies. “You’ll never meet another man with a dick in the front and a dick in the back,” he offered, as we descended the stairs and rounded the corner to a local diner.

Stone also confirmed that the tattoo was real in a Twitter post:

View image on Twitter
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Roger Stone @RogerJStoneJr
YES! My Nixon tattoo mentioned tonight on @allinwithchris is REAL. Many have asked - proof!
10:14 PM - 15 Feb 2017
80 80 Retweets 246 246 likes

Although Roger Stone’s Richard Nixon tattoo may be well-known in some circles, those unfamiliar with the political consultant are usually surprised to find out that he has the face of the 37th president tattooed on his back. Stone told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes that he admired Nixon’s resilience and that the tattoo was a daily reminder that “when you get knocked down, when things don`t go your way, when you`re defeated, you got to get up and fight again. It`s simply that.”


Published:Mar 21st, 2017


MORE ABOUT ROGER STONE, IF YOU CAN STAND TO READ THIS, THAT IS.

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/trumps-dirty-trickster-staggeringly-shady-dealings-political-operative-roger-stone
ELECTION 2016
Trump's Dirty Trickster: The Staggeringly Shady Dealings of Political Operative Roger Stone
There is virtually no depth to which the man some have called "Trump's Geppetto" won't sink.
By Elizabeth Preza / AlterNet May 11, 2016, 9:13 AM GMT

Here are just some of the things Roger Stone, the longtime Republican political operative and decades-long friend of Donald Trump, did last week: He "confirmed" that Ted Cruz's father was involved in the Kennedy assassination, called for Bernie Sanders to be shot for treason, and promised right-wing nut-job conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that "Trump will destroy Hillary."

The Cruz-Kennedy thing was vintage Stone, and was of course peddled by Trump despite the fact that he was on the verge of sweeping the Indiana primary and driving his rival out of the race for good. Trump later told Wolf Blitzer he did not believe the Kennedy assassination smear even as he was saying it.

While Trump was busy giving his victory speech and commending Cruz for making the contest competitive, Stone was still peddling the “bombshell” report tying Cruz's father to Kennedy's assassination.

“I went over to the sheriff’s department last night,” Stone told AM 970 The Answer host Joe Piscopo last week. “Take a computer analysis of the photo, the facial aspects of the photo, and Rafael Cruz’s photo today, it’s a perfect match.”

Pressed by Piscopo about whether he actually visited the sheriff’s department to verify the image, Stone admitted he “talked to a guy” and “asked him to do it.”

“I think it’s Rafael Cruz,” Stone added. To drive the point home, Stone tweeted "confirmation” that Rafael Cruz was involved with Oswald.

Following Ted Cruz’s decision to suspend his presidential campaign, CNN’s Jake Tapper fired back at Stone, tweeting:

4 May 16
Roger Stone @RogerJStoneJr
Judyth Vary Baker, indisputably Oswald GF 1961-63 confirms Rafael Cruz in LHO "crew" dist anti-Castro Lit in the Big Easy @jaketapper
Follow
Jake Tapper ✔ @jaketapper
@RogerJStoneJr you beat him, Roger. You can stop smearing his father.
11:08 PM - 4 May 2016
293 293 Retweets 480 480 likes

But Roger Stone cannot stop smearing. Smearing is more or less breathing to him. Nor would he take much offense at being called a smear artist, or as Cruz called him when Trump publicized the National Enquirer story about Cruz's alleged extramarital affairs, "[Donald] Trump's henchman and dirty trickster."

Stone's response?

“Look, I'm a brand name when it comes to dirty tricks,” Stone said. “He called me a henchman, and I don't really object to that, but henchmen get paid, and I have been paid nothing by Trump.”

Technically, Trump did fire Stone from his campaign last August, or at least he said he did. In the battle between the two egomaniacal friends, Trump's complaint had nothing to do with how dirty Stone plays, it was the fact that he claims too much credit when things go well.

On the payroll or not, Stone’s tight relationship with the presumptive Republican nominee spans almost four decades and a whole lot of dirty dealing. He met Trump in 1979, while working as an aide for Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign. The pair were introduced through Roy Cohn, the legendary lawyer (for Trump's father, among others), McCarthy sidekick and political fixer—a Democrat who took interest in Reagan’s campaign and acted as a mentor to Stone.

According to journalist Marc Ames, a longtime Stone-watcher, the mainstays of the Trump-Stone alliance are three:

Roger Stone’s dirty tricks specialty is manipulating vote fractures, and weaponizing anti-establishment politics to serve the electoral needs of mainstream Republican candidates.

Roger Stone and Donald Trump have been working together since the mid-1980s, mostly on sleazy campaigns to help Trump’s casino business, but also in politics.

Roger Stone and Donald Trump worked together in at least two major “black bag” operations manipulating anti-establishment politics to help the mainstream Republican presidential candidate.

Sure sounds like the blueprint of the Trump campaign so far.

Stone has always been primarily interested in power and access, and his love of the GOP dates back to the Goldwater campaign in 1964, which he worked for when he was all of about 12. At age 19, Stone secured a position working for another one of his role models, Richard Nixon. He joined the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (affectionately dubbed C.R.E.E.P. by Nixon’s opponents) where he got his first taste of backhanded politics. Reportedly using the pseudonym Jason Rainier, Stone donated money to Paul McCloskey, who was challenging Nixon for the Republican nomination. Signing the funds under the guise of the Young Socialist Alliance, Stone leaked a receipt of the check to the press, effectively labeling McClosky a secret socialist and derailing the challenger’s chance of landing the Republican nomination. Nixon was coronated as the party nominee at the Republican National Convention later that year.

Stone’s admiration of Nixon is well documented. “The reason I’m a Nixonite is because of his indestructibility and resilience,” Stone has said. “He never quit. His whole career was all built around his personal resentment of élitism.”

The political insider even has a tattoo of Nixon’s face on his back. "It's there to remind me that in life, when things don't go your way, you get back in the game," Stone told CNN. "Nixon said, 'A man is not finished when he's defeated, he's only finished when he quits.'"

Following the Watergate scandal in 1973 and Nixon’s resignation, the young Republican went on to work for Reagan’s failed 1976 presidential campaign, and later for his successful 1980 and 1984 campaigns. Ed Rollins, Reagan’s first political director, called Stone “a fringe player.”

“He always had this reputation of being a guy who exaggerated things, who pretended he did things.” Rollins said. “Roger was never on Nixon’s staff, was never on the White House staff. I don’t think you’ll find anyone in the business who trusts him. Roger was always a little rat.”

After decades in what he would describe as the center of the political ring, the Republican strategist was forced to resign from Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign when his favorite publication, the National Enquirer, revealed he and his wife placed ads seeking swinging partners.

“Hot, insatiable lady and her handsome body builder husband, experienced swingers, seek similar couples or exceptional muscular … single men,” read the ad, placed in a magazine called Local Swing Fever. Stone originally denied the story’s authenticity, but admitted in 2008 that the ads were real. “When that whole thing hit the fan in 1996, the reason I gave a blanket denial was that my grandparents were still alive,” Stone told the New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin. “I’m not guilty of hypocrisy. I’m a libertarian and a libertine.”

Stone describes himself as “a total Republican,” but he's the species of Republican that predates the more recent “Christian-right conservative" wing of the party, which Trump is said to be alienating. Longtime friend Douglas Schoen called him, “not so much a Republican as an actor who likes to assume poses,” adding “the show is not a byproduct of his life—it is his life.”

After the temporary setback, Stone worked his way back into party politics, landing key roles in campaigns for George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Thomas Kean. While working for George W. Bush during the 2004 presidential campaign, Stone reportedly convinced Reverend Al Sharpton to join the presidential race as a patsy candidate to defeat Democratic rival Al Gore. Mark Ames writes in "Behind the scenes of the Donald Trump-Roger Stone show":

As it turns out, Al Sharpton entered the 2004 Democratic primaries on the payroll and orders of Roger Stone, who directed Sharpton’s attacks from the race politics-left against Howard Dean. And as the New York Times revealed that year, it was Donald Trump who took credit for introducing Al Sharpton—a one-time FBI informant—to his old friend and lobbyist, GOP dirty trickster Roger Stone.

That wasn’t the first time Stone used his contacts to manipulate the outcome of an election. Four years earlier, during the contentious 2000 election, Stone played a role in convincing Trump to run as a Reform Party candidate against Pat Buchanan, who was threatening to take votes away from establishment Republican candidate George W. Bush. Ames writes that Trump ran as a Reform Party candidate “only to drop out of the race, and attack Buchanan’s Reform Party as a cesspool full of Hitler lovers and racists”—an interesting line of attack from a man who currently has the support of white-supremacist and former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.

Later that year, Stone, who calls himself "the GOP hitman,” spearheaded the Brooks Brothers riot that thwarted Florida’s ballot recount. By his account, Stone managed to rally right-wing protesters to assemble outside a voting center in Miami-Dade—a diverse county sympathetic to Gore. “The idea we were putting out there was that this was a left-wing power grab by Gore, the same way Fidel Castro did it in Cuba. We were very explicitly drawing that analogy,” Stone recalled. “The idea was to shut it down, stop the recount here in Miami.”

The scheme worked. The crowd eventually rioted inside the voting center while ballots were being counted. According to the New York Times, “several people were trampled, punched or kicked when protesters tried to rush the doors outside the office of the Miami-Dade supervisor of elections. Sheriff's deputies restored order."

Stone’s history of shady dealings isn't limited to politics; in 2000, Stone joined forces with Trump to address an Indian casino in the Catskills that threatened to steal business from Trumps’ Atlantic City resorts. According to Ames, “Trump and Stone were fined $250,000 for setting up a fake ‘family values’ front group in New York, the Institute for Law and Society, to run a series of racist ads” against the Indian reservation.

In the early stages of Trump’s current presidential run, Stone played an integral advisory role for the GOP candidate. But last August, it was announced he would no longer help the campaign in an official capacity. The pair launched into a he-said-he-said match; Trump claimed Stone was fired because he “wanted to use the campaign for his own personal publicity” and “always tries taking credit" for things he never did. Stone insisted he resigned, citing “current controversies involving personalities and provocative media fights” (namely Trump’s ongoing feud with Megyn Kelly).

But this is just the latest iteration in a pattern of on-again off-again friendship between Trump and Stone. In 2008, the business mogul called his longtime adviser “a stone-cold loser.” Despite their turbulent friendship, a source close to Trump and Stone told CNN the pair “always find their way back to each other” adding, "Roger is never too far away from Trump ... He's always talking to Donald.”

Asked whether he continues to speak with Trump despite not working directly with his campaign, Stone stayed mum on specifics. “I still consider him a friend, and think he still considers me a friend; let’s just leave it at that,” Stone said. “And I’m going to keep beating the drum for him until he is in the White House.”

And beat the drum he does. Stone is an aggressive peddler of anti-Democrat and anti-Clinton rhetoric. He calls the Democratic Party “the party of slavery,” while “Republicans are the party of freedom.” In 2008, Stone started an anti-Clinton group Citizens United Not Timid (or C.U.N.T), an organization Stone thought up “in a bar” that has no real function except to provide Stone an excuse for publicizing the offensive acronym. Last year, Stone published a laughable book called The Clintons’ War on Women, arguing that Bill and Hillary Clinton systematically bullied, intimidated and abused women throughout their political careers. Stone seems to believe Trump will be successful in levying these attacks against the Democratic frontrunner. “Part of the strategy of any campaign is to psych out the opposition,” Stone told Politico.

Stone's brand of cynical politics doesn’t always go unchecked. In February, he was banned from CNN for calling contributor Ana Navarro a “pompous shithead” on Twitter. Following the network's annoucement, Stone launched into an assault on CNN, arguing the ban was the result of “a cable news network that folds on the demands of the Clintonistas” and insisting he was silenced for his opposition to Hillary Clinton. Though he said the firing had nothing to do with his derogatory tweets, Stone scrubbed his Twitter feed of numerous insulting posts, including one where he called commentator Roland Martin a “fat negro.”

Stone has also faced criticism for inciting violence through his social media posts. He once tweeted he wanted “to bash [Bill] O’Reilly’s head in,” and offered cash for someone to punch MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. Last month, Stone threatened that if Trump did not win the Republican convention, he “will disclose the hotels and the room numbers of those delegates who are directly involved in the steal. If you're from Pennsylvania, we'll tell you who the culprits are. We urge you to visit their hotel and find them.”

With Cruz and Kasich both departing from the race, it’s unlikely the GOP hitman will have to orchestrate another riot in the name of Republican party politics, though he's undoubtedly prepared to do so. And despite backing a candidate who regularly challenges the basic tenets of the First Amendment, Stone is confident Trump’s political vision is what the nation needs. "Trump believes in the Constitution of the United States,” Stone told GQ. “He's a constitutionalist.”

Stone added Trump “would be very disappointed” and “sorrowful for his country” if Democratic operatives manage to steal the election. And as someone who’s been involved in shady politics for 30 of the last 30 years, Stone knows exactly "what we've had."

“Remember, politics is not about uniting people,” Stone told Jeffrey Toobin in 2008. “It’s about dividing people and getting your 51 percent.”

Elizabeth Preza is a staff writer for Raw Story. Follow her on Twitter @lizacisms.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/inmates-kill-prison-guards-during-bus-transport-georgia/
CBS/AP June 13, 2017, 9:24 AM
Inmates kill prison guards, escape during bus transport

EATONTON, Ga. -- A manhunt is under way for two inmates accused of killing two guards on a Georgia prison bus Tuesday morning.

Donnie Russell Rowe, 43, and Ricky Dubose, 24, overpowered and disarmed the two guards around 6:45 a.m. as 33 inmates were being driven between prisons, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills told reporters. One of the two inmates then shot and killed both guards, Sills said.

"We are still desperately looking for these two individuals. They are armed with 9 mm pistols that were taken from these correctional officers. They are dangerous beyond description. If anyone sees them or comes into contact, they need to call 911 immediately," the sheriff said.

The FBI said the fugitives were last seen getting into a "grass green," four-door 2004 Honda Civic with the Georgia license plate number RBJ-6601, and driving west on state Highway 16 toward Eatonton, southeast of Atlanta.

escaped-prisoners.png
Escaped prisoners Donnie Russell Rowe (left) and Ricky Dubose (right) were two of 33 inmates being transported in a bus Tuesday morning when they overpowered two corrections officers on board, stealing their firearms and carjacking a green Honda Civic. ELBERT COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE

CBS affiliate WGCL-TV shared a purported photo of the stolen vehicle on Twitter.

View image on Twitter
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CBS46 ✔ @cbs46
#RT & #SHARE: Here is the stolen Honda Civic (RBJ-6601), which 2 inmates carjacked earlier this morning in Putnam County on Hwy-16.
1:33 PM - 13 Jun 2017
4 4 Retweets 1 1 like


The Georgia Department of Corrections identified the guards as Christopher Monica and Curtis Billue, both officers at Baldwin State Prison. Monica had been with the department since October 2009 and Billue since July 2007.

Sills was emotional as he described the scene.

"I saw two brutally murdered corrections officers, that's what I saw," he said. "I have their blood on my shoes."

How the inmates managed to reach and overpower the guards remains under investigation, Sills said.

"They were inside the caged area of the bus," he said. "How they got through the locks and things up to that area I do not know."

Protocol is to have two armed corrections officers on the bus, but the officers don't wear bullet-proof vests during transfers, Corrections Commissioner Greg Dozier said.

"We lost two of our fellow officers, two of our kin. We see our officers as our family," Dozier said.

Monica was 42 and leaves behind a wife, while Billue was 58 and is survived by his father, brother and sister. The officers' families are "dealing with it the best they can at this point," Dozier said.

2 inmates in Georgia escape, shoot corrections officers
Play VIDEO
2 inmates in Georgia escape, shoot corrections officers

The inmates on the bus were being moved from a state prison in Hancock County to a diagnostics center in Jackson, where their next placement was to be determined, Dozier said, adding that inmates do not know their transfer dates ahead of time.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said federal resources are being committed to help catch the fugitives.

"An attack on any American law enforcement officer is an attack on every American law enforcement officer and the principles we all believe in," Rosenstein told a Senate budget panel in Washington Tuesday morning.

WGCL-TV reports Rowe was convicted on charges of aggravated assault and armed robbery. Dubose was imprisoned after he was found guilty of credit card fraud, armed robbery, theft and aggravated assault.

The Department of Corrections said Rowe has been serving life without parole since 2002, and Dubose began a 20-year sentence in 2015.

A photo released by the sheriff's office in Elbert County, the site of his most recent conviction, shows Dubose with prominent tattoos. He appears to have a crown tattooed above his right eyebrow, writing above his left eyebrow and large letters covering the entire front of his neck. Dubose stands 6 feet tall and weighs 150 pounds.

Detectives say Rowe has brown hair and blue eyes. He stands around 6-foot-2 tall and weighs 150 pounds.

Authorities are urging the public not to approach the men and to call 911 if they spot the pair.