Trump-Mueller interview negotiations stall as 2 more prosecutors leave Russia probe

Sources tell Fox News that President Trump's outside legal counsel is 'pleased with the progress' in talks with Robert Mueller's office about a possible interview with the president; chief White House correspondent John Roberts reports.

Discussions between Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office and President Trump's legal team over the conditions of a possible presidential interview are ongoing, but have "not terribly advanced" from where they were a couple of weeks ago, a source familiar with the talks told Fox News Tuesday.
Also, The Associated Press reported that two prosecutors detailed to the Russia investigation for the past year are returning to their duties in other parts of the Justice Department. They join two other attorneys who left the team, assigned to investigate potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, over the summer.
Fox News' source said negotiations hit a snag when The New York Times reported on Sept. 21 that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had discussed secretly recording Trump and enlisting Cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office. Rosenstein has called the Times report "inaccurate and factually incorrect" and at least one source has told Fox News that Rosenstein intended his comment about recording Trump to be sarcastic.
"This Rosenstein thing really threw them for a loop," the source said in discussing the report's effect on the talks. Trump is tentatively scheduled to meet with Rosenstein at the White House later this week to discuss the report.
Trump's legal team previously proposed to Mueller that any presidential interview be limited to written questions and answers about allegations of Russian collusion with members of the Trump campaign. They also signaled opposition to questions about potential obstruction of justice, though the source told Fox News the president's attorneys now have left open the possibility of entertaining such questions "as long as they can be answered without jeopardy."
Mueller spokesman Peter Carr told the AP that prosecutor Brandon Van Grack already has returned to the Justice Department's national security division but will continue to be involved in cases to which he was assigned. That would include the investigation into former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn, who is scheduled to be sentenced in December.
Prosecutor Kyle Freeny will end her detail to the special counsel later this month and will return to her position in the Justice Department's money laundering section, Carr said.
Van Grack and Freeny were on the teams prosecuting Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
The departures are the latest indication that Mueller's team is wrapping up parts of the investigation and focusing its efforts on critical remaining strands, including an active grand-jury probe of longtime Trump associate Roger Stone.
Elements of the Mueller investigation remain active, but other parts of the investigation have been referred to other offices of the Justice Department or largely taken over by them.
Prosecutors in Manhattan, for instance, secured a guilty plea in August from Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, while prosecutors with the U.S. attorney's office in Washington have been assigned to the special counsel's case against 13 Russians charged in a hidden but powerful social media effort to sway American public opinion.
The U.S. Attorney's office in the District of Columbia also prosecuted W. Samuel Patten, who pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered foreign agent in a case referred by Mueller's office.
Other lawyers who left the Mueller team earlier this year included computer crimes prosecutor Ryan Dickey, who worked cases against a Russian social media troll farm and 12 Russian intelligence officers accused of hacking Democratic groups during the campaign, and Brian Richardson.
Richardson was part of a team that prosecuted former Skadden Arps attorney Alex van der Zwaan for lying to the FBI while the team was investigating Manafort and others involved in his Ukrainian work. Van der Zwaan was sentenced to 30 days behind bars.
Fox News' John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

DA who lost Kate Steinle case, called Trump a 'madman' says he won't seek re-election

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon speaks during a news conference in San Francisco, Dec. 9, 2014. (The Associated Press)

George Gascon, the San Francisco district attorney who failed to win a murder conviction in the trial of a homeless illegal immigrant charged in the shooting death of Kate Steinle in 2015, announced Tuesday that he won't seek re-election.
Gascon, who clashed with candidate Donald Trump over the case -- and in 2017 referred to President Trump as a tweeting "madman" who ignited a media frenzy -- cited the need to care for his 90-year-old mother in Southern California as his reason for not running again after his second term expires next year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“At this time, I simply cannot be the son I want to be and seek a third term,” Gascón said in a statement. “My career means a great deal to me. But success in the world with a family in chaos is not a choice I am willing to make.”
Gascon was heavily criticized by Trump and conservatives after the July 2015 fatal shooting of Steinle, a 32-year-old San Francisco resident who was fatally shot while walking along the city's waterfront with her father and a friend.
Soon after her death, it was revealed that her alleged killer, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, 45, a Mexican national, had been released from a San Francisco jail under the city’s "sanctuary city" law rather than being turned over to immigration authorities.
He had been deported five times prior to Steinle’s death.
Gascon accused Trump of seizing on the case to push an anti-immigrant agenda, accusing Trump of instigating a media circus around Garcia Zarate’s trial.
Prosecutors argued that Garcia Zarate intentionally killed Steinle on Pier 14. Defense lawyers said that shooting was accidental and the bullet ricocheted off the ground and hit Steinle.
A jury acquitted eventually Garcia Zarate of murder and manslaughter charges but convicted him on a weapons charge. A juror called the shooting a “freak accident.”
After the verdict, Trump tweeted it was a “complete travesty of justice” and a “disgrace.”
Garcia Zarate faces a second round of charges from federal authorities, including being a felon in possession of a firearm and being an alien in possession of a firearm.
Gascon was appointed district attorney in 2011, after his predecessor -- current U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. -- left to serve as the state attorney general.
He previously served as the San Francisco’s police chief from 2009-11.
During his tenure, Gascon faced criticism for championing progressive reforms. He endorsed Proposition 47, a 2014 ballot measure designed to alleviate prison overcrowding in the state and reduce certain crimes to misdemeanors.
He also clashed with pro-police groups for being the only law enforcement official in the state to support a failed bill that would have created a stricter standard for when police officers can use deadly force.
His decision to not prosecute officers in high-profile police killings have also drawn scorn from some communities of color and police brutality protestors, the chronicle reported.
Gascon cited a dramatic reduction violent crime during his time as police chief and district attorney.
“It is difficult to step away, especially when we are experiencing so much success and progress,” Gascon said. “I am flattered by the robust and diverse support for my campaign and it will be hard to walk away from that. But, at this time in my life, it is the only choice I am certain I can live with.”

Christine Blasey Ford ex-boyfriend says she helped friend prep for potential polygraph; Grassley sounds alarm

In a written declaration released Tuesday and obtained by Fox News, an ex-boyfriend of Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, directly contradicts her testimony under oath last week that she had never helped anyone prepare for a polygraph examination.
The former boyfriend, whose name was redacted in the declaration, also said Ford neither mentioned Kavanaugh nor mentioned she was a victim of sexual misconduct during the time they were dating from about 1992 to 1998. He said he saw Ford going to great lengths to help a woman he believed was her "life-long best friend" prepare for a potential polygraph test. He added that the woman had been interviewing for jobs with the FBI and U.S. Attorney's office.
He further claimed that Ford never voiced any fear of flying (even while aboard a propeller plane) and seemingly had no problem living in a "very small," 500 sq. ft. apartment with one door -- apparently contradicting her claims that she could not testify promptly in D.C. because she felt uncomfortable traveling on planes, as well as her suggestion that her memories of Kavanuagh's alleged assault prompted her to feel unsafe living in a closed space or one without a second front door.
Ford "never expressed a fear of closed quarters, tight spaces, or places with only one exit," the former boyfriend wrote.
However, on Thursday, Ford testified, "I was hoping to avoid getting on an airplane. But I eventually was able to get up the gumption with the help of some friends and get on the plane." She also acknowledged regularly -- and, in her words, "unfortunately" -- traveling on planes for work and hobbies.
And Ford explicitly told Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Thursday that she had a second front door installed in her home because of "anxiety, phobia and PTSD-like symptoms" that she purportedly suffered in the wake of Kavanaugh's alleged attack at a house party in the 1980s -- "more especially, claustrophobia, panic and that type of thing."
In a pointed, no-holds-barred letter Tuesday evening that referenced the ex-boyfriend's declaration, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley demanded that attorneys for Ford turn over her therapist notes and other key materials, and suggested she was intentionally less than truthful about her experience with polygraph examinations during Thursday's dramatic Senate hearing.
"Your continued withholding of material evidence despite multiple requests is unacceptable as the Senate exercises its constitutional responsibility of advice and consent for a judicial nomination," Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote.
Under questioning from experienced sex-crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell last week, Ford said that she had "never" had "any discussions with anyone ... on how to take a polygraph" or "given any tips or advice to anyone who was looking to take a polygraph test." She repeatedly said the process was stressful and uncomfortable.
But in his declaration, the ex-boyfriend wrote that, "I witnessed Dr. Ford help [Monica L.] McLean prepare for a potential polygraph exam" and that Ford had "explained in detail what to expect, how polygraphs worked and helped [her] become familiar and less nervous about the exam," using her background in psychology.
Mitchell, in a report Sunday, said Ford's case was even weaker than the typical "He said, she said" situation and pointed out numerous discrepencies in her version of events in the past several weeks, concerning everything from how many people were at the purported party to when it occurred and how she found her way home. Mitchell also noted that none of the witnesses Ford identified as having attended the party could back up her version of events.
Some of the apparent inconsistencies, Grassley wrote, could possibly be addressed if Ford's legal team turned over all video or audio recordings produced during her own August polygraph examination. Ford passed that polygraph, and in a handwritten statement she wrote prior to the test, she indicated "there were 4 boys and a couple of girls" at the gathering.
FORD'S POLYGRAPH RESULTS SHOW KEY INCONSISTENCY -- HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE AT THE PARTY?
But in Ford's letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in July, she gave a different tally, writing instead that the party "included me and 4 others." Under oath on Thursday, Ford for the first time mentioned that a fourth boy was at the party, but that she could not remember his name.
Grassley also demanded Ford's attorneys hand over notes from her 2012 therapy sessions in which she claimed to have discussed her alleged sexual assault decades ago. The senator said it was "not justified" any longer for Ford to cite privacy and medical privilege given that she has relied on them extensively as a kind of corroborating evidence to implicate Kavanaugh.
On Thursday, Ford claimed she could not say definitively whether she had shared those notes with The Washington Post approximately two months ago, as opposed to describing them abstractly.  The Post wrote that it had reviewed a "portion" of Ford's notes.
Additionally, Grassley requested copies of communications between Ford and the media describing her allegations, saying that the legal team's failure to provide Ford's full correspondence with The Washington Post suggested a "lack of candor."
In a separate letter to Democratic Sen. Chris Coons, who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, Grassley wrote, "The accuser freely admits to having no evidence whatsoever that Judge Kavanaugh even attended this party. … We’ve reached a new level of absurdity with this allegation."
The scathing letters come as Fox News has learned from a source that the FBI may wrap up its investigation into misconduct accusations against Kavanaugh as soon as late Wednesday, potentially clearing the way for a final Senate vote on his confirmation within days.
If the FBI's report is indeed delivered to the White House on Wednesday, Fox News expects a vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation could come as soon as Saturday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., must first satisfy a number of procedural and parliamentary hurdles before a vote can be held, including filing a cloture petition, which must remain pending for a full day, in order to formally end debate on Kavanaugh's nomination. McConnell has vowed to hold a vote by the end of the week.
WATCH: GRAHAM VOWS TO PROBE WHY FORD CLAIMED IGNORANCE ABOUT GOP OFFER TO TESTIFY IN CALIFORNIA
The uncorroborated sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh have faltered in recent days, as the credibility of his three most prominent accusers -- Ford, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick -- has come under question. Democrats increasingly have focused their arguments on Kavanaugh's temperament during Thursday's hearing, as well as whether he lied under oath about references in his high school yearbook.
Kavanaugh acknowleged sometimes having "too many" beers in high school and college, but some Democrats have suggested he lied by not going further and admitting that he had "blacked out." None of Kavanaugh's classmates has said he blacked out, although some have come forward to suggest it's likely that he did at some point.
For his part, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Monday called out what he said were transparent stall tactics in a fiery floor speech.
"If you listen carefully, Mr. President, you can practically hear the sounds of the Democrats moving the goalposts," McConnell said. He added later: "Their goalposts keep shifting. But their goal hasn't moved an inch. Not an inch."

New Medicare Health Insurance Card

In the United States, Medicare is a national health insurance program, now administered by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services of the U.S. federal government but begun in 1966 under the Social Security Administration. United States Medicare is funded by a combination of a payroll tax, premiums and surtaxes from beneficiaries, and general revenue. It provides health insurance for Americans aged 65 and older who have worked and paid into the system through the payroll tax. It also provides health insurance to younger people with some disability status as determined by the Social Security Administration, as well as people with end stage renal disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. 

So my question is if you would like for immigrants that come to America to learn English and assimilate, how in the hell are they going to do that when the United States Government also prints it in Spanish on the back of the Medicare card?

Blumenthal Da Nang Cartoons

Flake slams GOP, says he feels like he doesn't belong to any political party

Flake the Snake

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake criticized the Republican Party on Monday for mistaking "opponents for our enemies," and said he sometimes feels like he doesn't belong to any political party.
"I sometimes feel like a man temporarily without a party," Flake said during a speech at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, the Washington Post reported
He went on to decry the Republican Party in his speech, saying members of the party have "given in to the terrible tribal impulse that first mistakes our opponents for our enemies" that lead the party to becoming "seized with the conviction that we must destroy that enemy."
Flake's remarks came days after the dramatic showdown in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
During his Monday speech, Flake reiterated his support for the FBI investigation, but stressed that it must be a "real investigation."
"It does no good to have an investigation that just gives us more cover," Flake said, according to the Post. "We actually need to find out what we can find out. And we have to realize that we may not be able to find out everything that happened."

"It does no good to have an investigation that just gives us more cover. We actually need to find out what we can find out. And we have to realize that we may not be able to find out everything that happened."
— Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake

The Trump administration has been criticized for allegedly limiting the scope of the probe, despite Trump's claims that the FBI has "free rein" to conduct the investigation as they see fit.
"They [the White House] cannot say, 'Oh hey, only interview the people in their neighborhood on one side of the street.' Or 'Only interview people from a certain period of their life,’" Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said during an appearance of CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “You let the men and women of the FBI, the professionals, do their jobs.”

Trump mocks 'Da Nang Blumenthal,' top Dems in fiery Tennessee rally supporting Kavanaugh, Blackburn

In an wide-ranging, combative rally Monday night in Tennesee, President Trump, in no uncertain personal terms, derided Democrats as shameless hypocrites for questioning the integrity of his embattled Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
The event capped a whirlwind day for Trump, who announced a historic new deal to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and authorized an expanded FBI probe of Kavanaugh's background.
Just hours after he cryptically said in the Rose Garden that he had "somewhat compromising" information about a certain "aggressive" Democratic senator in some "very bad situations," Trump took aim at some members of the Judiciary Committee who grilled Kavanaugh at a dramatic, nationally televised hearing Thursday.
"You have the great Vietnam War hero -- who didn't go to Vietnam -- [Sen. Richard] Blumenthal," Trump said, referring to the Connecticut Democratic senator, who repeatedly and falsely suggested he had served on the ground in Vietnam. "How about Blumenthal? We call him 'Da Nang Blumenthal.'"
Blumenthal had said last week that Trump's initial reluctance to order the now-ongoing supplemental background probe of Kavanaugh was "tantamount to a cover-up." He quizzed Kavanaugh during Thursday's hearing on everything from the high court nominee's high school yearbook entries to his drinking habits.
"For 15 years as the attorney general of Connecticut, he went around telling war stories," Trump told the crowd. "'People dying left and right -- but my plattoon marched forward!' He was never in Vietnam. It was a lie. And then he's up there saying, 'We want the truth from Judge Kavanaugh.' And you're getting the truth from Judge Kavanaugh."
WATCH: TUCKER BLASTS 'FAKE WAR HERO' BLUMENTHAL
"And then you have Cory Booker -- who destroyed Newark," Trump continued, describing the New Jersey senator. "And see some of the things he wrote when he was young about women. Take a look."
Booker, a Democrat, once wrote an article detailing an instance where he twice reached for a woman's breast without her apparent consent in 1992, saying the 'Top Gun' slogan was ringing in his head as he went in for a "groping." The New Jersey senator compared himself to the gladiator Spartacus last month and is widely considered a 2020 presidential contender.
Trump also mocked former Vice President Joe Biden, saying that no one paid attention to him before former President Barack Obama lifted him from the "trash heap" of limited support his own presidential bid received.
Trump was campaigning in Johnson City, Tennessee, on behalf of GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who is competing in a neck-and-neck race for retiring Sen. Bob Corker's seat along with ex-Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat.
Trump won Tennessee by 26 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election, and he remains popular in the Volunteer State.
POLYGRAPH REPORT SHOWS APPARENT INCONSISTENCIES IN CHRISTINE FORD'S CLAIMS
Corker, who recently announced his support for Kavanaugh, has sparred with Trump frequently and publicly, and even compared his supporters to cultists. The president, in return, has referred to the senator derisively as "Liddle Bob," although the two reportedly have mended some fences. Trump also took a shot at Sen.Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., calling her a "disaster" and citing polls showing her slipping behind in her upcoming election in the wake of her announced opposition to Kavanaugh.
According to a Fox News poll conducted in September, Blackburn has the support of 47 percent of likely voters in the state, compared to Bredesen’s 44 percent. Her three-point advantage is within the poll’s margin of error.
The economy is the top concern for Tennessee likely voters, the poll showed. Twenty-nine percent say that will be most important to their vote for Senate, followed closely by 27 percent who say it will be health care. Economy voters pick Blackburn (+9), while those prioritizing health care go heavily for Bredesen (+35).
Those and other hot-button issues -- including his breakthrough deal with Canada and Mexico, the improving economy, and the rise of insurgent Democratic socialist candidates -- were also front-and-center Monday night.
WATERS DENIES REPORTS THAT HER STAFF RELEASED GRAHAM'S HOME ADDRESS TO INTIMIDATE HIM
"The Democrats want to turn America into Venezuela," Trump said. He also previewed a potential new line of attack heading into November's midterm elections, calling the Democratic Party the "party of crime."
"Every day, innocent lives are stolen because of Democrat-supported immigration policies," Trump said. "Republicans believe America should be a sanctuary for law-abiding Americans, not for criminal aliens."
Despite his focus on the midterms, Trump evidently had yet another election on his mind. Responding to recent suggestions by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., that she would run for president in 2020, Trump told her to "please, please run."
"The Democrats can no longer be trusted with your power," Trump said, charging that they have "moved so far left that Pocahontas is considered a conservative." Trump frequently refers to Warren as "Pocahontas" because she had indicated that she had Native American ancestry earlier in her career, which critics said helped her obtain a prestigious teaching position at Harvard Law School. Warren has provided little evidence for her claim, but there is similarly no definitive evidence that Warren's claims helped her get the job.
Trump, in closing, urged attendees in the room and those watching at home to take stock of the country's "unlimited promise," as well as the significant economic gains realized under his administration -- and he exhorted voters to avoid what he called the "repression" of misleading polls.
"To every citizen watching all across the land ... this is your time to choose. This is your time. It's the time to choose whether we turn backward to the failure and frustration of the past. Look at what we've done in far less than two years," Trump said. "It is not up to the media to decide our fate. It is not up to the pollsters or the pundits."

White House slams 'ridiculous' NYT report on Kavanaugh's college ice-throwing incident

Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, called out The New York Times late Monday over its report on a 1985 bar fight that allegedly involved President Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, throwing ice at a fellow bar patron.
The report said that Kavanaugh and four others were questioned by New Haven police after the Sept. 25, 1985, incident. A 21-year-old man reportedly claimed that Kavanaugh was unprovoked when he threw the ice at him.
Sanders tweeted that Democrats are desperate to attack Kavanaugh and used a July tweet from one of the article's co-authors in an apparent attempt to show biased reporting.
“As a @YaleLawSch grad & lecturer, I strongly disassociate myself from tonight’s praise of Brett Kavanaugh,” Emily Bazelon, a Times reporter, tweeted at the time. “With respect, he’s a 5th vote for a hard-right turn on voting rights and so much more that will harm the democratic process & prevent a more equal society.”
Sanders asked in her tweet, “What motivated New York Times reporter to write this ridiculous story? Throwing ice 33 years ago, or her opinion of Judge Kavanaugh in July?”
Fox News reached out to the paper in an email early Tuesday morning and did not immediately receive comment. Sanders did not challenge any allegations in the article.
The incident occurred after a UB40 concert at a place called Demery’s, according to Chad Ludington, a former classmate. The group of men apparently saw someone who looked like the lead singer of the band. When the man asked them to stop looking at him, Ludington said Kavanaugh launched a beer at the man. Ludington told CNN that he earlier mixed up a beer for a drink with ice, but said that the man "took a swing at Brett" and they fought.
He said  Chris Dudley, a friend of Kavanaugh’s at Yale who went on to play professional basketball, took his drink and "smashed  it up against the guy's head."
The alleged victim "who was bleeding from the right ear" was treated at a nearby hospital, the paper reported.
Dudley denied the allegations at the time, the paper reported. He did not comment for the paper's article.
Ludington, who now teaches at North Carolina State University, said he was friend of Kavanaugh’s at Yale and that Kavanaugh was “a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker."
Trump said Monday that he called on the FBI to do a "comprehensive" investigation into sexual assault allegations invovling Kavanaugh. But he also said Senate Republicans are determining the parameters of the investigation and "ultimately, they're making the judgment."
"My White House will do whatever the senators want," Trump said. "The one thing I want is speed."