Giuliani: Trump wants to 'come forward and tell the truth, if he gets a fair hearing'

President Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, told Fox News' "Hannity" Thursday night that he had a "hopeful communication" with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team about the parameters for a possible presidential interview.
"I think it was a good-faith attempt to really narrow the focus quite dramatically of the questioning," Giuliani told host Sean Hannity.
Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and New York City mayor, said Mueller's investigators had responded to five information requests from the president's attorneys. Giuliani previously claimed that the lack of response had forced Trump's legal team to postpone a decision about an interview with the special counsel.
"The president has a great desire to come forward and tell the truth if he gets a fair hearing," Giuliani said. "Our job is to make sure that he gets a fair hearing from Mueller. Now, we’re not convinced that he will."
Giuliani previously had warned that an in-person interview of Trump by investigators would be considered a "perjury trap." On Thursday, he told Hannity: "If we thought there was any kind of trap, he's not doing [the interview] and there's a whole argument that there is a trap here."
Even if Trump ultimately does not agree to an interview, Giuliani insisted Thursday that Mueller's team "could write their report right now, today."
"Every explanation that they need [has] already [been] given by President Trump in interviews," he said, referencing an interview Trump gave to Lester Holt of NBC News shortly after he fired FBI Director James Comey last year.
"He explained precisely why he fired Comey for a non-corrupt reason," said Giuliani, who added: "By the way, he didn't have to have a reason for firing Comey and everything we've learned since then is, 'My goodness, he should have fired him earlier.'"

Trump administration set to resurrect ban on abortion counseling at federally-funded clinics

The Department of Health and Human Services will be announcing its proposal to ban counseling for abortion services at federally-funded clinics, according to a new report.  (Reuters)

Following pressure from pro-life Republicans in Congress ahead of the midterm elections, the Trump administration is reportedly planning to resurrect a Reagan-era rule banning federally-funded family planning clinics from discussing abortion with women.
The rule would also prohibit the clinics from sharing space with abortion providers, a senior White House official told the Associated Press Thursday.
That practice, known as "co-location," was specifically decried by more than 150 House members and more than 40 senators earlier this month in letters to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar.
HHS will be announcing its proposal Friday, the official said on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to confirm the plans before the announcement.
The policy has been derided as a "gag rule" by abortion rights supporters and medical groups, and it is likely to trigger lawsuits that could keep it from taking effect. However, it's guaranteed to galvanize activists on both sides of the abortion debate ahead of the congressional midterm elections.
The Reagan-era rule never went into effect as written, although the Supreme Court ruled that it was an appropriate use of executive power. The policy was rescinded under President Bill Clinton, and a new rule went into effect which allowed "nondirective" counseling to include a range of options for women.
GOP LAWMAKERS ASK TRUMP TO CRACK DOWN ON PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Abortion is a legal medical procedure. Doctors' groups and abortion rights supporters say a ban on counseling women trespasses on the doctor-patient relationship. They point out that federal family planning funds cannot be currently used to pay for abortion procedures.

"I cannot imagine a scenario in which public health groups would allow this effort to go unchallenged."

Abortion opponents say a taxpayer-funded family planning program should have no connection whatsoever to abortion.
"The notion that you would withhold information from a patient does not uphold or preserve their dignity," said Jessica Marcella of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, which represents family planning clinics. "I cannot imagine a scenario in which public health groups would allow this effort to go unchallenged."
She said requiring family planning clinics to be physically separate from facilities in which abortion is provided would disrupt services for women across the country.
But Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America said, "Abortion is not health care or birth control and many women want natural health care choices, rather than hormone-induced changes."
OPINION: SORRY, PLANNED PARENTHOOD: YOUR RADICAL PRO-ABORTION CULTURE WAR IS FAILING
Abortion opponents allege the federal family planning program in effect cross-subsidizes abortion services provided by Planned Parenthood, whose clinics are also major recipients of grants for family planning and basic preventive care. Hawkins' group is circulating a petition to urge lawmakers in Congress to support the Trump administration's proposal.
Known as Title X, the nation's family-planning program serves about 4 million women a year through clinics, at a cost to taxpayers of about $260 million.
Planned Parenthood clinics also qualify for Title X grants but they must keep the family-planning money separate from funds used to pay for abortions. The Republican-led Congress has unsuccessfully tried to deny federal funds to Planned Parenthood, and the Trump administration has vowed to religious and social conservatives that it would keep up the effort.

Russian Witch Hunt Cartoons

Mueller's team of Dem donors under fire from Trump as probe hits one-year mark

Robert Mueller's team includes investigators Andrew Weissmann, Jeannie Rhee and James Quarles (from left to right).

The long and winding special counsel Russia investigation that President Trump has routinely decried as a “witch hunt” hit the one-year mark on Thursday – giving Trump’s legal team an opening to renew criticism of the probe’s focus and its investigators.
Legal team member Rudy Giuliani told Fox News on Wednesday that Mueller already has assured them the president can't be indicted.
And he said earlier this week that the president's lawyers would use the 'anniversary' to double down on calls to wrap up the investigation. Expect vocal reminders from the president's team Thursday that the past year has yielded no collusion-related charges.
“This case is essentially over. They’re just in denial,” Giuliani told Fox News' John Roberts.
Trump himself already has started to ramp up accusations of alleged political bias on the Mueller team itself, composed of largely registered Democrats or Democratic donors. This could be a recurring theme if the case continues to drag on.
“The 13 Angry Democrats in charge of the Russian Witch Hunt are starting to find out that there is a Court System in place that actually protects people from injustice…and just wait ‘till the Courts get to see your unrevealed Conflicts of Interest!” Trump tweeted last week.
Mueller’s team is composed of 17 attorneys, 13 of which are Democrats. At least nine have donated to Democratic candidates and causes. Mueller, however, is said to be a life-long Republican and served as FBI director under former Republican President George W. Bush.
Among the team members is Jeannie Rhee, a former partner at WilmerHale—the high-profile law firm where Mueller worked prior to taking on the special counsel role—and former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. She is a registered Democrat and donated a total of $5,400 to Hillary Clinton in 2015 and 2016. Rhee also donated a combined $4,800 to former President Barack Obama in 2008, and the same amount again in 2011. Rhee has contributed smaller amounts of money to the Democratic National Committee and multiple Democrats running for Congress.

Rhee also represented Obama Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes during the House Select Committee on Benghazi’s investigation of the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack, as well as the Clinton Foundation in 2015 against a racketeering lawsuit brought by conservative legal activist group Freedom Watch. And Rhee represented Clinton in a lawsuit seeking access to her private emails.
Another attorney on Mueller’s team is James Quarles, who served as former assistant special prosecutor for the Watergate Special Prosecution Force and also was a former partner at WilmerHale. He is a registered Democrat and has donated significant sums to Democratic candidates: $2,700 to Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016, and more than $7,000 to Obama over the last decade. Quarles did, however, donate $2,500 to former Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, in 2015.

Then there's Andrew Weissmann, former general counsel at the FBI and former assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. He is a registered Democrat and donated a combined $2,300 to Obama’s campaign in 2008. In 2006, Weissmann contributed at least $2,000 to the DNC.

Another attorney, on detail from the Southern District of New York, is Andrew Goldstein, a registered Democrat who donated a combined $3,300 to Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012.
The Special Counsel’s Office told Fox News last year that they had no comment on allegations of potential bias on the team.
Justice Department policies and federal law prohibit discriminating based on political affiliation when it comes to hiring for nonpolitical positions.
In the lead-up to the one-year mark, Trump on Tuesday blasted what he estimated to be a $10 million “Russian Witch Hunt,” boasting that despite the drawn-out investigation, his approval numbers are improving.
Giuliani also said in a recent interview with Bloomberg that it's time to end the investigation, and warned they are prepared for battle: “We don’t want to signal our action if this doesn’t work—we are going to hope they listen to us—but obviously we have a Plan B and C.”
He did not specify what those plans might be.
Other attorneys on Mueller’s team -- like Elizabeth Prelogar, Brandon Van Grack, Rush Atkinson, Kyle Freeny, and Greg Andres -- are registered Democrats and have contributed smaller sums of money to Democratic candidates.
Whether Mueller is sitting on any damaging information about the president remains to be seen. In claiming there would not be an indictment, Giuliani made clear Mueller is bound by a 1999 Justice Department memo under the Clinton administration.
The next big question is whether Trump will agree to an interview with Mueller.
Giuliani told Fox News this week that the president's legal team hoped to make a decision about a Mueller-Trump interview by the May 17 anniversary -- but has not received a response from the special counsel on various requests for information.
While Trump insists there has been "no collusion," Mueller’s team has secured numerous indictments and received several guilty pleas from people involved in Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign -- though none of those charges dealt with collusion.
WHO'S BEEN CHARGED BY MUELLER IN THE RUSSIA PROBE SO FAR? 
Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn was charged and pled guilty to making false statements to the FBI about his communications with the Russian ambassador; former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was indicted on 32 counts in February, and also charged in a 12-count indictment in October; and former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos pled guilty to making false statements to the FBI.
Mueller’s team has also charged 13 Russian nationals for allegedly interfering in the election.

Conservative student's parting shot at college's anti-gun policies goes viral: 'Come and take it'

Kent State University graduate, Kaitlin Bennett, went viral for taking a parting shot at her school's anti-gun policy Sunday.  (Liberty Hangout)

A conservative woman who recently graduated from Kent State University has received threats after she took aim at her school’s anti-gun policies in a photo shoot where she carried an AR-10 and wore a cap that said, “Come and take it.”

Kaitlin Bennett, a 22-year-old Second Amendment supporter from Zanesville, Ohio and founder of Liberty Hangout at Kent State, a student media outlet that promotes libertarian values, posed in front of the Kent Student Center for the tweet that has gone viral.  

Now that I graduated from @KentState, I can finally arm myself on campus. I should have been able to do so as a student- especially since 4 unarmed students were shot and killed by the government on this campus. #CampusCarryNow pic.twitter.com/a91fQH44cq

— Kaitlin Marie (@KaitMarieox) May 13, 2018

“Now that I graduated from @KentState, I can finally arm myself on campus. I should have been able to do so as a student – especially since 4 unarmed students were shot and killed by the government on this campus. #CampusCarryNow,” she posted on Twitter Sunday.
Bennett told Fox News she wanted to condemn the school’s “insulting” policies.

Kent State University graduate, Kaitlin Bennett, went viral for taking a parting shot at her school's anti-gun policy Sunday.  (Liberty Hangout)

“I wanted to draw attention to the gun policies on campus that allow guests to open carry, but not students,” she said. “I find it insulting that the school values the lives of their guests more than those attending the university for four years.”
The university has a rule against students, faculty, and staff carrying “deadly weapons.” But Kent State University spokesman Eric Mansfield told Fox News that because Bennett is no longer a student, she violated no policies.
“After graduation, she joined the ranks of our proud graduates,” Mansfield said. “So at the time of this photo, she and other graduates would be permitted to open carry on our campus.”
AT TOP 45 COLLEGES, NO CONSERVATIVES INVITED FOR COMMENCEMENT: REPORT

I have no apologies for my graduation photos. As a woman, I refuse to be a victim & the second amendment ensures that I don't have to be. pic.twitter.com/5CKmQobrMb

— Kaitlin Marie (@KaitMarieox) May 15, 2018

Mansfield noted that KSU has a full-time, certified police force of more than 30 sworn officers who protect the campus and the university was recently ranked the safest big college campus in Ohio and the 25th safest in the country, according to National Council for Home Safety and Security.

Bennett said even though she’s received death threats because of her post, she has no regrets.
“I have no apologies for my graduation photos,” she tweeted Tuesday. “As a woman, I refuse to be a victim & the second amendment ensures that I don't have to be.”

Wouldn't it be awkward if the people calling my AR-10 in my grad photos an "assault rifle" found out assault rifles are banned & the AR-10 fires at the same rate as any modern pistol?
Don't talk about gun control when you can't even get your facts straight.

— Kaitlin Marie (@KaitMarieox) May 16, 2018

In another tweet, she made it clear her gun is an AR-10 and not an “assault rifle” as many had claimed.
“Don’t talk about gun control,” Bennett wrote, “when you can’t even get your facts straight.”

Boulder passes sweeping anti-gun bill; pro-2A nonprofit vows to sue individual councilmembers

Boulder's City Council passed a sweeping anti-gun bill Tuesday, even as it faces almost-certain legal challenges on a variety of constitutional grounds.  (Reuters)

The Boulder City Council unanimously passed a sweeping gun control ordinance Tuesday night banning "assault weapons" and bump stocks, even as a pro-Second Amendment group threatened to retaliate by suing individual councilmembers.
In a surprising turn, one Colorado councilwoman admitted that she disagreed with the ordinance "in many ways," saying it would invite a flood of litigation -- despite voting for it.
The city defines assault weapons as "semi-automatic firearms designed with military features to allow rapid spray firing for the quick and efficient killing of humans."
Included in the definition are "all semiautomatic action rifles with a detachable magazine with a capacity of twenty-one or more rounds," as well as "semiautomatic shotguns with a folding stock or a magazine capacity of more than six rounds or both."

"We're going to see a lot of court cases coming before us."

Those possessing assault weapons already can keep them under the law, but owning bump stocks and high-capacity magazines will be become illegal in July. Certain law enforcement and military personnel are exempted from the ordinance.
During the public comment period for the legislation, the nonprofit Mountain States Legal Foundation promised to sue the city for "violations of the Second, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments," as well as the Colorado Constitution, Fox's KDVR-TV reported.
RETIRED SUPREME COURT JUSTICE SAYS SECOND AMENDMENT SHOULD BE REPEALED 
A staff attorney for the group, Cody Wisniewski, said that individual councilmembers would be named in the lawsuit, according to the network.
Lawsuits generally cannot be directed personally at individual lawmakers for their official actions in legislative sessions, but naming elected officials in civil actions against the government is often acceptable as long as plaintiffs are not seeking to hold lawmakers personally liable for allegedly unconstitutional conduct.
The nonprofit's threat of legal action apparently did not come as a surprise to members of the city council, who said they anticipated complications.
"We're going to see a lot of court cases coming before us," Councilwoman Mirabai Nagle said despite voting for the ordinance, according to Colorado Public Radio. "I think that we're going to spend a lot of time and money. It's not that lives aren't worth that, but I think that there was a better way of going about this.
"I don't agree with this ordinance in many ways," Nagle added. "It's not perfect."
The proposed ordinance led to protests last week, with some pro-Second Amendment activists carrying long guns openly in the streets, according to local reports.
The Boulder City Council tweeted Tuesday that it would soon consider additional amendments to the ordinance, such as raising the age to buy a firearm.
The bill comes after several other state and local governments have passed contentious gun-control measures in the wake of the February mass shooting at a Florida high school.
Amid a barrage of taunts from protesters calling him a "liar" and a "traitor" last month, for example, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott enacted the state's first major gun control measures during a heated signing ceremony at the Statehouse.

Giuliani says Mueller 'has all the facts ... and he has nothing' on Trump

President Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told Fox News' Laura Ingraham Wednesday night that Special Counsel Robert Mueller should wrap up his investigation into alleged collusion with Russia by the Trump campaign, saying that Mueller "has nothing."
"It's been a year, he’s gotten more than 1.4 million documents, he’s interviewed 28 witnesses, and he has nothing," Giuliani said, "which is why he wants to bring the president into an interview."
Giuliani spoke to Ingraham the same day he said that Mueller told Trump's legal team he would follow Justice Department guidelines and not indict the sitting president.
"They have only exculpatory information about us," he said. "I've been through the documents. So it's about time to get the darn thing over with. It's about time to say, 'Enough. We've tortured this president enough.'
Giuliani said the president's legal team wants Mueller's investigators to "tell us what you have to get from an interview that you don't already have, because he has all the facts to make a decision.
MUELLER TOLD TRUMP LEGAL TEAM HE WILL NOT INDICT THE PRESIDENT, GIULIANI TELLS FOX NEWS 
"We're trying to get him to end this," the former federal prosecutor and New York City mayor said of Mueller. "This is not good for the American people [and] the special counsel’s office doesn’t seem to have that sort of understanding that they’re interfering with things that are much bigger than them or us."
Giuliani added that he is ready to challenge any report issued by Mueller and his team.
"I think that they have the facts on which they can write their report," Giuliani said before issuing a challenge to the special prosecutor: "If you're going to write a fair report, fine, write it. If you're going to write an unfair report, write it and we will combat it.
"We are ready to rip it apart."
Giuliani also reacted to Trump's newly filed disclosure form, which confirms that the president reimbursed his personnel attorney, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election. Giuliani initially told Fox News' Sean Hannity earlier this month that Trump had reimbursed Cohen for the payment.
TRUMP FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE INCLUDES MICHAEL COHEN PAYMENT
"The president was fully aware of it, and endorsed the strategy," Giuliani said of his disclosure to Hannity. "We wouldn’t do it without him. He's the client after all and has tremendous judgment about things like this."
Giuliani added that the disclosure to the Office of Government Ethics "vindicates our original strategy," but added that he didn't think the payment should have been made public in the first place.
"I think it was an expenditure that had to be reimbursed," Giuliani said. "They say it's a liability ... I don't agree that it's a liability because I know the nature of it, [but] it doesn't matter at this point."
Cohen is the subject of a criminal investigation by federal authorities in New York and FBI agents raided his office, apartment and hotel room last month. Giuliani told Ingraham Wednesday that the Cohen case did not concern Trump's legal team.
"Not a lick. We’re completely uninvolved in that. We've gotten assurances that we're not involved with it," he said. "It's only about Mueller getting the darn thing over with and he owes that to the American people."

Shadow Government Cartoons