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They Won’t have Sarah Huckabee Sanders to Kick Around Anymore

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the longest-serving press secretary the Trump Administration has had, is leaving her post and the podium of the Brady Briefing Room.

Mr Trump tweeted that Mrs Sanders would be returning to her home of Arkansas after more than three years on the job.
"She is a very special person with extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job," Mr Trump wrote.
She started out as deputy press secretary before replacing Sean Spicer in the top post in July 2017.
Mrs Sanders, 36, has been a fierce defender of the president, famously saying that God "wanted Donald Trump to become president".
At a White House event on Thursday, Mr Trump described Mrs Sanders as "a special person, a very very fine woman".
She said her time in the administration was "the honour of a lifetime".
"This is something I will treasure forever," she said. "I'm going to continue to be one of the most outspoken and loyal supporters of the president."
The mother-of-three said she was looking forward to spending more time with her children as she transitioned into a new role outside the White House.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been a constant lightening rod in an administration that happily calls down the media thunder. She held fewer formal press briefings than her predecessors, and came under intense criticism at times for which side of the "it’s spin/it's a lie" line that all mouthpieces for the president have to straddle. Having Donald Trump to run interference for would likely be an impossible task for anyone. Regardless, what say you about the tenure of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, now that she has done her last gaggle?

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The Vox Media Union has walked out today. Here’s what it looks like in the New York office. pic.twitter.com/erPp4fW1nw
— Vox Media Union (@vox_union) June 6, 2019

(Featured image is the empty Vox offices was posted by the Vox Media Union twitter account to their own twitter feed.)

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Robert Mueller on Robert Mueller

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Robert Mueller on Robert Mueller

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Robert Mueller has finally spoken, and says his statement today is his final word on the subject:

CNN:

Special counsel Robert Mueller said in a rare and remarkable public statement Wednesday that charging President Donald Trump was not an option his office could consider.
Mueller, speaking from the Justice Department, said he's closing the special counsel's office and returning to private life.
This is his first public statement regarding the investigation.
"It's important the office's written work speaks for itself," Mueller said about his report, which was delivered in March to Attorney General William Barr.
The statement is being delivered amid political disputes about the findings of Mueller's investigation, particularly regarding whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice.
The White House got a heads up Tuesday night that Mueller would likely deliver a statement on Wednesday about the Mueller investigation, according to a senior administration official, who added that the White House is going to wait until after his remarks to comment.

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UK PM Theresa May has announced she will be stepping down effective June 7th.

In an emotional statement, she said she had done her best to deliver Brexit and it was a matter of "deep regret" that she had been unable to do so.
Being prime minister had been the "honour of my life", she said.
Mrs May said she would continue to serve as PM while a Conservative leadership contest takes place.
It means she will still be prime minister when US President Donald Trump makes his state visit to the UK at the start of June.
Mrs May announced she would step down as Tory leader on 7 June and had agreed with the chairman of Tory backbenchers that a leadership contest should begin the following week.
Boris Johnson, Esther McVey and Rory Stewart have said they intend to run for the party leadership, while more than a dozen others are believed to be seriously considering entering the contest.
The prime minister has faced a backlash from her MPs against her latest Brexit plan, which included concessions aimed at attracting cross-party support.

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Michael Avenatti Hit with Additional Indictment

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Michael Avenatti Hit with Additional Indictment

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[caption id="attachment_127799" align="aligncenter" width="508"] Avenatti[/caption]

Ain't that a Basta...

According to the allegations in the Indictment unsealed today[1]:
From August 2018 through February 2019, AVENATTI defrauded a client (“Victim-1”) by diverting money owed to Victim-1 to AVENATTI’s control and use. After assisting Victim-1 in securing a book contract, AVENATTI allegedly stole a significant portion of Victim-1’s advance on that contract. He did so by, among other things, sending a fraudulent and unauthorized letter purporting to contain Victim-1’s signature to Victim-1’s literary agent, which instructed the agent to send payments not to Victim-1 but to a bank account controlled by AVENATTI. As alleged, Victim-1 had not signed or authorized the letter, and did not even know of its existence.
Specifically, prior to Victim-1’s literary agent wiring the second of four installment payments due to Victim-1 as part of the book advance, AVENATTI sent a letter to Victim-1’s literary agent purportedly signed by Victim-1 that instructed the literary agent to send all future payments to a client trust account in Victim-1’s name and controlled by AVENATTI. The literary agent then wired $148,750 to the account, which AVENATTI promptly began spending for his own purposes, including on airfare, hotels, car services, restaurants and meal delivery, online retailers, payroll for his law firm and another business he owned, and insurance. When Victim-1 began inquiring of AVENATTI as to why Victim-1 had not received the second installment, AVENATTI lied to Victim-1, telling Victim-1 that he was still attempting to obtain the payment from Victim-1’s publisher. Approximately one month after diverting the payment, AVENATTI used funds recently received from another source to pay $148,750 to Victim-1, so that Victim-1 would not realize that AVENATTI had previously taken and used Victim-1’s money.
Approximately one week later, pursuant to AVENATTI’s earlier fraudulent instructions, the literary agent sent another payment of $148,750 of Victim-1’s book advance to the client account controlled by AVENATTI. AVENATTI promptly began spending the money for his own purposes, including to make payments to individuals with whom AVENATTI had a personal relationship, to make a monthly lease payment on a luxury automobile, and to pay for airfare, dry cleaning, hotels, restaurants and meals, payroll, and insurance costs. Moreover, to conceal his scheme, and despite repeated requests to AVENATTI, as Victim-1’s lawyer, for assistance in obtaining the book payment that Victim-1 believed was missing, AVENATTI led Victim-1 to believe that Victim-1’s publisher was refusing to make the payment to the literary agent, when, as AVENATTI knew, the publisher had made the payment to the literary agent, who had then sent the money to AVENATTI pursuant to AVENATTI’s fraudulent instructions.

These charges are separate from the additional indictment relating to attempting to extort Nike.

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