Li (Cindy) Yang, a Florida Chinese-American entrepreneur who founded (then sold) the massage parlor where Patriots owner Robert Kraft was allegedly caught paying for sex, didn't just watch the Super Bowl with President Trump last month. She also started a consulting business in 2017 offering Chinese business executives access to Trump, including at his private Mar-a-Lago club, Mother Jones reported Saturday. On Sunday, Mother Jones said Yang is also an officer in local chapters of two clubs with ties to China's Communist government.
The website for Yang's business, GY US Investments LLC, went offline Friday after the Miami Herald reported Yang's ties to Trump, as did her Facebook page with photos of her posing with Trump, Trump family members, Cabinet secretaries, and other boldface Republican politicians. But an archived version of GY's site offered "the opportunity to interact with the president, the [American] Minister of Commerce, and other political figures," at Mar-a-Lago and in Washington. "If the posted photos are authentic, she has been able to get Chinese clients at least into the Trump circle for a quick pic," Mother Jones says.
"It remains unclear how much Li Yang charged for the services and whether she was ever hired to provide them," The Associated Press cautions, but "patrons attending a Republican National Committee dinner at Mar-a-Lago last year noticed a large contingent of Chinese attendees."
Selling Chinese business executives access to the president of the United States at his private club and other venues raises serious ethical, campaign finance, and national security concerns. And Yang, who emigrated from China about 20 years ago, showed no demonstrable interest in politics until the 2016 election, when she and her family began donating more than $58,000 to a pro-Trump PAC and Trump's campaign.
The White House declined to comment on Yang's business. Yang told the Herald "she and her family have never broken the law, but did not answer questions about whether she knew of the allegations that therapists in her spas were offering sex. She added that she was out of the business, would soon be moving to Washington, D.C., and didn't want any negative press." Peter Weber
Former CIA Director John Brennan is very disturbed by a new report from The New York Times, which says last week, members of the House Intelligence Committee were warned by an aide to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire that Russia is actively meddling in the 2020 campaign in order to get President Trump re-elected.
"We are now in a full-blown national security crisis," Brennan said. "By trying to prevent the flow of intelligence to Congress, Trump is abetting a Russian covert operation to keep him in office for Moscow's interests, not America's." Brennan served as CIA director from 2013 to 2017.
The briefing was delivered by Shelby Pierson, one of Maguire's aides known for her blunt delivery, the Times reports. When Trump found out about the briefing, he was livid, and complained that the committee's chair, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), will "weaponize" the intelligence against him, a person with knowledge of the matter told the Times. On Wednesday, Trump announced Maguire is being replaced by U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, a Trump loyalist. Catherine Garcia
After his longtime friend and former adviser Roger Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison on Thursday, President Trump announced that he has "a very good chance of exoneration."
Stone was found guilty last year of lying to Congress and witness tampering, tied to his involvement with Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. While attending an event in Las Vegas, Trump said he is "following this very closely, and I want to see it play out to its fullest, because Roger has a very good chance of exoneration, in my opinion."
Without sharing her name, Trump also said it is "my strong opinion that the forewoman for the jury is totally tainted." She was, he added, "an anti-Trump person, totally. I don't know if this is a fact, but she had a horrible social media account. She's, I guess from what I hear, a very strong woman, a very dominant person, so she can get people to do whatever she wants."
The forewoman disclosed during jury selection that in 2012, she ran for Congress as a Democrat. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said the jury acted with "integrity" and Stone was not prosecuted "for standing up for the president. He was prosecuted for covering up for the president." Catherine Garcia
While at a private event in England on Wednesday night, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said for the U.S. economy to keep growing, more immigrants need to come to the country.
The Washington Post obtained audio of Mulvaney's remarks, made at the Oxford Union. He told the crowd the United States is "desperate — desperate — for more people. We are running out of people to fuel the economic growth that we've had in our nation over the last four years. We need more immigrants." He stressed that they must come in a "legal fashion."
President Trump is surrounded by immigration hardliners like senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, who wants to curtail both legal and illegal immigration, and others who argue that immigrants increase wage competition against U.S. workers. Last year, Trump said the United States is "full," and people trying to cross the southern border need to "turn around." Mulvaney said the president might have an "anti-immigrant" reputation, the Post reports, but he wants to lure more foreign workers to the U.S. Catherine Garcia
President Trump would rather keep the facts to himself.
Last week, the House Intelligence Committee reportedly received a briefing detailing how Russia was once again interfering in the 2020 election. The next day, Trump attacked his outgoing national intelligence director for letting the briefing happen, people familiar with the exchange told The New York Times.
The committee, led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), learned from intelligence official Shelby Pierson that Russia was working to get Trump re-elected this fall, five people familiar with the matter said. Pierson has a reputation for bluntness, and some officials who heard about the briefing suggested Pierson should've left out the bit on Russia to avoid riling up Republicans in the room. Trump's allies at the briefing "challenged the conclusions, arguing that Mr. Trump has been tough on Russia and strengthened European security," the Times writes.
An even bigger uproar came the next day from Trump himself, who attacked Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire for what was said in the briefing. This happened last Friday, and by Wednesday, Trump announced he was replacing Maguire with U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who's unabashedly loyal to the president. Read more at The New York Times. Kathryn Krawczyk
Another day of jury deliberations in the Harvey Weinstein rape trial has wrapped, but we still don't have a verdict.
The jury concluded its third day of deliberations on Thursday, sending a note to the court near the very end of the day, The Wrap reports. The jury reportedly wanted to revisit the cross-examination of Annabella Sciorra, whose allegation that Weinstein raped her in 1993 or 1994 is being used to support the charges of predatory sexual assault. The jury also wanted to revisit all of Sciorra's subsequent testimony, Deadline reports.
Because the request came close to the end of the day, this testimony will be read back to jurors "first thing" on Friday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The jury also asked to see a list of people Sciorra says she told about the alleged rape, but the request was denied since this wasn't entered into evidence, per Deadline.
The jury on Thursday reportedly reviewed evidence having to do with both Sciorra's testimony and the testimony of Mimi Haleyi, who alleges Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006, Variety reports. Haleyi's claim is central to the case, and Weinstein is facing charges over both Haleyi's allegation and the allegation of Jessica Mann, who alleges the disgraced producer raped her in 2013.
The Reporter notes that "of the seven notes that the jurors have sent to the judge, several have related to Sciorra's allegations against Weinstein, suggesting the panel has been laser-focused on her case." None of the questions so far have had to do with Mann's allegation.
Weinstein is facing potential life in prison. Jury deliberations will continue on Friday morning.