Steve Bannon: Rod Rosenstein should surrender documents about FBI informant or be fired

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon claimed that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be fired unless he provides the White House documents related to an FBI informant in contact with members of President Trump's 2016 campaign.

Trump has recently referred to the informant as a “spy” who infiltrated the campaign for political purposes.

According to Bannon, Rosenstein must surrender the documents, or else he should be ousted.

"You turn over every document, and if he doesn't turn it over, you give him 24 hours. If he doesn't turn it over, I would fire him, and that's not obstruction of justice," Bannon said in a soon-to-be aired interview with CNN.

"That's giving a law enforcement officer a direct order to turn over documents to Capitol Hill, and if he doesn't do it, I would fire him," he said.

Earlier this month, multiple media outlets identified Stefan Halper, an American who worked at Cambridge University, as an FBI source who met with three Trump campaign staffers, including campaign advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, and campaign co-chair Sam Clovis.

In response, Trump requested that the Justice Department investigate if the “FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes” and has sought documents concerning the informant.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders revealed afterward the Justice Department “has asked the inspector general to expand its current investigation to include any irregularities with the Federal Bureau of Investigations or the Department of Justice’s tactics concerning the Trump Campaign.”

Several lawmakers, including Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., met with officials last week at the Justice Department to address how the FBI utilized the informant.

Earlier this week, Gowdy cast doubt on Trump’s assertion that a spy infiltrated his campaign and claimed the FBI had an “obligation” to look into potential meddling by foreign actors in the 2016 election.

Rosenstein is overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation looking at Russian interference in the 2016 election and if the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/steve-bannon-rod-rosenstein-should-surrender-documents-about-fbi-informant-or-be-fired

Trump tells Trudeau and Canada: U.S. will ‘agree to a fair deal, or there will be no deal at all’

President Trump claimed the U.S. would “agree to a fair deal,” or else there would be no deal with Canada as the two nations discuss renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"The United States has been taken advantage of for many decades on trade," Trump said in a statement. "Those days are over. Earlier today, this message was conveyed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada: The United States will agree to a fair deal, or there will be no deal at all."

The statement comes after Trudeau said Thursday afternoon that a meeting with Trump didn’t occur earlier this week because Vice President Mike Pence told the prime minister he must allow a five-year sunset clause to be included in the trade agreement in order for the meeting to even happen. Trudeau called the condition “completely unacceptable.”

The sunset clause would allow the agreement to end unless the countries involved decided to renew it.

“I had to highlight that there was no possibility of any Canadian prime minister signing a NAFTA deal that included a five-year sunset clause, and obviously the visit didn’t happen,” Trudeau said Thursday.

“So I answered that if that was a precondition to my visit I was unable to accept,” Trudeau said. “And so we did not go to Washington.”

Earlier Thursday, U.S. allies including Mexico and Canada were hit with tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The tariffs will take effect Friday.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-tells-trudeau-and-canada-u-s-will-agree-to-a-fair-deal-or-there-will-be-no-deal-at-all

Paul Ryan scolds White House on tariff move

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., scolded the White House on Thursday for moving ahead with steel and aluminum tariffs against the the European Union, Canada, and Mexico, arguing they should have continued with negotiation efforts instead.

"I disagree with this decision. Instead of addressing the real problems in the international trade of these products, today’s action targets America’s allies when we should be working with them to address the unfair trading practices of countries like China. There are better ways to help American workers and consumers. I intend to keep working with the president on those better options," Ryan said.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday that the U.S.'s tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum would go into effect Friday following months of wrangling between the respective governments to resolve the conflict.

The White House said its tariffs had "already had major, positive effects on steel and aluminum workers." All three trading partners responded by promising retaliatory tariffs against U.S. goods.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/paul-ryan-scolds-white-house-tariffs-canada-mexico-eu

GE exits Iran as Trump rattles foreign trade

General Electric will begin to halt its operations in Iran following President Trump's scrapping of a deal that gave the Islamic Republic access to U.S. trade in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear capabilities.

The Boston-based company joins an array of businesses affected by Trump's decision, which was broadly condemned by European allies and includes the reinstatement of U.S. sanctions suspended under the Obama-era agreement, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Licenses that allowed U.S. firms to do business in Iran will be revoked, subject to three- and six-month wind-down periods, and the U.S. will retaliate against overseas companies that continue to do business with the country.

“We are adapting our activities in Iran as necessary to conform with recent changes in U.S. law," a GE spokeswoman said. "GE’s activities in Iran to date have been limited and in compliance with U.S. government rules, licenses and policies."

Several other companies, including French oil and gas giant Total SA, have also announced they will pause operations in Iran.

In addition to equipment sales by GE affiliates outside the U.S., regulatory filings show the company won $1.49 million in purchase orders from Iran in the three months through March 31, a fraction of its total of $13 billion in equipment orders. Trade allowed under the license that GE used won't be allowed after early November, the Treasury Department said.

The fallout is considerably more severe for other U.S. manufacturers. Chicago-based planemaker Boeing had won orders valued at roughly $20 billion, though none of the aircraft had been delivered.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/business/ge-exits-iran-as-trump-rattles-foreign-trade

Justin Trudeau: Mike Pence demanded NAFTA sunset clause as condition of meeting on steel tariffs

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that the Trump administration played hardball on trade this week by demanding that he agree to the inclusion of a sunset clause in the North American Free Trade Agreement as precondition for a meeting to discuss Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs.

Trudeau balked, and as a consequence the meeting didn't happen. The U.S. announced Thursday it was going ahead with steel and aluminum tariffs against Canada and other countries.

In a press conference Thursday announcing retaliatory tariffs against the U.S., Trudeau said the demand came from Vice President Mike Pence, who told Trudeau in a phone call that he would have to agree to adding a five-year sunset clause to NAFTA just to have the meeting. Trudeau said that was “completely unacceptable.”

“So I answered that if that was a precondition to my visit I was unable to accept,” Trudeau said. “And so we did not go to Washington.”

The Trump administration has long pushed for adding a clause to the 1993 trade deal causing it to automatically expire after a period of time if the member countries don’t agree to extend it.

A Trump administration source who requested anonymity said the White House told the Canadian government on Tuesday that there was no point in holding any meeting if both sides weren't ready to come to some agreement on a sunset clause, among other issues.

"It was one of many issues the administration needed clarity on before it made sense to move forward with any meeting," the source said.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/justin-trudeau-mike-pence-demanded-nafta-sunset-clause-as-condition-of-meeting-on-steel-tariffs

>>1604151

It's getting very interesting.

>>1604182

I am not sure where you got that I doubted the POTUS…I never inferred or intimated anything of the sort, I will thank you not to put words in my text I haven't written or spoken. FYI: I do trust POTUS…Saying it's getting very interesting, because it IS very interesting says just what it means 'interesting.'

>>1604239

I think he will be back, begging for a deal.