Paul Ryan: Trump 'disrupted status quo' with North Korea

House Speaker Paul Ryan praised President Trump for meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, dismissing criticism of the president for praising the dictator.

“The president needed to disrupt the status quo and the president has disrupted the status quo,” Ryan, R-Wis., said. “He should be applauded for doing that. I’m encouraged by the negotiations that are now taking place between Secretary Pompeo and the North Koreans.”

At their summit in Singapore on Tuesday, Trump and Kim Jong Un signed an agreement that is vague but calls for a movement toward denuclearizing North Korea. Trump also praised the dictator as “smart,” a “great negotiator,” and someone who cares about the people in his country, where thousands of people languish in prisons.

Ryan didn’t directly address those comments and said “we should be under no delusion” that North Korea will move immediately, or ever, to complete denuclearization.

“I’m pleased the president has gotten us to the position we are in,” Ryan said. “Time will tell how this ends.”

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/paul-ryan-trump-disrupted-status-quo-with-north-korea

Robert Mueller files request for 150 blank subpoenas in Paul Manafort case

Special counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday filed a request for 150 blank subpoenas in the Eastern District of Virginia, where former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort lives.

The two-page filing reveals little, but says that that each subpoena recipient must appear in the Alexandria, Va., courthouse on July 25 to testify in the case.

Judge T.S. Ellis III has now moved the trial date twice, first from July 10 to July 24, and then from that date to July 25.

The 150 blank subpoenas amount to 75 total possible subpoenas — in each case, a subpoena is needed for the witness and another is needed for the defense. Court documents filed in April show that Mueller's team was pushing to subpoena 35 witnesses in the trial.

In May, court documents showed he had filed 70 blank subpoenas.

A blank subpoena means the party serving the subpoena, in this case the federal government, can fill in the name later, as long as it is done so before the subpoena is served.

The document says each recipient “must also bring with you the following documents, electronically stored information or objects” — but what follows that line is under seal.

In Virginia, Manafort is facing charges including tax fraud and failing to report foreign bank accounts.

Manafort is due in court Friday in Washington, when Judge Amy Berman Jackson will hear arguments from Mueller’s team why she should revoke his bail and jail him due to allegations he sought to tamper with potential witnesses in the case against him.

Last week, Mueller unveiled a superseding indictment against Manafort, charging him with obstruction. Russian businessman Konstantin Kilimnik was also charged with obstruction.

The indictment alleged that Manafort and Kilimnik “knowingly and intentionally attempted to corruptly persuade” two people connected with the Hapsburg Group, a firm Manafort worked with while lobbying for Ukrainian clients “with intent to influence, delay, and prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding.”

Jackson ruled Tuesday that Mueller must reveal the identities of the unnamed people he's hoping to use in the case against Manafort.

“[The] defendant is obliged to prepare for a complex trial with a voluminous record within a relatively short period of time, and he should not have to be surprised at a later point by the addition of a new name or allegation,” Jackson wrote.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/robert-mueller-files-request-for-150-blank-subpoenas-in-paul-manafort-case