Saagar Enjeti, Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, White House’s Adam Kennedy and Mary Lou McDonough of Prince George’s County Department of Corrections joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, May 23, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C AVENATTI INDICTED ON DEFRAUDING DANIELS: Avenatti, 48, faces one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. He faces up to 22 years in prison if convicted of those charges. Daniels is not named in the indictment, but a federal law enforcement official confirmed to Fox News that she is the client prosecutors claimed Avenatti defrauded.

5am – D/E     TRUMP’S TAXES:

• Mnuchin Says It’s ‘Unlawful’ to Give Congress Trump Tax Returns. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin responds to questions from Representative Alma Adams, a North Carolina Democrat, during testimony before the House Financial Services Committee. (Source: Bloomberg)
• Judge rules banks should give Trump’s financial records to Congress
• In a statement to CNBC after the ruling, Deutsche Bank said, “We remain committed to providing appropriate information to all authorized investigations and will abide by a court order regarding such investigations.”
• Wells Fargo, TD Bank have turned Trump’s financial records over to House (Washington Examiner)

6am – A/B/C TRUMP-PELOSI-SCHUMER FEUD:

• Pelosi says Trump is ‘engaged in a cover-up’
• Pres. Trump: “I told Sen. Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, ‘I want to do infrastructure. I want to do it more than you want to do it. I’d be really good at that, that’s what I do.’ But you know what, you can’t do it under these circumstances. So get these phony investigations over with.”

6am – D/E     Investigators could not determine if Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is in racist yearbook photo. (Washington Post) – NORFOLK — A four-month investigation into a racist picture on Gov. Ralph Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook page wrapped up with the central mystery unsolved, as investigators announced Wednesday that they have not determined whether the governor is in the photo. The lingering question could cast a long shadow over the Democrat, who defied widespread calls for his resignation when the photo resurfaced in February. He has vowed to serve out the remaining 2½ years of his term, devoting himself to the cause of racial equity. Investigators also said they could not figure out who was responsible for placing the photo on Northam’s yearbook page.

6am – F         John Walker Lindh, American ex-Taliban militant, set to walk free Thursday.  John Walker Lindh, who is currently behind bars in Terre Haute, Indiana, is set to be discharged May 23, several years before he would complete the prescribed 20-year prison sentence he received for joining and supporting the Taliban. The former Islamist fighter and enemy combatant, named “Detainee 001 in the war on terror,” was arrested in 2001, just months after the Sept. 11 attacks and the start of the war in Afghanistan, along with a group of Taliban fighters who were captured by U.S. forces.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – SAAGAR ENJETI – Chief Washington Correspondent & Host at The Hill – discussed the Chuck and Nancy and judge rules on Trump’s financials.

7am – B/C     Corrections Says ICE Failed to Provide Warrant to Hold Gang Members Now Accused in Maryland Girl’s Death. (NBC Washington) – The Prince George’s County Department of Corrections is defending itself after federal immigration agents blamed it for releasing two suspected gang members last year, giving them the opportunity to kill a 14-year-old girl in April. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says Josue Fuentes-Ponce, 16, and Joel Escobar, 17, were in the country illegally when they were arrested May 11, 2018, on several charges, including attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and participation in gang activity, ICE said. They were released on an unknown date despite an ICE detainer, according to ICE. But after working their way through the justice system, a judge said it was against the law to do anything other than release them. “It’s basically a violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution to hold someone without due process and a warrant,” Prince George’s County Department of Corrections Director Mary Lou McDonough said.  She said ICE detainment requests are civil requests and not actual warrants. “On warrants, we’ll hold you as long as we can, and that’s what we’ve told ICE in the past,” she said. “If they really want somebody, get us a warrant and we’ll hold them for them.” Escobar had been held by Prince George’s County, while Ponce was held at a juvenile facility that says it did not receive a detainer to hold him. Ponce, Escobar and 14-year-old Cynthia Hernandez-Nucamendi were arrested last week and charged with first-degree murder and related charges in the death of 14-year-old Ariana Funes-Diaz, of Adelphi, whose body was found April 19 in a creek in the 6300 block of 64th Avenue in Riverdale.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – LT. COL. TONY SHAFFER – a CIA trained former senior intelligence officer and president of the London Center for Policy Research

• John Walker Lindh, American ex-Taliban militant, set to walk free Thursday.  John Walker Lindh, who is currently behind bars in Terre Haute, Indiana, is set to be discharged May 23, several years before he would complete the prescribed 20-year prison sentence he received for joining and supporting the Taliban. The former Islamist fighter and enemy combatant, named “Detainee 001 in the war on terror,” was arrested in 2001, just months after the Sept. 11 attacks and the start of the war in Afghanistan, along with a group of Taliban fighters who were captured by U.S. forces.
• Father of slain CIA officer calls for investigation of comments by “American Taliban” fighter John Walker Lindh ahead of his release. ‘Slap in the face’: Daughter of CIA officer killed after 9/11 blasts ‘American Taliban’ release
• In letter, ‘American Taliban’ John Walker Lindh said ISIS ‘doing a spectacular job’

 7am – E         Head of Virginia governor’s medical school knew about racist photo but kept quiet. (Fox News) — A probe into Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook — which featured a racist photo of a man in blackface standing next to someone in Ku Klux Klan garb — revealed that the school’s president, who donated to the Democrat’s campaign, knew about the image but decided against taking action. The law firm investigating the origin and content of a racist photo, which appeared on Northam’s page inside the 1984 yearbook, said Wednesday that investigators were unable to determine whether the governor is one of the people seen in the photo or has any other direct connection to it. But the EVMS investigation report disclosed that school President Richard Homan — a donor to Northam’s campaign — had learned about the racist yearbook photo from his staff, raising questions about whether politics was taken into consideration in Homan’s decision not to address the matter. “The staff members were advising the president at the time of the photograph and asking if EVMS had an obligation to or should do something about it, such as notifying Governor Northam about it,” the report read. “The president of EVMS decided that the school should not take steps to publicly announce the photograph or to call Governor Northam’s attention to it.”

8am – A         INTERVIEW – Adam Kennedy – Deputy Assistant to President Trump and Deputy Director of Communications at the White House

• Pelosi says Trump is ‘engaged in a cover-up’
• Pres. Trump: “I told Sen. Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, ‘I want to do infrastructure. I want to do it more than you want to do it. I’d be really good at that, that’s what I do.’ But you know what, you can’t do it under these circumstances. So get these phony investigations over with.”

8am – B/C     CARSON CLAPS BACK AT OMAR: ‘I Know What It’s Like’: Ben Carson Fires Back At Ilhan Omar Over ‘Sleep’ Barb.  Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Dr. Ben Carson traded barbs with Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar over Carson’s testimony before a House committee. Omar took a shot at Carson for his response to Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley in a hearing Tuesday. During a tense exchange, Carson dodged Pressley’s answer by saying he was “reclaiming [his] time.” “Not sure he was fully awake, maybe he meant to reclaim his time back to sleep,” Omar wrote in a tweet Tuesday evening. Carson fired back Wednesday in a tweet directed at Omar. “Since you brought it up … I know what it’s like to actually be sleepy, especially after 18-hour surgeries and operating on babies in the womb,” Carson, a former pediatric neurosurgeon, wrote. “I hope @IlhanMN knows I care about all people, even those she doesn’t recognize as having a right to life,” he added.

8am – D/E     INTERVIEW – MARY LOU MCDONOUGH – director of the Prince George’s County Department of Corrections

• Two teenagers charged in the death of a 14-year-old Maryland girl were arrested by Prince George’s County police in another case last year and should have been detained, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
• Corrections Says ICE Failed to Provide Warrant to Hold Gang Members Now Accused in Maryland Girl’s Death. The Prince George’s County Department of Corrections is defending itself after federal immigration agents blamed it for releasing two suspected gang members last year, giving them the opportunity to kill a 14-year-old girl in April. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says Josue Fuentes-Ponce, 16, and Joel Escobar, 17, were in the country illegally when they were arrested May 11, 2018, on several charges, including attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and participation in gang activity, ICE said. They were released on an unknown date despite an ICE detainer, according to ICE. But after working their way through the justice system, a judge said it was against the law to do anything other than release them. “It’s basically a violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution to hold someone without due process and a warrant,” Prince George’s County Department of Corrections Director Mary Lou McDonough said. She said ICE detainment requests are civil requests and not actual warrants.