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Delegate Tony Wilt Appointed To House Commerce And Labor Committee

“Throughout my time in the House of Delegates I have found the committee process to be one of the most rewarding aspects of my job as it allows for a greater understanding of a wide array of issues. As a small business owner I know the importance of cultivating an environment where businesses and entrepreneurs can thrive with as little government interference as possible. The Commerce and Labor committee does important work and I look forward to getting right to work,” Delegate Tony Wilt (R-Harrisonburg) said.

Virginia Gambling Laws And Industry Revenue To Be Considered In 2019 General Assembly Session

One area in the Commonwealth that needs extra attention insofar as state funding is concerned is public education infrastructure. Virginia has funded K-12 public education through the state lottery system, which has brought in around $9 billion, with record profits topping $600 million in 2018. If the General Assembly repeals Virginia’s existing ban on casino gambling, a potentially large coffer could be opened to fund not only higher education or K-12 education, but other areas that need vital funding – transportation infrastructure, combating the opioid epidemic, school safety measures, countering human trafficking, creating a larger law enforcement presence towards gang violence, more affordable healthcare, among many others. 

After Submitting Written Responses To Mueller, Trump Warns He Will Resist Future Subpoenas From Mueller,

This week, President Donald Trump answered questions given to him by White House Special Counsel Robert Mueller about the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, but reportedly stopped short of answering inquiries into his behavior as commander-in-chief. His lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, stated that the President, in the future, will refuse to cooperate with the Russia probe, even if he is subpoenaed.

“I think that he would not win a legal battle if he did that,” Giuliani said about Mueller, adding that “ I think it would consumer months,” he told Axios.

The questionnaire sent to President Trump “looked like a law school exam,” Giuliani said, explaining that White House lawyers sat with the President in the Oval Office, at the dinner table, and wherever else they could work on crafting official answers to Mueller’s questions.

Reportedly, Mueller pressed President Trump in asking if he knew about the meeting between his son and what was thought to be a Russian with knowledge about then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in Trump Tower in 2017, and broadly inquiring about the situation of then-candidate Trump saying at a campaign press conference in July 2016, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 [Hillary Clinton] emails that are missing.”

Giuliani told reporters this week that the questions sent to the White House to be answered are “all very circumspect.”

The former prosecuting attorney went on to explain that he does not believe that the special counsel “has any way to compel testimony on obstruction because the argument of executive privilege would be very, very strong.” He added, “[A]ny question he has on obstruction…[t]he president has given [the answers] in interviews, tweets. Other witnesses have given it to him.”

Giuliani, who has advocated to end the investigation in the past, said “the law definitely requires that if you’re going to subpoena a president, you have to show that you can’t get the information any place else,” adding there is no evidence of collusion between the Russia government and the Trump campaign team. The heavyweight on Trump’s legal defense team also expressed doubt that the President’s son, Donald Trump Jr., would be indicted over his connection with the case in the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting.

“The meeting turned out to be a big bust,” Giuliani said.

President Trump Intended On Prosecuting James Comey And Hillary Clinton

It has come forth that when then-candidate Donald Trump was alluding to the possible prosecution of then-FBI Director James Comey and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when he was running in the 2016 presidential election, he actually was not kidding about that. Reportedly, President Trump inquired with White House Counsel Don McGhan, who departed from the Trump Administration in October, about moving forward with legal proceedings for the two top political bureaucrats.

In the Spring, attorneys within the White House apparently warned the President about the political consequences associated with prosecuting Comey and Clinton, claiming that impeachment proceedings could be used to remove him from office, which has been the goal for congressional Democrats for the past two years. AP reports that McGahn told Trump that he had no authority to order such a prosecution, arguing that the commander-in-chief could, instead, request an official probe into wrongdoings on part of the two former government officials.

Regardless, any action into the situations could have led to accusations of abuse of the Office of the Presidency.

Nevertheless, President Trump is said to still be mulling the future of the two, including discussing with some close to him about appointing a new special counsel to investigate Comey for his handling of the investigation of private email servers from Clinton during her time at the State Department. Notably, just over a week after Trump took office in 2017, he sat down with the former FBI director, asking for “loyalty,” for what has been alleged to mean the future prosecution of Clinton.

Comey, however, was fired by Trump. FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe also resigned from the bureau following rising tension between the agency and the White House.

Last year, recently-ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed senior federal prosecutors to investigate issues raised by House Republicans related to the Clinton Foundation and a Russian-based uranium mine transaction benefiting the foundation that was approved when Clinton was head of the State Department.

Tax Windfall Discussed By State Lawmakers, With Governor Northam Reconsidering GOP Legislation

Governor Ralph Northam said recently that he wants to target “spiraling healthcare costs,” as Medicaid expansion went into effect earlier this year. Interestingly, he mentioned that Senate Bill 964, introduced by State Senator Glen Sturtevant (R-Richmond), a bill the governor vetoed in May, is “certainly something we can put on the table,” going against the Democratic agenda.

Vice President Mike Pence Stares Down Russian President Vladimir Putin

Vice President Mike Pence gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a nasty stare as they met to shake hands at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Singapore last week, reportedly telling the authoritarian leader not to interfere in U.S. elections. The meeting between the two comes just weeks before the G20 Summit at the end of November set in Buenos Aries, Argentina.

In late July, the most concise implication against the Russian government surfaced as the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted 12 Russian military intelligence officers with hacking into the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in an attempt to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The illegal hacking is said to have released tens of thousands of communications in a sweeping effort by a Moscow to meddle in the election.

As White Special Counsel Robert Mueller is set to wrap up the now-18-month-long investigation into Russian election interference, lawmakers in Washington are now up in arms about the presumed pick for head of Interpol Russian Police Major General Aleksandr Prokopchuk in a time when most of the world is weary of Putin’s Kremlin.

AP reports that Pence’s press secretary, Alyssa Farah, said in a statement that the two “touched on the issues that will be discussed when President Trump and President Putin are both in Argentina.”

Nevertheless, one issue that is to come up is President Donald Trump’s presumed departure from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed by former President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that kickstarted the arms reduction in the latter years of the Cold War. The Russian president reiterated at the ASEAN Summit to Vice President Pence that Moscow and Washington need to discuss the future of the INF treaty and also the 2011 New START arms-reduction agreement which put central limits on strategic arms between the U.S. and the Russian Federation.

While the treaty eliminated all short and intermediate-range nuclear and conventional missiles, as well as their test launches, it did not regulate sea-launched missiles.