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Added on the 20/01/2021 15:15:10 - Copyright : France 24 EN
Grave concern is growing among senior White House advisers about the people President Donald Trump has been listening to lately. CNN reports Trump has turned to a fringe group of advisers peddling increasingly dubious tactics to overturn the results of the election. That's generated new levels of uncertainty at how Trump will resist the coming end of his tenure. The coterie includes conspiracist lawyer Sidney Powell, disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and onetime chief strategist Steve Bannon. Other voices in Trump's ear are those from hawkish trade adviser Peter Navarro and the eccentric founder of the retail website Overstock. Sources close to the President say his advisers are particularly worried about what Powell may convince him to do in the coming days. Through it all, Trump has mostly abandoned the day-to-day running of government.
Chinese virologists linked to former Trump strategist Steve Bannon released another paper Thursday on COVID-19. According to Business Insider, the group claims the novel coronavirus is 'an unrestricted bioweapon.' One of the authors, Li-Meng Yan, told Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson that the virus was 'intentionally' released by the Chinese government. The authors accuse scientists of depositing fake coronavirus sequences in GenBank, a genetic sequence database run by the National Institutes of Health. Experts quickly debunked the claim, calling it 'bizarre and unfounded.' Most think the virus originated in bats before jumping to people. In fact, one study found that it shared 96% of its genetic code with coronaviruses sampled from Chinese bat populations.
The Republican Party announced Donald Trump as their official presidential candidate for the next general election during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Tuesday. The 2016 US presidential elections will take place on Tuesday, November 8.
Former President Donald Trump granted extended Secret Service protections to his four adult children. This is also extended to their spouses, according to Business Insider. He made this move before he left the White House in a last effort of wielding power. This expensive, full-time security detail is an unexpected move for most. The extended security detail could cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Given the amount of traveling that the Trump children do, the cost could be astronomical.
An associate of Rudy Giuliani allegedly told a former CIA operative seeking a pardon that it would cost $2 million. According to Business Insider, Giuliani disputes the ex-CIA officer's account, saying he doesn't remember the meeting. The personal lawyer to President Donald Trump also told the New York Times that helping someone obtain a pardon would be a conflict of interest. The Times reported that several people with connections to Trump have accepted large sums of money from people seeking pardons. Trump is facing criticism for using pardons primarily to reward his allies, fellow Republican politicians, and people close to his family.
President Donald Trump has been asking aides and lawyers about his self-pardon power. This includes White House counsel Pat Cipollone, according to CNN. Some of those conversations have happened in recent weeks, one of the sources says. Trump has asked about the legal and political consequences of a self-pardon. A Justice Department legal memo says the president cannot pardon himself. However, he can step down and ask his vice president to take over and pardon him.
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