Delta Air Lines pilot arrested on suspicion of intoxication, escorted off plane

A pilot was escorted off an aircraft and then arrested at the gate on Tuesday, after Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staff smelled alcohol on his breath and suspected he was intoxicated.

Gabriel Lyle Schroeder, 37, was in the cockpit of a fully boarded plane, conducting pre-flight checks on a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport to San Diego, when the Airport Police Department intervened and arrested him.

Suspicions arose about the pilot, according to an arrest report provided to Yahoo Lifestyle by Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesperson Patrick Hoger, when he backtracked and left a security screening area, realizing that TSA officers were performing additional screening in the “Known Crew Members” line.

After he was arrested, Schroeder was found to be in possession of “an alcoholic container” and was suspected to allegedly be impaired.

The pilot was charged for being under the influence “of alcohol/drugs” as an aircraft operator, but has since been released, pending toxicology reports and a subsequent formal complaint.

Hoger declined to provide additional comment because the case is still under investigation.

Pilot Gabriel Schroeder (Photo: Provided by LETG Jail Inmate Detention)
Pilot Gabriel Schroeder (Photo: Provided by LETG Jail Inmate Detention)

The Federal Aviation Administration recommends that pilots should wait “8 hours from ‘bottle to throttle,’” and maintain a blood alcohol level lower than 0.04 percent. It’s unclear whether Schroeder’s BAC was higher than this at the time.

In a statement provided to Yahoo Lifestyle, Delta Air Lines confirms that it is working with authorities to address the incident.

“Delta’s alcohol policy is among the strictest in the industry and we have no tolerance for violation,” the statement reads. “Delta is cooperating with local authorities in their investigation.”

The flight was delayed approximately one hour as a replacement crew member was called in.

This isn’t the first time Delta Air Lines has been under the spotlight recently. On July 10, a Delta flight was forced to make an emergency landing after an engine issue, which a passenger captured on camera. On July 15, a passenger allegedly overdosed and died onboard, and people called out the airline for not carrying the life-saving Narcan on board.

American farmer: Trump ‘took away all of our markets’

The White House recently announced that it would be providing an additional $16 billion in aid to American farmers affected by the trade war between the U.S. and China.

But the problem for American farmers has becomes bigger than something a bailout can fix.

“This trade thing is what’s brought on by the president and it’s really frustrating because he took away all of our markets,” Bob Nuylen, a farmer from North Dakota who grows spring wheat and sunflowers, told Yahoo Finance. “We live in an area where we’re kind of in the middle of nowhere. It costs us a lot of money — over $1 a bushel to get our grain to markets.”

In this July 13, 2017, photo, farmer John Weinand surveys a wheat field near Beulah, N.D., that should be twice as tall as it is. Drought in western North Dakota this summer is laying waste to crops _ some of which won't even be worth harvesting. (AP Photo/Blake Nicholson)
A farmer surveys a wheat field near Beulah, N.D. (Photo: AP Photo/Blake Nicholson)

‘As low as I’ve seen them in a long time’

Since trade tensions began in 2018, farmers have faced major financial challenges, since China was once a major U.S. agriculture buyer.

And losing customers has become a major issue. Soybean farmers have been dealing with this, as China has turned to other countries like Brazil for soybeans. Nuylen said this is also happening for wheat farmers, as China has begun importing wheat from Russian regions.

“All these countries went to different countries to get their grain,” Nuylen said. “How are we going to get the relations back with them to buy our grain again and be our customers?”

Between 2016-2017, China was the fourth-largest wheat buyer in the world, importing more than 61 million U.S. bushels. In 2019, the top U.S. export destinations for wheat include Mexico, the Philippines, Japan, and Nigeria — China is not even among the top 10.

“Our prices are probably as low as I’ve seen them in a long time,” he told Yahoo Finance. “We were losing just about $70 an acre just by putting our crop in [the ground] this spring.”

While a deal between the U.S. and China would take months to be reached, farmers are remaining “cautiously optimistic,” Glenn Brunkow, a Kansas-based corn and soybean farmer said.

“Our hope is that the playing field is leveled up and these tariffs on the other side are taken away,” Brunkow said. “We feel like with the technology we have, the advantages we have, we can produce the crops as economically as anyone else in the whole world.”

FILE - In this June 11, 2019, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks at Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, an ethanol producer in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Trump has repeatedly told U.S. farmers he loves and supports them and in return they largely continue to support him even though some of his promises, better trade deals and strong support for corn-based ethanol, haven't been fully kept. For many farmers and the politicians representing them criticizing the policy failures but not the president himself is a delicate dance. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
President Donald Trump has repeatedly told U.S. farmers he loves and supports them and in return they largely continue to support him even though some of his promises, better trade deals and strong support for corn-based ethanol, haven’t been fully kept. (Photo: AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

‘Farmers are profoundly wary of the trade war’

This isn’t the first time that the USDA has doled out aid to struggling farmers. The Trump administration pledged two installments of a farmer bailout program. The first round of payments totaling $4.7 billion was paid in September 2018, while the second round was distributed in December. By February 2019, the total aid payments reached $7.7 billion.

“Payments are a welcome help for the bottom line of Missouri farmers,” Blake Hurst, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, told Yahoo Finance in an email statement. “Although the trade payments vary widely from county to county, they’ll keep more than a few farmers in business for another year. …

“Having said all that,” the statement added, “farmers are profoundly wary of the trade war, embarrassed that ad hoc government subsidies are all that stands between many of us and financial ruin, and ready for the return of more normal times.”

The Wall Street Journal reported in February that farm bankruptcies in three major farm regions reached their highest level in at least 10 years. Much of this is because crop prices have been dragged down dramatically due to a decrease in consumers. Overall, U.S. farm debt soared over $409 billion in 2017, which is “the largest sum in nearly four decades and a level not seen since the 1980s,” WSJ wrote.

A guest wears a hat that reads
A guest wears a hat that reads “Make Potatoes Great Again” as President Donald Trump speaks at a meeting to support America’s farmers and ranchers. (Photo: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

And it doesn’t help that farmers are facing unprecedented severe weather. Flooding has damaged crops across the Midwest. When combining that with bankruptcies, lower prices, and trade war struggles, mental health problems among rural Americans are becoming more prevalent than ever before.

“People think that farmers are just loaded with money but … just about every dollar a farmer makes, he puts back into the economy and their state and in the nation, because our inputs are so high,” Nuylen said. “We spend just about all the money we make back into the communities. If we’re struggling, everybody’s struggling.”

He added: “We kind of get a bad picture that we’re all big money and drive all this big equipment. In reality … these are record low incomes for farmers in the last couple of years. It’s getting tough out there. We’re going to start seeing a lot of suicide and a lot of farmers going out of business. So, that’s not a good thing.”

The concern is that farmers may reach a breaking point as things drag on.

“It’s going to be a scary situation if it doesn’t turn around pretty soon,” Nuylen said.

‘Serving under Trump is embarrassing’: Fifth Republican congressman retires in just two weeks as GOP fears more exits

A fifth Republican congressman appears set to quit the party in the space of two weeks amid ongoing tension over Donald Trump’s presidency.

Representative Mike Conaway will not seek re-election to his Texas seat in 2020, the Politico website reported. He has not confirmed his decision or reason for retiring but he is set to make a statement to the media.

The move has prompted worries within the party that others will follow suit and step down, because of the difficulties that come with serving under Mr Trump and working with a Democratic majority in Congress.

“Serving in the era of Trump has few rewards,” Tom Davis, a former senior Republican congressman, told The Hill website. “He has made an already hostile political environment worse.

“Every day there is some indefensible tweet or comment to defend or explain. It is exhausting and often embarrassing.”

Mr Conaway, who has served in congress for 15 years, will join Republican representatives Paul Mitchell, Pete Olson, Martha Roby and Rob Bishop in announcing his retirement.

Mr Mitchell had told the House that “rhetoric overwhelms policy and politics consumes much of the oxygen” in Washington DC.

One of his former campaign workers Jamie Roe, later said that Mitchell had “been frustrated with the fact that things don’t get done here”.

While he did not explicitly attribute blame to the president, he was one of the first Republican congressmen to complain about Mr Trump’s recent racist remarks about the group of Democratic congresswoman known as the squad.

“We must be better than comments like these,” he tweeted after the president suggested Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan should go back to their “broken and crime-infested” countries.

Mr Mitchell added: “I share the political frustrations with some members of the other party, but these comments are beneath leaders.”

Ms Roby said she would not vote for Mr Trump in 2016 as his behaviour had been “unacceptable as a candidate for president” but has since improved their relationship and received an endorsement from him in 2018.

The Republican Party is facing a difficult task in reclaiming the House in 2020 after Democrats were victorious in last year’s midterm elections.

Mr Trump’s approval ratings remain low, currently at about 43 per cent on average, and his divisive political agenda could prove costly in congressional elections next year.

Mr Conaway, Mr Mitchell, Ms Roby and Mr Bishop all represent safe Republican districts that are expected to pick candidates from the party in 2020.

However, Mr Olson’s district could be competitive – the Texas congressman saw his majority cut to 5 per cent in 2018.

Even in safe districts, the prospect of returning to the House in 2020 may be unappealing for many conservative representatives as Democrats are expected to win a majority again next year.

In a general ballot, recent polling has shown Democrats lead Republicans by 5.6 per cent for the 2020 election, according to an average by political analysis website FiveThirtyEight.

All 435 voting seats in the House of Representatives will be up for election in 2020, along with 34 seats in the US Senate.

Obama Foundation Announces Wally Adeyemo as President

Wally Adeyemo is a senior advisor at BlackRock and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has spent the majority of his career convening companies, governments, and organizations to move together toward achieving common goals.

CHICAGO — Today, the Obama Foundation announced that former Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Adewale “Wally” Adeyemo will join the organization as its first-ever President.

In this role, Adeyemo will work closely with current Foundation leadership, including Board Chairman Martin Nesbitt and CEO David Simas. Adeyemo will manage the Foundation’s day-to-day operations, helping to implement the organization’s overall strategic goals and vision. Over the last several years, the Obama Foundation has grown from a staff of a dozen to nearly 200 and launched a number of programs to support the next generation of leaders making positive change in their communities.

“Wally is the ideal person to help lead the Foundation team as we continue to grow the impact of our global civic engagement programs and advance the Obama Presidential Center,” said Nesbitt. “Given his executive experience in both the public and private sectors and previous service with President Obama, Wally is well positioned to help us continue to translate our sky-high ambitions into operational reality through daily leadership of our talented staff.”

Adeyemo is joining the Foundation as it advances its work to build the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago and grows its civic engagement programming. Since 2017, the Foundation has launched a series of programs that support leaders around the United States and the world who work to create positive change in their communities, including the Obama Foundation Fellows, Leaders, Scholars, and Community Leadership Corps, as well as the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance and Girls Opportunity Alliance initiatives.

The Foundation recently convened 200 rising Leaders in South Africa to discuss grassroots change across the continent. And in August hundreds of young leaders in Chicago and Hartford, Connecticut, will gather to learn tangible skills for engaging and problem-solving with their local communities as part of the Community Leadership Corps. The Foundation is now in its third year of civic engagement programming and expects to expand globally later in 2019 and 2020.

“I am thrilled Wally is joining the Foundation and look forward to working hand in hand with him to execute our mission to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world,” said Simas. “Wally has led diverse teams at the highest levels of government, and the Foundation will benefit from his perspective and experience standing up new organizations.”

Adeyemo was appointed in 2015 as President Obama’s senior international economics adviser, responsible for coordinating the policymaking process related to international finance, trade and investment, energy, and environmental issues. Adeyemo also has held several senior management positions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, including Senior Adviser and Deputy Chief of Staff. He also helped launch the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2011 as its first Chief of Staff. He is currently a senior advisor at BlackRock and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Adeyemo serves on the board of a number of organizations devoted to community empowerment and addressing inequality, including the Golden State Opportunity Foundation and Demos. His full bio can be found below.

Adeyemo’s work will span responsibilities such as:

  • Leading the implementation and execution of the Foundation’s strategic plan;
  • Ensuring the Foundation’s organizational structures and policies are aligned to support its goals and vision as it grows and continues to implement its second full year of programming; and
  • Managing and supporting all major Foundation functions and teams.

“I am excited to be joining in the work of the Obama Foundation — inspiring, empowering, and connecting young leaders focused on changing the world,” said Adeyemo. “I look forward to working with the talented staff of the Foundation to build an organization devoted to supporting the work of changemakers — whether in Chicago or around the world.”

Wally Adeyemo
Wally Adeyemo is a senior advisor at BlackRock and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has spent the majority of his career convening companies, governments, and organizations to move together toward achieving common goals. As Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, he served as President Barack Obama’s senior international economic adviser and was responsible for coordinating the policymaking process related to international finance, trade and investment, energy, and environmental issues. Adeyemo also served as the President’s representative to the G7 and G20 and held several senior management positions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, including senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, as well as chief negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s provisions on macroeconomic policy.

In addition to his work on macro-economic policy, Adeyemo also served as the first chief of staff at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In that capacity, he helped to build the bureau’s initial executive leadership team and served as a member of the CFPB Executive Committee, helping to protect American consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive consumer financial practices.

Adeyemo is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, which promotes widespread economic opportunity and the competitiveness of America. He also serves on the boards of Demos, a New York-based think tank focused on social, political and economic equity issues, as well as on the Golden State Opportunity Foundation, which works to provide financial security to low-income working people throughout California; and Just Homes, a faith-based affordable housing initiative based in Washington, DC.

He holds a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Trump must release tax returns to be able to appear on California primary ballot

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s Democratic governor signed a law Tuesday requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns to appear on the state’s primary ballot, a move aimed squarely at Republican President Donald Trump.

But even if the law withstands a likely legal challenge, Trump could avoid the requirements by choosing not to compete in California’s primary. With no credible GOP challenger at this point, he likely won’t need California’s delegates to win the Republican nomination.

“As one of the largest economies in the world and home to one in nine Americans eligible to vote, California has a special responsibility to require this information of presidential and gubernatorial candidates,” Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in his veto message to the state Legislature. “These are extraordinary times and states have a legal and moral duty to do everything in their power to ensure leaders seeking the highest offices meet minimal standards, and to restore public confidence.”

New York has passed a law giving congressional committees access to Trump’s state tax returns. But efforts to pry loose his tax returns have floundered in other states. California’s first attempt to do so failed in 2017 when then-Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, vetoed the law, raising questions about its constitutionality and where it would lead next.

“Today we require tax returns, but what would be next?” he wrote in his veto message. “Five years of health records? A certified birth certificate? High school report cards? And will these requirements vary depending on which political party is in power?”

While the law is aimed at Trump, it would apply to all presidential contenders and candidates for governor.

The major Democratic 2020 contenders have already released tax returns for roughly the past decade. Trump has bucked decades of precedent by refusing to release his. Tax returns show income, charitable giving and business dealings, all of which Democratic state lawmakers say voters are entitled to know about.

Candidates will be required to submit tax returns for the most recent five years to California’s Secretary of State at least 98 days before the primary. They will then be posed online for the public to view, with certain personal information redacted.

California is holding next year’s primary on March 3, known as Super Tuesday because the high number of state’s with nominating contests that day.

Democratic Sen. Mike McGuire of Healdsburg said it would be “inconsistent” with past practice for Trump to forego the primary ballot and “ignore the most popular and vote-rich state in the nation.”

McGuire said his bill only applies to the primary election because the state Legislature does not control general election ballot access per the state Constitution.

Pitiless ICE Agents run amok in brutal deportation showdown

  • Nigerian immigrant moaned and cried as he was restrained in a home-bound flight.

  • Brutal take-down of a Somali immigrant while his wife watched and cried.”

  • ICE busts car window to arrest undocumented immigrant

  • Immigrant father arrested by ICE outside Austin child custody hearing

International Guardian, Houston TX – Ongoing raids by the agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is getting excessively brutal. Images and videos of ruthless apprehension and arrests of suspected undocumented immigrants are circulating all over the social media, leaving the world with a clear impression of what America currently looks like.

On July 12, President Donald Trump announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would begin raids that would target roughly 2,000 immigrants at specific areas. This raid was billed for Sunday, July 14. On July 15, Trump boasted that the operation had been “very successful,” adding that “many, many were taken out.”

But this raid was not just a weekend affair. ICE Agents had since beefed up their deportation process in the most cold-blooded manner; tearing families, bursting into homes, smashing car windows, and brutally tackling suspects on the streets.

In a one of the videos that is being shared worldwide, a Nigerian man moaned and cried as he was restrained in an airplane. He cried and struggled with ICE agents. Another video witnessed a street brutal apprehension of a suspected undocumented immigrant, with an inscription: “American government trying to arrest a Somali immigrant but succeeded in killing him before his wife.”

In another incident captured in a widely viewed video, a man was arrested by ICE in Kansas City and deported right away to Mexico. The arrest, captured in a widely viewed video taken by his girlfriend. The video drew attention from activists and elected officials who questioned the actions of the ICE agents and the involvement of local Kansas City police.

There were other videos that left observer shocked about ICEs’ latest showdown. For instance, two days ago, ICE busted a car window to arrest an undocumented immigrant, Florencio Millan-Vazquez who refused to leave the car without seeing an arrest warrant. He was deported to Mexico on July 24.

The process got worse when ICE agents arrested an undocumented immigrant-father outside an Austin child custody hearing. In Tennessee however, the story lines read differently as neighborhood residents in Hermitage formed a ‘human chain’ around man after ICE tried to arrest him.

Furthermore, on Thursday, the National Public Radio reported how Francisco Erwin Galicia, a U.S. citizen, was picked up by Border Patrol officers, processed into detention and held for 26 days. “It nearly broke him,” Galicia’s lawyer, Claudia Galan told NPR. “He said the conditions were horrible, and inhumane. And he was about to sign a deportation order … even though he was born here.”

Galicia, 18, was in a van with his brother Marlon and three other high school friends on June 27. They were on their way to Houston for a recruitment event when they were stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias, Texas — about 50 miles from home and within the corridor of the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector.

These raids could only get worse. For instance, a sweeping expansion of deportation powers unveiled this week by the Trump administration is expected to intensify the ongoing ICE takedown. To make it worse, uncertainty about how the policy might play out has created confusion and made it harder to give clear guidance to immigrants. The new rules will allow immigration officers nationwide to deport anyone who has been here illegally for less than two years. Currently, authorities can only exercise such powers within 100 miles (161 kilometers) of the border and only target people who have been here less than two weeks.

Trump blames White House air conditioning on Obama

Trump speaks to members of the media in the Oval Office on July 26. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — In President Donald Trump’s view, even the inadequate air conditioning at the White House is Barack Obama’s fault.

Trump offered the new gripe about his predecessor as he explained in the Oval Office Friday why he’ll be spending some time at his New Jersey resort in August.

The president says “it’s never a vacation” when he goes to Bedminster, New Jersey, and that he would rather be at the White House.

He says that some of his time away from the White House gives crews time to do maintenance work.

He says, for example, “The Obama administration worked out a brand new air conditioning system for the West Wing. It was so good before they did the system. Now that they did this system, it’s freezing or hot.

North Korea says missile test was ‘solemn warning’ to South

File photo, 2017: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the launch of a Hwasong-12 missile in a photo released in September.

TOKYO (AP) — A day after two North Korean missile launches rattled Asia, the nation announced Friday that it had tested a “new-type tactical guided weapon” that was meant to be a “solemn warning” about South Korean weapons development and its rival’s plans to hold military exercises.

The message in the country’s state media quoted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and was directed at “South Korean military warmongers.” It comes as U.S. and North Korean officials struggle to set up talks after a recent meeting on the Korean border between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to provide a step forward in stalled nuclear negotiations.

Although the North had harsh words for South Korea, the statement stayed away from the kind of belligerent attacks on the United States that have marked past announcements, a possible signal that it’s interested in keeping diplomacy alive.

It made clear, however, that North Korea is infuriated over U.S.-South Korean plans to hold military drills this summer that the North says are rehearsals for an invasion and proof of the allies’ hostility to Pyongyang.

The message was gloating at times, saying the test “must have given uneasiness and agony to some targeted forces enough as it intended.”

South Korean Defense Ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyunsoo on Thursday urged the North to stop acts that are “not helpful to efforts to ease military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”

The North’s firing of what the South called a new type of short-range ballistic missile in two launches into the sea Thursday was its first weapons launches in more than two months.

The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired from near the eastern coastal town of Wonsan and flew about 430 kilometers (270 miles) and 690 kilometers (430 miles), respectively, before landing off the country’s east coast.

A South Korean defense official, requesting anonymity because of department rules, said an initial analysis showed both missiles were fired from mobile launchers and flew at a maximum altitude of 50 kilometers (30 miles).

The North’s statement Friday said the weapons had “rapid anti-firepower capability” and “low-altitude gliding and leaping flight orbit … which would be hard to intercept.”

Kim was paraphrased as saying that the North “cannot but develop nonstop super powerful weapon systems to remove the potential and direct threats to the security of our country that exist in the south.”

North Korea is banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions from engaging in any launch using ballistic technology. While the North could face international condemnation over the latest launches, it’s unlikely that the nation, already under 11 rounds of U.N. sanctions, will be hit with fresh punitive measures. The U.N. council has typically imposed new sanctions only when the North conducted long-range ballistic launches, not short-range ballistic launches.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the swift resumption of talks between the United States and North Korea following the new missile launches.

North Korea has been urging the U.S. and South Korea to scrap their military drills. Last week, the North said it may lift its 20-month suspension of nuclear and long-range missile tests in response.

Seoul said Wednesday that North Korea was protesting the drills by refusing to accept its offer to send 50,000 tons of rice through an international agency.

North Korea also may be trying to get an upper hand ahead of a possible resumption of nuclear talks. Pyongyang wants widespread sanctions relief so it can revive its dilapidated economy.

U.S. officials demand North Korea first take significant steps toward disarmament before they will relinquish the leverage provided by the sanctions.

“North Korea appears to be thinking its diplomacy with the U.S. isn’t proceeding in a way that they want. So they’ve fired missiles to get the table to turn in their favor,” said analyst Kim Dae-young at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy.

A senior U.S. official said the Trump administration knew about the launches. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide a response, said the administration had no further comment.

“If they were ballistic missiles, they violate the U.N. resolutions, and I find it extremely regrettable,” Japan’s Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters in Tokyo.

China, the North’s last major ally and biggest aid provider, said both Washington and Pyongyang should restart their nuclear diplomacy as soon as possible.

It was the first missile launch since Seoul said North Korea fired three short-range missiles off its east coast in early May. At the time, many experts said those missiles strongly resembled the Russian-designed Iskander, a short-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missile that has been in the Russian arsenal for more than a decade.

Analyst Kim Dong-yub at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies said the latest missiles could be Scud-C ballistic missiles or KN-23 surface-to-surface missiles, a North Korean version of the Iskander.

Rudy Giuliani, Estranged Wife Argue in Court Over His Free Trump Legal Work

Judith Nathan (l) and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (r) are seen inside State Supreme Court at 60 Centre St on July 25, 2019 in New York.The former couple were attending a hearing in their divorce case.

Rudy Giuliani is providing gratis legal work for President Donald Trump to shortchange estranged wife Judith Nathan Giuliani, her lawyer said Thursday during a proceeding in their increasingly acrimonious divorce.

“Not only is he working pro bono for the president, for this individual, but it’s costing him money,” said Bernard Clair, who represents Judith. “Not only does he work for free, but all of his expenses, every time he goes down to Washington, D.C., every time he travels for the president… it comes out of his own pocket.”

“When he’s going to work for the president, he bundles, for lack of a better word, clients from his other businesses” to defray these costs, including a recent trip to Warsaw, Poland, Clair said.

Clair said Giuliani’s work for Trump is meant to lead the court to “believe he somehow doesn’t have money.”

The lawyer added that Giuliani spent “over one million on credit cards” but “says ‘woe is me’ financially… ‘I don’t have any money left.’”

Giuliani borrowed $100,000 from Marc Mukasey, another one of Trump’s lawyers, Clair said.

Judith filed for divorce from the former New York City mayor in April 2018, after 15 years of marriage. Allegations that Giuliani has been holding out on her have been an ongoing theme of the divorce proceedings.

Clair alleged in court in November that Giuliani cried poor after she served him divorce papers. Not only did he leave a cushy white-shoe law firm gig and start no-fee legal work for Trump, he spent $286,000 on his rumored girlfriend, a New Hampshire hospital administrator named Maria Rosa Ryan, Clair had said.

“Mr. Giuliani has taken it upon himself to radically change the financial status quo that existed prior to this action,” Clair had told Justice Michael Katz, calling it “conduct that can only be characterized as SIDS… sudden income deficit syndrome.”

In the proceeding last fall, Clair claimed that Giuliani earned $7.9 million in 2016 and $9.5 million in 2017. Giuliani and Judith’s monthly expenses were about $232,000 and $238,000, respectively, Clair had also said.

Faith Miller, a lawyer representing Giuliani, insisted the ex-mayor has been trying to find other sources of income, including a podcast.

He has taken in more than $800,000 this year but it’s not enough to support their lifestyle, Miller said in this morning’s proceedings. Miller said that Giuliani was paying Judith monthly support payments of $42,000.

“Mrs. Giuliani would have Mr. Giuliani work forever to support her lifestyle,” Miller said, noting that Judith is a registered nurse but refuses to work. “There’s absolutely no reason he should feel financial pressure at this stage of his life.”

Clair alleged that Giuliani spent $50,000 for membership to a private plane service 10 days after Judith hit him with divorce papers.

Miller, meanwhile, accused Judith of taking “everything that she in her own personal opinion was hers” from one of their homes, including “the china, silverware, the pictures off the walls.”

“He walked in, the place was denuded, the place was a mess,” Miller said.

“I did not! I did not,” Judith cried out, slapping her hand against the table.

“I’m not going to tolerate an outburst,” Judge Katz warned.

Miller also claimed that Judith had neglected to pay $77,000 in co-op fees at one of their homes, resulting in a “termination notice” by Giuliani’s return in May.

The furniture and co-op fee allegations are among many petty squabbles in their made-for-tabloid split.

In March, Katz told them not to be in the same room if they ran into each other at country clubs.

“There was an issue at one of the clubs last week,” Lisa Zeiderman, one of Giuliani’s attorneys, previously told Katz. “We’re going to ask that Ms. Giuliani just keep her distance from Mr. Giuliani when they’re at clubs together and their children, as well, and not take photographs, because that’s what was happening last weekend, I’m advised, at one of the clubs.”

“He just wants to be left alone,” Zeiderman had said.

One of Judith’s lawyers had responded that Giuliani was just embarrassed to be spotted spending money on his purported girlfriend’s daughter. (Giuliani denied this after that hearing.)

Clair had told Katz that “she went into the gift shop at the club. She saw Mr. Giuliani. He got anxious and yelled at her.”

“I am tired of hearing about Mr. Giuliani’s personal life,” Katz had remarked, later saying, “Whoever is in the room first is allowed to stay in the room.”

The second person who enters the room can go to another room “and vice versa,” Katz had instructed.

Based on comments outside court, it does not appear that the drama will end prior to their scheduled divorce trial in Jan. 2020.

Giuliani, whose hair appeared darker than in the recent past, was affable as he left court, chatting with a photographer about the ins-and-outs of high-end cameras.

When asked about the loan to Mukasey, he said it was to cover taxes and that he had paid back $90,000.

He told a reporter that while Trump’s tax cuts worked out “really well” for him, but that “my wife has tied up all my money” in a joint account with $5 million.

Judith, who sported a blue blouse with roses on it and white pants, denied allegations that she cleaned out their decor.

“I was entitled to my family antiques,” she told reporters, claiming Rudy had kept her heirloom Christmas decorations.

16 Marines arrested on human smuggling, drug allegations in California

Sixteen Marines were arrested Thursday morning at Camp Pendleton, Calif., on allegations of human smuggling and drug offenses.

The mass arrest by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service occurred during battalion formation. All belong to the 1st Marine Division. Another eight Marines were questioned about their involvement in unrelated alleged drug offenses but not detained.

This comes three weeks after Border Patrol agents arrested two Marines near the U.S.-Mexico border for allegedly smuggling three undocumented immigrants in exchange for money. They also belonged to the 1st Marine Division.

The Marine Corps said information gained from previous investigations led to the mass arrest Thursday.

“1st Marine Division is committed to justice and the rule of law, and we will continue to fully cooperate with NCIS on this matter,” the Marine Corps said in a statement. “Any Marines found to be in connection with these alleged activities will be questioned and handled accordingly with respect to due process.”

None of the Marines questioned or detained are part of the Southwest Border Support mission.

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