Victoria Coates, one of President Donald Trump’s longest-serving national security aides, is leaving the White House soon to become a senior adviser at the Energy Department, the White House said on Thursday.

Coates has been at the Trump White House since he took office three years ago and has been a key player in the administration’s deliberations on Iran and the Middle East.

But she had battled rumors that she was the author of an opinion article by someone styling themselves as “Anonymous” expressing opposition to Trump’s agenda that ran in the New York Times on Sept. 5, 2018.

More...

After chastising the prosecutors and judge in the trial of his longtime adviser Roger Stone, President Donald Trump on Thursday criticized the jury that convicted the veteran Republican operative, raising further concerns about political interference in the U.S. judicial system.

Trump early on Tuesday criticized U.S. prosecutors who recommended a prison sentence of seven to nine years for Stone, whose friendship with the Republican president dates back decades. He called their sentencing recommendation “horrible” and a “miscarriage of justice.”

TVNL Comment: Separation of Powers, Mr. Trump.  It's in the US Constitution.  Try reading some of it.

More...

Three prosecutors in Roger Stone's criminal case abruptly resigned from the case on Tuesday after the Justice Department said it planned to reduce the recommended sentence for the longtime Trump associate.

The Justice Department on Tuesday said it was pulling back on its request to sentence Stone to seven to nine years in prison after President Donald Trump blasted the sentencing proposal as "a miscarriage of justice."

The revised recommendation doesn't ask for a particular sentence but says the one that was recommended earlier "does not accurately reflect the Department of Justice’s position on what would be a reasonable sentence in this matter."

Update: The lead prosecutor was the fourth and last on the team to also withdraw from the Stone case. This DOJ interference after the filing of sentencing requests is unheard of.

More...

As student debt continues to climb, President Donald Trump on Monday released a budget for 2021 that would slash many of the programs aimed at helping borrowers.

Student loan spending would be cut by $170 billion in Trump’s plan, titled “A Budget for America’s Future.” The reductions include “sensible annual and lifetime loan limits” for graduate students and parents and the end to subsidized loans, in which the government covers the interest for borrowers who are still in school or experiencing economic hardship.

It would also reduce the number of repayment options for borrowers and nix the popular, if challenged, public service loan forgiveness program.

More...