Monday, March 19, 2018
DiGenova, a prominent Washington, D.C.-based attorney, is the stepfather and law partner of Vermont Republican Party vice chair Brady Toensing. The Times report did not indicate whether Toensing or his mother and law partner, Victoria Toensing, would also represent the president.
Brady Toensing, who chaired Trump's 2016 Vermont campaign and lives in Charlotte, declined to comment Monday on whether he would be involved.
According to the Times report, which was attributed to three unnamed sources, Trump has not formally announced the hiring and could still change his mind. It said that diGenova would not play a "a lead role" but would be "a more aggressive player on the president’s legal team." DiGenova and his wife, who have also represented Blackwater founder Erik Prince and former Trump campaign chair Sam Clovis, are best known for their conspiratorial appearances on the Fox News channel.
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Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took to the floor of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday morning to call for gun control legislation, but in doing so he understated the number of gun deaths in Vermont by an order of magnitude.
“In my small state of Vermont, between 2011 and 2016, 42 people were killed by guns,” Sanders said in his remarks.
That’s the same window of time Vermont Public Radio focused on last year in a series documenting gun deaths in Vermont, but Sanders’ figure was way off. VPR’s reporting, which was based on data provided by the Vermont Department of Health, found that 420 people were killed by guns between 2011 and 2016.
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Monday, January 29, 2018
A spokesman for Sanders, Daniel McLean, called the reporter Sunday evening to offer up an interview with his boss the next morning. McLean said Sanders could make time for a brief interview after appearing at a press conference at Burlington International Airport and before boarding a plane to Washington, D.C.
But McLean made clear that two subjects would be off the table: Sanders, the spokesman said, was not interested in answering questions about "political gossip" nor about the senator's family. He did not elaborate on either condition. (Sanders' wife, Jane O'Meara Sanders, has been under scrutiny by federal prosecutors over her role leading the now-defunct Burlington College. His stepdaughter, Carina Driscoll, is running for mayor of Burlington.)
The reporter informed McLean that Seven Days does not allow politicians to set such restrictions in exchange for access. He also noted that it would be impossible to ask substantive, policy-oriented questions in such a brief exchange.
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Wednesday, January 24, 2018
That afternoon — 1,000 days ago Wednesday — also marked the last time Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) granted an interview to the largest newspaper in his home state, Seven Days.
Sanders, who announced his presidential candidacy that morning on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, took roughly 10 minutes to explain to Seven Days by phone why he was seeking the Democratic nomination and how he'd balance the task with his job representing Vermont in the Senate.
"I am a hard worker and I will — we have a very strong staff, and I will devote a considerable amount of time to Vermont's issues as I run for president," he said.
In the 1,000 days since, Seven Days has made dozens of interview requests. Each time, the independent, locally owned newspaper has been rebuffed or ignored — even as Sanders has made time for the out-of-state "corporate media" he regularly slams.
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Monday, January 22, 2018
Vermont’s two U.S. senators, Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), on Monday voted against a bipartisan, short-term deal to end a three-day government shutdown. Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) has said that he plans to do the same when the legislation comes before the House.
Leahy and Sanders were among just 18 senators, including two Republicans, who opposed a procedural measure clearing the way for a spending bill that would fund the government through February 8. Another 81 senators, including 33 Democrats, voted to proceed with debate.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) won over a majority of Democrats by promising to hold a vote in February on the fate of so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Their fate has been uncertain since President Donald Trump rescinded the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program last September.
Democrats had previously refused to support a short-term spending bill unless it included explicit protections for Dreamers. To the consternation of their more liberal colleagues — and those considering running for president — a group of moderate and politically vulnerable Democrats worked over the weekend to forge a compromise that would reopen the government in exchange for the promise of a vote on DACA.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Patrick Leahy , Peter Welch , Dreamers , government shutdown , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
The 56-year-old Burlingtonian has worked for Sanders on and off since 1984, when he interned for the Queen City mayor. Weinstein went on to serve Sanders in Burlington's Community & Economic Development Office and in his House and Senate offices. He has also worked for the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board and for Oxfam International.
As state director, Weinstein will serve as Sanders' eyes and ears in Vermont, represent him at public events, and run his constituent-service operation. He has gotten a taste of the job before, serving as acting state director while Fiermonte worked on Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign and as interim state director since Fiermonte's retirement.
According to Sanders spokesman Daniel McLean, the senator finalized the promotion Tuesday.
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Monday, January 8, 2018
According to Pomerleau, two federal agents visited his Queen City home early last December to ask about Burlington College's 2010 acquisition of a $10 million North Avenue campus.
"They came up and talked with me for a few minutes to half an hour," the centenarian developer told Seven Days. He said he believed the men worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The Pomerleau interview is the most recent action to come to light in the federal inquiry, which began roughly two years ago. VTDigger.org first reported Sunday that former Burlington College board member Robin Lloyd provided sworn testimony in the matter to a grand jury on October 26. Former board chair Yves Bradley told Seven Days he spoke to an FBI agent and a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation investigator in mid-October. (That interview was first reported in December by Fox News.)
Tags: Senator , Burlington College , Jane O'Meara Sanders , Bernie Sanders , Brady Toensing , Tony Pomerleau , Yves Bradley , FBI , Image , Web Only
Sunday, January 7, 2018
In a story published Sunday, VTDigger.org reported that the probe had progressed to the point that federal prosecutors had convened a grand jury — a step the news outlet suggested meant the feds were seeking indictments. Authorities have spent two years investigating whether, during O'Meara Sanders' tenure as president of Burlington College, the now-defunct institution overstated pledged donations to secure a bank loan.
Former Burlington College board member Robin Lloyd told VTDigger that she testified before a grand jury last October at the federal courthouse in Burlington. She said that Paul Van de Graaf, who heads the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont, questioned her for an hour about the college's attempts to secure pledges to buy a $10 million campus.
In a statement issued to Seven Days following publication of the VTDigger story, Sanders family spokesman Jeff Weaver cast doubt on it.
Tags: Senator , Jane O'Meara Sanders , Bernie Sanders , Burlington College , Robin Lloyd , grand jury , Paul Van de Graff , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
With congressional Republicans on the verge of approving major tax cut legislation Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) deployed a procedural tactic likely to delay its passage until Wednesday.
After the House passed the bill on a largely party-line vote of 227 to 203, Sanders and Wyden objected to the inclusion of three provisions with no budgetary impact. In order to approve legislation through the budget reconciliation process — with just 51 votes instead of the usual 60 — senators are barred from considering unrelated policy matters.
The violation of the so-called Byrd Rule will force the Senate to strip those provisions from the bill and vote on a different version than what passed the House. That, in turn, will require a second vote from the House, likely on Wednesday, before the legislation can advance to President Donald Trump's desk.
“In the mad dash to provide tax breaks for their billionaire campaign contributors, our Republican colleagues forgot to comply with the rules of the Senate,” Sanders said Tuesday in a written statement. “We applaud the [Senate] parliamentarian for determining that three provisions in this disastrous bill are in violation of the Byrd rule.”
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Patrick Leahy , Peter Welch , tax reform , Image , Web Only
Monday, December 18, 2017
"I have stood for due process throughout my years as a prosecutor and in chairing the Judiciary Committee," Leahy said in a written statement. "I regret not doing that this time. The Ethics Committee should have been allowed to investigate and make its recommendation."
Twelve days ago, Leahy joined a group of Democratic senators calling for Franken to resign. The Minnesota senator announced the next day that he would do so in the "coming weeks."
Tags: Patrick Leahy , Al Franken , sexual misconduct , Image , Web Only