High drama in the UN Security Council and in Trump's court fight

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High drama in the UN Security Council and in Trump's court fight

February 18, 2022

Stephen Collinson and Shelby Rose

The net tightens

Donald Trump has long lived in a maelstrom of acrimony, legal scandals and the threat of financial, political and personal ruin.

The ex-President's bravado, talent for distraction and for finding loopholes, and his willingness to turn the legal system in knots have often helped him wiggle out of the most serious scrapes. But even by the standards of someone saddled with this historic ignominy of two presidential impeachments, Trump's burgeoning legal and political vulnerabilities are extreme and will test his talent for impunity.

Just this week, the ex-President's accountants took the extraordinary step of disowning financial documents it prepared for Trump's business between 2011 and 2020. This is especially bad news for Trump since New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating whether he inflated the worth of his assets to get loans while undervaluing them for tax purposes. Trump responded with an unhinged statement, boasting that his net worth was nearly $5.8 billion. And his lawyers claim the entire case is an example of political victimization. A judge in New York meanwhile ruled that Trump and his eldest kids, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, must testify in the case.

The move by Mazars, Trump's accounting firm, to sever ties with him, caused more trouble. It prompted the House Oversight Committee to ask the General Services Administration to terminate the lease on the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, alleging that he submitted false financials that invalidate his agreement to operate the site at the Old Post Office, a government property.

That would be a big deal for Trump since he's trying to sell the lease for $370 million and make a $100 million profit on a venture that critics decried as an attempt to profit off the prestige of the presidency while he was in office.

Trump has many other woes. The House select committee probing his January 6 insurrection is burrowing deep into his former administration thanks to the Supreme Court's rejection of the ex-President's bid to keep documents secret. Another criminal investigation is under way in Georgia into Trump's efforts to persuade local officials to steal the election in the key state.

Trump's teflon hide and his gleeful defiance of legal and political establishments is, of course, the magic dust that appeals to his most fervent supporters. And he's so far not been proven guilty of any wrongdoing.

But even Trump has his hands full this time.

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'I am here today not to start a war, but to prevent one'

No one unveiled big posters showing missiles, or held up a suspicious vial. But there was high drama in the United Nations Security Council on Thursday as Russia and the US clashed over Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (below) should have been on his plane, headed for Europe, but he changed his travel plans to show up in the Council chamber itself, saying he urgently had to expose what he said were Russia's attempts to fabricate an incident to justify an invasion. He claimed Moscow could fake a terrorist bombing on Russian soil, invent the discovery of a mass grave or a drone strike, or claim genocide or ethnic cleansing was taking place against Russian speakers in Ukraine.

(UNTV)

"The information I presented here is validated by what we've seen unfolding in plain sight before our eyes for months," Blinken said. "Remember that while Russia has repeatedly regarded our warnings as melodrama and nonsense, they've been steadily amassing more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine's borders."

The secretary of state acknowledged that in the past, the US had brandished what turned out to be false intelligence in the chamber, as in the case of the war in Iraq. But he said Washington would be more than happy to be proven wrong if Russia decides not to invade.

Russian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Sergey Vershinin (below) spoke before Blinken and aggressively rebutted the US position.

"We have long ago clarified everything and explained everything. And the announced date of this so-called invasion is behind us, so therefore ... my advice to you is (to) not present yourself in an awkward situation," Vershinin told Blinken.

The diplomatic action in the crisis now flips to Europe as US Vice President Kamala Harris heads to the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, where she will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and other European officials.

The urgency of the US warnings on Thursday that the precursor to a Russian invasion was already underway at least raised the possibility that a forum set up to forestall wars could turn into a confab to condemn one.

It all depends on who you believe.

(UNTV)

A soft landing

Security cameras at a mall in Istanbul captured the moment a distracted boy fell down a hole, and landed unscathed on a tower of cardboard boxes. (Reuters)

Thanks for reading.

On Friday, the Munich Security Conference kicks off with US Vice President Kamala Harris in attendance. Kim Potter, the former Minnesota police officer who was found guilty of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, will be sentenced in Minneapolis.

On Saturday, NASA launches Northrop Grumman's 17th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station.

On Sunday, Russia-Belarus military exercises, dubbed "Allied Resolve 2022," are expected to end. The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games holds its closing ceremony.