President Donald Trump is denying that he referred to Haiti and African countries as “shithole countries” in a meeting with members of Congress. Clearly someone is lying and it should not be hard to determine who. One of the members in the meeting, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), says that Trump is lying and that he clearly made the statement. The question now is recollection of some of the other people in the room, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).
Update: Sen. Graham has now issued a statement that appears to confirm that the President said this and says that he
directly challenged the President after his comment. Another member has said that Graham told him that President did say it.
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Below is my column in the Hill Newspaper on the controversy surrounding demand letters sent out by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence — and the scope of the discovery sought by its lead Democratic counsel. The scope of discovery is always a difficult issue in litigation and lawyers resist efforts to limit the scope of evidence. However, reasonable limits are usually worked out between counsel but, in this case, the Senate counsel appears to have doubled down on a definition that is facially too broad. More importantly, it raises serious constitutional concerns. The definition reads too much like a street cry to “bring out your Russians.”
Michael Persaud, 30, appears to have finally merged art and life. The rapper known for his song “Sell Drugsz” has been sentenced to three years in prison for selling drugs.
Former Republican Congressman Peter Hoekstra had a rocky reception as the new ambassador to the Netherlands when reporters raised a false statement that he made in 2015 when he said “the Islamic movement has now gotten to a point where they have put Europe into chaos. Chaos in the Netherlands, there are cars being burnt, there are politicians that are being burnt. And yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands.” When confronted by the reporters that no such chaos occurred, Hoekstra denied making the statement. He insisted “I didn’t say that. That is actually an incorrect statement. We would call it fake news. I never said that … it’s not what I said.” The reporter then played the tape and Hoekstra stumbled with “I didn’t call that fake news. I didn’t use the words today. I don’t think I did.” If Hoekstra thought that that would be the end of it, he was mistaken. 
The erosion of free speech in Russia under Vladimir Putin has been an unfolding tragedy for Russia. As is often the case, the loss of freedom of speech often goes hand-in-hand with the loss of academic freedom. However, the arrest of a Russian historian, Yuri Dmitriev, 61, is particularly chilling and raises legitimate comparisons with the Stalinist period. That is fitting given the fact that Dmitriev is being forced into psychiatric testing after writing about the discovery of thousands of bodies from the 1930s — victims of Joe Stalin. Putin has ordered a revisionist history on Stalin to glorify his reign and downplay the millions killed by the bloodsoaked dictator.
Native American students at the University of Denver are demanding that the school drop the “Pioneers” — denouncing the nickname as a symbol of “genocide and oppression.” We previously discussed the controversial decisions to drop the “
We have been discussing how Germany has led the West in the criminalization of speech, an anti-free speech trend that is now raging in England, France, Canada and other Western nations. Germany has continued its plunge into censorship and criminalization despite the failure of its speech laws to curtail extremism. Now even Germany’s justice minister has been censored under the laws that he and his colleagues have fostered. Heiko Maas has been 
Below is my column in the Hill newspaper on the filing by Paul Manafort challenging the scope of the Special Counsel investigation. Manafort’s filing of a civil action is quite telling in this circumstance. As a criminal defendant, he can challenge the basis for the charges. This seems like an effort to make a public case with little likelihood of legal success. However, the public tends not to be particularly sympathetic with accused felons complaining that they were arrested by the wrong cop. It is true that Manafort would likely not have been charged absent the Special Counsel investigation. However, that is like complaining about the weather in Washington.
Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is back in the news and it could not be more bizarre. This week Spitzer was 
Adam Hettig, 32, may not have thought out his latest crime with very far. Hettig is accused of robbing a Subway in North Chili, New York while wearing his ankle monitor from the parole office.
Another major case has been thrown out due to prosecutorial abuse by the United States Department of Justice. 
We 
Our close ally Egypt has long been a symbol of religious intolerance and anti-free speech values — a government partially subsidized by billions in U.S. aid. Now, Amr Hamroush, the head of parliament’s religious committee, has announced that Egypt is moving toward the criminalization of disbelieving in God. That’s right, you will be committing a crime in Egypt if you do not believe. Akin to the policy of the “beatings will continue until morale improves,” Egypt may soon instill belief in God by jailing people for not believing.