12 Senators—Half of Them Republican—Tell Trump to End Russia Deal Now

“This deal ​is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies,” the senators warned.

Six GOP senators joined together with their Democratic opponents on Tuesday to rebuke President Trump’s recently announced diesel deal with Russia.

Senators Mitch McConnell, Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, Alan Armstrong, Lisa Murkowski, ​and John Cornyn signed a letter along with six Democratic senators in opposition to the deal, which waives sanctions on Russian diesel sold to the global market until April 2027 in exchange for 300,000 tons of diesel fuel to the American and global marketplace. Russia will get an opportunity to financially benefit from international oil sales while Americans get a bit of Russian oil before midterms.

“Granting Moscow the ability to sell Russian diesel freely in global markets damages American security interests and is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine, who continue to defend themselves from [Russian President ⁠Vladimir] Putin’s murderous, illegal war,” the letter read, according to Reuters. “This deal ​is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies; it should be rescinded.”

The letter urged Trump to follow the Russia sanctions bill he signed into law last month, in honor of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, which punishes countries that import Russian oil.

Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal, Jeanne Shaheen, Richard Durbin, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jack Reed, and Chris Coons signed the letter.

Trump Tries to Get Out of Deposition as His BBC Lawsuit Backfires

Donald Trump sued the BBC—and the case keeps going downhill for him.

President Trump is trying to get out of testifying in a lawsuit that he initiated. 

As part of his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC, Trump was scheduled to sit for a deposition with the U.K. broadcaster’s lawyers on Friday. However, according to a court filing Tuesday, the president’s attorneys canceled the session, saying he would be unavailable for about two months, well after the discovery period in the case ends, Politico reports. 

“The President is no longer available for his deposition on October 16 due to other matters of national importance,” Trump’s lawyers told their BBC counterparts. The broadcaster is trying to get a federal judge to force Trump to commit to a date for the deposition.

“Nearly eight months into discovery, after seven depositions of BBC witnesses, and with only two months of discovery remaining, the BBC still has not been able to depose, and does not even have a schedule to depose, the most central figure in this case: Plaintiff himself,” BBC attorney Charles Tobin wrote in the filing. “There is hardly a more crucial and relevant piece of discovery in a defamation lawsuit than the deposition of the Plaintiff.”

Trump’s lawyers had reportedly agreed in July that Trump would testify on October 16 as long as both sides agreed to keep the location and other details secret. But on September 28, the president’s........

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