The Commentariat -- November 25, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Helene Cooper & Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "President Trump ordered the Pentagon not to remove a Navy SEAL at the center of a high-profile war crimes case from the elite commando unit, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said Monday. Mr. Esper's confirmation of the order from Mr. Trump is the latest turn in an extraordinary series of events that pitted the president against his senior military leadership over the fate of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, the SEAL who was convicted of posing for photographs with the body of a teenage Islamic State captive in American custody." The AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ John Bowden of the Hill: "President Trump announced Sunday that Kenneth Braithwaite, the current ambassador to Norway, would replace Richard Spencer as the secretary of the Navy shortly after Spencer's ouster earlier in the day.... '... Admiral and now Ambassador to Norway Ken Braithwaite will be nominated by me to be the new Secretary of the Navy. A man of great achievement and success, I know Ken will do an outstanding job!' [Trump tweeted.] Mrs. McC: Did Braithwaite take the Trump loyalty oath?

Laura Kelly of the Hill: "President Trump asked multiple federal agencies to address Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's 'concerns' that Turkey's state-owned bank would be under threat of U.S. sanctions, according to a response from the Treasury Department to a senior Democratic senator [Ron Wyden (Oregon)].... The response by Treasury confirms an earlier report by Bloomberg that in April Trump directed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Attorney General William Barr to intervene in the case against Halkbank following a phone call between the two world leaders.... It is the first public U.S. admission of Trump directing Cabinet officials, in this case in Treasury and the Department of Justice, to involve themselves with Erdoğan's concerns around Halkbank, a Turkish state-owned bank indicted last month by federal prosecutors for allegedly funneling billions of dollars to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. It also raises questions about how Trump's personal relationships and business dealings influence his foreign policy decisions...."

"The Chosen One." William Cummings of USA Today: "Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in an interview that he told ... Donald Trump that he was God's 'chosen one' to lead the United States, just as he chose the kings to lead Israel in the Old Testament.... 'Barack Obama didn't get to be the president of the United States without being ordained by God. Neither did Donald Trump,' he said in a Fox News interview that aired Sunday, adding that God has used 'individuals who aren't perfect all through history.'" Mrs. McC: My, my, the Lord moves in mysterious ways.

Dennis Jett in the Atlantic: "As the rich get richer, the ambassadors get worse.... As the cost of American presidential campaigns skyrockets, as wealthy Americans flex their muscles within the American political system, and as the selling of ambassadorships for cold, hard cash becomes more and more overt.... No other developed democratic country -- and perhaps no other country in the world -- would entrust any part of its foreign policy to someone like Gordon Sondland.... Sondland is an egregious case, but Trump's predecessors made similar appointments for similar reasons. The three-week 'charm school' that new ambassadors attend is not enough to turn donors into diplomats. Four ambassadors appointed by Barack Obama performed so badly that, once the State Department inspector general issued reports on how poorly their embassies were run, they all resigned immediately."

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Mrs. McCrabbie: I added some links fairly late this morning. Biggest one is the NYT story, by Jo Becker & others, on the Three Stooges' attempts to get help from a couple of Ukrainian oligarchs.

Ashley Parker & Dan Lamothe of the New York Times: "Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper asked for the resignation of Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer on Sunday after losing confidence in him over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq, the Pentagon said. Spencer's resignation came in the wake of the controversial case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was accused of war crimes on a 2017 deployment. He was acquitted of murder but convicted in July of posing with the corpse of a captive. Esper asked for Spencer's resignation after learning that he had privately proposed to White House officials that if they did not interfere with proceedings against Gallagher, then Spencer would ensure that Gallagher was able to retire as a Navy SEAL, with his Trident insignia. Spencer's private proposal to the White House -- which he did not share with Esper over the course of several conversations about the matter -- contradicted his public position on the Gallagher case, chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: "But Mr. Spencer had also provoked Mr. Trump's ire by threatening to resign over the case and by publicly saying he disagreed with the president's decision to intervene in favor of the commando, Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, Defense Department officials said. Mr. Spencer's friends cited those reasons for his departure, saying that Mr. Esper was mischaracterizing the situation." An Axios report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Everyone Donald Trump touches loses his soul -- if s/he had one. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's Spencer's resignation letter, where he tries to reclaim some of his (soul, that is). "Rule of law" is mentioned. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~

~~~ David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "President Trump's attempt to manipulate military justice had a sorry outcome Sunday with the firing of Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer. For the past nine months, Spencer had tried to dissuade Trump from dictating special treatment for Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher -- but in the end Spencer was sacked for his efforts to protect his service. ​With Spencer's firing, Trump has recklessly crossed a line he had generally observed before, which had exempted the military from his belligerent, government-by-tweet interference. But the Gallagher case illustrates how an irascible, vengeful commander in chief is ready to override traditional limits to aid political allies in foreign policy, law enforcement and now military matters.... 'The president wants you to go,' [Defense Secretary Mark] Esper told Spencer on Sunday, according to [a] source. Esper then toed the White House line and announced Spencer's dismissal. For Pentagon officials who have wondered whether Esper would have the backbone to resist Trump, Sunday's events were troubling. The Pentagon, like the State Department under Mike Pompeo, is now overseen by an official whose overriding priority seems to be accommodating an impetuous boss in the White House."

He may be bribed by a greater interest to betray his trust, and no one would say that we ought to expose ourselves to the danger of seeing the first Magistrate in foreign pay, without being able to guard against it by displacing him. This Magistrate is not the King but the prime minister. The people are the King. -- Founder Gouverneur Morris, 1787, on the need for an impeachment provision in the U.S. Constitution ~~~

~~~ New York Times Editors: "Americans agree to give their elected officials power over them, and those officials agree to exercise that power on Americans' behalf. If the nation's leaders breach that deal by lining their own pockets and bartering the interests of their citizens, they break the trust that self-government and democracy depend on. The testimony so far indicates that it's even worse in this case. It suggests that Mr. Trump wasn't simply soliciting a bribe, but doing s to try to rig the next election. It should go without saying that representative democracy cannot work if its leaders are cheating to keep themselves in power. The argument that there's nothing to worry about because Mr. Trump's Ukraine scheme didn't work in the end misses the point. If Mr. Trump is allowed to get away with this blatant attempt at subverting the will of the 2020 voters, what's to stop him from trying again?"

... a big scandal may break out, and not only in Ukraine, but in the United States. That is, it may turn out to be a clear conspiracy against Biden. -- Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, ca. April 2019 ~~~

~~~ ** Jo Becker, et al., of the New York Times: How Rudy, Lev & Igor tried to cajole two Ukrainian oligarchs to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, using assistance from Donald Trump & Bill Barr as the quo to their quid. It worked with Dmitry Firtash, who is under investigation by the FBI & is fighting extradition to the U.S., but not with Igor Kolomoisky, whose U.S. legal problems are less dire & who threw Lev & Igor out of his office when they approached him to make a deal. More on the Three Stooges linked below, but this is Da Bomb. The cast of characters is by now familiar but the extent to which our American cousins went to muscle Ukrainians is not. (In fairness, the sources of the story have plenty of reason to make themselves appear more innocent & the Three Stooges more guilty, but one would be forgiven for trusting even foreign oligarchs over Trump's mob. Besides, in the case of Firtash, Barr did the quo.) Law & Crime has a summary of the report. Mrs. McC: My only question, do the Stooges wear zoot suits & fedoras to these meetings? ~~~

~~~ Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump's personal attorney considered representing a state-owned Ukrainian bank this summer while leading an apparent extortion scheme against the foreign country. Rudy Giuliani confirmed that he held discussions with Privatbank about assisting in a civil suit to recover assets linked to a former owner with ties to Ukraine's president, reported Bloomberg News.... Ukraine's previous administration nationalized Privatbank in 2016 and accused previous owner Igor Kolomoisky and his co-founder of stealing billions of dollars." Mrs. McC: Sooner or later, the FBI has to nab Giuliani for his Ukraine schemes. He was not only trying to extort Ukrainians to help Trump; at the same time, he was trying to drum up business for himself.

In case you were wondering, "Whatever does the White House have to hide?" here's a teensy taste: ~~~

~~~ ** Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "A confidential White House review of President Trump's decision to place a hold on military aid to Ukraine has turned up hundreds of documents that reveal extensive efforts to generate an after-the-fact justification for the decision and a debate over whether the delay was legal according to three people familiar with the records. The research by the White House Counsel's Office, which was triggered by a congressional impeachment inquiry announced in September, includes early August email exchanges between acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House budget officials seeking to provide an explanation for withholding the funds after President Trump had already ordered a hold in mid-July... One person briefed on the records examination said White House lawyers are expressing concern that the review has turned up some unflattering exchanges and facts that could at a minimum embarrass the president.... Mulvaney's request for information came days after the White House Counsel's Office was put on notice that an anonymous CIA official had made a complaint to the agency's general counsel about Trump's July 25 call to [Ukraine President] Zelensky...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The White House woodwork is chock full of creepy critters, and they keep crawling out.

Rebecca O'Brien & Christopher O'Brien of Market Watch: "Two associates of Rudy Giuliani tried to recruit a top Ukrainian energy official in March in a proposed takeover of the state oil-and-gas company, describing the company's chief executive and the then-U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch as part of 'this Soros cartel' working against President Trump. 'You're a Republican, right?' Andrew Favorov, the head of natural gas for state-run Naftogaz, recalled the men, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, asking him, after their reference to investor and Democratic donor George Soros. 'We want you to be our guy.' Favorov said he met voluntarily this week with New York federal prosecutors as part of an investigation into the activities of Fruman, Parnas and Giuliani...." ~~~

~~~ Lev Kept the Receipts. Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "The House Intelligence Committee is in possession of audio and video recordings and photographs provided to the committee by Lev Parnas, an associate of ... Rudy Giuliani, who reportedly played a key role in assisting him in his efforts to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and Ukraine, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News. The material submitted to the committee includes audio, video and photos that include Giuliani and Trump. It was unclear what the content depicts and the committees only began accessing the material last week. 'We have subpoenaed Mr. Parnas and [Igor] Fruman for their records. We would like them to fully comply with those subpoenas,' House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told CNN Sunday, with a committee spokesperson adding they would not elaborate beyond the chairman's comments." ~~~

~~~ Devin Nunes, Junior Spy, Ctd. Tareq Haddad of Newsweek: "Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican member on the House Intelligence Committee, spent nearly $57,000 on a trip to Europe for him and his staff to allegedly investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, records show. The figures seem to confirm allegations made by Lev Parnas -- a Ukrainian-born American who worked as a 'fixer' for Rudy Giuliani before being indicted on criminal charges -- who said that he helped Nunes arrange meetings with various Ukrainian officials to dig up dirt on Biden. Parnas said he met Nunes in a secretive trip to Vienna, Austria, between November and December 2018, and put him in touch with former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin -- the lawyer who was ousted from his position in 2016 after pressure from Western leaders, including Biden, who said he was not doing enough to combat corruption." ~~~

     ~~~ Devin Has Another Cow. Elise Viebeck & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: Devin Nunes, "the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said reports that he met with ex-Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin in Vienna last year were false, but declined to elaborate in an interview on Fox News." Mrs. McC: Of course he denied it. A junior spy knows not to blow his cover. ~~~

~~~ Christina Wilkie of CNBC: "The lawyer for an indicted business associate of Rudy Giuliani said his client is prepared to testify under oath that aides to Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, scrapped a trip to Ukraine this year when they realized it would mean notifying Democratic Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff. Lev Parnas would tell Congress that the purpose of the planned trip was to interview two Ukrainian prosecutors who claim to have evidence that could help ... Donald Trump's reelection campaign, Parnas' attorney, Joseph Bondy, told CNBC. But when Nunes' staff realized that going to Ukraine themselves would mean alerting Schiff to their plans, they instead asked Parnas to set up the meetings for them over phone and Skype, which he did, according to Bondy." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is very much like Devin's midnight run to the White House, but now he's an international junior spy! From "A Night at the White House" to "A Night in Vienna" and "A Midnight Call to Kiev."

Chandelis Duster & Kristen Holmes of CNN: "House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff left the door open to the possibility of more hearings or depositions in the impeachment inquiry but said that Democrats will not 'wait months and months while the administration plays a game of rope-a-dope in an effort to try to stall.' Schiff indicated on Sunday in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union" that Democrats would not be taking former national security adviser John Bolton to court for his testimony. Schiff also said Bolton should have the 'courage' to testify like former National Security Council Russia expert Fiona Hill and others. And if he chooses not to testify, Bolton will have to explain to the country 'why did he wait to tell' his story in his upcoming book rather than to the public 'when it mattered.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) said on Sunday that one reason the whistleblower at the heart of the impeachment inquiry hasn't been called by the House to testify is that ... Donald Trump called the person a spy and threatened the whistleblower with the 'death penalty.'... 'We had a deep interest in having [him] testify,' Schiff told [Chuck] Todd [on 'Meet the Press']. 'Two things happened. One we were able to prove it with witnesses that had first-hand information and second the president and his allies effectively put that whistleblower's life in danger. The president said the whistleblower and others should be treated as a traitor and a spy and we ought to use the penalty and that's the death penalty.'..."

Sarah Kendzior of The Globe & Mail: "Ms. [Fiona] Hill is no longer merely a scholar of dictators; she is now a player in their propaganda through no fault of her own.... In Mr. Trump's reality TV world, positions are not filled but cast.... Like Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Vindman and Marie Yovanovitch, she is both an immigrant American and an expert on the former Soviet Union. None of these witnesses took democracy for granted because they had witnessed its grim alternative in post-Soviet kleptocracies. As experts, they were a threat in the administration, and they remain so outside of it.... The Trump strategy [has become] to flip the script and investigate the investigators.... The witnesses to crimes, not the perpetrators, are the true guilty parties.... Impeachment hearings threaten Mr. Trump because they happen in an environment he cannot control, where a neutral arbiter can speak without media interlocutors. Fiona Hill debunked Mr. Trump's fictions and followed federal law. That she did so at a time where following federal law renders you a subversive in the eyes of the President should unnerve everyone." --s

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Many were perplexed and outraged when, right after clashing with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a heated Oval Office meeting on Nov. 13, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham hurried back to the Senate floor and ... blocked a resolution that would have formally recognized Turkey's genocide of the Armenian people.... As Graham was leaving the Oval Office, senior White House staff asked him to return to the Senate and block the Armenian genocide resolution -- a measure that would have infuriated Erdoğan. Graham confirmed this in a phone interview on Saturday.... Asked whether he felt uncomfortable blocking the Armenian genocide resolution, Graham replied: 'Yeah. Because I like Bob [Menendez]. He's been working on this for years, but I did think with the president of Turkey in town that was probably more than the market would bear.... I'm not going to object next time,' Graham added. The "next time" happened last week. Menendez and his Republican Senate colleague Ted Cruz introduced the Armenian genocide resolution again. This time, the White House asked another Republican Senate ally, David Perdue, to block it." And he did.

Presidential Race 2020

Emma Newburger & Brian Schwartz of CNBC: Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg entered the 2020 presidential race on Sunday following weeks of speculation about whether he would join the crowded Democratic primary. [A] television ad touts Bloomberg's record as mayor and promises 'to rebuild the country and restore faith in the dream that defines us: where the wealthy will pay more in taxes and the middle class get their fair share; everyone without health insurance can get it and everyone who likes theirs, keep it; where jobs won't just help you get by but get ahead.... And on all those things, Mike Bloomberg intends to make good,' the ad said. The new ad is part of his $31 million television ad buy." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Michael Calderone of Politico: "Bloomberg News will report on Michael Bloomberg's 2020 presidential campaign, though will not investigate the candidate or his Democratic rivals, the company's top editor told staff on Sunday. 'We will write about virtually all aspects of this presidential contest in much the same way as we have done so far,' editor-in-chief John Micklethwait told staff in a Sunday memo. 'We will describe who is winning and who is losing. We will look at policies and their consequences. We will carry polls, we will interview candidates and we will track their campaigns, including Mike's.' Micklethwait also said that some of the news organization's opinion and editorial writers would take a leave to join the campaign."

David Gura of NBC News: "Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is back home and resting after being hospitalized on Friday. Ginsburg, 86, has been released after being admitted with chills and a fever, a spokesperson for the Supreme Court said on Sunday." (Also linked yesterday.)

Allison Sommer of Haaretz: "The rise and catastrophic downfall of WeWork founder and former CEO Adam Neumann has been chronicled in gleeful detail across the international financial press in the wake of his company's ill-fated attempt at a public offering -- which resulted in disastrous revelations about the company's mismanagement, its devaluation and, ultimately, Neumann's resignation. But a new Vanity Fair article by Gabriel Sherman..., asserts that Neumann's 'millennial entitlement gone insane' and guru-like 'egomaniacal glamour' extended beyond the business world and into the world of Middle East diplomacy." ~~~

~~~ Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "WeWork [Israeli] cofounder Adam Neumann ... [has a] habit of making grandiose pronouncements like wanting to be elected president of the world, live forever, and become humanity's first trillionaire.... The company's valuation put Neumann's net worth at $4.1 billion -- and his spending more than kept pace.... Last summer, some WeWork executives were shocked to discover Neumann was working on Jared Kushner's Mideast peace effort ... Neumann told colleagues that he was saving the women of Saudi Arabia by working with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to offer women coding classes, according to a source. In another meeting, Neumann said three people were going to save the world: bin Salman, Jared Kushner, and Neumann." --s

Way Beyond the Beltway

Hong Kong. Shibani Mahtani, et al., of the Washington Post: "Voters took to the polls in record numbers to cast ballots in the only fully democratic election in the Chinese territory, an early sign that they wanted to send a strong message to their government and to the Communist Party in Beijing. Early results compiled by the South China Morning Post showed pro-democracy parties winning 278 of the first 344 seats to be declared, pro-Beijing parties taking 42, and independents 24. Many prominent figures in the protest movement won; many leading pro-establishment figures were unseated. Pro-democrats look to be able to secure 12 of 18 district councils available in Hong Kong -- before this vote, they did not have a majority in any." An AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Jeffie Lam, et al., of the South China Morning Post: "The final election results were confirmed at 1pm on Monday when the vote count was completed.... Among the 452 seats up for grabs, the pan-democrats were victorious in 347, the independents -- many of them pro-democracy -- won 45, while the pro-establishment camp had to make do with 60. The pro-democracy camp now has control of 17 out of 18 district councils."

U.K. Robert Booth of the Guardian: “Prince Andrew is to withdraw from scores of charities in a move that appeared designed to protect the monarchy from further humiliation over his association with Jeffrey Epstein. Buckingham Palace confirmed on Sunday that the Duke of York is 'standing back from all his patronages' but indicated he still hopes to return to a public role at some point by saying the move was only temporary." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ No Birthday Bash for Andy. Nick Enoch of the Daily Mail: "The Queen has scrapped plans to host a party for Prince Andrew to mark his 60th birthday in February. Instead, the monarch is said to be arranging a small family dinner for the Duke, according to The Sunday Times. His birthday is on February 19." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Commentariat -- November 24, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Ashley Parker & Dan Lamothe of the New York Times: "Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper asked for the resignation of Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer on Sunday after losing confidence in him over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq, the Pentagon said. Spencer's resignation came in the wake of the controversial case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was accused of war crimes on a 2017 deployment. He was acquitted of murder but convicted in July of posing with the corpse of a captive. Esper asked for Spencer&'s resignation after learning that he had privately proposed to White House officials that if they did not interfere with proceedings against Gallagher, then Spencer would ensure that Gallagher was able to retire as a Navy SEAL, with his Trident insignia. Spencer's private proposal to the White House -- which he did not share with Esper over the course of several conversations about the matter -- contradicted his public position on the Gallagher case, chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement." An Axios report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Everyone who comes in contact with Donald Trump turns to dust.

In case you were wondering, "Whatever does the White House have to hide?" here's a teensy taste: ~~~

~~~ ** Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "A confidential White House review of President Trump's decision to place a hold on military aid to Ukraine has turned up hundreds of documents that reveal extensive efforts to generate an after-the-fact justification for the decision and a debate over whether the delay was legal, according to three people familiar with the records. The research by the White House Counsel's Office, which was triggered by a congressional impeachment inquiry announced in September, includes early August email exchanges between acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House budget officials seeking to provide an explanation for withholding the funds after President Trump had already ordered a hold in mid-July... One person briefed on the records examination said White House lawyers are expressing concern that the review has turned up some unflattering exchanges and facts that could at a minimum embarrass the president.... Mulvaney's request for information came days after the White House Counsel's Office was put on notice that an anonymous CIA official had made a complaint to the agency's general counsel about Trump's July 25 call to [Ukraine President] Zelensky...."

Hong Kong. Ken Moritsugu & Eileen Ng of the AP: "Partial returns early Monday from Hong Kong's local elections showed that pro-democracy candidates won more than a third of the seats in balloting that was seen as a test of support for the anti-government protests that rocked the Chinese territory for more than five months. Among the winners in Sunday's vote that drew a massive turnout were former student leaders and a candidate who replaced prominent activist Joshua Wong, the only person barred from running in the election. Rally organizer Jimmy Sham, who was beaten by hammer-wielding assailants last month, also triumphed, as did a pro-democracy lawmaker who had part of his ear bitten off by an assailant. So far, pro-democracy candidates have won 159 out of 452 seats in 18 district council races. Hong Kong's largest pro-Beijing political party suffered the biggest setback, with more than 100 of its 182 candidates defeated."

Chandelis Duster & Kristen Holmes of CNN: "House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff left the door open to the possibility of more hearings or depositions in the impeachment inquiry said that Democrats will not 'wait months and months while the administration plays a game of rope-a-dope in an effort to try to stall.' Schiff indicated on Sunday in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union" that Democrats would not be taking former national security adviser John Bolton to court for his testimony. Schiff also said Bolton should have the 'courage' to testify like former National Security Council Russia expert Fiona Hill and others. And if he chooses not to testify, Bolton will have to explain to the country 'why did he wait to tell' his story in his upcoming book rather than to the public 'when it mattered.'"

David Gura of NBC News: "Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is back home and resting after being hospitalized on Friday. Ginsburg, 86, has been released after being admitted with chills and a fever, a spokesperson for the Supreme Court said on Sunday."

U.K. Robert Booth of the Guardian: "Prince Andrew is to withdraw from scores of charities in a move that appeared designed to protect the monarchy from further humiliation over his association with Jeffrey Epstein. Buckingham Palace confirmed on Sunday that the Duke of York is 'standing back from all his patronages' but indicated he still hopes to return to a public role at some point by saying the move was only temporary." ~~~

~~~ No Birthday Bash for Andy. Nick Enoch of the Daily Mail: "The Queen has scrapped plans to host a party for Prince Andrew to mark his 60th birthday in February. Instead, the monarch is said to be arranging a small family dinner for the Duke, according to The Sunday Times. His birthday is on February 19."

Emma Newburger & Brian Schwartz of CNBC: Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg entered the 2020 presidentia race on Sunday following weeks of speculation about whether he would join the crowded Democratic primary. [A] television ad touts Bloomberg's record as mayor and promises 'to rebuild the country and restore faith in the dream that defines us: where the wealthy will pay more in taxes and the middle class get their fair share; everyone without health insurance can get it and everyone who likes theirs, keep it; where jobs won't just help you get by but get ahead.... And on all those things, Mike Bloomberg intends to make good,' the ad said. The new ad is part of his $31 million television ad buy." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. The New York Times story is here.

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Admiral, Navy Secretary Revolt Against Commander-in-Chief*. Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "The secretary of the Navy and the admiral who leads the SEALs have threatened to resign or be fired if plans to expel a commando from the elite unit in a war crimes case are halted by President Trump, administration officials said Saturday. The Navy is proceeding with the disciplinary plans against the commando, Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, who counts Mr. Trump as one of his most vocal supporters. The threats by the Navy secretary, Richard V. Spencer, and Rear Adm. Collin Green are a rare instance of pushback against Mr. Trump from members of the Defense Department. Chief Gallagher was accused of shooting civilians, murdering a captive Islamic State fighter with a hunting knife in Iraq, and threatening to kill SEALs who reported him, among other misconduct. His court-martial ended in acquittal on those charges. But the Navy ultimately demoted the chief, who was convicted of one charge: bringing discredit to the armed forces by posing for photos with the teenage captive's dead body. Last Friday, Mr. Trump reversed that demotion, angering Navy officials, who had little choice but to accept the reversal. Nonetheless, they continued with their plans to expel Chief Gallagher from the unit. On Thursday, the president intervened again in the case, saying that the commando should remain in the unit.... A White House spokesman did not respond to requests for comment." ~~~

     ~~~ Or Not. Update. Spencer Is Not That Principled. Karen DeYoung & Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer said Saturday that he would comply with any order by President Trump regarding the case of a Navy SEAL whose continuance in the elite unit is being reviewed by the service after a controversial murder charge. 'I work at the pleasure of the president,' Spencer said, denying reports that he has threatened to resign. 'I do not interpret what the president does. I do what he says.' But Spencer said he did not consider a presidential tweet to be an order.... 'The Navy will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher's Trident Pin,' the SEAL insignia, Trump tweeted on Thursday. 'This case was handled very badly from the beginning. Get back to business!'" ~~~

~~~ Courtney Kube & Carol Lee of NBC News: "Military leaders hoping to keep the Secretary of the Navy from quitting lobbied ... Donald Trump aboard Air Force One to stop intervening in the case of a Navy SEAL accused of murder, say five current and one former military and defense officials.... Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist, Army Chief of Staff General [James] McConville, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, and Sgt. Major of the Army Michael Grinston spoke with the president about the process on Air Force One Thursday night...." ~~~

~~~ New York Times Editors: "That Mr. Trump would pardon men accused or convicted of war crimes should come as little surprise, given that he campaigned on promises to torture the nation's enemies and kill their families. Mr. Trump in May became the first modern president to pardon a person convicted of war crimes, when he pardoned Michael Behenna, a former Army lieutenant, who had been convicted of killing a prisoner in Iraq.... Absolving people who commit war crimes does great harm to society in general, and the men and women who served honorably.... A nation has to know that military action being taken in its name follows morally defensible rules -- that soldiers do not, for instance, kill unarmed civilians or prisoners. To excuse men who have so flagrantly violated those rules -- to treat them as heroes, even -- is to cast the idea of just war to the winds. It puts the nation and veterans at risk of moral injury, the shattering of a moral compass."

Maybe Everything You Need to Know about Donald Trump. Eric Levitz of New York: "Donald Trump said Friday that Xi Jinping would have 'obliterated' Hong Kong, and killed 'thousands' of its people, if he had not personally asked the Chinese leader to refrain from mass murder. Trump went on to call Xi 'a friend of mine,' and an 'incredible guy.'"

Zeke Miller of the AP: "Vice President Mike Pence worked to reassure the United States' Kurdish allies in an unannounced trip to Iraq on Saturday, the highest-level American trip since President Donald Trump ordered a pullback of U.S. forces in Syria two months ago. Flying in a C-17 military cargo aircraft, Pence landed in Irbil, capital of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, to meet with Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani. The visit was meant to hearten the United States' regional partners in the fight against the Islamic State group after the U.S. pulled troops northern Syria, leaving America's Kurdish allies there to face a bloody cross-border Turkish assault last month. Asked by reporters if the United States was facing a sense of betrayal from Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish allies over Trump's actions in Syria, Pence said both groups, including Syrian Kurdish forces 'who fought alongside us,' had no doubts about the U.S. commitment to them. 'It's unchanging,' Pence said." Mrs. McC: Right.

Charles Pierce of Esquire: "This was the Friday news dump to end all news dumps.... Beyond the obvious conclusions -- that the president* is guilty as hell, and he is using as his primary defense a disinformation project devised in Moscow, and, in the interest of advancing the latter, he tried to shakedown a vulnerable ally under literal siege by the military forces of the government that dreamed up the president*'s primary alibi -- this sudden avalanche of information fairly screams out for the inquiry to play out as it will play out, and that short-circuiting its process is both bad detective work and bad politics. Just on Friday, we learned that Nunes and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were roped into this mess, too." --s

Edward Wong & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "Internal State Department emails and documents released late Friday further implicate Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a campaign orchestrated this year by President Trump and his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to pressure Ukraine for political favors." Besides proving Pompeo & Rudy Guiliani spoke in the month before Pompeo ordered Ambassador Marie Yovanovtich out of Ukraine, "the documents also show that the State Department sent members of Congress a deliberately misleading reply about Ms. Yovanovitch's departure after they asked about pressure on her.... The documents, and recent congressional testimonies in the impeachment inquiry, tie Mr. Pompeo closely to efforts by Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani to persuade the Ukrainian government to announce investigations that could help Mr. Trump politically.... The documents bolstered testimony delivered Wednesday by Gordon D. Sondland, the American ambassador to the European Union.... He told lawmakers ... that Mr. Pompeo had full knowledge of the campaign and even approved certain hard-line tactics.... The documents, testimony and interviews with Mr. Giuliani paint a portrait of a secretary of state who not only had intimate knowledge of the pressure campaign against Ukraine and the effort to undermine and remove a respected ambassador, but took part in her ouster despite warnings about the campaign from lawmakers and a half-dozen former ambassadors to Ukraine." See yesterday's Commentariat for related stories.

Marty Johnson of the Hill: "Rudy Giuliani ... elaborated on his 'insurance policy' Saturday, tweeting that he has files in his safe 'about the Biden Family's 4 decade monetizing of his office.' 'TRUTH ALERT: The statement I've made several times of having an insurance policy, if thrown under bus, is sarcastic & relates to the files in my safe about the Biden Family's 4 decade monetizing of his office,' Giuliani tweeted. 'If I disappear, it will appear immediately along with my RICO chart,' he added.... Earlier in the day, the former New York mayor appeared on Fox News, where he said that he has 'insurance' in case Trump decides to throw him under the bus. 'I've seen things written like he's going to throw me under the bus. When they say that, I say he isn't, but I have insurance,' Giuliani told Fox News's Ed Henry."

Chris Sommerfeldt & Dave Goldiner of the New York Daily News (Nov. 22): "One of the Florida businessmen who worked with Rudy Giuliani on his hunt for Ukrainian dirt on Democrats has turned over a trove of 'hard evidence' to impeachment investigators -- including photos and videos, one of his lawyers said Friday. Lev Parnas, who was criminally charged last month in a sweeping campaign finance scheme that overlaps with the House impeachment inquiry, had so much evidence it had to be sent to investigators in several batches, the attorney, Joseph Bondy, told the Daily News. Bondy said he has also tried to schedule a time for Parnas to testify under oath before the House Intelligence Committee about the 'first-hand knowledge' he says his client has about President Trump's bid to pressure Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden's family and other Democrats before the 2020 election. However, impeachment investigators have yet to take up Parnas' offer, even though the subpoena he was issued last month demanded he come in for a closed-door deposition on Oct. 10, Bondy said. Parnas couldn't make that deposition because he was in custody in Virginia awaiting arraignment in New York on the campaign finance charges, Bondy said."

Brent Larkin of Cleveland.com: "Jim Jordan ... [is] now the second most contemptible human being in the entire U.S. government.... And now it's fitting that Republicans have given this seven-term sycophant a starring role in the televised House Intelligence Committee impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump. The assignment comes as Jordan is being credibly accused by some of knowingly turning a blind eye to ... sexual assaults and ...rapes of student[s].... That makes Jordan an ideal candidate to lead the defense of a malignant president who has bragged about physically abusing women and who has been accused by two dozen women of sexual assault or misconduct.... When Jordan slithers out from under his rock each morning, dons a shirt and tie - sans the jacket, lest he be mistaken for Joe McCarthy - his life's work is to besmirch everything America stands for in service of Donald Trump.... Jordan is the ideal bootlicker." Read the whole post. --s

Evan Semones of Politico: Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), "the top Democrat on the House armed services committee, said Saturday that Republican Rep. Devin Nunes is likely to face an ethics investigation over allegations he met with an ex-Ukrainian prosecutor at the center of the impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump.... CNN reported late Friday that [Lev Parnas,] an associate of Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, has information on meetings Nunes allegedly had with former Ukrainian prosecutor general Victor Shokin.... Nunes called the CNN report 'demonstrably false' in an interview with Breitbart." ~~~

~~~ Tareq Haddad of Newsweek: "Devin Nunes ... is reportedly threatening to sue CNN and The Daily Beast after the publications reported damaging allegations that could implicate him in the ongoing impeachment probe the committee is currently conducting. Nunes ... faced calls to recuse himself and even to be investigated after it was alleged that he himself met with Ukrainian officials in order to discuss digging up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden. If accurate, the claim would implicate Nunes in the events his committee is investigating.... Nunes told Breitbart News that he now plans to sue the publications, although he did not specify what was he believed to be factually incorrect with any of their reporting."

Ellen of Crooks & Liars: "[Friday] night, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs lobbed a softball to Press Secretary (and obvious liar) Stephanie Grisham that all but asked her to shoot down [John] Bolton's accusation [that the White House had refused to give him access to his personal Twitter account.]... Rather than refute the accusation, Grisham suggested Bolton's 'advanced age' is to blame[.]... If your Spidey senses aren't already tingling from Grisham's dodgy and outright ridiculous smear about a man who has been active on Twitter for almost a decade and has more than 847,000 Twitter followers, then The New York Times should set you straight: Bolton had turned over control of his account to the White House. He was no longer able to access that account shortly after tweeting his accusation that Trump had lied about firing him. According to the Times, the White House had evidently changed his password and verifying email address." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Bolton is two-and-a-half years younger than Grisham's very stable genius boss Donald Trump, who seems to be able to handle a Twitter account.

Andrew Taylor of the AP: "Negotiations on a package of spending bills to fund the federal government have produced a key breakthrough, though considerably more work is needed to wrap up the long-delayed measures. Top lawmakers of the House and Senate Appropriations committees on Saturday confirmed agreement on allocations for each of the 12 spending bills, a step that allows negotiations on the $1.4 trillion budget bundle to begin in earnest to try to pass the measures by a Dec. 20 deadline. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., announced the agreement on Saturday through aides."

Presidential Races 2016, 2020

AP: "Michael Bloomberg will not accept political donations if he runs for president and he will not take a salary if he wins, according to senior aides who offered new details on Saturday about the New York billionaire's plans to navigate his wealth as he marches toward a formal 2020 announcement.... In recent days, he has created a presidential campaign committee wit the Federal Election Commission and qualified for the primary ballot in at least three states. Bloomberg's team has reserved more than $30 million in television ads set to begin running Sunday in several primary states."

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Saturday, Deepa Seetharaman of the Wall Street Journal profiled James Barnes, a former Facebook employee who was credited by the Trump campaign as their inside man and 'MVP' at the social network -- and who is now fighting to defeat the president in 2020. 'James Barnes left Facebook this spring, and said he is now dedicated to using the digital-ad strategies he employed on behalf of the Trump campaign to get President Trump out of office in 2020,' wrote Seetharaman. 'Mr. Barnes, who had been a lifelong Republican, has registered as a Democrat and recently started working with a progressive nonprofit called Acronym, where former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe is on the board.'" The WSJ story is here.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on Friday night after experiencing chills and fever earlier in the day, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said on Saturday.... Justice Ginsburg's symptoms abated after treatment with intravenous antibiotics and fluids, [the spokeswoman] said, adding the justice expected to be released from the hospital as early as Sunday morning."

William Broad of the New York Times: "The world's first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the New Mexican desert -- a result of a highly secretive effort code-named the Manhattan Project, whose nerve center lay nearby in Los Alamos. Just 49 months later, the Soviets detonated a nearly identical device in Central Asia, and Washington's monopoly on nuclear arms abruptly ended. How Moscow managed to make such quick progress has long fascinated scientists, federal agents and historians. The work of three spies eventually came to light. Now atomic sleuths have found a fourth. Oscar Seborer, like the other spies, worked at wartime Los Alamos, a remote site ringed by tall fences and armed guards. Mr. Seborer nonetheless managed to pass sensitive information about the design of the American weapon to Soviet agents. The spy fled to the Soviet Union some years later; the F.B.I. eventually learned of his defection and the espionage but kept the information secret. His role 'has remained hidden for 70 years,' write Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes in the current issue of Studies in Intelligence, the C.I.A.'s in-house journal; their article is titled 'On the Trail of a Fourth Soviet Spy at Los Alamos.'"

Way Beyond the Beltway

U.K. Adam Blenkov of Business Insider: "Boris Johnson's Conservative Party election campaign received a six-figure donation from [Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of the Russian oligarch Vladimir Chernukhin] and ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The prime minister's party received £5.7 million in donations in the first week of the campaign, mostly from senior business figures and hedge funds, more than 25 times the amount raised by the opposition Labour Party.... Chernukhin previously paid £160,000 for a tennis match with Johnson and £135,000 for a night out with former Prime Minister Theresa May.... The committee looked into donations from nine Russian sources.... Johnson blocked the report [by Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee about potential Russian interference in recent UK elections], which was set to be published before the election campaign, because of fears that the information would damage his chance of winning the UK general election next month, sources told The Times." --s

The Commentariat -- November 23, 2019

** Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: "The high crime that the president has committed is not against Ukraine, but against America.... Trump's defenders, having previously insisted that there was no 'quid pro quo' involved in the president's effort to extort Ukraine using taxpayer dollars, are slowly shifting to insisting, as much of the president's base already believed, that Trump did nothing wrong. This is of a piece with the general anti-democracy trend in the Republican Party, which justly fears that the majority of the country no longer supports its agenda, and that extreme measures must be taken to shield its grip on power from democratic accountability.... [Republicans believe] the party's political opponents are ... fundamentally illegitimate, faithless usurpers.... This has manifested in the quasi-religious dogma that Trump represents the will of Real America, and therefore defiance of his will is itself a form of treason.... Trump is the nation, and the nation cannot commit treason against itself. On the contrary, it is Joe Biden who is guilty of betrayal, defying the tribune of the people by seeking to run against him.... The more evidence of Trump's misdeeds the Democrats uncover, the more they reveal themselves as traitors."

Today's Red Scare, Ctd. Rachel Maddow did a pretty good job of demonstrating how Trump & his Republican backers are acting as Russia's American propaganda team. Links to stories supporting Maddow's segment follow:

** Trump, Republicans Are Russian Trolls. Julian Barnes & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The Republican defense of Mr. Trump became central to the impeachment proceedings when Fiona Hill, a respected Russia scholar and former senior White House official, added a harsh critique during testimony on Thursday. She told some of Mr. Trump's fiercest defenders in Congress that they were repeating 'a fictional narrative.' She said that it likely came from a disinformation campaign by Russian security services, which also propagated it. In a briefing that closely aligned with Dr. Hill's testimony, American intelligence officials informed senators and their aides in recent weeks that Russia had engaged in a yearslong campaign to essentially frame Ukraine as responsible for Moscow's own hacking of the 2016 election, according to three American officials. The briefing came as Republicans stepped up their defenses of Mr. Trump in the Ukraine affair. The revelations demonstrate Russia's persistence in trying to sow discord among its adversaries -- and show that the Kremlin apparently succeeded, as unfounded claims about Ukrainian interference seeped into Republican talking points. American intelligence agencies believe Moscow is likely to redouble its efforts as the 2020 presidential campaign intensifies. The classified briefing for senators also focused on Russia's evolving influence tactics, including its growing ability to better disguise operations.... Mr. Trump ... has also spoken with Mr. Putin about allegations of Ukrainian interference." Emphasis added. The Week has a summary of the NYT report. ~~~

~~~ Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump unleashed a series of falsehoods on Friday in an effort to invalidate the impeachment inquiry and counter sworn testimony from officials in his own administration, after a week of damaging public hearings. In a 53-minute phone interview with 'Fox & Friends,' Mr. Trump accused David Holmes, a political counselor to the American ambassador in Ukraine, of fabricating a phone call between Mr. Trump and the American ambassador to the European Union. Mr. Holmes told impeachment investigators that he had overheard the president ask the ambassador, Gordon D. Sondland, about Ukrainian investigations into his political rivals, a consequential detail in the Democrats' impeachment inquiry. 'I guarantee you that never took place,' Mr. Trump said. He added that he barely knew Mr. Sondland.... In his own testimony, Mr. Sondland corroborated Mr. Holmes's account.... Mr. Trump also said he knows the identity of the anonymous whistle-blower whose complaint prompted the impeachment inquiry -- and asserted that the details in the complaint were 'fake.'... He also said Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election with the goal of helping Hillary Clinton, an unsubstantiated theory." Trump also seemed to say that he had no idea how Sondland got involved in the Ukraine scandal. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "One day after the wrap of the first phase of public impeachment hearings..., Donald Trump unloaded to Fox News, declaring he wants a Senate trial, pushing a debunked theory that Ukraine has a DNC server, and deeming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi 'crazy as a bedbug.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ ** Daniel Dale & Tara Subramaniam of CNN: " Fox & Friends tried harder than usual -- not especially hard, but harder than usual -- to challenge ... Donald Trump. It did not work very well. Trump ranted dishonestly for much of his 53-minute Friday interview with his favorite morning show, repeatedly refusing to let the show's co-hosts get in a word in edgewise. When they did manage to make a semi-critical point, Trump brushed them off. When co-host Steve Doocy asked Trump if he was sure about his claim that the Democratic National Committee had given an important computer server that was hacked in 2016 to Ukraine (they had not), Trump said, providing no evidence and citing no sources, 'That's what the word is.' When co-host Brian Kilmeade corrected Trump's claim that European countries haven't provided aid to Ukraine, Trump didn't respond. (Kilmeade had quickly moved on to the next question.) When Kilmeade corrected Trump's claim that he has 'pulled out' of Syria, noting that Trump is keeping hundreds of soldiers in the country, Trump again said nothing. (Kilmeade quickly moved on again.) Trump made at least 18 false claims in the interview -- and that's our initial count. We're still looking into some other claims." The reporters list the lies & provide the facts. It's a pretty good read. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie Translation: "That's what the word is." = "Putin told me so." ~~~

~~~ Abbey Marshall & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "... Donald Trump unleashed fresh attacks on Marie Yovanovitch Friday, the former U.S. ambassador he ousted in May..., accusing her of refusing to hang a photo of himself in the Ukrainian Embassy and saying she 'was not an angel.' 'This ambassador that, you know, everybody says is so wonderful, she wouldn't hang my picture in the embassy,' Trump said in a phone interview on 'Fox & Friends,' without offering any evidence of his claim.... The claim ... echoes similar complaints from earlier in his tenure when Trump's official portrait was reportedly missing from thousands of government offices -- until the White House released portraits of the president nine months after he was sworn in.... 'She said bad things about me,' he continued.... 'She wouldn't defend me. I have the right to change an ambassador.'... Trump ... decr[ied] Yovanovitch as an 'Obama person,' and saying his staff instructed him to 'be nice' because she's a woman. 'This was not an angel, this woman, OK?' he said. 'There are a lot of things that she did that I didn't like and we will talk about that at some time, but I just want to let you know, this was not a baby that we're dealing with.'... [He went on.] Yovanovitch responded in real time to the president's broadside, saying, 'It's very intimidating.' House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff quickly scolded Trump, telling Yovanovitch that lawmakers take 'witness intimidation' very seriously." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Of Course It Was a Lie. Geoff Bennett of NBC News [@11:50 am ET Friday]: "Lawyers for former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch say ... Donald Trump's claim that she refused to hang his picture in the U.S. embassy in Ukraine is false. 'The Embassy in Kyiv hung the official photographs of the president, vice president, and secretary of state as soon as they arrived from Washington, D.C.,' a person connected to her legal team said[.]" Mrs. McC: Okay, this is a he-said/she-said situation. Whom do you believe?

~~~ Jonathan Chait: "Yesterday, Fiona Hill testified that President Trump and his allies have circulated 'a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves,' absolving Vladimir Putin of interference in the election by claiming Ukrainians, not Russian hackers, actually stole Democratic emails in 2016. Republicans indignantly denied the charge.... This morning, Trump gave an interview to Fox & Friends repeating the very theory Republicans so angrily denied he has ever promoted. As the friendly hosts looked on apprehensively, Trump began unspooling a wild theory he has mentioned before, and invoked on his phone call to Ukrainian president Zelensky. The theory posits that Ukrainians hacked Democratic emails, framed Russia, and kept the server they hacked to hide their crime." Chait points out a couple of other glaring inconsistencies in Trump's morning rant. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Johnson, Grassley Troll for Russia. Marianne Levine of Politico: "The Republican chairmen of two Senate committees are urging the FBI and Justice Department to provide more information about Alexandra Chalupa, a former consultant for the Democratic National Committee who has come under GOP scrutiny amid the impeachment inquiry. In a letter sent Friday to Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Chuck Grassley of Iowa cited a 2017 Politico report that Chalupa met with Ukrainian officials to discuss ties between Russia and ... Donald Trump and his campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.... Johnson, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Grassley, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, also sent a letter Thursday to the National Archives and Records Administration asking for records of any White House meetings in 2016 between Obama administration officials, representatives for the Ukrainian government and DNC officials." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Johnson was almost certainly among the senators whom U.S. intelligence officials informed that Russia has been trying to frame Ukraine for 2016 election hacking. Grassley, as a prominent Senate chairman, probably was informed, too. So these two jamokes are asking for these documents, knowing full well that they're acting on a conspiracy theory that they know is a Russian disinformation campaign.

Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "Former vice president Joe Biden lashed out Friday at Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, a longtime friend and once-close Republican ally, as Graham stepped up efforts with other GOP senators to make Biden's son Hunter a focus of the impeachment proceedings.... Graham (R-S.C.) requested new documents Thursday from the State Department, attempting to uncover additional information related to Hunter Biden's activities when he was on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. 'Lindsey is about to go down in a way that I think he's going to regret his whole life,' Joe Biden said on CNN. Asked by host Don Lemon what he would say to his longtime Senate colleague, Biden responded, 'I say: "Lindsey, I just -- I'm just embarrassed by what you're doing, for you. I mean, my Lord."'... The increasingly personal and angry nature of the impeachment proceedings threatens to undercut a key message of Joe Biden's campaign -- that comity and civility can return to Washington after President Trump's departure and that he's the man to make that happen. At the Democratic debate Wednesday night, Biden largely refrained from criticizing Republicans, even when moderators asked why he thought he could work with them given that several longtime GOP friends are calling for investigations of his family." ~~~

~~~ Marc Caputo of Politico: "Joe Biden's presidential campaign accused Sen. Lindsey Graham of having 'forfeited his conscience' for requesting State Department records concerning the former vice president's efforts to oust a corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor in 2016. The broadside against Graham signaled a new phase of the Biden campaign's counterattack against ... Donald Trump -- whose attempts to have Biden and his son investigated in Ukraine have led to his looming impeachment -- by pointing out that congressional Republicans saw no scandal regarding the Bidens until it became a political issue for Trump." ~~~

~~~ This is how Lindsey used to feel about his friend Joe circa 2016. Maybe he still feels that way. But a Trumpletoady's gotta do what a Trumpletoady's gotta do:

Seung Min Kim, et al., of the Washington Post: Mick "Mulvaney and top White House officials have hosted weekend getaways for Republicans at [Camp David], seeking to butter up Republicans before the big impeachment vote. The casual itinerary includes making s'mores over the campfire, going hiking, shooting clay pigeons and schmoozing with Trump officials, some of whom stay overnight with lawmakers. During dinners, Trump has called in to compliment members personally. [Trump doesn't like the rustic retreat, which is short on gold & marble fixtures.]... The Camp David excursions are one prong of a broad White House charm offensive, meant to hold House and Senate Republicans in line through a House impeachment vote and a trial in the Senate that appears all but inevitable.... In all, Trump has met with or reached out personally to 100 GOP members of the House since the impeachment inquiry was launched, and 50 of the 53 Senate Republicans have attended a White House lunch -- where chicken is often served -- with the president." The Hill has a summary of the WashPo report here.

Gabby Orr of Politico: "As White House aides and senior administration officials scramble to keep his administration afloat, Trump has become monomaniacally focused on impeachment.... 'His top priority right now is making sure voters know this is the single greatest scam in the history of politics,' said a Republican close to the White House.... Even when Trump has been at work in the West Wing, aides say his preoccupation with impeachment creeps into every discussion.... On the policy front, Trump has delegated issues that are critical to his reelection to high-ranking officials, acting agency heads and members of his family -- freeing up his schedule to allow for more campaign events and less time dealing with the technicalities and complications of the policy-making process.... '... He cares about his grievances and his reelection, and that's it,' said Chris Whipple, an expert on presidential schedules...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

This is what's going out to local newspapers across the U.S.: ~~~

~~~ Julie Pace of the AP: "After two weeks of riveting public hearings in the House impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump, there is a mountain of evidence that is now beyond dispute. Trump explicitly ordered U.S. government officials to work with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on matters related to Ukraine, a country deeply dependent on Washington's help to fend off Russian aggression. The Republican president pushed Ukraine to launch investigations into political rivals, leaning on a discredited conspiracy theory his own advisers disputed. And both American and Ukrainian officials feared that Trump froze a much-needed package of military aid until Kyiv announced it was launching those probes. Those facts were confirmed by a dozen witnesses, mostly staid career government officials who served both Democratic and Republican administrations. They relied on emails, text messages and contemporaneous notes to back up their recollections from the past year. Stitched together, their hours of televised testimony paint a portrait of an American president willing to leverage his powerful office to push a foreign government for personal political help." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Josh Marshall received an e-mail from a former DOJ attorney explaining why s/he (the e-mail writer) thinks Pelosi & team are not pursuing subpoenas for Bolton, Mulvaney, et al. Thanks to Anonymous for the link. Mrs. McC: Without having any knowledge of how this worked, I have been thinking along the lines the e-mail writer -- who does know how it works -- suggests. The downside of this approach, which neither Marshall nor the e-mailer addresses, is that the House managers would have to interrogate Trumpist officials cold during the Senate trial; that is, without knowing what their answers would be. And of course Trump's defense team will be able to cross-examine the witnesses, which they would be able to do in any event. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump's Lost Peggy Noonan. Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "In a column for The Wall Street Journal today..., Peggy Noonan argued that when it comes to the charges against President Trump that he pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals in exchange for military aid, 'the case has been made.'... She wrote that ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland 'was both weirdly jolly and enormously effective in doing Mr. Trump damage' and was 'completely believable.' But it was former White House Russia expert Fiona Hill who really impressed Noonan -- she was 'all business, a serious woman you don't want to mess with.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "The U.S. State Department has released thousands of pages of documents from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requested by American Oversight. They are documents that Congress has demanded but the State Department refused to hand over, so American Oversight sued under the FOIA laws and was able to obtain the documents [Mrs. McC: under a judge's order & about an hour-and-a-half before the deadline the judge gave State]. While American Oversight's website is down due to the traffic, they are available for download and review on Document Cloud. According to Austin Evers, executive director of AO, the emails link Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Rudy Giuliani, but they also link ... Donald Trump through his Oval Office assistant.... 'The documents show a clear paper trail connecting not just Rudy Giuliani to Mike Pompeo but being connected by the Oval Office,' said Evers in an MSNBC interview with Ali Velshi. 'President Trump's personal assistant Madeleine Westinghouse serving as a conduit when Rudy Giuliani can't get through to Pompeo through, quote, regular channels. The president's personal assistant makes that connection happen. Based on the timing which is around March of this year it looks apparent this was a connection to ensure that Rudy Giuliani's smear campaign against a sitting U.S. ambassador made it to Mike Pompeo's desk. This is just the first set of disclosures American Oversight's litigation is going to expose." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Good work by Burris. She got this story up in record time. Nobody else has it as of 11:30 pm ET. We can look for follow-ups Saturday as reporters comb through the docs. ~~~

~~~ Update. Phil Helsel & Abigail Williams of NBC News: The released documents "appear to show two calls between Giuliani and Pompeo in March, around a month before former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch ... was abruptly called back to the U.S. in April and then removed from the post. David Hale, undersecretary of state for political affairs, testified on Wednesday that Pompeo and Giuliani spoke on the phone twice in late former personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, helping to connect Giuliani to Pompeo after there was trouble establishing a connection. The documents do not say what Giuliani and Pompeo discussed."

Lev Willing to Out Devin. Vicky Ward of CNN: "A lawyer for an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani tells CNN that his client is willing to tell Congress about meetings the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee had in Vienna last year with a former Ukrainian prosecutor to discuss digging up dirt on Joe Biden. The attorney, Joseph A. Bondy, represents Lev Parnas, the recently indicted Soviet-born American who worked with Giuliani to push claims of Democratic corruption in Ukraine. Bondy said that Parnas was told directly by the former Ukrainian official that he met last year in Vienna with Rep. Devin Nunes. 'Mr. Parnas learned from former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin that Nunes had met with Shokin in Vienna last December,' said Bondy. Shokin was ousted from his position in 2016 after pressure from Western leaders, including then-vice president Biden, over concerns that Shokin was not pursuing corruption cases." Mrs. McC: Wowza! Wouldn't that make for a fun Intel Committee hearing? ~~~

     ~~~ Grant Stern of Occupy Democrats: Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) "pointed out the surprising fact that the House Intelligence Committee's ranking Republican member might have to appear as a fact witness in the panel's impeachment inquiry.... Lev Parnas handed a bombshell exclusive story to The Daily Beast last night [also linked here yesterday] when his lawyer admitted that he set up meetings and calls for an investigation conducted by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) in Europe last year while he was traveling on an official congressional delegation.... Swalwell, who entered the Beast's story into the official record of the inquiry and said, 'Now, if this story is correct, the Ranking Member [Nunes] may have actually been projecting. And in fact, he may be the fact witness if he is working with indicted individuals around our investigation.'... It appears that [Parnas's] cooperation has a real chance to expose Rep. Nunes to a blistering deposition for the ongoing impeachment inquiry, under oath, in front of his own congressional committee." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah, a "panel" of witnesses consisting of Parnas & Nunes would be even better.

Kevin Freking of the AP: "Former national security adviser John Bolton said Friday in a series of cryptic tweets that he's regained control of his personal Twitter account, asserting the White House refused to provide access to it after he resigned in September, a charge ... Donald Trump rejected." The New York Times story, which is more extensive, is here.

Sarah Ferris & Ally Mutnick of Politico: "Vulnerable Democrats are watching in horror as GOP impeachment attacks deluge their districts back home. And they want a much stronger counteroffensive from their own party and its allies. Some of those Democrats raised their concerns with party leaders this week as they prepared to leave for Thanksgiving recess, fearing that voters will be bombarded by anti-impeachment ads as families gather around the TV for parades and football, according to multiple lawmakers and aides." --s

Josh Marshall of TPM: "The Ukrainian [Andrii Telizhenko] at the center of the 'Ukraine collusion' conspiracy just posted a picture of himself hanging out with John Voight at the Trump DC hotel. Because of course he did." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McC: That's Jon Voight. Trump just awarded the National Medal of Arts to Voight, a long-time winger.

** Adam Goldman & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A highly anticipated report by the Justice Department's inspector general is expected to sharply criticize lower-level F.B.I. officials as well as bureau leaders involved in the early stages of the Trump-Russia investigation, but to absolve the top ranks of abusing their powers out of bias against President Trump, according to people briefed on a draft. Investigators for the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, uncovered errors and omissions in documents related to the wiretapping of a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page -- including that a low-level lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, altered an email that officials used to prepare to seek court approval to renew the wiretap, the people said. Mr. Horowitz referred his findings about Mr. Clinesmith to prosecutors for a potential criminal charge.... More broadly, Mr. Horowitz's report, to be made public on Dec. 9, portrays the overall effort to seek the wiretap order and its renewals as sloppy and unprofessional, according to the people familiar with it.... At the same time, however, the report debunks a series of conspiracy theories and insinuations about the F.B.I. that Mr. Trump and his allies have put forward over the past two years, the people said, though they cautioned that the report is not complete." ~~~

~~~ Ellen Nakashima, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department's internal watchdog is expected to find in a forthcoming report that political bias did not taint top officials running the FBI investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign in 2016, while at the same time criticizing the bureau for systemic failures in its handling of surveillance applications, according to two U.S. officials." ~~~

     ~~~ The CNN report, by Evan Perez & Caroline Kelly, is here.

Jeff Stone of Cyberscoop: "The accused Russian scammer [Aleksei Burkov] at [the] center of a geopolitical standoff pleaded not guilty Friday to allegations that he operated two hacking forums where members bought and sold payment data worth roughly $20 million.... The 29-year-old St. Petersburg native arrived in the U.S. on Nov. 12 from Israel after a prolonged extradition battle in which the Russian government tried coercing Israeli officials into sending Burkov to Russia, rather than the U.S.... A 2016 indictment against Burkov made public& this month accuses him of operating two web forums dedicated to cybercrime..., [One ultra secret] forum [that isn't named] ... was used by 'elite cybercriminals to meet in a secure location' where they could trade stolen data.... In November 2015, a member of this 'elite' forum advertised a database containing information about 191 million Americans, including names and birth dates.... Chris Vickery, an independent security researcher, says he found the same database, which also contained voter information, such as party affiliations and whether an individual voted in recent elections. Vickery later traced the database to a religious group, United in Purpose, dedicated to electing conservative politicians." --safari: There is a lot of chat on twitter that this case could be the prologue to the Russian disinformation campaign.

Gaslighter-in-Chief. Michael Calderone of Politico: "CNN's Jake Tapper thinks fact-checking Donald Trump is no longer enough -- and he's created an hourlong special exploring the effects on foreign policy, business and the national culture of the president's compulsive lying.... Tapper thinks the media is well past the point of giving Trump the benefit of the doubt. His special, therefore, represents a new benchmark in the mainstream media's adjustment to Trump's norm-shattering presidency." Tapper's special will be on CNN at 9 pm ET Sunday.(Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jay Greene & Aaron Gregg of the Washington Post: "Amazon on Friday cited comments by President Trump at a rally and to journalists as it pursues its challenge to the Pentagon's surprise decision to award a lucrative contract to rival Microsoft last month. For the first time, Amazon directly linked comments by the president to the award of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, also known as JEDI, to Microsoft last month. Though Amazon filed its protest under seal, it also notified the Court of Federal Claims that it intends to use four videos as exhibits, including one of Trump at a February 2016 campaign rally, as well as one of a Fox News host urging him to prevent the Pentagon from awarding the contract to the online retail giant. The e-commerce giant formally filed a protest with the Court of Federal Claims to challenge the award of the cloud-computing contract, following through on a threat it made last week. It said it did so under seal to protect trade secrets."

Will Wright & Bill Estep of Lexington Herald Leader: "Trade tariffs implemented by ... Donald Trump have hurt Kentucky's wood-products industry in serious ways.... U.S. wood exports to China are down 43 percent nationwide since the tariffs on wood products were imposed, said Dana Lee Cole, executive director of The Hardwood Federation.... The losses in Kentucky exports likely mirror the national figure, said Bob Bauer, head of the Kentucky Forest Industries Association. The tariffs haven't just driven down sales of Kentucky wood products to China. The levies also have forced producers to cut prices in order to prop up their remaining sales, meaning the tariffs are hurting their profit margin."--s

Jim Wyss of the Miami Herald: "Two of Colombia's top diplomats [Colombia's Ambassador to the United States Francisco Santos and the country's Foreign Minister-designate Claudia Blum] -- caught in a moment of candor in a surreptitiously taped conversation -- declared the U.S. State Department 'destroyed.'... Santos said that a decade ago, when he visited Washington, 'It was predictable. You knew how things worked. Now that's all over.' As an example, Santos said that the ambassador from Singapore to the U.S. had confided that during the Obama administration he used to visit the State Department once a week, but now hadn't been there in eight months 'because it doesn’t count.' While he said that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo still carried weight in Washington, his underlings had no power, and that real policy decisions were being made by the National Security Council." --s

As a follow-up to some of the commentary in yesterday's thread: ~~~

~~~ Michelle Castillo of CNBC (Sept. 2018): "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's love for ancient Roman emperor Augustus Caesar offers some insights into how he views being a leader.... Zuckerberg's interest in ancient Rome began in high school and has continued throughout his life, he said. In addition to naming his second daughter August, he spent his 2012 honeymoon in Rome. 'My wife was making fun of me, saying she thought there were three people on the honeymoon: me, her, and Augustus,' he said. 'All the photos were different sculptures of Augustus.'" Zuckerberg elaborated on his admiration for Augustus during an interview with The New Yorker. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

Australia. Nick McKenzie, et al. The Age: "A Chinese spy has risked his life to defect to Australia and is now offering a trove of unprecedented inside intelligence on how China conducts its interference operations abroad. Wang 'William' Liqiang is the first Chinese operative to ever blow his cover.... [H]e has revealed in granular detail how Beijing covertly controls listed companies to fund intelligence operations, including the surveillance and profiling of dissidents and the co-opting of media organisations." --s