The Commentariat -- April 21, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Giuliani for the Defense. Tim O'Donnell of the Week: "President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani made the talk show rounds on Sunday to defend his client.... Giuliani told [Jake] Tapper on CNN's State of the Union that 'there's nothing wrong with taking information from the Russians,' saying that campaigns get information on their opponents from so many different sources. On NBC's Meet the Press, Giuliani told [Chuck] Todd that using material stolen by foreign adversaries in a campaign isn't fundamentally a problem -- it just depends on the material itself.... Giuliani -- who said that much of the Mueller report is questionable -- argued that it's 'hard to believe' Russian interference did much to sway the 2016 election.... Giuliani told [Chris] Wallace [of Fox 'News"] that even if Trump had fired the special counsel, it would not have been obstruction. Giuliani's point was that Trump had good reason to replace Mueller because he hired 'very, very questionable' people to investigate Trump."

All the Best People, Ctd. Annie Snider of Politico: "Interior Secretary David Bernhardt began working on policies that would aid one of his former lobbying clients within weeks of joining the Trump administration, according to a Politico analysis of agency documents -- a revelation that adds to the ethics questions dogging his leadership of the agency. Bernhardt's efforts, beginning in at least October 2017, included shaping the department's response to a key portion of a water infrastructure law he had helped pass as a lobbyist for California farmers, recently released calendars show. The department offered scant details at the time about meetings that Bernhardt, then the deputy secretary, held with Interior officials overseeing water deliveries to the farmers, leading many observers to believe he was steering clear of the issues he had previously lobbied on.... Bernhardt's ethics agreement barred him from participating in any 'particular matters' involving Westlands [-- a water district for which he had lobbied --] until August 2018, one year after he arrived at the agency.... But the newly released information shows that Bernhardt had weighed in on discussions around Westlands' policy priorities for nearly a year by that point."

David Stern of Politico: "Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a comedian with no political experience, scored a crushing victory over incumbent Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine's runoff presidential vote Sunday, according to exit polls. The national exit poll, which consisted of results from a number of polling agencies, showed Zelenskiy winning 73.2 percent of the vote compared to Poroshenko's 25.3 percent -- a margin of nearly 48 percentag points." Mrs. McC: So I'm thinking Stephen Colbert.

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"From 'Total Exoneration' to 'Total Bullshit.'" Kevin Liptak & Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "Instead of the 'total exoneration' Trump had proclaimed earlier, the [Mueller] report portrayed the President as deceitful and paranoid, encouraging his aides to withhold the truth and cross ethical lines in an attempt to thwart a probe into Russia's interference in US elections.... Perhaps more angering to a leader who detests weakness -- but doesn't necessarily mind an amoral reputation -- were the number of underlings shown ignoring his commands, privately scoffing at the 'crazy sh[it]' he was requesting and working around him to avoid self-implication. Now, those close to him say Trump is newly furious at the people -- most of whom no longer work for him -- whose extensive interviews with the special counsel's office created the epic depiction of an unscrupulous and chaotic White House. And he's seeking assurances from those who remain that his orders are being treated like those of a president, and not like suggestions from an intemperate but misguided supervisor.... The President was aware ahead of its public release what was contained in the Mueller report.... Trump grew angry as he watched cable news coverage." ...

      ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The most troublesome parts of this & similar stories are that (1) Trump can't read even something on a topic that has obsessed him, and (2) none of his staff will level with him when the news is bad. There were copies of Mueller's redacted report floating around the White House in the days leading up to the public release. Apparently Trump didn't grab a copy & take it upstairs for bedtime reading, & neither his personal lawyers nor the White House counsel briefed him about the report's contents. It doesn't much matter what Trump knows about the Mueller report, but it matters a great deal that he never finds out anything that he might not like unless he hears it on "fake news." One reason -- and it's a good one -- that Trump thinks all the legitimate media are fake is that they aren't saying & writing the same things he hears at the office. ...

... "Worst Exoneration Ever." Maureen Dowd: "Donald Trump's dirtbag machinations are driven by insane vanity. The First Narcissist's all-consuming blend of braggadocio and insecurity has turned Washington and its rickety institutions into a dystopian outpost of his id.... He did not want people to think that the Russians were responsible for his election and that he was an illegitimate president ... because he thinks he is an illegitimate president.... He never expected to win. The report counts as the Worst Exoneration Ever."

Josh Marshall: "The image [the Mueller report projects] is one of weakness, someone who blusters but is actually surprisingly, paradoxically conflict averse."

David Smith in the Guardian: "If the tone of [the] secret conversations, revealed in Mueller's long-awaited report this week, remind you of Tony Soprano -- the amoral, brooding, charismatic, philandering, thuggish crime boss in the eponymous TV drama -- ... you are not alone. Over 448 pages, Mueller ... portray[s Trump] as a serial liar willing to abuse power, shred norms and bend the rule of law in a White House rotten to the core.... 'The demands for loyalty and fealty are like an organised crime network. Instead of the John Gotti family, it's the Trump family and his solders are the Republican members of Congress who protect him.' [said Kurt Bardella, former spokesperson and senior adviser for the House oversight and government reform committee].... As faithfully chronicled in The Sopranos, the most skilled crime bosses manage to remain untouchable even as their captains and footsoldiers are picked off. " --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Many have made the observation about Trump's Mafia-like behavior. Of the many things Trump complains about, that characterization is not among them. What he's so angry about now is not that he's being compared to a mob boss but that he's being compared to a feeble, ineffectual mob boss.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump has boasted at various points that he has 'one of the great memories of all time' or even 'the world's greatest memory.' But the world's greatest memory failed him repeatedly when prosecutors asked him those classic questions from decades of presidential scandals -- what did he know and when did he know it?... Even ... with the help of his lawyers..., more than 30 times, he told the prosecutors that he had no memory of what they were asking about, employing several formulations to make the same point.... Prosecutors said such selective memory tended to make them suspicious."

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "... according to the special counsel's report..., the Kremlin [made a broad effort] to establish ties to Mr. Trump that began early in the campaign and shifted into high gear after Mr. Trump's victory. Those efforts were channeled largely through people in the business world in both countries. Especially after the election, they led to a conflation of diplomatic and financial interests that was a stark departure from the carefully calibrated contacts typically managed by an incoming administration in the United States. Mr. Trump's on-the-fly campaign, lack of preparation for victory and disorganized transition created a vacuum that, as Russia sought out avenues of access and influence, was quickly filled by a number of people from outside established foreign policy circles, many of whom appeared eager to portray themselves as access brokers or to generate business opportunities.... [Mueller's] report made clear how vigorously Mr. Putin sought to find points of contact and influence with Mr. Trump's team -- and how many people on the American side were willing to participate to one degree or another in discussions that touched on topics as varied as Mr. Trump's desire to build a Moscow hotel to United States policy toward Ukraine."

New York Times Editors: "... the real danger that the Mueller report reveals is not of a president who knowingly or unknowingly let a hostile power do dirty tricks on his behalf, but of a president who refuses to see that he has been used to damage American democracy and national security. Since the publication of the report, Vladimir Putin and his government have been crowing that they, too, are now somehow vindicated, joining the White House in creating the illusion that the investigation was all about 'collusion' rather than a condemnation of criminal Russian actions."

Jennifer Taub in Slate: No, White House staff did not prevent Trump from committing crimes. "An attempt to obstruct that fails is still a crime.... Llet's explore one of the obstruction provisions that Mueller referenced, 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2). This passage provides that 'Whoever corruptly .. obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both' (emphasis added [by Taub]).... The Mueller report provides proof of all three elements needed to establish obstruction on several potential counts of obstruction.... The report sets out 10 potentially obstructive episodes. In nearly all of them, it establishes a nexus to an official proceeding." One major problem facing Mueller was proving "corrupt intent." "It's partially why he was so meticulous in documenting Trump lie after Trump lie, which in several cases pointed to evidence of a guilty conscience."

Susan Hennessey & Quinta Jurecic of Lawfare: "The Mueller Report describes, in excruciating detail..., a candidate and a campaign aware of the existence of a plot by a hostile foreign government to criminally interfere in the U.S. election for the purpose of supporting that candidate's side. It describes a candidate and a campaign who welcomed the efforts and delighted in the assistance. It describes a candidate and a campaign who brazenly and serially lied to the American people about the existence of the foreign conspiracy and their contacts with it.... The Mueller Report describes a president who, on numerous occasions, engaged in conduct calculated to hinder a federal investigation. It finds ample evidence that at least a portion of that conduct met all of the statutory elements of criminal obstruction of justice.... If [the House] wants to actually confront the substance of the report, it will introduce a resolution to begin an impeachment inquiry."

Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "House Democrats ... plan to take on the ... task of trying to distill and publicize the most alarming parts of the Mueller report in hopes of making the president's behavior in office feel consequential for more voters. They are preparing a rival reality show of their own through hearings with Attorney General William P. Barr and others. Democrats privately say their models are the Watergate hearings into President Richard M. Nixon's misdeeds and the Republican hearings about the 2012 Benghazi attack, which were designed to damage Clinton's reputation. 'We will have major hearings. Barr and Mueller are just the first,' said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), in a radio interview Friday. 'We will call many other people.'... Ultimately, to fight back, Democrats in Congress will have to find a way to engage Trump on his own terms, with clear messaging and repeated talking points, something they struggled to do in the first days after the Mueller report."

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday ridiculed Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) for his loss to former President Barack Obama in the 2012 election -- one day after Romney said he was 'sickened' by Trump's actions as detailed in special counsel Robert Mueller's report. 'If @MittRomney spent the same energy fighting Barack Obama as he does fighting Donald Trump, he could have won the race (maybe)!' Trump tweeted. Attached to the president's post was a 40-second video contrasting election night footage and CNN news coverage from Romney's White House loss six-and-a-half years ago to Obama with Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016." ...

I guess I'd be prepared to concede that Romney was prescient about Russia had he said in 2012 that the big Russian threat was that the GOP would decide to embrace complicity with Russian computer crimes in order to secure partisan advantage, but that's not how I remember it. -- Matt Yglesias of Vox, in a tweet

Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "Immigrants who use marijuana or who work in the cannabis industry can be denied citizenship, even if they are doing so in states where it is legal, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said Friday. The guidance, issued ... just before pot advocates' national celebration of their 4/20 holiday, confirms what immigration and marijuana advocates have cautioned is a legal gray area that penalizes would-be citizens because they've broken a federal law. Although recreational marijuana use is legal in 10 states and decriminalized in 14 more, it is still classified as an illegal substance federally."

Sam Levin of the Guardian: "A member of an armed rightwing militia group accused of illegally detaining migrants at the US-Mexico border has been arrested, officials said on Saturday. The FBI arrested Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, for alleged unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition, days after his group posted videos that appeared to show armed men stopping migrants at the border in New Mexico, ordering them to sit on the ground and coordinating with US border patrol agents to have them taken into custody. Today's arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes,' the New Mexico attorney general, Hector Balderas, said in a statement."

E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "President Donald Trump's controversial onslaught of environmental rollbacks faced two major setbacks this week, as legal action continues to prove a winning strategy for opponents of the administration's deregulation agenda. In a boon to environmental advocates, court decisions on Friday rebuked the Trump administration's coal ambitions, in addition to setting a deadline for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban a common and hazardous pesticide [chlorpyrifos]. Judge Brian Morris of the U.S. District Court in Montana ruled late Friday that the Interior Department under former Secretary Ryan Zinke acted illegally when it sought to overturn a 2016 ban on coal mining on public lands. More than 40% of U.S. coal is currently mined from federal lands and the Obama administration imposed the ban on most federal coal sales three years ago. While Morris' ruling does not go so far as to reinstate the Obama-era ban, legal experts said it would likely force officials to revise their justification for the decision." --s

Reuters: "Several airstrikes and explosions shook Tripoli overnight in an escalation of an assault on the Libyan capital by the warlord Khalifa Haftar.... Haftar's Libyan National Army started an offensive two weeks ago but has been unable to breach the government's southern defences.... The violence spiked after the White House said on Friday that ... Donald Trump spoke by telephone with Haftar earlier in the week. The disclosure of the call and a US statement that it 'recognized Field Marshal Haftar's significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's oil resources' has boosted the commander's supporters and enraged his opponents. Western powers and the Gulf have been divided over a push by Haftar's forces to seize Tripoli, undermining calls by the United Nations for a ceasefire." --s ...

... David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times (April 19): "President Trump on Friday abruptly reversed American policy toward Libya, issuing a statement publicly endorsing an aspiring strongman in his battle to depose the United Nations-backed government. The would-be strongman, Khalifa Hifter, launched a surprise attack on the Libyan capital, Tripoli, more than two weeks ago. Relief agencies said Thursday that more than 200 people had been killed in the battle, and in recent days Mr. Hifter's forces have started shelling civilian neighborhoods." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Thanks, Donald! Libya should do very well under the "leadership" of a warlord. Remember how people loved that other strongman Gaddafi?

Presidential Race 2020

Frank Dale of ThinkProgress: "Although she was one of the most outspoken critics of Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch during their nomination processes, [Sen. Amy] Klobuchar, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has voted 'yes' on over 63% of Trump's judicial nominees who were eventually confirmed -- a higher rate than 35 of the other 46 senators who are members of or caucus with the Democratic Party.... Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) have each voted 'yes' on fewer than half of Trump's judicial nominees, while Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) is slightly over that mark at 50.6%." --s

Armando Garcia & Matt Gutman of ABC News: "In 2000, then a senior in high school, [Pete] Buttigieg was voted 'most likely to become president' at St. Joseph High School.... Looking through the rest of his high school yearbooks, he moved from appearing in a single photo his freshman year -- sporting shaggy hair and large glasses -- to showing off a dizzying array of activities in the following years, including the National Honor Society, Junior Leaders and Philosophy Club. He was often pictured wearing a white shirt, tie and no jacket, which has also become his current political uniform. His senior year, he was also voted most likely to succeed and eventually became his class valedictorian."

During Holy Week, Franklin Graham Proves He Is Not a Real Christian. Hemant Mehta, the Friendly Atheist: "... evangelist Franklin Graham..., in a Facebook post purported denouncing people heckling Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, Graham managed to work in the verse that condemns gay people to death.... '... The Bible makes it very clear that homosexuality is a sin. "If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination..." (Leviticus 20:13). That's what God says and that settles it for me.'" Mrs. McC: Also too if you eat lobster, Franklin (Leviticus 11:9-12). That's what God says and that settles it for me. Pass the clarified butter.

Natalie Kitroeff & David Gelles of the New York Times: "When Boeing broke ground on its new factory near Charleston in 2009, the plant was trumpeted as a state-of-the-art manufacturing hub, building one of the most advanced aircraft in the world. But in the decade since, the factory, which makes the 787 Dreamliner, has been plagued by shoddy production and weak oversight that have threatened to compromise safety. A New York Times review of hundreds of pages of internal emails, corporate documents and federal records, as well as interviews with more than a dozen current and former employees, reveals a culture that often valued production speed over quality. Facing long manufacturing delays, Boeing pushed its work force to quickly turn out Dreamliners, at times ignoring issues raised by employees. Complaints about the frenzied pace echo broader concerns about the company in the wake of two deadly crashes involving another jet, the 737 Max. Boeing is now facing questions about whether the race to get the Max done, and catch up to its rival Airbus, led it to miss safety risks in the design, like an anti-stall system that played a role in both crashes."

** German Lopez of Vox: "Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting, in which two students killed 13 people and themselves on April 20, 1999. But the US has not solved its mass shooting problem in those 20 years -- the country now averages nearly one mass shooting a day, based on one group's definition of mass shooting.... Since the Sandy Hook shooting, there have been more than 2,000 mass shootings in which four or more people, excluding the shooter, were shot but not necessarily killed. Nearly 2,300 people have been killed and almost 8,400 have been wounded. Since 2013, there has been only one full calendar week -- the week of January 5, 2014 -- without a mass shooting." --s

Beyond the Beltway

The Anti-Vaxxer Party. Amanda Gomez of ThinkProgress: "Amid a nationwide measles outbreak, Republicans in Washington and other states across the country are opposing efforts to do something about the public health crisis, citing civil liberties and espousing anti-vaccine views." --s

Michigan. E. A. Crunden: "Judge Linda Parker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled April 18 that people in Flint [Michigan] are free to sue the federal government over its mishandling of the city's water problems. '[The court] can today state with certainty that the acts leading to the creation of the Flint Water Crisis, alleged to be rooted in lies, recklessness and profound disrespect have and will continue to produce a heinous impact for the people of Flint,' Parker wrote in her order." --s

Washington. Jason Wilson of the Guardian: "A Washington state Republican politician took part in private discussions with rightwing figures about carrying out surveillance, 'psyops' and even violent attacks on perceived political enemies, according to chat records obtained by the Guardian. State representative Matt Shea, who represents Spokane Valley in the Washington state house, participated in the chats with three other men. All of the men used screen aliases.... The chats on the messaging app Signal took place in the days leading up to a supposed 'Antifa revolt' on 4 November 2017.... The men proposed to confront leftists ... with a suite of tactics, including violence.... The men extensively discussed tactics of surveillance and intimidation.... Shea, the elected Republican legislator, did not demur from any of these suggestions. He also appeared willing to participate directly in surveillance of activists. In response to a request in the chat for background checks on Spokane residents, Shea volunteered to help.... Shea, a six-term legislator and military veteran, came to international attention in 2018 after a document he authored surfaced laying out a 'biblical basis for war', which appeared to be a plan for an apocalyptic battle with people who practiced 'same sex marriage' and 'abortion', and instructed: 'If they do not yield, kill all males.'"

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "A group calling itself Genesis II Church of Health and Healing plans to convene at a hotel resort in Washington state on Saturday to promote a 'miracle cure' that claims to cure 95% of all diseases in the world by making adults and children, including infants, drink industrial bleach.... The 'church' is asking attendants of the meeting to 'donate' $450 each, or $800 per couple, in exchange for receiving membership to the organization as well as packages of the bleach, which they call 'sacraments'. The chemical is referred to as MMS, or 'miracle mineral solution or supplement'.... The FDA issued ... blunt advice: 'Consumers who have MMS should stop using it immediately and throw it away.'" --s

Way Beyond

Sri Lanka. The Guardian has a live blog on at least 8 bombings targeting hotels and churches, causing at least 157 deaths so far. No group has yet claim responsibility. --s ...

... Dharisha Bastians, et al., of the New York Times: "A series of coordinated bombings ripped across Sri Lanka on Sunday morning, striking hotels and churches, killing almost 200 people and shattering the relative calm that the war-torn nation had enjoyed in recent years. The targets of the attacks were Catholic worshipers attending Easter Mass and guests at high-end hotels that are popular with foreign tourists.... Sri Lanka, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, suffered decades of civil war that ended in 2009. Since then, there has been some political instability and sporadic attacks, but nothing on this scale.... A senior presidential aide said early investigations suggested that the attacks had been carried out by suicide bombers."

The Commentariat -- April 20, 2019

Trump Can't Handle the Truth

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Before we get started today, it is worth pointing out how remarkable the obstruction-of-justice part of Mueller's report is, inasmuch as obstruction was not specifically part of Mueller's mandate. In his order appointing Mueller as special counsel, Rod Rosenstein wrote that the special counsel was to investigate "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and ... any matters than arose or may arise directly from the investigation." The entire obstruction part of Mueller's final report therefore is a matter "arising from the investigation." Were Mueller as by-the-book as nearly everyone describes him, he could have conducted a narrow investigation that ignored Trump's many "obstructive acts" altogether. In all of the coverage of the Mueller report over the past two days, I haven't heard or read a single recollection of Rosenstein's directive.

Peter Baker & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "... Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts became the most prominent Democrat to call for impeachment. But most Republican lawmakers remained silent on the report, meaning any effort to force Mr. Trump from office faced long odds.... One of the exceptions was Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who said he was' appalled' that the president's campaign welcomed help from Russia.While Mr. Trump had initially greeted the report as an exoneration, he spent at least part of the day in Florida stewing about disloyal aides who talked with investigators and sounded more defensive than celebratory.... The subpoena issued on Friday by Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, escalated a fight with Mr. Barr.... Mr. Nadler asked for all evidence obtained by Mr. Mueller's investigators, including summaries of witness interviews and classified intelligence -- and indicated that he intended to air it to the public.... '... Congressman Nadler's subpoena is premature and unnecessary,' said Kerri Kupec, a [DOJ] spokeswoman." (More on Nadler's subpoena linked below.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: In several tweets, Trump goes after the media. Here's one: "The Washington Post and New York Times are, in my opinion, two of the most dishonest media outlets around. Truly, the Enemy of the People!" Rachel Maddow pointed to daily newspapers across the country, many of which ran banner headlines featuring Mueller's findings on obstruction. I guess journalists, editors, & headline writers are all "dishonest." And let's point out that it isn't up to Bill Barr to decide what Congress finds "necessary." If the Judiciary Committee wishes to pursue an investigation of Trump's bad acts, it must have all documentation available, not just Mueller's conclusions. It would be irresponsible to rely on a report of the facts without actually having seen the facts contained in supporting documents. Barr's refusal to fully cooperate with Congress is, IMO, an impeachable act of obstruction.

So the Whiny Baby Sonata in B Flat Begins. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Friday called 'total bullshit' on the damaging information his former aides offered to special counsel Robert Mueller, suggesting investigators skewed his staffers' words and that some of his aides just wanted to make him look bad. 'Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue. Watch out for people that take so-called "notes," when the notes never existed until needed,' he wrote in a string of tweets. Trump complained that he was unable to push back on the claims made by his aides in Mueller's report because of his decision not to sit down with Mueller in person. He also suggested he was unfairly thrown under the bus by those who had spoken freely to investigators. 'Because I never agreed to testify, it was not necessary for me to respond to statements made in the 'Report' about me, some of which are total bullshit & only given to make the other person look good (or me to look bad),' he continued in another tweet.... In one tweet, which trails off and has not been completed by Trump, he condemned the investigation once more as an 'Illegally Started Hoax that never should have happened.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Baker & Fandos write that Trump finished the "thought" eight hours later: "'...big, fat waste of time, energy and money.' He went on to vow to go after his pursuers, whom he called 'some very sick and dangerous people who have committed very serious crimes, perhaps even Spying or Treason.'" ...

... Maggie Haberman of the NYT points out in a tweet that the aides who spoke candidly to investigators because the White House told them to do so now are "facing Trump's wrath for a position the WH put them in." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Isn't it sad when everybody lies except the guy who's told nearly 10,000 lies since taking office a couple of years ago? Gosh, I hope Trumpelthinskin doesn't, like, get so enraged he tears himself in half. Oops. My mistake. Turns out Trump started whining yesterday:

... Matthew Choi of Politico: "'I had the right to end the whole Witch Hunt if I wanted,' Trump wrote on Twitter [Thursday afternoon]. 'I could have fired everyone, including Mueller, if I wanted. I chose not to. I had the RIGHT to use Executive Privilege. I didn't!'... In a separate tweet later Thursday, Trump continued distancing himself from Russian interference in the election, saying it occurred while Barack Obama was president. Trump falsely said Obama did not respond to the threats of Russian meddling, though the FBI did investigate links between Russia and Trump months before the election. 'Anything the Russians did concerning the 2016 Election was done while Obama was President,' he wrote. 'He was told about it and did nothing! Most importantly, the vote was not affected.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Mrs. McCrabbie: It's pretty clear that as late as the day before the Mueller report's public release, Trump still didn't understand that the report would shred him. He told a confederate radio host Wednesday, "You'll see a lot of very strong things come out tomorrow. Attorney General Barr is going to be giving a press conference. Maybe I'll do one after that; we'll see." I'd guess the White House sycophants were pushing the fantasy of a rose-colored (as opposed to multi-color-coded) report so they might enjoy one last day of relative calm before the predictable Trumperstorm, a storm which, BTW, is taking place off-site in Florida on a holiday weekend far away from most White House staff. ...

... Shannon Pettypiece & Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg News: "After musing that he might hold a news conference the day before [Bill Barr released the Mueller report, Donald Trump] took no questions from reporters. [Melania Trump discouraged him from stopping for his customary chopper chat as they left for Florida Thursday, & Trump took that advice.]... At Palm Beach International Airport Thursday evening..., he again ignored questions shouted by reporters traveling with him. He golfed with Rush Limbaugh on Friday.... Trump's legal team issued an initial statement on Mueller's report but decided not to publish a fuller counter-report they had spent months compiling to rebut the special counsel.... The president's irritation grew as he watched coverage of the report Friday morning. He and his allies are particularly angry with former White House Counsel Don McGahn and former Staff Secretary Rob Porter, both of whom spoke extensively with Mueller. Many of the events Mueller chronicled were reported contemporaneously in the news media and declared 'fake news' by the president at the time. That claim is less credible following the Justice Department's release of Mueller's report, since people he interviewed could be charged wit perjury if they weren't truthful. Many of them corroborated their accounts with notes or other materials." ...

... Retribution. Nancy Cook of Politico: "The Trump campaign has hired its own in-house attorney for its 2020 reelection bid -- shifting future business away from Jones Day, the law firm, that has represented Trump since his first run for president.... Close Trump advisers say the decision also stems from disappointment with the White House's former top attorney and current Jones Day partner, Don McGahn.... Taking business away from Jones Day is payback, these advisers say, for McGahn's soured relationship with the Trump family and a handful articles in high-profile newspapers that the family blames, unfairly or not, on the former White House counsel.... The Mueller report ... seems only to have fueled Trump's anger. It portrayed McGahn as one of the key officials who stopped Trump from taking actions that might be deemed to have obstructed justice. In one especially colorful passage, McGahn is quoted as saying that the president had asked him to do 'crazy shit.' In another, Trump berates his White House counsel for taking too many notes, comparing him unfavorably to his longtime consigilere, the late Roy Cohn. On Friday, Trump seemed to take aim at McGahn on Twitter, writing, 'Watch out for people that take so-called "notes," when the notes never existed until needed.' The decision to shift law firms has been in the works for weeks, however, and predates release of the Mueller report."

Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., on Friday subpoenaed the Justice Department for the full, unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report as well as the underlying evidence. In a statement, Nadler said that the Justice Department must comply by May 1." (Also linked yesterday.)

Chris Kahn of Reuters: "The number of Americans who approve of ... Donald Trump dropped by 3 percentage points to the lowest level of the year following the release of a special counsel report detailing Russian interference in the last U.S. presidential election, according to an exclusive Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll.... According to the poll, 37 percent of adults in the United States approved of Trump's performance in office, down from 40 percent in a similar poll conducted on April 15 and matching the lowest level of the year. That is also down from 43 percent in a poll conducted shortly after U.S. Attorney General William Barr circulated a [Mrs McC: fake] summary of the report in March."

Sanders Defends Her Own Lies. Annie Karni & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "After admitting to investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, that she delivered a false statement from the White House podium, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, defended herself in Trumpian fashion on Friday morning. She counterattacked.... Some of Mr. Trump's aides and allies acknowledged on Friday that it was problematic for the president's chief spokeswoman to spend airtime defending her own credibility. But White House officials -- some of whom think Ms. Sanders is taking an unfair beating in the press -- do not expect Mr. Trump to be fazed by the controversy. Unlike previous administrations, in which officials feared blows to their credibility in public, Mr. Trump's press aides are generally performing for an audience of one -- the president." ...

... Jonathan Chait: Caught in several lies by Mueller's team, Sarah Sanders can't stop lying. "Appearing on CBS This Morning, Sanders was asked, if the lie [about countless FBI personnel calling her to say how glad they were Trump dumped Comey] was a slip of the tongue, what did she mean to say? Sanders refused to answer, instead dissembling: 'Look, I've acknowledged that the word "countless" was a slip of the tongue. But it's no secret that a number of FBI, both current and former, agreed with the president's decision.' Pressed about the lie on ABC, Sanders kept repeating that the statements were made 'in the heat of the moment.' George Stephanopoulos noted that she repeated the same lie twice the next day." Mrs. McC: I'll bet every hound dog Mike Huckabee ever had was a voracious homework-eater. (Also linked yesterday.)

Katie Benner & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "The long-awaited report by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, released on Thursday painted a portrait of law enforcement leaders more fiercely under siege than previously known. They struggled to navigate Mr. Trump's apparent disregard for their mission through a mix of threats to resign, quiet defiance and capitulation to some presidential demands. While their willingness to stay quiet might have protected their institutions, it also helped empower Mr. Trump to continue his attacks.... The president sought to undermine the Justice Department's leaders and thwart the Russia investigation from his first days in office. He demanded that Mr. Comey publicly say that he was not under investigation, and he asked Dana J. Boente, who was briefly the acting attorney general before Mr. Sessions was confirmed in February 2017, to let him know whether the F.B.I. was investigating the White House, according to the special counsel's report."

Michael Daly of the Daily Beast: "In a morning press conference before the release [of the Mueller report], Attorney General William Barr [said]..., 'I would also like to thank Special Counsel Mueller for his service and the thoroughness of his investigation, particularly his work exposing the nature of Russia's attempts to interfere in our electoral process.'... A few breaths later, Barr committed one of the great public betrayals of our history. The country's most senior law enforcement officer actually sought to justify President Trump's mendacious attacks against Mueller.... 'As the special counsel's report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks,' Barr said. In fact, the report acknowledges no such thing.... [Mueller's] one mistake was to trust his supposed friend Barr." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Barr has been an ass throughout his terms of government service, and his assholery always has been in the direction of helping his boss dishonor the nation (see Bush, George H.W.). When that boss is Donald Trump, "helping" means throwing his own friends under the proverbial bus. In this, we see the Trumpification of a Lifelong Ass.

Mitt Romney Only GOP Senator Who Read Mueller Report. Marianne Levine & Katie Galioto of Politico: "Sen. Mitt Romney said Friday that he was 'sickened' by ... Donald Trump's actions described in ... Robert Mueller's report. In a statement, the Utah Republican said that while it was 'good news' there was not enough evidence to bring criminal charges related to conspiring with Russia and that there was no conclusion of obstruction of justice, he blasted the White House and Trump campaign officials for their actions.... 'I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President,' Romney said. 'I am also appalled that, among other things fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia.... Reading the report is a sobering revelation of how far we have strayed from the aspirations and principles of the founders,' Romney said. The Utah Republican broke ranks with much of his party in condemning Trump.... Like his GOP colleagues, however, Romney called for the government to move on now that the 22-month probe has concluded." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah, that's right, Mittsky. You know the POTUS* engages in treacherous behavior on a daily basis, but let's forget about it. Apparently, Trump's nefarious activity is something else best discussed in "quiet rooms." ...

     ... Also, too, how sad that Romney must then face pushback like this: "Know what makes me sick, Mitt? Not how disingenuous you were to take @realDonaldTrump $$ and then 4 yrs later jealously trash him & then love him again when you begged to be Sec of State, but makes me sick that you got GOP nomination and could have been @POTUS," [former governor, fake-cures-huckster & Mrs. Liarbee's dad Mike] Huckabee tweeted. ...

... Okay, Susan Collins Read the Report. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Friday that ... Robert Mueller's report gives an 'unflattering portrayal' of President Trump, including an effort to oust the former FBI director from his special counsel role." Mrs. McC: Wow, Susan. Very tough! Maybe Mueller should have been more gracious.

New York Times Editors: "... the real danger that the Mueller report reveals is not of a president who knowingly or unknowingly let a hostile power do dirty tricks on his behalf, but of a president who refuses to see that he has been used to damage American democracy and national security."

Consevo-columnist David French in Time: The Mueller report "takes the traits we already knew [Trump] exhibited -- his mendacity, his propensity to surround himself with crooks and grifters, and his single-minded self-focus -- and places them in the context of a sweeping narrative about a presidential campaign and presidency devoid of ethics, honor or even strength. The stories paint a picture of a president who is both petty and small.... When ... Donald Junior learned that the New York Times was about to break the news of his now-infamous June 9, 2016, meeting in Trump Tower with Russian lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya, his first instinct was to come clean.... But his father said no.... Donald Jr. complied and misled America.... President Trump threw his son under the bus. He made his son transmit his own deceptions.... It's difficult to overestimate the extent to which Trump's appeal to his core supporters is built around the notion that ... he possesses a core strength.... But now, thanks to the Mueller report, his 'fights' look more like temper tantrums.... President Trump is weak -- too weak even to commit the acts of obstruction he desired." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: One example: Trump's insistence that Corey Lewandowski, who was a private citizen, deliver a message to Jeff Sessions ordering Sessions to "unrecuse" himself from the Russia investigation, then change the special counsel's mandate to cover only "future election interference." Lewandowski was to tell Sessions he would be fired if he didn't carry out this bizarre order. When Lewandowski failed to make contact with Sessions, Trump ordered him to try again. Why didn't Trump call Sessions directly? Or Rosenstein -- and tell him to change Mueller's job? Did Trump think that no one would notice his own fingerprints on the note if somebody else was the messenger? Was he planning to make Lewandowski the fall guy? Lewandowski probably thought so. This is so Stupid Mob Boss-y. And, as French points out, so lame.

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "It’s a national disgrace that Trump sleeps in the White House instead of a federal prison cell, but it has been a while since I had any expectation that the special counsel Robert Mueller's findings ... could set things right.... Several weeks before Trump was inaugurated, America's intelligence agencies reported that Russia had engaged in cyberoperations to help him win. In the months that followed, there was one staggering revelation after another about secret conversations between Trump's circle and various figures linked to Russian intelligence. At the same time, the new administration unleashed on the public a degrading cacophony of lies, of the sort many of us associate with authoritarian countries like Russia.... Mueller has given us the truth of what Trump has done, and in that sense the hokey faith the Resistance put in him was not misplaced. But right now only a political fight can make that truth matter."

Adrienne Varkiani of ThinkProgress: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Friday called on the House to begin impeachment proceedings against ... Donald Trump, joining fellow 2020 presidential candidate Julián Castro, who said he supported the idea earlier in the afternoon." ...

... Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "As the political world digests the shocking scale of corruption, misconduct and skirting of criminality detailed in the Mueller report, Democrats have been pushing back on the idea that it's time to initiate an inquiry into the impeachment of President Trump. But there's a key tell lurking in all this pushback: Democrats are not seriously arguing that all the misconduct that has now come to light does not merit an impeachment inquiry. This is creating a situation that's shaping up as a moral and political disaster. Yet there&'s no indication that Democrats are reckoning with the problems this poses. This, even though the basic dynamics of the situation strongly suggest that initiating an inquiry will grow harder to resist over time, not easier.... Democrats [have put themselves] in the impossible position of hoping the case for impeachment weakens, while simultaneously moving aggressively to establish more wrongdoing, which would strengthen that case." Sargent reviews -- and knocks down -- Democrats' lame excuses for not opening an impeachment inquiry, noting that their dithering only emboldens Trump to do more harm. ...

... ** Alex Pareene in the New Republic: "Democrats who preemptively declare impeachment off the table are mistakenly (or intentionally) conflating one possible end result of the impeachment process for the process itself. What [House Majority Leader Steny] Hoyer [who said Thursday that impeachment wasn't 'worthwhile'] and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (who ruled out impeachment well before anyone read the Mueller Report) want is to write op-eds about how many bills they are passing, despite the fact that those bills (like, uh, impeachment) will never get through the Senate. Democratic leadership seemingly believes that the party can't let its candidates campaign on promises to materially improve the lives of voters while also letting its elected officials carry out the responsibilities of their offices. They also believe, deep in their bones, that the country is not on their side.... Once again, we can celebrate a modern example of bipartisanship: a deep conviction, on both sides, that the only legitimate force in American politics is white grievance." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Like about 12 other Americans, I favored the House's impeachment of Bill Clinton but not necessarily his conviction in the Senate. I thought his behavior was despicable and that he should pay for it with more than a cold shoulder from his wife, although I'll admit that the Starr report was pretty good payback. If the Senate had convicted Clinton, we might never have been stuck with President Dubya. Clinton's bad behavior was personal in nature; Trump has engaged in hundreds of acts of public malfeasance, constantly putting himself before the nation's interests, constantly undermining the rule of law & constantly engaging in dangerous national security breaches. Trump's behavior is far, far more impeachable than that time Lewinsky gave Clinton a blow job while he was on the phone to Yasser Arafat. Pelosi's tut-tuts and committee hearings are not enough.

What's wrong with this picture? "Nothing," says the French ambassador to the U.S.Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The outgoing French ambassador to the US has compared the Trump administration to the court of King Louis XIV, filled with courtiers trying to interpret the caprices of a 'whimsical, unpredictable, uninformed' leader. Gérard Araud, who retires on Friday after a 37-year career that included some of the top jobs in French diplomacy, said Donald Trump's unpredictability and his single-minded transactional interpretation of US interests was leaving the administration isolated on the world stage." (Also linked yesterday.)

What Are MOCs up to Today?

Aris Folley of the Hill: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) still has plans to visit Kentucky despite one of her GOP colleagues walking back an invitation for her to visit his district. A spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez told CNN on Friday that the congresswoman has since received another invite to visit the state and plans to follow through on the offer. 'Luckily, we still have open borders with Kentucky, we are free to travel there,' the spokesman, Corbin Trent, said. 'We hope to visit and have a town hall, listen to concerns of workers in Kentucky,' he added." Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) had invited Ocasio-Cortez to meet with coal miners in his district, but when she accepted his invitation, he seems to have realized that the miners might actually like her ideas, so he dreamed up an excuse to disinvite her.

Gaetz "Very Proud" to Hire White Supremacist. Sarah Ferris of Politico: "Rep. Matt Gaetz -- one of ... Donald Trump's most avid supporters in Congress -- has hired a former White House speechwriter who was forced out last year amid scrutiny over his ties to white nationalists. The Florida Republican announced Friday that former Trump administration aide, Darren Beattie, will join his Capitol Hill office. 'Very proud to have the talented Dr. Darren Beattie helping our team as a Special Advisor for Speechwriting. Welcome on board!' Gaetz tweeted Friday. Beattie was fired from the White House in August 2018 after reports that he had delivered remarks at a 2016 conference, dubbed an 'active hate group' by the Southern Poverty Law Center, alongside a well-known white nationalist, Richard Spencer."

Hunter Fakes Easy Mexican Crossing in Violation of Parole. Ken Stone of the Times of San Diego: "Rep. Duncan Hunter [R-Indicted] posted a video Thursday showing himself at the 'grand border wall in Yuma, Arizona.' He says: 'It looks pretty tough to cross. Let me see if I can do it.' He swings his legs over a horizontal rail less than waist high and declares: 'There you go. That's how easy it is to cross the border in Yuma, Arizona.' Only he didn't. The actual U.S.-Mexico border is the Colorado River 75-100 feet away, said a Border Patrol spokesman. In any case, Hunter's Facebook clip caught the eye of Ammar Campa-Najjar, the Democrat making a second run against the indicted Republican in the 50th Congressional District. Thursday, Campa-Najjar sent Times of San Diego email with the subject line: 'Hunter breaks the law violates parol,' meaning parole.... In August, federal Judge William Gallo set terms of Hunter and his wife's release on bail in their campaign spending case, including an order not to leave the continental United States or travel to Mexico." Mrs. McC: Lying about border security is a must for every indicted Republican.

The Commentariat -- April 19, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

So the Whiny Baby Sonata in B Flat Begins. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday called 'total bullshit' on the damaging information his former aides offered to special counsel Robert Mueller, suggesting investigators skewed his staffers' words and that some of his aides just wanted to make him look bad. 'Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue. Watch out for people that take so-called "notes," when the notes never existed until needed,' he wrote in a string of tweets. Trump complained that he was unable to push back on the claims made by his aides in Mueller's report because of his decision not to sit down with Mueller in person. He also suggested he was unfairly thrown under the bus by those who had spoken freely to investigators. 'Because I never agreed to testify, it was not necessary for me to respond to statements made in the 'Report' about me, some of which are total bullshit & only given to make the other person look good (or me to look bad),' he continued in another tweet.... In one tweet, which trails off and has not been completed by Trump, he condemned the investigation once more as an 'Illegally Started Hoax that never should have happened.'" ...

... Maggie Haberman of the NYT points out in a tweet that the aides who spoke candidly to investigators because the White House told them to do so now are "facing Trump's wrath for a position the WH put them in." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Isn't it sad when everybody lies except the guy who's told nearly 10,000 lies since taking office a couple of years ago? Gosh, I hope Trumpelthinskin doesn't, like, get so enraged he tears himself in half. Oops. My mistake. Turns out Trump started whining yesterday:

... Matthew Choi of Politico: "'I had the right to end the whole Witch Hunt if I wanted,' Trump wrote on Twitter [Thursday afternoon]. 'I could have fired everyone, including Mueller, if I wanted. I chose not to. I had the RIGHT to use Executive Privilege. I didn't!'... In a separate tweet later Thursday, Trump continued distancing himself from Russian interference in the election, saying it occurred while Barack Obama was president. Trump falsely said Obama did not respond to the threats of Russian meddling, though the FBI did investigate links between Russia and Trump months before the election. 'Anything the Russians did concerning the 2016 Election was done while Obama was President,' he wrote. 'He was told about it and did nothing! Most importantly, the vote was not affected.'"

Jonathan Chait: Caught in several lies by Mueller's team, Sarah Sanders can't stop lying. "Appearing on CBS This Morning, Sanders was asked, if the lie [about countless FBI personnel calling her to say how glad they were Trump dumped Comey] was a slip of the tongue, what did she mean to say? Sanders refused to answer, instead dissembling: 'Look, I've acknowledged that the word "countless" was a slip of the tongue. But it's no secret that a number of FBI, both current and former, agreed with the president's decision.' Pressed about the lie on ABC, Sanders kept repeating that the statements were made 'in the heat of the moment.' George Stephanopoulos noted that she repeated the same lie twice the next day." Mrs. McC: I'll bet every hound dog Mike Huckabee ever had was a voracious homework-eater.

Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., on Friday subpoenaed the Justice Department for the full, unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report as well as the underlying evidence. In a statement, Nadler said that the Justice Department must comply by May 1."

Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The outgoing French ambassador to the US has compared the Trump administration to the court of King Louis XIV, filled with courtiers trying to interpret the caprices of a 'whimsical, unpredictable, uninformed' leader. Gérard Araud, who retires on Friday after a 37-year career that included some of the top jobs in French diplomacy, said Donald Trump's unpredictability and his single-minded transactional interpretation of US interests was leaving the administration isolated on the world stage."

~~~~~~~~~~

Over to You, Nancy

Oh, my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm fucked. -- Donald Trump, upon learning that a special counsel would investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election

Here's the DOJ's pdf of the Mueller report. (Also linked yesterday.)

Here's a pdf of the report, via the Washington Post. (Also linked yesterday.)

NBC News has a copy of the report here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Washington Post: "A team of Post reporters will be reading the redacted Mueller report.... This page will update frequently with key findings as we go through the document." (Also linked yesterday.)

The New York Times is live-updating developments in the redacted Mueller report release. (Also linked yesterday.)

Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "Robert S. Mueller III revealed a frantic, monthslong effort by President Trump to thwart the investigation into Russia's 2016 election interference, cataloging in a report released on Thursday the attempts by Mr. Trump to escape an inquiry that imperiled his presidency from the start. The much-anticipated report laid out how a team of prosecutors working for Mr. Mueller, the special counsel, wrestled with whether the president's actions added up to an indictable offense of obstruction of justice for a sitting president. They ultimately decided not to charge Mr. Trump, citing numerous legal and factual constraints, but pointedly declined to exonerate him.... The report found numerous contacts between Trump campaign advisers and Russians in the months before and after the election -- meetings in pursuit of business deals, policy initiatives and political dirt about Hillary Clinton -- but said there was 'insufficient evidence' to establish that there had been a criminal conspiracy.... The report ... lays bare how Mr. Trump was elected with the help of a foreign power. When a federal inquiry was started to investigate the Russian effort, he took numerous steps to try to undermine it.... It is a far more damning portrayal of his behavior than the one presented ... by Attorney General William P. Barr."

Devlin Barrett & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The long-awaited report from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III details abundant evidence against President Trump, finding 10 episodes of potential obstruction but ultimately concluding it was not Mueller's role to determine whether the commander in chief broke the law.... Trump submitted written answers to investigators. The special counsel's office considered them 'inadequate' but did not press for an interview with him because doing so would cause a 'substantial delay,' the report says.... Investigators paint an unflattering portrait of a president who believes the Justice Department and the FBI should answer to his orders.... Repeatedly, it appears Trump may have been saved from more serious legal jeopardy because his own staffers refused to carry out orders they thought were problematic or potentially illegal.... Mueller made abundantly clear: Russia wanted to help the Trump campaign, and the Trump campaign was willing to take it.... The report detailed a timeline of contacts between the Trump campaign and those with Russian ties -- much of it already known, but some of it new." ...

Plenty of people are in prison for what they planned, not for what they did. -- Akhilleus, at the top of today's thread

Michael Schmidt & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Mr. Mueller's team systematically dissected and repudiated ... arguments [that a president* cannot obstruct justice], concluding over more than a dozen of the report's 448 pages that obstruction laws did indeed limit how Mr. Trump could use his presidential powers. 'The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the president's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law,' they wrote.... The special counsel's rationale left the door open to the possibility that after Mr. Trump leaves office, prosecutors could re-examine the evidence Mr. Mueller gathered and charge the president.... The stark difference between Mr. Mueller's rationale and the impression Mr. Barr had created last month was a central takeaway from Mr. Mueller's report.... Mr. Barr wrote that Mr. Mueller had cited 'difficult issues' of law and fact preventing him from deciding the obstruction question.... In fact..., the special counsel cited those 'difficult issues' as preventing him from exonerating the president of illegal obstruction -- not as preventing him from accusing Mr. Trump of that crime.... Mr. Mueller decided it would be unfair to analyze the evidence for now because it created the risk that he would conclude that Mr. Trump committed a crime with no possibility of a speedy trial to resolve whether that was true."

Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "President Trump pushed for obtaining Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's private emails, and his campaign was in touch with allies who were pursuing them, according to the redacted special counsel's report released Thursday. On July 27, 2016, Trump famously said at a campaign rally, 'Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,' referring to emails that Clinton said she had deleted from her private server.... Trump also 'made this request repeatedly' during the campaign, former national security adviser Michael Flynn told ... Robert S. Mueller III's investigation. Flynn 'contacted multiple people in an effort to obtain the emails,' including Peter Smith, a longtime Republican operative, and Barbara Ledeen, a Republican Senate staffer [to Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)] who herself had previously tried to find the emails.... Erik Prince, the private military contractor, Trump supporter and brother of current Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, 'provided funding to hire a tech adviser to ascertain the authenticity of the emails' [which Ledeen acquired. The adviser ultimately concluded Ledeen's emails were fake.]"

Eric Lach of the New Yorker: "It's long been known that Trump refused to sit down for an in-person interview with Mueller, and that he opted to answer some written questions from the special counsel instead.The newly released Mueller report reveals what those questions and answers were, and what Mueller made of them. The short version is: the questions pertained to a pretty narrow set of topics, and Mueller was pretty unsatisfied with Trump's answers.... 'We noted, among other things, that the President stated on more than 30 occasions that he "does not 'recall' or 'remember' or have an 'independent recollection'" of information called for by the questions. Other answers were 'incomplete or imprecise.'"' Mueller's team again asked for an in-person interview with the President. Trump said no." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Some enterprising reporter should ask Trump about his answers. If you have a "very good brain," why is it you can't remember anything?... Or were you lying under oath, Mr. President*?

Yoni Appelbaum of the Atlantic: The Mueller report's "most important implication can be summarized in a single sentence: There is sufficient evidence that ... Donald Trump obstructed justice to merit impeachment hearings.... The Mueller report, in short, is an impeachment referral.... [Mueller reasoned that] because a sitting president cannot be indicted, making such a charge publicly would effectively deny Trump his day in court, and the chance to clear his name.... The president ... deserves a chance to clear his name. The public deserves a chance to examine the evidence against him. And his supporters and opponents alike deserve the clarity that only convening impeachment hearings can now provide."

Noah Bookbinder in a New York Times op-ed: "The final report by ...l Robert Mueller is devastating for the president.... The report makes clear that the president's obstruction of the F.B.I. and special counsel investigations crossed constitutional boundaries that could have merited criminal prosecution, if not for the Justice Department's policy against indicting sitting presidents. Mr. Mueller's report notes that his office explicitly considered absolving the president of obstruction of justice, but emphatically chose not to. Instead, Mr. Mueller laid out 181 pages detailing the substantial evidence that Mr. Trump obstructed justice. His team also concluded that even if legal constraints prevented them from seeking to indict a sitting president for obstruction of justice, 'Congress has authority to prohibit a president's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice.' Far from ending the matter, the Mueller report is an unmistakable act of deference to Congress's primary jurisdiction over accountability for the president. The House Judiciary Committee must now pick up where Mr. Mueller left off and begin holding proceedings to determine whether Mr. Trump abused the powers of his office."

MEANWHILE, at the Conway House, George & Kellyanne Discuss the Mueller Report:

     ... The President has the right to fire any of us at any moment. He showed his right ... his constitutional right, by firing Jim Comey. He could have fired Mueller. He could have fired McGahn, Sessions, Kellyanne Conway. He didn't do that. -- Kellyanne Conway, yesterday

     ... George Conway, in a Washington Post op-ed: "So it turns out that, indeed, President Trump was not exonerated at all, and certainly not 'totally' or 'completely,' as he claimed.... By taking the presidential oath of office, a president assumes the duty not simply to obey the laws, civil and criminal..., but also to be subjected to higher duties -- what some excellent recent legal scholarship has termed the 'fiduciary obligations of the president.'... The facts in Mueller's report condemn Trump even more than the report's refusal to clear him of a crime.... Mueller's investigation 'found multiple acts by the President that were capable of executing undue influence over law enforcement investigations.'... Nixon was mostly passive -- at least compared with Trump. For the most part, the Watergate tapes showed that Nixon had 'acquiesced in the cover-up' after the fact.... Trump, on the other hand, was a one-man show.... The investigation that Trump tried to interfere with here, to protect his own personal interests, was in significant part an investigation of how a hostile foreign power interfered with our democracy. If that's not putting personal interests above a presidential duty to the nation, nothing is." ...

New York Times "reporters uncovered the biggest findings and shared excerpts and analysis."

Julia Ainsley of NBC News pointed out that, contrary to Barr's contention this morning, (on p. 381 & elsewhere), Mueller invites the Congress to investigate impeachment of the President*, saying that while the Mueller team didn't reach conclusions on criminality, the findings invite Congress to do so. (Barr claimed that determining Trump's guilt or innocence was his job.) Update: Neil Katyal find Mueller's invitation to Congress right on page 2 (of part 2). Glenn Kirschner puts the two pages together & concludes that Mueller decided that since he could not bring charges against Trump under DOJ policies, but the Congress can find wrongdoing. Joyce Vance also views the report as "a roadmap to impeachment." Over to you, Nancy. ...

     ... Several reporters have found Mueller complaining about lack of cooperation from Trump & the White House, contrary again to Barr's false claim that the the President* was totally cooperative. Rep. Eric Swalwell is calling for Barr to resign. I hope that at least, next time Barr lumbers up to the Hill that Democrats harangue him over his lies about the report.

Mrs. McCrabbie: One of the big takeaways from the report, IMO, is that Trump proved that obstruction works. Trump's unwillingness to cooperate & his subordinates' & associates' willingness to lie (and I heard on teevee, destroy documents), meant the Mueller team could not nail down a campaign-Russia conspiracy. The report itself says that all the lies & obfuscation "materially impaired" the investigation. For instance, Mueller could not determine whether or not Trump knew about the Trump Tower "adoption" meeting because he couldn't obtain "documentary proof" of it. He couldn't establish Trump's "state of mind" vis-a-vis Comey's firing, because Trump "couldn't remember" squat. This is why Barr's contention that you can prove obstruction without proving the underlying case doesn't make sense (and therefore is not the law). The greater the obstruction, the lesser the ability to prove the case-in-chief.

CBS News reporters are sifting through the report & reporting its "highlights" here. (Also linked yesterday.)

"This Is the End of My Presidency. I'm Fucked." Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: the appointment of Robert Mueller "has not been the end of his presidency, but it has come to consume it. Although the resulting two-year investigation ended without charges against Mr. Trump, Mr. Mueller's report painted a damning portrait of a White House dominated by a president desperate to thwart the inquiry only to be restrained by aides equally desperate to thwart his orders. The White House that emerges from more than 400 pages of Mr. Mueller's report is a hotbed of conflict infused by a culture of dishonesty -- defined by a president who lies to the public and his own staff, then tries to get his aides to lie for him. Mr. Trump repeatedly threatened to fire lieutenants who did not carry out his wishes while they repeatedly threatened to resign rather than cross lines of propriety or law. At one juncture after another, Mr. Trump made his troubles worse, giving in to anger and grievance and lashing out in ways that turned advisers into witnesses against him." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The one & only good thing to come out of the Trump presidency: the Gray Lady printed the word "fucked." Not "(expletive)" or even "f**ked". But "fucked."

Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "The vivid portrait that emerges from Mueller's 448-page report is of a presidency plagued by paranoia, insecurity and scheming -- and of an inner circle gripped by fear of Trump's spasms. Again and again, Trump frantically pressured his aides to lie to the public, deny true news stories and fabricate a false record.... Mueller's report is singular for its definitive examination of the events -- and will not easily be dismissed by Trump and his aides as 'fake news.'... Trump officials frequently were drawn into the president's plans to craft false story lines.... President Trump's drumbeat to end the investigation was driven by his belief that the U.S. intelligence community's conclusive determination of Russian interference threatened the legitimacy of his election. It was, as [Hope] Hicks told Mueller's investigators, his 'Achilles heel.'" Includes summaries of Trump's trying to rid himself of his meddlesome investigator & AG.

The Mobster. Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "The President himself comes across as a mobster, often lamenting that his lawyers are not as good at representing him as was his early mentor Roy Cohn, an actual mob lawyer. It comes as no surprise that Trump lies about so many things, big and small, though it is still remarkable that he does so even in the midst of a high-stakes legal investigation. Concerning a dinner with the soon-to-be-fired F.B.I. director James Comey at which Trump asked for 'loyalty,' the report said, Trump later lied even about the fact that he had invited Comey to dinner, claiming falsely, in public, that he thought the F.B.I. director had requested the meeting. The report goes to great lengths to disprove this one small example, among many, of Trump's falsehoods, presenting evidence that includes 'The President's Daily Diary,' which records that Trump 'extend[ed] a dinner invitation' to Comey on January 27, and sworn testimony from Priebus."

The Hustlers. Masha Gessen of the New Yorker: "The Mueller report exposes the mechanisms and the motives..., but doesn't tie anything together in the end. Rather than the story of a single crime masterminded by a single actor or entity, this is the story of many hustles, most of them unsuccessful. You'd be hard-pressed to find collusion among these hustlers -- each of them has his own game." Gessen recounts many of the two-bit hustles Mueller exposes. "Everyone was exaggerating his importance and selling more than he had. Conspiracy assumes a common purpose, but these people didn't have one -- not even, it seems, the hustle ultimately perpetrated on the American people by the election of Donald Trump."

"Yes, Collusion." Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "The president and, particularly, his attorneys have gone to great lengths to narrow the definition of 'collusion,' which is itself not a legal term. In their hands, only a proven conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russian officials -- a stated and agreed upon quid pro quo in advance of any illegal conduct -- could qualify as collusion. Mueller's team's inability to find proof of that conspiracy, in Team Trump's opinion, is all they need to show that the president has been completely exonerated.... The text of the Mueller report, however, offers a very different picture.... The report -- even with all its redactions -- is full of instances in which Trump and a number of his aides, advisers, and family members are talking with figures linked in various ways to Russia.... Mueller considered bringing charges based on [the infamous Trump Tower] meeting.... But Mueller concluded that he 'could not obtain admissible evidence likely to meet the government's burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these individuals acted "willfully," i.e. with general knowledge of their conduct.' In other words, Mueller couldn't prove that Donald Trump Jr. was smart enough to know that what he was doing was illegal." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As I've said before, I always thought it was quite possible Junior could get off on grounds of stupid. His response to release of the report, BTW, was "TOLD YA!!!" Clearly, he didn't read it, even the part about himself. Or, if he did, he couldn't understand what the report said about him. ...

... David Moye of the Huffington Post: "... Robert Mueller's team of investigators declined to prosecute ... Donald Trump's eldest son for campaign finance violations mainly because they concluded he was too ignorant to have knowingly committed a crime.... Luckily, there were many fine people who were happy to explain that he still doesn't come across as the sharpest tool in the Trump Tower shed."

Bill Barr Is a Big Fat Liar. Garrett Graff of Wired: "Special counsel Robert Mueller&'s 448-page report ... outlined over nearly half of those pages how the president reacted to and fumed over the Russia probe, seeking to undermine it, curtail it, and even fire the special counsel himself.... In at least 10 episodes over the ensuing months Trump sought to block or stop that very investigation. He did so even as Mueller doggedly made public the 'sweeping and systematic fashion' in which the Russian government attacked the 2016 presidential election, and brought serious criminal charges -- and won guilty pleas -- from a half-dozen of the president's top campaign aides.... Barr appears to have misled the public about the severity of the evidence on obstruction of justice. He also misrepresented Mueller's reasoning for not making a 'traditional prosecutorial decision' on the obstruction half of his investigation. The attorney general has implied that Mueller left that choice to Barr. In truth, the report makes clear that Mueller felt constrained by the Justice Department policy that a sitting president could not be indicted. Don't mistake lack of prosecution, in other words, for absence of wrongdoing.... Barr further praised Trump for 'fully cooperating,' ignoring the president's refusal to sit for an interview with Mueller's investigators, along with the fact that Trump tried at least once to fire the special counsel, consistently attacked the legitimacy of the investigation in public, and openly encouraged witnesses not to cooperate.... The Mueller report also clarifies some questions about the Trump campaign and Russia -- again offering a corrective to Barr's enthusiastic exoneration of Trump."

Joan Walsh of the Nation: "... before releasing the report, Barr delivered a disgraceful performance Thursday morning that essentially acted out his dishonest four-page letter and expanded on its ludicrous judgments. Though Mueller wouldn't exonerate Trump on the obstruction charges, Barr did -- with a bizarrely sympathetic nod to the 'context' of Trump's potentially obstruction.... [Barr claimed that] the fact that Trump was frustrated and angry exonerates him from obstruction charges.... Within 30 minutes, Congress and reporters had the redacted report -- and it ... was obvious that Barr lied. Mueller found 10 separate occasions in which Trump might have obstructed justice, or tried to.... On the obstruction question..., it's clear that Mueller thought the next step belongs to Congress -- not to Barr.... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi must immediately rethink her repeated insistence that Congress will not pursue impeachment...."

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "On Thursday, in an extraordinary news conference 90 minutes before he released the report of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, Mr. Barr acted more as a defense lawyer for Mr. Trump than as the leader of the Justice Department. He repeatedly declared that Mr. Mueller had cleared the president of a conspiracy with Russia and sympathized with the frustration Mr. Trump felt at the 'relentless speculation' over his purported ties with Russia. After taking a handful of questions and ignoring many others, he walked off the stage.... For the president's critics, it merely confirmed what they already believed: Mr. Trump was getting the attorney general he always wanted.... [A 19-page] memo [Barr wrote in June 2018 castigating the Mueller investigation], which critics have characterized as a kind of audition tape to serve as [AG Jeff] Sessions's replacement, turns out to be an accurate road map to Mr. Barr's handling of the Mueller report."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Attorney General William P. Barr has twice ensured that he had the first word on the conclusions drawn by ... Robert S. Mueller III after Mueller's almost-two-year probe into President Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia's efforts to interfere in that election.... On Thursday..., Barr repeatedly declared that Trump had been cleared of collusion, for example, words that were music to Trump's ears. But Mueller didn't look at collusion, as such.... '[C]ollusion is not a specific offense or theory of liability found in the United States Code, nor is it a term of art in federal criminal law,' the Mueller report reads.... Barr offered a colloquial use of 'collusion' that Mueller specifically rejected -- clearly in part to accord with Trump's repeated insistences about collusion between his campaign and Russian actors.... Mueller explains where and how members of the Trump campaign or his broader circle brushed against the boundaries of the law, often not crossing it so clearly that Mueller felt a case could be proved in court. As instructed by the regulations establishing the special counsel position, Mueller is offering his legal analysis about what happened. Barr, in his news conference, took those descriptions and transformed them into political exoneration." Bump outlines a number of instances in which Barr mischaracterized Mueller's conclusions.

Jonathan Chait: "House Democrats are going to face a difficult decision about launching an impeachment inquiry into President Trump.... But in the meantime, Attorney General William Barr presents them with a much easier decision. Barr has so thoroughly betrayed the values of his office that voting to impeach and remove him is almost obvious.... Nearly two more years of this Trumpian henchman wielding power over federal law enforcement is more weight than the rickety Constitution can bear."

Sean Spicer & Sarah Sanders Are Big Fat Liars. Dara Lind of Vox: "... it's striking that the Mueller report -- in which [Sean] Spicer and his successor, Sarah Sanders, are peripheral figures at best -- still manages to incidentally document at least seven instances of Trump's press secretaries lying, four of them in the 24 hours after Trump summarily fired FBI Director James Comey on May 9, 2017." Spicer lied about who decided to fire Michael Flynn (Don McGahn & Reince Priebus; not Trump, as Spicer told the press), & who decided to fire Jim Comey (Trump; not Rod Rosenstein, as Spicer said). "Of all the lies, this is the one that Sanders herself admitted was a lie to Mueller: the claim, expressed both in the May 10 press conference and in other interviews, that she had heard from 'countless' members of the FBI who did not support Comey and were glad he was fired.' Sanders told this Office that her reference to hearing from "countless members of the FBI" was a "slip of the tongue." She also recalled that her statement in a separate press interview that rank-and-file FBI agents had lost confidence in Comey was a comment she made "in the heat of the moment" that was not founded on anything.' Of course, these too appear to be lies...." And Sanders lied when she claimed that Trump didn't dictate the fake "Donald Junior" statement about the Trump Tower fake "adoption" meeting." ...

... Watch Mrs. Huckleberry lie. Mrs. McC: I don't think Sarah knows what "slip of the tongue" means. It's when you accidentally call on "Tim Acosta" instead of "Jim Acosta." It's not when you fabricate a story, then repeat it, then embellish it:

Mrs. McCrabbie: The part about Rosenstein's actual role (or lack thereof) in firing Comey is interesting. This CBS News story by Kathryn Watson lays out most of the blow-by-blow, but Erica Orden of CNN adds to it: "On the night of May 9, 2017, hours after Trump fired Comey, officials in the White House press office called the Justice Department to say the White House 'wanted to put out a statement saying that it was Rosenstein's idea to fire Comey,' according to the report. Rosenstein told Justice Department officials that he wouldn't participate in putting out a 'false story,' he told the special counsel's office. Trump then called Rosenstein directly ... and told Rosenstein he should have a press conference. 'Rosenstein responded that this was not a good idea because if the press asked him, he would tell the truth that Comey's firing was not his idea,' the report says. Meanwhile, according to a footnote in the report, the White House chief of staff at that time, Reince Priebus, was 'screaming' at the Justice Department's public affairs office in an attempt to force Rosenstein to conduct a press conference. Later that evening, the White House press secretary at the time, Sean Spicer, told reporters that, 'It was all (Rosenstein). No one from the White House. It was a DOJ decision.' And Sarah Sanders, then a White House spokeswoman, told reporters that Rosenstein decided 'on his own' to review Comey's performance and that Rosenstein decided 'on his own' to approach Trump days earlier with 'concerns about Comey.'" ...

     ... This now-fleshed-out story of Comey's firing is strong evidence of two things: (1) Trump's obstructing justice by firing Comey in an attempt to quash the FBI investigation of Russian interference in the election; & (2) covering up that obstruction by enlisting staff (Priebus, Spicer, Sanders, Don McGahn, Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner & possibly others) or trying to list others (Rosenstein & Jeff Sessions) to pretend Comey's firing was Rosenstein's idea. If you just skim the report, or reports on the report, you'd have to be dumb as a post not to appreciate "a frantic, monthslong effort by President Trump to thwart the investigation into Russia's 2016 election interference," as Mark Mazzetti of the NYT put it (linked above). The better place to see these efforts is in Articles of Impeachment.

Burgess Everett & Marianne Levine of Politico: "The Senate GOP found itself ensnared in special counsel Robert Mueller's report Thursday, with new revelations about Sen. Richard Burr's communications with the White House and details about a GOP aide's quest to obtain Hillary Clinton's emails.... Senate Intelligence Chairman Burr (R-N.C.), for instance, apparently supplied the White House counsel's office with information about FBI investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election.... The report says that on March 9, 2017, then-FBI Director James Comey briefed congressional leaders and intelligence committee heads on the ongoing investigation into Russian interference. That briefing included 'an identification of the principal U.S. subjects of the investigation.' Burr then corresponded with the White House a week later about the Russia probes, and the White House counsel's office, led by Don McGahn, 'appears to have received information about the status of the FBI investigation,' the special counsel report said.... On March 16, 2017, the White House counsel's office was briefed by Burr on '4-5 targets' of the Russia probe, according to notes taken by McGahn's chief of staff, Annie Donaldson." The report outlines the effort of Chuck Grassley's aide Barbara Ledeen to find Clinton's e-mails. A Grassley spokesperson said her e-mail search was "not authorized by the Judiciary Committee." "Ledeen remains an aide on the committee."

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Ben Smith of BuzzFeed News: "This Jan. 18, a day after BuzzFeed News reported that Michael Cohen told prosecutors that the president had directed him to lie to Congress, the special counsel's office issued a vague but forceful rebuttal of our story." Smith explains how the reporters got their story & why he is going to amend it. The original story was solid & based on first-hand documentation. Mrs. McC: A good lesson in how journalism works & why even an impeccably-sourced story can sometimes bite you.

Arwa Mahdawi of the Guardian: "[N]ot content with simply empowering the women of the US, the patron saint of nepotists, hypocrites and grifters [Ivanka Trump] has altruistically taken her talents on tour. On Sunday, the first daughter and presidential adviser set off on a four-day trip to Ethiopia and Ivory Coast to promote the US government's Women's Global Development and Prosperity initiative (W-GDP), which aims to benefit 50 million women in developing countries by 2025. The programme was launched with a $50m (£38m) fund, which is less than the cost of the president's trips to Mar-a-Lago.... I am sure she has taught Sahle-Work Zewde, a respected career diplomat and Ethiopia's first female president, a thing or two....[After her charade in Africa] it is back to the US, where she will no doubt remain silent as her father continues to vilify immigrants, separate migrant mothers from their children, advance an anti-abortion agenda and incite violence against one of the first Muslim congresswomen." --s

The Middle East Eye: "White House senior advisor Jared Kushner was 'surprised' when Saudi officials expressed criticism of US President Donald Trump's so-called 'deal of the century' during a meeting in Riyadh, and told him that King Salman emphasised the rights of Palestinians, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.... '[Kushner] did listen to critical points and questions but wasn't willing to think about criticism and was defensive,' the source told the Washington Post.... Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has derided the US plan as 'the slap of the century,' and has said he will not commit 'treason' by agreeing to it." --s ...

... Khaled Abu Toameh & Tovah Lararoff of The Jerusalem Post: "The Palestinians are urging Russia to play a greater role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as they embark on an international campaign to bypass the Trump administration's peace plan, which is scheduled to be released in the coming months, Palestinian officials said on Tuesday. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to visit Moscow in the coming months to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has spoken multiple times of hosting a Middle East peace process that would include direct talks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas. PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki said on Tuesday that Abbas was prepared to meet with Netanyahu without preconditions if Russia is prepared to host such a summit." --s

James Griffiths of CNN: "North Korea's Foreign Ministry has issued a stinging rebuke of United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, hours after the country claimed to have tested a new tactical weapon.... Foreign Ministry official Kwon Jong Gun ... appeared to blame Pompeo for the collapse of the Hanoi talks.... Kwon's statement concluded, 'Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the US, I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but other person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us.'" --s

Elizabeth Shogren of Mother Jones: "Under Republican and Democratic presidents from Nixon through Obama, killing migratory birds, even inadvertently, was a crime, with fines for violations ranging from $250 to $100 million. The power to prosecute created a deterrent that protected birds and enabled government to hold companies to account for environmental disasters. But in part due to ... Donald Trump's interior secretary nominee, David Bernhardt, whose confirmation awaits a Senate vote, the wildlife cop is no longer on the beat. Bernhardt pushed a December 2017 legal opinion that declared the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act applies only when companies kill birds on purpose. Internal government emails obtained by Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting provide evidence of federal wildlife agents opting out of investigations and enforcement, citing that policy change as the reason." --s

Matthew Brown & Ellen Knickmeyer of TPM: "Former U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is quickly parlaying his time in President Donald Trump's cabinet into a lucrative private career. He's landed a more than $100,000-a-year post at a Nevada mining company and is pursuing involvement in natural gas exports that have surged under Trump.... Zinke told AP that his work for Nevada-based U.S. Gold Corp., which focuses on mining exploration and development, would not constitute lobbying. But the company's CEO cited Zinke's 'excellent relationship' with the Bureau of Land Management and the Interior Department in explaining his hiring as a consultant and board member.... The Nevada project, known as Keystone, is on bureau land. A 2017 executive order from Trump said executive-branch appointees cannot lobby their former agency for at least five years after leaving their government post." --s

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Allana Ahktar of Business Insider: "Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest hedge fund ... recently released a report on how US corporations have seen revenue soar relative to cost over the last two decades. Yet while companies are seeing profit margins surge, the share of the profit that workers get declined significantly. In what Bridgewater calls 'the most pro-corporate environment in history,' the last two decades have seen corporate taxes and labor bargaining power fall, as globalization and automation increase. The biggest driving factor behind soaring profits, Bridgewater reports, is the decline in the share of profit that workers receive.... In companies that had union membership decline, wages fell at a greater level than sectors where union membership remained in tact.... As a whole, union members went from being around one-fourth of the workforce to just over 10% today.... [The report] warn[s] that these conditions will ultimately weaken the US economy...." --s

Edmund Lee of the New York Times: "The National Enquirer, President Trump's favorite supermarket tabloid, is about to have a new owner: James Cohen, a son of the founder of the Hudson News franchise. American Media Inc., the Enquirer's publisher, announced the deal Thursday. The money-losing title was put up for sale several weeks ago, after its principal owner no longer wanted to be associated with the magazine, which attracted the attention of federal investigators for its role in the 2016 presidential campaign, according to several people familiar with the matter.... American Media, led by David J. Pecker, a longtime friend of Mr. Trump's, has also agreed to sell the Globe and the National Examiner as part of the deal with Mr. Cohen. The Washington Post first reported on the sale, which it pegged at $100 million."

Sam Levin of the Guardian: "Facebook's controversial factchecking program is partnering with the Daily Caller, a rightwing website that has pushed misinformation and is known for pro-Trump content. The social network said Wednesday it had added CheckYourFact.com, which is part of the Daily Caller, as one of its US media partners in an initiative that has faced growing backlash from journalists and internal problems.... The Daily Caller, co-founded by the far-right Fox News host Tucker Carlson, publishes conservative news stories and commentary and has faced repeated accusations of running false and offensive content. In January, the site was widely condemned for the way it reported on a fake nude photo of the congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez...."

Beyond the Beltway

Puerto Rico. Andrew Rice & Luis Ortiz of New York: "Since 2016, Puerto Rico has been buffeted by a natural disaster and several overlapping, man-made catastrophes. Its government is bankrupt and owes $74 billion to bondholders: a staggering sum that amounts to 99 percent of the island's gross national product.... Under a law Congress passed in 2016, the island's finances are overseen by a federally appointed board, which hired McKinsey [& Company, perhaps the world's most influential management consulting firm] as its 'strategic consultant.' [Bertil] Chappuis, in turn, is the firm's point man.... Among the many mind-blowing figures in the fiscal plan [proposed by the federally appointed board], one stands out: the $1.5 billion earmarked over the next six years for costs related to the restructuring process itself -- more than a billion of which will go to lawyers, bankers, and consultants, McKinsey included.... All those fees are being footed by the taxpayers of Puerto Rico, which is far poorer than any U.S. state[.]" --s

Wisconsin. Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "Gov. Tony Evers [D] of Wisconsin is dubious that Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics giant known for making iPhones, will fulfill its promise of creating 13,000 jobs at a planned plant in the state. So he wants a redo of the contract.... The project, once championed by President Trump as evidence of a manufacturing renewal, has been mired in mixed signals. Mr. Evers wants to revisit the arrangement that Foxconn made with the state in 2017 and 'figure out how a new set of parameters should be negotiated....' The deal initially envisioned the company making display screens for televisions and other electronics at a $10 billion facility, with the state offering $4 billion in tax credits and other inducements over 15 years. The agreement was drafted under Scott Walker, the Republican governor whom Mr. Evers ... replaced."

Way Beyond

North Korea. AFP: "The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, will visit Russia in late April for his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, Moscow has said." --s

Sudan. Reuters: "Huge crowds formed outside Sudan's defence ministry to demand the country's transitional military council hand over power to civilians. Hundreds of thousands packed the streets by early evening on Thursday -- the largest crowds to gather in the centre of the capital since last week, when the former president Omar al-Bashir was ousted and the military council took over.... The council has said it is ready to meet some of the protesters' demands, including fighting corruption, but has indicated that it would not hand over power to protest leaders." --s