The Commentariat -- April 18, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Here's the DOJ's pdf of the Mueller report.

Here's a pdf of the report, via the Washington Post. Mrs. McC: I can't find it on the DOJ site.

NBC News has a copy of the report here.

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."

The New York Times is live-updating developments in the redacted Mueller report release.

CBS News reporters are sifting through the report & reporting its "highlights" here.

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 harange him over his lies about the report.

Josh Gerstein's (Politico) first take is here. "While the exhaustive document confirms that Mueller found no conspiracy between Trump's campaign and the Kremlin, it contains some unfavorable observations regarding potential obstruction of justice. 'If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment,' the report says in a 182-page section dedicated to obstruction. 'Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,' it continues."

... Or Maybe Nope. It's Just a Continuation of Barr Time ...

Barr said at his stupid presser that he would release the redacted Mueller report to the chairs & ranking members of the Senate & House Judiciary Committees at 11 a.m. ET, & shortly after that the DOJ would post a copy on its Website. The main DOJ Web page is here; one assumes there will be a link there to the report. Mrs. McC: Otherwise, IMO, Barr's remarks were a campaign ad for Trump: a lot of poor, put-upon Trump, standing against cruel, voracious media & "illegal leaks." Also too, "no collusion, no collusion, no collusion." It was, not surprisingly, a disgusting performance. ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "In a lengthy opening statement, Barr found just about every way possible to say that there was no coordination, cooperation or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. He also said Trump was right about 'no collusion,' expanding the Mueller report's clearing of Trump to a more nebulous term with little legal significance. But perhaps more importantly, on obstruction of justice, he seemed to go to bat for Trump personally, offering a sympathetic take on the president’s state of mind and cooperation."

     ... Immediately after Barr's teevee show, Trump tweeted this:

pic.twitter.com/222atp7wuB

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2019

Whitewash, Spin & Repeat. Here's the DOJ's Pre-Spin Spin. Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department plans to release a lightly redacted version of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's 400-page report Thursday, offering a granular look at the ways in which President Trump was suspected of having obstructed justice, people familiar with the matter said. The report --the general outlines of which the Justice Department has briefed the White House on -- will reveal that Mueller decided he could not come to a conclusion on the question of obstruction because it was difficult to determine Trump's intent and some of his actions could be interpreted innocently, these people said. But it will offer a detailed blow-by-blow of his alleged conduct -- analyzing tweets, private threats and other episodes at the center of Mueller's inquiry, they added." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: According to Brian Williams of MSNBC, two Democrats were told to expect "heavy redactions." I know that's what I expect.

Andrew Desiderio & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Barr had 'thrown out his credibility & the DOJ's independence with his single-minded effort to protect @realDonaldTrump above all else.' 'The American people deserve the truth, not a sanitized version of the Mueller Report approved by the Trump Admin,' Pelosi wrote on Twitter while on an official trip in Ireland.... 'So-called Attorney General is presiding over a dog and pony show,' tweeted House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries. 'Here is a thought. Release the Mueller report tomorrow morning and keep your mouth shut. You have ZERO credibility.'... A DOJ spokeswoman later said the [Barr-Robinson] news conference was not Trump's idea." Mrs. McC: That could be true. It might have been Rudy Giuliani's idea.

Jackie Mogensen of Mother Jones: "At a press conference Wednesday night, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) criticized Attorney General William Barr's handling of the long-awaited Mueller report.... Nadler said the attorney general 'appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump' and laid out four ways Barr has put his 'spin' on the report: He 'cherry picked' findings in his March 24 letter about the report, 'withheld' summaries written by the special counsel that 'were intended for public consumption,' reportedly briefed the White House on the report's findings before sharing it with Congress, and lastly, is releasing the report to Congress between 11 am and noon, 'well after' Barr's press conference on Thursday.... 'Attorney General Barr is not allowing the facts of the Mueller report to speak for themselves, but is trying to bake in the narrative about the report to the benefit of the White House,' Nadler said. Nadler also argued that Barr was deliberately releasing the report so close to a holiday weekend to make it more difficult to respond to." ...

I’m deeply troubled by reports that the WH is being briefed on the Mueller report AHEAD of its release. Now, DOJ is informing us we will not receive the report until around 11/12 tomorrow afternoon -- AFTER Barr's press conference. This is wrong. #ReleaseTheReport https://t.co/bR50HhGJ0i

— (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) April 17, 2019

... Barr's DOJ Gives Trump's Lawyers Cheat Sheets. Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "Justice Department officials have had numerous conversations with White House lawyers about the conclusions made by Mr. Mueller, the special counsel, in recent days, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. The talks have aided the president's legal team as it prepares a rebuttal to the report and strategizes for the coming public war over its findings.... The discussions between Justice Department officials and White House lawyers have also added to questions about the propriety of the decisions by Attorney General William P. Barr since he receivedMr. Mueller's findings late last month." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: We knew Barr was "sharing" when during Congressional testimony last week he refused to answer whether or not the White House had received the report. Often a "no comment" is a "yes." I'd sure like to know what input Trump's lawyers might have had into what-all is to be color-coded out of the report. BTW, RAS has a great summary at the end of yesterday's thread of what we already know Trump & Co. have done. RAS reasons that Barr's planned pirouette de deux will not change any hearts & minds. When I watch the morning matinee, I'm going to imagine Barr & Rosenstein in tutus.

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. -- Donald Trump, to a confederate radio host Wednesday ...

... Trump Announces Barr Presser. Matt Zapotosky & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Attorney General William P. Barr will hold a news conference Thursday to discuss special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's final report, adding a must-see-TV event to the day he will release the long-awaited document. President Trump revealed the plan during a radio appearance, and a Justice Department spokeswoman later confirmed it. The news conference will occur at 9:30 a.m. [ET], and Barr, appearing alongside Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, will take questions. It was not immediately clear whether the news conference would occur before or after the report's release. Barr has faced intense scrutiny from the public and lawmakers on Capitol Hill for his handling of Mueller's report so far.... Trump told the Larry O'Connor show on WMAL that he was pondering having his own news conference." ...

... Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "It seems many have already made up their minds about the purpose of the presser. The overarching theme of the criticism is that Barr is doing this to get out in front of the political nightmare contained within the report." Naham publishes a number of critical tweets. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: The NBC News report on the developments Wednesday afternoon, by Frank Thorp & Dareh Gregorian, has a coda so understated it made me laugh: "Mueller will not be attending the Barr-Rosenstein press conference."

... Barr to Give Some MOCs a "Less Redacted" Mueller Report. Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "The Department of Justice (DOJ) will allow some members of Congress to view a copy of special counsel Robert Mueller's report 'without certain redactions,' federal prosecutors said in a court filing Wednesday. 'Once the redacted version of the report has been released to the public, the Justice Department plans to make available for review by a limited number of Members of Congress and their staff a copy of the Special Counsel's report without certain redactions, including removing the redaction of information related to the charges set forth in the indictment in this case,' prosecutors wrote in the filing."

Michael Stern in Slate: "Barr's handling of the [Mueller] report has only served to sow public distrust of the Justice Department. As a former federal prosecutor, I would go further: The attorney general's transparent efforts to protect ... Donald Trump have done enormous damage to the department.... It's a sad time when Congress, the press, the courts, and the American people have to worry that the attorney general of the United States may bend the law in a way that works to the detriment of the country, in order to further the personal interests of the man who gave him a job.... If juries do not believe that federal agents are credible, they are unlikely to convict and hold people accountable for the crimes they committed. Barr's testimony last week [i.e., his allegations that federal agents were 'spying' on the Trump campaign --] did immeasurable damage to the daily efforts of the federal prosecutors who work for him. I never thought I'd see an attorney general do more damage to the Justice Department than Jeff Sessions. I was wrong."

Mrs. McCrabbie: As we await release of the redacted Mueller report, we should factor into our expectations Robert Mueller's 2014-15 investigation of the way the NFL handled the Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice's battering of his wife. Even though the AP had reported that a "law enforcement official claimed he had sent the NFL a video of Rice punching Palmer and played a voicemail message from an NFL office number on April 9 confirming the video had arrived," Mueller -- whom the NFL had hired to "investigate" -- "found no proof anyone at the league office received or viewed a video of Rice punching out his then-fiancée at an Atlantic City Casino until the footage became public.... We concluded there was substantial information about the incident -- even without the in-elevator video -- indicating the need for a more thorough investigation. The NFL should have done more with the information it had, and should have taken additional steps to obtain all available information about the February 15 incident." Not too impressive, IMO.

** David Rothkopf in the Daily Beast: "Something broke in America in the past week or two. We have been spiraling downward since Trump's election, but in these early days of spring 2019, we have crossed a line. The president and his men began asserting that they were above the law -- and effectively no one in our system did anything to stop them. Attorney General Bill Barr sneered at the Congress and placed himself imperiously above its questions.... At the same time, also last week, the secretary of the treasury [Steve Mnuchin] and the head of the IRS determined to violate a law that required in no uncertain terms for them to provide the president's tax returns to the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Simultaneously, a massive leadership purge at the Department of Homeland Security took place, and it became quickly clear it was because the president and his team were frustrated that officials would not act in violation of the law." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rafi Schwartz of Splinter: "... yes, President Trump did indeed offer [Ivanka Trump] the chance to lead the World Bank, which she politely declined. Calling it 'a question' posed by her daddy, whom she currently serves as a policy advisor, Ivanka said she told him she was 'happy with the work' she was currently doing with his administration.... The president has previously made a big show of pretending to care about how it might look if he appointed Ivanka to yet another powerful position, insisting that while he'd love for his eldest daughter to take over the World Bank -- 'She's very good with numbers,' he said in a recent interview -- or represent the country at the United Nations, 'they'd say nepotism, when it would've had nothing to do with nepotism.' Because nothing says not-nepotism like making your heiress fashion designer daughter an ambassador, right?" Here's the AP report.

Niraj Chokshi & Frances Robles of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed new restrictions on dealing with Cuba amid a broader toughening of its Latin American policy, limiting nonfamily travel to the island and how much money Cuban-Americans can send to relatives there, and allowing exiles to sue for property seized by the Castro government.... By allowing the lawsuits -- a departure from nearly a quarter-century of policy -- the administration dismissed passionate opposition from officials in Europe and Canada who had lobbied in recent weeks against the move which could unleash a torrent of proceedings against companies and people accused of 'trafficking' in the confiscated property." ...

... Marc Caputo of Politico: "On the 58th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, President Trump's national security adviser John Bolton addressed a group of Cuban American veterans of the failed effort to topple Fidel Castro's regime and announced a series of crackdowns on Cuba and its allies. It was part of a call to arms to fight socialism abroad, but it was also a message for domestic consumption -- particularly in Florida, the nation's largest swing state and home to large Cuban American and Central and South American communities.... In all, Bolton announced seven crackdowns and sanctions targeting the governments in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, which he referred to as the 'troika of tyranny.' Bolton nicknamed Cuba's Miguel Díaz-Canel, Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega 'the three stooges of socialism.' But he also mentioned former U.S. President Barack Obama, whose Cuba rapprochement policies Trump has been rolling back, more than anyone else."

Charlie Savage & Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "North Korea said on Thursday that it test-fired a new type of 'tactical guided weapon,' in what appeared to be a warning from Kim Jong-un to President Trump that unless once-promising negotiations with Washington resume, the two countries could again be on a collision course. The North's official Korean Central News Agency did not specify what type of weapon was involved in the test. But there was no evidence the test involved a nuclear detonation or an intercontinental ballistic missile."

Luke Darby of GQ: "Last month, a clip of New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went predictably viral after she forcefully responded to one of her colleagues on the House Financial Services Committee when he called climate change an 'elitist' concern.... In response, Kentucky Republican congressman Andy Barr invited Ocasio-Cortez to come meet coal miners in his state 'who will tell you what the Green New Deal would mean for their families, their paychecks.'... Ocasio-Cortez accepted, saying she'd be 'happy' to go, adding that the Green New Deal was written to fund coal-miner pensions.... Not even a month later, that cordiality is out the window: Barr attached a rather inhospitable and obnoxious demand to his invitation, writing in a letter posted to Twitter that she should 'apologize to [Texas representative Dan Crenshaw] prior to coming to visit Kentucky,' for a completely unrelated event before meeting with miners..., [leaving] the impression that the Barr might not want her to come to Kentucky after all." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Call this the "Bernie on Fox Effect." Republicans are so stuck in their closed circle that it doesn't occur to them that their own policies are terrible, & regular people are sometimes able to figure that out when presented with progressive policies that are far better for them, their families & their communities.

Presidential Race 2020

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Fox News announced Wednesday that it will host a town hall with Sen. Amy Klobuchar next month, its second event of the nascent 2020 campaign with a Democratic presidential candidate. The town hall is scheduled for May 8 in Milwaukee...."

Matthew Choi of Politico: "Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced Wednesday that he would not be running for president in 2020, quelling speculation that he would join an already sizable group of Democratic hopefuls vying to push ... Donald Trump out of office.... McAuliffe said he would rather concentrate his energy on helping Democrats maintain control of the Virginia Legislature, though he thinks he could have beaten Trump 'like a rented mule' and would have done a good job in the White House."

Julie Turkewitz & Jack Healy of the New York Times: "A Florida high school student was found dead on Wednesday after she had made threats that prompted hundreds of schools to close across the Denver area, according to law enforcement officials. Identified as Sol Pais, 18, the woman had traveled to Denver and bought a firearm ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting, officials said. Sheriff Jeff Shrader of Jefferson County, Colo., said Ms. Pais was found dead from an 'apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

An American's Response to the Notre Dame Fire. Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "A 37-year-old New Jersey man carrying a pair of full two-gallon cans of gasoline was arrested on Wednesday night after entering St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, the police said. The man entered the cathedral just before 8 p.m. but was turned away by a church security officer.... As the man exited, some gasoline spilled on the floor. The security officer then notified two police officers outside the cathedral, who caught up to the man and began to question him. While he was cooperative, his answers were inconsistent and evasive.... 'His basic story was that he was cutting through the cathedral to get to Madison Avenue, that his car had run out of gas,'... according to John Miller, the Police Department's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism.... 'We took a look at the vehicle. It was not out of gas, and at that point he was taken into custody.'"

Merris Badcock of WPTV West Palm Beach: "A judge has blocked the release of spa videos until a hearing is held. A hearing on the motion for a protective order has been scheduled for 1:30 PM on April 29. EARLIER: Secretly obtained surveillance videos of men inside a Jupiter massage parlor will be made public, according to the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office. According to a recent court filing, the graphic video will be blurred or pixelated before it's released.... The surveillance video has become a source of contention for the most high-profile person charged in the case, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft." Mrs. McC: I would be happy never to see naked Bob Kraft getting a very special "massage."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Andrea Zarate & Nicholas Casey of the New York Times: "A former president of Peru died on Wednesday after shooting himself in the head when the authorities tried to arrest him in connection with one of the biggest corruption scandals in Latin American history. When the authorities arrived at the home of the former president, Alan García, with an arrest warrant, he locked himself into his bedroom, shot himself and was rushed to a hospital, his personal secretary told reporters. The charges relate to Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction giant, which last year admitted to $800 million in payoffs in exchange for lucrative contracts for projects including roads, dams and bridges."

The Commentariat -- April 17, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Julie Turkewitz & Jack Healy of the New York Times: "A Florida high school student was found dead on Wednesday after she had made threats that prompted hundreds of schools to close across the Denver area, according to law enforcement officials. Identified as Sol Pais, 18, the woman had traveled to Denver and bought a firearm ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting, officials said. Sheriff Jeff Shrader of Jefferson County, Colo., said Ms. Pais was found dead from an 'apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.'"

** David Rothkopf in the Daily Beast: "Something broke in America in the past week or two. We have been spiraling downward since Trump's election, but in these early days of spring 2019, we have crossed a line. The president and his men began asserting that they were above the law -- and effectively no one in our system did anything to stop them. Attorney General Bill Barr sneered at the Congress and placed himself imperiously above its questions.... At the same time, also last week, the secretary of the treasury [Steve Mnuchin] and the head of the IRS determined to violate a law that required in no uncertain terms for them to provide the president's tax returns to the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Simultaneously, a massive leadership purge at the Department of Homeland Security took place, and it became quickly clear it was because the president and his team were frustrated that officials would not act in violation of the law."

~~~~~~~~~~

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The old-fashioned idea that a president, once reaching office, should at least pretend to be the leader of all the people these days seems so, well, old-fashioned. Mr. Trump does not bother with the pretense. He is speaking to his people, not the people. He has become, or so it often seems, the president of the United Base of America. Mr. Trump travels nearly five times as often to states that were in his column in 2016 as to those that supported Hillary Clinton. He has given several times more interviews to Fox News than to all the other major networks combined. His social media advertising is aimed disproportionately at older Americans who were the superstructure of his victory in the Electoral College in 2016. His messaging is permeated with divisive language that galvanizes core supporters more than it persuades anyone on the fence, much less on the other side.... Mr. Trump is the only president in the history of Gallup polling never to earn the support of a majority of Americans even for a single day of his term." ...

... Trump A-OK with Violence against Democrats. William Saletan of Slate: "... Donald Trump has a plan to intimidate voters who disagree with him. His plan is to send violent criminals to their neighborhoods. The plan won't work, because the people Trump wants to send -- undocumented immigrants -- aren't actually violent criminals.... But Trump thinks they're dangerous. And that makes them, in his mind, a useful weapon against his domestic opponents. One of Trump's goals in promoting this plan is to smear undocumented immigrants.... So although his plan tells us nothing about immigrants, it tells us a lot about Trump. It exposes the extent of his malice. And it confirms that he's willing to use violence as a political weapon.... Trump framed the proposal as a threat against Democrats.... Trump ... is promoting a plan whose purpose, as he sees it, is to inflict criminal violence on Americans he doesn't like. It's not the migrants who want to hurt you. It's the president of the United States."

White-Supremacist-in-Chief Makes Another Move against Latinos. Peter Baker: "President Trump has approved a move intended to further choke off foreign investment in Cuba by lifting longstanding limits on American citizens seeking to sue over property confiscated by the Havana government going back to Fidel Castro's revolution six decades ago, a senior administration official said on Tuesday. The decision, a sharp departure from the policy of the last three presidents, could open the floodgates to thousands of lawsuits against foreign companies and individuals accused of 'trafficking' in seized property. By doing so, Mr. Trump hopes to raise the pressure on Cuba, but risks another rupture with American allies in Europe and Canada that scrambled in vain in recent days to head off the change."

Trump A-OK with Humanitarian Catastrophes. Felicia Sonmez, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Tuesday vetoed a resolution that would have ended U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. The move, which had been expected, marks the second veto of Trump's presidency. 'This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future,' Trump said in a statement. The measure had passed the House on a 247-to-175 vote this month and was approved by the Senate last month with the support of seven Republicans.... The Saudi-led effort, which has targeted civilian facilities and prevented aid shipments from getting to Yemenis, has been faulted by human rights organizations for exacerbating what the United Nations has deemed the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe."

Julian Barnes & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "As she approaches her first full year on the job, [CIA Director Gina] Haspel has proved an adept tactician, charming the president with small gestures and talking to him with a blend of a hardheaded realism and appeals to emotion. A career case officer trained to handle informants, she has relied on the skills of a spy -- good listening, empathy and an ability to connect -- to make sure her voice is heard at the White House. But ... for all of Ms. Haspel's ability to stay in Mr. Trump's good graces, there is little evidence she has changed his mind on major issues, underscoring the limits of her approach.... Unusually for a president, Mr. Trump has publicly rejected not only intelligence agencies' analysis, but also the facts they have gathered. And that has created a perilous situation for the C.I.A." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Trump A-OK with Assassinations. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "One detail in paragraph 15 [of the NYT report] stands out: 'Last March, top national security officials gathered inside the White House to discuss with Mr. Trump how to respond to the nerve agent attack in Britain on Sergei V. Skripal, the former Russian intelligence agent. London was pushing for the White House to expel dozens of suspected Russian operatives, but Mr. Trump was skeptical. He had initially written off the poisoning as part of legitimate spy games.... Some officials said they thought that Mr. Trump, who has frequently criticized 'rats' and other turncoats, had some sympathy for the Russian government's going after someone viewed as a traitor.' The story goes on to say Haspel was able to prevail upon President Trump to offer a tough response, after showing him images of children [Mrs. McC: and dead ducks!] who had come into contact with the same nerve agent.... Put plainly: Trump's default mode seems to border on indifference toward strongmen and their political assassinations." Blake goes on to cite numerous other instances in which Trump downplayed assassinations carried out by subordinates of dictators. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump A-OK with Inciting Violence against a Muslim Woman. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump has no regrets about posting a video that spliced together footage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with Rep. Ilhan Omar, telling a Minneapolis ABC affiliate that the congresswoman is 'extremely unpatriotic and disrespectful to our country. She is somebody that doesn't really understand, I think, life, real life, what it's all about. It's unfortunate -- she's got a way about her that's very, very bad, I think, for our country,' he told local TV station KSTP during a visit to Minnesota on Monday.... Trump tore into [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi on Monday for her continued support of Omar, imploring her in a tweet to 'look at the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and ungrateful U.S. HATE statements Omar has made.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

The Founders Would Have Impeached Trump in a New York Minute. Jeffrey Engel in the Washington Post (April 15): "The group that created our nation's founding document would already have judged Donald Trump unfit for office -- and removed him -- because he's repeatedly shown a dearth of the quality they considered paramount in a president: a willingness to put national interest above his own.... 'The first man put at the helm will be a good one,' Pennsylvania's Benjamin Franklin assured the convention.... 'Nobody knows what sort may come afterwards.' So delegates designed a mechanism for removing a dangerous president, one who did what [George] Washington never would: impeachment for 'treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.'... The Constitution's authors understood that impeachable treachery need not, in fact, be a literal crime at all, but rather a demonstration that a president's presence harmed the body politic, the people, either through maliciousness or selfishness. For example, any president 'who has practiced corruption' to win election, a Pennsylvania delegate argued, should be impeached. So, too, in the eyes of Virginia's James Madison, should any president who 'might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression,' or any who 'betray[ed] his trust to foreign powers.... If the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person,' who schemed against the republic, Madison argued during ratification debates, 'and there be grounds to believe he [the president] will shelter him,' impeachment should follow.... Trump has been accused of each of the aforementioned misdeeds."

Paul Waldman of the Washington Post: "Trump's greatest fear: His underlings told Mueller the truth.... As one former White House official said, 'They got asked questions and told the truth, and now they're worried the wrath will follow.' The fact that they're so concerned tells us two important things. First, it tells us that they revealed damaging information to Mueller. If Trump's version of events were true -- nobody did anything wrong, there was no obstruction, there was no collusion, everything was completely appropriate -- then Trump staffers would have no reason to fear their boss's wrath.... Second, it tells us that Trump expected them to lie under oath. Or, at the very least, to conceal things." NBC story also linked here yesterday.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Attorney General William Barr has created public distrust about whether the Justice Department is committed to sharing as much as possible about the Russia probe's findings, a federal judge said on Tuesday. 'The attorney general has created an environment that has caused a significant part of the public ... to be concerned about whether or not there is full transparency,' U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton [-- a George W. Bush appointee --] said during a hearing Tuesday afternoon on a Freedom of Information Act suit demanding access to a report detailing the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller.... Despite Walton's criticism, he denied a request from BuzzFeed to issue a preliminary injunction requiring the Justice Department to release Mueller's report by Thursday.... However, the judge said Tuesday that he plans to 'fast track' the issue of the report and what information in it must be disclosed, then deal with other records from Mueller's probe." ...

... Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Federal District Judge Reggie Walton expressed uncertainty about the redactions Attorney General William Barr is making to special counsel Robert Mueller's report and suggested he may want to review the Justice Department's redactions for himself once versions of it are made public. 'Obviously there is a real concern as to whether there is full transparency,' Walton said at a Tuesday court hearing in Washington about a request from BuzzFeed News to have the Justice Department release the report quickly under the Freedom of Information Act. 'The attorney general has created an environment that has caused a significant part of the American public to be concerned' about the redactions."

David Kris & Michael Morell in a Washington Post op-ed: "Americans rightly expect their law enforcement and intelligence leaders to follow the president's policies while avoiding the extremes of partisan politics, particularly with respect to individual cases and investigations.... Against the background of President Trump's relentless efforts to politicize law enforcement and intelligence, Attorney General William P. Barr's recent statements that he believes spying did occur' on the Trump campaign in 2016 were problematic, for at least three reasons. First, Barr's statements supported a narrative that the FBI and intelligence community were acting improperly and illegally when they investigated links between the Trump campaign and Russian election interference.... Second..., the reference to 'spying' created the impression that Barr was pandering to the president, succumbing to Trump's relentless pressure to shade the truth (or worse) in service of his own narrow, personal interests.... Third..., Barr's statements also resonated with prior presidential attacks on the agency and the intelligence community as a whole."

Bill Barr Joins the White House Supremacists Club. Michael Shear & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "In an effort to deliver on President Trump's promise to end 'catch and release' at the border, Attorney General William P. Barr's order directed immigration judges to no longer allow some migrants who have sought asylum to post bail. The order will not go into effect for 90 days, and is all but certain to be challenged in federal court. But immigrant rights lawyers said it could undermine the basic rights of people seeking safety in the United States.... A federal judge in Washington State this month affirmed the rights of individuals with a bona fide claim for asylum, saying they must be given the opportunity to seek bail within seven days of a request." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Barr is like his predecessor Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, but classier and sneakier. So even worse.

Caitlin Dickerson of the New York Times: "There is a long history of wrongful deportations that span several administrations and they are only rarely reversed, according to immigration lawyers. In one recent case, Muneer Subaihani, an Iraqi immigrant who had lived in the United States for 25 years, was deported in 2017, in spite of a court order prohibiting the deportation of about 1,400 Iraqis. But he was only allowed back into the country in January -- and it was the first time that anyone from Iraq who had been erroneously expelled had been allowed back in, the American Civil Liberties Union said. Last year, another man identified in court documents only as W.G.A. was brought back to the United States after being wrongfully deported to El Salvador while his asylum case was under appeal -- a situation that should have triggered an automatic temporary stay."

Foxes Guarding Hen House. Eric Katz of Government Executive: "The Veterans Affairs Department's watchdog is investigating a new office created by President Trump early in his administration that was designed to protect whistleblowers from reprisal but is now facing allegations of aiding retaliation against them.... The new [VA] IG office is looking into activities at the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection as part of an ongoing review of the implementation of the 2017 law that created OAWP.... Government Executive spoke to several VA employees who expressed frustration or anger toward OAWP, three of whom have already been interviewed by IG investigators. They described feeling betrayed or neglected by an office they believed was going to help them but ended up doing the opposite. They said they have shared information with the investigators, including documentation of alleged reprisal.... 'It's a crooked system where literally the fox is guarding the hen house, said Jay DeNofrio..., an administrative officer at a VA facility in Altoona, Pa...." Katz describes reprisals to which the OAWP allegedly subjected VA whistleblowers. Mrs. McC: Setting up a "whistleblower protection" office for the purpose of taking down whistleblowers is so Trumpy. ...

... Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times in the NYT Magazine: "When [Mick] Mulvaney took over [the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau], the fledgling C.F.P.B. was perhaps Washington's most feared financial regulator: It announced dozens of cases annually against abusive debt collectors, sloppy credit agencies and predatory lenders, and it was poised to force sweeping changes on the $30 billion payday-loan industry, one of the few corners of the financial world that operates free of federal regulation. What he left behind is an agency whose very mission is now a matter of bitter dispute. 'The bureau was constructed really deliberately to protect ordinary people,' says Lisa Donner, the head of Americans for Financial Reform. 'He's taken it apart -- dismantled it, piece by piece, brick by brick.' Mulvaney's careful campaign of deconstruction offers a case study in the Trump administration's approach to transforming Washington, one in which strategic neglect and bureaucratic self-sabotage create versions of agencies that seem to run contrary to their basic premises. According to one person who speaks with Mulvaney often, his smooth subdual of the C.F.P.B. was part of his pitch to Trump for his promotion to White House chief of staff...."

Marianne Levine of Politico: "Rick Scott campaigned on standing up for Puerto Rico. But with ... Donald Trump warning senators not to provide more aid to the island, the Florida Republican is caught between his party and his promises. And Democrats are eager to exploit that tension -- blasting Scott for sticking with the president on a critical disaster relief bill and throwing the freshman senator into the middle of a broader fight over stalled assistance for millions of Americans devastated by wildfires, flooding and hurricanes. Scott, meanwhile, is lashing out at his Democratic critics, feuding in particular with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in increasingly personal terms.... Schumer responded [in a tweet]..., 'How can you say you're Puerto Rico's voice in the Senate while supporting a disaster bill that strips needed help from the island and is opposed by PR's Governor? Why not stand up for both PR & Florida, and have the courage to tell realDonaldTrump to leave no community behind?'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race 2020

Mediaite: "Fox News' town hall featuring presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) marked the top-rated such event in the 2020 election so far, per data accumulated by Nielsen Media Research.... Most of the declared 2020 candidates have already held similar events on CNN, with more to follow. South Bend, IN Mayor Pete Buttigieg is reportedly in talks to participate in a Fox News town hall of his own." Mrs. McC: You know most FoxBot viewers were hoping for a Bernie smackdown. It didn't work out that way. ...

... Michael Burke of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday claimed that his supporters were kept out of a Fox News town hall with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday night. Without evidence, Trump said in a tweet that 'many Trump Fans & Signs were outside of the @FoxNews Studio last night' and that there were 'big complaints about not being let in.'"

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Speaking at the funeral of [former Senator Ernest 'Fritz'] Hollings, the former South Carolina senator who died this month at 97, [Joe] Biden hailed his longtime friend and former colleague, a one-time segregationist, as the embodiment of this state's growth. 'People can change,' Mr. Biden said of Mr. Hollings..., adding, 'We can learn from the past and build a better future.' Mr. Biden's trip here marked his first visit to an early nominating state this year and came just a week before he is expected to make his long-anticipated entry into the Democratic presidential primary." ...

     ... Ed Kilgore: "... if Biden is not careful in completing his own 'evolution' on matters of urgent concern to today's Democratic coalition, he could discover he is burying his own career when he says good-bye to the survivors of traditions that few today will find worthy of nostalgia -- or even relevant."

Senate Race 2020. Reid Wilson of the Hill: "Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore leads the field of potential Republicans vying for the chance to challenge Sen. Doug Jones (D), a year and a half after Moore lost what was supposed to be an easy election in a deep-red state. A new poll shows Moore leading a still-evolving field of Alabama Republicans competing for the nomination. He is the top choice of 27 percent of Alabama Republican voters, according to the Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy Inc. survey. The state's three Republican members of Congress finish well behind Moore...." Mrs. McC: Admittedly at this stage, the poll is primarily a name-recognition test. But it does show us something extremely unpleasant about Alabama Republican voters.

Russian Oligarch Knows Capitalism Is Awesome. Cristina Maza of Newsweek: "Rusal, the aluminum company partially owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, announced plans to invest around $200 million to build a new aluminum plant in Kentucky just months after the Trump administration removed it from the U.S. sanctions list. The new aluminum plant, slated to be built in the home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, will be the biggest new aluminum plant constructed in the U.S. in decades. Rusal will have a 40 percent stake in the facility.... McConnell was among the advocates for lifting sanctions on Rusal...." Mrs. McC: Nobody knows better than a Russian oligarch that bribing politicians is part of the cost of doing business. Congratulations, Mitch!

Spontaneous Bigotry. Talia Lavin of the Washington Post: "... conspiracy theorizing [on social media about the Notre Dame fire] began almost as soon as the blaze did, right when people saw the shocking, transfixing video of the cathedral's spire toppling. While French authorities began to assert almost immediately that the fire was apparently accidental, the brief gap between the startling images' generation and their explication was enough for far-right figures to exploit with their own sinister insinuations. Thei prevailing view was nearly identical and, apparently, completely false: that the fire was deliberate and most probably set by Muslims.... Blogger David Futrelle, an expert on the worst of the Web, gathered dozens of tweets claiming that [Rep. Ilhan] Omar [D-Minn.] was either celebrating the fire (variously 'smiling inside,' 'happy as a muslim terrorist,' 'giddy and laughing') or, somehow, had caused it." ...

... Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: “President Trump tweeted about the fire twice[.]... Vice President Pence also shared his thoughts and prayers. He tweeted that 'it is heartbreaking to see a house of God in flames.' But neither man had responded to the recent fires that destroyed three predominantly African American churches in Louisiana. After the publication of this piece, Alyssa Farah, a spokeswoman for Pence, reached out to the Fix with a statement from the vice president. 'When tragedy strikes in places of worship, people of all faiths unite. Our hearts go out to the members of the congregations of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, St. Mary's Baptist Church, and Greater Union Baptist Church who were victims of arson...." Mrs. McC: It's still possible to shame Pence. Trump has no shame. ...

... Merci, Mais Non Merci, Imbécile. Isabelle Tourn & Olivier Lucazeau of AFP: "As Notre-Dame in Paris burned..., Donald Trump tweeted some advice to French firefighters. 'Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!' But doing that would have brought the ancient cathedral crashing down, French fire chiefs told AFP Tuesday. 'Everything would have collapsed," said Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Bernier, a fire chief who speaks for the national civil defence organisation and who described the suggestion as 'risible'. Releasing even one load from a Canadair water bomber used to fight forest fires on Notre-Dame would be 'the equivalent of dropping three tonnes of concrete at 250 kilometres per hour (155mph)' on the ancient monument. 'It would have been like bowling with the cathedral... the two towers might have fallen.'... In fact, dropping a 6,300-litre (1,664-gallon) load from a Canadair water bomber would have put the lives of firefighters and anyone in the area at risk, he added. 'Neighbouring buildings would have been hit by flying blocks of hot stone, and the whole area would have had to be evacuated.'" ...

... Karen Zraick & Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "The fire at Notre-Dame cathedral on Monday prompted immediate pledges of millions of euros to help rebuild it. On Tuesday, it spurred donations to do the same for much smaller places of worship thousands of miles away that were recently destroyed by arson. A crowdfunding campaign for three fire-ravaged black churches in Louisiana received nearly $500,000 after it was widely shared on social media on Tuesday. Many users noted that while hundreds of millions of euros had already been pledged to rebuild the famous cathedral, the small churches in Louisiana were still struggling.... Those who shared the campaign on Twitter included Hillary Clinton...; the journalist Yashar Ali; and Jake Tapper, the CNN anchor." ...

... Kayla Epstein, et al., of the Washington Post: "... the man who stands accused of setting the fires has not only been charged with arson, he is facing three hate-crime charges, too. The St. Landry Parish district attorney, Earl Taylor, filed the charges against Holden Matthews on Monday. In Louisiana, hate crimes include offenses perpetrated against an individual because of their race, sexual orientation, national origin, disability or other protected status. Taylor declined to comment on the charges. Last week, Matthews, the 21-year-old son of a local sheriff's deputy, was arrested and charged with three counts of arson for setting fires at St. Mary Baptist Church on March 26, Greater Union Baptist Church on April 2 and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church on April 4."

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. New York Times Editors: "Brent Staples of The Times's editorial board has sought to correct the parts of the national narrative on race that have been sanitized and distorted, to remind Americans that the devaluation of black lives that led to slavery still haunts the country. His editorials on American racial justice and culture were honored today with the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. A selection of those editorials follows."

Julie Brown of the Miami Herald: "A new victim has gone public in the Jeffrey Epstein case, filing a sworn affidavit in federal court in New York Tuesday, saying that she was sexually assaulted and her then-15-year-old sister molested by Epstein and his companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, in 1996. Maria Farmer, then 26, claims that she was employed by Epstein, a multimillionaire financier who lived in a vast mansion on New York's Upper East Side, and that she frequently saw 'school-age girls' wearing uniforms come into the mansion and go upstairs. She was told that the girls were auditioning for modeling work, according to her affidavit. Then an art student in New York, Farmer said she reported her assault to New York police and the FBI in 1996. FBI documents released April 1 make a reference to Farmer having been interviewed in 2006 or 2007. However, Farmer, now 49, said the FBI did not take any action against Epstein and Maxwell." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In case you are mystified as to why Bob Mueller & his team did not file charges against Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, Donald Junior, etc., bear in mind that officials often ignore malfeasance -- even like something as disgusting as sexual assault -- if the perps are rich & white. I don't think these are presumptions of innocence; I think the agents & officers believe it's "bad form" to "ruin" the lives of elite white men. The tradition of droit du seigneur dies hard.

The Commentariat -- April 16, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Julian Barnes & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "As she approaches her first full year on the job, [CIA Director Gina] Haspel has proved an adept tactician, charming the president with small gestures and talking to him with a blend of a hardheaded realism and appeals to emotion. A career case officer trained to handle informants, she has relied on the skills of a spy -- good listening, empathy and an ability to connect -- to make sure her voice is heard at the White House. But ... dor all of Ms. Haspel's ability to stay in Mr. Trump's good graces, there is little evidence she has changed his mind on major issues, underscoring the limits of her approach.... Unusually for a president, Mr. Trump has publicly rejected not only intelligence agencies' analysis, but also the facts they have gathered. And that has created a perilous situation for the C.I.A." ...

     ... Trump A-OK with Assassinations. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: “One detail in paragraph 15 [of the NYT report] stands out: 'Last March, top national security officials gathered inside the White House to discuss with Mr. Trump how to respond to the nerve agent attack in Britain on Sergei V. Skripal, the former Russian intelligence agent. London was pushing for the White House to expel dozens of suspected Russian operatives, but Mr. Trump was skeptical. He had initially written off the poisoning as part of legitimate spy games.... Some officials said they thought that Mr. Trump, who has frequently criticized 'rats' and other turncoats, had some sympathy for the Russian government's going after someone viewed as a traitor.' The story goes on to say Haspel was able to prevail upon President Trump to offer a tough response, after showing him images of children [Mrs. McC: and dead ducks!] who had come into contact with the same nerve agent.... Put plainly: Trump's default mode seems to border on indifference toward strongmen and their political assassinations." Blake goes on to cite numerous other instances in which Trump downplayed assassinations carried out by subordinates of dictators. Emphasis added.

Of Course Trump Is OK with Inciting Violence against a Muslim Woman. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump has no regrets about posting a video that spliced together footage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with Rep. Ilhan Omar, telling a Minneapolis ABC affiliate that the congresswoman is 'extremely unpatriotic and disrespectful to our country. She is somebody that doesn't really understand, I think, life, real life, what it's all about. It's unfortunate -- she's got a way about her that's very, very bad, I think, for our country,' he told local TV station KSTP during a visit to Minnesota on Monday.... Trump tore into [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi on Monday for her continued support of Omar, imploring her in a tweet to 'look at the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and ungrateful U.S. HATE statements Omar has made.'"

Marianne Levine of Politico: "Rick Scott campaigned on standing up for Puerto Rico. But with ... Donald Trump warning senators not to provide more aid to the island, the Florida Republican is caught between his party and his promises. And Democrats are eager to exploit that tension -- blasting Scott for sticking with the president on a critical disaster relief bill and throwing the freshman senator into the middle of a broader fight over stalled assistance for millions of Americans devastated by wildfires, flooding and hurricanes. Scott, meanwhile, is lashing out at his Democratic critics, feuding in particular with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in increasingly personal terms.... Schumer responded [in a tweet]..., 'How can you say you're Puerto Rico's voice in the Senate while supporting a disaster bill that strips needed help from the island and is opposed by PR's Governor? Why not stand up for both PR & Florida, and have the courage to tell @realDonaldTrump to leave no community behind?'"

~~~~~~~~~~

The Usual Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department expects to release on Thursday a redacted version of specialcounsel Robert S. Mueller III's report on President Trump, his associates and Russia's interference in the 2016 election, setting the stage for further battles in Congress over the politically explosive inquiry. Kerri Kupec, a spokeswoman for the department, said Monday that officials plan to issue the report to Congress and the public on Thursday morning." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Danielle McLean of ThinkProgress: "As ... Donald Trump publicly boasts that ... Robert Mueller's anticipated 400-page report 'totally exonerated' him, White House officials are completing a counter-report that rebuts its findings.... The White House has been briefed 'in broad-brush strokes' on the report and it will not invoke executive privilege to get further redactions, ABC News reported Sunday. Despite all this, Trump's legal team has been working on a counter-report for months, which will attack the legitimacy of the investigation and focus on obstruction of justice claims the special counsel lays out in his report, according to Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani. The counter-report is reportedly 140 pages long, and Giuliani said the team is trying to cut it down to around 50 pages." ...

... White House Staff Worried Because They Told the Truth. Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "Some of the more than one dozen current and former White House officials who cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller are worried that the version of his report expected to be made public on Thursday will expose them as the source of damaging information about ... Donald Trump, according to multiple witnesses in the investigation. Some of the officials and their lawyers have sought clarity from the Justice Department on whether the names of those who cooperated with Mueller's team will be redacted or if the public report will be written in a way that makes it obvious who shared certain details of Trump's actions that were part of the obstruction of justice probe, people familiar with the discussions said. But, they said, the Justice Department has refused to elaborate." ...

... Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "The top two members of the House intelligence committee have said Special Counsel Robert Mueller 'must' brief them on his investigation, according to a letter obtained by The Daily Beast. The letter, signed by Democratic Chairman Adam Schiff and Republican Ranking Member Rep. Devin Nunes, was sent on March 27, shortly after Attorney General Bill Barr released a short letter summarizing Mueller's findings. They sent it to Barr, FBI Director Chris Wray, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The letter asked for Mueller and other senior members of his team to brief the committee on their work. It also asked for all the materials Mueller gathered during his probe: 'all materials, regardless of form and classification, obtained or produced by the Special Counsel's Office in the course of the investigation, including but not limited to any addenda or annexes to the full report, or separate intelligence or counterintelligence-related reports; scope-related materials regarding the investigation's parameters, areas of inquiry, and subjects; investigative records and materials,' as well as raw reporting and finished analysis related to his work. The letter was a rare moment of bipartisan concord on the notoriously fractured committee, and suggests Schiff and Nunes will work together to extract as much information and detail as possible from Mueller's team." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Devin Nunes' Cow must have been munching on some cannibis plants. And Devin's got milk.

... Bill Barr Has Only One Songbook. Ryan Goodman in Just Security: "On Friday the thirteenth October 1989..., news leaked of a legal memo authored by William Barr. He was then serving as head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). [The memo] ... concluded that the FBI could forcibly abduct people in other countries without the consent of the foreign state. The headline also noted the implication of the legal opinion at that moment in time. It appeared to pave the way for abducting Panama's leader, Gen. Manuel Noriega. Members of Congress asked to see the full legal opinion. Barr refused, but said he would provide an account that 'summarizes the principal conclusions.'... When the OLC opinion was finally made public long after Barr left office, it was clear that Barr's summary had failed to fully disclose the opinion's principal conclusions." (Also linked yesterday.)

Emily Flitter & David Enrich of the New York Times: "Congressional investigators on Monday issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and numerous other banks, seeking information about President Trump's finances and the lenders' business dealings with Russians, according to several people with knowledge of the investigation. The subpoenas, from the House's Intelligence and Financial Services committees, were the latest attempts by congressional Democrats to collect information about the finances of Mr. Trump and his family-owned company.... The committees that issued subpoenas on Monday are jointly investigating Deutsche Bank's relationship with Mr. Trump. Over the past two decades, Deutsche Bank was the only mainstream bank consistently willing to do business with Mr. Trump, who has a long history of defaults and bankruptcies. The bank has lent him well over $2 billion, and Mr. Trump had more than $300 million in outstanding loans from Deutsche Bank by the time he took office, making the German bank the president's biggest creditor." ...

... Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "... Donald Trump's attorneys are warning of potential legal action if an accounting firm turns over a decade of the president's financial records to the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Trump attorneys William S. Consovoy and Stefan Passantino are urging Mazars USA not to comply with a subpoena that Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) plans to issue on Monday for Trump's financial documents, calling it a politically motivated scheme to take down the president." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Eric Levenson of CNN: "In attacking the fight to obtain Trump's tax returns, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders argued that members of Congress aren't smart enough to understand them anyway. But three Democratic members of Congress are trained as certified public accountants -- professionals licensed by their states to do just that. The Congressional Research Service said there are 10 accountants in this Congress, including two senators and eight House members.... [For instance,] Rep. Brad Sherman of California is a tax law specialist and a CPA, and he was an instructor at Harvard Law School's International Tax Program, according to his biography. He sits on the House Committee on Financial Services." (Also linked yesterday.)

"I Alone." Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "Republicans on Capitol Hill are raising alarms at the White House's resistance to congressional demands, fearing ... Donald Trump is bolstering the power of his office at the expense of Congress. The White House has stonewalled House Democrats on nearly all aspects of their sprawling investigations into the President, refusing to provide documents as requested by committee chairmen, preventing former White House officials from complying with Democratic demands and fighting subpoenas pertaining to the US Census and the administration's handling of the security clearance process.... In the past few months, Trump pushed for [Republicans] to return to the politically risky fight to replace the Affordable Care Act. He considered nominees key Republican senators don't want for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. And he pulled another -- Ron Vitiello to lead US Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- that Republicans actually liked.... The White House has also ignored the growing concerns from GOP senators over Trump's reliance on acting secretaries to run his Cabinet, a move that allows them to avoid the Senate confirmation process and his officials to temporarily escape nomination hearings intended to get their positions on the record and accountable to oversight." (Also linked yesterday.)

Matt Stieb of New York: "According to the White House, [former president Jimmy] Carter wrote Trump 'a beautiful letter about the current negotiations with China,' after which the two spoke over the phone on Saturday. By Monday, the White House was ready to share the good news: 'The President has always liked President Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter and extended his best wishes to them on behalf of the American people.'... President Trump ... has previously called Carter 'the worst President in the history of the United States.' Carter, for his part, told the Washington Post in 2017 that the Trump presidency was 'a disaster' in terms of 'human rights and taking care of people and treating people equal.'"

Peter Nicholas of the Atlantic examines what it takes to have staying power in Trump's tumultuous White House. "No one risks getting fired for being too effusive in praise of Trump.... Perhaps the most obsequious of all the president's men and women is his No. 2, present and past White House staff members say. 'I'd like my wife to look at me just for one day the way Mike Pence looks at President Trump every day they're together. That would be special,' Kenneth Adelman, an official in Reagan's administration, told me."

Ted Hesson of Politico: "The White House is weighing travel restrictions for nationals of countries with high rates of overstaying visas in the United States, according to a Department of Homeland Security official. Some of the countries with the highest rates of overstaying temporary visas are in Africa. Chad, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Eritrea, Liberia, Somalia, and South Sudan have among the highest overstay rates for short-term tourist and business visas, although they send relatively small numbers of travelers to the U.S. each year. During a meeting in January 2018..., Donald Trump reportedly referred to Haiti and some African nations as 'shithole countries' and questioned why their nationals should be admitted to the U.S.... The White House could issue a related presidential proclamation as soon as this week, a Homeland Security Department official told Politico." ...

... Somebody at ICE Can Be Shamed. Daniel González of the Arizona Republic: "Immigration officials deported the spouse of a U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan last week, leaving the couple's 12-year-daughter in Phoenix, then abruptly reversed its decision on Monday when the deported man was allowed to return to the U.S. Jose Gonzalez Carranza, 30, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers last Monday on his way to his welding job and then deported to Nogales, Sonora, early Thursday morning, according to Gonzalez Carranza and his attorney, Ezequiel Hernandez. Gonzalez Carranza was married to Army Pfc. Barbara Vieyra, who was killed on Sept. 18, 2010, while serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. She was& 22.... ICE officials offered no explanation for the decision to allow Gonzalez Carranza to return to the U.S. But Hernandez believes the reversal was triggered by media attention the deportation received."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Interior Department's internal watchdog has opened an investigation into ethics complaints against the agency's newly installed secretary, David Bernhardt. Mr. Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for the oil and agribusiness industries, was confirmed by the Senate last week to head the agency, which oversees the nation's 500 million acres of public land and vast coastal waters. He has played a central role in writing policies designed to advance President Trump's policy of 'energy dominance' and expanding fossil fuel exploration. He has been dogged by allegations of ethics violations since joining the Trump administration as the Interior Department's deputy secretary in 2017. Eight senators, all Democrats, and four government ethics watchdog groups have requested that the Interior Department's inspector general open formal investigations into various aspects of Mr. Bernhardt's conduct."

Hey, These Guys Weren't Complete Idiots -- Back in 2015. Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "... Donald Trump's pick to serve on the Federal Reserve Stephen Moore once criticized Trump's positions on immigration, describing them as 'extreme nativist' and calling them 'crazy' and 'dangerous.' Moore made the comments in an August 2015 radio interview with Larry Kudlow, who now serves as the President's top economic adviser. In that interview, Kudlow compared Trump's immigration plans to the worst parts of World War II -- in an apparent reference to the Holocaust -- and said Trump's only real supporters came from 'the nativist fringe.' In a statement to CNN, Kudlow said he should have never made the comments about Trump's immigration proposal."

Paul Krugman: "... while today's G.O.P. can't do policy, it commands a powerful propaganda machine. And this machine is now dedicated to a strategy of portraying Democrats as extremists. It might work -- but it shouldn't, because Democrats aren't extremists, but Republicans are."

Presidential Election 2020

Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont disclosed 10 years of tax returns on Monday, providing a more detailed look at his finances than he offered when he ran for president in 2016. The returns show that Mr. Sanders's earnings shot up after his first presidential bid, when he built up a vast national following. His income topped $1 million in 2016 and 2017, lifted by proceeds from his books. Mr. Sanders and his wife, Jane O'Meara Sanders, had an adjusted gross income of $561,293 in 2018.... Mr. Sanders had about $393,000 in book income last year, and he and his wife reported giving $18,950 to charity. Their federal taxes came to $145,840, for an effective federal tax rate of 26 percent. Mr. Sanders's higher income in recent years creates some political awkwardness for the senator, who in his 2016 presidential campaign frequently railed against 'millionaires and billionaires' and their influence over the political process." ...

... Holly Otterbein of Politico: "Bernie Sanders entered the Fox's den on Monday night -- and he not only survived the hour-long encounter, but often dominated. Appearing at a Fox News-hosted town hall smack dab in the middle of Trump Country [-- Bethlehem, Pa. --], the Democratic presidential front-runner played the part, swatting down tough questions from the hosts about health care, defense spending, and his newfound wealth. At one point, the Vermont senator even led the network's audience in a call-and-response that found them cheering loudly for his policies.... The image of an audience on Fox News rallying behind the democratic socialist and his left-wing platform gave Sanders the appearance of strong support in an area that was key to the president's victory in 2016." ...

... Backfire! Bret Baier tried a gotcha question on Medicare for All to the Sanders town hall audience:

So a reporter with French-language channel BFMTV asked Pete Buttigieg about his reaction to the Notre Dame fire. Here's his response:

« Au peuple de France je voudrais dire que la cathédrale Notre Dame, c’était comme un cadeau à l’espèce humaine. Nous partageons la douleur mais nous vous remercions aussi de ce cadeau à la civilisation. » @PeteButtigieg à @BFMTV
Et en français! 🇫🇷🇺🇸#NotreDame pic.twitter.com/0xbf5lGhYH

— Cédric Faiche (@cedricfaiche) April 15, 2019

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I have no idea how good Mayor Pete's French is, but it sure beats Donald Trump's, who can't even say, "Oui, oui." When he tries, it comes out "Me, me."

Steve Brusk & Kate Sullivan of CNN: "Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld announced Monday he is officially entering the race for president, becoming the first Republican to challenge ... Donald Trump in the 2020 race.... In 2016, Weld was the vice presidential nominee on the Libertarian Party ticket with former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. He previously served two terms as the governor of Massachusetts in the early 1990s. Weld ran for Senate in Massachusetts in 1996 and lost against John Kerry. He later moved to New York and in 2005 unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor. Weld told CNN's Jake Tapper on 'The Lead' that it would be a 'political tragedy' and he would 'fear for the Republic' if the country had six more years of Trump as President."

Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: "The actress Lori Loughlin, one of the most high-profile defendants in the college admissions bribery case, has pleaded not guilty to the charges against her, court documents showed on Monday. Ms. Loughlin's not guilty plea comes a week after 13 other parents, including the actress Felicity Huffman, indicated that they would plead guilty in what prosecutors have described as the largest-ever college admissions prosecution."

So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet Monday

Hundreds of firemen of the Paris Fire Brigade are doing everything they can to bring the terrible #NotreDame fire under control. All means are being used, except for water-bombing aircrafts which, if used, could lead to the collapse of the entire structure of the cathedral. -- @SecCivileFrance

... Caleb Ecarma of Mediaite: "Fox News anchor Shep Smith kicked a French media figure off the network today after he began conspiring [theorizing] about the supposed malicious cause of the fire at Notre Dame. Smith's guest, Philippe Karsenty -- the deputy mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine -- was at the scene at the star of the Paris fire. 'It's like a 9/11, it's a French 9/11. It's a big shock,' Karsenty said, before wildly claiming that 'we've had churches desecrated each and every week all over France' over the past few years." ...

... Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "Fox News' Neil Cavuto had to hang up on Catholic League president Bill Donohue during live coverage of the Notre Dame fire when the conservative activist refused to stop speculating about the cause of the blaze." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Good calls, gentlemen. To avoid such incidents in the futue, you'll have to get better guests. ...

... A YouTube Algorithm Is a Conspiracy Theorist, Too. Craig Timberg & Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "A new YouTube tool for battling misinformation failed in a highly public way on Monday, wrongly linking video of the flaming collapse of the spire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As images of the iconic tower falling played on newscasts around the world -- and on the YouTube channels mirroring those newscasts -- 'information panels' appeared in boxes below the videos providing details about the collapses of New York's World Trade Center after the terrorist attack, which killed thousands of people. There appeared to be few injuries in the Paris fire. The 9/11 tragedy is a frequent subject of hoaxes, and the information panels were posted automatically, likely because of visual similarities that computer algorithms detected between the two incidents. YouTube began rolling out the information panels providing factual information about the subjects of frequent hoaxes in the past few months.... Monday's incident shows the weaknesses of computerized systems."

Olivia Solon & Cyrus Farivar of NBC News: "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg oversaw plans to consolidate the social network's power and control competitors by treating its users' data as a bargaining chip, while publicly proclaiming to be protecting that data, according to about 4,000 pages of leaked company documents largely spanning 2011 to 2015 and obtained by NBC News. The documents, which include emails, webchats, presentations, spreadsheets and meeting summaries, show how Zuckerberg, along with his board and management team, found ways to tap Facebook's trove of user data -- including information about friends, relationships and photos -- as leverage over companies it partnered with. In some cases, Facebook would reward favored companies by giving them access to the data of its users. In other cases, it would deny user-data access to rival companies or apps."

Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "The National Rifle Association sued one of its largest and most enduring contractors late last week and raised concerns about the contractor's relationship to the association's own president, Oliver North, in a stunning breach within the normally buttoned-up organization. The suit was filed late Friday by the N.R.A. in Virginia, where it is based, against Ackerman McQueen, the Oklahoma ad firm that operates NRATV, the group's incendiary online media arm. The suit asserts that Ackerman has concealed details from the N.R.A. about how the company is spending the roughly $40 million that it and its affiliates receive annually from the association. The suit creates uncertainty about Mr. North's future at the organization. And it leaves the future of NRATV in doubt.... [NRATV] has ... taken on an apocalyptic tone, warning of race wars, calling for a march on the Federal Bureau of Investigation and portraying the talking trains in the children's show 'Thomas & Friends' in Ku Klux Klan hoods.... The complaint details a peculiar standoff with Ackerman over Mr. North, who took over as president last year...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's hope these people eat each other alive, on maybe both lose in a shootout at the Not-OK Corral.