The Commentariat -- March 10, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Damian Paletta & Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday will request at least another $8.6 billion in funding to build more sections of a wall along the Mexico border, setting up a fresh battle with Congress less than one month after Trump declared a national emergency. In Trump’s annual budget request to Congress, he will request $5 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security to continue building sections of a wall along the Mexico border, three people briefed on the request said. He will request another $3.6 billion for the Defense Department's military construction budget to erect more sections of a wall." ...

... Not Gonna Happen. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) indicated on Sunday that President Trump's reported plan to ask for $8.6 billion in the fiscal 2020 budget to fund a wall along the southern border was a non-starter. 'President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall, which he promised would be paid for by Mexico,' the Democratic leaders said in a statement. 'Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again,' they added."

About That Other Trump Tower Meeting. Zachary Basu of Axios: "House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday that Erik Prince was lying when he claimed last week that he testified about a 2016 meeting he had with foreign nationals at Trump Tower.... Robert Mueller, who Schiff said is now in possession of all witness transcripts, has charged a number of Trump associates with lying to investigators. Notably, Donald Trump Jr. also neglected to tell the committee about the second Trump Tower meeting during his testimony."

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Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "People are advised to avoid scheduling anything important for 2:30 a.m. Sunday, since, by law, such a moment does not exist. But the law may change. The national policy of switching from standard time to daylight saving time and back again is under legislative challenge from coast to coast. Multiple initiatives in Congress and in statehouses would terminate our current system of time toggling -- a system that started a century ago and has been controversial ever since. It's not really daylight saving time that's drawing fire: It's standard time. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Wednesday reintroduced a bill to make daylight saving time a year-round reality across the country, with no more biannual time changes." Read on. Every once in awhile Marco is right about something.

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker on the arguments for and against impeaching Trump. ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: For everyone worrying that Democrats are "overreaching" by conducting oversight on Trump's potentially-impeachable offenses, let me remind you that the "Watergate hearings" -- held over the summer of 1973 -- were not impeachment hearings; they were Senate oversight, or fact-finding hearings. Although the House did some "pre-hearing" prep, the House Judiciary Committee didn't begin impeachment hearings till after the Saturday Night Massacre in October 1973. Hauling Erik Prince & Donnie Junior in for questioning is not the equivalent of an impeachment hearing, no matter how much weeping & wailing Republicans do about it.

GOP Senators & Former Senators on Why the President Should Be Impeached

The subject matter is not what is significant here; it's lying under oath and obstructing justice. -- Mitch McConnell

You don't even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic ... Impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office. -- Lindsey Graham

We are miraculously transformed from politicians to people who leave their Republican and Democrat labels at the door.... We're there to seek the truth and to find out whether the president is guilty or not guilty, and no stone should be left unturned to make that determination. -- Chuck Grassley

He lied to protect himself from being prosecuted for a crime. I could think of no other lie that is a more egregious lie.... I fear that if this country is confronted with a serious crisis over the next two years, that his ability to marshal the American public behind what he tells them is the truth would be diminished. -- Rick Santorum

It is crucial to our system of justice that we demand the truth. I fear that an acquittal of this President will weaken the legal system by providing an option for those who consider being less than truthful in court. -- Jeff Sessions

Oh, did I forget to mention they were talking about Bill Clinton? -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

** Presidential* Profiteering. CREW: "During President Trump's second year in office, CREW recorded more than 900 interactions between the government, those trying to influence it, and the Trump Organization, each resulting in a conflict of interest for President Trump. Those instances bring the total number of known conflicts of interest involving the Trump Organization to more than 1,400, two years into the Trump administration.... President Trump has tried to use the presidency to enrich himself by promoting his businesses as extensions of his administration. That includes conducting government business at them, praising them in his official capacity, and even going so far as to offer exclusive perks to members of his clubs including access to government leaders, influence on government business, and in some cases, appointments to government positions. Perhaps most concerning, President Trump's political allies have embraced the arrangement by making their own visits to his properties and showering them with political cash. In other cases, officials' visits to his properties have led to Trump profiting at taxpayer expense, as state and federal funds are paid to Trump businesses to cover various aspects of his visits or the visits of state and federal officials to his properties." ...

... Presidential* Access for Sale. David Corn, et al., of Mother Jones: "The latest Trump political donor to draw controversy is Li Yang, a 45-year-old Florida entrepreneur from China who founded a chain of spas and massage parlors that included the one where New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft was recently busted for soliciting prostitution. She made the news this week when the Miami Herald reported that last month she had attended a Super Bowl viewing party at Donald Trump's West Palm Beach golf club and had snapped a selfie with the president during the event. Though Yang no longer owns the spa Kraft allegedly visited, the newspaper noted that other massage parlors her family runs have 'gained a reputation for offering sexual services.'... Beyond this sordid tale, there is another angle to the strange story of Yang: She runs an investment business that has offered to sell Chinese clients access to Trump and his family. And a website for the business -- which includes numerous photos of Yang and her purported clients hobnobbing at Mar-a-Lago ... suggests she had some success in doing so."

That Time Judge Ellis Sentenced a Black Woman (Way Last Year.) Adam Rawnsley of the Daily Beast: Paul "Manafort, a wealthy Republican political operative, and [Tessicar] Jumpp, a slight Jamaican woman born into poverty, couldn't be more different in their backgrounds, but in court they were just two thieves and liars in the dock. Mail fraud. Wire fraud. Tax fraud. Bank fraud. They violated different statues but committed the same offense: They stole through deceit. Jumpp cruelly conned victims out of $385,000 through a fake lottery scam.... Manafort's victims -- at least in this case -- were more abstract. But the scale of his financial misdeeds was much, much bigger. He hid $55 million dollars of income in offshore accounts, skipped out on $6 million in taxes, and conned three banks out of $25 million in loans on false premises, according to prosecutors.... [Federal Judge T.S.] Ellis sentenced Jumpp to six years. On Thursday, he gave Manafort fewer than four." Mrs. McC: Yes, but maybe Jumpp hasn't led "an otherwise blameless life." ...

... Renato Mariotti, in a Politico Magazine opinion piece: Judge T.S. Ellis's "flawed decision is a consequence of the vast discretion given to federal judges to issue sentences without real fear of being overturned.... Federal law permitted Judge Ellis to give Manafort a sentence of anywhere between 0 to 80 years in prison. And as long as Ellis did not go above the 24.5-year maximum called for by the sentencing guidelines an appellate court would almost certainly not reverse his sentence, given the very deferential standard of review.... As the federal sentencing commission recently found, 'the length of a defendant's sentence increasingly depends on which judge in the courthouse is assigned to his or her case.'... Ellis made a number of statements about Manafort that cannot be defended, such as his false claim that Manafort led an 'otherwise blameless life.'... Even more concerning are statements Ellis made that caused many to question whether he exhibited partisan political bias, or a particular bias against special counsel Robert Mueller and his team."

Fleecing Our Friends. John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: "In private discussions with his aides, President Trump has devised an eye-popping formula to address one of his long-standing complaints: that allies hosting U.S. forces don't pay Washington enough money. Under the formula, countries would pay the full cost of stationing American troops on their territory, plus 50 percent more, said U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the idea, which could have allies contributing five times what they provide. Trump calls the formula 'cost plus 50,' and it has struck fear in the hearts of U.S. allies who view it as extortionate. Rumors that the formula could become a global standard have especially rattled Germany, Japan and South Korea, which host thousands of forces, and U.S. officials have mentioned the demand to at least one country in a formal negotiation setting, said people familiar with the matter."

Clark Pettig of American Oversight: "American Oversight has uncovered the signed directive from former Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructing a federal prosecutor to carry out President Trump's authoritarian demand to investigate Hillary Clinton. The document, obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation by American Oversight, is a formal, November 2017 letter from Sessions to U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber.... In a sworn declaration filed in November 2018 in response to American Oversight's lawsuit, the Justice Department had insisted that no written directive existed and that all guidance to Huber had been delivered verbally. Trump has repeatedly tweeted demands for DOJ to investigate Clinton.” Read on. Among those who knew about the letter were Sessions & Huber (of course), as well as Assistant AG Stephen Boyd, & Matt Whitaker. You might conclude the DOJ was run by professional liars.

Labor Secretary Favors Business over Labor. Rebecca Rainey of Politico: "A Politico analysis of ... documents [obtained under FOIA requests] shows that Republicans and business representatives occupied most of [Labor Secretary Alexander] Acosta's schedule during his first eight months as labor secretary. Between May and December 2017, Acosta was scheduled to meet or talk 146 times with Republican politicians or with representatives of trade associations and businesses. Among the corporate chairmen whose input Acosta received were Steve Easterbrook of McDonald's and Jim McNerney of Boeing. By comparison, Acosta was scheduled to meet or talk only 43 times with representatives of labor unions, including AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and SEIU President Mary Kay Henry. Acosta met with Democratic politicians or left-leaning interest groups only ten times during the same time period. '"This is exactly what we saw in Scott Pruitt's calendar,' said Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight, in a written statement. 'Trump cabinet officials putting the industries they regulate ahead of the people they're supposed to be protecting.'"

U.S. Troops Not as Backward & Bigoted as POTUS*. Dave Philipps of the New York Times: "This has been an uneasy time for transgender troops in the United States military, caught between a commander in chief who wants them out and court injunctions that, at least temporarily, said they could stay. (The last of the injunctions was lifted on Thursday.) But dozens of transgender troops ... said in interviews that they felt supported in the service. Their comrades and commanders have welcomed them, they said, and the military has often been more accepting than the homes and neighborhoods they left to enlist."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Matt Wilstein of the Daily Beast: "During a Q&A with Vanity Fair media reporter Joe Pompeo at the South by Southwest festival on Saturday, [CNN President Jeff] Zucker said it's not like networks have a 'right' to host [presidential] debates. 'I think the consternation about this is a little misplaced,' he said. ... Calling Fox a 'propaganda' outlet, Zucker said, 'I think the question should be, is Fox state-run TV or is the White House state-run government by Fox TV?' As for Fox News' response singling out its more legitimate news anchors, Zucker said, 'They chose to work at Fox and they don't get to hide behind the fact that they're excellent journalists or anchors. The fact is they work at a place that has done tremendous damage to this country.' Earlier in the talk, Zucker also said he has no doubt that the Trump administration interfered in the Justice Department's actions over the merger between AT&T and Time Warner&-CNN's parent company -- though said it's now a 'moot point' because the merger went through.... Of course..., CNN received its fair share of criticism and even blame for supposedly helping boost Trump." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Zucker actually made Trump famous twice: first, when he headed NBC Entertainment & aired "The Apprentice," & second when he headed CNN Entertainment & carried most of most of Trump's airhead campaign rallies. President* Trump is a Jeff Zucker Production. Zucker betrayed the nation for the ratings.

Tariro Mzezewa & Milan Schreuer of the New York Times: "United States citizens wishing to visit or travel to the majority of the European Union nations after January 2021 will have to register online and pay a small fee as part of a new security system intended to screen visa-free travelers." Mrs. McC: If he's not in jail or house detention then, how about a "cost +50" for our former President*? Or better yet, just put him on he Trump Travel Ban & don't allow any plane that's carrying him to land.

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Bob Moser in the New Republic: "After Brian Kemp suppressed enough votes and stirred up enough bigotries to get himself elected governor of Georgia last November, you might have expected him to hit the ground running with some extra-crazy, super-Trumpy initiatives.... The governor's most consequential move thus far has been to urge the state to buy super-pricey new electronic voting machines to replace its 27,000 ancient, notoriously hackable models that Kemp insisted on using last time for his own election. But lest you think Kemp is motivated by a desire for freer and fairer elections, there is, in fact, a Trumpian catch: The likely recipient of Georgia's largesse will be a company that one of Kemp's closest aides used to lobby for, while another served on its board of advisers. So far, Kemp's administration has apparently been fueled by good old-fashioned crony corruption.... The justification for the big-spending election bill -- which zipped through the state House and now awaits approval in the Republican-dominated Senate -- is that the machines will ward off cybersecurity threats while making elections more efficient than the messy old paper balloting. Inconveniently for the GOP, neither is true."

News Lede

New York Times: "An Ethiopian Airlines flight carrying 149 passengers and eight crew members crashed early Sunday shortly after departing from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, en route to Nairobi, Kenya, the airline said. A spokesman for the airline told state television that there were no survivors."

The Commentariat -- March 9, 2019

I've posted a few links below that safari sent me the other day & that somehow I misplaced. They're still relevant. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Alan Blinder & Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times: "President Trump offered words of comfort on Friday for Alabama's tornado survivors, scrawling his presidential signature on some of their Bibles as they moved close to him at a church that provided shelter during the storm and was now doling out emergency aid." Mrs. McC: The age-old question gets a new angle: If Trump is God, why does he let tornadoes twist through Alabama?

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday claimed Michael Cohen asked him directly' for a pardon, an allegation that would contradict the former Trump lawyer and fixer's congressional testimony last week.... 'Bad lawyer and fraudster Michael Cohen said under sworn testimony that he never asked for a Pardon. His lawyers totally contradicted him. He lied! Additionally, he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO. He lied again! He also badly wanted to work at the White House. He lied!'... Trump tweeted." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Update. Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "Cohen took to Twitter minutes later to deny the accusation. 'Just another set of lies by @POTUS @realdonaldtrump. Mr. President' he wrote, before invoking the women whose hush money payments he helped facilitate. 'Let me remind you that today is #InternationalWomensDay. You may want use today to apologize for your own #lies and #DirtyDeeds to women like Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "'It was a stone-cold lie,' Mr. Trump said [to reporters] about Mr. Cohen's claims that he had never sought a pardon. 'And he's lied about a lot of things, but when he lied about the pardon, that was really a lie.'... Mr. Cohen has told associates that the signals from Mr. Trump about a pardon date back more than a year, soon after Mr. Cohen had publicly disclosed making what he said at the time were unreimbursed payments out of his own pocket in 2016 to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic film star who had claimed to have had an affair with the president a decade earlier.... Mr. Cohen told the associates that he anticipated he would be given a pardon or some form of protection if he would remain silent about having been reimbursed by Mr. Trump for making the payments, according to people told of the discussions. Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump were part of a formal agreement in which their lawyers worked together to review documents that the F.B.I. had seized to determine what could be declared off limits to law enforcement officials because of attorney-client privilege. But that joint effort ended in July 2018, as Mr. Trump's aides balked at paying parts of Mr. Cohen's legal bills."

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday seized on a portion of a federal judge's remarks during the sentencing of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in a financial crimes case to again criticize the Russia investigation and falsely declare a finding of 'no collusion.'... 'Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia. But the Witch Hunt Hoax continues as you now add these statements to House & Senate Intelligence & Senator Burr. So bad for our Country!'... Speaking to reporters before he left for Alabama to inspect tornado damage, Mr. Trump said that the sentencing judge, T.S. Ellis III of the United States District Court in Alexandria, Va., had said 'there was no collusion with Russia.' Mr. Trump added that he was 'very honored' Judge Ellis made that statement. Mr. Trump, however, twisted Judge Ellis's words. What Judge Ellis actually said Thursday was that Mr. Manafort was 'not before this court for anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government to influence this election.'... Mr. Manafort's attorneys used the same false talking point as the president on Thursday, saying in a brief statement after the hearing, 'There is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved in any collusion with any government official or Russia.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday said he feels 'very badly' for Paul Manafort, who was sentenced to four years in prison for financial crimes unearthed by special counsel Robert Mueller, but added he has not discussed a pardon for his former campaign chairman. 'I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. I think it's a very, very tough time for him,' he told reporters at the White House." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Will someone please tell that bigly idiot that he "feels bad" for all his criminal friends who got caught, unless he means that he can't touch them with his tiny hands. ...

... Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "The sentence [of Paul Manafort] handed down Thursday by Judge T.S. Ellis -- a sharp downward departure from guidelines that called for up to 24 years -- is being viewed by legal experts as a glaring example of unusual treatment. It highlights the disparate punishments meted out to poor defendants of color, but it's also an outlier even by the standards of similar white collar schemes, experts say.... Manafort's conduct led to several enhancements in the sentencing guidelines because it was a sophisticated scheme that he led over many years.... Manafort never accepted responsibility.... Manafort was known for representing unsavory foreign figures -- including Jonas Savimbi of Angola and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines -- long before the conduct at issue in his trial. One group dubbed him part of the 'Torturer's Lobby.'"

Brian Melley of the AP: "A federal judge on Thursday tossed out porn actress Stormy Daniels' lawsuit against ... Donald Trump that sought to tear up a hush-money settlement about their alleged affair. U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero in Los Angeles said the suit was irrelevant after Trump and his former personal lawyer agreed not to penalize Daniels for violating a nondisclosure agreement she signed in exchange for a $130,000 payment." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's inauguration received tens of thousands of dollars from shell companies that masked the involvement of a foreign contributor or others with foreign ties. The Guardian has identified the creators of three obscure firms that contributed money to Trump's inaugural committee, which collected a record $107m as he entered the White House in 2017. The three companies each gave $25,000 to Trump's inaugural fund. At least one of the contributions was made for a foreign national who appears ineligible to make political donations in the US." (Also linked yesterday.)

Eli Honig of CNN: "... Judge Ellis's sentence is an injustice. It fails to adequately punish Manafort for committing a series of deliberate crimes over many years, and it sends terrible messages to the public about our criminal justice system.... [The] sentence sends a corrosive two-pronged message to the American public. First, Manafort openly flouted the criminal justice system at every step and still got an enormous break. Following his arrest, Manafort got caught trying to tamper with witnesses, which caused Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, DC, to revoke his bail and send him to jail to await trial. He went to trial in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he denied culpability but was found guilty by a jury on eight counts. He then pleaded guilty to even more crimes and purported to try to cooperate with Mueller, but instead told more lies to Mueller and the FBI. Even today at sentencing, the judge found that Manafort did not accept responsibility.... Manafort committed crimes repeatedly, deliberately, and over many years, stealing millions of dollars from the US government to support his absurdly lavish lifestyle...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Alexi McCammond of Axios: "From a White House source, the House Oversight Committee has obtained documents related to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump's security clearances that the Trump administration refused to provide, according to a senior Democratic aide involved in handling the documents.... The White House this week rejected the committee's request for documents on the process for granting security clearances to staffers.... But the House Oversight Committee in early February had already obtained the leaked documents that detail the entire process, from the spring of 2017 to the spring of 2018, on how both Kushner and Trump were ultimately granted their security clearances." Mrs. McC: I'm thinking the leaked docs may not contain the smoking guns the committee needs. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Chris Riotta of the (UK) Independent: "Jared Kushner has gone rogue. Donald Trump's senior White House adviser once again abandoned government normalities during an official state trip to Saudi Arabia, reportedly discussing US-Saudi cooperation with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a meeting that lacked representation from the US Embassy in Riyadh.... Mr Kushner's quiet undertaking of such high-profile meetings has raised national security concerns from military and intelligence officials, who said the president's son-in-law was 'undermining US authority' in the region."

Tales of the Dark Prince. Mehdi Hasan of the Intercept: Erik Prince, "the founder and former CEO of the notorious private security firm Blackwater -- and younger brother of hapless Education Secretary Betsy DeVos -- ... [has] come under increased scrutiny.... In May 2018, the New York Times reported that Prince had 'arranged' a meeting in Trump Tower in August 2016, three months before the election, attended by Donald Trump Jr...; Stephen Miller, then a senior adviser to the Trump campaign; George Nader, a convicted pedophile and an adviser to the United Arab Emirates; and Joel Zamel, an Israeli social media expert. In an ... interview with me..., Prince confirmed the 2016 meeting at Trump Tower for the first time.... He then proceeded to misrepresent his 2017 testimony to Congress -- and contradicted himself in the process.... First, he said he wasn't asked; then he said he told them about it; then he claimed that they made a mistake with the transcript; then he claimed that it was said off the record." Prince is one of the 81 entities the House Judiciary Committee has sent a request for documents & the House Intelligence Committee plans to recall him because members believe his testimony has been "discredited." Mrs. McC: Given Prince's sordid history, one would think that by now he would have become a better liar. Perhaps, like his sister, he isn't too bright.

Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post: "Elements of the 2016 British referendum campaign have long seemed familiar to Americans. There was a close, controversial election, full of rancor and anger. There were a lot of wealthy men talking about 'the people' and their 'will.' There were targeted advertising campaigns, stolen data and fake social media accounts. But now, with only a few days left until Britain is due to face the consequences of that vote, the Brexit story suddenly looks even more familiar: One of its protagonists turns out to have much deeper Russian business connections than previously suspected. He also tried to conceal them. The protagonist in question is Arron Banks...." Read on. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It is hardly surprising that the Trump fiasco is a British spinoff. Trump may seem to be one-of-a-kind, but he is a derivative amalgam of TV characters: Tony Soprano, Archie Bunker. "The Apprentice" TV show -- which is what resuscitated Trump from multiple bankruptcies -- is not a spinoff, but it was conceived by a Brit with bad taste in TV. Putin & the men he made rich played to the Brits' prejudices to pull off Brexit & the Americans' similar biases to stick us with Trump.

David Smith, et al. of the Guardian: "New analysis suggests Trump struggles to express populist ideas unless he's reading remarks prepared by his scriptwriters. The research by Team Populism, a network of political scientists, analysed Trump's speeches -- both scripted, and off-the-cuff -- looking for three core elements of populist discourse [Manichean world view, People-centrism, Anti-elitism].... Kirk Hawkins, an associate professor at Brigham Young University, said there was a 'dramatic difference' in the language in Trump's speeches, depending on whether or not they were scripted. 'Trump's speeches with teleprompters all have longer words, longer sentences, and less frequent use of his pet words. And they have much higher levels of populism,' he said. 'This is powerful evidence that Trump's populism is not entirely his own.'... Others may suggest Trump's reliance on an automated script for his populism warrants the creation of a new label: telepopulist." --s

Gabby Orr of Politico: "... Donald Trump has accepted the resignation of his communications director, Bill Shine, a former Fox News executive who had spent just nine months on the job. Shine will join the president's re-election campaign as a 'senior adviser' -- a role that will allow him to spend 'more time with my family,' he said in a statement Friday, seeming to suggest something less than a senior leadership role in the campaign. It was not immediately clear if the president urged Shine to resign, nor the extent to which he will be directly involved if Trump's 2020 operation, which had already added several senior communications officials in the last month. Shine is the sixth White House communications director to come and go in just over two years of Trump's presidency.... A 22-year veteran of the television industry, Shine joined Trump's team just two months after he was accused of helping Roger Ailes, the late chairman and CEO of Fox News, cover up several instances of sexual harassment and misconduct that rocked the conservative network and forced Ailes's ouster.... Trump soon wound up grousing that Shine -- who was absent last week during Trump's nuclear summit in Vietnam -- hadn't managed to improve Trump's image or his fraught relationship with the White House press corps." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Trump wants to improve his image, he should resign. In his resignation speech, he should apologize for all his venal acts, his ignorance, his cruelty, his incompetence & his ten lies a day. And he should take mike pence down with him. ...

... Maggie Haberman & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Mr. Shine's abrupt departure came as a surprise to many in the White House and was revealed, as such personnel moves often are in this administration, as the president was on Air Force One leaving Washington.... The White House sought to present Mr. Shine's resignation as amicable and issued statements in the name of the president and other officials praising him. But people close to the White House described the campaign job as a way to save face." ...

... Jonathan Chait suggests that "instead of [getting] a new press chief, Trump could try committing fewer crimes.... Trump has had consistently abysmal coverage in the non-party-controlled media. Trump has analyzed the pattern and identified the one constant: His many communications directors keep somehow failing to get the media to show what an honest, well-informed, compassionate president he truly is.... It's also possible that Trump's communications directors aren't the problem. It's presumably difficult to generate a lot of positive press attention when you're the subject of so many different criminal and ethical investigations that your best single communications asset is the media's inability to keep track of them all."

Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "The Department of Homeland Security and the House Homeland Security Committee are investigating whether U.S. border agents have been targeting journalists for questioning, according to a statement from Customs and Border Protection and a letter to CBP from the chair of the committee. The statement and letter were in response to an exclusive story from NBC News and San Diego's KNSD-TV story that revealed CBP officials in the San Diego sector had compiled a list of 59 reporters, lawyers and activists to be pulled aside for further screening when crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The list includes 10 journalists, seven of them U.S. citizens, a U.S.-based attorney and others labeled as organizers and 'instigators,' 31 of whom are American." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Ted Hesson of Politico: "A federal judge on Friday expanded the pool of migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border who may require reunification under an existing court order. The decision could pose considerable difficulty for the administration in locating and reconnecting children and parents split apart before and after the launch of ... Donald Trump's 'zero tolerance' border strategy.... The order issued Friday by San Diego-based U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw will keep the administration on the defensive over the separations, a controversial practice that experts argue can result in lifelong damage to a child's health. The judge temporarily stayed the decision to allow further debate in court about how families could be reunited."

Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: At "a hearing on the threat seismic testing poses to North Atlantic right whales..., a Trump administration official testif[ied], over and over, that firing commercial air guns under water every 10 seconds in search of oil and gas deposits over a period of months would have next to no effect on the endangered animals.... It's why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave five companies permission to conduct tests that could harm the whales last year, said the official, Chris Oliver, an assistant administrator for fisheries.... [Rep. Joe] Cunningham [D-S.C.] reached for [an] air horn, put his finger on the button and turned to Oliver.... An earsplitting sound filled the small committee room. An audience of about 50 gasped and murmured. 'Was that disruptive?' Cunningham asked. 'It was irritating, but I didn't find it too disruptive,' Oliver said.... What if it happened every 10 seconds for days, weeks and months, [Cunningham said] said. He ... told [Oliver] the sound from air guns is 16,000 times that of his air horn." Includes video worth watching.

Naomi Jagoda of the Hill: "The House on Friday passed legislation that would require presidents to disclose their tax returns, as Democrats have made obtaining President Trump's tax returns one of their top priorities. The tax-return disclosure requirement was included in House Democrats' wide-ranging election-reform bill, known as H.R. 1, which passed on a party-line vote of 234-193. H.R. 1 is not expected to receive a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... The McConnell Scandals, Ctd. New York Times Editors: "The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has been openly hostile to the anticorruption package since its inception. This week he made clear that he would refuse even to bring it up for a vote. Think of H.R. 1 as the Merrick Garland of reform legislation.... If the Republican leader really thought the package was a loser, he would absolutely bring it to the floor to force Democratic lawmakers to own it -- which is, notably, the path he has pledged to pursue with the Green New Deal, which is supported by many Democrats.... Asked this week why the two measures were being handled so differently, the Republican leader didn't bother making up excuses. He said simply, 'Because I get to decide what we vote on.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Nancy Pelosi should make a formal, written appeal to Mitch McConnell to bring up H.R.1 for a vote. When he rejects her appeal, House Democrats should march on the Senate to demand a vote. What part of "reform" are you afraid of, Mitch? The right of citizens to vote? Ethics? Campaign finance? Absent some noisy stunts, 98 percent of the public will never know that Mitch killed the bill. By election day, 100 percent of the two percent will have forgotten it. Remember, this is a real bill with real solutions (nearly 700 pages), no matter how imperfect; not a fake repeal-Obamacare one-sheet.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

The Tarring of Ilhan Omar, Ctd. Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Yesterday, I saw a few headlines that read something like, "Omar: Obama's a "Pretty Face" who "Got Away with Murder." That was a NY Post headline, but some in the MSM weren't much better. The fake "quote" comes from a Politico Magazine story by Tim Alberta. Alberta wrote: "Omar says the 'hope and change' offered by Barack Obama was a mirage. Recalling the 'caging of kids' at the U.S.-Mexico border and the 'droning of countries around the world' on Obama's watch, she argues that the Democratic president operated within the same fundamentally broken framework as his Republican successor. 'We can't be only upset with Trump.... His policies are bad, but many of the people who came before him also had really bad policies. They just were more polished than he was,' Omar says. 'And that's not what we should be looking for anymore. We don't want anybody to get away with murder because they are polished. We want to recognize the actual policies that are behind the pretty face and the smile.'" ...

     ... SO THEN Caroline Kelly of CNN wrote in defense ??? of Omar a piece titled, "Rep. Omar appears to criticize Obama in latest swipe at Dem establishment": "Omar and her office later disputed the reporting. In a response to CNN, Omar's spokesman Jeremy Slevin argued that the paragraphs in question were not about Obama, but did not specify who Omar was referring to in particular. 'I'm an Obama fan! I was saying how Trump is different from Obama, and why we should focus on policy not politics,' Omar tweeted.... She also tweeted an audio file that included fuller comments..., including her differentiating between the ways in which Obama and Trump implemented them. '... many of the ways that our Democratic leaders have conducted themselves within the system is not one that we're all proud of," she said in the clip. I will talk about the family separation or caging of kids and people will point out that this was Trump, I mean, this was Obama,' Omar added. 'And I will say something about the droning of countries around the world and people will say, that was Obama. And all of that is very true. What is happening now is very different -- it's happening with secrecy, it's happening with the feel good, polished way of talking about it.'"

Presidential Race 2020

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Josh Marshall of TPM: "Hosting a debate is not access. It's an institutional collaboration between a political organization and a news organization. Fox News has a number of journalists who are good journalists on their own. But as an organization Fox exists as and is run to damage Democrats.... Why not choose ... American Crossroads, the GOP SuperPac founded by Karl Rove. The analogy isn't as off as you might think. Fox isn't even just an ideological news organization. A news organization can have a strong editorial line and still follow basic journalistic principles in its coverage, the first of which being fundamental honestly with its viewers. Fox News does not do that.... The idea that Fox would get to host one of the Democrats debates isn't just a bad idea or dangerous. It's a bizarre idea. The bigger question is why they were even considering it in the first place." --s

Elana Schor of the AP: "Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Friday rolled out a proposal to break up the biggest U.S. technology companies, saying they have too much control over the economy and Americans' lives. In her pitch to rein in the influence of tech giants, the Massachusetts senator envisions legislation targeting companies with annual worldwide revenue of $25 billion or more, limiting their ability to expand and forcing parts of Google and Amazon's current business structure operate as separate entities. As president, Warren said she would pick regulators who would seek to break up what she called' anti-competitive mergers' such as Facebook's recent purchase of Instagram and Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods." (Also linked yesterday.)

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst who provided archives of secret military documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, was taken into custody on Friday after a federal judge found her in contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury that is investigating the antisecrecy group. Judge Claude H. Hilton of Federal District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that Ms. Manning must stay in civil detention until testifies. Ms. Manning had vowed not to cooperate in the investigation even though prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia granted immunity for her testimony. In a statement posted on Twitter after she was arrested, Ms. Manning said she had ethical objections to the secrecy of the grand-jury system and 'will not comply' with the subpoena. The case is part of a long-running criminal inquiry into WikiLeaks and its leader, Julian Assange, that dates to the Obama administration and which the Trump administration revived. Ms. Manning said on Thursday that prosecutors on Wednesday had asked her a series of questions about WikiLeaks before the grand jury, but she had responded to every question by saying violated her constitutional rights."

Andrew Das of the New York Times: "Twenty-eight members of the world champion United States women's soccer team significantly escalated their long-running fight with the country's soccer federation over pay equity and working conditions, filing a gender discrimination lawsuit on Friday. The suit, in United States District Court in Los Angeles, comes only three months before the team will begin defense of its Women's World Cup title at this summer's tournament in France. In their filing and a statement released by the team, the 28 players described 'institutionalized gender discrimination' that they say has existed for years."

Bill Kirkos, et al., of CNN: "'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett, who authorities say filed false reports of a crime, has been indicted on 16 felony counts by a Cook County grand jury. The indictment charges Smollett with 16 counts of disorderly conduct. Smollett's attorneys said they have no statement at this time. He remains out on bail pending an arraignment Thursday. Smollett reported to police in January that he had been attacked in Chicago in an incident that ended with a noose around his neck. Police initially investigated the case as a possible hate crime."

Damian Carrington of the Guardian: "Microplastic pollution spans the world, according to new studies showing contamination in the UK's lake and rivers, in groundwater in the US and along the Yangtze river in China and the coast of Spain. Humans are known to consume the tiny plastic particles via food and water, but the possible health effects on people and ecosystems have yet to be determined.... [M]icroplastics have also been found underground in limestone aquifers in Illinois, US, at a level of 15 particles per litre. This type of groundwater source provides about a quarter of the world's drinking water." --s

The Commentariat -- March 8, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Elana Schor of the AP: "Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Friday rolled out a proposal to break up the biggest U.S. technology companies, saying they have too much control over the economy and Americans' lives. In her pitch to rein in the influence of tech giants, the Massachusetts senator envisions legislation targeting companies with annual worldwide revenue of $25 billion or more, limiting their ability to expand and forcing parts of Google and Amazon's current business structure to operate as separate entities. As president, Warren said she would pick regulators who would seek to break up what she called' anti-competitive mergers' such as Facebook's recent purchase of Instagram and Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods."

Gabby Orr of Politico: "... Donald Trump has accepted the resignation of his communications director, Bill Shine, a former Fox News executive who had spent just nine months on the job. Shine will join the president's re-election campaign as a 'senior adviser' -- a role that will allow him to spend 'more time with my family,' he said in a statement Friday, seeming to suggest something less than a senior leadership role in the campaign. It was not immediately clear if the president urged Shine to resign, nor the extent to which he will be directly involved if Trump's 2020 operation, which had already added several senior communications officials in the last month. Shine is the sixth White House communications director to come and go in just over two years of Trump's presidency.... A 22-year veteran of the television industry, Shine joined Trump's team just two months after he was accused of helping Roger Ailes, the late chairman and CEO of Fox News, cover up several instances of sexual harassment and misconduct that rocked the conservative network and forced Ailes's ouster.... Trump soon wound up grousing that Shine -- who was absent last week during Trump's nuclear summit in Vietnam -- hadn't managed to improve Trump's image or his fraught relationship with the White House press corps." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Trump wants to improve his image, he should resign. In his resignation speech, he should apologize for all his venal acts, his ignorance, his cruelty, his incompetence & his ten lies a day. And he should take mike pence down with him.

Naomi Jagoda of the Hill: "The House on Friday passed legislation that would require presidents to disclose their tax returns, as Democrats have made obtaining President Trump's tax returns one of their top priorities. The tax-return disclosure requirement was included in House Democrats' wide-ranging election-reform bill, known as H.R. 1, which passed on a party-line vote of 234-193. H.R. 1 is not expected to receive a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate."

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday claimed Michael Cohen asked him directly' for a pardon, an allegation that would contradict the former Trump lawyer and fixer's congressional testimony last week.... 'Bad lawyer and fraudster Michael Cohen said under sworn testimony that he never asked for a Pardon. His lawyers totally contradicted him. He lied! Additionally, he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO. He lied again! He also badly wanted to work at the White House. He lied!'... Trump tweeted." ...

     ... Update. Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "Cohen took to Twitter minutes later to deny the accusation. 'Just another set of lies by @POTUS @realdonaldtrump. Mr. President' he wrote, before invoking the women whose hush money payments he helped facilitate. 'Let me remind you that today is #InternationalWomensDay. You may want use today to apologize for your own #lies and #DirtyDeeds to women like Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford.'"

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday seized on a portion of a federal judge's remarks during the sentencing of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in a financial crimes case to again criticize the Russia investigation and falsely declare a finding of 'no collusion.'... 'Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia. But the Witch Hunt Hoax continues as you now add these statements to House & Senate Intelligence & Senator Burr. So bad for our Country!'... Speaking to reporters before he left for Alabama to inspect tornado damage, Mr. Trump said that the sentencing judge, T.S. Ellis III of the United States District Court in Alexandria, Va., had said 'there was no collusion with Russia.' Mr. Trump added that he was 'very honored' Judge Ellis made that statement. Mr. Trump, however, twisted Judge Ellis's words. What Judge Ellis actually said Thursday was that Mr. Manafort was 'not before this court for anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government to influence this election.'... Mr. Manafort's attorneys used the same false talking point as the president on Thursday, saying in a brief statement after the hearing, 'There is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved in any collusion with any government official or Russia.'" ...

... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday said he feels 'very badly' for Paul Manafort, who was sentenced to four years in prison for financial crimes unearthed by special counsel Robert Mueller, but added he has not discussed a pardon for his former campaign chairman. 'I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. I think it's a very, very tough time for him,' he told reporters at the White House." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Will someone please tell that bigly idiot that he "feels bad" for all his criminal friends who got caught, unless he means that he can't touch them with his tiny hands.

Brian Melley of the AP: "A federal judge on Thursday tossed out porn actress Stormy Daniels' lawsuit against ... Donald Trump that sought to tear up a hush-money settlement about their alleged affair. U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero in Los Angeles said the suit was irrelevant after Trump and his former personal lawyer agreed not to penalize Daniels for violating a nondisclosure agreement she signed in exchange for a $130,000 payment."

Alexi McCammond of Axios: "From a White House source, the House Oversight Committee has obtained documents related to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump's security clearances that the Trump administration refused to provide, according to a senior Democratic aide involved in handling the documents.... The White House this week rejected the committee's request for documents on the process for granting security clearances to staffers.... But the House Oversight Committee in early February had already obtained the leaked documents that detail the entire process, from the spring of 2017 to the spring of 2018, on how both Kushner and Trump were ultimately granted their security clearances." Mrs. McC: I'm thinking the leaked docs may not contain the smoking guns the committee needs.

Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Donald Trump’s inauguration received tens of thousands of dollars from shell companies that masked the involvement of a foreign contributor or others with foreign ties. The Guardian has identified the creators of three obscure firms that contributed money to Trump's inaugural committee, which collected a record $107m as he entered the White House in 2017. The three companies each gave $25,000 to Trump's inaugural fund. At least one of the contributions was made for a foreign national who appears ineligible to make political donations in the US."

Eli Honig of CNN: "... Judge Ellis's sentence is an injustice. It fails to adequately punish Manafort for committing a series of deliberate crimes over many years, and it sends terrible messages to the public about our criminal justice system.... [The] sentence sends a corrosive two-pronged message to the American public. First, Manafort openly flouted the criminal justice system at every step and still got an enormous break. Following his arrest, Manafort got caught trying to tamper with witnesses, which caused Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, DC, to revoke his bail and send him to jail to await trial. He went to trial in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he denied culpability but was found guilty by a jury on eight counts. He then pleaded guilty to even more crimes and purported to try to cooperate with Mueller, but instead told more lies to Mueller and the FBI. Even today at sentencing, the judge found that Manafort did not accept responsibility.... Manafort committed crimes repeatedly, deliberately, and over many years, stealing millions of dollars from the US government to support his absurdly lavish lifestyle...."

Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "The Department of Homeland Security and the House Homeland Security Committee are investigating whether U.S. border agents have been targeting journalists for questioning, according to a statement from Customs and Border Protection and a letter to CBP from the chair of the committee. The statement and letter were in response to an exclusive story from NBC News and San Diego's KNSD-TV story that revealed CBP officials in the San Diego sector had compiled a list of 59 reporters, lawyers and activists to be pulled aside for further screening when crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The list includes 10 journalists, seven of them U.S. citizens, a U.S.-based attorney and others labeled as organizers and 'instigators,' 31 of whom are American."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trump Scandals, Ctd. -- "An Otherwise Blameless Life" Edition -- Plus Bonus New Sex Scandal

In case the Manafort sentence is too much of a bummer for you, here's a new Trump sex scandal to cheer you up. And no, Reality Chex is still not the Onion:

The Company He Keeps. Sarah Blaskey, et al., of the Miami Herald: "Seated at a round table littered with party favors and the paper-cutout footballs that have become tradition at his annual Super Bowl Watch Party..., Donald Trump cheered the New England Patriots and his longtime friend, team owner Robert Kraft, to victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Feb. 3. Sometime during the party at Trump's West Palm Beach country club, the president turned in his chair to look over his right shoulder, smiling for a photo with two women at a table behind him. The woman who snapped the blurry Super Bowl selfie with the president was Li Yang, 45, a self-made entrepreneur from China who started a chain of Asian day spas in South Florida. Over the years, these establishments -- many of which operate under the name Tokyo Day Spas -- have gained a reputation for offering sexual services. Nineteen days after Trump and Yang posed together while rooting for the Patriots, authorities would charge Kraft with soliciting prostitution at a spa in Jupiter that Yang had founded more than a decade earlier." ...

... Flashback to February. New York Post: "President Trump ... said he was surprised' that Robert Kraft was busted for patronizing a sleazy massage parlor in Florida -- but emphasized that his billionaire buddy 'has denied it.'

Manafort Gets a Slap on the Wrist. Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Paul Manafort, who once served as President Trump's campaign chairman, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison Thursday for cheating on his taxes and bank fraud — a spectacular fall for a once high-flying political consultant who told the judge he is now humiliated and ashamed. Manafort had faced up to 24 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, but U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis called that calculation 'excessive' and sentenced him instead to 47 months. Ellis noted that he must consider the entirety of Manafort's life when issuing a sentence, noting Manafort has been 'a good friend' and a 'generous person' but that 'can't erase the criminal activity.' Manafort's tax crimes, the judge said, were 'a theft of money from everyone who pays taxes.' But the judge expressed some sympathy for Manafort.... 'He's lived an otherwise blameless life,' Ellis said. The judged noted Manafort has no past crimina history and 'earned the admiration of a number of people' who wrote letters to the court support Manafort.... 'The last two years have been the most difficult years for my family and I,' Manafort told the judge [before sentencing]. 'To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.'... Speaking from his chair, Manafort did not apologize for his crimes, but thanked the judge for how he had conducted the trial." ...

... The New York Times story, by Sharon LaFraniere, is here. ...

For context on Manafort's 47 months in prison, my client yesterday was offered 36-72 months in prison for stealing $100 worth of quarters from a residential laundry room. -- Public Defender Scott Hechinger, in a tweet ...

... Dennis Romero of NBC News: "Legal observers were surprised by the relatively light, 47-month sentence received Thursday by ... Paul Manafort.... With time served, Thursday's sentence means Manafort could spend a little more than three years behind bars for this case.... Many ... observers highlighted the disparity between punishments for white-collar crime like Manafort's and street crime, and between the sentences for wealthy people and everyone else. Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said, 'In our current broken system, '"justice" isn't blind, it's bought.' Rob Flaherty, who has worked for progressive advocacy organizations, tweeted a link to an article about a black man getting sentenced to 12 years in Mississippi for medical marijuana he bought legally in another state.... 'Judge Ellis has inexcusably perverted justice and the guidelines,' Harvard Law School professor and Trump critic Laurence Tribe tweeted." ...

... ** Franlin Foer of the Atlantic: "In an otherwise blameless life, he acted with impunity, as if the laws never applied to him. When presented with a chance to show remorse to the court, he couldn't find that sentiment within his being. And with Ellis's featherweight punishment, which deviated sharply downward from the sentencing guidelines, Manafort managed to bring his life's project to a strange completion. He had devoted his career to normalizing corruption in Washington. By the time he was caught, his extraordinary avarice had become so commonplace, that not even a federal judge could blame him for it." Read the whole post. Foer reprises a number of things Manafort has done "in an otherwise blameless life." Mrs. McC: One suspects that Judge Ellis is either senile or sequestered.

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday doubled down on his assertion he did not break the law when he involved himself in a scheme to pay two women who alleged in the lead-up to the 2016 election that they had extramarital affairs with him. 'It was not a campaign contribution, and there were no violations of the campaign finance laws by me. Fake News!' Trump tweeted." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Gold of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen, the former personal lawyer and fixer for President Trump, sued the Trump Organization on Thursday. He accused the company of breaking a contract when it refused to pay about $1.9 million in legal costs after he began cooperating with federal prosecutors. The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, said that the Trump Organization had failed to live up to an agreement to pay for any legal fees or related costs Mr. Cohen incurred in his work with the Trump Organization. Mr. Cohen is also seeking reimbursement for an additional $1.9 million he was ordered to pay in fines, forfeiture and restitution after he pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws, evading taxes and lying to Congress, the lawsuit said.... The lawsuit said Mr. Cohen and the Trump Organization had entered an agreement under which the company would pay for Mr. Cohen's legal fees and costs arising from investigations being conducted by Congress and by Robert S. Mueller III...."

The Last Parse (Maybe). Lucien Bruggeman of ABC News: "Michael Cohen ... asked one of his attorneys last summer to inquire with an attorney representing the president about receiving a pardon, Cohen's spokesman Lanny Davis told ABC News Thursday.... Cohen, at the time, was part of a joint defense agreement with the president and many of his advisers. 'Prior to Michael Cohen's decision to leave the "Joint Defense Group" and tell the truth on July 2, 2018, Michael was open to the ongoing "dangling" of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media,' Davis said. 'During that time period, he directed his attorney to explore possibilities of a pardon at one point with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as other lawyers advising President Trump. But after July 2, 2018, Mr. Cohen authorized me as a new lawyer to say publicly Mr. Cohen would never accept a pardon from President Trump even if offered,' Davis said, adding, 'That continues to be the case.' Davis' revelation appears to contradict testimony Cohen provided to the House Oversight Committee last week. 'I have never asked for it, nor would I accept a pardon from President Trump,' Cohen told the panel in his opening statement. Davis pointed to nuances in Cohen's testimony.... 'But the sentence was also literally true,' Davis argued. '[Cohen] never asked President Trump for a pardon. His lawyer explored the disingenuous "dangle" repeatedly floated by Rudy and Trump in one meeting and never followed up.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course that's not the last parse. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) was on the teevee Thursday night and said that when the transcript of Cohen's testimony before the House Intelligence Committee is released (which it will be), readers will understand why Cohen's sworn testimony is consistent with the pardon "exploration" story.

"Nothing Ever Happened." Noah Bierman & Chris Megerian of the Los Angeles Times: "The president's legal team has prepared a roughly 80-page counter-report that could be released in whole or in part depending on what Mueller alleges [in his anticipated report], according to Rudolph W. Giuliani.... For example, Giuliani said, if Mueller mentions the notorious June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York involving three top Trump aides -- his son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort -- and a Kremlin-linked lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton, 'we would point out that nothing ever happened and it never went anywhere.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "Officials and staffers in the U.S. embassy in Riyadh said they were not read in on the details of Jared Kushner's trip to Saudi Arabia or the meetings he held with members of the country's royal court last week, according to three sources with knowledge of the trip. And that's causing concern not only in the embassy but also among members of Congress.... Kushner ... met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and King Salman.... But no one from the embassy in Riyadh was in the meetings, according to those same sources. The State Department did have a senior official in attendance, but he was not part of the State Department team in Saudi.... The embassy was largely left in the dark on the details of Kushner's schedule and his conversations with Saudi officials, according to two individuals with knowledge of the trip...."

Opheli Lawler of New York: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen "Nielsen's responses seemed to indicate that the secretary was either not aware of the severity of the treatment of migrants in the United States -- particularly children -- or she was intentionally giving misleading answers to obfuscate the endless reports of abuse against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol.... 'There was no parent who has been deported to my knowledge without multiple opportunities to take their children with them,' Nielsen said. Nielsen's statement directly contradicts multiple news reports detailing traumatic deportations of parents who were separated from their children at the border and may never be reunited. Later, when being questioned by Representative Lauren Underwood, about the research showing that family separation can be traumatizing for children, Nielsen again claimed to be unaware of the specific effects of Trump's zero-tolerance policies." (Also linked yesterday.)

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "The State Department rescinded a prestigious award to a Finnish investigative journalist after U.S. officials combed through her social media posts and found she frequently criticized ... Donald Trump. Journalist Jessikka Aro has faced death threats and harassment after exposing Russia's propaganda machine well before the 2016 presidential election, and the U.S. State Department decided to present her with the International Women of Courage Award, reported Foreign Policy. Aro was told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would present her with the award in Washington, D.C., but weeks later the offer was rescinded due to what a department spokesman called a 'regrettable error.' However, Aro and U.S. officials familiar with the deliberations say the offer was over the reporter's social media criticism of the president. 'It created a shitstorm of getting her unceremoniously kicked off the list,' said one U.S. diplomatic source. 'I think it was absolutely the wrong decision on so many levels (and) had nothing to do with her work.' It's not clear whether the decision to revoke the award came from Pompeo or the White House."

The Remarkable Rewards for Posing as a Trump-Loving Prop. Ray Sanchez & Rene Marsh of CNN: "Lynne Patton, a longtime Trump family associate who made a controversial appearance at last week's House hearing with Michael Cohen, says she has the President's blessing to follow in his footsteps as a reality TV star, even as she serves as a high-ranking federal housing official. Patton's appearance on a still-developing show about black Republicans would come during her tenure as the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's regional director for New York and New Jersey, which provides rental assistance to more than 800,000 vulnerable households and homeless services to more than 80,000 people. Asked if she has Trump's approval, Patton said, 'Yes.'"

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a far-reaching resolution condemning anti-Semitism and bigotry, which Democratic leaders brought to a vote in hopes of quelling the uproar that erupted after one of their own, Representative Ilhan Omar, insinuated that backers of Israel exhibit dual loyalty. 'I see everything as an opportunity,' Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday before the House voted, 407-23, for her resolution. 'This is an opportunity once again to declare as strongly as possible opposition to anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim statements,' and 'white supremacist attitudes.' All 'no' votes were Republican. Representative Steve King, the Iowa Republican who was stripped of his committee assignments this year after years of bigoted comments, voted present."

Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "Former Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that the next Democratic president should seriously' consider adding additional seats to the United States Supreme Court should they be elected alongside a Democratic majority in the Senate. The comments came during a discussion Holder held with the Yale Law National Security Group.... The one 2020 Democratic candidate who has said that court packing should be a consideration is South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course this would work only with a Democratic-controlled Senate as Republicans would never seat additional justices. I'm not sure about packing the Supreme Court, but I feel strongly that the next Democratic president should add more lower court judges. We keep hearing about how the courts are overworked, causing long delays. So let's add judges & staff to take up the slack.

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "A Florida jury on Thursday found a former police officer, Nouman K. Raja, guilty of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a black man who had been waiting for help on a highway after his car broke down, lawyers for the man's family said. One of the lawyers, Benjamin L. Crump, announced on Twitter that Mr. Raja had been found guilty of both counts against him: manslaughter by culpable negligence and attempted first-degree murder with a firearm. The 2015 killing of the man, Corey Jones, a 31-year-old musician and housing inspector, drew national attention as one in a series of killings of black men by the police. The encounter also highlighted Florida's so-called Stand You Ground law, which Mr. Raja's lawyer had cited in his defense."

News Lede

Bloomberg News: "U.S. hiring was the weakest in more than a year while wage gains were the fastest of the expansion and the unemployment rate fell, a possible sign that America's jobs engine is starting to slow down. Treasuries rose while the dollar and stock futures fell. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 20,000 after an upwardly revised 311,000 gain the prior month, a Labor Department report showed Friday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey called for an increase of 180,000. Average hourly earnings rose a better-than- projected 3.4 percent from a year earlier, while the jobless rate declined to 3.8 percent, near a five-decade low."