The Commentariat -- May 6, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

** Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "More than 370 former federal prosecutors who worked in Republican and Democratic administrations have signed on to a statement asserting special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's findings would have produced obstruction charges against President Trump -- if not for the office he held. The statement -- signed by myriad former career government employees as well as high-profile political appointees -- offers a rebuttal to Attorney General William P. Barr's determination that the evidence Mueller uncovered was 'not sufficient' to establish that Trump committed a crime.... 'We emphasize that these are not matters of close professional judgment,' they [wrote].... To look at these facts and say that a prosecutor could not probably sustain a conviction for obstruction of justice -- the standard set out in Principles of Federal Prosecution -- runs counter to logic and our experience.' The statement is notable for the number of people who signed it -- 375 as of Monday afternoon -- and the positions and political affiliations of some on the list.... Among the high-profile signers are Bill Weld, a former U.S. attorney and Justice Department official in the Reagan administration who is running against Trump as a Republican; Donald Ayer, a former deputy attorney general in the George H.W. Bush Administration; John S. Martin, a former U.S. attorney and federal judge appointed to his posts by two Republican presidents; Paul Rosenzweig, who served as senior counsel to independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr; and Jeffrey Harris, who worked as the principal assistant to Rudolph W. Giuliani when he was at the Justice Department in the Reagan administration. The list also includes more than 20 former U.S. attorneys and more than 100 people with at least 20 years of service at the Justice Department -- most of them former career officials. The signers worked in every presidential administration since that of Dwight D. Eisenhower."

Nicholas Fandos & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The House Judiciary Committee will vote Wednesday to hold Attorney General William P. Barr in contempt of Congress, after the Justice Department appeared to miss a Monday deadline to negotiate the delivery of Robert S. Mueller III's full report, along with key evidence collected by the special counsel. Democrats said the vote could still be avoided if the Justice Department changes course, but Monday's announcement sets up another dramatic escalation in a growing dispute between the legislative and executive branches. If the full House follows suit and votes to hold Mr. Barr in contempt of Congress, it would be only the second time in American history that a sitting member of a president's cabinet has been sanctioned by lawmakers that way. The Judiciary Committee's chairman, Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, said the vote would occur t 10 a.m. A 27-page report accompanying the vote notice on Monday recommends that Mr. Barr 'shall be found to be in contempt of Congress for failure to comply with a congressional subpoena.'" The report includes a good summary of the Republican House's holding former AG Eric Holder in contempt.

Jordyn Hermani of Politico: "Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen said Monday that 'there still remains much to be told' about the president, as his feud with his ex-boss continues. Cohen ... did not elaborate. He heads to federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., Monday to begin a three-year sentence for a series of tax fraud and lying charges."

CNBC: "Stocks fell on Monday after ... Donald Trump said that the U.S. will hike tariffs on goods imported from China, but managed to recover a good chunk of those losses around late-morning trading. At 11:13 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 235 points while the S&P 500 traded 0.9% lower. The Nasdaq Composite pulled back 1%. The Dow was down as much as 471 points, while the S&P 500 traded down 1.2% at its lows. The Nasdaq was briefly down 2.2%."

Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "A tentative cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in Gaza appeared to have taken hold Monday morning, bringing a short but deadly bout of cross-border fighting to an end as abruptly as it had started. At least 22 Palestinians including militants and children, were killed in Gaza over the weekend, and four Israeli civilians died in the fighting."

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Brad Plumer of the New York Times: "Humans are transforming Earth's natural landscapes so dramatically that as many as one million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction, posing a dire threat to ecosystems that people all over the world depend on for their survival, a sweeping new United Nations assessment has concluded. The 1,500-page report, compiled by hundreds of international experts and based on thousands of scientific studies, is the most exhaustive look yet at the decline in biodiversity across the globe and the dangers that creates for human civilization. A summary of its findings, which was approved by representatives from the United States and 131 other countries, was released Monday in Paris." Mrs. McC: And Donald Trump is President* of the United States.

The Trump Scandals., Ctd.

So the Coup Begins, Not with a Bang but a Fruitcake. Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Sunday floated the idea of extending his constitutionally limited time in office, complaining online that two years of his first White House term were 'stollen' as a result of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. 'I now support reparations -- Trump should have 2 yrs added to his 1st term as pay back for time stolen by this corrupt failed coup,' Jerry Falwell Jr., a conservative religious leader and Trump ally, tweeted in a message reposted by the president. Trump echoed Falwell's sentiment in a pair of tweets an hour later, writing online: 'Despite the tremendous success that I have had as President, including perhaps the greatest ECONOMY and most successful first two years of any President in history, they have stollen two years of my (our) Presidency (Collusion Delusion) that we will never be able to get back.'" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: What with Müeller & Drumpf & Stollen, this is a particularly Germanic moment in American history. And it won't be over till ..

Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Sunday that the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, should not testify before Congress, setting up another confrontation with Democrats over presidential authority and the separation of powers. On Twitter, he argued that Mr. Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, which found no conspiracy between Moscow and Mr. Trump's campaign but did not exonerate the president on possible obstruction of justice, was conclusive and that Congress and the American people did not need to hear from Mr. Mueller. 'Bob Mueller should not testify,' he said. 'No redos for the Dems!' That puts the president at odds ... with his own attorney general, William P. Barr." ...

     ... As Jonathan Chait notes, isn't it odd that Trump doesn't want to hear the testimony of the man who "totally exonerated" him?

Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "... the most significant development for Trump's 2020 reelection bid is something ... that came into clear focus over the course of the week: The president has a plan for survival. It involves essentially shredding the Constitution, demolishing the government of 'checks and balances' that was envisioned by the Founders, and promoting a crisis that will leave Americans angry and, at least psychologically, poised for a civil war. That sounds scary but the scariest part is: It just might work: Not for the nation, of course, but for Trump, which in Trumpland is the only outcome that matters.... Phase 1 -- Barr's slow and clearly Trump-biased rollout of Mueller's findings like they were Russian nesting dolls, which gave the president room to claim 'total exoneration' by a report that explicitly stated he was not exonerated -- is over and was largely a success. Phase 2 -- that massive retaliation, doubling down on the very concept of 'obstruction' -- is underway."

James Reston, Jr., in a New York Times op-ed: "On July 30, 1974, nine days before President Richard Nixon resigned, the House Judiciary Committee added a third article to its impeachment charges against the president. The first two had dealt with obstruction of justice and abuse of power; Article III charged that Nixon had failed to comply with eight congressional subpoenas related to the Watergate investigation. Now, with President Trump and William Barr, his attorney general, refusing to cooperate with congressional investigations, the Democrats in the House should take yet another lesson from Watergate. They are reportedly already preparing impeachment articles on obstruction of justice; they should add failure to comply with Congress to the list.... Nancy Pelosi ... recognized [this] on Thursday. 'Ignoring subpoenas of Congress, not honoring subpoenas of Congress -- that was Article III of the Nixon impeachment,' she said.... President Trump's assertion that there is nothing left to learn from congressional hearings -- which, unlike the Mueller investigation, would be televised -- may be correct. But that is beside the point; it is up to Congress, not him, to decide."

Michael Conway, who served as counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee in the impeachment inquiry of Richard Nixon, in an NBC opinion piece: "The House Judiciary Committee grappled 45 years ago with the same thorny issue that it faces this week: how to respond to an executive branch defiantly refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas.... Because the current Congress has not authorized an impeachment inquiry, the ability of the House to enforce its subpoenas or to punish [AG William] Barr is sharply circumscribed.... Only by instituting an impeachment proceeding will Congress be equipped to act on the evidence that [Robert] Mueller intended to convey to it. And by not acting, a dangerous precedent will be set, relegating Congress to subservience to the president as a forever-unequal branch of government.... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and today's congressional leaders can find guidance from the actions of Congress during Watergate." ...

... House of Cards. digby: "The Republicans cheapened impeachment in the Clinton case, probably for a reason. They knew that if they could demonstrate it as a rank partisan act it would lose much of its 'nuclear' power. It probably succeeded in doing that to some extent. But impeachment over a cover-up of a betrayal of the country, criminal or not, is very different than impeaching someone over a lie in a civil case about a personal sexual matter. The first is the very definition of a high crime or misdemeanor. The second isn't. The Democrats are making themselves appear to be as nakedly partisan as the Republicans were in 1998, by doing the opposite. They are going on television and giving interviews in which they wring their hands and express their fears that impeaching the president will harm them politically. Why they think it's a good look to show themselves as self-serving pols in light of this assault on the constitution is beyond me.... The only reason one can say that Trump shouldn't be impeached on the basis of the Mueller Report, as well as his rank corruption and unfitness, is that you believe the citizens of this country have no sense of ethics and morality and will punish you for doing it." Mrs. McC: Nancy Pelosi, take note.

"Peak Trump." Matt Ford of the New Republic: "... Trump seems more eager than ever to test the electric fences of American democracy. His predilections will take root in more favorable soil than ever. Attorney General Bill Barr has made clear over the past few weeks that he will be the loyal functionary whom Trump has long sought to install atop the Justice Department. White House advisor Stephen Miller oversaw a similar purge of the Department of Homeland Security last month, ousting Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and other top officials in favor of more hardline figures who could execute the president's legally dubious vision for border security. And with the threat of special counsel Robert Mueller now receding, even Trump's personal lawyers are eager for a Thermidorian response.... Trump's behavior toward the prospect of electoral defeat was already troubling when he was a candidate. It's far more worrying now that he commands the federal government and routinely describes the Russia investigation as an 'attempted coup.' Trump is notoriously unpredictable; he's as likely to make an empty threat as to indulge his most dangerous impulses. But his presidency is trending in the wrong direction."

Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Trump, emboldened by a strong American economy and wary of criticism that an evolving trade deal with China would not adequately benefit the United States, threatened on Sunday to impose more punishing tariffs on Chinese goods in an attempt to force additional concessions in a final agreement. Mr. Trump, in a tweet, warned that he would increase tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods at the end of this week and 'shortly' impose levies on hundreds of billions of dollars of additional imports. Dozens of high-level Chinese officials are arriving in Washington this week for what was expected to be a final round of negotiations toward a trade agreement, at least in principle. It was a familiar pattern for Mr. Trump, who has routinely turned to tariffs to help speed negotiations and win concessions from America's trading partners." ...

... Chas Danner of New York provides an essential translation of the Times report: "President Trump threatened China with an almost hilariously dramatic trade war escalation on Sunday, days before a Chinese delegation of more than a hundred people arrive in Washington to iron out a final deal. Signaling his impatience with what he claimed was a slowdown caused China's efforts to renegotiate the plan, Trump tweeted that he will more than double the current U.S. tariffs on some $200 billion of Chinese goods (from 10 to 25 percent), as well as add a new 25 percent tariff on another $325 billion worth of Chinese goods -- and it will all happen on Friday, unless China does the deal. (The trade talks don't even start until Wednesday.) Regarding any efforts to renegotiate the deal, Trump insisted 'No!' He also falsely claimed that the higher tariffs his administration enacted -- which are paid by the U.S. companies importing Chinese goods and then usually passed along as higher costs to U.S. customers -- were paid by China directly to the U.S., incurred little cost to Americans, and were 'partially responsible for our great economic results.'"

All the Nastiest People, Ctd. Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "President Trump on Sunday named a former Obama administration official who has embraced some of Mr. Trump's hard-line positions on border security as the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of a broad effort to force federal agencies into a more aggressive crackdown on migrants. The pick, Mark Morgan, served as the Border Patrol chief the last three months of the Obama administration, and was previously the head of internal affairs at United States Customs and Border Protection. He will lead the agency that arrests, detains and deports people who are in the United States illegally, after Mr. Trump last month withdrew his previous nominee, Ronald D. Vitiello, saying he wanted the agency to go in a 'tougher direction.' 'I am pleased to inform all of those that believe in a strong, fair and sound Immigration Policy that Mark Morgan will be joining the Trump Administration as the head of our hard working men and women of ICE,' Mr. Trump said in a tweet. ...

     "... Matthew T. Albence, who became the acting director last month after the departure of Mr. Vitiello, who had been serving in that role, will stay on pending Mr. Morgan's confirmation. In a tweet Sunday night, Mr. Trump wrote, 'Matt is tough and dedicated and has my full support to deploy ICE to the maximum extent of the law!"

... Matt Stieb of New York: "Despite the rare prospect of a Trump administration official who has served under a Democratic president, Morgan's recent comments on immigration certainly line up with the president's impression of the border crisis. In an interview with Fox News on April 15, Morgan rejected the notion that Trump manufactured the crisis on the border and agreed with his proposal to release migrants in Democratic sanctuary cities.... The decision to nominate Morgan as ICE director was — like so many maneuvers by the president -- a surprise to those closest to him.... Albence is known for an August 2018 quote comparing ICE detention to 'summer camp.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Once again Trump proves he does not understand the difference between "impulsive" & "decisive." Also, he thinks pushing people around like so many cheap chess pieces reflects power when in fact his "staffing" decisions are functions of his essential cruelty & narcissism.

Karoun Demirjian & Paul Sonne of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday confirmed that the Trump administration is making contingency plans for U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, but he refused to say whether the administration would seek congressional authorization first. When asked directly on ABC's 'This Week' whether President Trump believes he has the power to intervene without seeking approval from Congress, Pompeo declined to answer." ...

... BUT What if Putie Doesn't Like It? Aidan McLaughlin of Mediaite: "Fox News anchor Chris Wallace confronted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday over ... Donald Trump's defense of Russia's involvement in Venezuela.... Trump told reporters this week that the Russian president is 'not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela.' 'For weeks, you and [John] Bolton have talked about -- and called out Russian interference in Venezuela,' Wallace said. 'So which is it? Is Putin propping up a dictator in our own backyard or is Putin looking for something positive in Venezuela?' '[The] President's been very clear on this,' Pompeo replied.... 'He said -- I think it was in a tweet several weeks back. The Russians have to get out. That remains our view.' Wallace followed up," & Pompeo stuck to his story that "the president told the world, that every country must get out, including the Russians." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Pompeo is merely reconfirming what we already know: that when those who confront or disagree with Trump are in positions to stand up to a bully, he leaves his tin saber on the mantel & abandons even his own threats, showing not the slightest hint of strength. Whatever you think of Juan Guaido's efforts to unseat Maduro, you can bet Guaido has figured out Trump is a paper tiger & the U.S. a wholly unreliable ally. ...

... Matt Stieb: "On Sunday, the Russian Embassy stated on Facebook that the hour and a half conversation between [Putin & Trump] was initiated by President Trump.... Assuming the Russian Embassy's information is true, it now appears that the president is actively seeking out the advice of Putin, preferring the word of the autocrat to that of his own intelligence community and their briefs that he doesn't read."

Quint Forgey: "The U.S. military is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the Central Command region in the Middle East to send a 'clear and unmistakable message' to Iran, national security adviser John Bolton said in a statement Sunday. The action, confirmed by the Defense Department, comes 'in response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings,' Bolton said, and is intended to convey 'to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.'"

Medlar's Sports Report

Trump to Award Tiger Woods Presidential* Medal of Emoluments. Annie Karni & Kevin Draper of the New York Times: "Ever since Tiger Woods arrived on the public stage as a golf phenom at the age of 21, Donald J. Trump has been cultivating him as a celebrity who could add a sheen to his properties around the globe.... Mr. Trump has named a villa after him at the Trump National Doral Miami. He has also gone into business abroad with Mr. Woods, announcing in 2014 that the golfer would design a course in Dubai as part of a luxury residential megaproject that would be managed by the Trump Organization. On Monday, Mr. Trump ... will present Mr. Woods with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in honor of his Masters victory last month.... The medal, which is considered the nation's highest civilian honor, is typically given near the end of the recipient's career to honor a lifetime of achievement.... By honoring him, the president leaves the appearance of using his office to reward a business partner.... [Trump] He prides himself on having stuck with Mr. Woods through a serial philandering scandal that derailed his professional and personal life." Mrs. McC: Well, that wouldn't bother Trump, would it?

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Sunday blamed the result of the Kentucky Derby on 'political correctness,' arguing that the horse that crossed the wire first should not have been disqualified. 'The Kentuky Derby decision was not a good one,' Trump said in a tweet, misspelling the word 'Kentucky.' 'It was a rough and tumble race on a wet and sloppy track, actually, a beautiful thing to watch. Only in these days of political correctness could such an overturn occur. The best horse did NOT win the Kentucky Derby - not even close!'... Maximum Security appeared to win Saturday's race by 1¾ lengths. But then two jockeys objected, and after stewards reviewed video of the race, they disqualified the apparent winner in a unanimous ruling, handing the victory to Country House, a 65-1 shot. The review focused on a moment when Maximum Security barged to his right and impeded the paths of two other horses at the top of the backstretch." ...

     ... Mr. McCrabbie: Maybe His Majesty enjoys the sport of kings, or maybe he just prefers a "tough" sounding-name like "Maximum Security" over the pastoral, gentle name "Country House." Bea thinks Kentuky stollen is made with burbun.

Thanks to Aunt Hattie for finding the headline of the week, on Sunday, no less: "Donald & Melania Trump Wish a 'Feliz Cinco de Mayo' After Threatening More Troops to Mexico Border." Subhead: "Hours later, Trump also announced the new head of ICE."

No Honor Among Grifters. Trump Ally Rips off Trump. Alayna Treene, et al., of Axios: "A political organization run by David Bossie, President Trump's former deputy campaign manager, has raised millions of dollars by saying it's supporting Trump-aligned conservative candidates -- but has spent only a tiny fraction of that money supporting candidates.... There's a vast difference between what the Presidential Coalition is telling its donors and how it actually spends their money. And as [the campaign watchdog Campaign Legal Center] writes, 'Not only do these dubious practices mislead and potentially even prey upon vulnerable populations, but they also drain resources away from more effective political groups' -- including Trump's campaign." Mrs. McC: Bossie has had a long, infamous career as an anti-Clinton activist; probably his most lasting -- and odious -- legacy will be the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling supporting Bossie's hit job "Hillary: the Movie." ...

Bossie Specializes in Scamming the Elderly. Alayna Treene, et al., of Axios: "About two-thirds of the contributions made to David Bossie's Presidential Coalition in 2017 and 2018 came from donors giving less than $200 in a single year. And of the donors identified in its tax forms, most said they were retired.... Axios reached out to more than a dozen of these donors, most of whom were retired. They all said they thought their money was going toward supporting the president."

Presidential Race 2020. AP: "Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, joined the large crowd at former President Jimmy Carter' Sunday school class in rural South Georgia. At Carter's invitation Buttigieg stood and read from the Bible as part of the lesson at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. Carter told the audience that two other Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, had previously attended his classes."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Israel/Palestine. David Halbfinger & Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Fighting between Israel and Gaza escalated rapidly on Sunday in the worst combat since the last full-blown war in 2014, with Palestinian rocket and missile attacks killing four Israeli civilians and Israeli forces taking aim at individual Gaza militants. Gaza officials said the two-day death toll for Palestinians had reached 22. At least nine militants and as many civilians were killed on Sunday alone. The civilians included a pregnant woman, a 12-year-old boy and 4-month-old girl, health officials said. The outbreak of violence appears to have begun on Friday, when a sniper wounded two Israeli soldiers, a violent but localized expression of Palestinian impatience with Israel's failure to alleviate dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza. By Sunday, it had mushroomed into an all-out display of firepower by both sides. The Israel army said Gazans had launched 600 projectiles in two days, with the territory's secretive armed factions letting loose hundreds of rockets that had long been hidden away in arsenals."

The Commentariat -- May 5, 2019

** Maureen Dowd: "At many of the most consequential moments in American history, I have watched officials bend over backward to be equitable..., ceding the ground to malevolent actors who use any means to achieve their ends, including flattening and sliming the proponents of 'fairness.' Now that Joe Biden is running for president in a post-#MeToo era, he says he always believed Anita Hill. But as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he acted more like a Republican collaborator.... Priding himself on his comity with his Republican colleagues, Biden set up the rules to favor [Clarence] Thomas.... Jim Comey also got tangled up on the issue of fairness, with disastrous results. Afraid that he would be blamed if it was discovered that the F.B.I. had been secretly investigating the woman expected to be the next president, the then-F. B.I. chief violated his own agency's norms to announce that he was reopening the inquiry into Hillary Clinton's emails on the cusp of the election. But he did not tell the public that the F.B.I. was also looking into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia.... President Obama got similarly wrapped around the axle.... Obama choked after the diabolical Mitch McConnell warned the White House that, if it went through with a plan to publicly shame Moscow, he would regard that as a partisan act. And finally, we have the unfortunate Robert Mueller.... [Bill] Barr ... spoke of Mueller dismissively, like an errant errand boy who threw a silly snit after failing to complete the task he was given."

Elections 2020

Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "There is no disagreement among Democrats about the urgency of defeating Mr. Trump. But Mr. Biden's singular focus on the president as the source of the nation's ills, while extending an olive branch to Republicans, has exposed a significant fault line in the Democratic primary.... Many on the left believe that Mr. Biden's nostalgia for a bygone era of comity, compromise and civility -- while appealing -- is misplaced, or even naïve.... And it has thrown into stark relief one of the fundamental questions facing the Democratic electorate: Do Democrats want a bipartisan deal-maker promising a return to normalcy, or a partisan warrior offering more transformative change?" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Goldmacher, & some whom he interviewed, have grasped what is wrong with Biden's presidential aspirations. It isn't that he is too old in years; it's that he is too married to the way things were when he was in his prime. We've already had one disastrous presidential election (2016) in which two old geezers ran against each other on their singular time-warped ideas; it would be terrible to go thru another. Countries prosper on innovation, expansion -- and luck. Luck is not enough.

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not believe President Trump can be removed through impeachment -- the only way to do it, she said this week, is to defeat him in 2020 by a margin so 'big' he cannot challenge the legitimacy of a Democratic victory.... 'We have to inoculate against that, we have to be prepared for that,' Ms. Pelosi said during an interview at the Capitol on Wednesday.... Ms. Pelosi ... offered Democrats her 'coldblooded' plan for decisively ridding themselves of Mr. Trump:... 'Own the center left, own the mainstream,' Ms. Pelosi, 79, said.... Ms. Pelosi remains committed to avoiding impeachment, but it is clear that she is losing patience.... Ms. Pelosi laced Wednesday's conversation with scathing descriptions of Mr. Trump's fitness to serve as president, taking issue with his 'attention span' and his 'lack of knowledge of the subjects at hand' during their negotiating sessions -- and saying his behavior 'degrades' the country and 'dishonors' the Constitution." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Pelosi is right in one particular: it will probably take armed guards to get Trump out of the White House (wearing restraints, one hopes). But as to policy, people want security, which the American people have not enjoyed in the 21st century. The promise of security comes only through hope -- "Yes, We Can" -- not Trumpian fear & security-stripping policies. That hope for security does not necessarily come from middle-of-the-road, tried-and-failed policies. As for impeachment, I still think the process itself, not the Senate trial, is what will matter. Congressional oversight will only further expose Trump's bad acts; remember that it was the last of the seven or eight House Benghaaazi! investigation that produced the E-Mails!

... AND don't kid yourself. If Democrats aren't investigating the hell out of Trump, here's a preview of the kind of stories that often will be at the top of the fold:

Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "For President Trump's reelection effort, 'Investigate the investigators!' is becoming the new 'Lock her up!' Trump and his allies, seeking to amplify claims that the FBI spied on his 2016 campaign, are seizing on news reports and statements by Attorney General William P. Barr to launch a political rallying cry they view as an antidote to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's findings. Dismissed by critics as an outlandish conspiracy theory, so-called 'spygate' is fast becoming a central feature of the Trump campaign as it seeks to go on offense in the wake of a report that identified 10 instances of potential obstruction of justice by Trump. The campaign is publicly calling for criminal investigations into former FBI officials, making 'spygate' fundraising pitches and selling spy-themed merchandise. The goal, officials said, is to turn the Russia probe into a political winner that could help him secure another term."

Trump-Generated Disinformation May Dwarf Any Russian Interference on His Behalf. Hunter Walker of Yahoo! News: "Trump's [re-election campaign] team is vowing to put together a more-than-$1 billion machine that will dwarf the guerilla operation he had early in the 2016 cycle. The president is also coming into the race with key structural advantages and experience running a powerfully influential Facebook advertising blitz.... This more formalized, professionalized, and, frankly, massive iteration of the Trump campaign will still include some of the hallmarks of the president's last run, including a hyper-focused Facebook advertising offensive and raucous rallies. Microtargeted Facebook ads were widely seen as one of the key factors behind the president's surprising 2016 victory. Trump's presence on the social network dwarfed that of ... Hillary Clinton. Data from Facebook revealed Trump had about 5.9 million ads on the platform compared to approximately 66,000 for Clinton." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Many radio & TV stations have standards, & they won't run blatantly false campaign ads. As we know, the same cannot be said for social media. But I think the Trump campaign could do worse than just generating the expected lies. While it's true that in 2020 Russia (or hackers working for some other country) could compromise American voting machines -- especially because the Trump administration is doing little or nothing to prevent it -- I think the larger danger might be homegrown: that is, from Trump campaign shenanigans. I would not put it past Trump to indirectly hire hackers (through cutouts) to change machine-generated voting machine results. The Trump campaign could do what Russia did in 2016, but even more effectively. Back in the day, Democrats were famous for stuffing ballot boxes & inspiring the saying, "Vote early and often." The rumor persists that Nixon really won Illinois & Texas in 1960, but for ballot-box stuffing by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley & friends of Lyndon Johnson.

Best Reason to Nominate Elizabeth Warren: Kate McKinnon:

Senate Race 2020. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senator Michael B. Enzi, Republican of Wyoming, said on Saturday that he would not seek re-election at the end of his term, the third Republican senator to do so ahead of the 2020 campaign. Mr. Enzi, 75, who leads the Senate Budget Committee, has held his seat since 1997, making him the longest-serving Wyoming senator in modern times.... It is unclear if Representative Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican who once challenged Mr. Enzi in a primary race, will take another shot at the seat -- a decision that would reshape Republican leadership in the House. Mr. Enzi, in his remarks, said he could see Ms. Cheney becoming speaker one day." (Also linked late yesterday afternoon.)

Lorin Reisner in Bloomberg Law: "According to what can be termed the 'Mueller Doctrine...,' a special counsel is prohibited from concluding that a sitting president committed a crime... even if the evidence supported that conclusion.... A corollary of the Mueller Doctrine, which reserves exclusively to Congress the authority to conclude that a sitting president committed a crime, reveals serious falsehoods in the letter sent by Attorney General William Barr to Congress on March 24.... In [his] letter [to Congress], Barr asserted that the special counsel's decision not to reach any legal conclusions on obstruction, 'leaves it to the Attorney General to determine whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime.' That is a false description of the conclusions of the Mueller Report. The report could not be clearer that it is the responsibility of Congress -- and not the attorney general or any other representative of the DOJ -- to determine whether a crime was committed by the president. Second, Barr concealed that his determination was inconsistent with the report while publicly portraying his 'summary' as consistent." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I would enjoy seeing Bill Barr running around with his pants on fire. I mean, I don't want him to be injured any more seriously than the equivalent of a bad sunburn, but still....

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha

Lois Beckett of the Guardian & agencies: "Donald Trump criticized social media companies after Facebook banned a number of far-right figures, declaring that he was 'monitoring and watching, closely!!' The president, who tweeted and retweeted complaints, including complaints from rightwing figures themselves, on Friday and Saturday, said he would 'monitor the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms'. On Saturday, Trump tweeted harsh criticism of mainstream news organizations such as the Washington Post and New York Times, while lashing out against social media platforms for banning the editors of ... Infowars. Trump retweeted multiple tweets denouncing the social media bans from an Infowars editor, as well as a one from far-right activist Lauren Southern, who has been banned from entering the UK for being deemed 'not conducive to the public good'. Southern was part of a 2017 far-right expedition that hired a ship to attempt to interfere with operations to rescue refugees in the Mediterranean."

Kevin Poulsen of the Daily Beast: "When it comes to putting disinformation in front of American eyeballs, Vladimir Putin has long been able to count alt-right social media stars like Alex Jones and Mike Cernovich as reliable allies. Now the One America News Network, a pro-Trump cable news and commentary channel, is joining them in embracing some of Moscow's most vile fake news.... The network has a history with fake news. Last year it reported that California lawmakers were considering a bill to outlaw the sale of Bibles in the state, and ... earlier work includes a segment pushing the noxious Seth Rich conspiracy. The networks recent hires include notorious Pizzagate pusher Jack Posobiec, who joined as a political correspondent.... One of the channel's most ardent and credulous viewers happens to be President of the United States. 'It's a great network,' Donald Trump said during a 2017 news conference.... Last month he tweeted an old conspiracy claim, discredited in 2017, that the U.K.'s signals intelligence agency helped President Obama spy on his campaign, after seeing a segment about it on OANN."

News Lede

New York Times: "Forty-one people were killed on Sunday when a Russian passenger jet made an emergency landing at a Moscow airport, trailing a gigantic plume of flame and black smoke and skidding to a stop on fire. A Russian law enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, reported that 40 passengers and one crew member lost their lives. There were 78 people on the plane. Videos showed passengers who had escaped the aircraft on exit slides running away from the burning plane on the tarmac as travelers inside the Sheremetyevo airport looked on aghast."

The Commentariat -- May 4, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Senate Race 2020. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senator Michael B. Enzi, Republican of Wyoming, said on Saturday that he would not seek re-election at the end of his term, the third Republican senator to do so ahead of the 2020 campaign. Mr. Enzi, 75, who leads the Senate Budget Committee, has held his seat since 1997, making him the longest-serving Wyoming senator in modern times.... It is unclear if Representative Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican who once challenged Mr. Enzi in a primary race, will take another shot at the seat -- a decision that would reshape Republican leadership in the House. Mr. Enzi, in his remarks, said he could see Ms. Cheney becoming speaker one day."

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The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Max Boot in the Washington Post: "While conferring legal immunity upon himself, Trump is eager to weaponize the legal system against his opponents. The Mueller report documents three separate occasions when Trump demanded a Justice Department investigation of Hillary Clinton. Now, the New York Times reports, Trump and his attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, are attempting to instigate a criminal probe of his leading 2020 opponent, Joe Biden, on what appear to be trumped-up charges of corruption. In one of the more chilling exchanges during his Senate testimony, Barr would not say whether 'the president or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested' that he open an investigation. If the answer were 'no,' he would have said so. It is hard to think of any president in the past 230 years, including Nixon, who has ever sabotaged the rule of law so flagrantly or so successfully to protect his own hide. And, sadly, it is hard to imagine that anything can be done about it before Nov. 3, 2020.... So for the next 18 months, at a minimum, this nation is at the mercy of a criminal administration."

Invitation to a 2020 Russian Election Intervention. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Friday that he discussed the 'Russian Hoax' with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, in their first conversation since the release of the special counsel's report, which found that 'the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.' In a pair of midday tweets, Mr. Trump said he and Mr. Putin had a 'long and very good conversation' in a phone call that lasted over an hour and covered a wide range of issues.... He made no mention of the growing tensions between the United States and Russia over Venezuela, where other senior American officials have accused the Kremlin of intervening to prop up President Nicolás Maduro, whom the Trump administration is working to remove from power. Mr. Trump also gave no indication that he warned Mr. Putin against Russian interference in the 2020 presidential election, a prospect that has unnerved some of his own top aides, including the recently departed secretary of homeland security, Kirstjen Nielsen. To the extent that the findings of the Mueller report figured at all in their conversation, Mr. Trump suggested that he dismissed the intense focus on Russian interference as a politically motivated effort by Democrats to discredit his victory in 2016." ...

We discussed it [Mueller's investigation]. He actually sort of smiled when he said something to the effect that it started off as a mountain and it ended up being a mouse. But he knew that, because he knew there was no collusion whatsoever. -- Donald Trump, at a press availability Friday

Reality Chek. It was a telephone call. It was not a video call. Trump could not see Putin. Presumably, Trump was listening to a translator, not to Putin, when he heard the mountain-mouse remark. There was no way for Trump to know or even infer Putin "actually sort of smiled." Trump imagines stuff & he says what he has imagined as if his imaginings accurately reflect reality. It's not clear to me he can tell the difference between fantasy & fact. Weird. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... Tucker Higgins of CNBC: "... Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin discussed the Mueller report, Venezuela and North Korea during a lengthy phone call on Friday, the White House said. The two talked on the phone for more than an hour, according to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The leaders also discussed trade and a potential nuclear agreement including China, Sanders said. Regarding the investigation by ... Robert Mueller, which concluded in March, Sanders said 'both leaders knew there was no collusion.' The discussion on the matter was brief, she said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) According to MSNBC, Sanders released information about the phone call only after TASS had reported it. ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic: "Two weeks after Mueller's report laid out even more detail about the dimensions of Russian interference in the election, Trump didn't bother to condemn Putin or complain about the interference. He didn't even bring it up. But don't expect this reprise to elicit the same reaction as Helsinki. Whereas Trump's refusal to defend U.S. elections against foreign interference was once shocking, it's now become expected.... No one in government other than Trump denies the Russian attack.... One reason Trump can't bring up the hacks is that he is a terrible negotiator. Because he is bad at one-on-one discussions and eager for Putin's approval, he is unable to discuss other issues with Putin while also holding a firm line on election interference.... Trump's failure to bring up the interference is also terribly hypocritical. During an interview with Fox News on Thursday, he criticized former President Barack Obama for not doing more to push back on Russia during the election." ...

... Li Zhou of Vox: "Trump's resistance to directly press Putin about Russia's role in election interference is an issue that's come up again and again.... In refusing to openly address this threat, however, Trump raises an alarming concern: He' avoiding the question of how he'd effectively be able to prevent it from happening again." Mrs. McC Note to Zhou: Trump definitely does not want "to prevent it from happening again." Reports & opinion pieces about Russia's interference in 2016 spout as a given the theory that the reason Trump resists preventing foreign interference in U.S. elections is that he is too vain to admit Russia's interference may have given him the edge to win in 2016. But the real reason, IMO, is that Trump is tacitly soliciting the same kind of help again. ...

... Update. Mimi Rocah, former chief of the organized crime and racketeering unit at SDNY, backed me up -- and then some -- in remarks she made yesterday on MSNBC: "This phone call between Trump and Putin today reminded me of what we would call -- when we were on wires of criminals and listening to their conversations and they didn't know it — the 'get your story straight call. They would do something..., they robbed a bank or whatever, then they're on the phone, sort of talking, kind of sort of in code, but it's a yeah, 'when we went to the store earlier and I bought the milk,' you know, they're making their cover story, congratulating each other, patting each other on the back, saying 'it's all good, we made it, we didn't get caught.'... If you look at the obstruction that Trump, I think, clearly committed, it was obstruction of the investigation into Russia, not just Trump, but into Russia's actions." ...

... Also, Julián Castro. Katie Galiato of Politico: "Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro on Friday said he thinks ... Donald Trump wants Russia to interfere on his behalf again in 2020, after special counsel Robert Mueller reported that Moscow sought to boost him in 2016. 'I bet he's hoping they're going to do it again in 2020,' Castro said of Trump in an interview on MSNBC. 'It's incumbent upon Congress to help ensure that we do everything that we can to get to the truth that the Mueller report tried to lay out and also hold this administration accountable to make sure that we do take steps to secure our 2020 election.'" ...

... Justin Sink of Bloomberg News: "Donald Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin isn't seeking to 'get involved' in the crisis in Venezuela, despite assertions by the American president's top national security advisers that the Kremlin is offering critical support to Nicolas Maduro's regime. 'He is not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela other than he'd like to see something positive happen for Venezuela,' Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday, following a call with the Russian leader earlier in the day.... The conversation, which Trump went on to describe as 'very positive,' appeared to be yet another example of Trump taking Putin's claims at face value despite contrary evidence from his own government. The White House national security adviser, John Bolton, and U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo both said earlier this week that the Kremlin talked Maduro out of leaving Venezuela after U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido attempted to end his regime on Tuesday by calling for a military uprising." ...

... Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Trump appeared to take Putin at his word that Russia wants to help ease a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. 'And I feel the same way. We want to get some humanitarian aid,' Trump told reporters at the White House. 'Right now, people are starving. They have no water. They have no food.' In a statement issued late Wednesday, the White House had said that Russia 'must leave' Venezuela and 'renounce their support of the Maduro regime.' Russia has significant investments in Venezuela and has been a strong backer of Maduro."

We Saw This Coming. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "The White House on Friday seized on revelations that the FBI during the 2016 campaign sent an undercover investigator to meet with an aide to then-candidate Donald Trump, with the president calling the news 'bigger than Watergate.' Trump praised one of his most frequent media foes, The New York Times, for its reporting, while his reelection campaign lit into investigators and Vice President Mike Pence called the bureau's actions' very troubling.'" See yesterday's Commentariat for context. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lindsey Has a Change of Heart.* Marianne Levine of Politico: “Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham on Friday asked Robert Mueller if he'd like to testify about any 'misrepresentation' by Attorney General William Barr concerning a phone call they had about the special counsel's report. 'Please inform the Committee if you would like to provide testimony regarding any misrepresentation by the Attorney General of the substance of the phone call,' Graham wrote to Mueller in a letter dated Friday." Mrs. McC: On Wednesday, Graham told reports he would not call Mueller to testify: "'I'm not going to do any more. Enough already. It's over,' Graham told reporters, asked why he wasn't calling Mueller to appear before his committee." Graham's invitation to Mueller to call Barr a liar seems like a set-up. Mueller would have to really want to testify, and very few people, least of all those who have done so before, really want to testify before Congressional committees. ...

     ... *Update: Actually, after Barr refused to provide copies of contemporaneous notes on the phone call he had with Robert Mueller about the way Barr characterized the special counsel's report, Graham did cut into the Q&A to say that he would write to Mueller that if there was anything Barr said about the conversation that Mueller disagreed with, "he can come in & tell us." So not a change of heart. Graham was just following up on a commitment he made during the hearing.

Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler on Friday sent his latest offer [to] Attorney General William Barr to try to reach an agreement in his effort to obtain the unredacted special counsel report and the underlying evidence before Nadler moves forward with holding the attorney general in contempt of Congress. Nadler sent Barr a new letter proposing that the committee could work with the Justice Department to prioritize which investigative materials it turns over to Congress, specifically citing witness interviews and the contemporaneous notes provided by witnesses that were cited in ... Robert Mueller's report. Nadler wrote that he was 'willing to prioritize a specific, defined set of underlying investigative and evidentiary materials for immediate production.' But Nadler's letter does not budge on Democrats' insistence that the Justice Department allow Congress to view grand jury material that's redacted in the report, which Barr has argued he's not allowed by law to provide. Nadler set a deadline of 9 a.m. ET Monday for Barr to respond and said he would move to contempt proceedings if the attorney general does not comply." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "On some of the weightiest questions about obstruction of justice, Barr has made pro-Trump arguments that are at odds with what Robert S. Mueller III wrote in his report.... The first is his emphasis on the supposed lack of an underlying crime.... The Mueller report itself seems to rebut Barr's point -- rather directly.... '... the evidence does indicate that a thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the President personally that the President could have understood to be crimes or that would give rise to personal and political concerns.... The second strange claim Barr keeps revisiting is Mueller's private comments about whether he found a crime. Mueller in his report said he was not making a 'traditional prosecutorial judgment'..., but he said it was because of Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) policy against indicting a sitting president -- not the evidence. Barr said in his news conference before the release of the Mueller report: 'We specifically asked him about the OLC opinion and whether he was taking a position that he would have found a crime but for the existence of the OLC opinion. And he made it very clear several times that that was not his position....' Barr echoed this twice in his Wednesday testimony...." Emphasis Blake's.

Mrs. McCrabbie: Yesterday I wrote that Bill Barr's remarks have undermined the work the Mueller team has done. But I am reminded today that Barr is creating a clear & present danger in the 14 ongoing Mueller-related cases, cases that are of course being investigated or brought to trial by men & women who work for Barr. Here's one instance:

... Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Federal prosecutors argued Friday that special counsel Robert Mueller did not need to prove conspiracy between the Russian government and the Trump campaign to show that longtime Trump ally Roger Stone obstructed Congress' investigation of the matter. 'To establish the defendant's guilt of the crimes with which he is charged, the government is not required to prove the existence of a conspiracy with the Russian government to interfere in the U.S. presidential election,' Mueller's team, along with the U.S. attorney in Washington D.C., wrote in response to filings Stone submitted on March 28. That argument has been the subject of controversy in recent weeks, following Attorney General Bill Barr's suggestion that evidence collected by Mueller implicating ... Donald Trump for multiple efforts to thwart his probe fell short, in part because Mueller didn't establish the existence of a criminal conspiracy. 'The evidence now suggests that the accusations against him were false and he knew they were false,' Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.... Stone had pointed to these arguments to undercut Mueller's prosecution against him.... In support of his argument to dismiss the case against him, Stone pointed to a 19-page memo Barr wrote and forwarded to Justice Department leaders when he was outside of government." ...

... Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) in a Washington Post op-ed: "In the furor around Attorney General William P. Barr's testimony on the Mueller report before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, one issue has flown under the radar: the potential for Barr to undermine more than a dozen ongoing criminal matters that sprang from the special counsel's investigation.... Given Barr's own statements and actions with respect to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation, his credibility and his independence are in doubt. For that reason, he must recuse himself from any ongoing investigations involving evidence referred by the special counsel's office. Barr has made clear that he believes it is appropriate for an attorney general to protect the president's political interests.... The more we learn about Barr's handling of the Mueller investigation, the more cause there is for concern." ...

... Ana Radelat of the Connecticut Mirror (May 1): At the Senate hearing Wednesday, Sen. Richard "Blumenthal [D-Ct.] ... asked Barr if he would recuse himself from [ongoing] investigations. 'No,' was Barr's terse response. Barr told Blumenthal he was finished with the Mueller report. 'The job of the Justice Department is now over ... we're out of it,' Barr said. 'We've got to stop using the political process as a weapon.'"

Marianne Levine: "Sen. Kamala Harris called on the Justice Department inspector general to look into whether Attorney General William Barr had received or complied with any requests from the White House to investigate ... Donald Trump's 'perceived enemies.' In a letter sent Friday to Inspector General Michael Horowitz, the California Democrat, who is also running for president, wrote she had 'grave concern about the independence of the Department of Justice under the leadership of Attorney General William Barr.' Harris cited her exchange with the attorney general at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this week, in which Barr did not explicitly answer her question about whether Trump or anyone in he White House asked to or suggested the DOJ investigate someone. 'I'm trying to grapple with the word "suggest,"' Barr said at the hearing. 'I mean there have been discussions of, of matters out there that uh ... they have not asked me to open an investigation.'... In her letter, Harris described Barr's response as 'alarming' and noted that 'such inappropriate requests by the President have been well documented.'"

Diss Barr. Kyle Cheney: “Two House Democrats on Friday urged the bar associations in Washington and Virginia to launch an ethics investigation into Attorney General William Barr's public comments on ... Robert Mueller's report. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) -- both former prosecutors -- say they believe Barr 'at best misled Congress' and 'at worst perjured himself' when he told lawmakers this week he was unsure why some members Mueller's team were reportedly dissatisfied with his public portrayal of Mueller's report.... 'By deceiving Congress and the American people, who vested their trust in both the Office of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice at large, Attorney General Barr must be subject to a professional review for the sake of the legal profession and the public,' Lieu and Rice wrote in a letter to the bar associations. The two Democrats say the rules of the Virginia and D.C. bars require 'candor' toward official tribunals and that engaging in 'dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation ... reflects adversely on the lawyer's fitness to practice law.'"

Cap'n. Rod "Lands the Plane." Marcy Wheeler finds some clues that suggest to her that at early as last August Rod Rosenstein was pressuring Bob Mueller to wrap up his investigation before Mueller was ready to do so. "If he was, that would change the import of Trump's tactic to avoid testifying -- first stalling through the election, and then refusing any real cooperation -- significantly."

Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "The scribe keeping track of the president's actions was Annie Donaldson, [Don] McGahn's chief of staff, a loyal and low-profile conservative lawyer who figures in the Mueller report as one of the most important narrators of internal White House turmoil. Her daily habit of documenting conversations and meetings provided the special counsel's office with its version of the Nixon White House tapes: a running account of the president's actions, albeit in sentence fragments and concise descriptions. Among the episodes memorialized in Donaldson's notes and memos: the president's outrage when FBI Director James B. Comey confirmed the existence of the investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, Trump's efforts to pressure Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from overseeing the probe and his push to get Mueller disqualified and removed as the special counsel.... House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) has already signaled that he intends to subpoena Donaldson as a critical witness.... She left the White House in December...."

Camp Cohen. Michael Sisak & Jim Mustian of the AP: Michael Cohen is due to report Monday to "a federal prison 70 miles (113 kilometers) from New York City where white-collar and D-list scoundrels can do time while playing bocce ball and noshing on rugelach.... Tucked in the lush countryside south of the Catskill Mountains, [the Federal Correctional Institution,] Otisville is actually two federal facilities with a total of about 800 inmates: a medium-security prison where former NFL star Darren Sharper is serving a 20-year rape sentence, and a satellite camp for non-violent offenders like Cohen.... About 115 inmates sleep in bunks lined up in barrack-style halls, instead of individual or two-man cells.... There are lockers to store personal belongings, washers and dryers for laundry, microwaves to heat up food and ice machines to keep cool.... Otisville is also known as a favorite among prison-bound Jews for its Kosher meals and Shabbat services. Add in recreational amenities like tennis courts, horseshoes and cardio equipment, and it sounds like the closest thing the federal prison system has to sleepaway camp."

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump tweeted Friday that his administration is' looking into' the banning of right-wing media personalities from prominent social media platforms -- following a purge by Facebook of accounts belonging to several controversial political figures. The president lamented the apparent suspension of actor and Trump supporter James Woods' Twitter account, as well as the shuttering of Infowars contributor Paul Joseph Watson's Facebook profile this week.... Infowars chief Alex Jones, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, and activist Laura Loomer were among the other incendiary characters booted Thursday from Facebook and its subsidiary, Instagram."

Jesse Eisinger & Paul Kiel of ProPublica in the New York Times: "The hot policy in Democratic circles these days is raising taxes on the rich.... But before this country raises taxes, it should grapple with something much more prosaic but equally important for tackling inequality: saving the Internal Revenue Service. Already, wealthy people and corporations easily get around today's rules. However tough any new laws might seem, they'd soon be undercut. Slowly and quietly over the past eight years, the I.R.S. has been eviscerated. It's lost tens of thousands of employees. It has fewer auditors now than at any time since 1953.... Fixing the problem will require more than increasing the I.R.S.'s budget (though that would certainly help). It's about having the right personnel with the right skills.... The top 0.5 percent of highest-earning Americans account for about a fifth of the income that's hidden from the I.R.S., according to a University of Michigan study, or more than $50 billion a year in today's dollars.... It's much easier to enforce the tax laws for the bottom 90 percent of earners. Wages are reported straight to the I.R.S., and computers can easily check that tax returns accurately report that income. This means that inadequate enforcement of the tax laws necessarily has a regressive effect...."

Step 1. Get government job. Step 2. Help design & enforce hard-line policies that increase need for housing immigrants. Step 3. Get fired. Step 4. Get high-paying, low-work job with private company providing housing for immigrants. ...

... Send These, the Homeless, Tempest-tost to Me ... and I'll Make a Buck off Them. Graham Kates of CBS News: "... Friday, Caliburn International confirmed to CBS News that [former DHS secretary & White House chief-of-staff John] Kelly had joined its board of directors. Caliburn is the parent company of Comprehensive Health Services, which operates Homestead and three other shelters for unaccompanied migrant children in Texas. Prior to joining the Trump administration in January 2017, Kelly had been on the board of advisors of DC Capital Partners, an investment firm that now owns Caliburn.... In the past year, Comprehensive Health Services, the only private company operating shelters, became one of the most dominant players in the industry. Last August, it secured three licenses for facilities in Texas, totaling 500 beds, and in December, the Homestead facility began expanding from a capacity of 1,250 beds to 3,200. Located on several acres of federal land adjacent to an Air Reserve Base, the facility is the nation's only site not subject to routine inspections by state child welfare experts.... Government officials are barred from benefiting from their involvement in matters that involve specific parties, meaning that while serving at the White House, Kelly could not directly influence any decision to award a contract to a DC Capital company."

Erik Prince Is Always up to No Good. Daily Beast: "Blackwater founder Erik Prince arranged for political activist James O'Keefe's conservative group Project Veritas to receive more than one round of 'training in intelligence and elicitation techniques,' The Intercept reports. In 2016, the self-styled 'guerrilla journalist' group reportedly got lessons from a retired military intelligence operative. The training lasted several weeks and ended with the operative, Euripides Rubio Jr., reportedly quitting because the group 'wasn't capable of learning.' In 2017, Prince next set Project Veritas up with a former British MI6 officer in hopes of turning the organization into 'domestic spies,' according to report." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: The Intercept report, by Matthew Cole, is a long look at Erik Prince's comeback in the Age of Trump. Based on my spotty scan, I would say the article is quite readable. I'm just not going to read it.

Presidential Race 2020

Matt Dixon of Politico: "In an early show of force, more than a third of Florida's Democratic state legislators endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden in his bid for president. The endorsements, from 23 of the Legislature's 64 Democrats, were gathered over the past month by state Rep. Joseph Geller, a Broward County Democrat and longtime Biden supporter. Geller said Biden has the best shot at bridging a growing divide between progressive Democrats and those representing the party's more moderate, traditional wing." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Florida to Impose Steep Poll Tax. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "In November, Florida voters approved a groundbreaking ballot measure that would restore voting rights for up to 1.5 million people with felony convictions. But the Republican-led Legislature voted on Friday to impose a series of sharp restrictions that could prevent tens of thousands of them from ever reaching the ballot box. In a move that critics say undermines the spirit of what voters intended, thousands of people with serious criminal histories will be required to fully pay back fines and fees to the courts before they could vote. The new limits would require potential new voters to settle what may be tens of thousands of dollars in financial obligations to the courts, effectively pricing some people out of the ballot box.... The vast majority of criminal defendants are poor when they are arrested and even poorer after they are released from prison.... the legislation goes next to Gov. Ron DeSantis [R], who had called on the Legislature to set additional standards for registering ex-felons to vote....."

Ohio. Trip Gabriel & Michael Wines of the New York Times: "A federal court on Friday tossed out Ohio's congressional map, ruling that Republican state lawmakers had carved up the state to give themselves an illegal partisan advantage and to dilute Democrats' votes in a way that predetermined the outcome of elections. The ruling, by a three-judge panel from the Federal District Court in Cincinnati, ordered new maps to be drawn by June 14 to be used for the 2020 election, when Democrats will fight to preserve their House majority. The ruling will go directly to the United States Supreme Court for review. The ruling follows decisions by four other federal courts striking down partisan gerrymanders in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Maryland and, last week, in Michigan. All but Maryland were gerrymandered by Republicans."

Way Beyond

England. Palko Karasz of the New York Times: "Researchers seeking evidence of chemical 'micropollution' in five rural English rivers have found pesticides in many of the freshwater shrimp they tested. And cocaine in all of them. The presence of the illegal drug was unexpected because the sites where the researchers gathered their samples, in the eastern coastal county of Suffolk, were miles away from any large city, said the study's lead author, Thomas Miller, a researcher at King's College London."

North Korea. Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "North Korea fired several short-range projectiles off its east coast on Saturday, in a move likely to raise tensions as denuclearization talks with the United States remain stalled. The South Korean military said in a statement that the North had fired several short-range projectiles between 9:06 a.m. and 9:27 a.m. from near Wonsan, a coastal town east of Pyongyang, the capital. The projectiles flew 70 to 200 kilometers before they landed in the sea between North Korea and Japan, it said."

News Lede

USA Today: "All passengers and crew aboard a Boeing 737 traveling from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are safe after the plane crashed into a river at the end of a runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, authorities reported late Friday. At least 136 people were on board the charter plane at the time of the 9:40 p.m. crash, sending Navy security and emergency response teams to the scene. Photos show the plane landed in a shallow dredge of water with minimal damage." Mrs. McC: CNN reported that animals traveling in the hold probably did not survive.