The Commentariat -- February 21, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Shane Harris, et al., of the Washington Post: "U.S. officials have told Sen. Bernie Sanders that Russia is attempting to help his presidential campaign as part of an effort to interfere with the Democratic contest, according to people familiar with the matter. President Trump and lawmakers on Capitol Hill have also been informed about the Russian assistance to the Vermont senator, according to people familiar with the matter.... 'I don't care, frankly, who Putin wants to be president,' Sanders said in a statement to The Washington Post. 'My message to Putin is clear: Stay out of American elections, and as president I will make sure that you do. In 2016, Russia used Internet propaganda to sow division in our country, and my understanding is that they are doing it again in 2020. Some of the ugly stuff on the Internet attributed to our campaign may well not be coming from real supporters.'... At a Democratic candidates debate Wednesday in Las Vegas, Sanders indirectly blamed Russia, saying it was possible that malign actors were trying to manipulate social media to inflame divisions among Democrats.... After Sanders's remarks..., some social media analysts were skeptical of the notion that Russians already were masquerading as the candidate's supporters.... It now appears, however, that Sanders may have had a reason to suspect Russia...." Later, Sanders said he was briefed about Russian interference about a month ago. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It seems Bernie had no trouble condemnng Russia at the first opportunity. So why can't Donald do the same after years & years of pleas from reporters? Instead, Trump blames Democrats for spreading a "hoax," when the information is coming from U.S. intelligence agencies, not Democrats.

The Guardian has a liveblog of today's campaign events.

Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Mike Bloomberg said Friday his company would release from nondisclosure agreements three women who complained about inappropriate comments they said he made, two days after he was pressed to do so by Elizabeth Warren during the Democratic debate. 'Bloomberg LP has identified 3 NDAs signed over the past 30+ years with women to address complaints about comments they said I had made. If any of them want to be released from their NDAs, they should contact the company and they'll be given a release'" Bloomberg tweeted Friday."

Jeremy Diamond, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump's new personnel chief told agency officials at a meeting on Thursday to expect staffing changes and movements across the government, people familiar with the meeting told CNN. A White House official said John McEntee, the President's former body man who was elevated to run the presidential personnel office, made it clear his office will be on the lookout for staffers across the bureaucracy who are seen as disloyal to Trump. Another official said McEntee indicated he plans to first focus his efforts on personnel at the State Department and Department of Defense. He also told the liaisons that promotions and significant staff changes should not occur without prior approval from the presidential personnel office." Mrs. McC: McEntee, who is 29 years old & had an illustrious career ordering burgers & fries for President Big MacDonald before John Kelly had him frog-marched out of the White House because of security issues, is now moving career officials around, nixing their promotions & whatever based upon his judgment of their "loyalty" to Trump. ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Swan & Alayna Treene of Axios: "Trump has empowered McEntee -- whom he considers an absolute loyalist -- to purge the 'bad people' and 'Deep State.'" According to Swan & Treene, McEntee will stifle only political appointees.

Zachary Cohen of CNN: "Former acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has formally resigned from US government service, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN. The office of DNI officially announced the second-ranking official there, Andrew Hallman, stepped down Friday afternoon." The story is breaking at 3:35 pm ET Friday. ~~~

~~~ Ha Ha. According to Nicolle Wallace of MSNBC, Trump considered Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) to be Director of National Intelligence, but dropped him when a 2016 video resurfaced featuring Stewart calling Trump "Our Mussolini."

Eric Levenson, et al., of CNN: "Jurors in Harvey Weinstein's trial asked the judge Friday if they can be hung on some counts but unanimous on others....In response to Friday's note, the judge charged the jury to go back and continue deliberations.... Deliberations ended for the day at 3 p.m., and jurors are expected to return to court to continue deliberations Monday morning." The two charges the jurors appear to be hung on relate to predatory sexual assault.

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Trump said Friday that a disclosure by American intelligence officials that Russia was again meddling in a presidential election in his favor was merely another partisan campaign against him, dismissing the warning as a hoax cooked up by rivals. 'Another misinformation campaign is being launched by Democrats in Congress saying that Russia prefers me to any of the Do Nothing Democrat candidates who still have been unable to, after two weeks, count their votes in Iowa,' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Hoax number 7!'... Mr. Trump has a long history of discarding assessments made by intelligence agencies that he has deemed unfair or unflattering.... Mr. Trump, with the assistance of his Justice Department, has moved to retaliate against the intelligence community rather than Mr. Putin...." The Hill has a report here.

Jeff Stein & Laura Reiley of the Washington Post: "President Trump promised in an all-caps tweet Friday to provide additional bailout funding to American farmers if necessary, as questions arise over whether China's purchases of agricultural products will fall short of what it pledged in the recently signed trade deal. Trump said he may expand the nearly $30 billion bailout program until the administration’s recently struck trade deals with China, Canada, and Mexico 'kick in.' On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief economist, Robert Johansson, projected that agricultural exports to China would reach roughly $14 billion in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, far short of what White House officials said would take place.... Trump also said in the tweet that the federal bailout funding will be 'PAID FOR OUT OF THE MASSIVE TARIFF MONEY COMING INTO THE USA!' But critics have noted tariffs are paid by U.S. consumers in the form of higher prices."

Stephen Collison of CNN: "America is blundering into a new Russia election-meddling hall of mirrors that's already doing Moscow's work: tearing fresh political divides and threatening to again tarnish democracy's most sacred moment, a national election.... Trump was informed that the House Intelligence Committee was told of the Russian intelligence operation last week by Rep. Devin Nunes..., a source told CNN.... Partisan uproar over the new claims, meanwhile, suggests that the alleged operation is again delivering for Russia on its intended goals: sowing distrust in the US system and turning Americans against themselves in a way that weakens national unity." --s

Florida/Turkmenistan. Eric Lavai & Scot Stedman of Forensic News: "Florida's official Republican Party Facebook page, along with nine other Florida Republican county Facebook pages, have a page manager located in Turkmenistan, a country in Central Asia with no public affiliation to Florida Republicans or political social media consultants. All ten of the Facebook page managers from Turkmenistan disappeared after Forensic News contacted the Florida GOP page owner for comment.... Because Facebook does not require page managers to reveal their names, there is no way to know who is managing the pages from Turkmenistan. There was, however, a page owner, the person who runs the entire Florida GOP Facebook page, listed as longtime GOP social media strategist Jordan Gibson.... Further mystifying was the fact that Turkmenistan's government maintains total control over their Internet. All major social media sites, including Facebook, are banned." --s

~~~~~~~~~~

Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: In Wednesday's New York Times story on Trump's appointment of U.S. ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell as the acting director of national intelligence, the reporters wrote, "... it has never been clear how Mr. Trump viewed Mr. Maguire...." WashPo reporters looked into that: ~~~

~~~ Ellen Nakashima, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump erupted at his acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, in the Oval Office last week over what he perceived as disloyalty by Maguire's staff, which ruined Maguire's chances of becoming the permanent intelligence chief, according to people familiar with the matter.... Maguire had been considered a leading candidate to be nominated for the post of DNI.... But Trump's opinion shifted last week when he heard from a GOP ally that the intelligence official in charge of election security, who works for Maguire, gave a classified briefing last Thursday to the House Intelligence Committee on 2020 election security.... The president erroneously believed that ... the official, Shelby Pierson..., had given information exclusively to Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the committee chairman, and that the information would be helpful to Democrats if it were released publicly, the people familiar with the matter said.... The president was furious with Maguire and blamed him for the supposed transgression involving Pierson when the two met the next day. 'There was a dressing down' of Maguire, said one individual. 'That was the catalyst' that led to the sidelining of Maguire in favor of [Ric] Grenell, the person said. Maguire came away 'despondent,' said another individual.” An NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ OR, as Jerry Lambe of Law & Crime puts it, "... Donald Trump replaced Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire with the U.S. Ambassador to Germany and Trump International Hotel 'gold-level' member Richard Grenell based on an erroneous belief that a standard congressional briefing was somehow an act of disloyalty, the Washington Post reported Thursday"~~~

So the Grenell appointment is exactly what it looks like -- a bid to politicize intelligence and hide information from Congress in an election year where Russia is again helping Trump. -- Matthew Miller, in a tweet

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't have to tell you this is bat-shit crazy. The POTUS* hears a false rumor from some guy about an election security briefing, whereupon he has a hissyfit & makes a major personnel decision based on the gossip. There's a good chance found out later the rumor was untrue because he sent Maguire off with a glowing tweet: "I would like to thank Joe Maguire.... ....for the wonderful job he has done, and we look forward to working with him closely, perhaps in another capacity within the Administration!" Meanwhile, according to the WashPo report above, "On Thursday, Grenell said in a tweet that the president would nominate a permanent DNI 'soon' and that it would not be him." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: "... before anyone in Berlin celebrates Grenell's departure, this tidbit from a New York Times report stood out for me. 'Mr. Grenell is expected to keep his current ambassadorship as long as he is acting intelligence director, one administration official said.' Really? One unqualified person will oversee the U.S. intelligence community and remain the ambassador to Europe's largest country at the same time? What's more, let's also not forget that the White House tapped Grenell five months ago to serve as the U.S. envoy for Kosovo-Serbia diplomacy. I guess my question is, as of right now, exactly how many jobs does Ric Grenell have?" ~~~

     ~~~ Washington Post Editors: "PRESIDENT TRUMP'S campaign to purge the government of anyone not blindly loyal to him continued Wednesday with the appointment of Richard Grenell as acting director of national intelligence. Mr. Grenell, who currently serves as ambassador to Germany, is manifestly unqualified for the job, even in an acting capacity. He has no experience in intelligence or in managing large organizations -- like the 17 agencies that will now report to him. Mr. Grenell has nevertheless won the president's favor in a familiar way: by loudly praising him and his agenda on Fox News programs and social media.... In Berlin, he quickly made himself unwelcome with public attacks on German government policies and outspoken support for right-wing nationalist movements around Europe." ~~~

~~~ Update. Here's the New York Times' version of the story, which differs from the WashPo report:

     ~~~ Trump Is Furious Schiff Knows Putin Is Working on Trump Campaign Again. Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected, five people familiar with the matter said, in a disclosure that angered Mr. Trump, who complained that Democrats would use it against him. The day after the Feb. 13 briefing to lawmakers, Mr. Trump berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing it to take place, people familiar with the exchange said. Mr. Trump cited the presence in the briefing of Representative Adam BSchiff.... During the briefing to the House Intelligence Committee, Mr. Trump's allies challenged the conclusions, arguing that Mr. Trump has been tough on Russia and strengthened European security.... Though some current and former officials speculated that the briefing may have played a role in the removal of Mr. Maguire, who had told people in recent days that he believed he would remain in the job, two administration officials said the timing was coincidental.... Though intelligence officials have previously informed lawmakers that Russia's interference campaign was ongoing, last week's briefing did contain what appeared to be new information, including that Russia intends to interfere with the ongoing Democratic primaries as well as the general election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: That is, not only is Trump accepting help from Russia, now that he's president*, he's manipulating what members of Congress learn about the foreign interference. As for Maguire's firing being "coincidental" to the Intel briefing, Kevin Drum sez "You betcha."~~~

~~~ Jim Acosta, et al., of CNN: "The intelligence community's top election security official delivered a briefing to lawmakers last week warning them that the intelligence community believes Russia is already taking steps to interfere in the 2020 election with the goal of helping ... Donald Trump win, three sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. Last week's briefing, led by election security official Shelby Pierson and first reported by The New York Times, addressed the overall picture of Russia's efforts, including hacking, weaponizing social media and attacks on election infrastructure, one of the sources said." ~~~

By Daryl Cagle.

     ~~~ Spencer Ackerman, et al., of the Daily Beast: "According to a legislator who was present [at the Intel Committee meeting], the aide, Shelby Pierson, Maguire's election security chief, described a Russian elections-intrusion effort that never stopped from 2016.... 'The Republicans [on the committee] went nuts,' over Pierson's presentation, the member told The Daily Beast. A second source familiar with the briefing said that Republicans didn't understand why the Kremlin would try to boost Trump, since he had been so tough on Russia, in their view." ~~~

~~~ AND Another GOP Hack Moves Up the NSC Ladder. Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Kash Patel, a former top National Security Council official who also played a key role as a Hill staffer in helping Republicans discredit the Russia probe, is now a senior adviser for new acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, according to four people familiar with the matter. It's not clear what exact role Patel is playing in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the U.S. intelligence community. He started at ODNI on Thursday, according to an administration official." The NSC is now officially useless at best, a serious national security risk at worst. ~~~

~~~ AND Another NSC Advisor Suspected of Disloyalty Is Moved Out. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Deputy national security adviser Victoria Coates will be reassigned as a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, the National Security Council said Thursday -- and a senior White House official said that the administration 'rejects' the rumors that she is 'Anonymous.'... Coates has battled claims that she is the still-unknown Trump administration official that penned a New York Times op-ed and book critical of President Trump." ~~~

~~~ AND. Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal Constitution: "U.S. Rep. Doug Collins rejected the idea Friday of becoming the director of national intelligence after ... Donald Trump said he could tap the congressman to the post and spare fellow Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler of a formidable challenge. The Gainesville Republican said it was 'humbling' that Trump floated his name Thursday for the coveted job, he is determined to continue his challenge against Loeffler, a wealthy business executive tapped to the position in December." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Notice how this 2020 Trump election scandal segues right into the vestiges of the 2016 Trump election scandal. ~~~

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Roger J. Stone Jr., the Republican political consultant who for years portrayed himself as the dirty trickster of American politics, was sentenced Thursday to more than three years prison for obstructing a congressional inquiry in a bid to protect President Trump. The case against Mr. Stone, 67, a longtime friend of Mr. Trump's, had become a cause célèbre among the president's supporters. Mr. Trump has attacked the prosecutors, the jury forewoman and the federal judge overseeing the trial, casting his former campaign adviser as the victim of a vendetta by law enforcement.... Judge Amy Berman Jackson said that for months, Mr. Stone carried out a deliberate and calculated effort to hinder an important congressional inquiry by blatantly lying, hiding hundreds of documents and pressuring a fragile witness.... She added, 'He was not prosecuted to give anyone a political advantage. He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the president. He was prosecuted for covering up for the president.'... Judge Jackson said Mr. Stone's behavior inspired dismay and disgust.'" Politico's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Dan Berman of CNN highlights some of Judge Amy Berman Jackson's remarks delivered during her sentencing of Roger Stone. Mrs. McC: I couldn't find a copy of the transcript online, but Rachel Maddow got hold of one: ~~~

~~~ Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "... Donald Trump said his former adviser Roger Stone has 'a very good chance of exoneration,' hours after the GOP operative was sentenced to 40 months behind bars for obstructing a congressional investigation of Russia's 2016 presidential election meddling. 'I'm following this very closely, and I want to see it play out to its fullest, because Roger has a very good chance of exoneration, in my opinion,' Trump said Thursday in a speech at a Hope for Prisoners event in Las Vegas, where he also blasted the jury forewoman in Stone's criminal trial. 'It's my strong opinion that the forewoman for the jury is totally tainted,' Trump said, calling the woman ... 'an anti-Trump person, totally. I don't know if this is a fact, but she had a horrible social media account, he told the crowd and television cameras. 'She's I guess from what I hear a very strong woman, a very dominant person, so she can get people to do whatever she wants,' he claimed. 'How can you have a jury pool tainted so badly? It's not fair,' Trump said." Mrs. McC: Unhappily for his audience of former prisoners, Trump did not pardon them all. ~~~

~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: At the same event, "President Trump once again berated the 'dirty cops' of the law enforcement establishment on Thursday, accusing the Justice Department of going after his friends but not his enemies in an outburst that flouted Attorney General William P. Barr's pleas to stop publicly intervening in prosecutions where he had a personal interest.... Mr. Trump belittled the case [against Roger Stone] and hinted broadly that he would use his clemency power to spare Mr. Stone if a judge did not agree to a retrial sought by defense lawyers.... Mr. Trump's critics maintained that extending clemency to Mr. Stone would amount to self-dealing for a president who stood to benefit from the convicted adviser's lies about connections to WikiLeaks, which disseminated Democratic emails stolen by Russian agents to damage Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign." Emphasis added. ~~~

~~~ Megan Mineiro & Tim Ryan of Courthouse News: At the event, "... Trump also appeared to distance himself from [Roger Stone] by leveling an assertion the Justice Department disproved at Stone's trial with evidence and witness testimony. 'Roger was never involved in the Trump campaign for president, he wasn't involved,' Trump said. 'I think early on, long before I announced, he may have done a little consulting work or something. But he was not involved when I ran for president.'" ~~~

~~~ Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "... it's all become the worst kept secret in Washington: Trump won't let Roger Stone go to prison. 'It's not a question of if,' said a former senior administration official who remains in contact with Trump and his senior advisers. 'It's when.'"

Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "Federal prosecutors in Michigan have charged a man with making a death threat against one of the attorneys for a whistleblower who initiated the impeachment inquiry of ... Donald Trump, according to newly unsealed court records. The man, Brittan J. Atkinson, allegedly emailed the attorney in November, calling him a 'traitor' who 'must die a miserable death.' The attorney, Mark Zaid, confirmed to Politico that he received the email the day after Trump held up Zaid's photo and read some of Zaid's tweets during a rally. 'All traitors must die miserable deaths,' reads the email to Zaid that was sent on November 7. 'Those that represent traitors shall meet the same fate. We will hunt you down and bleed you out like the pigs you are. We have nothing but time, and you are running out of it. Keep looking over your shoulder. We know who you are, where you live, and who you associate with. We are all strangers in a crowd to you.'" Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I believe Trump is purposely inciting his crazy followers to harm the people he derides. Otherwise, why would he hold up a photo of Zaid? The purpose of the show-and-tell is to allow his violent followers to be able to identify the people Trump wants them to hurt. That photo Trump held up was a wanted poster.

Trump's Takeover of Justice Department, Ctd. Toluse Olorunnipa, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House is moving to take more direct control over pardons and commutations, with President Trump aiming to limit the role of the Justice Department in the clemency process as he weighs a flurry of additional pardon announcements, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump ... has assembled a team of advisers to recommend and vet candidates for pardons, according to several people with knowledge of the matter who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The group, essentially an informal task force of at least a half-dozen presidential allies, has been meeting since late last year to discuss a revamped pardon system in the White House. Jared Kushner Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, is taking a leading role in the new clemency initiative and has supported the idea of putting the White House more directly in control of the process that in past administrations has been housed in the Justice Department, officials said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "Former California Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher confirmed in a new interview that during a three-hour meeting at the Ecuadorian Embassy in August 2017, he told Julian Assange he would get President Trump to give him a pardon if he turned over information proving the Russians had not been the source of internal Democratic National Committee emails published by WikiLeaks. In a phone interview..., Rohrabacher said his goal during the meeting was to find proof for a widely debunked conspiracy theory: that WikiLeaks' real source for the DNC emails was not Russian intelligence agents, as U.S. officials have since concluded, but former DNC staffer Seth Rich, who was murdered on the streets of Washington in July 2016 in what police believe was a botched robbery. A lawyer for Assange in London on Wednesday cited the pardon offer from Rohrabacher during a court hearing on the U.S. government's request to extradite the WikiLeaks founder.... He [Rohrabacher] did not, however, ever speak to Trump about it, he said." Instead, he spoke to John Kelly, then Trump's chief-of-staff. Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: IOW, according to Rohrabacher, the pardon was all his idea, and Trump probably never heard about it. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Trouble with Subtitles. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "The movie studio behind the South Korean film 'Parasite' clapped back on Thursday after President Trump criticized the foreign language film for winning Best Picture at the 2020 Academy Awards. 'Understandable, he can't read,' Neon tweeted from its official account with a link to Trump's comments."

Jessica Kwong of Newsweek: "Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's Washington, D.C., mansion landlord was granted lease renewals from the Trump administration Wednesday for a proposed copper-nickel mine that could turn a protected Minnesota wilderness area into a 'gigantic new potty,' [Richard Painter] a former chief ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush warned.... Painter said he was not surprised at the approvals of the leases, which had been terminated by the Obama administration citing environmental risks." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, said in a wide-ranging discussion on Wednesday night that he disagreed with President Trump 'every single day,' mocked a fellow administration adviser and accused Republicans of hypocrisy over the budget deficit. Mr. Mulvaney, addressing a crowd of several hundred during a question-and-answer session with the Oxford Union in England, spoke freely about the impeachment inquiry into President Trump and denounced the so-called deep state as well as his predecessor, John F. Kelly. And he described the White House as functional and improved, despite near-daily descriptions of a chaotic and often toxic atmosphere.... [Mulvaney] falsely claimed that Democrats had not sought a subpoena from Mr. Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, whom Mr. Mulvaney claimed could have disclosed many things that do not fall under attorney-client privilege.... Describing his time as chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Mr. Mulvaney alternately praised and excoriated civil servants, saying the 'deep state' was real and claiming that he was besieged by people who were resisting what he described as Mr. Trump's agenda.... Mr. Mulvaney ... [said] that if they do not want to enact administration policy, they should quit or run for office themselves.... Without acknowledging the times the president or administration officials have relayed false information, Mr. Mulvaney suggested people should be leery of news accounts." ~~~

~~~ Nick Miroff & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told a crowd at a private gathering in England on Wednesday night that the Trump administration 'needs more immigrants' for the U.S. economy to continue growing, according to an audio recording of his remarks obtained by The Washington Post. 'We are desperate -- desperate -- for more people,' Mulvaney said. 'We are running out of people to fuel the economic growth that we've had in our nation over the last four years. We need more immigrants.'... Mulvaney's remarks appear in contrast to the public position of several top figures in Trump's White House -- especially that of senior policy adviser Stephen Miller -- who have been working to slash legal and illegal immigration through a slew of policies that aim to close off the U.S. border to foreigners."

Presidential Race

** A Poor Billionaire ... Signifying Nothing. Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "Wednesday's Democratic debate was far more informative than previous debates. What we learned, in particular, was that as a presidential candidate, Michael Bloomberg is a great businessman -- and that Elizabeth Warren remains a force to be reckoned with. Both lessons ran very much counter to the narrative that the news media has been telling in recent weeks.... Maybe the Warren-Bloomberg confrontation will help refocus discussion away from so-called Medicare for all -- which isn't going to be enacted, no matter who wins -- to an issue where it matters a lot which Democrat prevails. Namely, are we going to do anything to rein in the financialization of the U.S. economy?... There is no evidence that Wall Street's mega-expansion [which began in the 1980s] made the rest of the economy more efficient. On the contrary, growth in family incomes slowed down as finance rose -- although a few people became immensely rich. And the runaway growth of finance set the stage for the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. It also made Michael Bloomberg a billionaire." Read on. Mrs. McC: And here's hoping one of the readers is Elizabeth Warren. If you work for her or any Democratic candidate who is not Mike Bloomberg, pass it on.

Osita Nwanevu of the New Republic: "Wednesday's debate was the first in which all of the candidates present were willing to embrace the idea that at least one other person on the stage was either personally or ideologically beyond the pale for reasons beyond electability. Even if voters don't have high expectations, the candidates themselves can no longer deny that the Democratic Party faces deeper questions than the matter of who might be best positioned to beat Trump in November.... [Little] time has been spent contemplating how the party arrived here in the first place, on the cusp of awarding the nomination to someone who rejects many of the premises that have guided Democrats for the last 30 years." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Like many other publications, the New Republic has now gone to a four-articles-a-month limit for nonsubscribers. It appears the limit cannot be overridden by opening articles in private windows, so that's pretty much the end of my linking to NR pieces.

David Siders of Politico: "Mike Bloomberg is privately lobbying Democratic Party officials and donors allied with his moderate opponents to flip their allegiance to him -- and block Bernie Sanders -- in the event of a brokered national convention. The effort, largely executed by Bloomberg's senior state-level advisers in recent weeks, attempts to prime Bloomberg for a second-ballot contest at the Democratic National Convention in July by poaching supporters of Joe Biden and other moderate Democrats, according to two Democratic strategists familiar with the talks and unaffiliated with Bloomberg." ~~~

~~~ Molly Reddin of the Huffington Post: Mike "Bloomberg's assertion [during the Nevada Democratic presidential debate] that men and women are paid equally at his company, the financial software giant Bloomberg LP, is false. That's according to the company's own disclosures. In the United Kingdom, where Bloomberg LP employs several thousand workers, women earn 21.9% less than men in terms of their median hourly wage. Women occupy only 1 in 5 of the top quarter of the highest-paying jobs; the representation of women is largest in the bottom quarter of jobs. And although an equal share of men and women earn bonuses, the median women's bonus is one-third lower than the median men's bonus. Those figures come from a mandatory gender pay gap report that Bloomberg LP filed in the United Kingdom in April 2018.... Bloomberg LP is not required to file an equivalent report in the United States." ~~~

~~~ Bloomberg Keeps Gag on Female Accusers. Lucien Bruggeman, et al., of ABC News: "Under pressure [from Elizabeth Warren during Wednesday's debate, Mike] Bloomberg reverted to a well-worn line of defense [of his verbal abuse of women], dismissing his past language as a 'joke.'... As Bloomberg has downplayed the nature of the allegations against him and his company, those who leveled allegations against him who are subject to a confidentiality agreements could face potentially significant financial exposure if they decided to speak.... Bloomberg and his company have so far resisted calls -- most notably from Sen. Warren -- to release those women from those agreements. On Wednesday, Bloomberg even implied that the women subject to the privacy agreements wanted to continue to abide by them. But ABC News has spoken with several women who expressed interest in telling their stories, but feared the prospect of retribution from the company, including significant financial losses for violating the terms of their confidentiality agreement by speaking out."

Justin Wise of the Hill: "The broadcast of the Democratic presidential primary debate in Las Vegas on Wednesday drew nearly 20 million viewers across NBC and MSNBC, making it the most-watched Democratic debate in television history, the network said.... The first GOP primary debate of the 2016 election cycle still holds the record for TV viewership of a debate regardless of party."

Zack Budryk of the Hill: "President Trump's reelection campaign has purchased the advertising space on YouTube's homepage for Election Day. The campaign purchased the website's masthead on Nov. 3 nationwide, a person familiar with the deal told Bloomberg.... Former President Obama's 2012 reelection campaign also bought the masthead for Election Day before Mitt Romney had clinched the Republican nomination, Teddy Goff, Obama's onetime digital director, told the publication. 'This gets to a structural problem inherent in having a contested primary against an incumbent,' he told Bloomberg." Mrs. McC: Buying up YouTube's main page is hardly the only "structural problem" in having this particular incumbent.

Plus all that stuff about Russian election interference, linked above.

Facebook Designed Its Policies to Help the Right Wing. Craig Timburg of the Washington Post: Facebook created 'Project P' -- for propaganda -- in the hectic weeks after the 2016 presidential election and quickly found dozens of pages that had peddled false news reports ahead of Donald Trump's surprise victory. Nearly all were based overseas, had financial motives and displayed a clear rightward bent. In a world of perfect neutrality..., the political tilt of the pages shouldn't have mattered. But in a videoconference between Facebook's Washington office and its Silicon Valley headquarters in December 2016, the company's most senior Republican, Joel Kaplan, voiced concerns that would become familiar to those within the company. 'We can't remove all of it because it will disproportionately affect conservatives,' said Kaplan, a former George W. Bush White House official and now the head of Facebook's Washington office.... [Thus,] a company led mainly by Democrats in the liberal bastion of Northern California repeatedly has tilted rightward to deliver policies, hiring decisions and public gestures sought by Republicans..., [ensuring] a platform that gives politicians license to lie and that remains awash in misinformation, vulnerable to a repeat of many of the problems that marred the 2016 presidential election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

Brad Reed of RawStory: "A man who killed nine people in a mass shooting in Germany published a racist manifesto in which he identified as an 'incel' and called for killing all non-whites in the country. Insider reports that 43-year-old Tobias Rathjen, whom police say went on a shooting rampage in the town of Hanhau on Wednesday night, published a 24-page manifesto on his personal website that outlined his racist beliefs.... [He] also accuses President Donald Trump of stealing his ideas." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Commentariat -- February 20, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Mrs. McCrabbie: In Wednesday's New York Times story on theTrump's appointment of U.S. ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell as the acting director of national intelligence, the reporters wrote, "... it has never been clear how Mr. Trump viewed Mr. Maguire...." So Washington Post reporters looked into that: ~~~

~~~ Ellen Nakashima, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump erupted at his acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, in the Oval Office last week over what he perceived as disloyalty by Maguire's staff, which ruined Maguire's chances of becoming the permanent intelligence chief, according to people familiar with the matter.... Maguire had been considered a leading candidate to be nominated for the post of DNI.... But Trump's opinion shifted last week when he heard from a GOP ally that the intelligence official in charge of election security, who works for Maguire, gave a classified briefing last Thursday to the House Intelligence Committee on 2020 election security.... The president erroneously believed that ... the official, Shelby Pierson..., had given information exclusively to Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the committee chairman, and that the information would be helpful to Democrats if it were released publicly, the people familiar with the matter said.... The president was furious with Maguire and blamed him for the supposed transgression involving Pierson when the two met the next day. 'There was a dressing down' of Maguire, said one individual. 'That was the catalyst' that led to the sidelining of Maguire in favor of [Ric] Grenell, the person said. Maguire came away 'despondent,' said another individual." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't have to tell you this is bat-shit crazy. The POTUS* hears a false rumor from some guy about an election security briefing, whereupon he has a hissyfit & makes a major personnel decision based on the gossip. There's a good chance found out later the rumor was untrue because he sent Maguire off with a glowing tweet: "I would like to thank Joe Maguire .... for the wonderful job he has done, and we look forward to working with him closely, perhaps in another capacity within the Administration!" Meanwhile, according to the WashPo report above, "On Thursday, Grenell said in a tweet that the president would nominate a permanent DNI 'soon' and that it would not be him." I heard on the teevee that Grenell is keeping his ambassadorship. ~~~

~~~ Update. Here's the New York Times' version of the story, which differs from the WashPo report:

     ~~~ Putin Is Helping Trump; Trump Is Furious Schiff Knows. Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected, five people familiar with the matter said, in a disclosure that angered Mr. Trump, who complained that Democrats would use it against him. The day after the Feb. 13 briefing to lawmakers, Mr. Trump berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing it to take place, people familiar with the exchange said. Mr. Trump cited the presence in the briefing of Representative Adam B. Schiff.... During the briefing to the House Intelligence Committee, Mr. Trump's allies challenged the conclusions, arguing that Mr. Trump has been tough on Russia and strengthened European security.... Though some current and former officials speculated that the briefing may have played a role in the removal of Mr. Maguire, who had told people in recent days that he believed he would remain in the job, two administration officials said the timing was coincidental.... Though intelligence officials have previously informed lawmakers that Russia's interference campaign was ongoing, last week's briefing did contain what appeared to be new information, including that Russia intends to interfere with the ongoing Democratic primaries as well as the general election."

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Roger J. Stone Jr., the Republican political consultant who for years portrayed himself as the dirty trickster of American politics, was sentenced Thursday to more than three years prison for obstructing a congressional inquiry in a bid to protect President Trump. The case against Mr. Stone, 67, a longtime friend of Mr. Trump's, had become a cause célèbre among the president's supporters. Mr. Trump has attacked the prosecutors, the jury forewoman and the federal judge overseeing the trial, casting his former campaign adviser as the victim of a vendetta by law enforcement.... Judge Amy Berman Jackson said that for months, Mr. Stone carried out a deliberate and calculated effort to hinder an important congressional inquiry by blatantly lying, hiding hundreds of documents and pressuring a fragile witness.... She added, 'He was not prosecuted to give anyone a political advantage. He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the president. He was prosecuted for covering up for the president.'... Judge Jackson said Mr. Stone's behavior inspired dismay and disgust.'" Politico's report is here. ~~~

~~~ MSNBC: Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Roger Stone to 40 months in prison, plus two years probation, & a $20,000 fine. She had harsh words for Stone, who did not speak in his own defense.

Trump's Takeover of Justice Department, Ctd. Toluse Olorunnipa, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House is moving to take more direct control over pardons and commutations, with President Trump aiming to limit the role of the Justice Department in the clemency process as he weighs a flurry of additional pardon announcements, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump ... has assembled a team of advisers to recommend and vet candidates for pardons, according to several people with knowledge of the matter who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The group, essentially an informal task force of at least a half-dozen presidential allies, has been meeting since late last year to discuss a revamped pardon system in the White House. Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, is taking a leading role in the new clemency initiative and has supported the idea of putting the White House more directly in control of the process that in past administrations has been housed in the Justice Department, officials said."

Jessica Kwong of Newsweek: "Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's Washington, D.C., mansion landlord was granted lease renewals from the Trump administration Wednesday for a proposed copper-nickel mine that could turn a protected Minnesota wilderness area into a 'gigantic new potty,' [Richard Painter] a former chief ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush warned.... Painter said he was not surprised at the approvals of the leases, which had been terminated by the Obama administration citing environmental risks." --s

Brad Reed of RawStory: "A man who killed nine people in a mass shooting in Germany published a racist manifesto in which he identified as an 'incel' and called for killing all non-whites in the country. Insider reports that 43-year-old Tobias Rathjen, whom police say went on a shooting rampage in the town of Hanhau on Wednesday night, published a 24-page manifesto on his personal website that outlined his racist beliefs.... [He] also accuses President Donald Trump of stealing his ideas." --s

Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "Former California Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher confirmed in a new interview that during a three-hour meeting at the Ecuadorian Embassy in August 2017, he told Julian Assange he would get President Trump to give him a pardon if he turned over information proving the Russians had not been the source of internal Democratic National Committee emails published by WikiLeaks. In a phone interview with Yahoo News, Rohrabacher said his goal during the meeting was to find proof for a widely debunked conspiracy theory: that WikiLeaks' real source for the DNC emails was not Russian intelligence agents, as U.S. officials have since concluded, but former DNC staffer Seth Rich, who was murdered on the streets of Washington in July 2016 in what police believe was a botched robbery. A lawyer for Assange in London on Wednesday cited the pardon offer from Rohrabacher during a court hearing on the U.S. government's request to extradite the WikiLeaks founder.... [Rohrabacher] did not, however, ever speak to Trump about it, he said." Instead, he spoke to John Kelly, then Trump's chief-of-staff. Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: IOW, according to Rohrabacher, the pardon was all his idea, and Trump probably never heard about it.

Facebook Designed Its Policies to Help the Right Wing. Craig Timburg of the Washington Post: Facebook created 'Project P' -- for propaganda -- in the hectic weeks after the 2016 presidential election and quickly found dozens of pages that had peddled false news reports ahead of Donald Trump's surprise victory. Nearly all were based overseas, had financial motives and displayed a clear rightward bent. In a world of perfect neutrality..., the political tilt of the pages shouldn't have mattered. But in a videoconference between Facebook's Washington office and its Silicon Valley headquarters in December 2016, the company's most senior Republican, Joel Kaplan, voiced concerns that would become familiar to those within the company. 'We can't remove all of it because it will disproportionately affect conservatives,' said Kaplan, a former George W. Bush White House official and now the head of Facebook's Washington office.... [Thus,] a company led mainly by Democrats in the liberal bastion of Northern California repeatedly has tilted rightward to deliver policies, hiring decisions and public gestures sought by Republicans..., [ensuring] a platform that gives politicians license to lie and that remains awash in misinformation, vulnerable to a repeat of many of the problems that marred the 2016 presidential election."

~~~~~~~~~~

Best Planned Zingers

I'd like to talk about who we're running against: a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians. And no, I'm not talking about Donald Trump. I'm talking about Mayor Bloomberg. Look, I'll support whoever the Democratic nominee is, but understand this. Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another. -- Elizabeth Warren

Mayor Buttigieg really has a slogan that was thought up by his consultants to paper over a thin version of a plan that would leave millions of people unable to afford their health care. It's not a plan, it's a Power Point. And Amy's plan is even less. It's like a Post-it note: 'insert plan here.' Bernie has started very much -- has a good start. But instead of expanding and bringing in more people to help, instead his campaign relentlessly attacks everyone who asks a question or tries to fill in details about how to actually make this work. And then his own advisers say, 'Eh, probably won't happen anyway.' -- Elizabeth Warren ~~~

What a wonderful country we have. The best known socialist happens to be a millionaire with three houses. -- Michael Bloomberg on Bernie Sanders

Let's put forth someone who is actually a Democrat. -- Pete Buttigieg, on Sanders & Bloomberg

Best Uncanned Responses

I take personal offense because Post-it notes were invented in my state. -- Amy Klobuchar, on Elizabeth Warren's attack

I hope you heard what his defense was: 'I've been nice to some women.' -- Elizabeth Warren, on Michael Bloomberg

~~~ Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "The Democratic presidential candidates turned on one another in scorching and personal terms in a debate on Wednesday night, with two of the leading candidates, Senator Bernie Sanders and Michael R. Bloomberg, forced onto the defensive repeatedly throughout the evening. In his first appearance in a presidential debate, Mr. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, struggled from the start to address his past support for stop-and-frisk policing and the allegations he has faced over the years of crude and disrespectful behavior toward women. Time and again, Mr. Bloomberg had obvious difficulty countering criticism that could threaten him in a Democratic Party that counts women and African-Americans among its most important constituencies. Two candidates who have shied away from direct conflict in past debates, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., mounted something of a tag-team onslaught against Mr. Bloomberg, several times leaving him visibly irked and straining to respond." ~~~

~~~ Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Bloomberg's uneven performance Wednesday offered little reassurance that he could hold his ground against Trump on a debate stage this fall."

~~~ New York Times opinion writers assess the candidates' performances. Politico reporters point out the highlights. Mrs. McC: Bloomberg & Klobuchar didn't effectively counter the attacks against them, and Buttigieg proved he's a lightweight. Warren "looked presidential," but mean presidential.

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Although it took me a while to find it, Klobuchar's campaign Website has a long page of small print on healthcare. I don't know what page it was Warren thought would fit on a Post-it, but it wasn't this page. Unless Klobuchar's campaign put together this page overnight (and I don't think that's what happened) Warren's attack was untrue.

Here's the New York Times reporters' snark analysis of the Democratic presidential debate. Includes live videofeed of the debate. Update: Oops! Got an error message on the livefeed. It seems to be defunct as the debate begins.

Jordan Weissmann of Slate: "... Elizabeth Warren ... seemed to give her campaign some new, much needed energy on Wednesday night during the Democratic showdown in Nevada, where she pretty much laid Michael Bloomberg out on the stage and then ran a truck back and forth over him while the crowd cheered like it was a Monster Jam rally. Then she gunned it for her other opponents. I mean, it was brutal. It was crushing. It was a command performance full of zingers that drew roars, even if they were a bit obviously prewritten.... It may or may not be enough to bring back her candidacy from the brink. But I'm sure at least a few voters found themselves thinking it would be fun to see her give Donald Trump the same treatment as the billionaire she embarrassed in Nevada."

Eric Levitz of New York has a withering assessment of all of the candidates' reality-show performances: "... pugnacity is just another word for nothing left to lose."

Eoin Higgins of Common Dreams: "Sen. Bernie Sanders was the lone voice on Wednesday night's debate stage in Las Vegas endorsing without reservation the idea that the candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination with the most votes by this summer's convention in Milwaukee should be the party's standard bearer. All other five candidates onstage endorsed allowing the 'process' to play out, which would mean allowing super-delegates to weigh in from the second ballot on, alongside the regular delegates earned from votes in the primary." Mrs. McC: This may prove to be the most important question of last night's food fight, and Chuck Todd asked it! ~~~

     ~~~ Ed Kilgore of New York: "... as Sanders pointed out in his answer, a second ballot would allow 771 unelected and unpledged super-delegates (basically elected officials) to cast their own votes. They would represent an estimated 16 percent of total second-ballot delegates. The provision keeping superdelegates off the table on the first ballot (and also reducing their number) was part of a compromise deal struck by the DNC with Sanders supporters after the 2016 cycle. But now Sanders is arguing that only pledged delegates should count, which means, in practice, that the first ballot should be the last.... Unlikely as this is, imagine Bernie's got 35 percent of the pledged delegates and someone else has 33 percent. Why should he be the putative nominee, without a second ballot to sort out, well, second choices? That is particularly true since, as my colleague Gabriel Debenedetti points out, Sanders persistently refused to concede the 2016 nomination to Hillary Clinton until she could claim a majority of pledged delegates."

Shane Goldmacher & Adriana Ramic of the New York Times: "This will be the ninth Democratic debate but the first featuring former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, and he is bound to face an avalanche of attacks from his rivals. Mr. Bloomberg's rise in recent polls has coincided with the decline of Joseph R. Biden Jr., who needs a big debate performance to recover from stinging losses in Iowa and New Hampshire. Senator Bernie Sanders, who appears in strong shape heading into Nevada's caucuses on Saturday, simply needs to continue avoiding the scrutiny that some rivals have received in past debates. Tonight is also a chance for Senator Elizabeth Warren to regain her footing pre-Super Tuesday and for Pete Buttigieg to show he can speak to the concerns of a racially diverse electorate. The surge of Senator Amy Klobuchar in New Hampshire after one strong debate showed just how much these television spectacles can matter. Here are the dynamics to watch for."

Ezra Klein of Vox: "Since entering the presidential race in November, Mike Bloomberg has spent more than $400 million of his own money on ads.... He's [also] spent a decade as a generous and effective donor to progressive causes, friendly politicians, cash-strapped cities, and worthy nonprofits.... For many frightened Democrats..., the case for Bloomberg [is]: Whatever his faults, he carries a deep war chest he could use to defeat Donald Trump and elect congressional Democrats.... 'Winning the presidential election is starting to look hard.' quipped Jonathan Chait in New York magazine. 'How about buying it instead?'... This is how bad systems corrupt good individuals -- they do it by enlisting our self-interest to convince us to betray our values.... [Bloomberg's] campaign isn't a betrayal of the political and economic system we have now but its logical extension: If we are going to allow this much wealth concentration, and if the Supreme Court holds that the rich can spend as much money pursuing their political ambitions as they want, then eventually American politics will simply become a competition between billionaires of the left and billionaires of the right.... Even if Bloomberg would be a good president, he'd be a terrible precedent."

Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "Key fundraisers are jumping ship from Joe Biden's struggling presidential campaign to instead support Mike Bloomberg's ascending candidacy. The development comes amid growing concerns within Biden's affluent donor network that the former vice president is struggling to convince voters that he can defeat Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, for the Democratic nomination."

Savannah Berhmann of USA Today: "Bernie Sanders said Tuesday night that he is not planning to release any additional medical records. Sanders, 78, suffered a heart attack in October during a campaign event. He had a blockage in one artery and two stents were inserted, his campaign said at the time. Speaking during CNN's town hall in Las Vegas, Sanders was asked to clarify whether his presidential campaign would be releasing full medical records, which he previously stated he would do.... At the time, he said, 'The people do have a right to know about the health of a senator, somebody who's running for president of the United States -- full disclosure.' However, Tuesday he said: 'We have released quite as much documentation as any other candidate has' and reiterated that letters from cardiologists and doctors have said he is in good health."

Edward-Isaac Dovere of the Atlantic: "Bernie Sanders got so close to running a primary challenge to President Barack Obama that Senator Harry Reid had to intervene to stop him. It took Reid two conversations over the summer of 2011 to get Sanders to scrap the idea, according to multiple people who remember the incident, which has not been previously reported. That summer, Sanders privately discussed a potential primary challenge to Obama with several people, including Patrick Leahy, his fellow Vermont senator. Leahy, alarmed, warned Jim Messina, Obama's presidential reelection-campaign manager. Obama's campaign team was 'absolutely panicked' by Leahy's report, Messina told me, since 'every president who has gotten a real primary has lost a general [election].' David Plouffe, another Obama strategist, confirmed Messina's account, as did another person familiar with what happened."

Devan Cole of CNN: "Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang is joining CNN as a political commentator, the network announced Wednesday.... He'll appear on the network in his new capacity later Wednesday, he added. Yang, a businessman who ended his campaign last week, rose from obscurity to become a highly-visible candidate, rallying a coalition of liberal Democrats, libertarians and some disaffected Republicans to form a devoted group of followers known as the Yang Gang."

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "Ignoring appeals from his attorney general to stop tweeting about the Justice Department, President Trump renewed his attacks on the agency on Wednesday, demanding 'JUSTICE' for himself and all future presidents.... With a series of retweets, Mr. Trump appeared to embrace the suggestion that Attorney General William P. Barr 'clean shop' at the department. And the president promoted the idea of naming a special counsel to investigate what Tom Fitton, the head of the conservative nonprofit Judicial Watch, described as a 'seditious conspiracy' at the department and the F.B.I."

Ashraf Khalil of the AP: "Roger Stone ... faces sentencing Thursday on his convictions for witness tampering and lying to Congress. The action in federal court comes amid Trump's unrelenting defense of his longtime confidant that has led to a mini-revolt inside the Justice Department and allegations the president has interfered in the case."

Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "The clemency orders that the president issued ... to celebrity felons like [Bernie] Kerik, Rod R. Blagojevich and Michael R. Milken came about through a typically Trumpian process, an ad hoc scramble that bypassed the formal procedures used by past presidents and was driven instead by friendship, fame, personal empathy and a shared sense of persecution. While aides said the timing was random, it reinforced Mr. Trump's antipathy toward the law enforcement establishment. All 11 recipients had an inside connection or were promoted on Fox News. Some were vocal supporters of Mr. Trump, donated to his campaign or in one case had a son who weekended in the Hamptons with the president's eldest son. Even three obscure women serving time on drug or fraud charges got on Mr. Trump's radar screen through a personal connection." ~~~

~~~ Washington Post Editors: "IN ANNOUNCING seven pardons and four commutations of convicted federal criminals on Tuesday, President Trump ... made clear the pardons were a function of his whim, based on which celebrity or personal friend caught his ear, who got on Fox News to appeal to him, or who gave money to the Trump cause.... This arbitrary deployment of presidential pardon power sent several messages, all of them insidious. One is that favor flows from the leader's good graces.... Another is that Blagojevich-like corruption is not serious and that those who investigate and prosecute such wrongdoing do so not because it is unusual but because they are biased. This is false.... Lastly, Mr. Trump is asserting control over criminal matters, which his predecessors avoided for fear of corrupting the justice system."

Julian Borger & Owen Bowcott of the Guardian: "Donald Trump offered Julian Assange a pardon if he would say Russia was not involved in leaking Democratic party emails, a court in London has been told. The extraordinary claim was made at Westminster magistrates court before the opening next week of Assange's legal battle to block attempts to extradite him to the US, where he faces charges for publishing hacked documents. The allegation was denied by the former Republican congressman named by the Assange legal team as a key witness. Assange's lawyers alleged that during a visit to London in August 2017, congressman Dana Rohrabacher told the WikiLeaks founder that 'on instructions from the president, he was offering a pardon or some other way out, if Mr Assange ... said Russia had nothing to do with the DNC [Democratic National Committee] leaks.'" ~~~

~~~ "Was There a Quid Pro Quo? The Answer Is 'Yes.'" Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "A judge in the United Kingdom will allow Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange to argue that he was offered a pardon by ... Donald Trump in exchange for issuing a statement that Russia was not the source of leaks beneficial to Trump's 2016 campaign.... The Assange lawyer's allegation does appear to be corroborated after all -- by [Dana Rohrabacher] himself. Rohrabacher previously told Los Angeles media -- in September 2017 -- that he took part in a 'confidential interaction' with the White House -- in order to secure Assange a deal. The deal Rohrabacher described involved making Assange's legal troubles go away in exchange for information that could exonerate Trump and the Trump campaign during the Russia probe. The news outlet asked Rohrabacher if Assange was asking for a pardon as a part of a potential deal, but he would only say discussions were 'confidential.' Former federal prosecutor Richard Signorelli called the upshot here: 'This is called corroboration of Assange's attorney proffer of corrupt pardon promise by Trump.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: While I don't doubt that all of Trump's pardons are corrupt -- that is, he grants them to further his own political or personal interests -- the alleged offer to Assange, as Signorelli writes, is directly tied to a corrupt purpose. The presidential pardon, despite what Trump believes and what we often hear on the teevee, is not absolute. The president (or a state's governor, for that matter) cannot pardon an individual for the purpose of gaining something in return. This is different from granting pardons to your friends or allies-- as George H.W. Bush did -- or to donors -- as Bill Clinton did, where the friendships, alliances, actions or political contributions were not expressly conditioned on receiving pardons. In the Trump-Assange case, if proved, there was an expressed quid pro quo.

Post-Impeachment House Cleaning, Ctd.

     ~~~ Maggie Haberman & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "President Trump was expected to name Richard Grenell, the American ambassador to Germany, to be the acting director of national intelligence, three people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. Mr. Grenell, whose outspokenness throughout his career as a political operative and then as ambassador has prompted criticism, is a vocal Trump loyalist who will lead a group of national security agencies often viewed skeptically by the White House. He would take over from Joseph Maguire, who has served as the acting director of national intelligence since the resignation last summer of Dan Coats, a former Republican senator from Indiana.... Mr. Maguire initially blocked the whistle-blower complaint from being forwarded to Congress, following the guidance of administration lawyers. But he eventually helped broker the agreement to provide the complaint to Congress's intelligence committees, allowing the impeachment inquiry to gain steam." Axios has a story here. ~~~

     ~~~ All the Best People, Ctd. Kaitlin Collins, et al., of CNN: The appointment of Grenell "is raising concerns even among Trump allies who have been quick to point out that Grenell's primary qualification appears to be his loyalty to the President. One source close to Trump told CNN they were surprised by the pick, noting Grenell has zero intelligence-related experience. And another Trump adviser described Grenell as 'out of his league' for the acting DNI job, adding that some in the administration are 'embarrassed by his behavior.'... Grenell, also a former Fox News contributor, is not expected to be nominated for the full-time director position, which would require Senate confirmation. His track record as US ambassador to Germany has also raised concerns, even among some Republicans. 'Some Republicans are outraged with the job he has done as ambassador, there is no way he could get confirmed,' a source familiar with the move said."

     ~~~ Jim Sciutto, et al., of CNN: "The Pentagon's top policy official who warned against withholding military aid to Ukraine last year resigned on Wednesday at the request of ... Donald Trump, according to a copy of his resignation letter obtained by CNN. John Rood, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon, is the latest senior national security official involved in the Ukraine controversy to be forced out following Trump's acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial, but sources told CNN that he broke with the administration on several issues, in addition to the handling of aid to Ukraine, leading to a loss of support from leadership.... He was involved in certifying to Congress that Ukraine had embarked on significant reforms to justify its receipt of $250 million in security assistance. That certification undermined one of the justifications -- concerns about corruption in Kiev -- that some members of the Trump administration made to defend blocking aid to Ukraine. Hours after Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky..., Rood emailed Secretary of Defense Mark Esper -- who had been in the job two days -- ... that 'placing a hold on security assistance at this time would jeopardize this unique window of opportunity and undermine our defense priorities with a key partner in the strategic competition with Russia.'"

Ariane de Vogue of CNN: "A group of federal judges hastily postponed an emergency meeting that was scheduled to take place Wednesday to discuss concerns about ... Donald Trump and the Justice Department's intervention in politically charged cases."

Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday signed an order in California to re-engineer the state's water plans, completing a campaign promise to funnel water from the north to a thirsty agriculture industry and growing population further south. The ceremonial order comes after the Department of the Interior late last year reversed its opinion on scientific findings that for a decade extended endangered species protections to various types of fish -- a review that had been spurred by the order from Trump. Trump said the changes to the 'outdated scientific research and biological opinions' would now help direct 'as much water as possible, which will be a magnificent amount, a massive amount of water for the use of California farmers and ranchers.'"

Jonathan Mattise of the AP: "Former national security adviser John Bolton on Wednesday denounced the House's impeachment proceedings against ... Donald Trump as 'grossly partisan' and said his testimony would not have changed Trump's acquittal in the Senate, as he continued to stay quiet on the details of a yet-to-be-released book. In his second public discussion this week, Bolton was on stage at Vanderbilt University with former national security adviser under President Barack Obama, Susan Rice, who questioned Bolton's refusal to discuss more details while his book undergoes screening for possible classified national security details by the Trump administration. Bolton was likewise quiet on specifics from the book during a Monday speaking engagement at Duke University."

Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Wednesday night that the Republican Party is hypocritical when it comes to deficits, according to audio of an overseas speech obtained by The Washington Post. 'My party is very interested in deficits when there is a Democrat in the White House. The worst thing in the whole world is deficits when Barack Obama was the president. Then Donald Trump became president, and we're a lot less interested as a party,' Mulvaney said at the Oxford Union to a group of several hundred people. Mulvaney, who ran the Office of Management and Budget before taking the acting chief of staff role, said he found the growing deficit -- which reached almost $1 trillion in 2019, soaring in the Trump era -- 'extraordinarily disturbing' but that neither party, nor voters, cared much about it. Republicans, he said, were 'evolving' since Trump became president."

John Bowden of the Hill: "China has expelled three reporters for The Wall Street Journal after its foreign ministry deemed as 'racist' an op-ed headline in the newspaper. A statement obtained by multiple news outlets from China's foreign ministry blamed the expulsions on an opinion piece written by Walter Russell Mead titled 'China is the Real Sick Man of Asia,' a reference to the ongoing outbreak of a new form of coronavirus in the country.... The Journal's CEO and publisher William Lewis called for China to immediately reinstate the reporters' credentials, while apologizing for the headline which offended Chinese readers.... The expulsions followed a decision by the Trump administration to designate several Chinese media companies as de facto arms of the government in Beijing.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday chastised China for expelling the three WSJ journalists."

Beyond the Beltway

Utah. Bethany Rodgers of the Salt Lake Tribune: "A bill that would effectively decriminalize polygamy and dispel fears of prosecution for plural marriage among consenting adults sailed through the Utah Senate on Tuesday. Sen. Deidre Henderson's bill would reclassify bigamy as an infraction, codifying the practice of the Utah attorney general's office not to prosecute otherwise law-abiding polygamists. An infraction, like a traffic ticket, carries no threat of imprisonment. The measure, SB102, cleared the Senate by a unanimous vote after scant debate and now heads to the House. Current Utah law makes polygamy a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. It can be up to 15 years if the defendant is also convicted of fraud, child abuse, sexual abuse, domestic abuse or human smuggling or trafficking. Henderson's bill would leave intact these enhanced penalties and add a few more crimes under which polygamy would be a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison."

Way Beyond

Germany. David McHugh & Frank Jordans of the AP: "A 43-year-old German man shot and killed nine people at several locations in a Frankfurt suburb in attacks that appeared to have been motivated by far-right beliefs, officials said Thursday. The gunman first attacked a hookah bar and a neighboring cafe in central Hanau at about 10 p.m. Wednesday, killing several people, before heading about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) west and opening fire again, first on a car and then a sports bar, claiming more victims. Chancellor Angela Merkel said that while the circumstances of the attack still needed to be fully investigated, the shootings exposed the 'poison' of racism in German society. Merkel pledged to stand up against those who seek to divide the country."

News Lede

The New York Times' live updates on developments in the coronavirus epidemic are here.

The Commentariat -- February 19, 2020

Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "The ninth Democratic presidential debate is set for Wednesday in Las Vegas.... The two-hour debate, which is being hosted by NBC News, MSNBC, Noticias Telemundo and The Nevada Independent, is being held at the Paris Theater in Las Vegas. It's scheduled to start at 9 p.m. ET." Mrs. McC: This debate could be crucial, as Mike Bloomberg's fate may be determined by his performance.

** Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "Attorney General William P. Barr has told people close to President Trump -- both inside and outside the White House -- that he is considering quitting over Trump's tweets about Justice Department investigations, three administration officials said, foreshadowing a possible confrontation between the president and his attorney general over the independence of the Justice Department. So far, Trump has defied Barr's requests, both public and private, to keep quiet on matters of federal law enforcement. It was not immediately clear Tuesday if Barr had made his posture known directly to Trump. The administration officials said Barr seemed to be sharing his position with advisers in hopes the president would get the message that he should stop weighing in publicly on the Justice Department's ongoing criminal investigations." ABC News has a story here. Mrs. McC: Yo, Bill. If you need to get a message to Donald, the only sure way is go on Fox "News." BTW, Bill, we did notice you had this story leaked to nearly every major print & broadcast outlet. Almost makes me feel as if it's fake news. Of course we know what really upsets you, Bill, is that it's harder for you to shill for Trump when he is publicly telegraphing the unethical orders you're carrying out. ~~~

~~~ Summer Concepcion of TPM: "When asked [by a reporter Tuesday] if he makes it hard for Barr to do his job with integrity, Trump said 'oh yeah' given how Barr is 'a man with incredible integrity.' 'Just so you understand, I chose not to be involved,' Trump said. 'I'm allowed to be totally involved. I'm actually, I guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country. But I've chosen not to be involved. But he is a man of great integrity. But I could be involved if I wanted to be.'"

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "President Trump renewed his attacks on law enforcement on Tuesday, denouncing the prosecutors, the judge and the jury forewoman in the case of his longtime friend Roger J. Stone Jr. only days after Attorney General William P. Barr warned that the president's criticisms were making it 'impossible' for him to do his job. Undeterred, Mr. Trump kept up his running commentary on the department's criminal cases on Twitter and in comments to reporters before leaving for the West Coast. He reasserted that he had the right to intervene in individual criminal cases but has not done so, appearing to draw a distinction between opining publicly and outright ordering law enforcement officials to take specific actions." Mrs. McC: A good overview article that pulls together the threads of Trump's latest spate of bad behavior. ~~~

     ~~~ This story has been updated & expanded & reporters added to the byline:

"[Bill Barr's] suggestions of resignation came at the end of a day when the president asserted his dominance over a justice system that had long sought to insulate itself from political pressures. Calling himself 'the chief law enforcement officer of the country,' Mr. Trump demanded a new trial for Mr. Stone, urged federal judges to address the 'tremendous' abuse of the special counsel investigation of his campaign and bypassed the traditional pardon process to grant clemency to celebrity convicts recommended by his friends, allies and political donors. ~~~

"Mr. Trump's attacks on Judge [Amy Berman] Jackson generated alarms in the judiciary. The Federal Judges Association, a voluntary organization, scheduled an emergency telephone conference for this week.... Mr. Trump countered that the judges should instead investigate misconduct in the Mueller investigation. 'I hope the Federal Judges Association will discuss the tremendous FISA Court abuse that has taken place with respect to the Mueller Investigation Scam, including the forging of documents and knowingly using the fake and totally discredited Dossier before the Court,' he wrote on Twitter."

~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to file retaliatory lawsuits 'all over the place' for damages he claims to have incurred as a result of former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. In a multi-post morning Twitter screed, the president fiercely criticized the 22-month-long probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and also appeared to weigh in once again on the federal criminal case against his longtime political adviser Roger Stone.... 'These were Mueller prosecutors, and the whole Mueller investigation was illegally set up based on a phony and now fully discredited Fake Dossier, lying and forging documents to the FISA Court, and many other things,' Trump tweeted. 'Everything having to do with this fraudulent investigation is badly tainted and, in my opinion, should be thrown out.' The president went on to accuse Mueller of lying before Congress when he told lawmakers he did not interview with Trump to apply for the job of FBI director, tweeting: 'The whole deal was a total SCAM. If I wasn't President, I'd be suing everyone all over the place. BUT MAYBE I STILL WILL. WITCH HUNT!'" Forgey also covers Trump's tweets about the Stone case. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Tuesday raised the possibility of suing those involved in prosecuting the Roger Stone case after sharing the opinion of a Fox News commentator [Andrew Napolitano] who said it is 'pretty obvious' that Stone, Trump’s longtime political confidant, should get a new trial.... Defense lawyers for Stone demanded a new trial Friday, one day after Trump suggested that the forewoman in the federal case had 'significant bias.'... [In tweets,] Trump quoted Napolitano as saying, 'I think almost any judge in the Country would order a new trial, I’m not so sure about Judge Jackson, I don't know.' Napolitano was referring to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is presiding over Stone's case and who has drawn Trump's ire on Twitter for her treatment of another ally of his, Paul Manafort.... Trump also derided prosecutors in the Stone case as 'Mueller prosecutors'.... All four career prosecutors handling the case against Stone withdrew from the legal proceedings last week -- and one quit his job entirely -- after the Justice Department signaled it planned to undercut their sentencing recommendation. Two of those prosecutors had worked for Mueller." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Yo, Bill Barr. More tweets that "make it impossible for [you] to do your job." Better resign. ~~~

~~~ ** Update. Harper Neidig of the Hill: "A federal judge on Tuesday refused to delay Roger Stone's sentencing amid the fallout over the Trump administration's decision to intervene in the case against the president's longtime ally. The sentencing will move forward on Thursday at its originally scheduled time, the judge said, despite a new effort from Stone's defense team to get a new trial. 'I think that delaying this sentence would not be a prudent thing to do under all of the circumstances,' U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, said during a telephone conference with the two sides.... The new prosecution team, from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., argued in favor of moving forward with the sentencing hearing as planned. Jackson said that she has not decided whether to have a hearing on the defense motion [for a new trial], but said that it would be best to move forward with Thursday's hearing and delay the sentence from going into effect until the motion is decided." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Rachel Weiner & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors on Tuesday filed under seal a motion opposing Stone's request [for a new trial], and the filing was approved by Attorney General William P. Barr, said a Justice Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. That appears to put Barr at odds with Trump, who on Tuesday quoted a Fox News segment arguing that Stone should get a new trial. Trump said last week that the jury forewoman in the case had 'significant bias.'" Mrs. McC: Wow! Barr is so "independent." Or he thought Trump wouldn't hear about the prosecutors' secret filing. (Also linked yesterday.)

Mrs. McCrabbie: In a classic Pot-Calls-Kettle-Black essay, Jim Comey, in a Washington Post op-ed, lectures Bill Barr on his "threatening the reservoir of [apolitical] trust" the DOJ enjoys. Is it because he is so tall that Comey rides such a high horse? If you ever climb down, Jim, you might mosey over to Hillary Clinton's place -- which is not 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- & ask her about that "reservoir of trust." Or you could send her an e-mail. You know her e-mail address.

Trump and Other Crooks. Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump commuted the 14-year prison sentence of former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, the Democrat who was convicted of trying to essentially sell Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat for personal gain, and pardoned the financier Michael R. Milken and Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, the president announced on Tuesday.... The president's decision came the same day that he pardoned Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., a former owner of the San Francisco 49ers who pleaded guilty in 1998 to concealing an extortion attempt and eventually surrendered control of his team.... In conversations with advisers, Mr. Trump has also raised the prospect of commuting the sentence of Roger J. Stone.... Asked about a pardon for Mr. Stone on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said 'I haven't given it any thought.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Dan Mangan & Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "In all, Trump granted some form of executive clemency to 11 individuals Tuesday, according to the White House.... Pardons were given to former CEO Ariel Friedler, who in 2014 admitted conspiring to hack into his competitors' computer systems; Paul Pogue, who pleaded guilty to underpaying on his taxes over a three-year period; David Safavian, who was convicted of perjury; and Angela Stanton, a Trump-supporting television personality. Trump also granted commutations to Tynice Nicole Hall and Crystal Munoz, both of whom were given lengthy prison sentences for drug-related offenses. He also signed an order granting a commutation for Judith Negron, who was sentenced to 35 years behind bars for Medicare fraud." Mrs. McC: All this, of course is the prep work for pardoning his rogues' gallery of co-conspirators & criminals. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Beth Reinhard & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "... all but five of the 24 people who have received clemency from Trump had a line into the White House or currency with his political base, according to a review by The Washington Post. As the administration takes its cues from celebrities, political allies and Fox News, thousands of other offenders who followed Justice Department rules are waiting, passed over as cases that were brought directly to Trump leaped to the front of the line. For more than 125 years, the Office of the Pardon Attorney in the Justice Department has quietly served as the key adviser on clemency, one of the most unlimited powers bestowed on the president by the Constitution. Under Trump, the pardon office has become a bureaucratic way station, according to government data and interviews with lawyers, criminal justice advocates, and former pardon and White House officials. Most of Trump's grants of clemency have gone to well-connected offenders who had not filed petitions with the pardon office or did not meet its requirements, The Post review shows." ~~~

~~~ OR, as this Daily Beast headline puts it, "Trump Grants Clemency to Another Round of Convicts He Saw on Fox News." Justin Baragona & Asawin Suebsaeng: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday granted clemency to 11 people, including several convicted felons who are either Fox News regulars or have been championed by the president's favorite cable-news network.... Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump made the Fox News connection abundantly clear, telling reporters that he decided to commute the rest of Rod Blagojevich's sentence because he'd seen the ex-governor's wife Patti Blagojevich pleading her husband's case on Fox." Read on, if you can stand it. ~~~

~~~ Kindred Crooks. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Trump's flurry of presidential acts of clemency on Tuesday truly makes clear how indifferent he is about misbehavior by public officials -- particularly when considered alongside his past pardons and commutations.... The highest-profile charge on which Rod Blagojevich was convicted was his effort to leverage the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama's election to the White House for his own benefit. But it wasn't the only charge. His efforts to leverage ... $8 million in funding for the hospital [in exchange for a $50,000 contribution to his campaign] were among more than a dozen corruption-related charges for which Blagojevich was convicted in 2011.... Earlier this month, Trump himself stood accused of having tried to leverage his official position to benefit himself, facing trial in the Senate on charges that he tried to strong-arm Ukraine into launching politically useful investigations by similarly withholding funds from that country.... Trump also pardoned strong> Edward DeBartolo Jr., probably at least in part because of DeBartolo's ties to the politically important region of northeastern Ohio. DeBartolo's crime? Agreeing to a bribe solicited by a former governor of Louisiana and not reporting it. He pardoned David Safavian, convicted of obstruction of justice and making false statements in connection with the sprawling corruption investigation into former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Trump also pardoned former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, convicted of making false statements about a bribe he took while working in Iraq."

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department revealed Tuesday that law enforcement officials running Ukraine-related investigations must seek approval before expanding their inquiries -- a move that could have implications for Rudolph W. Giuliani, as President Trump's personal attorney pushes for scrutiny of the president's political foes while facing a federal probe into his own conduct. The directive from Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen was disclosed in a response to Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) after the House Judiciary Committee chairman demanded clarity on how the Justice Department is reviewing information from Giuliani, who has urged law enforcement to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son for their dealings in Ukraine.... [the] move could be viewed as putting another layer of approval in place if prosecutors wanted to widen their Giuliani probe...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As nearly as I can understand this report, the extra approval layers are meant to go both ways; that is, investigators need permission to accept fake information from Rudy as well as information about Rudy that might incriminate him in some criminal ops. Update: Rachel Maddow got hold of the DOJ memo, and it confirms my understanding -- Barr's handpicked henchmen will control every matter which touches in any way upon Ukraine. Maddow also recalled this Feb. 5 report by Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Attorney General William P. Barr issued new restrictions on Wednesday over the opening of politically sensitive investigations...." As I wrote at the time, "This might be all right if Barr were not a partisan hack. But you know he'll approve investigations into Democratic candidates and disapprove any investigations into Article II Man who can do anything he wants."

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told a trio of U.S. senators last week that he would continue to steer clear of ... Rudy Giuliani, according to one of the senators. 'Zelensky clearly doesn't really want to talk about this, and I don't blame him,' Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) wrote in a Medium post detailing his meeting in Kyiv on Friday with Zelensky and two Republican senators, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and John Barrasso of Wyoming."

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The top lawyer for the intelligence community, whose decision to block a whistleblower's complaint about ... Donald Trump and Ukraine from reaching Congress helped jumpstart the impeachment inquiry, is resigning from his post, officials confirmed. Jason Klitenic, the general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, will depart early next month, according to an agency spokeswoman. His exit comes as the acting DNI, Joseph Maguire, nears a March 11 deadline to depart as well. Federal law prevents Maguire from serving in an acting capacity beyond that date, meaning a new director must be nominated and confirmed by then, or Trump must pick a new acting official." (Also linked yesterday.)

Leo Shane of the Military Times: "A coalition of more than 1,100 veterans on Tuesday condemned ... Donald Trump for his continued attacks on an Army officer [Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman] who testified against him in the impeachment inquiry, noting that military rules bar the service member from defending himself publicly. 'The president should know that, despite taking aim at one Army officer, he has targeted anyone who currently wears -- or has worn -- the uniform,' the group stated in an open letter."

Alex Henderson of Alternet: "Democrats have been seeking President Donald Trump&'s tax returns at both the federal and state levels; one of the federal efforts has been a lawsuit by the House Ways and Means Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts. And on February 15, House Democrats asked [Trump-appointed] U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden to lift a stay on that lawsuit -- using, reporter Jerry Lambe notes in Law & Crime, 'arguments put forth by Trump's impeachment legal team.'... McFadden put a stay on House Ways and Means' lawsuit in January." --s

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported that advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who accused ... Donald Trump of raping her in a department store two decades ago, is asking a judge to deny a request from his lawyers to stay discovery in her lawsuit against him.... Trump's attorneys are attempting to put the case on hold while they argue to the New York Court of Appeals that a sitting president cannot be sued. That court will also consider this issue in the defamation suit of Summer Zervos, a contestant on Trump's reality shows who claims Trump sexually assaulted her." The Bloomberg report is here.

Elliot Spagat of the AP: "The Trump administration said Tuesday that it will waive federal contracting laws to speed construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Department of Homeland Security said waiving procurement regulations will allow 177 miles (283 kilometers) of wall to be built more quickly in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The 10 waived laws include requirements for having open competition, justifying selections and receiving all bonding from a contractor before any work can begin. The acting Homeland Security secretary, Chad Wolf, is exercising authority under a 2005 law that gives him sweeping powers to waive laws for building border barriers." Mrs. McC: But I'm sure all the contracts let will be on the up-and-up.(Also linked yesterday.)

Chris Quintana & Shelly Conlon of USA Today: "Reagan National University was supposed to be a place of higher learning, but it was unclear how it awarded degrees. By all appearances, at present, it has no students, no faculty and no classrooms. An agency meant to serve as a gatekeeper for federal money gave the university approval to operate anyway.... The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges & Schools, has a history of approving questionable colleges, with devastating consequences. It accredited ITT Tech, Corinthian Colleges and Brightwood College, massive for-profit universities whose sudden closures last decade left thousands of students without degrees and undermined the value of the education of those who did graduate. Those closures led President Barack Obama's Education Department to strip ACICS' powers in 2016. After a federal court decision, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and President Donald Trump's administration reinstated the accrediting agency." --s

Geneva Sands of CNN (Feb. 12): "Chad Mizelle, a Trump administration official who is viewed as an ally of senior White House policy adviser and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller, has been tapped to be the Department of Homeland Security's top attorney.... Mizelle has less than 10 years' experience as an attorney and will now run the DHS Office of the General Counsel, which oversees 2,500 attorneys and is ultimately responsible for all of the department's legal determinations.... Mizelle will be replacing a career official, who filled the void left after the previous Senate-confirmed general counsel, John Mitnick, was fired in September -- months after Miller wanted him out. It is unclear if Mizelle will be nominated for the role, but the President has said he likes to have officials in acting capacities." --s

AND for you romantics, contributor Hattie points us to this lovely wedding registry for newlyweds Stephen Miller & Katie Waldman. Samantha Bee helped Stephen & Katie create the registry, which includes some sweet vignettes about the couple's relationship. For instance, Katie tells us about their first date: "... when I walked into my office I found a card from Stephen asking me out. He signed it with his name and an acronym that I believe stood for 'Katie, Katie, Katie.' Since that day, unlike migrant families at the border, we became inseparable." ~~~

~~~ Hayley Miller (presumably no relation) of the Huffington Post: "David Glosser, a retired neuropsychologist and [Stephen] Miller's maternal uncle, on Monday posted a link on Facebook to a spoof online wedding registry created by comedian Samantha Bee in December. The site, 'MatchMadeInHate.com,' contains wish-list items from U.S.-based charities that assist asylum-seekers and immigrants ― such as mittens, underwear and LED night lights.... Glosser, an outspoken critic of Miller's anti-immigrant agenda, wrote on his Facebook post that he planned to donate to HIAS, a Jewish American nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge in Kansas who was reprimanded last year by his colleagues over sexual harassment, an extramarital affair with a felon, and chronic tardiness has announced his plans to resign from the bench. The move by Kansas City-based U.S. District Court Judge Carlos Murguia came as members of Congress were demanding answers from the judiciary about why Murguia had not faced more severe consequences than the public admonishment delivered September by the 10th Circuit Judicial Council." Bill Clinton appointed Murguia.

Presidential Race

Mark Murray of NBC News: "Sen. Bernie Sanders has jumped out to a double-digit national lead in the Democratic presidential contest after his victory in New Hampshire's primary and his second-place finish for delegates in Iowa's disorganized caucuses, while former Vice President Joe Biden has seen his support drop by 11 points since his disappointing finishes in both contests, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday. The survey also shows former New York City Mayor strong> Mike Bloomberg gaining ground in the Democratic race in the past month, confirming the findings of an earlier NPR/PBS/Marist poll that allowed him to qualify for Wednesday night's NBC News and MSNBC Democratic debate in Las Vegas. And the poll has ... Donald Trump's approval rating tied for his all-time high in the NBC News/WSJ survey, while also finding that the most unpopular candidate qualities in a general election are being a socialist, being older than 75 years of age and having a heart attack in the past year."

Mike Bloomberg Says Remarkably Stupid Stuff, Ctd. Dominic Holden of BuzzFeed News: "A newly uncovered video shows Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg in 2019 describing transgender people as 'he, she, or it' and 'some guy in a dress' who enters girls locker rooms -- invoking a conservative cliché as he argued that transgender rights are toxic for presidential candidates trying to reach Middle America. And yet, Bloomberg's campaign published a new video on Tuesday that pledged the former New York City mayor believed in 'inclusivity' for 'LGBTQ+ youth,' featuring fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi declaring, 'Mike is so incredibly sensitive to this issue.'"

The Bickersons. Nolan McCaskill of Politico: Amy Klobuchar "was stumped last week when asked by Telemundo if she could name the president of Mexico. 'No,' she said. Prompted with the same question, billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer said, 'I forget.' Only Pete Buttigieg was able to name him. Given a do-over Tuesday at a CNN town hall in Las Vegas, Klobuchar ... gave her greetings to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.... Buttigieg seized on Klobuchar's gaffe Sunday, telling supporters in Nevada 'that there is more to being prepared than how many years you spent in Washington.' Klobuchar told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday that she had been in the Senate 'all day' on the day she did the interview. She noted ... that her flight landed in Nevada 'at midnight my time,' then she 'had a fast interview and then did two forums after that,' not wrapping up her day until 2 or 3 a.m.... 'And I would say to the mayor, this isn't like a game of "Jeopardy."'" Mrs. McC: You're supposed to pose that in the form of a question, Amy: "Do you think this is a game of 'Jeopardy,' Pete?"

The Iowa Caucuses, Ctd. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "The Iowa Democratic Party announced on Tuesday that it had completed its partial recanvass, changing results in 29 precincts but shifting no national delegates. But the Epic of Iowa still isn't over. The recanvass drastically narrowed Pete Buttigieg's small lead over Senator Bernie Sanders in state delegate equivalents: Mr. Buttigieg now has 563.207 to Mr. Sanders's 563.127. The campaigns can now request a recount, which is a much more intensive process. And Mr. Sanders's campaign said it would do just that."

Justine Coleman & Joe Concha of the Hill: "Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said President Trump advised him to 'never apologize' for his comments on Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg's sexuality. Limbaugh said on his Monday show that Trump called him to talk about his comments last week that 'America's still not ready to elect a gay guy kissing his husband on the debate stage.'"

Chris Francescani of ABC News: "After hearing from 35 witnesses over more than two weeks of testimony, the New York City jury in Harvey Weinstein's rape and sexual assault case will begin deliberations this morning. Weinstein is facing five felony counts of rape and sexual assault, based on the testimony of two complaining witnesses: former 'Project Runway' production assistant Miriam 'Mimi' Haleyi -- who claims the Hollywood producer sexually assaulted her in 2006, and an accuser who claims Weinstein raped her in a Manhattan hotel suite in 2013. ABC News is not naming the rape accuser because she has never publicly identified herself. The other five women either did so, or their lawyers gave ABC permission to name them[.] The account of a third accuser, Annabella Sciorra, is too old to prosecute, but a judge allowed her to testify in support of two predatory sexual assault charges -- which require prosecutors to prove that Weinstein attacked at least three women." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jan Ransom of the New York Times: "Over the weekend, just days before jurors in the Harvey Weinstein case were set to begin deliberations, his lead defense lawyer, Donna Rotunno, wrote an opinion piece imploring them 'to do what they know is right.'The article in Newsweek magazine infuriated the Manhattan district attorney's office, and on Tuesday the lead prosecutor, Joan Illuzzi, called Ms. Rotunno's behavior 'inappropriate,' and tantamount to jury tampering. The judge ordered the defense team not to speak to the news media until after a verdict is reached. 'Defense team you are ordered to refrain from communicating with the press until there is a verdict in the case,' Justice James M. Burke told Mr. Weinstein's lawyers. 'I would caution you about the tentacles of your public relations juggernaut.' The jurors were not in the courtroom at the time. As in many high-profile cases, jurors have been reminded every day by the judge not to follow any news media coverage of the case." (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Massachusetts. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "A longtime Massachusetts state lawmaker was arrested Tuesday on more than two dozen fraud and tax evasion charges after the authorities accused him of stealing thousands of dollars in campaign funds to support his gambling habit and to pay for his lavish lifestyle. The lawmaker, Representative David M. Nangle, 59, a Democrat from Lowell who serves on the House Ethics Committee, was also accused of falsifying bank loan applications to obtain nearly $400,000, and of claiming fraudulent deductions on his tax returns, according to a 28-count indictment.... Prosecutors said that as a former Ethics Committee chairman whose campaign had been audited several times, Mr. Nangle knew full well that his actions were wrong. They said he had filed false campaign finance reports to try to cover his tracks." Mrs. McC: Fraud & tax evasion? Meh. Luckily for Dave there, he was arrested on federal charges. So all he has to do is go on Fox "News" and the Crook-in-Chief will pardon him. And another Trumpocrat is born.

North Carolina. Will Doran of the Raleigh News & Observer: "North Carolina's new voter ID law appears to have been enacted with racially discriminatory intent and will be at least temporarily blocked during the 2020 elections, the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. A federal court has already blocked the voter ID mandate at least through the 2020 primary elections, which are underway now. Tuesday's decision -- in a separate lawsuit in state courts rather than federal courts -- could also extend that block until the general election in November. The voter ID law was written after voters passed a new constitutional amendment in 2018 requiring photo ID to vote. However, this is now the second court to rule that African-American voters could be harmed by the way the Republican-led legislature wrote the law behind the amendment."

Way Beyond the Beltway

U.K. Lisa O'Carroll, et al. of the Guardian: "Britain is to close its borders to unskilled workers and those who can't speak English as part of a fundamental overhaul of immigration laws that will end the era of cheap EU labour in factories, warehouses, hotels and restaurants. Unveiling its Australian-style points system on Wednesday, the government will say it is grasping a unique opportunity to take 'full control' of British borders 'for the first time in decades' and eliminate the 'distortion' caused by EU freedom of movement. But industry leaders immediately accused the government of an assault on the economy warning of 'disastrous' consequences with job losses and closures in factories and the high street." --s

News Lede

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the coronavirus epidemic are here.