;)
The Commentariat -- February 15, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Pamela Brown & Alex Rogers of CNN: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has interviewed White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, she told CNN on Friday. 'The President urged me, like he has everyone in the administration, to fully cooperate with the special counsel. I was happy to voluntarily sit down with them,' Sanders said in response to a question from CNN. The interview is one of the final known interviews by Mueller's team. It came around the same time as the special counsel interviewed former White House chief of staff John Kelly, well after a number of other senior officials, including former White House communications director Hope Hicks and former press secretary Sean Spicer, were brought in for questioning. The White House did not immediately agree to grant the special counsel an interview with Sanders, according to one of the sources. Similarly, as CNN reported in December, White House lawyers initially objected to Mueller's request to interview Kelly, who ultimately responded to a narrow set of questions from special counsel investigators." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sanders' responses to investigators' questions included & were limited to, "I'll get back to you on that," and "I have no further information on that."
Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker will remain at the Justice Department despite William Barr's being sworn in to lead the department. Whitaker, who served as chief of staff to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions until ... Donald Trump tapped him for the acting role in November, is now a senior counselor in the associate attorney general's office, a department spokesperson said Friday.... The Office of the Associate Attorney General, whose titular role is currently filled on an acting basis, oversees civil justice, federal and local law enforcement, and public safety matters for DOJ."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump declared a national emergency at the border on Friday to access billions of dollars to build a border wall that Congress refused to give him, transforming a highly charged policy dispute into a fundamental confrontation over separation of powers. In a televised announcement in the Rose Garden, Mr. Trump said he would sign the declaration to protect the country from the flow of drugs, criminals and illegal immigrants coming across the border from Mexico, which he characterized as a profound threat to national security." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Unfortunately, I was working on a project I couldn't drop to change channels, so I heard the whole "speech"/strings of words & lies (all seemingly off-script) & the Q&A that followed. Because I seldom listen to Trump's speeches, it was just about the stupidest speech I've ever heard. Litigators take note: Trump also completely undermined his "national emergency" argument by declaring he "didn't really need to do it" but was signing the emergency declaration because he wanted to build wall faster. In the Q&A, he told Jim Acosta of CNN that he had all kinds of sources for his "statistics" that contraverted the ones Acosta pointed out came from his own administration. P.S. If you're worried Trump will rip up the Constitution, you can stop worrying; he's already done it. And as contributor Schlub pointed out earlier in today's commentary, Peter Baker's report doesn't even hint at that. ...
Jonathan Chait: "Trump’s extemporaneous commentary defending his emergency decision repeatedly gave away his own rationale. He admitted he could have passed border funding through Congress during his first year and a half, but he was 'too new to politics,' and his fellow Republicans 'didn't step up.' And he admitted the emergency declaration was a luxury rather than an emergency ('I didn't need to do this. But I'd rather do it much faster.'). He is clumsily undermining his already-shaky legal case, while making it plain his ploy is to claim Executive powers to override an area of control for Congress.... Trump chillingly praised anti-drug policy in authoritarian China, which he claims has achieved total success by brutalizing criminals. His argument for a wall could just as easily be used to justify overriding criminal-justice protections.... Trump has at minimum proven that he lacks the temperament or basic competence to serve as president of the United States." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It was kind of enjoyable to hear Trump admit he didn't know WTF he was doingwhen he was "too new to politics," & completely predictable that he would blame Ryan & McConnell, et al., for failing to "step up." ...
... Trump said during Q&A that the Pentagon's planned spending projects "didn't seem too important to" him. One of the piggy banks Trump is planning to raid is for military housing. ...
... Joshua Schneyer, et al., of Reuters: "Deeply troubled by military housing conditions exposed by Reuters reporting, the U.S. Army's top leadership vowed Friday to renegotiate its housing contracts with private real estate firms, test tens of thousands of homes for toxins and hold its own commanders responsible for protecting Army base residents from dangerous homes. In an interview, the Secretary of the Army Mark Esper said Reuters reports and a chorus of concerns from military families had opened his eyes to the need for urgent overhauls of the Army's privatized housing system, which accommodates more than 86,000 families. The secretary's conclusion: Private real estate firms tasked with managing and maintaining the housing stock have been failing the families they serve, and the Army itself neglected its duties." ...
... Brian Krassenstein of the Hill Reporter: "In [a] 2014 video, first posted by Conservative pundit, and Trump critic Bill Kristol, former Indiana Governor and current Vice President, Mike Pence attacks Obama's use of executive powers to push through new immigration policy. 'I think it would be a profound mistake for the President of the United States to overturn American immigration law with the stroke of a pen,' Pence, said in the video, taken at the annual Republican Governors Association conference in New Jersey, just days after President Obama announced that he would use his executive powers to offer temporary legal status to certain undocumented immigrants." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's worth noting that President Obama's executive action was materially different from Trump's fake national emergency. First, Obama did not declare a national emergency. Second, Obama's executive order had little or no spending impact; i.e., it didn't usurp Congress's "power of the purse." Third, it did directly overturn a Congressional action; rather, it made a substantial policy change that Congress itself could have enacted into law.
Holly Ramer, et al., of the AP: "Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, little-known on the national stage but well-respected among veterans in the GOP establishment, announced an exploratory committee for president on Friday, becoming the first Republican to move toward a serious primary challenge against ... Donald Trump. There are new signs he won't be the last. In the immediate aftermath of the 73-year-old Weld's announcement at a breakfast event in New Hampshire, a senior aide for former Ohio Gov. John Kasich indicated Kasich is likely to launch a primary challenge as well.... [Aides to] Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan ... acknowledge that the two-term Republican governor is openly considering a Trump challenge."
Pete Williams of NBC News: "The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday that it will take up the battle over a citizenship question for the coming census, agreeing to hear and decide the case before the court's term ends in late June. Eighteen states, several of the nation's largest cities, and immigrant rights groups sued the government over its decision to ask about citizenship on the 2020 census form that goes to every U.S. household. They said the question would make immigrants reluctant to respond to census takers, resulting in an undercount of the population."
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returned to the Supreme Court Friday for the first time since she underwent surgery in December, a court spokeswoman said. Ginsburg, 85, participated in a private conference with her colleagues as they considered which cases to accept for review or reject, said court spokeswoman Kathleen Arberg."
*****
L'Etat, C'est Trump
John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump is set to hold an event at 10 a.m. in the Rose Garden at White House, where he is expected to sign spending legislation to avert a government shutdown while at the same declare a national emergency with the aim of securing about $6.5 billion more to build his long-promised border wall without congressional approval. Many of Trump's Republican allies have called the move ill-advised, and Democrats are promising immediate action aimed at blocking it. The declaration is expected to face an array of legal challenges, possibly including from congressional Democrats." Mrs. McC: Trump is such a nut case that this report is a live blog, in case there are "developments." ...
... Robert Costa, et al., of the Washington Post: "After three weeks of pained negotiations to keep the federal government open, President Trump almost blew the whole thing up again on Thursday. Headed for another defeat on his signature promise to make Mexico pay for a southern border wall, the president was frustrated after a briefing by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and others on details of the final deal to avoid a shutdown, according to officials involved in the discussions. Trump threatened not to sign the legislation, the officials said, putting the government on the brink of another damaging shutdown. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was on the phone with Trump at least three times during the course of the nerve-racking day, pressing him to stay the course and asserting that Democrats had actually lost the spending fight, two people familiar with the conversations said.... Trump refused to sign the bill Thursday until the White House Counsel's Office convinced him it would not preclude him from declaring a national emergency, two senior administration officials said." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Lawrence O'Donnell thinks this story is a plant intended to make Trump's base think he fought for wall till the last dog died. ...
... Jonathan Karl & Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "The Justice Department has warned the White House a national emergency declaration is nearly certain to be blocked by the courts on, at least, a temporary basis, preventing the immediate implementation of the president's plan to circumvent Congress and build the wall using his executives powers, ABC News has learned. However, a senior White House official tells ABC News that the administration is confident it could ultimately win the case on appeal. Lawyers at the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and at the Pentagon have been working for weeks to iron out different options the president would have to obtain funds for his border wall." ...
... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The White House's announcement Thursday that President Trump would claim emergency powers to build his border wall without congressional approval was a way out of the political crisis he created over shutting down the government.... Legal specialists warned that the long-term costs to American democracy could be steep. As a matter of political reality, such a declaration permits Mr. Trump to keep the government open without losing face with his core supporters by surrendering to congressional Democrats on his signature issue. As a matter of legal reality, the proposal is likely to be bogged down in a court challenge, leaving any actual construction work based on emergency powers spending an uncertain and, at best, distant prospect. But no matter what else happens, Mr. Trump's willingness to invoke emergency powers to circumvent Congress is likely to go down as an extraordinary violation of constitutional norms -- setting a precedent that future presidents of both parties may emulate to unilaterally achieve their own policy goals." ...
... New York Times Editors: "... President Trump is planning to take executive overreach to dizzying new heights.... The influx of migrant families at the southern border does not constitute a national security crisis, much less a bona fide emergency. There is, at this point, a worsening humanitarian crisis, actively fueled by the draconian policies of the administration. But the suffering on display requires thoughtful policy adjustments, not a steel monstrosity.... Mr. Trump aims to usurp one of Congress's most basic responsibilities, the power of the purse.... The poison cherry atop this sundae is that Mr. Trump is subverting American democracy for a cause opposed by a majority of the public.... Mr. Trump's eagerness to undermine the Constitution to serve his short-term political gain remains among the most outrageous." ...
... Peter Baker & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "President Trump plans to declare a national emergency so he can bypass Congress and build his long-promised wall along the border even as he signs a spending bill that does not fund it, the White House said Thursday. The announcement of his decision came just minutes before the Senate voted 82-16 to advance the spending package in anticipation of final passage on Thursday night by the House.... Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said Democrats were 'reviewing our options' in responding to Mr. Trump's anticipated declaration and did not rule out a legal challenge.... Mr. Trump disregarded objections raised by [Mitch] McConnell and other Republicans who balked at what they deemed presidential overreach." ...
... Update: "The Senate passed it 83 to 16, and the House followed later in the evening, 300 to 128." Mrs. McC: Note that both votes are veto-proof.
... Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "The [Senate] vote followed drama ... as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) appeared suddenly on the floor to end hours of uncertainty, announcing Trump had agreed to support the bill. At the same time, McConnell told senators that Trump would be declaring a national emergency to circumvent Congress and get more money for his wall -- and that McConnell himself would support the move, even though he's been outspoken in opposition to an emergency declaration.... Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote on Twitter that the the declaration is 'lawless act' and accused Trump of attempting to draw attention away from the president's unkept promise that the wall would be paid for by Mexico.... The House could pass a disapproval resolution to overturn the emergency declaration, and McConnell would be forced to put it on the Senate floor, an outcome the majority leader had hoped to avoid. McConnell had cautioned Trump privately about the scenario." ...
Oh, wow. Well, he's got a primary. -- Former GOP Lawmaker when told McConnell had okayed Trump's national-emergency demand ...
... Jeff Toobin asserted on CNN Thursday afternoon that no president has ever declared a national emergency to overrule a bill debated & passed by the Congress. Mrs. McC: I'd add that no president has ever declared a fake national emergency to fulfill half of a ridiculous campaign promise. ...
... Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico: "The surprise announcement Thursday that ... Donald Trump will use his emergency powers to try and build his border wall blindsided some Republicans, confused others and sent the Senate GOP into a general state of shock. The news, delivered by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor, came after weeks of warnings from his own party not to declare a national emergency at the border.... Aides privately predicted Trump will lose a vote on the Senate floor once the Democratic House passes a resolution of disapproval to block the move." The reporters quote a bunch of GOP senators hemming & hawing their "disappointment" & "concerns." ...
... BUT. Sam Stein & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... one singular promise defined Donald Trump's candidacy: should he be elected president, a wall would be built along the U.S.-Mexico border and Mexico would pay for it. On Thursday, that promise officially died.... It was, on a pure policy level, a reversal of his campaign pledge and a constitutional challenge to a co-equal branch of government. And yet, few in a Republican Party raised a stink. Indeed, with few exceptions, they cheered him on, framing his handling of the latest shutdown showdown as a stroke of strategic brilliance.... Well before Thursday afternoon, conservative-media heavy hitters had already laid the groundwork for praising Trump for snatching at least something from the jaws of victory." ...
... Greg Sargent: "Trump plainly believes declaring a national emergency will make him look like he's acting decisively and taking control of events in the eyes of his base. But ... it's clear that he'll still face many obstacles. First, there will be court challenges to the national emergency itself, and as Elizabeth Goetein has shown, the mere fact that Trump has delayed so long will undermine his legal argument, because it undercuts the notion that there actually is an emergency (which there isn't).... The more times that Congress 'votes against providing the funding the president has asked for,' Goetein notes, 'the clearer it becomes that an emergency declaration in this case would be designed as an end run around the Constitution.'... Even if Trump does prevail in the courts, he will then face still more litigation from landowners, as Charlie Savage recently detailed.... And even if he were to win on all those fronts, it's still not clear how much money Trump could round up. It's likely that all that would result is some more of the same bollard fencing that's been built for years, in targeted areas, since that's what Customs and Border Protection has declared is its preferred form of barrier. It's simply amazing that Trump is willing to put the country through all of this just for that rinky-dink outcome...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's also likely Trump declared his intention to go the national-emergency route to drive Andy McCabe off top of the front page. It can't be pleasant for the emperor/king to hear again that top officials at the DOJ & FBI were discussing proposals to cut off his head. I also think it's entirely possible that Trump will put his big fat signature on an emergency declaration & promptly forget it when the next crisis looms (way next week). ...
... Alex Ward of Vox: "The key law [that governs a president's ability to order construction in a national emergency] is the appropriately named 'Construction authority in the event of a declaration of war or national emergency.'... First, building the wall must require the use of the military. And second, the only money Trump can use is funds that have been earmarked for military construction projects but not yet assigned to specific ones. There's roughly $21 billion of that money available. Both of those will likely present big challenges for Trump to quickly overturn.... One could easily argue that civilians could erect the structure.... [AND] Top lawmakers -- including Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), the Senate Armed Services Committee chair -- don't want Trump to use defense money for the wall.... Taking that money would ... remove funds from other potential construction projects at home and in war zones abroad.... Trump's supposed quick fix to get a border wall is anything but, and extremely problematic to boot." ...
... Kevin Liptak & Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "... in conversations with allies over the past days, [Donald Trump] has griped that Republican negotiators were outplayed by their Democratic counterpartssecuring a border funding number far smaller than Trump has spent the last two months demanding.... Trump has cast the GOP's dealmaking efforts as inadequate and wondered why he, an experienced dealmaker, wasn't consulted at more regular intervals as the two sides haggled over an agreement.... That was intentional, according to people familiar with the process, who noted Trump's attempts at brokering an agreement between lawmakers proved futile during the record-length government shutdown that ushered in the new year." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here again, Trump is grumbling out of both sides of his mouth. Other reporting said that Trump purposely stayed out of Congressional negotiations because he wanted to be able to blame Congress if negotiators could not come to an agreement. Wall, which started as a mnemonic device for an undisciplined candidate, was never something Trump really cared about. ...
... Litigators, Take Note. Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "... Donald Trump once said taking executive action on immigration was an unconstitutional action that could lead to impeachment.... Trump made the comments on Fox News' 'Fox and Friends' in November 2014 when asked about executive actions by then-President Barack Obama that would halt deportations for the undocumented parents of children born in the United States. 'Now he has to use executive action and this is a very, very dangerous thing that should be overwritten easily by the Supreme Court,' Trump said.... He said Obama could certainly be impeached for his executive action on immigration.... The comments from Trump echo a tweet he sent, also from November 2014, in which he wrote, 'Repubs must not allow Pres Obama to subvert the Constitution of the US for his own benefit & because he is unable to negotiate w/ Congress.'"
** Yascha Mounk in Slate: "The president's intention to issue an executive order declaring a national emergency at the southern border ... is ... [the clearest] piece of evidence that he really does seek unconstitutional powers[.]... From Adolf Hitler in Germany to Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, some of the most brutal dictators of the past hundred years have consolidated their power by exploiting emergency legislation.... The differences between the powers that American presidents have traditionally exercised during states of emergencies and those granted by the infamous Article 48 of the Constitution of the Weimar Republic are a matter of degree, not of kind.... It is hard to recall a juncture in American history in which the president's congressional supporters have been so willing to do his bidding. Mitch McConnell is an especially striking study in the dereliction of duty." Read the whole essay.
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
Adam Goldman & Matthew Haag of the New York Times: "Andrew G. McCabe, the former deputy F.B.I. director, said in an interview aired on Thursday that top Justice Department officials were so alarmed by President Trump's decision in May 2017 to fire James B. Comey, the bureau's director, that they discussed whether to recruit cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump from office. The concerns about the president's actions also prompted Mr. McCabe to order the bureau's team investigating Russia's election interference to expand their scope to also investigate whether Mr. Trump had obstructed justice by firing Mr. Comey. They also were to examine if he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests.... Mr. Trump appeared to react to the interview, attacking Mr. McCabe and his wife, both frequent targets of Mr. Trump, via Twitter." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... The Atlantic has published an excerpt of Andrew McCabe's book. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Rosenstein's Non-Denial Denial. Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "... Andrew McCabe ... resurrected claims that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ... proposed wearing a wire during meetings with ... Donald Trump and considered invoking the 25th Amendment.... Rosenstein, through a Department of Justice spokesperson, reacted on Thursday to the McCabe interview in a statement sent to CNN," which Naham cites. In the statement, "Rosenstein does not deny that he mentioned invoking the 25th Amendment or that he discussed wearing a wire. He said that he wasn't 'in a position to consider invoking' it and said that his 'personal dealings' with Trump show that there is 'no basis' for doing so.... He also says that he never 'authorized' a recording, which is different from discussing one. Nor is there mention, as there was [when the New York Times reported the story last September], that Rosenstein was joking or being sarcastic." ...
[The FBI was better off when] you all only hired Irishmen. They were drunks but they could be trusted. Not like all those new people with nose rings and tattoos -- who knows what they're doing? -- Jeff Sessions to Andrew McCabe ...
... Greg Miller of the Washington Post reviews Andrew McCabe's book, The Threat: "The description of [Jeff] Sessions is one of the most striking revelations in 'The Threat.'... He didn't read intelligence reports and mixed up classified material with what he had seen in newspaper clips. He seemed confused about the structure and purpose of organizations and became overwhelmed when meetings covered multiple subjects. He blamed immigrants for nearly every societal problem and uttered racist sentiments with shocking callousness.... McCabe is a keen observer of detail, particularly when it comes to the president’s pettiness. He describes how Trump arranges Oval Office encounters so that his advisers are forced to sit before him in 'little schoolboy chairs' across the Resolute Desk. [Mrs. McC: I've noticed this myself from looking at too many photos of Trump.]... He documents the president's attempts to impair the Russia probe and incessant attacks on the institution, describing the stakes in sweeping, convincing language." ...
... "Fox & Friends" Freak-out." Pilar Melendez of the Daily Beast: "The explosive report by 60 Minutes' Scott Pelley on This Morning -- that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe says top Department of Justice officials met to consider invoking the 25th Amendment on after the firing of James Comey -- had the hosts of Fox & Friends questioning whether there was an illegal coup attempt to oust ... Donald Trump." And whom did they ask? Why, Devin Nunes, Man of the Midnight Run. "'They were opening up a counterintelligence investigation into a political party based on dirt and research from another political party,' Nunes said. '... Every American should be outraged by this. This is buried by the mainstream media for years. This has gone on two years. It is absolutely absurd and now you have people hawking books over the thing.'" ...
... ** It's Not the Collusion; It's the Compromise. Martin Longman, in the Washington Monthly: At the time (May 2017) Andrew McCabe broadened the FBI's election interference investigation to probe whether or not Trump had been working for Russia, they didn't "have the kind of proof they would have needed to make the case for removal under the 25th Amendment. If they had had the Moscow Trump Tower piece back then, it would have gone off like a thermonuclear bomb.... When the FBI saw how Trump was behaving in the aftermath of the election, they obviously suspected that he was compromised in some way.... It's the compromise that makes Trump 'unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.' He started out as a candidate excusing the murder of journalists because he had a secret financial reason for doing so, and then he wound up doing the same as president because he's too compromised to object. Anyone should be able to see that he cannot be allowed to continue in this job. The Deep State suspected this. The Deep State was right." ...
... Longman also highlights the perfect parallel between Trump's repeated dismissals of Putin's killing of journalists & dissidents and Trump pal Tom Barrack's attempt this week to justify the Saudis' murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. "... the Saudi royal family has considered Mr. Barrack a trustworthy representative for more than four decades. It was Barrack who recommended Paul Manafort to Donald Trump. It was Barrack who hired Rick Gates.... It was Barrack who was put in charge of the inauguration, which is now being investigated by the Justice Department." Mrs. McC: I was immediately struck when I read Barrack's excuse that the U.S. commits "atrocities," too, at how exactly it mimicked Trump's defense of Putin: "I think that our country does plenty of killing, too."
Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "Millions of Americans are waiting for Robert Mueller to give them the final word on whether the Trump campaign conspired with the 2016 Russian election interference effort -- and whether their president is under the influence of a foreign adversary. Millions of Americans may be sorely disappointed. Unless Mueller files a detailed indictment charging members of the Trump campaign with conspiring with Russia, the public may never learn the full scope of what Mueller and his team has found -- including potentially scandalous behavior that doesn't amount to a provable crime.... The special counsel operates under rules that severely constrain how much information can be made public. Those rules require that the special counsel's report to the attorney general be 'confidential.' And, while the attorney general is required to notify Congress about Mueller's findings, the rules say those reports must amount to "brief notifications, with an outline of the actions and the reasons for them.'... There is a wildcard -- if the Mueller report contains allegations of potentially impeachable offenses against the president, scholars have said the Justice Department would have to pass the full details of that to Congress. But short of that, it's not clear Congress will get access to the evidence Mueller has gathered." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It is essential that Congressional committees get access not only to Mueller's "conclusions" or "determinations" but also to the raw material he gathered to reach those conclusions: interviews, grand-jury testimony, correspondence (including e-mails, texts, phone records), bank records, etc. It is not up to Bob Mueller to decide what an impeachable offense is; the Constitution says that is the purview of Congress. Mueller's charge is to ferret out any criminality, and his authority to do so comes from the Executive branch; he is an appointee of a political appointee of the head* of the Executive branch. Congress has a duty to review all data the Executive branch has collected and determine whether or not it views any of the evidence as rising to the level of "high crimes & misdemeanors," which need not be chargeable crimes. The whole pupose of separation of powers would be trampled if Mueller or Barr makes an "executive decision" as to the meaning of the special counsel's collection of evidence. Furthermore, the people who paid for that collection -- that is, you and I -- have a right to reasonable access to Mueller's work product.
Erin Banco & Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "Two teams of federal officials assembled to fight foreign election interference are being dramatically downsized, according to three current and former Department of Homeland Security officials. And now, those sources say they fear the department won't prepare adequately for election threats in 2020.... The task forces, part of the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), were assembled in response to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.... One of the task forces is now half the size it was a few months ago.... There are concerns it will completely wither away. The other task force also shrank significantly shortly after the midterms..., and before its members produced a thorough assessment of what happened during the 2018 elections." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Steve Eder, et al., of the New York Times: "In the early months of the Trump administration..., [Donald Trump's] eldest sons embarked on a plan to roll out two new hotel lines in dozens of American cities.... Now, in a striking reversal, the Trump Organization is no longer pursuing the signature initiative, according to company officials. Plans for the two hotel chains, Scion and American Idea, are to be shelved indefinitely, most likely for the remainder of the presidency. As a practical matter, that means calling off just one agreement, in Mississipppi, though two years ago the Trump Organization said it had as many as 30 potential deals in the pipeline. The retrenchment comes as the company faces growing scrutiny from federal prosecutors and congressional investigators.... 'We live in a climate where everything will be used against us, whether by the fake news or by Democrats who are only interested in presidential harassment and wasting everyone's time, barraging us with nonsense letters,' Eric Trump said in a statement." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Also too, it must have dawned on even someone as dumb as Eric that the Trump Org would not be able to exploit undocumented workers to build & renovate its cheesy hotels, as the company has done in the past.
Betsy Woodruff & Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "The boyfriend of confessed Russian agent Maria Butina wrote that she 'manipulated' a Russian spy agency when arranging NRA bigwigs' trip to Moscow, The Daily Beast has learned. Paul Erickson, Butina's boyfriend, made this claim on Nov. 25, 2015 in an email to a trip participant. The light-hearted, chummy tone of the email, which was subsequently read to The Daily Beast, contrasts significantly with how Erickson characterized Butina's relationship with the FSB to The New Republic: tense, bordering on hostile.... Erickson [wrote in] the email ... to then-incoming NRA President Pete Brownell..., 'Miss Butina has (apparently) moved heaven and earth and manipulated the Russian FSB (the current incarnation of the old KGB) and gotten you cleared for a tour of one (1) Russian arms factory the day before the NRA delegation arrives in Moscow.... She found a way to shrink a normally 3-week process into about 3-days (probably because most of the FSB agents 'assigned' to her want to marry her).'"
Nicholas Fandos & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Senate confirmed William P. Barr on Thursday for a second stint as attorney general, handing oversight of the Justice Department -- and its ongoing investigation into links between Russia's interference in the 2016 election and the Trump campaign -- to a seasoned Republican legal hand known for his expansive view of presidential power.... Divided over whether to accept his assurances, the Senate voted largely along party lines, 54 to 45, to confirm Mr. Barr. Mr. Trump is expected to swear him in at the Oval Office later Thursday. A handful of senators separated from their parties on the Senate floor.... Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against Mr. Barr, citing concerns over his sweeping view of executive power. Three Democrats from conservative or swing states -- Senators Doug Jones of Alabama, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia -- supported him."
Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "... Donald Trump gained four pounds over the last year, according to a new assessment from his doctor, a weight increase that makes him technically obese. But Trump's doctor, Sean Conley, nonetheless determined that the president 'remains in very good health overall' in a memorandum released by the White House on Thursday. Conley recorded Trump's height as 6'3" and his weight as 243 pounds. Last year, the president clocked in at 239 pounds, according to an assessment by his former doctor, Ronny Jackson.... Jackson recommended last year that the president lose 10-15 pounds and put him on a diet and exercise plan. The White House acknowledged last week that the president has not followed the plan closely." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump is more obese than that. As Restuccia reports, "Based on his current height and weight, Trump's body mass index is 30.4, putting him across the obesity threshold." But Rachel Maddow pointed out last night, Trump is actually less than 6'3", so his body mass index is greater than Conley's report indicates. (As Maddow asked, if you can't trust his doctor to correctly report something as objective as height, what-all else is Conley lying about?) Maddow featured the photo of Jeb Bush & Trump (during a 2016 debate). Jeb Bush is 6'3". Actually.
Carol Morello & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Vice President Pence on Thursday launched a combative broadside against some of America’s closest allies, calling on European countries to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran and accusing them of attempting to break U.S. sanctions against 'that vile regime' in Tehran. Officials from Britain, France and Germany -- all countries that negotiated and signed the 2015 landmark agreement that President Trump withdrew from last year -- were in the audience as Pence accused them of essentially joining sides with America's enemy. Pence threatened to impose more U.S. sanctions against Iran and praised countries that are moving to reduce their oil imports from the country 'to zero.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Barbara Starr & Bianca Britton of CNN: "The US commander who has been leading the war against ISIS told CNN Friday that he disagreed with Donald Trump's decision to pull troops out of Syria and warned that the terror group was far from defeated, in a stark public break with the President. Joseph Votel, the top American general in the Middle East, also said that the US-backed forces on the ground in Syria were not ready to handle the threat of ISIS on their own.... Votel, speaking to CNN from Oman on Friday, revealed he would only have declared that ISIS had been defeated, as Trump did in December, if he was sure they no longer posed a threat.... Votel also said that the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) -- who launched an offensive to oust ISIS from its only remaining enclave in Syria last weekend -- could not defeat the terror group without continued American assistance."
Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "The Federal Trade Commission and Facebook are negotiating over a multi-billion dollar fine that would settle the agency's investigation into the social media giant's privacy practices, according to two people familiar with the probe. The fine would be the largest the agency has ever imposed on a technology company, but the two sides have not yet agreed on an exact amount.... If talks break down, the FTC could take the matter to court in what would likely be a bruising legal fight.... A multi-billion dollar fine would amount to a political reckoning for Facebook in the United States after a series of privacy lapses that may have put the personal information of its users at risk. Lawmakers have faulted the company for mishandling that [those!] data while failing to crack down on other other digital ills, including the rise of online hate speech and the spread of disinformation from Russia and other foreign actors."
Presidential Race 2020. Allan Smith of NBC News: "NBC News, MSNBC and Telemundo will host the first 2020 presidential primary debate in June, the Democratic National Committee announced Thursday. The debate could be held over two consecutive nights in prime time, given the anticipated size of the field, the DNC said.... The [DNC]'s chairman, Tom Perez, said in a statement Thursday that he is 'committed to running an open and transparent primary process,' which includes updating the threshold for candidates to qualify for a spot on the debate stage that places a premium on grassroots support."
David Goodman of the New York Times: "Amazon on Thursday canceled its plans to build an expansive corporate campus in New York City after facing an unexpectedly fierce backlash from some lawmakers and union leaders, who contended that a tech giant did not deserve nearly $3 billion in government incentives. The company, as part of its extensive search for a new headquarters, had chosen Long Island City, Queens, as one of two winning sites, saying that it would create more than 25,000 jobs in the city. But the agreement to lure Amazon stirred an intense debate about the use of public subsidies to entice wealthy companies, the rising cost of living in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods and the city's very identity." ...
... Derek Thompson of the Atlantic: "In a statement, Amazon blamed local politicians for the reversal.... In a period of growing antipathy toward billionaires, Amazon's corporate-welfare haul struck many -- including me -- as a gratuitous gift to a trillion-dollar company that was probably going to keep adding thousands of jobs to the New York region anyway.... The most obvious losers in Amazon's reversal are real-estate speculators.... But ... it is ... likely that neither the city's nor the company's economic trajectory will be materially altered.... The larger truth is that corporate subsidies, including the $3 billion package offered to Amazon, are often pernicious and usually pointless. Studies show that these sorts of measures 'have no discernible impact on firm expansion, measured by job creation.'... The irony is that the quasi-socialist revolution behind [backlash against the deal] has voided a corporate-welfare deal that is more corporate cronyism than capitalism. It has taken far-left protesters to inject a measure of sanity into the free market." ...
... Thanks, GOP! Laura Stampler of Fortune: "According to a report published by the Institute on Taxation and Economic (ITEP) policy Wednesday..., [Amazon] won’t have to pay a cent in federal taxes for the second year in a row. This tax-free break comes even though Amazon almost doubled its U.S. profits from $5.6 billion to $11.2 billion between 2017 and 2018.... To top it off, Amazon actually reported a $129 million 2018 federal income tax rebate -- making its tax rate -1%.... But even though [Donald] Trump previously blasted Amazon for its limited state taxes -- a single presidential tweet caused the company's shares to fall by 9% -- ITEP notes that its non-existent federal tax payment is a result of the Trump Administration's corporation-friendly tax cuts. The think tank writes that the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act not only decreased corporate tax rates from 35% to 21%, but it also didn't close 'a slew of tax loopholes that allow profitable companies to routinely avoid paying federal and state income taxes on almost half of their profits.'" ...
... Kevin Drum: "This is not ordinarily a gossip site, but damn. The story we've heard so far about Amazon gazillionaire Jeff Bezos is that he sent a bunch of, um, below-the-belt selfies to his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez, and then they were stolen and turned over to the National Enquirer, which tried to blackmail Bezos over them. The thief was Michael Sanchez, Lauren's brother. What an asshole! He did this to his own sister! But wait. Gabe Sherman has an interview with Michael Sanchez today, and he doesn't merely deny the allegations, he claims to have been Jeff and Lauren's closest confidant about their affair over the past year[.]... Michael Sanchez ... thinks Lauren shared [the photos] with girlfriends.... This is either Trump-level lying or else the biggest twist ever to a story like this." ...
... Lachlan Markay, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Michael Sanchez, the Hollywood talent agent who allegedly leaked Jeff Bezos' racy text messages to the National Enquirer, has a history of weaponizing his connections at AMI and the Enquirer on behalf of -- and sometimes against -- his former clients."
Beyond the Beltway
ABC News Chicago: "Chicago police confirmed Thursday that detectives are talking to two persons of interest in connection with the alleged attack on 'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett. Multiple sources have told ABC7 Eyewitness News that police are investigating whether Smollett and the two men staged the attack allegedly because Smollett was being written off of 'Empire.'... Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson contacted ABC7 to say they are continuing to treat Smollett as a victim and the investigation remains ongoing. Chicago police told ABC News, 'Police are investigating whether the two individuals committed the attack - or whether the attack happened at all.'... Smollett's representatives said he is not being written off 'Empire.'... A source briefed on the Smollett investigation confirmed to ABC News that Chicago police are questioning the two persons of interest -- one of whom has appeared on 'Empire.'"
News Lede
NBC News: "Five people were killed and six police officers injured in a shooting at a manufacturing company in Aurora, Illinois, on Friday afternoon. The suspected gunman, killed by police, was identified by authorities as Gary Martin. Authorities believe Martin may have been employed at the plant, according to Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman."
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