The Commentariat -- May 25, 2018

Afternoon Update:

William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "Eleven days before the presidential inauguration last year, a billionaire Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin visited Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet with ... Michael D. Cohen, according to video footage and another person who attended the meeting. In Mr. Cohen's office on the 26th floor, he and the oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, discussed a mutual desire to strengthen Russia's relations with the United States under President Trump, according to Andrew Intrater, an American businessman who attended the meeting and invests money for Mr. Vekselberg."

Trump Is Not Giving up on SPYGATE! Max Greenwood of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday once again made the claim that the FBI improperly spied on his presidential campaign, suggesting that the bureau used a top-secret informant to surveil his team long before it began investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election. 'The Democrats are now alluding to the the concept that having an Informant placed in an opposing party's campaign is different than having a Spy, as illegal as that may be,' he tweeted. 'But what about an "Informant" who is paid a fortune and who "sets up" way earlier than the Russian Hoax?'" ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Say, why haven't we heard from Devin Nunes since he got the goods on the intelligence agencies way yesterday? No press conference decrying FBI spies? No interviews revealing a CIA conspiracy? I'm so disappointed.

Blah, Blah, Blah. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Friday that his administration was back in touch with North Korea and the two sides may reschedule his summit meeting with Kim Jong-un, perhaps even on the original June 12 date, a stunning reversal just a day after the president canceled the get-together. 'We'll see what happens,' Mr. Trump told reporters. 'It could even be the 12th,' he said. 'We're talking to them now. They very much want to do it. We'd like to do it. We'll see what happens.'" ...

... Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "Sixteen months into the Trump Presidency, it is finally time to say: ... There are no deals with Trump, and there are increasingly unlikely to be. Not on NAFTA. Not on Middle East peace. Or Obamacare or infrastructure. On tax cuts, the one big deal that did get passed, Republicans in Congress agreed to give their grandchildren's money to American corporations and wealthy families and put it all on the nation's credit card; Trump championed it but ... played little role in shaping the legislation, and did nothing to build consensus with skeptical Democrats. On North Korea, Trump spontaneously (and over the fears of his advisers) agreed to meet a dictator whose family, for three generations, has made the acquisition of nuclear weapons the centerpiece of its national security; Trump's negotiating strategy was to demand that the Kim dynasty completely give them up. How surprised are we that it didn't work out? No, Trump is a much better dealbreaker than dealmaker."

*****

NEW. Perp Walk of a Fat Pig. Benjamin Mueller of the New York Times: "Harvey Weinstein turned himself in to New York City detectives and was arrested on Friday on charges that he raped one woman and forced another to perform oral sex, a watershed in a monthslong sex crimes investigation and in the #MeToo movement. Around 7:30 a.m., Mr. Weinstein walked into a police station house in Lower Manhattan, flanked by several sex crimes detectives. Toting three large books under his right arm, he looked up without saying a word as a crush of reporters and onlookers yelled, 'Harvey!'... Then about an hour later, he was led from the First Police Precinct in TriBeCa and taken to court on Centre Street to face rape charges, his arms pinned behind him in several sets of handcuffs to accommodate his girth, the police said."

NEW. Rick Noack of the Washington Post: "Within 3 months, Trump's dealings with North Korea and Iran have antagonized: Russia, China, Germany, France, Japan, Britain, Austria, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Slovakia, Portugal, Finland, Ireland, South Korea [...]. Here's a timeline....

John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "BREAKING: North Korea said it is ready to talk to U.S. 'at any time,' responding to Trump's cancellation of summit with Kim Jong Un.... North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan issued a conciliatory statement, saying the regime was ready to meet with the United States 'at any time.'" ...

... Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump has notified Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, that he has canceled their much-anticipated meeting to discuss steps toward denuclearization and peace because of recent 'tremendous anger and open hostility' by Pyongyang toward members of his administration. In a letter dated Thursday to Mr. Kim, the American president left open the possibility that the two could meet in the future. But hours later Mr. Trump warned that the United States and its allies are prepared to respond should 'foolish or reckless acts be taken by North Korea.'" Mrs. McC: "Many people are saying" Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize anyway. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "With foreign journalists watching on Thursday, the North Koreans detonated explosives to destroy tunnels and buildings at the site in the country's remote mountains. But then, only hours later, President Trump abruptly canceled the June 12 summit meeting, turning North Korea's seeming gesture of good will into a potential embarrassment by its longtime enemy, the United States. Mr. Trump's move so blindsided the North Koreans that the invited foreign journalists learned about the cancellation on their smartphones -- even before some of their hosts did. One of the journalists, Will Ripley from CNN, read the text of Mr. Trump's withdrawal letter to their official North Korean chaperones on the return train ride from the remote nuclear test site, Punggye-ri."

... Jonathan Chait reproduces Trump's letter to Kim. "The letter clearly springs from, or at least reflects the deep influence of, Trump's own mind. Almost the entirety of Trump's very short list of favorite words is represented: 'tremendous,' 'massive,' 'powerful,' 'wonderful,' 'beautiful,' 'wealth,' and 'sad.'... The president was obviously manipulated by other actors into a series of impulsive decisions that rewarded his momentary ego needs.... He has, characteristically, refused to learn anything about the subject he was putatively negotiating." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "By canceling his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un..., Donald Trump has proved his lack of skill as a negotiator, handed the world's most brutal dictator a win, and further isolated the United States as a world power. In a letter to Kim, released at the same time as Western reporters were witnessing the destruction of North Korea's nuclear test site, Trump wrote that proceeding with a summit would be 'inappropriate,' given the 'tremendous anger and open hostility' in Kim's recent statements. He thus revealed how little he knows about the history of diplomacy with Pyongyang -- a true expert could have told him that fiery rhetoric is par for the course -- and about Kim's long-standing position on the issues that were to be discussed.... Trump's big mistake was accepting Kim's invitation to a summit without first discussing its potential risks and opportunities with people who know something about these things. His second, bigger mistake was hyping expectations, tweeting that a peace treaty was on the horizon and that he should win the Nobel Peace Prize simply for agreeing to meet. These absurd remarks only heightened his own stake in the summit's success -- and Kim's leverage in the negotiations."

... Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "There's no magic bullet -- or magic summit -- that will resolve the North Korea situation. Trump has finally acknowledged that. But in Trump-ian fashion he's done so in a way that escalates the situation and alienates our allies." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Josh Rogin of the Washington Post: "... by cutting off the diplomacy in the middle with no certainty of what comes next, Trump has opened up a world of possible consequences, most of them bad.... The U.S.-South Korea alliance is headed for tough times. [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo didn't deny that Trump neglected to give President Moon Jae-in advance warning that he was scrapping the summit. Moon was in town just two days ago. His legacy hangs in the balance. Trump made Moon lose face and put distance between the two allies. Pompeo could lose credibility, not only with Kim but also any world leader who now can't be sure he speaks for the president.... Perhaps the biggest risk is that Trump himself loses interest in North Korean diplomacy, feeling burned and calculating that his best chances for a Nobel Peace Prize lie elsewhere.... Unpredictability as a tactic only works on adversaries when it's intentional -- for allies it's always bad." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Fortunately for Reality Chex readers, safari kept his eye on the most important issue that arose from Trump's bailout: how could he get his hands "on one of those fucking moronic coins" minted to celebrate the mythical summit? I heard on the teevee that the White House gift shop's Website crashed what with everybody else trying to get their hands on one of those fucking moronic coins. And no wonder; CNN reports the gift shop had a "deal of the day" $5 discount on the coins. And, someone called Tea Pain figured out the real reason Trump bailed: "One day we'll find out Trump did a short sale on the commemorative coins, then pulled outta the summit."

John Eligon & Michael Shear of the New York Times: Donald Trump pardoned heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion, who died in 1946, & was convicted & imprisoned for transporting a white woman across state lines. "Although his own record on civil rights has come under question, often harshly, Trump, flanked by boxing champions and Sylvester Stallone, the actor who brought the case to his attention, signed an order pardoning Johnson." Trump said Johnson was imprisoned "for what many view as a racially-motivated injustice." [Mrs. McC: "Many people"?] "Hours before he announced the pardon, he told Fox News that he agreed with the N.F.L.'s new policy requiring players to stand for the national anthem or remain in the locker room before games, saying of those who did not stand, 'maybe you shouldn't be in the country.'" ...

... "Most Unpatriotic President Ever" Whacks Black Patriots. Again. Jonathan Chait: "Yesterday, the National Football League capitulated to President Trump and announced a policy banning players from kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality.... Trump pressed his advantage. 'You have to stand proudly for the national anthem or you shouldn't be playing,' he told Brian Kilmeade. 'You shouldn't be there. Maybe you shouldn't be in the country.'... The explanation for this contradiction between his demands that players revere the flag and his own contempt for its spirit is easily explained. Patriotism is the cover for Trump's true intention, which is to delegitimize protest on behalf of African-American civil rights." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Nicholas Fandos & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Top law enforcement and intelligence officials briefed congressional leaders from both parties on Thursday about the F.B.I.'s use of an informant in the Russia investigation, a highly unusual concession to Congress all but ordered by President Trump.... White House officials had at first arranged for only [Rep. Devin] Nunes to be briefed. But Republican Senate leaders, including Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, and Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the Intelligence Committee chairman, pressed the White House to change the audience to the so-called Gang of Eight, the select bipartisan group with whom the government's most sensitive intelligence is shared. The senators ... were successful, at least in part. Administration officials held two separate briefings on Thursday: one for Mr. Nunes at the Justice Department, which has ended, and another on Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon for the Gang of Eight.... The details continued to be fluid Thursday. At the last minute, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, was also included in the first meeting. He was there in place of Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, who received a last-minute invitation. John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, whom Mr. Trump asked to help organize the meetings, attended both sessions, as did Emmet T. Flood, a lawyer representing Mr. Trump in the Russia investigation. Their presence was highly unusual in a sensitive congressional oversight briefing.... Both men left the rooms after initial remarks, according to two officials familiar with the meeting." ...

... Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "The first briefing, which lasted about an hour at the Justice Department, went to [Devin] Nunes, [Paul] Ryan, [Rep. Adam] Schiff and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.). The second, which lasted slightly longer on Capitol Hill, was to the Gang of Eight, which includes the top Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate, as well as the top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence committees.... [John] Kelly and [Emmet] Flood's presence was notable, as it contradicted White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders's assertion no one from the White House would attend.... Trump tweeted Thursday morning: 'Large dollars were paid to the Spy, far beyond normal. Starting to look like one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history. SPYGATE -- a terrible thing!' House Intelligence Committee Ranking Democrat Adam B. Schiff (Calif.) ... said afterward: 'Nothing we heard today has changed our view that there is no evidence to support any allegation that the FBI or any intelligence agency placed a spy in the Trump campaign or otherwise failed to follow appropriate procedures and protocols.'" ...

... Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "Emmet Flood, the new lawyer for the White House overseeing its response to the Mueller probe, headed into the Justice Department with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly late Thursday morning and departed with him when the meeting was over. Flood also accompanied Kelly in and out of a second meeting held on Capitol Hill. The first meeting included Rep. Trey Gowdy, Speaker Paul Ryan, Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Devin Nunes, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Rod Rosenstein, and Chris Wray, as well as brief appearances from Kelly and Flood. The second included the Congressional 'Gang of Eight,' the leaders of both parties from both chambers, as well as the heads of the intelligence committees. Flood and Kelly left soon after appearing in the Capitol Hill meeting. More than one participant in that meeting told Flood his appearance was inappropriate, according to a Congressional official familiar with the meeting.... Schiff said in a statement released later that he told Flood his appearance at the meeting was 'completely inappropriate.' Mark Warner, the Senate intelligence committee's top Democrat..., [tweeted], 'For the record, the President's Chief of Staff and his attorney in an ongoing criminal investigation into the President's campaign have no business showing up to a classified intelligence briefing.'..." ...

... Rudy Explains Why Flood Crashed the Meetings. Kyle Cheney & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Two highly classified briefings Thursday about an FBI informant who contacted the Trump campaign could help grease the wheels for a highly anticipated interview between ... Donald Trump and special counsel Robert Mueller, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani told Politico. 'We want to see how the briefing went to today and how much we learned from it,' Giuliani said in a Thursday phone call. 'If we learned a good deal from it, it will shorten that whole process considerably.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Fandos & Benner of the NYT write (linked above) -- in a much-revised version of their story -- "the presence of John F. Kelly, the chief of staff, and Emmet T. Flood, the president's lawyer, infuriated Democrats, and it gave what legal experts described as at least the appearance that the White House might have abused its authority to gain insight into an investigation that implicates the president. The president's legal team was unapologetic. 'We are certainly entitled to know' what information the government has on the F.B.I. informant, Rudolph W. Giuliani ... said in an interview."

Eric Levitz of New York: "... on Thursday, The Wall Street Journal revealed, for the first time, that [Roger] Stone privately requested access to stolen Clinton emails that he believed to be in WikiLeaks's possession: 'In a Sept. 18, 2016, message, Mr. Stone urged an acquaintance who knew [Julian] Assange to ask the WikiLeaks founder for emails related to Mrs. Clinton's alleged role in disrupting a purported Libyan peace deal in 2011.... "Please ask Assange for any State or HRC e-mail from August 10 to August 30 -- particularly on August 20, 2011," Mr. Stone wrote to Randy Credico, a New York radio personality who had interviewed Mr. Assange several weeks earlier....'... In an interview with the Journal, Credico insisted that he had never forwarded Stone's request to Assange.... Stone, for his part, said he 'never had possession or access to any Clinton emails or records.'... When Stone testified before the House Intelligence Committee last September, he suggested that he had never requested access to stolen Clinton emails, but merely sought 'confirmation' that Assange had information about Clinton.'" ...

... Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "Emails obtained by the Wall Street Journal indicate that longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone withheld key documents from the House Intelligence Committee -- documents indicating he lied about his communications with a radio host he hoped would serve as a backchannel to WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign.... About two weeks after Stone reached out to [Randy] Credico, Stone posted a cryptic tweet suggesting he had foreknowledge that WikiLeaks was about to publish stolen emails that would be damaging to Clinton." The WSJ report is here, firewalled of course.

Norman Eisen and Elizabeth Holtzman in a USA Today op-ed: "Faced with the possibility that his client is criminally exposed on multiple fronts, the president's attorney Rudy Giuliani recently [said] ... a sitting president ... cannot be indicted. He is wrong, and his client should take scant comfort in this claim." Eisen & Holtzman explain why. "Pursuing an indictment of a sitting president is a last resort that is entirely consistent with our constitutional values and democratic norms. It should be on the table not because it is a perfect option, but rather because it is preferable to a world in which our president is above the law and can engage in criminal conduct with impunity."

Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Glenn Thrush & Danielle Ivory of the New York Times: "Mark S. Inch, a retired Army major general [and] the man who was ostensibly in charge of the federal prison system..., [has] submitted his resignation as the bureau's director to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein.... He found himself caught in an ideological turf war between Mr. Kushner and [AG Jeff] Sessions. Mr. Kushner has championed reforms to the corrections system and more lenient federal sentencing, and Mr. Sessions ... has opposed significant parts of the bipartisan prison reform bill that Mr. Kushner backs, according to officials.... Internally [Inch] was marginalized, cut out of budgetary decisions and largely excluded from discussion of the prison reform bill backed by Mr. Kushner, which passed the House on Tuesday but faces an uphill battle in the Senate."

Benjamin Mueller, et al., of the New York Times: "Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul, is expected to surrender to investigators in Manhattan on Friday and face sexual assault charges after a monthslong inquiry into allegations by numerous women. The charges follow an avalanche of accusations against him that led women around the world, some of them famous and many of them not, to come forward with accounts of being sexually harassed and assaulted by powerful men. Those stories spawned the global #MeToo movement, and since then, the ground has shifted beneath men who for years benefited from a code of silence around their predatory behavior."

News Lede

ABC7-Chicago: "A teacher and a student have been injured and a student has been detained after a shooting at Noblesville West Middle School in Indiana Friday, authorities said. A male student has been detained in connection with the shooting, Noblesville Police Chief Kevin Jowitt said at a press conference Friday morning. Now the teacher who stopped the shooting is being hailed as a hero."

The Commentariat -- May 24, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump has notified Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, that he has canceled their much-anticipated meeting to discuss steps toward denuclearization and peace because of recent 'tremendous anger and open hostility' by Pyongyang toward members of his administration. In a letter dated Thursday to Mr. Kim, the American president left open the possibility that the two could meet in the future. But hours later Mr. Trump warned that the United States and its allies are prepared to respond should 'foolish or reckless acts be taken by North Korea.'" Mrs. McC: "Many people are saying" Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize anyway. ...

... Jonathan Chait reproduces Trump's letter to Kim. "The letter clearly springs from, or at least reflects the deep influence of, Trump's own mind. Almost the entirety of Trump's very short list of favorite words is represented: 'tremendous,' 'massive,' 'powerful,' 'wonderful,' 'beautiful,' 'wealth,' and 'sad.'... The president was obviously manipulated by other actors into a series of impulsive decisions that rewarded his momentary ego needs.... He has, characteristically, refused to learn anything about the subject he was putatively negotiating." ...

... Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "There's no magic bullet -- or magic summit -- that will resolve the North Korea situation. Trump has finally acknowledged that. But in Trump-ian fashion he's done so in a way that escalates the situation and alienates our allies."

"Most Unpatriotic President Ever" Whacks Black Patriots. Again. Jonathan Chait: "Yesterday, the National Football League capitulated to President Trump and announced a policy banning players from kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality.... Trump pressed his advantage. 'You have to stand proudly for the national anthem or you shouldn't be playing,' he told Brian Kilmeade. 'You shouldn't be there. Maybe you shouldn't be in the country.'... The explanation for this contradiction between his demands that players revere the flag and his own contempt for its spirit is easily explained. Patriotism is the cover for Trump's true intention, which is to delegitimize protest on behalf of African-American civil rights."

*****

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
When Corruption Meets Panic

Mel Leonor of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday said he did a 'great service to this country' by firing former FBI Director James Comey. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Trump speaks only until about the 5-minute mark in the video below, after which some ABC News reporters, including White House correspondent Tara Palmeri, discuss his conspiracy theories. Mrs. McC: The video was produced & uploaded by some pro-Trump guy, but it's the only one I could find that covered all of the remarks Trump made yesterday on the White House lawn:

     ... See also Linda Qiu's analysis, linked below.

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump repeated unconfirmed claims on Wednesday about federal investigators using a spy inside his presidential campaign, and said it could be one of the 'biggest political scandals in history!' The president also gave the scandal a name: 'SPYGATE.'... In a series of Twitter posts early Wednesday..., Mr. Trump departed from his previous language about the possibility that the government deployed a spy inside his presidential campaign. Instead, he stated it as fact.... 'Look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State. They go after Phony Collusion with Russia, a made up Scam, and end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before! What goes around, comes around!'... Mr. Trump's claims about the government spying on his campaign are part of a pattern for this president, who rails about injustice and political bias among the top officials at the Justice Department -- officials he appointed. He has described his own Justice Department as a 'deep state,' and on Wednesday appeared to accuse the department of criminal activity, calling it the 'Criminal Deep State.' The latest accusation is similar to Mr. Trump's claims in the early days of his presidency that former President Barack Obama had Mr. Trump's 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower. His unsubstantiated claims were later proven to be false...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Once again, the paper of record publishes a front-page story which describes the POTUS* as a lying sack o' and/or a lunatic.

Tom Porter of Newsweek: "In his new memoir, Facts and Fears: Hard Truths From a Life in Intelligence, [former Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper describes evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin swayed the election in a bid to secure Trump's election as 'staggering.' 'Of course, the Russian efforts affected the outcome,' writes Clapper, as cited in a Washington Post review. 'Surprising even themselves, they swung the election to a Trump win. To conclude otherwise stretches logic, common sense and credulity to the breaking point. Less than eighty thousand votes in three key states swung the election. I have no doubt that more votes than that were influenced by this massive effort by the Russians.'"

Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "In highly charged and notably ominous terms, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) on Wednesday laid bare his fears about the damage Donald Trump was inflicting on the office he holds, and called out his fellow Republicans for lacking the spine to fight to it. 'Our presidency has been debased by a figure who has a seemingly bottomless appetite for destruction and division and only a passing familiarity with how the Constitution works,' Flake declared, according to an advanced copy of the commencement address he was delivering to graduates of the Harvard School of Law. 'And our Article I branch of government, the Congress, is utterly supine in the face of the moral vandalism that flows from the White House daily.'... 'This is what it looks like when you stress-test all of the institutions that undergird our constitutional democracy, at the same time.'" ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Trump's ability to comprehend objective reality is characteristically cracked. But his confidence that the array of forces are shifting to his benefit, and that he may turn the tables on his enemies, has a real basis in reality. He is bringing his party, and the powers it commands, around to his warped manner of thinking.... The defense has ignored all this evidence of guilt, and instead focused on the question of why Trump was being investigated at all.... Planting evidence? Multiple spies? Obama political operatives? You might think ... Trump could not get his party to go along with this theory, to dismiss all the evidence of culpability as having been fabricated by a pro-Obama cabal in the FBI. But then you would be ignoring how far down the Trump rabbit hole the Republican Party has gone so far." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Greg Sargent: "... Trump's latest tweets show him concocting crazy conspiracy theories in the face of an investigation that is closing in on him, his family and his cronies. Why is he doing this? Because the investigation, in tandem with dogged media digging, has already produced evidence of Trump campaign collusion with a foreign power to subvert our democracy and allegations of mind-boggling levels of corruption, which include Trump corruptly going to extraordinary lengths to subvert the workings of justice, with the active help of Republicans in Congress.... Democrats should talk about this.... Even if the public may not be closely familiar with all the details involving Russian collusion, Democrats can connect the Mueller investigation to a broader case about Trump corruption and Republican efforts to help him escape accountability.... Trump's whack-job lies are not a sign that he's winning the public argument; they're a sign that he's losing it. Democrats should act accordingly." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Elizabeth Drew of the New Republic: "In the past four days alone, two new items were added to President Trump's list of impeachable offenses. He was already a sitting duck for a charge of obstruction of justice.... He was also already vulnerable to a charge of accepting foreign emoluments.... And now Trump has chalked up two more reasons to impeach him (or some kind of reckoning): abusing his office by ordering an investigation of the FBI's investigation into whether his 2016 campaign conspired with Russia, and attempting to punish a specific individual by damaging that person's business.... If Trump gets away with these things unscathed, dangerous precedents will have been set.... If a president can attack an individual for a reason of his own, no one is safe."

Donald Trump Is No Adlai Stevenson (or JFK or LBJ or):

You Can't Make This Up:

     ... Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "A trio of influential Senate Republicans, cut out of a high-stakes meeting this week on classified information about a confidential FBI source who aided an investigation into Trump campaign advisers, is asking the White House to be allowed to review the material. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (Tex.) made the request in a letter obtained by The Washington Post. In it, the senators stress their 'interest in attending such a meeting and in support of providing Congress with documents necessary to conduct oversight of these issues.'... In a separate letter sent Wednesday to Rosenstein and Wray, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged the officials to abandon plans for the meeting. If the meeting is held, the Democrats asked that it be opened up to a bipartisan group of eight lawmakers.... 'We can think of no legitimate oversight justification for the ex parte dissemination -- at the direction of the president -- of investigative information to the president's staunchest defenders in Congress and, ultimately, to the president's legal defense team.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

      ... Update. Jonathan Karl, et al., of ABC News: "The White House confirmed Wednesday it is planning for a bipartisan group of House and Senate leaders, known as the 'Gang of 8,' to receive a highly-classified intelligence briefing on the FBI's investigation into Russian meddling, reversing plans to exclude Democrats altogether.... While details of the bipartisan meeting are still being worked out, a Republican-only briefing will go on as scheduled Thursday.... The bipartisan 'Gang of 8' includes the Republican and Democratic leaders from the House and Senate as well as the respective party leaders from the House and Senate intelligence committees." Mrs. McC: The Gang of 8 meeting will no occur until after the Memorial Day recess, giving Nunes & the gang plenty of time to spread & solidify whatever "facts" he claims he learned during his more-or-less "exclusive" (with Trey Gowdy [RTP-Benghaaazi!]) briefing. ...

     ... Update Update. Rep. Adam Schiff said on MSNBC tonight that the head of an intelligence agency had assured him that -- contrary to White House statements -- the meeting among the DOJ, intelligence officials & members of Congress scheduled for Thursday would be "at the Gang of 8 level" and that leaders of both parties would be invited to attend. ...

     ... Update Update Update. Burgess Everett & Elana Schor of Politico: "Top Senate and House party leaders and Intelligence Committee leaders from both parties will be briefed on whether an informant was embedded in ... Donald Trump's campaign on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The briefing comes after complaints from Senate Democrats and some Republicans about the adminstration's plans for an unprecedented briefing for two prominent House Republicans from FBI Director Christopher Wray and and the Justice Department on Thursday. At noon, House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes and Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy will meet with White House chief of staff John Kelly, deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, FBI Director Chris Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, according to guidance from the Department of Justice. But two hours later on Capitol Hill, those same officials with meet with House and Senate Democratic Republican leaders as well as the chairmen and ranking members of the Intel Committees, a stunning shift after the initial exclusion of Democrats." ...

... Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The Justice Department hasn't indicated what documents or information it intends to provide two GOP lawmakers in a classified briefing Thursday about an FBI informant who made contact with ... Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. But top Trump allies in Congress are already signaling they expect to be disappointed. 'They're not going to see any documents tomorrow, so it doesn't matter,' Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) told reporters.... Pressed on how he knows DOJ won't share the information Republicans have asked for, Meadows paused at length and then said he couldn't comment. He later added it was based on 'rhetoric' and recent history. Several other House GOP lawmakers expressed similar pessimism that DOJ would share the desired 'documents.'"

Rudy Is Saying Some Stuff:

     ... "Truth is Relative." -- Rudy Giuliani. Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump’s attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani switched gears Wednesday, saying that he would prefer the president grant an interview to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's office and that a decision would be made within 'the next couple weeks.'... In Wednesday morning's interview with The Post, Giuliani said the president sometimes seesaws on whether he wants to do an interview.... Giuliani said he was concerned that the president would become a target or that the interview would be a perjury trap, because the 'truth is relative.' The president's legal team continues to try to set limitations on an interview, including the duration and questions posed, he said.... Giuliani also said the president was unlikely to make changes at the Justice Department and had no intention of firing Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein or Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- all three of whom have come under sustained attack from the president." ...

     ... Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed: "Rudy Giuliani says that an ultimate decision won't be made on whether ... Donald Trump will sit for an interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller until 'the details of this "Spygate" situation' are figured out.... He later said that those facts include knowing more information about Trump's recent allegations that an FBI informant who reportedly had contact with three Trump campaign officials constituted or was part of 'a major SPY scandal.' Trump has presented no evidence to support such a claim.... '... according to [former Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper, is that they were spying on the Russians and, in the course of spying on the Russians, they ended up spying on the Trump campaign. Well, I want to know why, what the basis for it was, what did they acquire -- nothing, I believe -- so, if they acquired nothing in the counterintelligence investigation, how do you end up with another whole year of Mueller?'" Mrs. McC: I heard Clapper's remarks, and of course he said just the opposite -- that the intelligence community did not spy on the Trump campaign. But, you know, truth is relative. ...

     ... Update. Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "... Mr. Clapper never said what Mr. Trump [& Giuliani] claimed he did. In fact, he said the opposite.... He explicitly denied that the F.B.I. "spied" on Mr. Trump's campaign.... Mr. Clapper described the use of this informant as 'a fairly benign tool' that the F.B.I. employs 'all the time.'"

** Paul Wood of the BBC: "Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, received a secret payment of at least $400,000 (£300,000) to fix talks between the Ukrainian president and President Trump, according to sources in Kiev close to those involved. The payment was arranged by intermediaries acting for Ukraine's leader, Petro Poroshenko, the sources said, though Mr Cohen was not registered as a representative of Ukraine as required by US law. The meeting at the White House was last June. Shortly after the Ukrainian president returned home, his country's anti-corruption agency stopped its investigation into Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and adviser, has been granted his permanent security clearance a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday, ending a period of uncertainty that had fueled questions about whether Mr. Kushner was in peril in the special counsel investigation. Mr. Kushner's F.B.I. background checks had dragged on for a year.... Mr. Kushner's clearances were approved by career officials after the completion of the F.B.I. background check and that the president was not involved in the process. The security clearance process had not been delayed by the special counsel's investigation, said Mr. Kushner's lawyer, Abbe D. Lowell.... Mr. Lowell said that Mr. Kushner has cooperated fully with the special counsel and met with Mr. Mueller's investigators twice for many hours.... The resolution of his clearances does not guarantee that Mr. Kushner faces no legal jeopardy. But Mark S. Zaid, a veteran Washington lawyer who handles security clearances, said it was highly unlikely that the special counsel would uncover evidence of improper foreign entanglements and not flag it for security officials." (Also linked, in an earlier version, yesterday afternoon.)

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A court filing Wednesday from special counsel Robert Mueller's office may be a signal that his investigation into Russian efforts to coordinate with the Trump campaign is nearing a conclusion. The filing asks a federal judge to start the process of preparing a pre-sentencing report for former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty last year to lying to investigators in the Trump-Russia probe. The move indicates that a sentencing for Papadopoulos could come this summer -- without him testifying at the trials of others who may have been involved in alleged collusion with the Kremlin on its attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election."

Kevin Poulsen of The Daily Beast: "FBI agents armed with a court order have seized control of a key server in the Kremlin's global botnet of 500,000 hacked routers.... The move positions the bureau to build a comprehensive list of victims of the attack, and short-circuits Moscow's ability to reinfect its targets...[A]verage consumers have the ability to stop Russia's latest cyber attack by rebooting their routers, which will now reach out to the FBI instead of Russian intelligence. According to the court filings, the FBI is collecting the Internet IP addresses of every compromised router that phones home to the address, so agents can use the information to clean up the global infection.... The court order only lets the FBI monitor metadata like the victim's IP address, not content." --safari

Contributor P.D. Pepe mentioned this yesterday: Trump admitted to Leslie Stahl the reason he demeans the press:

John Herrman of the New York Times: "... on Wednesday, one of Mr. Trump's Twitter habits -- his practice of blocking critics on the service, preventing them from engaging with his account -- was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge in Manhattan.... In her ruling, Federal District Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald wrote of seven plaintiffs who sued Mr. Trump and several of his aides after being blocked by Mr. Trump's Twitter account that 'the speech in which they seek to engage is protected by the First Amendment.'... 'We respectfully disagree with the court's decision and are considering our next steps,' said a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, which is representing Mr. Trump in the case."

Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "North Korea said on Thursday that it had destroyed its only known nuclear test site.... North Korea allowed a select group of journalists from Britain, China, Russia, South Korea and the United States to watch its engineers destroy and close tunnels in its mountainous Punggye-ri test site, where the country has conducted all six of its nuclear tests. No independent outside nuclear monitors were invited to verify the dismantlement of the site. The action came two days after Mr. Trump backed away from his demand that Mr. Kim completely abandon his nuclear arsenal without any reciprocal American concessions."

Washington Post: "North Korea says it will reconsider [participating in a] summit with Trump 'if the U.S. continues with its evil acts[.]' The statement, issued by Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, took particular aim at Vice President Pence for his 'unbridled and impudent remarks that North Korea might end like Libya.' 'As a person involved in U.S. affairs, I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the U.S. vice president,' said Choe, who was previously in charge of North Korea's relations with the United States. North Korea was not begging for talks, she said a day after President Trump suggested the talks could be postponed or even canceled." This was a breaking news story at 8:40 pm ET Wednesday.

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to crack down on states that try to circumvent a new limit on the state and local tax deduction, saying it will not allow workarounds aimed at helping individuals fully deduct those taxes.The $10,000 cap, which was included in last year's $1.5 trillion Republican tax overhaul, hit predominantly Democratic high-tax states hardest since it limits the amount of state and local sales, income and property taxes that taxpayers can deduct from their federal taxes.... The Treasury Department on Wednesday warned that such workarounds are unlikely to pass I.R.S. muster.... The notice is a precursor to a formal guidance from the I.R.S. that will need to go through a review process." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Awasin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast: "Fresh off their heated, 'fuck'-encrusted shouting match in China, tensions and policy fissures between Donald Trump advisers Steve Mnuchin and Peter Navarro are at an all-time high.... Navarro has ... privately nicknamed Mnuchin 'Neville Chamberlain' ... and likened the economic threat from China to that of fascist dictator Hitler.... A senior White House official described the dynamic between the two as a 'cold war that became hot,'... Other administration officials simply expressed dismay at the feud, with one noting with a sigh that 'this is not what [Trump] needs right now, more palace-intrigue horseshit.'" --safari

Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "The Pentagon disinvited China from participating in a major naval exercise on Wednesday, signaling mounting U.S. anger over Beijing's expanded military footprint in disputed areas of the South China Sea. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Logan said the Defense Department had reversed an earlier invitation to the Chinese Navy to the 2018 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC), the world's largest international naval exercise, over the decision to place anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and electronic jammers in the Spratly Islands." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Gordon Chang in the Daily Beast: "Two China crises -- one on North Korea and the other on trade -- are intersecting, and feeding off each other. They both could escalate fast.... In addition to openly violating U.N. sanctions in recent months, Xi has undoubtedly been schooling Kim in the art of defiance of the international community, especially the United States. That second Xi-Kim meeting -- held May 7 and 8 in the Chinese city of Dalian -- preceded North Korea's return to bad behavior. It took some time for Trump to recognize what was going on, but he evidently lost patience with the Chinese at the beginning of this week. On Monday morning, Trump took to Twitter to criticize Beijing." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump opened the door on Tuesday to a phased dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons program, backing away from his demand that the North's leader, Kim Jong-un, completely abandon his arsenal without any reciprocal American concessions. The president's hint of flexibility came after North Korea declared last week that it would never agree to unilaterally surrender its weapons, even threatening to cancel the much-anticipated summit meeting between Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump scheduled for next month in Singapore." This is an update of a story linked yesterday morning. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Robert Burns of the AP: "... service members entrusted with guarding nuclear missiles ... bought, distributed and used the hallucinogen LSD and other mind-altering illegal drugs as part of a ring that operated undetected for months on a highly secure military base in Wyoming. After investigators closed in, one airman deserted to Mexico.... A slipup on social media by one airman enabled investigators to crack the drug ring at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in March 2016, details of which are reported here for the first time. Fourteen airmen were disciplined. Six of them were convicted in courts martial.... Air Force investigators found those implicated in the F.E. Warren drug ring used LSD on base and off, at least twice at outdoor gatherings. Some also snorted cocaine and used ecstasy."

** Patrick Smith of ThinkProgress: "Wednesday ... Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) said the EPA barred his staff from attending a summit on water contamination.... What's especially concerning about this move is that Kildee represents Flint, Michigan, the site of an ongoing toxic water crisis.... In addition, the EPA once again barred press from covering Wednesday's event.... Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) questioned who the EPA was really serving with this event, saying on Twitter that the agency was 'more concerned with protecting the EPA chemical summit from the public than it is with protecting the public from harmful chemicals.'" --safari

"Astounding Ignorance of the Law." Moriah Balingit of the Washington Post: "Civil rights groups slammed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for saying Tuesday that schools can decide whether to report undocumented students to immigration enforcement officials, saying her statements conflict with the law and could raise fears among immigrant students. DeVos's answers came during testimony before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who was at one time undocumented, pressed the secretary for her positions on immigration enforcement.... The Supreme Court made clear in Plyler v. Doe that public schools have a constitutional obligation to provide schooling for children, regardless of immigration status. That means schools also cannot enforce measures that would deter undocumented children from registering. They cannot ask about immigration status. And according to the American Civil Liberties Union, they cannot report students or their families to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.... Under the Obama administration, Arne Duncan, who was education secretary, and Eric Holder, who was attorney general, issued guidance to schools reminding them of their obligation to educate all children, regardless of immigration status. And those officials warned schools that they would violate federal law if they required things an undocumented immigrant might lack, such as a U.S. birth certificate or a Social Security number." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: To be fair to Secretary Dumbbelle, Espaillat set her up. He asked her, "... do you feel that the principal or teacher is responsible to call [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and to have that family reported?" So, what with Betsy's boss embracing the theory that at least someone in that hypothetical undocumented family was a marauding gangbanger & machete-weilding murderer, Dumbelle replied, "... I think that's a school decision. That's a local community decision." As for the Obama-era guidance, reporter Balingit was unfair, too: everybody knows President Obama chose Cabinet members with some level of competence & professional experience; neither is a Trumpy requirement.

AP: "The Trump administration is moving to reverse Obama-era rules barring hunters on some public lands in Alaska from baiting brown bears with bacon and doughnuts and using spotlights to shoot mother black bears and cubs hibernating in their dens.... Under the proposed changes, hunters would also be allowed to hunt black bears with dogs, kill wolves and pups in their dens, and use motor boats to shoot swimming caribou. These and other hunting methods -- condemned as cruel by wildlife protection advocates -- were outlawed on federal lands in 2015.... Expanding hunting rights on federal lands has been a priority for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke" --safari: Fuck you Zinke! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Spencer Woodman of ICIJ: "Fresh disclosures that ... Michael Cohen used a shell company to receive huge payments from a firm linked to a Russian oligarch as well as two multinational corporations have highlighted the United States' position as a leading global enabler of corporate secrecy. Reports regarding Cohen's firm come just weeks after the British Parliament dropped a financial secrecy bombshell by advancing legislation requiring its island territories, which include some of the world's most notorious tax havens, to publicly disclose company ownership. Cohen's shell company is registered in Delaware, a state that allows companies to disclose little trace of their owners or directors.... 'Right now, the United States is the easiest place in the world to set up an anonymous shell company,' says Clark Gascoigne, deputy director of the FACT Coalition, a group dedicated to financial transparency." --safari

Gubernatorial Race. Maegan Vazquez of CNN: Former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez won her runoff and became the Democratic nominee for Texas governor Tuesday night, making her the first openly lesbian and Latina nominee to win a major party gubernatorial nomination in the state. Valdez won 53.1% of the vote while her competitor, Andrew White, obtained 46.9%, according to unofficial election results." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jackson McHenry of New York: "Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have started a criminal probe into the numerous sexual-abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. According to their sources, the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York is looking into whether Weinstein lured or induced women to cross state lines for the purpose of committing a sex crime, which is a federal charge. Previously, local authorities in Los Angeles and New York had opened investigations into Weinstein, though neither have led to an arrest -- though the NYPD has claimed that they are waiting for DA Cyrus Vance Jr.'s approval to make one."

Medlar's Sports Report. Victor Mather of the New York Times: "N.F.L. players will be allowed to stay in the locker room during the national anthem, but their teams will be fined by the league if they go onto the field and kneel, according to new rules adopted by owners on Wednesday in an effort to defuse an issue that escalated last season into a national debate catalyzed by President Trump. Players had previously been required to be on the field for the anthem. Commissioner Roger Goodell said that owners voted unanimously to rescind that rule and to fine teams if their players are on the field or sidelines but do not 'show respect for the flag and the anthem.' At least one owner, Jed York of the 49ers, said his team abstained in the vote.... Christopher Johnson, the chairman and C.E.O. of the Jets, said the team would not punish players who choose to kneel during the anthem, despite the cost.... The new policy was adopted at the league's spring meeting in Atlanta without involvement from the players' union." ...

... New York Times Editors: "Rather than show a little backbone themselves and support the right of athletes to protest peacefully, the league capitulated to a president who relishes demonizing black athletes.... The league has now decided it will also override the best interests of America and try to substitute a phony pageant of solidarity for a powerful civics lesson."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Thanks, China! Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "In a truly remarkable feat of innovation, scientists have figured out how to create 'hybrid' solar cells that generate power not just from sunlight but also from raindrops. This means we may soon see all-weather solar panels that work when it is cloudy and even at night, if it's raining.... Much of this innovation is now coming from China, the world leader in both manufacturing and deployment of solar energy.... For instance, China has developed 'double-sided' solar panels that can generate power from light that hits their underside. That can enable a 10 percent boost in output.... Bloomberg New Energy Finance projects these panels could capture a remarkable 40 percent share of the market by 2025." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Weird News. Chris Buckley of the New York Times: "An American government employee posted in southern China has signs of possible brain injury after reporting disturbing sounds and sensations, the State Department said on Wednesday, in events that seemed to draw parallels with mysterious ailments that struck American diplomats in Cuba. The State Department warning, issued through the United States Consulate in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, advised American citizens in China to seek medical help if they felt similar symptoms. But it said that no other cases had been reported." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Will Fitzgibbon of ICIJ: "West African countries are plundered by companies and individuals, while governments do little to stem the flow. West Africa accounts for more than one-third of an estimated $50 billion that leaves the continent untraced or untaxed each year.... Overall, a combination of corruption, drug, human and weapons trafficking and other furtive import and export activities strip Africa of three to 10 times as much as it receives in foreign aid.... ICIJ partnered with 13 journalists on West Africa Leaks to investigate high-profile individuals and powerful corporations in the region. The investigation included journalists from six countries where reporters hadn't before examined files pertaining to the individuals and businesses." --safari: This article leads to several others on the same subject. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Commentariat -- May 23, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Contributor P.D. Pepe mentioned this earlier today:

Mel Leonor of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday said he did a 'great service to this country' by firing former FBI Director James Comey.

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to crack down on states that try to circumvent a new limit on the state and local tax deduction, saying it will not allow workarounds aimed at helping individuals fully deduct those taxes. The $10,000 cap, which was included in last year's $1.5 trillion Republican tax overhaul, hit predominantly Democratic high-tax states hardest since it limits the amount of state and local sales, income and property taxes that taxpayers can deduct from their federal taxes.... The Treasury Department on Wednesday warned that such workarounds are unlikely to pass I.R.S. muster.... The notice is a precursor to a formal guidance from the I.R.S. that will need to go through a review process."

Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and adviser, has been granted his permanent security clearance, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday, ending a period of uncertainty that had fueled questions about whether Mr. Kushner was in peril in the special counsel investigation. Mr. Kushner's F.B.I. background checks had dragged on for a year.... Mr. Kushner's clearances were approved by career officials after the completion of the F.B.I. background check and that the president was not involved in the process. The security clearance process had not been delayed by the special counsel's investigation, said Mr. Kushner's lawyer, Abbe D. Lowell."

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump repeated unconfirmed claims on Wednesday about federal investigators using a spy inside his presidential campaign, and said it could be one of the 'biggest political scandals in history!' The president also gave the scandal a name: 'SPYGATE.'... In a series of Twitter posts early Wednesday..., Mr. Trump departed from his previous language about the possibility that the government deployed a spy inside his presidential campaign. Instead, he stated it as fact.... 'Look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State. They go after Phony Collusion with Russia, a made up Scam, and end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before! What goes around, comes around!'... Mr. Trump's claims about the government spying on his campaign are part of a pattern for this president, who rails about injustice and political bias among the top officials at the Justice Department -- officials he appointed. He has described his own Justice Department as a 'deep state,' and on Wednesday appeared to accuse the department of criminal activity, calling it the 'Criminal Deep State.' The latest accusation is similar to Mr. Trump's claims in the early days of his presidency that former President Barack Obama had Mr. Trump's 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower. His unsubstantiated claims were later proven to be false after a Justice Department review." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Once again, the paper of record publishes a front-page story which describes the POTUS* as a lying sack o' and/or a lunatic. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Trump's ability to comprehend objective reality is characteristically cracked. But his confidence that the array of forces are shifting to his benefit, and that he may turn the tables on his enemies, has a real basis in reality. He is bringing his party, and the powers it commands, around to his warped manner of thinking.... The defense has ignored all this evidence of guilt, and instead focused on the question of why Trump was being investigated at all.... Planting evidence? Multiple spies? Obama political operatives? You might think ... Trump could not get his party to go along with this theory, to dismiss all the evidence of culpability as having been fabricated by a pro-Obama cabal in the FBI. But then you would be ignoring how far down the Trump rabbit hole the Republican Party has gone so far." ...

... Greg Sargent: "... Trump’s latest tweets show him concocting crazy conspiracy theories in the face of an investigation that is closing in on him, his family and his cronies. Why is he doing this? Because the investigation, in tandem with dogged media digging, has already produced evidence of Trump campaign collusion with a foreign power to subvert our democracy and allegations of mind-boggling levels of corruption, which include Trump corruptly going to extraordinary lengths to subvert the workings of justice, with the active help of Republicans in Congress.... Democrats should talk about this.... Even if the public may not be closely familiar with all the details involving Russian collusion, Democrats can connect the Mueller investigation to a broader case about Trump corruption and Republican efforts to help him escape accountability.... Trump's whack-job lies are not a sign that he's winning the public argument; they're a sign that he's losing it. Democrats should act accordingly." ...

... Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "A trio of influential Senate Republicans, cut out of a high-stakes meeting this week on classified information about a confidential FBI source who aided an investigation into Trump campaign advisers, is asking the White House to be allowed to review the material. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (Tex.) made the request in a letter obtained by The Washington Post. In it, the senators stress their 'interest in attending such a meeting and in support of providing Congress with documents necessary to conduct oversight of these issues.'... In a separate letter sent Wednesday to Rosenstein and Wray, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged the officials to abandon plans for the meeting. If the meeting is held, the Democrats asked that it be opened up to a bipartisan group of eight lawmakers.... 'We can think of no legitimate oversight justification for the ex parte dissemination -- at the direction of the president -- of investigative information to the president's staunchest defenders in Congress and, ultimately, to the president's legal defense team.'" ...

... ** Paul Wood of the BBC: "Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, received a secret payment of at least $400,000 (£300,000) to fix talks between the Ukrainian president and President Trump, according to sources in Kiev close to those involved. The payment was arranged by intermediaries acting for Ukraine's leader, Petro Poroshenko, the sources said, though Mr Cohen was not registered as a representative of Ukraine as required by US law. The meeting at the White House was last June. Shortly after the Ukrainian president returned home, his country's anti-corruption agency stopped its investigation into Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort." Read on. ...

... At 2 pm ET, CNN is reporting that prosecutors have told a court they are ready to sentence George Papadopoulos. No story up yet.

Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "The Pentagon disinvited China from participating in a major naval exercise on Wednesday, signaling mounting U.S. anger over Beijing's expanded military footprint in disputed areas of the South China Sea. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Logan said the Defense Department had reversed an earlier invitation to the Chinese Navy to the 2018 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC), the world's largest international naval exercise, over the decision to place anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and electronic jammers in the Spratly Islands." ...

... Gordon Chang in the Daily Beast: "Two China crises -- one on North Korea and the other on trade -- are intersecting, and feeding off each other. They both could escalate fast.... In addition to openly violating U.N. sanctions in recent months, Xi has undoubtedly been schooling Kim in the art of defiance of the international community, especially the United States. That second Xi-Kim meeting -- held May 7 and 8 in the Chinese city of Dalian -- preceded North Korea's return to bad behavior. It took some time for Trump to recognize what was going on, but he evidently lost patience with the Chinese at the beginning of this week. On Monday morning, Trump took to Twitter to criticize Beijing." ...

... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump opened the door on Tuesday to a phased dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, backing away from his demand that the North's leader, Kim Jong-un, completely abandon his arsenal without any reciprocal American concessions. The president's hint of flexibility came after North Korea declared last week that it would never agree to unilaterally surrender its weapons, even threatening to cancel the much-anticipated summit meeting between Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump scheduled for next month in Singapore." This is an update of a story linked below.

AP: "The Trump administration is moving to reverse Obama-era rules barring hunters on some public lands in Alaska from baiting brown bears with bacon and doughnuts and using spotlights to shoot mother black bears and cubs hibernating in their dens.... Under the proposed changes, hunters would also be allowed to hunt black bears with dogs, kill wolves and pups in their dens, and use motor boats to shoot swimming caribou. These and other hunting methods -- condemned as cruel by wildlife protection advocates -- were outlawed on federal lands in 2015.... Expanding hunting rights on federal lands has been a priority for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke" --safari: Fuck you Zinke!

Gubernatorial Race. Maegan Vazquez of CNN: Former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez won her runoff and became the Democratic nominee for Texas governor Tuesday night, making her the first openly lesbian and Latina nominee to win a major party gubernatorial nomination in the state. Valdez won 53.1% of the vote while her competitor, Andrew White, obtained 46.9%, according to unofficial election results."

Thanks, China! Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "In a truly remarkable feat of innovation, scientists have figured out how to create 'hybrid' solar cells that generate power not just from sunlight but also from raindrops. This means we may soon see all-weather solar panels that work when it is cloudy and even at night, if it's raining.... Much of this innovation is now coming from China, the world leader in both manufacturing and deployment of solar energy.... For instance, China has developed 'double-sided' solar panels that can generate power from light that hits their underside. That can enable a 10 percent boost in output.... Bloomberg New Energy Finance projects these panels could capture a remarkable 40 percent share of the market by 2025." --safari

Weird News. Chris Buckley of the New York Times: "An American government employee posted in southern China has signs of possible brain injury after reporting disturbing sounds and sensations, the State Department said on Wednesday, in events that seemed to draw parallels with mysterious ailments that struck American diplomats in Cuba. The State Department warning, issued through the United States Consulate in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, advised American citizens in China to seek medical help if they felt similar symptoms. But it said that no other cases had been reported."

Will Fitzgibbon of ICIJ: "West African countries are plundered by companies and individuals, while governments do little to stem the flow. West Africa accounts for more than one-third of an estimated $50 billion that leaves the continent untraced or untaxed each year.... Overall, a combination of corruption, drug, human and weapons trafficking and other furtive import and export activities strip Africa of three to 10 times as much as it receives in foreign aid.... ICIJ partnered with 13 journalists on West Africa Leaks to investigate high-profile individuals and powerful corporations in the region. The investigation included journalists from six countries where reporters hadn't before examined files pertaining to the individuals and businesses." --safari: This article leads to several others on the same subject.

*****

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Michael Schmidt & others of the New York Times on ways This Russia Thing might play out.

Trump's Latest Conspiracy Theory. Julia Manchester of the Hill: "President Trump claimed on Tuesday that a 'spy' was embedded in his presidential campaign in 2016 as a means of aiding Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential race. 'If the person placed very early into my campaign wasn't a SPY put there by the previous Administration for political purposes, how come such a seemingly massive amount of money was paid for services rendered - many times higher than normal,' he tweeted Tuesday night. 'Follow the money! The spy was there early in the campaign and yet never reported Collusion with Russia, because there was no Collusion. He was only there to spy for political reasons and to help Crooked Hillary win - just like they did to Bernie Sanders, who got duped!'" ...

     ... Mrs. McC: Okay, then. The proof of "no collusion" is that the well-paid spy President Obama placed in Trump's campaign to help Clinton didn't report (to someone) any collusion between Trump, et al., & Russia. I'm convinced now that the Mueller probe is indeed a witch hunt. ...

... Louis Nelson of Politico: "'A lot of people are saying they had spies in my campaign. If they had spies in my campaign, that would be a disgrace to this country,' Trump told reporters on Tuesday at the White House. 'That would be one of the biggest insults that anyone's ever seen and it would be very illegal, aside from everything else. It would make probably every political event ever look like small potatoes.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Conspiracy Theory, Longer-Form. Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "According to people familiar with Trump's thinking, his team is attempting to build the case that anti-Trump forces in the F.B.I. entrapped his advisers using informants to plant evidence about Russian collusion. The theory goes that the F.B.I. later used these contacts with the Russians to delegitimize his presidency. Trump's advisers say the intelligence community believed Hillary Clinton would win the presidency, but in case she didn't, they concocted this elaborate plot to remove Trump from office. 'Just when you think it can't get stranger, it does,' a Trump adviser told me. Stone claims the anti-Trump conspiracy includes senior intelligence officials from the Barack Obama administration. 'The guy who will end up burning in all this is [former C.I.A. director] John Brennan,' [Roger] Stone told me. 'If I were him I'd break the capsule and swallow it now. That psychopath is going down.'" ...

... Matt Ford of the New Republic provides an example of how the Trumpies come up with conspiracy theories, in this case the notion that Jim Comey privately forewarned Trump about the existence of the Steele dossier so CNN could report on it. The Dumbest Guy in the Senate figures in. Mrs. McC: To be fair, I'm liking the Trump-Broidy abortion/hush-money conspiracy theory, so I might not want to cast too many stones.

... Mel Leonor of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday declined to say whether he has confidence in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as the Justice Department kicks off a review into the FBI's interactions with the Trump campaign. 'Excuse me, I have the president of South Korea here,' Trump said when asked about the deputy attorney general during a joint media appearance with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is visiting Washington. 'He doesn't want to hear these questions, if you don't mind,' Trump added." ...

... Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "In the latest of the complex machinations in the Russia investigation, and in the investigations of the investigation, it's easy to lose the most important thread: that ... Donald Trump is still scheming to rid himself of the meddlesome special counsel, Robert Mueller.... This demand for an investigation of the F.B.I.'s behavior, which was promptly joined by a number of congressional Republicans, is without precedent in modern American history.... Trump's demand is so obviously improper that it's possible to see it in a different way -- not as a bona-fide attempt to gain information about the investigation but, rather, a dare to Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General, to resign in protest.... [Instead,] Rosenstein devised what was, under the circumstances, an artful finesse.... But no one should think that Rosenstein -- or Mueller -- is safe.... At the same time that Rosenstein..., the President directed his chief of staff to accommodate a request from House Republicans to view certain secret documents from the Russia investigation. Likewise, under modern ethical traditions, the House members should have been immediately refused.... The final showdown between Trump and Rosenstein -- and, thus, Mueller -- hasn't taken place; it's just been postponed." ...

... Stephen Colbert explains the investigation of the investigators:

Gloria Borger, et al., of CNN: "Donald Trump's legal team is trying to narrow the scope of the President's potential interview with special counsel Robert Mueller to questions on Russia-related matters that occurred before Trump's election, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Trump's lawyers ... are looking for a way to get him to agree to limit -- or eliminate -- questions regarding Trump's conduct after he won the presidency, especially those related to whether he might have obstructed justice while in office. Their goal is to move past a standoff that threatens to drag out Mueller's investigation, and appears to be part of a larger strategy to negotiate with the special counsel through the media." ...

Disallowed Question: "When you fired Jim Comey, was it because of this Russia thing?

Allowed Question: What is your favorite color?

"It Was Sort of Like a Gift." S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "His client insists there was 'NO COLLUSION' with Russia to win the presidency, but Donald Trump's lead lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has a new theory of the case: What's the big deal if he did?In a recent interview with HuffPost, Giuliani initially disputed the notion that Trump's daily citing, in the final month of his campaign, of Russian-aligned WikiLeaks and its release of Russian-stolen emails constituted 'colluding' with Russia. 'It is not,' Giuliani said. Then he switched tacks. 'OK, and if it is, it isn't illegal... It was sort of like a gift,' he said. 'And you're not involved in the illegality of getting it.'"

Danny Hakim, et al., of the New York Times: "A significant business partner of Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's personal lawyer, has quietly agreed to cooperate with the government as a potential witness, a development that could be used as leverage to pressure Mr. Cohen to work with the special counsel examining Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Under the agreement, the partner, Evgeny A. Freidman, a Russian immigrant who is known as the Taxi King, will avoid jail time, and will assist government prosecutors in state or federal investigations, according to a person briefed on the matter.... Mr. Freidman, who was disbarred earlier this month, had been accused of failing to pay more than $5 million in taxes and faced four counts of criminal tax fraud and one of grand larceny -- all B felonies. Each carries a maximum prison sentence of up to 25 years in prison. Instead, he appeared in court in Albany on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to a single count of evading only $50,000 worth of taxes; he faces five years of probation if he fulfills the terms of his agreement, the judge, Patrick Lynch of Albany County court, said during the roughly 20-minute proceeding." ...

... Eric Levitz of New York: "It seems reasonable to assume that the threshold for securing five-years probation -- for allegedly committing more than 100-prison-years-worth of felonies -- is also rather high; and thus, that Evgeny Freidman has substantial evidence that Michael Cohen was involved in crimes. Donald Trump surrounds himself with people who have serious legal liabilities -- and those people, apparently, surround themselves with other people who have serious legal liabilities."

Paul Campos in New York lays out more evidence that it is likely that the $1.6MM GOP fundraiser & lobbyist Elliott Broidy paid to "Shera Bechard, a Playboy model with whom Broidy now claims to have had an affair," was instead "a favor to Donald Trump, who actually impregnated Bechard, and then needed to hush her up about their affair and her subsequent abortion." Mrs. McC: But what will the evangelical abortion foes say? ...

... Shorter Paul Campos in LG&$: "What really happened is: Trump had an affair with Bechard, and impregnated her. Bechard contacted Keith Davidson and demanded money. Davidson called Michael Cohen. Cohen called Broidy, and asked him to come up with $1.6 million. Broidy demanded a meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, that Broidy could use to convince his Gulf State clients that he had Trump's ear about shifting US policy in the region. Broidy made his first payment on November 30th. Trump met with Broidy two days later. A few days after that, the U.A.E. gave Broidy's private company a $600 million contract." ...

... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "... today, we turn our attention to one Elliott Broidy, who may well be moving into the first tier of Trump scandal players. His is a tale of government influence, foreign machinations, piles of money, and even a Playboy model mistress." Waldman hits both the Shera Bechard question & the larger one -- the fabulous multi-million-dollar "consulting contracts [Broidy cut with] Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in exchange for which they would use Broidy's connections to the new president to help the Saudis and the UAE in their conflict with Qatar, a U.S. ally that houses a critical American military base.... Once we learn everything there is to learn, the Trump scandals may not wrap up into a neat and easily understandable package. But all the Trump scandals all lead back to one story -- a story about incredibly corrupt people, including the president himself, trampling over the law and the interests of the country in order to stuff their own pockets. And it just keeps getting bigger." Mrs. McC: Both Campos & Waldman connect the Bechard "favor" to Broidy's securing the Middle East contracts. These are just "theories" now, but the evidence is compelling. ...

Michael Riley & Lauren Etter of Bloomberg: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team has asked about flows of money into the Cyprus bank account of a company that specialized in social-media manipulation and whose founder reportedly met with Donald Trump Jr. in August 2016, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The inquiry is drawing attention to PSY Group, an Israeli firm that pitched its services to super-PACs and other entities during the 2016 election. Those services included infiltrating target audiences with elaborately crafted social-media personas and spreading misleading information through websites meant to mimic news portals, according to interviews and PSY Group documents.... The person doesn't believe any of those pitches was successful.... Following Trump's victory, PSY Group formed an alliance with Cambridge Analytica, the Trump campaign's primary social-media consultants, to try to win U.S. government work, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg News."

Squeaky Wheel Rule to Apply. Karoun Demirjian & Matt Zopotosky of the Washington Post: "Just two Republican lawmakers will be allowed to review classified information about a confidential FBI source who aided the investigation into the Trump campaign at a meeting Thursday with Justice Department and intelligence officials, a White House spokeswoman said Tuesday.... [Sarah Sanders] said Democrats were cut out because they had not requested the same materials that their Republican colleagues had.... The dispute comes as Trump and conservative lawmakers continue to rail against the FBI, the Justice Department and Mueller's probe. Conservative House Republicans unveiled a resolution Tuesday insisting on the appointment of a second special counsel to investigate their growing list of grievances." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Justin Sink of Bloomberg: "Representative Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview outside the House chamber, that he believed [Devin] Nunes had requested that Democrats not be invited to the meeting. 'What we were informed by DOJ and FBI is that Chairman Nunes refuses to do it on a bipartisan basis,' Schiff added. Nunes declined to address Schiff's claims, telling reporters they could get information from him by watching when he is interviewed on the Sunday morning news shows." Mrs. McC: Because everything Devin Nunes says is true & accurate.

Michael Finnegan of the Los Angeles Times: "A law firm of Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti was hit with a $10-million judgment Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court after he broke his promise to pay $2 million to a former colleague. Judge Catherine Bauer of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana ordered the Eagan Avenatti law firm to pay the $10 million to Jason Frank, a lawyer who used to work at the Newport Beach firm.... To settle his law firm's bankruptcy, Avenatti had personally guaranteed that the $2 million would be paid to Frank last week, but both he and his firm failed to turn over the money. At the hearing, the U.S. Justice Department revealed that Avenatti has also defaulted on just over $440,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest that he had personally promised to pay the Internal Revenue Service under another bankruptcy settlement for his law firm. Assistant U.S. Atty. Najah Shariff told the judge that the federal government would soon file a motion demanding payment."

Rudy's Contribution to the Opioid Crisis. Chris McGreal of the Guardian: "The US government missed the opportunity to curb sales of the drug that kickstarted the opioid epidemic when it secured the only criminal conviction against the maker of OxyContin a decade ago. Purdue Pharma hired Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor and now Donald Trump's lawyer, to head off a federal investigation in the mid-2000s into the company's marketing of the powerful prescription painkiller at the centre of an epidemic estimated to have claimed at least 300,000 lives. While Giuliani was not able to prevent the criminal conviction over Purdue's fraudulent claims for OxyContin's safety and effectiveness, he was able to reach a deal to avoid a bar on Purdue doing business with the federal government which would have killed a large part of the multibillion-dollar market for the drug. The former New York mayor also secured an agreement that greatly restricted further prosecution of the pharmaceutical company and kept its senior executives out of prison."

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Tuesday that his planned summit meeting next month with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, might be delayed. 'There's a very substantial chance that it won't work out,' Mr. Trump told reporters before a meeting in the Oval Office with South Korea's president, Moon Jae-in. 'It may not work out for June 12.' Mr. Trump expressed continued enthusiasm for the diplomatic encounter, saying he believed it could usher in a period of prosperity for North Korea. But he acknowledged that recent statements by North Korea had cast a pall of uncertainty over the timing of the meeting, which is set for Singapore. He appeared as baffled as anyone else about what might come next." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on the White House on Tuesday to remove an image of Kim Jong Un from a coin meant to commemorate the planned summit next month between the North Korean dictator and President Trump. Schumer's call, made via Twitter, came a day after media reports surfaced about the design of the 'challenge coin,' which features likenesses of both Trump and Kim, who is described on the coin as his nation's 'Supreme Leader.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jonathan Chait: "While serving as secretary of State, Hillary Clinton disregarded an instruction from the Foreign Affairs Manual directing her to use State Department equipment for day-to-day operations. Clinton almost certainly did this for convenience ... but the issue somehow became a first-tier national scandal. The bizarre prominence this story took on is worth revisiting given Monday night's revelation that Donald Trump is doing essentially the same thing.... Notably, Politico's solid report [linked below] landed as a second-tier revelation, at best a distant second-place contender for most-damaging Trump news story of the day. Clinton's sloppy info-sec story blossomed into a narrative that overwhelmed every other aspect of her campaign.... We need to think more critically about the structural disparities that produce this double standard." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Steve M. is wondering why Lock-Her-Up Trump is still using at least one phone that doesn't have even the blocked-number low-tech security feature. ...

... Josephine Wolff in Slate: "In this administration, cybersecurity ... is something to tout loudly each and every time it can be used to justify a controversial or foolish or anti-competitive decision. Cybersecurity concerns are the perfect foil for attacking the Chinese tech industry.... The sheer hypocrisy of arguing that Huawei phones sold in the U.S. pose a risk to the cybersecurity of government employees or military personnel while the commander in chief himself openly walks around with an unsecured iPhone -- one that may well have been assembled in China itself -- is breathtaking. It's a reminder that while cybersecurity risks are important and require serious attention and consideration, they can also be wielded as a weapon to excuse any number of policy decisions made for other reasons."

Everything Is Running Very Smoothly. Eliana Johnson, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump has demanded changes to his communications team -- long seen as one of the most internally divided offices in his White House -- in an effort to crack down on the leaks that have plagued his presidency since Day One. White House chief of staff John Kelly signed off on a plan that would flush out some of the department's mid-level and junior aides, according to three people familiar with the situation. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and other key senior officials are expected to remain, these people said." ...

... Gregory Korte of USA Today: "President Trump signed a bill Tuesday aimed at reducing the backlog of security clearance investigations -- but later reserved the right not to comply with it on constitutional grounds. In a signing statement Tuesday night, Trump said provisions of the bill -- the Securely Expediting Clearances Through Reporting Transparency Act of 2018, or SECRET Act -- encroach on his authority as commander-in-chief. Among the provisions Trump objected to: A section requiring the White House Office of Administration to report on its process for conducting security clearance investigations for White House officials. That process came under scrutiny in January when it was revealed that Staff Secretary Rob Porter -- the official responsible for the entire paper flow in and out of the Oval Office -- had been working without a permanent security clearance for more than a year. His clearance had been held up because of allegations of domestic violence from two ex-wives."

Trump Team Claims It Purposely Writes Stupid Tweets in Trump's "Voice." Annie Linskey of the Boston Globe: "West Wing employees who draft proposed tweets intentionally employ suspect grammar and staccato syntax in order to mimic the president's style, according to two people familiar with the process. They overuse the exclamation point! They Capitalize random words for emphasis. Fragments. Loosely connected ideas. All part of a process that is not as spontaneous as Trump's Twitter feed often appears.... Those familiar with the process wouldn't fess up to which tweets were staff-written. But an algorithm crafted by a writer at The Atlantic to determine real versus staff-written tweets suggested several were not written by the president, despite the unusual use of the language." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you can't open the Globe story, here's a New York Daily News report on the report.

Sideshow. Trump's Temporary Home Sinking into Swamp. Heather Timmons of Quartz: "... as of this past weekend, a sinkhole has been growing on the north lawn [of the White House grounds], Voice of America reporter Steve Herman observed, just near the press briefing room. 'It was noticeably bigger between Sunday and Monday,' Herman said. 'It's more than a foot long right now,' he said. A second sinkhole has opened up right next to it, he said.... Often described as a 'swamp' of corruption, parts of the city of Washington, DC, are also literally built on a swamp. The city's geological issues also include 'forebulge collapse,' a post-Ice Age condition that means the city could sink as much as six inches this century. Sinkholes have opened up across the city in recent years. They forced two residents to abandon their homes in March, and swallowed up a school bus last year."

Sideshow. Rachel Dicker of Mediaite: Members of Harvard's Class of 2003 are using traditional "Red Book" alumni notes to diss classmate Jared Kushner.

AP: "The Environmental Protection Agency is barring The Associated Press, CNN and the environmental-focused news organization E&E from a national summit on harmful water contaminants.The EPA blocked the news organizations from attending Tuesday's Washington meeting, convened by EPA chief Scott Pruitt.... Guards barred an AP reporter from passing through a security checkpoint inside the building. When the reporter asked to speak to an EPA public-affairs person, the security guards grabbed the reporter by the shoulders and shoved her forcibly out of the EPA building." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Miranda Green of the Hill: "When asked about the reporter's removal, an EPA spokesperson at first cited space constraints.... However, a handful of assigned reporter seats remained vacant by the time Pruitt began speaking, including one for a Wall Street Journal reporter who decided to watch the event via th livestream instead. A seat marked for Hearst Media was left open. Another publication was invited to the event but declined to send a reporter after learning that Pruitt would not be taking questions. CBS was the only major news outlet recording the event on video from the back of the room.... Reporters who were allowed to come to the event in the morning were also originally limited to only an hour of attendance. The entire summit spans two days. Journalists were at first not invited to stay through panel presentations, discussions and closing remarks regarding better regulating PFAS exposure and development of a cohesive federal standard." ...

... Update. Benjamin Hart of New York: "In the afternoon, after multiple outlets picked up on the AP’s report, the EPA reversed course and allowed [Ellen] Knickmeyer [-- the AP reporter whom the guards grabbed & shoved --] and the E&E News reporter into the meeting.... Earlier this month, Politico reported that the White House and EPA had blocked publication of a federal-health study on water contamination that the agency feared would be a 'public-relations nightmare.' Punishing news outlets for publishing unflattering information seems in character for EPA administrator Scott Pruitt.... Pruitt, after all, prefers not to be asked any unexpected questions, and runs an agency that has taken a sneering, Trumpian tone toward the media." ...

... Emily Atkin of the New Republic: "Tuesday's altercation may be the most high-profile security incident Pruitt has faced in his 15 months as EPA administrator. That's saying something, considering that Pruitt insists on having a 24-hour security detail composed of 19 agents and at least 19 vehicles, costing taxpayers at least $3 million. Pruitt has repeatedly said this expense -- as well as his frequent first-class travel -- are necessary because he faces unprecedented security threats."

Is She Dumber than a Post or Just Pretending to Be? Jill Colvin & Colleen Long of the AP: "Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Tuesday she was unaware of intelligence assessments concluding that Russia favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. The U.S. intelligence community said in a January 2017 assessment that Russia had tried to influence the election to benefit Trump. 'I do not believe I've seen that conclusion that the specific intent was to help President Trump win. I'm not aware of that,' Nielsen told reporters after briefing members of the House on election security efforts. Homeland Security is the agency that oversees election security." Mrs. McC: Are you feeling safer now?

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The FBI has repeatedly provided grossly inflated statistics to Congress and the public about the extent of problems posed by encrypted cellphones, claiming investigators were locked out of nearly 7,800 devices connected to crimes last year when the correct number was much smaller, probably between 1,000 and 2,000.... Over a period of seven months, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray cited the inflated figure as the most compelling evidence for the need to address what the FBI calls 'Going Dark' -- the spread of encrypted software that can block investigators' access to digital data even with a court order. The FBI ... still does not have an accurate count of how many encrypted phones they received as part of criminal investigations last year, officials said. Last week, one internal estimate put the correct number of locked phones at 1,200, though officials expect that number to change as they launch a new audit...."

Alan Rappeport & Emily Flitter of the New York Times: "A decade after the global financial crisis tipped the United States into a recession, Congress agreed on Tuesday to free thousands of small and medium-sized banks from strict rules enacted as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law to prevent another meltdown. In a rare demonstration of bipartisanship, the House voted 258-159 to approve a regulatory rollback that passed the Senate earlier this year, handing a significant victory to President Trump, who has promised to 'do a big number on Dodd-Frank.' The bill stops far short of unwinding the toughened regulatory regime put in place to prevent the nation's biggest banks from engaging in risky behavior but represents a substantial watering down of Obama-era rules governing a large swath of the banking system." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Congressional Races, Etc.

The New York Times live-posted yesterday's primary election results for Georgia, Kentucky Arkansas & Texas.

Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Former House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams won the Democratic nomination for Georgia's top office on Tuesday, defeating ex-state Rep. Stacey Evans and advancing her quest to become the nation's first black female governor. She will face one of five Republicans in November in the race to succeed Gov. Nathan Deal, a competition that will test whether the state is truly competitive after more than a decade of GOP rule."

Kentucky House Republican incumbents have all won their primaries; three of the five were uncontested. Democrat Paul Walker prevailed in House District 1. Democrat Seth Hall in House District 4, Kenneth Stepp in District 5, & Amy McGrath in District 6. ...

... Eric Bradner of CNN: "A political newcomer knocked off Lexington Mayor Jim Gray -- a prized Democratic recruit and major figure in Kentucky politics -- in a primary for a US House seat Tuesday. Amy McGrath, a retired Marine fighter pilot, won the Lexington-area 6th District contest and is now poised to take on Republican Rep. Andy Barr in a red-leaning district that Democrats hope will shift in their favor in November's midterm elections. Gray conceded the race Tuesday night.... The win for McGrath is the latest evidence of a political climate in which voters are eager to cast out those they see as figures of the political establishment. It also showed the strength of female candidates amid the 'Me Too' movement." ...

... Jack Brammer & Bill Estep of the Lexington Herald-Leader: "As upset teachers across Kentucky Tuesday tried to flex their political muscle, Rockcastle County High School math teacher R. Travis Brenda narrowly defeated House Majority Floor Leader Jonathan Shell of Garrard County in one of the most-watched races for the state House, according to unofficial results. Brenda tried in the Republican primary election for the 71st House District seat to capitalize on teacher anger against legislators who backed a controversial pension bill in this year's law-making session. It was Brenda's first bid for public office. Shell, a farmer who has occupied the seat since 2012 and had the backing of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell as a potential rising star in the GOP, played a prominent role in handling the pension bill in the legislature."

Moriah Balingit of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Virginia sided Tuesday with a transgender teenager who spent most of his high school years fighting to use the boys' bathroom in a case that stood at the center of the national fight for transgender student rights. The judge said the school board that passed bathroom restrictions violated the teen's constitutional rights. Gavin Grimm, 19, sued the Gloucester County School Board after it passed a policy requiring students to use bathrooms that aligned with their 'biological gender.' Grimm, who was assigned the gender female at birth, told his classmates he was transgender his sophomore year and began using the boys' bathroom. When parents learned of it, they protested to the school board, which passed the restrictions."

Bobby Ross, et al., of the Washington Post: "Prominent Southern Baptist leader Paige Patterson was removed from his job as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary amid an evangelical #MeToo moment: a massive backlash from women upset over comments he made in the past that are being newly perceived as sexist and demeaning. According to a brief statement early Wednesday, the seminary's board of trustees made him president emeritus, 'for the benefit of the future mission of the Seminary,' and he will receive compensation." Mrs. McC: Meanwhile, of course, these same faithful are good with Trump.

Beyond the Beltway

Sidebar. Lost in Translation. Amber Ferguson of the Washington Post: A proud South Carolina mother went to her local Publix grocery store & ordered a cake to celebrate a family landmark: her son was graduated with top honors. Mom carefully typed out the wording for the cake: "Congrats Jacob! Summa Cum Laude class of 2018." When Mom opened the cake for the party, "In place of cum, three hyphens appeared, as they do for some other profanities in family newspapers: Summa ––– Laude. The Post replicated her experience and got the same result because, according to Publix, Mom used a "profane/special characters not allowed." See commentary at the end of yesterday's Comments thread. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Nicholas Casey & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "One day after President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela declared re-election victory, the Trump administration on Monday placed new sanctions on the crisis-ridden country, and nations across the region refused to recognize the election result. President Trump signed an executive order on Monday afternoon imposing the new penalties, which would bar United States companies or citizens from buying debt or accounts receivable from the Venezuelan government. The order extends to Petróleos de Venezuela, the government-owned oil company that is the parent of Citgo Petroleum Corporation. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Philip Roth, the prolific, protean, and often blackly comic novelist who was a pre-eminent figure in 20th century literature, died on Tuesday night at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 85."