;)
The Commentariat -- April 25, 2018
Afternoon Update:
** Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, the White House physician nominated to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, provided 'a large supply' of Percocet, a prescription opioid, to a White House military office staff member, throwing his own medical staff 'into a panic' when the medical unit could not account for the missing drugs, according to a summary of questionable deeds compiled by the Democratic staff of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. A nurse on his staff said Dr. Jackson had written himself prescriptions, and when caught, he asked a physician assistant to provide the medication. And at a Secret Service going away party, the doctor got intoxicated and 'wrecked a government vehicle,' according to the summary.... White House officials on Wednesday ratcheted up their public defense of Dr. Jackson, calling charges of workplace misconduct leveled against him 'outrageous' even as new incidents of questionable conduct surfaced."
Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday delivered an impassioned call for multilateralism and U.S. engagement in the world, saying it was 'an essential part of our confidence in the future.' Speaking to a joint session of Congress, amid frequent standing ovations and cheers, Macron recalled the long history of U.S.-French relations and shared values and culture on everything from democracy and freedom to human and civil rights, literature, jazz and the 'Me Too' movement.... Much of what he said, although couched in stirring and global terms, posed a direct challenge to the Trump administration, and the U.S. president with whom he has said he has a special relationship. Macron expressed his hope that the United States would reenter the Paris climate accord, which President Trump exited early in his administration.... Macron also called for resolution of trade disputes through negotiation and the World Trade Organization, indirectly criticizing Trump's imposition of tariffs.... On Iran, he repeated his support for the nuclear trade deal and outlined a four-part solution to Trump's concerns about the deal...."
The Hermeneutics of the Hat. Adele Stan of the American Prospect: "For the first meeting of the president and first lady with the first couple of France, Melania wore a statement-making, broad-brimmed white hat. It was an unusual sight; in the modern age, the wearing of outfit-matching hats is viewed as quaint. The newspapers couldn't get enough of it, searching for clues as to its meaning. But really, it's not that deep, people. As befits her husband's managerial style, Melania's hat provided a mad distraction from the chaos surrounding his administration, not to mention the accelerating pace of the groundwork underway for the construction of an authoritarian state." Read on.
Pruitt Will Blame Staff for His Ethical Lapses. Lisa Friedman & Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "As Scott Pruitt ... prepares to testify before Congress on Thursday amid a series of spending and ethics investigations, an internal E.P.A. document indicates that he may blame his staff for many of the decisions that have put a cloud over his tenure at the agency. The document, known as the 'hot topics' list, appears to lay out talking points for Mr. Pruitt's two sessions before the House of Representatives. It suggests that Mr. Pruitt is prepared to say that h now flies coach when traveling; that others were responsible for giving two close aides who used to work for him in Oklahoma substantial pay raises; and that E.P.A. officials who were reassigned or demoted after challenging his spending all had performance issues. The document, which The New York Times has reviewed and the veracity of which the E.P.A. did not dispute, seemed to be a work in progress."
Nothing says drain the swamp like telling a room full of bankers to give more money to politicians who put the interests of banks ahead of people. -- Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), in a Wednesday morning tweet ...
... Jonathan Chait: "Tuesday, [Mick Mulvaney] met with lobbyists and executives from the banking industry, promising further steps to gut regulations to prevent them from cheating customers. That's not even the scandalous part! The scandalous part is that Mulvaney asked the executives and lobbyists to donate more money, and told them the more they donated, the more influence they would have. Mulvaney didn't offer this as a sad concession to reality but an actual principle of governance he had personally abided[.]... The levels of corruption in this administration are simply staggering, and they range from open self-enrichment to openly selling policy to the highest bidder. The completely accurate sense that Trump and his party are out to get themselves and their friends rich is the administration's gaping vulnerability. What's especially odd is that nobody in the administration seems to have taken even cursory steps to address or paper over this weakness. They're all just grabbing as much cash for themselves and their allies as they can, while they can."
Robert Barnes, et al., of the Washington Post: "The conservative majority on the Supreme Court seemed to agree Wednesday that President Trump has the authority to ban travelers from certain majority-Muslim countries if he thinks that it is necessary to protect the country. Lower courts have struck down each of the three iterations of the president's travel-ban proclamation, the first of which was issued just a week after he took office in January 2017. But the conservative-leaning Supreme Court may be Trump's best hope, and it gave the administration a boost by allowing the ban to go into effect in December while considering the challenges to it." If you want to listen to the arguments, the WashPo currently has audio on its front page.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. I Can't Believe I Said That. Brian Feldman of New York: "In late 2017, political commentator and MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid became the center of what was at the time a minor social-media controversy after it emerged that she had written numerous homophobic comments on her old blog, the Reid Report.... On Monday, Mediaite published more old posts that are not flattering to Reid.... But the saga got even weirder when, instead of apologizing, Reid issued a confounding statement on the matter, claiming that she was the victim of a hack and that the material was 'manipulated' and 'fabricated.'... To hear Reid's lawyers tell it, someone either hacked her blog or the Internet Archive. The claim is not impossible but it is highly, highly suspect -- the Internet Archive found no evidence of this and there is no precedent for it.... What should be clear about this whole situation is that absolutely nothing lines up.... What this looks like is a very elaborate, incoherent smokescreen to avoid taking responsibility."
Stephen Chen of the South China [Hong-Kong] Morning Post: "North Korea's mountain nuclear test site has collapsed, putting China and other nearby nations at unprecedented risk of radioactive exposure, two separate groups of Chinese scientists studying the issue have confirmed. The collapse after five nuclear blasts may be why North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared on Friday that he would freeze the hermit state's nuclear and missile tests and shut down the site, one researcher said. The last five of Pyongyang's six nuclear tests have all been carried out under Mount Mantap at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in North Korea's northwest. One group of researchers found that the most recent blast tore open a hole in the mountain, which then collapsed upon itself. A second group concluded that the breakdown created a 'chimney' that could allow radioactive fallout from the blast zone below to rise into the air." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: What? Why, just yesterday, President* Trump told us Kim was "very honorable based on what we are seeing." This tells me Mike Pompeo, who is Trump's man in North Korea (besides being CIA director & Secretary of State-designate), has either been lying to Trump during daily briefings, or Trump needs more visual aids to understand the concept of "mountain collapses, radioactive material escapes into the air." Can't some crafter at State or the CIA make a dandy little model of a collapsing mountain with smoke spewing out the "chimney"? C'mon, Mike, you can say, "Mountain fall down go boom." I'm sure Trump would find it almost as much fun as fake-driving a Mack truck.
*****
The State Dining Room set for the state dinner for Emmanuel & Brigette Macron.... Here's pretty much all you need to know about the decor. With more photos. ...
The King was in the White House
Counting out his money.
The Queen was in the garden
Picking greens & honey.*
* Actually, that last bit is true.
WHIPLASH. Julie Davis & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump signaled on Tuesday that he was open to a new arrangement with European allies that would preserve the Iran nuclear agreement by expanding and extending its terms to further constrain Tehran's development of weapons and destabilizing activities in the Middle East. Hosting President Emmanuel Macron of France at the White House, Mr. Trump again assailed the agreement sealed by his predecessor as a 'terrible deal' but said he could agree to 'a new deal' negotiated by American and European officials if it was strong enough. He made no commitment, however, leaving it open whether he will pull out of the agreement by a May 12 deadline." (This is an update -- and major change -- to a story linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Barbara Slavin of Axios: "At a joint news conference today, French President Emmanuel Macron said he and President Trump had agreed to work on a 'new deal' that includes the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran but incorporates additional measures.... The enlarged deal would contain three more 'pillars': assurances that Iran cannot reconstitute a large nuclear program after certain JCPOA restrictions expire in 2025; limits on Iran's ballistic missile development and transfers of weapons to regional proxies; and diplomacy to resolve the conflicts in Syria and Yemen. Trump did not confirm that he would renew sanctions waivers when the next deadline comes on May 12. He again excoriated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as a 'bad deal ... [that] should never have been made.' He would not commit to any course of action, saying 'we'll know fairly soon' what his decision will be. But he nodded as Macron spoke about a broader agreement and said that 'we have very much in common' and that leadership required being 'flexible.'" ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: What we are seeing here is the French President (and we'll probably see the German Chancellor do the same later this week) making a Herculean effort to save the world & the United States from a belligerent, dull-witted leader. No longer the leader of the free world, the U.S is now antagonistic to it.
The White House Communications Office Never Fails to Amuse. Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump's review of the troops to celebrate the arrival of French President Emmanuel Macron's arrival at the White House Tuesday was keeping with tradition, though the president -- a self-proclaimed law-and-order leader with a professed weakness for military parades -- couldn't help but wear the Cheshire cat look of man who got to gaze upon his military might by simply stepping onto his back portico.... In announcing the arrival ceremony, the White House -- in perhaps either an effort to emphasize United States' long relationship with France or a bit of a historical blunder -- proclaimed the proud U.S. tradition of a military arrival ceremony dates back to the 17th Century -- at least approximately 76 years before the United States became a country." (Also linked yesterday.)
This Russia Thing, Ctd.
Shane Croucher of Newsweek: "A new court filing by Robert Mueller's Special Counsel confirms that Paul Manafort was raided by the FBI to look for documents relating to the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 with Russian lobbyists, which was brokered by Donald Trump Jr.... [Manafort] attended the Trump Tower meeting, at which a Russian lawyer with links to the Kremlin and a former Soviet counterintelligence officer were also present, while running the presidential campaign. They allegedly promised dirt on Trump's rival, Hillary Clinton. According to the latest court filing by the Mueller inquiry, which is defending a warrant attached to a raid on Manafort's home in July 2017, part of what the FBI were hunting for were 'communications, records, documents, and other files involving any of the attendees of the June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, as well as Aras and [Emin] Agalarov.' Investigators were also searching for documents relating to Manafort and his associates' financial dealings, bank accounts payments made by foreign individuals, and work on behalf of foreign entities, such as governments or officials." ...
... Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... Paul Manafort was interviewed by the FBI twice while he was working as a political consultant for a Ukrainian political party -- several years before he was named a top adviser to Donald Trump, newly filed court documents revealed. The documents filed late Monday by prosecutors in the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, show that the FBI had interviewed Manafort in March 2013 and again in July 2014. Manafort's deputy, Rick Gates, who also held a top role with Trump's campaign, was interviewed by the FBI in July 2014, the documents show. The information raises fresh questions about how closely the Trump campaign vetted staff members and whether Manafort and Gates told officials about their interactions with the FBI." ...
... David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "The Manafort story, like so much in the Trump-Russia investigation, is a case in which many of the facts are hiding in plain sight. Mueller has released key details in court filings. Others have emerged in public documents, or in interviews given by the key figures. The Mueller files and other documents suggest a pattern of collusion, money laundering and coverup. They also show the loose oversight and vetting of Trump campaign personnel, and the multiplicity of attempts by Trump campaign officials to contact Russia-related figures, of which Manafort allegedly was part." Ignatius writes a long treatise on Manafort's financial machinations, some of which involved Trump connections. "The Manafort case illustrates how hard it will be for Trump to dispel the allegations that swirl around the Mueller investigation. The president might want to rid himself of the special counsel, but he can't make the evidence that has already been gathered disappear." ...
... Ben Schreckinger of Politico: Trump's lies false claims to Comey about not staying overnight in Moscow could bolster Mueller's case against him. "A conscious effort by Trump to mislead the FBI director could lend weight to the allegation -- contained in a largely unverified private research dossier compiled by a former British spy in 2016 -- that Trump engaged in compromising activity during the trip that exposed him to Russian government blackmail. It has also likely caught the eye of special counsel Robert Mueller, legal analysts say. False statements to Comey about the trip could demonstrate that Trump has 'consciousness of guilt,' according Pete Zeidenberg, a former federal prosecutor who worked for special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of national security-related leaks during the George W. Bush administration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Andrew Kirell of the Daily Beast: "All available evidence proves [Trump lied to Comey about not staying overnight in Moscow] -- from flight records obtained by Politico to social media posts from the time to testimony from Trump's own bodyguard. And now there's more proof. Thomas Roberts, host of that year's Miss Universe pageant, confirmed to The Daily Beast on Tuesday that Trump was in Moscow for one full night and at least part of another. 'The first time I met Donald Trump it was in Moscow on November 8th, 2013,' the former NBC anchor said. 'I taped a sit-down interview with Trump the next day on November 9th. That was also the date for the Miss Universe broadcast.... During the after-party for the Miss Universe event, Mr. Trump offered to fly me and my husband back to New York. He said he would be leaving directly from the party. We were unable to accept the invitation. That was the early morning hours of November 10th.'" ...
... Cameron Joseph of TPM: "... James Comey has retained former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as one of his personal attorneys, bringing in a heavy-hitting former prosecutor, close friend and longtime colleague to help him navigate his dramatic role as a potential witness in the investigation of President Trump's campaign and potential obstruction of justice."
Chris Strohm of Bloomberg: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions has decided against recusing himself from the investigation into ... Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, but will consider stepping back from specific questions tied to the probe, according to a person familiar with the matter.... By staying involved in the Cohen probe, Sessions is entitled to briefings on the status of the investigation, which is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York. That could put Sessions in the position of being asked by Trump, who strongly condemned the FBI's raid on his longtime lawyer, to divulge information about the Cohen investigation. Sessions could also weigh in on specific decisions by prosecutors, including whether to pursue subpoenas and indictments. The attorney general is expected to be asked about his role in the Cohen investigation when he testifies before congressional panels on Wednesday and Thursday...." ...
... Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "In March 2017, Sessions announced that he would recuse himself from 'any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for President of the United States' due to his role as a campaign adviser to Donald Trump. It's hard to see how the Cohen investigation wouldn't be related to the campaign. The probe ... reportedly relates to Cohen's election-eve payment of $130,000 through a Delaware shell company to Stormy Daniels, the pornographic actress."
Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "One of the prosecutors who brought the case against I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby says President Trump's pardon of the ex-top aide to former Vice President Dick Cheney sends a not-so-subtle message to potential witnesses in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation: Stay loyal to Trump and Trump will stay loyal to you. 'I don't see any other logic to it,' Peter Zeidenberg, top deputy to the special counsel in Libby's case, Patrick Fitzgerald, said in a recent interview for Yahoo News' Skullduggery podcast." ...
... Michael Cohen Agrees. Emily Fox of Vanity Fair: "... a person who had dinner with [Cohen Saturday] evening told me [Trump's tweets about him] encouraged Cohen. 'He knows the president is in his corner,' this person added. 'Even though they are not speaking right now, messages were sent. I don't want to use the p-word ['pardon']. I don't want to use it. I think the president was making it very clear that he is not abandoning Michael."
Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "Last week, the Democratic National Committee filed a multimillion-dollar suit against more than a dozen people, entities, and countries (well, one country), charging that 'Russia mounted a brazen attack on American democracy' with the goal of 'destabilizing the U.S. political environment, denigrating the Democratic presidential nominee, and supporting the campaign of Donald J. Trump, whose policies would benefit the Kremlin.' The defendants in the case include the Russian Federation, Russian military intelligence, the Trump campaign, WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, Roger Stone, George Papadopoulos, and Donald J. Trump, Jr. The candidate who was the beneficiary of this alleged conspiracy, who is now the President of the United States, is not a defendant -- yet.... If the D.N.C. lawsuit is allowed to proceed to discovery, it will be the first chance for compelled, sworn interviews with many of the key players, including, perhaps, the President himself. (Based on what the plaintiffs learn, Trump may be added as a defendant.) Plus, the D.N.C. lawyers will have the chance to obtain e-mails and documents from the Trump campaign that may illuminate any connections between the campaign and the Russians." Toobin argues the suit is "probably a good idea."
Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "The allegations against Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson -- President Trump's pick to run the Department of Veterans Affairs -- stem from 20 active duty and former military members, the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee told NPR Tuesday.... Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, said these allegations began to arise as people who knew Jackson came forward, not because he and his staff sought them out.... 'All I can tell you is we didn't initiate this discussion, this discussion came when we were notified by folks that work with Admiral Jackson,' Tester said. 'Folks in the military about behaviors that happened and we just followed up with as many leads as we could get and the leads took us to this spot.' Tester said the pills Jackson allegedly gave out were for sleeping and making people wake up, handed out while on travel. They were not opioids, Tester clarified.... Tester also said, based on allegations that were made, that Jackson was 'repeatedly drunk while on duty.' 'Once again, it was on travel and he is the physician for the president,' Tester said. 'And in the previous administration we were told stories where he was repeatedly drunk while on duty where his main job was to take care of the most powerful man in the world. That's not acceptable.' Jackson's alleged abuse was verbal in nature, including screaming and belittling those who worked for him, Tester claimed." ...
... Here's the audio of Ari Shapiro's interview of Sen. Tester:
... Zeke Miller & Ken Thomas of the AP: "A watchdog report ordered in 2012 by Dr. Ronny Jackson ... found that he and a rival physician exhibited 'unprofessional behaviors' as they engaged in a power struggle over the White House medical unit. The report, reviewed Tuesday by The Associated Press, suggested the White House consider replacing Jackson or Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman -- or both. Kuhlman was the physician to President Barack Obama at the time, and had previously held the role occupied by Jackson: director of the White House Medical Unit. The six-page report by the Navy's Medical Inspector General found a lack of trust in the leadership and low morale among staff members, who described the working environment as 'being caught between parents going through a bitter divorce.'" ...
... "Candyman." Amy Gardner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Two former colleagues of Jackson's, who spoke on the condition of anonymity..., told The Washington Post that they believe he overdispensed medications, including the sleep aid Ambien and the stimulant Provigil. Forme colleagues said he was nicknamed 'Candyman' because of how freely he distributed medications, a moniker that Tester told CNN that he heard about as well from Jackson's associates. Both said the use of such drugs is common and necessary for the multinational trips that dozens of White House aides must take with the president. But they said they thought that Jackson gave them out too frequently, especially for officials in positions of power with the ability to influence his career." ...
... Juana Summers & Manu Raju of CNN: "During an overseas trip in 2015, Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, the White House physician, was intoxicated and banged on the hotel room door of a female employee, according to four sources familiar with the allegation. The incident became so noisy, one source familiar with the allegation told CNN, that the Secret Service stopped him out of concern that he would wake then-President Barack Obama. Two sources who previously worked in the White House Medical Unit described the same incident, with one former staffer telling CNN that it was 'definitely inappropriate, in the middle of the night,' and that it made the woman uncomfortable. At the time, the incident was reported up the chain of command, and it is one of multiple drunken episodes involving Jackson on overseas trips, according to a source familiar." ...
... AND There's This from the Fandos/Shear report, linked below: "On one trip during Barack Obama’s presidency, White House staff needed to reach Dr. Jackson for medical reasons and found him passed out in his hotel room after a night of drinking, Tester aides said. The staff members took the medical supplies they were looking for without waking Dr. Jackson." ...
... Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is examining allegations that President Trump's nominee to lead the Veterans Affairs Department oversaw a hostile work environment as the White House physician and allowed the overprescribing of drugs, according to congressional officials briefed on the committee's work. They have also received claims that Dr. Ronny L. Jackson drank too much on the job. The allegations, which have been under investigation since last week, forced the postponement of Dr. Jackson's confirmation hearing, planned for this Wednesday as senators scrutinize the nominee's time leading the White House medical staff. Officials familiar with the allegations against Dr. Jackson declined to offer precise details but said that they suggest a pattern of behavior, not just one or two isolated incidents." Mrs. McC: You read it in the New York Times, so it must be true. I didn't wish this on Jackson; Trump did. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update: Nothing Is Ever Trump's Fault. Michael Shear has been added to the byline. "President Trump acknowledged Tuesday that Ronny L. Jackson, his nominee to lead the Veterans Affairs Department, is in serious trouble amid allegations that he oversaw a hostile work environment as the White House doctor, allowed the overprescribing of drugs and possibly drank on the job. Speaking at a news conference with the president of France, Mr. Trump strongly defended Dr. Jackson as 'one of the finest people that I have met,' but he hinted that Dr. Jackson might soon withdraw from consideration, blaming Democrats for mounting an unfair attack on his nominee's record. 'I don't want to put a man through a process like this,' Mr. Trump said, calling the allegation about Mr. Jackson 'ugly.' The president said, 'The fact is, I wouldn't do it. What does he need it for? To be abused by a number of politicians?' 'It's totally his decision,' Mr. Trump added, saying that he had talked with Dr. Jackson earlier in the day. Mr. Trump angrily accused his adversaries on Capitol Hill of going after Dr. Jackson because they have failed to block Mike Pompeo, the president's nominee to become the next secretary of state. 'They failed to stop him, so now they say "who's next?"' the president told reporters during the news conference in the East Room. The concern over Dr. Jackson's nomination, however, is bipartisan." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... WHIPLASH. LATER THAT SAME DAY. Andrew Restuccia, et al., of Politico: "The White House on Tuesday mounted an all-out defense of ... Donald Trump's embattled pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs as serious allegations of misbehavior threatened to tank the nomination. Trump met with Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson ... in the Oval Office on Tuesday evening. A White House official described it as a 'positive meeting,' adding that the president pledged to stand behind Jackson and push back on the allegations against him. Jackson, in turn, said he had no current plans to withdraw his nomination." ...
... AND. Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House rallied around Ronny L. Jackson's nomination to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs late Tuesday as the president's doctor was besieged by accusations that he improperly dispensed drugs, created a hostile workplace and became intoxicated on duty. The administration's decision to fight on in defense of the nomination came hours after President Trump publicly suggested that Jackson should consider pulling out because of the 'abuse' he was facing. But by late afternoon, Trump had huddled with Jackson, and White House aides vowed to fight the charges."
Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Environmental Protection Agency announced a new regulation Tuesday that would restrict the kinds of scientific studies the agency can use when it develops policies, a move critics say will permanently weaken the agency's ability to protect public health. Under the measure, the E.P.A. will require that the underlying data for all scientific studies used by the agency to formulate air and water regulations be publicly available. That would sharply limit the number of studies available for consideration because much research relies on confidential health data from study subjects. Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. administrator, announced the proposed regulation this afternoon at agency headquarters, flanked by Republican lawmakers who sponsored legislation designed to achieve the same ends as the new regulation." ...
... Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... Scott Pruitt faces a make-or-break moment on Thursday, when he's slated for a pair of congressional hearings, but he'll be heading to the Hill without the full backing of the Trump White House. Two sources familiar with Pruitt's preparation for the hearing say that the EPA has turned down an offer from the White House to help prepare the administrator for what is sure to be a bruising few hours of questions about the ethics and government spending controversies that have dogged him of late. One of the sources, a White House official, characterized the EPA's response to the West Wing as 'get lost.'" ...
... Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt ... may be losing support even from his staunchest allies. His longtime political patron, Senator James Inhofe, said Tuesday that he would like to see an investigation into the ethical allegations against his protégé. If any prove true, he said, they could 'have an effect' on Mr. Pruitt's job. Mr. Inhofe said he was troubled by a recent New York Times story that detailed allegations of unchecked spending and ethics questions during Mr. Pruitt's career as attorney general and state senator in Oklahoma. 'I've known him since he was in the state legislature and supported him,' Mr. Inhofe said Tuesday. 'These are accusations I did not know anything about.'"
... we now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption. -- Justice Anthony Kennedy, majority opinion, Citizens United v. FEC ...
... ** They're All Corrupt, Ctd. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Mick Mulvaney, the interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told banking industry executives on Tuesday that they should press lawmakers hard to pursue their agenda, and revealed that, as a congressman, he would meet only with lobbyists if they had contributed to his campaign. 'We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress,' Mr. Mulvaney, a former Republican lawmaker from South Carolina, told 1,300 bankers and lending industry officials at an American Bankers Association conference in Washington. 'If you're a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn't talk to you. If you're a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.'... Mr. Mulvaney said that trying to sway legislators was one of the 'fundamental underpinnings of our representative democracy. And you have to continue to do it.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Well, that's pretty clear. A top Trump administration official says that corruption is a "fundamental underpinning of our representative democracy." It's about time a Republican admitted the party's secret motto: "Corruptus in Extremis." ...
... Kevin Drum: "Most politicians don't have either the arrogance or the cluelessness it would take to admit this in public, but Mulvaney does. Kudos."
Adam Liptak & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court will hear a challenge on Wednesday to President Trump's latest effort to limit travel from countries said to pose a threat to the nation's security. The case, a major test of presidential power, will require the justices to decide whether Mr. Trump's campaign promises to impose a 'Muslim ban' were reflected in executive orders that restricted travel from several predominantly Muslims nations."
Alex Johnson & Pete Williams of NBC News: "A third federal judge on Tuesday ruled against the Trump administration's campaign to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for undocumented immigrants, ordering the administration not only to continue processing applications but also to resume accepting new ones. U.S. District Judge John Bates of the District of Columbia was withering in his 60-page ruling, calling the administration's attempts to end the program, known as DACA, 'arbitrary,' 'capricious,' 'virtually unexplained' and 'unlawful.' Bates stayed the ruling for 90 days to give the Department of Homeland Security time to come up with better arguments for scrapping the program. If it doesn't, he wrote, he will enter an order reinstating DACA in its entirety."
Congressional Election. Dan Merica of CNN: "Republicans won a special congressional election Tuesday in the suburbs west of Phoenix, CNN projects, holding on in a reliably red district where Democrats launched a well-organized but long-shot bid to flip the seat. However, the relatively close margin of victory in a district Donald Trump won by 21 points in 2016 signals trouble for Republicans heading into the midterm elections in November.... Republican Debbie Lesko, a former state senator, bested Democrat Hiral Tipirneni, a physician, in Arizona's 8th Congressional District. With 86% of the vote counted, Lesko led Tipirneni 52% to 47%. The seat was opened when Republican Rep. Trent Franks resigned in December amid sexual harassment allegations." ...
... Alexander Burns & Denise Lu of the New York Times: "Republicans Lost Support in Every Special Election Since Trump Became President.... While Republican candidates like Ms. Lesko have mostly prevailed in the recent special elections, they have been winning by sharply reduced margins.... So far, Republicans have benefited greatly from being able to choose most of the spots they have been forced to compete in. Five of the eight special elections arose because Mr. Trump selected the sitting Republican lawmaker there for a position in his cabinet. (In the other three cases, Republicans resigned from Congress amid scandal or to join the private sector.) But Mr. Trump's party will have to compete in dozens of more closely divided districts in November. If Democrats enjoy the same enthusiasm gap in those races, Republicans' control of the House and Senate could be in jeopardy."
Kristine Phillips of the Washington Post: "A U.S. Border Patrol agent was acquitted of murder in the shooting death of a Mexican teen who threw rocks at law enforcement officers during an attempt to smuggle marijuana to Mexico. But the Arizona jury that acquitted Lonnie Swartz of second-degree murder Monday was deadlocked on lesser manslaughter charges, the Associated Press reported. A mistrial was declared, and federal prosecutors are evaluating whether to retry Swartz on the manslaughter charges. The verdict was reached after a month-long trial and 18 hours of deliberation over five days. The death of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez in 2012 caught the attention of human rights groups who said the case marked the first time a U.S. Border Patrol agent was prosecuted in a cross-border shooting." ...
... MEANWHILE, Toronto police show U.S. law enforcement officers how to capture a mass murderer without killing him. Amanda Erickson of the Washington Post reports. O Canada!
Beyond the Beltway
Tasneem Nashrulla of BuzzFeed: "Federal authorities on Monday said they are investigating the father of Waffle House shooting suspect Travis Reinking after he returned his son's guns to him after they were confiscated by Illinois authorities last year. Reinking was arrested for using one of the weapons, an AR-15 rifle, to massacre four people Sunday. The actions of the suspect's father, Jeffrey Reinking, have also highlighted an Illinois gun law that one state senator calls a 'loophole' in the system. Democratic State Sen. Julie Morrison told BuzzFeed News on Monday that the state's Firearm Owners Identification card (FOID) Act, which allowed the father, 54, to keep his son's weapons, and then return them to him, 'should be looked into.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond
Maria Tsvetkova & Anton Zverev of Reuters: "The Kremlin says it has nothing to do with Russian civilians fighting in Syria but on three recent occasions groups of men flying in from Damascus headed straight to a defense ministry base in Molkino, Reuters reporters witnessed. Molkino in southwestern Russia is where the Russian 10th Special Forces Brigade is based, according to information on the Kremlin website. The destination of the Russians arriving from Syria provides rare evidence of a covert Russian mission in Syria beyond the air strikes, training of Syrian forces and small numbers of special forces troops acknowledged by Moscow."
Martin Sorensen & Christina Anderson of the New York Times: "A Danish inventor who admitted to dismembering a journalist and discarding her body from the submarine he built was convicted on Wednesday of killing her, in one of the most gruesome and closely watched cases in Scandinavian history. A court in Copenhagen found the submarine inventor Peter Madsen, 47, guilty of premeditated killing -- equivalent to murder -- in the death of Kim Wall, 30, whom prosecutors said he bound, tortured, sexually assaulted and stabbed repeatedly after she went on his submarine, the UC3 Nautilus, to interview him. He was sentenced to life in prison."
Ian Austen & Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times: "The 25-year-old driver of the van that careened down a busy Toronto street in a lethal rampage was charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder on Tuesday and 13 counts of attempted murder. The charges, announced at a Toronto court hearing for the suspect, Alek Minassian, came a day after the van rampage, which appears to have been the deadliest deliberate vehicular assault in modern Canadian history..... [Minassian] stopped the van on a sidewalk after the killings and surrendered to the police following a tense standoff in which he claimed to be armed and dared officers to shoot him in the head.... Scott Bardsley, a spokesman for Ralph Goodale, the public safety minister, said that the minister concluded that the killings 'were notnational security related' following a discussions with several security officials...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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Los Angeles Times: "Authorities have arrested a former police officer who is suspected of being one of California's most prolific serial killers and rapists -- the Golden State killer. According to law enforcement sources who were unauthorized to speak publicly about the case, a local and federal task force apprehended the suspect late Tuesday evening. A 72-year-old Citrus Heights resident, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is being held without bail, according to Sacramento County jail records. In the 40 years since the Original Night Stalker began his campaign of terror in Sacramento and moved south through Oakland, Santa Barbara and Orange counties, he had remained unidentified. The attacker was also dubbed the East Area Rapist and the Golden State killer, and authorities say he is responsible for 12 killings, 45 rapes and more than 120 residential burglaries between 1976 and 1986."
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