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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Wednesday
Apr112018

The Commentariat -- April 12, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "Ricky Waddell, the No. 2 official on the National Security Council (NSC), plans to leave his post as new national security adviser John Bolton seeks to form his own team.... Waddell is the fourth national security aide to leave or be ousted since Bolton started in his new role on Monday. The Army Reserve general was hired last May by Bolton's predecessor, H.R. McMaster, to run operations at the NSC. He took over for K.T. McFarland, the deputy to Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Waddell's departure ... comes one day after deputy national security adviser Nadia Schadlow, who authored Trump's national security strategy, submitted her resignation. Homeland security adviser Tom Bossert and NSC spokesman Michael Anton are the other two officials who are leaving the White House due to Bolton." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So the second major turnover in core NSC staff in less than 15 months. Are we feeling safer now? Well, at least we still have the same president. ...

... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump's fusillade of tweets about Syria, Russia and China this week set a new standard for contradictory and inconsistent positions in Mr. Trump's approach to war, trade and relations with adversaries. The president promised never to telegraph military action against an enemy, yet all but showcased a coming missile strike on Syria. He threatened Russia and called its relations with the United States worse than during the Cold War, yet blamed the ill will not on Moscow but on the special counsel investigation. He praised President Xi Jinping of China for his 'enlightenment' on trade in a highly anticipated speech, but in it Mr. Xi actually offered little to change what Mr. Trump has called decades of predatory practices by Beijing.... The latest reversals and back flips were so jarring that they left foreign officials more bewildered than usual about Mr. Trump's next moves. The tweets also appeared divorced from the administration's policies on Russia, where the United States is expelling diplomats and imposing sanctions on cronies of President Vladimir V. Putin. They are at odds with policy on China, where the United States appears ready to escalate the confrontation over trade. They are at cross-purposes with the latest actions on Syria...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Once again, a front-page report on the paper of record laying out that the POTUS* is stark-staring mad. ...

... If only Newt Gingrich were around to bring some reason & stability to this disaster of a White House. ...

... Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) tore into the FBI after its raid of President Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, likening agents' actions to those of the secret police during the Nazi era. Gingrich said during an interview on Fox News that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has not done his job" and has not supervised special counsel Robert Mueller.... 'This whole thing is an absurdity. We've now had Paul Manafort and his wife in their pajamas at 3 in the morning having the FBI break down the door,' he said on Wednesday, referring to an FBI raid last year at the home of Trump's former campaign manager. 'Cohen, the lawyer, had the door taken off of the hinges at 6 in the morning.... That's Stalin. That's the Gestapo in Germany. That shouldn't be the American FBI.'"

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "In advance of a publicity tour by James B. Comey to promote his new book, the Republican National Committee is preparing a widespread campaign to undercut his credibility, including a new website that dubs the former FBI director as 'Lyin' Comey.' The website prominently features quotes from Democrats highly critical of Comey before his firing by Trump nearly a year ago as the president grew agitated by the Russia probe. RNC officials say their effort will also include digital ads, a 'war room' to monitor Comey's television appearances, a rapid response team to rebut his claims in real time and coordination of Trump surrogates to fan out across other TV programs.... Comey [has been] a registered Republican for most of his adult life."

Sarah Ferris & Kaitlyn Burton of Politico: "A regretful ... Donald Trump wants to roll back spending in a massive omnibus bill he signed into law, but Republicans who helped craft the legislation are in open revolt. 'My attitude is, your word is your bond,' House Appropriations Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen said, in his first public comments on the Trump plan. Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) is among more than a half-dozen appropriators who have voiced skepticism about the Trump administration's proposal to cancel billions in spending.... The White House is seeking to essentially take a scalpel to last month's $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill, scratching out any funding that Trump doesn't personally back.... 90 House Republicans backed the spending bill, in part because they were promised cover by the White House."

Mattathias Schwartz of the New Yorker spent the last couple of days "watching Congress try to friend Mark Zuckerberg."

*****

If I wanted to fire Robert Mueller in December, as reported by the Failing New York Times, I would have fired him. Just more Fake News from a biased newspaper! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet this morning, responding to a NYT article linked here yesterday

Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Stephen K. Bannon, who was ousted as White House chief strategist last summer but has remained in touch with some members of President Trump's circle, is pitching a plan to West Wing aides and congressional allies to cripple the federal probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to four people familiar with the discussions. The first step, these people say, would be for Trump to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the work of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and in recent days signed off on a search warrant of Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Bannon is also recommending the White House cease its cooperation with Mueller, reversing the policy of Trump's legal team to provide information to the special counsel's team and to allow staff members to sit for interviews. And he is telling associates inside and outside the administration that the president should create a new legal battleground to protect himself from the investigation by asserting executive privilege -- and arguing that Mueller's interviews with White House officials over the past year should now be null and void." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Costa notes that Bannon's view of how to handle the Mueller probe has considerably "evolved" from his early laissez-faire approach. I would note that Bannon's "evolution" occurred right about the time Bob Mueller's team started looking into the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Bannon once boasted to Fire & Fury writer Michael Wolff that he wasn't worried about the Russia probe because he (Bannon) "didn't even know any Russians.") But he sure does know Cambridge Analytica: he was the company veep, he served on the board, he even named the company, he had a substantial investment in it, AND he "and signed off on its acquisition of the dodgy data." Funny how this stuff works, isn't it?

The President & the Tabloid. Jim Rutenberg, et al., of the New York Times: The Mueller team is investigating the intersection among Trump, Cohen, the National Enquirer's parent company & a couple of sleazebags associated with the tabloid. Mrs. McC: Funny how Trump -- world's greatest real-estate magnate -- is low-rent in every respect. "Class" has little to do with one's bank account, & Trump put the "ass" in "assets."

Jake Pearson & Jeff Horwitz of the AP: "Eight months before the company that owns the National Enquirer paid $150,000 to a former Playboy Playmate who claimed she'd had an affair with Donald Trump, the tabloid's parent made a $30,000 payment to a less famous individual: a former doorman at one of the real estate mogul's New York City buildings. As it did with the ex-Playmate, the Enquirer signed the ex-doorman to a contract that effectively prevented him from going public with a juicy tale that might hurt Trump's campaign for president.... [Ex-doorman Dino] Sajudin got $30,000 [from the National Enquirer] in exchange for signing over the rights, 'in perpetuity,' to a rumor he'd heard about Trump's sex life -- that the president had fathered an illegitimate child with an employee at Trump World Tower, a skyscraper he owns near the United Nations.... [Michael] Cohen ... acknowledged to the AP that he had discussed Sajudin's story with the magazine when the tabloid was working on it.... The AP has not been able to determine if the rumor is true and is not naming the woman."

Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. agents who raided the office and hotel of President Trump's lawyer on Monday were seeking all records related to the 'Access Hollywood' tape..., according to three people who have been briefed on the contents of a federal search warrant. The search warrant also sought evidence of whether the lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, tried to suppress damaging information about Mr. Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.... The new details from the warrant reveal that prosecutors are keenly interested in Mr. Cohen's unofficial role in the Trump campaign. And they help explain why Mr. Trump was furious about the raid. People close to Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen regard the warrant as an attempt ... to pry into Mr. Trump's personal life -- using other prosecutors as his proxy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Carol Leonnig & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "The broad request also sought Cohen's communications with Trump and campaign surrogates about 'potential sources of negative publicity' in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. The warrant indicates that investigators appear to be examining what role the longtime Trump attorney played in trying to tamp down unflattering stories as Trump sought to win the White House.... On the same day [the WashPo released the 'Access Hollywood' tape], the U.S. intelligence community released a statement formally blaming Russia for interfering in the 2016 election. Less than an hour after The Post's story, WikiLeaks posted the first set of emails stolen from Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta. U.S. intelligence officials later blamed the Russian government for the hack of Podesta's email."

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "More and more, this is looking like a mobster roll-up of the type that some of Mueller's team of ace prosecutors previously specialized in. In the beginning, the feds target one or two low-level insiders with legal vulnerabilities, obtain court orders to monitor their activities, and, hopefully, get them to coöperate with the government. Gradually, the investigators work their way up the chain of command to the crew captains -- the capos -- and, eventually, to the boss of bosses, the capo dei capi.... Now the feds are also putting the squeeze on Cohen, the trusted consigliere. While the investigators of Cohen's case don't work for Mueller, the two cases are clearly linked, and there would be nothing to prevent Cohen ... from eventually agreeing to coöperate with both the Southern District of New York and Mueller. No wonder Trump seems rattled."

Much of the bad blood with Russia is caused by the Fake & Corrupt Russia Investigation, headed up by the all Democrat loyalists, or people that worked for Obama. Mueller is most conflicted of all (except Rosenstein who signed FISA & Comey letter). No Collusion, so they go crazy! -- Donald Trump, going crazy in a tweet Wednesday

Matt Zapotosky & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department on Wednesday gave House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes access to a redacted document detailing the origin of the investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 election -- a day after Nunes suggested publicly he might impeach top FBI or Justice Department officials over their failure to produce what he wanted. A Justice Department official said the department had provided Nunes (R-Calif.), ranking Democratic member Adam B. Schiff (Calif.) and all committee members access to the document, with redactions 'narrowly tailored to protect the name of a foreign country and the name of a foreign agent.' The document is said to detail how the Russia investigation started, at least in part because a young Trump foreign policy adviser boasted to an Australian diplomat in May 2016 that Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton. That was months before hacked Democratic Party emails began appearing online. The Justice Department's providing Nunes access to it seemed to placate him at least for the moment, as he issued a statement afterward thanking Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein for his cooperation."

Elana Schor of Politico: "A bipartisan Senate bill designed to protect special counsel Robert Mueller's job is on track for a vote in the Judiciary Committee, according to a source briefed on the committee's plans. It's a significant step forward as lawmakers warn ... Donald Trump not to fire the man investigating him.... The new bill is the product of months-long talks among Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.). Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has yet to lend his full support, but that's not stopping him from setting up the legislation to advance.... However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reiterated yesterday that, despite fresh signs Trump is considering a firing, he is not convinced that a Mueller protection bill merits floor time in the chamber." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), "the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wants his panel to vote as soon as next week on a bipartisan bill to prevent the undue firing of special counsels like Robert S. Mueller III, according to aides familiar with his plans."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Ex-FBI Director James Comey compared President Trump to a 'mob boss' in a taped interview with ABC News, according to a promotional video released Wednesday.... The preview also shows [George] Stephanopoulos asking Comey if he believes President Trump obstructed justice and if he thinks the president should be impeached.... The interview is set to air on Sunday night. It will be Comey's first television interview since he was fired by Trump last May." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

It's like Forrest Gump won the presidency, but an evil, really f*cking stupid Forrest Gump. He can't help himself. He's just a f**king idiot who thinks he's winning when people are b*tching about him.... If we're going to lose because of him, we might as well impeach the motherf**ker. Take him out with us and let Mike [Pence] take over.... I say a lot of shit on TV defending him, even over this. But honestly, I wish the motherf*cker would just go away. We're going to lose the House, lose the Senate, and lose a bunch of states because of him. All his supporters will blame us for what we have or have not done, but he hasn't led. He wakes up in the morning, sh*ts all over Twitter, sh*ts all over us, sh*ts all over his staff, then hits golf balls. F*ck him. Of course, I can't say that in public or I'd get run out of town. -- Unnamed GOP Congressman, speaking to winger blogger Erick Erickson (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "In a White House known for chaos, the process of developing the U.S. response to the Syrian government's alleged latest gas attack was proceeding with uncharacteristic deliberation, including several national security briefings for President Trump. But then Wednesday morning, Trump upended it all with a tweet -- warning Russia, the Syrian government's backer, to 'get ready' because American missiles 'will be coming, nice and new and "smart!"... White House advisers were surprised by the missive and found it 'alarming' and 'distracting,' in the words of one senior official. They quickly regrouped and, together with Pentagon brass, continued readying Syria options for Trump as if nothing had happened. But the Twitter disruption was emblematic of a president operating on a tornado of impulses -- and with no clear strategy -- as he faces some of the most consequential decisions of his presidency, including Syria, trade policy and the Russian interference probe that threatens to overwhelm his administration." ...

     ... ** Whaddaya Mean, "Impulsive"? Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our "Thank you America?" -- Donald Trump, in a tweet this morning, denying what he tweeted way back yesterday ...

... The Guardian is running a livefeed of developments in the responses to Syria's chemical weapons attack.

Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "Ronny L. Jackson, President Trump's choice to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, is facing mounting skepticism from Senate Republicans over whether he has the management experience to lead the nation's second-largest bureaucracy. The comments from several GOP senators, particularly those with influence on veterans' issues, signal Jackson will have to work overtime to persuade not just Democrats but Trump's own party that he is qualified to oversee the beleaguered agency. That challenge comes at a time when Senate Republicans are already juggling other controversial nominations that will consume much of the political oxygen on Capitol Hill." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

An Excellent Hire. Tierney Sneed & Josh Marshall of TPM: "Former Trump National Security Council official Ezra Cohen-Watnick is joining the Department of Justice as a national security adviser to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a source familiar with the matter told TPM Wednesday.... During his time at the NSC as the senior director for intelligence programs, Cohen-Watnick was a source of controversy. His ascent to the NSC, after just a few years at the Defense Intelligence Agency, surprised outside observers. His name emerged in the strange episode involving House Intel Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, who made bombastic allegations of improper 'unmasking' of Trump associates by the Obama administration, though what role Cohen-Watnick played in the controversy remains in dispute." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update: Chris Strohm & Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump personally ordered the Department of Justice to hire a former White House official who departed after he was caught up in a controversy over the release of intelligence material to a member of Congress, according to people familiar with the matter. Ezra Cohen-Watnick ... was forced out of the National Security Council last year [by H.R. McMaster, whom Trump of course fired].

Lisa Friedman & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "When Scott Pruitt wanted to refashion the Environmental Protection Agency's 'challenge coin' -- a type of souvenir medallion with military origins ... -- he proposed an unusual design: Make it bigger, and delete the E.P.A. logo. Mr. Pruitt instead wanted the coin to feature some combination of symbols more reflective of himself and the Trump administration. Among the possibilities: a buffalo, to evoke Mr. Pruitt's native Oklahoma, and a Bible verse to reflect his faith. Other ideas included using the Great Seal of the United States -- a design similar to the presidential seal -- and putting Mr. Pruitt's name around the rim in large letters, according to Ronald Slotkin, a career E.P.A. employee who retired this year, and two people familiar with the proposals who asked to remain anonymous because they said they feared retribution.... Mr. Slotkin said that during the design discussion, in which he participated, Mr. Pruitt wanted to remove 'anything to do with E.P.A.' The changes, he said, would have turned it into a 'Pruitt coin.'" ...

... Jacqueline Alemany & Arden Farhi of CBS News: "CBS News has obtained an August 2017 report prepared by the Environmental Protection Agency's office of inspector general that contains a list of 13 threats made against EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and his family. The threats range in severity, credibility and specificity. One tweet flagged by investigators said, 'Pruitt, I'm gonna find you and put a bullet between your eyes. Don't think I'm joking. I'm planning this.' Investigators believe the threat was made by someone living in India. Another person wished the administrator 'a very painful and horrible death through poisoning. Please explain the scientific method to this freaking neanderthal.' The inspector general also looked into a complaint that 'unknown protesters attempted to disrupt the EPA Administrator's speech during a closed event.' Another person emailed the EPA threatening to dump old paint outside Pruitt's door.... In certain cases, cases were referred to the Justice Department, but just one was deemed serious enough to prosecute. The report covers the period from Oct. 2016 to Aug. 2017."

Anita Kumar & Lesley Clark of McClatchy News: "CIA Director Mike Pompeo failed to disclose last year that he owned a Kansas business that imported oilfield equipment from a company owned by the Chinese government. That omission, on the questionnaire Pompeo was required to fill out for Senate confirmation to lead the spy agency, could cause a problem for him in Thursday's confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to be ... Donald Trump's secretary of state."

David Siders & Aubree Weaver of Politico: "In an apparent de-escalation of the raging conflict between California and ... Donald Trump over immigration, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday agreed to increase California National Guard operations along the state's border with Mexico, while insisting personnel will not be used to support any immigration enforcement or to build a border wall. The announcement comes less than a week after Trump called for National Guard deployments along the U.S.-Mexico border until a border wall is built. The Republican governors of Texas and Arizona already committed to participate.... In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, the four-term Democrat said California 'will accept federal funding to add approximately 400 Guard members statewide to supplement the staffing of its ongoing program to combat transnational crime' but that personnel would be deployed throughout the state and will not be used to enforce immigration laws. 'But let's be crystal clear on the scope of this mission,' Brown wrote. 'This will not be a mission to build a new wall. It will not be a mission to round up women and children or detain people escaping violence and seeking a better life. And the California National Guard will not be enforcing federal immigration laws.'"


Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "As he announced his exit from public life, Speaker Paul D. Ryan tried hard to show appreciation for the man who took the Republican Party from his grasp and transformed it into something else.... The Trumpian revolution, which Ryan had long resisted, appeared to have claimed another victory, dispatching another occasional critic and reaffirming the president's growing hold on a shrinking electoral coalition.... Ryan's decision to abruptly throw in the towel, just six months before the midterms, is likely to only further Trump's control of the party. Republicans strategists worry it will also make it harder for the GOP to hold onto the House, a prospect that seems less likely after a recent Democratic victory in a special election outside of Pittsburgh." ...

... Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... while publicly no lawmaker is yet discussing a push to get the speaker to leave early, certain quarters of the Republican Party and Capitol Hill want him out of Congress right away rather than in early 2019.... Sources inside the Trump White House tell The Daily Beast that their primary concern following Ryan's announcement was that more fellow House Republicans would follow him to the exits.... On the Hill, there is fear that a lame-duck speaker all but guarantees a legislative logjam, as no lawmaker will now feel compelled to take a tough vote at Ryan's insistence. There is also an appetite within the Republican caucus to get new leadership in right away...." ...

... Boo Fucking Hoo. Steve M.: "Paul Ryan is leaving Congress, and he's going out with a sob story, of course.... This stuff works. It works on mainstream-media journalists, at least. It's the kind of thing that used to work on the public, at least before voters in one of our major political parties decided they prefer candidates who are rage monsters rather than (real or ersatz) Boy Scouts with heart-tugging backstories.... Remember, he'll still be in his fifties in 2024 and 2028. If he ever wants to run for president, he has years to consider it. And who could possibly have more plutocrat backing? That's why I hope the money is so great that he seizes it with both fists and never looks back." ...

... Dylan Matthews of Vox: "Paul Ryan will be remembered for a lot of things -- his rise to fame as President Barack Obama's most prominent critic in Congress; his 2012 run for vice president; his role leading the Republican establishment as it accepted Donald Trump as its nominee and then president. But he deserves to be remembered as the person who, more than anyone else, committed the Republican Party to an extreme libertarian vision of government in response to Obama's election. In doing so, he ended up achieving little of the party's priorities -- and created an opening that helped propel Trump to the White House.... The entire point of Ryan's agenda was to dramatically reduce taxes on wealthy owners of capital and pay for it by gutting America's most popular programs to support senior citizens and the poor. It had no obvious popular appeal outside die-hard free marketers, who make up a vanishingly small portion of the voting public." Matthews muses about a different Republican party -- a more Bush-y one -- that he argues would not have produced a Trump presidency. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "House Speaker Paul Ryan is retiring before he can lose his majority, and potentially his own seat in Congress, but too late to save his reputation.... The image of Paul Ryan that was introduced to the country was as America's accountant, the Kevin Kline character from Dave, an earnest midwestern boy with a passion for saving the country from fiscal calamity.... What finally killed off the myth of Paul Ryan was Donald Trump.... To Ryan, the greatest danger to liberty lies not in a president who defies the rule of law but in high tax rates and a functioning social safety net.... In Ryan's worldview, he has struck a powerful blow for liberty against the socialist hordes. Ryan leaves his endangered majority convinced he has done his job well." ...

... ** Ron Brownstein of the Atlantic: "Paul Ryan, who once aspired to advance the vision of conservative icon Jack Kemp, will leave Washington carrying a more tarnished legacy -- as the most important enabler of Donald Trump. No one in the GOP was better equipped, by position and disposition alike, to resist Trump's racially infused, insular nationalism, or to define a more inclusive competing vision for the party. Instead, Ryan chose to tolerate both Trump's personal excesses and his racially polarizing words and deeds as the price worth paying to advance Ryan's own top priorities: cutting spending; regulations; and above all, taxes. The result was that Ryan, more than any other prominent Republican, personified the devil's bargain the GOP has signed with Trump. And his departure crystallizes the difficult choices Republicans face as Trump redefines the party in his belligerent image." ...

... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "Paul Ryan was the biggest fraud in American politics.... His Senate counterpart, Mitch McConnell, was always willing to wear the black hat.... But [Ryan] also craved a certain form of respectability that's led him to leave behind a staggering track record of broken promises and glowing press clips from journalists who were gullible enough to believe them." Ygesias reprises Ryan's brilliant career. ...

... Charles Pierce has some heartfelt thoughts on Paul Ryan's retirement. Conclusion: "Biggest. Fake. Ever." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... Mitch may have spoken too quickly when he told some supporters a short while ago that stealing a supreme court seat was his greatest accomplishment. Helping Trump destroy our democracy would leave a much bigger mark on the world. -- RAS, in yesterday's Comments

Jennifer Kaplan of Bloomberg: "The U.S. marijuana industry has a new spokesman: John Boehner. The Republican former Speaker of the House has joined the advisory board of Acreage Holdings, a company that cultivates, processes and dispenses cannabis in 11 U.S. states. Boehner's endorsement, after saying nine years ago he was 'unalterably opposed' to legalization, could be considered a watershed event: Marijuana has gone mainstream.... Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld will join Boehner on the advisory board of Acreage, which holds 35 licenses for cannabis businesses in the U.S." Mrs. McC: Watershed event? Sounds like SOP for Boehner: he goes where the money is. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday faced a tougher, tenser grilling at his second congressional hearing, as lawmakers unleashed a litany of complaints about the company's privacy practices, its failure to fight the opioid crisis and the lack of diversity within its executive ranks. For five hours, Democrats and Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee took turns swiping at Zuckerberg, holding him to 'yes' and 'no' questions and frequently cutting him off -- a tactic that at times appeared to frustrate the Facebook co-founder." ...

... Olivia Solon of the Guardian: "... when it came to the nuts and bolts of Facebook's business model..., [Mark Zuckerberg] deflected scrutiny through a combination of declared ignorance, amnesia, and world-class public relations spin. Here are five responses that don't stand up to scrutiny."

Beyond the Beltway

** Allison Kite & Tessa Weinberg of the Kansas City Star: "A growing number of Missouri lawmakers are calling on [Missouri] Gov. Eric Greitens [R] to step down over 'horrendous' and 'disgraceful' allegations of abuse detailed in an investigative report released Wednesday.... Nearly a dozen Democrats and four Republicans called for Greitens' resignation immediately after the report was released.... After more than a month of investigation, the special House committee deemed 'credible' the testimony of the woman with whom Greitens had an affair in 2015. The report detailed her claims that Greitens on multiple occasions hit her. She said he bound her to exercise equipment, put a blindfold on her, undressed her and took a photo of her without consent in order to keep her silent. She felt coerced to give him oral sex on his basement floor while she cried.... In a press conference an hour before the report's release, Greitens was defiant against calls for his resignation and said the report signed by five Republicans and two Democrats would include 'lies and falsehoods.' He repeatedly called it a 'political witch hunt,' mimicking Donald Trump's complaints about the ongoing investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 campaign." The committee's report is here.

Comments Off
Wednesday
Apr112018

The Commentariat -- April 11, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. agents who raided the office and hotel of President Trump's lawyer on Monday were seeking all records related to the 'Access Hollywood' tape..., according to three people who have been briefed on the contents of a federal search warrant. The search warrant also sought evidence of whether the lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, tried to suppress damaging information about Mr. Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.... The new details from the warrant reveal that prosecutors are keenly interested in Mr. Cohen's unofficial role in the Trump campaign. And they help explain why Mr. Trump was furious about the raid. People close to Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen regard the warrant as an attempt ... to pry into Mr. Trump's personal life -- using other prosecutors as his proxy."

Much of the bad blood with Russia is caused by the Fake & Corrupt Russia Investigation, headed up by the all Democrat loyalists, or people that worked for Obama. Mueller is most conflicted of all (except Rosenstein who signed FISA & Comey letter). No Collusion, so they go crazy! -- Donald Trump, going crazy in a tweet today

Elana Schor of Politico: "A bipartisan Senate bill designed to protect special counsel Robert Mueller's job is on track for a vote in the Judiciary Committee, according to a source briefed on the committee's plans. It's a significant step forward as lawmakers warn ... Donald Trump not to fire the man investigating him.... The new bill is the product of months-long talks among Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.). Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has yet to lend his full support, but that's not stopping him from setting up the legislation to advance.... However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reiterated yesterday that, despite fresh signs Trump is considering a firing, he is not convinced that a Mueller protection bill merits floor time in the chamber."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Ex-FBI Director James Comey compared President Trump to a 'mob boss' in a taped interview with ABC News, according to a promotional video released Wednesday.... The preview also shows [George] Stephanopoulos asking Comey if he believes President Trump obstructed justice and if he thinks the president should be impeached.... The interview is set to air on Sunday night. It will be Comey's first television interview since he was fired by Trump last May."

It's like Forrest Gump won the presidency, but an evil, really f*cking stupid Forrest Gump. He can't help himself. He's just a f**king idiot who thinks he's winning when people are b*tching about him.... If we're going to lose because of him, we might as well impeach the motherf**ker. Take him out with us and let Mike [Pence] take over.... I say a lot of shit on TV defending him, even over this. But honestly, I wish the motherf*cker would just go away. We're going to lose the House, lose the Senate, and lose a bunch of states because of him. All his supporters will blame us for what we have or have not done, but he hasn't led. He wakes up in the morning, sh*ts all over Twitter, sh*ts all over us, sh*ts all over his staff, then hits golf balls. F*ck him. Of course, I can't say that in public or I'd get run out of town. -- Unnamed GOP Congressman, speaking to Erick Erickson

Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "Ronny L. Jackson, President Trump's choice to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, is facing mounting skepticism from Senate Republicans over whether he has the management experience to lead the nation's second-largest bureaucracy. The comments from several GOP senators, particularly those with influence on veterans' issues, signal Jackson will have to work overtime to persuade not just Democrats but Trump's own party that he is qualified to oversee the beleaguered agency. That challenge comes at a time when Senate Republicans are already juggling other controversial nominations that will consume much of the political oxygen on Capitol Hill."

Charles Pierce has some heartfelt thoughts on Paul Ryan's retirement. Conclusion: "Biggest. Fake. Ever."

An Excellent Hire. Tierney Sneed & Josh Marshall of TPM: "Former Trump National Security Council official Ezra Cohen-Watnick is joining the Department of Justice as a national security adviser to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a source familiar with the matter told TPM Wednesday.... During his time at the NSC as the senior director for intelligence programs, Cohen-Watnick was a source of controversy. His ascent to the NSC, after just a few years at the Defense Intelligence Agency, surprised outside observers. His name emerged in the strange episode involving House Intel Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, who made bombastic allegations of improper 'unmasking' of Trump associates by the Obama administration, though what role Cohen-Watnick played in the controversy remains in dispute."

Jennifer Kaplan of Bloomberg: "The U.S. marijuana industry has a new spokesman: John Boehner. The Republican former Speaker of the House has joined the advisory board of Acreage Holdings, a company that cultivates, processes and dispenses cannabis in 11 U.S. states. Boehner's endorsement, after saying nine years ago he was 'unalterably opposed' to legalization, could be considered a watershed event: Marijuana has gone mainstream.... Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld will join Boehner on the advisory board of Acreage, which holds 35 licenses for cannabis businesses in the U.S." Mrs. McC: Watershed event? Sounds like SOP for Boehner: he goes where the money is.

*****

NEW. Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Speaker Paul D. Ryan told House Republican colleagues on Wednesday that he will not seek re-election in November, ending a brief stint atop the House and signaling the peril that the Republican majority faces in the midterm elections. Mr. Ryan told the House Republican Conference that he will serve until the end of this Congress in January, which will mark 20 years in Congress. But his retirement announcement is sure to kick off a succession battle for the leadership of the House Republican Conference, likely between the House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy of California, and the House majority whip, Steve Scalise of Louisiana. It could also trigger another wave of retirements among Republicans not eager to face angry voters in the fall and taking their cue from Mr. Ryan. As if on cue, Representative Dennis Ross, Republican of Florida, announced his retirement an hour after Mr. Ryan." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: At this writing, Ryan -- who has vowed he is quitting so he doesn't remain "a weekend dad," is holding a presser in which he has promised to keep dedicating himself to taking "entitlements" away from lazy losers. That's uplifting.

Our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War. There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race? -- Donald Trump, this morning

Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!' You shouldn't be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it! -- Donald Trump, this morning

... John Wagner & Anton Troianovski of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Wednesday warned that missiles 'will be coming' toward Syria in response to a suspected chemical attack and taunted Russia for vowing to shoot down any incoming strikes.... The United States has been building a circumstantial case, based largely on videos and photographs, that a chemical attack by Syrian forces took place in the rebel-held enclave of Douma. Syri and Russia, a main backer of Assad, have insisted no attack happened and that only the opposition groups they call 'terrorists' possess chemical weapons. Trump appeared to be referring to a comment from Russia's ambassador to Lebanon, who was quoted by a Lebanese news outlet on Tuesday saying that Russia would confront a U.S. strike on Syria by shooting down missiles and striking their launchpads."

Raging Bull

So much Fake News about what is going on in the White House. Very calm and calculated with a big focus on open and fair trade with China, the coming North Korea meeting and, of course, the vicious gas attack in Syria. Feels great to have Bolton & Larry K on board. I (we) are--

....doing things that nobody thought possible, despite the never ending and corrupt Russia Investigation, which takes tremendous time and focus. No Collusion or Obstruction (other than I fight back), so now they do the Unthinkable, and RAID a lawyers office for information! BAD! -- Donald Trump, in an incomplete tweet this morning

Julie Davis & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Inside the White House, Mr. Trump -- furious after the F.B.I. raided his longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen -- spent much of the day [Tuesday] brooding and fearful and near what two people close to the West Wing described as a 'meltdown.'... The raids on Monday on Mr. Cohen's Rockefeller Center office and Park Avenue hotel room have sent the president to new heights of outrage, setting the White House on edge as it faces a national security crisis in Syria and more internal staff churn.... People close to the White House said that over the weekend, the president engaged in few activities other than dinner at the Trump International Hotel. He tuned into Fox News, they said, watched reports about the so-called deep state looking to sink his presidency and became unglued. Mr. Trump angrily told his advisers that people were trying to undermine him and that he wanted to get rid of three top Justice Department officials -- Jeff Sessions, the attorney general; Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who appointed [Robert] Mueller; and Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director -- according to two people familiar with what took place." ...

... Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump is considering firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, multiple people familiar with the discussions tell CNN, a move that has gained urgency following the raid of the office of the President's personal lawyer. Such an action could potentially further Trump's goal of trying to put greater limits on special counsel Robert Mueller. This is one of several options -- including going so far as to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- Trump is weighing in the aftermath of the FBI's decision Monday to raid the office of Michael Cohen, the President's personal lawyer and longtime confidant. Officials say if Trump acts, Rosenstein is his most likely target, but it's unclear whether even such a dramatic firing like this would be enough to satisfy the President." ...

... Andrew Restuccia & Nancy Cook of Politico: "The Trump White House punched back at its own Justice Department on Tuesday, with ... Donald Trump and senior officials expressing outrage over law enforcement raids on lawyer Michael Cohen -- and making thinly veiled threats to fire Russia special prosecutor Robert Mueller.... Amid the furor, the White House announced earlier Tuesday that Trump would skip an upcoming trip to Latin America and instead stay in Washington. Trump's decision to scrap this weekend's long-planned travel to the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, will leave the president largely alone in the White House with little on his schedule, giving him time to stew and watch cable news. Angry and increasingly isolated, the president is more unpredictable than ever, according to four people close to him." ...

... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "As President Trump continued to fume on Tuesday about the Justice Department's raids on the office and hotel room of his longtime personal lawyer, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, made a provocative claim: The president, she said, believes he has the legal authority to fire Robert S. Mueller, the special counsel leading the Russia investigation.... Ms. Sanders's initial remark on Tuesday was vague. But when pressed to clarify whether she meant only that Mr. Trump could direct Mr. Rosenstein to fire Mr. Mueller, she insisted instead that 'a number of individuals in the legal community and including at the Department of Justice' have said that Mr. Trump himself has the power to oust him.... But there is scant precedent supporting the notion that Mr. Trump has lawful authority to bypass the acting attorney general and directly fire Mr. Mueller, legal scholars said." Savage explores legal theories & precedents.

Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "In early December, President Trump, furious over news reports about a new round of subpoenas from the office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, told advisers in no uncertain terms that Mr. Mueller's investigation had to be shut down. The president's anger was fueled by reports that the subpoenas were for obtaining information about his business dealings with Deutsche Bank, according to interviews with eight White House officials, people close to the president and others familiar with the episode. To Mr. Trump, the subpoenas suggested that Mr. Mueller had expanded the investigation in a way that crossed the 'red line' he had set last year in an interview with The New York Times. In the hours that followed Mr. Trump's initial anger over the Deutsche Bank reports, his lawyers and advisers worked quickly to learn about the subpoenas, and ultimately were told by Mr. Mueller's office that the reports were not accurate, leading the president to back down.... Despite assurances from leading Republicans like Speaker Paul D. Ryan that the president has not thought about firing Mr. Mueller, the December episode was the second time Mr. Trump is now known to have considered taking that step."

Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "Rod J. Rosenstein, the veteran Republican prosecutor handpicked by President Trump to serve as deputy attorney general, personally signed off on Monday's F.B.I. decision to raid the office of Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump's personal attorney and longtime confidant, three government officials said. The early-morning searches enraged Mr. Trump, associates said, setting off an angry public tirade Monday evening that continued in private at the White House as the president fumed about whether he should fire Mr. Rosenstein. The episode has deeply unsettled White House aides, Justice Department officials and lawmakers from both parties, who believe the president may use it as a pretext to purge the team leading the investigation into Russia meddling in the 2016 election.... Mr. Rosenstein's personal involvement in the decision signals that the evidence seen by law enforcement officials was significant enough to persuade the Justice Department's second-in-command that such an aggressive move was necessary.... Mr. Trump considered firing Mr. Rosenstein last summer. Instead, he ordered Mr. Mueller to be fired, then backed down after the White House counsel refused to carry out the order, The New York Times reported in January." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... New Lede: "The F.B.I. agents who raided the office of President Trump's personal lawyer on Monday were looking for records about payments to two women [Playboy model Karen McDougal & adult-film actress Stormy Daniels] who claim they had affairs with Mr. Trump, and information related to the publisher of The National Enquirer's role in silencing one of the women, several people briefed on the investigation said." ...

... Ken White, in the New York Times, provides an excellent summary of why the FBI's raid of Cohen's records is "highly dangerous, and not just for Mr. Cohen. It's perilous for the president, whose personal lawyer now may face a choice between going down fighting alone or saving his own skin by giving the wolves what they want." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jonathan Karl & Josh Margolin of ABC News: "Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is recused from the Michael Cohen investigation, ABC News has learned. Berman was not involved in the decision to raid Cohen's office because of the recusal, two sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News. The recusal was approved by senior Justice Department officials who report to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the sources said Rosenstein himself was notified of the recusal after the decision was made. The raid of Cohen's office was handled by others in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and approved by a federal judge." Mrs. McC: I'd guess Berman let this leak to save himself from the Wrath of Trump.

Don Lemon of CNN: "In his first comments since the FBI raid on his home and office, Michael Cohen said the FBI agents 'were extremely professional, courteous and respectful.' The comments contrast with ... Donald Trump who complained Monday that agents 'broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys.'... He said that he is very loyal to Trump but after what happened on Monday, he'd rethink how he handled the payments to Daniels because of the impact on his family."

Sarah Fitzpatrick, et al., of NBC News: "Adult film actress Stormy Daniels is cooperating with federal investigators looking into a $130,000 payment she received from ... Donald Trump's personal attorney, multiple sources familiar with the proceedings told NBC News. The cooperation is in connection with a broader federal probe of the attorney, Michael Cohen...."

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Dana Boente, the former acting attorney general who now serves as general counsel at the FBI, has been interviewed by the special counsel's office and turned over handwritten notes that could be a piece of evidence in the ongoing investigation into whether President Trump obstructed justice, according to people familiar with the matter. Boente was interviewed some months ago by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's team on a wide range of topics, including his recollections of what former FBI director James B. Comey told him about troubling interactions with Trump, one of the people said. The interview is significant because it shows how Mueller is exploring whether the president obstructed justice and keying in on conversations Trump had with his former FBI director about the probe involving his presidential campaign. It also shows the extent to which Mueller has gone to corroborate Comey's account."

The Biggest Buffoon. New York Times Editors: "Mr. Trump has spent his career in the company of developers and celebrities, and also of grifters, cons, sharks, goons and crooks. He cuts corners, he lies, he cheats, he brags about it, and for the most part, he's gotten away with it, protected by threats of litigation, hush money and his own bravado. Those methods may be proving to have their limits when they are applied from the Oval Office. Though Republican leaders in Congress still keep a cowardly silence, Mr. Trump now has real reason to be afraid.... On Monday, when he appeared with his national security team, Mr. Trump, whose motto could be, 'The buck stops anywhere but here,' angrily blamed everyone he could think of for the 'unfairness' of an investigation that has already consumed the first year of his presidency, yet is only now starting to heat up." ...

... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "... despite how rare an action it is to pierce attorney-client privilege this way, the big-picture story here seems inevitable: Once a serious prosecutor with resources and authority began taking a good long look at Trump and his associates, a bunch of people were going to be in big trouble, with some winding up behind bars.... The Cohen raid isn't a 'fishing expedition,' and didn't happen because Mueller suspected he might find something interesting, despite how Trump himself and his defenders would like to characterize it as a case of a special prosecutor out of control... Trump ... may well be the single most corrupt major business figure in the United States of America.... So it was no accident that when he ran for president, the people who joined him in his quest were also a collection of grifters, liars, and crooks.... Things were bad for Trump before. But they just got a whole lot worse." ...

Kellyanne Conway's Husband Implies Trump Is a Buffoon. Jane Coaston of Vox: "George Conway, husband of counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, spent Tuesday morning subtweeting President Trump.... Conway is a star conservative lawyer who represented Paula Jones in her lawsuit against then-President Bill Clinton, and who was under consideration for both the post of solicitor general in January 2017 and the role of head of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice in June 2017.... Conway has been passive-aggressively offering up his opinion on the president's legal problems on the president's favorite platform.... [For instance,] In response to Trump's exasperated tweet Tuesday morning that read, 'attorney-client privilege is dead!'..., Conway tweeted just a link to the Justice Department's guidance on when searches can be conducted on attorneys." Mrs. McC: Curious. Does this mean Kellyanne has had enough? Or what?

Speaking of Shady Characters. Erin Banco of NJ.com: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is examining a series of previously unreported meetings that took place in 2017 in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, as part of its broader investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, according to two sources briefed on the investigation. The sources said several of those meetings took place around the same time as another meeting in the Seychelles between Erik Prince, founder of the security company Blackwater, Kirill Dmitriev, the director of one of Russia's sovereign wealth funds, and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the effective ruler of the United Arab Emirates (also known as 'MBZ').... The inquiry into the meetings in the Seychelles suggests there is growing interest on the Mueller team in whether foreign financing, specifically from Gulf states, has influenced President Trump and his administration." Banco likens the goings-on in the Seychelles to a "Hollywood thriller." ...

Sean Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Senate Republican leaders sharply warned President Trump not to fire Robert S. Mueller III on Tuesday -- but they once again stopped short of embracing legislation to protect the special counsel. Their reluctance to take more-forceful action came as Democratic leaders voiced new urgency about shielding Mueller a day after Trump said he had been encouraged by some to dismiss the special counsel. At least one rank-and-file Republican endorsed moving forward soon with a bill to protect him.... 'I haven't seen clear indication yet that we needed to pass something to keep him from being removed, because I don't think that's going to happen,' said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). McConnell did not elaborate on why he believed that.... Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) ... said on Fox Business Network it would be 'suicide for the president to want, to talk about firing Mueller.'"


Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump and his advisers on Tuesday weighed a more robust retaliatory strike against Syria than last year's missile attack, reasoning that only an escalation of force would look credible and possibly serve as a deterrent against further use of chemical weapons on Syrian civilians." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "Normally I would be reluctant to suggest that the president of the United States -- even this president of the United States -- would launch a military strike because he's infuriated with things that have nothing to do with Syria. But reading through the news accounts today of Trump's state of mind after he canceled a trip to South America, you have to wonder."

Tracy Jan of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order directing federal agencies to strengthen existing work requirements and introduce new ones for low-income Americans receiving Medicaid, food stamps, public housing benefits and welfare as part of a broad overhaul of government assistance programs. The order directs federal agencies to review all policies related to current work requirements as well as exemptions and waivers and report back to the White House with recommendations within 90 days.... Poverty advocates criticized the moves. 'For those who are able to work, they should work. But there shouldn't be barriers for those who are in need when they can't work,' said Derrick Johnson, president and chief executive of the NAACP."

"Of the 23 people we know took an oath [Jan. 22, 2017], 14 have resigned, been fired or announced their resignations." -- Philip BumpHalf of "the Best People" Are Out the Door. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "The Brookings Institution tracks what it calls the president's 'A Team,' a group of administration positions..., which excludes Cabinet positions.... Their estimate is that turnover in those 65 positions is at 49 percent since Trump took office. Of those 32 changes, 20 were resignations -- six of them voluntary. The other 12 were promoted. Trump had more 'A Team' turnover in his first year than Barack Obama or both Bushes had through two.


Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: "The Environmental Protection Agency has been examining posts on Twitter and other social media about Scott Pruitt, the agency's administrator, to justify his extraordinary and costly security measures.... The social media efforts have come under scrutiny by some Democratic lawmakers, as well as senior officials at the E.P.A., who said the review had uncovered individuals sounding off against Mr. Pruitt but had found no actionable threats against him. One top E.P.A. official said in an interview that he had objected to the efforts when they were first discussed last year, to no avail.... Two Democratic senators [-- Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) & Tom Carper (Delaware) --] said on Tuesday that an agency whistle-blower had provided them with an internal E.P.A. memo concluding that a threat assessment prepared by Mr. Pruitt's security detail did not appear to justify the increased protection.... An individual involved in writing the memo, Mario Caraballo, has been removed from his job as deputy associate administrator of the homeland security office, although an E.P.A. official said the dismissal was unrelated to the memo." ...

... Juliet Eilperin & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "Two Democratic senators demanded a congressional inquiry Tuesday into the justification underpinning the round-the-clock security detail for Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, citing new documents suggesting that level of security is not justified. Writing to Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), fellow panel members Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) reference several internal EPA documents -- which they kept confidential ... -- that allude to the kind of threats that have not traditionally triggered 24/7 protection. Those include messages threatening to leave scrapings of old paint at the administrator's office and one telling Pruitt 'we are watching you' on the agency's climate-related policies.... The agency pushed back strongly on Tuesday. 'Scott Pruitt has faced a unprecedented amount of death threats against him,' spokesman Jahan Wilcox said in a statement...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Rats ... Sinking Ship. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "The Trump administration announced another major departure from its senior ranks on Tuesday, with the resignation of Thomas P. Bossert as President Trump's chief adviser on homeland security. Mr. Bossert's resignation coincided with the arrival of John R. Bolton as the president's national security adviser, and was an unmistakable sign that Mr. Bolton is intent on naming his own people." ...

     ... Update: Jeremy Diamond, et al., of CNN: "White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert was pushed out of his position by the newly installed national security adviser John Bolton, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN on Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brad Reed of RawStory: "An ally of President Donald Trump has made a shocking claim that the president was initially reluctant to pick John Bolton as his national security adviser -- but then he decided to go through with it anyway as a means to quiet down the Stormy Daniels story.... Talking with Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman, an unnamed 'friend' of Trump said that the president felt the need to oust former national security adviser H.R. McMaster because he was tired of seeing wall-to-wall coverage of Stormy Daniels.... Trump announced his pick of Bolton as his new national security adviser on March 22 -- three days before the Daniels interview aired on CBS' '60 Minutes.'"

** Emily Wax-Thibodeaux of the Washington Post: "The Department of Veterans Affairs ... has tens of thousands of full- and part-time vacancies nationwide, according to data compiled by veterans advocates, lawmakers and federal unions. Most urgently, the agency's health-care network needs thousands of primary care physicians, mental-health providers, physical therapists, social workers -- even janitorial staff, Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.), ranking Democrat of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, told The Washington Post in an interview. Of equal concern, he said, VA lacks enough human resources personnel to vet candidates and make the hires.... President Trump, and the conservative groups advising him, has seized on the long waits many veterans face at government facilities as grounds for aggressively expanding a program that enables patients to seek services from private providers at taxpayer expense. The proposal is deeply divisive, however, with opponents, including Democrats and Republicans in Congress, saying the effort could further weaken VA. Trump fired Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin late last month after legislation directing a modest expansion of the program failed to make it into the budget approved by Congress."

David Corn of Mother Jones: "Last week, the Trump administration slapped sanctions on a small group of Russian oligarchs.... One of the oligarchs on the list was Viktor Vekselberg, who was identified as the founder and chairman of the Renova Group, which manages investment funds in several sectors of the Russian economy.... Vekselberg ... was recently a business associate of Wilbur Ross, President Trump's commerce secretary. Ross and Vekselberg were each a major investor in a Cyprus bank that had been linked to dirty Russian money -- a connection that Ross tried to downplay when he faced confirmation before the US Senate last year.... In announcing its recent sanctions on Russia, the Treasury Department suggested that Vekselberg runs a corrupt outfit.... [T]his remains one of the Trump-Russia connections that still warrants greater explanation." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

Margaret Hartmann: "As one of Washington's most conservative Democrats and someone running for reelection in a state Donald Trump won by 36 points, North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp frequently appears on lists of lawmakers who might switch parties. On Tuesday she revealed that Trump actually urged her to become a Republican at least once, but she declined. 'When I visited with him in Trump Tower before he was sworn in, he asked me to switch parties,' Heitkamp told the Washington Post. At the time the Trump team was said to be considering Heitkamp and fellow Democratic Senator Joe Manchin for Cabinet positions, which in addition to demonstrating bipartisanship, would have cleared the way for Republicans to take their seats."

The Tax Swindle. Dave Gilson of Mother Jones: "When he was selling the new tax law last fall, President Donald Trump insisted it 'is going to cost me a fortune.' In fact, any way you count it, he and his cronies will undoubtedly save a bundle.... The tax cuts will add at least $1 trillion to the federal deficit by 2027. Just before Trump signed them into law, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) started talking up the urgent need for 'entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit.'... Treasury Secretary Mnuchin declared that the tax cuts would pay for themselves by spurring the economy. (His source? A one-page handout.) Trump ... predicted ... GDP growth rate -- by as much as 'even 6 percent.'... Goldman Sachs predicts GDP growth will increase by 0.3 points." --safari: With lots of stats and charts that the entire GOP blatantly lies to us about.

Organized "Religion". Katie Glueck of McClatchy D.C.: "Conservative leaders are increasingly worried that evangelical voters' devotion to Donald Trump isn't translating into excitement for other Republican candidates.... Top Christian conservative activists say that Republican-controlled Congress still hasn't made good on a number of major policy priorities -- and they are now warning of an enthusiasm gap with evangelicals.... For all of the current focus on the president's tawdry past ... evangelical leaders insist that their base is as supportive of Trump as ever.... Activists were particularly incensed by the failure to repeal Obamacare." --safari

"What's the Matter with Americans? Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "[T]he better a state does at extending the lives of its residents, the more Democratic it is. The worse a state does, the more Republican it is.... Red state residents continue to vote for low taxes, low services, and Republican government, even though this wreaks havoc with their health. Then they get all bitter and angry because their health is bad and nobody pays attention to their woes, so they vote for Republicans some more. That's quite the amazing feedback loop." With charts --safari

David Smith of the Guardian: "Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook chief executive, warned on Tuesday of an online propaganda 'arms race' with Russia and vowed that fighting interference in elections around the world is now his top priority. The 33-year-old billionaire, during testimony that lasted nearly five hours, was speaking to Congress in what was widely seen as a moment of reckoning for America's tech industry. It came in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal in which, Facebook has admitted, the personal information of up to 87 million users were harvested without their permission. Zuckerberg's comments gave an insight into the unnerving reach and influence of Facebook in numerous democratic societies." ...

... ** Will Oremus of Slate: "Senators grilled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for five hours on Tuesday, but the big takeaway was hard to pin down. That's because Zuckerberg was, too. Summoned to testify about Facebook's role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, he shrewdly gamed a flawed format to wriggle out of tough questions, while taking advantage of bad ones to expose the lawmakers' shaky understanding of his company's products. In the process, he implicitly made the case that Facebook's users might be no better off with Congress making decisions about their online privacy than they are with Zuckerberg controlling the knobs.... Facebook's stock leapt 4.5 percent on the day, if that tells you just how worried its investors are now."

... Dana Milbank: "Zuckerberg came prepared with one message to those who would regulate Facebook: Trust me. 'I'm committed to getting this right,' he promised. Problem is, whenever the questioning got tough, Zuckerberg made clear that he could not be trusted to give an answer.... [Typical response: 'I want to have my team follow up with you on that.'] His professed ignorance, therefore, was most likely a calculation that he could avoid committing to much -- and it wouldn't come back to bite him. He was probably right. Senators seemed as if they were less interested in regulating him than in gawking at him." ...

... New York Times: "Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, will make his much-anticipated appearance before members of Congress starting Tuesday afternoon. In two days of hearings, he will face tough questions on how and why the company failed to protect the delicate data of many millions of its users.... The joint Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees will hold their hearing shortly after the start of 2:15 p.m. floor vote on Tuesday. Mr. Zuckerberg will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee at 10 a.m. Wednesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. ...

Adios, Mofo. AP in the Guardian: "A conservative commentator who sent a tweet saying he would use 'a hot poker' to sexually assault an outspoken 17-year-old survivor of the Florida high school shooting has resigned from a St Louis TV station and been taken off the radio after several advertisers withdrew from his shows...KDNL-TV accepted Jamie Allman's resignation and canceled The Allman Report, according to a brief statement from the Sinclair Broadcast Group." --safari

Beyond the Beltway

Mike Elk in the Guardian: "At a time when migrants are being demonized, some teachers on the road to Oklahoma City said they were marching to get more support for Spanish speakers and to better fund bilingual education.... Strike leaders ... say the role of Latinos and their migrant allies has been largely obscured.... While the media has also compared the teachers' strikes to recent student walkouts over gun violence ... it has largely ignored the inspiration some teachers have drawn from Latino students who walked out in protest when Donald Trump repealed protections for undocumented young people." --safari

Tony Pugh of McClatchy D.C.: "An estimated 20,000 poor parents in Mississippi would lose health coverage over five years under a state proposal to require Medicaid recipients to work for their benefits, researchers at Georgetown University reported Tuesday.... Mississippi has asked the Trump administration for permission to require at least 20 hours per week of work or approved work activities in order to retain coverage under Medicaid.... Mississippi's income cutoff to qualify for Medicaid coverage is one of the nation's lowest at 27 percent of the federal poverty level - about $5,610 annually for a family of three, the report said." --safari

News Lede

New York Times: "Atleast 257 people died when an Algerian military transport plane filled with soldiers and civilians crashed near the capital on Wednesday, Algeria's Defense Ministry said, in the deadliest of numerous air accidents involving aircraft from the country in recent years. The Russian-built Ilyushin Il-76 transporter slammed into a field shortly after takeoff from a military base in Boufarik, about 15 miles southwest of Algiers. The victims included 26 members of Western Sahara's Polisario independence movement, an official in Algerias governing F.L.N. party said."

Comments Off
Monday
Apr092018

The Commentariat -- April 10, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "Rod J. Rosenstein, the veteran Republican prosecutor handpicked by President Trump to serve as deputy attorney general, personally signed off on Monday's F.B.I. decision to raid the office of Michael D. Cohen Mr. Trump's personal attorney and longtime confidant, three government officials said. The early-morning searches enraged Mr. Trump, associates said, setting off an angry public tirade Monday evening that continued in private at the White House as the president fumed about whether he should fire Mr. Rosenstein. The episode has deeply unsettled White House aides, Justice Department officials and lawmakers from both parties, who believe the president may use it as a pretext to purge the team leading the investigation into Russia meddling in the 2016 election.... Mr. Rosenstein's personal involvement in the decision signals that the evidence seen by law enforcement officials was significant enough to persuade the Justice Department's second-in-command that such an aggressive move was necessary.... Mr. Trump considered firing Mr. Rosenstein last summer. Instead, he ordered Mr. Mueller to be fired, then backed down after the White House counsel refused to carry out the order, The New York Times reported in January." ...

     ... New Lede: "The F.B.I. agents who raided the office of President Trump's personal lawyer on Monday were looking for records about payments to two women [Playboy model Karen McDougal & adult-film actress Stormy Daniels] who claim they had affairs with Mr. Trump, and information related to the publisher of The National Enquirer's role in silencing one of the women, several people briefed on the investigation said." ...

... Ken White, in the New York Times, provides an excellent summary of why the FBI's raid of Cohen's records is "highly dangerous, and not just for Mr. Cohen. It's perilous for the president, whose personal lawyer now may face a choice between going down fighting alone or saving his own skin by giving the wolves what they want."

Rats ... Sinking Ship. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "The Trump administration announced another major departure from its senior ranks on Tuesday, with the resignation of Thomas P. Bossert as President Trump's chief adviser on homeland security. Mr. Bossert's resignation coincided with the arrival of John R. Bolton as the president's national security adviser, and was an unmistakable sign that Mr. Bolton is intent on naming his own people." ...

     ... Update: Jeremy Diamond, et al., of CNN: "White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert was pushed out of his position by the newly installed national security adviser John Bolton, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN on Tuesday."

Juliet Eilperin & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "Two Democratic senators demanded a congressional inquiry Tuesday into the justification underpinning the round-the-clock security detail for Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, citing new documents suggesting that level of security is not justified. Writing to Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), fellow panel members Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) reference several internal EPA documents -- which they kept confidential ... -- that allude to the kind of threats that have not traditionally triggered 24/7 protection. Those include messages threatening to leave scrapings of old paint at the administrator's office and one telling Pruitt 'we are watching you' on the agency's climate-related policies.... The agency pushed back strongly on Tuesday. 'Scott Pruitt has faced an unprecedented amount of death threats against him,' spokesman Jahan Wilcox said in a statement...." ...

New York Times: "Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, will make his much-anticipated appearance before members of Congress starting Tuesday afternoon. In two days of hearings, he will face tough questions on how and why the company failed to protect the delicate data of many millions of its users.... The joint Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees will hold their hearing shortly after the start of 2:15 p.m. floor vote on Tuesday. Mr. Zuckerberg will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee at 10 a.m. Wednesday."

*****

Trump has cancelled his scheduled trip to Latin America to vent about "unfair, disgraceful" FBI raid oversee the U.S.'s response to Syria. I'll put up a print link to the story when one comes up. -- Mrs. McC

President Trump will not attend the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru or travel to Bogota, Colombia as originally scheduled. At the President's request, the Vice President will travel in his stead. The President will remain in the United States to oversee the American response to Syria and to monitor developments around the world. -- Sarah Sanders

     ... Update: Here's the WashPo story, by John Wagner & Anne Gearan.

BTW, Trump is tweeting this morning. At of 7:15 am ET, here is the totality of his tweets: (1) "Attorney-client privilege is dead!" (2) "A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!" MEANWHILE, FBI agents are sitting around a big ole table, going through stacks of TrumpCohen detritus & practicing their Ving Rhames imitations: "We have the meats."

** Uh-Oh. Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. on Monday raided the office of President Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, seizing records related to several topics including payments to a pornographic-film actress. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, according to Mr. Cohen's lawyer, who called the search 'completely inappropriate and unnecessary.' The search does not appear to be directly related to Mr. Mueller's investigation, but likely resulted from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.... The payments [Cohen says he made] to [Stephanie] Clifford are only one of many topics being investigated, according to a person briefed on the search. The F.B.I. also seized emails, tax documents and business records, the person said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... New Lede: "The F.B.I. raided the office and hotel room of President Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, on Monday, seizing business records, emails and documents related to several topics, including payments to a pornographic film actress. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating Mr. Cohen for possible bank fraud, and the documents identified in the warrant date back years, according to a person briefed on the search." ...

... Kate Riga of TPM writes, "The Wall Street Journal reported that the agents also searched Cohen's home and Manhattan hotel room." ...

... Carol Leonnig & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "Michael Cohen, the longtime attorney of President Trump, is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations, according to a person with knowledge of the case.... Among the documents seized were privileged communications between Cohen and his clients -- including those with Trump, according to a person familiar with the investigators' work. Investigators took Cohen's computer, phone and personal financial records as part of the search of his office at Rockefeller Center, the person said.... Under Department of Justice regulations governing the special counsel's work, Mueller is required to consult with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein if his team finds information worth investigating that does not fall under his mandate." (This is an update of a story linked late yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Trump speaks about Syria halfway through the video above, then answers questions about the Mueller investigation beginning at 6:40 min. in. ...

     ... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post has an annotated transcript of Trump's remarks. ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Trump repeatedly calls the raids "a disgrace," but the disgraceful part of Trump's tirade is the tirade itself. He accuses top U.S. officials, many of whom are his own appointees (or his attorney generals') of "breaking in" to his personal attorney's office in "an attack on our country"; he accuses them of "conflicts of interest" & political bias -- even the known Republicans aren't "real" Republicans: they're Obama appointees; he criticizes his own attorney general; he contemplates firing the special investigator, he accuses a former Secretary of State & wife of a former president of multiple crimes. If this were any other president, the accusations against Clinton would be front-page news; instead, news reports don't even mention them. ...

... David Graham of The Atlantic: "Hours after the FBI raided the office, home, and hotel room of his sometime-personal attorney Michael Cohen, President Trump delivered an angry response at the White House on Monday.... Taken together, however, it becomes apparent that Trump is not really angry at individuals so much as he is at the rule of law itself.... Monday's comments, including his stunning equation of a legal warrant with a burglary, are the clearest demonstration that Trump is engaged not just in a political attack, but in a campaign against the rule of law, and the U.S. approach to justice, itself. 'It's an attack on our country, in a true sense,' Trump said Monday. 'It's an attack on what we all stand for.' He's right about that -- he's just wrong about who's doing the attacking." --safari ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Probably worth noting: the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who signed off on the raid of Cohen's records is Geoffrey Berman; Jeff Sessions appointed Berman 10 months after Trump fired Preet Bharara, the previous U.S. attorney for the district. Berman contributed to Trump's 2016 campaign. ...

... Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "... the FBI's seizure on Monday of privileged communications between Trump and his private lawyer, Michael D. Cohen -- as well as documents related to a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels ... -- was a particularly extraordinary move that opens a whole new front in the converging legal battles ensnaring the administration. Cohen is Trump's virtual vault -- the keeper of his secrets, from his business deals to his personal affairs -- and the executor of his wishes. 'This search warrant is like dropping a bomb on Trump's front porch,' said Joyce White Vance, a former U.S. attorney in Alabama.... The president spent much of Monday afternoon glued to the television. Aides said Trump watched cable news coverage of surprise raids on Cohen's Manhattan office, home and hotel room by FBI agents, who took the lawyer's computer, phone and personal financial records after a referral from Mueller.... [Trump] complained about [Rod] Rosenstein again Monday in private, a White House adviser said, and stewed all afternoon about the warrant to seize Cohen's records, at times raising his voice." ...

Mike Allen of Axios: "Sources close to the president say that a political dispute with special counsel Robert Mueller has turned visceral and personal after the feds' raid on the New York offices of Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer and fixer...[One] source continued: 'This is the first crisis post-Hope Hicks.... This was different: I've never seen him like this before.... This is the president you're going to see more of from here on out: unvarnished, untethered.'... [Another source notes] 'This was the "red line" of intrusion into personal financial matters.'...Close aides are recommending against firing Mueller. But that means little these days." --safari ...

... digby surmises that the Stormy Daniels case is probably incidental to the raids. She points to a McClatchy story we linked here last week: "Armed with subpoenas compelling electronic records and sworn testimony, Mueller's team showed up unannounced at the home of [a] business associate [of the Trump Organization], who was a party to multiple transactions connected to Trump's effort to expand his brand abroad, according to persons familiar with the proceedings." ...

... Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "... it was the approval of the search warrants themselves that should terrify Trump. The best explanation, remarkably, came from Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News legal analyst. Napolitano explained that, under normal circumstances, communications between Trump and his attorney are privileged. But this privilege does not apply if there is 'a serious allegation of illegal activity, by the lawyer with the client,' he said. 'There must be some evidence presented to a federal judge here in New York City sufficient to persuade that judge to sign a search warrant to permit the FBI in broad daylight to raid an attorney's office, particularly when that attorney has one client and it happens to be the president of the United States,' Napolitano told Fox News' Neil Cavuto. 'That evidence would have to be such as to persuade a neutral observer, the federal judge, that it is more likely than not, that among these seized documents is evidence of crimes by Mr. Cohen or Mr. Cohen and the president.'..." ...

... Matt Ford of the New Republic: "Executing a search warrant against any attorney's office, let alone personal lawyer for the president of the United States, is no small matter. Attorney and legal blogger Ken White noted that the federal guidelines require prosecutors to seek approval from the Justice Department's upper echelons before applying for a warrant targeting a lawyer's office. That DOJ officials approved the raid suggests that the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan had an extremely good reason to search Cohen's workplace." ...

... Betsy Woodruff & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are treating Michael Cohen like he's a lawyer for the mob. That's how seasoned white collar defense attorneys describe the raid on Cohen's office, home, and hotel room conducted on April 9." ...

... Andrew Prokop of Vox: "... we don't yet know exactly why Cohen is under such legal scrutiny.... Still, the fact that this is being handled by a US attorney's office rather than Mueller does seem noteworthy. It suggests that if Trump would want to shut down this investigation, he can't do so by firing Mueller -- and that his efforts to co-opt the Justice Department have been unsuccessful for the time being." ...

... Adam Serwer of The Atlantic: "Whatever evidence federal prosecutors have collected concerning Michael Cohen, President Trump's longtime attorney, it is most likely extraordinarily strong.... The warrant sought not only would have had to have been approved by officials at the Department of Justice, but a federal judge would have had to sign off on it, knowing that he would be sanctioning a raid against the personal attorney of a sitting president. They all signed off anyway." --safari ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie Note: It's unclear who's "in charge" here. Numerous news reports indicate it's New York's U.S. attorney, & that the raids relate to subjects of interest to that office. But Preet Bharara, the previous N.Y. U.S. attorney, said on MSNBC that any action that takes places in the New York district would require sign-off by the local U.S. attorney. So the raids on Cohen's records could be entirely related to Mueller's investigation & only tangentially to matters of interest to the N.Y. U.S. attorney. ...

... The GOP's own Rick Wilson, writing in the Daily Beast, is amused (and amusing): "Monday's FBI raids on Michael Cohen's Trump Tower office, his hotel room, and his home all provided a proper dose of comeuppance to a man more accustomed to screaming threats, shit-tier legal theorizing, and putting his strip-mall law degree to work in service of Donald Trump.... Master of the NDA, Cohen thought attorney-client privilege would protect him.... Trump must know this may be one of the most dangerous moments in his entire life, not just his presidency.... For Trump to have the public learn that he may not be as wealthy as he has continued to claim as the central element of his branding would hurt him more than if Mueller then proved he took sacks of cash and a foot massage from Vladimir Putin. Collusion with the Russians is nothing compared to having his baroque finances revealed. Trump would rather be known as a traitor than as someone who isn't one of the Masters of the Universe." Thanks to unwashed for the link.

Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Investigators subpoenaed the Trump Organization this year for an array of records about business with foreign nationals. In response, the company handed over documents about a $150,000 donation that the Ukrainian billionaire, Victor Pinchuk, made in September 2015 to the Donald J. Trump Foundation in exchange for a 20-minute appearance by Mr. Trump that month through a video link to a conference in Kiev. Michael D. Cohen, the president's personal lawyer whose office and hotel room were raided on Monday in an apparently unrelated case, solicited the donation. The contribution from Mr. Pinchuk, who has sought closer ties for Ukraine to the West, was the largest the foundation received in 2015 from anyone besides Mr. Trump himself. The subpoena is among signs in recent months that the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, is interested in interactions that Mr. Trump or his associates had with countries beyond Russia, though it is not clear what other payments he is scrutinizing."

Mrs. McCrabbie: For what it's worth, I think the most important story linked in yesterday's thread vis-a-vis Trump corruption was a TPM report about Trump Organization lawyers appealing to the President of Panama to intervene in a Trump-branded hotel dispute there. Safari, who linked the story, referred to both the U.S. & Panama as "banana republics," which I think is unfair to Panama. I see this as the POTUS*'s using his office to influence a foreign government -- with implied threats -- for the single aim of personal financial gain for Trump. If this doesn't invoke the Emoluments Clause, I don't know what does. ...

     ... Update. Fortunately, the AP has picked up the story. Juan Zamorano & Stephen Braun: "... Donald Trump's company appealed directly to Panama's president to intervene in its fight over control of a luxury hotel, even invoking a treaty between the two countries, in what ethics experts say was a blatant mingling of Trump's business and government interests.... Even if Trump was not directly involved in the dispute, his company's citation of the treaty and its appeal to [President Juan Carlos] Varela 'implicitly traded on President Trump's name and power,' said University of Minnesota political governance expert Lawrence Jacobs. Despite frequent ethics complaints from critics and three current lawsuits accusing him of accepting gifts from foreign and state governments, Trump has clung to constitutional precedence holding that presidents are mostly immune from conflict-of-interest laws. While most previous presidents have divested some financial assets and placed others in 'blind trusts' they could not control during their tenures, Trump kept total control of the Trump Organization but ceded day-to-day management to two of his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric." ...

     ... Zeeshan Aleen of Vox: "... the letter appears to be more than just a request -- it also seems to be a thinly veiled threat. The lawyers wrote that the Panamanian court's ruling violates a bilateral investment treaty between the US and Panama and hinted that Varela's response could affect US-Panamanian relations more broadly. 'We appreciate your influence in order to avoid that these damages are attributed not to the other party, but to the Panamanian government,' the letter said..., which suggests that Varela's government would take the hit if he didn't get involved in resolving the dispute." ...

     ... digby: "The Panamanians didn't capitulate which only proves that they have more integrity than the president of the United States."

None of the following bodes well for Syria:

... Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The US and Russia moved closer to direct confrontation over Syria on Monday night as Donald Trump said a decision was imminent on a response to a chemical weapon attack on Saturday, and Moscow warned that any US military action would have 'grave repercussions'. Trump met US generals in the White House cabinet room on Monday evening to discuss US defence issues. In particular, Trump said they were likely to decide how to react to the poison gas attack in Douma, a rebel-held suburb of Damascus, reported to have killed more than 40 people and seriously affected hundreds." ...

... Peter Baker of the New York Times: At the start of a Cabinet meeting, "President Trump on Monday denounced the suspected chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of people in Syria over the weekend as 'atrocious,' and said he will make a decision in the next 24 to 48 hours about whether to retaliate militarily as he di to a similar assault last year." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

NEW. David Corn of Mother Jones: "Last week, the Trump administration slapped sanctions on a small group of Russian oligarchs.... One of the oligarchs on the list was Viktor Vekselberg, who was identified as the founder and chairman of the Renova Group, which manages investment funds in several sectors of the Russian economy.... Vekselberg ... was recently a business associate of Wilbur Ross, President Trump's commerce secretary. Ross and Vekselberg were each a major investor in a Cyprus bank that had been linked to dirty Russian money -- a connection that Ross tried to downplay when he faced confirmation before the US Senate last year.... In announcing its recent sanctions on Russia, the Treasury Department suggested that Vekselberg runs a corrupt outfit.... [T]his remains one of the Trump-Russia connections that still warrants greater explanation." --safari

Greg Sargent: "Trade is one area in which Trump's crude understanding of the issue (it is all about a zero-sum struggle for dominance in which there are only winners and losers), is particularly destructive, given how nuanced and complicated it is.... Other countries have called for a multilateral response to [China's unfair trade practices], something that is at odds with Trump's worldview, which holds that international cooperation is a sucker's game. On 'Fox News Sunday,' Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow claimed the administration is assembling such an international coalition. But under intense questioning from Fox's Chris Wallace, it quickly became apparent that this is far from a reality." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Zeke Miller & Jill Colvin of the AP: Donald Trump "has never been one to stick to a script, but that ... speech [he tossed in the air at least week's event in West Virginia] illustrates a new phase in Trump's presidency. He is increasingly at odds with his staff -- and growing wise to their tactics. One favored staff strategy: Guide the president to the right decision by making the conventional choice seem like the only realistic option. Except now, 14 months into his administration, Trump is on to them, and he's making clear he won't be boxed in.... The shift has as much to do with changes in personnel as changes in the president's attitude. Former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, for one, was viewed as a person Trump could trust to be an honest broker and make sure that all options were being faithfully presented to him.... Some aides, convinced that Trump puts more stock in what he sees on TV than in his own aides' advice, regularly phone prominent commentators and news hosts to provide talking points on everything from tax policy to Syria in hopes of influencing Trump. Similar strategies have also been embraced by foreign governments and outside groups trying to sway the president's thinking." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Oh, if only Trump still had an "honest broker" like Rob Porter around.

Robert Burgess of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump likes to equate the rally in stocks since the November 2016 elections with confidence in him and his policies. And yes, the S&P 500 Index has surged 22 percent since then -- but a deeper look at equities, bonds and the dollar reveals anything but trust in his stewardship. Here's the executive summary: U.S. companies are valued less now than before Trump was elected, despite the run-up in stocks, big corporate tax cuts, reductions in regulations, and booming earnings. The cost to borrow for the U.S. has soared relative to other governments, a sign investors are worried about America's creditworthiness. The dollar's share of global currency reserves has dropped by the most since 2002. Investors are losing faith because Trump is turning into the type of president many always feared: unpredictable, volatile and tempestuous." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... A Very Short History of Macroeconomic Theory. Jonathan Chait: "The neoclassical economists of the late 19th and early 20th century believed the government should always balance its budget. Eventually, they mostly gave way to the theories of John Maynard Keynes, who argued that the government should deliberately run deficits during recessions. The modern Republican Party has pioneered a completely novel theory: Governments should balance their budgets when run by Democrats, and run extremely large deficits when run by Republicans. The new projections by the Congressional Budget Office, the first federal budget analysis to be released since the Trump tax cuts were passed into law, shows how fully the Republican government has operationalized its theory.... What's more, as CBO explains, its figures very likely underestimate the size of the deficit. CBO is required to calculate the effects of the laws as written. That scenario is fanciful.... [Chait explains why.] CBO also assumes the middle class will face significant tax increases toward the end of the decade."

Ksenia Galouchko of Bloomberg: "Russian stocks had their biggest drop in four years and the ruble slumped the most in the world after the U.S. slapped new sanctions on Kremlin-connected billionaires and tensions with the U.S. spiraled following the latest chemical attack in Syria. The benchmark MOEX Russia Index sank 8.7 percent on Monday, the steepest slide since March 2014, when Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula triggered international penalties. The ruble and local bonds had their biggest drop since 2016 and the cost of insuring sovereign notes against default was set for the sharpest increase since December 2014." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Erik Wasson & Sarah McGregor of Bloomberg: "The U.S. budget deficit will surpass $1 trillion by 2020, two years sooner than previously estimated, as tax cuts and spending increases signed by ... Donald Trump do little to boost long-term economic growth, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Spending will exceed revenue by $804 billion in the fiscal year through September, jumping from a projected $563 billion shortfall forecast in June, the non-partisan arm of Congress said in a report Monday. In fiscal 2019, the deficit will reach $981 billion, compared with an earlier projection of $689 billion. The nation's budget gap was only set to surpass the trillion-dollar level in fiscal 2022 under CBO's report last June."

Daniel Arkin of NBC News: "The recent wave of harsh attacks on the Justice Department and its law enforcement arm, the FBI, have been 'painful,' former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in an exclusive interview set to air Monday. Lynch, speaking with NBC News' Lester Holt, defended the tens of thousands of people who work for the Justice Department, saying it is "troubling when people question the motivations of dedicated, committed professionals.... Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the Justice Department and the FBI, disparaging Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Twitter and blasting the law enforcement agency over its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election."

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "The federal government's top ethics official has taken the unusual step of sending a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency questioning a series of actions by Administrator Scott Pruitt and asking the agency to take 'appropriate actions to address any violations.' The letter, sent to Kevin Minoli, the E.P.A. official designated as the agency's top ethics official, addresses questions about Mr. Pruitt's rental for $50 a night of a condominium linked to an energy lobbyist, as well as his government-funded flights to his home state of Oklahoma. The letter also cites reporting last week in The New York Times that agency staff members who raised concerns about these and other actions found themselves transferred or demoted.... The Office of Government Ethics does not have the power to punish Mr. Pruitt or to demand that he respond to the letter. But as the chief ethics officer for the executive branch of the federal government, [David] Apol's point of view has clout and he can ask that President Trump take action to punish a federal official who has violated federal rules." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Elaina Plott of the Atlantic: "An email that suggests Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt personally signed off on a controversial pay raise for a favored aide last month is roiling the agency. In the last few days, top staffers became aware of an email exchange between one of two aides who received such a raise and the agency's human resources division. In mid-March, Sarah Greenwalt, senior counsel to the administrator, wrote to HR in an attempt to confirm that her pay raise of $56,765 was being processed. Greenwalt 'definitively stated that Pruitt approves and was supportive of her getting a raise,' according to an administration official who has seen the email chain. A second administration official confirmed the exchange. The email 'essentially says, "The administrator said that I should get this raise,"' the official told me.... The agency's IG is probing whether Pruitt abused that hiring authority. On Wednesday, Pruitt was pressed by Fox News's Ed Henry to respond to The Atlantic's report, but denied any knowledge of the episode. 'You didn't know they got these pay raises?" Henry asked. 'I didn't know they got the pay raises until yesterday,' Pruitt responded.... 'Administrator Pruitt had zero knowledge of the amount of the raises, nor the process by which they transpired,' Pruitt's chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, said in a statement." ...

... Jack Holmes of Esquire: "EPA spokespeople have repeatedly claimed that Pruitt receives a huge number of death threats. This has been shared widely by media outlets friendly to the administration.... It was also trumpeted in a presidential tweet this weekend that sought to defend Pruitt amid an avalanche of scandal.... Except when BuzzFeed reporter Jason Leopold submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to EPA asking for records of the threats, the agency could not produce a single one.... And not a single person has been charged nationwide for making death threats to a cabinet secretary? Or is the more likely explanation, as things stand, that officials simply started saying there were a ton of threats to try to escape the spending scandals?" Thanks to Keith H. for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McC: The original excuse the EPA produced to justify Pruitt's bump to first class was that he was "'approached in the airport numerous times' and had profanities 'yelled at him'..." Guess that lame excuse wouldn't fly, so to speak, so "You're fucking up the environment!" became "death threats." If you're shocked, shocked that Pruitt & his team would lie about pay raises & death threats, my response is ... Donald Trump. In this administration, lies & subterfuge are the go-to answers for bad behavior. ...

... Burgess Everett & Anthony Adragna of Politico: "There's one big reason Senate Republicans are standing staunchly with Scott Pruitt: Confirming a replacement might be impossible. Even as the embattled EPA administrator faced another day of difficult headlines on Monday, there is no push from the Senate GOP to shove Pruitt out. Instead, Republicans are gently rapping him for his ethical transgressions and praising his deregulatory regime." ...

... Dana Milbank obtains security audio of "Honest Guy" (previous code name "Low Rent") Scott Pruitt's trip to Disneyland.

Help Me, Hillary! Nahal Toosi of Politico: "As a sharply partisan Republican member of Congress, CIA Director Mike Pompeo tormented former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her response to the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, which Pompeo called 'morally reprehensible.' He also once liked a tweet that branded her successor, John Kerry, a 'traitor.' But now that Pompeo faces a tough confirmation process to become secretary of state himself, he has reached out to Clinton and Kerry, as well as every other living occupant of the office, to ask for guidance. Clinton, for one, has been willing to help.... It's part of Pompeo's mixture of crash course and charm offensive as he prepares for a Thursday confirmation hearing before a closely divided Senate Foreign Relations Committee."

Sara Salinas of CNBC: "Congress has released Mark Zuckerberg's prepared testimony ahead of a Wednesday hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee." Salinas reproduces the prepared remarks. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Blah Blah. Craig Timberg & Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed contrition for allowing third-party apps to grab the data of its users without their permission and for being 'too slow to spot and respond to Russian interference' during the U.S. election, according to his prepared remarks published by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Zuckerberg plans to open his remarks with a familiar recitation of the social media platform's ability to link far-flung people together but then pivot into an acknowledgement of Facebook's increasingly visible dark side." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "The chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group met Donald Trump at the White House during a visit to pitch a potentially lucrative new product to administration officials, the Guardian has learned. David D Smith, whose company has been criticised for making its anchors read a script echoing Trump's attacks on the media, said he briefed officials last year on a system that would enable authorities to broadcast direct to any American's phone.... He also recalled an earlier meeting with Trump during the 2016 election campaign, where he told the future president: 'We are here to deliver your message.' Sinclair is the biggest owner of local TV in the US, and may soon reach 72% of American households if a proposed $4bn takeover of a rival is approved by federal regulators." --safari

Paul Krugman: "The hiring-then-firing of Kevin Williamson followed a familiar script. A mainstream media organization [-- the Atlantic --] hires a conservative in the name of intellectual diversity, then is shocked, shocked to discover that he's dishonest and/or holds truly reprehensible views -- something that the organization could have discovered with a few minutes on Google. But when the bad hire is let go, the right treats him as a martyr, proof of liberal refusal to let alternative viewpoints be heard.... The real problem here is that media organizations are looking for unicorns: serious, honest, conservative intellectuals with real influence.... The left has genuine public intellectuals with actual ideas and at least some real influence; the right does not. News organizations don't seem to have figured out how to deal with this reality, except by pretending that it doesn't exist. And that's why we keep having these Williamson-like debacles." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Senate Race. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "Gov. Rick Scott made official on Monday what Floridians have suspected for months: He is running for the United States Senate against Bill Nelson, the incumbent Democrat, in a premier race that will return the nation's largest swing state to its familiar role as the political vortex of a tumultuous election year." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

There Are Two Michigans. Bill Chappell of NPR: "In a much-watched case, a Michigan agency has approved Nestlé's plan to boost the amount of water it takes from the state. The request attracted a record number of public comments -- with 80,945 against and 75 in favor. Nestlé's request to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to pump 576,000 gallons of water each day from the White Pine Springs well in the Great Lakes Basin was 'highly controversial,' member station Michigan Radio reports.... The company bottles the water for sale under its Ice Mountain label." Emphasis added. BUT as Adrienne Varkiani of ThinkProgress reported (linked below), the state will no longer provide free drinking water to residents of Flint, which still pumps water through lead pipes, tho some pipes have been replaced. Thanks to Nisky Guy for the link. Mrs. McC: Wouldn't you think the poor people of Flint would would some state pride & just buy bottles of Nestle's Ice Mountain? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tracy Lee of Newsweek, via RawStory: "Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, criticized efforts by survivors from February's mass shooting in Parkland, Florida in several Facebook posts that she shared. One post contained an image of shoes from people who were killed during the Holocaust [in defense of the 2nd amendment].... Thomas [also] shared a post from a Facebook page called The Great American American Movement, which had a side-by-side comparison of the outspoken Parkland students next to a graveside memorial. Thomas captioned the post with the words 'I want the old regular America back ... MINUS the left's awful tactics.'" --safari ...

... Deranged Prick. Adam Peck of ThinkProgress: "Last week ... a since-deleted tweet from a far-right St. Louis-based talk show host named Jamie Allman threatening 17-year-old Stoneman Douglas survivor David Hogg circulated widely around the region. 'I've been hanging out getting ready to ram a hot poker up David Hogg's ass tomorrow,' tweeted Allman. 'Busy working. Preparing.'... At least three of Allman’s sponsors publicly announced they were abandoning his shows.... His television show airs on KDNL, St. Louis's ABC affiliate owned by far-right media conglomerate Sinclair Broadcast Group." --safari

Way Beyond

Shaun Walker of the Guardian: "Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has pledged to push through a controversial package of bills targeting civil society, described by his government as the 'Stop Soros' package. Orbán said his Fidesz party's landslide victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections had given the government perhaps the strongest mandate in modern Hungarian history.... Orbán, who will now serve a third consecutive term as prime minister, portrayed himself on the campaign trail as the defender of a white, Christian Hungary at risk from refugees and migrants, and under attack from George Soros, the financier and philanthropist of Jewish-Hungarian origin." --safari

Michael McGowan of the Guardian: "A high-ranking Australian union official has been suspended amid reports he ran a fake Black Lives Matter Facebook page that solicited donations from the movement's supporters. CNN reports that Ian MacKay [a white guy] -- an official with the National Union of Workers -- helped set up and run a Facebook page called Black Lives Matter as well as other domain names linked to black rights. The page, which was removed by Facebook after CNN's queries, had almost 700,000 followers -- more than double the official Black Lives Matter page.... The investigation quoted sources who said the page may have garnered upwards of $100,000 in donations, at least some of which was directed to bank accounts registered in Australia." --safari

Jamie Grierson of the Guardian: "Yulia Skripal, the daughter of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, has been discharged from hospital, doctors have said. Just over a month after she and her father were found collapsed on a park bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, after being poisoned with a nerve agent, medics confirmed she had left Salisbury district hospital." Mrs. McC: I sure hope she's in "an undisclosed location" AND has police protection.

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