The Commentariat -- February 3, 2018

Late Morning Update:

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: President "Trump, who is in Florida for the weekend, took to Twitter to proclaim his innocence and denounce the investigation a day after the release of the highly contentious classified memo, which he had authorized to be made public. The document claimed that top law enforcement officials had abused their powers to spy on a Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, who was suspected of being an agent of Russia.... [Trump tweeted,] 'This memo totally vindicates "Trump" in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!'... The memo, while trying to paint the origins of the Russia investigation as tainted, did nothing to clear Mr. Trump of either collusion or obstruction -- the lines of inquiry being pursued by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. The memo in fact undermined Republicans' effort to cast doubt on the roots of the investigation by confirming that the inquiry was already underway when law enforcement officials obtained a warrant from a secret intelligence court to conduct surveillance on Mr. Page." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Cochrane's report is extraordinary. Right near the top, she provides a jarring correction to Trump's false assertions. Not he said/she said but he-said/he-lied. I've seen this kind of reporting happen before in a major media outlet. And then I've seen a correction. Let's see if Cochrane's accurate reporting stands.

Rebecca Morin of Politico: "The Department of Justice on Friday evening filed a motion seeking to dismiss a civil suit former top Trump campaign aide Paul Manafort brought against special counsel Robert Mueller. According to the DOJ's motion, Manafort alleged in his civil suit that 'the Acting Attorney General's order directing the Special Counsel to investigate certain matters exceeds the authority provided by the Department of Justice's Special Counsel regulations.' In addition, he claimed the indictment against him 'exceed the Special Counsel's authority under the Acting Attorney General's order.'... Department of Justice civil division lawyers defending Mueller's office and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said: 'These claims lack merit.'"

Victoria Guida of Politico: "The Federal Reserve took action against Wells Fargo for the first time in connection with the massive fake accounts scandal and other customer abuses that have been uncovered at the giant bank since 2016. In an unprecedented enforcement action announced Friday evening -- just as Janet Yellen closed out her final day as Fed chair -- the central bank said it will prevent the San Francisco-based lender from growing any larger than it was at the end of 2017 until it improves its governance and risk management. Wells Fargo will also replace three current board members by April and a fourth board member by the end of the year. The members were not named."

*****

Your Friday Afternoon DocuDud

Adam Goldman, et al., of New York Times: "House Republicans released a disputed memo on Friday compiled by congressional aides that accused the F.B.I. and Justice Department of abusing their surveillance powers to spy on a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page. The memo, which has prompted a political firestorm, also criticizes information used by law enforcement officials in their application for a warrant to wiretap Mr. Page, and names the senior F.B.I. and Justice Department officials who approved the highly classified warrant." (This is the same link as appeared yesterday under Eileen Sullivan's byline.)

     ... Here's a pdf of the memo, along with an authorizing letter from White House counsel Don McGahn. ...

... Here's an annotated version, by Aaron Blake of the Washington Post. ...

... President Trump reveals he has no idea what's going on:

... Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "Asked at the White House if he will now fire [Deputy AG Rod] Rosenstein -- a precursor to firing or constraining Mueller -- Trump said Friday, 'you figure that one out.'"

... Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, whom the Republican majority on the committee will not yet allow to release a rebuttal memo, have nonetheless written a public response to the release of the Nunes memo: "The premise of the Nunes memo is that the FBI and DOJ corruptly sought a FISA warrant on a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, Carter Page, and deliberately misled the court as part of a systematic abuse of the FISA process. As the Minority memo makes clear, none of this is true. The FBI had good reason to be concerned about Carter Page and would have been derelict in its responsibility to protect the country had it not sought a FISA warrant.... The DOJ appropriately provided the court with a comprehensive explanation of Russia's election interference, including evidence that Russian agents courted another Trump campaign foreign adviser, George Papadopoulos." It goes on. ...

... Oops! Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The court that approved surveillance of a former campaign adviser to President Trump was aware that some of the information underpinning the warrant request was paid for by a political entity, although the application did not specifically name the Democratic National Committee or the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, according to two U.S. officials.... A now-declassified Republican memo alleged that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was duped into approving the wiretap request by a politicized FBI and Justice Department.... But its central allegation -- that the government failed to disclose a source's political bias -- is baseless, the officials said." ...

... Oops! Karen Tumulty & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Though President Trump and his allies hope that the controversial release of a GOP-written memo alleging surveillance abuses by the FBI will tarnish the legitimacy of the entire Russia probe, that argument may be undercut by a single sentence buried near the end of the four-page document. It confirms for the first time that the event that set the FBI's counterintelligence investigation in motion was not the surveillance of Trump adviser Carter Page -- a subject upon which most of the memo dwells -- but rather that it was opened as the result of information the bureau had received about ... George Papadopoulos.... 'The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok,' the memo noted in its final paragraph.... Papadopoulos appears nowhere in the 16 reports that Steele wrote between June and December 2016 that are now known collectively as the Steele dossier." ...

... Matt Ford of the New Republic: "Only in the memo's final paragraph do its authors acknowledge that [George] Papadopoulos's loose lips sparked the FBI probe. They also note that information from Papadopoulos also made its way into the FISA application targeting [Carter] Page, but don't explain further. Instead, the memo pivots to the texts between FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page [no relation to Carter!], a frequent topic of chatter in conservative media. Trump-aligned outlets often describe their conversations as evidence of an internal FBI conspiracy against the president. But the Wall Street Journal reviewed more than 7,000 text messages between them and reported on Friday that it found 'no evidence of a conspiracy against Mr. Trump.'... The memo's authors apparently intended to suggest that the dossier's dramatic allegations had been debunked. But 'minimally corroborated' indicates that the FBI was able to find evidence supporting at least some of the dossier's contents. In essence, Trump declassified a document attacking the Steele dossier that also undercuts his political defenses against it." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: There's much more to Ford's analysis, including a humorous lede: "It would be easy to compare Congressman Devin Nunes's release of a declassified memo on purported surveillance abuses to Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone’s vault. But this would be extremely unfair to Geraldo, who didn't know ahead of time that it would be empty." ...

... JeffBo Straddles the Fence. Max Greenwood of the Hill: "In a statement issued shortly after the memo's release, [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions acknowledged GOP concerns about Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI officials' actions, but said he remained confident in the agency's employees.... Sessions said he would ensure the DOJ addresses the concerns raised in the memo, which accuses FBI and Justice Department officials of misusing their authority to obtain a secret surveillance warrant on Carter Page.... 'Accordingly, I will forward to appropriate DOJ components all information I receive from Congress regarding this,' he said. 'I am determined that we will fully and fairly ascertain the truth....'" ...

     ... Daily Beast: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday went off-script during a speech to praise Rod Rosenstein shortly before the release of a GOP-authored memo reportedly targeting the deputy attorney general. During his remarks at a Department of Justice event on sex-trafficking issues, Sessions thanked Rosenstein and Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand, saying, 'Those two -- Rod and Rachel -- are Harvard graduates, they're experienced lawyers. Rod had 27 years in the department. Rachel's had a number of years in the department previously and so they both represent the kind of quality and leadership that we want in the department.'" ...

... Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also issued a statement: "The latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests -- no party's, no president's, only Putin's. The American people deserve to know all of the facts surrounding Russia's ongoing efforts to subvert our democracy, which is why Special Counsel Mueller's investigation must proceed unimpeded. Our nation's elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows. If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin's job for him." ...

... Jen Kirby of Vox: "Former FBI director James Comey -- who's been known to subtweet the Trump administration since he went public on Twitter -- reacted with a scoff. 'That's it?' Comey wrote. 'Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen.'... Others familiar with the intelligence community have echoed that sentiment, arguing the release of the memo needlessly undermines the government's intelligence-gathering capabilities beyond the Russia investigation -- namely clandestine agencies' ability to recruit informants and sources." ...

... Spencer Ackerman: "'Deputy Director [Andrew] McCabe testified before the Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information,' the memo claims, referring to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Asked if that was a true representation, a source familiar with McCabe's testimony responded: '100% not.' A senior Democratic House intelligence committee official agreed." ...

... Bryan Logan of Business Insider: "... Devin Nunes admitted on Friday that he did not view the underlying intelligence on which he based a memo that accuses the FBI and the Justice Department of improperly surveilling Trump associates during the 2016 election. Hours after the memo came out on Friday, Nunes gave an interview on Fox News during which anchor Bret Baier asked him if he wrote the memo. 'Yes,' Nunes replied, saying other Republican lawmakers, like House Oversight Committee chair Trey Gowdy, also contributed. 'Did you read the actual FISA applications,' Baier asked.... 'No, I didn't,' Nunes said, before adding that Gowdy was part of a designated group that reviewed the intelligence, took notes, and reported it back to committee members." ...

     ... Devin Isn't Done. Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "In a Fox News interview on Friday, Representative Devin Nunes of California ... said his panel was still proceeding with a separate investigation. He hinted that it focused on the State Department's role in the Russia investigation during the Obama administration.... [AND there's this.] Mr. Trump could have more ammunition in the coming weeks as the Justice Department's inspector general finishes a report widely expected to be critical of the F.B.I.'s handling of the final months of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server. As part of that inquiry, Michael E. Horowitz, the inspector general, has uncovered text messages between two F.B.I. officials working on that case and also the Russia investigation in which they express intense dislike for Mr. Trump. Mr. Horowitz is expected to reserve particularly harsh criticism for the two officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page." ...

There Must Be a Pony:

     ... Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) said on Friday that the House intelligence memo on alleged FBI malfeasance showed 'clear and convincing evidence of treason' by law enforcement officials, despite lingering concerns in the intelligence community over its credibility.... Gosar, in a statement, blasted the FBI's use of a surveillance warrant to gather information about a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page.... 'The full-throated adoption of this illegal misconduct and abuse of FISA by James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates and Rod Rosenstein is not just criminal but constitutes treason,' Gosar wrote in a statement[, citing the Nunes memo as evidence]." ...

     ... Wonder Where Goser Got His Unhinged Ideas. Joseph Wulfsohn of Mediaite: Friday night, Sean "Hannity said that Former FBI Director James Comey, Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were 'all complicit' for approving surveillance on Carter Page. 'The FBI misled and purposefully deceived a federal court while using an unverified, completely phony opposition research bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton to spy on an opposition campaign during a presidential election!' Hannity exclaimed. 'Now that type of abusive power, that type of corruption, that shredding of the Constitution -- it is unprecedented in American history.'" ...

... Matt Zapotosky & Beth Reinhard of the Washington Post provide some background on Bruce Ohr, who shows up as another nefarious character in Devin Nunes' spy novel memo. Looks as if the DOJ has demoted Ohr twice because of his tangential association with Fusion GPS. ...

... Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "House Republicans and their allies have long argued that the House memo released Friday would demonstrate that the Trump-Russia investigation had its roots in an FBI fraud. But the Republican memo doesn't support that theory, even if everything alleged in it is true. (And Democrats, the FBI and the Justice Department insist that much in the memo is deeply misleading.)... As the memo makes clear, the Mueller investigation did not grow out of the dossier, and the memo sheds no light on what role, if any, the dossier has played in the special counsel's inquiry."

... There's No There There. Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "... there is only one conclusion a fair reader [of the Nunes memo] could draw: There is absolutely nothing here. There is no proof in the memo that the FBI is biased against Trump, no proof of abuse of surveillance powers by the FBI, and no proof that the investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia is fundamentally flawed. The memo is a piece of partisan spin, and not a particularly compelling one at that." Beauchamp compares the "grandiose" claims in the memo to the paucity of evidence supporting those claims. ...

... Quinta Jurecic, et al., of Lawfare cover most of the bases in their analysis of the Nunes memo. Here's something that may not have got enough attention: "To the extent the complaint is that the FBI relied on a biased source in [Christopher] Steele, the FBI relies every day on information from far more dubious characters than former intelligence officers working for political parties. The FBI gets information from narco-traffickers, mobsters and terrorists." The lawyers' overall conclusion is something that party leaders like Paul Ryan (and of course President Disgraceful) should have known, but don't know or care: "At the end of the day, the most important aspect of the #memo is probably not its contents but the fact that it was written and released at all. Its preparation and public dissemination represent a profound betrayal of the central premise of the intelligence oversight system.... They revealed highly sensitive secrets by way of scoring partisan political points and delegitimizing what appears to have been lawful and appropriate intelligence community activity." ...

... Paul Rosenzweig, in Politico Magazine, handily demonstrates how -- even if you pretend the Nunes memo is a serious document -- it utterly fails to meet its objectives. For instance, it's supposed to help Trump get rid of Rosenstein. But the initial FISA application on which the memo rests -- the one that supposedly relied entirely on the Steele dossier, was granted in October 2016 -- months before Trump appointed Rosenstein deputy AG. Rosenstein had nothing to do with it. Moreover, since FISA reauthorization apps must rely on new information obtained during surveillance ops, Rosenstein could not have relied on the Steele dossier at all; he & the FBI had to present to the FISA court new info learned in the course of surveilling Page. ...

     ... Mrs. McC: Even though this process is easy for you to understand, it is not something Trump would be able to comprehend. When Trump doesn't want to hear something, he doesn't. So the fact that Rosenstein is "innocent" of relying on the Steele dossier is immaterial. Over at Fox "News" they're still telling Trump that this is worse than a thousand Watergates. That's what he knows. ...

... Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "The [Nunes memo], while rehashing a lot of known facts about the counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign, is more notable for what it does not say. The memo does not say that counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign started with the Steele dossier[.] The memo does not discuss surveillance of a member of the Trump campaign[.]... The memo all relates to issues with the surveillance of Carter Page beginning in October 2016. Page stepped down from the Trump campaign in September because of controversy regarding his continuing contacts with Russians.... The memo does not present the Steele dossier as the exclusive basis for FISA warrant. The FBI, in an extraordinary statement, said the memo was incomplete and presented a false narrative. This suggests there is additional information about Page that is not disclosed in the memo.... The memo does not establish that the Steele dossier was unreliable[.]... The memo does not include anything that implicates Robert Mueller or his investigation[.]" ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Amid all the lies Donald Trump has told about the Russia scandal, there is one underlying truth: The intelligence community truly fears him and considers him unfit for the presidency. This is not because the intelligence community is traitorous, or left wing, or (as Donald Trump Jr. sneeringly put it) wine-spritzer-drinking elites. It is because the IC had early access to a wide array of terrifying intelligence linking Trump and his orbit to Russia. People who spend their lives protecting their country from foreign threats saw in Trump a candidate who had at some level been compromised by one of them. [Re: the Trump-Russia investigation, Trump] treats the effect as the cause. [FBI agent Peter] Strzok, as the context of his texts reveals, was a moderate Republican who voted for John Kasich in the GOP primary. [Christopher] Steele was a Brit who had not shown any strong passion for American politics. They developed intense preferences in the 2016 election outcome in large part because they had access to intelligence about Trump and Russia. They did not create this intelligence to support their political beliefs....

The stench of bad faith covers the entire effort. Trump has not even bothered to conceal his belief that the memo gives him an excuse to replace Rod Rosenstein, Robert Mueller's supervisor, with a more pliant figure. Trump believes to his core that he is entitled to federal law enforcement run by personal loyalists, and that any investigation of him is per se evidence of disqualifying bias. Nunes's memo places the House Republicans foursquare behind that grotesquely authoritarian belief. ...

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "The right-wing argument goes that Clinton operatives cooked up a scandalous piece of fiction, got [Christopher] Steele to pass it along to some Trump-haters in the F.B.I., who then persuaded their bosses at the Justice Department to open an investigation, and here we are, eighteen months later, with Robert Mueller and his investigators hounding an innocent President.... Yet, for the conspiracy theorists, the contents of the memo matter less than the support they've received recently from at least some elements of the Republican Party leadership, including Paul Ryan, the House Speaker, who earlier this week said the memo should be made public and talked about the need to 'cleanse' the F.B.I. Trump is capable of anything. If Trump uses the memo as a pretext to fire Rod Rosenstein..., Ryan and other senior Republicans will be wholly complicit in causing a constitutional crisis."

... See also some fine commentary in yesterday's Comments thread. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: According to the Nunes memo, Christopher "Steele was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations -- an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI in an October 30, 2016, Mother Jones article by David Corn." But according to Glenn Simpson's testimony before Congress, it was Steele who terminated his relationship with the FBI after reading a New York Times report of October 31, 2016 which indicated the FBI had found no connection between the Trump campaign & Russian operatives despite Steele's knowledge that the FBI was aware of such connections. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: No one seems to notice that among the "disgraceful" people TrumpNunes & Co. are implicitly fingering are the judges on the FISA court. These judges are appointed (with no oversight) by Chief Justice John Roberts, who -- like Rosenstein, Comey, Wray, & Strzok -- is a Republican. The argument in the memo is that at least one of these judges (and possibly as many as four) is a potted rubberstamp plant who blithely issued & renewed surveillance warrants against upstanding American patriot Carter Page based on undocumented assertions in informal memos written by Christopher Steele, a former foreign agent with ulterior political motives (oh, and maybe on a Yahoo! report by Michael Isikoff based on Steele's findings). The treacherous plot against the Donald is remarkably widespread & embedded deep in the Republican party. ...

... Despite all this, Dahlia Lithwick thinks the memo will work as intended: "This memo has the twin benefits of being both incomprehensible and boring. It serves as a glittering distraction from a host of other insanities unspooling around the administration's consequential failures of governance and immolation of normalcy. But the other purpose of this memo, as has long been predicted, is that it serves as scaffolding for Donald Trump to fire deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein without having to use the pretext that his defining fault is that he is a 'Democrat from Baltimore.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is the same argument I made before release of the memo. I'm a little less convinced of it now, because the memo itself is even dumber than I thought it would be. But it's still obvious that the only Americans who are going to find out there's no there there are those who don't get their "news" from Fox "News." Perhaps our only hope are late-nite comedians. We'll have to see what, if anything, they do with the memo Monday & Tuesday. Likely, they'll be talking about the Super Bowl instead. ...

AND Another Thing. Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "K.T. McFarland, President Trump's onetime deputy national security adviser, has withdrawn from consideration to be the U.S. ambassador to Singapore, the White House confirmed Friday. McFarland has been under scrutiny in the special-counsel probe into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Democratic lawmakers say she may have given inaccurate information about her knowledge of conversations that Michael Flynn, her former boss at the White House, had with Russia's ambassador to the United States during the presidential transition.... Last July, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) asked McFarland in writing whether she had spoken to Flynn about his contacts with the ambassador during the ... transition. 'I am not aware of any of the issues or events described above,' McFarland replied. But court documents filed in connection with Flynn's guilty plea contradict that statement."

AP: "The Trump administration announced on Friday that it will continue much of the Obama administration's nuclear weapons policy, but take a more aggressive stance toward Russia. It said Russia must be convinced it would face 'unacceptably dire costs' if it were to threaten even a limited nuclear attack in Europe. The sweeping review of US nuclear policy does not call for any net increase in strategic nuclear weapons -- a position that stands in contrast to ... Donald Trump's statement, in a tweet shortly before he took office, that the US 'must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes'.... The Trump nuclear doctrine breaks with Obama's in ending his push to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in US defence policy."

Thomas Heath of the Washington Post: "The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 2.5 percent Friday -- closing down 666 points -- and suffered its worst week in two years as concerns over rising interest rates and inflation from an overheated economy triggered a long-feared sell-off. It was the worst day for stocks since President Trump took office -- and a stark reversal from the optimism that has propelled the markets higher for most of the past year. The market has been on a historic nine-year bull run. The U.S. and world economies are so strong that people think the situation cannot last. Concerns were fueled by a Labor Department report that wages in January were 2.9 percent higher than a year ago and unemployment held at 4.1 percent. A tightening labor market sparked fears that interest rates will rise." ...

... Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "Investors have spent much of the last year shrugging off geopolitical and economic risks.... Instead, they have focused on the strength of the United States economy, driven by banner corporate profits and President Trump's push to lower taxes and reduce regulation. The optimism helped lift stock markets ever higher, extending the boom into its ninth year. Now, investors are suddenly skittish. On Friday, stocks tumbled by more than 2 percent, propelling the market to its worst week in two years. The immediate catalyst was the jobs report, which showed the strong United States economy might finally be translating into rising wages for American workers -- a sign that higher inflation could be around the corner. But what is really worrying investors is that the fuel behind this stock market boom, namely cheap money from global central banks, may disappear sooner than they thought. In recent weeks, the shift in sentiment has played out across the world's largest financial markets. As stocks have sold off, Treasury yields have surged. The dollar has slumped.... In a strange way, investors are nervous that the global economy is doing too well."

Ian Kullgren of Politico: "Humane Society President and CEO Wayne Pacelle resigned Friday amid a spiraling crisis over sexual harassment allegations against him and a former top executive. Things had gotten progressively worse for Pacelle -- one of the most well-known animal rights advocates in the country -- since news broke last week of an internal investigation of allegations dating back to 2005. The board of directors cut the investigation short on Thursday and cleared Pacelle of wrongdoing, but Pacelle, facing a staff revolt and fleeing donors, stepped down less than 24 hours later."

Beyond the Beltway

Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "The ... state employee responsible for sending out the emergency ballistic-missile alert that panicked the state of Hawaii for 38 minutes last month was fired from his job at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency last week. The agency's top official, Vern T. Miyagi, resigned. [In a TV interview,] the man repeated claims that officials in Hawaii released: that the worker heard 'this is not a drill' at some point during a training exercise and assumed that the threat of an incoming missile was real.... An investigation released by the state described the employee as having a poor work history; other members of the emergency management agency's staff said that they did not feel comfortable with his work."

The Commentariat -- February 2, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: Trump's "early-morning Twitter post [reported below] reinforced reports that Mr. Trump, in allowing the Republican memo to be released, is seeking to clean house in the upper ranks of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department, even at the risk of losing his own F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray.... Blaming senior government officials for favoring Democrats over Republicans is among the main themes in the memo, according to people who have seen it. The memo is said to accuse federal law enforcement officials of abusing their authorities when they sought permission to surveil former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page." ...

     ... NEW LEDE: "House Republicans released a previously secret memo on Friday in which they accuse senior officials at the F.B.I. and Justice Department of bias in the early stages of the Russia investigation." ...

... Vox has the full text here (the NYT linked currently (@12:30 pm ET) doesn't work), including an authorization letter from White House counsel Don McGahn.

*****

Helene Cooper & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "The White House has grown frustrated in recent weeks by what it considers the Pentagon's reluctance to provide President Trump with options for a military strike against North Korea, according to officials, the latest sign of a deepening split in the administration over how to confront the nuclear-armed regime of Kim Jong-un. The national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, believes that for Mr. Trump's warnings to North Korea to be credible, the United States must have well-developed military plans, according to those officials. But the Pentagon, they say, is worried that the White House is moving too hastily toward military action on the Korean Peninsula that could escalate catastrophically. Giving the president too many options, the officials said, could increase the odds that he will act." Mrs. McC: No kidding.

Brooke Seipel of the Hill: "President Trump early Friday morning lashed out at Department of Justice (DOJ) leaders, as top officials continue to advise the president not to release a confidential memo accusing the DOJ and FBI of abusing their power. 'The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!' Trump tweeted early Friday.... The comment echoes Sean Hannity's own word choice late Thursday night. Hannity repeatedly criticized the FBI and DOJ, but added: 'not rank and file, we love you guys.'" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: "Sacred"? Really? God bless the "investigative process"? What Trump is trying to do here, among other things, is drive a wedge between DOJ & FBI leadership & the rank-and-file who report to them. Putin's plan is going very, very well. The only question is whether or not Trump is a witting or unwitting collaborator. ...

     ... The Show Must Go on. Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: Trump gets advice from Sean Hannity, other on-air flamethrowers, ignores U.S. intelligence community. ...

... Surprise, Surprise. Irresponsible President* Makes Irresponsible Decision. Nicholas Fandos & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "President Trump cleared the way on Thursday for the release of a secret memo written by Republican congressional staffers and said to accuse federal law enforcement officials of abusing their surveillance authorities. Mr. Trump, who had a brief window to block the memo's disclosure on national security grounds, was expected to tell Congress on Friday that he had no objections and would likely not request any material be redacted, according to a senior administration official. It would then be up to the House Intelligence Committee, whose Republican leaders have pushed for its release, to make the document public. The president's decision came despite a growing chorus of warnings from national security officials who say that releasing the document would jeopardize sensitive government information, including how intelligence is gathered, and from Democrats who say it is politically motivated and distorts the actions of the Justice Department and the F.B.I. by omitting crucial context." ...

... Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "... before he had even read it, Trump became absolutely convinced of one thing: The memo needed to come out.... 'There was never any hesitation,' said one presidential adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to recount private talks with Trump. 'The president was resolved on this. He was not going to be persuaded [otherwise]. He wanted it out.' The president did not actually see the memo ... until Wednesday afternoon.... The president said he thought the release of the memo would help build a public argument against [Deputy AG Rod] Rosenstein's handling of the case, according to people familiar with the discussions. Trump suggested to aides and confidants that the memo might give him the justification to fire Rosenstein -- something about which Trump has privately mused -- or make other changes at the Justice Department, which he had complained was not sufficiently loyal to him." Throughout most of the story, John Kelly is right in there, aiding & abetting, ignoring intelligence leaders' advice against the memo's release. ...

... Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Inside the Trump administration, sources who've been briefed on the Nunes memo expect it will be underwhelming and not the 'slam dunk' document it's been hyped up to be." Mrs. McC: It will probably be too technical for Trumpbots to understand unless the fiction writers put in a lot of words like "shocking" & "unpresidented," the value of its content has been so degraded by the DOJ, the FBI & Democrats that it will be up to the media to make it shocking & unpresidented, & the whole hoohah is over a guy -- Carter Page -- from whom the Trump campaign & administration tried to distance itself, someone who, as Jonathan Chait points out, had a 4-year history of suspicious dealings with Russian agents that had garnered the attention of U.S. intelligence agencies. ...

... Kevin Liptak, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump continues to tell his associates he believes the highly controversial Republican memo alleging the FBI abused its surveillance tools could help discredit the Russia investigation, multiple sources familiar with White House discussions said.... Trump himself reviewed and read the memo on Wednesday, White House officials told CNN, and discussed it with chief of staff John Kelly and the White House counsel's office. Ahead of its expected release, the White House approved several redactions to the memo on national security grounds, according to a senior administration official. But the White House has so far rejected the FBI and Justice Department's requests for redactions that the White House believes are meant to conceal information that might be embarrassing to the agency, the official said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Poor Carter Page! Jonathan Chait: A few problems with the TrumpNunes theory of FBI treachery: "First, reports have indicated the FBI began investigating [Carter] Page well before [Christopher] Steele looked into him. Page met with Russian spies who were looking to recruit him in 2013, and passed documents to them. The Russian spies came away from the encounter confounded by his apparent stupidity ... but encouraged by his greed.... CNN reported last August that the FBI began surveilling Page in 2014, two years before the Steele dossier. In 2015 -- again, before Steele came along -- U.S. investigators overheard Russians discussing 'meetings held outside the U.S. involving Russian government officials and Trump business associates or advisers,' The Wall Street Journal has reported. Second, even if it were true that the FBI based its entire case for surveilling Page on the Steele dossier, the dossier is not necessarily false.... The point of it was to identify suspicious grounds for investigation, which is what the FBI had already been doing anyway." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... "No FISA Warrant Relies on a Single Piece of Evidence." CBS News: "FBI director Christopher Wray is prepared to issue a rebuttal if the White House releases Rep. Devin Nunes's classified memo alleging inappropriate surveillance of the Trump campaign by the FBI and Justice Department, according to CBS News senior national security analyst Fran Townsend.... Townsend, who served as homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush, told 'CBS This Morning' she believes the FBI is worried about both the accuracy of the memo's contents and what it may reveal about their sources and methods.... Townsend, who spent 13 years at the Justice Department, said it's simply 'not possible' for one partisan actor to push through a FISA warrant or to obtain one based on a single piece of evidence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Democrats are ratcheting up pressure on House Speaker Paul Ryan to intervene in the growing controversy involving House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, who quietly changed his explosive memo alleging FBI abuse without informing many of his colleagues. The top Democrat in the Senate and the House say Republicans have 'decided to sow conspiracy theories' and 'attack the integrity and credibility of federal law enforcement as a means' to protect ... Donald Trump and undercut special counsel Robert Mueller. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter Thursday to Ryan, obtained by CNN, with a long list of questions ranging from the FBI and Justice Department objections to the letter to whether Ryan's staff was involved in drafting the memo and if the edits to the document were consistent with House rules.... House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also sent a letter to Ryan calling Nunes' actions 'dangerous' and 'illegitimate,' and called on Ryan to remove Nunes as Intelligence Committee chairman." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... New York Times Editors: "So this is what a partisan witch hunt really looks like. In a demonstration of unbridled self-interest and bottomless bad faith, the Trump White House and its Republican minions in Congress are on the cusp of releasing a 'memo' that purports to document the biggest political scandal since Watergate.... [Devin] Nunes hasn't even seen the classified documents underlying his memo, and has refused to show his work even to Republican senators. Is this the behavior of someone concerned with honesty, transparency and good government?... The question is whether there are any adults left in the G.O.P. The evidence so far is not encouraging, notwithstanding a sporadic furrowed brow in the Senate." Mrs. McC: This editorial provides an overview of the fundamentals of this brouhaha. ...

... Washington Post Editors: House Speaker Paul "Ryan bears full responsibility for the deterioration of congressional oversight of intelligence operations. Once a bipartisan responsibility that lawmakers treated soberly -- as they still do in the Senate -- oversight under [Devin] Nunes has become another front in Mr. Trump's assault on the law enforcement institutions investigating the president and his associates. House Republicans are poisoning the committee's relationship with the intelligence community and distracting from real issues demanding attention. In all the noise around the memo, it is easy to lose sight of the scary truth that a hostile foreign government attempted to influence the 2016 election and shows every intention of trying again this year.... Mr. Nunes, with Mr. Ryan's aid and comfort, is helping Mr. Trump impede an investigation into these very issues." ...

... Ben Riley-Smith of the U.K. Telegraph: "Britain's spy agencies risk having their intelligence methods revealed if Donald Trump releases a controversial memo about the FBI, congressional figures have warned. The UK will be less likely to share confidential information if the secret memo about the Russian investigation is made public, according to those opposing its release." Mrs. McC: This matters. Trump is not only making us "less safe" in this particular, he's having a chilling effect on intelligence-sharing by all of our allies. ...

... Then again, as Gloria pointed out in yesterday's thread, we're making new friends in the international intelligence community:

... Jim Sciutto & Nicole Gaouette of CNN: "CIA Director Mike Pompeo did meet with the head of Russia's foreign intelligence agency, an official barred from entering the US under 2014 sanctions, as well as the head of Russia's internal security agency, according to a US official with direct knowledge of the meetings.... [Chuck] Schumer, whose staff was briefed on the meetings and the legal process involved before giving a Tuesday news conference, said the meeting represented 'a serious national security issue.' And he continued to blast Pompeo on Thursday. 'If this administration is ignoring sanctions, that's very serious,' the New York Democrat told CNN, noting that in the letter, Pompeo didn't directly acknowledge that he had met with his Russian counterparts. 'Director Pompeo's refusal to answer that question is deeply troubling.'... The Russian Embassy in Washington announced the Pompeo meeting in a Jan. 30 tweet."

Most Pathetic President* in American History. Grace Guarnieri of Newsweek: "During a Thursday press conference at the GOP retreat..., Donald Trump praised Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) for calling him the greatest president in American history. 'Orrin is -- I love listening to him speak ... he actually once said I'm the greatest president in the history of our country and I said, "Does that include Lincoln and Washington?" He said yes. I said, "I love this guy,'" Trump told a group of reporters in West Virginia.... A spokesperson for Hatch told Newsweek that the senator 'has said that he would like to work with the president to make this the greatest presidency in history for the American people.'"

Racist President* Continues to Otherize Dreamers. Cristiano Lima of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Thursday cautioned against labeling young undocumented immigrants protected under DACA as 'Dreamers,' warning people not to 'fall into that trap.' The president, addressing lawmakers at a Republican retreat in West Virginia, called for a resolution to the ongoing congressional impasse over immigration policy, which has stalled as Republican and Democratic officials have failed to reach a compromise over the Obama-era immigration initiative.... 'I said the other night, we have dreamers, too,' he said. 'We have dreamers in this country, too. We can't forget our dreamers. I have a lot of dreamers here.'" ...

... Trump Encourages Economic Racism. Renae Merle of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration has stripped enforcement powers from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau office that specializes in pursuing cases against financial firms accused of breaking discrimination laws, according to two people familiar with the matter and emails reviewed by The Washington Post. The move comes about two months after President Trump installed his budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, at the head of an agency that has long been in the crosshairs of Republicans. The Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity had penalized lenders that it said had systematically imposed interest rates on minorities that were higher than those for whites." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... AND Why Should Poor People Have Competent Lawyers? Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has effectively shuttered an Obama-era office dedicated to making legal aid accessible to all citizens, according to two people familiar with the situation. The division, the Office for Access to Justice, began as an initiative in 2010 under former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to increase and improve legal resources for indigent litigants in civil, criminal and tribal courts. Though the head of the office reports directly to the associate attorney general, it never gained much visibility within the Justice Department because it did not oversee a large staff of prosecutors. While Attorney General Jeff Sessions cannot close the office without notifying the Congress, he can sideline it by moving its resources elsewhere. Its offices now sit dark on the third floor of the Justice Department building. The staff of a dozen or so has dwindled and left the department over the past few months, the people said." Mrs. McC: Apparently JeffBo thinks the Sixth Amendment guaranteeing "Assistance of Counsel" applies mostly to wealthy people.

** Elizabeth Drew has a terrific essay in the New Republic about the impeachments of Nixon & Clinton, (Nixon resigned before the House voted on articles of impeachment) & why impeachment & conviction will not likely happen in the Age of Trump -- unless Trump does shoot somebody while strolling down Fifth Avenue. Hers is a cautionary tale, & demonstrates -- in the person of former Rep. Peter Rodino (D-N.J.) -- how the impeachment process should work. And, yes, Drew does suggest Trump is worse than Nixon. But then, so are his allies worse than Nixon's. Mrs. McC: Even though the Founders expected members of the House to be a rowdy bunch, apparently they did not foresee the likes of Devin Nunes. Thanks to PD Pepe for the link.

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation has gathered enough steam that some lawyers representing key Donald Trump associates are considering the possibility of a historic first: an indictment against a sitting president. While many legal experts contend that Mueller lacks the standing to bring criminal charges against Trump, at least two attorneys working with clients swept up in the Russia probe told Politico they consider it possible that Mueller could indict the president for obstruction of justice."

Huh. Darren Samuelsohn: "Three attorneys representing Rick Gates told a federal court Thursday they are immediately withdrawing as counsel for the former Donald Trump campaign aide, who is fighting special counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of him on money laundering and other charges. Lawyers Shanlon Wu, Walter Mack and Annemarie McAvoy said in a two-page motion that they would explain the reasons for their abrupt move in documents filed under seal with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.... Speculation had been mounting that the longtime GOP operative might be seeking to cooperate with the Mueller investigation." ...

     ... Update. Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC: "... the most important development in the Russia probe is that fmr. Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates has new lawyers and why that could indicate he's cooperating with Mueller." (Video.)

Donald Trump goes to RNC dinner to rehash 2016 grievances (John Kasich is horrible; Massachusetts liberals flooded into New Hampshire & overturned my win) & boast most of the media couldn't pass that really hard mental acuity test he aced. Alex Isenstadt of Politico reports.

William Cohan of Vanity Fair: "The Mooch Recalls His Brief Shining Fortnight at the Center of American Politics." A colorful interview in which Anthony Scaramucci describes the White House staff in less-than-glowing terms: the fellow formerly known as Reince Preibus is now "Rancid Penis," for instance. Sadly, many of the people the Mooch so fondly remembers -- Priebus, Bannon, Spicer (and Lizza) -- also have moved on. You'd almost think a person could get burned dancing too close to the Orange Flame.

Danielle Paquette of the Washington Post: "The Humane Society of the United States decided Thursday to keep chief executive Wayne Pacelle in his job in the wake of an internal investigation which identified three complaints of sexual harassment against him, a move that prompted seven board members to resign. The decision to keep Pacelle in his job and close the investigation against him defied demands by major donors for the Humane Society to cut its ties with the long-time chief executive -- or risk losing their support."

Beyond the Beltway

Another Blow to Voter Suppression. Steve Bousquet of the Tampa Bay Times: "The state of Florida routinely violates the constitutional rights of its own citizens by permanently revoking the right to vote for anyone convicted of a felony, a federal judge ruled Thursday. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said Florida's system unfairly relies on the personal support of the governor for citizens to regain 'this fundamental right.' In a strongly-worded ruling, he called the state's defense of voter disenfranchisement 'nonsensical' -- a withering criticism aimed at Gov. Rick Scott, the lead defendant in the case. 'Florida strips the right to vote from every man and woman who commits a felony,' Walker wrote. 'To vote again, disenfranchised citizens must kowtow before a panel of high-level government officials over which Florida's governor has absolute veto authority. No standards guide the panel. Its members alone must be satisfied that these citizens deserve restoration ... The question now is whether such a system passes constitutional muster. It does not.'... The judge gave both sides in the case until Feb. 12 to file briefings on how to permanently remedy the constitutional deficiencies in Florida's system.... Walker's decision came nine days after the state approved a ballot measure that, if passed in November, would automatically restore the voting rights of about 1.2 million felons, not including convicted murderers and sex offenders."

Way Beyond

Phil McCausland of NBC News: "The eldest son of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro took his own life Thursday.... Two Cuban government sources confirmed to NBC News that Fidel Angel Castro Diaz-Balart, 68, died on Friday morning following months-long treatment 'for a deep state of depression by a group of doctors.'"

News Lede

New York Times: "The Labor Department released its official hiring and unemployment figures for January on Friday morning, providing the latest snapshot of the American economy. 200,000 jobs were added last month. Wall Street economists had expected an increase of about 180,000, according to Bloomberg. The unemployment rate was at 4.1 percent, the same as in December and the lowest since 2000. Average earnings rose by 9 cents an hour and are up 2.9 percent over the past year. Revisions in the November and December figures produced a net loss of 24,000."

The Commentariat -- February 1, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Kevin Liptak, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump continues to tell his associates he believes the highly controversial Republican memo alleging the FBI abused its surveillance tools could help discredit the Russia investigation, multiple sources familiar with White House discussions said.... Trump himself reviewed and read the memo on Wednesday, White House officials told CNN, and discussed it with chief of staff John Kelly and the White House counsel's office. Ahead of its expected release, the White House approved several redactions to the memo on national security grounds, according to a senior administration official. But the White House has so far rejected the FBI and Justice Department's requests for redactions that the White House believes are meant to conceal information that might be embarrassing to the agency, the official said." ...

... Poor Carter Page! Jonathan Chait: A few problems with the TrumpNunes theory of FBI treachery: "First, reports have indicated the FBI began investigating [Carter] Page well before [Christopher] Steele looked into him. Page met with Russian spies who were looking to recruit him in 2013, and passed documents to them. The Russian spies came away from the encounter confounded by his apparent stupidity ... but encouraged by his greed.... CNN reported last August that the FBI began surveilling Page in 2014, two years before the Steele dossier. In 2015 -- again, before Steele came along -- U.S. investigators overheard Russians discussing 'meetings held outside the U.S. involving Russian government officials and Trump business associates or advisers,' The Wall Street Journal has reported. Second, even if it were true that the FBI based its entire case for surveilling Page on the Steele dossier, the dossier is not necessarily false.... The point of it was to identify suspicious grounds for investigation, which is what the FBI had already been doing anyway." ...

... "No FISA Warrant Relies on a Single Piece of Evidence." CBS News: "FBI director Christopher Wray is prepared to issue a rebuttal if the White House releases Rep. Devin Nunes's classified memo alleging inappropriate surveillance of the Trump campaign by the FBI and Justice Department, according to CBS News senior national security analyst Fran Townsend.... Townsend, who served as homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush, told 'CBS This Morning' she believes the FBI is worried about both the accuracy of the memo's contents and what it may reveal about their sources and methods.... Townsend, who spent 13 years at the Justice Department, said it's simply 'not possible' for one partisan actor to push through a FISA warrant or to obtain one based on a single piece of evidence." ...

... Dana Bash, et al., of CNN: "Top White House aides are worried FBI Director Christopher Wray could quit if the highly controversial Republican memo alleging the FBI abused its surveillance tools is released, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation tell CNN. Wray has made clear he is frustrated that ... Donald Trump picked him to lead the FBI after he fired FBI Director James Comey in May, yet his advice on the Nunes memo is being disregarded and cast as part of the purported partisan leadership of the FBI, according to a senior law enforcement official." ...

... Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Democrats are ratcheting up pressure on House Speaker Paul Ryan to intervene in the growing controversy involving House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, who quietly changed his explosive memo alleging FBI abuse without informing many of his colleagues. The top Democrat in the Senate and the House say Republicans have 'decided to sow conspiracy theories' and 'attack the integrity and credibility of federal law enforcement as a means' to protect ... Donald Trump and undercut special counsel Robert Mueller.... Chuck Schumer sent a letter Thursday to Ryan, obtained by CNN, with a long list of questions ranging from the FBI and Justice Department objections to the letter to whether Ryan's staff was involved in drafting the memo and if the edits to the document were consistent with House rules.... Nancy Pelosi also sent a letter to Ryan calling Nunes' actions 'dangerous' and 'illegitimate,' and called on Ryan to remove Nunes as Intelligence Committee chairman."

Trump Encourages Economic Racism. Renae Merle of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration has stripped enforcement powers from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau office that specializes in pursuing cases against financial firms accused of breaking discrimination laws, according to two people familiar with the matter and emails reviewed by The Washington Post. The move comes about two months after President Trump installed his budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, at the head of an agency that has long been in the crosshairs of Republicans. The Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity had penalized lenders that it said had systematically imposed interest rates on minorities that were higher than those for whites."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "A day after President Trump played up the tax cuts in his State of the Union address, a Monmouth poll showed a huge swing in favor of the bill. Although 26 percent of Americans approved of the package in mid-December..., support in the latest poll rose to 44 percent.... It's now on level terms, with just as many supporters as opponents (44 percent).... We're just now entering February, which is when people's paychecks will start getting slightly bigger as their withholding changes to reflect the new tax laws. Republicans seem to be counting on Americans seeing that extra money in order for the law to become even more popular. Which isn't a bad bet.... Perhaps an even bigger finding for the GOP -- and one likely related to improving views of the tax plan -- is a huge shrinking of the generic ballot, on which Republicans have trailed by double digits in many recent polls. The poll shows it closer than any other recent poll, with Democrats ahead by 2 points -- 47-45 -- so again, it could be an outlier. But it's not the first poll conducted since the law's passage to suggest that the Democrats' big advantage has narrowed...." ...

... Michelle Lee & Anu Narayanswamy of the Washington Post: "President Trump's robust small-donor base helped the Republican National Committee vastly outraise its Democratic counterpart in 2017 as the two parties geared up for a crucial midterm campaign season, new Federal Election Commission filings show. But Trump's polarizing effect also helped buoy the two Democratic congressional committees, which pulled in more money than the GOP committees heading into the 2018 elections."

*****

** Trump, Hicks, Busted. Jo Becker, et al., of the New York Times: "Aboard Air Force One on a flight home from Europe last July, President Trump and his advisers raced to cobble together a news release about a mysterious meeting at Trump Tower the previous summer between Russians and top Trump campaign officials. Rather than acknowledge the meeting's intended purpose -- to obtain political dirt about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government -- the statement instead described the meeting as being about an obscure Russian adoption policy. The statement, released in response to questions from The New York Times about the meeting, has become a focus of the inquiry by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.... The latest witness to be called for an interview about the episode was Mark Corallo, who served as a spokesman for Mr. Trump's legal team before resigning in July.... Mr. Corallo planned to tell investigators that [Trump aide Hope] Hicks said during the call that emails written by Donald Trump Jr. before the Trump Tower meeting -- in which the younger Mr. Trump said he was eager to receive political dirt about Mrs. Clinton from the Russians -- 'will never get out.'... Mr. Corallo ... told colleagues he was alarmed not only by what Ms. Hicks had said -- either she was being naïve or was suggesting that the emails could be withheld from investigators -- but also that she had said it in front of the president without a lawyer on the phone and that the conversation could not be protected by attorney-client privilege." ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "This development is seriously bad for Team Trump, for a number of reasons. First, while the Trump team often stresses that it's not a crime to lie to the media, if Hicks did suggest that evidence could be withheld or destroyed, that could help prosecutors establish intent in an obstruction case. Second, it may mean that Hicks is in more serious trouble.... Even if what Corallo actually tells Mueller doesn't amount to anything, his reported plan to spill new information is likely to raise fears of disloyalty among White House staffers, as well as with the president himself. And as we've learned, when Trump gets fixated on the loyalty of his subordinates, nothing good comes of it."

** Adam Goldman & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, clashed publicly with the president for the first time on Wednesday, condemning a push by House Republicans to release a secret memo that purports to show how the bureau and the Justice Department abused their authorities to obtain a warrant to spy on a former Trump campaign adviser. The 'F.B.I. was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it,' the bureau said in a statement. 'As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy.' Though Mr. Wray's name was not attached to the statement, the high-profile comment by the F.B.I. thrust him into a confrontation with President Trump, who abruptly fired his predecessor, James B. Comey. Mr. Trump wants to see the memo released, telling people close to him that he believes it makes the case that F.B.I. and Justice Department officials acted inappropriately when they sought the highly classified warrant in October 2016 on the campaign adviser, Carter Page. The president's stance puts him at odds with much of his national security establishment. The Justice Department has warned repeatedly that the memo, prepared by Republican staffers on the House Intelligence Committee, is misleading and that its release would set a bad precedent for making government secrets public. F.B.I. officials have said privately that the president is prioritizing politics over national security and is putting the bureau's reputation at risk. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representative Devin Nunes, a California Republican and the chairman of the House committee, described the F.B.I. objections as 'spurious' and accused the two law enforcement agencies of making 'material omissions' to Congress and the courts." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Gee, Devin, I remember when you all wanted to lock up Hillary Clinton for including some reference to barely-classified or later-classified documents in a few e-mails -- not made public. Whatevah is the difference? (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Here's the full FBI statement on the Nunes memo. ...

     ... Wingers Can't Belieeeve the FBI would criticize TrumpNunes. Michael Kranz of Business Insider: "Upon reports that the FBI had issued a statement criticizing the accuracy of a memo authored by House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly found himself under fire on Twitter from users who accused him of either mischaracterizing the statement or making it up entirely.... Twitter users piled on to the account's assertion, claiming that because the FBI had not posted an official statement on their website, Reilly's reporting could not be accurate. But Reilly, along with numerous other publications like CNN and Fox News, all received the same statement from the FBI via email.... After hundreds of tweets though, the FBI put up a link to the statement on FBI.gov." ...

... Chris Strohm & Billy House of Bloomberg: "FBI Director Christopher Wray told the White House he opposes the release of a controversial, classified GOP memo alleging bias at the FBI and Justice Department because it contains inaccurate information and paints a false narrative, according to a person familiar with the matter.... Donald Trump was overheard Tuesday night telling a Republican lawmaker that he was '100 percent' planning to release the memo, which was written by staffers on the House Intelligence Committee and is aimed at raising questions about the validity of the investigation into possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia, now led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The FBI isn't included in the inter-agency review process led by the White House...." Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: As if Trump would consider "inaccurate information" & a "false narrative" offputting. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Betsy Woodruff & Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: Devin Nunes "dared the [FBI] to make the Justice Department's FISA application public -- something officials overseeing surveillance will be extremely reluctant to do, for fear of creating blueprints for counterintelligence targets to evade eavesdropping or compromising intelligence sources. 'The FBI is intimately familiar with "material omissions" with respect to their presentations to both Congress and the courts, and they are welcome to make public, to the greatest extent possible, all the information they have on these abuses,' Nunes said. As well, for the first time, Nunes confirmed that his still-classified memo substantially dwells on an accusation that the FBI misleadingly used ex-British spy Christopher Steele's salacious dossier to obtain surveillance warrants." (Also linked yesterday.)...

... Alex Johnson of NBC News: "The House Intelligence Committee sent the White House a different version of a classified memo about the Trump-Russia investigation from the one that committee Republicans voted to release to the public, and it should be withdrawn immediately, the committee's top Democrat said Wednesday night.... Rep. Adam Schiff of California ... said in an open letter Wednesday night to the committee's chairman, Republican Devin Nunes of California, that he and other Democrats on the panel had since learned that the version of the memo that was sent to the White House isn't the same memo the committee voted to release on Monday. Schiff described the differences in general as 'substantive' and 'material' alterations.... That means 'there is no longer a valid basis for the White House to review the altered document,' he wrote.... Jack Langer, a spokesman for Nunes, confirmed that the memo had been edited, but he told NBC News that the changes included 'grammatical fixes and two edits requested by the FBI and by the Minority themselves,' referring to committee Democrats.... But a senior Democratic source on the Intelligence Committee disputed that account, telling NBC News that the changes weren't 'cosmetic.'" ...

... Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein visited the White House in December seeking ... Donald Trump's help. The top Justice Department official in the Russia investigation wanted Trump's support in fighting off document demands from House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes. But the President had other priorities ahead of a key appearance by Rosenstein on the Hill, according to sources familiar with the meeting. Trump wanted to know where the special counsel's Russia investigation was heading. And he wanted to know whether Rosenstein was 'on my team.'... The exchange could raise further questions about whether Trump was seeking to interfere in the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.... At the December meeting, the deputy attorney general appeared surprised by the President's questions, the sources said. He demurred on the direction of the Russia investigation.... And he responded awkwardly to the President's 'team' request.... 'Of course, we're all on your team, Mr. President,' Rosenstein told Trump...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: One would think the deputy attorney general of the US of A would be a worldly-wise person. One would think he might read the newspapers, thus would have known of that little incident where Trump asked Jim Comey for his loyalty & when Trump wasn't sufficiently satisfied with Comey's subsequent displays of "disloyalty," Trump fired him. So one would wonder why Rosenstein "appeared surprised" by Trump's question. Just practicing his thespian skills, perhaps? ...

... Tommy Christopher of Shareblue: "This marks the third report of Trump seeking the loyalty of high-ranking officials of an independent agency charged with investigating Trump for collusion and obstruction of justice. Former FBI Director James Comey testified before Congress that Trump asked him for a loyalty pledge while he was still serving in that post, a fact confirmed in separate congressional testimony by the bureau's deputy director, Andrew McCabe. Shortly after firing Comey, Trump also tried to figure out whether McCabe might be more favorable to him by asking how he voted in the 2016 presidential election. This latest disturbing news builds on a pattern of Trump seemingly believing -- wrongly -- that those charged with enforcing our justice system should put Trump's interests before the law." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I see another potential danger here. The more often Rosenstein interacts with Trump, the more times Trump is likely to make requests or demands that cross the line into obstruction. This could force Rosenstein to become a witness in Mueller's case, thus forcing Rosenstein to recuse himself as supervisor of the Mueller investigation. This then would allow Trump to make a Devin Nunes clone (or clown) as Mueller's supervisor. ...

... Norman Eisen, et al., in Politico Magazine: "All this has built steadily toward a crisis for American democracy -- a Saturday Night Massacre in slow motion. Press reports suggest the president may be contemplating using the [Nunes] memo to dismiss Rosenstein. That matters: If the president were to use his powers to insert someone lacking independence, that person could throttle the special counsel." ...

... ** Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), in a Washington Post op-ed: "On Monday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) moved to release a memo written by his staff that cherry-picks facts, ignores others and smears the FBI and the Justice Department -- all while potentially revealing intelligence sources and methods. He did so even though he had not read the classified documents that the memo characterizes and refused to allow the FBI to brief the committee on the risks of publication and what it has described as 'material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy.' The party-line vote to release the Republican memo but not a Democratic response was a violent break from the committee's nonpartisan tradition and the latest troubling sign that House Republicans are willing to put the president's political dictates ahead of the national interest." Mrs. McC: Schiff's essay is a must-read. Really. ...

... Charlie Savage of the New York Times writes a comprehensive report on the purpose of the Nunes memo. Here's a good part: "One potential clue to the strategy behind the Republican memo may be lurking in the broadcasts of ... Sean Hannity, a close ally of Mr. Trump whose programs often function as a conduit for his messaging. On the day House Intelligence Committee Republicans revealed the existence of their memo and voted to share it with the House, Mr. Hannity built his evening program around what he said his sources had already told him about its contents -- saying Americans would soon learn 'beyond any shadow of a doubt that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, and his band of Democratic witch hunters never should have been appointed and they need to be disbanded immediately.' And, though it was not yet public that the memo revealed [Deputy AG Rod] Rosenstein's role in extending the surveillance of [one of the Trump campaign's Russia cutouts, Carter] Page, Mr. Hannity himself raised the question: 'Did Rosenstein sign off on extension of this FISA warrant?' He also emphasized that 'I'm very interested about Rod Rosenstein in all of this' -- and called for him to be fired." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "Emails obtained by CNN show the FBI agent at the center of a Capitol Hill storm played a key role in a controversial FBI decision that upended Hillary Clinton's campaign just days before the 2016 election: the letter to Congress by then-FBI Director James Comey announcing the bureau was investigating newly discovered Clinton emails. The new revelation about FBI agent Peter Strzok comes as Republicans accuse him of being sympathetic to Clinton while seeking to undermine Donald Trump during the heat of the 2016 campaign season. Strzok, who co-wrote what appears to be the first draft that formed the basis of the letter Comey sent to Congress, also supported reopening the Clinton investigation once the emails were discovered on disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner's laptop, according to a source familiar with Strzok's thinking. The day after Strzok sent his draft to his colleagues, Comey released the letter to Congress, reigniting the email controversy in the final days of the campaign. Strzok did, however, harbor reservations about Comey making a public announcement just days before the election and sent a text message to that effect, two sources said. And Strzok's text messages provided to Congress show him grappling with the fallout of making the letter public, according to a CNN review of his texts."

... Mike Levine of ABC News: "In the weeks before special counsel Robert Mueller's team interviewed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department turned over a cache of internal correspondence, including documents related to the proposed resignation of Sessions last year and emails with the White House about fired national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to a source with knowledge of the matter." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Howard Fineman of NBC News: "Sources say that Trump has adopted a two-track strategy to deal with the Mueller investigation. One is an un-Trumpian passivity and trust. He keeps telling some in his circle that Mueller -- any day now -- will tell him he is off the hook for any charge of collusion with the Russians or obstruction of justice. But Trump -- who trusts no one, or at least no one for long -- has now decided that he must have an alternative strategy that does not involve having Justice Department officials fire Mueller. 'I think he's been convinced that firing Mueller would not only create a firestorm, it would play right into Mueller's hands,' said [a] friend, 'because it would give Mueller the moral high ground.' Instead..., the Trump strategy is to discredit the investigation and the FBI without officially removing the leadership. Trump is even talking to friends about the possibility of asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to consider prosecuting Mueller and his team." (Also linked yesterday.)

Dave Lawler of Axios: "Senior officials at the FBI, including former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, were aware that a batch of emails from Hillary Clinton had been found on Anthony Weiner's laptop long before then-Director James Comey disclosed their existence to Congress, the Wall Street Journal reports. Peter Strzok, the agent who led the probe into Clinton's emails and has since been in the spotlight for anti-Trump text messages, sent a text on Sept. 28 referring to a meeting with McCabe about the emails. Comey informed Congress on Oct. 28. The election was Nov. 8."

AND Roger Stone left his calling card at the Ecuadorian embassy in London where Julian Assange is still in residence.

** digby: "Presidents are always well-received by their own team at speeches to a joint session of Congress. But [Tuesday] night felt different. It was febrile and overstimulated, scary in its intensity. Perhaps the best way to fully understand that feeling is to read what future EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said about Trump in 2016: 'I think he has tendencies that we see in emerging countries around the world where -- he goes to the disaffected, those individuals. And says, "Look, you give me power and I will give voice to your concerns."... I believe that Donald Trump in the White House would be more abusive to the Constitution than Barack Obama -- and that's saying a lot.' Pruitt issued a statement this week after being reminded of those comments: 'After meeting him, and now having the honor of working for him, it is abundantly clear that President Trump is the most consequential leader of our time....' That evolution from conservative skeptic to flamboyant sycophant is representative of the evolution of the entire party." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't know how "moderate" politicians have come around to supporting dictators in other countries & in other times, but I'd guess it went something like what we're seeing now. Politicians, in general, are pragmatic, shortsighted, unprincipled & self-serving. Where they see an upside to selling their souls, the price of their souls hits rock-bottom. The U.S. has moved so quietly from impending Constitutional crisis to Great American Crisis that probably a majority of Americans have not even noticed. The American Idea is crumbling. If you want to know how to say "America First" in German, it's "America über alles." It's possible that we could vote ourselves right out of this existential crisis before it erupts, but this poll suggests we won't.

NEW. The Saddest Liar. Zeke Miller of the AP: "... Donald Trump says the ratings for his first State of the Union address this week are 'the highest number in history," but that is not true. Nielsen reports that about 45.6 million tuned in to watch Trump Tuesday night. That's below viewership for President Barack Obama's first State of the Union, which was about 48 million, and Trump's own joint address to Congress last year. It also trails the 46.8 million viewers who tuned into President Bill Clinton's first State of the Union speech, and the 51.7 million who watched President George W. Bush's 2002 address."

Charles Pierce discovers that Trump didn't understand what the SOTU speech was all about. ...

... "Americans Are Dreamers, Too." Michael Shear & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Although Mr. Trump characterized his immigration proposal as a 'down-the-middle compromise,' his [SOTU] speech further alienated him from the bipartisan group of lawmakers trying to negotiate a deal. Rather than act as a catalyst for cooperation, it seemed to only deepen the divide. And it underlined the political ramifications of the nativist language that the president used in the 2016 campaign and during his first year in office." ...

... White Supremacists Are Dreamers, Too. Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "The line ['Americans are Dreamers, too'] mirrored Trump's language last September when he announced he would rescind the DACA program that provided legal protection for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, a group known as Dreamers. '[Y]oung Americans have dreams too,' Trump said. The argument for DACA and the Dream Act, which would give a similar group permanent legal status, is that Dreamers are Americans. They had no choice in the decision to come to the United States, they grew up here and, in many cases, they have no connection to any other country. But Trump's turn of phrase turns this concept on its head and pits 'Americans' against 'Dreamers.' It was a message that was quickly embraced by white nationalists, who paired the phrase with stock photos of white people." ...

... Paul Krugman tells us why Trump's nativist SOTU speech was worse than the Willie Horton ad. ...

"Attack of the Chyron." A Low, Low-Budget Movie; Eric Trump, Producer-Director. Gregory Korte, et al., of USA Today: "President Trump's re-election campaign sought to cash in on the State of the Union address Tuesday night with a fundraising pitch -- at bargain prices that dropped during the day. After initially asking donors to send at least $35 in exchange for having their names scrolled during a live stream of the president's speech, the Trump campaign later send out an email solicitation saying only one dollar would do. 'Even if you choose to only give $1, the proof of your support will send shockwaves around the world as they see every American who proudly stands behind our President,' said the pitch signed by the president's son, Eric Trump. The fundraising technique is raising eyebrows from ethics watchdogs, who say the unprecedented attempt to raise money off an official White House event crosses a line." Mrs. McC: Well, at least I'm not the only person who found this stunt to be beyond the pale. (Also linked yesterday.)

Mrs. McCrabbie: Oh, crap, I forgot all about the gossip:

... Kate Bennett of CNN: "In a break with longstanding tradition, Melania Trump opted to ride with the guests she invited to share her first lady's box during ... Donald Trump's State of the Union address. The motorcade ride, from the White House south lawn to the Capitol building, is just a handful of minutes, but for a first couple who has not been publicly seen together since New Year's Eve, the separate cars were another in a string of isolated movements from a very independent first lady." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... AND She Wore Her Hillary Outfit. Vanessa Friedman of the New York Times: "On Tuesday night Melania Trump finally appeared in public alongside her husband (or at least in the same very large room, though they apparently arrived separately) for the first time since the public allegations that President Trump had conducted, just weeks after Mrs. Trump had given birth to the couple's son, an affair with the porn star Stormy Daniels. That Mrs. Trump did so in a white pantsuit with a glowing white blouse -- exactly the kind of outfit that became a symbol of her husband's rival, Hillary Clinton, during the last election, and has since become widely accepted as sartorial shorthand for both the suffragists and contemporary women's empowerment and something of an anti-Trump uniform, and also what the women gathered behind Kesha wore to display their sisterhood at Sunday's Grammy Awards -- seemed to be about as subtle a slap in the face as could be contained in a garment." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... P.S. Here's how happy Melania looked when she saw Donald show up at the party. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "The allegations that Donald Trump paid hush money to hide an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels took another bizarre twist on Tuesday night during an interview with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that followed the president's first State of the Union address. Hours before she was set to appear on the show, Daniels issued a surprise statement in which she flatly denied the affair in 2006. But on the show, Daniels ... cast doubt on the authenticity of the statement, only to be contradicted by her attorney moments after the interview concluded. 'She was having fun on Kimmel and being her normal playful self,' her attorney, Keith Davidson, told the Guardian in an email." (Also linked yesterday.)

Chris Mooney & Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration is poised to ask Congress for deep budget cuts to the Energy Department's renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, slashing them by 72 percent overall in fiscal 2019, according to draft budget documents obtained by The Washington Post. Many of the sharp cuts would likely be restored by Congress, but President Trump's budget due out in February will mark a starting point for negotiations and offer a statement of intent and policy priorities. The document underscores the administration's continued focus on the exploitation of fossil fuel resources -- or as Trump put it in his State of the Union address, 'beautiful clean coal' -- over newer renewable technologies seen as a central solution to the problem of climate change."

Juliet Eilperin & Jack Gillum of the Washington Post: "Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson allowed his son to help organize an agency 'listening tour' in Baltimore last summer despite warnings from department lawyers that doing so risked violating federal ethics rules, according to internal documents and people familiar with the matter. Career officials and political appointees raised concerns days before the visit that Carson's son, local businessman Ben Carson Jr., and daughter-in-law were inviting people with whom they potentially had business dealings, the documents show. Carson Jr. put people he'd invited in touch with his father's deputies, joined agency staff on official conference calls about the listening tour and copied his wife on related email exchanges, according to emails." Although HUD lawyers pretty much told Carson Sr. not to include his son & daughter-in-law, & the lawyers were left with the impression they would not participate, the couple attended the events anyway -- and so did Carson Sr.'s wife. Mrs. McCrabbie "Nepotism" is just another way of spelling "family values." ...

... Jonathan Chait cites four Trump administration corruption stories in one day yesterday. They don't include any involving the Trump-Russia scandal. They barely made a blip on the radar; just "a day in the life of self-dealing in the Trump administration." This is where we are. ...

... More Corruption. Nick Juliano of Politico: "Two casino-owning American Indian tribes are accusing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke of illegally blocking their plans to expand operations in Connecticut -- a delay that stands to benefit politically connected gambling giant MGM Resorts International. The Interior Department's refusal to sign off on the tribes' plans for a third Connecticut casino came after Zinke and other senior department officials held numerous meetings and phone calls with MGM lobbyists and the company's Republican supporters in Congress, according to a Politico review of Zinke's schedule, lobbying registrations and other documents. The documents don't indicate whether they discussed the tribes' casino project."

No, Really, This Is a True Story. Carter Sherman of Vice: "The Trump administration official in charge of the Office of Refugee Resettlement discussed trying to use a controversial, scientifically unproven method to reverse an undocumented teen's abortion, according to documents reviewed by VICE News. Scott Lloyd, a longtime crusader against abortion who heads the agency that oversees undocumented minors who enter the country without their parents, spoke with staffers about trying to reverse the abortion of a pregnant teen in their custody, according to a deposition he underwent as part of a lawsuit between the Trump administration and the American Civil Liberties Union. In the past few years, opponents of abortion have championed the idea of halting a medication abortion midway by using the hormone progesterone. Anti-abortion activists have pushed governors in four states to sign laws requiring healthcare providers to tell patients about this so-called 'abortion reversal' method. But there is no credible medical evidence that such a procedure works, and the mainstream medical community worries that using it amounts to experimentation on women." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Alternatively, I suppose, Lloyd could force teenaged girls in his custody to become surrogate mothers for nice white women who don't want to get stretch marks.

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that it was still trying to stimulate faster economic growth as one of the longest expansions in American history neared the end of its ninth year. The Fed said after a two-day meeting of its policymaking committee that it was leaving its benchmark interest rate unchanged in a range of 1.25 percent to 1.5 percent, a relatively low level that the Fed said would help support continued job growth and stronger inflation. The Fed's economic outlook remained relatively upbeat, setting the stage for a rate hike at its next meeting in March. But the decision to hold steady in January, while widely expected, underscored that the Fed still regards the economic expansion as fragile and in need of assistance."

Rebecca Ruiz of the New York Times: "United States prosecutors have issued grand jury subpoenas in a far-reaching investigation of international sports corruption, seeking new information about some of the biggest sports organizations in the world -- including FIFA, the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic Committee -- as well as the people who have successfully lobbied to host top global competitions. The Justice Department is exploring possible racketeering, money laundering and honest services fraud charges related to two track and field world championship events and the business executives who have consulted on bids for various other elite competitions, according to one of the subpoenas, which was obtained by The New York Times." (Also linked yesterday.)

Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "The Department of Justice moved on Wednesday to dismiss the remaining charges against Senator Robert Menendez, just weeks after prosecutors announced their intent to retry him on federal corruption charges, a decision that would allow the New Jersey Democrat to avoid running for re-election while under indictment. The motion to dismiss cites a decision last week by Judge William H. Walls to acquit Mr. Menendez of seven of the 18 charges he had faced, which included bribery charges stemming from accusations that he accepted political donations from a wealthy Florida eye doctor in exchange for lobbying on the doctor's behalf. The doctor, Salomon Melgen, was also charged in the case. The prosecutor's request will be decided by Judge Jose L. Linares, the chief United States district judge in New Jersey, who has temporarily taken over after Judge Walls recused himself." (Also linked yesterday.)

Make That "Justice Gowdy." Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who has been at the forefront of investigations into both Hillary Clinton and alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election, said Wednesday he would not run for re-election, adding his name to a growing list of Republican lawmakers stepping aside. In a lengthy statement, Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, said he would be leaving politics for good to return to a career in the justice system." (Also linked yesterday.)

Christine Emba, Ruth Marcus & Alyssa Rosenberg of the Washington Post have pretty much the same discussion we had here a few days ago, including a reference to the same attack made on me, Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: "... why do you hate Hillary (I DON'T HATE HILLARY -- I WANTED HER TO BE PRESIDENT, FOR GOODNESS' SAKE) and the why are you writing about this because Trump is so much worse reaction to what I wrote over the weekend." The writers discuss Clinton's sense of privilege, her egocentrism & her inability to accept responsibility for a mistake: in her final sorta mea-culpa (which we did not discuss here because she had not published it yet), "'I' appears 37 times, and 'Sorry' not even once." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suspect the reason many women cannot come to terms with Hillary Clinton's major flaws is because they are flaws we share, often for reasons of self-preservation. If we stand up for ourselves & excuse our actions at ridiculous lengths, it's because no one else in the roomful of men plus one takes our sides.

Rachel Dicker of Mediaite: "You want to hear a conspiracy theory? Coming right up. Former Speaker of the House and famed Clinton hater Newt Gingrich appeared on Hannity Wednesday night to talk about the evil liberal media and how they're in cahoots with Washington's VIPs. 'The elite media is part of the deep state,' Gingrich said. 'The elite media group has survived by being in collusion with the senior bureaucracy, the city of Washington, the senior reporters, the senior bureaucrats, the senior lobbyists, they all hang out together, they all talk to each other, they all compare notes.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: And here I thought Newt -- the proto-Trump -- was off tickling his toes in the Tiber. But no, he's back. Here's Newt on the new white supremacists' cri de coeur: "'Americans are dreamers too' is why President Trump is so remarkable. It shifts focus from a small group to the whole nation."

Martine Powers & Faiz Siddiqui of the Washington Post: "An Amtrak train carrying Republican lawmakers to an annual party conference in West Virginia collided Wednesday with a truck Wednesday. The extent of injuries was not immediately clear. Members of Congress and the local NBC affiliate were reporting one person was killed and two people were injured. Amtrak said there were no injuries to those aboard the train, which originated in Washington. The train was stopped near Crozet, Va. and was carrying members of the House and Senate, some of their spouses and children and aides...." Thanks to Victoria for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Joey Garrison, et al., of the Tennessean: Nashville "Mayor Megan Barry [D] said Wednesday she had an extramarital affair with the police officer in charge of her security detail, an extraordinary admission that rocks the popular Nashville mayor's first term. Barry, in an interview with The Tennessean on Wednesday afternoon, apologized 'for the harm I've done to the people I love and the people who counted on me' but said she won't be resigning. She confirmed the affair with Metro police Sgt. Robert Forrest Jr., which began in the spring or summer of 2016, just months after she entered office the previous fall. Forrest submitted his retirement papers Jan. 17. His final day was Wednesday.... Last year Forrest traveled with Barry overseas to Paris and Athens. He also accompanied her on trips to cities across the U.S., including to Washington, D.C.; New York; Denver; Oakland, Calif.; Salt Lake City; and Kansas City in the last 10 months alone."

Evan Sernoffsky of the San Francisco Chronicle: "San Francisco will retroactively apply California's marijuana-legalization laws to past criminal cases, District Attorney George Gascón said Wednesday -- expunging or reducing misdemeanor and felony convictions going back decades. The unprecedented move will affect thousands of people whose marijuana convictions brand them with criminal histories that can hurt chances of finding jobs and obtaining some government benefits.... Rather than leaving it up to individuals to petition the courts -- which is time-consuming and can cost hundreds of dollars in attorney fees -- Gascón said San Francisco prosecutors will review and wipe out convictions en masse. The district attorney said his office will dismiss and seal more than 3,000 misdemeanor marijuana convictions in San Francisco dating back to 1975. Prosecutors will also review and, if necessary, re-sentence 4,940 felony marijuana cases, Gascón said." Mrs. McC: The Evil Elf must be doing a Rumpelstiltskin. Anyhow, good for Gascón.