;)
The Commentariat -- January 26, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Trump Makes Nice to Global Fat Cats. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump reassured the world's political and financial leaders on Friday that his 'America First' agenda was not a rejection of international cooperation, but he insisted that cross-border trade had to be made fairer and vowed to take action against predatory practices." ...
... Tom Embury-Dennis of the (U.K.) Independent: "Donald Trump has been booed at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos after launching an attack on what he described as the 'nasty, mean and fake' press. 'It wasn't until I became a politician, that I realised how nasty, how mean, how vicious and how fake the press can be,' Mr Trump said. Pointing into the crowd, he added: '... as the cameras start going off in the back.' The comment was met by a mixture of boos and laughter from the audience." Mrs. McC: If only the U.S. press weren't so "impartial" & polite. This is ludicrous coming from someone who denied President Obama was an American, constantly called his opponent "crooked," slammed the press to its face, & so forth.
Trump Threatens Young People. Addy Baird of Think Progress: "The New York Times reported Thursday that White House officials ... 'warned that if no deal is reached [on immigration reform], DACA recipients will face deportation when the program fully expires on March 5.' One unnamed senior official said the young immigrants would not be specifically targeted, but rather they would be treated as 'illegal immigrants' who would be processed for deportation if they came into contact with immigration officers.... The government has a vast amount of personal information on each Dreamer that they were required to turn over to apply for the program -- without the DACA program, its recipients will lose their work permits."
Maggie Haberman & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "A senior adviser to Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign who was accused of repeatedly sexually harassing a young subordinate was kept on the campaign at Mrs. Clinton's request, according to four people familiar with what took place. Mrs. Clinton's campaign manager at the time recommended that she fire the adviser, Burns Strider. But Mrs. Clinton did not. Instead, Mr. Strider was docked several weeks of pay and ordered to undergo counseling, and the young woman was moved to a new job."
Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "Michigan State University was pushed further into disarray on Friday when the university's athletic director, Mark Hollis, announced his resignation just two days after the university president resigned amid widespread outrage over Lawrence G. Nassar, who is accused of serially abusing more than 150 young women while he was a doctor at Michigan State and for the national women's gymnastics team."
*****
Wow! Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump ordered the firing last June of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation, according to four people told of the matter, but ultimately backed down after the White House counsel threatened to resign rather than carry out the directive.... Mr. Mueller learned about the episode in recent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior White House officials.... After receiving the president's order to fire Mr. Mueller, the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, refused to ask the Justice Department to dismiss the special counsel, saying he would quit instead, the people said.... Another option that Mr. Trump considered in discussions with his advisers was dismissing the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, and elevating the department's No. 3 official, Rachel Brand, to oversee Mr. Mueller. Mr. Rosenstein has overseen the investigation since March, when Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself." ...
... Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: "In August of last year, shortly after FBI agents raided the home of President Trump's former campaign chairman, Trump was asked in a news conference whether he had considered firing Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel leading the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. 'I haven't given it any thought,' Trump said. 'Well, I've been reading about it from you people. You say, "Oh, I'm going to dismiss him." No, I'm not dismissing anybody.' A report from the New York Times Thursday says otherwise: Trump not only considered ousting Mueller, he actually tried to do it." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I caught a clip this morning of Trump's being asked by a reporter, on the fly, to respond to the NYT story. "Fake news," he said. And that's all he said. Most of time time when the news about Trump is fake, it's because the media are reporting what Trump (or Mrs. Huckleberry, etc.) said. ...
... Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "According to the Times, press coverage played a role in triggering Trump's attempt to" fire Mueller. Borchers suggests the reports that led Trump to the decision were those that revealed Mueller was looking at obstruction-of-justice charges. "One is probably The Washington Post's June 14 report that Trump's firing of FBI Director James B. Comey one month earlier had prompted Mueller to begin probing the question of obstruction of justice." ...
... David Graham of the Atlantic: "The Times reports that in addition to telling McGahn to fire Mueller, Trump weighed removing Rosenstein. If either man had gone, it could have set off a replay of the Saturday Night Massacre.... None of [Trump's cooked-up] arguments represents a compelling conflict of interest..., and none of them falls afoul of the Justice Department's strict guidelines for avoiding conflicts. Trump surrogates like Chris Ruddy were out making similar arguments at the time, but ... Sarah Sanders insisted that while Trump could fire Mueller, he did not intend to. Congressional Republicans dismissed the idea as too far-fetched to be true.... It is up to Mueller to decide whether Trump's actions constitute a crime of obstruction of justice, but for Congress and the public, the central question remains what it is that has made Trump so anxious to suffocate the probes examining his campaign, presidency, and finances." ...
... Kaili Joy Gray of Shareblue: "... Trump's White House is not denying it. 'We decline to comment out of respect for the Office of the Special Counsel and its process,' said Ty Cobb, one of Trump's lawyers, in a statement to the Times. For a White House that smears any allegation, regardless of the amount of evidence supporting it, as 'fake news,' that statement speaks volumes about the story, which is based on conversations with multiple sources.... The bombshell report confirms what many Democrats were warning when Trump first started smearing Mueller.... The GOP-led smear campaign against Mueller also kicked into gear at the same time Trump was looking for a way to fire him. When Mueller was first appointed in May, Republicans had nothing but good things to say about the Purple Heart veteran and former FBI director. But a month later, their tone had shifted considerably. Suddenly, the investigation was a 'witch hunt' and Mueller went from having integrity to having 'conflicts of interest.'" ...
... Jeremy Stahl of Slate suggests a number of theories -- some his -- as to why & who leaked this story now. Most theorists seem to think Don McGahn was behind the leaks & had a CYA motive. Others suggest Steve Bannon, for the same reason.
... David Choi of Business Insider: Sean Hannity didn't believe the Times' story. "'At this hour, The New York Times is trying to distract you. And our sources, and I've checked in with many of them, they're not confirming that tonight, Hannity [said]. 'And the president's attorney dismissed the story, and says, "Nope, no comment. We're not going there." And how many times has The New York Times and others gotten it wrong.'... Later during the segment, Hannity ... [said,] 'All right, so we have sources tonight just confirming ... that yeah, maybe Donald Trump wanted to fire the special counsel for a conflict,' the Fox News host said. 'Does he not have the right to raise those questions? 'You know, we'll deal with this tomorrow night,' Hannity said, before discussing a high-speed police chase in Arizona." ...
... Trump Lawyer Thinks He's the Decider. Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "John Dowd, a lawyer for ... Donald Trump, told The Daily Beast on Thursday he will be the one to decide whether Trump sits down for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller. Dowd also said he hasn't made any decision on whether an interview will happen." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Bad news, Johnny boy. Mueller is the decider. If Trump refuses to sit for an "interview," he can appear before a D.C. grand jury & answer questions under oath. Is Dowd just posturing, or does he really not know how this works? Also, does he think his suggestion that he, & not his client, will go down well with Trump?
... Tim O'Brien of Bloomberg, whom Donald Trump sued in 2006, describes how Trump did when O'Brien's attorneys deposed him. Among other things, "Trump ultimately had to admit 30 times that he had lied over the years about all sorts of stuff...; Trump didn't appear to be well prepared when we deposed him...; Trump also has a well-known inability to stick to the facts and a tendency to dissemble and improvise." Mrs. McC: Trump lost the suit. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "A lawyer close to Mueller's investigation told The Daily Beast that before the release of Michael Wolff's book Fire and Fury, the special counsel's team indicated zero interest in questioning ... [Steve Bannon].... The team hadn't asked to interview him, the source said. Bannon himself told Wolff that he didn't expect to hear from Mueller. 'I know no Russians, I don't know nothin' about nothin,'' he said. 'I'm not being a witness. I'm not hiring a lawyer.' Bannon also told the author that he suspected Donald Trump Jr. introduced Kremlin-linked operatives to his father during their June 2016 Trump Tower meeting. And he said he thought the Mueller investigation was 'all about money-laundering.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: My confidence in the Mueller team just dipped. Bannon was around for a good period of time when Trump & Co., Ltd., were doing their dirty work. Just because the media have reported on A, B & C doesn't mean the Trumpies haven't filled out an alphabet's-worth of as-yet unreported illegal schemes. Why not go on a fishing expedition? Yeah, start asking staff about Russia & Comey or what have you, & go from there. I hope they videotape Mrs. Huckleberry & Madame Alternative Facts. ...
... Elana Schor of Politico: "The Senate Judiciary Committee will soon release the transcript of its interview with Donald Trump Jr. as well as other witness testimony related to a controversial 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-linked lawyer, Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Thursday. Grassley's comments Thursday come the day after two Democrats on the committee publicly pressed for the release of the panel's closed-door interview transcripts to special counsel Robert Mueller. Even as partisan disputes roil the House's Russia investigation, Grassley's alignment with Democrats on releasing the transcripts signals that the Senate - for now, at least - remains in a more collaborative mode." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Uh, Maybe Not. ...
Grassley Makes Disingenuous Excuse to Shut Down Judiciary Committee Interviews. Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he believes the panel's chances of getting a voluntary interview with White House adviser Jared Kushner 'have been shot.' 'I had hoped to speak with all the witnesses surrounding the Trump Tower meeting before releasing any of those transcripts,' Grassley said Thursday, according to NBC News. 'But the ranking member [Dianne Feinstein] unilaterally released the transcript of Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson. That has spooked other potential witnesses." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Uh, Chuck, Feinstein released testimony that the interviewee Simpson begged to be released. You help up that release because it was damaging to your Republican fantasy narrative & after you & Lindsey Graham made a criminal referral -- without consulting Democrats -- to the FBI, fingering Christopher Steele, who compiled the dossier for Simpson's firm.
... Another GOP Conspiracy Theory Bites the Dust. ...
Avery Anapol of the Hill: "Months of missing text messages between two FBI officials have been located, according a letter obtained by The Hill. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz told Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in a letter that the messages spanning from December 2016 to May 2017, previously thought missing due to a technological glitch affecting FBI phones, have been found. 'The [Office of the Inspector General] has been investigating this matter, and, this week, succeeded in using forensic tools to recover text messages from FBI devices,' the letter read." ...
... Yet Another GOP Conspiracy Theory Bites the Dust. ...
... Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post explains the joke behind the FBI's supposed "secret society," then adds, "What's remarkable about the 'secret society' text message is that it has been available to reporters for more than a month, as it was included in a first set of texts that the Justice Department sent to Capitol Hill (and allowed reporters to view) in December. But it wasn't picked up, even by Fox News (which had access to the texts), because it seemed like such an obvious joke. That changed this week, when lawmakers began highlighting the one text on television." ...
... Johnson Backtracks on Conspiracy Theory He Advanced. Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Sen. Ron Johnson> (R-Wis.) on Thursday acknowledged that 'it's a real possibility' that a reference to a 'secret society' in a text message exchange between two FBI officials was made in jest. The Wisconsin Republican told CNN and ABC News that it was possible that there is no 'secret society' and that the FBI official who made the comment in a text message may have been joking." Mrs. McC: Who's the joke? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mike Memoli of NBC News: "Johnson backtracked somewhat on Wednesday, saying he had merely 'heard' about the existence of a secret society and did not have direct evidence of such a rump organization within the FBI." Mrs. McC: Say what? Tuesday Johnson said an "informant" had testified before the Homeland Security Committee, which he chairs, about the FBI's "secret society" or "secret cult." You're not a flat-out liar, are you, Ron? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Eric Levitz of New York writes an excellent summary of these conspiracy theories & the debunking thereof. It begins, "Congressional Republicans have uncovered a scandal that's 'worse the Watergate,' a threat to 'rule of law' in the United States, and 'very, very sad for democracy.' It also happens to be an unhinged conspiracy theory that boasts less internal coherence than Alex Jones's reflections on the government's responsibility for the growing prevalence of hermaphroditic, homosexual frogs." ...
... Huib Modderkolk of the Dutch daily de Volkskrant: "Hackers from the Dutch intelligence service AIVD have provided the FBI with crucial information about Russian interference with the American elections. For years, AIVD had access to the infamous Russian hacker group Cozy Bear. That's what de Volkskrant and Nieuwsuur have uncovered in their investigation." The story is written in the present tense (in English, anyway), but it begins in 2014. It's a compelling spy story, & it indicates U.S. intelligence agencies were slow to appreciate the intel the Dutch gave them on Russian hacking into a number of important U.S. sites, including President Obama's e-mail server.
... Craig Timberg & Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Washington Post: "Russian operatives used Facebook to publicize 129 phony event announcements during the 2016 presidential campaign, drawing the attention of nearly 340,000 users -- many of whom said they were planning to attend -- according to a company document released by the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday.... In some cases, Russians allegedly working in an office building in St. Petersburg motivated at least some people to mobilize behind various causes, a striking accomplishment for a foreign influence campaign."
Michael Shear & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Trump proposed legislation on Thursday that would provides a path to citizenship for as many as 1.8 million young, undocumented immigrants in exchange for an end to decades of family-based migration policies, a massive border wall and a vast crackdown on other illegal immigrants already living in the country. Describing the plan as 'extremely generous' but a take-it-or-leave-it proposal by the president, White House officials said they hoped it will be embraced by conservatives and centrists in Congress as the first step in an even broader effort to fix the nation's broken immigration system. But the plan -- drafted by Stephen Miller, the president's hard-line domestic policy adviser and John F. Kelly..., -- was immediately rejected by Democrats, pro-immigration activists and some Republicans, with some describing it as nothing but a heartless attempt to rid the country of immigrants and slam shut the nation's borders. Republican and Democratic senators are working on a narrower immigration plan of their own, hoping that if it can pass the Senate with a strong, bipartisan majority, it would be Mr. Trump who would have the take-it-or-leave-it decision." ...
... Rebekah Entralgo of ThinkProgress: "Several DREAMers — people who were brought to the U.S. as children -- and immigrants rights advocacy groups reacted to the White House's proposal almost immediately, calling out the Trump administration for its brazen embrace of a popular white supremacist policy platform. 'Let's call this proposal for what it is: a white supremacist ransom note. Trump and Stephen Miller killed DACA and created the crisis that immigrant youth are facing. They have taken immigrant youth hostage, pitting us against our own parents, Black immigrants and our communities in exchange for our dignity,' immigrant advocacy group United We Dream said in a statement Thursday." ...
... Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg: "Senator Ted Cruz blasted the idea of giving young undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship, a day after ... Donald Trump said he was open to the idea as part of immigration legislation being negotiated in Congress. 'I do not believe we should be granting a path to citizenship to anybody here illegally,' the Texas Republican said in the Capitol. 'Doing so is inconsistent with the promises we made to the men and women who elected us.' Cruz didn't mention the president in his remarks, but they resurfaced some of the bitterness still left over from the presidential campaign." Mrs. McC: Cruz also didn't mention that both his parents are legal immigrants. Out of the spotlight, he's still the nasty, selfish SOB we remember.
Lindsey Bever, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced the symbolic Doomsday Clock a notch closer to the end of humanity Thursday, moving it ahead by 30 seconds after what the organization called a 'grim assessment' of the state of geopolitical affairs. 'As of today,' Bulletin president Rachel Bronson told reporters, 'it is two minutes to midnight' -- as close as the world has ever been to the hour of apocalypse. In moving the clock forward, the group cited 'the failure of President Trump and other world leaders to deal with looming threats of nuclear war and climate change.'... The organization -- which has 15 Nobel Laureates on its board -- now believes 'the world is not only more dangerous now than it was a year ago; it is as threatening as it has been since World War II'...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump sought on Thursday to repair a diplomatic rift with Britain, America's closest ally, after several fractious episodes culminated in his decision to cancel a scheduled visit to London, where the mayor and other political leaders declared him unwelcome. Meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, Mr. Trump insisted that the perception of tension in the historically close British-American relationship was a 'false rumor' and indicated that the two sides were discussing the possibility of a later presidential trip to the island.... Mrs. May was polite but less effusive and offered no personal testimonial to Mr. Trump, keeping her comments focused on their mutual national interests." ...
... "The Least Racist Person" Says He Would Apologize (But hasn't.) ITV: "Donald Trump has told ITV that he would apologise for re-tweeting Britain First - and insisted he is not a racist. The US president told Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan that he knew 'nothing' about the organisation and was driven by his belief in fighting radical Islamic terror.... Mr Trump caused outrage in Britain when he posted the three tweets last November, prompting Prime Minister Theresa May to say he was 'wrong' to have done so. Mr Trump told ITV that he did not mean to endorse 'horrible, racist people' and that the re-tweet had not been a big story in the US. But pressed for an apology by Morgan, he said: 'I don't want to cause any difficulty for your country. If you are telling me they're horrible people, horrible, racist people, I would certainly apologise if you'd like me to do that.' Mr Trump said he was 'often the least racist person that anybody is going to meet' and said he had known nothing about the organisation when he made the social media postings. When Morgan described Britain First as 'racist', the president said: 'Of course I didn't know that. I know nothing about them and I know nothing about them today other than I read a little bit.'"
Kevin Drum: "[Wednesday] at Davos, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin casually suggested that the United States preferred a weak dollar because it makes our exports cheaper. A few hours later, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said no, our strong dollar policy is the same as always. In other words, it was just another day at the office for the Trump administration, which was flying blind because the president hadn't tweeted anything lately about his views on the role of currency flows in international trade equilibria." ...
... Okay, Kevin, Here's Your Trump Pronouncement, Which Differs from the Old Pronouncement. Fred Imbert of CNBC: "... Donald Trump told CNBC on Thursday the dollar will strengthen over time under his leadership and that recent remarks made by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about the greenback were misinterpreted. 'The dollar is going to get stronger and stronger, and ultimately I want to see a strong dollar,. Trump said in an ... interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.... Trump's latest remarks about the dollar diverge from his past comments. Last April, Trump said he was worried the dollar was 'getting too strong.' At the WEF on Wednesday, Mnuchin said he welcomed a weaker U.S. dollar, adding that it would benefit the country's trade. On Thursday, Mnuchin said the comment was not a 'shift in my position on the dollar at all....' Trump said Mnuchin's comments 'were taken out of context.'... Mnuchin's earlier remarks kicked off a 2 percent decline in the dollar index, which tracks the U.S. currency's performance against six other currencies."
John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... on Thursday night Trump ended up getting upstaged by another elderly Manhattan billionaire: George Soros.... 'Open societies are in crisis, and various forms of dictatorships and mafia states, exemplified by Putin's Russia, are on the rise. In the United States, President Trump would like to establish a mafia state, but he can’t, because the Constitution, other institutions, and a vibrant civil society won't allow it,' [Soros said at Davos.... Later Soros] turned his attention to 'another global problem: the rise and monopolistic behavior of the giant I.T.-platform companies,' such as Facebook and Google. Here was a threat, Soros suggested, that was likely to be more lasting than the Trump Administration."
... Paul Schwartzman of the Washington Post: "The emailed response from the Guggenheim's chief curator to the White House was polite but firm: The museum could not accommodate a request to borrow a painting by Vincent van Gogh for President and Melania Trump's private living quarters. Instead, wrote the curator, Nancy Spector, another piece was available...: an 18-karat, fully functioning, solid gold toilet -- an interactive work titled 'America' that critics have described as pointed satire aimed at the excess of wealth in this country. For a year, the Guggenheim had exhibited 'America' -- the creation of contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan -- in a public restroom on the museum's fifth floor for visitors to use." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: All the effort we've put into insulting Donald Trump, & Nancy Spector trumps us, so to speak, in one e-mail. Brava!
Paul Krugman on Trump's imposition of tariffs on washing machines & solar panels: "Why do Trump and company love dirty energy? Partly it's about the money: what's good for the Koch brothers ... [is] good for G.O.P. campaign finance. Partly it's about blue-collar voters, who still imagine that Trump can bring back coal jobs.... It's also partly about cultural nostalgia: Trump and others recall the heyday of fossil fuels as a golden age, forgetting how ghastly air and water pollution used to be. But I suspect that it's also about a kind of machismo, a sense that real men don't soak up solar energy; they burn stuff instead.... The administration's first significant trade policy move is stunningly boneheaded. You shouldn't even call it protectionism, since its direct effect will be to destroy far more jobs than it creates. Plus it's bad for the environment. So much winning!"
Emoluments! Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: "A super PAC supporting President Trump spent tens of thousands of dollars on events at the Trump International Hotel in Washington and for consulting work by a handful of former Trump campaign aides, according to a new federal filing.... [For instance,] America First Action last year ... paid $55,000 to former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski's consulting business, $40,000 to former campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson's firm, $31,719 to former Milwaukee County sheriff David Clarke's firm, and $137,257 to former campaign digital media director Brad Parscale's business."
Heather Caygle & Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Rep. Joe Kennedy, a rising star in the Democratic Party, will deliver the Democratic response to ... Donald Trump's State of the Union on Tuesday, sources told Politico."
** Dell Cameron of Gizmodo: "Prior to receiving notice from Gizmodo this morning, Kris Kobach's office was leaking sensitive information belonging to thousands of state employees, including himself and nearly every member of the Kansas state legislature. Among a bevy of personal information that, according to a statement on the website, was intended to be public, the Kansas Secretary of State's website was exposing the last four digits of Social Security numbers (known as SSN4) of thousands of current and former candidates for office, as well as thousands, or potentially tens of thousands, of high-ranking state employees at apparently ever[y] Kansas government agency. The combination of a person's name and SSN4 creates what's commonly called 'personally identifiable information,' the unauthorized disclosure of which is unlawful under numerous state and federal laws. Putting these statements of substantial interest online without redacting the SSN4 information is beyond reckless; it's stupid.... Gizmodo notified the Kansas Secretary of State's office of the exposure on Thursday morning, and the site was taken down within roughly an hour. A request for comment was not returned." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Remember that Kobach's federal Voter Suppression Commission had demanded every state hand over "personally identifiable information" of every voter in their states. As the New York Times reported in June, "Besides election information like voters' names and party affiliations, the commission sought personal information including birth dates, felony conviction records, voting histories for the past decade and the last four digits of all voters' Social Security numbers." And ProPublica reported, "The voter-fraud-checking program championed by the head of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity suffers from data security flaws that could imperil the safety of millions of peoples' records, according to experts." Fortunately, most states refused to comply with Kobach's demands, & Trump disbanded the Commission before Kobach could download your personal data onto a public-access Website. In addition, Mother Jones reports today that Kobach's brainchild Crosscheck, "has faced mounting questions in recent weeks over security breaches and privacy concerns... with Crosscheck..., a system that compares voter registration data from more than 30 states."
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Jeffrey Wertkin had a plot to bring in business and impress his new partners after joining one of Washington's most influential law firms. As a former high-stakes corporate-fraud prosecutor with the Department of Justice, he had secretly stockpiled sealed lawsuits brought by whistleblowers. Now, he would sell copies of the suits to the very targets of the pending government investigations — and his services to defend them. Wertkin carried out his plan for months, right up until the day an FBI agent arrested him in a California hotel lobby. The 41-year-old partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in the District was caught wearing a wig and fake mustache trying to peddle a sealed federal lawsuit for $310,000 to a Silicon Valley technology company." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Ken Vogel & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Representative Patrick Meehan, Republican of Pennsylvania, facing backlash after revelations that he settled a sexual harassment complaint brought by a former aide, will not seek re-election this year. Mr. Meehan informed Speaker Paul D. Ryan of his decision in a letter sent on Thursday.... The decision is an abrupt reversal for Mr. Meehan, 62, who this week had insisted that he intended to run for re-election to a fifth term representing his suburban Philadelphia district, even as the House Ethics Committee investigated the sexual harassment allegations and his use of taxpayer money to settle them. Mr. Meehan, a father of three, had faced increasing pressure to step down after The New York Times revealed on Saturday that a former aide decades his junior had filed a complaint against him last summer, and that Mr. Meehan had used his congressional office fund to pay her thousands of dollars to settle it."
Presidential Race 2020 (Yeah, We're There)
Oprah Won't Run for President. Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "In an interview for the March issue of InStyle..., conducted three weeks before [Oprah Winfrey spoke] at the Golden Globes, the former talk show host was asked how she felt about the prospect of what would have been a historic campaign to put a black woman in the White House.... 'I've always felt very secure and confident with myself in knowing what I could do and what I could not,' she said. 'And so it’s not something that interests me. I don't have the DNA for it.' But that doesn't mean she wasn't toying with the idea. 'I met with someone the other day who said that they would help me with a campaign,' she told the magazine. 'That's not for me.'"
Senate Race 2018
David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Republican U.S. Senate candidate for Missouri Courtland Sykes blasted 'women's rights' this week [in a Facebook post].... 'I want to come home to a home cooked dinner every night at six,' Sykes said, referring to demands he makes of his girlfriend. 'One that she fixes and one that I expect one day to have daughters learn to fix after they become traditional homemakers and family wives.' According to Sykes, feminists push an agenda that they 'made up to suit their own nasty snake-filled heads.' The candidate said that he hoped his daughters do not grow up to be 'career obsessed banshees who forgo home life and children and the happiness of family to become nail-biting manophobic hell-bent feminist she devils who shriek from the top of a thousand tall buildings they are [SIC] think they could have leaped in a single bound — had men not been "suppressing them." It's just nuts.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sykes should do pretty well against Sen. Claire McCaskill, that nail-biting manophobic hell-bent feminist she-devil. Congratulations, GOP!
Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "CNN is reinstating Ryan Lizza, the Washington political reporter who was fired from the New Yorker for alleged sexual misconduct. 'Upon learning of The New Yorker's decision to sever ties with Ryan Lizza in December, CNN pulled him from future on-air appearances while the network conducted an extensive investigation into the matter,' reads a statement from a CNN spokeswoman. 'Based on the information provided and the findings of the investigation, CNN has found no reason to continue to keep Mr. Lizza off the air.'"
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