;)
The Commentariat -- November 5, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Trumpsky Dachas, Fla., U.S.A. Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's positive statements about Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Russia-aligned policy positions have prompted critics to question the extent of the Republican presidential nominee's financial connection to that country. While he has denied having investments in Russia, the experience in Sunny Isles[, Fla.,] and other Trump-branded communities shows how Russians have invested in him. In addition to the towers of 'Little Moscow,' Russian investors have been a valuable source of capital for Trump buildings in nearby Hollywood, Fla., and in a large complex in Panama City, Panama. Trump does not own these buildings, but, like many Trump projects around the world, he licensed the use of his name and took a percentage of the profits from the initial sales of units. Real estate agents say there have been fewer Russian investors in Florida condos since U.S.-imposed sanctions on Russia took effect in 2014. They predict that the market will improve if Trump wins and reconsiders the sanctions." -- CW
Rosalind Helderman & Mary Jordan of the Washington Post: "Melania Trump ..., an immigrant from Slovenia, was paid for 10 modeling jobs in 1996 before she received legal authorization to work in the United States, the Associated Press reported Friday night.... [Story linked below.] The finding contradicts repeated statements from both Melania and Donald Trump, who have insisted that she scrupulously followed U.S. immigration law when she came to the United States.... [Donald Trump] has based much of his campaign on a vow to crack down on illegal immigration -- including deporting people who have violated the terms of their immigration status.... In a speech [Melania Trump] delivered Thursday in a Philadelphia suburb, she again highlighted her legal immigration status.... Trump has promised to deport people who have violated the terms of their visas.... Immigration experts say questions remain about how Melania was able to obtain her green card in 2001.... She has said she was granted the permit because of 'extraordinary ability,' but experts say that visa category is generally reserved for people whose accomplishment is at the level of a Nobel Prize winner. It would be unusual, they say, for a model with no college degree to qualify." -- CW
Paul Campos on the news that the paper of record, the National Enquirer, paid $150K to spike a story about an affair Donald Trump (allegedly) had while his new wife Melania was pregnant (story linked below): "Of course the real scandal here is that the Enquirer did this after running, at the most crucial juncture of the GOP primaries, an unsubstantiated story about Ted Cruz having an affair, and a completely hallucinogenic story about Cruz's father taking part in the murder of JFK. That Trump is a completely amoral pig who is more than willing to have sex with other women while his wife is otherwise occupied in a maternity ward is not exactly breaking news, although maybe it should give pause to his biggest evangelical boosters. (Who am I kidding?)." -- CW
Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Donald Trump on Saturday complimented a state official who called Hillary Clinton a 'c[unt]' and cited him as evidence that he's winning Texas." -- CW
Wherein Wolf Blitzer, of all people, catches America's Mayor in a series of lies. Who knew Rudy could tap-dance? Maybe it's the bowtie. -- CW
*****
Presidential Race
Nate Silver: "We're a couple of days removed from the point when almost every poll showed Hillary Clinton on a downward trajectory. Instead, polls over the past 24 hours have been more equivocal. National polls tend to suggest that Donald Trump's momentum has halted, and that Clinton may even be regaining ground. But Trump is getting his share of good results in state polls, which both show competitive races in some of Clinton's 'firewall' states and favorable trend lines for Trump." -- CW ...
... "Trump is Just a Normal Polling Error Behind Clinton." Harry Enten of 538: "All of this is to say that even if Clinton's lead [in the pre-election polls] over Trump doesn't shrink anymore, Trump might still win. He would need only a normal-sized polling error. Of course, that error would need to be in his favor, and there's nothing inherent about polling errors that says they must aid the trailing candidate." -- CW
The New York Times is reporting "live briefings" of weekend campaign doings here.
Most Trump Campaign Trail Surrogates Are Dirty Old Men. Alexander Burns & Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton campaigned Friday in the company of friends and celebrities, first flanked by the billionaire businessman Mark Cuban in Pittsburgh and Detroit, and then bound for a Jay Z concert in Cleveland. High-wattage political leaders fanned out for her around the country: Her husband, Bill, stumped in Colorado, as President Obama rallied voters in North Carolina.
... By comparison, Donald J. Trump was a lonely figure. In the final days of the presidential race, Mr. Trump's political isolation has made for an unusual spectacle on the campaign trail -- and perhaps a limiting factor in his dogged comeback bid. When it comes to bolstering Mr. Trump, the Republican Party is not sending its best:... Mr. Trump has been left instead with an eclectic group of backup players to aid him in his last dash for votes.... The most prominent Republicans in key swing states still fear that his unpopularity may taint them by association. Campaigning in New Hampshire on Friday, Mr. Trump did not appear with either Senator Kelly Ayotte, a Republican seeking re-election, or Chris Sununu, the Republican nominee for governor. Ms. Ayotte withdrew her endorsement of Mr. Trump last month, and Mr. Sununu has kept an awkward distance from Mr. Trump in his closely divided state. But Mr. Sununu's father, John H. Sununu, 77, a former governor of the state known for his irascible temper, introduced Mr. Trump with a crude joke about the Clintons. 'Do you think Bill was referring to Hillary when he said, "I did not have sex with that woman?"' Mr. Sununu cracked, drawing laughter from the crowd." See also Election News below. -- CW
Yamiche Alcindor & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Some of the most famous names in hip-hop came out to rally votes for [Hillary Clinton] at an event [in Cleveland] that featured Beyoncé, Jay Z and Chance the Rapper, all of whom implored thousands of cheering people to back the Democratic presidential nominee.... At the concert, aimed largely at urging black voters and millennials to vote on Tuesday, some of the biggest stars emphasized the historical significance of potentially electing the first woman as president." -- CW
Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: "President Barack Obama went into the final stretch of the 2016 campaign warning that Donald Trump is within range of winning, urging voters -- particularly black voters, whose turnout is lagging -- to see the Republican nominee as running an un-American, inhumane, racist campaign that must be stopped. 'This should not be a close race, but it's going to be a close race. It's going to be especially close here in North Carolina,' Obama said.... 'The fact that he has gotten this far tells me the degree to which our politics has become like a bad reality TV show.'... Obama said that in a state with a history of Jim Crow and more recent battles over voting rights restrictions, there is a special responsibility to show up at the polls and speak out. Think about the 100-year old North Carolina woman who'd been kicked off the voter rolls, he said, and recounted her fight to get herself reinstated in a letter that the president read to the crowd. 'It's bad enough she was disrespected. Are we now also going to respect her because we're not voting?' Obama said." -- CW
Bill's Crocodile Tears. Madeline Conway of Politico: "Bill Clinton on Friday used Melania Trump's recent campaign speech about cyber bullying to mock Donald Trump, suggesting her advocacy is ironic considering her husband's long history of antagonizing people on Twitter. 'I never felt so bad for anybody in my life as I did for his wife going out giving a speech saying "Oh, cyber bullying was a terrible thing,"' Clinton said, campaigning ... in Pueblo, Colorado. 'I thought, "Yeah, especially if it's done at three o'clock in the morning against a former Miss Universe by a guy running for president!'" the former president said to laughter." -- CW
David Corn of Mother Jones: "In an episode reminiscent of Watergate, the Democratic Party recently informed the FBI that it had collected evidence suggesting its Washington headquarters had been bugged, according to two Democratic National Committee officials.... [A sweep in October] found a radio signal near the chairman's office that indicated there might be a listening device outside the office. 'We were told that this was something that could pick up calls from cellphones,' a DNC official says.... No device was recovered. No possible culprits were identified." -- CW
** Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: "FBI Director James Comey's decision to reveal fresh details of the Bureau's investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server while secretary of state, and the subsequent leaks from Bureau sources casting suspicion on Clinton and defending Republican nominee Donald Trump from allegations of Russian influence, do more than threaten the Bureau's reputation. They threaten American democracy as much as any of Trump's authoritarian proposals.... [Comey's] move, coming less than two weeks before the presidential election, suggests that some at the FBI once again feel untouchable.... It seems clear that key officials at the Bureau no longer feel that the rules against politicized disclosures apply to them.... A presidential election should not depend on the ability of candidates to successfully intimidate or cultivate favor among American national-security agencies." CW: Read the whole essay. I think it's excellent. ...
... Washington Post Editors: "IT WAS disruptive enough that James B. Comey ... injected last-minute uncertainty into the presidential campaign by announcing discovery of additional emails in the investigation of Hillary Clinton's private server. Mr. Comey's explanation for the disclosure ... was dubious, and the damaging impact, casting a new shadow over Ms. Clinton, was tangible. In the days since, the FBI's behavior has grown even more questionable. FBI sources have fanned new doubts about Ms. Clinton's candidacy with inaccurate leaks about an investigation of the Clinton Foundation. This reflects poorly on Mr. Comey's leadership and on the FBI.... Most irresponsible of all was Fox News anchor Bret Baier, who declared an 'avalanche' of evidence is 'coming every day' and an 'expansive' investigation into the foundation was ongoing and would lead 'to likely an indictment.' Without any substantiation whatsoever ... the headlines took off. The false report of an impending indictment was then repeated by Donald Trump." -- CW ...
... David Graham of the Atlantic: "One can start to imagine a path: FBI agents who hate Clinton leak to reporters or pass information to people like [form head of the NYC FBI office Jim] Kallstrom and [Rudy 9/11] Giuliani, who then send it to the media. Pressed on Fox and Friends Friday on whether he was tipped off ahead of time about the recent leaks, Giuliani said, 'Did I hear about it? You're darn right I heard about it, and I can't even repeat the language that I heard from the former FBI agents.' There is some irony that even as the Trump campaign is alleging improper communication between the Department of Justice and the Clinton campaign, a top Trump adviser is receiving just that kind of information. Giuliani's statement has already attracted the attention of Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, who wrote a letter Friday to the inspector general of the Justice Department requesting an investigation into the leaks." -- CW
... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "Fox News anchor Bret Baier apologized Friday for [falsely] reporting that federal investigators had determined that Hillary Clinton's private email server had been hacked and that an investigation would lead to an indictment of Clinton after the election. In fact, Baier said, after checking with his sources, there is no evidence at this time for either statement. Baier, the anchor of Fox's evening newscast..., went on the air Wednesday to report that the FBI had determined that Clinton's private server, which she used while serving as secretary of state, had been hacked by 'five foreign intelligence agencies.' He further said on Thursday, during an interview with Fox's Brit Hume, that a separate FBI investigation - of the charitable Clinton Foundation -- was 'likely' to lead to an indictment of Clinton after Tuesday's election." -- CW: Of course it took the other major networks call your bluff before Baier coughed up an apology. See yesterday's Commentariat. ...
... Legitimizing Corruption -- Any Means to an End. Eric Levitz of New York: "'The damage is done to Hillary Clinton,' Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told MSNBC's Brian Williams on Friday.... Conway hastened to explain that the 'damage' here was very good damage.... 'No matter how it's being termed, the voters are hearing it for what it is -- a culture of corruption,' Conway explained.... The damage is done. And, per Kellyanne Conway, James Comey and Bret Baier should be very proud." -- CW ...
... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "... emailgate, like so many Clinton pseudo-scandals before it, is bullshit. The real scandal here is the way a story that was at best of modest significance came to dominate the US presidential election -- overwhelming stories of much more importance, giving the American people a completely skewed impression of one of the two nominees, and creating space for the FBI to intervene in the election in favor of its apparently preferred candidate in a dangerous way.... Network newscasts have, remarkably, dedicated more airtime to coverage of Clinton's emails than to all policy issues combined.... Clinton broke no laws according to the FBI itself. Her setup gave her no power to evade federal transparency laws beyond what anyone who has a personal email account of any kind has. Her stated explanation for her conduct is entirely believable, fits the facts perfectly, and is entirely plausible to anyone who doesn't simply start with the assumption that she's guilty of something. Given [Colin] Powell's conduct, Clinton wasn't even breaking with an informal precedent." ...
... CW: If your dimwitted brother-in-law is still citing "the e-mails" as his reason for voting for Trump, send him Yglesias's post, assign him to read it, & then call him to discuss it. Your brother-in-law is going to have to come up with another bullshit excuse for an irresponsible vote for Trump, because Yglesias does a bang-up job of shooting down all the "Clinton e-mail scandal" shibboleths. This is not a "Clinton scandal"; it's a GOP/media/FBI scandal. ...
... MEANWHILE, in PodestaGate news, Abby Ohlheiser of the Washington Post has found it necessary to write a story under the headline "No, John Podesta didn't drink bodily fluids at a secret Satanist dinner." Why? Because an e-mail in the WikiLeaks Podesta dump "has prompted more than 400,000 tweets of a trending Twitter hashtag, a huge Drudge Report headline and a ton of right-wing news items, all claiming that the email proves a secret link between the Clinton campaign and Satan worship (which, just to be clear right here, it does not)." Here's a screenshot of Matt Drudge's top story Friday:
... CW: Maybe it's time for a massive, nationwide exorcism. These people are possessed.
Never Let the Facts Get in the Way. Eli Stokols of Politico: Hillary "Clinton, [Donald] Trump predicted, will 'be under investigation for years.' Her election, he continued, would lead to 'an unprecedented constitutional crisis.'... Friday's news cycle did not exactly dovetail neatly with Trump's closing argument. As Trump was promising to 'drain the swamp' in Washington and portraying the federal government and Clinton as corrupt, two top allies of one of his most high-profile surrogates [Gov. Chrisco] were convicted -- and another [Rudy 9/11] went on television and appeared to claim that FBI contacts had tipped him off about its ongoing investigation of Clinton. And the journalist [Bret Baier] on whose story Trump has based his recent claim that Clinton will be indicted went on television Friday morning to apologize, calling his report 'a mistake.'... [In his campaign stops,] Trump did not refer to any of Friday's new developments with the exception of the monthly jobs report, which showed that 160,000 jobs were created in October and observers viewed as a sign that the economy continues to grow, albeit slowly. 'Nobody believes the numbers anyway,' Trump said. 'The numbers they put out are phony.'" -- CW
Jonathan Chait on the non-effects of the Bridgegate verdicts (see stories lined under Beyond the Beltway: "... to summarize, Trump pronounced Christie guilty of legally abusing his power, then appointed him to a position where he would have immense latitude to abuse his power, whereupon he announced a plan of action that would make such abuses virtually inevitable even if an ethical politician was handling it, and then ran a campaign centered on 'draining the swamp.'... The most amazing thing about this is that nobody will care.... The news media has figured out that Trump's supporters' beliefs about his ethics, and the criminality of his opponent, are not subject to amendment on the basis of evidence. Journalists have internalized this reality.... Somewhere around the time he attracted a massive conservative following by promoting the birther hoax, Trump figured out that the Republican electorate was the biggest pool of suckers in America. It's a cohort that resides within a hermetically sealed counterfactual universe." -- CW
National Enquirer Buries Trump Sex Scandal. Gabrielle Bluestone of Jezebel: "In a story that dropped late Friday night, the Wall Street Journal reports that a Playboy model who says she had an affair with Donald Trump got a $150,000 paycheck from the National Enquirer, which curiously sat on the story after buying it. The Journal ... reports that in August, the tabloid paid $150,000 to Karen McDougal, the 1998 Playmate of the Year who said she enjoyed a consensual relationship with Trump in 2006 -- a year after his wedding to his third and current wife, Melania. The Journal categorizes the exchange as a 'catch and kill,' where the tabloid bought her story to silence her. A source tells the Journal that despite paying out six figures for the story, the Enquirer's parent company, American Media, 'didn't intend to run it.'" -- CW ...
... The Wall Street Journal story, by Joe Palazzolo & others, is here, and at least at the moment (midnight ET), it is not firewalled. The lede: "The company that owns the National Enquirer, a backer of Donald Trump, agreed to pay $150,000 to a former Playboy centerfold model for her story of an affair a decade ago with the Republican presidential nominee, but then didn't publish it, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and people familiar with the matter." ...
... CW: It would take a lot more than the privilege of occupying tacky, gilded quarters with a nasty, lying, abusive reprobate to get me to put up with the crap for which Melania Trump has sold her soul. Free Melania!
Anna Merlan of Jezebel: "A woman who accused Donald Trump of raping her at a party when she was just 13 years old has voluntarily dismissed her lawsuit, according to court records. The woman, who has gone by the pseudonyms Jane Doe and Katie Johnson, was a no-show at a much hyped press conference earlier this week with celebrity attorney Lisa Bloom." -- CW
AP: "Melania Trump was paid for 10 modeling jobs in the United States worth $20,056 that occurred in the seven weeks before she had legal permission to work in the country, according to detailed accounting ledgers, contracts and related documents from 20 years ago provided to The Associated Press. The details of Mrs. Trump's early paid modeling work in the U.S. emerged in the final days of a bitter presidential campaign in which her husband, Donald Trump, has taken a hard line on immigration laws and those who violate them.... The documents examined by the AP indicate that the modeling assignments would have been outside the bounds of her visa.... Since questions arose earlier this year, Mrs. Trump has declined to publicly release her immigration records." -- CW ...
... CW: Cliffhanger: Will Melania "self-deport" before Donald sends immigration goon squads to arrest her and "Lock her up"? Tune in next Wednesday to find out.
Election News
Today in Republican Voter Suppression News
Eric Heisig of Cleveland.com: "A federal judge on Friday said he will issue a restraining order against Donald Trump's campaign and longtime adviser Roger Stone to avoid 'harassing or intimidating conduct' at polling places on Nov. 8 Election Day. U.S. District Judge James Gwin did not specify exactly what will or will not be allowed but said the order would likely be generic and prohibit both Democrats and Republicans from harassment of people entering and leaving polling places. 'It wouldn't be any attempt to particularly identify as somebody being a Trump supporter or not,' Gwin said. The judge also appeared unlikely to tinker with those poll observers whose names are submitted by each political party and are then approved by county boards of elections. It also seemed like many of the actions he would forbid in his restraining order are already illegal, though the order could result in a contempt charge for anybody accused of violating it.... By Friday evening, Trump's campaign had asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati to review the order." Gwin is a Clinton appointee. ...
... CW: That's right. Donald Trump is going to appeal an order forbidding voter intimidation.
Voter Suppression the Easy Way. German Lopez of Vox: "Next week, Americans will hold the first presidential election in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act.... But the US Supreme Court struck down part of the law in 2013, limiting the federal government's oversight of states with long histories of suppressing minority voters. As a result, states have passed more voting restrictions over the past several years.... But a new report ... finds another potential effect: Counties previously monitored through the Voting Rights Act have closed down at least 868 polling places since the Supreme Court's decision -- a 16 percent reduction.... (The report only looked at about half of the counties previously covered by the Voting Rights Act due to some limitations in the available data.)... Prior to the Supreme Court's decision, the federal government could oversee state and local governments' decisions to shut down polling places to ensure they weren't meant to disenfranchise minority voters. Today, the federal government's power is limited." -- CW ...
... Ari Berman of the Nation has more on the same report about Republicans' shutting down polling places. "Arizona, the poster child for voting problems in the primary, closed the highest percentage of polling places in the study. 'Almost every county in the state reduced polling places in advance of the 2016 election and almost every county closed polling places on a massive scale, resulting in 212 fewer polling places,' says the report (emphasis in original)" -- CW ...
... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge has ordered officials in three North Carolina counties to restore several thousand voters dropped from the rolls in the past three months after mailings to their home addresses were returned as undeliverable. About 4,000 voters in those counties had their registrations canceled recently after private individuals and groups challenged the registrations under a process allowed by state law. U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Biggs said the use of that process to remove large numbers of voters amounted to the kind of 'systematic' purging of voter rolls that federal law prohibits within 90 days of an election." -- CW ...
... Persistent, Multi-Pronged Voter Suppression. German Lopez: "North Carolina Republicans are using one shameful trick after another to keep Democrats [-- mostly black citizens --] from voting.... It might not be enough in the end, but it's clear what they're trying to do -- deny just enough people their basic constitutional rights to maybe swing an election or two or three" in a state where the presidential, senatorial & gubernatorial races are all extremely close. -- CW
Ken Dilanian, et al., of NBC News: "U.S. military hackers have penetrated Russia's electric grid, telecommunications networks and the Kremlin's command systems, making them vulnerable to attack by secret American cyber weapons should the U.S. deem it necessary, according to a senior intelligence official and top-secret documents reviewed by NBC News. American officials have long said publicly that Russia, China and other nations have probed and left hidden malware on parts of U.S critical infrastructure, 'preparing the battlefield,' in military parlance, for cyber attacks that could turn out the lights or turn off the internet across major cities.... The documents reviewed by NBC News -- along with remarks by a senior U.S. intelligence official -- confirm that, in the case of Russia." -- CW ...
... More Help May Be On the Way for Comrade Trumpskyev. Matthew Rozsa of Salon: "American government officials are warning that Russian hackers may try to undermine the presidential election next week and are taking steps to prevent it. In a joint effort coordinated between the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, the CIA, the NSA, and the Defense Department, the government is on alert for worst-case scenarios like a cyber-attack that shuts down part of the power grid or internet according to a report from NBC News. They have also made it clear to Russia that efforts to manipulate either the voting or vote counting process would be treated with the utmost seriousness.... There are concerns that Russia will continue to manipulate sites like WikiLeaks to dump fake documents into the news cycle on Election Day, then watch as the scandal destroys Clinton's campaign chances before reputable journalists have a chance to fact-check them". Akhilleus: Sheesh. Everyone wants in on the act. As for destroying Clinton's chances, our own FBI has been doing damned fine on its own without help from Russia. ...
... AND, if -- after reading reports yesterday about a higher terrorist threat level -- you're thinking of staying home under the covers next Monday, then you'll want to read Steve M.'s report. Also, too, read the comment by Mikio for why Monday & not election day.
Other News & Views
Neil Irwin of the New York Times: "The United States economy is basically healthy. That is the simplest, most important thing to take away from new jobs numbers released Friday morning, four days before the presidential election. These numbers affirm that Americans were probably right to focus on other things during this election.... The biggest and most pleasant surprise in these numbers is evidence that workers' wages are rising faster than they have through seven years of expansion." -- CW
Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Obama on Friday commuted the sentences of 72 inmates, the latest sign he is accelerating his clemency push during his final months in office. It was the second time in the past eight days the White House announced that a large group of people, most convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, would be released from federal prison. The two batches totaled 170 inmates. In total, 944 people have had their sentences cut short by Obama -- more than the last 11 presidents combined -- with 760 receiving commutations this year alone." -- CW
Science vs Trump. And It Starts Today. Chris Moody and Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "On Friday, a major milestone will arrive for global climate change diplomacy. The so-called Paris climate agreement, an international accord forged last December by countries across the world, will become a legal reality far sooner than almost anyone anticipated. The rapid pace with which countries have ratified the agreement underscores the urgency many nations feel in the wake of a string of record hot years and ever more severe climate impacts. Next week in Marrakesh, Morocco, leaders from around the globe will gather to celebrate the achievement and to begin ironing out the details of how individual countries plan to live up to the ambitious commitments they've made to slash their emissions of carbon dioxide.... While Hillary Clinton has vowed to honor the Paris agreement..., Donald Trump has pledged to 'cancel' the accord." ...
... Akhilleus: Fossil fuel sources such as coal and oil took hundreds of millions of years to develop. Humans have nearly depleted them in 200 years. Trump promises to ignore facts and science and bring back coal and oil jobs. Some estimates place oil availability as being finished within the lifetime of today's teenagers, coal within a hundred years or less. Natural gas, going out at about the same time as oil. Trump says no. He won't let that happen. He also promises to stop the sun in the heavens and bring back dinosaurs.
Beyond the Beltway
Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "A federal jury convicted two former aides to Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey on Friday over a bizarre scheme to close access lanes to the George Washington Bridge as punishment against a mayor who declined to endorse the governor's re-election. The two defendants, Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni, were each charged with seven counts of conspiracy and wire fraud, including misusing the resources of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge, and violating the rights of the citizens of Fort Lee, N.J., to travel without government restriction when the closings gridlocked their town over five days in September 2013...Ms. Kelly testified that she had received the governor's approval before she sent the email to trigger what she thought was the traffic study." ...
... Akhilleus: Traffic study. Good one. Now that this scandal is over, Chrisco can go back to preparing the transition of the White House from the center of national governance and international leadership to a frat house for schemers, KKK grand dragons, chiselers, underage party girls, and of course, Russian apparatchiks deployed from the Kremlin to keep an eye on things while Trump poses for the first of his many presidential portraits.
... CW: And naturally, Gov. Conehead, who I believe was in on the scheme from the git-go, slides by like Crisco in a hot pan. ...
... Matt Zapotosky & Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's political career sustained a serious blow Friday after two of his former allies were found guilty of conspiring to shut down the nation's busiest bridge to punish a local mayor who refused to support the governor's reelection bid. While Christie wasn't charged in the 'Bridgegate' trial, the case produced a steady stream of new allegations against the governor that probably will haunt him.... On the first day of the trial..., prosecutors alleged that Christie knew about the plan to tie up traffic on the George Washington Bridge as it was happening. A key witness who admitted his own role in the affair would later testify that when he told Christie about the plot, Christie laughed. Christie has said that he did not know about the bridge plan and repeated that claim in a statement Friday.... In addition, [Christie aide Bridget Anne] Kelly said she told Christie of the lane closures before they happened...." -- CW ...
... Andrew Rice of New York: "In the end..., it is hard to resist the conclusion that the arrow points to the governor. Numerous witnesses testified that Christie was a micromanager who reveled in playing political hardball. (One memorable bit of testimony revealed that Christie called and threatened to 'fucking destroy' a county freeholder after it got back to the governor that he was complaining about the disbursement of Hurricane Sandy relief funds. In the governor's defense, the freeholder had also called Christie a 'fat motherfucker.')" -- CW
Rees Shapiro of the Washington Post: "A federal court jury decided Friday that a Rolling Stone journalist defamed a former University of Virginia associate dean in a 2014 magazine article about sexual assault on campus that included a debunked account of a fraternity gang rape. The 10 member jury concluded that the Rolling Stone reporter, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, was responsible for defamation, with actual malice, in the case brought by Nicole Eramo, a U-Va. administrator who oversaw sexual violence cases at the time of the article's publication. The jury also found the magazine and its publisher responsible for defaming Eramo. The $7.5 million lawsuit centered on Erdely's 9,000-word article titled 'A Rape on Campus.'" -- CW
Al Baker & Eli Rosenberg of the New York Times: In the Bronx, Manuel Rosales, 35, of Long Island, shot two NYPD officers, one of them fatally. Rosales, who had reportedly entered -- and left -- a Bronx apartment, armed with a gun & looking for his estranged wife, "was killed during the exchange of gunfire with the officers. In an interview, his father said that Mr. Rosales had spoken of committing 'suicide by cop.'" -- CW
Share Article 