The Commentariat -- December 7, 2019

Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "The House Judiciary Committee formally received the impeachment report from three other panels as the House continues to ramp up its investigation into President Trump. The House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees officially sent the judiciary panel their impeachment report, along with the GOP 'minority views' as the House formally crafts articles of impeachment against the president."

Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "The White House on Friday rejected an invitation to take part in impeachment hearings befjackore the House Judiciary Committee. In a brief letter to Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., White House counsel Pat Cipollone sharply attacked the impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump as 'completely baseless' and said House Democrats had 'violated basic principles of due process and fundamental fairness.'... Nadler sent a letter to the president last Friday asking if his counsel would be participating in the panel's impeachment hearings, setting a 5 p.m. ET deadline Friday for a response."

Lisa Mascaro & Mary Jalonick of the AP: "House Democrats are bringing the impeachment focus back to Russia as they draft formal charges against ... Donald Trump. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is connecting the dots -- 'all roads lead to Putin,' she says -- and making the argument that Trump's pressure campaign on Ukraine was not an isolated incident but part of a troubling bond with the Russian president reaching back to special counsel Robert Mueller's findings on the 2016 election. 'This has been going on for 2 1/2 years,' Pelosi said Friday. 'This isn't about Ukraine,' she explained a day earlier. 'It’s about Russia. Who benefited by our withholding of that military assistance? Russia.'... 'Sometimes people say, "Well I don't know about Ukraine. I don't know that much about Ukraine,"' Pelosi said Thursday after announcing the decision to draft formal charges. 'Well, our adversary in this is Russia. All roads lead to Putin. Understand that.'... Democratic lawmakers and aides are working behind closed doors over the weekend as the articles are being drafted and Judiciary Committee members are preparing for hearings and votes expected next week.... Democrats expect there will be two to four articles of impeachment against the president. Merging the Mueller findings into the overall charges by making the direct link to Ukraine might be one way to reach all sides [of the House Democratic caucus]."

The fact that Giuliani is back in Ukraine is like a murder suspect returning to the crime scene to live-stream themselves moon dancing. It's brazen on a galactic level. -- Dan Eberhart, prominent Republican donor and Trump supporter ~~~

~~~ Paul Sonne, et al., of the Washington Post: "Rudolph W. Giuliani departed Kyiv after meeting with a range of Ukrainians who have been feeding him unproven allegations against former vice president Joe Biden and helping construct a counternarrative that is taking hold in the Republican Party. The purported purpose of the trip was to conduct interviews for a documentary on a right-wing media network. But Giuliani's travel also appeared designed to send a broader and more brazen signal of the disregard that he and Trump have for the unfolding impeachment process.... Giuliani used his Twitter account while on the trip to describe the impeachment hearings as a 'witch hunt,' attack the former U.S. ambassador whom he helped oust earlier this year, and assert that Trump's demands for politically beneficial investigations by Ukraine's government were appropriate.... Giuliani's trip also represented an affront to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose government was welcoming a high-level State Department diplomat at the same time and hoping to return relations with the United States to normal after more than two months at the center of an American political maelstrom. Zelensky, who didn't meet with Giuliani, is preparing for a high-stakes summit on Monday in Paris, where he is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin alongside the leaders of Germany and France in a renewed attempt to bring an end to the war between Russia-backed proxies and Ukrainian forces in the nation's east." ~~~

~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Rudolph W. Giuliani just confessed to the crime in broad daylight -- or, more precisely, in broad cyber-daylight. Yet he did so defiantly, with a middle finger unfurled in our faces, without the slightest concern that it would harm him or ... President Trump.... 'The conversation about corruption in Ukraine was based on compelling evidence of criminal conduct by then VP Biden,' Giuliani tweeted, referring to Joe Biden, the intended target of 'investigations' Trump and Giuliani pressured Ukraine to announce. To empirically grounded observers, this will blow up a key Trump defense: that in conditioning official acts on getting Ukraine to announce investigations he wanted, he was correctly concerned with cleaning up corruption there.... The disinformation employed by Giuliani, Trump and his GOP defenders in many ways overlaps with Russian disinformation. They share tropes and narratives, and some common goals.... Trump may not care if we're more vulnerable to Russian disinformation, since he benefited from it so extensively last time, and is now heavily trafficking in its offshoots himself. As Giuliani's latest confession shows, their commitment to employing and benefiting from it is only escalating." ~~~

~~~ Rudy on the Road to Russia. David Stern & Robyn Dixon of the Washington Post (Dec. 5): "... Rudolph W. Giuliani met Thursday in Ukraine with one of the key figures working to build a corruption case against Hunter Biden, the Ukraine lawmaker said, after posting Facebook photographs of himself with the former York mayor. Andriy Derkach said he pressed Giuliani on the need to set up a joint U.S.-Ukraine investigation into corruption in Ukraine at the meeting in Kyiv.... Derkach, an independent lawmaker who was formerly a member of a pro-Russian party in parliament, went to the Dzerzhinsky Higher School of the KGB in Moscow. He is the son of a KGB officer who later served as head of Ukrainian intelligence.... Ukrainian anti-corruption campaigner Daria Kaleniuk, director of the nonprofit Anti-Corruption Action Center, described Derkach on Twitter as having associations with Ukrainian security services and an allegedly corrupt pharmaceutical firm." ~~~

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post (Dec. 5): "Derkach's name is a big one in Ukraine. A story about him might have even helped spark that country's 2004 Orange Revolution. That story involved a murder plot that implicated his father. The story is from 2000, and it suggested the younger Derkach could the 'Ukrainian Putin.' At the time, that label -- a reference to Russian President Boris Yeltsin'0 handpicked successor, Vladimir Putin...." In recorded conversations, Leonid Derkach, then-head of Ukraine's security services, & former Ukraine president Leonid Kuchma discussed disposing with online journalist Georgiy Gongadze. "Gongadze would soon claim he was being followed, and by September he was killed, his headless body discovered in a forest near Kyiv.... Soon after, the ... recordings ... were released. They sparked protests calling for Kuchma's ouster. Kuchma would survive it, but his governing coalition collapsed, and he was forced to fire Leonid Derkach.... In 2005, a Ukrainian parliamentary commission labeled Kuchma, Leonid Derkach and two other senior officials as being the masterminds of the plot." ~~~

     ~~~ Rudy "in a Den of Kremlin Agents ... at Midnight." digby republishes much of Sargent's post linked above. She also, via a tweet by Jack Laurenson of the Kyiv Post, places Giuliani in the thick of it: "Here are @AndriyUkraineTe [Andrii Telizhenko] and RudyGiuliani here in Kyiv, #Ukraine. At midnight, they are in lounge bar of the Premier Palace Hotel, owned by close Putin ally, Russian oligarch Alexander Babakov. Hotel known as den for Kremlin agents & Babakov is alleged Russian intel himself." Mrs. McC: Yeah, & I'll bet Rudy was calling Donald on his cellphone at the bar with all the KGB agents listening in. Was it a Skype call? Were KGB agents standing behind Rudy & waving to Trump? ~~~

~~~ Rudy Will Have to Visit This Source in Jail. Betsy Swan & Adam Rawnsley of the Daily Beast: "A former Ukrainian member of parliament who has claimed to have dirt on a company linked to the Bidens was arrested earlier this week in Germany.... As the impeachment proceedings against President Trump took hold in October, Oleksandr Onyshchenko, who worked closely with Ukraine's previous president before fleeing the country after being accused of embezzlement, has been living in Europe for several years.... Onyshchenko claimed to have inside information about Hunter Biden and his work for Burisma. He told Reuters that his friend Mykola Zlochevsky, who founded Burisma, had placed the vice president's son on Burisma' board as insurance against criminal investigations. The claim echoes those made by Rudy Giuliani and former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko.... Onyshchenko made other fantastic claims, including that Burisma had paid $10 million to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign through 'big bags of cash' sent instead of wire transfers."

The Gaslight Defense. Mrs. McCrabbie: So it looks as if Trump's impeachment "defense" will be to counter facts with fictions promulgated by shady Ukrainians with Russian ties. This would be a lot funnier if Republican lawmakers laughed it off, too. But it looks as if the majority are buying into it. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Apparently So. Katie Glueck & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump's re-election campaign has run menacing and misleading ads this fall accusing Joseph R. Biden Jr. of corrupt dealings with Ukraine. Republicans in Congress are scrutinizing Mr. Biden's son, pressing the State and Treasury Departments for information about his work for a Ukrainian energy company. The president himself has unleashed a stream of unfounded accusations against the Bidens and pushed for them to appear at a potential impeachment trial in the Senate. As Mr. Trump faces impeachment for allegedly pressuring Ukraine to investigate Mr. Biden, he and his allies are now turning those same claims about Mr. Biden and his son into a key element of their defense. And they plan to continue to hammer at the Bidens' Ukraine dealings as impeachment proceedings move into the new year."

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post points out that Trump's use of a private cellphone is not just some careless but convenient violation of security protocols & the federal records act: Rubin cites a WashPo report, linked here yesterday: "When Trump realized that this enabled [chief of staff John] Kelly to compile daily logs of his calls, and the identities of those he was speaking to, Trump became annoyed and reverted to using his cellphone, officials said. 'He was totally paranoid that everyone knew who he was talking to,' a former senior administration official said." That is, Trump purposely uses his private cell so no one will know whom he talks to & there will be no official record of his clandestine calls. Rubin finds this practice "about the best evidence of consciousness of guilt you are ever going to find," and says it should be worked into articles of impeachment & possibly subjected to further congressional investigation. Mrs. McC: After all the trouble created by his July 25 call to Zelensky, it wouldn't surprise me if Trump has started using his cell for calls to foreign leaders like Putin, Erdogan & the Saudi royals. With any luck, the FBI is listening in (legally) along with hackers from around the world.

Andrew Desiderio & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A national security aide to Vice President Mike Pence submitted additional classified evidence to House impeachment investigators about a [September 18] phone call between Pence and Ukraine's president, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff revealed Friday. In a letter to Pence, Schiff (D-Calif.) asked the vice president to declassify supplemental testimony from the aide, Jennifer Williams, about Pence's Sept. 18 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, arguing that there is no 'legitimate basis' to keep it secret." ~~~

     ~~~ Cody Fenwick of AlterNet, in the Raw Story: "Schiff reminded Pence's office that an executive order requires that in 'no case shall information be classified, continue to be maintained as classified, or fail to be declassified' for reasons of embarrassment or illegality.... Schiff also pointed out that Pence has previously said publicly that he would have no problem with the Sept. 18 call transcript being released. The office's decision to now claim the call is partially classified is 'contradictory of your public avowals in favor of transparency,' Schiff wrote."

There is overwhelming evidence that President Trump betrayed his oath of office by seeking to use presidential power to pressure a foreign government to help him distort an American election, for his personal and political benefit.. His conduct is precisely the type of threat to our democracy that the Founders feared when they included the remedy of impeachment in the Constitution. -- 500+ Legal Scholars ~~~

~~~ Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "More than 500 legal scholars have signed on to an open letter [to Congress] asserting that President Trump committed 'impeachable conduct' and that lawmakers would be acting well within their rights if they ultimately voted to remove him from office. The signers are law professors and other academics from universities across the country.... The group noted in particular that Trump's conduct seemed to be directed at affecting the results of the 2020 election, and thus it was not a matter that could be left to voters at the polls." A Law & Crime story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The full letter, including a list of signers is here, via Medium.

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: In yesterday's comments, I suggested, not quite seriously, that the House could pass articles of impeachment but not forward them to the Senate, leaving impeachment hanging over Trump's head during high campaign season. Last night I heard that a number of pundits, including John Dean, thought that was a good idea.

Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday put a one-week hold on a lower court's order for President Trump's bank records to be turned over to Congress. The stay issued by Justice Ginsburg came just three days after the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York said that Deutsche Bank and Capital One must cooperate with subpoenas of two Democratic-controlled committees in the House of Representatives.... Mr. Trump's lawyers made an emergency request for the stay while their appeal is considered by the Supreme Court, which has also been thrust into similar legal battle over access to Mr. Trump's accounting records." The Hill's story is here.

Timothy Gardner & Makini Brice of Reuters: "... Donald Trump said on Friday he has directed his environmental regulators to find answers to what he said is a big problem - water-conserving showers, faucets and toilets. 'We have a situation where we're looking very strongly at sinks and showers and other elements of bathrooms,' Trump told a meeting of small business leaders at the White House. 'You turn the faucet on in areas where there's tremendous amounts of water ... and you don't get any water,' he added.... The fixtures 'end up using more water,' Trump told the roundtable where U.S. officials also reviewed his agenda of slashing regulations such as those on efficient light bulbs. 'People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once,' he said." Scatological comments acceptable.

All the Best People, Ctd. Em Steck, et al., of CNN: "A senior adviser at the State Department once said he thought then-President Barack Obama was a Kenyan and called House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi a Nazi whose Botox had worn off. Frank Wuco, a former conservative speaker and radio host who is now a senior adviser at the State Department's Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, also said it would be tough for a 'solid, practicing' Muslim to be a good American and made unfounded claims that some Muslims in America were practicing Sharia law to create 'Muslim land.'... Wuco has a history of peddling conspiracy theories, pushing for extreme American action in warfare and spreading anti-Muslim rhetoric.... Wuco was previously a White House adviser at the Department of Homeland Security." Mrs. McC: Hey, what kinda name is "Wuco" anyway? It sounds "foreign" to me, or totally made-up. Maybe this Wuco guy is really a Mooslum or a commie.

The Party of White Supremacists. Republicans Don't Even Pretend They Want to Protect Minorities' Right to Vote. Sheryl Stolberg & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The House voted on Friday to reinstate federal oversight of state election law, moving to bolster protections against racial discrimination enshrined in the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the landmark civil rights statute whose central provision was struck down by the Supreme Court. Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, who was beaten in 1965 while demonstrating for voting rights in Alabama, banged the gavel to herald approval of the measure, to applause from his colleagues on the House floor. It passed by a vote of 228 to 187 nearly along party lines, with all but one Republican opposed. The bill has little chance of becoming law given opposition in the Republican-controlled Senate and by President Trump, whose aides issued a veto threat against it this week. The measure is a direct response to the 2013 Supreme Court decision in the case of Shelby County v. Holder, in which the justices invalidated a key portion of the law."

Presidential Race 2020

Matt Stevens of the New York Times: "Michael R. Bloomberg on Friday brushed back critiques about his wealth and bristled at the suggestion that he was using it to buy success in the 2020 presidential race, arguing that other Democrats who have complained about his entry into their party's primary could have taken it upon themselves to earn their own personal fortunes, as he had done.... In his interview, Mr. Bloomberg said he did not come from money and noted that his 'father made $6,000 the best year of his life.' 'Nobody gave me a head start,' he said.... Discussing his reasons for entering the race, he said he worried that if other Democrats took on President Trump in a general election, Mr. Trump would 'eat 'em up.'" ~~~

~~~ Bloomberg Finds Another Black Guy Who Has Mastered Standard English. Kate Sullivan of CNN: "New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker said Friday he was 'taken aback' by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg calling him 'well-spoken,' and said Bloomberg played into a tired trope about African Americans.... In an interview that aired Friday morning, Bloomberg told CBS This Morning, 'Cory Booker endorsed me a number of times. And I endorsed Cory Booker a number of times. He's very well-spoken. He's got some good ideas. It would be better the more diverse any group is.'"

Elena Schneider & Alex Thompson of Politico: "Long-simmering tensions between Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren, the two ascendant Democratic presidential candidates in Iowa, burst into the open this week. Warren and Buttigieg's campaigns each called the other out in a flurry of back-and-forths on the candidates' tax returns, past corporate clients, campaign bundlers and opening fundraisers to the news media." They accused each other of being corporate shills.

Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.), who pleaded guilty in federal court this week to misusing campaign funds, announced Friday that he will resign from Congress 'shortly after the holidays.'" A San Diego Union-Tribune report is here. Maybe he's not resigning now because he expects a Christmas bonus. ~~~

~~~ Charles Clark of the San Diego Union-Tribune: "On the day Rep. Duncan Hunter pleaded guilty to misuse of campaign funds in federal court..., former Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican insider who once chaired the powerful House oversight committee, talked seriously about presidential clemency should Hunter be sentenced to prison on March 17.... '... I would certainly say the commuting of sentencing ... has a certain ability to balance the public good. Are we better off spending $60,000 a year to put him behind bars or are we better off with him doing community service and going on with his life with the likelihood of him committing a crime in the future being pretty low?'"

AOC Gets the Last Laugh (and a $3BB Bonus for NYC Taxpayers). Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was one of the progressive leaders in New York City credited with blocking $3 billion in public subsidies for Amazon to open an additional headquarters. But Amazon is moving into NYC despite the lack of subsidies.'The giant online retailer said it has signed a new lease for 335,000 square feet on the city's west side in the new Hudson Yards neighborhood, where it will have more than 1,500 employees,' The Wall Street Journal reported. 'Amazon is taking the space without any of the special tax credits and other inducements the company had been offered to build a new headquarters in the Queens neighborhood of Long Island City, the company said.' 'The new lease represents Amazon's largest expansion in New York since it stunned the city by abandoning those earlier plans. Amazon pulled back after facing a backlash from some politicians and activists over the roughly $3 billion in financial incentives the city and state had extended to woo the company and the 25,000 new jobs it had pledged to create,' The Journal explained.... 'Won't you look at that: Amazon is coming to NYC anyway -- *without* requiring the public to finance shady deals, helipad handouts for Jeff Bezos, and corporate giveaways,' [Ocasio-Cortez] tweeted."p>

The Commentariat -- December 6, 2019

Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Monday morning to receive presentations of evidence from investigators as it moves forward with crafting articles of impeachment against President Trump."

"Don't Mess with Me...." ~~~

~~~ Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had just concluded her weekly news conference Thursday and was about to exit the room when a reporter shouted out a question. 'Do you hate the president, Madam Speaker?' James Rosen, a [winger] reporter for [righty-right] Sinclair Broadcast Group, called out from a seat in the front row. Most times, Pelosi ignores questions shouted at her in the hallways and briefing rooms of the Capitol. But Rosen's query appeared to strike a nerve with Pelosi, who stopped in her tracks, turned to face the reporter and delivered an extraordinary rebuttal." Watch it. "The exchange appeared to do little to change Republicans' messaging on the matter. Minutes after Pelosi's news conference concluded, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) sent out a tweet in which he declared, 'Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats are clearly ... blinded by their hate for the President.'" ~~~

     ~~~ So Trump Responded with a False, Sexist Accusation. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi lashed out in anger on Thursday at a reporter who asked whether she hated President Trump, prompting Mr. Trump to accuse her of having 'a nervous fit.'... Less than an hour [after Pelosi's exchange with the 'conservative' reporter], Mr. Trump posted his response on Twitter.... 'Nancy Pelosi just had a nervous fit. She hates that we will soon have 182 great new judges and sooo much more. Stock Market and employment records. She says she 'prays for the President.' I don't believe her, not even close. Help the homeless in your district Nancy....'" Mrs. McC: Worth noting: Trump had a "nervous fit" just the day before when he found out world leaders were laughing at him, causing him to abruptly end his NATO trip & cancel a previously-scheduled press conference. (More on this from the WashPo linked below.)

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I'm reposting Pelosi's speech asking committee chairmen to draw up articles of impeachment. Pelosi delivered the speech yesterday morning. In case you missed it, I recommend listening; it's pretty powerful: ~~~

     ~~~ If you can't watch, NBC News has the text of Pelosi's speech here.

Don't Mess with Joe: ~~~

~~~ Marc Caputo of Politico: "Joe Biden lashed out at an Iowa town hall Thursday after a man suggested the former vice president helped his son get a sweetheart deal in Ukraine and was 'selling access' like ... Donald Trump does.... The 83-year-old man said he had two problems with the 77-year-old Biden: that he's 'too old' and the Ukrainian issue.... [When the man brought up Biden's Ukraine dealings, Biden walked up to him menacingly & said,] 'You're a damn liar, man. That's not true. And no one has ever said that.'... As the two talked over each other, a staffer tried to take the man's microphone. But Biden waved him away and let the man keep the mic. 'Let him go. Let him go,' Biden said.... Returning to the issue of his age and fitness, Biden then laid down the challenge: 'Let's do push-ups together here, man. Let's run. Let's do whatever you want to do. Let's take an IQ test.' The man was speechless." ~~~

~~~ Mariam Khan & Molly Nagle of ABC News: Donald "Trump reiterated his demands for [Joe & Hunter] Biden to testify in a Thursday morning tweet: 'We will have Schiff, the Bidens, Pelosi and many more testify, and will reveal, for the first time, how corrupt our system really is.' [Joe] Biden said, however, that he does not plan to attend a Senate trial voluntarily.... '"The president is the one who has committed impeachable crimes, and I'm not going to let him divert from that. I'm not going to let anyone divert from that. The president is the one who has committed impeachable crimes, and I'm not going to let him divert from that. I'm not going to let anyone divert from that.' Eric Ueland, White House legislative affairs director..., suggested the White House wants live witnesses as part of the trial, instead of relying on videotaped depositions like the ones entered into evidence during former President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial in 1999.... The Republican-controlled Senate also released its 2020 calendar without anything scheduled for the month of January due to the uncertainty surrounding what happens next in the impeachment trial."

Maggie Haberman & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Trump administration officials, seeking to weaken Democrats' case for impeachment, disputed on Thursday some of the details in the House Intelligence Committee's report about calls between ... Rudolph W. Giuliani and White House aides. As part of its portrait of Mr. Trump's campaign of pressure on Ukraine, the committee's report released this week listed several calls between Mr. Giuliani and White House phone numbers, including one' associated with' the White House's Office of Management and Budgetcited in the report simply as 'O.M.B. number.'... But the phone number is a generic White House switchboard number, '(202) 395-0000,' people familiar with the phone records said, making it difficult to tell whose desk it came from.... A review of budget office call logs showed that no one spoke with Mr. Giuliani around the times of the calls in April and August, an O.M.B. official said."o; ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This morning a CNN reporter faulted Democrats for not being "more careful" in disseminating the calls report. Really? Really? The White House stonewalls all Congressional requests & subpoenas, and it's the Democrats' fault for not knowing who was using which phone? Bull. Also too, I see they're not disputing who "'1" is in Giuliani's call records.

But the E-mails! Paul Sonne, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump has routinely communicated with his personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and other individuals speaking on cellphones vulnerable to monitoring by Russian and other foreign intelligence services, current and former U.S. officials said. Phone records released this week by the House Intelligence Committee revealed extensive communications between Giuliani, unidentified people at the White House and others involved in the campaign to pressure Ukraine, with no indication that those calls were encrypted or otherwise shielded from foreign surveillance. The revelations raise the possibility that Moscow was able to learn about aspects of Trump's attempt to get Ukraine to investigate a political rival months before that effort was exposed by a whistleblower report and the impeachment inquiry, officials said. Trump is not identified by name in the House phone records, but investigators said they suspect he may be a person with a blocked number listed as '-1' in the files. And administration officials said separately that Trump has communicated regularly with Giuliani on unsecured lines.... Trump and Giuliani have effectively 'given the Russians ammunition they can use in an overt fashion, a covert fashion or in the twisting of information,' said John Sipher, former deputy chief of Russia operations at the CIA." The Raw Story has a summary report here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: First, there's the irony of Trump's centering his 2016 campaign on "Lock Her Up" on account of her having communicated a handful of low-classified matters over a private server even as he regularly yaps over phones known to be monitored by Chinese & other hackers. Second, there is the irony of his chatting over unsecured phones with a guy who is chatting back over an unsecured phone and who happens to be Trump's "cybersecurity advisor." (As reported in the linked article, "Mozilla Observatory, an online site-scanning service operated by the nonprofit company behind the Firefox web browser, rates Giuliani Security & Safety's website an 'F' for basic connection security, with a score of 0 out of 100. In a suite of 11 tests, the Giuliani Security & Safety site passes just 3, according to Mozilla." Cybersecurity "expert" Giuliani also has been called out for his laughable claim that Twitter "allowed someone to invade my text" and going to an Apple store to get some random employees to help him when he locked himself out of his iPhone. It is impossible to decide who is the more incompetent old coot, Giuliani or Trump.

Where's Rudy? Asawin Suebsaeng & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "Rudy Giuliani's decision to travel to multiple European countries this week, during the height of an impeachment probe involving his client President Trump, was so startling to senior administration officials and national security brass that they began tracking his movements in an effort to get a read on his objectives abroad. Other officials in the West Wing and numerous Trump associates learned about his latest foreign adventure, which included a stop in Ukraine, by reading the news.... Senior U.S. officials in the State Department and in the national security apparatus were concerned that Giuliani was speaking with politicians in both Budapest and Kiev who have interests in domestic American politics. According to five sources with knowledge of the situation, there is renewed fear that the president's lawyer is still shopping for dirt about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter as well as speaking with foreign officials who, against all evidence, have promoted the idea that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 presidential election."

Corrupt Intent. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "One of the strongest arguments made by experts testifying against President Trump is that he poses a present and continuing threat to our democracy.... The latest nefarious doings of none other than William P. Barr and Rudolph W. Giuliani have now forcefully underscored this very point. In so doing, Trump's attorney general and his personal lawyer -- whose roles Trump views as one and the same -- have helpfully strengthened the case against Trump. Two new investigative reports demonstrate that Barr and Giuliani are, in effect, continuing to carry out elements of the very same corrupt scheme for which Trump is currently getting impeached.... Barr, who is gearing up to cast doubt on [DOJ inspector general Michael] Horowitz's conclusions, is continuing to use the levers of government to carry out Trump's overall corrupt project -- which Trump is actively cheering on.... Giuliani has traveled to Budapest and Kyiv, where he's meeting with shadowy Ukrainian figures to keep building the case that Joe Biden and his son Hunter acted corruptly in Ukraine.... Even as Trump is getting impeached for using the power of his office to falsify the story of his corruption of our last election and to corrupt the next one, he's still trying to accomplish both goals. And in Barr's case, he's cheerfully continuing to rely on the manipulation of the levers of government to do so."

Andrew Rice has a long piece in New York on Bill Barr's representation of Donald Trump: "... over the past year, with bureaucratic dexterity and bluff self-assurance, Barr has effectively turned the Justice Department to face down Trump's adversaries. In the spring, he brought a muffled conclusion to special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, managing the release of his report in a way that limited its impact and declaring the evidence did not show Trump committed obstruction of justice. Barr then initiated a secretive internal probe of the origins of the Russia investigation, headed by veteran prosecutor John Durham, who is scrutinizing the FBI and CIA. Barr, who claims there was 'spying' on Trump's campaign, has played a hands-on role in Durham's work, traveling the world to convince foreign intelligence services to cooperate in his investigation of the investigation." Mrs McC: The bits I've had time to read were quite interesting.

Fresno Bee Editors: "As has been true for nearly all of Trump's first term, [Devin] Nunes has relinquished his proper role as an independent representative of Congress and has instead acted like a member of the Trump 2020 re-election team. On Tuesday, House Democrats released phone records that show Nunes made multiple calls to ... Rudy Giuliani and one of his associates, the now-indicted Lev Parnas. The calls came last April during a period when Giuliani was leading a pressure campaign to remove the American ambassador to Ukraine.... The attorney for Parnas has also said Nunes had meetings with a Ukrainian prosecutor to get political dirt on Democrat Joe Biden's son Hunter.... As the ranking Republican on the powerful House Intelligence Committee, Nunes holds one of the top posts in Congress. Nunes should have disclosed to his committee colleagues that he had those phone calls last spring. One expert on government ethics took it a step further and said Nunes should have recused himself from the impeachment hearings...."

Kelly McLaughlin of Business Insider: "Rep. Matt Gaetz suggested impeaching former President Barack Obama on Wednesday during a hearing in the impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump.... After questioning the Democratic-invited witness Pamela Karlan ... on her donations to Democratic campaigns, Gaetz ... [said,] 'If wiretapping political opponents is a political offense, I look forward to reading that inspector general's report because maybe it's a different president we should be impeaching.'... Gaetz was likely referencing an incident in 2013, when it was revealed that the National Security Agency was monitoring the calls of 35 world leaders during the Obama administration. The White House said at the time that Obama had no knowledge of the wiretapping. A former president can actually be impeached.... Legal scholars told Slate that impeached former presidents could be barred from serving in any future federal-government positions, elective or appointive."

Elie Mystal in the Nation: "Jonathan Turley's testimony [at Wednesday's Judiciary Committee hearing] was so inconsistent, it contradicted his own previous statements on impeachment."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "President Trump asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to hear a second case concerning a subpoena to his accounting firm for his financial records. The new petition, objecting to a subpoena from a House committee, follows a petition filed last month about a similar subpoena from Manhattan prosecutors. Both cases are moving fast, and the court could announce as soon as Dec. 13 whether the justices will hear them. If the court agrees to weigh in, it will probably issue a decision by June.... In both cases, Mr. Trump sued to stop his accounting firm, Mazars USA, from complying with subpoenas for records. Federal appeals courts ruled against Mr. Trump in both cases.... In cases involving Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton, United States v. Nixon in 1974 and Clinton v. Jones in 1997, the court granted review but in the end handed both presidents unanimous losses." The Hill's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is a good time to remind ourselves that every recent major-party presidential nominee has voluntarily turned over multiple years of tax returns during the campaign period. Trump is not only hiding his returns, he has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep them secret even though he intends to run for re-election. There's definitely some there there. And Americans have a right to know what that is. I don't think it's, "... overstated a deduction in 2015, making him subject to a $736 penalty."

Oliver Darcy of CNN: "Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who said she had an affair with Donald Trump before he was elected President, filed a lawsuit Thursday against Fox News alleging the news organization defamed her. In the lawsuit, which was filed in a New York state court, McDougal accused host Tucker Carlson of acting with a 'reckless disregard for the truth' when he suggested on a December 2018 episode of his show that she extorted Trump.... Carlson ... said on his show that it was an "undisputed" fact that two women 'approached Donald Trump and threatened to ruin his career and humiliate his family' if he didn't provide them money. Carlson said it sounded 'like a classic case of extortion,' and later referred to them as 'extortion payments.' Carlson did not name McDougal, but an image of her was later shown on the screen."

Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "That Trump slunk out of the NATO summit [in Watford, England,] Wednesday after hastily canceling his planned news conference underscored just how unsettling he found his two-day visit.... But in many respects, Trump's abrupt departure was typical for a president who has routinely upended foreign visits during his first three years in office -- blustering, bullying and attempting at all times to keep the world's attention squarely on himself. He has criticized his hosts and issued global threats. He's hobnobbed with dictators and feuded with allies. And, as he did this week in Watford, he has sometimes sulked when things aren't going his way -- part of the taxonomy of behaviors that make up Trump's overseas adventures as president." The reporters reprise other instances of Trump's bad behavior on the world stage.

Robert Moore, et al., in ProPublica: "Video obtained by ProPublica shows the Border Patrol held a sick teen in a concrete cell without proper medical attention and did not discover his body until his cellmate alerted guards. The video doesn't match the Border Patrol's account of his death.... In a press release that day, Customs and Border Protection's acting commissioner at the time, John Sanders, called Carlos [Hernandez Vasquez]' death a 'tragic loss.' The agency said that an agent had found Carlos 'unresponsive' after checking in on him. Sanders said the Border Patrol was 'committed to the health, safety and humane treatment of those in our custody.' But the record shows that the Border Patrol fell far short of that standard with Carlos. ProPublica has obtained video that documents the 16-year-old's last hours, and it shows that Border Patrol agents and health care workers at the Weslaco holding facility missed increasingly obvious signs that his condition was perilous. The cellblock video shows Carlos writhing for at least 25 minutes on the floor and a concrete bench. It shows him staggering to the toilet and collapsing on the floor, where he remained in the same position for the next four and a half hours."

Criminal Duncan Hunter Still Has His Job. Haley Byrd, et al., of CNN: "The House Ethics Committee urged Rep. Duncan Hunter in a letter on Thursday to stop voting on legislation and other matters on the House floor after he pleaded guilty earlier this week to campaign finance violations. The committee notified the California Republican that his plea brings into effect a House rule stating that members convicted of certain crimes should refrain from voting. The letter noted that the rule exists 'to preserve public confidence in the legislative process when a sitting Member of Congress has been convicted of a serious crime.' Although the rule is not mandatory, the committee said, 'we emphasize in the strongest possible terms that if you violate the clear principles of this provision -- that is, for example, by voting in the House -- you risk subjecting yourself to action by this Committee, and by the House, in addition to any other disciplinary action that may be initiated in connection with your criminal conviction.' Duncan most recently voted on the House floor Wednesday, according to the House clerk, the day after he had pleaded guilty. He did not vote Thursday."

Presidential Race 2020

Ben Kamisar, et al., of NBC News: "John Kerry, the former senator from Massachusetts, secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, threw his support behind former Vice President Joe Biden's presidential bid on Thursday.... The endorsement comes as Biden has amplified his qualifications to be commander-in-chief, given his foreign policy experience.... Kerry will campaign with Biden on Friday in Iowa and in New Hampshire on Sunday."

From everyone who has been given better poll numbers, much will be demanded. -- Jesus' internal pollster ~~~

~~~ Michael Forsythe of the New York Times on Pete Buttigieg's work for the secretive consulting firm McKinsey & Company: "... as he gains ground in polls, [Buttigieg's] reticence about McKinsey is being tested, including by his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination. Senator Warren, responding last month to needling by Mr. Buttigieg that she release more than eight years of her tax returns to account for her private-sector work, retorted,' There are some candidates who want to distract from the fact that they have not released the names of their clients and have not released the names of their bundlers.' The firm has long advocated business strategies like raising executive compensation, moving labor offshore and laying off workers to cut costs.... And over the last couple of years, reporting in The New York Times and other publications has revealed episodes tarnishing McKinsey's once-sterling reputation: its work advising Purdue Pharma on how to 'turbocharge' opioid sales, its consulting for authoritarian governments in places like China and Saudi Arabia, and its role in a wide-ranging corruption scandal in South Africa. (All of these came after Mr. Buttigieg left the firm.)... The Buttigieg campaign says he has asked to be let out of his nondisclosure agreement...." Interviews with some of Buttigieg's coworkers at McKinsey fill in some of the blanks. ~~~

~~~ New York Times Editors: "Pete Buttigieg worked nearly three years for the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, and he has presented that experience as a kind of capitalist credential -- distinguishing him from some rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, and inoculating him against Republican attacks.... Mr. Buttigieg has said precious little about his time at McKinsey. He has not named the clients for whom he worked, nor said much about what he did.... Mr. Buttigieg owes voters a more complete account of his time at the company.... The Times reported this week that the consulting firm has advised the Trump administration on the logistics of its cruel crackdown on immigration."

The Downside of Macroeconomic Ignorance. Charles Pierce: "According to Liz Goodwin of the Boston Globe, Pete Buttigieg said, 'I believe every Presidency of my lifetime has been an example of deficits growing under Republican government and shrinking under Democratic government, but ... my party's got to get more comfortable talking about this issue... And we shouldn't be afraid to demonstrate that we have the revenue to cover every cost that we incur in the investments that we're proposing.'... Leave aside the fact that Buttigieg's basic political assessment is dead wrong; Presidents Obama and Clinton pulled us out of Republican deficits and, arguably, their choice to commit their economic plans to do that crippled their ability to move on more progressive policies.... It makes the McKinseyite criticism of him grow some real teeth, and it makes him very hard to trust with what could be a progressive populist moment.... Right now, based solely on observation on the road, I slot him in somewhere between Bill Clinton and John Kasich." Mrs. McC: Kasich, FYI, is a macroeconomics idiot. His main claim to fame is unwavering support for a balanced budget amendment, which is as good an idea as storing cash in the mattress. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Buttigieg's original statement, before a New Hampshire audience was worse than the one Pierce cites. In fact, the remark cited above seems to have been an attempt at a cleanup of Buttigieg's first remarks. Lawrence O'Donnell got very exercised about Buttigieg's claims:

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I got a phone call today from a voter opinion survey group, and the questioner asked about how convincing I found a number of Buttigieg's policy positions, positions which appear to have come from his Website. Every one was kumbaya crap, except one that demonstrated his ignorance of the history of public education. The bottom line is that someone Buttigieg's age, who has not spent his adult life immersed in national political issues, is bound to be ignorant of significant policy matters. I don't fault him for that; I fault him for having the hubris of running for president without knowing enough. He's a very smart guy, and he can learn. Unfortunately, he doesn't know what he doesn't know, so it isn't clear he will learn.

Bobby Allyn of NPR: "Federal law enforcement officials have announced criminal charges against two Russian nationals who operate a hacking organization known as Evil Corp., a group officials say is responsible for one of the most sweeping banking fraud schemes in the past decade. The criminal indictments were unsealed in Pittsburgh, Pa., and Lincoln, Nebraska, against Maksim Yakubets, 32, and Igor Turashev, 38, both of whom live in Russia. The duo are accused of bank and wire fraud and computer hacking, among other counts.... Operating from the basements of Moscow cafes, investigators say Yakubets' group targeted victims in some 21 municipalities in one of the most widespread malware campaigns U.S. authorities have ever encountered."

Faiz Siddiqui of the Washington Post: "Uber has disclosed that 3,000 sexual assaults were reported on its U.S. rides last year, the first time it has revealed the scale of the safety problem that exists at ride-hailing companies.... In the lengthy report, which divides sexual misconduct into 21 categories but focuses on the five most serious, Uber said it recorded 235 rapes last year and thousands more reports of assault that could involve unwanted touching, kissing or attempted rape. The reports involved drivers and passengers. The company tallied roughly 6,000 reports of those types of assault in 2017 and 2018. The report also examined other safety categories, including motor-vehicle deaths and violent crimes such as physical assaults. Uber said there were 107 motor-vehicle fatalities in 2017 and 2018, with a total of 97 fatal crashes involving users on the app. The company also said there were 19 fatal physical assaults over the same time period, during which it said an average of more than 3.1 million trips took place each day."

Beyond the Beltway

West Virginia. Jake Zuckerman of the Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette-Mail: "Several West Virginia state employees have been suspended after a photo emerged depicting a training class of roughly 30 correctional officers performing a Nazi salute. Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety Director Jeff Sandy sent a letter to all employees Wednesday describing the photo as 'distasteful, hurtful, disturbing, highly insensitive, and completely inappropriate.' The photo, on state letterhead, shows almost all of Basic Training Class No. 18 displaying the Nazi salute. Text above the photo reads: 'HAIL BYRD!' Sandy's letter states that the employees have been suspended and are under investigation, although it does not describe the photo itself. Brian Abraham, an attorney for Gov. Jim Justice, said Thursday the 'Hail Byrd' line refers to the trainees' instructor."

Way Beyond

Ken Dilanian & Michele Neubert of NBC News: "A group of elite Russian military intelligence officers, including some of those who planned the poisoning of a defector in Britain, have been operating out of picturesque villages in the French Alps, Western intelligence officials tell NBC News. Confirming a report in France's Le Monde daily that could have been ripped from the pages of a John le Carré spy novel, the officials said European and American intelligence agencies had been tracking up to 15 members of the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU who had lived for a time in France.... Le Monde reported that among the Russians who stayed in France's Haute-Savoie department in the Alps were Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov -- the alleged cover names of the two GRU agents accused of carrying out the [poisoning] attack on [Sergei & Yulia] Skripal. French officials told the newspaper they considered the area to have been the unit's rear base for covert operations in Europe."

News Ledes

CNN: "A gunman opened fire inside Naval Air Station Pensacola on Friday, killing at least one person and injuring several others, according to authorities. The shooting is over, the Escambia County, Florida, Sheriff's Office said, and the shooter has been confirmed dead." ~~~

     ~~~ CNN has updates here. Four are dead, including the shooter. "A member of the Saudi military training at US Naval Air Station in Pensacola is the suspected shooter in today's incident, according to five US defense officials and another person familiar with the investigation. The investigators are looking into whether it was terror-related, but it is early in the probe."

The Commentariat -- December 5, 2019

Afternoon Update:

"Don't Mess with Me.... " ~~~

~~~ Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had just concluded her weekly news conference Thursday and was about to exit the room when a reporter shouted out a question. 'Do you hate the president, Madam Speaker?' James Rosen, a [winger] reporter for [righty-right] Sinclair Broadcast Group, called out from a seat in the front row. Most times, Pelosi ignores questions shouted at her in the hallways and briefing rooms of the Capitol. But Rosen's query appeared to strike a nerve with Pelosi, who stopped in her tracks, turned to face the reporter and delivered an extraordinary rebuttal." Watch it. "The exchange appeared to do little to change Republicans' messaging on the matter. Minutes after Pelosi's news conference concluded, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) sent out a tweet in which he declared, 'Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats are clearly ... blinded by their hate for the President.'"

~~~ Marc Caputo of Politico: "Joe Biden lashed out at an Iowa town hall Thursday after a man suggested the former vice president helped his son get a sweetheart deal in Ukraine and was 'selling access' like ... Donald Trump does.... The 83-year-old man said he had two problems with the 77-year-old Biden: that he's 'too old' and the Ukrainian issue.... [When the man brought up Biden's Ukraine dealings, Biden walked up to him menacingly & said,] 'You're a damn liar, man. That's not true. And no one has ever said that.'... As the two talked over each other, a staffer tried to take the man's microphone. But Biden waved him away and let the man keep the mic. 'Let him go. Let him go,' Biden said.... Returning to the issue of his age and fitness, Biden then laid down the challenge: 'Let's do push-ups together here, man. Let's run. Let's do whatever you want to do. Let's take an IQ test.' The man was speechless."

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~ Nicholas Fandos & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked the House of Representatives on Thursday to begin drafting impeachment articles against President Trump, pushing ahead with a rapid timetable that could set the stage for a deeply partisan vote before Christmas to charge him with high crimes and misdemeanors." A brief Politico story is here.

Nicholas Fandos & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The House Judiciary Committee opened an epic partisan clash over the impeachment of President Trump on Wednesday at a hearing where Democrats and Republicans offered up dueling legal scholars who disagreed over whether the president's conduct rose to the constitutional threshold to warrant his removal from office." ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear of New York Times: "Three constitutional scholars invited by Democrats to testify at the first impeachment hearing before the House Judiciary Committee said that President Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine for political gain clearly met the historical definition of impeachable offenses. Wednesday's Judiciary Committee hearing.... Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University who was invited to testify by the committee's Republicans, offered the lone dissent, arguing in his opening statement that Mr. Trump should not be impeached." Shear outlines key moments of the hearing. This article is an update of a highlights post first linked yesterday. ~~~

~~~ Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Pamela Karlan, a professor at Stanford Law School and a former Justice Department official in the Obama administration, said the 'the very idea that a president might seek the aid of a foreign government in his re-election campaign would have horrified' America's Founding Fathers. 'But based on the evidentiary record, that is what President Trump has done,' she added.... Michael Gerhardt, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, added that 'the record compiled thus far shows that the president has committed several impeachable offenses, including bribery, abuse of power in soliciting a personal favor from a foreign leader to benefit his political campaign, obstructing Congress and obstructing justice.'... Later, responding to questions, Gerhardt said, 'If what we are talking about is not impeachable, nothing is impeachable.'" ~~~

~~~ Here's Noah Feldman, a Harvard Law professor, delivering his opening statement:

~~~ The Purpose of Impeachment Is Donald Trump. Jonathan Allen of NBC News: "... Ultimately, three of the witnesses portrayed Trump as abusing the powers of his office for personal gain -- and in contravention of U.S. interests -- in ways envisioned by the founding fathers when they gave Congress the authority to remove the chief executive. The reason to impeach Trump isn't to punish him, law professors Pamela Karlan of Stanford, Noah Feldman of Harvard and Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina said, but to prevent further damage.... They all said Trump's actions met the threshold for 'high crimes and misdemeanors' and for 'bribery' under the Constitution's impeachment clause.... Gerhardt said "the record compiled thus far shows that the president has committed several impeachable offenses, including bribery, abuse of power in soliciting a personal favor from a foreign leader to benefit his political campaign, obstructing Congress and obstructing justice." ~~~

~~~ Politico has texts of the prepared opening statement by Wednesday's witnesses. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ken Vogel & Benjamin Novak of the New York Times: "Even as Democrats intensified their scrutiny this week of Rudolph W. Giuliani's role in the pressure campaign against the Ukrainian government that is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry, Mr. Giuliani has been in Europe continuing his efforts to shift the focus to purported wrongdoing by President Trump's political rivals. Mr. Giuliani ... met in Budapest on Tuesday with a former Ukrainian prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, who has become a key figure in the impeachment inquiry. He then traveled to Kyiv on Wednesday seeking to meet with other former Ukrainian prosecutors whose claims have been embraced by Republicans, including Viktor Shokin and Kostiantyn H. Kulyk, according to people familiar with the effort. The former prosecutors, who have faced allegations of corruption, all played some role in promoting claims about former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a former United States ambassador to Ukraine and Ukrainians who disseminated damaging information about Mr. Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in 2016.... Mr. Giuliani is using the trip, which has not been previously reported, to help prepare more episodes of a documentary series for a conservative television outlet promoting his pro-Trump, anti-impeachment narrative." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a HuffPost story. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, Back in the U.S.A. Erica Orden, et al., of CNN: "Federal prosecutors in New York who are investigating Rudy Giuliani and his associates have deepened their focus on Ukraine's state-run oil-and-gas company, having interviewed its CEO, Andriy Kobolyev, and seeking in recent weeks to speak to a key US embassy staffer in Ukraine, according to Kobolyev's attorney and people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors have interviewed Kobolyev, the head of Naftogaz, which stands at the center of an attempted scheme by Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman to replace Kobolyev with someone who could be more favorable to their own business interests.... Prosecutors have also made contact recently with the US embassy official, Suriya Jayanti, a foreign service officer based in Kiev.... Prosecutors' interest in the activity surrounding Naftogaz indicates a possible expansion of their case against Parnas and Fruman, who have been indicted for an alleged scheme to funnel foreign money into US elections, and demonstrates they are looking closely at possible crimes related to foreign bribery. And it comes as prosecutors probe Giuliani's business interests."

** John Stoehr of RawStory: "The [phone call] records [in the House impeachment report] suggest in the most granular detail yet that the president of the United States is the leader of an international criminal conspiracy to defraud the American people.... They provide an illustration, in miniature, of what a conspiracy looks like, and why it's morally and legally wrong for the head of the world's oldest democracy to engage in such conduct.... On the same day Joe Biden announced his presidential campaign, John Solomon wrote a falsehood-laden column 'alleging that Ukraine had planted Russia collusion allegations against the Trump campaign,' according to the [Washington] Post.... The very same day, April 25, Giuliani received a call from '-1' (i.e., Trump). Giuliani then called Sean Hannity at Fox. A while later, Trump appeared on Hannity's show to comment on Solomon's report in The Hill. 'That sounds like big, big stuff,' he said.... Coincidence isn't the right word to describe a president's dirty lawyer [Giuliani] getting a dirty prosecutor [Yuriy Lutsenko] to tell a dirty reporter [Solomon] the president's Democratic rival is dirty, and then getting a dirty TV host [Hannity] to ask the president to comment on the dirty reporter's dirt. The right word to describe all that is conspiracy." --s

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "A new ethics complaint was filed Wednesday against Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) after it was revealed he was coordinating with ... Donald Trump's attorney and recently indicted associates to garner 'dirt' on former Vice President Joe Biden. 'The House Intelligence Committee's Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Report dated December 3, 2019 used a subpoena to obtain phone records which plainly demonstrate that ranking member Devin Nunes (R-CA) has an actual conflict of interest with an ongoing impeachment hearing he oversees,' the filed complaint filed by The Democratic Coalition stated. 'That is because Rep. Nunes is currently engaged in overseeing an investigation in which it appears he is a fact witness, and which may examine his own activities and meetings with agents and lawyers of the President who solicited foreign election assistance, as well as potentially into his own contacts with foreign government officials.'"

Prosecutor Shoots Down Barr's Conspiracy Theory. Matt Zapotosky & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The prosecutor handpicked by Attorney General William P. Barr to scrutinize how U.S. agencies investigated President Trump's 2016 campaign said he could not offer evidence to the Justice Department's inspector general to support the suspicions of some conservatives that the case was a setup by American intelligence, people familiar with the matter said. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's office contacted U.S. Attorney John Durham, the prosecutor Barr personally tapped to lead a separate review of the 2016 probe into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, the people said. The inspector general also contacted several U.S. intelligence agencies.... Durham informed Horowitz's office that his investigation had not produced any evidence that might contradict the inspector general's findings on that point.... That could rebut conservatives' doubts -- which Barr has shared with associates in recent weeks -- that Horowitz might be blessing the FBI's Russia investigation prematurely, and that Durham could potentially find more, particularly with regard to [a] Maltese professor [whom winger conspiracy theorists falsely believe was a U.S. asset]." TPM has a summary of the WashPo report.

Never-Trumper Rick Wilson in Rolling Stone: "Be honest: The words 'traitor' and 'treason' don't have the sting they once had; they've been devalued from mis- and over-use by this president. For Donald Trump, any opposition, either personal, ideological, or political is treason.... Which is a shame, because America is in the midst of a treason boom right now, and more than a few people in Trump's immediate orbit -- and Trump himself -- richly and actually deserve the title of traitor, and the treason inherent in their acts and words is apparent." Wilson gives many examples. --s

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'two-faced' after a viral clip circulated showing Trudeau gossiping about the president's conduct at bilateral NATO meetings a day earlier." Mrs. McC: Trump has cancelled his press conference, maybe because Trudeau, Johnson & Macron laughed at him & hurt his fee-fees. (Also linked yesterday. Yesterday's Commentariat includes video of the exchange among Trudeau, et al.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly canceled a press conference that was scheduled to cap a contentious trip to England for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 70th anniversary meeting.... Hours before the press conference was set to start, video emerged of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau caught on a hot mic mocking Trump.... None of the politicians in the hot-mic video, which emerged on social media Tuesday evening, mentioned Trump by name. But Trudeau reportedly said later Wednesday that it was Trump's surprise announcement of the location for next year's Group of Seven summit that made 'his team's jaws drop to the floor.' Trump revealed Tuesday that the 2020 G-7 summit will be held at Camp David in Maryland, weeks after he retreated from a plan to host it at his own Miami golf resort." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Shay Khatiri in the right-wing, anti-Trump Bulwark: "... Donald Trump cancelled his press conference at the NATO summit, called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau two-faced, and abruptly left the summit altogether after video surfaced of Trudeau, Boris Johnson, and Emmanuel Macron talking about the American president with utter contempt. Trump seemed surprised that, after three years of crapping all over America's allies, they do not hold him in high regard.... Our relationship with our allies is not out of altruism. It is because we benefit from it. Being the hyperpower can be burdensome, but it is, all things considered, a bargain at twice the price. The United States is, far and away, the biggest beneficiary of the global order that it has implemented.... Trump is dismantling this equilibrium through imprudence and pettiness.... The creators of this order never dreamed that one day America's leader would be so foolish as to seek to throw these alliances away...." See also Nicholas Burns' commentary, linked below.

~~~ Move Along, Donald. There are many interpretations of what was going on between Queen Elizabeth & her daughter Princess Anne as Donald & Melanie Trump held up a reception line & monopolized receivers Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Duchess Camilla & NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. It appears to me that the Queen gestures to move the Trumps along & beckons Anne to help. Anne, who at some point during the reception also joined Canadian PM Justin Trudeau as he made fun of Trump, shrugged at her mother in a way that suggests to me she did not intend to assist in getting rid of the uncouth Americans. You may read the exchange differently. Maybe you think Elizabeth & Anne find Donnie delightful & thought it was great he was holding up other guests. Fine. We weren't there; we don't know. Thanks to Anonymous for the lead:

David Herszenhorn of Politico: "... Donald Trump warned Germany to up its military spending, or face unspecified trade sanctions. Trump issued the warning on Tuesday while in London for a NATO leaders' summit, and ahead of a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel scheduled for early Wednesday afternoon." (Also linked yesterday.)

Nicholas Burns in the Atlantic: "The not-so-closely guarded secret at NATO headquarters is allied officials are privately relieved that, rather than holding a full-fledged summit over two days, the leaders are holding just three and a half hours of formal discussions. That limited Trump's opportunities to blow up the proceedings, as he has done in other major meetings with European and Canadian leaders.... Article V [of the NATO treaty] has been invoked just once in NATO history, when the European allies and Canada vowed to come to our defense after the 9/11 attacks.... Trump appears entirely indifferent to the clear, decisive advantage over Russia and China that the United States enjoys because of our European ties. We have 28 allies in NATO, as well as treaty allies in Japan, South Korea, and Australia in the western Pacific, who will defend us when our backs are against the wall. This is the great power differential we enjoy with Moscow and Beijing." (Also linked yesterday.)"

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "A few months ago Donald Trump decided to suddenly yank our troops from Syria. We'd already beaten ISIS, so why not? It was time to get out. But the Wall Street Journal reports today that apparently things have changed: 'The Trump administration is considering a significant expansion of the U.S. military footprint in the Middle East, including dozens more ships, other military hardware and as many as 14,000 additional troops to counter Iran, U.S. officials said." (Emphasis [probably] Drum's.) You might want to read Drum's May 2016 post on the Blob, which he also links. The Raw Story has a short summary of the WSJ story.

Julia Ioffe of GQ: "Last year ... Lewis Lukens, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in London, visited a pair of English universities where he spoke about the importance of international cooperation ... between the U.K. and America.... A week later, Lukens says, his boss, the U.S. ambassador Woody Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and a Trump political appointee, told him that he was done, firing Lukens from his post seven months ahead of when he was scheduled to leave for a new assignment.... The reason? Lukens says he had unwittingly committed a fatal error in his speech: He had mentioned former president Barack Obama.... This incident ... offers a stark example of the politicization of the foreign service under Trump. It's also a grim illustration of how the administration -- through three years of attempted budget cuts, hiring freezes, and grotesquely personal attacks -- has eviscerated the country's diplomatic corps and put highly sensitive matters of national security in the hands of politically appointed novices." Read on. --s

** But We Say "Merry Christmas!" in the U.S.A. Lola Fadulu of the New York Times: "The Trump administration, brushing aside tens of thousands of protest letters, gave final approval on Wednesday to a rule that will remove nearly 700,000 people from the federal food-stamp program by strictly enforcing federal work requirements. The rule, which was proposed by the Agriculture Department in February, would press states to carry out work requirements for able-bodied adults without children that governors have routinely been allowed to waive, especially for areas in economic distress. The economy has improved under the Trump administration, the department argued, and assistance to unemployed, able-bodied adults was no longer necessary in a strong job market.... More than 140,000 public comments were submitted on the rule that was made final on Wednesday, and they were overwhelmingly negative." The NBC News story is here.

Ian McMacDougall of ProPublica: "The logistical challenges [of Trump's inhumane border policies] were daunting, but as luck would have it, Immigration and Customs Enforcement already had a partner on its payroll: McKinsey & Company, an international consulting firm.... [McKinsey] proposed cuts in spending on food for migrants, as well as on medical care and supervision of detainees.... The consultants ... seemed focused solely on cutting costs and speeding up deportations -- activities whose success could be measured in numbers -- with little acknowledgment that these policies affected thousands of human beings.... [T]he consulting firm's sway at ICE grew to the point that McKinsey's staff even ghostwrote a government contracting document that defined the consulting team's own responsibilities and justified the firm's retention, a contract extension worth $2.2 million." --s

GOP consultant Evan Siegfried in an NBC News opinion piece: "As the president's misguided worldwide trade war rages, the latest salvo is the United States Trade Representative's further proposed 100 percent tariff on several goods imported from France as a response to its taxes on digital companies -- and it's Americans who are paying and will continue to pay the price. The president and his supporters keep insisting, incorrectly, that the countries (China, France, etc.) from which tariffed products come are the ones paying their cost, but ... tariffs are never paid by the country on which they are imposed. Instead, their cost -- initially paid by the company producing the good -- is passed on to ... the consumer." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Siegfried is all upset that the price of his favorite French wine is about to go up. I have news for him: so is the price of a California alternative. If a $20 bottle of French wine goes up to $40, that California vintner is not going to keep selling her product for $18 or $20. She's going to raise her price to what the market will bear: not $40, but $25 or $30. To borrow a line from Siegfried, "That is basic capitalism."

Presidential Race 2020

Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe negative campaign ads turn you off. Here's one, and I think it's the best ad I've seen this campaign season:

~~~ Josh Taylor of the Guardian: "... Joe Biden has sought to capitalise on world leaders' private ridicule of Donald Trump at the Nato summit, releasing a video montage including similar moments which soon went viral on Twitter. Within hours the video, posted by the Democratic frontrunner on Wednesday evening, amassed close to 2m views, and more than 21,000 retweets. By comparison, Trump's video about his Nato trip had 1.4 million views and 14,600 retweets in the space of 12 hours.... CNN reported Biden's video was posted 30 minutes after Trump landed back on US soil, in keeping with Biden's policy of not criticising the president while he is overseas.... Trump later tweeted that 'I got along great with the Nato leaders' and accused the 'fake news media' [of] trying to 'belittle my very successful trip to London for Nato'."

Congressional Races 2020

Steven Shepard & Ally Mutnick of Politico: "Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee who participated in last month's impeachment hearings, said Wednesday he won't seek reelection next year. Heck, 67, was first elected in 2012 to represent a district southwest of Seattle.... Heck ... wrote that the process of compiling the intelligence committee's recent impeachment report had left him 'discouraged' about continuing to serve in Congress. 'The countless hours I have spent in the investigation of Russian election interference and the impeachment inquiry have rendered my soul weary,' Heck wrote. 'I will never understand how some of my colleagues, in many ways good people, could ignore or deny the president's unrelenting attack on a free press, his vicious character assassination of anyone who disagreed with him, and his demonstrably very distant relationship with the truth.'"

Yelena Dzhanova of CNBC: "Defying ... Donald Trump, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday tapped financial services executive Kelly Loeffler to fill the state&'s soon-to-be vacated Senate seat." ~~~

~~~ BUT There's Something about Loeffler Even Trump Can Understand. Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Georgia's soon-to-be Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) will spend $20 million of her personal fortune on her bid to hold on to her Senate seat next year, according to a person familiar with her plans. Loeffler, the multimillionaire CEO of an Atlanta-based financial services firm, was appointed on Wednesday to replace retiring Sen. Johnny Isakson (R) in 2020. Her appointment sets up a special election next year that is expected to draw both Republican and Democratic challengers."

Marisa Endicott of Mother Jones: "Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to confirm Sarah Pitlyk, who has argued against in vitro fertilization and surrogacy and touted the (debunked) 'eugenic origins of the birth control movement,' to a lifetime judgeship on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.... The American Bar Association unanimously determined Pitlyk was 'not qualified' for the judgeship.... Pitlyk clerked for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and wrote an opinion piece for Fox News defending him against the sexual assault allegations he faced during his confirmation process.... Pitlyk has made a career out of anti-abortion and reproductive health litigation." --s The Washington Post story is here.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the Guardian: "Colin Kaepernick sent a tweet on Thanksgiving [advocating for Indigenous causes] and the white-wing media wants to make sure you know about it.... So, why the panicky attacks on Kaepernick? Clearly, there's something much more insidious going on here: the sustained attempt to steal Kaepernick's political voice by characterizing him as un-American. The Black Grinch who wants to steal White Christmas American values.... History has taught us over and over that religious values are quickly abandoned when they conflict with economics or traditional social norms.... But really it's how conservative America has always treated African American athletes who speak out whether it's Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, or any of the others.... For much longer than 50 years people have been ordering truth-tellers to shut up and punishing them when they refuse.... But they sure will keep on trying as long as they get paid to pander to those who wrap themselves in the pretty colors of the flag rather that the bold words of the Constitution." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Abdul-Jabbar himself often has been on the receiving end of such criticism.

Beyond the Beltway

Kentucky. Ryland Barton of WFPL (Kentucky Public Radio): "During a series of interviews on talk radio shows Wednesday morning, outgoing Republican Gov. Matt Bevin said that he lost his race for reelection because the Democratic Party 'harvested votes in urban communities.'... Vote harvesting refers to collecting absentee or mail-in ballots in order to sway an election. The practice is illegal in some states, but Kentucky is one of 27 states that allows absentee ballots to be returned by a designated agent.... During the interview on 55KRC, Bevin said that he was encouraged by his supporters on Election Day, but that Democrats brought 'more less-informed people' to the polls." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie Translation: "Black people are so ignorant they'll hand over their ballots to crooked Democrats who happen by." You know, Matt, the percentage of Kentuckians identifying as black is less than 8 percent. The percentage of whites is more than 87 percent. That does kinda suggest that a whole buncha "more-informed" people from "non-urban communities" voted for Andy Beshear, too. You sniveling racist pig.

Way Beyond

Brazil. Matt Sandy of the New York Times: "... Brazil's space agency reported that in one year, more than 3,700 square miles of the Amazon had been razed -- a swath of jungle nearly the size of Lebanon torn from the world's largest rainforest. It was the highest loss in Brazilian rainforest in a decade, and stark evidence of just how badly the Amazon, an important buffer against global warming, has fared in Brazil's first year under President Jair Bolsonaro. He has vowed to open the rainforest to industry and scale back its protections, and his government has followed through, cutting funds and staffing to weaken the enforcement of environmental laws. In the absence of federal agents, waves of loggers, ranchers and miners moved in, emboldened by the president and eager to satisfy global demand." With photos.

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project: "What do a Swedish Hells Angels boss, an Iranian state oil company, the Italian mob, and a fake Gambian bank have in common? The answer: A company services firm called Formations House, hidden behind the doors of one of London's most exclusive addresses. For years, the handsome Edwardian terrace at 29 Harley Street was a front for a vast back-office operation run out of Pakistan that claims to have churned out some 400,000 companies for clients around the globe. A cache of the family-run company's internal records obtained by the anti-secrecy group Distributed Denial of Secrets, and shared with OCCRP and other media outlets, provides unprecedented insight into Formations House's global reach, and the criminal activities of some of its clients around the world." --s

News Ledes

NBC News: "A U.S. sailor fatally shot two civilian Defense Department employees and wounded a third at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii before killing himself, military officials said. Rear Admiral Robert Chadwick said the civilian shipyard worker who was wounded was stable. The gunman has been tentatively identified as an active duty sailor assigned to a submarine, he said."

AP: "Hiring in the United States jumped last month to its highest level since January as U.S. employers shrugged off trade conflicts and a global slowdown and added 266,000 jobs. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.5% from 3.6% in October, matching a half-century low, the Labor Department reported Friday. And wages rose a solid 3.1% in November compared with a year earlier. Investors cheered the report, sending the Dow Jones industrial average up more than 270 points in early trading."