The Commentariat -- September 15, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

That guy Mark Judge who vouched for Brett Kavanaugh? His credibility is great! And an all-around perfect character witness. Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones: Judge is a "conservative" writer who wrote an "addiction memoir" titled Wasted: Tales of a Gen X Drunk. "That book chronicles Judge's time as a teenage alcoholic. Like many works of the genre, it devotes a lot of ink to the kinds of debauchery that leads to AA and recovery. While there's nothing in the book that resembles the incident reportedly described in the private letter given to the FBI, Judge says his own black-out drinking while he and Kavanaugh were Georgetown Prep students 'reached the point where once I had the first beer, I found it impossible to stop until I was completely annihilated.'... The amount of drinking Judge describes himself undertaking might suggest that his memory of those days may not be entirely reliable." Mencimer copies a compelling excerpt about Bart O'Kavanaugh. Name totally changed to protect the guilty.

Dennis Romero of NBC News: "... Donald Trump may soon be communicating with you directly on your phone.... Next Thursday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will do its first test of a system that allows the president to send a message to most U.S. cellphones.... The test message will have a header that reads 'Presidential Alert,' according to the agency.... The wireless emergency alerts (WEA) system was authorized by Congress in 2015 under a law that states the 'system shall not be used to transmit a message that does not relate to a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster or threat to public safety.' Experts didn't appear to be too concerned that Trump, known to use his smartphone to blast opponents, berate subordinates and take shots at the news media on Twitter, could abuse WEA.... The test is supposed to take place at 2:18 p.m. EDT on Sept. 20. Under the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006, cellphone users cannot opt out of the presidential alerts."

Dennis Romero and Dystany Muse of NBC News: "A member of a U.S. Coast Guard team responding to Tropical Storm Florence in South Carolina appeared to flash a white power hand gesture in the background as a captain was being interviewed Friday by MSNBC. The man has since been removed from the Florence response operations and the incident is under investigation, said Coast Guard Lt. J.B. Zorn. The decision from the federal agency came after heavy backlash online to the apparent gesture captured on 'Live with Ali Velshi.'"

Texas Board Determined to Prove Value of Pointy-Headed Experts. Lauren McGaughy of the Dallas Morning News: "As part of an effort to 'streamline' the social studies curriculum in public schools, the State Board of Education voted Friday to adjust what students in every grade are required to learn in the classroom. Among the changes, board members approved the removal of several historical figures, including [Hillary] Clinton and [Helen] Keller, from the curriculum. The board also voted to keep in the curriculum a reference to the 'heroism' of the defenders of the Alamo, which had been recommended for elimination, as well as Moses' influence on the writing of the nation's founding documents, multiple references to 'Judeo-Christian' values and a requirement that students explain how the 'Arab rejection of the State of Israel has led to ongoing conflict' in the Middle East. The vote Friday was preliminary. The board can amend the curriculum changes further before taking a final vote in November." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Though you may think I make up this stuff to drive you nuts, the only fictional thing in the report, as far as I know, is the Biblical character Moses.

*****

Trump: L'Opera Buffa. Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It's not over till the fat man sings, but a full choir is in voice: Manafort, Cohen, Gates, Flynn, Papadopoulos & a couple of understudies. And of course we have no idea what-all the dozens of other witnesses have told investigators.

New York Times Editors: "How many more guilty pleas and convictions will there be in Trumpworld before all this crime starts to look -- how can we put it -- organized?"

** Spencer Hsu & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "... Paul Manafort is pleading guilty Friday to two criminal charges under terms of a plea deal that includes his cooperation as a potential witness for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. The decision by Manafort to provide evidence in exchange for leniency on sentencing is a stunning development in the long-running probe into whether any Trump associates may have conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Manafort's defenders have long insisted that he would not cooperate with Mueller, and didn't know any incriminating information against the president. Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said at the beginning of Friday's plea hearing that Manafort has agreed to cooperate with investigators.... A criminal information -- a legal document filed by prosecutors to detail the criminal conduct to be admitted by the defendant -- was filed in advance of the plea. The document shows Manafort intends to plead guilty to two crimes of the seven he faced at trial: conspiring to defraud the United States and conspiring to obstruct justice.... As part of his deal, the government plans to seize four properties, including a nearly $2 million house in Arlington, Virginia, owned by one of Manafort's daughters. The deal also calls for forfeiture of four financial accounts and a life insurance policy." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Here's a pdf of the charging document & exhibits, via the New York Times. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: From what I understand from MSNBC on-air discussions, Manafort pled guilty to all 18 charges for which he was tried in Virginia, including the 10 for which he was not convicted. In addition, he effectively pleaded guilty to all counts in the D.C. case because the two counts to which he pleaded guilty incorporated the substance of the other five counts. ...

... Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "It was not immediately clear what information [Paul Manafort] might be providing to prosecutors or how the plea agreement might affect Mr. Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and related questions about possible collusion by the Trump campaign and obstruction of justice by Mr. Trump. The president's personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, quickly sought to distance Mr. Trump from the development. 'Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing t do with President Trump or the Trump campaign,' he said in a statement. 'The reason: the president did nothing wrong and Paul Manafort will tell the truth.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Matthew Mosk, et al., of ABC News: "In court Friday morning, prosecutors revealed that Manafort had completed a successful meeting with investigators in which he offered them information they considered valuable. They did not specify what information he agreed to share, but made clear the cooperation would be 'broad' and would include participation in 'interviews, briefings, producing documents, [and] testifying in other matters.'... The agreement marked a significant shift for the Mueller investigation -- providing them cooperation from someone who participated in the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting, in which a Russian lawyer came to New York during the campaign promising 'dirt' on Trump's Democratic opponent. As the campaign chairman, Manafort was also privy to the inner workings of the Trump campaign for critical months in 2016." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Tucker Higgins of CNBC: "After Manafort ... agreed to cooperate with prosecutors working for the special counsel on Friday..., Donald Trump's legal team released the following statement attributed to Rudy Giuliani...: 'Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign. The reason: the President did nothing wrong and Paul Manafort will tell the truth.' Minutes later, they ... [put out] a 'corrected' statement removed the bit about Manafort telling the truth:... 'Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign. The reason: the President did nothing wrong.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "The revised statement leaves open the possibility that Trump and his legal team will ultimately dispute the information Manafort shares with Mueller.... It suggests the president's team is bracing for the possibility that they will have to try and assassinate Manafort's character...." Mrs. McC: Rupar is far too shy; of course Trump will trash Manafort & what he says. It's what Trump does. And Manafort is an easy guy to trash. ...

... "What Manafort Knows." Franklin Foer of the Atlantic: "... we can guess the lines of questioning that might dominate Manafort's meetings with the lawyers in the special counsel's office. The Oleg Deripaska Connection.... Deripaska might have been a crucial intermediary between Manafort and the Kremlin. The Curious Case of Konstantin Kilimnik.... Kilimnik was Manafort's primary interface with Deripaska. Manafort’s Loans.... Roger Stone.... If Mueller does intend to pursue a case against Stone, he suddenly has his oldest confidant as a cooperating witness. The Trump Tower Meeting." ...

... Trump Can't Pardon Manafort to Stop Manafort's Cooperation. Paul Rosenzweig & Justin Florence in a Washington Post op-ed: "Trump's supportive tweet about Manafort after his conviction in August on eight felony fraud counts, praising him for not cooperating with prosecutors, was widely interpreted as a hint of future presidential leniency. Trump has insisted on his 'absolute' power to pardon even himself, and his lawyers in a secret January memo to Mueller asserted the president's complete control over federal investigations as the nation's chief law enforcement officer. Trump and his team have tried to lay the groundwork for pardons to protect him from criminal charges. But ... a self-pardon, or a pardon that is self-protective and serves the same purpose as a self-pardon, would be an abuse of power that violates the Constitution and, as such, could warrant impeachment. If the president can use the pardon power to protect himself from prosecution, it would effectively transform him into an authoritarian ruler, incapable of being limited by law or any other branches of government. In constitutional terms, using the pardon power in this way would appear to violate Article II, which requires the president to 'take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.'" ...

... Also Too. Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel: "Here's why this deal is pardon proof: 1. Mueller spent the hour and a half delay in arraignment doing ... something. It's possible Manafort even presented the key parts of testimony Mueller needs from him to the grand jury this morning. 2. The forfeiture in this plea is both criminal and civil, meaning DOJ will be able to get Manafort's $46 million even with a pardon. 3.Some of the dismissed charges are financial ones that can be charged in various states." ...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico takes a longer look at the effects of a pardon in Manafort's case. It isn't as straightforward as Wheeler suggests, & experts don't agree. Mrs. McC: Manafort, according to statements the prosecutor made in court, has already made at least two proffers. I'd assume interviewers have in writing and/or on tape every song he's sung. I don't know much about the rules of evidence, but I'd guess anything Manafort has said can be used in court, and it certainly can be used in any report Mueller makes.

Emily Fox of Vanity Fair: "In recent weeks, it has ... become common knowledge among close friends of Michael Cohen ... is talking to the Mueller team, according to people familiar with the situation." (Also linked yesterday.)

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "What will the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, do when he wraps up his investigation...? The leading theory is that Mr. Mueller will write a report for his supervisor at the Justice Department. That could lead to a new fight: Mr. Trump's lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, has suggested that the White House may then invoke executive privilege and order the Justice Department to keep portions of such a report confidential from Congress. But there is historical precedent for another model. Echoing a move by the Watergate prosecutor in March 1974, the grand jury with which Mr. Mueller has been working could try to send a report about the evidence it has gathered directly to the House Judiciary Committee. And on Friday, seeking to draw more attention to that option, three prominent legal analysts asked a court to lift a veil of secrecy that has long kept that Watergate-era report hidden.... [A] petition [to unseal the Nixon investigation Road Map] was filed by Benjamin Wittes, a Brookings Institution senior fellow and the editor in chief of Lawfare...; Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor and senior Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration; and Stephen Bates, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, law professor who, as a federal prosecutor working for Ken Starr...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If there are actual national security matters revealed in the report (and there well might be, given the subjects of the investigation) sensitive material can be redacted, but the public has a right to see everything else. After all, we paid for it. All these people work for us.

The Mysterious Case of Brett Kavanaugh -- just got less mysterious:

** Ronan Farrow & Jane Mayer of the New Yorker: "On Thursday, Senate Democrats disclosed that they had referred a complaint regarding ... Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the F.B.I. for investigation. The complaint came from a woman who accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct when they were both in high school, more than thirty years ago. The woman, who has asked not to be identified, first approached Democratic lawmakers in July, shortly after Trump nominated Kavanaugh. The allegation dates back to the early nineteen-eighties, when Kavanaugh was a high-school student at Georgetown Preparatory School, in Bethesda, Maryland, and the woman attended a nearby high school. In the letter, the woman alleged that, during an encounter at a party, Kavanaugh held her down, and that he attempted to force himself on her. She claimed in the letter that Kavanaugh and a classmate of his, both of whom had been drinking, turned up music that was playing in the room to conceal the sound of her protests, and that Kavanaugh covered her mouth with his hand. She was able to free herself." Kavanaugh denies the allegation; the male classmate has "no recollection" of the incident. Dianne Feinstein has had the letter since late July & had kept it secret from other Judiciary Committee members -- Mrs. McC: apparently until Ryan Grim of the Intercept reported on its existence. The other members are not amused. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In other words, young Brett (allegedly) attempted to rape a young woman. My only surprise here is at Feinstein's withholding this information, a lapse I find unconscionable. ...

... Update. Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: "... what in blazes was Dianne Feinstein thinking?... She had no right to keep [the letter] from them. For that matter, she had no right to keep it from us, the public, who also live with the consequences of a new Supreme Court.... Now, single-handedly, she has returned things to the Incompetent Democrats narrative. Well, no. Not Incompetent Democrats. Incompetent Democrat, singular. Beyond belief.... This man, if confirmed, is going to spend the next 30 or 35 years of his life deciding whether 16 year old girls like the one he allegedly attacked have any rights to control their own reproductive fates. We all know, his 'open mind' notwithstanding, that he is going to spend 30 or 35 years saying they have none." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... John McCormack of the Weekly Standard: "The Kavanaugh classmate quoted in the New Yorker is Mark Judge, a writer in Washington, D.C. Judge spoke to The Weekly Standard Friday afternoon, strongly denying that any such incident ever occurred. 'It's just absolutely nuts. I never saw Brett act that way,' Judge told TWS." Mrs. McC: We should bear in mind that Judge is protecting not only Kavanaugh, but also himself, inasmuch as the accuser has apparently indicated that Judge took part in the assault. His denial is as credible as Kavanaugh's. ...

... Tara Golshan of Vox: "Sixty-five women who knew Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in high school have testified to his good character in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, in light of recently surfaced allegations that he tried to force himself on a girl during his time at Georgetown Preparatory School, an all-boys school in Bethesda, Maryland." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Really, what Supreme Court nominee doesn't have a list of 65 random women they didn't sexually assault while attending an all-boys high school lined up?" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... ** Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "Almost anyone who has played any part in the #MeToo movement might say with confidence that the cost of coming forward is crippling. And indeed, as soon as the New Yorker published its story, Kavanaugh defenders were quick to say that the woman, still unnamed, was a drunk and a liar.... The real tragedy is that we do not need this woman's story to understand who the current Supreme Court nominee is." Lithwick goes on to list the hard evidence that's already out there. Read it. "... demanding that any one woman bear the full professional and social and emotional cost of dismantling the machinery of men in power propping up other men in power is expecting entirely too much." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: I want to think I would have the guts to come forward and that if Dianne Feinstein stymied my effort, I'd go to the press. I'd like to think I had the guts to do what I could to stop the Kavanaugh Lithwick so clearly describes. But since I have not had to do so, I can't be certain I would (tho the odds are pretty high that I would). I disagree with the advice Lithwick says she would give the woman. Not only would I encourage her to expose Kavanaugh, I'd be there for her before, when & after she did.

Erica Ordan & Evan Perez of CNN: "Federal prosecutors in New York are weighing criminal charges against former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig as part of an investigation into whether he failed to register as a foreign agent in a probe that is linked to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, according to sources familiar with the matter. In addition, these sources said, prosecutors in the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York are considering taking action against powerhouse law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where Craig was a partner during the activity under examination.... The investigation involving Craig and Skadden was referred to federal prosecutors in New York earlier this year by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, CNN reported in August.... The investigation pertains to whether Craig improperly performed lobbying work on behalf of a group associated with Ukraine without registering with the Justice Department as a foreign agent."

Mrs. McCrabbie: A couple of days ago, there was this from the Capitalism Is Awesome file. There is a reason I didn't link a story about the Bezos' generosity:

... Molly Schuetz of Bloomberg: "Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, launched a $2 billion fund to help homeless families and create a network of nonprofit preschools in low-income communities.... The move catapults the world's richest person into a rarefied group of billionaire megadonors at a time when his company, Amazon.com Inc., faces growing scrutiny over its rising power and impact on the economy." ...

... So Here's the Reason. Marina Hyde of the Guardian: "Off the top of my head, Jeff has already had two very clear chances to help homeless people and low-income families. The first was in Seattle, where Amazon is headquartered, and where the firm recently killed a proposed city tax on big firms to alleviate the homeless crisis by threatening to halt a building project. The second was by simply paying his own low-income workers better. As the old saying goes, charity begins in aisle 89 of the Amazon warehouse, where workers are so terrified of being docked points for nipping to the bathroom that they're pissing in bottles. But guys like Jeff don't want governments, or properly paid worker ants, taking credit for what is, after all, his bounty.... [If] the poor people who literally already work for you ... want to humbly queue up and apply for it via some thinly disguised hardship grant that you take the applause for, that's a different matter. Dignity is something you hand out, not something that others get to earn."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Milan Schreuer of the New York Times: "Two Russian spies caught in the Netherlands and expelled had been plotting cyber sabotage of a Swiss defense laboratory analyzing the nerve agent used to poison a former Russian agent in Britain, Swiss officials said Friday.The story -- first reported by the Dutch newspaper NRC and the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, and confirmed by Swiss officials -- adds a new dimension to the charges by Western governments that the Kremlin is waging a sophisticated and unconventional campaign to work its will abroad, and undermine adversaries and their alliances. Britain contends that Russia sent two other spies to a quaint English cathedral city in March, carrying a military-grade poison to assassinate a turncoat former colleague, Sergei V. Skripal, which the Kremlin denies. The two men, publicly identified and charged by the British authorities, appeared on Russian television on Thursday to deny involvement in the poisoning that sickened Mr. Skripal and three others, and killed one person, insisting that they were sports nutritionists, not spies."

News Ledes

New York Times: "After slamming into the Carolina coast on Friday with powerful winds and torrential rains, Hurricane Florence left a trail of devastation as it crawled over the southeastern part of the state, posing what may be its greatest threat in the days ahead as it roars inland with what are shaping up to be record-setting quantities of water. The storm, whose destructive power was unlike any the area has seen in a generation, had already caused at least five fatalities as of Friday afternoon, and rescue crews across a wide region were attempting to pluck distressed residents from rooftops." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Florence, the powerful storm that has already left at least nine people dead and nearly a million without power on the East Coast, continued to move inland at an ominously sluggish pace Saturday, fat with rain and threatening to deliver hardship and devastation far beyond the wind-battered coasts."

The New York Times is providing free access to its Hurricane Florence coverage. The Times front page is here. "The [Washington] Post has removed article limits on coverage of Hurricane Florence to make these stories available without a subscription." The Post has links to several Florence-related stories on its front page. the (South Carolina) State home page is here. The State is granting free access to its site during the storm. The Raleigh News & Observer home page is here.

MEANWHILE. New York Times: "Typhoon Mangkhut struck the Philippines early Saturday, after tens of thousands of people evacuated their homes to escape the 550-mile-wide storm as it roared across the Pacific. More than 12 hours after landfall, at least three deaths were reported, but there were no signs of the kind of devastation wreaked by Typhoon Haiyan five years ago. Still, officials had barely begun to assess the damage. Some places could not be contacted because of communication outages, and several provinces had suffered complete power blackouts. The ferocity of the storm -- which arrived at 1:40 a.m. with maximum sustained winds of around 120 miles per hour -- in some ways eclipsed Hurricane Florence on the other side of the world...." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Typhoon Mangkhut, which meteorologists called the most powerful storm in the world this year, swept through the northern end of the Philippine island of Luzon, leaving at least 16 people dead and wreaking havoc. It uprooted trees, ripped off roofs, set off landslides and flooded farms and roads."

The Commentariat -- September 14, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Emily Fox of Vanity Fair: "In recent weeks, it has ... become common knowledge among close friends of Michael Cohen ... is talking to the Mueller team, according to people familiar with the situation."

** Ronan Farrow & Jane Mayer of the New Yorker: "On Thursday, Senate Democrats disclosed that they had referred a complaint regarding ... Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the F.B.I. for investigation. The complaint came from a woman who accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct when they were both in high school, more than thirty years ago. The woman, who has asked not to be identified, first approached Democratic lawmakers in July, shortly after Trump nominated Kavanaugh. The allegation dates back to the early nineteen-eighties, when Kavanaugh was a high-school student at Georgetown Preparatory School, in Bethesda, Maryland, and the woman attended a nearby high school. In the letter, the woman alleged that, during an encounter at a party, Kavanaugh held her down, and that he attempted to force himself on her. She claimed in the letter that Kavanaugh and a classmate of his, both of whom had been drinking, turned up music that was playing in the room to conceal the sound of her protests, and that Kavanaugh covered her mouth with his hand. She was able to free herself." Kavanaugh denies the allegation; the male classmate has "no recollection" of the incident. Dianne Feinstein has had the letter since late July & had kept it secret from other Judiciary Committee members -- Mrs. McC: apparently until Ryan Grim of the Intercept reported on its existence. The other members are not amused. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In other words, young Brett (allegedly) attempted to rape a young woman. My only surprise here is at Feinstein's withholding this information, a lapse I find unconscionable. ...

... Update. Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: "... what in blazes was Dianne Feinstein thinking?... She had no right to keep [the letter] from them. For that matter, she had no right to keep it from us, the public, who also live with the consequences of a new Supreme Court.... Now, single-handedly, she has returned things to the Incompetent Democrats narrative. Well, no. Not Incompetent Democrats. Incompetent Democrat, singular. Beyond belief.... This man, if confirmed, is going to spend the next 30 or 35 years of his life deciding whether 16 year old girls like the one he allegedly attacked have any rights to control their own reproductive fates. We all know, his 'open mind' notwithstanding, that he is going to spend 30 or 35 yars saying they have none."

... Tara Golshan of Vox: "Sixty-five women who knew Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in high school have testified to his good character in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, in light of recently surfaced allegations that he tried to force himself on a girl during his time at Georgetown Preparatory School, an all-boys school in Bethesda, Maryland." ...

     ... Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Really, what Supreme Court nominee doesn’t have a list of 65 random women they didn’t sexually assault while attending an all-boys high school lined up?"

CNN has just reported that as part of his plea agreement, Paul Manafort has agreed to cooperate with the government. No story up yet as the hearing is still ongoing. ...

     ... ** Update. Spencer Hsu & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "... Paul Manafort is pleading guilty Friday to two criminal charges under terms of a plea deal that includes his cooperation as a potential witness for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. The decision by Manafort to provide evidence in exchange for leniency on sentencing is a stunning development in the long-running probe into whether any Trump associates may have conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Manafort's defenders have long insisted that he would not cooperate with Mueller, and didn't know any incriminating information against the president. Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said at the beginning of Friday's plea hearing that Manafort has agreed to cooperate with investigators.... A criminal information -- a legal document filed by prosecutors to detail the criminal conduct to be admitted by the defendant -- was filed in advance of the plea. The document shows Manafort intends to plead guilty to two crimes of the seven he faced at trial: conspiring to defraud the United States and conspiring to obstruct justice.... As part of his deal, the government plans to seize four properties, including a nearly $2 million house in Arlington, Virginia, owned by one of Manafort's daughters. The deal also calls for forfeiture of four financial accounts and a life insurance policy." ...

... Here's a pdf of the charging document & exhibits, via the New York Times. ...

... Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "It was not immediately clear what information [Paul Manafort] might be providing to prosecutors or how the plea agreement might affect Mr. Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and related questions about possible collusion by the Trump campaign and obstruction of justice by Mr. Trump. The president's personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, quickly sought to distance Mr. Trump from the development. 'Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign,' he said in a statement. 'The reason: the president did nothing wrong and Paul Manafort will tell the truth.'" ...

... Matthew Mosk, et al., of ABC News: "In court Friday morning, prosecutors revealed that Manafort had completed a successful meeting with investigators in which he offered them information they considered valuable. They did not specify what information he agreed to share, but made clear the cooperation would be 'broad' and would include participation in 'interviews, briefings, producing documents, [and] testifying in other matters.'... The agreement marked a significant shift for the Mueller investigation -- providing them cooperation from someone who participated in the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting, in which a Russian lawyer came to New York during the campaign promising 'dirt' on Trump's Democratic opponent. As the campaign chairman, Manafort was also privy to the inner workings of the Trump campaign for critical months in 2016." ...

... Tucker Higgins of CNBC: "After Manafort ... agreed to cooperate with prosecutors working for the special counsel on Friday..., Donald Trump's legal team released the following statement attributed to Rudy Giuliani...: 'Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign. The reason: the President did nothing wrong and Paul Manafort will tell the truth.' Minutes later, they ... [put out] a 'corrected' statement removed the bit about Manafort telling the truth:... 'Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign. The reason: the President did nothing wrong.'"

*****

New York State Primary Results

Here are the New York Times' full results for New York's state primaries.

Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo took a decisive step toward a third term on Thursday, quelling a liberal rebellion by turning aside the insurgent challenge of Cynthia Nixon to claim the Democratic nomination in New York. Mr. Cuomo had marshaled the support of nearly all of the state and country's most powerful Democratic brokers -- elected officials, party leaders, labor unions and wealthy real estate interests -- to defeat Ms. Nixon, beating her by 30 percentage points. The race cemented both Mr. Cuomo's standing as an unmatched force in New York politics and a merciless tactician with little regard for diplomacy." Mrs. McC: A nice way of saying he's a sleazy politician.

Jeffery Mays of the New York Times: "Letitia James became the first black woman to win a major party statewide nomination on Thursday, easily defeating three rivals in New York’s Democratic primary for attorney general. With her win, Ms. James, 59, the New York City public advocate, has positioned herself as a prominent face of resistance to the policies of President Trump, a role that the New York attorney general's office has embraced since Mr. Trump took office. 'This campaign was never really about me or any of the candidates who ran,' Ms. James said in her victory speech. 'It was about the people, but mostly it was about that man in the White House who can't go a day without threatening our fundamental rights.' With Democrats outnumbering Republicans in New York State by a margin of more than two to one, Ms. James will be heavily favored in November against the Republican candidate, Keith Wofford, 49, who ran unopposed. If Ms. James wins, she would be the first black woman to assume statewide office, just five years after becoming the first black woman elected to citywide office in New York."

Vivian Wang of the New York Times: "Years of anger at a group of Democratic state senators who had collaborated with Republicans boiled over on Thursday, as primary voters ousted nearly all of them in favor of challengers who had called them traitors and sham progressives. The losses were not only a resounding upset for the members of the Independent Democratic Conference, who outspent their challengers several times over, but also a sign that the progressive fervor sweeping national politics had hobbled New York's once-mighty Democratic machine, at least on a local level. The most high-profile casualty was Senator Jeffrey D. Klein of the Bronx, the former head of the I.D.C. In that role, he was for years one of Albany's most powerful players, sharing leadership of the chamber with his counterparts in the Republican conference and participating in the state's secretive budget negotiations."

*****

The Maria Truther. (Thanks, Steve M.!) Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "As Hurricane Florence churned toward the Carolinas, President Trump on Thursday diverted attention from the government's preparations for the monster storm to his personal grievances over last year's Hurricane Maria by falsely claiming a conspiracy to inflate the death toll in Puerto Rico. Trump drew immediate rebukes from Democrats as well as from some Republicans for denying a sweeping study, which was accepted by Puerto Rican authorities, estimating that there were 2,975 'excess deaths' on the island in the six months after Maria made landfall. Providing no evidence, Trump incorrectly alleged that Democrats raised the death toll 'in order to make me look as bad as possible.'... Trump thoroughly mischaracterized how the death toll of 2,975 was tallied in the study, which was conducted by George Washington University.... Trump's brash comments on the deaths in Puerto Rico drew only scattered criticism among Republican lawmakers, underscoring the trepidation of most GOP politicians to cross a president who enjoys deep and solid support among the party's base voters." ...

... Lachlan Markay, et al. of The Daily Beast: "As he prepares for one natural disaster and tries to spin his way out of another, President Donald Trump, aides and friends say, is guided by a singular obsession: never to have a hurricane dubbed his 'Katrina.'... But those familiar with Trump's approach say he does in fact care about the widespread devastation and loss of life that resulted from Maria and could potentially result from Florence -- if for no other reason than he also has an intense fixation on managing public perception of his performance in these moments." --safari ...

... "Mr. President, SHUT UP." Marc Caputo of Politico: "Florida Republicans are angered by ... Donald Trump advancing a conspiracy theory casting doubt on Hurricane Maria's estimated death toll in Puerto Rico. Even Trump's two top Florida allies, Gov. Rick Scott and GOP gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis, disagreed with his insensitive comments. Exploding on Twitter two months before Election Day, Trump's comments have the potential to intensify Boricua voter registration efforts and perhaps election turnout. And that, Republicans and Democrats say, could prove crucial in Florida's hotly contested races for U.S. Senate and governor, which are essentially tied races.... Florida has more than 1.1 million Puerto Rican residents, and as many as 500,000 could be registered to vote among the 13 million active registered voters." ...

... New York Times Editors: "... the president's effort on Thursday to deny the nearly 3,000 American lives lost in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria last year -- and to accuse Democrats of inflating the death toll for political gain -- should amaze even the most jaundiced Trump-watcher.... The president sees the accepted death toll of nearly 3,000 as evidence of a political conspiracy against him.... Mr. Trump delivered his latest bit of mendacity with a one-two presidential Twitter punch: '3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the island AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000 ...' '... This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico. If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!'"...

... ** Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "The falsehoods ... Donald Trump tweeted Thursday morning about the Hurricane Maria death toll are disturbing. They're also a perfect encapsulation of Trump's political strategy: a complete disdain for the truth, the attribution of all dissent to partisan animus, and just-beneath-the-surface racial appeals.... It starts with saying blatantly untrue things that make Trump look better. It continues by claiming any disagreement with his version of reality is politically motivated. And all throughout, the argument involves coded or not-so-coded racial appeals, giving license for white Americans to ignore the suffering of people of color and allowing them to dismiss allegations of racial injustice as political correctness run amok.... When Trump says 'I love Puerto Rico,' he's using a cop-out he often employs when there are allegations of racial bias. During the 2016 campaign, which he kicked off by calling Mexicans rapists, he tweeted something very similar:... 'Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!'... In both cases, Trump is doing something offensive -- downplaying the suffering of Latino individuals and invoking Mexican stereotypes, respectively -- while insisting that he 'loves' the people he's insulting." ...

... Jack Holmes of Esquire: "The President of the United States is not fit to hold the office.... Imagine you lost a family member in a natural disaster and the President of the United States not only displayed his typically blunt indifference, but also suggested their death was faked as part of a hoax by his political opponents. Imagine he lied while doing it, making up conspiracies about how the deaths were counted.... Imagine he tried to erase you and your family for his own political gain.... After all, if the president can erase people's lives out of convenience, he cannot possibly value those lives. He is not making decisions that factor in the moral gravity of their existence. He doesn't care about them. He is not fit for the office, he cannot do the job, and every one of his spineless, disgraceful allies knows it." --safari ...

... Steve M.: "Right-wingers don't believe in statistics.... They don't believe numbers that challenge firmly held opinions -- they think undocumented immigrants are criminal-minded, so don't even bother telling them that the numbers contradict their feelings. Right-wingers believe in anecdotes -- they point to the individual deaths of Mollie Tibbetts and Kate Steinle as 'proof' that the undocumented are dangerous. They like to keep their arguments on the level of individual outrages. Trump doesn't have a specific outrage here, so he makes one up ('If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list'). Conscientious people applying appropriate methodology are always at risk of ridicule from right-wingers -- it's an extension of the right's anti-science, anti-expertise bias." Steve has a great retort to Rush Limbaugh's "Maria-truther" rant.

William Wan & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "As the Federal Emergency Management Agency scrambled Thursday to prepare for Hurricane Florence, the agency's top official was battling allegations of misconduct.... FEMA has faced increasing criticism in recent days for its response to Hurricane Maria following the release of two federal reports detailing how the agency was stretched thin, overwhelmed and lacking in trained personnel, and a university study that raised the death toll in Puerto Rico to nearly 3,000. Meanwhile, FEMA administrator William 'Brock' Long spent part of Thursday deflecting questions about an internal investigation into his use of government vehicles and allegations that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen attempted to force his resignation.... The inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security is investigating Long for allegedly using a government vehicle to travel between Washington, D.C., and his home in Hickory, N.C., where wife and two young children live, according to a DHS official familiar with the situation. A DHS official who knows him said ... Long refused to step down last week when Nielsen asked him to resign. The official said Nielsen has been trying to push him out for months, 'hounding' him about not being in the office more because he goes back to North Carolina on weekends and that Long believes Nielsen wants to replace him with someone loyal to her." ...

... Elijah Cummings Is on the Job. Colin Wilhelm of Politico: "Emails released Thursday by congressional Democrats show correspondence between first responders that appears to undermine the Trump administration's public reporting of the human toll from Hurricane Maria last year. In one email, dated Sept. 29, 2017, a first responder -- whose name has been redacted -- describes 'finding mass graves in mud slide areas,' and requests counseling support for federal first responders in the area.... Only 16 deaths were publicly acknowledged when ... Donald Trump arrived at the island days later to survey damage and meet with local officials. That number climbed to 34 hours after he left.... The emails were released as part of a call from Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) for a full congressional investigation into the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and federal government's response to the disaster. In a letter to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), Cummings asks for a further investigation into what the Trump administration knew about those additional deaths and when it was known.... Cummings also released an unclassified National Guard intelligence assessment, produced five days after Hurricane Maria hit the U.S. territory, that warns that the 'potential for government failure and resulting humanitarian crisis on Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands is high.'" ...

... Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "[I]n the months after [Hurricane Maria, Congressional Republicans] were too busy investigating the previous administration's law enforcement efforts to bother examining why thousands of Americans were left to die [In Puerto Rico].... Unlike the years of redundant investigations into the four deaths in 2012 in Benghazi, the thousands of lives lost in Puerto Rico were not a priority for the GOP majorities in the House and Senate. This despite repeated pleas by minority Democrats for hearings." --safari

Michael Avenatti, in a New York Times op-ed, makes the case for indicting President* Trump: "No grand jury has ever indicted a president, and consequently no court,let alone the Supreme Court, has ruled on the critical question of whether the Constitution allows a president to be indicted while in office.... Provided there is sufficient evidence to support an indictment of President Trump -- and there are many indications that there is -- the special counsel ... and prosecutors from the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York ... should present their evidence to grand juries. Those jurors, citizens of our communities, should then determine whether the evidence supports an indictment of Mr. Trump. The fact that Mr. Trump is a sitting president should not derail a process that applies to all Americans, regardless of stature or station. He would still have the post-indictment relief available to all citizens, including the ability to challenge the constitutionality of the indictment.... Should Mr. Trump be indicted and in the event that the case reaches the Supreme Court, Judge Kavanaugh's recusal should be mandatory."

Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has tentatively agreed to a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller that will head off his upcoming trial, sources familiar with the negotiations tell ABC News. The deal is expected to be announced in court Friday, but it remains unclear whether Manafort has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors or is simply conceding to a guilty plea, which would allow him to avoid the stress and expense of trial...." ...

... Jeff Toobin believes Mueller would insist upon Manafort's cooperation. We'll see:

     ... Update. On the other hand, Chuck Rosenberg -- a more sober analyst -- told Rachel Maddow he doubts Manafort will cooperate with prosecutors. The terms of the plea deal will tell us.

... Natasha Bertrand of the Atlantic: "... Trump's and Manafort's legal interests may be more aligned than either of them have let on. According to Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, Manafort and Trump are part of a joint-defense agreement that allows them to share confidential information about the Russia investigation under the protection of attorney-client privilege. 'All during the investigation we have an open communication with them,' Giuliani recently told Politico. 'Defense lawyers talk to each other all the time, where, as long as our clients authorize it, therefore we have a better idea of what's going to happen. That's very common.'... 'These types of agreements are very common in mob and street-gang cases,' said Elie Honig, a former assistant U.S. attorney.... The agreement provides Manafort a valuable channel into Trumpworld, one that could help him angle for a pardon if that's what he's looking for.... According to the journalist Bob Woodward's new book, Fear, Manafort is not alone in having a deal with Trump. Thirty-seven witnesses who have been called to testify so far in the Mueller inquiry are part of a joint-defense agreement with the president, which allows them to share details about what they told the special counsel."

John Bowden of the Hill: "Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos sharply criticized President Trump on Thursday over his treatment of the news media, urging the president not to 'demonize' members of the press. During remarks made at the Economic Club of Washington, the billionaire called on Trump to tone down his 'dangerous' rhetoric aimed at reporters and news publications.... 'It's dangerous to demonize the media,' Bezos said. 'It's dangerous to call the media lowlifes. It's dangerous to say they are the "enemy of the people." We live in a society where it's not just the laws of the land that protect us,' he added. "It's also the social norms that protect us."

"The Best People", Ctd. Tanya Basu of The Daily Beast: "Gina Loudon, the Republican commentator and author, recently declared that she has scientific evidence that Donald Trump might be the 'most sound-minded' president in history. It's a claim that might carry more weight if her new book didn't falsely describe her as having a doctorate in psychology.... Loudon, 58, who often refers to herself as 'Dr. Gina,' does not have a psychology degree or license. But the author's bio on the jacket of her new book, Mad Politics: Keeping Your Sanity in a World Gone Crazy -- which contains theories that experts say have been dismissed by scientific research -- states she has two masters' degrees 'as well as a Ph.D in psychology.'... The publishing company, Regnery, told The Daily Beast it takes responsibility for the erroneous descriptions." --safari...

     ... UPDATE: The Daily Beast: "In the wake of a Daily Beast report [linked above] early Thursday, President Trump later in the day praised a Republican commentator who claims to use 'science' to offer glowing psychological assessments of the president despite having no clinical training. 'Gina is great!' Trump wrote on Twitter in response to a tweet promoting the book. --safari

Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "It appears to be the embattled President against the world these days. There is, however, at least one notable exception: the increasingly warm public words he reserves for the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un.... On Monday, the White House announced that, in response to [a new] 'very warm, very positive' note from Kim, Trump was now ordering his staff to plan for a second Trump-Kim summit meeting.... Trump's faith in the North Korean dictator is not shared by his top advisers.... For a Washington now obsessed with understanding the nature of the internal 'resistance' to Trump ... there may be no better case study than the ongoing North Korea disagreement between the unconventional President and those he has hired to advise him." --safari

D. Parvaz of ThinkProgress: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday certified to Congress that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were 'undertaking demonstrable actions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure' in Yemen. His certification of the Saudi and U.A.E. efforts allows the U.S. to continue supporting the airstrikes, although Pompeo's statement has been called 'objectively false' by Larry Lewis, a former State Department adviser to Saudi Arabia on reducing civilian casualties, and a 'farce' by lawmakers who want to see actual accountability for Saudi actions." --safari

Good News for Despots. Matt Apuzzo & Marlise Simons of the New York Times report on the International Criminal Court & John Bolton's long opposition to it. "Mr. Bolton's comments [this week] were seen here as a threat to the institution and an invitation to world leaders to ignore the court's authority."

Obama Bought Nikki Haley Really Nice Curtains. Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "The State Department spent $52,701 last year buying customized and mechanized curtains for the picture windows in Nikki R. Haley's official residence as ambassador to the United Nations, just as the department was undergoing deep budget cuts and had frozen hiring. The residence, in a new building on First Avenue, has spectacular views, and Ms. Haley is the first ambassador to live in it. For decades, her predecessors lived in the Waldorf Astoria hotel. But after the hotel was purchased by a Chinese insurance company with a murky ownership structure, the State Department decided in 2016 to find a new home for its top New York diplomat because of security concerns.... A spokesman for Ms. Haley said plans to buy the curtains were made in 2016, during the Obama administration. Ms. Haley had no say in the purchase, he said." Mrs. McC: Next time, try Ikea.

The Mysterious Case of Brett Kavanaugh. Lissandra Villa, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have referred a letter concerning Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the FBI. The contents of the letter have been closely guarded by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as California Rep. Anna Eshoo, who originally received the letter and shared it with Feinstein, according to sources familiar with the matter. But whispers of what it contains have made the rounds across Capitol Hill over the past week. The attention on it burst into the public when The Intercept published a report on the rumors surrounding the letter on Wednesday. 'This matter has been referred to the FBI for investigation,' Sen. Dick Durbin told BuzzFeed News when asked about the letter on Thursday." Mrs. McC: Okay, so we're talking about a criminal matter, probably related to sexual assault, that young Bretty is alleged to have done in high school. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)...

     ... Update. Nicholas Fandos & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Two officials familiar with the matter say the incident involved possible sexual misconduct between Judge Kavanaugh and a woman when they were both in high school.... The F.B.I. said in a statement on Thursday that it had received Ms. Feinstein's referral and included it in Judge Kavanaugh's background file. A bureau official also said that no criminal investigation had been opened related to the matter. Including the letter in Judge Kavanaugh's file allows the White House, and potentially other senators, to view its contents. A copy of the letter was included in an updated background file sent on Thursday to the office of Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the Judiciary Committee." ...

... Ronn Blitzer of Law & Crime: That means that federal investigators may have asked Kavanaugh questions about any crimes he may have committed or been accused of, as well as questions about past romantic relationships. If Kavanaugh had been accused of criminal activity -- particularly sexual misconduct -- in his past, and he lied about it during the vetting process, that itself could be grounds for criminal charges for providing a false statement to federal investigators."

The rise of the homeless American worker. --safari

Paul Krugman: "... if you want to understand why the great slump that began in 2008 went on so long, blighting so many American lives, the answer is politics. Specifically, policy failed because cynical, bad-faith Republicans were willing to sacrifice millions of jobs rather than let anything good happen to the economy while a Democrat sat in the White House." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: And if you want to understand why the stimulus package wasn't large enough -- as Krugman has repeatedly argued -- it's because Susan Collins wouldn't vote for more than $850BB. At least, unlike most Republicans, she was willing to vote for something. (The only Republican senators to vote for the 2009 stimulus package were Collins, Snowe & Specter, as I recall.)

2018 Election

Beth Fouhy of NBC News: "Former President Barack Obama on Thursday decried 'demagogues who promise simple fixes to complicated problems' -- an implicit but clear rebuke to his successor..., whom Obama suggested is regularly violating political norms and threatening basic democratic institutions. At a packed campaign rally on behalf of Richard Cordray, Ohio's Democratic candidate for governor, Obama implored supporters to vote in the midterm elections on November 6. 'You've got to vote, that's why I'm here' he said, leading the crowd in a chant of 'Vote, vote, vote.' Obama never mentioned Trump directly by name, other than a passing reference to 'the person in the White House.' But the message was unmistakable. 'None of this is normal,' Obama said."

Peddling Fear. Joshua Green of Bloomberg "[A]s part of an attempt by anxious conservatives to persuade disinterested voters to show up at the polls and save Republican congressional majorities in November[, f]ormer White House chief strategist Steve Bannon's new film, Trump @War, features scenes of the president's supporters being punched, kicked, and clubbed by anti-Trump protesters, as well as a parade of liberal celebrities wishing violence on Trump -- or, in the case of comedian Kathy Griffin, wielding a replica of his severed head. The film debuted on Sept. 12 on the conservative cable station One America News Network and will be broadcast several more times. Fox News prime-time hosts from Laura Ingraham to Sean Hannity have devoted substantial airtime to the supposed scourge of left-wing violence.... And President Trump, in an Aug. 28 White House meeting with evangelical leaders, warned... 'They will overturn everything that we've done, and they will do it quickly and violently. And violently. There is violence. When you look at antifa -- these are violent people,' Trump said.... Bannon won't disclose his backers, but says the organization is funded by 'hedge fund guys and other high-net-worth individuals' and operates independent of the White House. 'There is no coordination,' he says." [Open in private window] --safari

Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "Before the National Rifle Association dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars to try toflip a competitive, Democratic-held Senate seat, the gun-rights group's chief lobbyist apparently gave the race's Republican challenger a heads-up. Chris Cox, the top political strategist for the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), assured Montana Republican Matt Rosendale that the group would spend heavily to support his bid to unseat Sen. Jon Tester, Rosendale told attendees at a July event in Washington. PAY DIRT exclusively obtained audio of Rosendale's remarks, which good-government groups say raise serious questions of potentially illicit coordination between Rosendale and an independent political group supporting his campaign.... Rosendale's remarks are potentially problematic, as the NRA-ILA, a 501(c)(4) 'dark-money' group, is legally barred from coordinating its ad buys with a federal campaign." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Like Flies to Shit. David Corn of Mother Jones: "A Republican congressman [Rep. Matt Gaetz, a conservative firebrand from Florida] who earlier this year got into trouble for hobnobbing with an accused Holocaust denier [right-wing troll Charles C. Johnson] held a small fundraiser this summer, and the attendees included, yes, the very same alleged Holocaust denier. Also at the event was another GOP congressman [Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.)] who, too, had previously been criticized for associating with this fellow." --safari

Rebekah Entralago of ThinkProgress: "Safiya Wazir, a 27-year-old former refugee from Afghanistan who is now an American citizen, beat out four-term New Hampshire state Rep. Dick Patten (D) in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night. If she defeats her Republican opponent in November, Wazir would become the first refugee to ever serve in public office in the state." --safari

"Capitalism is Awesome", Ctd. Wayne Drash of CNN: "A pharmaceutical company executive defended his company's recent 400% drug price increase, telling the Financial Times that his company had a 'moral requirement to sell the product at the highest price.'.... Nirmal Mulye, founder and president of Nostrum Pharmaceuticals ... raise[d] the price of an antibiotic mixture called nitrofurantoin from about $500 per bottle to more than $2,300. The drug is listed by the World Health Organization as an 'essential' medicine for lower urinary tract infections. 'I think it is a moral requirement to make money when you can,' Mulye told the Financial Times, 'to sell the product for the highest price.'... He said the real villain is the 'incompetent and corrupt' FDA, which he said has placed regulatory burdens on the industry, leading to higher drug prices.... In comments to CNN on Wednesday, Mulye said he was not quoted accurately.... The Financial Times said Wednesday it sticks by its story." --safari

Beyond the Beltway

Mark Stern of Slate: "On Jan. 8, 2019, a new governor of Florida will be sworn in. On that same day, three of the Florida Supreme Court's seven justices will complete their final terms. Based on those facts alone, you might assume that the new Florida governor will have the opportunity to select these justices' replacements. That, however, is not at all clear -- because current Republican Gov. Rick Scott has declared his intent to replace them hours before his term concludes. He is now moving forward with this plan to pack the court. And the only people who can stop him are the current justices themselves.... Scott insists that the justices' terms expire at the stroke of midnight on Jan. 8, but that his own term does not end until his successor is sworn in on that day, typically at noon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jason Hanna & Jennifer Selva of CNN: "Wednesday's shootings in which a gunman killed his former wife and four others before killing himself near Bakersfield, California, 'has implications of a domestic violence case,' Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said[.] The gunman and his ex-wife had been divorced four months, and she had just filed for a new hearing regarding child support and property values, Youngblood said Thursday. The gunman killed two females and three males in three locations in a span of 30 to 35 minutes, he said. Earlier, authorities said the gunman had killed one female and four males." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Lily Kuo of the Guardian: "[A]n estimated 1 million Muslim minorities – Uighurs, Kazakhs, Hui, Uzbeks and others -- [are being] detained in a network of internment camps in the north-western Chinese territory of Xinjiang. The camps are part of China's 'strike hard' campaign that is alleged to use extrajudicial detentions, surveillance, political indoctrination or 're-education', torture and abuse to root out extremist elements, according to a growing body of evidence that includes witness accounts, media reports, government documents and satellite images. A US congressional commission on China called it the 'the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today' Beijing's restrictive policies in Xinjiang, which began after a series of ethnic riots in 2009 and have increased since 2016, are coming under global scrutiny." --safari

Nina Lahkani of the Guardian: "In a scene evocative of [Guatemala's] repressive military history, [President Jimmy Morales] claimed that the Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig) -- a body established by the United Nations in 2007 to help dismantle powerful criminal networks -- had in fact encouraged corruption, selectively pursued criminal cases based on ideological bias and sown 'judicial terror'. Morales presented no evidence.... Meanwhile, a convoy of US-donated military jeeps encircled the Cicig headquarters where corruption cases against Morales, his family and scores of his political patrons are being investigated.... The events ... have plunged the Central American nation into political meltdown.... A day after the announcement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used Twitter to thank the government -- and made no mention of the commission. Countries across Latin America -- from Argentina and Brazil to Mexico and Honduras -- are currently reeling from a string of massive corruption scandals that threaten democratic institutions and economic growth.... Cicig is ... the region’s most experienced and successful crime fighting force, it offers a model for the fight against impunity." --safari

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "At least 150 people were awaiting rescue in New Bern early Friday morning as Hurricane Florence lashed the North Carolina coast with strong winds and life-threatening storm surge. As of 5 a.m. Friday, 200 people had already been rescued as waters rose on the Neuse and Trent rivers, according to Colleen Roberts, a city public information officer. New Bern, a city of about 30,000 residents, saw significant storm surge flooding as the rivers overflowed their banks and swept into town. A flash flood emergency was declared in the area that includes Carteret, Craven, Pamlico and Jones counties Friday morning." ...

... The Weather Channel, natch, has numerous Florence-related stories linked on its front page. ...

... New York Times Update: "Tropical Storm Florence continued to thrash the Carolinas on Friday evening with fierce winds, driving rain and catastrophic flooding. Downgraded from hurricane strength after making landfall near Wilmington, N.C., the storm had killed at least four people, the authorities said, and trapped hundreds of others whose rescues continued as night fell. The rains are anticipated to continue for days, and flooding is likely to worsen as more rivers spill over their banks. Among the dead were a mother and her infant child, who were killed in Wilmington, N.C., after a tree fell on their house, the police said."

... The New York Times is providing free access to its Hurricane Florence coverage. The Times front page is here. "The [Washington] Post has removed article limits on coverage of Hurricane Florence to make these stories available without a subscription." The Post has links to several Florence-related stories on its front page. the (South Carolina) State home page is here. The State is granting free access to its site during the storm. The Raleigh News & Observer home page is here.

New York Times: "Violent explosions and billowing fires tore through three towns north of Boston late Thursday afternoon, damaging dozens of houses, forcing thousands of stunned residents to evacuate and plunging much of the region into an eerie darkness. One person was killed and more than 20 were injured in the sudden string of explosions caused by gas leaks in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover as blackish-gray clouds of smoke rolled across rooftops and flames shot into the sky. Leonel Rondon, 18, was killed while he sat in a car in the driveway of a home in Lawrence, the authorities said. A chimney fell onto the car, they said, when the home, on Chickering Road, exploded." ...

... The Boston Globe has a number of related stories linked on its front page, but they're all subscriber-firewalled. ...

... New York Times Update: "State and federal authorities started investigations into the mysterious series of violent episodes as thousands of residents grew impatient to return to their homes and demanded answers to why any of it had happened. Officials said they were only beginning their inquiries and offered few answers, but attention was squarely focused on the natural gas lines of a local utility, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, which had been working on the pipelines. The authorities were looking at the possibility that gas may have been placed under a level of pressure that was too high for the pipelines it was moving through, creating cascading crises in more than 8,500 homes and businesses across the three towns."

The Commentariat -- September 13, 2018

Afternoon Update:

The Mysterious Case of Brett Kavanaugh. Lissandra Villa, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have referred a letter concerning Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the FBI. The contents of the letter have been closely guarded by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as California Rep. Anna Eshoo, who originally received the letter and shared it with Feinstein, according to sources familiar with the matter. But whispers of what it contains have made the rounds across Capitol Hill over the past week. The attention on it burst into the public when The Intercept published a report on the rumors surrounding the letter on Wednesday. 'This matter has been referred to the FBI for investigation,' Sen. Dick Durbin told BuzzFeed News when asked about the letter on Thursday." Mrs. McC: Okay, so we're talking about a criminal matter, probably related to sexual assault, that young Bretty is alleged to have done in high school.

Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "Before the National Rifle Association dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to flip a competitive, Democratic-held Senate seat, the gun-rights group's chief lobbyist apparently gave the race's Republican challenger a heads-up. Chris Cox, the top political strategist for the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), assured Montana Republican Matt Rosendale that the group would spend heavily to support his bid to unseat Sen. Jon Tester, Rosendale told attendees at a July event in Washington. PAY DIRT exclusively obtained audio of Rosendale's remarks, which good-government groups say raise serious questions of potentially illicit coordination between Rosendale and an independent political group supporting his campaign.... The NRA-ILA, a 501(c)(4) 'dark-money' group, is legally barred from coordinating its ad buys with a federal campaign."

Mark Stern of Slate: "On Jan. 8, 2019, a new governor of Florida will be sworn in. On that same day, three of the Florida Supreme Court's seven justices will complete their final terms. Based on those facts alone, you might assume that the new Florida governor will have the opportunity to select these justices' replacements. That, however, is not at all clear -- because current Republican Gov. Rick Scott has declared his intent to replace them hours before his term concludes. He is now moving forward with this plan to pack the court. And the only people who can stop him are the current justices themselves.... Scott insists that the justices' terms expire at the stroke of midnight on Jan. 8, but that his own term does not end until his successor is sworn in on that day, typically at noon."

Jason Hanna & Jennifer Selva of CNN: "Wednesday's shootings in which a gunman killed his former wife and four others before killing himself near Bakersfield, California, 'has implications of a domestic violence case,' Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said[.] The gunman and his ex-wife had been divorced four months, and she had just filed for a new hearing regarding child support and property values, Youngblood said Thursday. The gunman killed two females and three males in three locations in a span of 30 to 35 minutes, he said. Earlier, authorities said the gunman had killed one female and four males."

Primary Elections

New York State holds primary elections today for state offices.

Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's former top lieutenant approved an inflammatory flier that suggested his Democratic rival, Cynthia Nixon, was anti-Semitic, the campaign said on Wednesday. And it was another former aide to the governor who crafted the mailer's language, according to an email obtained by The New York Times. Lawrence S. Schwartz, the former secretary to the governor, inadvertently signed off on the flier after its language was drafted by David Lobl, a former special assistant to the governor who was volunteering with the re-election campaign, the campaign said. Mr. Lobl suggested the language for the mailer in an email to two campaign aides, who helped create the flier. The correspondence, dated Sept. 1, shows Mr. Lobl outlining text that was later replicated almost verbatim on the back side of the mailer, which was sent to 7,000 households shortly before Rosh Hashana and days before Thursday's primary.... [A spokeswoman for Cuomo's campaign] said Mr. Schwartz had not noticed the false claims on the reverse side [of the draft he approved]."

Rhode Island Results. Alexander Burns & Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island defeated a liberal challenger in a Democratic primary election on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press, reasserting herself as the party's leader in a state where she has battled criticism from activists on the left and intransigence from old-guard lawmakers in her own camp. Ms. Raimondo, 47, is expected to face a serious fight for re-election in November despite Rhode Island's Democratic lean and the difficult political climate for Republicans nationwide.... She will face Allan Fung, the Republican mayor of Cranston who also ran against her four years ago in November. Complicating matters for both parties, Joe Trillo, a former Republican state legislator who chaired Mr. Trump's campaign in Rhode Island, is also running for governor as an independent." (Mrs. McC: Sorry I missed this.)

     ... The New York Times' primary results for Rhode Island are here. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse bested challenger Spencer Dickinson in the Democratic Senate primary. Whitehouse will face Robert Flanders, who easily won the GOP Senate primary."

*****

I'm a very good dealmaker, believe me. -- Donald Trump

The wall will be paid for very easily, by Mexico. It will ultimately be paid for by Mexico. -- Donald Trump, August 28, 2018

The United States plans ... to pay Mexico. -- New York Times, September 13, 2018 ...

... Not Fake News. Gardiner Harris & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump has promised for years that Mexico would pay for a vast border wall, a demand that country has steadfastly refused. Now, in the Trump administration's campaign to stop illegal immigration, the United States plans instead to pay Mexico. In a recent notice sent to Congress, the administration said it intended to take $20 million in foreign assistance funds and use it to help Mexico pay plane and bus fare to deport as many as 17,000 people who are in that country illegally.... The money will help increase deportations of Central Americans, many of whom pass through Mexico to get to the American border." More on Trump's excellent anti-immigrant policy linked below.

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump took issue Thursday with the number of deaths attributable to Hurricane Maria, falsely saying a higher count had been generated by Democrats to 'make me look as bad as possible.' A sweeping report from George Washington University released last month estimated there were 2,975 'excess deaths' in the six months after the storm made landfall in Puerto Rico in September 2017. Trump said on Twitter that 'they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths' at the time he visited the island after the storm. 'As time went by it did not go up by much,' Trump wrote. 'Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000.... This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico. If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!'... Trump's tweets -- which came as a highly dangerous Hurricane Florence churned toward the Carolinas -- brought an immediate rebuke from Democrats in Congress. 'Only Donald Trump could see the tragedy in Puerto Rico and conclude that he is the victim,' said Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.). 'May God bless the souls of the nearly 3,000 Americans that died in Puerto Rico and may he take pity on your soul, Mr. President.'" ...

... Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "'We got A Pluses for our recent hurricane work in Texas and Florida (and did an unappreciated great job in Puerto Rico, even though an inaccessible island with very poor electricity and a totally incompetent Mayor of San Juan),' [President Trump] wrote Wednesday on Twitter. It's a frequent tactic of the president -- elevate a widely perceived failure or mistake and defend it as a great triumph while attacking his critics.... Aides say that Trump's tendency to focus on and defend his perceived failures is fueled by a mix of potent factors. He obsesses over negative news coverage sometimes long after the topic has changed. He often marvels that he can make the cable news chyrons change. And he is constantly selling himself -- regardless of who is in front of him and no matter the topic. Sometimes, he is trying to preempt criticism that he knows is likely to revive itself, like before this week's hurricane. And he tells senior aides that his supporters will believe his version of events." ...

... Danielle McLean of ThinkProgress: "More than 1,000 Puerto Ricans, displaced by last year's hurricanes, have been living temporarily in hotels and motels throughout the country while they await more permanent housing alternatives -- major repair to their own homes, for example, or help finding a new place to live. But they are now bracing for the likelihood they will become homeless this week. A federal judge in Massachusetts on August 30 allowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to stop funding its Transitional Shelter Assistance (TSA) program, which allows hurricane-displaced people to live in hotels or motels throughout Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland.... The federal judge who authorized FEMA to end the program, urged the agency to work with the people enrolled in the program to find alternative housing so they are not left homeless. However, according to the civil rights advocacy group LatinoJustice PRLDEF, which represents the hurricane survivors enrolled in the program in court, the federal agency has not done that."

Glenn Kessler, et al., of the Washington Post: "On Sept. 7, President Trump woke up in Billings, Montana, flew to Fargo, N.D., visited Sioux Falls and eventually returned to Washington. He spoke to reporters on Air Force One, held a pair of fundraisers and was interviewed by three local reporters. In that single day, he publicly made 125 false or misleading statements -- in a period of time that totaled only about 120 minutes. It was a new single-day high. The day before, the president made 74 false or misleading claims, many in a campaign rally in Montana. An anonymous op-ed article by a senior administration official had just been published in the New York Times and news circulated about Bob Woodward's insider account of Trump's presidency. Trump's tsunami of untruths helped push the count in The Fact Checker's database past 5,000 on the 601st day of his presidency. That's an average of 8.3 claims a day, but in the past nine days -- since our last update -- the president has averaged 32 claims a day."

Annie Gearan & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump issued a new order Wednesday authorizing additional sanctions against countries or individuals for interfering in upcoming U.S. elections, but lawmakers of both parties immediately said the effort does not go far enough. The order would allow Trump to sanction foreigners who interfere in the midterm elections to be held in less than two months. It covers overt efforts to meddle in election infrastructure, such as vote counts, as well as 'propaganda' and other attempts to influence voting from abroad, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats told reporters. The harshest sanctions outlined in the order would be up to the president's discretion. 'This is intended to be a very broad effort to prevent foreign manipulation of the political process,' national security adviser John Bolton said during a briefing Wednesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: In other words, "Russia, if you're listening, come on back." What I predict Trump will do is sanction countries or individuals who appear to help Democrats & accidentally forget to notice any who help Republicans. Fox "News" will be guarding the henhouse.

Alexandre Tanzi & Rich Miller of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump's unpopularity is unprecedented given the strength of the economy. That's according to a Bloomberg analysis of polling data. It shows that Trump is the first U.S. leader dating back to at least Ronald Reagan whose approval rating is consistently low and lagging consumers' favorable assessment of the economy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump Was Always a Nasty SOB. Barbara Res, a former Trump Org. vice-president, in a New York Daily News op-ed: "On this particular day, the architect had come to Donald Trump's office to show him what the interior of the residential elevator cabs would look like. Trump looked at the panels where the buttons you push to reach a floor were located. He noticed that next to each number were some little dots. 'What's this?' Trump asked. 'Braille,' the architect replied. Trump told the architect to take it off, get rid of it. 'We can't,' the architect said, 'It's the law.' 'Get rid of the (expletive) braille. No blind people are going to live in Trump Tower. Just do it,' Trump yelled back, calling him weak. The more the architect protested, the angrier Trump got. Donald liked to pick on this guy. As a general rule, Trump thought architects and engineers were weak as compared to construction people. And he loved to torment weak people...."

I had seen him do this kind of thing before and would again. He would say whatever came into his head. Ordering an underling to do something that was impossible gave Trump the opportunity to castigate a subordinate and also blame him for anything that 'went wrong' in connection with the unperformed order later. A Trump-style win-win.... So when I saw the snippets of Bob Woodward's book and the anonymous Op-Ed piece, I wasn't surprised. To an extent, Trump has always relied on people not to follow his most ridiculous orders.... Off the record, staffers tell reporters that Trump is out of control. But what have they done to try to control him?... The self-aggrandizing Anonymous wants the world to know that there are adults in the room. Really? What the hell are they doing?

Follow the Money. Anthony Cormier & Jason Leopold of BuzzFeed News: "... secret documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News reveal a previously undisclosed aspect of the [infamous June 2016 Trump Tower] meeting: a complex web of financial transactions among some of the planners and participants who moved money from Russia and Switzerland to the British Virgin Islands, Bangkok, and a small office park in New Jersey. The documents show Aras Agalarov, a billionaire real estate developer close to both and Donald Trump, at the center of this vast network and how he used accounts overseas to filter money to himself, his son, and at least two people who attended the Trump Tower meeting.... Now, four federal law enforcement officials told BuzzFeed News, investigators are focused on two bursts of transactions that bank examiners deemed suspicious: one a short time after the meeting [on the same day Paul Manafort became Trump's campaign manager!] and another immediately after the November 2016 presidential election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

John Santucci & Matthew Mosk of ABC News: "... Paul Manafort has been in ongoing negotiations with special counsel Robert Mueller's office over potential plea agreement, sources familiar with the negotiations tell ABC News.... Sources tell ABC News that Mueller's office is seeking cooperation from Manafort for information related to ... Donald Trump and the 2016 campaign. Manafort, however, is resisting and his team is pushing prosecutors for a plea agreement that does not include cooperation, at least as related to the president, sources said." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sounds as if Manafort knows some bad stuff about Trump. But the story, more generally, sounds to me like a guilty man putting out signals to the pardoner-in-chief. ...

... Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel: "But the reason why Mueller isn't just going to let Manafort plead to some of the DC charges without cooperating is because that would mean giving up the considerable leverage -- $30 million worth -- that Mueller built into place a year ago. While it hasn't gotten a lot of attention, both Manafort indictments include forfeiture provisions, meaning the government will seize his ill-gotten gains. And because Manafort had a shit-ton of ill-gotten gains, there's a whole lot of stuff that the government can now seize, starting with his ostrich skin suits.... Having been found guilty of charges 25 and 27 in his EDVA trial, for example, the government will seize the funds from the $16 million loan Manafort got by lying to Federal Savings Bank.... In the DC case..., Manafort stand to lose the proceeds of his influence peddling, the laundered proceeds of which the indictment says amount to $30 million.... And it's not clear that a presidential pardon prevents [forfeiture] from happening (and bmaz suggests that even if Trump managed the pardon deftly enough to prevent that, DOJ could seize it all civilly anyway, especially since the pardon would amount to admission of guilt)."

Donnie Junior, Tough Guy. Erin Kelly of USA Today: "Donald Trump Jr. said Tuesday he is not afraid of going to jail as the result of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. 'I'm not because I know what I did, and I'm not worried about any of that,' the president's eldest son said during an interview on ABC's 'Good Morning America'. 'That doesn't mean they won't try to create something, I mean, we've seen that happen with everything. But, again, I'm not.' He said he would 'deal with it as it comes.'" ...

... MEANWHILE, the Other Brother. David Badash in the Raw Story: "Eric Trump is lashing out at veteran Watergate journalist Bob Woodward, and his remarks are drawing accusations of anti-Semitism. Wednesday morning the president's son charged the author of 'Fear' -- the latest bombshell book exposing the Trump administration as inept and corrupt -- with writing it 'to make 3 extra shekels.' The shekel is both an ancient and modern-day form of currency in Israel, but it can also evoke ugly old bigoted and anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jewish people.... On social media, many expressed disgust over Eric Trump's remarks, while others directly accused him of anti-Semitism." Akhilleus discussed this is a comment yesterday. He was not amused.

Caitlin Dickerson of the New York Times: "Even though hundreds of children separated from their families after crossing the border have been released under court order, the overall number of migrant children under detention has exploded to the highest ever recorded -- a significant counternarrative to the Trump administration's efforts to reduce the number of undocumented families coming to the United States.... [There are] 12,800 [children in custody] this month. There were 2,400 such children in custody in May 2017. The huge increases, which have placed the federal shelter system near capacity, are due not to an influx of children entering the country, but a reduction in the number being released to live with families and other sponsors, the data collected by the Department of Health and Human Services suggests [sic. s/b "suggest"].... Most of the children crossed the border alone, without their parents.... Despite the Trump administration's efforts to discourage Central American migrants, roughly the same number of children are crossing the border as in years past. The big difference, said those familiar with the shelter system, is that red tape and fear brought on by stricter immigration enforcement have discouraged relatives and family friends from coming forward to sponsor children. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Make American Great, my ass. Trump's motto should be "Making America Worse, One Disaster at a Time."

Carla Herreria of the Huffington Post: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Wednesday was on the losing end of a lawsuit accusing the Department of Education of illegally delaying regulations set by the Obama administration to protect student loan borrowers from predatory colleges. Attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia filed the lawsuit against DeVos after her department began rolling back the so-called borrower defense rules, which were set to take effect on July 1, 2017.U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss ruled in favor of the attorney generals, calling DeVos' attempts to delay the Obama-era rule from its start date 'unlawful,' 'arbitrary and capricious' and 'procedurally invalid,' according to the opinion.... Moss has scheduled a hearing for Friday to address remedies for the situation." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link.

Sheila Kaplan & Jan Hoffman of the New York Times: "Warning that teenage use of electronic cigarettes has reached 'an epidemic proportion,' the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday gave Juul Labs and four other makers of popular vaping devices 60 days to prove they can keep them away from minors. If they fail, the agency said, it may take the flavored products off the market. The order was part of a sweeping action that targeted both makers and sellers of e-cigarettes. The agency said it was sending warning letters to 1,100 retailers -- including 7-Eleven stores, Walgreens, Circle K convenience shops and Shell gas stations -- and issued another 131 fines, for selling e-cigarettes to minors. In addition, the F.D.A. commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a briefing that the agency would look closely at the manufacturers' own internet storefronts. He flagged what he called 'straw purchases' -- bulk orders of the devices, which buyers in turn used to sell to minors." Mrs. McC: Yeah, and they could give gun manufacturers 60 days to prove they can keep guns away from minors. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Intrigue. Frances Robles of the New York Times: "At least five Cuban-Americans in Miami ... who have opposed a trade embargo with Cuba and promoted better relations with the communist government in Havana, said they received surprise visits in the past week from federal agents. The law enforcement representatives were vague about their intentions, gave only their first names, and asked questions that seemed intended to learn about contacts with Cuban diplomats, Dr. [Julio] Ruiz[, whom the FBI visited,] said.... Some of those contacted said they feared that they were being targeted as part of President Trump's moves to curtail travel to Cuba and roll back new openings with Havana that had been enacted by the Obama administration.... The activists had an emergency meeting over the weekend with the American Civil Liberties Union, which encouraged them to file Freedom of Information Act requests for their F.B.I. files. One of the people approached said he was presented with his F.B.I. file, complete with photos."

Burgess Everett of Politico: "In 2006, Brett Kavanaugh told a Senate committee that he wasn't 'primarily' involved in shepherding the nomination of controversial circuit court nominee Charles Pickering when Kavanaugh worked in the George W. Bush White House. But emails released Wednesday show that Kavanaugh conducted meetings with Republican senators and was closely engaged in Pickering's nomination. Democrats are now arguing that Kavanaugh was not forthright under oath during his confirmation hearings to be a circuit court judge more than a decade ago, and are zeroing in on his work on behalf of Pickering. The Mississippi judge faced questions at the time about his record on civil rights and was blocked by the Senate after Bush nominated him.... The White House said Noel Francisco, now the U.S. solicitor general, was the lead White House lawyer on the Pickering nomination. But Democrats question why Kavanaugh was sometimes the only associate counsel included on emails about Pickering's confirmation; Francisco is not always copied in the newly released emails, though he is included on a handful of them."

Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh on Wednesday described in detail how he regularly bought Washington Nationals tickets and split the cost with friends -- purchases the White House has said led Kavanaug to accrue tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. ... The issue arose in written follow-up questions submitted by members of the committee, and Kavanaugh submitted his answers in writing late Wednesday.... Kavanaugh wrote in his responses [to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)] that he has never reported a gambling loss to the Internal Revenue Service or accrued gambling debt.... Asked by [Sen. Dick] Durbin [D-Ill.] whether he agreed with Trump's statement that the investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is 'an illegal investigation,' Kavanaugh declined to respond directly." ...

... Richard Hasen in Slate: "On Monday, Sen. Susan Collins accused political opponents of Judge Brett Kavanaugh of attempted 'bribery.' The charge itself is without any legal merit whatsoever.... Collins labeled as a 'bribe' a fundraising plan by two progressive Maine groups, aided by the company Crowdpac, to raise funds for Collins' eventual opponent in 2020. People are pledging to give money via Crowdpac to that unknown future opponent, but donors will only be charged for the donation if Collins votes 'yes' on Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. As of Tuesday night, the groups reported pledged donations of more than $1 million, with a $1.3 million goal.... As Adam Smith noted, although Sen. John Cornyn boosted Collins' bribery complaints, back in January he was urging the Koch brothers to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to reward the Republican Party for tax cuts benefiting wealthy donors. This came after big donors threatened to withhold money until Republicans got that tax bill passed." ...

... Ryan Grim of the Intercept: "Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have privately requested to view a Brett Kavanaugh-related document in possession of the panel's top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, but the senior California senator has so far refused, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation. The specific content of the document, which is a letter from a California constituent, is unclear..., but the one consistent theme was that it describes an incident involving Kavanaugh and a woman while they were in high school.... The woman who is the subject of the letter is now being represented by Debra Katz, a whistleblower attorney who works with #MeToo survivors."

Lisa Friedman, et al., of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is in discussions to work as a consultant to the Kentucky coal mining tycoon Joseph W. Craft III, according to two industry executives familiar with the plans.... Mr. Craft, the chief executive of Alliance Resource Partners and a major Republican donor, enjoyed a close relationship with the E.P.A. during Mr. Pruitt's tenure. Mr. Craft met with Mr. Pruitt at least seven times in Mr. Pruitt's first 14 months at the agency and in December provided him with courtside seats at a University of Kentucky basketball game, a school where Mr. Craft is a prominent supporter." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "Scott Pruitt ... faced mounting financial pressures as he sought to balance his personal obligations in Oklahoma with his new role as a member of President Trump's Cabinet in Washington, new documents show. Pruitt, who made $189,600 a year as EPA administrator, incurred between $115,000 and $300,000 in legal fees last year, according to financial disclosure forms released Wednesday. He sold off tens of thousands in investments during that same period. The documents highlight the financial pressures facing the former administrator, who enlisted the help of staff to help his wife find work and to perform personal tasks for him. The form does not specify what the legal work was for: as Pruitt's spending and management practices came under increasing scrutiny starting last fall he eventually hired private attorneys to represent him and established a legal-defense fund." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "The foreign-born population in the United States has reached its highest share since 1910, according to government data released Thursday, and the new arrivals are more likely to come from Asia and to have college degrees than those who arrived in past decades. The Census Bureau's figures for 2017 confirm a major shift in who is coming to the United States. For years newcomers tended to be from Latin America, but a Brookings Institution analysis of that data shows that 41 percent of the people who said they arrived since 2010 came from Asia. Just 39 percent were from Latin America. About 45 percent were college educated, the analysis found, compared with about 30 percent of those who came between 2000 and 2009."

Binyamin Appelbaum & Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The income of the median American household has finally rebounded from the damage caused by the 2008 financial crisis, a significant milestone in the nation's painfully slow economic recovery. Median household income reached $61,372 in 2017, the Census Bureau reported on Wednesday, a number that it said was statistically indistinguishable from the median on the cusp of the crisis, in 2007. The Trump administration, in a statement released by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, hailed the report as an indication of a strengthening American economy.... But the details of the report raised questions about whether middle-class households -- which have experienced an economic 'lost decade' -- are now likely to see actual income gains or if they will simply tread water. One reason for concern is that income growth slowed in 2017, to 1.8 percent. Median income had grown more rapidly in previous years, by 5.2 percent in 2015 and 3.2 percent in 2016. The gains in income were also driven by increased employment, rather than increased pay." ...

... Nicholas Schwartz of the New York Times: "... the scars of the financial crisis and the ensuing Great Recession are still with us, just below the surface. The most profound of these is that the uneven nature of the recovery compounded a long-term imbalance in the accumulation of wealth. As a consequence, what it means to be secure has changed. Wealth, real wealth, now comes from investment portfolios, not salaries. Fortunes are made through an initial public offering, a grant of stock options, a buyout or another form of what high-net-worth individuals call a liquidity event.... The proportion of family income from wages has dropped from nearly 70 percent to just under 61 percent. It's an extraordinary shift, driven largely by the investment profits of the very wealthy.... The financial crisis ... also put an end to a fundamental belief of the middle class: that owning a home was always a good idea because prices moved in only one direction -- up.... Bankers, shareholders and investors were ... bailed out [of their financial crisis losses]. For homeowners, there wasn't much of a rescue package from Washington, and eight million succumbed to foreclosure." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... See also, linked yesterday, David Dayen's post on that weasel Tim Geithner. Mrs. McC: Among the things he slow-walked was the homeowners' mortgage recovery program. I thought the Obama administration was going to help my friends with underwater mortgages. It didn't, because Geithner.

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "The Senate passed a bipartisan spending package Wednesday paying for veterans affairs, military construction and other programs for 2019 -- a big step forward as congressional leaders maneuver to avoid a government shutdown at month's end. The vote was 92 to 5. The legislation is expected to pass the House on Thursday and then go to President Trump, who is expected to sign it. The measure would mark the first batch of spending bills for 2019 to be signed into law, and comes with time running out for Congress to finalize all the must-pass bills before government funding expires Sept. 30. It's progress for lawmakers who are trying to avoid a repeat of what happened in March, when Trump threatened to veto a massive $1.3 trillion spending package for 2018 that arrived at his desk months late. Trump ultimately signed the 'omnibus' bill but vowed never to sign another one like it. This time lawmakers have wrapped the spending bills into smaller 'minibus' packages to be able to move them more quickly."

2018 Elections

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Former President George W. Bush is hitting the fundraising circuit for a handful of Republican House and Senate candidates, joining the party's push to maintain its congressional majorities. Bush has maintained a low profile since leaving office in 2009. Yet as the midterm campaign season enters its final weeks and the party braces for the prospect of a Trump-fueled wave, Bush -- who has been critical of the president -- is putting his muscle behind Republicans in heated races." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... OR, as Jonathan Chait puts it, "George W. Bush, who declined to endorse Donald Trump (or anybody) in 2016, and made muttered elliptical criticisms of the 45th president, has thrown himself into the task of covering up Trump's many crimes. Bush, reports Politico, is raising money for candidates who are committed to maintaining the cover-ups.... For the most part, the entire party has closed ranks around the no-oversight agenda.... This very much includes the parts of the party that see themselves as quietly resisting Trump." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Texas Senate Race. Joseph Hudak of Rolling Stone: "Willie Nelson will headline a rally for Beto O'Rourke.... While Nelson has performed for politicians in the past -- most famously for President Jimmy Carter on the South Lawn of the White House on September 13th, 1980 -- the O'Rourke rally will mark his first-ever public performance on behalf of a political candidate. The concert, featuring guests Joe Ely, Carrie Rodriguez, Tameca Jones, and Nelson's sons Lukas Nelson and Micah Nelson, is set for September 29th at Auditorium Shores."

Jeet Heer: "Congressman Steve King keeps retweeting racists with minimal GOP pushback. [Yesterday King retweeted Lana Lokteff.' Lokteff is a promoter of Holocaust denial and white nationalism. She once said a country 'can never, ever, ever be too white. It's never white enough.'"

Chris Johnson of the Washington Blade: "In an exchange with high school students that was caught on tape, a Republican congressman from New Jersey was tongue-tied over the prospect of same-sex couples adopting children and suggested kids would be better off in orphanages than with LGBT families. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) made the remarks May 29 when addressing student constituents in the auditorium of Colts Neck High School. They asked the congressman about his opposition to adoption by same-sex couples, according to a source familiar with the recording. A source familiar with the tape, who delivered the recording on Monday exclusively to the Washington Blade, said it was obtained in recent days."

Alexandra Alter of the New York Times: "On Wednesday, St. Martin's Press announced that it will publish [Stephanie] Clifford's memoir, 'Full Disclosure,' (pun likely intended) this October, just before the midterm elections. In a news release, the publisher said Ms. Clifford [a/k/a Stormy Daniels] will tell 'her whole story for the first time,' including how she came to be a successful actress and director in the adult film business, her alleged affair with Mr. Trump and 'the events that led to the nondisclosure agreement and the behind-the-scenes attempts to intimidate her.'" Mrs. McC: Not your usual bodice-ripper.

Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "Facing an uproar over revelations that he mismanaged past cases of clerical sexual abuse, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, sent a letter informing his priests on Tuesday that he plans to discuss his resignation with Pope Francis in Rome. Cardinal Wuerl has faced calls for his resignation by some of his priests and parishioners since the release of a bombshell grand jury report last month in Pennsylvania. Cardinal Wuerl previously served as the archbishop of Pittsburgh, and the report included accounts of his allowing several priests accused of sexually abusing children to remain in ministry, after relying on the advice of psychologists who had assessed the priests." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

William Branigin of the Washington Post: "Pope Francis has ordered an investigation of Bishop Michael J. Bransfield of Wheeling-Charleston, W.Va., in connection with sexual harassment charges and accepted his resignation, church officials announced Thursday. The pope instructed Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore to conduct a probe into allegations that Bransfield, 75, sexually harassed 'adults,' the Archdiocese of Baltimore said in a statement. Church officials and witnesses in court cases previously said Bransfield was accused of molesting teenage boys. Bransfield has denied the allegations."

Jackson McHenry of New York: "Jeff Fager, the executive producer of 60 Minutes who was accused of promoting a culture of sexual harassment alongside Les Moonves within CBS's news division, is leaving the company.... CBS News [president] David Rhodes ... claims that Fager's departure is 'not directly related to the allegations surfaced in press reports' though he 'violated company policy.' The investigations into CBS and CBS News, one of which started after allegations against Charlie Rose surfaced and another after reports on Moonves, will continue. Fager initially denied the allegations against him, which included claims that he touched women inappropriately at parties and shielded men beneath him who were accused of misconduct. In The New Yorker's later report, on which Fager declined to comment, Sarah Johansen, a former intern, said Fager groped her at a work party." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update. The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Fager Threatened a Reporter. CBS News: "Jeff Fager, the longtime executive producer of '60 Minutes' who was fired on Wednesday, sent a text message to CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan with a warning over the network's coverage of the sexual harassment accusations against him. On Sunday, Duncan reached out to Fager for his response to allegations in The New Yorker that he had groped or touched CBS employees at company parties.... Fager replied, 'Be careful. There are people who lost their jobs trying to harm me and if you pass on these damaging claims without your own reporting to back them up that will become a serious problem.'... Fager said in a statement that his contract was terminated early 'because I sent a text message to one of our own CBS reporters demanding that she be fair in covering the story.'... 'One such note should not result in termination after 36 years, but it did.' Duncan revealed the contents of the text message on the 'CBS Evening News' on Wednesday, 'since Jeff Fager publicly referred to our exchange today.'" ...

... James Stewart in the New York Times: "In the end, it was the evidence that [Les] Moonves had misled his board -- even more than the allegations of abuse from multiple women -- that doomed him." Mrs. McC: Some board members really didn't care a whit about the women Moonves allegedly abused: "I don't care if 30 more women come forward and allege this kind of stuff. Les is our leader and it wouldn't change my opinion of him," said board member Arnold Kopelson.

Tennis Umps Get Their Fee-Fees Hurt. Des Bieler of the Washington Post: "Stung by what they perceive as a lack of institutional support for the chair umpire who gave Serena Williams a game penalty late in the U.S. Open women's final, which set off a firestorm of criticism, other umpires are reportedly discussing the possibility of boycotting her matches. Top umpires are also considering the formation of a union, according to a report Tuesday, in part because they are not allowed to discuss specific matches. Williams was free to speak her mind after losing, 6-2, 6-4, Saturday to Japan's Naomi Osaka, and she accused chair umpire Carlos Ramos of sexism. He had given her a warning for coaching, then a point penalty for smashing her racket and, after she repeatedly expressed frustration, including calling him a 'thief,' Ramos levied the game penalty for verbal abuse." Mrs. McC: See what happens when you question the authority of authority figures? They really can't take it. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

Michael Birnbaum & Griff Witte of the Washington Post: "European lawmakers voted Wednesday to initiate sanctions proceedings against the Hungarian government for what they said was backsliding on democracy, an extraordinary censure for a nation that was once a beacon of post-Communist transformation. The vote, which required a two-thirds supermajority of the European Parliament to pass, declared that there was a 'clear risk of serious breach' of European values by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. It was the first step in a process that could ultimately strip Hungary of its voice in decision-making in the European Union. Orban has lost many of his protectors in his ambitious quest to remake the continent in his model of 'illiberal democracy' -- a bloc that would be closer to Russia, less open to migration, and less concerned about independent judiciaries, a free press and minority rights." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, but Trumpy likes him. Of course.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "A series of gas explosions tore through several Massachusetts communities Thursday, setting numerous homes on fire and forcing evacuations in at least three towns. Following reports of between 60 and 100 fires, state police ordered residents of Lawrence, North Andover and Andover to leave their homes. Highways have been closed to aid in the evacuation. Massachusetts State Police say troopers have been dispatched to Lawrence, Andover and North Andover to secure the areas and help traffic snarled by panicked residents fleeing their neighborhoods during the evening rush hour. The cause wasn't immediately clear."

Weather Channel: "Hurricane Florence is making its final approach to the Carolinas, with landfall possible either overnight tonight or Friday, kicking off an agonizing crawl through the Southeast into early next week, producing catastrophic inland rainfall flooding, life-threatening storm surge and destructive winds. As of early Thursday morning, Florence's eye was located about 200 miles east-southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, moving northwestward. Outer rainbands are already pushing ashore in eastern North Carolina, only the beginning of what could be a record wet siege from a tropical cyclone...." ...

... Washington Post Update: "The outer bands of Hurricane Florence, a large and dangerous Category 2 storm, landed on the North Carolina coast Thursday. The storms has already unloaded up to a half a foot of rain, winds have gusted to nearly 90 mph and sea water is surging ashore along the Outer Banks, washing over roads. In southeastern N.C., rivers have started to spill into towns. Thursday marks the beginning of a prolonged assault from wind and water, which -- by the time it's over -- is likely to bring devastating damage and flooding to millions of people in the Southeast."

The New York Times is providing free access to its Hurricane Florence coverage. The Times front page is here. "The [Washington] Post has removed article limits on coverage of Hurricane Florence to make these stories available without a subscription." The Post has links to several Florence-related stories on its front page. the (South Carolina) State home page is here. The State is granting free access to its site during the storm. The Raleigh News & Observer home page is here.