The Commentariat -- November 5, 2019

My doctor is putting me in the hospital, and I'm not sure when I'll get out. I've opened up tomorrow's page, so you can comment. Only safari & Akhilleus know how to post actual entries, and I don't know that either of them will have time.

Today is Election Day in many state & local races. Vote! ~~~

~~~ New York Times on races to watch: "Tuesday's election results will offer insights on two crucial political dynamics heading into the 2020 campaign: the depth of President Trump's appeal with Republicans and how fully suburban voters have swung to the Democrats. The Republican candidates for governor in Kentucky and Mississippi have aggressively linked themselves to Mr. Trump and sought to tie their rivals to the national Democrats pursuing the impeachment inquiry against the president. Mr. Trump, who comfortably carried both states in 2016, has put his political capital on the line: He rallied voters in Mississippi on Friday and was in Kentucky on Monday night. The president has not appeared on the campaign trail in Virginia, where Democrats are hoping Mr. Trump's deep unpopularity in the suburbs is enough for them to flip control of both chambers of the state legislature." ~~~

~~~ Steven Shepard of Politico lists seven things to watch for in today's election results.

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

** Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "A critical witness in the impeachment inquiry offered Congress substantial new testimony this week, revealing that he told a top Ukrainian official that the country likely would not receive American military aid unless it publicly committed to investigations President Trump wanted. The disclosure from Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, in four new pages of sworn testimony released on Tuesday, confirmed his involvement in essentially laying out a quid pro quo to Ukraine that he had previously not acknowledged. The testimony offered several major new details beyond the account he gave the inquiry in a 10-hour interview last month." The NBC News story is here.

Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "House Democrats want to hear testimony from acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney in their impeachment inquiry after he acknowledged Thursday that the administration held up military aid to Ukraine until Kiev launched a political investigation requested by President Trump. The three House committees running the impeachment inquiry -- Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight -- had issued a subpoena to Mulvaney earlier this month for documents. The deadline for the records is Friday."

House committees will soon release transcripts of the testimony of Ambassadors Gordon Sondland & Kurt Volker.

Josh Kovensky of TPM: "Even as the impeachment inquiry gains momentum, Ukrainians who stand to benefit from probes into discredited allegations about the Bidens and the 2016 election have not stopped pushing for investigations. Andrii Telizhenko, a former Ukrainian diplomat who has peddled allegations of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 elections to help the Democrats, met with Rudy Giuliani in New York City -- last week.... NBC reported on Monday that a group of parliamentarians in Ukraine are reviewing the possibility of creating an investigative commission to examine allegations, such as those peddled by Telizhenko, of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. One Ukrainian MP who is pushing for the commission's creation is Oleg Voloshyn, a former foreign ministry official who worked with Paul Manafort while he was a political consultant in the fledgling Eastern European nation." --safari: If Biden were ever elected, Benghaaaazi would dwarf in comparison to what the GOP is cooking up in Ukraine.

Lachlan Markey of The Daily Beast: "Allies of President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani are circulating opposition research on Steve Bannon after the former White House strategist questioned Giuliani's work for the president and suggested he should be replaced." --s

Sarah Burris of RawStory: "Over the weekend, President Donald Trump attended the UFC mixed martial arts match at Madison Square Garden where he brought several Republican leaders and members of his family. Like the World Series, Trump was booed there too, though not as loudly. Now the Washington Post is reporting that the Republican National Committee shelled out $60,000 for Trump to attend the event with his friends and family." --s

Juan Cole: "The semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northeast Syria today accused Turkish forces of conducting ethnic cleansing campaigns in the Kurdish region they have occupied between Tel Abyad and Ra's al-Ayn.... The Kurds called on the United Nations to intervene to stop the ethnic cleansing, and urged it not to fall for the Turkish ploy of bringing in its mercenaries and characterizing them as 'refugees.' Despite an agreement between Turkey and Russia that Ankara would halt its invasion, Foreign Policy reports that Turkey is attempting to go deeper into Syria than the 20 miles it had agreed upon, which will result in more Kurds being displaced." --s

Sean Naylor of Yahoo! News: "A U.S. withdrawal from Syria will strain the links that the U.S. intelligence community has painstakingly built with both Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish forces, according to current and former government officials with long experience in the Middle East.... A U.S. withdrawal from Syria would place the United States' ability to get ... intelligence at risk and could result in the compromise of some U.S. intelligence techniques, according to current and former government officials.... 'We could be blind, especially if we're not cultivating those relationships in eastern Syria,' said a former U.S. government official with close ties to the Kurds." --s

Brett Forrest of the Wall Street Journal: "Erik Prince, a private security contractor and informal adviser to President Trump, is in discussions to purchase a Ukrainian aerospace manufacturer that the U.S. is trying to prevent China from buying.... The Trump administration has approached Mr. Prince and at least one other potential buyer from the private sector about Motor Sich..., a leading maker of helicopter and airplane engines.... [T]he U.S. wants to scuttle its pending sale to a group of Chinese companies to keep Beijing from acquiring vital defense technology.... In recent weeks, Mr. Prince has discussed the company with Ukrainian officials and visited the company's main plant, according to people briefed on the matter.... Mr. Prince ... is the executive director and deputy chairman of Frontier Services Group, a Hong Kong- and Beijing-based private security contractor." Firewalled --s

Amy Knight of The Daily Beast: "Following a recent conference of foreign security and law enforcement agencies, the head of Russia's State Security Service, the FSB, made the surprising announcement that Russia and the United States have resumed cooperation on cybersecurity.... In response to queries about [Gen. Alexander] Bortnikov's statement, spokespersons for both the CIA and the DEA told The Daily Beast that they had no comment, and the FBI has not responded at all." --s

Ross Barkan of the Guardian: "For the millions who feel enraged and despondent over Trump's ennobling of white supremacists or his insidious environmental and immigration policies, trying to remain an informed citizen can amount to an exercise in psychic torture. It's not easy reading, every day, about the degradation of whatever democratic norms America has left.... What recourse, then, do citizens have against a deranged, all-powerful executive who can lay waste to the planet many times over? Election Day is still a full year away. In the absence of a vote, all that is left is protest. If it all feels, at times, irrelevant to Trump's band of Republican nihilists, there is still a necessity to taking action, to demonstrating mass resistance against such hate." --s

Hadas Gold & Donie O'Sullivan of CNN: "A controversial policy allowing politicians to run false ads on Facebook will extend to the United Kingdom as the country prepares to vote in a historic December election, Facebook confirmed to CNN Business. The policy is being championed by Facebook executive Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom who himself once complained about 'lies' spread during the 2016 Brexit referendum." --s

Florida. Where Not to Live. Antonia Farzan of the Washington Post: "The librarians of Citrus County, Fla., had what seemed like a modest wish: A digital subscription to the New York Times. For about $2,700 annually, they reasoned, they could offer their roughly 70,000 patrons an easy way to research and catch up on the news. But when their request came before the Citrus County commission last month, local officials literally laughed out loud. One commissioner, Scott Carnahan, declared the paper to be fake news.' 'I agree with President Trump,' he said. 'I will not be voting for this. I don't want the New York Times in this county.' In a move that is generating intense online backlash, all five members of the commission agreed to reject the library's request. The discussion took place Oct. 24, the same day the Trump administration announced plans to cancel federal agencies' subscriptions to the Times and The Washington Post. While there's no apparent connection -- the Citrus County meeting began several hours before the Wall Street Journal broke the news of the new edict -- the controversy unfolding in central Florida highlights how politicians nationwide are parroting the president's disparaging rhetoric about the media."

Great Britian. Dan Sabbagh & Luke Harding of the Guardian: "Boris Johnson was on Monday night accused of presiding over a cover-up after it emerged that No 10 refused to clear the publication of a potentially incendiary report examining Russian infiltration in British politics, including the Conservative party [before the coming elections, despite being approved for release]...Fresh evidence has also emerged of attempts by the Kremlin to infiltrate the Conservatives by a senior Russian diplomat suspected of espionage, who spent five years in London cultivating leading Tories including Johnson himself. It can now be revealed that Sergey Nalobin-- who once described the future prime minister as 'our good friend' -- lives in a Moscow apartment block known as the 'FSB house' because it houses so many employees from the Kremlin's main spy agency.... Committee members were ... briefed on an extraordinary -- and for a while an apparently successful -- attempt to penetrate Conservative circles by Nalobin, who instigated a pro-Kremlin parliamentary group, the Conservative Friends of Russia. Conservative Friends of Russia held its 2012 launch party in the Russian ambassador's Kensington garden, with about 250 Russian and British guests present, including Tories who went on to play a prominent role in the referendum campaign." --s

~~~~~~~~~~

U.S. v. Earth -- Yet Another Shameful Moment in American History. Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Trump administration formally notified the United Nations on Monday that it would withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change, leaving global climate diplomats to plot a way forward without the cooperation of the world's largest economy. The action, which came on the first day possible under the accord's complex rules on withdrawal, begins a yearlong countdown to the United States exit and a concerted effort to preserve the Paris Agreement, under which nearly 200 nations have pledged to cut greenhouse emissions and to help poor countries cope with the worst effects of an already warming planet. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the notification on Twitter and issued a statement saying the accord would impose intolerable burdens on the American economy.... And diplomats fear that Mr. Trump, who has mocked climate science as a hoax, will begin actively working against global efforts to move away from planet-warming fossil fuels, like coal, oil and natural gas. Keeping up the pressure for the kinds of economic change necessary to stave off the worse effects of planetary warming will be much harder without the world's superpower." Here's the HuffPost story.

House Intelligence Committee: Today, Rep. Adam Schiff, Chair of the House Intel Committee, Rep. Eliot Engel, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Acting Chair of the House Oversight Committee, "released the transcripts of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie 'Masha' Yovanovitch and former Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State Ambassador P. Michael McKinley.... The testimony of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie 'Masha' Yovanovitch from October 11, 2019 can be found here. Key excerpts from Yovanovitch's testimony can be found here. The testimony of former Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State Ambassador P. Michael McKinley from October 16, 2019 can be found here. Key excerpts from McKinley's testimony can be found here." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Kiss Ass or Kiss Your Job Goodbye. Adam Edelman, et al., of NBC News: "Marie Yovanovitch, the ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told House impeachment investigators last month that U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland told her she should tweet out support or praise for ... Donald Trump if she wanted to save her job, according to a transcript of her testimony made public Monday.... According to the transcript, Yovanovitch [said] she asked Sondland for advice on how to handle an onslaught of criticism from conservative media and Donald Trump Jr. 'He said, "You know, you need to go big or go home. You need to, you know, tweet out there that you support the president, and that all these are lies and everything else,'" she told the committees. 'It was advice that I did not see how I could implement in my role as an ambassador, and as a Foreign Service officer.'... Yovanovitch testified to House investigators Oct. 11 that Trump had personally pressured the State Department to remove her, even though a top department official [John Sullivan] assured her that she had 'done nothing wrong.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

As the Worm Turns. Edward Wong & David Sanger of the New York Times: "As President Trump's first C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo was briefed by agency officials on the extensive evidence ... showing that Russian hackers working for the government of Vladimir V. Putin had interfered in the 2016 American presidential campaign. In May 2017, Mr. Pompeo testified in a Senate hearing that he stood by that conclusion. Two and a half years later, Mr. Pompeo seems to have changed his mind. As Mr. Trump's second secretary of state, he now supports an investigation into a discredited, partisan theory that Ukraine, not Russia, attacked the Democratic National Committee, which Mr. Trump wants to use to make the case that he was elected without Moscow's help.... Mr. Pompeo's spreading of a false narrative at the heart of the Ukraine scandal is the most striking example of how he has fallen off the tightrope he has traversed for the past 18 months: demonstrating loyalty to the president while insisting to others he was pursuing a traditional, conservative foreign policy." Read on. Pompeo is in this up to his eyeballs. The idiot savant has ensured his place as one of the most malign forces in the nation. ~~~

~~~ Cody Fenwick of AlterNet: "Michael McKinley, a career diplomat and a former top adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, delivered a harsh indictment of his former boss's treatment of the civil service in testimony to the congressional impeachment inquiry, a new transcript revealed on Monday.... In his testimony, he made clear that his resignation was driven by the administration's treatment of former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and the department's failure to defend her. His recounting of these events painted a craven and weak portrait of Pompeo, who refused to help Yovanovitch despite the attacks she has endured.... [McKinley] said he went to Pompeo directly and suggested that a statement be put out to support Yovanovitch as press attention became focused on the former ambassador. He said he ended up talking to Pompeo about the issue three times, but the secretary barely acknowledged the request. No statement of support was ever made.... Pompeo appears to have blatantly lied about these interactions. On ABC News in October, Pompeo said, 'From the time that Ambassador Yovanovitch departed Ukraine until the time that he [McKinley] came to tell me he was departing, I never heard him say a single thing about his concerns with respect to the decision that was made. Not once. Not once ... did Ambassador McKinley say something to me in that time period.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Either Pompeo looked into the camera & lied to the public or McKinley lied in sworn testimony. I know whom I believe. Of course, as noted ethicist Cory Lewandowski testified before a Congressional committee, lying "to the media" is not against the law. ~~~

~~~ Julian Borger of the Guardian on Pompeo's suspicious trips to Kansas. Three of his four visits this year were supposedly on official State Department business; ergo, taxpayer-funded. Many surmise Pompeo is eyeing running for the open Kansas Senate seat. During one of his Kansas excursions, "he took time in Wichita to meet Charles Koch, his longstanding sponsor and a kingmaker on the right of Republican party.... Democrats have filed a complaint that he is violating federal laws prohibiting political activities while acting in an official capacity." He has until next June to decide whether or not to run for the seat.

Michael Schmidt & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The White House's top national security lawyer declined to appear for a scheduled deposition on Monday morning, saying he would wait to hear what a federal judge ruled on whether President Trump's closest advisers have to answer questions from congressional investigators. The lawyer, John A. Eisenberg, played a central role in dealing with the fallout at the White House from a July call between President Trump and the Ukrainian president.... The committee subpoenaed Mr. Eisenberg to appear on Monday morning for questioning, but the White House informed Mr. Eisenberg's lawyer in recent days that Mr. Trump would block his testimony by invoking 'constitutional immunity,' a sweeping form of executive privilege it has been claiming for officials who have the closest interactions with the president. Mr. Eisenberg's decision heightens the importance of an unusual lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump's former deputy national security adviser Charles M Kupperman, who faced the same situation as Mr. Eisenberg: a subpoena from the House and an instruction from Mr. Trump not to comply with it." (Also linked yesterday.)

Allan Smith of NBC News: "... Donald Trump said Monday that written answers from the whistleblower to Congress would be unacceptable -- although such answers were fine for the president when dealing with former special counsel Robert Mueller. 'The Whistleblower gave false information & dealt with corrupt politician Schiff,' Trump tweeted. 'He must be brought forward to testify. Written answers not acceptable! Where is the 2nd Whistleblower? He disappeared after I released the transcript. Does he even exist? Where is the informant? Con!'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Anita Kumar of Politico: "In 2006, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump traveled to Ukraine to meet with government officials about building a multimillion dollar hotel and golf course in the country. Two years later, Trump Jr. was back to meet with developers. The Trumps were looking to erect luxury resorts across the former Soviet republics.... But doing so meant navigating a landscape that had long struggled with corruption.... Now, a decade after his company's efforts floundered..., Donald Trump is arguing that it's the son of his political rival Joe Biden, not him, who wanted to benefit from what he calls a 'very corrupt' Ukraine. The president's critics say it's a now-familiar Trumpian contradiction, one that raises further doubts about the president's claim he merely wanted to root out corruption when he pressured Ukrainian officials to investigate the Biden.... The overtures [the Trumps made in Ukraine] offer another example of the complications of a businessman-turned-president making foreign policy decisions in places where he has had -- or tried to have -- significant financial interests.... House and Senate committees appear to be unaware of the Trump Organization's prior Ukraine connections, according to more than half a dozen lawmakers and staffers." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Kumar's reporting helps explain this WashPo story by Greg Jaffe & Josh Dawsey (Nov. 2): "'They are horrible, corrupt people,' Trump [said of Ukrainians to top advisors].... One theme that runs through almost all [House witness] accounts is Trump's unyielding loathing of Ukraine, which dates to his earliest days in the White House. 'We could never quite understand it,' a former senior White House official said of Trump's view of the former Soviet republic, also saying that much of it stemmed from the president's embrace of conspiracy theories. 'There were accusations that they had somehow worked with the Clinton campaign. There were accusations they'd hurt him. He just hated Ukraine.'... Trump's animosity to Ukraine ran so deep and was so resistant to the typical foreign policy entreaties about the need to stand by allies that senior officials involved in Ukraine policy concluded that the only way to overcome it was to set up an Oval Office meeting with Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky." My guess is that what irks Trump is not corruption per se, but that he failed to cut a deal with (former) officials to build his resort. It's all about Trump, Trump, Trump. ~~~

~~~ Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "Long before a telephone call with Ukraine's president that prompted an impeachment inquiry, President Trump was exchanging political favors with a different Ukrainian leader, who desperately sought American help for his country's struggle against Russian aggression. Petro O. Poroshenko, Ukraine's president until May, waged an elaborate campaign to win over Mr. Trump at a time when advisers had convinced Mr. Trump that Ukraine was a nest of Hillary Clinton supporters. Mr. Poroshenko' campaign included trade deals that were politically expedient for Mr. Trump, meetings with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the freezing of potentially damaging criminal cases and attempts to use the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as a back channel.... Now, impeachment investigators are examining the two years of interactions between Mr. Trump and Mr. Poroshenko, according to a congressional Democrat." (Also linked yesterday.)

Aram Roston of Reuters: "Lev Parnas, an indicted Ukrainian-American businessman who has ties to ... Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, is now prepared to comply with requests for records and testimony from congressional impeachment investigators, his lawyer told Reuters on Monday. Parnas, who helped Giuliani look for dirt on Trump's political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, is a key figure in the impeachment inquiry that is examining whether Trump abused his office for personal political gain. His apparent decision to work with the congressional committees represents a change of heart. Parnas rebuffed a request from three House of Representatives committees last month to provide documents and testimony. 'We will honor and not avoid the committee's requests to the extent they are legally proper, while scrupulously protecting Mr. Parnas' privileges including that of the Fifth Amendment,' said the lawyer, Joseph Bondy...." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: Lev Parnas has "open[ed] a dialogue with congressional impeachment investigators and accus[ed] the president of falsely denying their relationship.... Parnas had previously resisted speaking with investigators for the Democrat-led impeachment proceedings.... A former lawyer for Mr. Trump [-- John Dowd --] was then representing Mr. Parnas. But since then, Mr. Parnas has hired new lawyers who contacted the congressional investigators last week ... [who] signaled on Monday that Mr. Parnas, who was arrested last month on campaign finance charges, is prepared to comply with a congressional subpoena for his documents and testimony.... 'Mr. Parnas was very upset by President Trump's plainly false statement that he did not know him,' said [new attorney Joseph] Bondy, whose client has maintained that he has had extensive dealings with the president.... Mr. Trump signed off on [Parnas'] hiring of Mr. Dowd, according to an Oct. 2 email reviewed by The New York Times. '... The president consents to allowing your representation of Mr. Parnas and Mr. Furman,' Jay Sekulow, another lawyer for Mr. Trump, wrote to Mr. Dowd, misspelling Mr. Fruman's surname. Mr. Dowd said in an interview that Mr. Trump's approval was sought 'simply as a courtesy to the president'...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie Note to Donnie: As a general rule, it's not a good idea to diss people who may have something on you. You hurt Lev's feelings when you told reporters who asked about Igor & him, "'I don't know them. I don't know about them. I don/t know what they do ... Maybe they were clients of Rudy. You'd have to ask Rudy.'... Of the numerous photographs of them together, Mr. Trump said, 'I have a picture with everybody.'" And here I thought an expert on the art of the deal, not to mention what-all happened when you snubbed Michael Cohen, would know this. ~~~

~~~ "When Your Joint Defense Agreement with the Russian Mob Blows up." Marcy Wheeler: "Last month, I argued that the John Dowd letter mapping out what amounted to a Joint Defense Agreement between the President, Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, and Dmitry Firtash (with Victoria Toensing, Joe DiGenova, and Dowd himself as the glue holding this orgy of corruption together) would one day go in a museum to memorialize how crazy things are. Right alongside that -- I think after reading [the NYT story linked above] -- will go Trump's written waiver of privilege as obtained by Jay Sekulow.... Dowd claims ... there was no tie between his representation of Trump and the magical selection of a bunch of grifters involved in Trump's efforts to coerce electoral advantage from foreign countries.... [Parnas has] put the pieces into place to ensure he could take others down with him. And his marks were very easy marks. Plus, given he can claim both attorney-client and Fifth Amendment privileges, he may be able to neatly tailor what information he wants to release."

Spies, Intrigue, Extortion, Club Mafia Rave! Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "The heart of the Ukraine scandal ... is simple. Trump used congressionally appropriated aid to Ukraine, as well as the promise of a White House visit, to try to extort Ukraine's president to announce investigations that would benefit Trump politically. But there's a broader story that's still murky, because in this scandal Trump is both the perpetrator and the mark. Trump used the power of his office to try to force Ukraine to substantiate conspiracy theories. But the president was fed those conspiracy theories by people with their own agendas, who surely understood that he is insecure about Russia's role in his election, and he will believe whatever serves his ego in the moment." Goldberg weaves together what is known about the ways Ukrainian oligarch & Russian asset Dmitry Firtash -- who seems to be the guy bankrolling Lev Parnas & Igor Fruman, along with Paul Manafort, Rudy Giuliani & a few other "sinister forces" have manipulated Trump. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Goldberg doesn't mention it, but it's now easier to understand the dynamic behind Giuliani's consultations with the caged bird Manafort. As the WashPo explained in early October, Giuliani business with Manafort was part of a fantasy-findng mission to gather info/contacts "on a theory that Manafort's team was promoting as early as 2017: that the Ukrainian government separately interfered in the 2016 campaign on behalf of Clinton through the activities of a Ukrainian American contract worker for the DNC." Journalists are revealing the connections between the plot points of the grand scheme in a manner very similar to the way the hero/investigator in a well-wrought European murder mystery discovers whodunit.

Polina Ivanova & Ilya Zhegulev of Reuters: "Ukraine plans to fire the prosecutor who led investigations into the firm where Joe Biden's son served on the board..., a source told Reuters. Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has acknowledged meeting the prosecutor, Kostiantyn Kulyk, to discuss accusations against the Bidens. The decision to sideline someone who played an important role in Giuliani's efforts to find out damaging information about the Bidens comes as Ukraine has tried to avoid getting drawn into a partisan fight in Washington.... The source said a decision had been taken to fire Kulyk for failing to show up for an exam that all employees of the General Prosecutor's Office have been ordered to pass to keep their jobs during a clean-up of the prosecution service. Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka has already fired more than 400 prosecutors, or around a third of all staff."

Harper Neidig of the Hill: "A federal appeals court on Monday ruled that President Trump can't block the Manhattan district attorney's office from subpoenaing his accounting firm for financial records. A three-judge panel on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals said that 'presidential immunity does not bar the enforcement of a state grand jury subpoena directing a third party to produce non-privileged material, even when the subject matter under investigation pertains to the President.' But the court noted they were not ruling on all of the sweeping claims of immunity that the president's lawyers claim." Includes ScribD copy of ruling. (An early version of this story was linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times story, by Benjamin Weiser, is here. "A federal appeals panel said on Monday that President Trump's accounting firm must turn over eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns to Manhattan prosecutors, a setback for the president's attempt to keep his financial records private. The three-judge appeals panel did not take a position on the president's biggest argument -- that he was immune from all criminal investigations. A lower court had called that argument 'repugnant to the nation's governmental structure and constitutional values.' Instead, the appeals court said the president's accounting firm, not Mr. Trump himself, was subpoenaed for the documents, so it did not matter whether presidents have immunity." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Pete Williams of NBC News: "... Donald Trump will face strong headwinds in asking the Supreme Court to stop prosecutors in New York from getting his tax returns. Past Supreme Court rulings have upheld subpoenas directed at presidents, and this time the local prosecutors are seeking documents from the Trump Organization and Trump's accountants -- not directly from the president himself. For those reasons, among others, the Supreme Court might simply decline to hear the president's appeal, which would leave the appeals court ruling intact and require the tax returns to be turned over. The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, is investigating whether any state laws were broken in the payment of hush money to two women who claimed they had a sexual relationship with Trump, allegations he has denied. The prosecutors are also looking into the claim by Michael Cohen, the former Trump lawyer and confidante, that Trump sometimes misstated his financial situation in order to pay lower taxes. Trump's lawyers have fought back, arguing that because a sitting president cannot be indicted, he likewise cannot be subject to any steps in a criminal investigation.... The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York [rejected that claim].... No court has ever ruled that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime, but that has been the consistent position of the Justice Department under both Republican and Democratic administrations. The logic behind that position can be summarized simply: The president can't run the country from jail."

Next on Tap. Ashraf Khalil of the AP: "Roger Stone, a longtime Republican provocateur and former confidant of ... Donald Trump, is going on trial over charges related to his alleged efforts to exploit the Russian-hacked Hillary Clinton emails for political gain. The trial in Washington, which begins Tuesday, promises to revive the specter of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as the impeachment inquiry against Trump proceeds in the House."

Brian Stelter of CNN: "The Justice Department is going on the offensive against the anonymous author of 'A Warning,' telling them in a letter obtained by CNN Business that he or she may be violating 'one or more nondisclosure agreements' by writing the anti-Trump book.The author's publisher is rejecting the argument and saying the book will be released as scheduled. And the author's agents are accusing the government of trying to unmask the author.... A Justice Department official said that the letter, from the head of the agency's civil division, was part of a fact-gathering process and that other similar requests had gone out to authors who'd worked for the government. The letter was not necessarily indicative of a looming lawsuit, the official said, just one step in a routine procedure." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The Justice Department is trying to unearth the identity of the Trump administration official who denounced the president in a New York Times Op-Ed last year under the byline Anonymous, according to a letter from a senior law enforcement official on Monday. In the letter, Assistant Attorney General Joseph H. Hunt asked the publisher of a forthcoming book by the writer and the author's book agents for proof that the official never signed a nondisclosure agreement and had no access to classified information or, absent that, for information about where the person worked in the government, and when..... Mr. Trump, people close to him said, has long been troubled by the existence of Anonymous, whose Op-Ed condemned him as essentially unfit for office and described a 'resistance' within the administration trying to keep the government on course.... Mr. Trump said last year that he wanted the Justice Department to investigate the essay, declaring its writing an act of treason. Prosecutors said at the time that such an inquiry would be inappropriate because it was likely that no laws were broken." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Huh. When Trump became president* & started demanding White House employees sign nondisclosure agreements, various expert attorneys said that NDAs were unenforceable against federal employees. If so, how come the so-called Justice Department is trying to determine whether or not Anonymous signed one? If those experts were right, then DOJ is continuing to act as Trump's private attorney rather than as ours.

Jan Ransom of the New York Times: "E. Jean Carroll publicly shared a secret in June that she had kept largely to herself for more than two decades: Donald J. Trump, she said, had raped her in the dressing room of an upscale department store in New York City. President Trump vehemently denied the allegations. He called Ms. Carroll a liar, intent on selling a new book. He said he had never met her, despite a photo of the two of them together in the 1980s. He told reporters that he would not have assaulted Ms. Carroll because 'she's not my type.' Now Ms. Carroll, a journalist and columnist for Elle Magazine, has sued Mr. Trump for defamation, saying in a lawsuit filed in state court on Monday that Mr. Trump had damaged her reputation and her career when he denied her allegation in June." Anna North of Vox has the story here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As North points out, "she's not my type" is "a response he's employed several times to denigrate women who accuse him of sexual misconduct." Whether or not Carroll is Trump's "type," who's stupid enough to think men assault only women whom they find super-attractive? If anything, the opposite could be true: they might assault women they're not interested in, but try to charm women whom they find most appealing. I hope Trump tries the "not my type" argument in court. And I hope the judge is a woman.

The Trump Team Has a Plan to Wreck the National Parks. Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "A committee that reports to the National Park Service (NPS) is recommending privatizing campgrounds within national parks, limiting benefits for senior visitors and allowing food trucks as a way to bring more money into the system. The panel that shared the ideas was formed under former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, part of the Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee designed to 'advise the Secretary of the Interior on public-private partnerships across all public lands.' The memo prepared by the Subcommittee on Recreation Enhancement Through Reorganization highlights privatization and an increase in contracts with private companies as a way to offer services such as Wi-Fi, food and equipment rentals to draw more visitors to parks.... The memo argues that the 50 percent discount for seniors should apply only to base campsite fees and encourages NPS to introduce 'new senior fee blackout periods during peak season periods.'" Mrs. McC: Yay! Theme parks for the wealthy. Coming soon: amusement park rides in wilderness areas with automated grizzly bear & bobcat replicas popping up at every turn.

Presidential Race 2020

Democrats Decide to Self-destruct. Hanna Trudo & Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "The same day that the head of the Democratic National Committee told a group of Iowans that the party's 'unity is our greatest strength,' the top-ranking Democrat in Congress ripped apart a chief policy proposal of two leading 2020 presidential candidates. The dichotomy between the feel-good vibes of DNC Chair Tom Perez and the cold water dousing delivered by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the push for Medicare for All portended what appears to be one of the more trying weeks for Democrats to date. At a time when President Trump is on the precipice of impeachment, the opposition party finds itself in an increasingly dour state, with a renewed sense of fright about the prospects of the president's re-election and infighting between the primary candidates heating up in uncomfortable ways." And so forth. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As I said this past weekend, to some dissent, the candidates bickering among themselves about the form universal health coverage should take is remarkably stupid. For one thing, it leads to op-eds like one from Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post, titled, "When it comes to Medicare for all, listen to Nancy Pelosi." I didn't read a word of the text of Marcus's tut-tutting. I seldom do.

Jamie Lovegrove of the Charleston, S.C. Post & Courier: "A South Carolina aide for Tom Steyer's 2020 presidential campaign stole valuable volunteer data collected by Kamala Harris' campaign using an account from when he worked with the S.C. Democratic Party, according to multiple state and national party officials. The Steyer campaign said that it does not have possession of the data and that Democratic officials were only aware of the download, which they said was inadvertent, because they proactively notified them. Both the Democratic National Committee and S.C. Democratic Party denied that. The Democratic National Committee said they quickly caught the attempt on Friday by Steyer's deputy S.C. state director Dwane Sims to export Harris' data, which contained thousands of volunteer contacts collected over the course of the campaign in this critical early-voting primary state. The party sent a cease-and-desist letter and has since received certification from Sims that he destroyed the stolen data, S.C. Democratic Party chairman Trav Robertson told The Post and Courier.... Sims was placed on administrative leave over the weekend while the Steyer campaign conducts an internal investigation, Steyer campaign spokesman Alberto Lammers said." ~~~

~~~ According to a new Nevada Independent poll, Steyer is beating Harris in Nevada, 4 percent to 3 percent, well within the 4-point margin of error.

Beyond the Beltway

Colorado. CBS Denver: "The FBI says it has prevented what it believes was an attempt to commit a major hate crime in Colorado. A known white supremacist named Richard Holzer arrested late Friday night in an alleged plot to blow up Temple Emanuel in Pueblo, according to newly unsealed federal court documents.... In the affidavit, FBI investigators said Holzer, who lives in Pueblo, used several Facebook accounts 'to promote white supremacy ideology and acts of violence.'" Holzer met with FBI undercover agents & laid out his plans to "get that place [-- the synagogue --] off the map." "Holzer was arrested and allegedly admitted planning to blow up the synagogue."

News Ledes

NBC News: "At least nine U.S. citizens, including six children, were killed in a massacre in the Mexican border state of Sonora Monday, a relative to many of the victims told NBC News. The dead included 8-month-old twins, said the family member, Kendra Lee Miller. Some of the eight survivors, all of whom are children, sustained serious injuries. Miller said a 9-month-old child was shot in the chest and a 4-year-old was shot in the back. The attack was described by local media as a highway ambush. Willie Jessop, who is related to one victim, told NBC News by phone from Utah that the attack occurred on a motorcade consisting of several families, and that survivors at the scene told him that three cars were shot at and one was set on fire."

Guardian: "Yvette Lundy, a heroine of the French resistance who survived detention in German concentration camps, has died aged 103. The schoolteacher supplied fake papers to Jewish people and others being rounded up by the Gestapo and sent them to hide at her older brother Georges' farm. She and her brother were arrested and sent to concentration camps, where Georges died. Lundy spent most of the rest of her life relating the horrors of Nazi Germany to schoolchildren and was made a grand officer of the Légion d’honneur in 2017."

The Commentariat -- November 4, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Brian Stelter of CNN: "The Justice Department is going on the offensive against the anonymous author of 'A Warning,' telling them in a letter obtained by CNN Business that he or she may be violating 'one or more nondisclosure agreements' by writing the anti-Trump book. The author's publisher is rejecting the argument and saying the book will be released as scheduled. And the author's agents are accusing the government of trying to unmask the author.... A Justice Department official said that the letter, from the head of the agency's civil division, was part of a fact-gathering process and that other similar requests had gone out to authors who'd worked for the government. The letter was not necessarily indicative of a looming lawsuit, the official said, just one step in a routine procedure." ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The Justice Department is trying to unearth the identity of the Trump administration official who denounced the president in a New York Times Op-Ed last year under the byline Anonymous, according to a letter from a senior law enforcement official on Monday. In the letter, Assistant Attorney General Joseph H. Hunt asked the publisher of a forthcoming book by the writer and the author's book agents for proof that the official never signed a nondisclosure agreement and had no access to classified information or, absent that, for information about where the person worked in the government, and when..... Mr. Trump, people close to him said, has long been troubled by the existence of Anonymous, whose Op-Ed condemned him as essentially unfit for office and described a 'resistance' within the administration trying to keep the government on course.... Mr. Trump said last year that he wanted the Justice Department to investigate the essay, declaring its writing an act of treason. Prosecutors said at the time that such an inquiry would be inappropriate because it was likely that no laws were broken." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Huh. When Trump became president* & started demanding White House employees sign nondisclosure agreements, various expert attorneys said the NDAs were unenforceable against federal employees. If so, how come the so-called Justice Department is trying to determine whether or not Anonymous signed one? If those experts were right, then DOJ is continuing to act as Trump's private attorney rather than as ours.

Harper Neidig of the Hill: "A federal appeals court on Monday ruled that President Trump can't block the Manhattan district attorney's office from subpoenaing his accounting firm for financial records. A three-judge panel on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals said that 'presidential immunity does not bar the enforcement of a state grand jury subpoena directing a third party to produce non-privileged material, even when the subject matter under investigation pertains to the President.' But the court noted they were not ruling on all of the sweeping claims of immunity that the president's lawyers claim. Developing..." Mrs. McC: That's all there is to the story, except that it also includes a Scribd of the ruling. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: NBC News reports that Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's lawyers, says they will take the case to the Supreme Court. Pete Williams of NBC News feels the deck is stacked against Trump, and that the Supremes could decline to take the case, letting the appellate court ruling stand. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: The New York Times story, by Benjamin Weiser, is here. "A federal appeals panel said on Monday that President Trump's accounting firm must turn over eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns to Manhattan prosecutors, a setback for the president's attempt to keep his financial records private. The three-judge appeals panel did not take a position on the president's biggest argument -- that he was immune from all criminal investigations. A lower court had called that argument 'repugnant to the nation's governmental structure and constitutional values.' Instead, the appeals court said the president's accounting firm, not Mr. Trump himself, was subpoenaed for the documents, so it did not matter whether presidents have immunity."

House Intelligence Committee: Today, Rep. Adam Schiff, Chair of the House Intel Committee, Rep. Eliot Engel, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Acting Chair of the House Oversight Committee, "released the transcripts of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie 'Masha' Yovanovitch and former Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State Ambassador P. Michael McKinley.... The testimony of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie 'Masha' Yovanovitch from October 11, 2019 can be found here. Key excerpts from Yovanovitch's testimony can be found here. The testimony of former Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State Ambassador P. Michael McKinley from October 16, 2019 can be found here. Key excerpts from McKinley's testimony can be found here.” ~~~

~~~ Kiss Ass or Kiss Ukraine Goodbye. Adam Edelman, et al., of NBC News: "Marie Yovanovitch, the ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told House impeachment investigators last month that U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland told her she should tweet out support or praise for ... Donald Trump if she wanted to save her job, according to a transcript of her testimony made public Monday.... According to the transcript, Yovanovitch [said] she asked Sondland for advice on how to handle an onslaught of criticism from conservative media and Donald Trump Jr. 'He said, "You know, you need to go big or go home. You need to, you know, tweet out there that you support the president, and that all these are lies and everything else,'" she told the committees. 'It was advice that I did not see how I could implement in my role as an ambassador, and as a Foreign Service officer.'... Yovanovitch testified to House investigators Oct. 11 that Trump had personally pressured the State Department to remove her, even though a top department official [John Sullivan] assured her that she had 'done nothing wrong.'"

Michael Schmidt & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The White House's top national security lawyer declined to appear for a scheduled deposition on Monday morning, saying he would wait to hear what a federal judge ruled on whether President Trump's closest advisers have to answer questions from congressional investigators. The lawyer, John A. Eisenberg, played a central role in dealing with the fallout at the White House from a July call between President Trump and the Ukrainian president.... The committee subpoenaed Mr. Eisenberg to appear on Monday morning for questioning, but the White House informed Mr. Eisenberg's lawyer in recent days that Mr. Trump would block his testimony by invoking 'constitutional immunity,' a sweeping form of executive privilege it has been claiming for officials who have the closest interactions with the president. Mr. Eisenberg's decision heightens the importance of an unusual lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump's former deputy national security adviser, Charles M. Kupperman, who faced the same situation as Mr. Eisenberg: a subpoena from the House and an instruction from Mr. Trump not to comply with it."

Allan Smith of NBC News: "... Donald Trump said Monday that written answers from the whistleblower to Congress would be unacceptable -- although such answers were fine for the president when dealing with former special counsel Robert Mueller. 'The Whistleblower gave false information & dealt with corrupt politician Schiff,' Trump tweeted. 'He must be brought forward to testify. Written answers not acceptable! Where is the 2nd Whistleblower? He disappeared after I released the transcript. Does he even exist? Where is the informant? Con!'"

Anita Kumar of Politico: "In 2006, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump traveled to Ukraine to meet with government officials about building a multimillion dollar hotel and golf course in the country. Two years later, Trump Jr. was back to meet with developers. The Trumps were looking to erect luxury resorts across the former Soviet republics.... But doing so meant navigating a landscape that had long struggled with corruption.... Now, a decade after his company's efforts floundered..., Donald Trump is arguing that it's the son of his political rival Joe Biden, not him, who wanted to benefit from what he calls a 'very corrupt' Ukraine. The president's critics say it's a now-familiar Trumpian contradiction, one that raises further doubts about the president's claim he merely wanted to root out corruption when he pressured Ukrainian officials to investigate the Biden.... The overtures [the Trumps made in Ukraine] offer another example of the complications of a businessman-turned-president making foreign policy decisions in places where he has had -- or tried to have -- significant financial interests.... House and Senate committees appear to be unaware of the Trump Organization's prior Ukraine connections, according to more than half a dozen lawmakers and staffers." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Kumar's reporting helps explain this WashPo story by Greg Jaffe & Josh Dawsey (Nov. 2): "'They are horrible, corrupt people,' Trump [said of Ukrainians to top advisors].... One theme that runs through almost all [House witness] accounts is Trump's unyielding loathing of Ukraine, which dates to his earliest days in the White House. 'We could never quite understand it,' a former senior White House official said of Trump's view of the former Soviet republic, also saying that much of it stemmed from the president's embrace of conspiracy theories. 'There were accusations that they had somehow worked with the Clinton campaign. There were accusations they'd hurt him. He just hated Ukraine.'... Trump's animosity to Ukraine ran so deep and was so resistant to the typical foreign policy entreaties about the need to stand by allies that senior officials involved in Ukraine policy concluded that the only way to overcome it was to set up an Oval Office meeting with Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky." My guess is that what irks Trump is not corruption per se, but that he failed to cut a deal with (former) officials to build his resort. It's all about Trump, Trump, Trump. ~~~

~~~ Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "Long before a telephone call with Ukraine's president that prompted an impeachment inquiry, President Trump was exchanging political favors with a different Ukrainian leader, who desperately sought American help for his country's struggle against Russian aggression. Petro O. Poroshenko, Ukraine's president until May, waged an elaborate campaign to win over Mr. Trump at a time when advisers had convinced Mr. Trump that Ukraine was a nest of Hillary Clinton supporters. Mr. Poroshenko' campaign included trade deals that were politically expedient for Mr. Trump, meetings with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the freezing of potentially damaging criminal cases and attempts to use the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as a back channel.... Now, impeachment investigators are examining the two years of interactions between Mr. Trump and Mr. Poroshenko, according to a congressional Democrat."

~~~~~~~~~~

So this is the best Team Trump has today: stonewall, lie and/or plead ignorance, redefine terms like "quid pro quo" & "high crimes & misdemeanors":

Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "An attorney for the whistleblower who filed a complaint about President Trump's apparent efforts to pressure Ukraine for information he could use against political rivals said Sunday that Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee could submit questions directly to his client instead of going through the panel's Democratic majority. Mark Zaid confirmed his client's offer to the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes (Calif.), to answer written questions under oath and with penalty of perjury, while also protecting the individual's identity. In recent days, Trump and his allies have ramped up efforts to expose the whistleblower's identity, amplifying theories regarding the person's motives.... By offering a direct channel to Republicans, the whistleblower's team has sought to quell grumbling by GOP leadership -- and the president -- that the impeachment process has been secretive and unfair." CBS News' story is here. ~~~

~~~ Rishika Dugyala of CNN: "... Donald Trump on Sunday reiterated his calls to reveal the name of the whistleblower behind the complaint that led to the House's formal impeachment inquiry, mentioning unconfirmed reports about the person's identity and possible ties to the previous administration. Trump sought to discredit the whistleblower, linking the individual to his Democratic predecessor, President Barack Obama, as well as former CIA director John Brennan and former national security adviser Susan Rice -- Obama's top aides. 'There have have been stories written about a certain individual, a male, and they say he's the whistleblower,' Trump told reporters outside the White House. If he's the whistleblower, he has no credibility because he's a Brennan guy, he's a Susan Rice guy, he's an Obama guy. And he hates Trump. Now, maybe it's not him. But if it's him, you guys ought to release the information,' the president added.... Some Republican lawmakers and conservative publications have named a purported whistleblower or asserted theories about the person's identity."

Rachel Bade, et al., of the Washington Post: "Russell Vought, a [Mick] Mulvaney protege who leads the White House Office of Management and Budget, intends a concerted defiance of congressional subpoenas in coming days, and two of his subordinates will follow suit -- simultaneously proving their loyalty to the president and a creating a potentially critical firewall regarding the alleged use of foreign aid to elicit political favors from a U.S. ally. The OMB is at the nexus of the impeachment inquiry because Democrats are pressing for details about why the White House budget office effectively froze the Ukraine funds that Congress had already appropriated. Congressional Republicans are also predicting that Mulvaney's deputy, Robert Blair, will refuse to show for his scheduled Monday appearance before impeachment investigators -- though a White House spokesman and Blair's attorney, Whit Ellerman, did not respond to questions about his plans. Blair was on the July 25 phone call when Trump asked Ukraine's president for a 'favor' investigating former vice president Joe Biden...." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "A top aide to White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Robert Blair, has refused to testify in the House impeachment inquiry of ... Donald Trump after the White House directed him not to appear for his scheduled deposition, his attorney told CNN. The House committees investigating Trump had scheduled Blair's deposition for Monday. 'Mr. Blair is caught between the assertions of legal duty by two coequal branches of government, a conflict which he cannot resolve,' Blair's attorney Whit Ellerman told CNN on Saturday. 'I light of the clear direction he has been given by the executive branch, Mr. Blair has respectfully declined to appear and testify. Nevertheless, he will fulfill all his legal duties once that conflict is appropriately resolved.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Update 2. Katherine Faulders & John Santucci of ABC News: "Four White House officials slated for closed-door depositions Monday are not expected to show up on Capitol Hill despite the threat of subpoena from the committees leading the growing impeachment inquiry.... On Monday, Democrats had hoped to hear from four current White House officials, including John Eisenberg, deputy counsel to the president for National Security Affairs; Michael Ellis, senior associate counsel to the president; Robert Blair, a top aide to the chief of staff; and Brian McCormack, an official with the office of management and budget. Two of those officials, Eisenberg and McCormack, have already been subpoenaed for their respective depositions. Ellis and Blair have only been requested to appear at this time."

Daniel Politi of Slate: "Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway went on a tour of Sunday morning news shows in which she was repeatedly pressed on matters related to the impeachment inquiry.... While talking to CNN ... Conway said she didn't know whether ... Donald Trump ever withheld military aid to Ukraine as a way to pressure the country to investigate the Bidens. During the interview with CNN's Dana Bash, Conway at first tried to dismiss the suggestion Trump did anything wrong saying there was 'no quid pro quo in this call in terms of the president.' But when Bash pressed Conway about what was said in the call between Trump and Ukraine's president, she refused to give a definite answer. 'Was there a time when military aid was held up because the President wanted Ukraine to look into the Bidens?' Bash asked. 'I don't know. But I know they've got their aid,' Conway said.... Conway also sparred with Chris Wallace..., insisting there was no evidence of a quid pro quo as the Fox anchor pointed out that numerous high level officials had said otherwise.... Conway also insisted that even if Trump put conditions on the military aid, it wouldn't be an impeachable offense. 'Is it a high crime and misdemeanor? I wouldn't think so,' Conway said."

Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "Donald Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen was told that if he stuck to his account of Trump's relationship with Moscow, the president 'loves you,' according to a bombshell document from the Robert Mueller investigation obtained by BuzzFeed.... Cohen ... told investigators the White House expected him to 'keep Trump out of the messaging related to Russia' and 'keep Trump out of the Russia conversation' in his testimony to Congress about Trump Organization plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to one of the summaries. Cohen was told if 'he stayed on message, the president has your back, the president loves you,' according to the document. The summary did not reveal who conveyed that message to Cohen. Cohen also told investigators that it was 'not his idea' to write a statement to Congress that included lies about Trump Tower Moscow. The redacted summary did not reveal whose idea it was. But he told the House Intelligence Committee last year that he believed it was Trump who 'indirectly' told him to lie.&"

Carla Marinucci of Politico: "Just days after Gov. Gavin Newsom praised the federal government for its response to catastrophic wildfires and power outages affecting millions..., Donald Trump on Sunday slammed the California Democrat -- and threatened to cut off future federal funding to the fire-battered state. Trump, in a spate of postings on Twitter, lambasted what he called Newsom's 'terrible job' regarding the state's forest management practices, saying that the governor should stop listening to environmentalist 'bosses' and 'clean' the forest floors. And he also slammed Newsom for state water-management practices, suggesting that California must open up what he called 'ridiculously closed water lanes.'... [Newsom's] pushed back hard against Trump, noting that the governor's fire prevention and management projects included an investment of $225.8 million to help streamline programs specifically aimed at 'reducing fuels in the forest, increasing forest health, and defensible space around homes." The governor's office in addition said that there were currently 35 priority projects in addition to the redeployment of National Guard personnel to assist the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in controlling the fires.... Scott McLean, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, cited the governor's leadership in directing the agency to pursue 35 priority projects to reduce wildfire risk in vulnerable communities." ~~~

~~~ Madison Pauly of Mother Jones: "... Donald Trump just threatened to cut off federal funding to California over Gov. Gavin Newsom's 'forest management,' which the president blamed for the wildfires that have ripped through wide swaths of the state over the past few weeks. 'I told him from the first day we met that he must "clean" his forest floors,' Trump tweeted bright and early on Sunday morning. 'Must also do burns and cut fire stoppers.' 'Every year, as the fire's [sic] rage & California burns, it is the same thing- and then he comes to the Federal Government for $$$ help. No more.'... Nevermind that only about 2 percent of California forests are managed by the state government, compared to the 57 percent of California forests run by the federal government...."

Everything about Trump Is Phony. Jonathan Swan & Alexi McCammond of Axios: "Sources familiar with the president's iPhone told Axios that the president maintains a digital portal to the two newspapers he recently banished from the West Wing: the Washington Post and the New York Times.... Trump has not deleted the NYT and WaPo apps."

Presidential Race 2020. Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "Despite low national approval ratings and the specter of impeachment, President Trump remains highly competitive in the battleground states likeliest to decide his re-election, according to a set of new surveys from The New York Times Upshot and Siena College. Across the six closest states [-- Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, Arizona, North Carolina -- ] that went Republican in 2016, he trails Joe Biden by an average of two points among registered voters but stays within the margin of error. Mr. Trump leads Elizabeth Warren by two points among registered voters, the same margin as his win over Hillary Clinton in these states three years ago. The poll showed Bernie Sanders deadlocked with the president among registered voters, but trailing among likely voters." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie's Honest & Fair Voter Eligibility Test: If you're stupid enough to vote for Donald Trump, you're too stupid to vote.

Vasco Cotovio of CNN: "Norwegian authorities have arrested a high-profile American white supremacist, hours before he was due to give a speech at a far-right conference in Oslo on Saturday. The detained American, Greg Johnson, is editor-in-chief of the white nationalist Counter-Currents Publishing group. He had been scheduled to speak at the Scandza Forum, a network known for its anti-Semitic and racist views. Norway's intelligence service considered Johnson 'to be a threat, not because of what he could do but because of his hate speech and his previously expressed support for [mass murderer] Anders Breivik,' spokesman Martin Bernsen told CNN.... Johnson was arrested under the country's immigration act and Norwegian authorities are now working 'as quickly as possible to get him out of the country,' said Bernsen."

John Bowden of the Hill: "McDonald's announced Sunday it had fired CEO Steve Easterbrook, citing his 'poor judgment' over a consensual relationship he had with an employee. The company's board of directors said it had named Chris Kempczinski, most recently president of McDonald's USA, to succeed him." The New York Times story is here.

The Commentariat -- November 3, 2019

** Jason Leopold, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "BuzzFeed News sued the US government to see all the work that [Robert] Mueller's team kept secret. We have published the first installment.... Paul Manafort was pushing the unfounded conspiracy theory -- now part of the impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump -- that Ukraine hacked the Democratic National Committee's emails as early as 2016. The president's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, 'had to keep Trump out of the messaging related to Russia' in preparation for his testimony to Congress under oath. Top Trump campaign aide Rick Gates said the campaign was 'very happy' when a foreign government helped release the hacked DNC emails. These are some of the revelations that BuzzFeed News pried loose after pursuing five separate Freedom of Information Act lawsuits for all the subpoenas and search warrants that then-special counsel Robert Mueller's team executed, as well as all the emails, memos, letters, talking points, legal opinions, and interview transcripts it generated. The documents revealed Saturday, known as '302 reports,' are summaries of interviews with former White House official and Trump campaign manager Stephen Bannon, Cohen, Gates, and more." The article includes details & reproduces supporting documents for the matters mentioned above, as well as others.

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "... Donald Trump and other top 2016 Trump campaign officials repeatedly privately discussed how the campaign could get access to stolen Democratic emails WikiLeaks had in 2016, according to newly released interview notes from Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation. CNN sued the Justice Department for access to Mueller's witness interview notes, and this weekend's release marks the first publicly available behind-the-scenes look at Mueller's investigative work outside of court proceedings and the report itself. Per a judge's order, the Justice Department will continue to release new tranches of the Mueller investigative notes monthly to CNN and Buzzfeed News, which also sued for them. A retelling of events from former Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates, who served alongside campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is the fullest detail revealed by the Justice Department yet on discussions within the Trump campaign as it pursued damaging information about its Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. '[Rick] Gates recalled a time on the campaign aircraft when candidate Trump said, "get the emails." [Michael] Flynn said he could use his intelligence sources to obtain the emails,' investigators wrote in a summary of Gates' April 2018 interview withMueller's team.... 'Flynn had the most Russia contacts of anyone on the campaign and was in the best position to ask for the emails if they were out there,' the investigators also wrote about Gates' interview. Gates described in an interview with Mueller investigators last year how several close advisers to Trump, Trump's family members and Trump himself considered how to get the stolen documents and pushed the effort, according to investigators' summary."

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It's been obvious for some time that the Ukraine scandal is not a stand-alone event (or series of events) but is an extension of the matters Mueller investigated. The documents BuzzFeed News & CNN have obtained provide additional confirmation of a story that dates back more than three years.

Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: “In his July 2019 call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky..., Donald Trump referenced a conspiracy theory that Ukraine was involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee in 2016, and asked for the 'favor' of help investigating it. Trump's own campaign was floating the theory that Ukraine, and not Russia, hacked the DNC as early as the summer of 2016, according to new documents obtained by BuzzFeed News from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. In an April 2018 interview with Mueller's office, Rick Gates -- who had served as Trump's deputy campaign chair in 2016 and was the longtime right-hand man of former campaign chair Paul Manafort -- told investigators that sometime after the campaign learned in June 2016 that WikiLeaks had the hacked DNC emails, Manafort had said that the hack was 'likely carried by the Ukrainians, not the Russians,' according to FBI notes. The idea that Ukraine, and not Russia, was involved in stealing emails from the DNC that were released by WikiLeaks in 2016 has long percolated in conservative circles and been pushed by Russian news outlets. It contradicts the US Intelligence Community's own findings that Russia was involved in hacking the DNC and orchestrating the release of documents through WikiLeaks."

Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "... Republicans are trying out [an argument] which says that while Trump's conduct has not been irreproachable, neither has it been impeachable.... In fact, Trump's conduct, according to analysts interviewed by the Guardian, hews more closely than any previous conduct by any other president to what scholars conceive as a concrete example of impeachable behavior.... The reason Trump's alleged conduct is plainly impeachable, historians say, has to do with US impeachment precedent and with what the authors of the US constitution meant when they provisioned impeachment for 'high crimes and misdemeanors'.... The founders drafted the impeachment clause specifically with problematic foreign loyalties in mind, [historian Jeffrey] Engel said. 'Having just gone through the process of a divisive revolution, where it was literally neighbor against neighbor and sometimes even brother against brother split over loyalty,' Engel said, 'there was a great deal of concern about just simply making sure that the people who were in charge generally had America's best interests at heart....'... [Historian Frank Bowman says,] '... Trump is literally holding the independence of another country hostage to his own political interests.... What he was doing is endangering an American policy objective, the whole framework of containment of Russian expansionism, the bedrock of our policy in eastern Europe for the last 70 years....'"

A Florida Man Walked into a Fight at Madison Square Garden.... Marty Johnson of the Hill: "President Trump was welcomed into Madison Square Garden Saturday night with heavy booing from the crowd. The president [was] at the arena to watch the main fight of UFC 244.... In addition to the boos inside of MSG, protestors gathered outside of the arena prior to his arrival." Mrs. McC: Soon they'll be booing him in Palm Beach. ~~~

~~~ Okay, Not All That Bad. Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "Both loud boos and cheers could be heard as Trump, joined by his adult sons, Don Jr. and Eric, as well as several congressional Republicans, took their seats ahead of the pay-per-view mixed martial arts match. The greeting, though split, was warmer than the reception Trump received earlier in the week, when he was roundly booed and faced a 'Lock him up!' chant at a World Series game he attended in Washington." Mrs. McC: A fun time was had by all. The headline event is called "BMF," which I gather stands for "Big Mother Fucker." One fighter was knocked out cold. So all very wholesome. Remember when the wingers were all upset when President Obama took Michelle to NYC for date night? They went to dinner at an upscale restaurant & saw a Broadway production of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone. So similar to attending an organized bloody brawl.

** Mike McIntire, et al., of the New York Times: "The New York Times examined [Donald] Trump's interactions with Twitter since he took office, reviewing each of his more than 11,000 tweets and the hundreds of accounts he has retweeted, tracking the ways he is exposed to information and replicating what he is likely to see on the platform.... The president spends significant time mingling with extremists, impostors and spies. Fake accounts tied to intelligence services in China, Iran and Russia had directed thousands of tweets at Mr. Trump.... Iranian operatives tweeted anti-Semitic tropes, saying that Mr. Trump was 'being controlled' by global Zionists, and that pulling out of the Iran nuclear treaty would benefit North Korea. Russian accounts tagged the president more than 30,000 times.... Mr. Trump has retweeted at least 145 unverified accounts that have pushed conspiracy or fringe content, including more than two dozen that have since been suspended by Twitter. Tinfoil-hat types and racists celebrate when Mr. Trump shares something they promote." ~~~

     ~~~ The Times has related stories here and here. Mrs. McC: Trump's Twitter activity is grounds for invoking the 25th Amendment. (The three stories linked here & immediately above were also linked yesterday, but they're worth perusing. ~~~

~~~ Mike McIntire & Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times home in on nine key takeaways from the Times' examination of Trumpertweets.

How to Immigrate for $100. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "Smuggling gangs in Mexico have repeatedly sawed through new sections of President Trump's border wall in recent months by using commercially available power tools, opening gaps large enough for people and drug loads to pass through, according to U.S. agents and officials with knowledge of the damage. The breaches have been made using a popular cordless household tool known as a reciprocating saw that retails at hardware stores for as little as $100. When fitted with specialized blades, the saws can slice through one of the barrier's steel-and-concrete bollards in a matter of minutes, according to the agents, who spoke on the condition of anonymit because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the barrier-defeating techniques. After cutting through the base of a single bollard, smugglers can push the steel out of the way, allowing an adult to fit through the gap. Because the bollards are so tall -- and are attached only to a panel at the very top -- their length makes them easier to push aside once they have been cut and are left dangling, according to engineers consulted by The Washington Post.... The smuggling crews have been using other techniques, such as building makeshift ladders to scale the barriers, especially in the popular smuggling areas in the San Diego area, according to nearly a dozen U.S. agents and current and former administration officials." Mediaite has a brief story here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: All together now: "We're shocked & nonplussed, Donnie's wall is a bust." ~~~

~~~ Update. Christian Vasquez of Politico: "After years of touting the impenetrability of a border wall..., Donald Trump said Saturday that 'you can cut through any wall' as reports surfaced of smugglers sawing through newly erected barriers with readily available power tools. 'We have a very powerful wall. But no matter how powerful, you can cut through anything, in all fairness. But we have a lot of people watching. You know cutting, cutting is one thing, but it's easily fixed. One of the reasons we did it the way we did it, it's very easily fixed. You put the chunk back in,' Trump told reporters at the White House.... Trump's statement is a far cry from years of campaigning that a border wall would be nearly impossible for smugglers to overcome. In a visit to one of the construction sites in September, Trump said the border wall is 'virtually impenetrable' and could not be climbed."

~~~ Jana Winter, et al., of Yahoo! News: "A Halloween party on Oct. 25 at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building featured candy, paper airplanes and -- concerning for some attendees -- a station where children were encouraged to help 'Build the Wall' with their own personalized bricks. Photos of the children's mural with the paper wall were provided to Yahoo News. The party, which took place inside the office building used by White House staff, included the families of executive-branch employees and VIP guests inside and outside government. Even though many of the attendees were members of ... Trump's administration, not everyone thought the Halloween game was a treat. 'Horrified. We were horrified,' said a person who was there...." Mrs. McC: Other than the fact that Trump's wall is a wasteful spending horror, I'm not sure what it has to do with Halloween. But the kids' paper wall is probably only slightly less effective than the real thing. And nice to know Trumpistas are indoctrinating Trump Youth. Do they get uniforms? Is there a special salute? ~~~

~~~ Judge Blocks Trump's Latest Cruel Scheme. Aimee Ortiz of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Saturday blocked the Trump administration from implementing a policy that would require immigrants to prove they have insurance or the financial resources for medical costs in order to obtain a visa. The ruling, by Judge Michael Simon of the Federal District Court in Portland, Ore., was the latest in a string of court decisions to derail administration initiatives that would limit the admission of certain legal immigrants into the United States. Judge Simon issued a nationwide temporary restraining order preventing the government from carrying out a proclamation by President Trump that would have gone into effect on Sunday." The AP story is here.

** Mike McIntire, et al., of the New York Times: "The New York Times examined [Donald] Trump's interactions with Twitter since he took office, reviewing each of his more than 11,000 tweets and the hundreds of accounts he has retweeted, tracking the ways he is exposed to information and replicating what he is likely to see on the platform. The result, including new data analysis and previously unreported details, offers the most comprehensive view yet of a virtual world in which the president spends significant time mingling with extremists, impostors and spies. Fake accounts tied to intelligence services in China, Iran and Russia had directed thousands of tweets at Mr. Trump, according to a Times analysis of propaganda accounts suspended by Twitter. Iranian operatives tweeted anti-Semitic tropes, saying that Mr. Trump was 'being controlled' by global Zionists, and that pulling out of the Iran nuclear treaty would benefit North Korea. Russian accounts tagged the president more than 30,000 times, including in supportive tweets about the Mexican border wall and his hectoring of black football players.... Mr. Trump has retweeted at least 145 unverified accounts that have pushed conspiracy or fringe content, including more than two dozen that have since been suspended by Twitter. Tinfoil-hat types and racists celebrate when Mr. Trump shares something they promote." ~~~

     ~~~ The Times has related stories here and here. Mrs. McC: Trump's Twitter activity is grounds for invoking the 25th Amendment.

Thomas Fuller & Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "... as wildfires burned across the state -- fires that scientists say have been made worse by a changing climate -- and as at least five large carmakers sided with President Trump's plan to roll back California's climate pollution standards, the state's status as the vanguard of environmental policy seemed at the very least diminished. The state's leaders found themselves both witnessing firsthand the effects of climate change and hamstrung to take actions to fight it. 'We're waging war against the most destructive fires in our state's history, and Trump is conducting a full-on assault against the antidote,' Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said in an interview. Mr. Trump has taken broad aim at efforts to fight global warming since his first days in office.... As Mr. Newsom sees it, there is a contradiction between Mr. Trump's willingness to help fire victims and his refusal to address the underlying reasons for the increasing ferocity of the fires.... Mr. Trump's quest to tear down rules that restrict the fossil fuel industry has homed in on California as a particular target. That's in part because of California's unique role as a beacon of the nation's climate change policies...."

"The White House Press Briefing Now Takes Place on Fox News." Bobby Lewis of Media Matters: "Since becoming White House press secretary on July 1, Stephanie Grisham has held zero press briefings. Instead, Grisham has found the time to grant interviews to some of ... Donald Trump's favorite current and former Fox News hosts.... Grisham's particular innovation is to move the entire office of White House press secretary into the world of Fox News and Fox-adjacent media.... Grisham treats her duties as press secretary as complaining to pro-Trump pundits about how unfair everyone else is to the president.... By shutting out the vast majority of cable networks and broadcast news to instead have friendly sit-downs with Trump's favorite former and current Fox News hosts, Grisham's media strategy seems aimed at reassuring the president while evading hard questions about a White House in perpetual crisis."

Presidential Race 2020

James Crowley of Newsweek: "South Bend, Indiana Mayor ... candidate Pete Buttigieg said in a new interview that he believes the race for his party's nomination will be between Senator Elizabeth Warren and himself. In a clip from Showtime's The Circus, Buttigieg told co-host John Heilemann: 'I think this is getting to be a two-way. It's early to say, I'm not saying that it is a two-way. A world where we're getting somewhere is where it's coming down to the two of us.'... Buttigieg also told Heilemann that he's not worried about former Vice President Joe Biden in the race. 'Either he is the unstoppable front-runner,' he said, 'and we can all go home, or he is not.' The candidate then added: 'Anybody who's in this race is pure on the assumption that he's not.'" Mrs. McC: Buttigieg sounds a little boastful here, but he might be right.

Eric Loomis in LG&$: "Nancy Pelosi ... is not great a[t] national politics and tends to project her own most right-wing members onto the national stage as the voices the Democratic Party should follow. [Citing a Bloomberg] story: "'What works in San Francisco does not necessarily work in Michigan,' Pelosi said at a roundtable of Bloomberg News reporters and editors on Friday.... 'Remember November,' she said.... Pelosi was careful not to back any one candidate in the party's contentious presidential contest, but didn't hold back when asked about which ideas should -- and shouldn't -- form the party's case to American voters.... The speaker's concerns reflect those of many Democratic leaders and donors who believe that left-wing policies will alienate swing voters and lead to defeat.'... One can debate what the best strategy is on healthcare. But what Pelosi is doing is undermining two of the top candidates in the field -- the two candidates who she at least frames herself as being closest to -- in order to promote the desires of her most moderate members. What she should be doing is staying out of this and calling for a broad-based debate...." The Bloomberg report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: For what it's worth, I think all, or at least most of, the Democratic candidates are taking the wrong tack on health coverage. By coming up with their own healthcare plans -- whatever the plans are -- the candidates are locking themselves into frameworks that are guaranteed not to pass Congress in the forms they espouse. The best "plan" doesn't require hiring experts to crunch numbers & develop long positions papers; instead, each candidate should swear allegiance to a goal of guaranteeing affordable universal healthcare, with a promise they'll get something through Congress that will meet that goal, as long as American voters elect Democratic majorities. Is it too late for me to get into the race? "Bea for President -- She's Not Trump" ~~~

~~~ Guess I was wrong; Elizabeth Warren explains her plan, and it makes so much sense:

Way Beyond the Beltway

Jim Gomez & Elaine Kurtenbach of the AP: "Leaders from fast-growing Southeast Asian economies, China and other regional powers vowed Sunday to transcend conflicts over trade policies and territorial disputes for the sake of stronger economies and regional stability.... Donald Trump skipped the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and instead sent his national security adviser, Robert O'Brien. Last year, Trump sent Vice President Mike Pence. Both now are busy campaigning back home, and analysts say their absence will leave roo for China to further raise its profile and clout in the region."