The Commentariat -- March 3, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Thanks to Rand Paul, Trumpy-Dumpty's Wall Just Had a Great Fall. Dan Sergent of the Bowling Green Daily News: "The Republican Party cheerleading session that is the Southern Kentucky Lincoln Day Dinner veered slightly off course Saturday with this pronouncement by U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Bowling Green: 'I can't vote to give extra-Constitutional powers to the president.' In a speech to the crowd of nearly 200 Republican officeholders and supporters at Western Kentucky University's Augenstein Alumni Center, Paul interjected, in a speech devoted largely to praising the work of ... Donald Trump, his opinion that Trump's declaration of a national emergency at the Mexican border is a dangerous precedent.... Three GOP senators -- Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina -- have already said they will vote to derail the emergency declaration. If Paul joins them and the Senate's 47 Democrats, the president will need to veto the measure in order to get his emergency money."

Quinn Scanlan of ABC News: "Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said that his committee will be issuing document requests on Monday to dozens of individuals. 'Tomorrow, we will be issuing document requests to over 60 different people and individuals from the White House to the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, Jr., Allen Weisselberg, to begin the investigations to present the case to the American people about obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power,' Nadler said on 'This Week' Sunday.... 'Do you think the president obstructed justice?' asked ... George Stephanopoulos. 'Yes, I do,' Nadler said." ...

... Kelsey Tamborrino of Politico: "The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday lawmakers have found 'enormous amounts of evidence' into potential collusion between the presidential campaign of Donald Trump and the Russians during the 2016 election. Mark Warner of Virginia made his remarks in response to an assertion that there is 'no factual evidence of collusion' from the Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who is chairman of the Intelligence Committee.... Warner's House Intelligence Committee counterpart, Adam Schiff, said Sunday on CBS' 'Face the Nation' that there's both 'direct evidence' and 'abundant circumstantial evidence' of collusion with Russia."

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Presidential Race 2020. Gregory Krieg of CNN: "Bernie Sanders on Saturday spoke about his father's escape from Europe, where 'virtually his entire family there was wiped out by Hitler and Naz barbarism.' He talked about the 'three-and-a-half room, rent-controlled apartment' his parents and brother shared in Flatbush, not far from here in Brooklyn. He recalled his mother, who died soon after Sanders began college, and her dream -- unrealized -- of moving to 'a home of our own.'But then, in the midst of delivering the most personal remarks of his political career at the first major rally of his 2020 campaign, Sanders veered off the somber script. 'I know where I came from!' he howled, a hint of exuberance in his voice. 'And that is something I will never forget.'... The crowd of around 13,000 supporters, according to a campaign estimates..., roared back." ...

... Bernie & Larry David Find Their Roots:

MEANWHILE. Just so you know, Donald Trump has slipped right into dictator territory with a two-hour-plus speech at CPAC. ...

... Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday delivered a scorched-earth speech to conservative activists, calling the Russia investigation 'bullshit,' adopting a southern accent to mock his former attorney general, and asserting that some members of Congress 'hate our country.'... The president also revisited his infamous 2016 appeal to Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's emails, arguing that he was just joking and criticizing the press for taking his comments seriously. 'So everybody is having a good time, I'm laughing, we're all having fun. Then that fake CNN and others say, "He asked Russia to go get the emails. Horrible,"' Trump continued, adding,'These people are sick, and I'm telling you, they know the game and they play it dirty, dirtier than anybody has ever played the game.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Saturday, Trump claimed he made the hacking "joke" in front of an audience of 25,000 people; in fact, he was speaking to a small group of press, and it wasn't a "joke." Here's a contemporaneous report (July 27, 2016) by Benjy Sarlin of NBC News: "On Wednesday, Trump publicly called on Russian intelligence agents to hack Hillary Clinton's emails and release the results, a direct appeal to a foreign power to commit espionage that came as Trump faced increased scrutiny over his ties to Putin. 'Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,' Trump said at a press conference in Florida.... When NBC News' Katy Tur asked Trump whether he had qualms about encouraging the release of stolen intelligence, he told her to 'be quiet.' 'If Russia or China or any other country has those e-mails, I mean, to be honest with you, I'd love to see them,' he said.... And, in case Trump's pleas to Russia were not obvious enough, he told a reporter he would not warn Putin against influencing the American election. 'I'm not going to tell Putin what to do -- why should I tell Putin what to do?' Trump said.... Russia has been widely blamed by experts for hacking the Democratic National Committee's emails. The release of some of those by WikiLeaks prompted DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign this week just one day before her party's national convention began. FBI Director James Comey has said it's unclear if Clinton's private email server, which Trump referred to in his remarks, has been hacked." ...

... Here's the Washington Post's report on Trump's demagoguery, by Seung Min Kim & Brian Fung. ...

... Brian Fung: "A new executive order from the White House will aim to make federal research funding for colleges and universities contingent on their support for 'free speech,' President Trump said Saturday. The announcement, during Trump's address to the Conservative Political Action Conference, appeared to target complaints by some university critics that institutions of higher education stifle right-wing viewpoints. 'If they want our dollars, and we give it to them by the billions, they've got to allow people like Hayden and many great young people, and old people, to speak,' Trump said, bringing onstage a young conservative, Hayden Williams, who was physically attacked last month while tabling for a conservative organization at the University of California at Berkeley.... Trump told the CPAC crowd, meeting at National Harbor, Md., that he planned to sign the order 'very soon' but did not provide specifics or say whether a draft has already been prepared.... Trump's policy could inadvertently disqualify many religious academic institutions from receiving federal research funding, to the extent that their religious beliefs prohibit certain views or speakers on campus." ...

... March of the Lemmings. Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Acquiescence to Trump is now the defining trait of the Republican Party more than two years into his presidency -- overwhelming and at times erasing principles that conservatives viewed as the foundation of the party for more than a half century. Trump's ownership of the GOP was on vivid display again Saturday, when the president appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland, an annual gathering that has transformed into a raucous celebration of Trump, featuring propaganda-style art and a speaker who declared that the president was 'chosen by God.'... In interviews over the past week, Republicans on Capitol Hill offered an array of reasons for their unflinching loyalty to Trump as the 2020 campaign begins to take shape: a deep-seated fear of his pull with their supporters in primary races; fraying consensus about conservatism as nationalism takes hold of the party; and shared partisan disdain for Trump's perceived enemies in the news media and the Democratic Party.... Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) publicly acknowledged what many Republicans say privately: The GOP is wholeheartedly accepting behavior and policies from Trump that would spark outrage from a Democratic president...."

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Grifter-in-Chief. #realDonaldTrump used his official Twitter account yesterday to boast about one of his Scottish golf courses: "Very proud of perhaps the greatest golf course anywhere in the world. Also, furthers U.K. relationship!" March 2. As part of the tweet, Trump retweeted a promotion for the course, which the course's architect wrote. ...

5 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) § 2635.702: "An employee shall not use his public office for his own private gain, for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise...."

Trump's latest tweet about his golf course not only used the prestige of the presidency to promote his business - squalid, possibly illegal - but also directly linked the US-UK relationship to his golf courses. Was that some kind of request? Or threat? -- David Frum in a tweet

This is Trump's most explicit commingling of personal interests and public office to date.... This is shameless, corrupt and repugnant presidential profiteering. -- Walter Shaub of CREW, formerly head of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

The Framers adopted the Foreign Emoluments Clause because they were deeply concerned that the nation's leaders might put their financial self-interest above the national interest. -- Brianne Gorod, chief counsel for the Constitutional Accountability Center

Trump claimed that the Aberdeen course improves relations with the United Kingdom. The reality is that it has incited a long-running feud between Trump and the Scottish government because of Trump's opposition to a wind farm planned just off the coast. Trump sued the Scottish government over the wind farm, claiming it would hurt the views from the golf course, and he lost. The wind farm has begun operation. Just days ago, a Scottish court ruled Trump will have to pay the Scottish government back for the legal costs associated with the lawsuit. -- David Fahrenthold & Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post

Christian Vasquez of Politico: "... Donald Trump said Saturday that a 'just released' manuscript of a book written by Michael Cohen would show his longtime personal lawyer had lied to Congress, without offering further evidence for the explosive claim. 'Virtually everything failed lawyer Michael Cohen said in his sworn testimony last week is totally contradicted in his just released manuscript for a book about me. It's a total new love letter to "Trump" and the pols must now use it rather than his lies for sentence reduction!' Trump tweeted. It's not yet clear whether the manuscript exists, if Trump has actually seen it or if he is simply continuing a line of attack started on Friday, when the president demanded Congress obtain the alleged manuscript as proof that Cohen was lying in his testimony." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course this is nonsense at every level. Hagiographic books are not written under oath. As to the book's "release," I'm guessing the White House got a copy for vetting & a Trump enforcers read it.

Nicholas Kristof: "Jared Kushner slipped quietly into Saudi Arabia this week for a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman[.]... Of all the harebrained and unscrupulous dealings of the Trump administration in the last two years, one of the most shocking is a Trump plan to sell nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia that could be used to make nuclear weapons.... This is abominable policy tainted by a gargantuan conflict of interest involving Kushner. Kushner;s family real estate business had been teetering because of a disastrously overpriced acquisition he made of a particular Manhattan property called 666 Fifth Avenue, but last August a company called Brookfield Asset Management rescued the Kushners by taking a 99-year lease of the troubled property -- and paying the whole sum of about $1.1 billion up front. Brookfield also owns Westinghouse Electric, the nuclear services business trying to sell reactors to Saudi Arabia.... It may be conflicts like these, along with even murkier ones, that led American intelligence officials to refuse a top-secret security clearance for Kushner."

Jelani Cobb of the New Yorker: "A defining trait of Donald Trump -- and, thereby, of Trumpism -- has been abiding avarice frustrated by an equal level of incompetence.... Yet the net result of [Michael] Cohen's testimony indicated that, whatever his previous deficiencies, he's done a great deal of learning on the job. He parried and jabbed with the Republicans on the committee, more than once blocking what they'd apparently perceived as a surefire line of attack. At times, they appeared outmatched.... Perhaps Cohen's true calling is the theatre, and his demeanor throughout the day -- slightly slumping shoulders, a hangdog expression -- was evidence of a master thespian at work." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: There are few more impressive feats than spending a full day beating off a string of rabid Congressmembers aligned against you. When Hillary Clinton did it in 2016, she wowed us. But Clinton is smart as a whip. Cohen, not so much. So one thing Cohen proved this week is that not only are our Republican "leaders" morally bankrupt, they're pretty stupid & incompetent, too. BTW, if you think it's easy to stand up to competent questioning by an MOC, look what happened last week to Equifax CEO Mark Begor (whom one would expect to be fairly bright, wily & well-prepped) when freshman Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) got her 5 minutes:

Alex Shephard of the New Republic argues what should be -- but isn't necessarily -- obvious: soaking the rich to pay for programs like Medicare for All & the Green New Deal is good politics. Poll after poll shows that the American public favors more benefits for themselves & higher taxes for the rich. "The answer is to merge a number of the Democratic plans floated by presidential candidates and politicians like Ocasio-Cortez into a larger program aimed at creating a fairer economy, providing universal health care, and decarbonizing the economy -- and to be clear about exactly how they plan to pay for it. The politics of taxes are changing. Now the Democrats need to change their message accordingly."

So this ex-con, a black guy named James Stern, buys this Neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Movement. Katie Mettler of the Washington Post reports.

News Lede

New York Times: "At least 14 people in Alabama were killed after tornadoes touched down in the Southeast on Sunday, leaving a trail of devastation, an official said. The tornadoes were part of a series of storms that moved east through Alabama, Georgia and Florida. They uprooted trees and blasted through homes, video footage and photographs posted on Twitter showed."

The Commentariat -- March 2, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Just so you know, Trump has slipped right into dictator territory with a two-hour-plus speech at CPAC. ...

... Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday delivered a scorched-earth speech to conservative activists, calling the Russia investigation 'bullshit,' adopting a southern accent to mock his former attorney general, and asserting that some members of Congress 'hate our country.'... The president also revisited his infamous 2016 appeal to Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's emails, arguing that he was just joking and criticizing the press for taking his comments seriously. 'So everybody is having a good time, I'm laughing, we're all having fun. Then that fake CNN and others say, "He asked Russia to go get the emails. Horrible,"' Trump continued, adding,'These people are sick, and I'm telling you, they know the game and they play it dirty, dirtier than anybody has ever played the game.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Saturday, Trump claimed he made the hacking "joke" in front of an audience of 25,000 people; in fact, he was speaking to a small group of press, and it wasn't a "joke." Here's a contemporaneous report (July 27, 2016) by Benjy Sarlin of NBC News: "On Wednesday, Trump publicly called on Russian intelligence agents to hack Hillary Clinton's emails and release the results, a direct appeal to a foreign power to commit espionage that came as Trump faced increased scrutiny over his ties to Putin. 'Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,' Trump said at a press conference.... When NBC News' Katy Tur asked Trump whether he had qualms about encouraging the release of stolen intelligence, he told her to 'be quiet.' 'If Russia or China or any other country has those e-mails, I mean, to be honest with you, I'd love to see them,' he said.... And, in case Trump's pleas to Russia were not obvious enough, he told a reporter he would not warn Putin against influencing the American election. 'I'm not going to tell Putin what to do -- why should I tell Putin what to do?' Trump said.... Russia has been widely blamed by experts for hacking the Democratic National Committee's emails. The release of some of those by WikiLeaks prompted DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign this week just one day before her party's national convention began. FBI Director James Comey has said it's unclear if Clinton's private email server, which Trump referred to in his remarks, has been hacked."

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The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Frank Rich has thoughts on national security hazard & international grifter Jared Kushner, Republicans' response to Michael Cohen's testimony & the GOP's history of rampant & overt racism.

Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) is demanding that President Trump's White House comply with an ongoing investigation into the security clearance process, accusing the White House of stonewalling congressional requests for documents and transcribed interviews. Cummings also raised concerns Friday about the actions by President Trump and others in the White House in reaction to a New York Times report that Trump ordered then-chief of staff John Kelly to grant his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a top-secret security clearance despite issues raised by the intelligence community and then-White House lawyer Donald McGahn. 'If true, these new reports raise grave questions about what derogatory information career officials obtained about Mr. Kushner to recommend denying him access to our nation's most sensitive secrets, why President Trump concealed his role in overruling that recommendation, why General Kelly and Mr. McGahn both felt compelled to document these actions, and why your office is continuing to withhold key documents and witnesses from this Committee,' Cummings wrote in a letter to White House counsel Pat Cipollone on Friday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... "Rachel Maddow highlights the changes in public statements issued by Jared Kushner attorney Abbe Lowell, which appear to be an effort by Lowell to make sure he isn't thrown under the bus for his client's duplicity on how he got his security clearance." Video. ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: All the pundits are asking why Trump & Ivanka (and apparently Jared, too, to his own attorney) are lying about something Donald has the legal right to do. Their best guesses are something about nepotism or embarrassment (as if anything could embarrass Trump). But I think Trump's reasons are obvious & nefarious. The benign reason for the lies is that passing out security clearances on the flimsy basis of family ties is an egregious breach of national security. But the corrupt reason is that Trump wants Jared be able to weaponize top secrets. Of course Jared might put some secrets to a public purpose if that purpose would enhance the family's status is some way. But what about the private utility of state secrets? For instance, wouldn't it be way easier to get a billion-dollar loan from Prince Mohammed bin Salman if Jared could wave in front of him secret evidence proving bin Salman's role in Jamal Khashoggi's murder? This is a crime family, and Kompromat is a valuable commodity in that line of work.

Heidi Przybyla of NBC News: "The top tax-writing committee in the House is readying a request for years of ... Donald Trump';s personal tax returns that is expected to land at the Internal Revenue Service as early as the next few weeks, according to congressional aides involved in the process. And Democrats are prepared to 'take all necessary steps,' including litigation, in order to obtain them. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., has asked the committee's attorneys to prepare the request, according to two aides involved in the process. Neal has also contacted the chairs of several other House investigative committees..., asking them to provide detailed arguments for why they need the president's tax returns to conduct their probes."

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump sought to attack the credibility Friday of his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen by pointing to a book Cohen has reportedly proposed that depicts Trump far more favorably than did the scathing testimony he delivered to Congress this week. 'Book is exact opposite of his fake testimony, which now is a lie!' Trump said in morning tweets, in which he accused Cohen of committing perjury during a congressional hearing and called on Congress to demand the book manuscript, which Trump claimed was recently finished. 'Your heads will spin when you see the lies, misrepresentations and contradictions against his Thursday testimony,' Trump wrote. 'Like a different person! He is totally discredited!'"

Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "With [Michael] Cohen's appearance before a House committee, the public airing of ethical transgressions by Mr. Trump reached a new phase, one that may be harder to ignore for friends and foes alike. The spectacle of Mr. Trump's onetime enforcer denouncing him in televised proceedings, detailing a catalog of allegations of cruelty and crimes, signaled the pressure the president's already strained coalition could feel in the coming months as Congress scrutinizes him, and as the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III completes his investigation.... In the electoral arena, Mr. Trump's political survival has long depended on his ability to marry the unbending support of his fiercest followers with the ambivalent backing of more traditional right-of-center voters -- people who view him as a distasteful character but favor his economic policies, or who preferred him over Hillary Clinton in 2016.... It may grow more difficult for Mr. Trump to reforge his 2016 coalition if he faces protracted humiliation of the sort inflicted by Mr. Cohen."

Mrs. McCrabbie: In case you didn't think the Trump Organization was a criminal enterprise (or at least the best facsimile of a crime family Trump could organize), meet the "Big Squid," as the Trump Org's former veep Barbara Res said "everybody" called Matthew Calamari, who started out as Trump's bodyman but eventually became the organizations chief operating officer. Allyson Chiu of the Washington Post obliges. And yeah, according to a Trump biography, the Big Squid once told Trump he would kill for him.

Trump's New Fixer Fixes Former Fixer. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has fallen under investigation for an apparent threat against Michael Cohen -- which he may have made at ... Donald Trump's request.... Edward-Isaac Dovere, a staff reporter for The Atlantic, tweeted Thursday that he overheard a phone conversation between Gaetz and Trump, whom he said called the Florida Republican from Hanoi to discuss the Cohen testimony and apparent threat. I was happy to do it for you,' Gaetz said, according to Dovere. 'You just keep killing it.' Gaetz later refused to discuss the call, [telling Dovere he didn't discuss his phone calls with Trump]...."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It isn't clear from Gaetz's remark to Trump that Trump asked Gaetz to send the tweet threatening to out Michael Cohen's purported extra-marital sex life. Gaetz could have been freelancing. On the other hand, how would Gaetz, who is from Florida, know Cohen had or was rumored to have had affairs? Trump of course would have been much morely likely to know this. So it seems to me that -- at the very least -- Trump provided the dirt for Gaetz's tweet. Did he direct Gaetz to send the tweet? Nah. He likely said something like, "Michael has had all these affairs. Wouldn't it be something if somebody tweeted them out right before he's scheduled to testify on TV? It would be great if the tweet said Michael's wife would be banging everybody in the building (except Jarad!) while the rat is in the clink." Because, you know, that's the way the capo dei capi gives orders to his capi. ...

... Alex Daugherty of the Tampa Bay Times: "Matt Gaetz ... laughed off a Florida Bar inquiry into his tweets, which claimed, the night before former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testified in a congressional hearing, that Cohen had extramarital relations, statements that invited claims of witness intimidation. And he also vigorously denied claims that he's been in touch with anyone at the White House regarding Cohen's testimony this week, after a reporter said Gaetz had a phone conversation with ... Donald Trump while the president was in Vietnam.... Recent conversations between Trump and Gaetz could mean that the president is coordinating with allies to discredit Cohen.... Gaetz tried to formally join Wednesday's Oversight Committee hearing to question Cohen even though he is not a committee member, but he said Democrats blocked his request. Members often join committee hearings they are not a part of when they are particularly interested in an issue. The request is usually granted. Florida Sen. Rick Scott said Gaetz's actions in recent days were 'embarrassing.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Either Gaetz is lying or Dovere is. Not only did Dovere overhear Gaetz's end of the phone conversation with Trump, when Dovere asked Gaetz about the call, Gaetz told Dovere he never discussed his conversations with Trump. That sure would indicate Gaetz had had the conversation with Trump which Dovere overheard. Gaetz is a jerk, he's indiscreet, and he's a liar. ...

     ... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly elaborates: according to a question Gaetz asked during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Trump administration's family separation policy, Gaetz seems to think that it's okay for children to be sexually abused in U.S. border custody as long as custodians don't abuse them more often than human traffickers do. Mrs. McC: I guess I overestimated Gaetz in the preceding graf. ...

... Tim Egan of the New York Times: "It's been clear, ever since the last of the never-Trumpers were rooted out of the party, that the G.O.P. would be an extension of the grime and grift of Trump's personal brand. But now the enablers are willing to do what Cohen said he once did for Trump -- take a bullet for him.... Among Cohen's duties as Trump fixer was to threaten people; he did this maybe 500 times, by his recounting. That job has been taken over by Republican elected officials like Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida. He threatened Cohen on the eve of his testimony, mentioning his family in an ominous tweet. Initially, Gaetz compared witness intimidation to the 'marketplace of ideas.' Sure.... In years to come, people will ask, 'What did we do to make sure our democracy is intact?' as Representative Elijah Cummings, the committee chairman, put it. For Trump's new fixers, Cohen gave them an answer: 'I did the same thing you're doing now.'"

Manu Raju of CNN: "Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, who chairs the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, said that [Sean] Hannity's latest comments suggest he has information about hush money payments made by ... Michael Cohen to keep ... [Donald Trump]'s alleged extramarital affairs quiet in the days before the 2016 election.... 'Sean Hannity volunteered first-hand knowledge about Michael Cohen's actions last night,' Cicilline spokesman Francis Grubar told CNN. 'If he was lying, it wouldn't be the first time. This is the same guy who claimed inside knowledge that Russia didn't hack the DNC until a federal judge ordered him to stop. Regardless, if he feels he has information that's relevant to this investigation, he should share it under oath before Congress.' On his television program Thursday night, Hannity told Trump that Cohen told him 'at least a dozen times' that 'he made the decision on the payments -- and he didn't tell you.'"

Uh-Oh. Christian Vasquez of Politico: "The judge in charge of Roger Stone's criminal trial on Friday demanded to know why the court wasn't made aware of the 'imminent general release' of a book that could include discussion of the longtime Trump adviser's legal proceedings, potentially violating a gag order. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson broadened an initial gag order against Stone on Feb. 21 after Stone's Instagram post featured an image of the judge with what looked like gunsight crosshairs in it. Under Jackson's order, Stone can't make any public comments of any kind about the charges he's facing from Special Counsel Robert Mueller.... Jackson gave Stone's lawyers until Monday to explain why they didn't tell her until this week about the looming publication, which she emphasized 'was known to the defendant.'" The book is probably one titled, The Myth of Russian Collusion: The Inside Story of How Donald Trump REALLY Won, an update of a book Stone wrote in 2017. Mrs. McC: Maybe he can update it again while he's in jail for violating his gag order.

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Lawyers for Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, asked a federal judge in Northern Virginia on Friday to show leniency when he sentences Mr. Manafort next week, casting him as a loyal, compassionate, idealistic man who has learned a 'harsh lesson.'... Earlier this week [in the Washington, D.C., case], citing new information from a cooperating witness, prosecutors appeared to correct one element of their allegations that Mr. Manafort had lied to them about his contacts with a Russian business associate whom they have linked to Russian intelligence. Mr. Manafort's lawyers seized upon that apparent admission of an error, telling [Virginia] Judge [T.S.] Ellis that the prosecutors'; revised account of their evidence cast Mr. Manafort in a more favorable light. But just as they filed their pleadings, Judge [Amy] Jackson ruled that she stood by her conclusion that Mr. Manafort had lied about his interactions with the Russian associate..., as well as about two other matters." ...

... Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: "... Paul Manafort on Friday continued to attack special counsel Robert Mueller, accusing Mueller's office of not only vilifying him, but also of spreading misinformation.' Manafort and his lawyers have used pre-sentencing memos not only to lobby for a lower prison sentence, but also to criticize the special counsel's office -- something they've had limited opportunities to do, given a gag order imposed early on. In a sentencing memo filed Friday in Manafort's case in federal court in Virginia, his lawyers wrote that Mueller had unfairly impugned Manafort's character." ...

... According to Rachel Maddow, the pleading characterized Manafort as an altar boy (literally) & repeatedly suggested he should get off with a light sentence because "no collusion," something that has nothing whatsoever to do with the Virginia charges for which Manafort was convicted.

Be Careful What You Ask for. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes [R-Trump] called Friday for full transparency from special counsel Robert Mueller if his final report on Russian election interference is made public, demanding that any release include every piece of evidence that Mueller used to compile the report. The California Republican, in an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference..., prefaced his proposal by saying he doesn't believe 'Mueller has any report to put out that would be worthwhile, with anything new.... I want email, I want everybody that they wiretapped, every warrant that they got, every single thing that Mueller used....'"

A Big Freebie for Li'l Kim. Courtney Kube, et al., of NBC News: "The U.S. military is preparing to announce that annual large-scale joint exercises conducted with South Korea every spring will no longer be held, according to two U.S. defense officials. The major U.S.-South Korea exercises are being curtailed as part of the Trump administration's effort to ease tensions with North Korea, the officials said. The exercises -- known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle -- will be replaced with smaller, mission-specific training, according to the officials.... Word of the planned announcement comes less than 48 hours after a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un came to an abrupt end with no agreement. Trump said afterward that the annual military drills with South Korea were 'very, very expensive' and the government in Seoul should pay more for them. U.S. officials said the decision is not related to the summit in Hanoi but has been under consideration for some time." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Nakamura & Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "The parents of Otto Warmbier, the American college student who died after being detained for 17 months in North Korea, on Friday directly blamed leader Kim Jong Un for their son's death a day after President Trump said he believed Kim's account that he was not responsible. 'We have been respectful during this summit process. Now we must speak out,' Fred and Cindy Warmbier said in a statement. 'Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuse or lavish praise can change that. Trump said at a news conference in Hanoi that Kim felt 'very badly' about Otto Warmbier's death in 2017, several days after being released in a coma from captivity in North Korea. 'He tells me that he didn't know about it, and I will take him at his word,' Trump said, responding to a question from a Washington Post reporter." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Update. Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday sought to clean up his widely criticized claim that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not know about the treatment of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier, saying 'I hold North Korea responsible' for Warmbier's 'mistreatment and death.' In a pair of tweets, Trump claimed that his initial comments at a Thursday news conference following his failed nuclear summit with Kim were 'misinterpreted.'... Trump's new comments, however, do not directly address whether he believes Kim bears responsibility for the death of Warmbier, who died in 2017 shortly after being released from a 17-month stint in a Nort Korean prison." ...

     ... Mary March of the Hill: "CNN host Jake Tapper condemned President Trump's remarks Friday seeking to clean up his claims that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was unaware of the treatment of American college student Otto Warmbier. 'There's no misinterpretation here. It's very clear,' Tapper said of Trump's remarks. 'The Warmbiers say that Kim is responsible, along with North Korea, and President Trump says he takes Kim at his word that he wasn't.'" ...

... Jerry Dunleavy of the Washington Examiner: "President Trump's belief that North Korea leader Kim Jong Un was unaware of the torture of American hostage Otto Warmbier has been undermined by previously-unreported court testimony." Dunleavy recites the ruling (a $501MM judgment against North Korea for Otto Warmbier's torture & death) & certain testimony in a federal case indicating Kim would have directed Warmbier's treatment while holding him hostage to further its nuclear policy goals. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The Examiner is a right-wing publication, but I'm going to assume its reporting is accurate here, especially because Dunleavy includes a copy of the transcript of an evidentiary hearing (which I didn't read). So Trump did not only show deep disrespect for the Warmbier family, he also undermined the finding of a federal court, a decision that was widely-reported. I know Nancy LeTourneau picked Matt Gaetz as dirtbag of the week, but really, that's an award Trump always wins.

Julie Brown of the Miami Herald: "A court hearing on whether to unseal sensitive documents involving the alleged sex trafficking of underage girls by Palm Beach multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein -- and the possible involvement of his influential friends -- will play out in a New York City courtroom next week. But ... an attorney for lawyer Alan Dershowitz wrote a letter to the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Tuesday, asking whether the media should be excluded from the proceeding because his oral arguments on behalf of his client could contain sensitive information that has been under seal. The appeals court had not responded to his concern as of Friday, but if the hearing is closed during his lawyer's argument, it would represent the latest in a long history of successful efforts to keep details of Epstein's sex crimes sealed. Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard, constitutional law expert and criminal defense attorney, represented Epstein, who in 2008 received what many consider an unusually light sentence for sexually abusing dozens of girls at his Palm Beach mansion.... Last week, a federal judge ruled that [Alexander] Acosta, [then the U.S. attorney in Miami and] now ... Donald Trump's secretary of labor, violated the law because he and other prosecutors deliberately kept the deal secret from Epstein's victims...."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. The Washington Post has issued a super-correction of its original January 19 story on an incident between high school students & a Native-American activist.

Kendra Pierre-Louis of the New York Times: "Fish populations are declining as oceans warm, putting a key source of food and income at risk for millions of people around the world, according to new research published Thursday. The study found that the amount of seafood that humans could sustainably harvest from a wide range of species shrank by 4.1 percent from 1930 to 2010, a casualty of human-caused climate change. 'That 4 percent decline sounds small, but it's 1.4 million metric tons of fish from 1930 to 2010,' said Chris Free, the lead author of the study, which appears in the journal Science."

The Commentariat -- March 1, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) is demanding that President Trump's White House comply with an ongoing investigation into the security clearance process, accusing the White House of stonewalling congressional requests for documents and transcribed interviews. Cummings also raised concerns Friday about the actions by President Trump and others in the White House in reaction to a New York Times report that Trump ordered then-chief of staff John Kelly to grant his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a top-secret security clearance despite issues raised by the intelligence community and then-White House lawyer Donald McGahn. 'If true, these new reports raise grave questions about what derogatory information career officials obtained about Mr. Kushner to recommend denying him access to our nation's most sensitive secrets, why President Trump concealed his role in overruling that recommendation, why General Kelly and Mr. McGahn both felt compelled to document these actions, and why your office is continuing to withhold key documents and witnesses from this Committee,' Cummings wrote in a letter to White House counsel Pat Cipollone on Friday."

A Big Freebie for Li'l Kim. Courtney Kube, et al., of NBC News: "The U.S. military is preparing to announce that annual large-scale joint exercises conducted with South Korea every spring will no longer be held, according to two U.S. defense officials. The major U.S.-South Korea exercises are being curtailed as part of the Trump administration's effort to ease tensions with North Korea, the officials said. The exercises -- known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle -- will be replaced with smaller, mission-specific training, according to the officials.... Word of the planned announcement comes less than 48 hours after a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un came to an abrupt end with no agreement. Trump said afterward that the annual military drills with South Korea were 'very, very expensive' and the government in Seoul should pay more for them. U.S. officials said the decision is not related to the summit in Hanoi but has been under consideration for some time."

David Nakamura & Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "The parents of Otto Warmbier, the American college student who died after being detained for 17 months in North Korea, on Friday directly blamed leader Kim Jong Un for their son's death a day after President Trump said he believed Kim's account that he was not responsible. 'We have been respectful during this summit process. Now we must speak out,' Fred and Cindy Warmbier said in a statement. 'Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuse or lavish praise can change that. Trump said at a news conference in Hanoi that Kim felt 'very badly' about Otto Warmbier's death in 2017, several days after being released in a coma from captivity in North Korea. 'He tells me that he didn't know about it, and I will take him at his word,' Trump said, responding to a question from a Washington Post reporter."

Trump's New Fixer Fixes Former Fixer. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has fallen under investigation for an apparent threat against Michael Cohen -- which he may have made at ... Donald Trump's request.... Edward-Isaac Dovere, a staff reporter for The Atlantic, tweeted Thursday that he overheard a phone conversation between Gaetz and Trump, whom he said called the Florida Republican from Hanoi to discuss the Cohen testimony and apparent threat. I was happy to do it for you,' Gaetz said, according to Dovere. 'You just keep killing it.' Gaetz later refused to discuss the call, [telling Dovere he didn't discuss his phone calls with Trump]...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It isn't clear from Gaetz's remark to Trump that Trump asked Gaetz to send the tweet threatening to out Michael Cohen's purported extra-marital sex life. Gaetz could have been freelancing. On the other hand, how would Gaetz, who is from Florida, know Cohen had or was rumored to have had affairs? Trump of course would have been much morely likely to know this. So it seems to me that -- at the very least -- Trump provided the dirt for Gaetz's tweet. Did he direct Gaetz to send the tweet? Nah. He likely said something like, "Michael has had all these affairs. Wouldn't it be something if somebody tweeted them out right before he's scheduled to testify on TV? It would be great if the tweet said Michael's wife would be banging everybody in the building (except Jarad!) while the rat is in the clink." Because, you know, that's the way the capo dei capi gives orders to his capi.

~~~~~~~~~

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump ordered his chief of staff to grant his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, a top-secret security clearance last year, overruling concerns flagged by intelligence officials and the White House's top lawyer, four people briefed on the matter said. Mr. Trump's decision in May so troubled senior administration officials that at least one, the White House chief of staff at the time, John F. Kelly, wrote a contemporaneous internal memo about how he had been 'ordered' to give Mr. Kushner the top-secret clearance. The White House counsel at the time, Donald F. McGahn II, also wrote an internal memo outlining the concerns that had been raised about Mr. Kushner -- including by the C.I.A. -- and how Mr. McGahn had recommended that he not be given a top-secret clearance. The disclosure of the memos contradicts statements made by the president, who told The New York Times in January in an Oval Office interview that he had no role in his son-in-law receiving his clearance.... House Democrats are in the early stages of an investigation into how several Trump administration officials obtained clearances, including Mr. Kushner." ...

... Here's the Times audio of Trump lying through his teeth to Haberman January 31:

... Quint Forgey of Politico: "The chairman of the House Oversight Committee on Thursday threatened to subpoena the White House for information related to its protocol for distributing security clearances, following a report earlier in the day that ... Donald Trump ordered his ex-chief of staff to grant a top-secret clearance to Jared Kushner.... 'The security clearance process is supposed to function in an even-handed and neutral manner based on the national security interests of the United States,' the chairman, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), said in a statement Thursday night. 'This latest report indicates that President Trump may have granted access to our country's most sensitive classified information to his son-in-law against the advice of career staff -- directly contradicting the President's public denials that he played any role.'... Congressional Democrats have sought to revoke Kushner's clearance as far back as May 2017, and the House Oversight Committee launched an investigation into the White House security clearance process last month. But Cummings said Thursday that administration officials had neither produced the documents nor scheduled the interviews he called for as part of that inquiry.... Trump told The Times in January that he had no role in Kushner's receiving a clearance.... Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and Kushner's wife, told ABC News in February that her father 'had no involvement pertaining to my clearance or my husband's clearance.'" ...

     ... P.S. The whole family are accomplished liars. Well, I take that back; I've noticed that when Donald Trump is asked a question & he gives an answer that's a flat-out lie because the truth would implicate him in something shady or illegal, his eyes widen (a modified deer-in-the-headlines reaction) & he modulates his voice to "sound sincere." This is the most infamous example, but there are others:

** Marcy Wheeler, in a New York Times op-ed, brilliantly pieces together the clues that Robert Mueller, Michael Cohen & others have dropped to make a convincing case that Donald Trump conspired with Russians to tilt the election; she lays out the quid pro quos, too. ...

     ...Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: My thanks to the NYT editors, who made Wheeler's essay quite readable. On MSNBC Thursday, various pundits were wringing their hands over the efficacy of bringing impeachment proceedings on the flimsy legs of illegal payments to Stormy Daniels & Michael Cohen since "this Rusher thing" is falling apart; Wheeler makes a strong case that all is not quiet on the Russian front.

Mary Jalonick, et al., of the AP: “... Donald Trump's former lawyer has completed three days of testimony on Capitol Hill -- and is coming back for another day next week.... [Michael] Cohen was interviewed behind closed doors Thursday by the House Intelligence Committee for more than eight hours.... He said as he left that he would be returning to Capitol Hill on March 6 for another round of questioning with the same panel. House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff called the closed-door session with Cohen productive and said lawmakers were able to 'drill down in great detail' on issues they are investigating. Schiff said the committee will also hear from Felix Sater, a Russia-born executive who worked with Cohen on an ultimately unsuccessful deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, in an open hearing March 14.&" ...

... Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The House Oversight Committee will pursue interviews with some of ... Donald Trump's children and closest allies who were implicated in Michael Cohen's bombshell testimony before the panel, Chairman Elijah Cummings said Thursday. 'All you have to do is follow the transcript. If there are names that were mentioned or records that were mentioned during the hearing, we want to take a look at all of that,' Cummings told reporters.... After Wednesday's hearing, Democrats said they were interested in speaking with Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of The Trump Organization." ...

     ... Alan Neuhauser of US News: "... Donald Trump's eldest son and daughter were regularly briefed about a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow, Michael Cohen, the president's former longtime lawyer and confidant, testified Wednesday. Cohen, testifying to the House Oversight Committee, said that Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump were involved in discussions about the deal, interactions he said were conducted in the regular course of business. 'Our goal was to get this project. We were interested in building what would have been the largest building in all of Europe,' Cohen said. 'After each communication' about the project, he continued, 'I would report back' to Trump. The testimony corroborates news reports detailing the Trump family's apparently close involvement in the Trump Tower deal....Ivanka earlier this month said that she knew 'almost nothing' about the Trump Tower deal." Mrs. McC: Sorry, the dumb-blonde feint won't work in the 21st century.

... Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "The House intelligence [committee] intends to call the Trump Organization's chief financial officer to testify.... Allen Weisselberg received renewed congressional attention after disgraced Trump fixer Michael Cohen on Wednesday repeatedly mentioned the Trump Org CFO as crucial to various aspects of dubiously legal practices by the president, from the Stormy Daniels hush-money payments to potential insurance fraud.... Weisselberg is uniquely positioned to address questions about financial transactions or relationships that concern potential foreign leverage over Trump -- which new intelligence committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has indicated for months that he intends to investigate." ...

     ... Tom Winter & Anna Schecter of NBC News: "... three people with direct knowledge of the matter tell NBC News that Weisselberg is not cooperating [with federal prosecutors], has never been a cooperating witness, and has provided limited details in the course of his testimony. A person close to the Trump Organization tells NBC News that Weisselberg is still with the Trump Organization and defends Trump and the company." ...

... Rachel Bade & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "House Democrats on Thursday made plans to dig deeper into President Trump's business and charity, using testimony from former Trump attorney Michael Cohen as a road map to call new witnesses and seek new internal documents.... On Capitol Hill, at least six committees are investigating some piece of Trump's life before the presidency. Their staffers meet at least three times a week, to share information and plans. On Thursday, all of them were planning next steps based on Cohen's testimony.... On the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees banking, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said Democrats will follow up on allegations by Cohen that Trump exaggerated his wealth to receive bank loans and lower his insurance premiums." ...

     ... Rachel Maddow noted that an estate Trump owns in Bedford, New York, which was assessed at $18MM or less in 2011, and which, according to Cohen's testimony & documents he provided, Trump inflated to a value of $291MM for the purpose of obtaining a loan from Deutsche Bank. ...

... ** Matt Ford of the New Republic: "In Cohen's telling, Trump uses vague and elliptical statements to instruct his subordinates to commit wrongdoings on his behalf. 'Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress,' he said. 'That's not how he operates.' Instead, Cohen said, Trump would 'look me in the eye' during the campaign and say that he wasn't conducting business in Russia -- even while Cohen worked on his behalf toward a Trump hotel project in Moscow. 'In his way, he was telling me to lie,' he explained. This description of Trump's behavior is all too familiar. Former FBI Director James Comey documented how Trump repeatedly tried to elicit his loyalty during their one-on-one interactions in early 2017, telling him that he 'needed loyalty.' Though Trump did not directly order Comey to drop the investigation into former national security advisor Michael Flynn, he made his intentions plain. 'I hope you can let this go,' Trump reportedly told the FBI director shortly after Flynn's ouster that February." ...

... AP: "Fordham University is confirming it received a letter from Donald Trump's then-lawyer threatening legal action if Trump's academic records became public. Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has testified to Congress that Trump directed him to write letters warning his schools and the College Board not to disclose his grades or SAT scores." Includes copy of Cohen's letter to Fordham, which Cohen presented as an exhibit to his testimony. ...

... Jeremy Herb & Laura Jarrett of CNN: "Two of ... Donald Trump's closest allies on the House Oversight Committee referred Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to the Justice Department Thursday for possible criminal prosecution, claiming to have evidence that Cohen 'committed perjury and knowingly made false statements' to lawmakers during his day-long testimony Wednesday. The criminal referral -- sent by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the Oversight Committee, and North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows -- outlined several areas of testimony they urged the Justice Department to investigate, including Cohen's claims Wednesday that he did not seek a job in the Trump White House, his denial of committing bank fraud, as well as his assertion that he did not have any reportable contracts with foreign entities.... A spokesperson for the Justice Department said it is reviewing the referral." ...

... Mark Meadows Knows Some Black People. Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "The most emotionally fraught moment during the Michael Cohen hearing ... was a tense exchange after one lawmaker [Rashida Tlaib] accused another [Mark Meadows] of engaging in a racist act by bringing a black woman to the hearing 'as a prop.' Though the issue was mostly resolved during the hearing, the aftershocks of it continued Thursday with the resurfacing of three videos from 2012 of Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) making birther comments about President Barack Obama and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) going on CNN to reiterate her belief that Meadows's actions were insensitive to people of color.... Meadows brought in [Lynne] Patton [-- who has worked both for the Trump Org & in Trump's White House --] who stood silently behind him while he made his remarks, in an attempt to counter Cohen's testimony that Trump is racist. But having an employee, friend or family member of color does not shield a person from racism or at capitalizing on others' racism for political gain." ...

     ... Michelle Goldberg: "Some white conservatives ... seem convinced that you can’t be racist if you have an affectionate relationship with a person of color. And so when Representative Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan, called out [Rep. Mark] Meadows [R-N.C.] toward the end of the hearing, he was so aggrieved he nearly melted down.... There's a mainstream assumption that it is racist to say that Obama secretly hails from Africa. This should, but somehow doesn't, translate into a mainstream assumption that Trump, who rode birther conspiracies to political prominence, is an unrepentant racist." ...

... Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "The President, Cohen said in his opening statement, had admitted to him that his decades-old story about why he did not serve in the Vietnam War was false, revealing that he had never had bone-spur surgery, as he claimed in order to receive a medical deferment. The disclosure from Trump came during the 2016 campaign, when Cohen's job was to shut down the bad press coverage of Trump's dubious explanation for why he had not served in Vietnam.... Cohen disclosed this on a day when Trump was actually in Vietnam.... [Trump] declared victory in his Singapore summit, last year, without having, in fact, achieved the deal he touted, forcing his negotiators to scramble afterward to secure concessions he had already claimed. It wasn't to be.... No amount of Trump bluster or deflection could obscure the twin disasters of the last twenty-four hours.... Rarely has a President been so publicly humiliated, in different settings by such different actors, in such a short span of time." ...

... Joyce Vance in a Washington Post op-ed: "Michael Cohen's testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday was a master class in how prosecutors can present cooperating witnesses who have lied and engaged in criminal conduct, and use their testimony to obtain convictions from juries.... Choirboys don't often end up in the middle of criminal conspiracies.... On Wednesday, Cohen began the transformation from deceitful criminal to believable witness.... First, Cohen, as they say, brought the receipts.... Second, Cohen didn't go too far, when he easily could have.... Third, Cohen's story made sense.... Finally, there was Cohen's demeanor.... He was serious and respectful." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Gerson of the Washington Post: "The House of Representatives has always been the shallower end of the legislative pool. But the performance of Republicans at the Cohen hearing was in a class of its own. Their game plan seemed to consist of shouting, vilification and shouted vilification. Most of them apparently got their degrees from the Roy Cohn School of Law.... At some point, kissing up involves moral corruption. And Republicans passed that milestone some time ago.... Cohen started the hearing with an absolutely awful reputation and still came across looking more trustworthy than his accusers.... Years ago, I posed the question: What happens when a narcissist who thinks he is at the center of the universe is actually placed at the center of the universe? We are seeing what happens. The whole apparatus of a political party -- including its legislative and religious wings -- is now dedicated to the defense of one man's feral will."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The foreign-linked mystery company fighting to avoid handing over records demanded by special counsel Robert Mueller appears to have incurred a fine of $2.25 million as it presses its legal fight, according to court records released on Thursday. The $50,000-a-day penalty a federal judge imposed on the foreign-government-owned firm continues to grow and might be boosted to accrue at a higher rate in the future, one court order made public indicates."

Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: “Trump said the main impediment to a deal [with North Korea] was Kim's requirement that the United States lift all economic sanctions on North Korea in exchange for the closure of only one nuclear facility, which still would have left Pyongyang with a large arsenal of missiles and warheads. But Trump also raised concerns about North Korea's concealment of parts of its nuclear industry. Hours later, North Korea's foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, offered a slightly different take at a rare news conference, arguing that Kim's regime sought only 'partial' sanctions relief in return for dismantling the North's main enrichment capabilities for fissile material." ...

... Eric Talmadge of the AP: "So who's telling the truth?... According to a senior official who briefed the media on condition he not be named..., the North Koreans 'basically asked for the lifting of all sanctions. But he acknowledged the North's demand was only for Washington to back the lifting of United Nations Security Council sanctions imposed since March 2016 and didn't include the other resolutions going back a decade more. What Pyongyang was seeking, he said, was the lifting of sanctions that impede the civilian economy and the people's livelihood -- as Ri had claimed.... Kim was indeed seeking a lot of relief -- including the lifting of bans on everything from trade in metals, raw materials, luxury goods, seafood, coal exports, refined petroleum imports, raw petroleum imports. But Kim wasn't looking for the lifting of sanctions on armaments. Those were imposed earlier, from 2006, when the North conducted its first nuclear test. For Pyongyang, that's a key difference." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's an instance where Trump wasn't telling the truth, but he wasn't necessarily lying, either. It's quite possible he's too ignorant to under the "key difference."

... Samantha Vinograd in the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump's failure to engage in the most basic preparatory work for [the Hanoi] summit -- and his longstanding penchant for putting personal convictions ahead of his experts' opinions -- meant that there was no way that he could have come out of this summit with a denuclearization deal.... In January President Trump said that his intelligence community was wrong on North Korea and there's reporting that he put more faith in Vladimir Putin's North Korea analysis (which is never unbiased).... Because President Trump still thought that denuclearization was possible heading into the Hanoi Summit -- based on his own personal assessment (or Putin's) of Kim Jong Un's intentions -- his goals for the Summit were out of touch with reality.... Time is on Kim's side, and while he keeps proliferating weapons and new global relationships, we are freezing major military exercises, at least while we determine next steps.... said [in walking away yesterday] that he wants to do things 'right' not 'fast' but his addiction to doing things fast, not right, is what got us here in the first place." ...

... Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: Trump's "diplomatic" pratfall "should surprise no one, says Brian Katulis of the Center for American Progress. 'What happened on North Korea is a textbook case of what not to do,' he says. 'He flew all the way on the other side of the world for a deal that wasn't anywhere close to having the necessary ingredients -- let alone being partially baked.' He adds, 'It was so poorly planned it makes me think Trump may have wanted an excuse just to get out of town during the damaging and embarrassing [Michael] Cohen testimony.'... There was no agreement worked out in advance, so the risk of failure was high.... Kim didn't need to give an inch, and Trump wound up with another diplomatic belly-flop.... More egregious than Trump's diplomatic malpractice was Trump's defense of the murderous Kim....'It is simply disgusting what he said exonerating Kim for the murder of a U.S. citizen,' Katulis says. 'No one has been brought to justice for that murder. The episode shows how weak Trump is when he meets with leaders like Kim and Putin -- he turns into a fawning, shrinking violet who kowtows to America's worst adversaries.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Erica Werner & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "GOP opposition to President Trump's emergency declaration at the border grew in the Senate Thursday, even as Trump warned that fellow Republicans who vote to overturn it are putting themselves 'at great jeopardy' politically. Two Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, joined two Democrats in introducing a disapproval resolution identical to one that passed the House earlier this week.... Another Republican senator, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, delivered a floor speech proposing how Trump could get the money he wants to build his U.S.-Mexico border wall without use of a national emergency.... And Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) ... said that if he determines Trump's emergency declaration would jeopardize military construction funds, he would be inclined to vote to overturn it.... Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) has also announced plans to support a disapproval resolution.... Numerous other GOP senators have also expressed reservations about Trump's move, among them Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Rand Paul (Ky.)." ...

... Burgess Everett of Politico: "Senate Republicans are offering a choice to ... Donald Trump: Withdraw your national emergency declaration at the border or face a potential rebellion from the GOP. The message was delivered clearly on Thursday by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), part of an effort by senior Republicans to avoid a direct confrontation with Trump on the Senate floor.... 'We've never had a case where the president has asked for money, been refused the money by Congress, then used the national emergency powers to spend it anyway,' [Alexander told reporters]. 'To me that's a dangerous precedent.'"

Alex Guillen of Politico: "The Senate confirmed Andrew Wheeler as EPA's fifteenth administrator Thursday, cementing the authority of one of ... Donald Trump's most effective and prolific de-regulators. He was confirmed by a vote of 52-47. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.) was the only Republican to vote against him; no Democrats voted for him. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) did not vote. ... In the eight months since he took over EPA, Wheeler -- whose previous clients include coal company Murray Energy, as well as a uranium company and cheese giant Sargento -- has efficiently carried out the president's de-regulatory agenda while avoiding the same constant stream of scandals that plagued [former administrator Scott] Pruitt." Guillen lists some of Wheeler's greatest hits to the planet.

Paul Krugman: Ivanka Trump recently claimed "that Americans 'want to work for what they get,' that they want to live in a country 'where there is the potential for upward mobility.'... It doesn't get much better than being lectured on self-reliance by an heiress whose business strategy involves trading on her father's name.... We know a lot about upward mobility in different countries, and the facts are not what Republicans want to hear. The key observation, based on a growing body of research, is that when it comes to upward social mobility..., Americans whose parents have low incomes are more likely to have low incomes themselves, and less likely to make it into the middle or upper class, than their counterparts in other advanced countries. And those who are born affluent are, correspondingly, more likely to keep their status.... The policies that are associated with high levels of upward mobility around the world -- are exactly the things Republicans denounce as socialism."

Heather Caygle & John Bresnahan of Politico: "House Democrats held an emotional debate behind closed doors Thursday over how to stop losing embarrassing procedural battles with Republicans -- a clash that exposed the divide between moderates and progressives. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) took a hard line at the caucus meeting, saying that being a member of Congress sometimes requires taking tough votes."

Presidential Elections. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times calls the Electoral College “the greatest threat to our democracy.... The Electoral College routinely threatens or produces perverse outcomes, where the will of the voters is thwarted by an ill-considered 18th-century electoral device. It has no place in a democracy that strives for a standard of 'one person, one vote.' And most Americans still don't like it. In a 2018 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute, 65 percent said presidents should be elected by popular vote.... A [presidential] primary campaign is the perfect forum for raising the issue, giving it high-profile support and wide attention. That, in turn, might move Americans from passive dissatisfaction with the status quo to action against it."

Presidential Race 2020. Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Friday morning that he is running for president, pledging to put the environment at the heart of his campaign for the Democratic nomination. 'I am the only candidate who will make defeating climate change our nation's number one priority,' Inslee said in a video launching his campaign."

Ed Kilgore: "In a saga that reflected how focused Republicans are on eliminating reproductive rights, for all their protestations of objectivity on the subject, Neomi Rao was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote for a prized seat on the D.C. Court of Appeals, by far the most influential circuit court in the country." Rao, an Asian-American, got an assist from the Justice for whom she clerked, Clarence Thomas. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Edmund Burke, my ass. Rao -- and to a lesser extent, Thomas -- confirm something you already knew: that confederates are exquisitely stupid. The underlying purpose of "conservatism" in the U.S. is to "conserve" the power of white men. One can surmise that Thomas, known for harassing female employees, would be satisfied with half a loaf. But that a woman of Asian descent could be hoodwinked into furthering the white man's cause boggles my mind. More surprising yet, when the Federalist Society's token minorities come up for Senate confirmation, no senators ever ask them why they've allowed themselves to promote the white man's project. I am inclined to think that even liberal senators have not figured out the confederate scheme. If so, that's pretty amazing.

Beyond the Beltway

California. Peter Eavis of the New York Times: "Pacific Gas & Electric said Thursday that its equipment had probably caused the Camp Fire, the catastrophic November blaze that destroyed thousands of homes in Paradise, Calif., and killed at least 86 people. PG&E, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, said it had recorded a $10.5 billion charge in anticipation of damage claims for that fire, the deadliest in state history. Largely as a result, the company reported a $6.9 billion loss for 2018. Though the cause of the fire is still under official investigation by California officials, PG&E said it 'believes it is probable that its equipment will be determined to be an ignition point of the 2018 Camp Fire.' Attempts to determine the fire's cause center on the 56-mile Caribou-Palermo electric transmission line."

Way Beyond

Israel. Yuliya Talmazan & Paul Goldman of NBC News: "Israel's attorney general announced Thursday that his office had indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges after a two-year investigation. The prime minister faces one count of bribery and two counts of fraud and breach of trust." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Stephanie Nebehay & Dan Williams of Reuters: "Israeli security forces may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in killing 189 Palestinians and wounding more than 6,100 at weekly protests in Gaza last year, United Nations investigators said on Thursday. The independent panel said it had confidential information about those it believes to be responsible for the unlawful killings, including Israeli army snipers and commanders. It called on Israel to prosecute them. 'The Israeli security forces killed and maimed Palestinian demonstrators who did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to others when they were shot, nor were they directly participating in hostilities,' it said, adding that the protests had been civilian in nature'. The victims included children, journalists, and a double amputee who was in a wheelchair."