The Commentariat -- Nov. 30, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump and his Mexican and Canadian counterparts ... signed a new agreement governing hundreds of billions of dollars in trade among the neighbors that underpins their economies. Meeting for the first time since the revised North American Free Trade Agreement was sealed, Mr. Trump, President Enrique Peña Nieto ... and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hailed the results as a boon for workers, businesses and the environment, even as they alluded to the harsh talks that had preceded this day. 'We worked hard on this agreement,' Mr. Trump said.... 'It's been long and hard. We've taken a lot of barbs and a little abuse, and we got there. It's great for all of our countries.' Mr. Trump did not say that he was the one who had dished out most of the barbs and much of the abuse, but he insisted that he had come out of the process with a stronger relationship with the two leaders.... [The agreement] still requires the approval of Congress."

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's office is considering retrying former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on a slew of federal charges that resulted in a hung jury over the summer. At a hearing in federal court Friday morning, prosecutors said they are also weighing leveling new criminal charges for Manafort, contending that he obstructed justice and committed additional federal crimes since entering a plea agreement with the special counsel in September.... Prosecutors will file a more detailed explanation of what they believe Manafort lied about to investigators on Dec. 7. Manafort's defense team will then have until January to reply, leading to a likely late January hearing on the matter."

Philip Ewing of NPR: "Donald Trump Jr.'s testimony to Congress about his family's real estate negotiations with powerful Russians does not comport with the new version laid out by Donald Trump's ex-attorney Michael Cohen, official transcripts show. Trump Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2017 that although there had been negotiations surrounding a prospective Trump Tower in Moscow, they concluded without result 'at the end' of 2014. 'But not in 2015 or 2016?' Trump Jr. was asked. 'Certainly not '16,' he said. 'There was never a definitive end to it. It just died of deal fatigue.' Trump's account contrasts with the new version of events given by Cohen on Thursday in a guilty plea in federal court. In that new version, Cohen says the discussions with at least one Russian government official and others in Moscow continued through June 2016, well into Trump's presidential campaign.... Cohen said in his guilty plea that he had briefed Trump's family members about his talks, although the court documents don't specify which ones."

Jonathan Chait: "During the 2016 campaign, and for years after, Donald Trump insisted that he had no dealings with Russia whatsoever. He also assured the public that we could take his word on this, and there was no need to look at his tax returns. But yesterday's confession in open court by Michael Cohen shows that Trump was attempting to do business in Russia during the campaign, with high-level officials from the same government that was interceding on Trump's behalf. The new Trump line is that this is all okay and that we knew about it the whole time: 'Oh, I get it! I am a very good developer, happily living my life, when I see our Country going in the wrong direction (to put it mildly). Against all odds, I decide to run for President & continue to run my business-very legal & very cool, talked about it on the campaign trail...' [Donald Trump, in a tweet early this morning]

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Akhilleus has suggested in today's Comments that we're coming up on schadenfreude time. After extensive research, I've discovered the schadenfreude dance and the appropriate outfits to wear when dancing it. (When Conan asks the name of the dance, sounds like the dancer in the segment mispronounces "schadenfreude," but the guy is German so what does he know.) The schadenfreude looks hard to learn, so here's a lesson to get you started. I'm wriggling into my bondage pants right now:

Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Months after joining the advisory board of a Miami-based patent company in 2014, Matthew G. Whitaker began fielding angry complaints from customers that they were being defrauded, including from a client who showed up at his Iowa office to appeal to him personally for help, records show. Yet Whitaker, now the acting attorney general, remained an active champion of World Patent Marketing for three years -- even expressing willingness to star in national television ads promoting the firm, the records show. Internal Federal Trade Commission documents released Friday in response to a public records request reveal the extent of Whitaker's support for World Patent Marketing, even amid a barrage of warnings about the company's behavior.... Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney, did little to assist the [FTC] investigation [of the company]. He never answered a subpoena, even after he was working in the DOJ, & as the Bloomberg reporters note in the story linked below, he did not return FTC phone calls. And bad news for Whitaker: Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) is on the case. ...

... Greg Farrell, et al., of Bloomberg: "New documents released by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission suggest that acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker misled the agency's investigators as he was stepping into his role last year as Justice Department chief of staff.... Whitaker ... asserted that he 'never emailed or wrote to consumers' in his consulting role. That statement to James Evans of the FTC appears to be inaccurate. Whitaker had written a letter in 2015 to a disgruntled customer who planned to report the company, World Patent Marketing, to the Better Business Bureau.... Whitaker threatened the customer, writing: 'I am assuming you understand there could be serious civil and criminal consequences for you if that is in fact what you and your "group" are doing.'... At the time, the agency was investigating complaints about World Patent Marketing, which it described as an 'invention promotion scheme' that it accused of 'bilking millions of dollars from consumers.' The emails also convey FTC investigators's shock in October 2017 when -- in the latter stages of their investigation -- Whitaker was suddenly named chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions."

Because of Course It Did. Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration is preparing to take an important step toward future oil and natural gas drilling off the Atlantic shore, approving five requests from companies to conduct deafening seismic tests that could kill tens of thousands of dolphins, whales and other marine animals. The planned Friday announcement by the National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of the Commerce Department, to issue 'incidental take' permits allowing companies to harm wildlife is likely to further antagonize a dozen governors in states along the Eastern Seaboard who strongly oppose the administration's proposal to expand federal oil and gas leases to the Atlantic. Federal leases could lead to exploratory drilling for the first time in more than a half-century."

Election 2018, Ctd.

Georgia. Richard Fausset of the New York Times: Democrats see "... the runoff election next week for Georgia secretary of state [as] a crucial battle over minority voting rights.... Brian Kemp, the Republican who ran for governor while still serving as secretary of state, oversaw voting roll purges, registration suspensions, and an Election Day rife with problems -- all of which, critics said, were meant to suppress minority voting.... Many Democrats around the country ... believe that those tactics worked, and essentially cheated [Democrat Stacey] Abrams out of victory in an excruciatingly close race.... In TV ads, [the Democratic candidate John] Barrow leans on a fence in front of a bucolic Georgia landscape and declares, 'Yeah, I'm a Democrat, but I won't bite you.'... His Republican opponent, Brad Raffensperger, a State House member and a civil engineer, also lacks a certain bite: Even allies describe him as long on intelligence and short on charisma."

North Carolina. Amy Gardner & Kirk Ross of the Washington Post: "Mounting evidence of fraud in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District could indefinitely delay the certification of a winner, as state election officials investigate whether hundreds of absentee ballots were illegally cast or destroyed. The North Carolina State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement has no plans to certify Republican Mark Harris's 905-vote victory over Democrat Dan McCready, according to an agenda of a board meeting scheduled for Friday morning. The board is collecting sworn statements from voters in rural Bladen and Robeson counties, near the South Carolina border, who described people coming to their doors and urging them to hand over their absentee ballots, sometimes without filling them out. Others described receiving absentee ballots by mail that they had not requested.... Investigators are also scrutinizing unusually high numbers of absentee ballots cast in Bladen County, in both the general election and the May 8 primary, in which Harris defeated incumbent Rep. Robert Pittenger (R) by 828 votes. In the primary, Harris won 96 percent of all absentee ballots in Bladen, a far higher percentage than his win in the county overall -- a statistic that this week is prompting fresh accusations of fraud." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So there is rampant voter fraud, after all. But it looks as if the fraudsters are Republicans.

Once Again, New Mexico Gets No Respect. AP: "A District of Columbia clerk and a supervisor refused to accept a New Mexico man's state driver's license as he sought a marriage license because she and her supervisor believed New Mexico was a foreign country. Gavin Clarkson told the Las Cruces Sun-News it happened Nov. 20 at the District of Columbia Courts Marriage Bureau as he tried to apply for a marriage license.... [Clarkson said,] 'All the couples behind us waiting in line were laughing.'"

For those of you who are not Latin scholars, Colbert explains the meaning of "pro bono":

*****

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

** Quid. Pro. Quo. Anthony Cormier & Jason Leopold of BuzzFeed News: "... Donald Trump's company planned to give a $50 million penthouse at Trump Tower Moscow to Russian President Vladimir Putin as the company negotiated the luxury real estate development during the 2016 campaign, according to four people, one of them the originator of the plan. Two US law enforcement officials told BuzzFeed News that Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer at the time, discussed the idea with a representative of Dmitry Peskov, Putin's press secretary. The Trump Tower Moscow plan is at the heart of a new plea agreement by Cohen, who led the negotiations to bring a gleaming, 100-story building to the Russian capital.... The revelation that representatives of the Trump Organization planned to forge direct financial links with the leader of a hostile nation at the height of the campaign raises fresh questions about President Trump's relationship with the Kremlin.... Two FBI agents with direct knowledge of the Trump Tower Moscow negotiations told BuzzFeed News earlier this year that Cohen was in frequent contact with foreign individuals about the real estate venture -- and that some of these individuals had knowledge of or played a role in 2016 election meddling." ...

... digby: "There's a reason that the trump campaign was crawling with Russians from every direction. That's not normal. Trump's been lying about all of this. And Vladimir Putin knew all about it. In fact, they were clearly using the same talking points. You want kompromat? You don't need the pee tape. This is more than enough. This is one of the most stunning moments in American history and we now can see exactly why he was an obsequious toady toward his handler[.]" ...

... OR, as Rachel Maddow characterized the quid pro quo: Trump to Putin: "You give me America; I give you nice apartment." ...

... Emma Loop of BuzzFeed News: "A plan by Donald Trump's company to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a $50 million penthouse will be in the crosshairs of the House Intelligence Committee when Democrats take control of it in the new year, several members said.... Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democratic member of the committee, told BuzzFeed News on Thursday ... he believed the plan could have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. 'If this was an attempt to speed up the project or secure the project and make sure it got done, it could amount to bribery for an official of a foreign government and anyone who was part of that could be in violation of this federal statute,' he said. ...

... ** Benjamin Weiser, et al., of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's former lawyer, who pleaded guilty in August to breaking campaign finance laws, made a surprise appearance in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday morning and pleaded guilty to a new criminal charge.... At the court hearing, Mr. Cohen admitted to making false statements to Congress about his efforts to build a Trump Tower deal in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign. That real estate deal has been a focus of the special counsel investigation into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russian operatives. In written testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mr. Cohen played down the extent of his contact with the Kremlin about the potential project and made other false statements about the negotiations.... The new guilty plea in Federal District Court marks the first time the office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has charged Mr. Cohen." (Also linked yesterday.) The story has been updated & expanded, with Mark Mazzetti now the lead reporter. ...

... George Stephanopoulos, et al., of ABC News: "Special counsel Robert Mueller has reached a tentative deal with Michael Cohen.... Cohen appeared in federal court in Manhattan Thursday where he entered a guilty plea for misstatements to Congress...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Here's a reproduction of the "Criminal Information" filed in the Cohen case today, courtesy of Lawfare. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel deciphers Cohen's guilty plea: "... what [Cohen] testified to will implicate Trump and Don Jr directly. Here's what the information says Cohen lied to cover up: Cohen continued to pursue a Trump Tower Moscow deal for far longer than he testified he did, and briefed 'family' on it, which presumably includes Don Jr (who therefore lied to Congress about it)[.]... The plans continued after the campaign got information about emails and were specifically structured around Trump getting the nomination; they ended when the DNC hack was reported[.]... Cohen was in direct communication with Putin's press secretary] Dmitry Peskov's office; and Putin's office contacted Felix Sater [a former mobster &, um, business associate of Donald Trump].... And all this is just what Mueller wants us to know." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: As in the past, Trump's self-defense jumps from "It never happened" to "It's no big deal." Here "I have nothing to do with Russia" suddenly becomes, "It was a project everybody knew about":

... Jeff Toobin in the New Yorker: "Trump said that his Moscow deal was widely known when he was running for President (it wasn't), and that, as a private developer, he was entitled to make such deals.... It's true that Trump had the right to do business in Russia during the time when he was a candidate, but the public also had a right to know where his true financial interests lay. It would have been highly relevant to the public to learn that Trump was negotiating a business deal with Russia at the same time that he was proposing to change American policy toward that country.... Cohen's guilty plea indicates that voters were actively misled about Trump's interests. That is what is so important about Thursday morning's news -- it says that while Trump was running for President, he was doing his private business, not the public's business. Trump may believe that his interest is the national interest, but it wasn't true then, and it's not true now." ...

... Adam Davidson of the New Yorker: "Had the [Moscow Tower] project died in January, 2016, as Cohen originally claimed, it might have been a small story.... But we now know that it continued during the crucial months when Trump's Presidential campaign shifted from a long-shot joke to a serious effort. We now see that the leadership of the Trump Organization -- including Trump himself -- were aware of Cohen's efforts to make contact with Putin, and that the Kremlin shifted from indifference to enthusiasm as Trump's political fortunes grew. This increasing activity suddenly stopped -- for no clear reason -- just when Donald Trump, Jr., may have developed a far more direct relationship to the Kremlin in the Trump Tower meeting. At that point, it appears that Cohen was removed from his intermediary role and cancelled a planned trip to Moscow. Several current and former Trump Organization staffers have told me that Donald, Jr., and Ivanka did not especially like or trust Cohen." ...

The "No Collusion" Defense Is Dead. David Corn of Mother Jones: "More lying and more evidence of a significant Trump-Russia connection — that's the story behind Michael Cohen's latest guilty plea. And it shows that Donald Trump's company in 2016 was trying to collude with Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to develop a Trump business project in Moscow.... During this stretch, Trump the candidate often spoke positively about Putin and refused to criticize him -- and never publicly disclosed that he was attempting to negotiate a big deal in Russia that could not proceed if Putin's government opposed it. This meant that Trump hid from voters one of the most significant conflicts of interest in the modern history of US political campaigns.... The first memo in the infamous Steele dossier, which was written in June 2016, claimed that the Kremlin had attempted to cultivate and co-opt Trump in part by 'offering him various lucrative real estate development business deals in Russia.'... With this deal, Trump sent the message to Moscow -- at the same time its hackers were penetrating Democratic targets -- that he wanted to do business with Putin and Russia. Imagine how all this looked to Putin...." ...

... Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "... Mr. Trump's lawyers ... said Mr. Cohen's new account of the Trump Organization's abortive hotel project in Moscow essentially matches what Mr. Trump himself stated in written answers delivered to prosecutors just nine days ago. Mr. Cohen might have lied to the authorities about aspects of the deal, as the complaint charges, they said, but the president did not. 'The president said there was a proposal, it was discussed with Cohen, there was a nonbinding letter of intent and it didn't go beyond that,' said Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of Mr. Trump's lawyers, who with others negotiated the president's responses to Mr. Mueller's questions for nearly a year. He said prosecutors did not raise certain details that Mr. Cohen now says he misled Congress about -- including how long the hotel project stayed alive -- and that the president did not volunteer those details.... Mr. Giuliani refused to disclose Mr. Mueller's precise questions to Mr. Trump about the deal or exactly how the president responded. He said only that Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization, his company, provided the prosecutors 'with every document about this from the beginning,' adding, 'That's the only reason they know about it.'" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Someday we'll find out if Giuliani's assertion is true. It certainly is possible that Trump's response was vague enough to "essentially match" Cohen's assertions revealed in the "Criminal Information." But, as we know, Giuliani says stuff. ...

... Emily Fox of Vanity Fair: Michael Cohen's "guilty plea ... came together only in the last two weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. It was during that time frame that Trump submitted his written answers to questions from Mueller's team -- including, according to a previous New York Times report, an explicit question about the president's communication with Cohen about the Russian real-estate deal. Various outlets have reported that Cohen's admission sent panic through Trumpworld, but Rudy Giuliani ... insisted that the president's answers were collinear with the statements. (Giuliani, of course, has a history of staving off uncomfortable narratives.)... The special counsel's office has thousands of documents, e-mails, text messages, and electronic devices, along with dozens of hours of testimony and written statements from Cohen, Trump, and others involved. They knew enough to produce a guilty plea from Cohen." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Whether or not Mueller timed the "reveal" to coincide with Trump's previously-scheduled meeting with Putin, Fox's reporting suggests that what instigated the Cohen plea deal was Mueller's receipt of Trump's written responses to Mueller's queries. Did Trump's answer re: Trump Tower Moscow "essentially match" Cohen's plea, as Giuliani claims? The timing of the special counsel's negotiations with Cohen suggests to me the answer is "essentially, no."

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "While Trump was not directly accused of any wrongdoing, the charge [against Michael Cohen] brings the president closer to an effort to obstruct probes into alleged contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.... In the new criminal charge unveiled Thursday, Cohen admitted that while he told the House and Senate Intelligence Committees last year that consideration of the proposed Moscow 'Trump Tower' project ceased by January 2016 -- around the time of the Iowa caucuses in the presidential race -- the business proposal remained under discussion through 'as late as approximately June 2016.' If the Moscow project in fact remained live through June 2016, it could have been a significant factor in the decision by various Trump aides and family members to attend [the infamous] June 7, 2016 'Trump Tower' meeting.... Speaking on the White House lawn on Thursday, Trump dismissed Cohen's latest admissions as fabrications. 'He's lying, very simply, to get a reduced sentence,' the president said, repeatedly calling Cohen 'weak.' However, Trump also defended the Moscow-focused real estate development drive as legitimate.... 'It was during the early part of '16 and I guess even before that. It lasted a short period of time. I didn't do the project. I decided not to do the project,' the president said. 'So, we're not talking about doing a project. We're talking about not doing a project.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Got that? He's not doing the project. Anyhow, Gerstein reports that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) plans to bring Cohen back to testify before the House Intelligence Committee. "'It means that when the president was representing during the campaign that he had no business interest in Russia, that that wasn't true,' Schiff said of the deal." ...

I think Michael Cohen's guilty plea also underscores the importance of something else. That is we believe other witnesses were untruthful before our committee. -- Rep. Adam Schiff, to reporters Thursday

... Tierney Sneed of TPM: "Michael Cohen's guilty plea Thursday in a Manhattan courthouse ... undercut what President Trump himself has claimed about his business dealings with Russia, particularly during the campaign.... 'COHEN discussed the status and progress of the Moscow Project with Individual 1 on more than the three occasions COHEN claimed to the Committee, and he briefed family members of Individual 1 within the Company about the project,' the [court] documents said, with 'Individual 1' being a reference to Trump. This contradicts what Trump has said publicly about his business dealings with Russia, which he claimed during the campaign were nonexistent. 'For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia.' -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2016. He also said at a press conference the next day, 'I have nothing to do with Russia.'" ...

... Andrew Prokop of Vox: "Cohen's plea reveals Trump's business tried to work with the Russian government on a major real estate deal while Trump was running for president -- and Trump himself was well aware of it, while concealing it from the public. Specifically, Cohen now admits that the project was still active late into the presidential campaign and that he briefed Trump and Trump family members about it often. And for the first time, Cohen admits he had a detailed phone conversation with an assistant for ... Vladimir Putin's press secretary, in which he asked for the Russian government's help moving the project forward. He tried to conceal all of this from Congress." Prokov goes on to outline six takeaways from the court docs. ...

... Ken White in the Atlantic: "Michael Cohen's decision to plead guilty to lying to Congress on Thursday was remarkable for three reasons. The first was that Cohen walked into a Manhattan federal courtroom unannounced. He did it by surprise.... The second remarkable thing was that the plea happened at all.... Normally, federal prosecutors don't waste time with this sort of rubble-bouncing.... [But in case acting AG Matt Whitaker stymies and/or conceals Mueller's report,] Cohen's case lets Mueller ... tell a story, make a report.... The third remarkable thing about Cohen's plea was its substance. The president of the United States' personal lawyer admitted to lying to Congress about the president's business activities with a hostile foreign power, in order to support the president's story. In any rational era, that would be earthshaking.... Over the past two years, we've become accustomed to headlines like 'President's Campaign Manager Convicted of Fraud' and 'President's Personal Lawyer Paid for Adult Actress's Silence.' We're numb to it all. But these are the sorts of developments that would, under normal circumstances, end a presidency." ...

... Brett Samuels of the Hill: "... Rudy Giuliani on Thursday slammed Michael Cohen and special counsel Robert Mueller in the wake of a new plea agreement between the two parties, saying the timing of the announcement was meant to harm President Trump.... Giuliani ... said that Mueller timed Cohen's guilty plea to coincide with Trump's departure for the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Argentina. He likened Thursday's announcement to when Mueller announced charges against a dozen Russian military officers days before the president met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Matt Ford of the New Republic agrees in part with Giuliani: "The most surprising -- and perhaps most significant -- aspect of Cohen's plea deal may be its timing. It's the second time, for example, that the special counsel's office has made a major public move in the days ahead of a scheduled meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. In July, the Justice Department indicted twelve Russian intelligence operatives for election cyberattacks against the Democratic Party. Three days later, Trump stood next to Putin at a press conference in Helsinki and said he believed the Russian president's denials over the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies." See also stories about Trump's "abruptly" cancelling the Putin meeting, linked below. ...

... Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker was notified in advance that [Michael Cohen] would plead guilty Thursday to lying to Congress about a Moscow real estate project that Trump and his company pursued while he was running for president.... As acting attorney general, Whitaker is the nominal supervisor of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.... Justice Department policies and special-counsel regulations call for Whitaker to be notified of significant events.... Importantly, though, the regulations do not require the attorney general to approve such steps. The attorney general can request that the special counsel explain a step that is being taken and can conclude that an action is so unwarranted under established Departmental practices that it should not be pursued.' The attorney general is supposed to give 'great weight' to the special counsel's views, and at the end of the case Congress is supposed to be notified of any proposed action that was vetoed." ...

... Mike McIntire, et al., of the New York Times attempt a narrative account of Trump's long history of trying to nail down a real estate deal in Moscow: the story's headline: "How a Trump Lawyer, a Felon and a Russian General Chased a Moscow Deal." ...

... Hunter Walker of Yahoo! News: "... Robert Mueller's investigation into President Trump's efforts to build a skyscraper in Moscow has led him to ask questions about the role two of the president's children played in attempting to secure a Russian real estate deal, sources tell Yahoo News.... Multiple sources have confirmed to Yahoo News that the president's elder daughter, Ivanka, who is now a top White House adviser, and his eldest son, Don Jr., were also working to make Trump Tower Moscow a reality." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Several legal experts, commenting on MSNBC throughout Thursday evening, have noted that Trump's lies to the public, besides misleading the American voter during a presidential campaign, made Trump extremely vulnerable to Russian blackmail. As digby points out, the Russians had some serious kompromat on Trump: they could have exploded his candidacy, and later his presidency. Instead, Robert Mueller's team appears to be ferreting out the explosive evidence from Cohen & other sources. ...

     ... Update: Michelle Goldberg on blackmail vulnerability: "That's also why evidence of Trump's business involvement with Russia would be significant, as Trump himself acknowledged shortly before his inauguration, when he tweeted, 'Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA -- NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!' We still don't know for certain if Russia has used leverage over Trump. But there should no longer be any doubt that Russia has leverage over him.... In a Jan. 11, 2017, news conference, Trump said that the 'closest I came to Russia' was in selling a Palm Beach mansion to a Russian oligarch in 2008. While we're just learning precisely how dishonest this was, Putin has known it all along.... Every day of the Trump presidency is a national security emergency. The question now is whether Senate Republicans, who could actually do something about it, will ever be moved to care." ...

... MEANWHILE. Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "Senate committees investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election are combing through witness testimony for possible misleading or untruthful statements, according to three people familiar with the effort. The review of testimony to Senate intelligence and judiciary committees comes as ... Michael Cohen pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge ... that he lied to Congress to cover up efforts during the presidential campaign to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, said Thursday that the committee had made multiple criminal referrals to Mueller, but added 'we're not going to talk about any individuals.'... The committee's chairman, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., had a stern warning Thursday for witnesses appearing before Congress. 'This is a reason people shouldn't lie when they're in front of a congressional investigation,' Burr said."

David Graham of the Atlantic: "Until recently, the connection between those Russian efforts [to undermine Hillary Clinton's campaign] and Trump allies has remained somewhat obscure and speculative But recent developments have started to flesh out the picture. Russia used WikiLeaks as a conduit -- witting or unwitting -- and WikiLeaks, in turn, appears to have been in touch with Trump allies. The key remaining questions are what WikiLeaks knew and what Trump himself knew.... While Russia's authoritarianism and suppression of free expression are at odds with WikiLeaks's stated principles, Raffi Khatchadourian noted in a 2017 New Yorker profile that [Julian] Assange has tended to view Russia as an important counterweight to American empire, and has perhaps thus tended to overlook its flaws.... Trump continues to deny that there were any connections between his campaign and Russia. By now, there's enough evidence to treat this as seriously as much of what he says -- which is to say, with the presumption it's hogwash. There is not at this point any public information that connects the president directly to Russian interference in the election, but the emerging evidence strongly suggests that Trump confidants were given forewarning about Russian moves designed to hurt Clinton and boost Trump -- and that WikiLeaks was the middle man that made all of it possible." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... And Another Thing. Mrs. McCrabbie: It is no coincidence that the people who initiated the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower NYC meeting had worked with Trump to try to get Trump Tower Moscow off the ground. As Hunter Walker reiterates in his post linked above, Mike Isikoff & David Corn of Yahoo! News, in their book Russian Roulette, "detailed a 2013 effort [to build a skyscraper in Moscow] that involved the Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov and his son Emin. According to the book, Don Jr. was 'in charge' of that project and Ivanka 'flew to Russia and scouted sites with Emin.' The Agalarovs ... helped arrange the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting. The Trump Organization registered the web address TrumpTowerMoscow.com in December 2012. A source familiar with the deal said this was in conjunction with the work being done with Agalarovs. Trump tweeted at Aras Agalarov about the deal on Nov. 11, 2013..., 'I had a great weekend with you and your family... You have done a FANTASTIC job. TRUMP TOWER-MOSCOW is next.'"

... Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: “'Trump was totally caught off guard by the Cohen plea,' [a former White House staffer] said. Indeed, Trump's erratic responses suggest he was surprised by the news. At first, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani released a blistering statement saying Cohen is 'a proven liar who is doing everything he can to get out of a long-term prison sentence for serious crimes of bank and tax fraud.' In comments he made to reporters before departing for the G20 summit in Argentina, Trump called Cohen 'weak' and accused him of 'making up a story.' But hours later, Giuliani changed tacks, telling The New York Times that Trump's sworn answers to Mueller matched Cohen's version of events. 'Why would the president come out and say Cohen lied?' the former staffer said.... Mueller now appears to be driving the West Wing agenda, with the principals in a reactive crouch...." ...

... AND here's a headline to rattle Trump: "Trump Emerges as a Central Subject of Mueller Probe." Carol Leonnig & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "In two major developments this week, President Trump has been labeled in the parlance of criminal investigations as a major subject of interest, complete with an opaque legal code name: 'Individual 1.' New evidence from two separate fronts of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation casts fresh doubts on Trump's version of key events involving Russia, signaling potential political and legal peril for the president. Investigators have now publicly cast Trump as a central figure of their probe into whether Trump's campaign conspired with the Russian government during the 2016 campaign. Together, the documents show investigators have evidence that Trump was in close contact with his lieutenants as they made outreach to both Russia and WikiLeaks -- and that they tried to conceal the extent of their activities.... The president also appears in the draft charging document for Trump ally Jerome Corsi, who allegedly told [Roger] Stone about WikiLeaks' plans to release damaging Democratic emails ... because he knew Stone was in 'regular contact' with Trump. The Washington Post reported this week that Trump spoke with Stone the day after he got the alert from Corsi."

Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Ted Malloch, a London-based [American] academic close to [Nigel] Farage, was allegedly passed a request from a longtime Trump adviser [Roger Stone] to get advance copies of emails stolen from Trump's opponents by Russian hackers and later published by WikiLeaks. The allegation emerged in a draft legal document drawn up by Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor investigating Russia's interference in the 2016election and any collusion with Trump's campaign team.... [Malloch] was stopped and questioned by the FBI in March upon his arrival at a US airport and said his mobile phone was inspected by investigators. Mueller later subpoenaed him to appear before a grand jury considering the inquiry's findings.... Last year Glenn Simpson, a Washington-based investigator whose firm prepared the explosive Trump-Russia dossier in 2016, told congressional investigators: 'I think Ted Malloch is an important person in this whole picture.' Simpson urged authorities to examine the activities of Malloch and Farage, who has denied any involvement." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's worth remembering that long after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia was behind the hacking of the DNC & John Podesta's e-mails, Donald Trump was insisting that the identities & backers of the hackers were was unknowable: a 400-pound man in his basement, China, etc. Yet throughout the period Trump was casting doubt on the conclusion of his own intelligence agencies, he had insider information -- via Roger Stone & perhaps others -- that the Russian government sponsored the hacking & distribution of the Democrats' correspondence.

Harry Litman in a Washington Post op-ed: "... when [Paul] Manafort entered into the cooperation agreement with the government, he ceased to have a common interest with other defendants, including the president, as a matter of law. As former U.S. attorney Chuck Rosenberg put it, having signed with the Yankees, he couldn't give scouting reports to the Red Sox.... The open pipeline between cooperator Manafort and suspect Trump may have been not only extraordinary but also criminal. On Manafort and [his lawyer Kevin] Downing’s end, there is a circumstantial case for obstruction of justice. What purpose other than an attempt to 'influence, obstruct, or impede' the investigation of the president can be discerned from Manafort’s service as a double agent? And on the Trump side, the communications emit a strong scent of illegal witness tampering (and possibly obstruction as well). Proving those charges would require a fight." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Giuliani: Bob Mueller Is So Mean. Chris Sommerfeldt of the New York Daily News: "Paul Manafort's lawyers shared confidential information about Robert Mueller's investigation with President Trump's legal team, Rudy Giuliani said Thursday -- a move experts say could be criminal.... A former federal prosecutor known for putting mobsters behind bars, Giuliani said he would 'love' to battle anyone in court over the matter.... 'They should be ashamed of themselves,' Giuliani said of Mueller's investigators. 'God damn it, the only reason this is happening is that there's different rules if you are Donald Trump.'"

** Frank Rich: "The whole point of the incessant lying by Donald Trump and Manafort -- and the apparent lying of Stone and Corsi as well -- is ... to muddy as many waters as possible so any Mueller report will be drowned out by what Kellyanne Conway once labeled 'alternative facts.' Right now we only know bits and pieces of Mueller's findings.... But the thing about stories built on actual facts, as Mueller's will be, is that they tend to be powerful ... because they add up. People like solid crime stories. And so ... at least one such story is emerging loud and clear: the bridge that connects the Trump campaign to the trove of Democratic emails stolen by the Russians and publicized by WikiLeaks to sabotage the Clinton campaign. Two of the biggest sources for this story are Stone and Corsi themselves. The more they try to portray their WikiLeaks ties as innocent ... the more they poke holes in their own flimsy cover stories and incriminate the president. Not for nothing did Trump promote WikiLeaks' email cache at least 164 times in the last month of the 2016 campaign, in the calculation of the journalist Judd Legum. Everything adds up." Must read: Rich's commentary on two other topics: the racist Republican party & the Miami Herald's deep investigative report on now-Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, and his sweetheart plea deal with serial child sex predator & pimp Jeffrey Epstein, a story which safari linked yesterday (and is re-linked below).

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday announced he would not meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as planned at the G-20 summit over tensions with Ukraine. The announcement, which came on Twitter, came roughly an hour after Trump told reporters the meeting would 'probably' go ahead as planned. 'Based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine from Russia, I have decided it would be best for all parties concerned to cancel my previously scheduled meeting in Argentina with President Vladimir Putin,' Trump wrote ... en route to the Group of 20 summit." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: A couple of hours after Trump tweeted he was cancelling the meeting with Putin, CNN reported that the White House had not notified the Kremlin about the cancellation. ...

     ... New York Times reporters link Trump's cancellation of the meeting to Michael Cohen's new plea: "The proceedings in Lower Manhattan appeared to have global repercussions. After Mr. Cohen's appearance in court, Mr. Trump abruptly canceled a planned meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia while both leaders are in Argentina. The president said he called off the meeting because of Russia's recent hostilities with Ukraine." This story also is linked above. ...

... Joshua Keating of Slate: "The Kremlin responded snippily to Thursday's announcement, saying that Putin would now have more time for 'useful meetings.'... The AP reported that Trump would also be calling off sit-down meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea. His talks with those leaders have been reduced to informal 'pull-asides' on the sidelines of the summit.... The additional cancellations of meetings with the leaders of Turkey and South Korea seems like an attempt to downplay the significance of the Russia announcement. It will also allow Trump to avoid what would be awkward conversations about his staunch backing of Saudi Arabia and the uneasy state of nuclear diplomacy with North Korea. Trump has also made a habit of skipping events and taking off early on previous foreign trips...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Truth is, this is a very "low-energy," easily-distracted president* who has almost no interest in doing his job.

Maxime Schlee of Politico: French President "Emmanuel Macron told Argentine newspaper La Nacion that while the alliance between France and the U.S. is 'historic,' some of ... Donald Trump's recent decisions 'have been done to the detriment of his allies.'... Speaking from Buenos Aires, where he arrived Wednesday for the G20 summit, Macron warned against the risk of a 'tête-à-tête between China and the United States and a trade war that is destructive for everyone.'” (Also linked yesterday.)

"To Get Back at G.M., Trump Threatens to Punish Any American Who Buys an Electric Car." Bess Levin of Vanity Fair: "... the move [GM made to close five North American plants & lay off 15 percent of its salaried work force] was a logical decision that you might expect someone like Donald Trump, a self-described businessman who claims to know 'more about' money, taxes, trading, banking, and the economy than anyone, to understand. But, of course, Trump is only a businessman in so much as he played one on TV -- his real-life accomplishments are more along the lines of bankrupting a casino and receiving a lifetime allowance from his father, who had to bail him out on numerous occasions. Which is why ... Trump told a reporter that G.M. 'better damn well open a new plant there very quickly,' that the company is 'playing around with the wrong person,' and that [GM CEO Mary] Barra will have 'a problem' if she doesn't immediately open a new facility. And then on Tuesday, still foaming at the mouth, he came out with this: ['We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including for electric cars.']... Subsidies for G.M.-specific electric vehicles do not exist. Rather, there are industry-wide federal tax credits of up to $7,500 available for purchasers of U.S. electric cars.... In other words, getting rid of the subsidy in its current form would hurt both American consumers and other auto manufacturers."

** "All the Best People", Ctd. Julie Brown of The Miami Herald has a long investigative piece on how Trump's current Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta covered up the sex crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and all his pervert friends: "The eccentric hedge fund manager [Epstein], whose friends included former President Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Prince Andrew, was also suspected of trafficking minor girls, often from overseas, for sex parties at his other homes in Manhattan, New Mexico and the Caribbean, FBI and court records show. Facing a 53-page federal indictment, Epstein could have ended up in federal prison for the rest of his life..., [but] a deal was struck -- an extraordinary plea agreement that would conceal the full extent of Epstein's crimes and the number of people involved. Not only would Epstein serve just 13 months in the county jail, but the deal -- called a non-prosecution agreement -- essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe into whether there were more victims and other powerful people who took part in Epstein's sex crimes.... This is the story of how Epstein ... was able to manipulate the criminal justice system, and how his accusers, still traumatized by their pasts, believe they were betrayed by the very prosecutors who pledged to protect them." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Ha! Lone Black Senator Trips up Party of Racists. Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Tim Scott of South Carolina, the lone black Republican senator, said on Thursday that he would oppose the judicial nomination of Thomas A. Farr, a lawyer who defended a North Carolina voter identification law and a partisan gerrymander that a federal court said was drafted to suppress black votes 'with surgical precision.' Mr. Scott will join Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, who has vowed to oppose every White House nominee unless the Senate votes on legislation to protect the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. With Democrats united against Mr. Farr, his nomination to a United States District Court appears doomed. Mr. Scott's decision marks the second time he has brought down a White House judicial nominee who was seen as insensitive or hostile to African-Americans. He had previously helped to sink the nomination of Ryan W. Bounds over his writings in college, which upbraided 'race-focused groups' on campus and 'race-think.' The Republican Party, Mr. Scott told reporters, is 'not doing a very good job of avoiding the obvious potholes on race in America.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: To prove Scott's assessment, "His fellow Senate Republicans, meanwhile, had shrugged off criticisms against Mr. Farr, with Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, calling them 'utterly false character assassination nonsense.'"

Mark Stern of Slate: "Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of civil asset forfeiture, also known as legalized theft. Every year, the federal and state governments obtain billions of dollars thanks to the work of prosecutors who expropriate property with some tenuous connection to a crime. Most states use the money to fund law enforcement, called policing for profit. Indiana also lets private attorneys file forfeiture claims against defendants, earning contingency fees and a share of the profit. That's what happened to [Tyson] Timbs -- so he sued, insisting that extreme forfeiture violates the Constitution. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court signaled that it agreed, with an unusual coalition of justices assailing the practice. A decision for Timbs could curb law enforcement abuses across the country, limiting one of the most scandalous components of our criminal justice system." Read on; the Constitutional arguments are interesting. (Also linked yesterday.)

Feliciz Sonmez of the Washington Post: "The head of a U.S. government agency has apologized to George Soros and his Open Society Foundations for the airing of a program that espoused conspiracy theories about Soros and called him a 'multimillionaire Jew.' In letters sent earlier this month, John F. Lansing, chief executive and director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, voiced his personal apologies to Soros and OSF president Patrick Gaspard for the program, which he said had 'made several false and negative assertions' about the billionaire philanthropist and had furthered 'age-old tropes against the Jewish community.'... The 15-minute, Spanish-language segment was aired in May by Radio and Television Martí, which is overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and its Office of Cuba Broadcasting. The Miami-based network broadcasts news and other programs promoting U.S. interests to audiences in Cuba. The program, which has since been taken offline, called Soros a 'nonpracticing Jew of flexible morals,' claimed that he was involved in 'clandestine operations that led to the dismantling of the Soviet Union' and described him as 'the architect of the financial collapse of 2008.'" There's more to the story. ...

... Capitalism Is Cutthroat. Nicholas Confessore & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Sheryl Sandberg asked Facebook's communications staff to research George Soros's financial interests in the wake of his high-profile attacks on tech companies, according to three people with knowledge of her request, indicating that Facebook's second in command was directly involved in the social network's response to the liberal billionaire.... Ms. Sandberg ... requested an examination into why Mr. Soros had criticized the tech companies and whether he stood to gain financially from the attacks. Facebook later commissioned a campaign-style opposition research effort by Definers Public Affairs, a Republican-linked firm, which gathered and circulated to reporters public information about Mr. Soros's funding of American advocacy groups critical of Facebook. Those efforts, revealed this month in a New York Times investigation, set off a public relations debacle for Ms. Sandberg and for Facebook, which was accused of trafficking in anti-Semitic attacks against the billionaire. Facebook quickly fired Definers.... The revelation [that Sandberg asked for oppo research on Soros] complicates Ms. Sandberg's shifting explanations of her role in Facebook's decisions to hire Definers and go on the offensive against the social network's growing legion of critics." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I was getting ready to defend Sandberg on this. After all, if someone attacked you or your business, wouldn't you try to find out why? Wouldn't you try to find out if the person had a corrupt interest in attacking you? But then I read Soros' remarks about Facebook & Google -- the remarks that inspired Sandberg's request to investigate him. A transcript is here. Instead of going after Soros, Sandberg should have taken to heart his concerns. Sandberg responded to Soros' warnings about the dangers her company posed to the free market of ideas by commanding oppo research against him rather than by working with him to address the concerns he raised. This is not responsible stewardship of a monopoly; it's a creepy reaction to reasoned criticism.

#MeToo. James Stewart, et al., of the New York Times: "A trove of text messages details a plan by [Les] Moonves and a faded Hollywood manager [Marv Dauer] to bury a sexual assault allegation. Instead, the scheme helped sink the CBS chief, and may cost him $120 million." This is a long but easy read and a window into Moonves' seamy, creepy machinations. Don't think the story is a unique aberration; as Frank Rich writes in the post linked above, "... you will be sickened all over again by the quantity of sexual assault that not only took place in the highest echelons of American society but that was then successfully covered up by corporations, lawyers, and supposed law-enforcement authorities."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Luke Harding of the Guardian: "Police in Germany have raided the offices of Deutsche Bank in connection with the Panama Papers revelations and as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering. About 170 police officers, prosecutors and tax inspectors searched six Deutsche Bank officers in and around Frankfurt, the public prosecutor's office said." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

NBC News: "A 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Alaska on Friday, the United States Geological Survey said, prompting authorities to declare a tsunami warning, which was later canceled. The quake hit about eight miles north of Anchorage. Videos posted to social media showed students taking shelter under desks and grocery store items knocked off shelves. Gov. Bill Walker said he issued a major declaration of disaster after the "major earthquake" and is in communication with the White House. 'There is major infrastructure damage across Anchorage,' according to a statement from the Anchorage Police Department. 'Many homes and buildings are damaged. Many roads and bridges are closed. Stay off the roads if you don't need to drive. Seek a safe shelter. Check on your surroundings and loved ones.'"

The Commentariat -- Nov. 29, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday announced he would not meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as planned at the G-20 summit over tensions with Ukraine. The announcement, which came on Twitter, came roughly an hour after Trump told reporters the meeting would 'probably' go ahead as planned. 'Based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine from Russia, I have decided it would be best for all parties concerned to cancel my previously scheduled meeting in Argentina with President Vladimir Putin,' Trump wrote ... en route to the Group of 20 summit."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "... Rudy Giuliani on Thursday slammed Michael Cohen and special counsel Robert Mueller in the wake of a new plea agreement between the two parties, saying the timing of the announcement was meant to harm President Trump.... Giuliani ... said that Mueller timed Cohen's guilty plea to coincide with Trump's departure for the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Argentina. He likened Thursday's announcement to when Mueller announced charges against a dozen Russian military officers days before the president met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia."

** Benjamin Weiser, et al., of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's former lawyer, who pleaded guilty in August to breaking campaign finance laws, made a surprise appearance in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday morning and pleaded guilty to a new criminal charge.... At the court hearing, Mr. Cohen admitted to making false statements to Congress about his efforts to build a Trump Tower deal in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign. That real estate deal has been a focus of the special counsel investigation into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russian operatives.In written testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mr. Cohen played down the extent of his contact with the Kremlin about the potential project and made other false statements about the negotiations.... The new guilty plea in Federal District Court marks the first time the office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has charged Mr. Cohen." ...

... George Stephanopoulos, et al., of ABC News: "Special counsel Robert Mueller has reached a tentative deal with Michael Cohen..., sources told ABC News. Cohen appeared in federal court in Manhattan Thursday where he entered a guilty plea for misstatements to Congress...." ...

... Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel deciphers Cohen's guilty plea: "... what [Cohen] testified to will implicate Trump and Don Jr directly. Here's what the information says Cohen lied to cover up: Cohen continued to pursue a Trump Tower Moscow deal for far longer than he testified he did, and briefed 'family' on it, which presumably includes Don Jr (who therefore lied to Congress about it)[.]... The plans continued after the campaign got information about emails and were specifically structured around Trump getting the nomination; they ended when the DNC hack was reported[.]... Cohen was in direct communication with Putin's press secretary] Dmitry Peskov's office; and Putin's office contacted Felix Sater [a former mobster &, um, business associate of Donald Trump].... And all this is just what Mueller wants us to know." ...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "While Trump was not directly accused of any wrongdoing, the charge [against Michael Cohen] brings the president closer to an effort to obstruct probes into alleged contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.... In the new criminal charge unveiled Thursday, Cohen admitted that while he told the House and Senate Intelligence Committees last year that consideration of the proposed Moscow 'Trump Tower' project ceased by January 2016 -- around the time of the Iowa caucuses in the presidential race -- the business proposal remained under discussion through 'as late as approximately June 2016.' If the Moscow project in fact remained live through June 2016, it could have been a significant factor in the decision by various Trump aides and family members to attend [the infamous] June 7, 2016 'Trump Tower' meeting.... Speaking on the White House lawn on Thursday, Trump dismissed Cohen's latest admissions as fabrications. 'He's lying, very simply, to get a reduced sentence,' the president said, repeatedly calling Cohen 'weak.' However, Trump also defended the Moscow-focused real estate development drive as legitimate.... 'It was during the early part of '16 and I guess even before that. It lasted a short period of time. I didn't do the project. I decided not to do the project,' the president said. 'So, we're not talking about doing a project. We're talking about not doing a project.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Got that? He's not doing the project. Anyhow, Gerstein reports that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) plans to bring Cohen back to testify before the House Intelligence Committee. "'It means that when the president was representing during the campaign that he had no business interest in Russia, that that wasn't true,' Schiff said of the deal." ...

... Here's a reproduction of the "Criminal Information" filed in the Cohen case today, courtesy of Lawfare.

David Graham of the Atlantic: "Until recently, the connection between those Russian efforts [to undermine Hillary Clinton's campaign] and Trump allies has remained somewhat obscure and speculative. But recent developments have started to flesh out the picture. Russia used WikiLeaks as a conduit -- witting or unwitting -- and WikiLeaks, in turn, appears to have been in touch with Trump allies. The key remaining questions are what WikiLeaks knew and what Trump himself knew.... While Russia's authoritarianism and suppression of free expression are at odds with WikiLeaks's stated principles, Raffi Khatchadourian noted in a 2017 New Yorker profile that [Julian] Assange has tended to view Russia as an important counterweight to American empire, and has perhaps thus tended to overlook its flaws.... Trump continues to deny that there were any connections between his campaign and Russia. By now, there's enough evidence to treat this as seriously as much of what he says -- which is to say, with the presumption it's hogwash. There is not at this point any public information that connects the president directly to Russian interference in the election, but the emerging evidence strongly suggests that Trump confidants were given forewarning about Russian moves designed to hurt Clinton and boost Trump -- and that WikiLeaks was the middle man that made all of it possible."

Harry Litman in a Washington Post op-ed: "... when [Paul] Manafort entered into the cooperation agreement with the government, he ceased to have a common interest with other defendants, including the president, as a matter of law. As former U.S. attorney Chuck Rosenberg put it, having signed with the Yankees, he couldn't give scouting reports to the Red Sox.... The open pipeline between cooperator Manafort and suspect Trump may have been not only extraordinary but also criminal. On Manafort and [his lawyer Kevin] Downing's end, there is a circumstantial case for obstruction of justice. What purpose other than an attempt to 'influence, obstruct, or impede' the investigation of the president can be discerned from Manafort's service as a double agent? And on the Trump side, the communications emit a strong scent of illegal witness tampering (and possibly obstruction as well). Proving those charges would require a fight."

Maxime Schlee of Politico: French President "Emmanuel Macron told Argentine newspaper La Nacion that while the alliance between France and the U.S. is 'historic,' some of ... Donald Trump's recent decisions 'have been done to the detriment of his allies.'... Speaking from Buenos Aires, where he arrived Wednesday for the G20 summit, Macron warned against the risk of a 'tête-à-tête between China and the United States and a trade war that is destructive for everyone.'"

Luke Harding of the Guardian: "Police in Germany have raided the offices of Deutsche Bank in connection with the Panama Papers revelations and as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering. About 170 police officers, prosecutors and tax inspectors searched six Deutsche Bank officers in and around Frankfurt, the public prosecutor's office said." --s

Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Ted Malloch, a London-based [American] academic close to [Nigel] Farage, was allegedly passed a request from a longtime Trump adviser [Roger Stone] to get advance copies of emails stolen from Trump's opponents by Russian hackers and later published by WikiLeaks. The allegation emerged in a draft legal document drawn up by Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election and any collusion with Trump's campaign team.... [Malloch] was stopped and questioned by the FBI in March upon his arrival at a US airport and said his mobile phone was inspected by investigators. Mueller later subpoenaed him to appear before a grand jury considering the inquiry's findings.... Last year Glenn Simpson..., whose firm prepared the explosive Trump-Russia dossier in 2016, told congressional investigators: 'I think Ted Malloch is an important person in this whole picture.' Simpson urged authorities to examine the activities of Malloch and Farage, who has denied any involvement." --s

** "All the Best People", Ctd. Julie Brown of The Miami Herald has a long investigative piece on how Trump's current Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, covered up the sex crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and all his pervert friends" "The eccentric hedge fund manager [Epstein], whose friends included former President Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Prince Andrew, was also suspected of trafficking minor girls, often from overseas, for sex parties at his other homes in Manhattan, New Mexico and the Caribbean, FBI and court records show. Facing a 53-page federal indictment, Epstein could have ended up in federal prison for the rest of his life..., [but] a deal was struck -- an extraordinary plea agreement that would conceal the full extent of Epstein's crimes and the number of people involved. Not only would Epstein serve just 13 months in the county jail, but the deal -- called a non-prosecution agreement -- essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe into whether there were more victims and other powerful people who took part in Epstein's sex crimes.... This is the story of how Epstein ... was able to manipulate the criminal justice system, and how his accusers, still traumatized by their pasts, believe they were betrayed by the very prosecutors who pledged to protect them." --s

Mark Stern of Slate: "Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of civil asset forfeiture, also known as legalized theft. Every year, the federal and state governments obtain billions of dollars thanks to the work of prosecutors who expropriate property with some tenuous connection to a crime. Most states use the money to fund law enforcement, called policing for profit. Indiana also lets private attorneys file forfeiture claims against defendants, earning contingency fees and a share of the profit. That's what happened to [Tyson] Timbs -- so he sued, insisting that extreme forfeiture violates the Constitution. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court signaled that it agreed, with an unusual coalition of justices assailing the practice. A decision for Timbs could curb law enforcement abuses across the country, limiting one of the most scandalous components of our criminal justice system." Read on; the Constitutional arguments are interesting, at least to me, Mrs. Bea McCrabbie.

*****

Election 2018

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "Representative Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday handily won the Democratic nomination to be speaker when her party claims the House majority in the new Congress, but with 32 Democrats voting no, she was well short of the number she will need to reclaim the gavel in January. In a secret-ballot vote that dramatized rifts among Democrats only weeks after midterm election victories handed them House control, Ms. Pelosi, who is the first woman to be speaker, won support from 203 Democrats. Beyond the 32 no votes, three ballots were blank. To become speaker, she must win 218 votes in a House floor vote on Jan. 3, so the tally will touch off what promises to be an intensive period of arm-twisting and cajoling to reach her goal. It also gives some time for a serious challenger to emerge." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Let this be a message to every Republican. If you come for Americans' livelihoods, we WILL come for your seats. -- Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in a tweet yesterday ...

... MEANWHILE. Mark Barabak of the Los Angeles Times: Democrat "TJ Cox defeated three-term Republican Rep. David Valadao on Wednesday [in California's Central Valley], giving Democrats a gain of seven House seats in California and 40 nationwide -- the party's strongest midterm showing since the Watergate era in the mid-1970s. Cox clinched his victory more than three weeks after election day, when updated results from Fresno and Kings counties pushed his lead over Valadao to 529 votes. The contest was the country's last remaining undecided congressional contest. Cox, 55, trailed the GOP lawmaker by nearly 4,400 votes on election night but steadily gained ground as mail-in and other ballots tipped his way." ...

... Ed Kilgore: Democrats "flipped 43 seats and lost three of their own.... It was a pretty impressive performance by the Donkey Party, reflected not just in seats gained but in an eight-point margin in the national House popular vote. Add in the fact that this midterm generated the highest turnout (an estimated 49.4 percent of eligible voters) of any non-presidential election since 1914, and it was a banner year altogether."

We'll dedicate this one to Senator Cindy White-Hide Hyde-Smith:

... Jelani Cobb of the New Yorker: "The pre-Trump Republican Party certainly relied on the support of whites who held racially bigoted views, but it struggled for plausible deniability in such matters. With Trump, the racism is out in the open and so, in some cases, is the willingness of the electorate to tolerate it. The Mississippi race reinforced something that has been impossible to avoid but difficult to accept: Trump's imprimatur actually helped some Republicans win elections. Nina Simone titled her racial-justice protest song 'Mississippi Goddam.' The shame isn't just that the song remains resonant fifty-four years after it was released but that, looking at the landscape of 2018, there are still so many other places she could sing about." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link.

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Trump is, without any doubt, the most treacherous, dishonest, shifty character in American political history and he has surrounded himself with equally two-faced, self-dealing crooks. -- Akhilleus, in yesterday's Comments ...

... Obstruction, Collusion in Plain Sight, Ctd. Trump & the Three Stooges. Marisa Schultz & Nikki Schwab of the New York Post: President Trump said "he's never discussed a pardon for Paul Manafort..., but it's 'not off the table.' 'It was never discussed, but I wouldn't take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?' the president said during an Oval Office interview. He ripped special counsel Robert Mueller's probe and charged that Manafort, former political adviser Roger Stone and Stone's associate Jerome Corsi were all asked to lie by the special counsel. 'If you told the truth, you go to jail,' Trump said.... 'It's actually very brave,' he said of [Manafort, Stone & Corsi]. 'And I'm telling you, this is McCarthyism. We are in the McCarthy era.'" (Mrs. McC: I got a warning from my anti-virus program that this was "a high-risk site.") More on Trump's remarkable Post interview linked below. ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: If Trump's behavior is any barometer, Mueller must have Trump in a high-pressure squeeze. Suppose you had done something that was maybe a teensy bit sketchy & the cops were questioning you about it. Wouldn't you be super-nice to the cops, try to befriend them and all, in the hope they would just let it go? You would not berate them for fear the affront would irritate them & inspire them to dig deeper. Yet Trump is viciously attacking the "cops" daily. To my mind, that demonstrates consciousness of guilt and/or knowledge (or suspicion) of a mountain of evidence implicating him. ...

... Josh Marshall: "... when [Trump] says about a possible pardon for Paul Manafort 'Why would I take it off table?' he says clearly that he sees it as a tool to defend himself against the Mueller probe. And that's a high crime in and of itself. He doesn't have to issue the pardon to use it as such a tool."

... Elura Nanos of Law & Crime: "Donald Trump has always been very proud of the size of his pardon power. He's swung it around with Joe Arpaio, with Scooter Libby, and now, with Paul Manafort. Time for a reality check. If Trump throws a presidential pardon Manafort's way, not only might it go badly for Trump -- it'll be even worse for Manafort.... A Manafort pardon could constitute proof positive of an unbelievably shady deal whereby Manafort feigned cooperation with Mueller only to act as informant for Trump.... As soon as Mueller is done with Manafort, New York is ready." ...

... Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "Some legal experts believe that the feeding of information by Manafort's lawyers to the Trump legal team could amount to obstruction of justice or witness tampering, if Manafort disclosed confidential information or the president's side discussed the possibility of a pardon. But that would depend on exactly what was said.... Legal experts told NBC News the conversations among the lawyers would not be covered by attorney-client privilege -- meaning Mueller in theory could haul Giuliani before the grand jury and force him to testify under oath about them. 'If you are trying to corruptly influence his testimony by dangling a pardon, that could be witness tampering,' Daniel Goldman, a former federal prosecutor..., said on 'Andrea Mitchell Reports.'... As a matter of law, the experts say, a joint defense agreement can only exist between people who have a common legal interest. Once Manafort began cooperating with Mueller, he ceased to have a common interest with Trump, a subject of the investigation.... Once people involved in litigation no longer have a common interest -- even if they say they do, courts have ruled -- the conversations are not protected." ...

... Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "... Paul Manafort may have made misstatements to special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigators about his overseas interests, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Citing 'people familiar with the matter,' The Journal reported his misleading statements about his 'personal business dealings' and communications with Konstantin Kilimnik." ...

... Ken White, in a New York Times op-ed: "... that Mr. Manafort's lawyers have been spilling the details of their client's cooperation to Trump lawyers under the cover of ... a joint defense agreement -- is shocking. The revelation is a potential catastrophe for everyone involved. It's a blow to Mr. Mueller's team, because their questions to Mr. Manafort -- repeated to Mr. Trump's lawyers -- may be a road map to at least part of the special counsel investigation. Mr. Trump's lawyers can now adjust their defense, and the president's responses, based on what they've learned about Mr. Mueller's focus and what he knows or doesn't know. And ... the prosecutors lost [Mr. Manafort] as a cooperating witness and can no longer pursue any theory relying on his testimony. It's a blow to Mr. Manafort, who will receive no sentencing credit for his brief cooperation. It's a blow to Mr. Manafort's lawyers; no federal prosecutor will ever trust them again. And it's a blow to Mr. Trump, who has overplayed his hand, because Mr. Mueller may now be able to delve into the Trump lawyers' conversations with Mr. Manafort's lawyers." ...

... Matthew Mosk, et al., of ABC News: "The special counsel team that prosecuted Manafort on federal financial charges related to his lobbying work in Ukraine has laid down ... 'a trail of bread crumbs' that could allow city or state prosecutors from New York -- where Manafort has maintained multiple residences, including a condominium in Trump Tower -- to pursue charges of their own.... Matt Olsen, a former federal prosecutor, now an ABC News consultant, said if there was a breach of his cooperation agreement, the special counsel has wide latitude to bring further legal action against Manafort if there is cause to, including any activity he described during his talks with the special counsel. 'The government is relieved of any obligations -- they can use the information from him in any way they want, including directly against Manafort,' Olsen said. 'Including in a state court trial.'" ...

... digby: "I don't think we need to look for any other metaphors to explain this president. He's just a cheap mob boss. Nothing more."

... Uh-oh. Dana Bash, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump told special counsel Robert Mueller in writing that Roger Stone did not tell him about WikiLeaks, nor was he told about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his son, campaign officials and a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton, according to two sources familiar with the matter. One source described the President's answers without providing any direct quotes and said the President made clear he was answering to the best of his recollection.... These written answers could be subject to criminal charges if false." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... So What Were These Calls All About? Manuel Roig-Franzia, et al., of the Washington Post: "In recent months, the Trump Organization turned over to Mueller's team phone and contact logs that show multiple calls between the then-candidate and [Roger] Stone in 2016, according to people familiar with the material. The records are not a complete log of their contacts -- Stone told The Washington Post on Wednesday that Trump at times called him from other people's phones.... The calls almost always came deep into the night.... [Jerome Corsi] provided The Post and other news organizations with a draft filing by prosecutors describing his interactions with Stone -- including an Aug. 2, 2016, email in which the right-wing author alerted Stone that he heard WikiLeaks was planning a major release of 'very damaging' [for Hillary Clinton] material. The next day, Stone had one of his private talks with Trump, Stone said on a 2016 Infowars broadcast first reported by CNN." ...

... John Santucci of ABC News: "The list of questions special counsel Robert Mueller submitted to ... Donald Trump included a query about a controversial change to the Republican party's convention platform in July 2016 regarding the U.S. providing arms to Ukraine, according to sources familiar with the president's responses.... On July 18, party insiders took the unusual step of watering down its formal position on whether the U.S. should help protect Ukraine from Russian incursions -- a move viewed as a surprising concession to the Russian government at a time of tension in Ukraine. The platform change took place during the Republican convention organized by then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Manafort had previously worked for a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party.... Sources tell ABC News the president told Mueller he was not aware of the platform change to the best of his recollection. That would be consistent with his answer to a question about the matter to ABC News's George Stephanopoulos during the summer of 2016. 'I wasn't involved in that. Honestly, I was not involved,' Trump said at the time."

... Asawin Suebsaeng & Scott Bixby of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump, who built his political rise on promoting far-right birther claims against President Barack Obama, does in fact have a joint defense agreement with leading birther conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, The Daily Beast has confirmed. Rudy Giuliani ... said in a brief phone interview Wednesday morning that the joint defense agreement that Corsi had earlier claimed existed does actually exist. Giuliani said he confirmed this with Jane Raskin, another member of the Trump legal team, adding that the agreement is a recent development. Giuliani also said he has talked about the agreement and Corsi with President Trump in recent days, and that Trump told him he 'vaguely knows' Corsi, but 'doesn't remember the last time they spoke.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... In case Jerome Corsi reminds you of your sweet little ole grandpa:

... Stone & Corsi Tortured a Bereaved Family With What They Knew Was a Lie. Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "Russian hackers weren't the ones behind the theft of Democratic emails that upended the 2016 presidential race, conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi told his InfoWars fans last year. Instead, Corsi said, Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich had stolen the emails and was murdered in revenge for the heist. But Corsi was lying. In an email to Trump confidante Roger Stone in 2016, Corsi acknowledged that in fact hackers were behind the email theft, according to newly released messages. Despite that admission, both Corsi and Stone played key roles promoting the conspiracy theory about Rich. Stone became one of the first major figures in Trump's orbit to suggest Rich was murdered over the emails, tweeting on August 10, 2016 that Rich had 'ties to DNC heist.' In 2017, after Rich's parents begged right-wing media personalities to stop pushing conspiracy theories about their son, Corsi put the blame for the email theft on Rich in a three-part InfoWars series."

Aaron Blake of Washington Post: In the New York Times story by Michael Schmidt & others, linked below, "Rudolph W. Giuliani practically brags about having pulled one over on Mueller by gleaning key information from the arrangement.... The Trump team is saying this highly unusual arrangement was used to gain a strategic advantage. It isn't even pretending these were harmless status updates. Giuliani is gloating about having gamed the legal system.... Mueller's team could decide that this arrangement has amounted to witness tampering or obstruction, or that it adds to a mountain of evidence on that latter count.... 'If the purpose was to gather information about what's going on in the investigation and share it back with others who are potential subjects of the investigation so that they can take steps to ensure that the investigation does not come to fruition,' former federal prosecutor Barbara McQaude said Tuesday night on MSNBC, 'I think that could amount to obstruction of justice.' Some former federal prosecutors offered similar takes.... Mueller may now have reason to probe the contacts between the two legal teams, and those contacts became no longer privileged after Manafort signed his cooperation deal."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ken Meyer of Mediaite: "ABC News chief legal analyst and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams says Paul Manafort might be trying to pull a double bluff with his plea deal with Robert Mueller and his apparent coordination with President Trump's legal team.... 'It's starting to feel like he was on a fact-finding mission for the Trump team to figure out exactly what do they want, what kind of questions are they asking, et cetera.' [Abrams said.]... Manafort might be banking on a presidential pardon. 'By saying "I'm with you, prosecutors," and then not just not cooperating, but -- according to prosecutors -- lying repeatedly ... You have to believe he thinks he's got another option here,' Abrams explained." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Natasha Bertrand & Scott Stedman of the Atlantic: "... a letter now being investigated by the House Intelligence Committee and the FBI indicates that [George] Papadopoulos is still in the crosshairs of investigators probing a potential conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. The letter, dated November 19..., was sent to Democratic Representative Adam Schiff's office by an individual who claims to have been close to Papadopoulos in late 2016 and early 2017.... The letter was also obtained by federal authorities, who are taking its claims 'very seriously,' said two U.S. officials.... The statement makes a series of explosive but uncorroborated claims about Papadopoulos's alleged coordination with Russians in the weeks following Trump's election..., including that Papadopoulos said he was 'doing a business deal with Russians which would result in large financial gains for himself and Mr. Trump.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: There's no reason to believe this story other than -- given the players -- it sounds so believable. You might sensibly say to yourself, "Ha! A two-bit hustler like George Papadopoulous brags to an acquaintance about some deals involving Trump? Nobody is going to take that 'very seriously.'" Well, yeah but. That's pretty much how the inquiry into "This Rusher Thing" got started.

Trump Threatens Democrats. Marisa Schultz & Nikki Schwab of the New York Post: "President Trump said Wednesday that if House Democrats launched probes into his administration -- which he called 'presidential harassment' -- they’d pay a heavy price. 'If they go down the presidential harassment track, if they want go and harass the president and the administration, I think that would be the best thing that would happen to me. I'm a counter-puncher and I will hit them so hard they'd never been hit like that,' he said during a 36-minute Oval Office sitdown. The commander-in-chief said he could declassify FISA warrant applications and other documents from Robert Mueller's probe -- and predicted the disclosure would expose the FBI, the Justice Department and the Clinton campaign as being in cahoots to set him up." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Why do I think Democrats are not cowering in fear?

Yesterday Trump's Minders Gave Him Way Too Much Executive Time:

... Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Donald Trump suggested without evidence on Wednesday that special counsel Robert Mueller and his team are bullying witnesses into lying about collusion in order to be spared punishment, marking the president's latest attempt to discredit the Russia probe. The president on Wednesday complained in a tweet that 'While the disgusting Fake News is doing everything within their power not to report it that way, at least 3 major players are intimating that the Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief.'" ...

... Kyle Cheney of Politico: "... Donald Trump appeared to accuse his own deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, of treason on Wednesday, posting a meme to his Twitter feed that shows an image of Rosenstein and a slew of Trump critics behind bars. The image also included special counsel Robert Mueller, former FBI Director James Comey, former national intelligence director James Clapper and Bill and Hillary Clinton. Their picture was overlaid with the words, 'Now that Russia collusion is a proven lie, when do the trials for treason begin?'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update. Marisa Schultz & Nikki Schwab: "It was no accident that President Trump Wednesday retweeted an image of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein locked up. When asked during an interview with The Post: 'Why do you think he belongs behind bars?' Trump responded: 'He should have never picked a Special Counsel.'" Mrs. McC: In other words, if you cross or even displease Trump, you belong in jail. This is one dangerous maniac. ...

... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday hinted he may support new tariffs on auto imports as his latest response to General Motors' decision to shutter U.S. factories and lay off workers. In a series of tweets, Trump argued that a longstanding 25 percent tariff on light trucks has boosted U.S. auto manufacturers and that the same approach could work for cars. 'If we did that with cars coming in, many more cars would be built here and G.M. would not be closing their plants in Ohio, Michigan & Maryland. Get smart Congress,' Trump wrote. The president said major auto exporting countries 'have taken advantage of the U.S. for decades" and warned 'that the president has great power on this issue.' 'Because of the G.M. event, it is being studied now!' he wrote." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Rebecca Morin of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday shared a post from a parody account of Vice President Mike Pence giving thanks 'for every day Hillary Clinton is not president.' The post was originally shared by @MikePenceVP, a profile that uses the same photo as one of Pence's verified accounts but describes itself as a 'fan account. My Goal is to expose liberal hypocrisy and Fake News Bias.' The vice president’s official Twitter accounts are @VP and @Mike_Pence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dana Milbank: "... after two long years, the truth is finally catching up with Trump and his winged whoppers. In recent days, Trump’s bogus claims about the economy, the Russia inquiry, the judiciary, climate change, the midterms, race and national security have been crumbling, publicly, for all to see.... It is too late to undo much of the damage caused by Trump's deceptions. But recent days give hope that, though limping and bedraggled, the truth still is the truth." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mark Landler, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump is projecting a steely facade as he prepares for a critical meeting on trade this weekend with President Xi Jinping of China. But behind his tough talk and threats of higher tariffs is a creeping anxiety about the costs of a prolonged trade war on the financial markets and the broader economy. That could set the stage for a truce between the United States and China, several American officials said, in the form of an agreement that would delay new tariffs for several months while the world's two largest economies try to work out the issues dividing them.... Mr. Trump has signaled a new willingness to make a deal with Mr. Xi, a leader he has treated solicitously and will meet over dinner on Saturday in Buenos Aires, after a summit meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 industrialized nations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "Emerging signs of weakness in major economic sectors, including auto manufacturing, agriculture and home building, are prompting some forecasters to warn that one of the longest periods of economic growth in American history may be approaching the end of its run. The economy has been a picture of health, expanding at a 3.5 percent annual pace during the third quarter and driving the unemployment rate to 3.7 percent, the lowest level in almost half a century. But General Motors' plan to cut 14,000 jobs and shutter five factories reinforces other recent indications that the better part of the expansion is now in the rearview mirror." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jake Sherman & Anna Palmer of Politico: "Nine days ahead of a deadline that could trigger a partial government shutdown, with no solution in sight, the president told Politico in a Tuesday Oval Office interview that he is unflinchingly firm Congress must send him a bill approving $5 billion for his wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and said he would 'totally be willing' to shut down the government if he doesn't get it. Democratic leaders -- including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) -- have said they would approve $1.6 billion for the wall, placing the two sides billions of dollars apart as the lame-duck session begins." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Adam Raymond of New York: "The Trump administration will soon ban bump stocks, the aftermarket devices allowing semi-automatic weapons to fire multiple shots in rapid succession, CNN reported Wednesday. The move will come nearly 14 months after Stephen Paddock used bump stocks to help him kill 58 people at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas.... The bump stock ban is, and has always been a smokescreen. Making these devices illegal will do nothing to reduce gun violence in the U.S. That's why they've become an easy target for the Trump administration. Banning bump stocks won't make people safer, but it's a simple way to pretend to. Bump stocks are a novelty. Few people knew what they were before the Las Vegas shooting, and those who did largely considered them unreliable and impractical. There are also other devices that have the same effect on semi-automatic weapons."

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke introduced POTUS by calling him 'the man who brought Christmas back' at tonight's tree lighting ceremony, per pool report. -- WashPo reporter Josh Dawsey, in a tweet yesterday ...

     ... Joey W., in a tweet replying to Dawsey

Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "A key Senate committee on Wednesday postponed a vote on President Trump's pick to lead the main agency handling immigration enforcement, as a coalition of unions ... representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel ... raised 'serious concern' about Ronald D. Vitiello's ability to effectively oversee the agency. The delay comes at a time when the nation is facing a crisis on the border and Trump is pressuring agencies and Congress on an immigration crackdown. The timing is also critical, because all nominations will expire at the end of the year if the Senate doesn't act on them." Mrs. McC: Ha Ha Ha. One of the unions' "serious concerns" was that in March 2016 Vitiello reportedly compared Trump to Dennis the Menace. Very unfair to Dennis, IMO. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Spencer Ackerman, et al., of the Daily Beast: "The White House blocked CIA Director Gina Haspel from attending a highly anticipated Senate briefing on Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis told senators on Wednesday. 'The most persuasive presence at this briefing was an empty chair -- a chair that should have been occupied by Gina Haspel, head of the Central Intelligence Agency,' Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) told reporters. 'We were told at this briefing that it was at the direction of the White House that she not attend.'" ...

     ... Mister Mustache Lied. Mrs. McCrabbie: As you may recall from way back yesterday ... Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Officials said that the decision for Haspel not to appear in front of the committee came from the White House, but the national security adviser, John Bolton, denied it. 'Certainly not,' he told reporters, but left it unclear why there would be no intelligence presence." ...

... Caitlin Oprysko: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday said that in his view, there is no 'direct reporting' that would link Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month. Pompeo spoke to reporters after briefing senators on the incident along with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, telling the press gaggle that his assessment was well-informed.... CIA Director Gina Haspel, who traveled to the region to investigate Khashoggi's killing, and who has listened to an audio recording of the murder, was not present at Wednesday's briefing." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The Trump administration has attempted to persuade the Senate not to cut off US military support to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, arguing that it was in the US national interest and was helping to limit civilian casualties. The defence secretary, James Mattis, and the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, presented a classified briefing to the full Senate, in a last-minute effort to block a bipartisan measure that invokes the War Powers Resolution to end US involvement in the Yemen war. However, several senators who had opposed the same measure in March declared themselves unconvinced, with several complaining about the absence of the CIA director, Gina Haspel, who they wanted to brief the Senate about the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The CIA has reportedly assessed that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, most likely ordered the killing of the dissident journalist in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said Haspel's failure to appear was 'outrageous' and a 'cover-up'. Tells me volumes about what's really going on here,' Menendez told reporters after the briefing, indicating he would support the Yemen bill, which he had opposed in March." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Update. Let's See How That Worked out for the Trumpeteers. Elana Schor of Politico: "The Senate delivered a stunning rebuke to the Trump administration on Wednesday, voting overwhelmingly to advance a measure yanking U.S. support for Saudi-backed forces at war in Yemen. The 63-37 vote, in which 14 Republicans joined every Democrat in voting to move forward on the bipartisan Saudi resolution, came hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis failed to sway key undecided senators with an appeal to hold off lest they upset progress of nascent talks on a cease-fire in Yemen.... The Senate has to take another vote, expected next week, to formally open debate on U.S. policy toward the Saudis that seeks to take further action against them for Khashoggi's death.... The White House issued a statement warning of a possible Trump veto if the resolution were to pass.... The final vote count on Wednesday was short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override a Trump veto...." ...

I'm not going to blow past this. If that briefing is not given soon, it's gonna be hard for me to vote for any spending bill.... I'm talking about any key vote. Anything that you need me for to get out of town, I ain't doing it until we hear from the CIA. -- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), yesterday ...

... Gardiner Harris, et al., of the New York Times: "Furious over being denied a C.I.A. briefing on the killing of a Saudi journalist, senators from both parties spurned the Trump administration on Wednesday with a stinging vote to consider ending American military support for the Saudi-backed war in Yemen. The Senate voted 63 to 37 to bring to the floor a measure to limit presidential war powers in Yemen. It was the strongest signal yet that Republican and Democratic senators alike remain vehemently skeptical of the administration's insistence that the Saudi crown prince cannot, with certainty, be blamed for the death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi."

** Phil McCausland of NBC News: "For weeks, student veterans across the country have raised an alarm about delayed or incorrect GI Bill benefit payments, which the Department of Veterans Affairs has blamed on computer issues. But on Wednesday, the department told congressional staffers that it would not reimburse those veterans who were paid less than they were owed.... The news conflicts with a promise VA officials made to a House committee earlier this month that it would reimburse those veterans who received less than the full amount they were due. According to [committee] aides, however, the VA said it could not make retroactive payments without auditing its previous education claims, which it said would delay future claims. The aides asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly. NBC News previously reported that some veterans were forced into desperate financial straits stemming from a change in calculating housing allowances under the Forever GI Bill, which ... Donald Trump signed into law in July 2017."

EPA Head Pushes an Anti-Science Conspiracy Theory. Uh, Without Evidence, Natch. Alex Guillen of Politico: "Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler on Wednesday accused the Obama administration of tilting last week's federal climate change report to focus on the worst-case outcomes -- and indicated that the Trump administration could seek to shape the next big study of the issue.... The report, released on the day after Thanksgiving, was the first major climate assessment produced predominantly during Trump's presidency. But Wheeler still maintained that Trump's predecessor was the driving force behind it. 'The drafting of this report was drafted at the direction of the Obama administration,' Wheeler said. 'And I don't know this for a fact -- I wouldn't be surprised if the Obama administration told the report's authors to take a look at the worst case scenario for this report,' added Wheeler, who said he had not discussed the report with Trump.... The Obama White House official who initiated the assessment flatly denied Wheeler's contention. 'Mr. Wheeler's insinuation is absolutely false,' John Holdren, who served as Obama's science adviser, told Politico in an email. Holdren says he called on the U.S. Global Change Research Program to conduct a thorough study, and that he had no role in selecting the report's authors." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The Senate advanced a controversial judicial pick for President Trump on Wednesday after Vice President Pence cast a tie-breaking vote for the nomination. Senators were deadlocked 50-50 to end debate on Thomas Farr's nomination to be a district judge for the eastern district of North Carolina. Pence, presiding over the chamber, then cast the tie-breaking vote.... Farr's nomination has drawn intense opposition from Democrats and their outside group allies, who warn that, if confirmed, he'll use his position as a federal judge to rule against minorities. Part of their opposition dates back to the 1990s, when Farr defended Jesse Helms' campaign after the Justice Department investigated it for mailing postcards to more than 120,000 North Carolinians, most of whom were black voters, suggesting they were ineligible to vote and could be prosecuted for voter fraud.... Farr was also part of a group of lawyers hired to defend congressional and legislative boundaries approved by the North Carolina legislature, some of which were later struck down in federal court." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sarah Gray of Business Insider (Nov. 26): "Fifteen attorneys general filed an amicus brief on Monday supporting Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh's motion to block Matthew Whitaker from serving as US attorney general.... The amicus brief from the 15 attorneys general ... argues that the legal uncertainty around Whitaker makes it difficult for the states to coordinate law enforcement agencies with the Department of Justice, and thus impacts the residents of the 14 states plus the District of Columbia."

Betsy Woodruff & Kate Briquelet of the Daily Beast: "Michael Avenatti sued Donald Trump for defaming Stormy Daniels against her wishes, Daniels told The Daily Beast in a statement on Wednesday. Avenatti also started a new fundraising site to raise money for her legal defense fund without telling her, Daniels said. She said she is not sure whether or not she will keep Avenatti on as her lawyer.... Stephen Gillers, a New York University Law School professor..., said Avenatti could face serious problems if he sued Trump against Daniels' wishes." The reporters report the full statements of Daniels & Avenatti.

Beyond the Beltway

Wes Parnell and John Annese of the New York Daily News: "A Jewish professor and Holocaust scholar at Columbia Teacher's College said she found two swastikas and an anti-Semitic slur spray-painted on her office wall Wednesday. Elizabeth Midlarsky said she first saw the hate symbols, which included the word 'YID' scrawled on a wall outside her office, when she arrived at work at the Ivy League campus at about 1 p.m."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 28, 2018

Afternoon Update:

John Wagner & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "House Democrats, poised to take control of the chamber next year, are meeting behind closed doors on Wednesday to nominate a speaker and choose other members of their leadership team. The gathering provides a key test of strength for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), who is unopposed in her bid to become speaker again but faces opposition from nearly two dozen Democrats who argue the party needs fresh leadership.... Pelosi is on the cusp of finalizing a deal with a group of holdout centrists pushing for House process reforms.... The full House, including Republican members, will choose a speaker on Jan. 3. If Democrats win two uncalled races where their candidates are leading, they will have won 235 seats, meaning Pelosi can weather as many as 17 defections. In their first action Wednesday, House Democrats picked Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) as their new caucus chair." This story is being updated. ...

     ... Update. Julie Davis of the New York Times: "Representative Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday handily won the Democratic nomination to be speaker when her party claims the House majority in the new Congress, but with 32 Democrats voting no, she was well short of the number she will need to reclaim the gavel in January. In a secret-ballot vote that dramatized rifts among Democrats only weeks after midterm election victories handed them House control, Ms. Pelosi, who is the first woman to be speaker, won support from 203 Democrats. Beyond the 32 no votes, three ballots were blank. To become speaker, she must win 218 votes in a House floor vote on Jan. 3, so the tally will touch off what promises to be an intensive period of arm-twisting and cajoling to reach her goal. It also gives some time for a serious challenger to emerge."

Mark Landler, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump is projecting a steely facade as he prepares for a critical meeting on trade this weekend with President Xi Jinping of China. But behind his tough talk and threats of higher tariffs is a creeping anxiety about the costs of a prolonged trade war on the financial markets and the broader economy. That could set the stage for a truce between the United States and China, several American officials said, in the form of an agreement that would delay new tariffs for several months while the world's two largest economies try to work out the issues dividing them.... Mr. Trump has signaled a new willingness to make a deal with Mr. Xi, a leader he has treated solicitously and will meet over dinner on Saturday in Buenos Aires, after a summit meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 industrialized nations."

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "Emerging signs of weakness in major economic sectors, including auto manufacturing, agriculture and home building, are prompting some forecasters to warn that one of the longest periods of economic growth in American history may be approaching the end of its run. The economy has been a picture of health, expanding at a 3.5 percent annual pace during the third quarter and driving the unemployment rate to 3.7 percent, the lowest level in almost half a century. But General Motors' plan to cut 14,000 jobs and shutter five factories reinforces other recent indications that the better part of the expansion is now in the rearview mirror."

Jake Sherman & Anna Palmer of Politico: "Nine days ahead of a deadline that could trigger a partial government shutdown, with no solution in sight, the president told Politico in a Tuesday Oval Office interview that he is unflinchingly firm Congress must send him a bill approving $5 billion for his wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and said he would 'totally be willing' to shut down the government if he doesn't get it. Democratic leaders -- including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) -- have said they would approve $1.6 billion for the wall, placing the two sides billions of dollars apart as the lame-duck session begins."

Uh-oh. Dana Bash, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump told special counsel Robert Mueller in writing that Roger Stone did not tell him about WikiLeaks, nor was he told about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his son, campaign officials and a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton, according to two sources familiar with the matter. One source described the President's answers without providing any direct quotes and said the President made clear he was answering to the best of his recollection.... These written answers could be subject to criminal charges if false." Mrs. McC: Neither of these assertions is believable. ...

... Asawin Suebsaeng & Scott Bixby of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump, who built his political rise on promoting far-right birther claims against President Barack Obama, does in fact have a joint defense agreement with leading birther conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, The Daily Beast has confirmed. Rudy Giuliani ... said in a brief phone interview Wednesday morning that the joint defense agreement that Corsi had earlier claimed existed does actually exist. Giuliani said he confirmed this with Jane Raskin, another member of the Trump legal team, adding that the agreement is a recent development. Giuliani also said he has talked about the agreement and Corsi with President Trump in recent days, and that Trump told him he 'vaguely knows' Corsi, but 'doesn't remember the last time they spoke.'" ...

... Aaron Blake of Washington Post: In the NYT story by Michael Schmidt & others, linked below, "Rudolph W. Giuliani practically brags about having pulled one over on Mueller by gleaning key information from the arrangement.... The Trump team is saying this highly unusual arrangement was used to gain a strategic advantage. It isn't even pretending these were harmless status updates. Giuliani is gloating about having gamed the legal system.... Mueller's team could decide that this arrangement has amounted to witness tampering or obstruction, or that it adds to a mountain of evidence on that latter count.... 'If the purpose was to gather information about what's going on in the investigation and share it back with others who are potential subjects of the investigation so that they can take steps to ensure that the investigation does not come to fruition,' former federal prosecutor Barbara McQaude said Tuesday night on MSNBC, 'I think that could amount to obstruction of justice.' Some former federal prosecutors offered similar takes.... Mueller may now have reason to probe the contacts between the two legal teams, and those contacts became no longer privileged after Manafort signed his cooperation deal." ...

... Ken Meyer of Mediaite: "ABC News chief legal analyst and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams says Paul Manafort might be trying to pull a double bluff with his plea deal with Robert Mueller and his apparent coordination with President Trump's legal team.... 'It's starting to feel like he was on a fact-finding mission for the Trump team to figure out exactly what do they want, what kind of questions are they asking, et cetera.' [Abrams said.]... Manafort might be banking on a presidential pardon. 'By saying "I'm with you, prosecutors," and then not just not cooperating, but -- according to prosecutors -- lying repeatedly ... You have to believe he thinks he's got another option here,' Abrams explained."

Way Too Much Executive Time:

... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday hinted he may support new tariffs on auto imports as his latest response to General Motors' decision to shutter U.S. factories and lay off workers. In a series of tweets, Trump argued that a longstanding 25 percent tariff on light trucks has boosted U.S. auto manufacturers and that the same approach could work for cars. 'If we did that with cars coming in, many more cars would be built here and G.M. would not be closing their plants in Ohio, Michigan & Maryland. Get smart Congress,' Trump wrote. The president said major auto exporting countries 'have taken advantage of the U.S. for decades" and warned 'that the president has great power on this issue.' 'Because of the G.M. event, it is being studied now!' he wrote." ...

... Kyle Cheney of Politico: "... Donald Trump appeared to accuse his own deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, of treason on Wednesday, posting a meme to his Twitter feed that shows an image of Rosenstein and a slew of Trump critics behind bars. The image also included special counsel Robert Mueller, former FBI Director James Comey, former national intelligence director James Clapper and Bill and Hillary Clinton. Their picture was overlaid with the words, 'Now that Russia collusion is a proven lie, when do the trials for treason begin?'" ...

... Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Donald Trump suggested without evidence on Wednesday that special counsel Robert Mueller and his team are bullying witnesses into lying about collusion in order to be spared punishment, marking the president's latest attempt to discredit the Russia probe. The president on Wednesday complained in a tweet that 'While the disgusting Fake News is doing everything within their power not to report it that way, at least 3 major players are intimating that the Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief.'" ...

... Rebecca Morin of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday shared a post from a parody account of Vice President Mike Pence giving thanks 'for every day Hillary Clinton is not president.' The post was originally shared by @MikePenceVP, a profile that uses the same photo as one of Pence's verified accounts but describes itself as a 'fan account. My Goal is to expose liberal hypocrisy and Fake News Bias.' The vice president's official Twitter accounts are @VP and @Mike_Pence."

Dana Milbank: "... after two long years, the truth is finally catching up with Trump and his winged whoppers. In recent days, Trump's bogus claims about the economy, the Russia inquiry, the judiciary, climate change, the midterms, race and national security have been crumbling, publicly, for all to see.... It is too late to undo much of the damage caused by Trump's deceptions. But recent days give hope that, though limping and bedraggled, the truth still is the truth."

Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "A key Senate committee on Wednesday postponed a vote on President Trump's pick to lead the main agency handling immigration enforcement, as a coalition of unions ... representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel ... raised 'serious concern' about Ronald D. Vitiello's ability to effectively oversee the agency. The delay comes at a time when the nation is facing a crisis on the borde and Trump is pressuring agencies and Congress on an immigration crackdown. The timing is also critical, because all nominations will expire at the end of the year if the Senate doesn't act on them." Mrs. McC: Ha Ha Ha. One of the unions' "serious concerns" was that in March 2016 Vitiello reportedly compared Trump to Dennis the Menace. Very unfair to Dennis, IMO.

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The Senate advanced a controversial judicial pick for President Trump on Wednesday after Vice President Pence cast a tie-breaking vote for the nomination. Senators were deadlocked 50-50 to end debate on Thomas Farr's nomination to be a district judge for the eastern district of North Carolina. Pence, presiding over the chamber, then cast the tie-breaking vote.... Farr's nomination has drawn intense opposition from Democrats and their outside group allies, who warn that, if confirmed, he'll use his position as a federal judge to rule against minorities. Part of their opposition dates back to the 1990s, when Farr defended Jesse Helms' campaign after the Justice Department investigated it for mailing postcards to more than 120,000 North Carolinians, most of whom were black voters, suggesting they were ineligible to vote and could be prosecuted for voter fraud.... Farr was also part of a group of lawyers hired to defend congressional and legislative boundaries approved by the North Carolina legislature, some of which were later struck down in federal court."

Caitlin Oprysko: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday said that in his view, there is no 'direct reporting' that would link Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month. Pompeo spoke to reporters after briefing senators on the incident along with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, telling the press gaggle that his assessment was well-informed.... CIA Director Gina Haspel, who traveled to the region to investigate Khashoggi's killing, and who has listened to an audio recording of the murder, was not present at Wednesday's briefing." ...

... Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The Trump administration has attempted to persuade the Senate not to cut off US military support to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, arguing that it was in the US national interest and was helping to limit civilian casualties. The defence secretary, James Mattis, and the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, presented a classified briefing to the full Senate, in a last-minute effort to block a bipartisan measure that invokes the War Powers Resolution to end US involvement in the Yemen war. However, several senators who had opposed the same measure in March declared themselves unconvinced, with several complaining about the absence of the CIA director, Gina Haspel, who they wanted to brief the Senate about the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The CIA has reportedly assessed that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, most likely ordered the killing of the dissident journalist in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said Haspel's failure to appear was 'outrageous' and a 'cover-up'. Tells me volumes about what's really going on here,' Menendez told reporters after the briefing, indicating he would support the Yemen bill, which he had opposed in March."

EPA Head Pushes an Anti-Science Conspiracy Theory. Uh, Without Evidence, Natch. Alex Guillen of Politico: "Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler on Wednesday accused the Obama administration of tilting last week's federal climate change report to focus on the worst-case outcomes -- and indicated that the Trump administration could seek to shape the next big study of the issue.... The report, released on the day after Thanksgiving, was the first major climate assessment produced predominantly during Trump's presidency. But Wheeler still maintained that Trump's predecessor was the driving force behind it. 'The drafting of this report was drafted at the direction of the Obama administration,' Wheeler said. 'And I don't know this for a fact -- I wouldn't be surprised if the Obama administration told the report's authors to take a look at the worst case scenario for this report,' added Wheeler, who said he had not discussed the report with Trump.... The Obama White House official who initiated the assessment flatly denied Wheeler's contention. 'Mr. Wheeler's insinuation is absolutely false,' John Holdren, who served as Obama's science adviser, told Politico in an email. Holdren says he called on the U.S. Global Change Research Program to conduct a thorough study, and that he had no role in selecting the report's authors."

*****

The New York Times has live election results for the special election race for the U.S. Senate in Mississippi. ..

     ... Update: The AP & NBC News have called the race for the racist white lady. Mrs. McC: Congratulations, Mississippi! You have shown us your true colors -- and they're mighty pale.

Trump Is Smarter Than Anybody -- Just Ask Him. Philip Rucker & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump placed responsibility for recent stock market declines and this week's General Motors plant closures and layoffs on the Federal Reserve during an interview Tuesday, shirking any personal responsibility for cracks in the economy and declaring that he is 'not even a little bit happy' with his hand-selected central bank chairman. In a wide-ranging and sometimes discordant 20-minute interview with The Washington Post, Trump complained at length about Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. 'Jay' Powell.... He argued that rising interest rates and other Fed policies were damaging the economy ... though he insisted that he is not worried about a recession. 'I'm doing deals and I'm not being accommodated by the Fed,' Trump said. 'They're making a mistake because I have a gut and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else's brain can ever tell me.' Trump also dismissed the federal government's landmark report released last week that found damages from global warming are intensifying around the country.... 'One of the problems that a lot of people like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence but we're not necessarily such believers,' Trump said. 'You look at our air and our water and it's right now at a record clean.' Trump also threatened to cancel his scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a global summit later this week because of Russia's maritime clash with Ukraine.... When pressed whether he would commit to letting the [Mueller] probe continue until its conclusion, Trump stopped short of making an explicit pledge." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's argument is that since he's the smartest person around, he is right about everything. I think I'll try that; for one thing, it's charming: "I'm smarter than you are, so your opinion is meaningless. You're an expert on the subject? So what? As a person with a very high level of intelligence, my gut tells me more than you brain can ever tell me." Jeesh! ...

... Here's the full transcript of the interview, which Aaron Blake has annotated.

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Besides being a person with a very high level of intelligence, Trump is a person with a very high level of discernment. According to Rucker & Dawsey's report, "Trump considered reappointing [Fed Chair Janet] Yellen to the post, and she impressed him greatly during an interview.... But ... the president ... told aides on the National Economic Council on several occasions that the 5-foot-3-inch economist was not tall enough to lead the central bank, quizzing them on whether they agreed, current and former officials said."

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

** Obstruction in Plain Sight, Ctd. Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "A lawyer for Paul Manafort, the president's onetime campaign chairman, repeatedly briefed President Trump's lawyers on his client's discussions with federal investigators after Mr. Manafort agreed to cooperate with the special counsel, according to one of Mr. Trump's lawyers and two other people familiar with the conversations. The arrangement was highly unusual and inflamed tensions with Mr. Mueller's office when prosecutors discovered it after Mr. Manafort began cooperating two months ago, the people said. Some legal experts speculated that it was a bid by Mr. Manafort for a presidential pardon even as he worked with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in hopes of a lighter sentence. Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the president's personal lawyers, acknowledged the arrangement on Tuesday and defended it as a source of valuable insights into the special counsel's inquiry and where it was headed.... For example, Mr. Giuliani said, Mr. Manafort's lawyer Kevin M. Downing told him that prosecutors hammered away at whether the president knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Russians promised to deliver damaging information on Hillary Clinton to his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. The president has long denied knowing about the meeting in advance. 'He wants Manafort to incriminate Trump,' Mr. Giuliani declared of Mr. Mueller." ...

... Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Tuesday lobbed familiar insults and accusations at the special counsel investigation, a day after prosecutors said his former campaign chairman repeatedly lied to investigators in breach of a previous plea agreement. The continuing investigation is a 'Phony Witch Hunt,' carried out by a 'conflicted' prosecutor and a staff of 'Angry Democrats,' the president said in three morning Twitter posts." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Carl Bernstein & Devan Cole of CNN: "... Robert Mueller's team has been investigating a meeting between former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno in Quito in 2017 and has specifically asked if WikiLeaks or its founder, Julian Assange, were discussed in the meeting, a source with personal knowledge of the matter tells CNN. In November 2017, The Associated Press reported that Moreno publicly acknowledged meeting with Manafort and a group of Chinese businessmen who wanted to privatize the country's electric corporation. Moreno said the proposal was rejected." ...

... digby: "Josh Marshall notes that [Manafort] met with the Ecuadoran governments on the same day that Trump fired Comey which may be coincidence but is intriguing nonetheless." Marshall's post is subscriber-firewalled." ...

... Uh-oh. Luke Harding & Dan Collyns of the Guardian: "... Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump's campaign, the Guardian has been told. Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 -- during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump's push for the White House. It is unclear why Manafort would have wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. But the last apparent meeting is likely to come under scrutiny and could interest Robert Mueller.... A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers. Manafort, 69, denies involvement in the hack and says the claim is '100% false'." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Oops. safari linked this earlier Tuesday, but I hadn't seen it. ...

... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "... if it is true that Manafort met with Assange in the spring of 2016, it would be almost ludicrous to think they didn't discuss the Democratic emails stolen by Russia that WikiLeaks was soon to release in order to damage Hillary Clinton's candidacy. And if that were true, it would mean the Trump campaign -- or at least the Trump campaign chairman -- had advance knowledge of the centerpiece of the Russian effort to manipulate the 2016 election.... Today might turn out to be [a]... blockbuster [day], because we have not one but two new and potentially vital developments. Both of them involve ... Paul Manafort, and while it's always possible they'll turn out to be inconsequential, the fact that the president himself is highly distressed suggests otherwise[.]" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Jeet Heer: "There are genuine grounds to be cautious about the report. It is based on anonymous sources, some of whom are connected with Ecuadorian intelligence. The logs of the embassy show no such meetings. The information about the most newsworthy meeting (in the spring of 2016) is vaguely worded, suggesting a lack of certitude." Mrs. McC: But if it is true, there's a good chance Mueller already knows about it because Rick Gates. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Update. Matt Naham: Julian "Assange has 'instructed his lawyers to sue the Guardian for libel over [the] fabricated Manafort story.'" He's established a GoFundMe account to help cover his legal fees. The suit is not farfetched in the UK, where libel laws place the burden of proof on the accused libeler rather than the claimant victim. Anyhow, I guess Julian there is not so free-pressy when it comes to stories about him. ...

... Sara Murray & Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Draft court filings obtained by CNN outline significant insights into what special counsel Robert Mueller may know about Roger Stone's efforts to seek documents from WikiLeaks in 2016.... the documents made public Tuesday are the strongest signal yet that Stone could be charged with a crime.... If Stone were to be charged with a crime for seeking the stolen documents, others who discussed with him reaching WikiLeaks could also face legal risk in a criminal conspiracy case or if they attempted to shield information from Congress, the FBI, prosecutors or the grand jury.... Mueller's office was preparing to tell a federal court that Stone pushed an associate to get documents from WikiLeaks -- information that is now known to be stolen from the Democrats by Russian hackers -- that could help the Trump campaign, according to a draft of a court filing and other documents shared with CNN by Stone associate and conservative author Jerome Corsi. Corsi said he received the drafts, mostly dated this month, as part of his negotiations with Mueller's team regarding a plea of making a false statement to federal investigators. According to Corsi and the documents he provided, prosecutors offered him a plea deal, which Corsi says he plans to reject because he doesn't believe he knowingly lied.... In the draft court papers, prosecutors outline how Corsi allegedly lied three times to the FBI and special counsel's office." ...

... Anna Schecter of NBC News: "Two months before WikiLeaks released emails stolen from the Clinton campaign..., Jerome Corsi sent an email to former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone anticipating the document dump, according to draft court papers obtained by NBC News. 'Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps,' Corsi wrote on Aug. 2, 2016, referring to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to the draft court papers. 'One shortly after I'm back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging.'... In ... interviews [with investigators], the draft court papers say, Corsi said that his claims to Stone, beginning in 2016, that he had a way of obtaining confidential information from WikiLeaks were false." ...

... Sharon LaFraniere & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Jerome Corsi "released documents on Tuesday showing that as the presidential campaign heated up in the summer of 2016, [Roger] Stone tried to dispatch him to find out what information WikiLeaks had that could prove damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign.... Mr. Corsi's dealings with Mr. Mueller's prosecutors have caused alarm among the president's legal team, who were informed of developments by Mr. Corsi's lawyer. President Trump's lawyers were especially troubled by a draft statement of offense against Mr. Corsi that was passed on to them, according to people familiar with the situation. In it, prosecutors claimed that Mr. Corsi understood that Mr. Stone was 'in regular contact with senior members of the Trump campaign, including with then-candidate Donald J. Trump' when he asked Mr. Corsi in late July 2016 to 'get to' Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.... Only after Mr. Mueller's team reassured Mr. Trump's lawyers that they were not trying to lure the president into a trap did they forward his answers [to Mueller's written questions] on Nov. 20." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Jerome Corsi ... asserted yesterday that his knowledge of the timing and content of stolen Democratic emails in 2016 was simply the product of his own brilliant analysis.... Piecing together public information, he sifted through 1,000 pages of information about the Democratic party's computer systems and, via 'forensic analysis,' inferred that John Podesta's emails had been stolen and would soon be published. Corsi also explained that his misstatements to the special counsel about his actions were simply inadvertent mistakes due to 'terrible' memory.... Shockingly, this account appears not to be, uh, true.... Corsi was in contact with WikiLeaks and, more importantly, that he passed on what he knew to Roger Stone.... Stone repeatedly flaunted inside knowledge of WikiLeaks' stolen emails during the campaign, but, like Corsi, has denied having had any inside information about this. These denials also appear to be not, uh, true.... Stone, by his own account, communicated with Trump regularly throughout the campaign. The odds that the self-proclaimed 'dirty trickster' declined to share his delicious secret about the stolen emails during those conversations with Trump are very, very low." ...

... Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "The draft filing, first reported by NBC News and provided by [Jerome] Corsi to The Washington Post, provides a remarkable look at the case [Robert] Mueller is building related to WikiLeaks and the most detailed allegations yet that a key associate in Trump's orbit was provided advance knowledge of the group's plans.... Rudolph W. Giuliani ... said the president does not recall ever speaking to either [Roger] Stone or Corsi about WikiLeaks. He said the president's legal team obtained a copy of the Corsi document earlier this month and lodged a complaint with the Justice Department about the inclusion of Trump's name in the draft filing. The episode delayed the delivery of Trump's written responses to questions posed by the special counsel.... Making such documents public before a court filing would infuriate most prosecutors, because sharing such details could compromise ongoing investigative work and tip off other suspects about what the FBI knows." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's a coincidence: Manafort's and Corsi's pleas collapsed at the same time. You might think somebody was kinda muscling Corsi into tearing up his plea deal. As Yogi Berra might say, "That's too coincidental to be a coincidence." Speaking of such "coincidences," Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out on his MSNBC show that Corsi's gift of his draft plea agreement to Trump's lawyers coincidenced with Trump's tweet earlier this month wherein he claimed, "The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want." At the time, I figured friendly acting AG Matt Whitaker was Trump's source about the "inner workings" but I think O'Donnell is right: Corsi was the source. BUT ..

     ... Update: Matt Naham ties this & other Trump tweets to revelations he gleaned from Manafort's attorneys.

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This much is clear: all of the principals here (and maybe all the lawyers, too) are mobsters. Their lies and double dealing & backroom shenanigans -- much less their underlying criminal activities -- surely have infuriated Mueller & his team. BTW, why do you think Trump isn't upset MBS ordered a hit on Jamal Khashoggi? Because he'd do the same damned thing if he thought he could get away with it. The head of the U.S. government is Tony Soprano (who, you may recall, is a comic character), but less complex, dumber, less introspective & less empathetic. Bada bing, bada boom.

Nicole Guadiano of USA Today: "A blocked number in Donald Trump Jr.'s phone records may be among the first targets for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee in January as they investigate possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Rep. Adam Schiff, who is poised to lead the committee when Democrats take over the House majority, told USA Today that his committee will have to prioritize the most important witnesses and records that Republicans blocked them from pursuing. The 'clearest example' of that obstruction, he said, is phone records that would show whether the blocked phone number -- logged as Trump Jr. was arranging a meeting with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower -- belonged to then-candidate Donald Trump. Trump's son arranged the June 2016 meeting after being promised 'dirt' on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. At first, Trump Jr. said he never told his father of the meeting, but then later told Senate investigators that he couldn't recall who he spoke with that night." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jeremy Kahn & Nate Lanxon of Bloomberg: "Facebook Inc. knew that Russian-linked entities were using a feature on the social network that let advertisers harvest large amounts of data as early as October 2014, according to an internal email a U.K. lawmaker said he had reviewed. Previously, Facebook has said it was unaware of this sort of Russian activity on the social network untilafter the 2016 election.... Facebook said that the document ... was taken out of context. 'The engineers who had flagged these initial concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific Russian activity,' the company said in an email to Bloomberg Tuesday." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Marshall of TPM: "With a highly dangerous situation unfolding between Russia and Ukraine over the weekend [and the Saudi Arabia debacle], it's important to return to a basic point about President Trump and the danger he represents to the United States.... The problem in both cases is that Trump appears to be pursuing some definition of his own personal interests over national interests. It's not always clear just what that personal interest is, whether it is a narrow financial interest or some kind of threat-influence or whether he's just been buttered up by the strongman in question. But it makes the conduct of US policy almost impossible to predict or trust.... As a country we remain in a state of shadow paralysis, not even able to adequately discuss or devise responses to critical foreign policy because the President's actions are opaque and almost certainly corrupt." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... The Chickenshits in Charge. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "John R. Bolton, President Trump's national security adviser, defended on Tuesday the fact that neither Mr. Trump nor top national security officials had listened to audio of the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying that they did not speak Arabic and would not be able to understand what was on the tape." Mrs. McC: In a "normal" White House, if the president & his aides were going to dismiss a brutal murder, they would at least have the guts to thoroughly review the evidence of the heinous crime. "I don't speak Arabic" is right up there with "the dog ate my homework" excuse. Lame. As Aunt Hattie suggested near the end of yesterday's thread, "Really? Maybe re-hire all of those (fired!) gay translators who were fluent in Arabic (and other languages), yet subject to your - and your 'brethren's' - hateful, ignorant bigotry." The reporters in the room with Bolton also suggested Bolton could find a translator. ...

... Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The White House [-- in this case, John Bolton --] has denied preventing the CIA director, Gina Haspel, from briefing the Senate on the murder of Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi. The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and the defence secretary, James Mattis, are due to give a briefing on US relations with Saudi Arabia to the entire Senate behind closed doors on Wednesday, ahead of a vote that could cut off US support for Riyadh's military campaign in Yemen. On a national security issue of such importance, it would be customary for a senior intelligence official to take part, Senate staffers said. On this occasion, the absence of the intelligence community is all the more glaring, as Haspel travelled to Istanbul to hear audio tapes of Khashoggi's murder provided by Turkish intelligence, and then briefed Donald Trump. Senior senators including the chairman of the foreign relations committee, Bob Corker, have called for Haspel to appear, but there was no sign on Tuesday evening that she will take part. Officials said that the decision for Haspel not to appear in front of the committee came from the White House...." ...

... Juan Cole: "To forestall ... total war and genocide [in Yemen], the UN Security Council has been attempting to achieve a ceasefire. CNN reported, however, that when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman saw the resolution, he was absolutely furious and threw a fit. The Saudis have some sort of hold over Trump. He has run interference for Bin Salman with regard to the murder of ... Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Now Riyadh appears to have pulled some sort of strings to get Trump to block the UNSC resolution.... CNN obtained a copy of the British-crafted resolution, which critics of the war had already seen as inadequate. It only calls for a ceasefire at Hodeida port and compliments the Saudi war effort, slamming the Houthis for defending themselves. But even this mild resolution has been deep-sixed." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times: "... the president's strong support for the crown prince [of Saudi Arabia] ... may have the opposite effect to the one intended.... Congress is now making noises about doing what the president would not: a public investigation that could lead to real sanctions. (If this sounds familiar, it's because it is a replay of what happened a year ago after Mr. Trump refused to punish Russia for meddling in our elections.)... Not only has Mr. Trump increased the chances that Congress will enact restrictions on the Saudi royal family or make it harder to do business with the kingdom, he has prompted Democrats to question his financial ties to Saudi Arabia. [Rep. Adam] Schiff [D-Calif.], who is expected to take over as chairman of the Intelligence Committee when Democrats take control of the House in January, has promised to investigate those, too." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Uki Goñi & Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Argentine prosecutors are considering charging Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman with war crimes and torture if he flies to Buenos Aires for the G20 summit this week. The move comes after advocacy group Human Rights Watch wrote to a federal prosecutor arguing that the Argentinian courts should invoke a universal jurisdiction statute in Argentinian law...Judicial sources were quoted as saying that the likelihood that this will happen 'is very difficult', the newspaper Clarín reported, adding that Khashoggi's murder might not qualify as a 'crime against human rights.' However, the HRW submission is based on a wider pattern of torture as well as military operations in Yemen." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump Threatens GM. Neal Boudette of the New York Times: "When General Motors announced that it would idle five North American plants and eliminate thousands of jobs, it said the move would ease the burden of spending billions of dollars to develop the battery-powered vehicles of the future. But the White House put a question mark over those plans on Tuesday when President Trump -- irate over the G.M. cutbacks -- threatened an end to federal tax credits that have helped underwrite that automaker's electric-vehicle fleet.... Apparently referring to G.M.'s federal rescue from bankruptcy in 2009, the president [wrote ina tweet]: 'The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get! We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including for electric cars.' And at a White House news briefing, Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, said..., 'We're going to be looking at certain subsidies regarding electric cars and others and whether they should apply or not,' Mr. Kudlow added. 'Can't say anything final about that, but we are looking into it.'"

Revelling in Misery. Erin Banco & Asawin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast: "When border agents fired canisters of tear gas into a crowd of unarmed migrants in Tijuana over the weekend, officials in the Department of Homeland Security and White House quietly cheered. It was exactly the fodder they needed in the waning days of Republican-controlled Washington to pressure Congress for billions to fund the border wall. That sentiment, which was palpable at DHS in particular, startled some in the highest ranks of Customs and Border Patrol, an official in the agency told The Daily Beast. 'They are totally all in. They have gone batshit crazy,' one former senior official said of leaders inside DHS and the White House." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... "Annals of Journalism", Ctd. Frank Dale of ThinkProgress: "Fox & Friends, President Donald Trump's favorite morning 'news' source, devoted the majority of its three hours of Monday programming to fear-mongering over the migrant caravan and undocumented immigrants.... After claiming the caravan was 'supported by outside sources,' had a 'sense of entitlement,' and shouldn't be considered 'true refugees,' former U.S. Border Patrol deputy chief Ron Colburn said it was pepper spray being used against unarmed migrants and it was actually part of a balanced diet. 'You could actually put it on your nachos and eat it.'" --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Ginger Thompson of ProPublica: "The Trump administration has quietly resumed separating immigrant families at the border, in some cases using vague or unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing or minor violations against the parents, including charges of illegally re-entering the country, as justification. Over the last three months, lawyers at Catholic Charities, which provides legal services to immigrant children in government custody in New York, have discovered at least 16 new separation cases. They say they have come across such instances by chance and via their own sleuthing after children were put into temporary foster care and shelters with little or no indication that they arrived at the border with their parents.... Lawyers at the ACLU and Catholic Charities said that the DOJ responded that it wasn't obligated to report the new separations to the ACLU because they hadn't been done as a part of the zero-tolerance policy. The DOJ said that in 14 of the 17 cases flagged in the ACLU's letter, the children were removed from their parents' custody because authorities suspected the parents had some kind of criminal background that made them unfit -- even dangerous. But the agency would not specify what crimes the parents were suspected of committing and what evidence authorities had to support these allegations." ...

... Garance Burke & Martha Mendoza of the AP: "The Trump administration has put the safety of thousands of teens at a migrant detention camp at risk by waiving FBI fingerprint checks for their caregivers and short-staffing mental health workers, according to an Associated Press investigation and a new federal watchdog report. None of the 2,100 staffers at a tent city holding more than 2,300 teens in the remote Texas desert are going through rigorous FBI fingerprint background checks, according to a Health and Human Services inspector general memo published Tuesday. 'Instead, Tornillo is using checks conducted by a private contractor that has access to less comprehensive data, thereby heightening the risk that an individual with a criminal history could have direct access to children,' the memo says. In addition, the federal government is allowing the nonprofit running the facility -- BCFS Health and Human Services -- to sidestep mental health care requirements. Under federal policy, migrant youth shelters generally must have one mental health clinician for every 12 kids, but the federal agency's contract with BCFS allows it to staff Tornillo with just one clinician for every 100 children." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: So what with Trump's no-asylum policy jamming up Mexico in the worst way, Trump's border patrol lobbing tear gas into Mexico (which would be against international law), Trump's separating immigrant children (no doubt some of them Mexican children) from their parents, & Trump's endangering teenagers in federal custody, this seems like a perfect time for Mexico to give a Big Prize to a member of Trump's family:

     ... AP: "The Mexican government said Tuesday that it will award ... Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner the highest honor the country gives to foreigners, the Order of the Aztec Eagle. The Foreign Relations Department said Kushner earned the award 'for his significant contributions in achieving the renegotiation of the new (trade) agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada.'" ...

     ... Update. David Agren of the Guardian: "Outgoing Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto has stunned the country by bestowing the nation’s highest honour for foreigners on Jared Kushner.... Mexicans on Tuesday voiced their outrage over Kushner receiving the Order of the Aztec Eagle, whose past recipients include Queen Elizabeth, Nelson Mandela and Walt Disney.... Peña Nieto leaves office as a loathed figure on 30 November after six years of corruption and conflict-of-interest scandals. His approval rating hovers at just 24%, according to pollster Consulta Mitofsky."

Why the Trade Deficit Is Growing. David Lynch of the Washington Post: "The merchandise trade deficit ... hit a monthly record in September.... Trump promised during the 2016 campaign that he would act against China for manipulating the yuan’s value, and he repeatedly has called the dollar 'too strong.'... In January, Trump abandoned his earlier worries about a rising greenback..., telling CNBC: 'The dollar is going to get stronger and stronger, and ultimately I want to see a strong dollar.'... He has taken no direct action on currencies, instead relying on tariffs to battle trade barriers that he says hurt American companies.... Some labor and business groups are calling on the president to take action to weaken the U.S. currency. Yet his economic policies are making it stronger. A stronger dollar acts as a price increase for U.S. goods sold abroad while making imported products less expensive for Americans."

Juliet Eilperin & Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "The Interior Department's Office of Inspector General has cleared Secretary Ryan Zinke in a probe of whether he redrew boundaries of a national monument in Utah to aid the financial interests of a Republican state lawmaker and stalwart supporter of President Trump. In a Nov. 21 letter to Zinke's deputy, David Bernhardt, Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall wrote that her office 'found no evidence' that the secretary or his aides changed the boundaries of Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in an effort to help former Utah state representative Mike Noel.... Last December, Trump shrank the monument, established by Bill Clinton in 1996, by 46 percent based on Zinke's recommendation. Noel owns 40 acres that had been surrounded by the monument but now lies outside its boundaries.... The inspector general's office still has at least two ongoing probes of the secretary, including one focused on his real estate dealings in Whitefish, Mont., and another regarding his decision to deny a permit to two Connecticut tribes who were hoping to jointly run a casino after MGM Resorts International lobbied against it."

"Strategic Messaging." Alex Thompson & Eliana Johnson of Politico: "Mary Kissel often took a dim view of ... Donald Trump's foreign policy. As a Wall Street Journal editorial writer, she tweeted about his 'frightening ignorance,' criticized his approach on Syria and China, and said Putin 'scored a great propaganda victory' at the Helsinki summit in July. And Trump swatted back. After Kissel said in a March 2016 appearance on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' that Trump has 'no principles, he has no policies,' the president counter punched on Twitter. 'Major loser!' then-candidate Trump wrote, adding that Kissel had 'no clue!' Now, Kissel is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's new senior adviser for policy and strategic messaging."

Sarah Kliff of Vox: "Obamacare's marketplaces are having a surprisingly good year. Two years into the Trump administration, more health plans are signing up to sell coverage. Premiums for mid-level plans actually went down 1 percent. This is after years of double-digit increases, many under the Obama administration. This all really surprises me. These positive changes are happening the same year that Obamacare’s individual mandate — the penalties for not carrying health coverage -- is& going away.... I called up two of the experts I trust the most when it comes to understanding Obamacare marketplaces -- Chris Sloan at Avalere Health and Larry Levitt at the Kaiser Family Foundation -- to figure out what was going on. Both of them agree: The Obamacare marketplaces seem to be pretty resilient to policy headwinds." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "In April 2009, the Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security released a report warning [about the dangers of rising right-wing extremism].... Conservatives went ballistic.... Most notably, then-Republican Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) attacked Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano for releasing the report at all.... As a result, the administration pulled back the report. Napolitano apologized for the portrayal of veterans and the report was removed from the DHS website.... In the time since, it has become clear that the warnings in the report were indeed warranted." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "The nation's leading gun-rights organization saw its income drop by $55 million last year, after a record-breaking 2016 in which the group and its political affiliates spent unprecedented sums to elect ... Donald Trump. The National Rifle Association of America reported $98 million in contributions in 2017, down from nearly $125 million in 2016, according to new tax records obtained by The Daily Beast. Nearly one-fifth of its contributions last year came from a single anonymous donor, who chipped in nearly $19 million to the group. More noteworthy than its drop in contributions, though, was its decline in membership dues. The NRA took in more than $128 million in dues last year -- a significant sum, but down considerably from the $163 million it took in the year prior. That decline, more than the drop in direct contributions, appears to indicate a dwindling, if still formidable, base of public support."

Nesar Azadzoi & Rod Nordland of the New York Times: "American forces experienced the worst loss of life so far this year in Afghanistan when three soldiers were killed in a Taliban bombing on Tuesday. Three more soldiers and an American contractor were wounded. The deaths took place when a roadside bomb went off near Ghazni City, in the southeastern province of the same name, killing Special Forces soldiers three months after they were sent to save that city from falling to the Taliban. The Pentagon declared an end to American combat operations in Afghanistan in 2014, but since that time, the Taliban have expanded their reach, and the Americans have rejoined the fray."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Maxwell Tani of the Daily Beast: "Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt was clearly taken aback last year when occasional Fox & Friends fill-in host Ed Henry grilled him about a number of ethical scandals facing his administration. And Pruitt had a good reason to be surprised. In past interviews with President Trump's favorite cable-news show, the then-EPA chief's team chose the topics for interviews, and knew the questions in advance. In one instance..., Pruitt's team even approved part of the show's script.... 'Every American journalist knows that to provide scripts or articles to the government for review before publication or broadcast is a cardinal sin. It’s Journalism 101,' said David Hawkins, a CBS News and CNN veteran who teaches journalism at Fordham University. 'This is worse than that. It would and should get you fired from any news organization with integrity.'" --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Mike Elk of the Payday Report: In the wake of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre, "many in the Pittsburgh community [have] rallied behind the cause of immigrant rghts, [but] the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership is still allowing a prominent anti-immigrant group, the Colcom Foundation, to sponsor Pittsburgh's Downtown Holiday Market. The Colcom Foundation, founded by the family of right-wing banking and publishing heir Richard Mellon Scaife, is one of the largest funders of anti-immigration groups in the country.... The logo of Colcom Foundation appears prominently over the main stage in Pittsburgh's Market Square, a public park.