The Commentariat -- March 26, 2019
Late Morning Update:
Odd News. Sopan Deb of the New York Times: "In a stunning move on Tuesday morning, Cook County prosecutors dropped all charges against the 'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett, who had been accused of staging an attack in downtown Chicago earlier this year.... In a statement, Anne Kavanagh, a spokeswoman for Mr. Smollett's lawyers, said: 'Today, all criminal charges against Jussie Smollett were dropped and his record has been wiped clean of the filing of this tragic complaint against him. Jussie was attacked by two people he was unable to identify on Jan. 29. He was a victim who was vilified and made to appear as a perpetrator as a result of false and inappropriate remarks made to the public causing an inappropriate rush to judgment.'" Not mentioned in the Times story: Smollett's attorney was Mark Geragos, who is reportedly the unindicted co-conspirator in the case against Michael Avenatti re: Nike. Also, MSNBC & CNN are reporting that Chicago is keeping Smollett's bail bond. This is a breaking story, so explanations are sparse.
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The Trump Scandals, Ctd. -- The Barr Report
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday blocked a resolution calling for special counsel Robert Mueller's report to be released publicly. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked for unanimous consent for the nonbinding resolution, which cleared the House 420-0.... But McConnell objected, noting that Attorney General William Barr is working with Mueller to determine what in his report can be released publicly and what cannot."
There are a lot of people out there that have done some very, very evil things, some bad things, I would say some treasonous things against our country. And hopefully people that have done such harm to our country -- we've gone through a period of really bad things happening -- those people will certainly be looked at. I've been looking at them for a long time, and I'm saying why haven't they been looked at? They lied to Congress, many of them, you know who they are. They've done so many evil things. -- Donald Trump, Monday, speaking in the Oval ...
"They" did "some very, very evil things" because you're a lying, shady, money-grubbing huckster with a bunch of lying, shady, money-grubbing huckster buddies, & you put yourself in the middle of a successful effort by a foreign adversary to turn a presidential election, after which you & your associates engaged in numerous shady efforts to fulfill the quo of the adversary's quid. You brought this on yourself. And "we" are not done yet. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...
... Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "During a briefing at the Justice Department about three weeks ago, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III made a revelation those supervising his work were not expecting, a person familiar with the matter said. He would not offer a conclusion on whether he believed President Trump sought to obstruct justice. The decision -- which a Justice Department official on Monday said the special counsel's office came to 'entirely' on its own -- left a gap ripe for political exploitation. After accepting Mueller's report, Attorney General William P. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who were among those briefed March 5, made the call Mueller would not, determining the evidence was insufficient to allege Trump had obstructed justice. The decisive maneuver ... sparked allegations that the two Trump appointees had rushed to a judgment no one asked them to make, and is likely to be a key battleground in the intensifying political fight over the conclusion of Mueller's work.... [Monday] Democrats attacked the attorney general and issued an April 2 deadline for him to turn over a copy of the report, while Republicans called for Trump to be given an apology." ...
... Laura Jarrett of CNN: "Roughly three weeks ago the special counsel's team told Attorney General Bill Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that Robert Mueller would not be reaching a conclusion on obstruction of justice, according to a source familiar with the meeting. The source said that conclusion was 'unexpected' and not what Barr had anticipated." Mrs. McC: That "source" must be a really, really good friend of Barr's. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As both Rachel Maddow & Jill Wine-Banks pointed out Monday, Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski also did not indict Nixon; rather, he provided to Congress all of the evidence his team had gathered, including grand jury testimony. So it's possible Mueller was following Jaworski's template in fashioning his report. Did he intend for Bill Barr, rather than Congress, to fill in the blank? We don't know. ...
Jill Wine-Volner, ca. 1975. ... BTW, here's a great excerpt from Wine-Banks' (then Wine-Volner) Wikipage: "... in the proceedings before Judge John Sirica, she was responsible for cross-examining ... Richard Nixon's secretary Rose Mary Woods about the 18-1/2 minute gap on the Watergate tapes.... During cross-examination, Wine-Volner had Woods recreate the way in which Woods claimed she accidentally erased a portion of the tape when she was transcribing it. Woods had claimed to have kept her foot on the pedal on the tape recorder, and Wine-Volner succeeded in demonstrating that this was implausible. Wine-Volner received media attention during the trial for her lawyering and for wearing miniskirts."
"Justice" Is for the Winners. Charlie Savage, et al., of the New York Times: "Mr. Barr's decision to declare that evidence fell short of proving Mr. Trump illegally obstructed the Russia inquiry was an extraordinary outcome to a narrative that has unspooled over nearly two years. Robert S. Mueller III was appointed as special counsel to remove the threat of political interference from an investigation involving the president, but he reached no conclusion on the key question of whether Mr. Trump committed an obstruction-of-justice offense. Mr. Barr stepped in to make the determination, bringing the specter of politics back into the case. Senior Justice Department officials defended his decision as prudent and within his purview, but it reignited a debate about the role of American law enforcement in politically charged federal investigations that has roiled since James B. Comey, as F.B.I. director in 2016, excoriated Hillary Clinton even in announcing that he was recommending she not be charged over her handling of classified emails." ...
... ** Brian Beutler of Crooked: "Notwithstanding Barr's heroic, lawyerly effort to create a sense that Mueller has exonerated Trump, the letter he delivered to Congress on Sunday is nearly silent on all of these questions, and actually suggests that the report's contents are deeply damaging to the president. On close reading, Barr's putative summary of the Mueller report clears Trump of only the most narrowly drawn accusations, which nobody was making.... The entire letter is drafted to suggest practically the opposite of what it actually says.... [Barr's] omissions help explain why, despite his gloating today, Trump behaved until the very end like a guilty man and endeavored ceaselessly to terminate and compromise the investigation.... I anticipate that Trump will go to great, telling lengths to conceal [the Mueller report] -- in ways that sit uncomfortably alongside today's credulous headlines, and Republican insistence that he has been vindicated. But that's exactly why we need to see it in full, and quickly." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Beutler calls out "today's irresponsible headlines and chyrons," and we should do the same. Peter Baker & his headline writer at the NYT should be demoted to covering the local police blotter; the headline on the Times' online front page: "Special Counsel's Conclusions Lift a Cloud over Trump's Presidency." ...
... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jonathan Chait: "Robert Mueller's investigation found that none of Donald Trump's illicit campaign contacts with Russia amounted to a prosecutable crime.... News stories have trumpeted the verdict that Trump's campaign did not collude with Russia -- which is at best unproven, and at worst simply false -- and have been forced into a defensive crouch for having the temerity to devote two and a half years to uncovering the broad web of secret financial and political contacts between Trump and Russia.... That is an oddly credulous approach from people who have treated previous government investigations with withering skepticism.... The Russiagate skeptics are presuming that Barr's letter has refuted three years of devastating reports that paint an unmistakably sordid picture. Their goal now is to bully the media into placing the entire topic, a political scandal of gigantic proportions, out of bounds of discussion." ...
... Marcy Wheeler: "... the William Barr memo everyone is reading to clear Trump and his flunkies of a conspiracy with Russia actually only clears the Trump campaign and those associated with it of conspiring or coordinating with the Russian government in its efforts to hack into computers and disseminate emails for purposes of influencing the election. The exoneration doesn't even extend to coordinating with WikiLeaks, as Roger Stone is alleged to have done (though that, by itself, is not a crime). More significantly, it is silent about whether Trump and his flunkies conspired with Russia in a quid pro quo trading election assistance and a real estate deal for policy considerations, the very same kind of election year shenanigans Barr has covered up once before with Iran-Contra. And that's important, because it means Barr and Rod Rosenstein haven't even cleared Trump of what Rosenstein hired Mueller to investigate." ...
... Michelle Goldberg: "I won't pretend that the weekend's news was not very good for Trump and dispiriting for those of us who despise him.... Until the Mueller report is publicly released, however, it's impossible to tell how much of Trump's victory is substantive and how much is spin.... We should be equally aware of the media tendency to capitulate in the face of Trumpian triumphalism.... It's important that Democrats not allow themselves to be intimidated by right-wing chest-beating, particularly if Republicans try to quash the report's release. Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Representative Devin Nunes, a devoted Trump lackey, called for the report to be burned. Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's lawyers, has said he would 'fight very aggressively' to stop the president's written answers to Mueller from being made public. Republicans may be gloating, but it's Democrats who should be on the offensive. If Trump thinks he has been vindicated, then what is he hiding?"
... From a report by Josh Dawsey & others of the Washington Post: "Within an hour of learning the findings, Trump called for an investigation of his critics and cast himself as a victim. Aides say Trump plans to highlight the cost of the probe and call for organizations to fire members of the media and former government officials who he believes made false accusations about him, while aggressively mocking his critics and one of his favored enemies, the news media. 'Hopefully somebody is going to be looking at the other side,' Trump said, describing the Mueller investigation as 'an illegal takedown that failed.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Reminds me of O.J. going after the "real killers." We've just experienced a "Barr nullification," and now Trump plans to go after the "real criminals."
Lydia Wheeler of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from a mystery company over a grand jury subpoena tied to special counsel Robert Mueller's now completed Russia probe. The justices gave no explanation for denying the request that was submitted by the company, and there were no notable dissents from the nine-member court. It takes four justices to agree to hear a case." (Also linked yesterday.)
** Speaking of Trump's Shady, Money-Grubbing Huckster Buddies. Erik Larson of Bloomberg News: "New York developer Felix Sater is due to testify in Congress this week about his role in Donald Trump's attempt to build a luxury tower in Moscow. A lawsuit filed Monday may provide new fodder for his inquisitors, with its claim that Sater, a longtime associate of Trump's, sought to use money stolen from a bank in Kazakhstan to help develop the building. The suit by BTA Bank JSC alleges that Sater and the wealthy Kazakh businessman Ilyas Khrapunov explored financing the tower deal in 2012 with some of the $4 billion stolen a decade ago by Khrapunov's father-in-law, ex-BTA Chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov. While the Moscow plan fizzled, other transactions tied to Sater helped launder the purloined cash, the bank says." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Every time I make a variation on the assertion "Trump is an ass," within minutes -- and without my looking for evidence -- I come upon a story that backs up my "Trump is an ass" claim. This time the variation was that Trump AND his buddies are asses, and half-an-hour later, Felix Sater came thru for me. And Republicans want us to apologize to Trump? Ha ha ha.
Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "Michael Avenatti, the lawyer best known for representing Stormy Daniels in her lawsuits against President Trump, was arrested Monday as federal prosecutors filed charges accusing him of attempting to extort millions of dollars from Nike by threatening negative publicity right before an earnings call and the N.C.A.A. men's basketball tournament. In court documents filed Monday, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said that Mr. Avenatti and a client, a former A.A.U. basketball coach, told Nike that they had evidence Nike employees had funneled money to recruits. The prosecutors said the men threatened to release the evidence in order to damage Nike's reputation and market capitalization unless the company paid them at least $22.5 million.... The court documents were filed around the same time Mr. Avenatti, in a post on his Twitter account, had announced that he would hold a news conference on Tuesday to accuse Nike of 'a major high school/college basketball scandal.'... The arrest of Mr. Avenatti, who in a separate case was charged by federal prosecutors in California with bank and wire fraud, was the latest development in a spectacular fall...." Mrs. McC: Trump couldn't have a better day if he found out he was as rich as he claims to be. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Matt Stieb of New York: "On Monday, U.S. attorneys in New York and Los Angeles charged Stormy Daniels's former lawyer with extortion and bank and wire fraud. Though the L.A. charges were fairly mundane -- Avenatti allegedly hid from the IRS some $800,000 in money made from his coffee company -- the extortion charge in New York involves the lawyer attempting to blackmail Nike over its alleged practice of paying NCAA recruits to attend schools they sponsored." Stieb lists "the nine most staggering details from the criminal complaints in New York and Los Angeles." Here's one thing: "According to 'a person with knowledge of the investigation' who spoke with the New York Times, Avenatti' co-conspirator is [famous defense attorney & until yesterday, CNN contributor] Mark Geragos...." Here's another: Avenatti really likes to use Mafia-style extortion lingo: "Avenatti asked an attorney if he had ever 'held the balls of the client in your hand where you could take five to six billion dollars off of the market cap?'" But do read on.
** Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Manu Raju of CNN: "GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday that he told the late Sen. John McCain to turn over the dossier of Trump-Russia allegations to the FBI, pushing back against ... Donald Trump's assertions that the Arizona Republican helped fan the flames of the Russia investigation. Graham told CNN after a news conference that he told Trump in Florida this weekend that 'Sen. McCain deserves better' than the way the President has been publicly disparaging the late senator and war hero in the last week. And Graham publicly acknowledged he had advanced knowledge of the dossier, the existence of which has enraged the President. Graham defended McCain's role and said that he told Trump that his close friend's involvement was limited. Graham said that he 'was very direct' with Trump.... Graham added: 'I told the President it was not John McCain. I know because John McCain showed me the dossier. And I told him the only thing I knew to do with it, it could be a bunch of garbage, it could be true, who knows? Turn it over to somebody who's job it is to find thes things out and John McCain acted appropriately.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Remember that Trump's principal beef with McCain these days is that, "He was horrible what he did with repeal and replace. What he did to the Republican Party, and to the nation, and to sick people that could have had great health care, was not good." The bill was not "repeal & replace"; it was "repeal." Trump isn't mad at McCain because McCain voted against "great health care" for "sick people"; rather McCain voted against no health insurance assistance. Trump's obsession with McCain is grounded in McCain's refusal -- in this instance -- to put Trump's need for a "win" over the health needs of millions of Americans. ...
... So Now ... Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Trump administration broadened its attack on the Affordable Care Act on Monday, telling a federal appeals court that it now believed the entire law should be invalidated. The administration had previously said that the law's protections for people with pre-existing conditions should be struck down, but that the rest of the law, including the expansion of Medicaid, should survive. If the appeals court accepts the Trump administration's new arguments, millions of people could lose health insurance, including those who gained coverage through the expansion of Medicaid and those who have private coverage subsidized by the federal government." ...
... MEANWHILE. Robert Pear: "On Tuesday, Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will put aside, at least for now, the liberal quest for a government-run 'Medicare for all' single-payer system and unveil a more incremental approach toward fulfilling those campaign promises. Building on the Affordable Care Act, they would offer more generous subsidies for the purchase of private health insurance offered through the health law's insurance exchanges while financing new efforts to increase enrollment. They would also reverse actions by the Trump administration that allow insurance companies to circumvent protections in the Affordable Care Act for people with pre-existing conditions. Insurers could no longer sell short-term health plans with skimpy benefits or higher premiums for people with chronic illnesses. Ms. Pelosi said the legislation would 'strengthen protections for pre-existing conditions, reverse the G.O.P.'s health care sabotage and lower Americans' health costs.'... In his latest budget request, Mr. Trump urged Congress again to repeal the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, which has provided coverage to at least 12 million people newly eligible for the program."
Carol Lee & Courtney Kube of NBC News: "The country's intelligence chief was on the verge of resigning at the end of last year over his frustrations with ... Donald Trump but was talked out of it by his closest ally in the administration, Vice President Mike Pence, according to current and former senior administration officials. Among the tensions the officials said have marred the relationship between the president and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats: Trump pushed Coats to find evidence that former President Barack Obama wiretapped him; he demanded Coats publicly criticize the U.S. intelligence community as biased; and he accused Coats of being behind leaks of classified information. More recently Trump also fumed to aides after Coats publicly defended the importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in countering Russia's aggression, officials said. But the tipping point for Coats came in December with Trump's abrupt decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria...." Coats & Pence, both from Indiana, are old friends. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Don't worry. Trump can always find a replacement; maybe a groundskeeper at one of his golf clubs (if there are any who are U.S. citizens) or Erik Prince. ...
... All the Best People, Ctd. Paul Krugman: "Many people have described the Trump administration as a kakistocracy -- rule by the worst -- which it is. But it's also a hackistocracy -- rule by the ignorant and incompetent. And in this Trump is just following standard G.O.P. practice.... Until recently..., one agency had seemed immune to the continuing hack invasion: the Federal Reserve, the single institution most crucial to economic policymaking. Trump's Fed nominees, have, by and large, been sensible, respected economists. But that all changed last week, when Trump said he planned to nominate Stephen Moore for the Fed's Board of Governors. Moore is manifestly, flamboyantly unqualified for the position."
Racist-in-Chief Would Deny Continued Aid to Puerto Rico. Jeff Stein & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The federal government provided additional food-stamp aid to Puerto Rico after the hurricane, but Congress missed the deadline for reauthorization in March.... Federal lawmakers have also been stalled by the Trump administration, which has derided the extra aid as unnecessary. Now, about 43 percent of Puerto Rico's residents are grappling with a sudden cut to a benefit they rely on for groceries and other essentials.... Puerto Rico will again need the federal government's help to stave off drastic cuts to Medicaid ... as well as for the disbursement of billions in hurricane relief aid that has not yet been turned over to the island. The island would not need Congress to step in to fund its food-stamp and Medicaid programs if it were a state.... After initially vowing to reject the food-stamp funding, President Trump has agreed to the emergency request to help Senate Republicans pass a broader disaster-relief package, which may be taken up for a vote this week.... But at an Oval Office meeting on Feb. 22, Trump asked top advisers for ways to limit federal support from going to Puerto Rico, believing it is taking money that should be going to the mainland.... Trump has also privately signaled he will not approve any additional help for Puerto Rico beyond the food-stamp money...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Is there some "Rosebud" in Trump's past that had made him such a horrible racist? A mean Mexican nanny? A badass black chauffeur? His hatred of everyone who is (a) poor & (b) doesn't look like she comes from Norway is just odd.
Michael Stratford & Nicole Gaudiano of Politico: "The Education Department has opened investigations into eight universities tied to the sweeping college admissions and bribery scandal unveiled by federal prosecutors earlier this month, according to individuals familiar with the investigation. Department investigators are examining whether any of the universities violated any laws or rules 'governing the Federal student financial aid programs' or 'any other applicable laws,' according to a document reviewed by Politico."
Presidential Race 2020. More Than Half of U.S. Voters Are Phenomenally Ignorant. Matthew Sheffield of the Hill: "A majority of registered voters in a new poll say they would consider voting President Trump into a second term. Fifty-four percent in the Hill-HarrisX survey released Monday said they would think about voting for Trump, though 46 percent of registered voters said they would not even consider casting a ballot for the president. The polling was conducted before a summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's conclusions was released on Sunday by Attorney General William Barr. That summary reported that Mueller did not find evidence of collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia, a huge win for the president. People who said they backed Trump in 2016 are likely to back him again."
The Semi-Automatic Weapons That Keep on Killing. Lori Rozsa, et al., of the Washington Post: "A former cheerleader and recent graduate [of Marjory Stoneman Dougas High], 19-year-old Sydney Aiello took her life on March 17 after struggling with survivor's guilt and post-traumatic stress disorder, her mother said. Six days later, a sophomore who authorities have not identified died by apparent suicide." ...
... Nicholas Rondinone, et al., of the Hartford Courant: "Jeremy Richman, who championed the push for research into how brain health is tied to violence after his daughter, Avielle, and 19 other first-grade students and six educators were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School, was found dead Monday of an apparent suicide at his Main Street office building, not far from the site of the 2012 massacre...."
Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "The German family whose holding company owns controlling stakes in companies such as Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Panera Bread, Pret a Manger and Einstein Bros. Bagels profited from the horrors of the Nazi regime, according to a bombshell report in a German newspaper. The tabloid Bild ... reported that Albert Reimann Sr. and Albert Reimann Jr., whose family backs JAB Holdings, had significant links to the Third Reich. JAB Holdings is a privately held conglomerate that has investments in a wide portfolio of global companies, among them Peet's Coffee, Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper-Snapple.... The report found that Russian civilians and French prisoners of war were used as forced laborers in the family's factories and private villas around World War II, when it was involved in chemicals-related manufacturing mostly for the food industry, according to Deutsche Welle.... Other disclosures in the report include revelations that the two men were anti-Semites and avowed supporters of Adolf Hitler, and Reimann Sr. donated to the paramilitary SS force as early as 1933.... 'It is all correct,' family spokesman Peter Harf, who is one of two managing partners of JAB Holdings, told Bild."
Sacking the Sacklers, Ctd. Alex Marshall of the New York Times: "For decades, the Sackler family generously supported museums worldwide, not to mention numerous medical and educational institutions including Columbia University, where there is a Sackler Institute, and Oxford, where there is a Sackler Library. But now some favorite Sackler charities are reconsidering whether they want the money at all, and several have already rejected any future gifts, concluding that some family members' ties to the opioid crisis outweighed the benefits of their six- and sometimes seven-figure checks.... Documents submitted in court this year in a lawsuit suggested that, far from being bystanders to the epidemic, family members directed company efforts to mislead the public and doctors about the dangers of abusing OxyContin."
Beyond the Beltway
North Carolina. Martha Quillen of the Raleigh News & Observer: "Duke University will pay $112.5 million to settle a whistleblower's lawsuit over a research technician who prosecutors say falsified data to get federal grants for years. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Greensboro in 2014 by a former Duke employee who said that Erin Potts-Kant, who worked in Duke's Airway Physiology Laboratory, had lied about her findings to get dozens of federal grants. The lawsuit alleged that Duke knowingly submitted the researcher's false claims to the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency in 30 grants. Using that data, the agencies gave the university millions of dollars in research grants they otherwise would not have, the lawsuit said."
Way Beyond
Brexit Mutiny. Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Britain's Parliament grabbed control Monday of the government's efforts to leave the European Union, challenging the country's political traditions and inflicting on Prime Minister Theresa May a rebuke not suffered by any recent predecessor. By stepping into the process known as Brexit and trying to define an alternative path, lawmakers could create a constitutional showdown in Britain, where the government normally controls the agenda in Parliament, especially on its most pressing issues. Parliament passed an amendment giving itself the power to vote on alternatives to the government's Brexit plan."
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