The Commentariat -- March 8, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Elana Schor of the AP: "Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Friday rolled out a proposal to break up the biggest U.S. technology companies, saying they have too much control over the economy and Americans' lives. In her pitch to rein in the influence of tech giants, the Massachusetts senator envisions legislation targeting companies with annual worldwide revenue of $25 billion or more, limiting their ability to expand and forcing parts of Google and Amazon's current business structure to operate as separate entities. As president, Warren said she would pick regulators who would seek to break up what she called' anti-competitive mergers' such as Facebook's recent purchase of Instagram and Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods."

Gabby Orr of Politico: "... Donald Trump has accepted the resignation of his communications director, Bill Shine, a former Fox News executive who had spent just nine months on the job. Shine will join the president's re-election campaign as a 'senior adviser' -- a role that will allow him to spend 'more time with my family,' he said in a statement Friday, seeming to suggest something less than a senior leadership role in the campaign. It was not immediately clear if the president urged Shine to resign, nor the extent to which he will be directly involved if Trump's 2020 operation, which had already added several senior communications officials in the last month. Shine is the sixth White House communications director to come and go in just over two years of Trump's presidency.... A 22-year veteran of the television industry, Shine joined Trump's team just two months after he was accused of helping Roger Ailes, the late chairman and CEO of Fox News, cover up several instances of sexual harassment and misconduct that rocked the conservative network and forced Ailes's ouster.... Trump soon wound up grousing that Shine -- who was absent last week during Trump's nuclear summit in Vietnam -- hadn't managed to improve Trump's image or his fraught relationship with the White House press corps." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Trump wants to improve his image, he should resign. In his resignation speech, he should apologize for all his venal acts, his ignorance, his cruelty, his incompetence & his ten lies a day. And he should take mike pence down with him.

Naomi Jagoda of the Hill: "The House on Friday passed legislation that would require presidents to disclose their tax returns, as Democrats have made obtaining President Trump's tax returns one of their top priorities. The tax-return disclosure requirement was included in House Democrats' wide-ranging election-reform bill, known as H.R. 1, which passed on a party-line vote of 234-193. H.R. 1 is not expected to receive a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate."

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday claimed Michael Cohen asked him directly' for a pardon, an allegation that would contradict the former Trump lawyer and fixer's congressional testimony last week.... 'Bad lawyer and fraudster Michael Cohen said under sworn testimony that he never asked for a Pardon. His lawyers totally contradicted him. He lied! Additionally, he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO. He lied again! He also badly wanted to work at the White House. He lied!'... Trump tweeted." ...

     ... Update. Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "Cohen took to Twitter minutes later to deny the accusation. 'Just another set of lies by @POTUS @realdonaldtrump. Mr. President' he wrote, before invoking the women whose hush money payments he helped facilitate. 'Let me remind you that today is #InternationalWomensDay. You may want use today to apologize for your own #lies and #DirtyDeeds to women like Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford.'"

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday seized on a portion of a federal judge's remarks during the sentencing of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in a financial crimes case to again criticize the Russia investigation and falsely declare a finding of 'no collusion.'... 'Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia. But the Witch Hunt Hoax continues as you now add these statements to House & Senate Intelligence & Senator Burr. So bad for our Country!'... Speaking to reporters before he left for Alabama to inspect tornado damage, Mr. Trump said that the sentencing judge, T.S. Ellis III of the United States District Court in Alexandria, Va., had said 'there was no collusion with Russia.' Mr. Trump added that he was 'very honored' Judge Ellis made that statement. Mr. Trump, however, twisted Judge Ellis's words. What Judge Ellis actually said Thursday was that Mr. Manafort was 'not before this court for anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government to influence this election.'... Mr. Manafort's attorneys used the same false talking point as the president on Thursday, saying in a brief statement after the hearing, 'There is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved in any collusion with any government official or Russia.'" ...

... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday said he feels 'very badly' for Paul Manafort, who was sentenced to four years in prison for financial crimes unearthed by special counsel Robert Mueller, but added he has not discussed a pardon for his former campaign chairman. 'I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. I think it's a very, very tough time for him,' he told reporters at the White House." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Will someone please tell that bigly idiot that he "feels bad" for all his criminal friends who got caught, unless he means that he can't touch them with his tiny hands.

Brian Melley of the AP: "A federal judge on Thursday tossed out porn actress Stormy Daniels' lawsuit against ... Donald Trump that sought to tear up a hush-money settlement about their alleged affair. U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero in Los Angeles said the suit was irrelevant after Trump and his former personal lawyer agreed not to penalize Daniels for violating a nondisclosure agreement she signed in exchange for a $130,000 payment."

Alexi McCammond of Axios: "From a White House source, the House Oversight Committee has obtained documents related to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump's security clearances that the Trump administration refused to provide, according to a senior Democratic aide involved in handling the documents.... The White House this week rejected the committee's request for documents on the process for granting security clearances to staffers.... But the House Oversight Committee in early February had already obtained the leaked documents that detail the entire process, from the spring of 2017 to the spring of 2018, on how both Kushner and Trump were ultimately granted their security clearances." Mrs. McC: I'm thinking the leaked docs may not contain the smoking guns the committee needs.

Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Donald Trump’s inauguration received tens of thousands of dollars from shell companies that masked the involvement of a foreign contributor or others with foreign ties. The Guardian has identified the creators of three obscure firms that contributed money to Trump's inaugural committee, which collected a record $107m as he entered the White House in 2017. The three companies each gave $25,000 to Trump's inaugural fund. At least one of the contributions was made for a foreign national who appears ineligible to make political donations in the US."

Eli Honig of CNN: "... Judge Ellis's sentence is an injustice. It fails to adequately punish Manafort for committing a series of deliberate crimes over many years, and it sends terrible messages to the public about our criminal justice system.... [The] sentence sends a corrosive two-pronged message to the American public. First, Manafort openly flouted the criminal justice system at every step and still got an enormous break. Following his arrest, Manafort got caught trying to tamper with witnesses, which caused Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, DC, to revoke his bail and send him to jail to await trial. He went to trial in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he denied culpability but was found guilty by a jury on eight counts. He then pleaded guilty to even more crimes and purported to try to cooperate with Mueller, but instead told more lies to Mueller and the FBI. Even today at sentencing, the judge found that Manafort did not accept responsibility.... Manafort committed crimes repeatedly, deliberately, and over many years, stealing millions of dollars from the US government to support his absurdly lavish lifestyle...."

Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "The Department of Homeland Security and the House Homeland Security Committee are investigating whether U.S. border agents have been targeting journalists for questioning, according to a statement from Customs and Border Protection and a letter to CBP from the chair of the committee. The statement and letter were in response to an exclusive story from NBC News and San Diego's KNSD-TV story that revealed CBP officials in the San Diego sector had compiled a list of 59 reporters, lawyers and activists to be pulled aside for further screening when crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The list includes 10 journalists, seven of them U.S. citizens, a U.S.-based attorney and others labeled as organizers and 'instigators,' 31 of whom are American."

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The Trump Scandals, Ctd. -- "An Otherwise Blameless Life" Edition -- Plus Bonus New Sex Scandal

In case the Manafort sentence is too much of a bummer for you, here's a new Trump sex scandal to cheer you up. And no, Reality Chex is still not the Onion:

The Company He Keeps. Sarah Blaskey, et al., of the Miami Herald: "Seated at a round table littered with party favors and the paper-cutout footballs that have become tradition at his annual Super Bowl Watch Party..., Donald Trump cheered the New England Patriots and his longtime friend, team owner Robert Kraft, to victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Feb. 3. Sometime during the party at Trump's West Palm Beach country club, the president turned in his chair to look over his right shoulder, smiling for a photo with two women at a table behind him. The woman who snapped the blurry Super Bowl selfie with the president was Li Yang, 45, a self-made entrepreneur from China who started a chain of Asian day spas in South Florida. Over the years, these establishments -- many of which operate under the name Tokyo Day Spas -- have gained a reputation for offering sexual services. Nineteen days after Trump and Yang posed together while rooting for the Patriots, authorities would charge Kraft with soliciting prostitution at a spa in Jupiter that Yang had founded more than a decade earlier." ...

... Flashback to February. New York Post: "President Trump ... said he was surprised' that Robert Kraft was busted for patronizing a sleazy massage parlor in Florida -- but emphasized that his billionaire buddy 'has denied it.'

Manafort Gets a Slap on the Wrist. Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Paul Manafort, who once served as President Trump's campaign chairman, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison Thursday for cheating on his taxes and bank fraud — a spectacular fall for a once high-flying political consultant who told the judge he is now humiliated and ashamed. Manafort had faced up to 24 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, but U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis called that calculation 'excessive' and sentenced him instead to 47 months. Ellis noted that he must consider the entirety of Manafort's life when issuing a sentence, noting Manafort has been 'a good friend' and a 'generous person' but that 'can't erase the criminal activity.' Manafort's tax crimes, the judge said, were 'a theft of money from everyone who pays taxes.' But the judge expressed some sympathy for Manafort.... 'He's lived an otherwise blameless life,' Ellis said. The judged noted Manafort has no past crimina history and 'earned the admiration of a number of people' who wrote letters to the court support Manafort.... 'The last two years have been the most difficult years for my family and I,' Manafort told the judge [before sentencing]. 'To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.'... Speaking from his chair, Manafort did not apologize for his crimes, but thanked the judge for how he had conducted the trial." ...

... The New York Times story, by Sharon LaFraniere, is here. ...

For context on Manafort's 47 months in prison, my client yesterday was offered 36-72 months in prison for stealing $100 worth of quarters from a residential laundry room. -- Public Defender Scott Hechinger, in a tweet ...

... Dennis Romero of NBC News: "Legal observers were surprised by the relatively light, 47-month sentence received Thursday by ... Paul Manafort.... With time served, Thursday's sentence means Manafort could spend a little more than three years behind bars for this case.... Many ... observers highlighted the disparity between punishments for white-collar crime like Manafort's and street crime, and between the sentences for wealthy people and everyone else. Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said, 'In our current broken system, '"justice" isn't blind, it's bought.' Rob Flaherty, who has worked for progressive advocacy organizations, tweeted a link to an article about a black man getting sentenced to 12 years in Mississippi for medical marijuana he bought legally in another state.... 'Judge Ellis has inexcusably perverted justice and the guidelines,' Harvard Law School professor and Trump critic Laurence Tribe tweeted." ...

... ** Franlin Foer of the Atlantic: "In an otherwise blameless life, he acted with impunity, as if the laws never applied to him. When presented with a chance to show remorse to the court, he couldn't find that sentiment within his being. And with Ellis's featherweight punishment, which deviated sharply downward from the sentencing guidelines, Manafort managed to bring his life's project to a strange completion. He had devoted his career to normalizing corruption in Washington. By the time he was caught, his extraordinary avarice had become so commonplace, that not even a federal judge could blame him for it." Read the whole post. Foer reprises a number of things Manafort has done "in an otherwise blameless life." Mrs. McC: One suspects that Judge Ellis is either senile or sequestered.

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday doubled down on his assertion he did not break the law when he involved himself in a scheme to pay two women who alleged in the lead-up to the 2016 election that they had extramarital affairs with him. 'It was not a campaign contribution, and there were no violations of the campaign finance laws by me. Fake News!' Trump tweeted." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Gold of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen, the former personal lawyer and fixer for President Trump, sued the Trump Organization on Thursday. He accused the company of breaking a contract when it refused to pay about $1.9 million in legal costs after he began cooperating with federal prosecutors. The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, said that the Trump Organization had failed to live up to an agreement to pay for any legal fees or related costs Mr. Cohen incurred in his work with the Trump Organization. Mr. Cohen is also seeking reimbursement for an additional $1.9 million he was ordered to pay in fines, forfeiture and restitution after he pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws, evading taxes and lying to Congress, the lawsuit said.... The lawsuit said Mr. Cohen and the Trump Organization had entered an agreement under which the company would pay for Mr. Cohen's legal fees and costs arising from investigations being conducted by Congress and by Robert S. Mueller III...."

The Last Parse (Maybe). Lucien Bruggeman of ABC News: "Michael Cohen ... asked one of his attorneys last summer to inquire with an attorney representing the president about receiving a pardon, Cohen's spokesman Lanny Davis told ABC News Thursday.... Cohen, at the time, was part of a joint defense agreement with the president and many of his advisers. 'Prior to Michael Cohen's decision to leave the "Joint Defense Group" and tell the truth on July 2, 2018, Michael was open to the ongoing "dangling" of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media,' Davis said. 'During that time period, he directed his attorney to explore possibilities of a pardon at one point with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as other lawyers advising President Trump. But after July 2, 2018, Mr. Cohen authorized me as a new lawyer to say publicly Mr. Cohen would never accept a pardon from President Trump even if offered,' Davis said, adding, 'That continues to be the case.' Davis' revelation appears to contradict testimony Cohen provided to the House Oversight Committee last week. 'I have never asked for it, nor would I accept a pardon from President Trump,' Cohen told the panel in his opening statement. Davis pointed to nuances in Cohen's testimony.... 'But the sentence was also literally true,' Davis argued. '[Cohen] never asked President Trump for a pardon. His lawyer explored the disingenuous "dangle" repeatedly floated by Rudy and Trump in one meeting and never followed up.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course that's not the last parse. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) was on the teevee Thursday night and said that when the transcript of Cohen's testimony before the House Intelligence Committee is released (which it will be), readers will understand why Cohen's sworn testimony is consistent with the pardon "exploration" story.

"Nothing Ever Happened." Noah Bierman & Chris Megerian of the Los Angeles Times: "The president's legal team has prepared a roughly 80-page counter-report that could be released in whole or in part depending on what Mueller alleges [in his anticipated report], according to Rudolph W. Giuliani.... For example, Giuliani said, if Mueller mentions the notorious June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York involving three top Trump aides -- his son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort -- and a Kremlin-linked lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton, 'we would point out that nothing ever happened and it never went anywhere.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "Officials and staffers in the U.S. embassy in Riyadh said they were not read in on the details of Jared Kushner's trip to Saudi Arabia or the meetings he held with members of the country's royal court last week, according to three sources with knowledge of the trip. And that's causing concern not only in the embassy but also among members of Congress.... Kushner ... met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and King Salman.... But no one from the embassy in Riyadh was in the meetings, according to those same sources. The State Department did have a senior official in attendance, but he was not part of the State Department team in Saudi.... The embassy was largely left in the dark on the details of Kushner's schedule and his conversations with Saudi officials, according to two individuals with knowledge of the trip...."

Opheli Lawler of New York: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen "Nielsen's responses seemed to indicate that the secretary was either not aware of the severity of the treatment of migrants in the United States -- particularly children -- or she was intentionally giving misleading answers to obfuscate the endless reports of abuse against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol.... 'There was no parent who has been deported to my knowledge without multiple opportunities to take their children with them,' Nielsen said. Nielsen's statement directly contradicts multiple news reports detailing traumatic deportations of parents who were separated from their children at the border and may never be reunited. Later, when being questioned by Representative Lauren Underwood, about the research showing that family separation can be traumatizing for children, Nielsen again claimed to be unaware of the specific effects of Trump's zero-tolerance policies." (Also linked yesterday.)

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "The State Department rescinded a prestigious award to a Finnish investigative journalist after U.S. officials combed through her social media posts and found she frequently criticized ... Donald Trump. Journalist Jessikka Aro has faced death threats and harassment after exposing Russia's propaganda machine well before the 2016 presidential election, and the U.S. State Department decided to present her with the International Women of Courage Award, reported Foreign Policy. Aro was told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would present her with the award in Washington, D.C., but weeks later the offer was rescinded due to what a department spokesman called a 'regrettable error.' However, Aro and U.S. officials familiar with the deliberations say the offer was over the reporter's social media criticism of the president. 'It created a shitstorm of getting her unceremoniously kicked off the list,' said one U.S. diplomatic source. 'I think it was absolutely the wrong decision on so many levels (and) had nothing to do with her work.' It's not clear whether the decision to revoke the award came from Pompeo or the White House."

The Remarkable Rewards for Posing as a Trump-Loving Prop. Ray Sanchez & Rene Marsh of CNN: "Lynne Patton, a longtime Trump family associate who made a controversial appearance at last week's House hearing with Michael Cohen, says she has the President's blessing to follow in his footsteps as a reality TV star, even as she serves as a high-ranking federal housing official. Patton's appearance on a still-developing show about black Republicans would come during her tenure as the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's regional director for New York and New Jersey, which provides rental assistance to more than 800,000 vulnerable households and homeless services to more than 80,000 people. Asked if she has Trump's approval, Patton said, 'Yes.'"

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a far-reaching resolution condemning anti-Semitism and bigotry, which Democratic leaders brought to a vote in hopes of quelling the uproar that erupted after one of their own, Representative Ilhan Omar, insinuated that backers of Israel exhibit dual loyalty. 'I see everything as an opportunity,' Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday before the House voted, 407-23, for her resolution. 'This is an opportunity once again to declare as strongly as possible opposition to anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim statements,' and 'white supremacist attitudes.' All 'no' votes were Republican. Representative Steve King, the Iowa Republican who was stripped of his committee assignments this year after years of bigoted comments, voted present."

Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "Former Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that the next Democratic president should seriously' consider adding additional seats to the United States Supreme Court should they be elected alongside a Democratic majority in the Senate. The comments came during a discussion Holder held with the Yale Law National Security Group.... The one 2020 Democratic candidate who has said that court packing should be a consideration is South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course this would work only with a Democratic-controlled Senate as Republicans would never seat additional justices. I'm not sure about packing the Supreme Court, but I feel strongly that the next Democratic president should add more lower court judges. We keep hearing about how the courts are overworked, causing long delays. So let's add judges & staff to take up the slack.

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "A Florida jury on Thursday found a former police officer, Nouman K. Raja, guilty of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a black man who had been waiting for help on a highway after his car broke down, lawyers for the man's family said. One of the lawyers, Benjamin L. Crump, announced on Twitter that Mr. Raja had been found guilty of both counts against him: manslaughter by culpable negligence and attempted first-degree murder with a firearm. The 2015 killing of the man, Corey Jones, a 31-year-old musician and housing inspector, drew national attention as one in a series of killings of black men by the police. The encounter also highlighted Florida's so-called Stand You Ground law, which Mr. Raja's lawyer had cited in his defense."

News Lede

Bloomberg News: "U.S. hiring was the weakest in more than a year while wage gains were the fastest of the expansion and the unemployment rate fell, a possible sign that America's jobs engine is starting to slow down. Treasuries rose while the dollar and stock futures fell. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 20,000 after an upwardly revised 311,000 gain the prior month, a Labor Department report showed Friday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey called for an increase of 180,000. Average hourly earnings rose a better-than- projected 3.4 percent from a year earlier, while the jobless rate declined to 3.8 percent, near a five-decade low."

The Commentariat -- March 7, 2019

Late Morning Update:

** GOOD GRIEF! Judge T.S. Ellis gives Paul Manafort a sentence of only 47 months when the sentencing guidelines were 19-1/2 to 24 years. No link. Manafort spoke briefly before the sentencing and expressed no remorse but said the last couple of years had been difficult for his family and him.

The Last Parse (Maybe). Lucien Bruggeman of ABC News: "Michael Cohen ... asked one of his attorneys last summer to inquire with an attorney representing the president about receiving a pardon, Cohen's spokesman Lanny Davis told ABC News Thursday.... Cohen, at the time, was part of a joint defense agreement with the president and many of his advisers. 'Prior to Michael Cohen's decision to leave the "Joint Defense Group" and tell the truth on July 2, 2018, Michael was open to the ongoing "dangling" of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media,' Davis said. 'During that time period, he directed his attorney to explore possibilities of a pardon at one point with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as other lawyers advising President Trump. But after July 2, 2018, Mr. Cohen authorized me as a new lawyer to say publicly Mr. Cohen would never accept a pardon from President Trump even if offered,' Davis said, adding, 'That continues to be the case.' Davis' revelation appears to contradict testimony Cohen provided to the House Oversight Committee last week. 'I have never asked for it, nor would I accept a pardon from President Trump,' Cohen told the panel in his opening statement. Davis pointed to nuances in Cohen's testimony.... 'But the sentence was also literally true,' Davis argued. '[Cohen] never asked President Trump for a pardon. His lawyer explored the disingenuous "dangle" repeatedly floated by Rudy and Trump in one meeting and never followed up.'"

The Last Flip-Flop (Maybe). Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "The House is expected to vote Thursday on a resolution broadly condemning hate in the wake of freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) speaking critically of Israel. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) announced at a closed-door whip meeting that the resolution would come up later in the day. Legislative text is expected to be released Thursday morning."

The Last Lie for the Next Hour (Maybe). Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday doubled down on his assertion he did not break the law when he involved himself in a scheme to pay two women who alleged in the lead-up to the 2016 election that they had extramarital affairs with him. 'It was not a campaign contribution, and there were no violations of the campaign finance laws by me. Fake News!' Trump tweeted."

"Nothing Ever Happened." Noah Bierman & Chris Megerian of the Los Angeles Times: "The president's legal team has prepared a roughly 80-page counter-report that could be released in whole or in part depending on what Mueller alleges [in his anticipated report], according to Rudolph W. Giuliani.... For example, Giuliani said, if Mueller mentions the notorious June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York involving three top Trump aides -- his son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort -- and a Kremlin-linked lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton, 'we would point out that nothing ever happened and it never went anywhere.'"

Opheli Lawler of New York: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen "Nielsen's responses seemed to indicate that the secretary was either not aware of the severity of the treatment of migrants in the United States -- particularly children -- or she was intentionally giving misleading answers to obfuscate the endless reports of abuse against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol.... 'There was no parent who has been deported to my knowledge without multiple opportunities to take their children with them,' Nielsen said. Nielsen's statement directly contradicts multiple news reports detailing traumatic deportations of parents who were separated from their children at the border and may never be reunited. Later, when being questioned by Representative Lauren Underwood, about the research showing that family separation can be traumatizing for children, Nielsen again claimed to be unaware of the specific effects of Trump's zero-tolerance policies."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Biggest Loser. David Nakamura, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump proclaimed in a freewheeling speech to a conference of conservatives last weekend that 'America is winning again.' But his administration has been on a pronounced losing streak over the past week. Trump is losing ground on top priorities to curb illegal immigration, cut the trade deficit and blunt North Korea's nuclear threat -- setbacks that complicate his planned reelection message as a can-do president who is making historic progress.... Yet as he has struggled to fulfill some of his signature campaign promises, Trump has consistently blamed others for his woes. He has criticized the administrations of Barack Obama and George W. Bush for not reforming the immigration system or reining in North Korea. He has railed at Democrats for failing to support his proposed border wall and implored them to ratify new trade deals. And he has even attacked fellow Republicans, obliquely slamming former House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) during a Rose Garden news conference last month for not having pushed faster to get a deal on the wall.... 'Not my fault I inherited this mess, but we're fixing it,' he said during the [CPAC] speech."

The Trump Scandals, Ctd. -- I Beg Your Pardon Edition

Rebecca Ballhaus of the Wall Street Journal: "Michael Cohen ... directed his attorney [Stephen Ryan] last spring to inquire about the possibility of a presidential pardon, weeks after federal agents raided his properties, Cohen's lawyer said Wednesday.... In testimony before the House Oversight Committee last week, Cohen said: 'I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from Mr. Trump.' Lanny Davis, a lawyer for Cohen, said Wednesday that in the months after the FBI raid, Cohen was open to a pardon from the president. 'During that time period, he directed his attorney to explore possibilities of a pardon at one point with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as other lawyers advising President Trump,' Davis said. He referred to the discussions with the president's lawyers as the 'ongoing dangling' of a possible pardon.'" This is a short version of the WSJ report. The full, firewalled report is here. ...

     ... Robert Costa of the Washington Post, in a tweet, writes that Lanny Davis told him that Ballhaus's story "has it right."

... Mary Jalonick & Eric Tucker of the AP: "Asked about the pardon issue Tuesday evening, another Cohen attorney, Lanny Davis, said his client was speaking carefully during his public testimony. He acknowledged on MSNBC that Cohen 'was certainly looking at the option of a pardon' before he decided to come clean and turn on Trump. But since then, Davis said, Cohen has been clear that he wouldn't accept a pardon." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It's pretty hard to square Cohen's sworn public testimony with Davis's assertion here. Asking one's attorney to "inquire about the possibility of a pardon" sounds a helluva lot like "asking for a pardon." I suppose one could argue that "exploring" the possibility of a pardon, while mulling one's options, is not exactly the same as asking for a pardon -- kind of like the young man who asks his girlfriend, "Would you consider marrying me?" & claims later when he gets cold feet that it was an academic question, not a proposal. But that is splitting hairs. In any event, it would seem it was not Trump who was "dangling a pardon" in front of Cohen but Cohen who was "dangling cooperation/lying" in front of Trump. Unless there are some mitigating factors. ...

     ... One possible mitigating factor: who was paying Cohen's lawyers? digby: "Cohen and his legal team at that time [April - May 2018] had an unusual relationship. The Trump Organization had agreed to pay both the law firm representing him and the special master who had been assigned to review the thousands of documents seized in the raids on Cohen's office and homes to remove those that would involve attorney-client privilege. The bills piled up quickly and Trump reportedly balked at paying them (of course,) so Cohen's attorneys decided to leave the case last June. By July, Cohen had hired new lawyers and had decided to cooperate. Those few weeks in which they were all sharing information is when Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan, allegedly spoke to Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, about a pardon. Ryan isn't talking.... [AND] Those search warrants were served on Michael Cohen on April 9. Just 10 days before that, the New York Times had reported that Trump attorney John Dowd had discussed pardons with the lawyers for Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, so the issue was already in the air when Cohen got nabbed." ...

... Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump's lead lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said Wednesday that lawyers for several people facing scrutiny from the Justice Department ... had contacted him to see whether the president would pardon their clients. Mr. Giuliani declined to identify the lawyers who broached the subject with him or their clients. He made his statement in response to questions about Mr. Trump's former lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, who has told federal prosecutors in Manhattan about pardon discussions last year that involved Mr. Giuliani and a lawyer who was expressing interest in representing Mr. Cohen, according to people briefed on the matter.... Mr. Giuliani ... said he always insisted to defense lawyers that Mr. Trump would not consider granting pardons until the investigations were long over.... 'I would say with a few lawyers: You shouldn't make any decision based on the assumption of a pardon,' Mr. Giuliani said in recounting the discussions.... Mr. Cohen recently provided information to federal prosecutors in Manhattan about the pardon discussions as part of his effort to assist the authorities and potentially reduce his lengthy prison sentence." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In an interview with the New York Post in November 2018, Trump said, "It was never discussed, but I wouldn't take it off the table," regarding a pardon for Paul Manafort. "Why would I take it off the table?"

... Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Michael Cohen has claimed to the House Intelligence Committee that he discussed the subject of a pardon with President Trump's attorney Jay Sekulow, bringing another of Trump's representatives into an ongoing dispute over precisely who opened discussions about the matter. Under penalty of perjury, Cohen alleged to lawmakers that he discussed pardons with Sekulow in addition to Rudolph W. Giuliani, another of Trump's lawyers, according to four people familiar with Cohen's testimony who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... Cohen appeared before the committee for about eight hours Wednesday, concluding a closed-door interview that began last week.... The people ... declined to provide specifics, including the dates or substance of his alleged conversations with Sekulow and Giuliani." ...

     ... ** The WashPo story has been updated, with Robert Costa added to the byline. New Lede: "Michael Cohen's former legal team reached out to President Trump's lawyers seeking a pardon, Cohen's current attorney said late Wednesday, largely settling speculation about who initiated conversations about the matter but raising new questions about whether Cohen was honest in his public testimony to Congress last week.Cohen's lawyer Lanny J. Davis said in an interview that Cohen directed his former attorney, Stephen Ryan, to contact Trump's representatives after they 'dangled' the possibility of pardons 'in their public statements.'" Also: "On Wednesday, Cohen gave the House Intelligence Committee documents that purportedly illustrate how the president's lawyers edited his 2017 statements to Congress.... The committee has not made those documents public. According to people familiar with what's contained in the documents, the changes were plentiful.... But one of these people said that the changes were not substantive and that there had been no direct changes made to Cohen's original claims about the timeline along which Trump pursued the real estate project in Russia." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: IOW, the "new & reformed" Michael Cohen is still telling tales under oath. Other than "a leopard doesn't change its spots," I don't get it. There is zero upside to his falsely volunteering he didn't ask for a pardon & very little downside to staying silent on the matter or admitting upfront that he did consider continuing to conspire with Trump but ultimately decided not to do so. ...

... ** Eliana Larramendia, et al., of ABC News: "In the weeks following the federal raids on former Michael Cohen's law office and residences last April..., [Cohen] was contacted by two New York attorneys who claimed to be in close contact with Rudy Giuliani, the current personal attorney to Trump, according to sources with direct knowledge of the discussions. The outreach came just as Cohen ... was wrangling with ... whether to remain in a joint defense agreement with the president and others, or to flip on ... [Trump]. The sources described the lawyers' contact with Cohen as an effort to keep him in the tent.... The sources ... said the two lawyers first reached out to Cohen late in April of last year and that the discussions continued for about two months. The attorneys, who have no known formal ties to the White House, urged Cohen not to leave the joint defense agreement, the sources told ABC News..., and also offered a Plan B. In the event Cohen opted to exit the agreement, they could join his legal team and act as a conduit between Cohen and the president's lawyers.... The sources tell ABC News that during the multiple conversations between Cohen and the attorneys, there was no explicit discussion or offer of a presidential pardon for Cohen. But the sources said there was an implicit message that if Cohen hired these lawyers, it could preserve or increase his chances of a pardon down the road...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Read the whole story, especially if you'd like some insight into how mobsters work. These unnamed attorneys (Biscuits & Books?) are cutouts for a cutout (Rudy). ...

... Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Michael Cohen on Wednesday provided the House Intelligence Committee with new documents showing edits to the false written statement he delivered to Congress in 2017 about the Trump Organization's pursuit of the Trump Tower Moscow project into the 2016 campaign season, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The documents Cohen provided are intended to further explain his public testimony last week, in which Cohen said that ... Donald Trump's then-personal lawyer Jay Sekulow made changes to his statement to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, and that it was reviewed ahead of time by lawyers like Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner....It's unclear what Cohen's documents show was specifically changed in the statement. Cohen is testifying Wednesday behind closed doors at the House Intelligence Committee." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Nicholas Fandos & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen on Wednesday provided new documents to the House Intelligence Committee that he said illustrated changes made at the request of President Trump's lawyers to a knowingly false written statement that he delivered to Congress in 2017.... Mr. Cohen ... brought multiple drafts of his 2017 statement along with emails with Mr. Trump's lawyers about its drafting, hoping to back up claims that he made last week at an open hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee ... [when he] testified that there were 'changes made, additions' to the original written statement, including about the length of negotiations over a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign.... Two of the people familiar with the documents and Mr. Cohen's testimony ... said that at least some of the changes appeared to play down the knowledge of ... Ivanka Trump, about the project."

Anita Kumar of Politico: "... Donald Trump's strategy on congressional investigations has amounted to a two-pronged strategy: dodge requests -- and attack, attack, attack. The White House launched a fire-breathing public relations response to House Democrats while the Trump administration has refused or delayed turning over documents in 30 investigations by a dozen different committees, according to House Democrats." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jim VandeHei & Mike Allen of Axios: "Even without seeing Robert Mueller's report, or knowing what prosecutors with the Southern District of New York have unearthed, or what congressional investigators will find, we already have witnessed the biggest political scandal in American history." VandeHei & Allen draw parallels -- where they exist -- to historic scandals.

Carol Lee of NBC News: "Former White House chief of staff John Kelly said he disagreed with some Trump administration policies -- particularly on immigration -- but dodged questions Wednesday about the president reportedly intervening to secure top-secret security clearances< for his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Kelly, in an appearance at Duke University, did not deny reports that ... Donald Trump circumvented the usual process to grant the security clearances or that he later wrote a memo outlining his concerns about it. He simply said he believes any such conversations with the president would be privileged and that he's not at liberty to discuss security clearances.... Relatively subdued and cautious, Kelly landed some gloved swipes on his former boss -- at one point saying if [Hillary Clinton] ... had won the presidency and asked him to serve, he would have worked for her." Lee cites numerous instances where Kelly said he disagreed with Trump.

Joshua Partlow, et al., of the Washington Post: Juan "Quintero, 42, was so trusted by the Trumps that he had not one but two jobs working for the family. He was a greenskeeper at the Trump National Golf Club Hudson Valley in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., where he would work eight-hour shifts on weekdays. Then he would put in five more hours each day as a contractor at the 171-acre hunting retreat called Leather Hill Preserve, which serves as a private weekend playground for President Trump's sons and the property's co-owners. He also was an immigrant from Mexico who had crossed the border more than two decades ago and was working illegally in the United States. In January, Quintero lost his golf course job after 18 years of employment -- part of a purge of undocumented workers from Trump's businesses amid revelations that the company relied on illegal labor for years.... Gone, too, was his side job at the hunting retreat.... Quintero said he never directly told Eric Trump about his immigration status. But he said he remained employed by the hunting lodge for more than a year after not providing the owners with a Social Security number when they sought to issue him a debit card." (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump Hides CIA Killings. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "President Trump on Wednesday weakened a rule that required the government to annually make public its estimates of civilian bystanders killed in airstrikes outside conventional war zones -- increasing the secrecy that cloaks one of the most contentious aspects of the fight against terrorists. In an executive order, Mr. Trump revoked a disclosure requirement that President Barack Obama imposed in July 2016. The change was the latest in a series of ways that Mr. Trump has dismantled the architecture that Mr. Obama built over time to constrain the use of drone strikes and commando raids targeting Islamist militants in places like tribal Pakistan and rural Yemen.... Mr. Trump's executive order noted that since 2016, Congress has enacted a law that separately requires the Pentagon to issue annual reports about bystander deaths from all of its operations.... Still, the law ... does not extend to airstrikes by the C.I.A., which has carried out its own drone campaign...."

Ana Swanson & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "The United States trade deficit in goods ballooned to its largest level in history, reaching $891.3 billion in 2018, despite President Trump's repeated promise to reduce that figure. The gap between the goods that the United States sells to China and what China sells to America rose to a record $419 billion, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That gap has been a particular source of ire for Mr. Trump, who has imposed steep tariffs on Chinese goods to try and slow imports into America. In December, the overall goods and services deficit rose to $59.8 billion, up 19 percent from the previous month. It was the highest monthly trade deficit in a decade. The trade deficit, or the gap between value of goods and services imported into the country and exported out of it, expanded mainly because of the strong American economy, which allowed Americans to purchase more from abroad. A strong dollar, which weighed on American exports, and a continued shortfall in American savings also helped to buoy the metric." (Also linked yesterday.)

Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "In her first congressional appearance since Democrats took control of the House, [Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen] Nielsen was defiant in the face of criticism of the administration for its treatment of migrant families at the border, especially its decision last summer to separate children from their parents.... Democrats demanded that Ms. Nielsen address the chaos that followed the family separation decision, the deaths of migrant children in federal custody and Mr. Trump's claim of a national emergency at the border that he has said requires construction of a border wall.... 'Ou capacity is already severely strained, but these increases will overwhelm the system entirely,' Ms. Nielsen told members of the House Homeland Security Committee. 'This is not a manufactured crisis. This is truly an emergency.'... Ms. Nielsen applauded the president's demand for a wall. She also urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would allow the indefinite detention of families and to more easily turn back claims of asylum by migrants from Central America, who have been arriving in record numbers at the southern border." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... This is the Trump administration. Nielsen argues with Democratic committee members about the definition of "cage." Watch to the end:

... Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "Customs and Border Protection has compiled a list of 59 mostly American reporters, attorneys and activists for border agents to stop for questioning when crossing the U.S-Mexican border at San Diego-area checkpoints, and agents have questioned or arrested at least 21 of them, according to documents obtained by NBC station KNSD-TV and interviews with people on the list. Several people on the list confirmed to NBC News that they had been pulled aside at the border after the date the list was compiled and were told they were being questioned as part of a 'national security investigation.'" ...

... Tom Jones, et al., of NBC 7 San Diego: "In addition to flagging the individuals for secondary screenings, the Homeland Security source told NBC 7 that the agents also created dossiers on each person listed. 'We are a criminal investigation agency, we're not an intelligence agency,' the Homeland Security source told NBC 7 Investigates. 'We can't create dossiers on people and they're creating dossiers. This is an abuse of the Border Search Authority.'"

Joshua Eaton of ThinkProgress: "The FBI failed last year to complete 276,000 gun background checks within a three-day time window meant to prevent the sale of firearms to individuals not legally allowed to own them, data obtained by ThinkProgress showed. The data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has not been previously published, shows how many gun background checks in 2018 took longer than three business days. If a background check is not completed within three days, federal laws allow a gun dealer make the sale anyway, even though many gun dealers -- including some large retailers -- choose not to." --s

Fred Barbash of the Washington Post: "Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross acted in 'bad faith,' broke several laws and violated the constitutional underpinning of representative democracy when he added a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. In finding a breach of the Constitution's enumeration clause, which requires a census every 10 years to determine each state's representation in Congress, the 126-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco went further than a similar decision on Jan. 15 by Judge Jesse Furman in New York. The Supreme Court has already agreed to review Furman's narrower decision, with arguments set for April 23, but may now need to expand its inquiry to constitutional dimensions.... Unable to find any expert in the Census Bureau who approved of his plan to add the citizenship question, Seeborg wrote, Ross engaged in a 'cynical search to find some reason, any reason' to justify the decision. He was fully aware that the question would produce a census undercount, particularly among Latinos, the judge said. That would have probably reduced the representation in Congress -- and thus in the electoral college that decides the presidency -- of states with significant immigrant populations, notably California. Because census data is used to apportion distribution of federal funds, an undercount would also have cheated these same jurisdictions, the judge said." ...

... John Bowden of the Hill: "A federal judge [Richard Seeborg] ruled against the Trump administration Wednesday, blocking the Commerce Department from adding a question on citizenship to the 2020 U.S. Census. In a ruling, a judge for the Northern District of California wrote that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross's search for a plausible reason to add a citizenship question to the census fell under the umbrella of an 'arbitrary and capricious' decision by the government.... 'Moreover, Secretary Ross's conclusion that adding the citizenship question would enable the Census Bureau to obtain more "complete and accurate data" in response to the [Justice Department's] request is not only unsupported, it is directly contradicted by the scientific analysis contained in the Administrative Record,' Seeborg continued." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brian Feldman of New York: "Democratic members of Congress today put forward legislation to reinstate rules upholding the principle of net neutrality. The Save the Internet Act of 2019 is a brief piece of legislation that restores the Democrat-controlled FCC's Open Internet Order of 2015, and throws out the Republican-controlled FCC's 2017 undoing of said regulation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sheryl Stolberg & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "House Democratic leaders have put off a vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and bigotry after a backlash from rank-and-file lawmakers who said Representative Ilhan Omar, whose comments gave rise to the measure, was being unfairly singled out. Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat, told reporters on Wednesday morning that the language of the resolution was still being drafted and no date for a vote had been set. But by Wednesday afternoon, the uproar over Ms. Omar had spread beyond the House, to the White House and the Senate. As House Democrats questioned why their leaders had not moved earlier to condemn President Trump for his own racially charged comments, Mr. Trump weighed in on Twitter. Seeking to exploit divisions among Democrats, he ... [wrote,] 'It is shameful that House Democrats won't take a stronger stand against Anti-Semitism in their conference. Anti-Semitism has fueled atrocities throughout history and it's inconceivable they not act to condemn it!'... But Mr. Trump has been accused repeatedly of trafficking in anti-Semitic tropes." ...

... Adrienne Masha Varkiani of ThinkProgress: "Republican lawmakers continue to criticize Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) after recent comments she made about Israel, which many say involved rhetoric playing on anti-Semitic tropes. But it seems few remember that Republicans have a poor track record when it comes to anti-Semitism, voting in February to reject one of their own proposals that would have condemned it.... In February, 177 House Republicans voted against a bill that included a motion to combat anti-Semitism -- an amendment they had introduced themselves.... The amendment was tacked onto a bill that would end U.S. military assistance for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.... In the end, every Democrat voted in favor of the amendment, which unanimously passed. And nearly every House Republican voted against the final bill[.]" --s

Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "The House Oversight and Reform Committee is investigating allegations of voter suppression in Georgia under Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who has since become governor. The investigation was revealed in letters that the committee's Democratic leaders sent on Wednesday to Mr. Kemp and his successor as secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger. The letters instructed Mr. Kemp and Mr. Raffensperger -- both Republicans -- to provide by March 20 a wide range of documents concerning voter roll purges; holds placed on voter registration applications; polling site changes and closings; and other voting-related issues. The committee also requested all documents related to the potential conflict of interest Mr. Kemp faced in administering an election in which he was a candidate." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This investigation is something the Justice Department should be doing (and should have begun, on an expedited schedule, well before the election). But no. I hope the committee ends up sending a criminal referral against Kemp to the DOJ & the referral lands on the desk of a career attorney.

#McSallyToo. Yvonne Sanchez of the Arizona Republic: "A year after saying she was sexually abused in high school, Sen. Martha McSally revealed during a congressional hearing Wednesday that she was raped by a superior officer while she was in the Air Force. McSally, an Arizona Republican, said only that an attack happened and implied that it occurred early in her military career that spanned more than two decades. The personal disclosure came during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel intended to prevent and better respond to sexual assaults in the military in the future. McSally has been a tireless advocate for the military, which she says should include a system that protects women and men who have faced sexual assault and abuse."

Presidential Race 2020

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "The Democratic National Committee has decided to exclude Fox News Channel from televising any of its candidate debates during the 2019-2020 cycle as a result of published revelations detailing the cable network's close ties to the Trump administration. In a statement Wednesday, DNC Chairman Tom Perez cited a story in the New Yorker magazine this week that detailed how Fox has promoted President Trump's agenda. The article, entitled 'The Making of the Fox News White House,' [also linked here Monday] suggested that the news network had become a 'propaganda' vehicle for Trump.... Numerous networks, including Fox, have submitted proposals to the DNC to televise one of the 12 scheduled debates, which will start in June. So far, the organization has only awarded rights to the first two — to NBC (along with sister networks MSNBC and Telemundo) and to CNN." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Here's an edited, condensed transcript of David Remnick's interview of Jane Mayer. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Update. Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday responded to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) refusing to let Fox News host a Democratic primary debate by threatening to 'do the same thing' with other networks during the general election. 'Democrats just blocked @FoxNews from holding a debate. Good, then I think I'll do the same thing with the Fake News Networks and the Radical Left Democrats in the General Election debates!' Trump tweeted Wednesday." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. Ken sez Trump is "still a little confused about the limitations of his role" in operating & promoting state TV while squelching competing networks. ...

Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: "Kamala D. Harris was [San Francisco]'s top prosecutor, running to become California's elected attorney general, when a scandal stunned her office and threatened to upend her campaign. One of Harris's top deputies had emailed a colleague that a crime lab technician had become 'increasingly UNDEPENDABLE for testimony. Weeks later, the technician allegedly took home cocaine from the lab, possibly tainting evidence and raising concerns about hundreds of cases. Neither Harris nor the prosecutors working for her had informed defense attorneys of the problems -- despite rules requiring such disclosure. Harris 'failed to disclose information that clearly should have been disclosed,' Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo wrote in a scathing decision in May 2010.... Now this episode, which undercut Harris's image as a polished leader and raised questions about her management style, has taken on new relevance as the senator seeks the Democratic nomination for the presidency."

Steve M. anticipates a scenario in which voters overwhelmingly elect Trump's Democratic opponent, Trump refuses to accept defeat, and McConnell, Fox "News" & Trumpbots back up Trump. Mrs. McC: I know this sounds doomsday conspiracy nuts, but Steve describes what increasingly seems like a plausible scenario. I can't forget that my second thought at learning of Antonin Scalia's death was, "Ah, Obama gets another Supreme Court pick."

A view of Aaron Schock's Congressional office.... Andy Kravetz & Chris Kaergard of the Peoria, Illinois, Journal Star: “After four years, legal twists and turns that rise to the level of either high comedy or incredible drama, the public corruption case of former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock is over. The Peoria Republican, who resigned from office four years ago amid allegations of fiscal misconduct, entered a plea on behalf of his campaign committee to a Federal Election Commission violation for inadequately keeping paperwork. Schock himself didn't plead to anything. The committee, as an entity, was found in violation. To be dropped were what's left of nearly two dozen allegations against him claiming years of misconduct. His plea isn't typical for federal court. Instead of a conviction, Schock entered a program known as 'pretrial diversion.' A $25,000 fine was levied and the period of supervision under the pretrial diversion is to last for six months. Also Schock, 37, must repay his main campaign committee and the IRS money as outlined in the agreement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Luke Barnes of ThinkProgress: "Ever since the violent 'Unite the Right' rally that rocked Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, the far-right has been on the defensive.... One group, however, responded to the increased scrutiny by hiding its overt far-right sympathies and attempting to rebrand itself as a GOP-friendly organization -- actively encouraging its members to join local chapters of the Republican Party. 'Identity Evropa leadership *strongly* encourages our members to get involved in local politics,' the group's leader, Patrick Casey, wrote in November 2017 message, obtained by the autonomous media collective Unicorn Riot. 'The GOP is essentially the White man's party at this point ... so it makes far more sense for us to subvert it than to create our own party.'" --s

Kate Briquelet of the Daily Beast: "Famed attorney Alan Dershowitz was accused of involvement in billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's alleged sex-trafficking ring by an attorney for one of Epstein's victims, who claimed in federal court on Wednesday that the release of sealed documents will prove it. Paul Cassell, who represents Virginia Roberts Giuffre, told the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the testimony of other witnesses will show Dershowitz's involvement in the alleged trafficking of 'his close friend Jeffrey Epstein.'... The hearing came nearly two weeks after a Florida judge ruled federal prosecutors violated the law when they inked a non-prosecution deal with Epstein in 2007 -- and concealed that agreement from more than 30 of Epstein's victims. The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the secret deal, which was handled by Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, who was U.S. Attorney in Miami at the time. Dershowitz ... was one member of Epstein's legal team that helped broker the unusual non-prosecution agreement. For his part, Dershowitz and his lawyers are also requesting the court release the trove of documents to the public — but they say it's in order to prove his innocence."

** Jessica Glenza & Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "A century-long war to remove lead from Americans' daily lives has been successful on some fronts, but a lack of regulation, political will and funding has meant the contamination of drinking water remains a public health crisis.... Even low levels can impair a child's IQ, academic achievement and ability to pay attention. US studies have shown lead-exposed children are more likely to be aggressive, leading to bullying, truancy and even jail.... Elevated levels of lead have been found in schools across the US in the wake of the toxic water scandal that has roiled Flint, Michigan, since 2014.... Across the US, four in 10 school districts did not test for lead in the previous 12 months, a 2017 report by the US Government Accountability Office found. Of the 43% of districts that had tested, which cover 35 million students, more than one-third found lead.... Estimates of how many billions of dollars it would take to gradually remove lead from schools vary widely, but experts believe the investment could save as much as $84bn annually -- the estimated cost of healthcare, education and incarceration of children harmed by lead annually." --s

The Commentariat -- March 6, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "The Democratic National Committee has decided to exclude Fox News Channel from televising any of its candidate debates during the 2019-2020 cycle as a result of published revelations detailing the cable network's close ties to the Trump administration. In a statement Wednesday, DNC Chairman Tom Perez cited a story in the New Yorker magazine this week that detailed how Fox has promoted President Trump's agenda. The article, entitled 'The Making of the Fox News White House,' [also linked here Monday] suggested that the news network had become a 'propaganda' vehicle for Trump.... Numerous networks, including Fox, have submitted proposals to the DNC to televise one of the 12 scheduled debates, which will start in June. So far, the organization has only awarded rights to the first two -- to NBC (along with sister networks MSNBC and Telemundo) and to CNN." ...

     ... Here's an edited, condensed transcript of David Remnick's interview of Jane Mayer.

Brian Feldman of New York: "Democratic members of Congress today put forward legislation to reinstate rules upholding the principle of net neutrality. The Save the Internet Act of 2019 is a brief piece of legislation that restores the Democrat-controlled FCC's Open Internet Order of 2015, and throws out the Republican-controlled FCC's 2017 undoing of said regulation."

Joshua Partlow, et al., of the Washington Post: Juan "Quintero, 42, was so trusted by the Trumps that he had not one but two jobs working for the family. He was a greenskeeper at the Trump National Golf Club Hudson Valley in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., where he would work eight-hour shifts on weekdays. Then he would put in five more hours each day as a contractor at the 171-acre hunting retreat called Leather Hill Preserve, which serves as a private weekend playground for President Trump's sons and the property's co-owners. He also was an immigrant from Mexico who had crossed the border more than two decades ago and was working illegally in the United States. In January, Quintero lost his golf course job after 18 years of employment -- part of a purge of undocumented workers from Trump's businesses amid revelations that the company relied on illegal labor for years.... Gone, too, was his side job at the hunting retreat.... Quintero said he never directly told Eric Trump about his immigration status. But he said he remained employed by the hunting lodge for more than a year after not providing the owners with a Social Security number when they sought to issue him a debit card."

Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Michael Cohen on Wednesday provided the House Intelligence Committee with new documents showing edits to the false written statement he delivered to Congress in 2017 about the Trump Organization's pursuit of the Trump Tower Moscow project into the 2016 campaign season, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The documents Cohen provided are intended to further explain his public testimony last week, in which Cohen said that ... Donald Trump's then-personal lawyer Jay Sekulow made changes to his statement to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, and that it was reviewed ahead of time by lawyers like Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.... It's unclear what Cohen's documents show was specifically changed in the statement. Cohen is testifying Wednesday behind closed doors at the House Intelligence Committee."

Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "In her first congressional appearance since Democrats took control of the House, [Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen] Nielsen was defiant in the face of criticism of the administration for its treatment of migrant families at the border, especially its decision last summer to separate children from their parents.... Democrats demanded that Ms. Nielsen address the chaos that followed the family separation decision, the deaths of migrant children in federal custody and Mr. Trump's claim of a national emergency at the border that he has said requires construction of a border wall.... 'Our capacity is already severely strained, but these increases will overwhelm the system entirely,' Ms. Nielsen told members of the House Homeland Security Committee.... Ms. Nielsen applauded the president's demand for a wall. She also urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would allow the indefinite detention of families and to more easily turn back claims of asylum by migrants from Central America, who have been arriving in record numbers at the southern border."

John Bowden of the Hill: "A federal judge [Richard Seeborg] ruled against the Trump administration Wednesday, blocking the Commerce Department from adding a question on citizenship to the 2020 U.S. Census. In a ruling, a judge for the Northern District of California wrote that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross's search for a plausible reason to add a citizenship question to the census fell under the umbrella of an 'arbitrary and capricious' decision by the government.... 'Moreover, Secretary Ross's conclusion that adding the citizenship question would enable the Census Bureau to obtain more "complete and accurate data" in response to the [Justice Department's] request is not only unsupported, it is directly contradicted by the scientific analysis contained in the Administrative Record,' Seeborg continued."

A view of Aaron Schock's Congressional office. ... Andy Kravetz & Chris Kaergard of the Peoria, Illinois, Journal Star: "After four years, legal twists and turns that rise to the level of either high comedy or incredible drama, the public corruption case of former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock is over. The Peoria Republican, who resigned from office four years ago amid allegations of fiscal misconduct, entered a plea on behalf of his campaign committee to a Federal Election Commission violation for inadequately keeping paperwork. Schock himself didn't plead to anything. The committee, as an entity, was found in violation. To be dropped were what's left of nearly two dozen allegations against him claiming years of misconduct. His plea isn't typical for federal court. Instead of a conviction, Schock entered a program known as 'pretrial diversion.' A $25,000 fine was levied and the period of supervision under the pretrial diversion is to last for six months. Also Schock, 37, must repay his main campaign committee and the IRS money as outlined in the agreement."

Ana Swanson & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "The United States trade deficit in goods ballooned to its largest level in history, reaching $891.3 billion in 2018, despite President Trump's repeated promise to reduce that figure. The gap between the goods that the United States sells to China and what China sells to America rose to a record $419 billion, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That gap has been a particular source of ire for Mr. Trump, who has imposed steep tariffs on Chinese goods to try and slow imports into America. In December, the overall goods and services deficit rose to $59.8 billion, up 19 percent from the previous month. It was the highest monthly trade deficit in a decade. The trade deficit, or the gap between value of goods and services imported into the country and exported out of it, expanded mainly because of the strong American economy, which allowed Americans to purchase more from abroad. A strong dollar, which weighed on American exports, and a continued shortfall in American savings also helped to buoy the metric."

Anita Kumar of Politico: "... Donald Trump's strategy on congressional investigations has amounted to a two-pronged strategy: dodge requests -- and attack, attack, attack. The White House launched a fire-breathing public relations response to House Democrats while the Trump administration has refused or delayed turning over documents in 30 investigations by a dozen different committees, according to House Democrats."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

The Double Life of Donald Trump. Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "On a busy day at the White House, President Trump hosted senators to talk about tax cuts, accused a Democratic congresswoman of distorting his condolence call to a soldier's widow and suffered another court defeat for his travel ban targeting Muslim countries. And at some point on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017, Mr. Trump took the time to sign a $35,000 check to his lawyer, who had made hush payments to prevent alleged sexual misconduct from being exposed before the 2016 presidential election. It was one of 11 occasions that Mr. Trump or his trust cut such checks, six of which were provided this week to The New York Times.... The dates on the newly available checks shed light on the parallel lives Mr. Trump was living by this account -- at once managing affairs of state while quietly paying the price of keeping his personal secrets out of the public eye.... On the same day he reportedly pressured the F.B.I. director to drop an investigation into a former aide, the president's trust issued a check to [Michael] Cohen in furtherance of what federal prosecutors have called a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws at the direction of Mr. Trump."

President Obama, from what they tell me, was under a similar kind of a thing, didn't give one letter. They didn't do anything. They didn't give one letter of the request. Many requests were made. They didn't give a letter. -- Donald Trump, yesterday, lying in front of wounded veterans

According to Linda Qiu of the New York Times, the Obama administration turned over 10,000 pages re: "Fast & Furious," more than 300,000 pages on Solyndra, 125,000 pages on Benghaaazi! and 1.3 million pages on the IRS/Lois Lerner hoohah. When Trump tells an incredible whopper, as opposed to a standard whopper, he sometimes modifies it with a "people say" qualifier, as he does here. He thinks this absolves him, & if queried about the same matter later, he keeps it up: "I don't know; that's what they tell me." -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday signaled the White House will not comply with a barrage of congressional investigations, accusing Democrats in the House of launching the probes to hurt his chances of winning reelection in 2020. 'It's a disgrace to our country. I'm not surprised that it's happening. Basically, they've started the campaign. So the campaign begins,' Trump told reporters at the White House after signing an executive order on veterans' suicide prevention." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The "disgrace to our country," obviously, is the long list of Trump's criminal & corrupt acts that have made the investigations necessary. ...

... Rachel Bade of the Washington Post: "The White House has rebuffed House Democrats' request for documents pertaining to the security clearance process, a move that drastically increases the chances of a subpoena from the House. In a letter to House Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), White House Counsel Pat A. Cipollone said the committee request for the information was 'without legal support, clearly premature, and suggests a breach of the constitutionally required accommodation process.' Rather, Cipollone said his staff would brief the panel and allow them to view documents related to their investigation. That offer has not been sufficient for committee Democrats in the past.... In a statement, Cummings rejected the White House lawyer's assertion that Congress does not have jurisdiction over security clearance matters. 'There is a key difference between a president who exercises his authority under the Constitution and a president who overrules career experts and his top advisers to benefit his family members and then conceals his actions from the American people,' Cummings said. 'The White House's argument defies the constitutional separation of powers, decades of precedent before this committee, and just plain common-sense....'" ...

... Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "Congressional Democrats are calling for a criminal investigation into presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner over several allegedly 'false statements' he made to federal investigators in service of obtaining his long-sought-after Top Secret security clearance. Representatives Ted Lieu (D-California) and Donald Beyer (D-Virginia), addressed a two-page letter to Attorney General William Barr. The investigatory request relies upon recent news reports which claimed that ... Donald Trump demanded his then-chief-of-staff John Kelly to overrule various federal authorities -- including top officials in the intelligence community -- and gift Kushner the security clearance.... 'Taken together with previous reports that Mr. Kushner omitted contacts with more than one hundred foreign persons on his clearance forms -- including the Russian Ambassador -- we request that the Department of Justice open an immediate investigation to determine if Mr. Kushner is criminally liable for his false statements.'... The letter notes that House investigators are currently addressing the security clearance issue but goes on to specifically request a 'concurrent criminal probe' from the Department of Justice in order to 'safeguard our national security secrets and ensure our laws are being upheld.'" ...

The president had no involvement pertaining to my clearance or my husband's clearance. -- Ivanka Trump, in an ABC interview ...

... ** Pamela Brown & Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "... Donald Trump pressured his then-chief of staff John Kelly and White House counsel Don McGahn to grant his daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump a security clearance against their recommendations, three people familiar with the matter told CNN. The President's crusade to grant clearances to his daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, rankled West Wing officials. While Trump has the legal authority to grant clearances, most instances are left up to the White House personnel security office.... But after concerns were raised by the personnel office, Trump pushed Kelly and McGahn to make the decision on his daughter and son-in-law's clearances so it did not appear as if he was tainting the process to favor his family, sources told CNN. After both refused, Trump granted them their security clearances.... The latest revelation also contradicts Ivanka Trump's denial to ABC News three weeks ago, when she said her father had 'no involvement' regarding her or Kushner's clearances." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In the next sentence, CNN's "sources" haul out the sexist Dumb-Blonde defense: "Several sources told CNN it is feasible that she was unaware of the red flags raised during her background check process, as well as the President's involvement in it." The defense also is ludicrous. Ivanka is a federal official, and her job requires her to be truthful in her public statements. A correct answer could have been, "Not to my knowledge." A better answer would have been, "I'm not aware that my father had any involvement in securing my husband's clearance or mine, but I'll find out and let you know what I've learned." Democrats should call for her resignation, as well as her husband's. ...

     ... Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: Anderson Cooper & Maggie Haberman can't figure out WTF Ivanka does in the White House. Haberman said she doubts Ivanka had no idea her father got her the clearance. As to why she "needs" it, Haberman speculated, "I think that there is an addictive quality to having access to this kind of information. What exactly Ivanka Trump needs to do with that information is unclear." Dear Donald, Since you're handing them out like campaign fliers, please send me a top-secret security clearance. I too think it would be cool to be "briefed." Thanks, Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... Jordan Fabian: "President Trump on Tuesday attacked Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), accusing the House Judiciary Committee chairman of attempting to 'harass' his associates in a wide-ranging probe into Trump's administration, campaign and businesses. 'Nadler, Schiff and the Dem heads of the Committees have gone stone cold CRAZY. 81 letter sent to innocent people to harass them. They won't get ANYTHING done for our Country!' he tweeted. The president also referenced House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who on Monday made a sweeping request for documents and interviews related to Trump's conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump said Democrats are ramping up their investigations 'now that they realize the only Collusion with Russia was done by Crooked Hillary Clinton & the Democrats.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Thomas Elfrink of the Washington Post: "In a half-dozen tweets and retweets sent right up until midnight [Tuesday], Trump took aim at [billionaire activist Tom] Steyer and two of his most familiar targets: Hillary Clinton and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Trump saved his most direct ire on the night for the billionaire, though, who has made removing Trump from the White House the centerpiece of his ambitious political agenda. Although Steyer was believed to be considering a bid for the Democratic nomination in late 2018, he laid those rumors to rest in January. Steyer, whose super PAC, NextGen America, poured $61 million into the 2018 midterms, instead announced plans to spend $16 million targeting incumbent Republicans in 2020 who back Trump. The 61-year-old former hedge fund manager also said he plans to embark on a national town hall tour to press his view that Trump should be impeached.... Steyer responded to Trump's latest broadside by calling him 'the most corrupt president in American history.'"

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Three key House chairmen on Monday formally asked the White House and the State Department for documents and witness interviews related to ... Donald Trump's communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The leaders of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight Committees are giving White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo until March 15 to turn over 'all documents and communications, regardless of form and classification, that refer or relate to any communications between President Trump and President Putin, including in-person meetings and telephone calls.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Jeff Toobin in the New Yorker: "... Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has hired a veteran prosecutor with experience fighting Russian organized crime to lead his investigation of the Trump Administration. Last month, according to a committee source, Daniel Goldman, who served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 2007 to 2017, joined the committee's staff as a senior adviser and the director of investigations. The hiring of Goldman, who will be joined by two other former federal prosecutors on Schiff's staff, underlines Schiff's decision to conduct an aggressive investigation of the Trump campaign's ties to Russia during the 2016 Presidential campaign." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Goldman's name sounds famililar, it's because until recently, he was an NBC analyst.

William Rashbaum & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "New York State regulators have issued an expansive subpoena to the Trump Organization's longtime insurance broker, the first step in an investigation of insurance policies and claims involving President Trump's family business, according to a person briefed on the matter. The subpoena was served late Monday on the company, Aon, one of the largest insurance brokerage firms in the world, as part of an inquiry by the New York State Department of Financial Services. It came just days after Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump's formerfixer and lawyer, indicated in congressional testimony that the Trump Organization inflated the value of its assets to insurance companies." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: Michael "Cohen has privately claimed that a pardon was dangled to him by Trump's representatives, people familiar with the matter say -- though he has been unspecific about the timing or substance of the talks. Two others familiar with the events said it was Stephen Ryan, Cohen's lawyer at the time, who raised the issue of a pardon. Within weeks of the raid, Ryan and Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of Trump's personal lawyers, discussed the subject, people familiar with the matter said.... Cohen told lawmakers [in sworn testimony last week] that he had never asked for, nor would he accept, a pardon from Trump.... Cohen has not alleged that he was offered an explicit quid pro quo that would tie a pardon to his cooperation with law enforcement, [a] person said. The person said Cohen felt that Trump's team was using innuendo and suggestion to imply there would be a benefit for his loyalty. 'It was very vague,' the person said. The topic of pardons came up when Cohen testified privately last week before the House and Senate Intelligence committees. Precisely what Cohen alleged there remains unclear."

Caitlyn Oprysko of Politico: "A federal judge reprimanded Roger Stone on Tuesday over possible violations of a court-imposed gag order that could ultimately land him in jail. She also gave the longtime associate of ... Donald Trump a week to explain why the re-release of a book he wrote critical of the Russia investigation wasn't previously disclosed. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman in her five-page order also accused the eccentric GOP operative of using court filings to promote his book, a signal the appointee of President Barack Obama is far from pleased with how Stone has handled the gag order imposed last month that restricts him from commenting in any substantive way about his case." ...

... Dan Mangan & Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "Two websites used by ... Roger Stone to raise funds for his defense against criminal charges lodged by special counsel Robert Mueller and in civil cases have been deleted. At least one of those deletions apparently occurred after CNBC reported Sunday that the Republican operative might have violated the terms of his judicial gag order by posting an image on his Instagram account asking 'Who framed Roger Stone.' Another of Stone's websites, which itself was titled whoframedrogerstone.com, has also been deleted."

Caitlyn Oprysko: "One of ... Donald Trump's former White House lawyers said this week that special counsel Robert Mueller is an 'American hero' [citing Mueller's military service] and that the probe he is leading is not a 'witch hunt,' rejecting the president's repeated characterizations of the Russia investigation and the man leading it. In an interview on ABC News' 'The Investigation' podcast published Tuesday, Ty Cobb disputed many of the president's complaints about Mueller and his team.... He also said at least on the matter of Russian collusion, Trump would likely be exonerated." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: "In 2011, days after Donald Trump challenged President Barack Obama to 'show his records' to prove that he hadn't been a 'terrible student,' the headmaster at New York Military Academy got an order from his boss: Find Trump's academic records and help bury them. The superintendent of the private school [Jeffrey Coverdale] 'came to me in a panic because he had been accosted by prominent, wealthy alumni of the school who were Mr. Trump's friends' and who wanted to keep his records secret, recalled Evan Jones, the headmaster at the time. 'He said, "You need to go grab that record and deliver it to me because I need to deliver it to them."' 'I was given directives, part of which I could follow but part of which I could not, and that was handing them over to the trustees,' [Jones] said. 'I moved them elsewhere on campus where they could not be released. It's the only time I ever moved an alumnus's records.'" ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... what's perhaps more notable is just how exhaustive the effort to bury Trump's academic records seems to have been. It's apparently something that spanned two different presidential campaign cycles and was undertaken almost immediately as Trump began talking about Obama's grades.... It's hardly the first example of Trump attacking others for things that could just as easily get turned around on him. But it does appear a particularly rich one." ...

     ... Mrs McCrabbie: It's easy to see Trump is dumb as a post today, but that doesn't mean he was a terrible student a half-century ago. His extraordinary efforts to hide his grades, however, is all the evidence we need that he was near the bottom of his class. Also too, we must not forget that Trump's demand that President Obama release his grades was a super-racist attack. He told the AP, 'I heard he was a terrible student -- terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard? I'm thinking about it, I'm certainly looking into it. Let him show his records." Trump just could not believe or accept that a black person was a better student than he, & his presumption was that Obama was admitted to prestigious schools under affirmative action programs but then couldn't keep up with the white people. Disgusting. ...

     ... Update: Although Trump has claimed, "I became one of the top guys at the whole school," Marc Fisher was on MSNBC Tuesday night and said that fellow students at New York Military Academy said Trump's grades were mediocre. However, since Trump's transcripts are "buried," Fisher can't confirm this.

Bribing POTUS. Alex Raymond of New York: "Prior to April 29, 2018, the date on which T-Mobile and Sprint announced plans to merge into a new telecom giant, T-Mobile executives had spent two nights at the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C. In the ten months since, they've spent at least 52 nights at the property, which is owned by the Trump Organization. In a letter to Congress last month, the company admitted to spending around $195,000 at the downtown D.C. hotel since the merger announcement, according to the Washington Post. T-Mobile says the increase was not meant to sway regulators deciding whether to approve the merger." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Hey, if Donald Trump isn't worried about that emoluments thing, why should T-Mobile? And just to make sure word got back to Donald that T-Mobile was paying tribute, its CEO John Legere was spotted hanging in the hotel lobby wearing "a black-and-magenta hoodie with a T-Mobile logo over a bright magenta T-shirt with another T-Mobile logo."

Grace Sparks of CNN: "Nearly two-thirds of registered voters think ... Donald Trump committed crimes before assuming the presidency, according to a new poll taken in the days after former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testified to Congress. According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday, 64% of registered voters said Trump had committed crimes before entering office and nearly half of voters -- 45% -- think he committed crimes while serving as President.... When asked directly if they believe [Michael] Cohen or Trump more, 50% of all registered voters chose Cohen and 35% chose Trump.... Almost 3 in 5 voters wanted Congress to do more to investigate Cohen's claims about Trump's unethical and possibly illegal behavior." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: These results are especially amazing in view of the fact that nearly half of the "questioning" of Cohen during public House testimony was Republicans yelling at him for being a convicted liar.

Caitlin Dickerson of the New York Times: "For the fourth time in five months, the number of migrant families crossing the southwest border has broken records, border enforcement authorities said Tuesday, warning that government facilities are full and agents are overwhelmed. More than 76,000 migrants crossed the border without authorization in February, more than double the levels from the same period last year and approaching the largest numbers seen in any February in the last 12 years." ...

... Kate Smith of CBS News: "ICE officers have released 12 of the infants that were being held at a rural Texas detention center, where immigrant advocates claim they dealt with dirty water, limited baby food and a lack of medical care. The release comes just days after immigration advocates called on the Department of Homeland Security to 'intervene immediately.' In an email Monday, ICE said there were 16 infants younger than a year old held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas as of Friday, March 1. The status of the remaining four babies is unclear. ICE also said there was another infant under the age of one detained at the Texas Karnes detention center. Both facilities are about an hour away from San Antonio, the nearest metropolitan center. All the mothers and their infants were released to friends and family members who were were 'ready to buy them a bus or plane ticket and receive them in their home,' said Katy Murdza, the advocacy coordinator at the American Immigration Council's Dilley Pro Bono Project."

About That Excellent Trump-Kim "Summit." Courtney Kube, et al., of NBC News: "North Korea is pursuing the 'rapid rebuilding' of the long-range rocket site at Sohae Launch Facility, according to new commercial imagery and an analysis from the researchers at Beyond Parallel. Sohae Satellite Launching Station, North Korea's only operational space launch facility, has been used in the past for satellite launches. These launches use similar technology to what is used for intercontinental ballistic missiles. 'This renewed activity, taken just two days after the inconclusive Hanoi Summit between ... Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, may indicate North Korean plans to demonstrate resolve in the face of U.S. rejection of North Korea's demands at the summit to lift five U.N. Security Council sanctions enacted in 2016-2017,' the analysts said." ...

... Julia Davis of the Daily Beast looks at how Moscow is viewing the failed "summit." They're pretty much all laughing at Trump as a weak leader -- one pundit called him the "acting president*" -- and congratulating Li'l Kim for manipulating Trump into showing up for the fake summit.

Martin Crutsinger of TPM: "[S]o far this budget year, the total deficit is 77 percent higher than the same period a year ago. The Treasury Department said Tuesday that the deficit for the first four months of this budget year, which began Oct. 1, totaled $310.3 billion. That's up from a deficit of $175.7 billion in the same period a year ago.... Individual income taxes withheld from paychecks total $818 billion for the October-January period, down 3 percent from the same period last year. Corporate income taxes total $73 billion over the four-month period, down 23 percent. Revenue, however, is up is in tariffs -- border taxes collected on imports -- which totaled $25 billion in the October-January period, up 91 percent from the same period a year ago.... The border taxes are not paid by the countries where the goods are being produced but rather by the U.S. companies importing the products into the United States. Those costs are generally passed on to American consumers." --s

** E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "The Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to weaken or dismantle climate efforts would increase CO2 emissions by more than 200 million tons annually, taking a severe toll on public health, according to a new report released Tuesday by the nonpartisan State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at New York University's (NYU) law school." --s

Lloyd Grove of The Daily Beast: "[The current] White House ... prizes petty vengeance over thoughtful political strategy, according to half a dozen longtime Republican consultants and strategists interviewed for this article; they say Donald Trump's White House operates as a cult of personality, insisting on lockstep loyalty above every other consideration -- even at the expense of competent political practice. 'There's no sophistication. They are not trying to pick winners and losers at all. They are not getting involved in the races. They are simply vengeful,' said Republican consultant Susan Del Percio, echoing the assessments of other GOP strategists[.]" With examples. --s

All the Best People, Ctd. Casey Quinlan of ThinkProgress: "A Republican [Shannon Lee Goessling] whose career has been defined largely by a record of opposition to LGBTQ and immigrant rights ... is being considered to lead the Office on Violence Against Women. She has also made claims that women owning guns protects them against violence, which is not supported in research.... A number of women's rights groups have opposed her nomination and said her record signals that she would be an ineffective advocate for women, especially due to her history of inaccurate claims about gun use and violence against women." --s

Burgess Everett & Marianne Levine of Politico: “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his GOP caucus ... are about to accelerate their ability to unilaterally approve many [judicial] nominees in dramatic fashion. The Senate is on track to confirm the 34th Circuit Court judge of Trump's presidency in the next week and the GOP has three more ready for floor action; that would give Trump roughly 20 percent of the Circuit Court seats in the country after just two years in office. At this rate, McConnell and Trump could leave few, if any, vacancies there for a potential Democratic president in 2021. Even more alarming for Democrats, the GOP is also preparing to pull the trigger on the 'nuclear option' and change Senate rules once again with a simple majority to allow much quicker confirmation of lower court judges in the coming months. 'The committee is working to put [judges] out on the floor and as soon as they come to the floor the leader's making it a priority to move them,' said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, McConnell's top deputy." --s

Brianna Ehley of Politico: "Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday railed against government-mandated vaccines, suggesting they infringe on personal rights, during a congressional hearing on immunizations' role in protecting the public from preventable diseases like the current measles outbreak sweeping parts of the country. Paul (R-Ky.), a doctor, said he and his children are vaccinated and that he believes the benefits of vaccines outweigh the risks. 'But I still do not favor giving up on liberty for a false sense of security,' Paul said during the Senate health committee hearing, where he was the only lawmaker to raise doubts over vaccinations." Mrs. McC: Never mind the rights of all the children & adults the unvaccinated may infect. ...

... Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "Paul didn't just make the case that vaccines should be voluntary, however. He used his platform at the hearing to affirmatively push the perception that they are potentially problematic. 'It is wrong to say that there are no risks to vaccines,' said Paul. 'Even the government admits that children are sometimes injured by vaccines.'... Shortly after Paul spoke..., Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) offered to 'give some color to what Senator Paul said.' He then proceeded to go through cases of individuals who ended up with terrible diseases simply because they didn't think getting vaccinated was important. A physician himself, Cassidy noted that the only requirement with regards to vaccination was that a children get them before entering the public school system. Addressing Paul without looking at him, Cassidy concluded: 'If you are such a believer in liberty that you do not wish to be vaccinated then there should be a consequence and that is that you cannot infect other people.'" ...

... Michael Brice-Saddler of the Washington Post: "An 18-year-old from Ohio who famously inoculated himself against his mother's wishes in December says he attributes his mother's anti-vaccine ideology to a single source: Facebook. Ethan Lindenberger, a high school senior, testified Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and underscored the importance of 'credible' information. In contrast, he said, the false and deep-rooted beliefs his mother held -- that vaccines were dangerous — were perpetuated by social media. Specifically, he said, she turned to anti-vaccine groups on social media for evidence that supported her point of view. In an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, Lindenberger said Facebook, or websites that were linked on Facebook, is really the only source his mother ever relied on for her anti-vaccine information." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, but now Mother Lindenberger can bolster her Facebook claptrap with the expert support of U.S. Senator & Self-Certified Doctor Rand Paul.

Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "In what is surely the most shameful decision of her current term as speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has decided that the time has come for the House to rebuke Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for things she didn't actually say, and ideas she didn't actually express. In the process, Pelosi and other Democrats are helping propagate a series of misconceptions about anti-Semitism, Israel, and U.S. political debate.... In one of the tweets that got people so worked up, Omar said, 'I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee.' You'll notice she didn't say or even imply anything at all about Jews. She said that she was being asked to support Israel in order to have the privilege of serving on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which was true.... Here's the truth: The whole purpose of the Democrats' resolution is to enforce dual loyalty not among Jews, but among members of Congress, to make sure that criticism of Israel is punished in the most visible way possible.... When the most prominent advocates for Israel are people such as Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, 'dual loyalty' loses any meaning as a slur against Jews." ...

Just kinda wondering where putting a Jewish mans face inside a bank vault surrounded by piles of money falls into our current debate? pic.twitter.com/lUMaHwsVfF

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) March 6, 2019

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie Mea Culpa: Like many people, I believed reports I read that Omar had accused fellow House members of being loyal to a foreign country -- Israel. According to Waldman, she did not say or write that. ...

... ** Eric Levitz of New York: “While explaining her frustration with the way allegations of anti-Semitism can be used to suppress 'the broader debate of what is happening with Palestine,' the Democratic congresswoman said, 'I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.' Many American Jews took exception to this remark. And not without reason. Omar's intentions were ambiguous.... I've seen no compelling evidence that Omar is an anti-Semite, rather than a critic of Israel who is (understandably) frustrated with the extraordinary power that Likud wields in D.C.... Meanwhile, virtually all of her colleagues routinely say -- in prepared remarks, as a matter of principle -- that America should continue to abet the race-based oppression of Palestinians in Israel.... Unlike the vast majority of her colleagues, Omar has the temerity to insist that Palestinians are full-fledged human beings, entitled to political freedom and equality before the law.... Omar's remarks about Zionists were insensitive and counterproductive. But her colleagues' enthusiastic support for the subjugation of Palestinians is something much worse."

... Heather Caygle, et al., of Politico: "A vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism in response to controversial comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar is set to slip past Wednesday amid intensifying pressure from the left both inside and outside the House Democratic Caucus. An array of progressive groups declared their support for Omar, while both the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Progressive Caucus -- two of the most important factions among House Democrats -- wanted more time to review the situation, lawmakers and aides said."

Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)’s chief of staff helped establish two political action committees that paid a corporation he ran more than $1 million in 2016 and 2017, federal campaign finance records show. Brand New Congress LLC, the corporation owned by Saikat Chakrabarti, was also paid $18,880 for strategic consulting by Ocasio-Cortez's congressional campaign in 2017, records show. The following year, he worked as a volunteer to manage her campaign, according to his LinkedIn profile. The arrangement, first reported by conservative outlets, left hidden who ultimately profited from the payments -- a sharp juxtaposition with Ocasio-Cortez's calls for transparency in politics. She has called dark money 'the enemy to democracy.... On Monday, a conservative group filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that the PACs failed to properly disclose their spending.... It is unclear whether [Ocasio-Cortez] had knowledge of the payments to Chakrabarti's corporation."

Presidential Race 2020. Michael Bloomberg, in a Bloomberg opinion piece, says he will not seek the Democratic nomination for president. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)